Dorothy Kirsten Gordon MacRae Railroad Hour 1950

''The Railroad Hour'' was a radio series of musical dramas and comedies broadcast from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s. Sponsored by the Association of American Railroads, the series condensed

musicals Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

and

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

s to shorter lengths, concentrating on those written before 1943. Singer-actor

Gordon MacRae Albert Gordon MacRae (March 12, 1921 – January 24, 1986) was an American actor, singer and radio/television host who appeared in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals ''Oklahoma!'' (1955) and ''Carousel'' (1956) and who pl ...

starred in scripts by

Jean Holloway Jean Holloway (born Gratia Jean Casey) (April 16, 1917-November 11, 1989) was an American film, radio, and television writer who worked in Hollywood from the 1940s through the 1970s. Biography Holloway was born in San Francisco, California, t ...

, Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee.

Marvin Miller Marvin Julian Miller (April 14, 1917 – November 27, 2012) was an American baseball executive who served as the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) from 1966 to 1982. Under Miller's direction, the players ...

was the announcer. Warren Barker, at the age of 24, was appointed chief arranger for ''The Railroad Hour'', a position he held for six years. The show's musical director was

Carmen Dragon Carmen Dragon (July 28, 1914 – March 28, 1984) was an American conductor, composer, and arranger who in addition to live performances and recording, worked in radio, film, and television. Early years Dragon was born in Antioch, California, ...

. With its theme song, "

I've Been Working on the Railroad "I've Been Working on the Railroad" is an American folk song. The first published version appeared as "Levee Song" in ''Carmina Princetonia'', a book of Princeton University songs published in 1894. The earliest known recording is by the Shannon ...

", the series began on ABC October 4, 1948 as a 45-minute program, advertised as "World's Greatest Musical Comedies." It was reduced to 30 minutes on April 25, 1949, continuing until September 26, 1949. It then moved to NBC for a run from October 3, 1949, until June 21, 1954. On both networks it aired Monday evenings at 8pm (Eastern).

Shows and performers

Doris Day Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress, singer, and activist. She began her career as a big band singer in 1939, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, " Sent ...

co-starred with MacRae in ''

No, No, Nanette ''No, No, Nanette'' is a musical comedy with lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, music by Vincent Youmans, and a book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel, based on Mandel's 1919 Broadway play ''My Lady Friends''. The farcical story involves th ...

'' and

Jane Powell Jane Powell (born Suzanne Lorraine Burce; April 1, 1929 – September 16, 2021) was an American actress, singer, and dancer who first appeared in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals in the 1940s and 50s. With her soprano voice and girl-next-door ima ...

co-starred in ''

Brigadoon ''Brigadoon'' is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, and music by Frederick Loewe. The song " Almost Like Being in Love", from the musical, has become a standard. It features two American tourists who stumble upon Brigadoon, a ...

''. Other offerings included '' The Desert Song'', '' Holiday Inn'', ''

The Merry Widow ''The Merry Widow'' (german: Die lustige Witwe, links=no ) is an operetta by the Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt t ...

'', ''

The Mikado ''The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan, operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, whe ...

'', '' Naughty Marietta'', '' Show Boat'', ''

Song of Norway ''Song of Norway'' is an operetta written in 1944 by Robert Wright and George Forrest, adapted from the music of Edvard Grieg and the book by Milton Lazarus and Homer Curran. A very loose film adaptation with major changes to both the book a ...

'', '' State Fair'', '' The Student Prince'' and ''

The Vagabond King ''The Vagabond King'' is a 1925 operetta by Rudolf Friml in four acts, with a book and lyrics by Brian Hooker and William H. Post, based upon Justin Huntly McCarthy's 1901 romantic novel and play ''If I Were King''. The story is a fictionaliz ...

''. Soprano Dorothy Kirsten,

Dorothy Warenskjold Dorothy Warenskjold (May 11, 1921 in Piedmont, California – December 27, 2010 in Lenexa, Kansas) was an American lyric soprano who had an active career in operas and concerts from the mid-1940s through the early 1960s. She made several reco ...

and

Lucille Norman Lucille Norman (born Lucille Pharaby Boileau, June 15, 1921 – April 1, 1998) was an American mezzo-soprano, radio personality, and stage and film actress active in the 1940s and 1950s. Early life Norman was born Lucille Pharaby Boileau in ...

were frequent co-stars. Kirsten, Warenskjold,

Rise Stevens Rise or RISE may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * '' Rise: The Vieneo Province'', an internet-based virtual world * Rise FM, a fictional radio station in the video game ''Grand Theft Auto 3'' * Rise Kujikawa, a video ...

and other performers on ''The Railroad Hour'' were also regular guests on ''

Harvest of Stars ''Harvest of Stars'' is a concert music series, produced and directed by Glen Heisch and starring James Melton. Sponsored by International Harvester, the program was broadcast on NBC and CBS from 1945 to 1950. Raymond Massey was the host when ...

'' during the late 1940s. Gerald Wilson and Martin Grams, Jr. documented the program in their book ''The Railroad Hour'' (BearManor Media, 2007). It features an episode guide listing all 299 episodes with titles of all songs in correct sequence and the vocalist for each song, plus the origins of all musicals with plots and cast lists. Many scripts for the series are on file at the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

's Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute.

Sources

*Kreuger, Miles. ''Show Boat: The Story of a Classic American Musical'', Appendix, Oxford, 1977. *Wilson, Gerald and Martin Grams, Jr. ''The Railroad Hour''. Albany Georgia: BearManor Media, 2007. *Woods, Alan. ''The Selected Plays of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee''. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1995.

Listen to

*
OTR Network: ''The Railroad Hour'' (11 episodes)

External links

''The Railroad Hour''The Railroad hour 1948-1954
Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound,

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center {{DEFAULTSORT:Railroad Hour, The American music radio programs 1940s American radio programs 1950s American radio programs ABC radio programs NBC radio programs