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The Stage Struck Radio Program

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CBS first teased Stage Struck to The Billboard on July 18th 1953

Local Butte, MT girl Donalee Marans is announced as appearing on an early Stage Struck program debuting on October 2nd 1953.

L.A. Times teases the Fall 1953 line-up and highlighting Star Struck over CBS-KNX in prime time.

Background

From the October 1st 1953 edition of the Elyria Chronicle Telegram:

Radio And Television
By JOHN LESTER

NEW YORK -- A show called "Stage Struck," one of radio's costliest, debuts tomorrow night on CBS, 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., e.s.t., with an array of stars that include Rosalind Russell, Fred Astaire, Oscar Levant, Jack Buchannan, Nanette Fabray, Basil Rathbone, Shirley Booth, Edna Wallace Hopper, Pat Rooney, Lilo, Eva Marie Saint and composer Arthur Schwartz, among others.

Mike Wallace, of the team of "Mike And Buff" (Cobb), will appear as master-of-ceremonies.

"Stage Struck" shapes up as a pip of a series and it should be well worth your time.

As a show idea, it has been kicking around in the mind of CBS executive Lester Gottlieb for several years and he has only now been able to convince his bosses that, as ideas go, this is a good one.

The show is based on the premise that everybody is at least a little stage-struck, that the theatre holds a special fascination for absolutely all, and so the series will try to give listeners a light, breezy, informal insight into every phase of the legitimate theatre.

A Very Big Job

This is a very big job, but if it's done properly and with imagination, it can reap excellent and exciting results.

Each Friday night the program will re-create memorable moments from current musicals and dreams with the Broadway stars involved, and it will use tape-recording actuality techniques to report the news, history, business developments, creative thinking, and significant human interest stories behind the plays and the players, all with the further idea of "bringing the theatre closer to the people and the people closer to the theatre."

Tomorrow night's first program will include the recorded story of the discovery of "Lilo," the international star of the current Broadway hit, "Can-Can," and, of course, interviews with or stories about a dozen or more others of equal or greater fame.

As host of the series, Mike Wallace's job will be to go everywhere, ask all of the questions, get all of the answers and find all of the material that has anything to do with the Broadway scene and its vital extension, "The Road."

He'll visit dressing rooms, rehearsal halls, theatrical gathering places, and the offices of booking agents, producers, ticket brokers, talent representatives, costumers, scene painting lofts, and every nook and cranny of the glamour-dusted area known as "the legit."

Respectful Probing

There will also be some sensitive, respectful probing of the hopes, dreams and talents of the people who make Broadway America's main thoroughfare for glamour.

Also prominent in the contents of the series will be dramatic scenes and excerpts from various plays and musicals, each of which will contain enough context to give listeners the feeling of being actually in a theatre seat, at least that is the hope of the producers.

For these purposes, "Stage Struck" will confine itself to about 60 Broadway legitimate offerings for the first season and will suplement these with some 60 long-playing record albums of hit music for background and general effect.

Next Friday's show, about which the show business colony here is talking already, will be built around another hit, "a straight legit" as it is known to the trade, "The Seven Year Itch."

Others to come in the near future will be "The Ethel Waters Story," one with British actress-comedienne Hermoine Gingold, and one featuring a London play starring Noel Coward.

There's a more serious side to "Stage Struck," however, one which CBS seems almost willing to have over-looked lest the knowledge of its existence frighten otherwise respectable people away.

It has to do with the fact that "the road," the term used to describe those waystations of the Broadway theatre, small towns and big ones all over the country in which shows can be tested and sharpened prior to their bow on The Main Stem, is practically non-existent at the moment.

CBS seems to honestly feel this "road" can be revived and that a dissemination via radio of things of interest pertaining to the theatre can do the trick.

Maybe it can.

"Radio and the theatre," says CBS in that connection, "have often had mutually helpful relations in the past and we regard "Stage Struck" as another means of advancing these relations. The main benefit, we hope, will be the public's, since the help that radio and theatre can give each other improves the accessibility as well as the quality of both kinds of entertainment.

"We hope the public will very soon find "Stage Struck" to be a notable example of this principle."

Series Derivatives:

AFRTS END-369 'Stage Struck'

Genre:

Anthology of Golden Age Radio Variety

Network(s):

CBS

Audition Date(s) and Title(s):

Unknown

Premiere Date(s) and Title(s):

53-10-02 01 Title Unknown

Run Dates(s)/ Time(s):

53-10-02 to 54-05-02; CBS [WCBS]; Twenty-seven, hour-long programs;

Syndication:

Columbia Broadcasting System

Sponsors:

Sustaining; The League of New York Theaters

Director(s):

Bruno Zirato Jr, John Dietz [Directors]
Howard G. Barnes [Producer]
Lucien Davis [West Coast producer]

Principal Performers:

Cy Feuer, Pat Rooney, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Cab Calloway, Alfred Drake, Ezio Pinza, Yul Brynner, David Wayne, Victor Borge, John Forsythe, Margaret Webster, Myron McCormick, Richard Whorf, William Gaxton, Vivienne Segal, Fred Astaire, P.G. Wodehouse, Janet Blair, F. Hugh Herbert, Franklin P. Adams, Ray Bolger, James Cagney, Bobby Clark, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Charles Laughton, Deborah Kerr, John Kerr, Alfred Drake, Joan Diener, Doretta Morrow, Earl Wrightson, Lois Hunt, George Murray, Alfredo Antonini Chorus and Orchestra, Albert Schwartz, Dorothy Fields, Renee Jeanmaire, Ingrid Bergman, Liberace, Robert Ryan, Hurd Hatfield, Audrey Wood, Phil Silvers, Claude Rains, Billie Burke, Danny Kaye, Stuart Foster, Louise Carlyle, Russ Case Orchestra, Mary Martin, George Axelrod, John Gerstad, Elliott Nugent, Courtney Burr, Robert Sylvester, Pat Moran, Ralph Meeker, Ethel Merman, Maurice Evans, Richard Watts, Brooks Atkinson, Walter Kerr, Guy Bolton, Leland Hayward, Carleton Carpenter, Martin Green, Leonard Sillman, Elaine Dunn, Ronnie Graham, Ben Gazarra, Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn, Goddard Lieberson, Lloyd Bridges, Lilo, Walter Slezak, Richard Kiley, Henry Calvin, Joan Lorring, Joan Greenwood, Robert Alda, Geraldine Page, Gwen Verdon, Ralph Meeker, Rosalind Russell, Menasha Skulnik, Shirley Booth, Basil Rathbone, Martha Scott, Burgess Meredith, Hermione Gingold, Robert Anderson, Celeste Holm, Robert Preston, Martha Wright, William Talbot, Judith Anderson, John Drew, Otis Skinner, Sarah Bernhardt, Ellen Terry, Lillian Russell, George M. Cohan, John Barrymore, Eugene O'Neill, Julia Marlow, Irvin Fields, Dorothy Fields, Bela Spewack, Leslie Stevens, John Emory, Mildred Natwick, Robert Porterfield, Margo Jones, Jean Kerr, Kirk Douglas, Danny Roban, Geraldine Page, Mary Boland, Jack Warden, Peter Lorre, Clive Brook, Kaye Ballard, Jack Whiting, Charles Goldner, Vernon Duke, Maria Riva, Noel Coward, Gene Buck, John Steele, Gus Van, Gladys Feldman, Ruby Keeler, Ruth Etting, Ole Olsen, Charles Winninger, Bert Williams, Eddie Dowling, Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker, Felix Adler, Agnes Moorehead, Shirley Booth, Ward Donovan, Arthur Schwartz, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Sylvia Sidney, Stanley Kramer, Frank Lovejoy, Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Lilli Palmer, John Garfield, Greta Garbo, William Powell, Lana Turner, Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Lucille Ball, Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, Bert Lahr, Van Johnson, Barbara Stanwyck, William Holden, Charlton Heston, Montgomery Clift, Macdonald Carey, Kitty Carlisle, Janis Paige, John Rait, George Abbott, Alan Schneider, Dick Adler, Jerry Ross, Audrey Hepburn, Carol Channing, Harry Belafonte, Jack Benny, Katharine Cornell, Mary Martin, Mel Ferrer, Noel Coward, Phil Silvers, Robert Sylvester, Nanette Fabray, Eva Marie Saint, Arthur Schwartz

Recurring Character(s):

None

Protagonist(s):

None

Author(s):

None

Writer(s)

Bob Corcoran

Music Direction:

Arthur Schwartz
Alfredo Antonini and the CBS Orchestra and Chorus

Musical Theme(s):

"That's Entertainment"

Announcer(s):

Bob Hite
Mike Wallace [Host]

Estimated Scripts or
Broadcasts:

Episodes in Circulation:

Total Episodes in Collection:

Provenances:

October 10th Billboard review of Stage Struck's premiere

The Billboard characterizes Stage Struck as a 'specialized program' for CBS.

Contributor Jerry Haendiges.

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were newspaper listings.

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The Stage Struck Radio Program Log
Date	Episode	Title	Avail.	Notes
53-09-25	--		--	53-09-25 New York Times 8:30-WCBS--This Game of Baseball, With Bing Crosby, Narrator
53-10-02	1	Title Unknown September 27th 1953 spot article teases the appearance of Rosalind Russell on the premiere of Stage Struck	N	53-09-19 Uniontown Evening Standard Rodgers and Hammerstein will sing "Boys and Girls Like You And Me," for the opening of the new CBS Radio series, "Stage Struck." The song, cut from "Oklahoma!" never has been performed before. The song writers will reveal, as illustrating the cooperation of show peoplel, that they called in Emlyn Williams to cut "South Pacific," when it was 30 minutes overlong. Williams did it, and refused payment. He was sent opening-night seats, gold scissors and blue pencil. 53-10-01 Kokomo Tribune STAGE STRUCK: A dazzling array of artists and personalities famed in the American theater comprise the talent roster for the premier broadcast Friday (7:30 p.m., CBS) of Stage Struck, weekly one-hour program, report designed to bring the theater closer to the people and the people closer to the theater. Among the stars to appear are Rosalind Russell, Fred Astaire, Shirley Booth and Basil Rathbone. 53-10-02 New York Times 8:30-WCBS--Stage Struck: Memorable Moments From Current Theatre Successes, With Mike Wallace, Host (Premiere)
53-10-09	2	The Seven Year Itch	N	53-10-09 New York Times 8:30-WCBS--Stage Struck: With Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cab Calloway, Alfred Drake, Ezio Pinza, Yul Brynner, Others, Guests
53-10-16	3	Wish You Were Here	Y	53-10-16 New York Times 8:30-WCBS--Stage Struck: With David Wayne, Victor Borge, John Forsythe; Mike Wallace, Host. 53-10-16 Wisconsin State Journal 8 p.m.--Stage Struck (WKOW): new to this station; Victor Borge, Pat Marand, David Wayne, John Forsythe, Maurice Evand, Arthur Kober, Harold Rome. 53-10-16 San Antonio Express How a new hit was brought to Broadway via New Haven, and how an apparent flop was nursed to success and became known as the "miracle of 45th Street" will be revealed and demonstrated in musical and dramatic terms on tonight's broadcast of "Stage Struck" over KTSA at 7:30 p.m.
53-10-23	4	South Pacific	N	53-10-23 New York Times 8:30-WCBS--Stagestruck: With Margaret Webster, Myron McCormick, Richard Whorf, Others; Mike Wallace, Host
53-10-30	5	Fifty Years of Musical Comedies	N	53-10-30 New York Times 8:30-WCBS--Stagestruck: With William Gaxton, Vivienne Segal, Fred Astaire, P.G. Wodehouse, Others
53-11-06	6	Title Unknown	N	53-11-06 New York Times 8:30-WCBS--Stagestruck: With Janet Blair, F. Hugh Herbert, Others
53-11-13	7	Title Unknown	N	53-11-13 New York Times 8:30-WCBS--Stage Struck: With Franklin P. Adams, Ray Bolger, James Cagney, Bobby Clark, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Charles Laughton, Others
53-11-20	8	Title Unknown	N	53-11-20 New York Times 9-10--Stage-Struck: With Deborah Kerr and John Kerr and Others; Mike Wallace, Host--WCBS
53-11-27	--		--	53-11-27 New York Times 9-10--"Parole File 732"--Documentary About a Prisoner Who Discovers Freedom After 22 Years Behind Bars; Eric Sevareid, Narrator--WCBS.
53-12-04	9	Is The Road Dying?	N	53-11-28 Billboard CBS invaded the specialized programming field this fall with an hour tour of the legit theater, "Stage Struck," in defiance of the usual theory that legit stars lack mass appeal. 53-12-04 Oakland Tribune 7:30 P.M. KCBS-Stage Struck.
53-12-11	10	The Off-Broadway Story	N	53-12-11 New York Times 9-10--Stage Struck: Backstage and Out Front with "Almanac" and "Kismet"--Mike Wallace, Host--WCBS.
53-12-18	11	The Theatre at Christmas Time	N	53-12-18 New York Times 9-10--Stage Struck: Featuring "Kismet" Principals, Alfred Drake, Joan Diener and Doretta Morrow--WCBS.
53-12-25	12	A Christmas Musical Show	N	[ Christmas program ] 53-12-25 New York Times 9-10--Stage Struck: Christmas Program: With Earl Wrightson, Lois Hunt, George Murray and the Alfredo Antonini Chorus and Orchestra--WCBS.
54-01-01	13	Theatrical Highlights of 1953	Y	54-01-01 New York Times 9-10--Stage-Struck: Previews of "Mlle. Colombe" and "His and Hers"--Mike Wallace, Host--WCBS. Mike Wallace announces new day and time; Sunday, January 10th, from 5 to 6pm, EST.
54-01-08	--		--
54-01-10	14	The Theatre's Young Actors	Y	[Moves to Sunday afternoons] 54-01-10 New York Times 5-6--Stage Struck: Mike Wallace, Host; Arthur Schwartz, Dorothy Fields, Renee Jeanmaire, Ingrid Bergman, From London--WCBS. Announces the return of Casey Crime Photographer to the air on Wednesday, January 13th.
54-01-17	15	The Story of The American Theatre	Y	54-01-17 New York Times 5-6--Stage Struck: Mike Wallace, Host; Liberace; Others--WCBS.
54-01-24	16	The Playwright's Story	Y	54-01-24 New York Times 5-6--Stage Struck: Mike Wallace, Host; Robert Ryan, Hurd Hatfield, Audrey Wood--WCBS. Announces that the next program will air on February 7th.
54-01-31	--		--	54-01-31 New York Times 5-6--Feature Project: "The Gamblers," Documentary--WCBS.
54-02-07	17	Community Theater U.S.A.	N	54-02-07 New York Times 5-6--Stage Struck: Charles Laughton; Others--WCBS.
54-02-14	18	Title Unknown	N	54-02-14 New York Times 5:00-WCBS--Stage Struck
54-02-21	19	Title Unknown	N	54-02-21 New York Times 5-6--Stage Struck: Phil Silvers, Claude Rains; Others--WCBS.
54-02-28	--		--	54-02-28 New York Times 5-6--Feature Project: "The High Mountain"--Documentary on Negro Progress in the United States. Judge William H. Hastie, Admiral Alan G. Kirk, retired, narrators--WCBS.
54-03-07	20	Title Unknown	N	54-03-07 New York Times 5:00-WCBS--Stage Struck
54-03-14	21	Title Unknown	N	54-03-14 New York Times 5:00-WCBS--Stage Struck
54-03-21	22	A Tribute To Florenz Ziegfeld	Y	54-03-21 New York Times 9-10--Stage-Struck: Tribute to Florenz Ziegfeld; Billie Burke, Guest--WCBS.
54-03-28	23	Title Unknown	N	54-03-28 New York Times 5:00-WCBS--Stage Struck
54-04-04	24	Spring On Broadway	Y	54-04-04 New York Times 5-6--Stage Struck: Danny Kaye, Illustrating His Ideas on Comedy--WCBS. Announces that the next program will air on April 18th.
54-04-11	--		--	54-04-11 New York Times 5-6--The Wetbacks: On Illegal Immigration From Mexico--WCBS.
54-04-18	25	The Theatre and Motion Pictures	Y	54-04-18 New York Times 5-6--Stage Struck: Presentation of Drama Critics Circle Awards (Recorded)--WCBS.
54-04-25	26	The Close of The Broadway Season	N	54-04-25 New York Times 5-6--Stage Struck: Mike Wallace, Host--WCBS.
54-05-02	27	Highlights of the 1953-1954 Season	N	54-05-02 New York Times 5:00-WCBS--Stage Struck
54-05-09	--		--	54-05-09 New York Times 4:30-WCBS--Stuart Foster and Louise Carlyle, Songs; Russ Case Orchestra

Stage Struck Radio Program Biographies

Myron Leon 'Mike' Wallace (Host) (1918-2012) Birthplace: Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Education: University of Michigan Military Service: U.S. Navy, U.S.S. Anthedon (1942-1945) Radiography: 1939 Information Please 1941 Ned Jordan, Secret Agent 1941 The Green Hornet 1941 The Road of Life 1943 The Coronet Little Show 1943 Vic and Sade 1945 Stan Kenton and His Orchestra 1946 Famous Names 1946 Crime Files of Flamond 1946 American Legion Special Presentation 1946 Curtain Time 1946 Shaeffer Parade 1947 The Adventurers 1947 Sky King 1947 The Echo 1947 Fact or Fiction 1947 Spotlight Revue 1947 Report Uncensored 1948 Meet the Meeks 1949 Crime On the Waterfront (Audition) 1949 Crime Correspondent 1949 A Life In Your Hands 1949 Security Agent, U.S.A. 1949 You Bet Your Life 1949 Stand By for Crime 1950 CBS Is There 1950 Mr. and Mrs. 1951 The United Nations Today 1953 Stage Struck 1954 Mike and Buff Mailbag 1954 Amos 'n' Ady 1957 The Ten Years War 1957 Conversation 1960 The Revlon Revue 1962 Suspense 1988 Let's Find Out 1990 Access 1996 National Press Club	May 7th 1957 LIFE magazine article shows young contestant Leonard Ross answering Mike's $100,000 question on NBC-TV's The Big Surprise. Mike Wallace grills another guest on his hard-hitting1957 interview program Nightbeat.	Mike Wallace's legendary Television career tended to eclipse the memory of his successful Radio career. From the March 15th 1947 issue of The Billboard: CHICAGO, March 8. -- Anyone thinking Chi is dead so far as radio thesping is concerned should take a peek at the impressive number of radio segs Myron Wallace has piled up in the one year since he has been out of the army. Thesp is heard in 22 shows a week, which is believed to be the record here and probably elsewhere. Wallace is heard daily as an announcer, interviewer, newscaster, narrator, and actor. For instance, he announces ABC's Sky King, is the interviewer on WGN's Famous Names, the detective in WGN's Crime Files of Flammond, the narrator on ABC's Fact or Fiction, story teller on CBS's Shaeffer Parade, newscaster on WMAQ, actor on CBS's The Adventurers, and WBBN's The Echo. And from the March 26th 1949 issue of The Billboard: CHICAGO, March 19.--Two of Chicago's top-notch radio personalities, Dave Garroway and Myron Wallace, will be featured in shows the local National Broadcasting Company (NBC) video department expects to have on the air in the near future, it became known this week. Plan is to start both on a local basis, with possibility they will go network later. The program featuring Garroway, well-known local disk jockey, will be titled Garroway at Large and will start sometime in April. The program will be a combination variety-musical program, with unusual gimmicks in keeping with Garroway's style. A couple of "likely prospects" are said to be interested in sponsoring the program. The other show WNBQ is preparing is one featuring Wallace and his wife, Buff Cobb, former Broadway actress. This show is a dramatic "Mr. and Mrs." opus and is scheduled for a once-a-week, half-hour airing. Starting date of the Wallace package has not been set.

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The Stage Struck Radio Program

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The Stage Struck Radio Program Log

Stage Struck Radio Program Biographies