The long-running radio anthology The Screen Guild Players helped raise money for the Motion Picture Relief Fund, a country home and hospital for retired, ill, indigent or destitute Motion Picture Industry artists. Hollywood actors were only too happy to donate their fees to the fund for appearing on the prestigious radio program.
A 1940 magazine article noted that The Screen Guild Players was “the only sponsored program on the air which gives all its profits to charity.” Much like The Lux Radio Theater, The Screen Guild Players presented radio dramatizations of popular movies of the era, usually with the original film stars at the microphone.
Condensing a full-length film story into a twenty-two-minute radio play presented considerable challenges to the writers (in 1950-51, the series was expanded to a full hour). Broadcast from 1939 until 1952 for sponsors Gulf Oil, Lady Esther Cosmetics, and Camel Cigarettes, nearly every major Hollywood star made an appearance, including Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart, Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper, Shirley Temple, Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Clark Gable, Ingrid Bergman, and Judy Garland.
By the end of the run, The Screen Guild Theater had earned more than $5 million for the Motion Picture Relief Fund, which is approximately $50 million in today’s dollars. Enjoy one hour-long episode and fourteen half-hour episodes from this incredible radio series!
10/6/40 - “Red Dust” with Clark Gable and Ann Sothern
11/24/40 - “Allergic to Ladies” with Errol Flynn, Jane Wyman, and Alan Hale
2/16/41 - “Brother Orchid” with Pat O’Brien, Carole Landis, and Donald Crisp
2/15/42 - “Liberty’s A Lady” with Loretta Young
1/25/43 - “Across the Pacific” with Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet
5/3/43 - “Nothing But the Truth” with Lucille Ball and Frank Morgan
6/7/43 - “The Devil and Miss Jones” with Laraine Day, Charles Coburn, and George Murphy
8/7/44 - “Alias the Deacon” with Noah Berry, Jr., Charles Winninger, and Martha O’Discoll
10/9/44 - “A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob” with Lucille Ball, George Murphy, and William Gargan
8/13/45 - “Gildersleeve’s Bad Day” with Harold Peary, Walter Tetley, and Lillian Randolph
6/17/46 - “Marriage Is a Private Affair” with Lana Turner and John Hodiak
1/13/47 - “Parents by Proxy” with Jack Benny and Paulette Goddard
1/20/47 - “Dragonwyck” with Vincent Price, Glenn Langan, and Teresa Wright
3/17/47 - “The Philadelphia Story” with James Stewart, Cary Grant, and Katharine Hepburn
1/18/51 - “The Birth of the Blues” with Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, and Phil Harris (1 hour)
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