[Previous Old Time Radio files: One, Two, Three, Four and Five.]
Here's another smart, low-key series I like: MR. PRESIDENT, a dramatization of various events in U.S. history presented from its President's point of view. Edward Arnold starred as the Presidents. The gimmick was that they don't reveal which Prez you're listening to/about until the end of the episode -- can you guess who before then? It's a unique angle, one that could only work on radio; a visual presentation would either give too much period information away or be so abstract that a narrative would be stopped dead before it could get rolling.
It's strange to think that there was a time when the American President and his office would actually warrant humanizing, consider the flood of too-much information we take for granted these days, from Jefferson's sex life to Lincoln's depression to FDR's polio to Nixon's boozing. The show had a crack staff of writers and researchers, having created 200-odd original half-hour dramas from the lives of only 33 Presidents -- including then-President Harry S Truman, who was said to have been a big fan of the show.
Episode #034, February 15, 1948.
Episode #054, July 04, 1948.
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