Radio Fillers

It is hard to imagine a business as glamorous as making movies during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Just consider all the elements of the great films: the beautiful women, the handsome leading men, the great stories, the music, the thrilling special effects, the big deals between studio executives, the juicy scandals which may or may not surround the actors, the reason for all of them was to get you to take your best girl down to the local movie palace and buy a pair of tickets. All of the time, effort, and money which went into making a picture would have been for nothing unless people bought tickets to see them.

The big studios initially feared that radio would steal their audience. They wondered why anyone would want to go to the movie palace to see a picture when they could stay in the comfort of their own home and be entertained for free. It did not take Hollywood long to realize that radio could be a way to make people want to see a movie.

Just like the lady in the grocery store who handed out free cookies and crackers to make housewives want to bring the product home for their families, these Radio Fillers are samples of some of Hollywood's greatest pictures. The fifteen-minute spots were usually created by recording a piece of the movie's soundtrack, although occasionally they would feature the Stars talking about their film. Musicals would feature a song or two from the picture, and if there would have been a way to put the dancers from a big production number on the radio, they probably would have done that as well.

The fifteen-minute movie spots became known as "fillers" because the studios would distribute them to local radio stations and allow them to play them whenever they had an open place in their broadcast schedule. It was a cheap way to fill what might have been dead air, the audience was usually entertained, and the studios gained greater exposure and awareness for their movies.

The earliest radio filler in this collection includes 1933's Design for Living starring Gary Cooper and Fredric March, the musical comedy Girl Without a Room, and Too Much Harmony with Bing Crosby. The last was Trail Street (1947) from RKO starring Randolph Scott and Gabby Hayes. Warner Bros, RKO, and Paramount all contributed fillers, but one of the most prolific was MGM who was able to nearly recreate their roaring lion logo and "Ars Gratia Artis" banner with their "Leo is on the air!" opening.

See also: Movie Previews, Leo is on the Air, Hollywood is on the Air, and Paramount is on the Air.