The Littlest Angel

I associate the story of the Littlest Angel with the Wichita Elementary School's fireplace in the basement library at Christmas time. How a school in the Milwaukie, Oregon, school district came to be given that name is still a puzzle to me. But then we didn't concern ourselves with the fact that we weren't in Kansas or that whoever named the town didn't know how to spell or that they didn't care about it. What was important was that each year at Christmas our principal, mean Mrs. Blackburn, would let us leave our classroom to sit on the floor in front of fire and be read stories by our teacher. 

It was 1949 and "The Littlest Angel" had been written only ten years earlier. It took Charles Tazewell just three days to write the heartwarming tale when a Christmas story was needed in case a radio show planned for actor Ronald Colman fell through during an actor’s guild crisis.  As it turned out, the story wasn’t needed then, but ended up having its first performance in 1940 when actress Edna Best picked it up for "Manhattan at Midnight." Other reports have it that Helen Hayes performed it on the Lux Radio Theater the same year. 
The short story was first made available in book form in 1946 when it was published by the Children's Press. The Coronet magazine published it in 1949 and later produced the first film version. The film had limited animation - the story being told through narration only - and a short running time of only 14 minutes. Possibly the short running time had to do with the intended audience. It is thought the film was originally to be shown in schools as Coronet produced many educational films. (Interesting how much our American society has changed. That a film with such a beautiful but blatantly Christian message could not only be allowed, but also encouraged would be mind-boggling to many today. Today even breathing a prayer anywhere near a school will get you brought up on charges! A lot has changed. And not always for the better.)

But this is supposed to be about radio. 

In 1948 Helen Hayes recreated her memorable broadcast of the story a few seasons earlier, but this time for the Electric Theater radio program. In 1949 and 1950 Charles Tazewell worked with the producers of a radio adaptation of the story for the Family Theater radio program featuring Loretta Young. It is this performance that is presented here.