Radio Days

For other uses, see Radio Days (disambiguation).

Radio Days
Radio Days theatrical poster
Directed by	Woody Allen
Produced by	Robert Greenhut
Written by	Woody Allen
Narrated by	Woody Allen
Starring	Mia Farrow Michael Tucker Julie Kavner Dianne Wiest Danny Aiello Tony Roberts Jeff Daniels Seth Green
Music by	Dick Hyman
Cinematography	Carlo Di Palma
Editing by	Susan E. Morse
Distributed by	Orion Pictures
Release date(s)	January 30, 1987
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$16,000,000 USD
Box office	$14,792,779

Radio Days is a 1987 comedy film directed by Woody Allen. The film looks back on an American family's life during the Golden Age of Radio using both music and memories to tell the story.

Plot

The Narrator (Woody Allen) tells us how the radio influenced his childhood in the days before TV. Allen himself narrated the stories of his youth, although he is never seen by the audience. The young Allen is portrayed onscreen by Seth Green as "Joe". In the New York City of his youth in the late 1930s to a rooftop overlooking Times Square on New Year's Eve 1944, this coming-of-age tale mixes the narrator's experiences with his remembrances and anecdotes, inserting his memories of urban legends of the radio stars, and is told in constantly changing plot points and vignettes.

Even though the narrator's Jewish-American family lives modestly in the Queens, New York neighborhood of Rockaway Beach, each member at one point during the film finds in radio shows an escape from reality through the gossip of celebrities, sports legends of the day, game shows, and crooners, with the majority of the stories taking place in the glitz and glamour of Manhattan. For the narrator, the action adventure shows on the radio (one of them based on The Shadow) inspire him, as he daydreams about buying a secret decoder ring, an attractive substitute teacher, movie stars (who may or not be as honest as they appear), and World War II.

Meanwhile, several other parallel stories are told, from an aspiring radio star named Sally White (Mia Farrow), the narrator's Aunt Bea (Dianne Wiest) and her (mostly fruitless) search for love, and during the middle of the film on the radio the tragic story is told about a little girl named Polly Phelps, who falls into a well near Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. It becomes a big national story and as the family listens in, sadly little Polly does not survive. (This was actually inspired by the true story of Kathy Fiscus, a little girl who fell into a well in Southern California in 1949 and died after an exhaustive attempt to rescue her.)

The musical score, which features songs from the 1930s and 40s, plays an important, integral and seamless part in the plot. Orson Welles' famous 1939 CBS radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds has an important role in one of the vignettes.

The film was screened out of competition at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. Film critic Roger Ebert called it Allen’s answer to Federico Fellini’s Amarcord.

In a poll of 500 films held by Empire magazine, it was voted 304th Greatest Movie of all time.

Cast

• Danny Aiello as Rocco
• Woody Allen as The Narrator
• Sydney Blake as Mrs Gordon
• Leah Carrey as Grandma
• Jeff Daniels as Biff Baxter
• Larry David as Communist Neighbor
• William H. Macy as Radio Actor
• Mia Farrow as Sally White
• Todd Field as Crooner
• Seth Green as Joe
• Kitty Carlisle Hart as Maxwell House (Coffee) Radio Jingle Singer
• Paul Herman as Burglar
• Julie Kavner as Mother
• Diane Keaton as New Year's Singer
• Renée Lippin as Aunt Ceil
• Judith Malina as Mrs. Waldbaum
• William Magerman as Grandpa
• Kenneth Mars as Rabbi Baumel
• Josh Mostel as Uncle Abe
• Tony Roberts as "Silver Dollar" Emcee
• Rebecca Schaeffer as Communists' Daughter
• Wallace Shawn as Masked Avenger
• Mike Starr as Burglar
• Don Pardo as "Guess That Tune" Host
• Michael Tucker as Father
• Dianne Wiest as Aunt Bea
• Kenneth Welsh as Radio Voice

Soundtrack

A soundtrack of the film, titled "Radio Days: Selections From The Original Soundtrack Of The Motion Picture" was released on cassette and compact disc in 1987:

01. Glenn Miller - In The Mood

02. Larry Clinton - I Double Dare You

03. Tommy Dorsey - Opus No. 1

04. Artie Shaw - Frenesi

05. Allan Jones - The Donkey Serenade

06. Benny Goodman Trio - Body and Soul

07. Tommy Dorsey - You and I

08. Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye - Remember Pearl Harbor

09. Guy Lombardo - That Old Feeling

10. Glenn Miller - (There'll Be Blue Birds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover

11. Benny Goodman - Goodbye

12. Tommy Dorsey - I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You

13. Richard Himber - Lullaby of Broadway

14. Glenn Miller - American Patrol

15. Duke Ellington - Take the A Train

16. Xavier Cugat - One, Two, Three, Kick

(Unfortunately, there were many other songs omitted from the release, as there were over 40 songs used in the film. According to the IMDB film website, the following is a list of the other songs:)

Harry James and his Orchestra - Flight of the Bumblebee

September Song (in the score in a Rockaway scene and reprised at a beach scene and at the end)

Dancing in the Dark (played by the orchestra at the Guess That Tune broadcast)

Chinatown, My Chinatown (played by the orchestra at the Guess That Tune broadcast)

The Sailor's Hornpipe (a traditional song played at the Guess That Tune broadcast)

Let's All Sing Like The Birdies Sing (sung by Danielle Ferland (uncredited) in a radio commercial)

You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me (played at the roller rink)

Cole Porter - Begin The Beguine (played as dance music at the nightclub and sung briefly by David Warrilow (uncredited) on the roof)

Cole Porter - Just One of Those Things (played as dance music at the King Cole room on New Year's Eve)

Cole Porter - You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To (performed by Diane Keaton (uncredited) at a nightclub)

Cole Porter - Night and Day (played as dance music at a nightclub)

The Castilians - La Cumparsita

Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters - Pistol Packin' Mama (used during the snowman sequence)

The Ink Spots - If I Didn't Care

The Merry Macs - Mairzy Doats

Frank Sinatra - If You Are But A Dream

Richard Hayes with the Xavier Cugat Orchestra - Babalu (with Richard Hayes (uncredited) played during the substitute teacher scene)

They're Either Too Young or Too Old (by Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra (uncredited) and sung by Kitty Carlisle (uncredited) in a Maxwell House radio show)

Dick Hyman - Radio Show Themes (composed exclusively for the film)

Dick Hyman - Re-Lax Jingle (performed by Mia Farrow (uncredited) for a radio ad)

Auld Lang Syne (a traditional played on New Year's Eve)

Carioca (played as dance music at a nightclub)

Tico Tico (performed by Denise Dumont (uncredited) with Tito Puente (uncredited) and His Band)

All Or Nothing At All (sung by Todd Field (uncredited) on radio)

Paper Doll (performed by The Mills Brothers on radio)

Schloff mein Kind (or Schlaf mein Kind) (performed by traditional Yiddish folksinger Emil Decameron as background when Sally first gets on the radio)

I Don't Want To Walk Without You (performed by Mia Farrow (uncredited) at a USO show)

You'll Never Know (played by the band at the Broadway dance palace)

Awards and nominations

1987 Academy Awards (Oscars)

• Nominated – Best Achievement in Art Direction:
     Art Direction: Santo Loquasto
     Set Decoration: Carol Joffe, Les Bloom, George DeTitta, Jr.
• Nominated – Best Original Screenplay: Woody Allen

1987 BAFTA Film Awards

• Won – Best Costume Design : Jeffery Kurland
• Won – Best Production Design: Santo Loquasto
• Nominated – Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Dianne Wiest
• Nominated – Best Editing: Susan E. Morse
• Nominated – Best Film: Robert Greenhut, Woody Allen
• Nominated – Best Screenplay Original: Woody Allen
• Nominated – Best Sound: Robert Hein, James Sabat, Lee Dichter

1988 Writers Guild of America Awards

• Nominated – WGA Screen Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen: Woody Allen

Further reading

• Woody Allen On Location by Thierry de Navacelle (Morrow, 1987); a day-to-day account of the making of Radio Days

External links

• Radio Days at the Internet Movie Database
• Review of Radio Days at TVGuide.com
• VINCENT CANBY, WOODY ALLEN'S FOND REMEMBRANCES OF 'RADIO DAYS', NY Times, January 30, 1987