Turn back the clock to a time when the Elgin Watch Company sponsored an annual Christmas radio show.
“Elgin radio station, back in the 1940s, used to do an Elgin Holiday Radio Show. It was once a year, and they had all these big stars appear in it like Jack Benny and Bob Hope, Rosalind Russell. And they had the Elgin Watch Company commercials embedded within these shows,” Director Julie Price said.
“We were listening to them and said this would be really cool to bring in these actual commercials that were used. We’ve peppered some of those commercials within our show to help connect it all together as a sponsor for ‘The Old Tyme Radio Show.'”
Elgin Theatre Company is offering audiences a chance to revisit the Golden Age of Radio when it presents “An Elgin Old Tyme Holiday Radio Show,” featuring three Christmas-themed radio classics. The show runs Nov. 10-19 at Elgin Art Showcase in downtown Elgin. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and at 2 p.m. Sundays. The Nov. 12 and 19 performances will provide American Sign Language interpretation.
Set inside a local radio station in the 1940s, the cast of 32 will perform three separate shows. In “Archie Andrews: Christmas Shopping,” the result is mass confusion when Archie (of the comic strip and, more recently, “Riverdale” fame), his parents and friends all go Christmas shopping at the same time in the same department store. Fans of “Fibber McGee and Molly” will enjoy “Fibber Paints a Christmas Tree White.”
“He’s too cheap to pay $10 for a white painted Christmas tree, which was all the rage at the time,” Price said. “So he decides to do it himself, so all kinds of comedy ensues because of it.”
The final show is “Miracle on 34th Street,” performed using the 1947 radio script. In this classic, Macy’s executive Doris hires Kris Kringle to be the store’s new Santa. Skeptics like Doris’s daughter, Susan, don’t believe Kris when he insists he’s the real Santa, so he must go to court to prove his identity.
“I love this show, because there’s a lot of heart to the show for the holidays. I love that there’s a little girl, the mother, Santa and the store,” said Price, who lives in Palatine. “There’s all these different elements in it that help to make you think about the true meaning of Christmas, giving and coming together on things and supporting people.”
Radio shows, Price said, are a fascinating entertainment medium for audiences because it captures the imagination.
“You can start visualizing in your head versus just having everything provided for you, like on television,” she said. “It’s really fun to kind of go back to that time.”
Going back to another time means figuring out how to recreate the sound effects of the era in a radio station setting.
“We don’t really a lot of that accessible to us any more,” Price said. “The sounds that were of the ’40s are not necessarily the sounds of the 2017s.”
Phones and doorbells sounded a bit different back then than they do today.
“When Fibber is painting the Christmas tree, we have to make a hissing sound like spray paint,” Price said. “Well, we can’t bring spray paint in so we had to come up with something that sounds like spray paint. There’s all these little different things that you have think about.”
“An Elgin Old Tyme Holiday Radio Show” is a wonderful opportunity to kick off the holiday season and share with family members some nostalgic and iconic radio programs, she said.
“It’s a kind of cool way to step back in the past,” Price said.
Kathy Cichon is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
‘An Elgin Old Tyme Holiday Radio Show’
When: Nov. 10-19
Where: Elgin Art Showcase, 164 Division St., 8th Floor, Elgin
Tickets: $18 adults; $15 seniors (65+) and students (18 and under)
Information: 847-741-0532; www.elgin-theatre.org
