Warner Brothers Academy Theatre aired on CBS radio very briefly - April 3rd to June 26th, 1938. The series was sponsored by Gruen Watches but what they were really selling was Warner Bros. pictures! The title refers to the "Warner Academy," a training program for future Warner Bros. stars. The series was designed to feature adaptations of familiar Warner Bros. movies but rather than utilizing the original stars would deliberately cast up-and-comers whom Warner Bros. were hoping to promote.
As a listener, this show really encourages you to feel some participation in Warner Bros. The series is, after all, a celebration of their film back catalog and a hopeful look at the studio's future. You want these new stars to succeed! The close of each episode features a visit from a famous Warner Bros. player to lend their approval to the series. Basil Rathbone drops by at the end of "That Certain Woman" Part 1 to gently promote (and rib) his performance in the Adventures of Robin Hood (much is made of him as a villainous character actor but a year later he'd be cast as Sherlock Holmes and be typecast in a completely different manner); in part 2, they're visited by Ian Hunter, who also promoted the Adventures of Robin Hood. Priscilla Lane showed up at the climax of "Don't Bet on Blondes" to promote her film Men Are Such Fools which you might recall is, in my opinion, one of the worst Warner Bros. movies of classic cinema. The adaptation of "The Crowd Roars" is followed by a visit by Frank McHugh from the film version and if Frank McHugh is in your corner, you must surely be on the path to stardom!
Did any of the "Warner Academy" up-and-comers ever make in the business? ...Kinda. Ronald Reagan starred in the first episode, but despite a solid decade of the Warners trying to turn him into a leading man, America didn't love him as an actor (they liked him better as a politician).
You can hear seven surviving broadcasts of the Warner Brothers Academy Theatre at the Internet Archive.
No comments:
Post a Comment