Old Radio

Today we recognize one of the great twentieth-century American poets, T.S. Eliot.  The Nobel Prize winner is well-known for his opus " The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock ," and his 434-line epic " The Waste Land ." In 1954, already a very established literary figure, Eliot appeared on the NBC program Anthology , reading from " The Waste Land ."  His works " Four Quartets ," and " Murder In the Cathedral " were adapted by Orson Welles ' high-quality program The Columbia Workshop . The world of the literary and the popular needn't be exclusive, and in the golden age of radio, they weren't.  A happy birthday to Thomas Stearns Eliot.

The Oscar Award winning actress (Best Actress, "Driving Miss Daisy") Jessica Tandy was born on this day in 1909.  She reached adulthood and began her acting career in a world that was becoming familiar with broadcast radio, and she thrived in this new medium. Those of you with the sharpest memories might recall her work on the NBC sustaining program " The Marriage ," on which she played the wife of the character played by Hume Cronyn, her real-life second husband. She also turned in sterling performances on The Lux Radio Theatre (as an intermission guest on "Presenting Lily Mars"), The Columbia Workshop (on "The Trojan Women"), and Great Plays (on "The Tempest"). A happy birthday to someone who thrilled audiences half a century before becoming Miss Daisy!

St. Louis native Thomas Stearns Eliot was born on this day in 1888. He is a Nobel Prize-winning author and favorite of poets and other writers and readers.  He is best known for The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Four Quartets, and The Waste Land. All of these have been performed on the radio at one time or another, with The Waste Land being a particular target.  Four Quartets was read on Columbia Workshop in 1946. Happy birthday, T.S.  Or, perhaps we should say ts.

William Shakespeare 's biggest claim to fame was...being William Shakespeare . He was born on this day in 1564, so let's take a moment to celebrate performances of Shakespeare works on old time radio . Orson Welles was a lover of the classics who cut his teeth as a stage actor acting in several Shakespeare classics. He produced and directed several, including some for the Federal Theatre Project in the early 1930's. On the air, he brought Shakespeare to life on his program Columbia Workshop , with adaptations of Hamlet and As You Like It. Shakespeare's plays were adapted on such programs as I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, Suspense, and Theatre Guild . References to Shakespeare characters and phrases inspired titles of episodes of Gunsmoke , First Nighter , and Favorite Story . He is too big a figure in arts and literature not to have made his imprint on old time radio. Happy Birthday, Bard.