The Author Meets the Critics
Originally broadcast on Mutual, 17 October 1948. Transferred from the Internet Archive's The Author Meets the Critics collection (public domain).
The run
- Network
- NBC
- Years active
- 1937–1966
- Surviving broadcasts
- 303
- Genre
- variety
The Chase and Sanborn Hour: ventriloquist Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. On NBC from May 1937, on CBS from October 1949, ending 1 July 1956. The 1964–66 broadcasts held here are the Chase and Sanborn anniversary specials, made after the weekly series had finished.
1954 · 11948 · 11947 · 11946 · 11945 · 11944 · 11943 · 11942 · 11939 · 11938 · 11937 · 2
Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files
Clean transfer · 28 of 45Rough but complete · 17 of 45
Source collection
Internet Archive audio collections
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
Every broadcast below carries its own provenance sheet — transfer quality, file source and rights.Archive record: edgar-bergen-1937-12-12-32-guest-mae-west
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
12 dated broadcasts across 30 years on the air, with 19 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
JFMAMJJASOND
1937
1938
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
Clean transferListenableRough but complete No surviving recording
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1937, in original transmission order.
- 1. Edgar Bergen 1937-05-09 (1) Guest - Ann Harding & Rodgers & Hart · 9 May 1937
- 2. Edgar Bergen 1937-08-08 (14) Guest - Nelson Eddy · 8 Aug 1937
- 3. C&S Hour 1938-10-30 Don Ameche (EB&CM) WC Fields, Judy Canova, Dorothy Lamour, Nelson Eddy · 30 Oct 1938
- 01
Edgar Bergen 1937-05-09 (1) Guest - Ann Harding & Rodgers & Hart
9 May 1937 · 59 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “edgar-bergen-1937-12-12-32-guest-mae-west”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 02
Edgar Bergen 1937-08-08 (14) Guest - Nelson Eddy
8 Aug 1937 · 59 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “edgar-bergen-1937-12-12-32-guest-mae-west”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 03
C&S Hour 1938-10-30 Don Ameche (EB&CM) WC Fields, Judy Canova, Dorothy Lamour, Nelson Eddy
30 Oct 1938 · 59 min
Originally broadcast on NBC, 30 October 1938. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 04
Edgar Bergen 1939-11-12 (132) Guest - Jean Arthur
12 Nov 1939 · 59 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “edgar-bergen-1937-12-12-32-guest-mae-west”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 05
Edgar Bergen 1942-02-08 (232) Guest - Ida Lupino, Abbott & Costello
8 Feb 1942 · 29 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “edgar-bergen-1937-12-12-32-guest-mae-west”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 06
Edgar Bergen 1943-04-25 (286) Guest - Irene Dunn
25 Apr 1943 · 29 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “edgar-bergen-1937-12-12-32-guest-mae-west”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 07
Edgar Bergen 1944-03-26 (321) Guest - W.C. Fields, Jane Powell
26 Mar 1944 · 29 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “edgar-bergen-1937-12-12-32-guest-mae-west”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 08
Edgar Bergen 1945-02-25 (357) Guest - Gene Tierney
25 Feb 1945 · 29 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “edgar-bergen-1937-12-12-32-guest-mae-west”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
Same night on the air
17 Oct 1948
Everything else the archive still holds from the night of 17 Oct 1948.
Box 13
Broadcast on Mutual. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
The Phil Harris - Alice Faye Show
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Also on NBC
NBC in 1937–1966
Other series the network carried while Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy was on the air.
Same seasons
variety on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
Friends in front of a microphone
Jack Benny and Fibber McGee sold intimacy: recurring characters, in-jokes, a house style. The modern hang-out show is the same trick without the script.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy
Modern series carrying this form forward.
If you liked this
More to explore
Chosen by the same editors.
