Screen Guild Theater

September 1940

There are many great performances by Miss Ginger Rogers for the Screen Guild Theater, in its many forms and through several sponsors.  A nice aspect of the show was that all the money that would have gone to the stars for their performances went to the Motion Picture Relief Fund - Country House, "to support those in need in the picture industry".  At the end of the early Gulf shows a quiz was given to the stars, and if they couldn't answer their question correctly, they had to pay a forfeit by doing something silly. 

The episodes listed below are in the public domain and available on archive.org. 

http://archive.org/details/ScreenGuildTheater

Each show has a number because there are several versions of some of them.  I think it is difficult to find the exact shows I'm looking for on the main archive.org page.  You can try and count your way down the pile there but I find it easier to scroll down to the list below the downloads (this list has the names of who's who in the shows available), find the show I want, and note what is listed just before it and then go back looking for the 2 shows together.  Just to keep things confusing, the numbers on the lower list don't match the numbers in the player (upper right hand corner of main screen on archive.org) and I don't know why.  Have fun listening.



- as the GULF SCREEN GUILD THEATER (CBS - 30 min shows):

October 1, 1939

24 - Imperfect Lady
with Clark Gable, Margaret Lindsay, Spencer Charters and Roger Prior (also host)
At the end of the show Ginger recites a poem about "A Bittle Lum".  The poem is included in her autobiography "Ginger: My Story", on page 181, where she writes about teaching the poem to Cary Grant.

http://ia700508.us.archive.org/0/items/ScreenGuildTheater/Sgt_39-10-01_ep024_Imperfect_Lady.mp3

April 7, 1940

51-Vivacious Lady
with Fred MacMurray and Charles Coburn and Roger Prior (also host)
At the end of the show Ginger sings "Happy Birthday" to her Grandpappy Smokey

http://ia600508.us.archive.org/0/items/ScreenGuildTheater/Sgt_40-04-07_ep051_Vivacious_Lady.mp3

April 6, 1941

81- Lucky Partners
with William Powell and Roger Prior (as host/narrator)
(no more cute quizzes)

http://ia700508.us.archive.org/0/items/ScreenGuildTheater/Sgt_41-04-06_ep081_Lucky_Partners.mp3

- as the LADY ESTHER SCREEN GUILD PLAYERS (CBS - 30 min shows):

August 23, 1943

158 - Skylark
with Preston Foster and Allyn Joslyn
http://ia600508.us.archive.org/0/items/ScreenGuildTheater/Sgt_43-08-23_ep158_Skylark.mp3 

May 6, 1946

296 - Bachelor Mother
with David Niven and Francis X. Bushman
http://ia700508.us.archive.org/0/items/ScreenGuildTheater/Sgt_46-05-06_ep296_Bachelor_Mother.mp3


Missing from archive.org:

- as Camel Screen Guild Theater (NBC - 30 min shows):
April 7, 1949
Good Sam, with Gary Cooper  (was to air March 31, 1949 but was pre-empted by a speech by Winston Churchill)
    and
April 20, 1950
The Cowboy and the Lady, with MacDonald Carey

- as Screen Guild Theater (ABC - 1 hr shows):
December 7, 1950
Tom, Dick and Harry, with George Murphy and Dennis O'Keefe


Photoplay magazine image above found at:
http://archive.org/stream/photoplay52chic#page/n195/mode/2up