Theater of the Mind

Hear It Now

25 episodes · 1950–1951 · CBS · Historical

Illustration: a transcription disc label made for Radio Days, not an original disc

Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly's weekly hour on CBS, 1950-51: the week's news told in the actual voices and sounds of the people and places, from the Korean front and the Kefauver crime hearings to MacArthur's recall, with sound portraits of everyday American life.

Sources: RadioGOLDINdex

Episodes

Tap a title to play it on Radio Days.

1950

(December 15, 1950) December 15, 1950 · CBS · 60 min
The first show. Reports and actual sound from the Korean War, Judy Holliday in scenes from Born Yesterday, Carl Sandburg reading his poems, Bernard Baruch on mobilization, Red Barber, and a portrait of General MacArthur.
(December 22, 1950) December 22, 1950 · CBS · 60 min
Abe Burrows reviews Santa Claus, and Peoria, Illinois, shows how a small town feels the Korean War.
(December 29, 1950) December 29, 1950 · CBS · 45 min
News from the Korean front, the U.N. building opens for business, Red Barber's best sports story of 1950 (Ben Hogan), and a portrait of the American fighting man, 1950 model.

1951

(January 5, 1951) January 5, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
Seoul falls, Joe Louis wins, the nickel phone call ends, Herbert Hoover on world affairs, and the voices of Everett Dirksen, Walter Winchell and Thomas Dewey.
(January 12, 1951) January 12, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
The retreat in Korea, Eisenhower goes back to Europe, Truman and Taft compared, Bing Crosby's twentieth anniversary, and the story of a Medal of Honor winner.
(January 19, 1951) January 19, 1951 · CBS · 30 min
Navy ships come out of mothballs, how money is printed at the Bureau of Engraving, battle recordings from Korea, and a sound montage on the boxing controversy.
(January 26, 1951) January 26, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
The voices of Eisenhower, Truman, MacArthur and Leo Durocher, and the life story of a pound of steak at a dollar a pound.
(February 2, 1951) February 2, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
Murrow has laryngitis, so Douglas Edwards and Charles Collingwood read his script: Taft, Sam Rayburn, the price freeze, Eleanor Roosevelt, and a special report on Detroit.
(February 9, 1951) February 9, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
A big train wreck, railroad strikes, Senator McCarthy, an atomic test, Bob Hope, and the life story of a pint of blood.
(February 16, 1951) February 16, 1951 · CBS · 59 min
Should the troops cross the 38th parallel again? Fourteen hours with Sugar Ray Robinson before his title fight, and the Voice of America behind the Iron Curtain.
(February 23, 1951) February 23, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
Truman names a tank, national politics, the Cold War, and the strange Arkansas hound dog.
(March 2, 1951) March 2, 1951 · CBS · 59 min
Herbert Hoover, Korean War news, predictions for the Cold War, Allen Dulles, and Mike DiSalle's fight against inflation.
(March 9, 1951) March 9, 1951 · CBS · 59 min
Korean War news and MacArthur, then the life story of the garment workers' union, forty years after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire.
(March 16, 1951) March 16, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
Frank Costello on the spot at the Kefauver crime hearings, the war in Korea, and new draftees at Fort Dix.
(March 23, 1951) March 23, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
The televised Costello crime hearings in detail, Larry Parks before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Churchill, Korean orphans, and the life of an Easter hat from a Paris designer to Klein's on Fourteenth Street.
(March 30, 1951) March 30, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
"The Human Tick," crime across America, MacArthur making his own decisions, and a Hollywood portrait at the Academy Awards with Judy Holliday, Jose Ferrer and Groucho Marx.
(April 6, 1951) April 6, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
Korean War news, a parachute jump recorded on the way down, the circus comes to town, and how Milwaukee got rid of its gamblers.
(April 13, 1951) April 13, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
Truman removes MacArthur, the war in Korea, and a hard look at the wounded at Walter Reed Hospital.
(April 20, 1951) April 20, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
MacArthur comes home and speaks to Congress, baseball opens with Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, and a tribute to Senator Arthur Vandenberg.
(April 27, 1951) April 27, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
The Communist offensive in Korea, Radio Free Europe tells Hungarians how to cross the border, Senator Nixon defends MacArthur, and a twenty-minute sound portrait of a simulated B-36 attack.
(May 4, 1951) May 4, 1951 · CBS · 31 min
Combat reporting from Korea, the MacArthur controversy, and a portrait of Reno and the divorce business.
(May 11, 1951) May 11, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
The MacArthur-Truman controversy in depth, Lionel Barrymore reads from his new book, and "Moonshine USA," with a real raid on a Blue Ridge still.
(May 18, 1951) May 18, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
Crime hearings, MacArthur, the war in Korea, Chicago's new atom smasher, and "The Return of Frank Stylow," a Korean War soldier comes home.
(May 25, 1951) May 25, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
Korean War news, MacArthur, the first recording of a guided missile launch, Richard Rodgers auditions singers for The King and I, and Korean orphans.
(June 1951) June 8, 1951 · CBS · 60 min
A reporter nearly hit by a mortar in Korea, the death of Serge Koussevitzky, the Cleveland Indians finally beat Eddie Lopat, and the Fourth Infantry Division ships out.