15 minute soap opera show
Guiding Light (known as The Guiding Light before 1975, or simply GL) is an American Emmy award-winning daytime television drama and is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as being the longest-running soap opera in production and the longest running drama in television and radio history.[1] It is also among the longest running broadcast programs in history of any kind, across radio media for 72 years, and then television media for 57 years, being first broadcast five days after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's second inauguration. It aired on radio from January 25, 1937, to June 29, 1956, and debuted on CBS Television on June 30, 1952 running for 57 years. The final episode aired on CBS on September 18, 2009.
Guiding Light was created by Irna Phillips, and began as an NBC Radio serial on January 25, 1937. In 1947 the show moved to CBS radio,[5] before starting on television on June 30, 1952, on CBS television. The show's title refers to a lamp in the study of Reverend Dr. John Ruthledge, a major character when The Guiding Light debuted in 1937, that family and residents could see as a sign for them to find help when needed. Irna Phillips, who based it on personal experiences. After giving birth to a still-born baby at age 19, she found spiritual comfort listening to sermons by a preacher of a church centered on the brotherhood of man. It was these sermons that formed the nucleus of the creation of The Guiding Light.
The radio show's original storyline centered on a preacher named Rev. John Ruthledge and all the people of a fictional suburb in Chicago called Five Points. The townspeople's lives had revolved around him. The show's title refers to a lamp in his study that family and residents could see as a sign for them to find help when needed. Early ongoing storylines contrasted Ellis Smith (nicknamed Mr Nobody from Nowhere) with Rev. Ruthledge, the former's cynicism often acting as a foil to the optimism of the latter. Rev. Ruthledge's daughter Mary also embarked on a secret romance with her foster brother Ned Holden. Ned and Mary would eventually marry in a 1941 episode of the soap with Rev Ruthledge's blessing, but not before a series of complications arose, such as the return of Ned's parents, Frances and Paul Holden (a storyline which resulted in Frances shooting Paul dead when he made his plans to extort money from Ned known) and Ned's marriage to and subsequent divorce from lounge singer Torchy Reynolds (who later ended up in a relationship with Ellis Smith). Storylines in this era also touched on topics rarely discussed up to that point — for example, the character of Rose Kransky had radio's first out-of-wedlock baby.
During the radio years, succeeding preachers carried on the work Rev. Ruthledge had started, thus becoming keepers of the "guiding light." The show's setting moved to another fictional suburb in 1947, Selby Flats, in the Los Angeles, California area. The Bauers became central to the storyline in 1948.
Text from Wikipedia
Purchase as a download, purchase as CD(s), or listen for free
Purchase as CD $4.50
All of our Old Time Radio Programs are in MP3 format. You can play them on your computer, you can transfer them to MP3 players (like the IPod), but, by and large, you cannot play them on stereos, walkmen, or car radios.
The sound quality of Old Time Radio Programs can vary greatly. Some episodes are excellent, others you have to turn up the volume a little and ignore the static. All of the episodes can be listened to and enjoyed. You can listen to our free samples to get a feel for how the programs sound.
You may also like: Young Widder Brown
Episode List
Guiding Light 791.mp3
Guiding Light 792.mp3
Guiding Light 793.mp3
Guiding Light 794.mp3
Guiding Light 795.mp3
Guiding Light 796.mp3
Guiding Light 797.mp3
Guiding Light 798.mp3
Guiding Light 799.mp3
Guiding Light 800.mp3
Guiding Light 801.mp3
Guiding Light 802.mp3
Guiding Light 803.mp3
Guiding Light 804.mp3
Guiding Light 805.mp3
Guiding Light 806.mp3
Guiding Light 808.mp3
Guiding Light 809.mp3
Guiding Light 810.mp3
Guiding Light 811.mp3
Guiding Light 812.mp3
Guiding Light 813.mp3
Guiding Light 814.mp3
Guiding Light 815.mp3
Guiding Light 816.mp3
Guiding Light 817.mp3
Guiding Light 818.mp3
Guiding Light 819.mp3
Guiding Light 820.mp3
Guiding Light 821.mp3
Guiding Light 824.mp3
Guiding Light 825.mp3
Guiding Light 826.mp3
Guiding Light 827.mp3
Guiding Light 828.mp3
Guiding Light 829.mp3
Guiding Light 830.mp3
Guiding Light 831.mp3
Guiding Light 832.mp3
Guiding Light 833.mp3
Guiding Light 834.mp3
Guiding Light 835.mp3
Guiding Light 836.mp3
Guiding Light 837.mp3
Guiding Light 838.mp3
Guiding Light 839.mp3
Guiding Light 840.mp3
Guiding Light 841.mp3
Guiding Light 842.mp3
Guiding Light 843.mp3
Guiding Light 844.mp3
Guiding Light 845.mp3
Guiding Light 846.mp3
Guiding Light 847.mp3
Guiding Light 848.mp3
Guiding Light 849.mp3
Guiding Light 850.mp3
Guiding Light 851.mp3
Guiding Light 852.mp3
Guiding Light 853.mp3
Guiding Light 854.mp3
Guiding Light 855.mp3
Guiding Light 856.mp3
Guiding Light 857.mp3
Guiding Light 858.mp3
Guiding Light 859.mp3
Guiding Light 860.mp3
Guiding Light 861.mp3
Guiding Light 862.mp3
Guiding Light 863.mp3
Guiding Light 864.mp3
Guiding Light 865.mp3
Guiding Light 866.mp3
Guiding Light 867.mp3
Guiding Light 868.mp3
Guiding Light 869.mp3
Guiding Light 870.mp3
Guiding Light 871.mp3
Guiding Light 872.mp3
Guiding Light 873.mp3
Guiding Light 874.mp3
Guiding Light 875.mp3
Guiding Light 876.mp3
Guiding Light 877.mp3
Guiding Light 878.mp3
Guiding Light 879.mp3
Guiding Light 880.mp3
Guiding Light 881.mp3
Guiding Light 882.mp3
Guiding Light 883.mp3
