Dr. Kildare

Dr. Kildare was produced for syndication in 1949 at WMGM, New York. It was based on the popular Dr. Kildare movies of the 1930’s-1940’s, and brought to the microphone the stars of that series, Lew Ayres and Lionel Barrymore. Ayres played the young, idealistic Dr. James Kildare; Barrymore, ever in character, was the crusty, loveable diagnostician, Dr. Leonard Gillespie. The men worked at Blair General Hospital, “one of the great citadels of American medicine — a clump of gray-white buildings planted deep in the heart of New York — where life begins, where life ends, where life goes on.” Each radio episode was developed as a stand-alone program rather than a serial. Episodes typically focusing on Dr. Kildare dealing with a particular medical issue, while jousting with eccentric patients and/or hospital administrators. The medical information presented was up to date for its time, and sometimes taken from real life; for example, an episode in which Dr. Kildare is forced to perform an emergency appendectomy on himself was based on a news story. The chief problem, both for Kildare and the listener, was that Blair Hospital was peopled by too many eccentrics. However, Lew Ayres and Lionel Barrymore save the day with great acting and some solid stories, especially when they ventured into the real world and got away from the eccentrics at Blair.

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