DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
[NOVEL]
Various broadcasts from the 20s to the 50s.
[McNally & Florescu] “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, printed in time for the
generally booming Christmas market of 1885, at first met with indifference on the part of
bookstore owners.”
Andrew Lang reviewed in Saturday Review, January 9, 1886: “…every Jekyll among us is
haunted by his own Hyde… We would welcome a specter, a ghoul, or even a vampire gladly,
rather than meet Mr. Edward Hyde…”
The Times, Jnuary 25, 1886: “finished study in the art of the fantastic…”
“Within six months, from January to June of the year 1886, Stevenson’s book blossomed into a
bestseller with some forty thousand copies sold in England alone and two million in American
sales, often pirated, where the story was extremely popular. Overnight Stevenson became a rich
man… He became one of the first self-sustaining writers capable of living solely on the income
from his book royalties.”
“…in 1888, Stevenson began negotiating with the Boston playwright Thomas Russell Sullivan to
write a theatrical version of his Jekyll and Hyde novella… The play had already opened at the
Madison Theater in New York City with the then relatively unknown Richard Mansfield playing
the dual role… [i]natal production on December 12, 1887… [t]he play went on to become a success
in America and to carry Jekyll and Hyde beyond literature into pop culture…”
“Only four months after [it] was published, a parody was performed at L. C. Toole’s Theater in
London on May 18, 1886, under the title The Strange Case of a Hyde and Seekyl…”
“Sullivan… first staged at the Boston Museum from May 9 through 13 in 1887, and at the
Madison Square Theater in New York City from September 12 through October 1 of that year.
Audiences reputedly went away from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde so frightened that they were afraid
later to enter their homes alone. Some also could not sleep in the dark, and some often had
nightmares based on the play.”
“On October 3, 1887, another satire entitled Dr. Freckle and Mr. Snide appeared on stage at
Dockstadter’s Minstrel Hall in New York City.”
“The Sullivan also enjoyed an American tour from October 3, 1887, to June 25, 1888… At the
outset of the Sullivan play, Agnes Carew, daughter of Sir Danvers Carew, is seen as the fiancée of
the nervous Dr. Jekyll. Jekyll confronts his fiancée, Agnes and Hyde’s landlady… Hyde slips into
the Carew household and demands to see Agnes Carew. When Sir Danvers refuses, Hyde chokes
him to death… Agnes spurs Jekyll on to help Utterson in his pursuit of Hyde after the death of her
father…
“In the second act, a drunken Hyde, confronted by the ghost of Sir Danvers, escapes from the
London police. Hyde enters Jekyll’s laboratory but is confronted by Utterson. In the third act,
Hyde swallows the potion and transforms into Jekyll in Dr. Lanyon’s house. The last act has
Jekyll pleading with Lanyon to bring Agnes to him. Involuntarily changing into Hyde, however,
he is forced to commit suicide when discovered by Utterson and the London police.”
“During the late summer of 1888, Mansfield took his company to England, where Sullivan’s
Jekyll and Hyde play was produced by Howard Poole at Croyden’s Theater Royal on July 26,
attracting little attention. On August 4, 1888, the play moved to the Lyceum Theater, where it
fared somewhat better… [t]he play was temporarily closed down by the authorities, because it was
thought to have inspired the contemporary Jack the Ripper murders in the London slum of
Whitechapel in 1888. Even Mansfield himself was one of the many persons suspected of being
Jack the Ripper.”
“Mansfield continued to play in the Sullivan version until his final curtain call as Jekyll and
Hyde on March 21, 1907, at New York’s New Amsterdam Theater.”
[CHRONOLOGY]
(WNYC, NEW YORK)
[???day—10:35-10:50 PM]
April 24, 1925 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
[“…discussed by Professor J. O. C. Troop…”]
MUSIC DRAMAS (WGBS, NEW YORK)
[Sunday—9:30- PM]
October 31, 1926 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
[NEW YORK ????: “…A dramatic version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s
classic story, ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,’ will be the next in the series of
Dailey Peskman [sic?]—WGBS Music Dramas that are broadcast
alternate Sunday evenings from the studio of WGBS… This series of
dramatic presentations, adapted for radio and directed by Mr. Peskman,
Director of WGBS, with Howard Kyle, prominent actor,
Mr. Kyle will have the dual role of the scientist, whose probing into the
unknown leads him into fantastic terrors brought about through the evil
personality that he names Mr. Hyde…”]
SCRIPT: Dailey Paskman.
PERSONNEL: Dailey Paskman (director).
CAST: Howard Kyle (Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde), et al.
(WJZ, NEW YORK—NBC-BLUE)
[Saturday—
October 6, 1928 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
[“…WJZ offers a four act play…”]
THE NIT WITS (WABC, NEW YORK—CBS)
[Saturday—9:00-9:30 PM]
March 22, 1930 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
[“…Professor R. U. Musclebound will play a double role when ‘the dear
little Nit Wits’ present their own version of ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’…
Both title roles will be taken by the professor, who has long been a
favorite in the dramatic club. Bradford Browne, chief of the Nit Wits, will
be master of ceremonies…”]
(NATIONAL PROGRAMME, LONDON—BBC)
[Thursday—7:45-9:00 PM]
November 27, 1930 “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
SCRIPT: Barbara Burnham.
PERSONNEL: Peter Creswell (producer).
CAST: Leon M. Lion (Jekyll/Hyde), et al.
LOOKING GLASS (KPO, SAN FRANCISCO)
[Monday—7:00-8:00 PM]
June 8, 1931
[“…Victor Rodman, the stage actor, will present the transformation scene
from ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ with Charles Buck assisting him…”]
SPOTLIGHT REVUE (KGO, SAN FRANCISCO)
[Saturday—9:30-11:00 PM]
September 5, 1931
[“…Walter Beban offers a ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ burlesque…”]
THE WITCH’S TALE (WOR, NEW YORK)
[Monday—9:30-10:00 PM]
November 23, 1931 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
SCRIPT: Alonzo Deen Cole.
PERSONNEL: Alonzo Deen Cole (director).
CAST: Alonzo Deen Cole, Marie O’Flynn, et al.
BITS AND PIECES (2FC, SYDNEY—ABC)
[Thursday—8:00-10:15 PM]
March 31, 1932 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
[“…in which the A.B.C. Players, the A.B.C. Octet, and the A.B.C.
Orchestra appear. The Players will be heard in short episodes, including
‘The Taming of the Shrew,’ ‘King for a Day,’ ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,’
and ‘Romance’…”]
MASTER MYSTERIES (WJZ, NEW YORK—NBC-BLUE)
[Monday—10:00-10:30 PM]
April 11, 1932 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
SCRIPT: Finis Farr.
REMINISCENCES (2BL, SYDNEY—ABC)
[Wednesday—8:00-10:25 PM]
May 11, 1932 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
[“…The [A.B.C.] players will be heard in short episodes, which will
include ‘The Taming of the Shrew,’ ‘King for a Day,’ ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde,’ ‘Romance’…”]
THE RADIO GUILD (WJZ, NEW YORK—NBC-BLUE)
[Friday—3:15-4:15 PM]
September 9, 1932 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
SCRIPT: William Rainey.
CAST: Richard Gordon (Jekyll/Hyde), et al.
THE NORTHERN DRAMATIC COMPANY (WOL, WASHINGTON D.C.)
[Friday—7:30-
December 30, 1932 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
THE FLEISCHMANN HOUR (WEAF, NEW YORK—NBC-RED)
[Thursday—
February 23, 1933 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
[“…Others scheduled to take part in Rudy’s broadcast are Conway Tearle,
star in ‘Dinner at Eight’; Rose Hobart who recently played the lead in ‘I
Loved You Wednesday’; and Harold Vermilyea, Theater Guild actor, who
will offer a radio version of ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’…”]
EXTANT RECORDING
THE GEORGE EDWARDS PLAYERS (2GB, SYDNEY)
[Sunday—8:45-9:30 PM]
May 28, 1933 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
TALES OF THE TITANS (WJZ, NEW YORK—NBC-BLUE)
[Wednesday—9:00-9:30 PM]
June 14, 1933 “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
THE RADIO GUILD (WJZ, NEW YORK—NBC-BLUE)
[Monday—
September 18, 1933 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
[“…The dramatization of Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde,’ which added much to the stage reputation of Richard Mansfield
and did something also for the screen fames of John Barrymore and
Fredric March, will be presented by the Radio Guild… Vernon Radcliffe is
the director…”]
[OG-NOTE: The script of this broadcast is archived, of all places, in the Canadian
Broadcasting Company script collection at McMaster University in Ontario.]
THE SHELL SHOW (K??, LOS ANGELES)
[
June 4, 1934 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
CAST: Boris Karloff (Jekyll/Hyde), et al.
THE RALPH CHESSE PLAYERS (KYA, SAN FRANCISCO)
[???????
July 9, 1934 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” [PART 1]
July 16, 1934 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” [PART 2]
July 23, 1934 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” [PART 3]
THE WORLD IS YOURS (KPO, SAN FRANCISCO)
[Sunday—12:30-1:00 PM]
June 13, 1937 “Plays and Costumes”
[“…a dramatic panorama of the American theater during the transition
period at the close of the 19th century… The dramatization will include
the triumphs scored by Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, E. H. Sothern, John
Drew and Richard Mansfield at the turn of the century when the
legitimate stage underwent a change from crude romance and heavy
melodrama to modern realism. Scenes will be portrayed from such plays
as ‘Pinafore,’ ‘Richard III,’ and ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’…”]
THE REPERTORY THEATRE OF THE AIR (WEVD, NEW YORK)
[Sunday—10:00-11:00 PM]
August 1, 1937 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
THE WITCH’S TALE (WOR, NEW YORK)
[Thursday—10:00-10:30 PM]
August 19, 1937 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” [PART 1]
August 26, 1937 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” [PART 2]
THEATER DIGEST OF THE AIR (WOR, NEW YORK)
[Thursday—11:05-11:45 PM]
December 30, 1937 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
GOOD NEWS OF 1938 (KFI, LOS ANGELES)
[
March 31, 1938 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
SUNDAY EVENING THEATRE OF THE AIR (CJRC, WINNIPEG)
[Sunday—8:30-9:00 PM]
April 23, 1939 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
PERSONNEL: Neil LeRoy (director).
CAST: Lawrence Abremovitch, Stasia Coyle, Neil LeRoy, Tommy Tweed, Frank
Wade, George Waight.
(WNYC, NEW YORK)
[Friday—5:00-5:30 PM]
October 31, 1941 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (GEORGE EDWARDS PRODUCTIONS)
Circa 1942 52 episodes
THE BURNS AND ALLEN SHOW (
[
January 5, 1943
[YOUNGSTOWN VINDICATOR: “…Running the gamut of emotions, Gracie
Allen will attempt a strictly original interpretation of the gentle Dr. Jekyll
and the horrific Mr. Hyde…”]
THE PLAYMAKERS’ LAB (WNOE, NEW ORLEANS)
[Wednesday—9:30-10:00 PM]
February 10, 1943 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
STAR FOR A NIGHT (
[Wednesday—
January 19, 1944 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
[BERKELEY DAILY GAZETTE: “…Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic horror
tale, ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,’ is set for 8:30 p…. Laird Cregar will be
guest star with four amateurs chosen from the studio audience playing
supporting roles…”]
[“…To an announcement that film actor Laird Cregar will be
Wednesday’s Star for a Night is a postscript urging us to stress to radio
listeners that the show is strictly comedy and not drama. Such a
reminder is unnecessary for anyone who heard either the program on
which comedienne Patsy Kelly portrayed Cathy in Wuthering Heights or
the one on which Broadway comedian Willie Howard took the role of
Rochester in Jane Eyre… But it will be a more weighty matter when
Cregar, who is to Twentieth Century-Fox what Sydney Greenstreet is to
Warner Brothers, comes to the microphone in a radio version of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, playing opposite amateurs, one of whom will
receive $1,001 for his performance. Fresh from his killer-diller role on
the Mystery Theater, Cregar should be in top form for Stevenson’s
masterpiece…”]
EXTANT RECORDING
[OG-NOTE: Only the first half of this broadcast is known to survive.]
FAMOUS CLASSICS THEATER (WGN, CHICAGO)
[Saturday—9:30-10:00 PM
February 5, 1944 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
BLUE RIBBON TOWN (KNX, HOLLYWOOD—CBS)
[Saturday—
March 11, 1944
[MASON CITY GLOBE-GAZETTE: “…the dual personality of Groucho Marx
comes to the surface when [Miriam] Hopkins drops in for a visit in ‘Blue
Ribbon Town’… Miriam calls to have a look at the village dramatic
society, and Groucho prevails upon her to re-enact her old screen
success, ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,’ with him. Groucho also threatens to
sing an original ditty called ‘I’m Dr. Jekyll at the Office and Mr. Hyde at
Home’…”]
THE WEIRD CIRCLE (NBC DISC SERIES)
Circa 1945 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (HOME SERVICE—BBC)
[Sunday—8:30-9:00 PM]
September 10, 1944 [PART 1]
September 17, 1944 [PART 2]
September 24, 1944 [PART 3]
October 1, 1944 [PART 4]
October 8, 1944 [PART 5]
FAVORITE STORY (ZIV DISC SERIES)
Circa 1946 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
CAST: William Conrad, et al.
WINNIPEG DRAMA (WINNIPEG)
[
Jan. 17, 1947 “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
SCRIPT: William Burgess.
PERSONNEL: Archie MacCorkindale (producer)
[
Oct. 8, 1947 “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
STORY TIME (WOL, WASHINGTON, D.C.)
[Monday-Friday—11:00-11:15 AM]
December 15, 1947 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” [PART 1]
December 16, 1947 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” [PART 2]
December 17, 1947 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” [PART 3]
December 18, 1947 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” [PART 4]
December 19, 1947 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” [PART 5]
HOLLYWOOD’S OPEN HOUSE (NBC SYNDICATION)
Circa 1947 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” [PROGRAM NO. 5]
CAST: Horace Braham, Luis Van Rooten, et al.
FAVORITE STORY (ZIV)
Circa 1947 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
TELL IT AGAIN (KNX, HOLLYWOOD)
[
June 20, 1948 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
FROM THE BOOKSHELF OF THE WORLD (AFRS)
Circa 1949 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
THE THEATER GUILD ON THE AIR (
[Sunday—
November 19, 1950 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
SCRIPT: Lesley Reed.
PERSONNEL: Homer Fickett (director).
CAST: Wesley Addy, Denise Alexander, Barbara Bel Geddes, Donald Buka, Jean
Cameron, Cathleen Cordell, Charles Francis, Carl Harbord, Berry Kroeger,
Fredric March, Hugh Williams.
THEATRE ROYALE (TOWERS OF LONDON TRANSCRIPTION SERIES)
Circa 1952 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
FORD THEATRE (TORONTO, DOMINION NETWORK)
[???day—
January 23, 1953 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
SCRIPT: Len Peterson.
PERSONNEL: Alan Savage (producer).
WFUV PLAYHOUSE (WFUV, NEW YORK)
[Sunday—3:00-3:30 PM]
August 16, 1953 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
(WDR, BERLIN)
[
September 18, 1956 “Dr. Jekyll und Herr Hyde”
SCRIPT: Walter Franke-Ruta.
PERSONNEL: Heinz-Dieter Kohler (assistant director), Wilhelm Semmelroth
(director).
CAST: Rene Deltgen (Dr. Harry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde), Hanns Olsen (Poole),
Wolfgang Schirlitz (Utterson), Friedrich Siemers (Richard Enfield), Rudolf
Therkatz (Dr. Lanyon).
SATURDAY NIGHT THEATRE (HOME SERVICE, LONDON—BBC)
[Saturday—9:15-10:35 PM]
April 16, 1960 “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (BBC)
[
November 22, 1961 [PART 1]
November 29, 1961 [PART 2]
December 6, 1961 [PART 3]
THE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATRE (W
June 18, 1974 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
SCRIPT: George Lowther.
PERSONNEL: Himan Brown (producer-director).
CAST: Court Benson, Ian Martin, Kevin McCarthy, Marian Seldes.
ATLANTA RADIO THEATRE COMPANY HALLOWEEN SPECIAL (PEACH STATE
PUBLIC RADIO, ATLANTA)
[
October 31, 1995 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” / “The Island of Dr. Moreau”
RADIO TALES (NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO)
January 18, 2000 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
THE SATURDAY PLAY (RADIO 4, LONDON)
[Saturday—2:30-3:30 PM]
February 3, 2007 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
[“…When a London lawyer studies the last will of his old friend Dr.
Jekyll, his suspicions are aroused. Why has respectable Dr. Jekyll left
everything to sinister Edward Hyde?...”]
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
[NOVEL; RADIO-SERIAL]
George Edwards and his wife Nell Stirling were the first superstars (and the first millionaires) of
Australian radio. In their heyday in the mid-Thirties they were on the air from dawn to dusk and
beyond, doing a breakfast club-type show in the morning, a children’s adventure serial in the late
afternoon, an episode from the casebook of Inspector Scott and a literature-based serial in the
early evening, and some other type of dramatic anthology series later on into the night. Plus on
Sunday evenings would come the dramatic highlight of the week, the George Edwards Sunday
Play. And, starting about ’37 or ’38, the long-running rural-humour serial, Dad and Dave.
Nell appears to have been the business brains of the team, and after a couple of years doing a
grueling schedule of live broadcasting all day long, she negotiated with another Sydney station to
take on all their productions as transcriptions. Thus the George Edwards Company was able to
expand out to many markets, including the BBC’s chief rival in those days, Radio Luxembourg.
One of the reasons that George Edwards became so popular with listeners was his great and
almost uncanny skill to do several characters at once within the same sketch (which, before radio,
he had mainly done just as a “parlor trick” for friends). It became a national past-time to tune in
and try to guess which and how many of the voices in the night’s episode or drama belonged to
George Edwards. Later, in the 1940s, he cut back on his multi-voicing and generally played just
one role per sketch, but since the cast was never announced at show’s end, many listeners
continued to believe that most of the parts per show were still being played by the star.
ORIGINATION: George Edwards Productions, Sydney, New South Wales (electrical transcriptions).
DURATION: Circa 1942.
[OG-NOTE: The Australian OTR Database notes that the serial ran on 3KZ in 1943.]
PERSONNEL: George Edwards (producer), Betty Roland (scriptwriter).
CAST: George Edwards (Dr. Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde), Nell Stirling, et al.
EXTANT RECORDINGS: Complete 52-episode serial.
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
A BBC series done during the Sixties.
ORIGINATION:
DURATION: November 22-December 6, 1961.
PERSONNEL:
EXTANT RECORDINGS: None.
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
A sub-series of the Storytime series.
ORIGINATION: Radio 4, London (BBC).
DURATION: January 31, 1977-
PERSONNEL: G. S. Emslie (producer), Leonard Maguire (adapter).
EXTANT RECORDINGS: Unknown.
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
Joss Ackland reads Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel.
ORIGINATION: Radio 2, London (BBC).
DURATION: January 5-February 9, 2001.
PERSONNEL: Joss Ackland (reader), Jane Marshall (producer.
EXTANT RECORDINGS:
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
[???day—9:15-9:30 PM]
Jan. 5, 2001 [1] “Story of the Door”
Jan. 12, 2001 [2] “The Carew Murder Case”
Jan. 19, 2001 [3] “Incident of the Letter”
Jan. 26, 2001 [4] “The Last Night”
Feb. 2, 2001 [5] “Dr. Lanyon’s Narrative”
Feb. 9, 2001 [6] “Henry Jekyll’s Statement”
Yvonne Antrobus (scriptwriter—2007, The Saturday Play),
Claire Grove (director—2007, The Saturday Play),
CAST [2007, The Saturday Play]: Sam Dale (Lanyon), Adam Godley (Dr. Jekyll), David
Horovitch (Utterson), Christine Kavanagh (Mrs. Utterson), Joseph Kloska (Poole), Ian Masters
(Sir Danvers), Emma Noakes (Girl / Maid), Mark Straker (Enfield), Bethan Walker
(Housekeeper).