Title:

The New Theater

Type:

Drama anthology

Length:

60 minutes

Broadcast history:

June 3, 1951 - Sept 23, 1951 NBC. Sundays at 7:30 PM.

Cast:

Eva LeGallienne as Hostess

This program was an attempt by NBC to reprise it NBC University Theater, which had ended just a few months earlier, with a "Broadway" feel to it. It was produced in New York (some productions were done in Hollywood) using veteran radio actors. It dramatized current American and English works. It was not well received by critics, though. Some said that it had a "canned" sound to it and the magazine Radio Life, which had raved about NBC University Theater, was appalled at its "pretentious" nature and the "…stage yearnings" it seemed to have acquired, which worked to the detriment of radio. The hostess was not immune from the critics, either. Reviewers said that LeGallienne's attempts to "cover all the finer points of plot that were not in the scripts" were "pitiful."

Source:

On the Air - John Dunning