The Railroad Hour

The show had started airing on October 4, 1948 and moved from ABC to NBC on October 20, 1949. Gordon MacRae was the host and played the lead in all radio plays. It totalled 399 episodes when it last aired on June 21, 1954.

For the 1949 Christmas show, he invited MGM star Jane Powell, fresh out of her success on A Date With Judy and Luxury Liner, to play Snow White. Pinto Colvig comes back to play his part of Grumpy. Radio veteran Arthur Q. Bryan (voice of Elmer Fudd) and Sam Hearn were among the supporting cast, and the future Mrs. Bates from Psycho, Jeanette Nolan, plays the Queen. At the time, she was Lady MacBeth in Orson Welles’ film Macbeth and later worked for the Disney studios in The Rescuers and The Fox and the Hound. Marvin Miller, the future narrator of Sleeping Beauty, introduces the show.

All major songs are performed by the two leads, arranged by Carmen Dragon who also conducts the orchestra. The lyrics, however, are no longer those of the film, but the ones commonly found on sheet music.