American Radio Shows No 6 - Palmolive Beauty Box Theater 1937

American Radio Shows No 6   Palmolive Beauty Box Theater was an American radio program that featured an operetta or other musical each week from April 24, 1934, to October 6, 1937. It was sponsored by Palmolive soap and produced by Bill Bacher.   Nathaniel Shilkret directed the orchestra through July 1935, for a total of 70 broadcasts. Announcer Tiny Ruffner introduced "the Palmolive Players, with John Barclay as director and leading man." In addition, there were well known guest stars, with Gladys Swarthout appearing frequently.   Productions included The Chocolate Soldier, Carmen, The Mikado, and Hit the Deck. A complete list of performances through July 1935 is in the archival edition of the Shilkret autobiography. Dunning wrote that the initial run "was a huge success, drawing an estimated 25 million people in its first year and tapering off sharply thereafter." A picture of Shilkret on page 12 of the November 1934 Radio Stars has the caption, "Nathaniel Shilkret, orchestra director of the Palmolive Beauty Box Theatre, the program that ranks first"; and this was the only program the magazine rated as five stars. As of April 1935, Radio Stars ranked the Palmolive Beauty Box as third and rated it four stars. Five broadcasts are in the Shilkret archives, and Hickerson reports that the Christmas 1934 broadcast is also extant.   Shilkret ended 20 years as a RCA Victor musician and executive in New York in mid-1935 to become a musical director and head of the music department at RKO Radio Pictures in Hollywood, thus ending his affiliation with the Palmolive Beauty Box program.   Text: Wikipedia   Disclaimer:  By uploading these files, I make no claim to ownership or copyright. These recordings have been acquired from publicly available sources on the Internet, and my goal has been to put together a collection of every available episode where possible. I will add to these collections if I discover new episodes or if any new episodes become available. Additionally, while I tried to put together a collection that contains the best version of each episode that I could, there may be better copies of some recordings available from collectors and dealers, and I encourage you to reach out to them if you are so inclined.  If they are not in the public domain, notify me and they will be deleted.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.