It's Time To Smile 1943 03 24 (107) Guest Marlene Dietrich

# The Eddie Cantor Show: It's Time To Smile (March 24, 1943)

Step into the electric energy of Studio 8H on this March evening in 1943, where America's beloved "Banjo Eyes" Eddie Cantor is about to welcome a guest who embodies Old World glamour and dangerous sophistication. Marlene Dietrich, the German-born siren who chose Hollywood over the Nazis, sits across from Cantor's microphone, ready for an evening of witty repartee and sophisticated humor. You'll hear the orchestra swell, the studio audience's anticipation crackle through the speakers, and Cantor's infectious laugh punctuate exchanges that dance between admiration and playful innuendo. This is appointment radio at its finest—where a vaudeville legend and a continental film star create magic through nothing but voices, timing, and the audience's eager imagination. The stakes feel particularly high tonight; Dietrich's very presence is a political statement, a celebrity defiance of her Nazi homeland at a moment when American troops are fighting in North Africa and Europe.

The Eddie Cantor Show stood at the apex of American variety entertainment, a half-hour that could pivot seamlessly from slapstick humor to genuine pathos, all anchored by Cantor's inexhaustible energy and his gift for making listeners feel like intimate friends. In 1943, as the nation poured its resources into total war, radio provided essential escape and morale-boosting companionship. Dietrich, blacklisted by the Third Reich for her refusal to return home, represented something deeper than entertainment—she was democracy's answer to totalitarianism, choosing artistic freedom and American values.

Tune in and experience the chemistry between two titans of showmanship, separated by continents and temperament but united by the universal language of entertainment. This is the golden age of radio, preserved perfectly and waiting for you.