Radio Romances
Season 14, Episode 02
February 16, 2026
Two romantic radio comedies for Valentine's
Re-Imagined Radio samples two madcap romantic comedies—It Happened One Night, starring Cary Grant and Claudette Colbert—and—The Philadelphia Story, starring Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart— for February, the month of Valentine's.
Access the episode script
Background
Re-Imagined Radio presents two madcap romantic comedies to celebrate Valentine's. Both are witty and spohisticated, with subtle underlying social commentary. Both are adapted from award winning motion pictures.
It Happened One Night
A 1934 American romantic comedy motion picture, directed by Frank Capra, starring Claudette Colbert and
Clark Gable. The screenplay, by Robert Riskin, was adapted from a
story, "Night Bus," by Samuel Hopkins Adams (Cosmopolitan Magazine, 1933).
The story follows a runaway socialite and a cynical reporter traveling by bus from Miami to New York. Its fast-paced dialogue and charm make it a foundational screwball comedy. It Happened One Night is considered one the greatest motion pictures ever made.
Adapted as a one-hour radio play for Lux Radio Theatre, March 20, 1939, with Grant and Colbert reprising their motion picture roles, and again January 28, 1940, for The Campbell Playhouse, starring Orson Welles, William Powell, and Miriam Hopkins. Re-Imagined Radio samples the Lux Radio Theatre adaptation.
The Philadelphia Story
A 1939 American romantic comedy motion picture starring Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart.
Adapted by Donald Ogden Stewart and Waldo Salt from the 1939 Broadway play by Philip Barry. Katherine Hepburn starred as Tracy Lord. Also appearing were Joseph Cotten as Dexter Haven, Van Heflin as Mike Connor and Shirley Booth as Liz Imbrie. Nominated for six Academy Awards.
Hepburn starred with Grant and Stewart for the radio adaptation heard on CBS, The Screen Guild Theater, March 17, 1947. This was the second of two appearances on The Screen Guild Theater, a radio anthology series 1939-1952
Other, similar films
His Girl Friday
A separated couple are determined to win each other back. They engage in a battle of wits and hearts.
Known for its rapid-fire dialogue. This is another high-energy screwball classic.
Adapted for radio multiple times, including Lux Radio Theatre.
Starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.
Fred McMurray and Claudette Colbert reprised the story for Lux Radio Theatre, September 30, 1940.
"The Awful Truth"
Irene Dunne and Cary Grant
Lux Radio Theatre, September 11, 1939, 1 hour
Lux Radio Theatre, January 18, 1955, 1 hour
Constance Bennett and Bob Hope
Lux Radio Theatre, March 10, 1941, 1 hour
Production
Contents
It Happened One Night
The March 20, 1939 episode of Lux Radio Theatre. Starring Claudette Colbert and Cary Grant.
Adapted from the 1934 five-Academy-Award-Winning motion picture. Colbert and
Grant reprise their roles from the motion picture. Coleman is a runaway socialite. Grant is a newspaper
reporter interested in her story, but more so in her safe return home.
It Happened One Night is the first of only three motion pictures to win all the "Big Five" Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The other two were One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of Lambs (1991). It Happened One Night is considered one the greatest motion pictures ever made.
Cast
Cary Grant as Peter Warne
Claudette Colbert as Ellie Andrews
John Gibson as Bus Driver
Chester Clute as Mr. Dyke
Eddie Waller as Mr. Dobbs
Lou Merrill as Harry Gordon
Walter Tetley as a newsboy
Marion Aye as Telephone Operator
Frank Nelson as a detective
Walter Connolly as Mr. Andrews
Roscoe Karns as Shapeley
Credits
Music conducted by Louis Silvers
The Philadelphia Story
The March 17, 1947 episode for The Screen Guild Theater, a radio anthology series heard on
CBS, 1939-1952.
The Philadelphia Story began as a 1939 Broadway play by Philip Barry. Katherine Hepburn starred as Tracy Lord. Joseph Cotten as Dexter Haven, Van Heflin as Mike Connor and Shirley Booth as Liz Imbrie.
Hepburn again starred, with Cary Grant and James Stewart, in the 1939 adaptation for the movie screen by Donald Ogden Stewart and Waldo Salt. The movie was nominated for six Academy Awards.
The March 17, 1947 radio adaptation we present here is the second of two for The Screen Guild Theater, a radio anthology series, heard on CBS radio, 1939-1952.
Cast and Credits
Katherine Hepburn as Tracy Lords
Cary Grant as Dexter C.K. Haven
James Stewart as Macaulay "Mike" Conner
Melville Ruick as Announcer
Produced and directed by Bill Lawrence
Adapted by Harry Cronman
Music arranged and conducted by Wilbur Hatch
Truman Bradley as the announcer
Credits
Script researched and written by John F. Barber
Sound design and post-production by Marc Rose
Graphics by Evan Leyden and Holly Slocum
Social Media strategies by Caitlyn Kruger-Lesperance
Announcing and YouTube strategies by Rylan Eisenhauer
Significance
"It Happened One night" is the first of only three motion pictures to win all the "Big Five" Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The other two are One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of Lambs (1991). Today, it is considered one of greatest motion pictures ever made.
"The Philadelphia Story" is considered one of the best examples of a comedy about remarriage, in which a couple divorce, flirt with outsiders and then remarry. The genre was popular in the 1930s and 1940s when divorce was considered scandalous and the depiction of extramarital affairs was blocked by the Motion Picture Production Code.
Also known as the Hays Code, these guidelines were self-censorship guidelines adopted by major motion picture companies from 1930 to 1968 to avoid government censorship and appease public morality. Not enforced until 1934, the Production Code dictated moral content, banned profanity, explicit sexuality, nudity, and sympathetic portrayals of crime or anti-religious themes. Replaced in 1968 by the Motion Picture Association's age-based rating system.
We might also suggest this radio story presents a commentary about growing frustration with societal separations based on social and financial status. The upper class of American society is well represented in this story, along with a new middle class striving for a better position in American society.
Producer's Notes
Re-Imagined Radio has sampled radio romance twice previously. Listen to Affairs of the Heart (2019) and Affairs of the Heart (2021) for some interesting examples of this very popular radio storytelling genre.
When we learned via social media feedback that listeners wanted more romance, we agreed, and set about identifying something many listeners might not have heard or otherwise might not know about. I think we succeeded with the two radio romances we feature in this episode.
Both are adaptations from successful and award-winning motion pictures. And, for both, although there
are no pictures to see, there are compelling images created for listeners' imaginations by the fine
writing and superb voice acting. It Happened One Night and The Philadelphia
Story are two of the best
radio stories we might imagine. We offer them, with love, for Valentine's.
— John F. Barber
Promotion
Press
Graphics
