Classic Radio: "Biblical Dramas"

Rare book jacket to the first collection of scripts from the "Biblical Dramas" radio series.
The play enacted by the cast on the cover is unknown.

Biblical Dramas
(NBC Red network series of religious dramas)
Broadcast: 1927 - 1929, Sundays at various times.
Production: William Ford Manley (scripts, writer), Gerald Stopp (director).
Cast: John Knight, Emma Dunn, Charles Webster various

Possibly the first on-going series of dramatized Bible stories on a major broadcasting network. From the same network that would bring us "A.D. The Bible Continues" over 80 years later.

Possibly the first of its kind, the Biblical Dramas series was broadcast from NBC with scripts written by William Ford Manley (1896-1954) and directed by Gerald Stoop. The show's performers included some Broadway performers, usually credited as a group called the "National Players".

Manley was a successful scriptwriter best known for the Snow Villiage Sketches a.k.a. Soconyland Sketches, (1928-1946) a radio series about life in a small New England town. Many contemporary radio history resources have overlooked his achievements.

Episodes of Biblical Dramas are not known to exist but Manley authored three books with scripts for home and church use published by the Fleming H. Revell Company. Newspaper church bulletins reveal that Manley's scripts were popular and used for worship and drama services into the early 1940s. Manley allowed use of his scripts for church use provided the source of the drama was always acknowledged.

Right now I am examining newspaper radio schedules to determine exact titles and broadcast dates, but here are several episode titles and dates as given in news bulletins. The dramas were broadcast at various times (10:15pm, 2:00pm EST), always on Sundays.

19270123 - Samson and Delilah
19270227 - Saul and the Witch of En-dor
1927061? - Samson and Delilah
19280129 - King's Dream
19280129 - The King's Dream
19280226 - Abraham and Issac
19280323 - David and Johnathon
19280408 - The Unconquered
19280422 - Saul of Tarsus
19280513 - Ruth and Naomi
19280609 - The Come Back (Samson and Delilah)
19280624 - A Mess of Pottage
19280628 - A Mess of Pottage
19280701 - The Stolen Blessing (sequel to "The Mess of Pottage")
19280715 - Joab and Amassa
19281007 - Road to Ninevah
19281030 - Noah

Biblical Dramas collections by William Ford Manley:
Manley's books are rare and I was fortunate to find a copy with its original bookjacket for less than $20. Copies are available at some theological libraries. Check Your Church Basement!

Manley, William Ford. 1928. Bible dramas for church and home. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company.

Manley, William Ford. 1928. Bible dramas: radio plays adapted for church and social gatherings. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co.

Manley, William Ford. 1930. A second book of Bible dramas. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company.

Sources:

Manley, William Ford. 1928. Bible dramas for church and home. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company.

Swartz, Jon David, and Robert C. Reinehr. 1993. Handbook of old-time radio: a comprehensive guide to golden age radio listening and collecting. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press.

Various newspaper articles pulled from Fulton History, particularly the following publications:
Rochester NY Times Union
Utica NY Observer
NY Evening Post

Updates: Radio and Television Pages

• In the Children's Television section I have added links for the series "Youth On The March", some of which go to sites about the life and ministry of Rev. Percy Crawford. 
• In the Radio section, I have added corrections to dates and summaries of "Chaplain Jim"
• Also in the Radio section, "Bible Dramas" has been corrected to its correct title "Biblical Dramas".

Origins of Family Bible Storytelling Media Part II

Now for the second reason that I created this blog.

Appreciating the history of Bible based media to demonstrate many creative talents from the past to inspire today's parents, teachers and ministers.

A few years ago, as I began to go further into my research, I read a critic's review of a popular Bible based drama on television (I won't say which one). The critic made an odd comment questioning why there were so many religious based films at the theaters and on TV all of the sudden. In my mind my response was, "There have been religious dramas on the major radio and television networks since 1928, and motion pictures since 1896"!

I do not claim to be a major authority of the history of Bible-based media in any medium. For this blog I want to steadily build a history of it in radio, television, educational media, some films and occasionally children's books. It is my hope that today's creative Christians with gifts of teaching in the form of storytelling could have a history resource to go to.

For decades there have been ministers, puppeteers, artists, cartoonists, authors, scriptwriters, cinematographers, and so much more, who desired to evangelize, teach families, and reach those who could not or had never attended a church. Their creativity was put to work with the latest in media technologies, whether it was the talking picture, the kine-scope or audio recordings for the blind. Their legacy is alive today in a era where testimonies, sermons and stories can be shared tens of thousands of time in a single week via YouTube, radio, television, and other streaming media.

Week by week I hope to uncover the lives and techniques of many individuals and share them in a way where their works and ministries can inspire creative fruit today.

Also I hope this site will be a great doorway to many fun and creative audio visual ministries of the present.

James R. Stewart Jr.

Origins of Family Bible Storytelling Media (Part 1)

After blogging for one year I realized that this blog is missing one thing that would add to it's credibility: an "About Us" or history of why this blog exists and what I as the author believe. There is an intended purpose in the title section, but here is the first of two primary reasons why I decided to blog about the history of dramatic or storytelling Christian Media.

The Impact of Dramatized Bible Stories on My Life
Videos, radio dramas, and even cartoons made to spread the Gospel can never be underestimated. As a child I did not understand who Jesus Christ was. One person who wanted me to know him was my Grandma. One day in Walmart (back when they had bins full of VHS tapes instead of DVDs) when I was a little boy I found a tape of superheros clips that I could not wait to go home and see. My Grandma looked in the same bin and found a video about Jesus. When we got home she made me watch the film about Jesus before I could watch anything else. At the time I was angry; it was like being told that I had to eat my broccoli before I could have my birthday cake. The film on the tape was a segment from the Living Bible series, with Nelson Leigh as Christ. It included the stories of the Last Supper and the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot. For many years this was the only Bible story that I knew well. I found myself watching this tape at least once a year up until college years.

By the the time I entered college I was attending church, had accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior and was baptized, but I struggled with a pornography addiction that kept me chained with guilt and shame. For years I did not believe that even as a Christian there was hope for me. During this time I was also an old time radio fan and loved listening to programs like The Lone Ranger, Suspense and The Jack Benny Program. One random day I turned my radio's AM tuner, and could not believe that I was listening to a contemporary radio drama.... a Christian drama.. and one about an alcoholic who was completely sober through faith in Jesus Christ. This program was Unshackled, and I wanted to hear more, and I also knew that if God could free that man that he wanted the same for me.

As a young married man, I discovered more treasures on the air. I was elated to find out that there were also radio programs for children like Captain's Club, Adventures of Odyssey, and Patch The Pirate. Even as a 20-something, these programs ministered to my mind and heart. Many of these ministries had existed since before I was born, but in my entire childhood I had not known about them.

I am a researcher at heart so when something peaks my curiosity, and it touches my heart I have to know more. I began researching the history of Bible-based dramas on radio and television with the growing desire to inform parents, teachers, ministers and many others. I knew that if these programs could impact my walk so much then they could do the same for many others.

There is another reason I started this blog and I will share that next time.

Family Bible Storytelling Media Blog: One Year Later

Blogging is a like a second job and after researching some ministries and resources on using time wisely, I hope to upload more content on a regular basis for Year Two. I also hope to upload a new post to this blog every Wednesday for the rest of 2016.

In addition to these posts I also wish to expand the listings on historic radio and television ministerial drams from the past found at the top of this website.

There will be more to come with radio dramas, film clips and links to some of the best Christian programming from the past and present.

- James R. Stewart Jr.

For D-Day Anniversary - The Light of The World" - June 6th, 1944

The Light of The World - daytime/soap opera (March 18, 1940 - March 2, 1950, NBC, CBS). Sponsored by General Mills.

Yes, in a decade where over 40 soaps operas could air in a single week, there was one based on the Bible! It was a hit with audiences and clergy during its run and adapted mostly stories from the Old Testament. Sadly like most daytime dramas, surviving episodes are very scarce. My research suggests that at least 7 episodes exist in various archives and collections. LOTW was one of several shows from Frank and Anne Hummert, of the Hummert Factory of daytime dramas.

Other dramatizations of the Bible were attempted with some success before television. There were the programs Bible Dramas (NBC, 1928) Immortal Dramas (1935, sponsored by Montgomery Ward), and more famously The Greatest Story Ever Told (ABC radio, 1947 - 1956, ABC television 1951 - 1952).

This special V-E Day episode (6/6/1944) is enjoyable and hopefully will give you the modern lesson insight into that date. Please forgive the sound quality, the audio is from a very compressed MP3 file.

The Light Of The World. June 6, 1944. CBS net. Sponsored by: General Mills.
Ted Campbell (announcer), Robert Trout (news bulletin), Frank Hummert (creator), Anne Hummert (creator)
The commercials have been suspended because of D-Day. The story of the Bible continues. Genesis 22:1, 2, 3. Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, Moses and the Burning Bush, the 23rd Psalm.

(Above citation is from the RadioGOLDINdex)

For more about this series:
Don't Touch That Dial!: Radio Programming in American Life, 1920-1960: Soap Operas Go To War
http://jfredmacdonald.com/war.htm  - Page includes a link to an undated episode beginning the story of King David and Saul.

Dunning, John. 1998. On the air: the encyclopedia of old-time radio. New York: Oxford University Press.

Classic Television: Raymond Massey Reads The Bible

Opening title frame for "Raymond Massey Reads The Bible", 1951.

Opening title frame of "Raymond Massey Reads The Bible", 1951.

Raymond Massey Reads The Bible

Brief segments of Bible reading and teaching.

(produced 1951. syn. c. 1954 - ?)

Imagine this scene for a moment. Seated in an armchair in a cozy looking library is a distinguished older gentleman of about 60 years who is about to open the Holy Bible, read from it and teach you for a few minutes.

The distinguished gentleman of this scenario was Canadian/American actor Raymond Massey (August 30, 1896 – July 29, 1983). The series Raymond Massey Reads The Bible was produced by Imperial World Films, Inc of Chicago, a distributor of wrestling films.

After decades of being off the air, 6 episodes have been digitized and presented online as part of the Russ and Sylvia Davis Film Collection at the Chicago Film Archives website.

Massey sat down to film at least 65 five minute episodes in 1951. The series was written by Morton Wishengrad (1913 - 1963), a future Tony and Emmy nominated scriptwriter who also worked on the religious anthology TV series Frontiers of Faith and the Jewish radio anthology program The Eternal Light.

Russ Davis (1909 - 1969), the president of IWF found that there was not large demand for a 5 minute series right away and the films went undistributed for over two years. By 1953 the demand for more Bible-based programs and five minute fillers had increased and the series availability was announced in Billboard and Variety. It is not clear to the author of this blog how widely syndicated this series was. This may be extra hard to determine as it is unlikely local newspaper TV listings would highlight a series with a running time of less than five minutes.

Following the second World War, there seemed to be a surge in Bible-based programming on radio and on television. There were also several recordings of Bible readings and dramatizations starring other big named actors like Herbert Marshall, Charlton Heston, Claude Rains, Robert Ryan and most notably Alexander Scourby. I will write more about these recordings and broadcasts another time.

To watch episodes of Raymond Massey Reads The Bible follow these links to the Chicago Film Archives pages. There are three episodes per online video and both files are downloadable:

Raymond Massey Reads the Bible: Man’s Choice, David & Bathsheba & Rules of Living

Raymond Massey Reads the Bible: The Greatness and Divinity of Man, The Returned of the Ransomed, On the Bible

Also dear readers, if anyone remembers this series I would love to hear from you in the comments section.

Activity Idea:
Try to use modern digital technology to film a minister or teacher briefly reading the Bible in a casual or formal surrounding. Maybe plan a series of videos for your ministry's webpage or channel.

Sources:
5-minute mart broadens, aids IWF bible films. (1953, Feb 14). Billboard

A guide to T.V. film series now doing job for their sponsors. (1955, May 28). Billboard. p. 27

Russ davis expands. (1954, Jun 16). Variety 195, 37.

TV film series in production since june I. (1954, Aug 14). Billboard