Small House of Everything

Small House of Everything

Thursday, March 18, 2021

X MINUS ONE: A PAIL OF AIR (MARCH 28, 1956)

 Earth has been pulled out of its orbit by a passing comet.  Drifting through space for the past ten years, its atmosphere has been frozen into a deep layer of "snow."  Our narrator is a ten-year-old boy whose family lives in a makeshift shelter they call "the nest."  Their breathable atmosphere comes from regularly collecting the "snow" and melting it over a fire.

X Minus One was an NBC radio program that ran from 1955 tom1958 for a total of 126 episodes.  The show was originally a revival of NBC's 1950-1951 series Dimension X, and its first episodes were versions of old Dimension X episodes.  X Minus One then partnered with Astounding Science Fiction magazine to adapt stories from that magazine into half-hour episodes; later during its run, it partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction on the same basis.

"A Pail of Air" was based on Fritz Leiber's story in the December 1951 issue of Galaxy.  It was adapted by George Lefferts and featured Ronnie Liss, Pamela Fitzmorris, Richard Hamilton, and Joe De Santis.  Fred Collins id the countdown from "X minus five" as the show's announcer.Daniel Sutter directed.

Enjoy this episode from one of the very best old-time radio science fiction programs.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UssWW7KgWFw


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