ABSTRACT
This chapter considers two anthology series, Lux Radio Theater sponsored by Lever Brothers and the Screen Guild Theater, a series conceived by the Screen Actors' Guild as a means of raising money for the charity the Motion Picture Relief Fund, sponsored variously by Gulf Oil, Lady Esther cosmetics and Camel Cigarettes. For the makers of Lux Radio Theater and Screen Guild Theater, the importance of the consumer is clear, and the choice of adapting Hollywood films to radio pairs up the audience targeting embedded in adapting with the targeting of buyers of sponsors' products. The 'golden age' of radio, from the 1930s to the early 1950s, saw radio increase its audience at a time when cinema was experiencing narrowing profit margins due to the Depression and the rising production costs which followed the introduction of sound. Hollywood was to offer a satirical commentary on commercial radio in 1947 through an adaptation of Frederic Wakeman's 1946 novel The Hucksters.
