''The Passing Parade'', a.k.a. ''John Nesbitt's Passing Parade'', was an American radio series created, written, and narrated by

John Nesbitt John Nesbitt (August 23, 1910 – August 10, 1960) was an actor, narrator, announcer, Film producer, producer and screenwriter. Nesbitt was best known as the narrator of the MGM series ''Passing Parade''. Early years Nesbitt, born John Boot ...

which was adapted into an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...

-winning series of

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

short subjects A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

. In both media, the series usually focused on strange but true historical events, both little known and famous, as well as figures such as

Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici ( it, Caterina de' Medici, ; french: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King ...

and

Nostradamus Michel de Nostredame (December 1503 – July 1566), usually Latinised as Nostradamus, was a French astrologer, apothecary, physician, and reputed seer, who is best known for his book '' Les Prophéties'' (published in 1555), a collection ...

''Passing Parade'' on radio

The radio series, developed as an outgrowth of an earlier Nesbitt-produced program (''Headlines of the Past''), was launched on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

network on February 1, 1937, running off and on until 1951 over three different networks and in syndication. Nesbitt's inspiration was a trunk left to him by his father which contained news clippings of odd stories from around the world. Nesbitt, who usually presented his stories without sound effects or music, utilized a research staff of 14 people in verifying the details of his tales, but wrote the final scripts himself, often within an hour of airtime. Joseph M. Koehler described the unusual nature of the program in a review in the July 31, 1943, issue of

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

: "There was a time when no one could be sold the idea that one man, without much musical help, could fill a half hour and hold his audience. Nesbitt has disproved the bromide because he's Nesbitt and spins a yarn that's as tight as an Armistice announcement." ''The Passing Parade'' was heard as a segment on ''The John Charles Thomas Show'' (1943-1946).Terrace, Vincent (1999). ''Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 177. Radio producer/announcer

John Doremus John Doremus (August 3, 1931 in Sapulpa, Oklahoma – July 6, 1995 in Naperville, Illinois) was an American radio personality, best known for his radio syndication of '' The Passing Parade'', a series of short stories of remarkable but relativel ...

later acquired the rights to the series and revived it as a late 1950s-early 1960s syndicated feature, billing his version as "from the files of John Nesbitt." Over 1500 three-minute episodes were broadcast.

''Parade'' on film

The series of ''Passing Parade'' one-reel short subjects was produced for

from 1938 to 1949. Most of the films featured the slow movement of

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most pop ...

's Symphony No. 5 as the opening theme music. The directors included

Fred Zinnemann Alfred ''Fred'' Zinnemann (April 29, 1907 – March 14, 1997) was an Austrian Empire-born American film director. He won four Academy Awards for directing and producing films in various genres, including thrillers, westerns, film noir and pl ...

and

Jacques Tourneur Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir '' Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including '' Cat People'', '' I Walked ...

. The films were re-edited for television syndication by MGM in the early 1960s. The shorts in their original form were eventually re-aired (and are still being aired) on

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...

. These episodes can also be found as

DVD extras DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs. DVD-Video was the dominant consumer home video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia in the 2000s until it was supplanted by the high-definition B ...

accompanying some MGM films.

References

External links

"The Passing Parade (anthology, hosted by John Nesbitt)"

"John Nesbitt (I) (1910–1960)"
IMDb
"The Passing Parade - Pgm 10"
rand's esoteric otr

The Classic TV Archive

TCM {{DEFAULTSORT:Passing Parade, The 1930s American radio programs 1940s American radio programs 1950s American radio programs NBC radio programs NBC Blue Network radio programs CBS Radio programs Mutual Broadcasting System programs Short film series Films based on radio series Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer short films