The Big Story Radio Program

Background

Newspapers remained one of the World's most important media throughout the Golden Age of Radio and the Golden Age of Television that overlapped it. America was even more fascinated with Radio dramas of all kinds that focused on the newspaper business in one form or another:

• 1934 Dick Steele, Boy Reporter
• 1935 Five-Star Jones
• 1935 The Police Reporter
• 1938 Jane Arden
• 1939 Meet the Dixons
• 1939 Press Club
• 1941 Hot Copy
• 1941 Night Editor
• 1942 Jane Endicott, Reporter
• 1943 Casey, Crime Photographer
• 1943 Soldiers of The Press
• 1943 Words At War
• 1944 The Charlotte Greenwood Show
• 1946 Calamity Jane
• 1946 Jonathan Trimble, Esq.
• 1947 The Big Story
• 1947 Box 13
• 1947 The Adventures of Christopher Wells
• 1948 Final Edition
• 1948 Shorty Bell, Cub Reporter
• 1949 Crime Correspondent
• 1950 Night Beat
• 1952 Bright Star
• 1954 San Francisco Final
• 1956 O'Hara
• 1958 Frontier Gentleman

While the list above is by no means comprehensive, it's fairly representative of the serial melodramas and situation comedy, western, juvenile adventure, mystery and crime dramas that held the interest of America throughout the Golden Age of Radio. The vitality, deadlines, investigative reporting, subject matter, and pure escapist adventure of the more glamorous 'beats' in the World of Journalism leant themselves to compelling Radio.

The more popular newspaper-themed dramas of the era ran for between six and ten years. The common denominator of the more popular newspaper dramas were those of the crime, human interest, and mystery variety, such as Casey--Crime Photographer, Night Beat, and The Big Story.

Throughout the same period, the American Tobacco Company had been a prolific sponsor of Radio programs:

• 1928 The Lucky Strike Dance Hour
• 1931 The Metropolitan Opera
• 1932 The Lucky Strike Hour
• 1933 The Jack Pearl Show
• 1934 The Lucky Strike Musical Hall
• 1935 Red Trails
• 1935 Your Hit Parade
• 1937 Hollywood Parade
• 1937 Melody Puzzles
• 1937 People In the News
• 1937 Your News Parade
• 1938 Design for Happiness
• 1938 Kay Kyser's College of Musical Knowledge
• 1938 The Eddy Duchin Program
• 1939 Ben Bernie [Musical Mock Trial]
• 1939 Music By Malneck
• 1940 Information Please
• 1941 CBS Looks At Hollywood
• 1941 The Jerry Lester Show
• 1942 The Gracie Fields Show
• 1943 Your All-Time Hit Parade
• 1944 Believe It Or Not
• 1944 The Jack Benny Program
• 1945 Wayne King
• 1946 The Fabulous Dr. Tweedy
• 1947 Light-Up Time
• 1947 The Big Story
• 1948 Your Lucky Strike
• 1949 Your Hit Parade On Parade
• 1951 Talk Back
• 1953 The [Horace Heidt] Youth Opportunity Program

Needless to say, American Tobacco was one of the era's savviest--and most experienced--sponsors. Having just sponsored their Frank Morgan situation comedy vehicle, The Fabulous Dr. Tweedy, when the series failed to attract the ratings they'd hoped for, American Tobacco began casting about for a dramatic vehicle to attract more consistent ratings.

American Tobacco and NBC Debut The Big Story

That dramatic vehicle became The Big Story, an anthology of compelling news story dramatizations submitted by newspaper editors and journaists themselves. The writers, journalists and editors submitting their stories were awarded $500 for every story submitted, dramatized, and aired. Sponsored initially by American Tobacco's 'Pall Mall' cigarette brand, the series ultimately showcased its 'Lucky Strike' cigarette brand for the final two years of the canon.

Often focusing as much on the submitting journalist as the actual story, each journalist submitting a dramatized story was prominently identified and credited at both the beginning and end of each program. The $500 remuneration was announced as an 'award' for each winning dramatized story at the end of each program. The practice of announcing the "Pall Mall Award" for "notable service in the field of journalism" and its accompanying $500 check, continued through all 381 broadcast episodes of The Big Story.

Throughout the canon, the producers took great pains to stress the authenticity and factual basis of the stories presented--with the customary ending disclaimer that all names used in the production were fictitious, except for those specifically exempted. It should also be noted that the overwhelming majority of the stories eventually dramatized were submitted by working--and often highly-respected--reporters, editors and journalists. Over the course of the entire canon, newspapers from every part of America were represented--a few at least twice.

The format for the program was, by all critical accounts, one of its most compelling features. Each production framed the scripted story with the submitting reporter's name and newspaper, teased a bit of the script, then, after the commercial announcements, a narrator framed the remainder of the script. The narrator proved to be one of the more successful elements of the format, providing all necessary exposition and time-displacement to move the story along. The series' first narrator was gifted Radio, Film and Television character actor Berry Kroeger. Kroeger remained in the role of narrator through Episode No. 34, at which time regular supporting actor Robert Sloane assumed the narrator role. It was Kroeger's elastic countenance that was used to create the caricature of a typical reporter of the era--Press Pass in hatband, and a [presumably] Pall Mall cigarette hanging from his lips.

And indeed, the narrator continued to prove to be a useful dramatic bridge throughout the series. The stories, culled as they were from all parts of the country and representing virtually every newsbeat imaginable, were well served by an experienced, talented expositor to help the stories along. The crime stories themselves were a fairly sordid, salacious lot for the era. They were undoubtedly also watered down quite a bit enroute to their radio dramatizations.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library at UCSF, the log of the radioGOLDINdex and 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.]