A RADIO PREVIEW of the psychological mystery motion picture, "Shock," will be presented on Hollywood Star Time over KGLO-CBS, Thursday at 6:30 p.m. A dramatic story of mysterious happenings, "Shock" will feature Lynn Bari and Vincent Price who star in the screen play.
It will be the first time any 20th Century Fox motion picture has ever been presented in a radio version before the picture has been released.
Music for "Shock" has been specially written by composer-conductor Alfred Newman and it will be produced by Joe Rines and directed by Robert L. Redd.
Radio's earliest 'Hollywood Star Time' was a 1944 run of daily, weekday Hollywood interviews produced by the RKO Studios and called RKO's Hollywood Star Time. It was a 15-minute format of promotional interviews. We cite the earlier run to disambiguate it from the 1946 to 1947 run of Hollywood Star Time, produced by CBS as a drama anthology starring the greatest stars of Stage, Screen and Radio of the era.
To underscore the level of talent that the series would employ, CBS persuaded Tyrone Power to perform in the series premiere of January 6, 1946. Power and co-star Jeannie Crain performed Seventh Heaven, the successful romantic drama previously performed on the Broadway stage and produced in Film twice by 20th Century Fox. Tyrone Power had just been released from the Marine Corps and this was his very first public performance since his release.
Initially linked with 20th Century Fox on an exclusive basis, but by the 13th week of broadcasts, 20th Century Fox found itself out of productions to plug through script tie-ins to their production schedule. Their contract with Foote Cone and Belding, the ad firm representing General Motors and Frigidaire, called for 13-week option periods. Finding themselves out of new productions to promote through Hollywood Star Time, 20th Century Fox opted out of their contract with G.M. after the first option period.
This left Hollywood Star Time the latitude to acquire the rights to all of the other studios for their productions and probably came as a mixed blessing to Foote, Cone & Belding and General Motors. The down side of the situation, having lost the exclusive tie-in to 20th Century Fox was that the Film adaptation field was already pretty crowded--and had been for some time. Long running productions such as Lux Radio Theatre, Screen Guild Players in its various incarnations, Theatre of Romance, and Academy Award we're already well-established--or on their way to becoming so at the time. How then to differentiate itself from the other established Film adaptation programs with years of loyal listenership behind them.
To its credit, the half-hour series continued to pull respectable numbers for General Motors/Frigidaire. The arrival of Herbert Marshall as a regular host at about Episode No. 40 provided a familiar--and popular--voice and 'image' to the prestigious program, and Robert Redd's selection of popular productions to adapt to the half-hour format proved to be the right mix in the end. The productions were well adapted by Milton Geiger and the production values and name talent that Frigidaire could afford to attract kept the series viable--and popular--for two almost two seasons.
The production's move to Saturday at Episode No. 23 also placed the production in a far better day and time to compete for--and retain--listeners. The move to Saturdays worked well through the holiday season of 1946, which was really all G.M./Frigidaire could ask of the production.
By far the most appealing portions of the run were the Herbert Marshall hosted programs. One of Hollywood's most beloved stars, Marshall was also lending his talent to G.M and Frigidaire via his The Man Called X. Whatever success Hollywood Star Time continued to achieve was, for Frigidaire in any case, simply more attractive-- and popular--leverage from which to promote its appliances during an era of both stiff competition during post-World War II prosperity--however short-lived.
Actors: Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb, William Eythe, Linda Darnell, John Payne, James Dunn, Peggy An Garner, Vincent Price, Lynn Bari, Victor Mature, June Haver, Cornell Wilde, Dana Andrews, Ann Baxter, Henry Fonda, Cesar Romero, Gregory Ratoff, Nancy Guild, Allyn Joslyn, Barbara Whiting, Signe Hasso, John Shepperd, Lloyd Nolan, Betty Grable, Frank Latimore, Vanessa Grown, Lee Cobb, Charles Bickford, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Roddy McDowell, William Eythe, George Montgomery, Ida Lupino, Rex Harrison, George Brent, Joan Bennett, Dick Powell, Alan Ladd, Robert Young, Charles Laughton, Eddie Bracken, Diana Lynn, Robert Montgomery, Brian Donlevy, Joan Caulfield, Robert Cummings, Sidney Greenstreet, Herbert Marshall, Sylvia Sidney, Dane Clark, Maria Goulavitch, Judy Garland, Joan Blondell, John Lund, Walter Pidgeon, Lucille Ball, Frank MOrgan, Teresa Wright, Dennis Day, John Hodiak, Virginia Bruce, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Ann Blythe, James Dunn, Margaret O'Brien, Mickey Rooney, Hal Peary, Jane Wyman, Ann Todd, Cary Grant, Marguerite Chapman, Bob Hope, Jeanne Crain, Frank Nelson, Joseph Kearns, Lurene Tuttle, Elliott Lewis, Leo Cleary, Gale Gordon, Cy Kendall, Fred Howard, Ben Alexander, Burl Ives, Ernest Whitman, Conrad Binyon, Sharon Douglas, George Sorel, Carlton Young, Faye Marlowe, Herbert Rollins, Jerry Farber, John Brown, Linda Darnell, Vanessa Brown,l Pedro De Cordoba, Verna Felton, Ben Alexander, Ken Christy, Howard McNear, Cathy Lewis, David Ellis, Gerald Mohr, Jay Novello, Margaret Brayton, Raymond Lawrence, Mary Jane Croft, Dick Powell, James Eagles, Martha Wentworth, Mary Astor, Mike Mazurki, Olivia De Havilland, Reed Hadley, Al Hill Jr., Edmond MacDonald, Sharon Douglas, Gloria Blondell, Theodore Von Eltz, Harry Bartell, Elliott Reid, Jim Backus, Jane Morgan
Text from Digital Deli Too
