Old-Time Radio Christmas, 5 of 5: The Man at the Gate of the World

Welcome to the final installment of my five-part look at extra-Biblical Christmas stories in old-time radio! I have a real odd duck for you this time: it's Mr. President and the story "The Man at the Gate of the World." The story in question was written by W. E. Cule and first published in 1929.

Mr. President is a real odd duck; it starred Edward Arnold, known to be one of the more conservative Hollywood actors. Each week in the series he would portray a different President of the USA, referred to in the script only as "Mr. President" until the close of the play. The concept was an interesting one - it challenged listeners to guess which President was the week's protagonist.

Of course by its nature, Mr. President had a very shallow well to draw from - there simply weren't that many Presidents (or interesting stories about them). Despite this, the series ran from 1947-1953. To pad out the series, each Christmas Arnold would feature a non-presidential story - his adaptation of "The Man at the Gate of the World."

In the story Arnold portrayed Caspar the Persian, one of the fabled Three Wise Men (which means this story is more closely connected to Epiphany than Christmas but we'll let it slide). The name "Caspar" has a long tradition in the church but it's not from the Bible - none of the three wise men received names there. Caspar returns to Bethlehem just after the slaughter of the innocent children there. Incorrectly believing the Christ chid he visited is dead, Caspar mourns him. Eventually he learns Christ evaded the slaughter but is once again too late, hearing of his crucifixion. Caspar makes his home in Damascus and then, one day, in walks Judas Iscariot...

Now, hold on... Judas hung himself after the crucifixion, right? Well, not in this story - here, Judas explains that story was told by the other Disciples. Caspar's encounter with Judas sets in motion the meaning of the story --- forgiveness.

Again, this is an odd duck. Not the place you'd expect to hear a quasi-Biblical story. But Arnold was a very fine performer and acquitted himself well. You can hear the 1949 version of his performance here.

Merry Christmas to all!