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Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Island of Lost Christmas Specials: Ireene Wicker in "Cinderella" (1939) on CBS-TV

TV listing from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 23, 1939 about the Cinderella broadcast for Christmas Eve.

Cinderella
"A Christmas pantomime" 
W2XBS (now WNBC New York). 8:30pm EST
Cast: Ireene Wicker and "Jolly Bill" Steinke
Play or script(?): Madge Tucker

Publicity photo of Ireene Wicker. From Wikimedia Commons


Very little is known about this early broadcast of the famous fairy tale from 80 years ago. Ireene Wicker was radio's famous "Singing Lady" and Bill Steinke was the long-time host of the popular children's radio program "Jolly Bill and Jane". Madge Tucker who was credited as the writer was NBC's famous "Lady Next Door" and like Wicker a household name as a quality entertainer of children.

Along with Cinderella, Ireene Wicker has a number of forgotten landmark early Christmas specials. She would return to television nearly a decade later in 1947 to narrate "Santa and the Angel", and again in 1949 for the A&S Christmas Party.

Like most early television broadcasts, "Cinderella" was most likely never recorded in any format, but hopefully a script or behind the scenes images may still exist.

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