Scenes from Great Plays

stump a literature scholar with this. What do Bertram block? Louisme Alcott, Charles Dickens, James Berry, and Stephen Vincent Benet have in common. Only the old-time radio connoisseur among them will know that the works of all these authors were adapted for the 1948-49 radio program, great scenes from great plays.

As television was poised to grip the entertainment seeking habits of the nation, one radio program, great scenes from great plays, offered high-brow entertainment that wasn't in direct competition with the new medium of TV. This show adapted about 20 minutes worth of a wide variety of plays, such as Dark Victory by Block, Little Women by Alcott,

A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens, What Every Woman Knows by Barry, The Devil and Daniel Webster by Benet, also a young Mr. Lincoln, a dollhouse, and many others. The one-season series was sponsored by the National Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America and starred veteran actor Walter Hampton as the host.

He also starred in the first episode, Cyrano de Bergerac. The acting talent brought to bear on this series is not to be taken lightly. It included Jane Powell, Joan Caulfield, Henry Fauna, Jean Tierney, and Eddie Albert.

Nestled into the winter of 1948 was a gem of a radio program. Not one of the best known of all time, but great for a serious listener who craves programming with a message.