Rare Science Fiction Broadcasts

The Golden Age of Radio and the Golden Age of Science Fiction occurred in loose conjunction. The literary form saw its genesis with the 1818 publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, now recognized as the first Science Fiction novel. The form gained respectability and substance with the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, H.G. Welles, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Amazing Stories Magazine was launched in 1926 by Hugo Gernsback. The "Buck Rogers" stories began appearing in Amazing Stories in 1928 and were soon adapted for a comic strip. They helped to establish the Pulp Fiction era of Science Fiction. For many critics, the pulp association relegated the genre to the status of "kids' stuff" and not to be taken seriously.

Interestingly, even with its "kids' stuff" reputation, Science Fiction entered what is considered its "Golden Age" in 1937 when John W. Campbell became editor of Astounding Science Fiction. During Campbell's tenure, he helped to introduce and guide the careers of luminaries such as Theodore Sturgeon, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, and Robert Heinlein.

Radio became wedded to Science Fiction with Orson Welles 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds. This event, as well as several popular Juvenile Serials, used the horror element of Science Fiction more than its social commentary and speculative functions. However, radio began taking Science Fiction seriously in the Atomic Age after the War With series like X Minus One, Dimension X, and 2000 Plus. Many of the scripts for these series were taken from the pages of Astounding Science Fiction and Galaxy Magazine.

• Case History 493, "The Purple Planet", no broadcast information available. A space-liner pilot tells a psychoanalyst the story of landing on an unexplored planet and the events which led to the loss of his crew and passengers. In a surprise twist, the doctor is less interested in helping the pilot and more concerned with learning what it will take for his species to invade the Earth.
• Fantasy, August 23, 1947, audition program, probably for NBC, "Entity from the Void". Producer Frank Ferrin, who brought us Smilin' Ed McConnell's Buster Brown Gang and the soap opera Lora Lawton took a shot at speculative fiction long before it was popular, hoping to tap the same market which enjoyed hard-boiled detective programs. The story is of a traveler from a faraway world falls in love with an earth woman whose husband is an insufferable drunk.
• Future Tense, WMUK, Western Michigan University Kalamazoo. Part of an extensive series of student productions using several scripts from X Minus One.
• Space Drama, May 18, 1947, audition program, "Death Rides High". There are many refugees desperate to start a new life in the United States, even if they have to evade the normal immigration channels to do it. A band of nefarious fliers with a converted bomber is willing to help, at a terrible price.
• The Space Merchants, CBS Radio Workshop, February 1957. A semi-dystopian tale of a future where political states on the over-populated Earth exist only to ensure the survival of huge multi-national corporations. Advertising has become almost a religion and profit the highest motive. A huge advertising coup is in the offing, attracting colonists to Venus.
• Think, 1953, ABC net. A "Radio Workshop" type program from the youngest network, scripts are adaptations of classic Sci-Fi stories.