Adventure Ahead 44/10/28 (ep13) Greenmantle
Adventure Ahead! was a brilliant Summer feature for 1944. Comprised of fourteen stirring adventure novels and stories from among America's greatest fiction writers, its somewhat more masculine orientation may have kept some of the young females of the era listening to Frank Sinatra that summer instead of Adventure Ahead!.
But it was indeed billed as 'famous stories for young people', not 'famous stories for young men'. And yet, how any rational programmer at NBC-Red could have construed the slant of this project to young people is anyone's guess. There is no discernible love interest, there are female protagonists, nor any female authorities or mentors for that matter. Of course, this was the 1940s after all, still in the throes of the fight for equality on many fronts. It's just obvious that NBC-Red programmers were simply completely out of touch with their era.
That having been said, each of these literary choices did have a uniting theme--defending Freedom, domestically and abroad. To be fair to NBC's programmers, there were several jingoistic, over the top, almost fascist 'public service programs' geared toward every facet of domestic population at one time or another during the World War II years and the Cold War Years that followed. So overlooking the slant for the time being, let's focus in on the selected stories and their themes.
Virtually all of these stories were male-oriented, 'coming of age' tales of one type or another. Dana's Two Years Before the Mast was one of the books virtually any father would expect his son to have read by the time he was eleven. A stirring tale of independent thinking, the courage to act on it, and the satisfaction of correctly asserting one's convictions is always a satisfying read for boy and man alike. For young ladies, even during the 1940s, not so much. All it would have conjured up was more of the status quo the Rosie the Riveters and their daughters across America were fighting against, sweating to defeat, and earning the right to overturn. Sadly, this same theme can be set forth in the other twelve selections as well.
The better encodes of this remarkable Summer series are wonderful reminders of the type of inspirational fare of the 1940s during a world at War. Not preachy, not particularly jingoistic, but clearly selected and adapted to act as both a comfort and inspiration to the thousands of young people anxiously awaiting resolution of the War and the return of their brothers, fathers and uncles. In this respect alone, this gem of a short series is a definite keeper from The Golden Age of Radio.
-
LIVE
Glenn Greenwald
1 hour agoUkraine’s Incursion Into Russia, Nord Stream Pipeline Revelations, and More with Michael Tracey and Russia Analyst Prof. Glenn Diesen | SYSTEM UPDATE 316
3,284 watching -
LIVE
Nerdrotic
6 hours agoAlien: Ridiculous | Disney is EVIL | Rings Of Power DESPERATION - Friday Night Tights 315 Chris Gore - Friday Night Tights 315 w/ Chris Gore
10,992 watching -
1:26:13
Savanah Hernandez
4 hours agoKamala promises to crash the US economy with $1.7 trillion dollar handout plan
33K80 -
8:58
After Skool
15 days agoWhat Is In The Great Beyond? - Graham Hancock
39.1K71 -
7:33:34
MissesMaam
9 hours agoCozy Games + Coffee 💚✨
35.6K8 -
1:53:26
Twins Pod
1 day agoFrom America's General To Political Target! | Twins Pod - Episode 26 - General Flynn
70.8K24 -
1:54:42
Matt Kim
5 hours agoThe Shawn Ryan Interview | Matt Kim #106
47.7K17 -
2:22:32
Tucker Carlson
7 hours agoCalley & Casey Means: The Truth About Ozempic, the Pill, and How Big Pharma Keeps You Sick
204K386 -
1:07:29
Hometalk
1 day agoTrending NEW pumpkin DIY ideas everyone's copying in fall 2024!
60.9K3 -
8:50
Adam Does Movies
8 hours agoAlien: Romulus Movie Review - We're Back Boys!
52.7K5