Proudly We Hail

July 10, 1946 – March 14, 1948 · 54 broadcasts

Proudly We Hail was a U.S. Army and Air Corps recruiting anthology -- a big-name Hollywood star every week, wrapped in a short original play and a recruiting pitch. This run is the 1946 syndication built by transcription mogul C. P. MacGregor, the "DeMille of the discs," who -- lacking a network -- assembled his own chain of independent stations: more than 350 at the July 10, 1946 launch, over 1,300 by mid-1948. MacGregor's opening coup was signing Clark Gable for the very first broadcast, and the parade that followed included Robert Mitchum, Glenn Ford, Alan Ladd, Vincent Price, Edward G. Robinson, Joe E. Brown, and Esther Williams (who headlined the first 30-minute show in January 1948). The plays run from Americana and comedy to mystery and quiet human drama -- self-contained, star-driven, and aimed squarely at the postwar young man weighing a hitch in the peacetime service. It is one of the widest independent-station footprints in radio's golden age, and a vivid snapshot of how the armed forces sold themselves through Hollywood glamour. Per-episode plots for this 1946-48 run were never cataloged in any free source, so each episode is listed by title and date -- with the guest star where it is documented -- but without a synopsis.