The run
- Network
- NBC
- Years active
- 1944–1945
- Surviving broadcasts
- 30
- Genre
- comedy
The Old Gold Comedy Theater aired over NBC for one season, from October 29, 1944 to June 10, 1945. The Lennen and Mitchell ad agency wanted to produce a comedy series for Old Gold cigarettes, a brand of the Lorillard Tobacco Company. The show was patterned after the successful format used by the Lux Radio Theatre and Cecil B. DeMille. Preston Sturges, an up and coming director, was originally tapped to host the show, but was already committed elsewhere, and so suggested Harold Lloyd, a silent film star, with whom he had worked in the past. As this was his first radio program, Lloyd worked for many months to…
Source collection
Old Time Radio Researchers Group
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
9 dated broadcasts across 2 years on the air. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1944, in original transmission order.
- 1. OGCT Ep01 The Palm Beach Story · 29 Oct 1944
- 2. OGCT Ep05 Clarence · 26 Nov 1944
- 3. OGCT Ep08 Lucky Partners · 17 Dec 1944
OGCT Ep01 The Palm Beach Story
29 Oct 1944 · 29 min
Broadcast 29 October 1944. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
OGCT Ep05 Clarence
26 Nov 1944 · 29 min
Broadcast 26 November 1944. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
OGCT Ep08 Lucky Partners
17 Dec 1944 · 29 min
Broadcast 17 December 1944. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
OGCT Ep11 The Lady Eve
7 Jan 1945 · 29 min
Broadcast 7 January 1945. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
OGCT Ep14 Appointment for Love
28 Jan 1945 · 30 min
Broadcast 28 January 1945. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
OGCT Ep16 A Girl A Guy and A Gob
11 Feb 1945 · 29 min
Broadcast 11 February 1945. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
OGCT Ep19 Standing Room Only
4 Mar 1945 · 30 min
Broadcast 4 March 1945. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
OGCT Ep21 A Lady Takes A Chance
18 Mar 1945 · 29 min
Broadcast 18 March 1945. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
Also on NBC
NBC in 1944–1945
Other series the network carried while Old Gold Comedy Theater was on the air.
Same seasons
comedy 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 Old Gold Comedy Theater
Modern series carrying this form forward.
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