''Unshackled!'' is a

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

series produced by

Pacific Garden Mission Pacific Garden Mission is a homeless shelter in the Near West Side, Chicago, Near West Side section of Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1877 by Colonel George Clarke and his wife, Sarah. Nicknamed "The Old Lighthouse", it is the largest homeless she ...

, in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, that first aired on September 23, 1950. It is one of the longest-running radio dramas in history and one of a very few still in production in the United States. The show is aired over 6,500 times around the world each week on over 1,550 radio outlets, and is translated and re-dramatized into eight languages on six continents. As of January 2022, over 3,707 episodes have been produced, each 30 minutes in length. ''Unshackled!'' is produced in the same way as shows during the

Golden Age of Radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment, entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcastin ...

: Actors record dialogue live before a studio audience, an organist provides live incidental music, and a sound-effects person provides sounds in real time as the show progresses. The show has retained a consistent and distinctive quality throughout its years of production, established by the 40-year tenure of Jack O'Dell as producer/director from 1950 to 1990.

Characters and stories

Each production dramatizes the testimony of someone who converts to evangelical

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, sometimes through a visit to

or through hearing ''Unshackled!'' on the radio. Episodes include the life stories of baseball-great-turned-evangelist

Billy Sunday William Ashley "Billy" Sunday (November 19, 1862 – November 6, 1935) was an American outfielder in baseball's National League and widely considered the most influential American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20th century. Bo ...

, himself a

convert, and Dominic Mance, an international banker who became a homeless vagabond nearly overnight. Past cast and crew range from current actors to

personalities such as Bob O'Donnell, Jack Bivans, Stan Dale and Russ Reed. The scripts, with rare exceptions, are derived from actual testimonies and actual events. Beginning in the 1950s,

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

versions of many ''Unshackled!'' stories were also produced.

References

External links

*
''Unshackled! Podcast''
American Christian radio programs Christian fundamentalism Christian radio dramas American radio dramas 1950s American radio programs 1960s American radio programs 1970s American radio programs 1980s American radio programs 1990s American radio programs 2000s American radio programs {{Christianity-stub

Characters and stories

See also

References

External links