- Magic Island (radio)
-
Article about Magic Island on the Panama City News-Herald radio page (December 15, 1940)
Magic Island was a science-fantasy radio serial syndicated in 1935. The series had 130 15-minute episodes, and all episodes have survived.
The storyline followed wealthy Patricia Gregory as she ended her 14-year search in the South Pacific for her long lost daughter Joan. When Joan was one-year-old, the Gregory yacht was shipwrecked near the 30th parallel south. Lashed to a lifeboat, Joan was presumed lost by all but Patricia. In the opening episode, she receives a tip about a white girl living on a mysterious island populated by scientifically advanced people in the Pacific. After the reunion of mother and daughter, the program dramatized their subsequent adventures on the island which could submerge to escape detection.
Targeted at a juvenile audience, Magic Island featured Sally Creighton as Patricia Gregory, Rosa Barcelo as Joan Gregory, Tommy Carr as Jerry Hall and Will H. Reynolds as Capt. Tex Bradford.
The producer-writer was Perry Crandall, who was also the program's announcer.
Contents
Characters
- Mrs. Patricia Gregory (Sally Creighton) - a wealthy widow searching for her shipwrecked daughter, Joan. It is implied in the series that she is a highly-connected U.S. government agent.
- Cleostra/Joan Gregory (Rosa Barcelo) - the 15-year-old daughter of Patricia found alive and well on the island of Euclidia.
- Captain Tex Bradford - Mrs. Gregory's right-hand man in her search for Joan. It is implied in the series that he is a highly-connected U.S. government agent as well as being an inventor.
- Jerry Hall - the boy who overheard a radio message from Euclidia regarding Joan; accompanies the Gregory party to the Magic Island.
- G-47 - the scientist who rules Euclidia.
- "Girl Submarine Commander"/Elaine (voiced by the same actor as Carmen Bandini in Jerry of the Circus) - the commander of the submarine fleet of Euclidia who becomes a member of the Gregory party during the series.
Influence
The television series Lost has several plot parallels with Magic Island.
See also
- The Cinnamon Bear - another 1930s-era radio program intended for juvenile audiences
- Jerry of the Circus - 1936 series about an orphan boy's adventures with the circus (not the same Jerry as the one in Magic Island). Its sequel was Jerry at Fair Oaks.
- Land of the Lost - 1943-48 radio fantasy
Listen to
External links
Categories:- 1930s American radio programs
- American radio drama
- Children's radio
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
