Radio Drama · Old Time Radio Researchers · News & history · Drama
Words at War
- Networks
- NBC (as its archives name them)
- Heard
- 1943–1945
- Episodes
- 111
WORDS AT WAR
More about it
Words at War was a 30 minute dramatic anthology series dealing with stories condensed from books written about World War II. The series started in the middle of the war and at the most crucial time of the war for the allies, somewhat heightening its debut. Not only that, it was supported by Johnson's Wax in the Fibber McGee and Molly time slot as Jim and Marian Jordan went on vacation. And if that wasn't enough, the music for the series was done by NBC's own Frank Black, a master at orchestration and the shows were often directed by Anton M. Leder of Suspense fame. Adding to all of that is the fact that most - if not all - of the series is available today for our listening pleasure and the sound is above average. Done in a docu-drama style with Black's music as the background gave often stark, sobering realism to these stories penned by different authors. While not all of the shows are winners, many are far above average and many remind me of the writing of Arch Oboloer. Not that these plays are anti-war (just the opposite) but most of these stories pack a powerful, though-provoking wallop, especially when dealing with subjects that are hard to comprehend, like the taking of innocent civilian lives. As Billboard Magazine wrote in 1943, "Muddled, cloying ideas of war romantics were washed away in a clean sweep." No truer words can be spoken about some of these dramas. With anthologies you often have some good and some bad because each author has his own…
Episodes, in broadcast order page 1 of 2
Where it comes from 2
The archive items its episodes are played from, best first, with each one’s rights as its archive states them. An episode two sets both hold is played from the first.
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Words at War - Single Episodes
the Internet Archive states no licence or rights for it.
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Words At War
Uploader’s mark: Public Domain Mark 1.0: Marked Public Domain Mark 1.0 by its uploader at the Internet Archive; the record gives no basis for it.
A set by the Old Time Radio Researchers Group (otrr.org), at the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio collection.
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Radio drama, old-time radio and historic broadcasts from the Internet Archive (its Old Time Radio collection with the Old Time Radio Researchers' sets, WWII Era Audio Recordings, the Pacifica Radio Archives, the Radio Haiti Archive, German radio plays and listeners' uploads), Wikimedia Commons (with the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision's broadcasts) and the Library of Congress. Every episode plays from its archive, which this site does not copy; rights are as each archive states them. Nothing here is called public domain on this site's say-so. In the United States, sound recordings first fixed before 15 February 1972 have federal protection under the Music Modernization Act of 2018, for most until 2067 at the latest, so most American radio of the 1930s to the 1950s is not in the public domain there. Each set shows the licence, mark or statement its archive gives, and says whose it is. Horror, crime, war and westerns are for teenage and adult profiles, racist caricature for adults only, and children’s profiles hear what was made for children. More about these archives.