Columbia Presents Shakespeare

By the time radio became an important and popular nation wide medium, there were still plenty of high-brow critics who derided the networks for the "less than uplifting" content that filled the airwaves. Although the standards of content were much higher in the early days of radio than they would be when the television age opened in the late 40's and early 50's.

The Columbia System, the so called "Tiffany network", was noted for their almost highbrow programing standards. Examples include the Columbia Workshop, Columbia Presents Corwin, not to mention Orson Welles' Mercury Theater of the Air. However, a high point of high-brow programing may have been Columbia Presents Shakespeare, a summer replacement series in July and August of 1937.

The plays of William Shakespeare aka "Immortal Bard" are revered as some of the best writing in the history of the English language. Although Shakespeare created them for production on the stage, the language of the plays adapt very well to the radio.

William Shakespeare's plays themselves required a little more adaptation than the language, however, because their length did not fit the one hour format. There was some leeway because the summer replacement series was sustained by the network and did not need to be allow time for commercials.

The plays were broadcast from CBS's Hollywood studios, and attracted some of the movie colony's best talent, including Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Tallulah Bankhead, Orson Welles, Miss Frieda Inescourt, Hans Conried, John Barrymore and many others.

The last play in the series, Twelfth Night, broadcast on is a particularly interesting selection. Not only is it one of the William Shakespeare's greatest comedies (most of the selections were comedies) but the production stars Miss Bankhead and Orson Welles.

The August 30 broadcast came a little more than a year before The War of the Worlds 1938 broadcast and just a couple of months before The Mercury Theater Company gained notoriety for producing Caesar, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar placed in Fascist Italy.

This collection is also part of the updated Shakespeare on the Radio compilation.  See also: Streamlined Shakespeare.