The Great Radio Soap Operas
Some of the longest-running old-time radio shows were the daytime soap operas. While the hubbies were overseas, many housewives were entertained by listening to the various soap operas as prevalent back then as they are now.

Here is a list of some of the old soaps, provided by Jim Cox. Click on the RA next to an item to hear a short RealAudio® Soundbyte. (Soundbytes will be added periodically, so stop back every so often).

Also visit the Old-Time Radio Soap Operas BBS, Hosted by Soap Opera expert, Jim Cox; where you can catch up on what happened to Mary, or Portia, or Joyce, or Stella, or Ma, or Rosemary, or whomever.

Many "soaps" were NOT sponsored by soap products! For a list of many of them, see the soapless soap opera page.
  • Affairs of Dr Gentry, The
  • Against the Storm RA
  • Amanda of Honeymoon Hill
  • Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories RA

  • Backstage Wife
  • Big Sister
  • Brighter Day, The
  • Bright Horizon

  • David Harum
  • Doctor Paul
  • Doctor Susan RA
  • Doctor's Wife, The

  • Front Page Farrell

  • Goldbergs, The
  • Green Valley Line
  • Guiding Light, The

  • Hilltop House RA

  • John's Other Wife RA
  • Joyce Jordan, M.D. RA
  • Judy and Jane RA
  • Just Plain Bill RA

  • Kitty Foyle

  • Life Can Be Beautiful
  • Light of the World, The
  • Lora Lawton
  • Lorenzo Jones RA
  • Love of Dr. Susan (see Dr Susan)

  • Ma Perkins
  • Myrt and Marge RA

  • Nona From Nowhere
  • O'Neills, The
  • One Man's Family
  • Our Gal Sunday

  • Painted Dreams
  • Pepper Young's Family
  • Perry Mason
  • Portia Faces Life
  • Pretty Kitty Kelly

  • Right to Happiness, The
  • Road of Life
  • Romance of Helen Trent, The
  • Rosemary RA

  • Second Mrs. Burton, The RA
  • Second Spring
  • Stella Dallas
  • Story of Mary Marlin, The
  • Strange Romance of Evelyn Winters, The

  • This is Nora Drake
  • Today's Children

  • Valiant Lady RA

  • We Love and Learn
  • Wendy Warren and the News RA
  • When a Girl Marries
  • Woman in My House, The
  • Woman in White
  • Woman of America, A

  • Young Doctor Malone RA
  • Young Widder Brown
Marcia S. Klaas (msklaas@yahoo.com) reminds us that the leading three soap manufacturers sponsoring the soap operas were (in this order) Procter & Gamble, Lever Brothers and Colgate- Palmolive-Peet. There were two more major ones: B. T. Babbitt, Inc., which underwrote David Harum, Lora Lawton and Nona from Nowhere primarily for its leading cleansing product, Bab-O (as announcer Ford Bond said it "Bee-aye-bee-ohhhh" with a pause before the "ohhhh"); and Manhattan Soap Company, sponsor of One Man's Family and The Woman In My House, largely for its flagship Sweetheart beauty soap brand.

Images courtesy of www.arttoday.com
Analog soundbytes supplied by Jack French, and are believed to be in the public domain.