''Chicago Theater of the Air'' was a weekly American

radio program A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio networ ...

that featured hour-long operettas & musical theater. It first ran locally in May 1940 on

WGN radio WGN (720 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, with studios on the 18th floor of 303 East Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop. WGN has a news/talk format, along with broadcasts of Chicago Blackhawks hockey and Northwestern ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and then nationally as an unsponsored show on the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...

from October 5, 1940, to September 11, 1954. The show grew out of listener surveys conducted by WGN that showed that many listeners enjoyed opera and drama. The show combined both into 60-minute operettas. Intermission commentary was originally by conductor Henry Weber and later by Chicago publisher

Robert R. McCormick Robert Rutherford "Colonel" McCormick (July 30, 1880 – April 1, 1955) was an American lawyer, businessman and anti-war activist. A member of the McCormick family of Chicago, McCormick became a lawyer, Republican Chicago alderman, distinguish ...

. For seven years, Henry Weber's wife, Marion Claire Weber sang on the show. As the program began its seventh season, McCormick commented on its growth:

Three years ago, the demand for tickets to these broadcasts became so great that our original auditorium studio became entirely inadequate. Then, too, the program itself outgrew the studio, as the size of the orchestra, chorus, and dramatic cast became larger and larger to meet the requirements of more complicated productions. So it was decided to move ... to ... the
Medinah Temple The Medinah Temple is a large Moorish Revival building in Chicago built by Shriners architects Huehl and Schmidt in 1912. It is located on the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois at 600 N. Wabash Avenue, extending from Ohio Street to Ontari ...
. Here we can accommodate nearly 5,000 guests each week and have the necessary facilities for any type of production.

Beginning January 12, 1949, many of the people involved in ''Chicago Theater of the Air'' also put on ''Comedy Playhouse'', "a fast-paced half hour show featuring top Broadway comedy hits" on Mutual.

External links

Episodic log

Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs: ''Chicago Theater of the Air''

Streaming audio

Episodes of ''Chicago Theater of the Air'' from Old Time Radio Researchers Group

References

1940s American radio programs 1950s American radio programs American music radio programs Mutual Broadcasting System programs {{US-radio-show-stub