Academy Award Theater
Academy Award Theater compresses prestige films into half-hour radio adaptations, often bringing major Hollywood actors back to roles or stories associated with the screen. The attraction is not a new fictional universe but the challenge of translating cinematic material into voice, narration and sound.
Where to Start
Researched entry points from recordings already in the Golden Radio Hour archive.
Portrait of Jennie
This is an early surviving broadcast in the GRH holdings and gives a useful point of comparison within the surviving material.
Episode details →Hold Back The Dawn
This is a middle-period broadcast in the GRH holdings and gives a useful point of comparison within the surviving material.
Episode details →Lost Angel
This is a later surviving broadcast in the GRH holdings and gives a useful point of comparison within the surviving material.
Episode details →Program History
A Hollywood anthology that adapted notable motion pictures for radio, often bringing film stars back to recreate their screen roles in condensed dramatic form.
Complete 39-program CBS Hollywood anthology adapting prominent motion pictures and source stories/plays for radio. Two frozen dates are corrected additively: White Cliffs of Dover to Sep.
The run breaks into several distinct periods: Saturday CBS run (March 30, 1946 to June 29, 1946) on CBS Radio Network and Wednesday CBS run (July 3, 1946 to December 18, 1946) on CBS Radio Network.
Names that turn up again and again in the surviving run include Dee Englebach (director and producer), Frank Wilson (radio adaptor, narrator, and writer), Hugh Brundage (announcer and host), Leith Stevens (composer and conductor), Jeff Chandler (performer), Joan Lorring (performer), and John Garfield (performer).
Across its run, the surviving broadcasts are tied to CBS Radio Network, Armed Forces Radio and Television Service, and Armed Forces Radio Service.
The stories often return to Hollywood motion-picture adaptation for radio, Academy Award and prestige-film culture, romance and relationship drama, war, anti-fascism and wartime experience, comedy and social satire, and crime, mystery and suspense.
The show also sits in a wider radio history that includes Hollywood films and prestige stories adapted for network radio, Postwar Hollywood prestige culture, Squibb-sponsored prestige anthology, and Saturday-to-Wednesday schedule move.
If you are following the same actors and creative circles, related programs worth opening next include Lux Radio Theatre, Screen Directors Playhouse, Duffy's Tavern, Screen Guild Theater, and Old Gold Comedy Theater.
All Episodes & Recordings
Search this program or browse in its validated catalog order.
Portrait of Jennie
Struggling artist Eben Adams meets a mysterious young girl named Jennie in Central Park. Each time they meet she seems inexplicably older, and his growing attachment to her becomes intertwined…
Jezebel
In pre-Civil War New Orleans, headstrong Julie Marsden defies social convention and repeatedly tests the devotion of Preston Dillard. Her pride and jealousy destroy their engagement, and later crisis forces…
Kitty Foyle
Working-class Philadelphia secretary Kitty Foyle falls in love with wealthy Main Line heir Wyn Strafford, but class expectations and his obligations to his family make their relationship painfully unequal and…
The Story of Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur battles skepticism from the medical establishment while pursuing the idea that microscopic organisms cause disease. His experiments and persistence lead him toward practical methods of preventing infection and…
The Great Mc Ginty
A down-on-his-luck man is recruited into a political machine, rises from paid voter to governor, and discovers that success built on corruption becomes difficult to escape when conscience finally collides…
Snow White
A jealous queen orders the death of her innocent stepdaughter Snow White, who escapes into the forest and finds refuge with seven dwarfs. The queen's obsession with being the fairest…
Stagecoach
A stagecoach carrying a mismatched group of travelers crosses dangerous territory while the outlaw Ringo Kid rides toward a reckoning of his own. Among the passengers, Ringo and the ostracized…
If I Were King
With Paris besieged during the reign of Louis XI, poet and rogue François Villon is unexpectedly thrust into authority. His wit, swordsmanship, and love of adventure are tested when he…
My Sister Eileen
Sisters Ruth and Eileen Sherwood leave Ohio for New York, settling into an eccentric Greenwich Village basement while pursuing writing and acting careers. Their arrival brings a parade of neighbors,…
The Informer
In troubled Dublin, Gypo Nolan betrays a wanted former comrade for a cash reward. The money cannot quiet his conscience, and guilt, fear, and suspicion steadily close in as the…
Arise, My Love
An American pilot facing execution after fighting in Spain is rescued through the intervention of an ambitious woman reporter. Their partnership becomes a romance as the growing European war pulls…
Ruggles Of Red Gap
A proper English valet is brought to the rough American West after his service is transferred to a wealthy, socially ambitious family. In Red Gap, he gradually discovers personal independence…
The Pride of The Marines
Marine Al Schmid returns home blinded after being wounded in combat. With help from the woman who loves him, he struggles through anger, dependence, and the difficult work of building…
Front Page
Reporter Hildy Johnson wants to quit journalism, marry, and leave town, but his relentless editor Walter Burns refuses to lose his best newspaperman. An impending execution and a spectacular breaking…
A Star Is Born
An aspiring actress rises rapidly through Hollywood with the help of established star Norman Maine. As her career flourishes, Norman's alcoholism and professional decline deepen, turning their marriage into a…
The Maltese Falcon
Private detective Sam Spade becomes entangled with a deceptive client, dangerous criminals, and a hunt for a priceless black bird. After his partner is murdered, Spade must sort lies from…
Young Mr. Lincoln
Young attorney Abraham Lincoln defends two brothers accused of a killing after a violent confrontation. With the town ready to condemn them, Lincoln relies on careful questioning and a crucial…
Prisoner of Zenda
An English visitor who looks exactly like the king of Ruritania is asked to impersonate the monarch after the real king is drugged and kidnapped. The dangerous masquerade becomes both…
Foreign Correspondent
American reporter Johnny Jones is sent to Europe just before World War II and witnesses what appears to be the assassination of a diplomat. His pursuit of the truth leads…
Hold Back The Dawn
Romanian refugee Georges Iscovescu is stranded in Mexico while waiting to enter the United States. He marries American schoolteacher Emmy Brown only to speed his immigration, but the calculated arrangement…
Watch On The Rhine
A German anti-Nazi resistance fighter travels to America with his American-born wife and children shortly before the United States enters World War II. Their temporary refuge is threatened when political…
Vivacious Lady
A reserved college professor impulsively marries a lively nightclub performer. Bringing his new wife home means facing his conservative family and academic world, turning the secret marriage into a comedy…
Keys To The Kingdom
A humble Catholic priest devotes decades of his life to missionary work in China. Rather than pursuing status within the church, he faces hardship, cultural difference, and personal loss through…
One Sunday Afternoon
A small-town man looks back on the romantic choices and rivalries that shaped his life, especially the woman he once idealized and the woman who actually shared his future, as…
Pinnochio
Woodcarver Geppetto's puppet Pinocchio is magically brought to life but must learn honesty, courage, and unselfishness before he can become a real boy. Temptation repeatedly pulls him away from home…
Shadow Of A Doubt
Young Charlie is delighted when her sophisticated Uncle Charlie visits the family home, but small inconsistencies and disturbing clues make her suspect that the uncle she idolizes may be a…
White Cliffs Of Dover
An American woman visiting Britain falls in love with and marries an English aristocrat as World War I approaches. Her adopted country and family are then shaped by war, loss,…
Guest In My House
A psychologically troubled young woman is brought into a physician's New England family home, where her dependency and manipulation begin to disrupt the household and threaten the relationships of the…
My Man Godfrey
A wealthy, scatterbrained family recruits the dignified Godfrey from a city dump during a society scavenger hunt and hires him as their butler. His intelligence and mysterious past gradually expose…
It Happened Tomorrow
Ambitious reporter Larry Stevens receives access to newspapers before the events in them occur, giving him spectacular scoops. The gift becomes frightening when a future edition appears to predict his…
Blood On The Sun
American newspaper editor Nick Condon works in prewar Tokyo and uncovers a secret Japanese plan for expansion and conquest. His attempt to expose the document brings him into conflict with…
The Devil & Miss Jones
A wealthy industrialist goes undercover among employees at one of his department stores after workers protest his management. Living anonymously beside them—and especially encountering outspoken worker Mary Jones—forces him to…
Suspicion
A woman discovers that her charming husband has lied about money and lives through gambling and loans. As his desperation grows and a friend becomes involved, she begins to fear…
Cheers For Miss Bishop
Ella Bishop devotes her life to teaching at a Midwestern college. Through disappointed romances, changing generations of students, and the passage of years, the school becomes the enduring love and…
Night Train
A British agent goes into enemy-controlled Europe shortly before World War II to recover a kidnapped scientist from the Gestapo. The rescue becomes a dangerous espionage operation involving false identities…
Brief Encounter
A married woman and a married doctor meet by chance at a railway station and fall deeply in love. Their brief relationship is constrained by family obligations and the knowledge…
Lost Horizon
Diplomat Robert Conway and other travelers are carried into the remote Himalayan refuge of Shangri-La after their aircraft is diverted. The hidden valley offers extraordinary peace and longevity, forcing Conway…
Enchanted Cottage
A disfigured war veteran and a plain young woman find refuge and affection in an old honeymoon cottage. Their love changes how they see themselves and each other, giving the…
Lost Angel
A brilliant orphan raised almost entirely by scientists knows facts but little about ordinary affection. After meeting hard-boiled reporter Mike Regan, she escapes the controlled world of her upbringing and…
Cast, Crew & Contributors
Every relationship below is backed by the current Golden Radio Hour smart index. Open a profile, or use the broadcast count to see the exact recordings connecting that person to this program.
Dee Englebach
Jeff Chandler
Ronald Colman
Brian Donlevy
Gerald Mohr
John Lund
Lurene Tuttle
Sydney Greenstreet