Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Lights Out - A Christmas Story (Old Time Radio)

Nativity Scene at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church (Saline, Michigan)
A Nativity Scene in my town of Saline, Michigan - Taken Monday December 23, 2013.

One of the great visionaries of old time radio was Arch Oboler. He had so many fantastic stories in his Lights Out series that remains one of the best loved and appreciated series on the radio. The series was created by another visionary, Wyllis Cooper, who handed the show over to Oboler in 1936.

One of the scripts that I love is A Christmas Story. It is also called "Uninhabited" or "Three Men". I need to dig a bit more and see if this is an Arch Oboler or a Wyllis Cooper script.  The recording I am sharing was originally broadcast on December 22, 1937 and told the story of three officers who shared a train car in the days following the end of World War I. It was Christmas Eve 1918 and the three officers were heading for a long needed rest. The three solders were very different, one from France, one from Australia and one from America. These three officers dozed off, and simultaneously dreamed about being the three Magi, looking for the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem nearly two thousand years earlier. I love the story because it is a beautiful telling of the three Magi.  It also has a nice message about race relations from the perspective of 1937.

Here are the links to follow:

No comments:

Post a Comment