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The Campbell Playhouse

47 episodes · 1938–1940 · CBS · Drama

Play The Campbell Playhouse on Radio Days

When Campbell Soup agreed to sponsor Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre, it became The Campbell Playhouse, on CBS from December 9, 1938, to March 31, 1940, with hour-long adaptations of novels and plays and a Hollywood guest star most weeks. John Houseman produced, Bernard Herrmann wrote and conducted the music, and Ernest Chappell announced. It continued in 1940-41 without Welles.

Sources: The Campbell Playhouse, Wikipedia

Episodes

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1938

• Rebecca December 9, 1938 · CBS · 60 min
  The first show. Margaret Sullavan is the new bride haunted by the first Mrs. de Winter, and Daphne du Maurier speaks from London afterward.
• A Christmas Carol December 23, 1938 · CBS · 61 min
  Orson Welles plays Scrooge in Dickens's Christmas story, the fourth year he has done it on the air.

1939

• Counselor at Law January 6, 1939 · CBS · 57 min
  A powerful New York lawyer with a buried secret. Gertrude Berg appears in her first role outside The Goldbergs.
• Mutiny on the Bounty January 13, 1939 · CBS · 59 min
  Captain Bligh, the Bounty and its crew in Tahiti. Welles also pays tribute to ham radio operators.
• I Lost My Girlish Laughter January 27, 1939 · CBS · 57 min
  A comedy that sends up the movie business, with George S. Kaufman.
• Arrowsmith February 3, 1939 · CBS · 59 min
  A doctor who longs to do research is stuck in a dull small-town practice. Helen Hayes stars.
• The Green Goddess February 10, 1939 · CBS · 57 min
  Three English travelers crash in a remote Himalayan kingdom and face a grim fate. With Madeleine Carroll.
• The Glass Key March 10, 1939 · CBS · 59 min
  Crooked politics and murder in a Depression-era city. Warden Lawes of Sing Sing is the guest.
• Beau Geste March 17, 1939 · CBS · 60 min
  An all-star version of the story of the French Foreign Legion. A real Legionnaire is a guest and compares the play with the real thing.
• Twentieth Century March 24, 1939 · CBS · 58 min
  A Broadway producer and his star fight it out on a cross-country train. Elissa Landi co-stars.
• Show Boat March 31, 1939 · CBS · 59 min
  Love on a Mississippi showboat, with Margaret Sullavan. Edna Ferber makes her acting debut and talks about her novel.
• The Patriot April 14, 1939 · CBS · 55 min
  A Chinese man married to a Japanese woman while their countries are at war. Pearl Buck speaks after the play.
• Private Lives April 21, 1939 · CBS · 58 min
  Noel Coward's comedy about a divorced couple who meet again on their honeymoons with new spouses. Gertrude Lawrence stars.
• Wickford Point May 5, 1939 · CBS · 58 min
  The odd lives and loves of a New England family. Author John P. Marquand appears at the end.
• Our Town May 12, 1939 · CBS · 58 min
  The first radio performance of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize play.
• The Bad Man May 19, 1939 · CBS · 58 min
  A Mexican bandit and the Americans who cross his path. Ida Lupino co-stars.
• The Things We Have May 26, 1939 · CBS · 57 min
  An original Welles drama about a young immigrant who learns what makes America special.
• Victoria Regina June 2, 1939 · CBS · 55 min
  Queen Victoria's life, from her coronation through her marriage to Albert to her Diamond Jubilee. Helen Hayes stars. The last show of the season.
• Peter Ibbetson September 10, 1939 · 58 min
  Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date.
• Ah, Wilderness September 17, 1939 · 54 min
  Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date.
• What Every Woman Knows September 24, 1939 · CBS · 52 min
  A Scottish politician and the plain wife everyone underestimates. Helen Hayes stars.
• The Count of Monte Cristo October 1, 1939 · CBS · 58 min
  Dumas's tale of a man wrongly imprisoned and his long-planned revenge.
• Algiers October 8, 1939 · CBS · 52 min
  Pepe Le Moko, a thief hiding in the Casbah, and the woman who lures him out. Paulette Goddard co-stars.
• Escape October 15, 1939 · CBS · 57 min
  A man jailed for accidentally killing a policeman breaks out and tries to stay free.
• Liliom October 22, 1939 · CBS · 56 min
  A carnival barker who never valued his wife gets one more chance after death. Helen Hayes stars.
• The Magnificent Ambersons October 29, 1939 · CBS · 56 min
  Booth Tarkington's story of a proud small-town family and a mother's love
• Hurricane November 5, 1939 · 54 min
  Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date.
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd November 12, 1939 · CBS · 55 min
  Hercule Poirot investigates a village murder. Welles plays both Poirot and a suspect.
• The Garden of Allah November 19, 1939 · CBS · 52 min
  Romance in the Sahara. Madeleine Carroll stands in for Claudette Colbert.
• Dodsworth (Fay Bainter, Nan Sunderland) November 26, 1939 · 60 min
  Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date.
• Lost Horizon December 3, 1939 · CBS · 52 min
  A plane carries four travelers to a hidden valley in Tibet where no one grows old.
• Vanessa December 10, 1939 · 60 min
  Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date.
• There's Always a Woman December 17, 1939 · CBS · 57 min
  A screwball murder comedy: a lawyer's scatterbrained wife plays detective and solves a double murder. Marie Wilson stars.
• A Christmas Carol (Lionel Barrymore) December 24, 1939 · CBS · 61 min
  Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date.

1940

• Vanity Fair January 7, 1940 · 60 min
  Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date.
• Theodora Goes Wild January 14, 1940 · CBS · 57 min
  A small-town woman secretly writes racy novels, then finds a racy romance of her own. Loretta Young stars.
• The Citadel (Geraldine Fitzgerald) January 21, 1940 · 60 min
  Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date.
• It Happened One Night January 28, 1940 · CBS · 60 min
  William Powell and Miriam Hopkins in the runaway heiress and the wisecracking reporter on a cross-country bus.
• Broome Stages February 4, 1940 · CBS · 58 min
  The story of an English theatrical family, with Helen Hayes. Welles gets to play scenes from Shakespeare.
• Mr. Deeds Goes to Town February 11, 1940 · CBS · 59 min
  An eccentric small-town man inherits $20 million and turns New York upside down. Gertrude Lawrence co-stars.
• Dinner at Eight February 18, 1940 · CBS · 60 min
  A society dinner party and the guests' hidden troubles.
• Only Angels Have Wings February 25, 1940 · CBS · 59 min
  Pilots who fly for a shoestring airline in South America. Joan Blondell co-stars.
• Rabble in Arms March 3, 1940 · CBS · 58 min
  The Revolutionary War, and a case for Benedict Arnold's honor.
• Craig's Wife March 10, 1940 · 44 min
  Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date.
• Huckleberry Finn (Jackie Cooper) March 17, 1940 · 60 min
  Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date.
• June Moon March 24, 1940 · CBS · 59 min
  A songwriter from Schenectady tries to make it in Tin Pan Alley. Performed before a studio audience.
• Jane Eyre March 31, 1940 · CBS · 59 min
  A young governess in the house of a man with a terrible secret. The last show of the series.