New On RUSC - On Stage

Six months before Elliott Lewis produced and directed Crime Classics he produced, directed and starred in a dramatic anthology entitled On Stage.

In 1943 Elliott Lewis married his first wife, Cathy Lewis who was also a radio star in her own right. In the 10 years that followed Cathy and Elliott Lewis had acted along side each other in numerous shows and the obvious next step was to work together. By 1952 they were both well established in their radio careers and were often referred to as Mr and Mrs Radio.

The Idea for On Stage had been manifesting in the Lewis' mind's for some time and in 1952 CBS gave them the go ahead and the first show entitled The String Bow Tie was aired on New Year's Day 1953. On Stage took on many different formats including drama, comedy adventure, mystery and melodrama but all of the stories had a strong male and female character that were played by Elliott and Cathy hence the show was aired as Cathy and Elliott Lewis On Stage.

Interestingly, at the same time Lewis was not only working on On Stage, but also directing and producing Broadway Is My Beat and Crime Classics and at one point all three shows were being aired by CBS in succession on Sunday evenings!

You can probably bet that it was also no coincidence that two great writers, Morton Fine and David Friedkin were writing for all of these great series but I'll save their story for another time.

Happy listening my friends,