Tulsa NPR Station to Produce WWII Romantic Fantasy, 'LOVE ON THE WING'

Tulsa NPR Station to Produce WWII Romantic Fantasy, 'LOVE ON THE WING'

TULSA, Okla., Oct. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Tulsa's NPR station KWGS will produce a romantic fantasy, "LOVE ON THE WING," written by Verne and Helen Jay in 1944. The charming, never-produced 20-minute radio play features Hank and Jen, a devoted pair of homing pigeons in Iowa, and their adventures during the trying times of World War II. The play will be aired on KWGS and on Podcast. Michael Wright from Tulsa University's Theatre Department will cast and direct, and a TU music professor will compose a score for the play. Blake Hendrix, formerly of Tulsa and now of Dallas, will be the show's producer, through his company, saltmineconsulting.com.

Rich Fisher from KWGS will interview the authors' daughter, Linda Jay Geldens. Linda, a book copyeditor and promotional writer in the San Francisco Bay Area, talks about her parents' rich history as radio and television writers. "My Dad started his career in the 1930s writing imaginative dramatic plays with futuristic themes that were produced in theatres up and down the East Coast. When I was a kid in New York, my folks wrote freelance scripts for radio shows like 'The Shadow,' 'Grand Central Station,' and 'Mr. and Mrs. North.' I thought everyone's parents rehearsed murder dialogue at the kitchen table!"

In 1947, Linda's father Verne Jay became a staff writer at WLW Radio-TV, a 50,000-watt NBC station in Cincinnati. "A year later, a recent graduate of Antioch College named Rod Serling joined the staff, and he and Dad became friends. In 1953, Rod and Dad wrote a murder mystery, 'A Walk in the Night.' It aired in 1954 on the 'Philip Morris TV Playhouse'; this was the only time, ever, that Rod Serling had a co-author." Linda's Dad freelanced for other TV shows in the 1960s, such as "Gunsmoke," "The Doctor," and "The Colgate Theatre."

The Script Editors of ABC and CBS Radio in New York wrote letters of praise about "LOVE ON THE WING" in 1944, as did the premiere radio writer of the time, Norman Corwin. All agreed that the show should be produced -- but there was never the right venue. Now, 63 years later, the time is right.

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Source: saltmineconsulting.com

CONTACT: Blake Hendrix of saltmineconsulting.com, +1-214-731-6413,
bhendrix@tx.rr.com

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Profile: International Entertainment