There was once a Lincoln Highway radio show

Ruth Gordon performing in NBC’s Saturday morning show “Lincoln Highway.” (1940)

On March 16, 1940, NBC Radio introduced a Saturday morning dramatic show called Lincoln Highway sponsored by Shinola Polish, which featured stories of life along the route. The show’s introduction contained an error in noting the Lincoln Highway was identical to US 30 and ended in Portland. Many of the era’s stars, including Ethel Barrymore, Joe E. Brown, Claude Rains, Sam Levene, Burgess Meredith, and Joan Bennett, made appearances on the show, which had an audience of more than 8 million before it left the air in 1942. A rare surviving recording of the show’s theme song, “When You Travel the Great Lincoln Highway,” survives online.

One thought on “There was once a Lincoln Highway radio show

  1. Program #101 is available on-line. It was originally aired on Valentines Day, 2/14/1942, but it’s story line deals with an aviatrix.
    The show ran for two years and maybe got displaced by other kinds of programming which started to appear during the WWII years.
    Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

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