12 Days of Christmas Radio Shows, Part 7: "The Desert Shall Rejoice"

Today's program is about a cynical hotel owner. On Christmas Eve, his inn is visited by a number of unusual characters, such as husband and wife who are expecting a child and three men bringing gifts. While his wife keeps insisting these parallels to the Nativity mean something, the innkeeper resists her line of thinking.

"The Desert Shall Rejoice" originally aired December 16, 1948. It was adapted from a Warner Bros. short film titled Star in the Night, written by Robert Finch and directed by Don Siegel; it won the 1945 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film!

Tomorrow: Matinee Theater!

12 Days of Christmas Radio Shows, Part 6: "The Bad Will Ambassador"

Today's program is an episode of Orson Welles' series Hello, Americans. This was a wartime program designed to foster good relations among the Americas and it primarily featured Welles teaching facts about South American countries in a fun way. But for Christmas, Welles came up with a full narrative, something quite different; it concerns an American businessman travelling in South America who refuses to give up his seat on an airplane to a child who wants to go home for Christmas. From then on, everywhere he goes, the businessman is followed by a man known only as "Señor" who seems to be silently judging him.

"The Bad Will Ambassador" originally aired December 27, 1942.

Tomorrow: The Hallmark Playhouse!

12 Days of Christmas Radio Shows, Part 5: "The Messiah"

Today's program is an episode of The Theater of Romance (a series often called "Romance"). As a Christmas offering, "The Messiah" tells the story of how George Frideric Handel was inspired to compose his choral "Messiah." It includes some brief choir performances of the selfsame piece of music.

"The Messiah" originally aired December 25, 1945. It was written by Jean Holloway and narrated by Edward Arnold.

Tomorrow: Hello, Americans!

Christmas at the Marvel Appendix!

I wrote up a few new character profiles with a Christmas theme at the Unofficial Appendix to the Marvel Universe, my old stomping grounds. It includes Cool, a Psi-Force foe who fought them on Christmas; Elias Hodge, an Atlas horror character who was visited by the three Christmas ghosts yet refused to change; Shorty, an Atlas war hero who lived through a fight on Christmas Eve; Corporal Ryan, an Atlas crime character, a Mountie who solved a crime on Christmas; Mary Jane Bromley, an Atlas romance heroine who sought love at Christmas; and Marley, a Luke Cage foe with one Dickens of a gimmick. Merry Christmas!

12 Days of Christmas Radio Shows, Part 4: "Scapegoats in History"

Today's program is a very different kind of radio program - an episode of Words at War, a wartime series that promoted interested books to its audiences. For Christmas, 1944, they presented the books Scapegoats in History by Kenneth Miller Gould and History of Bigotry in the United States by Gustavus Myers. Words at War dramatizes elements of the books and performs a sober reflection on the persecution of other people across the centuries, noting to its Christian audience that the story of Jesus at Epiphany - the flight from Egypt - was itself an escape from persecution.

"Scapegoats in History" originally aired December 26, 1944. The narrator is Bernard Lenrow.

Tomorrow: The Theater of Romance!

12 Days of Christmas Radio Shows, Part 3: "Three Wise Guys"

On this episode of the Whistler, three gangsters go looking for some money they hid in a barn, only to find a woman there who's about to have a child. The name of the place? Bethlehem... Pennsylvania.

"Three Wise Guys" is based on a story by Damon Runyon and originally aired December 24, 1950. The Whistler normally didn't adapt stories from other mediums! John Brown, who portrayed Broadway on the Damon Runyon Theatre, stars in this episode.

Tomorrow: Words at War!

12 Days of Christmas Radio Shows, Part 2: "The Big Little Jesus"

Dragnet was not a serious that indulged in many happy endings - their first major Christmas episode - "A .22 Rifle for Christmas" - is definitely not a happy time. Yet "The Big Little Jesus" offers a rare easygoing Christmas crime; a church's state of baby Jesus has been stolen from their Nativity display. It's a small, inexpensive thing, but important to the community.

"The Big Little Jesus" originally aired December 22, 1953. It was written by Jack Webb's good friend (and frequent Dragnet writer) Richard L. Breen. It appeared on the Dragnet television series just three days after the radio version.

Tomorrow: The Whistler!