Life Can Be Beautiful

Life Can Be Beautiful
Alice Reinheart played Chichi
Genre	Soap opera
Country	United States
Language(s)	English
Syndicates	CBS
Starring	Alice Reinheart Ralph Locke John Holbrook Carl Eastman Mitzi Gould
Announcer	Ralph Edwards Ed Herlihy
Creator(s)	Don Becker Carl Bixby
Writer(s)	Don Becker Carl Bixby
Opening theme	Melody in C
Sponsor(s)	Ivory Soap

Life Can Be Beautiful was a daytime drama broadcast on NBC and CBS during its 16-year run. The program was also facetiously known to many as Elsie Beebe, a contrived acronym based on the show's initials.

Scripted by Don Becker and Carl Bixby, it was billed as "an inspiring message of faith drawn from life" and remained one of the leading soap operas through the 1940s.^[1] Becker also composed the program's theme song, Melody in C.^[2]

Sponsored by Procter & Gamble and Spic and Span, it premiered September 5, 1938 on NBC and moved two months later to CBS, where it was heard from November 7, 1938 to June 21, 1946. Concurrently, it was also airing on NBC from 1939 to 1941. The final run was on NBC from 1946 to 1954.

Characters and story

Carol Conrad (Alice Reinheart, 1938–46 and Teri Keane, 1946-54), aka Chichi, was a teen on the run until Papa David Solomon (Ralph Locke), owner of the Slightly Read Bookshop, gave her a home. She continued to live in the back room of the bookstore while engaging in a romance with crippled law student Stephen Hamilton (John Holbrook, Earl Larrimore). The couple was briefly married in 1944.^[1]

Ralph Edwards and Ed Herlihy were the announcers.^[1]

Cultural legacy

In 1948, "Life Can Be Beautiful" was a song by Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson.

The title was sometimes employed as a sarcastic catchphrase, as when it was spoken by William Holden in Sunset Boulevard (1950) and James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). In the 1944 film “I’ll Be Seeing You”, Ginger Rogers’ character refers to the radio program “Life Can Be Wonderful” to Joseph Cotton’s character during a romantic moment. Jack Benny also alluded to the program on his radio series, and Homer and Jethro released a 1959 album called Life Can Be Miserable. The phrase entered the language and continues to the present day with both humorous and legitimate usage. It has been used for titles of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and self-help books.

References

1 2 3 Dunning, John. On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-507678-8.
↑ "Thursday's Highlights" (PDF). Radio and Television Mirror 14 (5): 50. September 1940. Retrieved 9 March 2015.

LIsten to

External links

"Turn Your Radio On" by Jeanne Shannon (2004)

Radio soap operas in the United States

Adopted Daughter (1939–41)
Against the Storm (1939–52)
Amanda of Honeymoon Hill (1940–46)
Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories (1937–55)
Aunt Mary (1944–61)
Bachelor's Children (1935–46)
Backstage Wife (1935–59)
Big Sister (1936–52)
The Brighter Day (1948–56)
Clara, Lu, and Em (1930–42)
Dan Harding's Wife (1936–38)
David Harum (1936–50)
Girl Alone (1935–41)
The Goldbergs (1929–50)
The Guiding Light (1937–56)
Jane Arden (1938–39)
Judy and Jane (1932–35)
Just Plain Bill (1932–55)
Kitty Keene, Incorporated (1937–41)
Life Can Be Beautiful (1938–54)
Lonely Women (1942–43)
Lorenzo Jones (1937–55)
Ma Perkins (1933–60)
Myrt and Marge (1931–42)
The O'Neills (1935–43)
One Man's Family (1932–59)
Our Gal Sunday (1936–59)
Painted Dreams (1930–43)
Pepper Young's Family (1932–59)
Perry Mason (1943–55)
Portia Faces Life (1940–53)
The Romance of Helen Trent (1933–60)
Rosemary (1944–55)
Second Husband (1936-46)
Stella Dallas (1937–55)
Today's Children (1933–38)
Today's Children (second series) (1943–50)
Valiant Lady (1938-52)
When a Girl Marries (1939–57)
Young Doctor Malone (1939–60)
Young Widder Brown (1938–56)
Your Family and Mine (1938–40)

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