BW - EP153—011: Independence Day 1944—Norman Corwin's Home For The Fourth

Breaking Walls

By 1944 Norman Corwin had free rein over his productions. In six years he’d gone from a network rookie to the most-lauded creator on the air. He was now the poet-laureate of radio, a nickname which would stick with him the rest of his life. That March, The Columbia Workshop was rechristened as Columbia Presents Corwin for a twenty-two week run. At 10PM eastern time on Independence Day 1944 Corwin broadcast "Home For the Fourth." In this play, two brothers are away at war. One, played by Dane Clark, gets a two-day pass to see his family and fiance. It’s a slice of American life written and directed in a way that came to define Corwin. He understood that people were a part of, and yet transcended their own time. This play is eighty years old, but sounds like we could have spent time with these people eighty minutes ago.