Adventures Of Robin Hood- Family Theater (1949)

Rating-- 5.5/10

I've been curious for a while about what a 1940s-style radio broadcast would be like. You always hear about families around the first half of the 20th century crowding around an old-fashioned radio to hear a radio show-- I watched a lot of American Girl movies as a kid, and there's also Little Orphan Annie in A Christmas Story. The most interesting part of listening to this was getting a taste of what it's like to listen to a 40s radio show. It wasn't too different from a modern radio show, podcast, or just reading something while listening to audio from a YouTube video.

I don't really understand what's so special about this, though. "Adventures Of Robin Hood" was a radio show put on by Family Theater in 1949, heavily influenced by the Robin Hood movie eleven years prior. I used a photo from the movie since the radio show was kind of based on it, but also since nobody has ever heard of the 1949 radio show. If that's the case, then what makes it so "historically significant"? I'd hardly call it aesthetically significant or anything.

In fact, if it weren't for the wording being correct and the fact that a radio show is a recording, I'd be sure I listened to the wrong thing. And since I've been sick for the past two days (hence, not making a post yesterday) maybe I'm not in my right mind. I will say that the show has a lot of sound effects, a musical score, many different characters, and some action-- but it's strangely short, at only half an hour, and it seems like there should be another episode but I can't find one.

There is a very in-depth explanation of the plot in this book, here, which I read on Google Books after listening to the radio show, since I wasn't really captivated by the plot or anything, but I will say that some kids in World War II and afterwards probably felt motivated to ration and save money and be good kids, etc. And maybe one of those kids grew up and wanted their favorite radio program to be remembered forever, I don't know.