In part 3 of our Lux Radio Theater series, we take a look at Lux during World War II. Like most other radio series of the time, Lux included its share of war stories and other patriotic plays, but never abandoned the series' focus on the glamorous, and more carefree side of Hollywood. War-themed plays mirrored the fare being offered on the nation's movie screens, and on at least one occasion in the summer of 1942, Lux handed sponsorship of the show over to the US government, which re-christened the show, The Victory Theater, and used the episode to pitch war bonds. Male stars who had served in the military were welcomed back to the Lux stage with great fanfare, as were women stars who toured army camps stateside and overseas. Episodes during and after the war often featured pitches for war bonds, or human-interest stories about military personnel and civilians involved in the fight.

But in addition to the war themes, Lux offered musicals and melodramas, comedies and westerns. And as we'll hear, mysteries. Today's episode, The Unguarded Hour, stars returning Naval officer, and 15-time Lux veteran Robert Montgomery, along with Loraine Day. Set in peacetime London, it is based on the 1936 film starring Loretta Young and Franchot Tone. The Lux episode was broadcast on December 12, 1944.

Today we hear Lux episode 245, Dark Victory. It aired on January 8, 1940. The film version, starring Bette Davis and George Brent, had been released in April 1939, smack dab in the middle of Hollywood's greatest film year. Lux had presented another version of Dark Victory in April 1938, with Barbara Stanwyck and Melvyn Douglas in the lead roles. But in 1940, it was not the play, but the pairing of Academy Award winners Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis that Cecil B DeMille raved about in his introduction. Davis and Tracy had earned two Oscars apiece by then, having each won acting awards at the most recent Oscar ceremony in 1939. Tracy's Oscar was his second in a row. Davis had won her first in 1936. In short, Davis and Tracy were at the top of their game, and Lux made the most of their pairing on radio. Davis would go on to be nominated for another Oscar for her performance in Dark Victory. She lost to Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind.

With this episode, I begin a five-part series highlighting Lux Radio Theater, the most succesful, longest-running radio drama series in history.

We begin with the first Lux Radio Theater boradcast to originate from Hollywood. In The Legionaire and the Lady. Marlene Dietrich recreates her film role, with Clark Gable taking the part played by Gary Cooper in the film version. From this star-studded beginning in 1936, Lux built a phenomenal 20-year run, and sold a whole lot of soap flakes.