Road Of Life
The Joe Hehn Memorial Collection
Road of Life was a popular radio soap opera, produced by Procter and Gamble, featuring the story of Dr. Jim Brent. While on rounds, the intercom would sound "Dr. Brent... call surgery... Dr. Brent... call surgery..." The series began in 1937 and ended on radio in 1959. A concurrent television run began in 1954. Irna Phillips developed the program. Its appeal was its more natural dialogue compared to other soap operas, and that the characters aged over the years. Listeners heard Brent as an intern, as a physician and surgeon, and through all of the life challenges he faced through friendships and marriages. These episodes from the Hehn collection are new to circulation and represent most all of the episodes from the final days of December 1944 to the first two days of March 1945. Most of these recordings are direct from the original transcriptions. Based on newspaper research and program content, Brent was played by Ken Griffin at this time, and his wife, Carol, was played by Maybelle Prindaville. The announcer is Clayton Collyer, better known as "Bud" Collyer, radio's Clark Kent / Superman. Many remember Collyer as the host of the TV game show To Tell The Truth . In support of the efforts of the Joe Hehn Memorial Collection to preserve these Road of Life episodes, the 501(c)(3) non-profit Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy ( SPERDVAC ) magazine Radiogram featured a four-part series of articles about the program. The organization has gathered these articles and has made a PDF file that can be downloaded from this page in the regular manner or by using this link : https://archive.org/download/RoadOfLifeJHMC/Road%20of%20Life%20SPERDVAC%20Radiogram%202021.pdf The Joe Hehn Memorial Collection thanks the SPERDVAC organization and the author of the articles, Mr. Larry Maupin, for making this important background information available to visitors of this Road of Life page. * * * These recordings are part of the Joe Hehn Memorial Collection. Mr. Hehn (1931-2020) was a pioneering collector of radio recordings when the hobby emerged in the 1960s. Digitizing his collection of reel tapes and discs is the effort of a wide range of North American volunteers, and includes assistance of some international collectors. The groups supporting this effort with their funds, time, technology and skills are the Old Time Radio Researchers and a small group of transcription disc preservationists who refer to themselves as the "The Knights of the Turning Table."
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.