The Radio Planet
Mail Call
Mail Call
Mail Call cover art
Radio

Mail Call

AFRS

AFRS · 1943–1949

Broadcasts

47

Cadence

Twice weekly

Rated

PG

Since

1943

The run

Network
AFRS
Years active
1943–1949
Surviving broadcasts
47
Genre
variety

Mail Call was an Armed Forces Radio Service variety programme built around letters from servicemen overseas, recorded in Hollywood from 1942. Like all AFRS output it carried no sponsors and was pressed to transcription discs for shortwave and overseas station use. The surviving discs are public domain.

1945 · 51944 · 51943 · 2

Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files

Clean transfer · 45 of 45

Source collection

Internet Archive audio collections

Rights

Public domain — no renewed US copyright

Cataloguing

Air dates and notes from the Archive item record

Every broadcast below carries its own provenance sheet — transfer quality, file source and rights.Archive record: MailCall

The shape of the run

What survives, year by year

11 dated broadcasts across 7 years on the air, with 4 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.

JFMAMJJASOND
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
Clean transferListenableRough but complete No surviving recording

Episodes

Start here

Listen to the run in order

Restored broadcasts from 1943, in original transmission order.

  1. 1. Groucho Marx, Betty Grable, Judy Garland · 9 Jan 1943
  2. 2. Groucho Marx, Irene Manning, Paulette Goddard · 26 Aug 1943
  3. 3. Jack Benny, Judy Garland, Johnny Mercer, Delta Rhythm Boys · 5 Jan 1944
  • 01

    Groucho Marx, Betty Grable, Judy Garland

    9 Jan 1943 · 29 min

  • 02

    Groucho Marx, Irene Manning, Paulette Goddard

    26 Aug 1943 · 30 min

  • 03

    Jack Benny, Judy Garland, Johnny Mercer, Delta Rhythm Boys

    5 Jan 1944 · 30 min

  • 04

    Lionel Barrymore, Connie Haines, Eddie Cantor

    8 Mar 1944 · 30 min

  • 05

    Bing Crosby, Connie Haines, Betty Grable

    26 Jul 1944 · 30 min

  • 06

    Nelson Eddy, Burns & Allen, Jeanette MacDonald

    23 Aug 1944 · 29 min

  • 07

    Tallulah Bankhead, Danny Kaye, Pied Pipers

    25 Oct 1944 · 29 min

  • 08

    Ann Rutherford, Johnny Mercer, Garry Moore

    10 Jan 1945 · 31 min

Also on AFRS

AFRS in 1943–1949

Other series the network carried while Mail Call was on the air.

Same seasons

variety on the air then

Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.

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