The Philip Morris Playhouse Radio Program

Background

As we've indicated in other Definitive articles, the 'playhouse' format was a popular staple of Radio Drama throughout the Golden Age of Radio. The 'theatre of the mind' that Radio had become almost from its first dramatic broadcasts, made the notion of live theatre being brought to the living rooms and parlors of post-Depression America both uplifting and entertaining for the exponentially growing Radio audiences of the 1930s and 1940s.

Even as other popular genres waxed and waned in popularity throughout the Golden Age of Radio, the 'playhouse drama,' usually showcasing one or two major Film or Stage stars of the era brought fine drama--and fine dramatic performances--to audiences who, for the most part, had never had the opportunity to enjoy such performances on Broadway or the larger, more prestigious drama venues of the era. And indeed, by the mid to late 1930s and early 1940s, the playhouse drama genre became a highly competitive programming vehicle among the three, then four major networks.

• 1930 Paramount Playhouse
• 1937 Your Parlor Playhouse
• 1938 Campbell Playhouse
• 1939 Gulf Musical Playhouse
• 1939 Hollywood Playhouse
• 1939 Knickerbocker Playhouse
• 1940 Listener’s Playhouse
• 1940 Wheatena Playhouse
• 1941 Author’s Playhouse
• 1941 People’s Playhouse
• 1941 Philip Morris Playhouse
• 1943 Dreft Star Playhouse
• 1943 The Blue Playhouse
• 1944 NBC Star Playhouse
• 1946 Carrington Playhouse
• 1946 Spotlight Playhouse
• 1946 Summer Playhouse
• 1946 Your Playhouse of Favorites
• 1948 Hallmark Playhouse
• 1948 Manhattan Playhouse
• 1948 Philip Morris Playhouse
• 1948 Radio City Playhouse
• 1949 Comedy Playhouse
• 1949 Four Star Playhouse
• 1949 Screen Director’s Playhouse
• 1950 Hollywood Star Playhouse
• 1950s Broadway Playhouse [AFRS]
• 1950s Playhouse 25 [AFRS]
• 1951 Philip Morris Playhouse on Broadway
• 1952 Jergens Hollywood Playhouse
• 1953 NBC Star Playhouse
• 1953 Radio Star Playhouse
• 1953 Philco Radio Playhouse
• 1955 Sunday Playhouse

The 'playhouse format' appears to have been a popular recurring vehicle of choice for both the two major networks--CBS and NBC--and an emerging favorite of both MBS and ABC. It was also a popular format with Philip Morris and Company, Limited, over a period of almost twelve years. Philip Morris and Company was also one of the most prolific sponsors of Radio throughout the Golden Age, bankrolling virtually every Radio genre heard during the era:

• 1934 The Leo Reisman Orchestra
• 1935 Johnny [Roventini] and The Foursome
• 1938 The Perfect Crime
• 1938 What's My Name?
• 1939 Breezin' Along
• 1939 Guess Where
• 1939 Johnny [Roventini] Presents
• 1939 Name Three
• 1939 Where Are We?
• 1940 Crime Doctor
• 1941 Great Moments from Great Plays
• 1941 Philip Morris Playhouse
• 1942 Author's Playhouse
• 1942 Purple Heart
• 1942 The Philip Morris Program
• 1944 It Pays to Be Ignorant
• 1945 Talent Theater
• 1946 Heart's Desire
• 1946 The Johnny Desmond Follies
• 1947 At Home with The Berles
• 1947 Horace Heidt's Youth Opportunity Program
• 1947 Kate Smith Sings
• 1948 Call for Music
• 1948 Everybody Wins
• 1948 Philip Morris Playhouse
• 1948 The Dinah Shore Show
• 1948 The Mel Torme Show
• 1948 This Is Your Life
• 1949 Against The Storm
• 1949 Casey, Crime Photographer
• 1949 Hogan's Daughter
• 1949 Ladies, Be Seated
• 1949 One Man's Opinion
• 1950 Candid Microphone
• 1950 Truth Or Consequences
• 1951 Philip Morris Playhouse on Broadway
• 1951 The Bickersons
• 1951 The Strange Romance of Evelyn Winters
• 1952 My Little Margie
• 1952 What's My Line?
• The Eddie Cantor Show Business Show

Cigarette advertising played a major role in Radio of the 1930s to 1950s. One of the Advertising Industry's most lucrative sectors, the Ad agencies of the era ruthlessly competed with each other for Tobacco Industry accounts. Given the addictive nature of tobacco products of any kind, the Tobacco Industry was one of the United States Economy's most recession-proof, inflation-proof, and depression-proof industries. And indeed, the tobacco industry of the era routinely poured a significant amount of its profits into both Print and Radio advertising throughout the period. The industry also ensured that tobacco products were routinely employed in all manner of Film productions of the 20th Century.

Philip Morris acquired the Miller Brewing Company in 1970, General Foods in 1985 and Kraft Foods in 1988. Thus, one could argue that Philip Morris, U.S.A. inherited the legacy for a lion's share of the most important sponsorships throughout the Golden Age of Radio, Philip Morris, Kraft Foods, and General Foods having sponsored over 300 popular Radio programs of the era. In 2003, the Philip Morris companies changed their name to the Altria Group.

Thoughout both World War I and World War II, the tobacco industries routinely shipped millions of free cartons and pouches of tobacco products to the G.I.s overeas on every fighting front--the better to ensure that overseas G.I's wouldn't be forced by circumstance to abandon their smoking addictions while they were at War. And also to ensure that American tobacco products made even more significant inroads into the occupied countries on the fighting fronts. The Tobacco Industry was equally generous to the G.I.s during the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam Conflict. And in fact, it's been estimated that three times as many of the G.I.s of the era ultimately died of tobacco-related illnesses than the entire estimated 292,000 fatal American servicemen casualties of World War II.

And of course, as history has revealed, Tobacco Advertising was also one of the era's most deceptive and misleading, routinely citing the health 'advantages' of a particular tobacco brand over its competitors. The more naked and bald-faced tobacco campaigns of the era routinely employed doctors and nurses to endorse the health efficacy of a particular brand's tobacco products. And quite naturally, another huge portion of the Tobacco Industry's profits were plowed back into influence peddling and lobbying against any form of regulation of tobacco products of the era--a practice that continued well into the 1990s.

Given the ruthlessly competitive and morally bereft nature of the Tobacco Industry of the era, it's no wonder that that same ruthless competition greatly influenced the Radio programming of the era. Indeed, to this day, most advertising historians and economists continue to cite the Tobacco Industry's influence peddling of the 20th Century to be the template from which most other deceptive corporate advertising practices achieved such illogical--and counter intuitive--success throughout the 20th Century.

Philip Morris debuts its Philip Morris Playhouse

Philip Morris inaugurated its 'Playhouse' format in 1941 with its Philip Morris Playhouse, running for eight years, on and off, between 1941 and 1949. Airing first over CBS from August 1941 through February of 1944, the Philip Morris Playhouse aired for one more season between October of 1948 and July of 1949.

The emerging popularity of between three and five other popular playhouse formats of the early 1950s persuaded Philip Morris to ressurect its Philip Morris Playhouse a third time as Phillip Morris Playhouse On Broadway, beginning with its initial CBS run on March 15, 1951. Emphasizing Broadway productions, the subsequent series ran over CBS for twenty-six installments, only to jump to NBC on September 11, 1951. The series ran over NBC for the remainder of 1951, jumping back to CBS on January 13, 1952. CBS aired the remainder of the canon through September 2, 1953.

Airing on the heels of the Philip Morris-sponsored, Great Moments from Great Plays, Philip Morris Playhouse offered a few more options to one of Radio's most experienced advertisers and producers. Great Moments from Great Plays had emphasized abridged versions or excerpts of some of the classic stage plays throughout history. Philip Morris Playhouse, by contrast, allowed the producers to mount fuller versions of more popular, contemporary plays of the era.

Charles Martin, the director and producer of Great Moments from Great Plays was retained to produce, write and direct Philip Morris Playhouse, a responsibility he retained, off and on, for the following twelve years for Philip Morris. In addition to writing, producing and directing the new series, Martin also acted as host for most of the series. Charles Martin became so closely identified with the production that whenever Martin was faced with other commitments, Philip Morris ultimately discontinued their Charles Martin-produced productions until he was available once again. It would appear that the reason for the hiatus of Philip Morris Playhouse between 1944 and 1948 was due to Martin's apparent growing dissatisfaction with the production. Hy Brown was initially brought in to replace him, followed by Earl McGill five weeks later. The series finally folded seven weeks after Martin's departure.

Philip Morris Playhouse resurfaced again, four years later on November 5, 1948, running for thirty-nine more episodes. Thereafter, the Philip Morris 'playhouse' format remained dormant for two more years until it resurfaced a final time over radio as the Philip Morris Playhouse On Broadway.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were the newspaper listings.

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[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]