Radio Recap: Stroke of Fate

Stroke of Fate was a short-lived radio program which aired on NBC in the fall of 1953. I've seen it called NBC's answer to the CBS radio program You Are There. I think there are similarities, but they're very slight; You Are There was a dramatic program in which teams of CBS reporters pretended to be back in time, recording some significant historical event. Stroke of Fate is about alternate histories, stories in which due to a "stroke of fate" events took a different course.

Stroke of Fate was certainly similar to You Are There, but only up to a point - up to that titular "stroke of fate." Through scenarios such as Robert E. Lee leading the Union army, Alexander Hamilton surviving his duel with Aaron Burr or Marie Antoinette evading the guillotinne, there's only so much actual history on display; some episodes begin with the "stroke of fate." In others, the "stroke of fate" doesn't occur until the 2nd half of the program. In certain episodes the "stroke of fate" is somewhat buried and the show invites listeners to guess at what precise moment they diverted from actual history.

There is some definite educational value to the program since they bring up all kinds of minor historical details and make them more important by altering them. And the series does feature real historians at the end of every program who provide important context. Perhaps it's greatest strength as a program about history is that it doesn't diverge too far from the moment in time when the "stroke of fate" occurred - they don't engage in wild speculation about events decades or centuries into the future.

The show certainly has a very romantic view of history; episodes such as the one where Alexander the Great lived on certainly heap a lot of praise upon him. Stroke of Fate tends to treat the subjects of each episode as great people who were denied the full magnitude of greatness.

You may recall I don't usually enjoy NBC's dramatic programs as much as those of CBS (see: The Chase, Cloak and Dagger, Hollywood Star Playhouse, Radio City Playhouse, Top Secret and Whitehall 1212). But I'm not going to put down Stroke of Fate too harshly - it has very strong writing and a decent cast of actors (including Everett Sloane). Also, it only ran for 13 episodes, so you don't get tired of it. There isn't another show quite like this, so it's an interesting diversion.

The Old-Time Radio Researchers Group have a playlist for this series here!