ComicWeb Old Time Radio
Program: Lux Radio Theater
Episode: The Dark Angel
Original Airdate: 06/22/1936
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Episode Summary:
Lux Radio Theater adapted popular movies of the 30s and 40s to radio. In this case its the 1935 movie The Dark Angel starring Herbert Marshall and Merle Oberon (Merle was nominated for best actress for this role). This radio adaptation also stars Marshall and Oberon. The story is a love triangle set in World War I between Kitty Vane, Alan Trent, and Gerald Shannon. Both Alan and Gerald love Kitty, but she really only loves Alan.
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Program Summary:
The Lux Radio Theater Program started in 1934 in New York. The original idea was to take broadway plays and dramatize them for radio. It may have been a good idea, but it didn’t work. The producers had a hard time finding good adaptable plays, and the public was not responding. The program needed to be revamped or it would be canceled. So, they packed their bags and headed for Hollywood.
Lux Radio Theater decided to do their show big and glitzy, getting the biggest names, the most glamorous stars, to become the talk of the town. The show hired Cecil B. DeMille, he of the biggest. Epics. Ever. in Hollywood. as the producer host (in reality, he was more just the host than the producer). DeMille was famous for his “the show must go on” attitude, he once showed up for a show in an ambulance, and recited his lines from a cot. The first Hollywood production by Lux Theater, The Legionnaire, starred Clark Gable and Marlene Dietrich. Other stars to appear in the next few weeks were, William Powell and Myrna Loy in the Thin Man, Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer, Lionel Barrymore, in the Voice o Bugle Ann, Spencer Tracy, in Men in White, Gary Cooper, in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and more. The show started with the biggest stars in Hollywood and continued to get them throughout the run. Other stars included: Robert Taylor, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, and many, many more.
The showed aired on Monday nights, and each production was treated like an opening night for a movie. The show was taped at the Music Box Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, with big lights and a flashy show. It was an event to go and a sign that an actor had made it if they were on. The shows would often have 50 people working for each episode. (Simply an unheard of number.)
The show lasted until 1955. Not a bad run considering it was almost cancelled a year after it started in 1934, and all just to sell Lux brand soap.
