Proudly We Hail, 929 Old Time Radio Shows WWII Army World War mp3 DVD

Don't be fooled by other collections that claim to contain more episodes.  Many of these shows were aired on multiple dates in reruns, so you have plenty of sellers out there padding their collections with reruns!  We feature all known episodes in existence and do not add "fluff" to our collections to increase our claimed episode count like many others. 

NOTICE: This collection is all in MP3 format supplied on DVD.  You play this in your computer and then can copy all the MP3 files to your MP3 player of choice.  This DVD will NOT play in a regular CD player in your car, or your TV's DVD player, it is intended for your computer only which will allow you to transfer the MP3 files to any device that can play MP3's.  This collection remains the largest most original collection.

Proudly We Hail:

Proudly We Hail was a public service show for the Army and Air Force that aired for a period of four months in 1941 on CBS. The show returned to the airways from 1946 through 1957 and aired on as many as 1300 radio stations.

The 1941 shows were billed as a program designed “to strengthen the mainstream of the defense machine – the workers in the arsenal of democracy – during a time of unlimited national emergency.” This was the time of the buildup of tensions in the Far East and just prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Major Bowes and Jane Froman kicked off the first 30 min show on the CBS network on June 8, 1941 and the show ran during the summer until September 21, mostly on Friday nights, with different hosts and participants. Unfortunately, none these original shows are in circulation or known to exist.

In 1946, Hollywood producer C. P. MacGregor put together a series that was to be used as a public service in support of the Army and Air Corps recruitment departments. He had lots of contacts in the radio industry but did not have direct access to the networks. As a result he targeted independent stations and, by the week of July 10, 1946, had assembled over 350 stations into his independent network for the first broadcast of the syndicated show.

The shows were initially 15 minutes long and included recruitment ads along with a short play featuring a big name Hollywood star. Later shows in the series finished with a short interview with the star. MacGregor pulled off a major coup when he recruited Clark Gable for the first show. Other major actors agreeing to participate were Robert Mitchum, Glenn Ford, Alan Ladd, Preston Foster, Vincent Price, Barry Sullivan, Harold Peary, William Holden, Edward G. Robinson, and many others.  This collection on DVD includes the shows that ran from 1946 to 1957, as there are no surviving shows known from the original run in 1941.

New World A' Coming:

New World a Coming features accounts of African-American social life in 1940s Harlem and serving in the military during WWII. The show aired political and racial concerns through true-life accounts African-American experiences, such as U.S. soldiers on leave denied at restaurants and movie theaters, problems of discrimination in the workplace and banks, unequal pay and opportunities, and other civil rights issues. Broadcast on New York radio station WMCA, this show was based on the work of nationally-known black journalist Roi Ottley. New World A'Coming was frequently narrated by African-American actor Canada Lee, and showcased the work of other leading black artists (Duke Ellington wrote the theme song). NWAC was a powerful and politically incisive program that aired political and racial issues in the US military and on the home front. After two seasons, the program expanded its focus to include other minority groups.
 

Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands:

Beginning in 1941, the Coca Cola Company produced a program that would ultimately be the most involved and influential, if not the most important commercial musical radio property to air during World War II and immediately thereafter, “Coca Cola Spotlight Bands”. During 1941, Coca Cola developed plans for a big band series to market their product. The series would feature various popular bands, as opposed to one specific band. They entered into an agreement with the Mutual Broadcasting System. The program would air over all of the Mutual stations six nights a week. Monday through Friday, a fifteen minute program would be broadcast nationally at 10:15-10:30 p.m. (Eastern). Each night, a different band would usually appear from a Mutual studio in New York, Chicago or Hollywood, although several programs were broadcast from other locations. The flagship Mutual stations WOR, WGN and KHJ generally originated the broadcasts. The New York programs originated from the stage of a new Mutual Theatre on West 39th Street. Mutual had renovated the former Maxine Elliott Theatre with state-of-the-art broadcast equipment. Then, on Saturday evening, a thirty minute program would be broadcast at 10:15-10:45 p.m. (Eastern). Whereas Mutual scheduled the bands for the Monday through Friday episodes, the Saturday evening program was reserved for the band that posted the largest nation-wide record sales for the previous week. The identity of the band was kept secret from the national audience until the program went on the air. This was bait to attract a larger audience, which succeeded. In August 1942, Coca Cola entered into an agreement with the Blue Network to launch the revised “Spotlight Bands” series. The Blue Network was the former NBC Blue Network. As of January 1, 1942, NBC began to operate Blue as a quasi-independent entity. The FCC had ordered NBC to divest Blue from its Red network and other operations as the result of a lengthy and expensive anti-trust action. NBC would continue to operate Blue from its technical facilities and using its personnel until 1945 when Blue became the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) after its purchase by Edward J. Noble. Blue offered Coca Cola arguably more local affiliate stations and audience reach than Mutual, but also perhaps a better ability to host remotes from all over the country. Coca Cola and the Blue Network entered into a new 26-week agreement. The name of the program was changed to “The Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands”. The weeknight programs were extended from fifteen minutes to twenty five minutes, airing at 9:30-9:55 p.m. Eastern War Time. The last five minutes of the half-hour to 10:00 p.m. was devoted to news. The listening audience became directly involved with the selection of the bands. A combination of two polls replaced record sales to determine which bands appeared. One poll was conducted with the civilian audience and another was conducted with service personnel and war workers at defense plants. The second series was launched on September 21, 1942, with Harry James performing at the Marine Barracks, Parris Island, South Carolina. The Blue Network recorded and saved the programs in numeric sequence. The popular James ended the first series and launched the second. Three days later, on September 24, 1942, James would appear with Glenn Miller on Miller’s final CBS Chesterfield program in New York. James would succeed Miller on the CBS Chesterfield program beginning September 29, 1942.

And more Bonus Radio Shows:

As a sampler of our old time radio library, we are including these classic old time radio shows on this DVD-ROM at no extra charge: