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Written by Ned Norris

If you like radio that trusts your ears, pull up a chair. I’ve been revisiting Columbia Workshop’s 1938 Wilbur Daniel Steele trio—A Drink of Water (Nov 10), Luck (Nov 17), and the missing The Giant’s Stair (Dec 1)—and it’s a perfect match of writer and medium. Steele’s clean lines, moral pressure, and the eloquence of what isn’t said were made for microphones.

A Drink of Water puts us inside Claire Mayo’s self-made hush—Alice Frost plays her with poised ambiguity, and Adelaide Klein’s Mamie Ryan keeps the story honest. Director Martin Gosch lets the tension arrive by inches, while musical composer Bernard Herrmann threads a spare, aching score.

Luck is a story of chance, conscience, and the price of being thought ‘lucky’—It's a powerful study of envy, pride, and fatal irony set in a rugged mountain community. Walter Greaza’s Will Yaard, all steady steel; Luis Van Rooten’s Jennison, wary but never fussy; Frank Readick keeping the pace even.

The Giant’s Stair hasn’t surfaced, alas, but if you ever spot a recording of it you’ll make my day.

These plays still feel fresh because they don’t shout. Good actors, exact music, and direction that knows when to step back—radio that trusts you.

If you’ve got a quiet hour, check in to RUSC and give A Drink of Water and Luck a spin this week. And be sure to tell me what you think in the comments.

Happy listening,

RUSC Old Time Radio
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