THE FREE COMPANY - OLD TIME RADIO - 1 CD-ROM - 10 mp3 - Total Playtime: 4:57:44

James Boyd, journalist, author, and chairman of *of Players introduced each broadcast of *with: "*is a group of writers, actors, and radio workers who have come together voluntarily to present a series of plays about our basic liberties. We are unpaid, unsponsored, and uncontrolled. Just a group of Americans saying what we believe about this country and about freedom. Trying to say it by means of plays, just as the Bible parables or the anecdotes that Lincoln used to tell illustrate other truths by means of stories. Some of our plays deal with the whole subject of freedom, others with the different basic civil rights on which that freedom rests." James Boyd was one of thousands of Federal employees during the World War I and World War II years referred to as "dollar-a-year-men [or women]." In other words they undertook the position--usually by political appointment during a time of national crisis--for either literally a dollar a year, or some other typically nugatory form of compensation. In James Boyd's case he had volunteered for the the Ambulance Corps during World War I, then after a distinquished writing and journalism career between wars, Boyd took a political appointment with the War Department during the outset of World War II. Working with the Radio Bureau of The Office of War Information, Boyd formed a volunteer corps of other patriotic journalists, actors, technicians, and influential writers of the era. They called themselves *of Players. EPISODES LIST *41-02-23 (01) The People with Light Coming out of Them *41-03-02 (02) The Mole on Lincoln's Cheek *41-03-09 (03) An American Crusader *41-03-16 (04) One More Free Man *41-03-23 (05) Freedom's a Hard Thing *41-04-06 (07) His Honor, the Mayor *41-04-13 (08) A Start in Life *41-04-20 (09) The States Talking *41-04-27 (10) The Miracle of the Danube *41-05-04 (11) Above Suspicion