Your Nutrilite Radio Theatre
If you look at the Nutrilite timeline in the appendix of Dr. Sam Rehnborg’s book, The Nutrilite Story, you’ll see that the fifties was a busy time for Nutrilite. Farming operations were expanding, a state-of-the-art research lab and quality control lab were built, and the first iteration of the butterfly shaped green plastic container to hold DoubleX was designed and created.
The marketing department was hard at work in the fifties, too. “Your Nutrilite Radio Theatre” debuted on the NBC Radio Network for the 1955-56 season. Every Sunday evening at 5:00 p.m., Pat O’Brien and Jimmy Wallington hosted the show that was a “brilliant series of original plays featuring Hollywood’s Top Stars.” There were 26 episodes that played on 172 stations across the country.
The marketers didn’t stop there, though. They ingeniously teamed with Hollywood scriptwriters and created the “Nutrilite Radio Theatre Contest” and accepted story ideas submitted from people all across the country. The winning entries were adapted and dramatized on the air throughout the season. 26 winners were flown to Hollywood for the “trip of a lifetime” and given the opportunity to appear on the radio program broadcasting their winning entry.
Imagine being in that radio studio in 1956 watching actors producing your story and broadcasting it across the country. That is truly ”Your Nutrilite Radio Theatre.”
How can I find these old recordings of this show? Wow that would be an awesome piece of history to have!
Hi, Karyn. We don’t have recordings of the show in our archives, but through an online search I found that the scripts may be available from the Library of American Broadcasting. http://www.lib.umd.edu/LAB/scripts.html
Thanks Joel! I have been on the phone with them for about an hour now trying to find it! But will keep working on it. Maybe there is some sort of NBC Radio Network for the 1955-56 season archive? I am going to look into it. Thanks again for this very cool piece of history!