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Written by Ned Norris

Few American songwriters have left such a lasting mark as Stephen Collins Foster. You may not immediately think of his name, but hear just a few notes of Oh! Susanna, Camptown Races, My Old Kentucky Home, Old Folks at Home, or Beautiful Dreamer, and the melodies feel as though they’ve always been with us.

This week I’ve been enjoying a lovely old radio tribute to Foster — Beautiful Dreamer, an episode of The Railway Hour, broadcast on July 2nd, 1957.

With Gordon MacRae as Stephen Foster and Dorothy Warenskjold as Mary Parker, the program offers a warm and tender musical portrait of the man behind so many unforgettable songs. It isn’t a heavy-handed biography, but more of a musical remembrance — filled with romance, nostalgia, hardship, and, of course, those beautiful melodies.

Foster’s life was not an easy one. Though his songs became known across America, he often received very little reward for them. Copyright laws and publishing practices of the day were not kind to songwriters, and many of his greatest successes brought him fame, but not fortune. Even so, his gift for melody was extraordinary. His songs were simple enough to remember after one hearing, yet full of feeling that has lasted for generations.

That is what makes Beautiful Dreamer such a fitting title. Written near the end of Foster’s life and published shortly after his death, it has that wistful, haunting quality that seems to sum up so much of his music.

The episode is beautifully performed, with MacRae’s fine baritone voice, Carmen Dragon conducting, and Norman Luboff’s choir adding richness and warmth. It is old time radio at its most tuneful and tender.

Radio returned to Stephen Foster’s story many times over the years, including:

• The Cavalcade of America — Stephen Foster

       Broadcast January 16th, 1939

• The Cavalcade of America — Songs of Stephen Foster — An American Legend

      Broadcast April 9th, 1940

• Family Theater — The Stephen Foster Story

     Broadcast October 4th, 1950

All of them remind us just how deeply Foster’s music became woven into America’s memory.

If you enjoy musical old time radio, I think you’ll find The Railway Hour’s Beautiful Dreamer a real treat — gentle, heartfelt, and filled with songs that still echo after all these years.

Happy listening,

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