archives.nypl.org -- The Railroad hour, radio program [sound recording] (original) (raw)

The Lawrence and Lee collection includes a broad sampling of the material that this important team created for radio, television, and the stage. Included in the collection are complete holdings for The Railroad hour, Favorite story, and Young love, as well as representative holdings for Request performance, Hallmark playhouse, A Date with Judy, and numerous other programs. Holdings from their later activities include tapes of interviews with and lectures by one or both men, as well as private recordings that document the development of scripts and stories for Auntie Mame, Shangri-La, and The Gang's all here.

All programs that Lawrence and Lee wrote or produced for the Armed Forces Radio Service have been cataloged separately as part of The Armed Forces Radio Service collection of broadcast recordings. For complete information about AFRS recordings donated by Lawrence and Lee, see the AFRS finding aid in *L(Special) 88-31.

The The Railroad hour, radio program [sound recording] is arranged in thirteen series:

• 1942
  A Date with Judy was a teenage situation comedy which was broadcast over NBC and ABC intermittently from June 24, 1941 to May 25, 1950. The cast of 1942 included Dellie Ellis, as Judy, Stanley Farrar as Mr. Foster, and Louise Erickson as Mitzi.
  The collection contains one broadcast and four rehearsals.
• 1943-1944
  This series includes radio broadcasts from 1943 and 1944, and includes such performers as Norman Corwin, Lillian Gish, and Vincent Price.
• Favorite Story was a radio program which featured adaptations of literary works for radio. Stories were selected by celebrities of the period, and adapted by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. Each program presents a one half-hour radio play in its entirety. The host was Ronald Colman. This collection contains recordings of the first 120 programs of the series.
• 1951-1952
  Hallmark Playhouse was a drama series which was first heard over CBS. It featured dramatizations of various stories from contemporary literature. The broadcasts represented in this collection are from 1951 and 1952, and feature such performers as Lionel Barrymore ; Joseph Cotten ; Joan Fontaine, and Judy Garland.
• 1948-1954
  532 sound recordings
  The Railroad Hour was a half hour music and drama program broadcast on NBC from 1948 to 1954. It featured musical comedies and original stories complete with music. Gordon MacRae was the host and featured star, and was assisted by such performers as: Dorothy Kirsten ; Jeanette MacDonald ; Adolphe Menjou ; Risë Stevens, and Margaret Whiting. Dorothy Warenskjold and Lucille Norman often stood in for Gordon MacRae during the summers. The announcer was Marvin Miller. The theme song was I've Been Working on the Railroad..
  The program featured works by: Irving Berlin, Henry Blossom, Guy Bolton, Noel Coward, B.G. De Sylva, Herbert Fields, Rudolf Friml, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, William S. Gilbert, Fred de Gresac, Clifford Grey, Oscar Hammerstein, Otto Harbach, Lorenz Hart, Moss Hart, Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, Fritz Kreisler, Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. Lee, Franz Lehar, Alan Jay Lerner, Frank Mandel, Joseph McCarthy, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Sidney Romberg, Lawrence Schwab, Harry B. Smith, Leo Stein, Arthur S. Sullivan, Fred Thompson, Harry Tierney, and Vincent Youmans.
• 1945-1946
  31 sound recordings
  Request Performance featured radio comedy routines, recorded for broadcast. The program solicited programming requests from the listening audience. Listeners would write to the studio with ideas for skits, and the actors on the show would perform those skits on the air. Skits were written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee. Each program features a different all-star cast.
• 1949-1950
  Young Love was a situation comedy program which was broadcast from July 4, 1949 until May 13, 1950 on CBS. The cast included Janet Waldo, Jimmy Lydon, Herb Butterfield, Shirley Mitchell, Jerry Hausner, and Hal March. The announcer was Roy Rowan. Lawrence and Lee were the writer/producers.
• 1960-1966
  Included in this series are interviews with Lawrence and/or Lee.
• 1953-1965
  The series contains creative discussions for various Lawrence and Lee productions.
• 1960-1966
  The series contains various speeches given by Lawrence and/or Lee. Included are speeches given on television programs and commencement ceremonies.
• 1958-1964
  The majority of items in this series deal with the musical Mame
• 1939-1951
  The series includes single broadcasts of a variety of radio programs. Some radio programs represented in this series are: The Alfred Hitchcock Show ; Columbia presents Corwin ; Dear Hetty Hearthrob ; Downbeat ; Mail Call ; Personal Album ; and Songs by Sinatra. Some performers/speakers represented in this series are: Eddy Albert ; Lionel Barrymore ; Charles Boyer ; Bing Crosby ; Olivia DeHavilland ; Jimmy Durante ; Nelson Eddy ; Judy Garland ; Alvino Rey ; Edward G. Robinson ; Eleanor Roosevelt ; Frank Sinatra ; Harry S. Truman, and Orson Welles.
• 1954-1960
  Items in this series range from the 1954 to 1960, and include sound portions of television programs, and selections from various Lawrence and Lee productions not related to radio.