Theater of the Mind
The CBS Radio Workshop
86 episodes · 1956–1957 · CBS, Armed Forces Radio Service · Drama
Play The CBS Radio Workshop on Radio Days
"Radio's distinguished series to man's imagination" ran on CBS from January 27, 1956, to September 22, 1957: 86 experiments in sound, drama and documentary, produced by William N. Robson and William Froug. It opened with Aldous Huxley introducing and narrating a two-part Brave New World.
Sources: CBS Radio Workshop, Wikipedia
Episodes
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195648 episodes
- Brave New World, Part 1
The first show: Aldous Huxley himself narrates his story of a future where people are bred in bottles. - Brave New World, Part 2
The conclusion, narrated by Huxley. - The Storm
William Conrad narrates the life of a great storm, with music by a young Jerry Goldsmith. - Season of Disbelief and Hail and Farewell
- Colloquy 1: An Interview with Shakespeare
Who really wrote Shakespeare's plays? Marlowe, Bacon and the Earl of Oxford argue it out with Shakespeare himself. - Voice of the City
Tony Schwartz's recordings of the everyday sounds of New York City. - Report on E.S.P.
True cases of telepathy dramatized, with a look at research into extrasensory perception. - Cops and Robbers
A crime solved on the air, with real police and make-believe robbers. - The Legend of Jimmy Blue-Eyes
A story in verse about a bluesman, with a New Orleans jazz band. - The Exurbanites
A comic horror story about the perils of life in the suburbs. - Speaking of Cinderella, or If the Shoe Fits
Cinderella told the old way, then again as Madison Avenue would sell it. - Jacob's Hands
A farmhand discovers he has the power to heal. - Portrait of a Tycoon
A portrait in sound of New York real-estate developer William Zeckendorf. - The Record Collectors
Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date. - The Toledo War
An original opera about the 1835 border fight between Michigan and Ohio over a strip of land that held Toledo. - The Enormous Radio
John Cheever's story of a new radio that picks up the neighbors instead of the stations. - Lovers, Villains and Fools
A sampler of Shakespeare's characters and the actor's craft. - The Little Prince
The little visitor from another planet and what he learns on Earth. - A Matter of Logic
A rehearsal for a radio show about nothing, which turns out to be something. - Bring On the Angels
H. L. Mencken's memories of wild turn-of-the-century newspaper days, broadcast soon after his death. - The Stronger
A one-act, one-voice chamber opera after Strindberg's play, introduced by Columbia Records president Goddard Lieberson. - Another Point of View, or Hamlet Revisited
Hamlet reconsidered, with readings the playwright never intended. - The Eternal Joan
- This Is Paris
David Schoenbrun's portrait in sound of Paris, produced by William N. Robson. - The Case of the White Kitten
A spoof of radio detective shows. - Portrait of London
Sarah Churchill describes in sound what London means to her. - Starboy
The Blackfoot legend of the Morning Star, who takes an Earth girl for his wife. - Subways Are for Sleeping
A homeless New Yorker who is no bum, and how he gets by. - Only Johnny Knows
How Americans have raised children since colonial times, and what hasn't changed. - Colloquy 2: A Dissertation on Love
Love as seen by an American, an Englishman and a Frenchman. - The Billion Dollar Failure of Figger Fallup
The Devil hires a pollster to find out how many souls he can expect over the next twenty years. - Colloquy 3: An Analysis of Satire
Stan Freberg explains satire to a skeptical censor, with his own records as examples. - The Hither and Thither of Danny Dither
An original musical comedy: Danny, a messenger from the Department of Faith, Hope and Charity, comes to Earth on a special errand. - A Pride of Carrots, or Venus Well Served
The first astronauts on Venus meet the talking vegetables who live there. - The Oedipus Story
The Oedipus story from Sophocles to Eugene O'Neill, and a look at too much mother love. - Roughing It
Mark Twain 'narrates' his Western adventures, offered as a do-it-yourself kit for Western movies. - A Writer at Work
Behind the scenes with radio writer Hector Chevigny, recorded as he writes an episode. - The Legend of Annie Christmas
The legend of Annie Christmas, a giant of a woman who rose from slavery to become a heroine to her people. - When the Mountain Fell
A shepherd buried by an avalanche comes home two months later, apparently back from the dead. - 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
A dramatized history of the White House and some of the people who lived there. - Colloquy 4: The Joe Miller Joke Book
A history of jokes, with a visit from old Joe Miller himself. - Report on the We'ans
Our culture as it might look to people six thousand years from now. - The Sounds of a Nation
American history told in sound. - The King of the Cats
A symphony conductor with a tail. - The Day the Roof Fell In
A funny, psychological look at the do-it-yourselfer. - I Was the Duke
An interview with a real juvenile delinquent, his language left as he spoke it. - The Big Event
The Law of Averages is repealed for twenty-four hours, and the world falls into crisis. - All Is Bright
How Silent Night came to be written and went around the world.
195738 episodes
- Carl Sandburg's 79th Birthday
Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date. - No Time for Heartaches
Sophie Tucker tells the story of her show-business career and her philosophy of life. - Fire at Malibu
The true story of a destructive Malibu fire and the fight to control it. - The Crazy Life
A comedian who isn't funny offstage, and a wife who doesn't love him, except she does. - La Grande Bretèche
The first broadcast of a one-act opera based on Balzac's tale of infidelity. - 1489 Words
William Conrad reads poetry and prose by Alfred Noyes, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Thomas Wolfe and a seven-word Japanese tanka. - The Space Merchants, Part 1
Part 1. In a future run by advertising men, an ad agency sets out to sell the colonization of Venus. - The Space Merchants, Part 2
Part 2. The campaign to sell Venus continues. - The Ballad of the Iron Horse
William Conrad tells, in verse, the story of a locomotive through the Civil War and the westward push. - Air Raid
A new production of the 1938 verse play that foresaw the bombing of civilians in the coming war. - The Endless Road
A highway built in a circle goes nowhere, until one day it connects to the outside world. - Harmonica Solo
A World War II combat story. - Adopting a Dog
Tony Schwartz and his tape recorder adopt a dog and find there's more to it than he thought. - Noh Plays of Japan
Japanese Noh drama of the fourteenth century, adapted for radio. - Carlotta's Serape
A verse drama that won first prize in a competition held by the Academy of American Poets. - The Son of Man
Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date. - Lightship
Men on a lightship in the fog face boredom, madness and a reef. - Nightmare
An experimental drama made of the stuff of nightmares. - The Long Way Home
A look at a future we hope never comes. - Heaven Is in the Sky
A documentary on the January 31, 1957 midair collision over Pacoima, California, when the wreckage fell on a schoolyard. - I Have Three Heads
An Ampex tape recorder narrates a tour of the tricks tape recording makes possible, put together by CBS engineer Mort Goldberg. - Epitaphs (Spoon River Anthology)
- The Seven Hills
A stranger shows two tourists Rome and its people. - Housing Problem
A birdcage with a little house inside, and the wee folk who live there and pay their rent. - A Time to Live
Norman Dello Joio's Meditations on Ecclesiastes, conducted by Alfredo Antonini, with Senator John Kennedy heard as well. - The Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg recreated. - You Could Look It Up
The day a midget played major-league baseball. - The Silent Witness
A courtroom drama with one voice, Raymond Burr's. The listener imagines every other part. - The Green Hills of Earth
Robert Heinlein's story of Rhysling, the blind poet of the spaceways. - Never Bet the Devil Your Head
Toby Dammit takes a certain gentleman's name in vain once too often. - The Heart of Man
Heart surgery as the heart sees it. - Malihini Magic
Two newly arrived tourists discover Honolulu. - The Celestial Omnibus
A boy rides the stagecoach to Heaven. - Sweet Cherries in Charleston
How the 'disease' of freedom spread among the slaves of South Carolina. - Grief Drives a Black Sedan
A motorist hits something on a dark road and keeps driving. - People Are No Good
A man alone on a desert island called Manhattan, for anyone who ever got up on the wrong side of the bed. - Time Found Again
A man unhappy with the present falls in love with a woman from the past. - Young Man Axelbrod
An old Norwegian immigrant decides to go to Yale. The last show of the series.