Tenting Tonight by ("HARVEST OF STARS" -- "THE INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER PROGRAM") - 1945

New York: NBC Network, 1945. Small 4to (8½" X 11"). Mimeographed typescript (rectos only), single staple at upper left. (1p), 13pp. Very good. Mildly edgeworn and lightly age toned, mainly to top leaf, which shows minor staple rust and single small stain. "Harvest of Stars" was a weekly concert radio series aired on NBC and CBS between 1945 and 1950, sponsored by International Harvester and narrated by Raymond Massey, with music directed initially by Howard Barlow and featuring popular singers and opera stars -- here the American operatic tenor Jan Peerce, who starred in a handful of episodes. This is an early mimeographed typescript for their seventh episode and is identified as "Third Revision 11/18/45" at upper right of title page -- presumably, but not definitively, the final reading script. The title "Tenting Tonight" appears nowhere on this typescript, but was apparently titled that on the actual radio airing according to one inventory of the show's 217 episodes. According to Massey's introduction, "in our play we are going to celebrate the birthday of two hundred and sixty-seven words: The Gettysburg Address. We're going to tell you something of what it was like in Gettysburg the night before, and I'll again have the opportunity to play Mr. Lincoln...." Musical selections included excerpts from "My Maryland," "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory," "La Donna e Mobile," "Fifth Symphony" finale and others. Quite scarce. These mimeographed typescripts were produced for in-house use only, not public distribution, and therefore survive in very few copies.