The Screen Guild Theater is a radio anthology series broadcast from 1939 until 1952 during the Golden Age of Radio. Leading Hollywood stars performed adaptations of popular motion pictures. Originating on CBS Radio, it aired under several different titles including The Gulf Screen Guild Show, The Gulf Screen Guild Theater, The Lady Esther Screen Guild Theater and The Camel Screen Guild Players. Fees that would ordinarily have been paid to the stars and studios were instead donated to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, and were used for the construction and maintenance of the Motion Picture Country House.
The Screen Guild Theater had a long run beginning January 8, 1939, lasting for 14 seasons and 527 episodes. Actors on the series included Ethel Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Eddie Cantor, Gary Cooper, Bing Crosby, Bette Davis, Jimmy Durante, Nelson Eddy, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Sam Levene, Johnny Mercer, Agnes Moorehead, Dennis Morgan, Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, Shirley Temple, and Dinah Shore.
The series began with a variety format, with mixed success. The program increasingly came to rely on adaptations of major motion pictures—presenting a considerable challenge to writers who had to compress the narrative into 22 minutes.
Fees these actors would typically charge were donated to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, in order to support the creation and maintenance of the Motion Picture Country Home for retired actors. A 1940 magazine article noted that The Screen Guild Theater was "the only sponsored program on the air which gives all its profits to charity." Nearly $800,000 had been contributed by the summer of 1942.
The first three seasons of the CBS series were sponsored by Gulf Oil. With uncertainties in the oil market due to World War II, Gulf dropped the show, and in 1942 the Lady Esther cosmetics corporation assumed sponsorship. The Lady Esther Screen Guild Theater was consistently one of the top ten radio programs. Reverses in the cosmetics industry led Lady Esther to withdraw in 1947, and Camel Cigarettes purchased a three-year contract. Changing time slots and networks brought about a decline in ratings. In the fall of 1950 the series returned to CBS, where it ran until its final broadcast June 30, 1952. The Screen Guild Theater earned a total of $5,235,607 for the Motion Picture Relief Fund.
