On This Day, August 26: Lux Theatre (Claudette Colbert) and Gunsmoke
Also featured: Ellery Queen.
August 26 Exhaustive Update
This report documents the comprehensive provenance, broadcast scheduling, commercial sponsorship, credited cast, production personnel, alternate circulating titles, serial multi-part narrative arcs, and story synopses for historical broadcasts transmitting on August 26 across American network, Claudette Colbert and Don DeFore in Without Reservations alongside Helen Twelvetrees on Lux Radio Theatre for Lux Soap, William Conrad confronting frontier exploitation in Les Crutchfield's Gunsmoke for L&M, Sydney Smith solving a locked-office slaying in The Adventures of Ellery Queen for Anacin, and WWII Radio News commentaries (1935–1956):
1. Broadcasts
| Title | Network, Airdate & Showtime | Sponsor & Commercial Ads | Credited Cast & Performers | Director, Writers & Crew | Genres | Story-First Plot Synopsis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "The Church Mouse (Helen Twelvetrees & Henry Daniell — Lux Theatre)" | NBC Blue (WJZ) 1935-08-26 9:30 PM EDST |
Lever Brothers Lux Toilet Soap & Flakes |
Helen Twelvetrees, Henry Daniell, Donald Meek | Ladislaus Fodor, Antony Stanford, Louis Silvers | ["Romance", "Comedy", "Drama", "Classics", "Broadway"] |
"The Lux Radio Theatre, originating live from the stage of the NBC Studio in New York!" Helen Twelvetrees stars in Ladislaus Fodor's charming romantic comedy The Church Mouse, playing an impoverished but determined Viennese typist who talks her way into the office of a powerful Austrian banker, transforming his business and winning his heart for Lux Toilet Soap. |
| "Without Reservations (Claudette Colbert & Don DeFore — Lux Radio Theatre)" | CBS (KNX/WCBS) 1946-08-26 9:00 PM EDT |
Lever Brothers Lux Toilet Soap ("9 out of 10") |
Claudette Colbert, Don DeFore, Robert Rockwell | William Keighley, Sanford Barnett, Louis Silvers | ["Romance", "Comedy", "Hollywood", "Drama", "Americana"] |
"From Hollywood, the Lux Radio Theatre presents Claudette Colbert and Don DeFore in Without Reservations!" Host William Keighley welcomes Claudette Colbert as a famous intellectual novelist traveling anonymously by cross-country train to Hollywood, who falls for an irreverent Marine flyer played by Don DeFore without revealing that her best-selling book mocks men just like him for Lux Soap. |
| "Battle of Kharkov & Mediterranean Strategy (Paul Schubert — Mutual)" | Mutual (WOR) 1943-08-26 10:15 PM EWT |
Sustaining Military News Analysis |
Paul Schubert (Naval Analyst/Commentator) | Mutual News Special Events | ["News", "Historical", "Wartime", "Military", "Public Affairs"] |
"Mutual presents Paul Schubert with the latest military and naval analysis!" Naval commentator Paul Schubert assesses the strategic significance of the Soviet Red Army's liberation of Kharkov and breaks down Allied joint operations in the Mediterranean preparing for the invasion of the Italian mainland. |
| "Allied Fleet in Sagami Bay & Tokyo Occupation (Douglas Edwards — CBS)" | CBS (WABC) 1945-08-26 2:00 PM EWT |
Sustaining Transpacific News Roundup |
Douglas Edwards (Anchor), Webley Edwards | CBS News Special Events | ["News", "Historical", "Wartime", "Documentary", "Public Affairs"] |
"CBS World News Today, Douglas Edwards reporting from New York!" Shortwave correspondents report on the massing of the Allied Third Fleet in Sagami Bay outside Tokyo and final logistics for General Douglas MacArthur's airborne arrival at Atsugi Airfield ahead of Japan's formal surrender. |
| "No Sale (William Conrad as Matt Dillon — L&M Gunsmoke)" | CBS (WCBS) 1956-08-26 6:30 PM EDT |
Liggett & Myers L&M Filter Cigarettes |
William Conrad (Matt Dillon), Parley Baer, Georgia Ellis | Les Crutchfield, Norman Macdonnell, George Walsh | ["Western", "Drama", "Action", "Hardboiled", "Americana"] |
"Around Dodge City and into the territory on West, there's just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with a U.S. Marshal and the smell of Gunsmoke! When an impoverished prairie homesteader's desperate wife attempts to sell their young daughter to a disreputable saloon keeper, Marshal Matt Dillon intervenes before frontier violence erupts in Dodge City for L&M Cigarettes." |
| "The Mayor and the Corpse (Sydney Smith as Ellery Queen — Anacin)" | NBC (WEAF) 1944-08-26 7:30 PM EWT |
Whitehall Pharmacal Anacin Fast Pain Relief |
Sydney Smith (Ellery Queen), Santos Ortega | Frederic Dannay, Manfred B. Lee, George Zachary | ["Detective", "Mystery", "Whodunit", "Puzzle", "Crime"] |
"The Adventures of Ellery Queen, brought to you by Anacin! Ellery Queen challenges the radio audience and a guest armchair detective panel to match wits and solve the murder of a corrupt municipal mayor discovered stabbed to death inside his locked office safe during a stormy re-election eve for Anacin." |