Corwin has been called “the Poet Laureate of Radio,” and today is the right time for us to help codify this title for our children and grandchildren. If you’ve been following the news about CBS and Jack Benny, you know that even when a beloved artist has brought great prestige and a wide audience to a network, future generations may not have the chance to know about their talent, unless we keep the flame alive.

And what a flame…!

A former journalist, Corwin began writing for the CBS Radio Network in the late 1930s. The Corwin name on a piece quickly came to signify quality, thoughtfulness and passion, raising radio drama and the spoken word to new heights.

In particular, his pieces “We Hold These Truths”, (written to honor the U.S. Bill of Rights, and airing days after the Pearl Harbor attack) and “On a Note of Triumph” (a piece created in the wake of victory in the European theatre), provided hope to an American audience that suffered, like the rest of the world, through long years of war, deprivation and sorrow. These pieces radiated a deeply felt patriotism that neither took victory for granted, nor underestimated its costs, and were widely heard and loved by the public. For these works alone, Norman Corwin would be ranked as an American treasure.

But that, of course, was not it. In wartime, Corwin didn’t neglect our nearest and dearest ally, either, developing “An American in England,” making sure we understood what the British were enduring. And after the war ended, Corwin continued flexing his pen, and stretching the limits of his talents. “The Undecided Molecule,” for instance, dared to ask about the future, in a world that now had the atomic bomb – with darting humor. Or how about “Hollywood Fights Back,” (created with the help of many illustrious stars who were nonetheless risking their careers), which pushed back against an overzealous HUAC, an organization not only searching for genuine “fifth column” communists, but apparently willing to destroy the lives and careers of people who merely seemed “subversive”.

Corwin wrote over 100 audio dramas, books, and feature films… so many for us to treasure today. And not just “back then,” but also in recent times, with NPR commissioning new plays.

Corwin gave gravitas … class… to audio drama and the spoken, broadcast word.

So I’m happy to say that, with his 100th birthday coming up, as he continues as a visiting professor at the University of Southern California, there are plans to give something back to Norman Corwin, and you can help.

The National Audio Theatre Festival will be giving Norman Corwin an inaugural award that will henceforth wear his name – the Norman Corwin Award for Excellence in Audio Theatre – on April 30th, at 7 pm, in the Falcon Theatre in Burbank, California. And NATF, a not for profit 501 (c)(3) organization, needs our help in getting a matching grant of $10,000 for this event.

So, too, do dedicated fans, audio dramatists and filmmakers need your help, in convincing the government to honor Corwin with the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Find out how you can help here.

New to radio drama? Want to know more about Norman Corwin?

• Check out this NPR documentary from 1995, hosted by the late Charles Kuralt, and also featuring “On a Note of Triumph” as a full broadcast.
• Read R. LeRoy Bannerman’s “Norman Corwin and Radio: The Golden Years” online.
• And check out the many videos here, on the “Corwin Channel”.

Media: please find a release and detailed background information at our Media Kit site.

The Houston Chronicle has an update on the future of the Balinese Room, though any future incarnation might have to be built inland.

Just as tantalizing a treat are these excerpts from the late Marvin Zindler’s audio broadcasts, “The Roving Mike”, explaining the naughty goings on at the Balinese Room in the late 1940s, and how it was finally shut down by authorities.

If you’re not from Houston, you may not know Marvin Zindler – who made “Slime in the Ice Machine” a local catch phrase – other than through Dom Deluise’s off-the-mark caricature in “Greatest Little Whorehouse in Texas”. He was a great reporter who was big on consumer rights: catch up on his inimitable work.

Let’s just say that Dimitra, in her article, is far more magnanimous towards mean old Mr. Potter than I am… and if you agree, you’ll like this comedy sketch from 1986:

It's A Wonderful Life – The Lost Ending (Warning: cartoonish violence).

Northern California’s Northstate Public Radio will be playing “Hep to the Holidays”, groovy classic jazz, on Christmas Night.

Washington DC’s WAMU plays the “Retro Cocktail Hour Christmas Party” (lots of Christmas lounge!) at 2 pm Christmas Eve, and “The Big Broadcast: Christmas Eve” (OTR fun) starting at 8 pm also on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, listen to the Colonial Radio Christmas Special at 1 pm, followed by The Colonial Radio’s “A Christmas Carol” and Quicksilver Radio’s “The Blue Carbuncle” – a Sherlock Holmes Christmas tale – airing at 2 and 3 pm respectively, and then “Christmas Day Recollections” – more classic radio drama – at 8 pm. They also air “A Car Talk Christmas”. Not retro – unless you count the guys themselves – but still worth catching!

Indiana’s NIPR is playing Quicksilver’s “A Christmas Carol” at 6 pm Christmas Eve.

Kentucky’s WFPL is playing “A Christmas Gift for You,” the documentary story of the penultimate Christmas rock album of the ’60s, at noon on Christmas Day. Features a lot of insight into the 1963 winter creation – known as one of the best Christmas albums of all time – made with Darlene Love, Bob B. Soxx, the Ronettes and Crystals.

North Carolina’s WCQS airs “A 40s Radio Christmas” at 2 pm, “Hep to the Holidays” at 10 pm on Christmas Eve, and a “Retro Cocktail Hour Christmas” on 9 pm, Christmas Night.

Northern Michigan’s Public 90 is airing “The Retro Cocktail Hour Christmas” on Sunday the 27th, at 3 pm.

Oklahoma’s KGOU is airing “Hep to the Holidays” when the clock strikes midnight, Christmas Eve (12 AM). Christmas morning at 8:30, a “Car Talk Christmas Carol” will be airing; at 10 am catch the “Retro Cocktail Hour Christmas Hour”.

Virginia’s WHRV is airing “A Christmas Carol” at 12 noon on Christmas Day, followed by “One Silent Night,” Walter Cronkite’s narration of the Christmas armistice. At 3 pm, it airs “A Christmas Gift for You”.

Wyoming Public Radio airs “The Retro Cocktail Hour Christmas Party” at 12 noon on Christmas Eve.

Want to hear something right now? Check out SOMAFM’s streaming Christmas Lounge -mp3 feed here, pls (Windows Media) here. Don’t forget to donate!

There are fifteen interesting tracks from the 1940s you may not know as well here, bookended by the Andrews Sisters, who sing both “Christmas Island” and the “Merry Christmas Polka”.

And here’s a list of lesser-known 1950s Christmas and other holiday tunes, such as Stan Freberg’s “Green Christmas,” Gracie Fields’ “Little Donkey,” Joni James’ “Nina Non,” Cathy and Elliot Lewis (of OTR / radio drama fame) wishing us “Happy Holidays”, and Louis Armstrong’s “Cool Yule”.

The tracks spanning the 1960s, and into 1970 proper, are a wide range of musical styles, and show a little of what was going on in the world then. Some tracks include The Marcels’ “Merry Twistmas,” Paul and Paula’s “Holiday Hootenanny”, Bing Crosby’s fun “Christmas Dinner Country Style”, Buck Owens’ “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy,” and yes, the Royal Guardsmen’s “Snoopy’s Christmas”. This last was a sequel to “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron,” and reflects the real-life Christmas armistice of World War I.

Then this grouping, of the 1970s and 1980s, which contains as just a smattering, Jethro Tull’s “Ring Out Solstice Bells,” David Essex’s “A Winter’s Tale”, Da Yooper’s “Rusty Chevrolet,” Jona Lewie’s “Stop the Cavalry”, Boney M’s “Zion’s Daughter”, Chris de Burgh’s “A Spaceman Came Travelling,” Merle Haggard’s “Santa Claus and Popcorn,” Sting’s “Gabriel’s Message,” “What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas”, and “Santa Claus Must Be Polish” by Bobby Vee. It also has one cheat: it ends with “Christmas Wrapping,” by the Waitresses. While it’s been covered by the Spice Girls and by the Donnas, it’s still an offbeat classic, and while it hits heavy rotation in some markets, others don’t play it so often. This is an interesting article that goes into the “how” of “Christmas Wrapping” – hosted on the songwriter’s website.

I found it intriguing how the MSNBC summary of Jones focused on much of the sorrow and unhappiness she experienced in her private life, including her somewhat publicized struggle with mental illness, and the suicide of her daughter, while the Washington Post focused on Jones’ career as an actress.

On the one hand, after marrying Norton Simon, Jones did tremendous good by donating her money and time to help those struggling with mental illness, and like other stars such as Gene Tierney, she made it more possible for people to talk about these issues. She also supported arts and culture through her links to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.

On the other, as the Washington Post notes, much of the great work she did was overshadowed by her relationship and management by David O. Selznick.

I’d be the first to admit that there’s a special poignancy watching “Since You Went Away,” knowing the truth about her relationship with soon-to-be ex-husband Robert Walker, who she had met and fallen in love with, while the pair were teenagers in dramatic school. Walker was equally talented and troubled, and was devastated when Jones married Selznick. Production on “The Clock,” a beautiful WWII gem Walker starred in with Judy Garland, and directed by Garland’s then husband Vincente Minelli, was marred by his excessive drinking. Selznick’s passion for his wife’s career during the same period is well known; unlike the lifetime pairing of William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies, where Hearst also employed over the top tactics to make his sweetie Queen of the Movies, it seems that obsession ultimately burned out the couple’s relationship.

There was plenty of unhappiness to go around, and with all that pain Jones experienced at the height of her stardom, she appeared to have enjoyed a level of peace in the last couple of decades. Still, because she was so sensitive an actress, and it was clearly informed to some degree by her life, it would be great to see a thoroughly researched biography, along the lines of David Stenn’s work on Clara Bow and Jean Harlow.

Ultimately, Jones should be remembered for the art she left behind, playing “Jennie” and “Bernadette”, and the WaPo is to be commended for writing about her life as an artist, and not – as so often happens when a screen or other star of the retro past dies – not simply a cinematic cypher who played in some roles we might remember.