Rio Rita - The Railroad Hour

Rio Rita is a 1929 American pre-Code RKO musical comedy starring Bebe Daniels and John Boles along with the comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey. The film is based on the 1927 stage musical produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, which originally united Wheeler and Woolsey as a team and made them famous. The film was the biggest and most expensive RKO production of 1929 as well as the studio's biggest box office hit until King Kong (1933). Its finale was photographed in two-color Technicolor. Rio Rita was chosen as one of the 10 best films of 1929 by Film Daily.

Originally Broadcast 11/8/1948

The Railroad Hour was a radio series of musical dramas and comedies broadcast from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s.

Sponsored by the Association of American Railroads, the series condensed musicals and operettas to shorter lengths, concentrating on those written before 1943. Singer-actor Gordon MacRae starred in scripts by Jean Holloway, Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. Marvin Miller was the announcer. Warren Barker, at the age of 24, was appointed chief arranger for The Railroad Hour, a position he held for six years. The show's musical director was Carmen Dragon.

With its theme song, "I've Been Working on the Railroad", the series began on ABC October 4, 1948 as a 45-minute program, advertised as "World's Greatest Musical Comedies." It was reduced to 30 minutes on April 25, 1949, continuing until September 26, 1949. It then moved to NBC for a run from October 3, 1949, until June 21, 1954. On both networks it aired Monday evenings at 8pm (Eastern).

Doris Day co-starred with MacRae in No, No, Nanette and Jane Powell co-starred in Brigadoon. Other offerings included The Desert Song, Holiday Inn, The Merry Widow, The Mikado, Naughty Marietta, Show Boat, Song of Norway, State Fair, The Student Prince and The Vagabond King. Soprano Dorothy Kirsten, Dorothy Warenskjold and Lucille Norman were frequent co-stars. Kirsten, Warenskjold, Rise Stevens and other performers on The Railroad Hour were also regular guests on Harvest of Stars during the late 1940s.

Gerald Wilson and Martin Grams, Jr. documented the program in their book The Railroad Hour (BearManor Media, 2007). It features an episode guide listing all 299 episodes with titles of all songs in correct sequence and the vocalist for each song, plus the origins of all musicals with plots and cast lists.

Many scripts for the series are on file at the Ohio State University's Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute.

Do you enjoy the variety of Chesterton Radio shows? Please consider supporting us to help us grow.

http://Patreon.com/ChestertonRadio Join our family and access Patron-only podcasts

Enjoy our shows anytime!
http://Listen.ChestertonRadio.com
http://Orthodoxy.ChestertonRadio.com
http://EverlastingMan.ChestertonRadio.com
http://Eugenics.ChestertonRadio.com
http://Distributism.ChestertonRadio.com
http://Gunsmoke.ChestertonRadio.com
http://AveMariaHour.ChestertonRadio.com
http://Stations.ChestertonRadio.com
http://GreatestStoryEverTold.ChestertonRadio
http://JackBenny.ChestertonRadio.com
http://ClassicFilms.ChestertonRadio.com
http://GrandOleOpry.ChestertonRadio.com
http://NationalBarnDance.ChestertonRadio.com
http://LesMiserables.ChestertonRadio.com
http://BraveNewWorld.ChestertonRadio.com
http://1984.ChestertonRadio.com
http://D-Day.ChestertonRadio.com
http://RerumNovarum.ChestertonRadio.com
http://Stations.ChestertonRadio.com
http://Latin.ChestertonRadio.com
http://TheseAreOurMen.ChestertonRadio.com
http://ArchitectureCodex.ChestertonRadio.com
http://Superman.ChestertonRadio.com
http://GIJive.ChestertonRadio.com
http://NocturneNightflight.ChestertonRadio.com
http://GrandOleOpry.ChestertonRadio.com
http://NationalBarnDance.ChestertonRadio.com