Lux Radio Theater

"Ladies and gentlemen, Lux presents Hollywood!"

The Lever Brothers' Soap Works was founded in 1855 in Cheshire, England. The Brothers hired a chemist who invented a new soap-making process that used glycerin and vegetable oils to replace the traditional tallow. The resulting product, marketed as "Sunshine Flakes Laundry Soap". In 1900, the product was given a new name, "LUX", which is Latin for "Light" and implied Luxury.

In the 1920s, the company discovered that women were using LUX as a toilet soap because of its soft, gentle suds. A reformulated LUX with added fragrance and the tagline "Made as fine as French Soap" was introduced to the American market as a toilet soap. Marketers began a print campaign to associate Lux with the beauty and glamor of Stage and Screen Stars, claiming that '9 out of 10' Stars relied on Lux as part of their beauty routine.

The connection with showbiz beauties made LUX's foray into broadcasting somewhat inevitable. Created by the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency, The Lux Radio Theatre debuted from New York on October 14, 1934, featuring an adaptation of the play and silent picture 7th Heaven (1927, Fox Studios, re-released the same year with a Movietone synchronized soundtrack). The Blue Network program continued to adapt film and Broadway scripts until the spring of 1936 when production moved to Hollywood and adaptations were nearly exclusive from films. The move to the West coast also marked a switch from the Blue Network to CBS and the introduction of Cecil B. DeMille as host.

The concept of LUX Radio Theatre seems too unlikely to work. Motion Pictures without the pictures? Even during the Great Depression, an estimated sixty percent of Americans were willing to pay to go to the movies regularly. Home listeners could expect a dependable format from the show. The host would describe why the audience should be excited for the evening's radio play while slipping in a few references to how Lux soap was part of the beauty routines of their favorite Hollywood leading ladies and starlets. The radio play itself would be presented in three acts, each separated by another subtle or not-so-subtle plug for Lux, and after the play's conclusion, the host would have a friendly chat with the evening's stars, eliciting bonhomie from the leading man and a 'candid' scripted plug for the Beauty Soap's efficacy from the leading lady.

Most of the scripts adapted for LUX were for pictures that were no longer seen on the big screen, so the studios and the Stars stood to make some easy money from the show. The Stars who appeared on the program got to plug their current movie projects as well as the Toilet Soap, and they were familiar enough to listeners that their message was meaningful (especially for the sponsor).

A measure of a program's importance is the number of imitators it inspires. There were several other movie adaptation anthologies during the Golden Age and the most successful was The Screen Guild Theater which ran for 14 seasons, beginning in 1939. Radio Theatre's importance to Lever Bros can be seen in the fact that The Screen Guild Theater was sponsored by Lux-competitor Lady Esther Cosmetics from 1942 to 1947.

Both programs depended on their ability to attract A-List Actors to the airwaves. The Actors seemed to enjoy appearing on the programs for the sheer fun of the evening, they would collect a healthy appearance fee for their hour of work on Lux, the fees for the 22-minute Screen Guild job were generally waived as a donation to the Motion Picture Country Home and Relief Fund. Even though Screen Guild Theater was generally able to consistently attract bigger name Stars, it was never as "glamorous" as a Lux movie adaptation.

A large portion of that glamor came from Radio Theatre's long-time producer/director/host, Cecil B. DeMille. Known for making consistently huge motion pictures, DeMille directed Hollywood's first feature-length picture, The Squaw Man (Lasky Pictures) in 1914. The very name DeMille came to mean Motion Picture, and he began appearing on Lux on June 1, 1936. 

The Lux Radio Theatre was a one-of-a-kind OTR show. Imagine the greatest Hollywood stars doing one-hour versions of their biggest motion pictures, complete with full orchestra, live on stage with a studio audience.

The one-and-only Cecil B. DeMille was your host ('36-45) for a lavish production of what was to become a veritable film checklist of many of Hollywood's best films from the mid-30s right through the mid 50s. The first Lux film adaptation was "The Legionnaire and the Lady," with Marlene Dietrich and Clark Gable, based on the film Morocco.  Every genre is included, from darkest noir crime dramas to historical epics to bubbly musicals and broad comedies.

The stars of the movie are usually in the productions, although sometimes contracts or schedules meant that another star took the part. In some another star would be featured in one of the major roles. Some stars were paid upward of $5000 for their appearance on Lux Radio Theater.  The productions were live, with full orchestra, and many Hollywood legends were unused to performing in public without the benefit of retakes. Needless to say, the performances in every show are singular.

As he aged, DeMille's politics became more conservative. Although he had attained the heights of the studio system hierarchy, DeMille stood by the labor movement and "the little guys" in Hollywood and was a member of the American Federation of Radio Artist (AFRA). However, his sense of independence would not allow him to support "closed shop" policies, feeling that union membership should be an individual choice.

Late in 1944, AFRA was lobbying to mandate "closed shop" policies in California and assessed a $1 payment from all of its members. DeMille, who was earning $100,000 annually (in 1944 dollars!) from the Lux program refused to pay the $1 or allow someone else to pay in his name. He was therefore forced to resign from AFRA, and because Radio Theatre was already a closed shop, he had to leave the program.

After DeMille's last broadcast on January 22, 1945, Lux used a series of different hosts before settling on motion picture director William Keighley, who had directed Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938, Warner Bros) and led the 1st Motion Picture Unit during the War. Ratings went into a steep decline when Keighley left the show in 1952, but by this time Lever Bros and NBC were focused on bringing the Lux Theatre magic to the small screen. NBC broadcast Lux Video Theatre from 1954 to 1957, but it never really caught on.  The TV show was replaced by The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney, a variety show, and Lux Radio Theatre went off the air on June 7, 1955.

Many of the greatest names in film appeared in the series, most in the roles they made famous on the screen, including Ann Harding, Barbara Britton, Barry Sullivan, William Holden, Otto Kruger, Miriam Hopkins, Barbara Stanwyck, Charlton Heston, Dana Andrews, Lauren Bacall, Lucille Ball, Marsha Hunt, Helen Hayes, Humphrey Bogart, Bing Crosby, Cary Grant, Bob Hope, Agnes Moorehead, Marlene Dietrich, Vincent Price, Frank Sinatra, Loretta Young, Maureen O'Hara, Rita Hayworth, James Stewart, John Wayne, Orson Welles, Mary Astor, Irene Dunne, Charles Laughton, Madeleine Carroll, Mala Powers, Ida Lupino, Mary Martin, Barbara Hale, Joe E. Brown, Terry Moore, Greer Garson, Kay Francis, Van Heflin, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, and Robert Young.The Lux Radio Theatre is a masterpiece in OTR's crown, and each show is a historical time capsule that takes us back to the glamour of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Fans of Lux Radio may also be interested in the condensed collection, Best of Lux Radio.  See also Academy Award Theater, Hollywood Star Time, Cresta Blanca Hollywood Players, General Electric Theater, Theater of Romance, Your Movietime Radio Theater, and Skippy Hollywood Theater. See also: Lux Radio South African and Lux Radio Westerns.