Title:

NBC Presents: Short Story

Type:

Drama anthology

Length:

30 minutes

Broadcast history:

Feb 21, 1951 - May 30, 1952 Beginning Feb 21, 1951, at 10:30 PM on Wednesday.

Beginning May 4, 1951, at 8:00 PM on Fridays.

Beginning Nov 23, 1951, at 9:30 on Fridays.

This program dramatized short stories by masters of literature. Its cast included a long list of Hollywood radio stars but it never really took off. Probably because it came so late in radio's history and because it was launched with practically no fanfare or budget. It remains a major radio achievment, nonetheless, because it so effectively shows how well radio and short stories could combine for dramatic effect. Short stories had mostly been ignored by radio. Most often radio, especially early radio, tried to condense 1000 page novels like Anna Karenina into a single hour and mostly failed. NBC Presents: Short Story offered stories by masters such as Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Ring Lardner, John Steinbeck, Erskine Caldwell, et.al.. The list is long and star studded. These short masterpieces often "packed all their power into one emotional charge." (Dunning) A large number of the stories dramatized had seldom been done before. Many have never been done since.

Hickerson says that 45 shows were broadcast. He also says that 29 dated and 23 undated shows are available so some of them must be duplicates with different titles.

Source:

On the Air - John Dunning

The 2^nd Ultimate History…. - Jay Hickerson