Land of the Lost was a 1940s radio fantasy adventure, written and narrated by Isabel Manning Hewson, about the adventures of two children who traveled underwater with the fatherly fish Red Lantern. Each week, the show opened with the line, "In that wonderful kingdom at the bottom of the sea..." and then Red Lantern showed Billy and Isabel where different lost objects were stored beneath the waves.
TheLand of the Lost radio series aired from 1943 to 1948 on theMutual Broadcasting System andABC. Betty Jane Tyler was the voice of the young Isabel, and Ray Ives was the voice of Billy. Several actors voiced Red Lantern, includingArt Carney,Junius Matthews andWilliam Keene. The announcer wasMichael Fitzmaurice, and Cyril Armbrister directed.
With music by John Winters and lyrics by Barbara Miller, Peggy Marshall did the vocal arrangements. Organist Bob Hamilton provided background music.
A pioneer female radio commenter prior toLand of the Lost, Hewson did a food shopping show,Morning Market Basket, on the NBC Red network during World War II. She launchedLand of the Lost on October 9, 1943, and it was broadcast Saturday mornings at 11:30am on the ABC Blue network until September 22, 1945. In 1944, it also was on ABC Tuesdays at 7:00pm from July 4 until October 3. On October 14, 1945, the series moved to Mutual, where it was heard until July 6, 1946 (Sundays at 3:30 until mid-January and then Saturdays at 11:30am). Sponsored by Bosco,Land of the Lost aired on ABC from October 11, 1947 until the end of the run on July 3, 1948.
Illustrated by Olive Bailey, thechildren's book,Land of the Lost, was published by Whittlesey House (an imprint of McGraw Hill) in 1945. Hewson's story was outlined in the back cover blurb:
Born inDayton, Ohio, Olive Bailey learned drawing from her mother while she traveled throughout the west with her family as a small child. Bailey studied painting at the University of Detroit and married the British-born artist, Arno Scheiding.
In addition to theLand of the Lost comic book series, drawn by Olive Bailey forEC Comics, Hewson's stories were animated as part ofFamous Studios'Noveltoon series:Land of the Lost (1948),Land of the Lost Jewels (1950) andLand of Lost Watches (1951). Voices in these animated films includedMae Questel as Isabel (in a Canadian accent) and Rosita Wristwatch (in a Spanish accent),Jack Mercer as the Knives of the Round Table and various characters,Cecil Roy as Billy and Wally the Watch andJackson Beck as Red Lantern and other characters.
During the late 1940s, Columbia released on 78 rpm,The Land of the Lost, as a three-record album.
In 1950, Columbia Records issued the LP,Bongo with The Land of the Lost (Columbia JL-8503). Side one featuredDinah Shore and a supporting cast in a tale about Bongo from Walt Disney'sFun and Fancy Free. Side two, written and produced by Hewson, was a journey to the Magic Sea Kingdom.
Of the hundreds of weekly episodes originally broadcast during its five-year run, only 7 or 8 (from between April 1944 and December 1947) are known to have survived into the present day.[citation needed]
The Bosco Company, which sponsoredLand of the Lost on Saturdays from 11 a.m to noon, Eastern Time, cancelled it effective June 26, 1948, because of low ratings. Its competition includedJunior Miss on CBS and Ed McConnell's show on NBC.[1]