LUX RADIO THEATRE: FRONT PAGE WOMAN (RADIO)
Summary
One in this dramatic anthology series which presents radio adaptations of motion pictures featuring Hollywood stars, often in roles they originated on screen. Fred MacMurray and Paulette Goddard star in the roles created by George Brent and Bette Davis in this tale of two rival reporters in love. Host Cecil B. De Mille opens by mentioning a few well known American women reporters, including Anne Royall and Nellie Bly, and promises that in the intermission he will welcome a special journalistic guest. As the play opens, brash reporter Curt Devlin of the Express tries to convince Ellen Garfield of the Star that she should not witness an execution, offering to phone the story in for her. She refuses -- but faints at the sight of the electrocution. When she recovers, he proposes marriage, but she vows to prove herself as a reporter before thinking of romance. Ellen rushes to the scene of a fire at a luxurious apartment building. Although firefighters will not let her near the blaze because she is a woman, she sees a man named Stone staggering into a taxi, referring to a mysterious woman. When she writes up the story of the fire, her editor scolds her for missing the REAL story that day -- the tale of the disappearance of theatrical producer Melvin Stone, which Curt has published in the Express. Ellen puts two and two together and concludes that the man she saw at the fire was Stone, and she traces the cab he took, only to learn that he died of stab wounds in a hospital later that evening. She publishes what she has discovered, and Curt is furious that she has scooped him. He proposes a bet: if he solves the murder, she will marry him. She accepts the wager. From there the two alternate in discovering and publishing clues to the murder of Stone. First, Curt learns that the woman the dead man was visiting was an entertainer named Inez Cordoza, who had been Stone's girlfriend for some time but was leaving him for a man named Maitland Coulter. Next, Ellen finds Inez Cordoza but ends up at the wrong end of a pointed gun in the showgirl's hideout. At this point in the narrative, the program takes a break, and De Mille introduces his guest, real-life front-page man Floyd Gibbons, famous for his coverage of the Great War of 1914-1918. Gibbons, speaking from New York, shares a few of his most famous reportorial scoops, including an interview with Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, whom he describes as "sore as a boil on the neck," and the sinking of the ocean liner Lanconia by a German torpedo. He also talks about the qualities of a good reporter, recalling the dexterity of columnist Westbrook Pegler in sneaking into the coronation of England's King George V. The play resumes, and Ellen convinces Inez Cordoza to tell her story, which implicates Maitland Coulter, to the district attorney -- and to Ellen's newspaper. Ellen is once more overshadowed by Curt, however, who finds the murder weapon and leads the D.A. to Coulter. At Coulter's trial, Curt once more scoops Ellen, sneaking into a closet near the jurors' room to overhear the guilty verdict before it is officially announced. To rub in his superiority, he tricks her into thinking that the verdict is not guilty. Ellen manages to have the last laugh, however, and to prove that she is a good newspaperwoman. Includes commercials and promos.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: January 16, 1939 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:00:08
- COLOR/B&W: N/A
- CATALOG ID: R86:0332
- GENRE: Radio - Comedy; Radio - Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; Motion pictures; Reporters and reporting; Reporters and reporting - Drama
- SERIES RUN: CBS - Radio series, 1936-1955
- COMMERCIALS:
- Radio - Commercials - "Jesse James" (feature film)
- Radio - Commercials - Lux flakes dishwashing and laundry soap
- Radio - Promos - "Lux Radio Theatre: Cardinal Richelieu"
CREDITS
- De Mille, Cecil B. … Producer
- Louis Silvers … Conductor
- De Mille, Cecil B. … Host
- Melvin Ruick … Announcer
- Floyd Gibbons … Guest
- Fred MacMurray … Cast, Curt Devlin
- Paulette Goddard … Cast, Ellen Garfield
- Roscoe Karns … Cast, Toots O'Grady
- Ynez Seabury … Cast, Olive Wilson
- Margaret Brayton … Cast, Mae LaRue
- Lindsay McCarey … Cast, Officer Hoolihan
- John Fee … Cast, Maitland Coulter
- Lee Millar … Cast, Marvin Stone
- Lou Merrill … Cast, Spike Kiley
- Rolfe Sedan … Cast, Robert Chinard
- Abe Reynolds … Cast, a Tailor
- Frank Nelson … Cast, Robert Cordoza
- Karns, Mary Jane (audio i.d. only) … Cast, Inez Cordoza
- Ted Osborne … Cast, District Attorney
- Edward Marr … Cast, Laundry Man
- Starling, David (audio i.d. only) … Cast, Chinese Cleaning Boy
- Harry Humphrey … Cast, Judge
- Joe Franz … Cast, Bailiff
- Elizabeth Wilbur … Cast, a Nurse
- Elinor Harriot … Cast, Telephone Operator
- Newman, Sidney (audio i.d. only) … Cast, Taxi Driver
- Ross Forrester … Cast, Warburton
- James Eagles … Cast, Newsboy
- James Robbins … Cast, a Reporter
- Nellie Bly
- George V, King of Great Britain
- Westbrook Pegler
- Ann Royall
- Pancho Villa