The Philip Morris Playhouse On Broadway 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
• 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 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 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 throughout the era of the 1930s to 1950s was one of the Advertising Industry's most lucrative sectors, the Ad agencies of the era ruthlessly competing with each other for the Tobacco Industry's 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 American servicemen fatalities 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 segues its Philip Morris Playhouse into Philip Morris Playhouse On Broadway

Philip Morris had inaugurated its own 'Playhouse' format in 1941 with its Philip Morris Playhouse, running for eight years between 1941 and 1951. 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 as Phillip Morris Playhouse On Broadway, beginning with its initial CBS run [see sidebar at left] on March 15, 1951. Emphasizing Broadway productions, the 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.

The first CBS season of Philip Morris Playhouse On Broadway showcased some of the more popular Broadway plays of the era, as well as the talents of some of the finer east coast Film and Stage luminaries of the era. Great Stage and Film character actors such as Joseph Schildkraut, Walter Abel, Louis Calhern, Dane Clark, Marsha Hunt, Edmond O'Brien, Olga San Juan, Martha Scott, Chester Morris, Lucille Watson, Edward Everett Horton, Jessica Tandy, and Hume Cronyn added their solid performances to the half-hour format. That first season also showcased Film and Stage superstars of the era, such as Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Veronica Lake, Margaret Sullavan, Eva LeGallienne, Joan Bennett, Rosalind Russell, Lillian Gish, and Gloria Swanson.

The Playhouse On Broadway Intercollegiate Acting Competition

Philip Morris moved the production to NBC on September 11, 1951 for a brief run of eighteen installments during which Philip Morris inaugurated its ' Intercollegiate Acting Competition into the canon, beginning with the broadcast of October 30, 1951. Reaching out to college campuses across the nation, Philip Morris Playhouse On Broadway afforded a total of forty-two aspiring thespians the chance to perform opposite some of the finest Film and Stage peformers of the era. The first broadcast of the Intercollegiate Acting Competition adapted, appropriately enough, A Star Is Born, featuring NYU Senior Natalie Carvath oppposite Douglas Fairbanks, Jr..

Among the winning contestants during the ten-month competition were Robert Culp, James Garner, Tippy Stringer, Ann Wedgeworth, Julie Strong, Carroll Conroy, Richard Reinauer, and Eugene Picciano, all of whom went on to careers of varying success in Film, Television, or the Stage. Miss Stringer [left sidebar] went on to become a local model and Washington D.C. weather woman. She subsequently married legendary newsman Chet Huntley, and after Huntley's death, Radio legend William Conrad. Robert Culp, James Garner, Richard Reinauer, and Ann Wedgeworth's subsequent acting careers speak for themselves.

Sixteen aspiring young performers would compete in separate productions of Philip Morris Playhouse On Broadway, based on scores obtained from panels of Stage critics and producers grading their performances from front row seats in the audience. The group(s) of sixteen performers were competing for the grand prize of $2000 and an opportunity to perform in a Stage production of the era. A group of four performers, selected as the highest scoring from the previous sixteen productions would then perform together in a seventeenth 'final' production to determine the overall winner of that group of sixteen. Those competitions occured during the following productions:

• February 17, 1952: "The Examiner"
• June 15, 1952: "The Will"
• August 31, 1952: "The Waiting Room"

The third--and final--Intercollegiate Acting Competition unaccountably consisted of only ten aspirants, from whom four contestants were selected to perform together, head to head in the final competitive production, The Waiting Room. Robert Culp was voted the winner of the overall competition [sidebar left].

The Intercollegiate Acting Competition was a fascinating concept, one no doubt inspired by Philip Morris' ongoing sponsorship of Horace Heidt's Youth Opportunity Program, during which bandleader Horace Heidt traversed America in search of aspiring singers, dancers, and instrumentalists in on-location performances. The Philip Morris Playhouse On Broadway, though it didn't quite mirror the semi-finals and finals structure of the Horace Heidt vehicle, was clearly the same overall concept. And of course, the Philip Morris Playhouse On Broadway didn't go to the contestants' campuses--the contestants were brought to CBS Radio Theatre #3 in New York City for their performances.

The contestant performances were graded on a 1-100 scale and the Intercollegiate Acting Competition contestants were awarded a check for $250 at the end of each of their performances. As an example, Tippy Stringer's initial performance opposite Edmond O'Brien in 711 Ocean Drive achieved a "92" by the panel of judges. The colleges were fairly well represented by most regions across America, the west coast supplying the fewest contestants, the east coast providing the most:

• Amherst College
• Brooklyn College
• Carnegie Tech
• Catholic University
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• Drake University
• Fordham University
• Howard University
• Hunter College
• New York University
• Northwestern University
• Ohio State University
• Princeton University
• Purdue University
• Rutgers University
• Smith College
• Southern Methodist University
• St. Louis University
• Texas Christian University
• The University of California
• The University of Delaware
• The University of Georgia
• The University of Illinois
• The University of Indiana
• The University of Kansas
• The University of Louisville
• The University of Maryland
• The University of Minnesota
• The University of Oklahoma
• The University of Pennsylvania
• The University of Pittsburgh
• The University of South Carolina
• The University of Tenneessee
• The University of Washington
• Wellesley College

We've yet to determine why the competition was abandoned at ten contestants for the third--and final--competition. The novelty was generating a lot of ink in the print media of the era and ratings for the format were consistently high throughout the competition. But for whatever reason, the series returned to its original format with the production of Too Many Husbands on September 7, 1952, starring Eve Arden, and retained that format for the remainder of the canon.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were the log of the radioGOLDINdex and newspaper listings. The least helpful and most inaccurate was Martin Grams' Radio Drama.

OTRisms:

The Philip Morris Playhouse On Broadway canon has for at least twenty years been widely conflated with several other playhouse format broadcasts of the era -- most commonly, Philip Morris Playhouse, Hallmark Playhouse and Hollywood Star Playhouse. Hickerson, for example, cites the 26-week CBS run of Philip Morris Playhouse On Broadway as a continuation of the 1941 through 1949 runs of Philip Morris Playhouse. Martin Grams, Jr.'s Radio Drama also makes the same error, as do The Vintage Radio Place and the OTRR.

We see this sort of wishful thinking throughout the OTR segment of the vintage Radio collecting hobby. Martin Grams' books and articles are full of wishful thinking. And indeed, it's the OTR segment of the hobby that most consistently 'borrows' the logs of others, 'rebranding' them as their own original research. This is not a healthy practice in the vintage Radio collecting hobby. All it tends to accomplish is to perpetuate--or compound--the same, recycled misinformation over a far wider scale. So much so, that when historically accurate logs are ultimately researched and updated, the sheer weight and breadth of OTR misinformation tends to cancel out the more accurate research of vintage Radio preservationists.

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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.]