Stablemates (Aired January 13, 1950)
The "MGM Theater of the Air" wasn’t able to offer up a "big gun" host like Lux’s Cecil B. DeMille, so the series settled instead for Howard Dietz. Though not the legendary self-promoting showman that DeMille was, Dietz was certainly no slouch when it came to his chosen field; he was MGM’s vice president at the time and had also made his name as a publicist, lyricist of such tunes as "Dancing in the Dark". "By Myself," and "You and the Night and the Music" and librettist for such Broadway successes as "The Band Wagon" and "Revenge with Music". Assisted by announcer Ed Stokes, Dietz would announce with great fanfare the program's weekly production and guest star, serve as sort of a quasi-narrator throughout the broadcast, and then at the end would chat up the week’s star, allowing them to plug their latest project. Like most MGM radio productions - and, in fact, most syndicated series in general - "MGM Theater of the Air" had a fairly tight budget to work with each week and the lion’s share usually went towards securing that week’s big name performer.
THIS EPISODE:
January 13, 1950. Program #17. MGM syndication. "Stablemates". Commercials added locally. A young boy with a love of horses, a grizzled old vet with a taste for booze, a race horse with a chance for the big time, and a liberal dose of schmaltz. Mickey Rooney, Parker Fennelly, Agnes Young, Ed Stokes (announcer), Howard Dietz (host), Joel Herron (composer, conductor), Marx B. Loeb (director), Raymond Katz (producer). 58:07. Episode Notes From The Radio Gold Index.
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