Stars Over Hollywood
On May 31, 1941, Stars Over Hollywood was broadcast for the first time on CBS radio network. This thirty minute Saturday morning program featured family oriented stories often with a strong moral that were either written especially for the program or were adapted from famous stories such as Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women.
The cast of the show included stellar stars such as Edmund Gwenn, Alan Ladd, Jane Wyman, Joan Crawford, Phil Harris and Basil Rathbone. Paul Pierce was the director through mid 1940's and when he launched Stars Over Hollywood as a Saturday daytime, 9.30 am California time, dramatic program the critics said it would fail believing that no one would listen at that time and getting top actors to appear so early in the morning would fail. How wrong they were!
Stars Over Hollywood with its light comedies and romances, light drama and occasional suspense lasted for thirteen years in the Saturday daytime schedule. Dress was casual on the set, enticing the Hollywood stars to participate and It has been said that many stars would arrive on set in pyjamas and robes!
Les Mitchel was a director later in the series and among visiting directors in 1951 Hans Conried directed Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol which was adapted for Stars Over Hollywood by Ralph Rose and starred Edmund Gwenn of Miracle on 34th Street film fame playing both the role of author Charles Dickens and also his famous character Scrooge. Miserly Scrooge is as opposite a character as you can get to the heartwarming Father Christmas Gwenn played in Miracle but of course we all know that following a visit from three ghosts Scrooge realises the errors of his ways and spreads some Christmas cheer. Ah, that's how we like to remember Edmund Gwenn.
From September 1950 to August 1951 Stars Over Hollywood also appeared on TV as a thirty minute drama series, A bit of trivia for the show is that the second Stars Over Hollywood TV episode, Grady Everett for the People, was the first script written by legend, Rod Serling (Twilight Zone) – he was paid $100 for the script.
The acclaimed radio program continued long after the TV version with the final episode, The Most Popular Girl, airing on September 25th, 1954. Unfortunately that episode is not available to listen to today but at least 70 episodes are.
After Stars Over Hollywood premiered in the Saturday morning timeslot, other shows were quick to follow. Armstrong Theater of Today and Grand Central Station were two of the more popular radio shows to make a success of the Saturday morning time.
Happy listening my friends,
