Encore Theater aired in the summer of 1946 over CBS at the same time they were broadcasting Academy Award Theater and Lux Radio Theater! Clearly they were striking while the iron was hot!
Many of the films adapted on Encore Theater are very familiar - I think every single one had been previously adapted as a one-hour program on Lux Radio Theater. In fact, the first episode was "Magnificient Obsession," which was adapted for radio on at least seven other occasions!
But there's a special reason why they adapted "Magnificent Obsession" - Encore Theater was sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Schenley Laboratories and "Magnificent Obsession" is a story about a physician. Nearly every episode adapted a movie that related in some way to medicine, from "Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet" to "Yellowjack."
Encore Theater didn't have as many big stars as the other programs I've mentioned; in fact, a lot of the big stars who showed up were also the sort of Hollywood names you'd hear on an episode of Suspense: Ronald Colman, Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde, Paul Lukas, Robert Taylor. And being a CBS program that also meant the stars were supported by the finest of radio's professionals - Cathy Lewis, Elliott Lewis, Howard Duff, Lurene Tuttle, Gerald Mohr, etc.
You can hear the surviving episodes of Encore Theater on this YouTube playlist created by the Old Time Radio Researchers.
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