Between Fact and Emotion

Drama 'based on real events,' or docudrama, is a media format that emerged in film and radio in the 1930s and remains a popular mode of storytelling across broadcasting, cable, and streaming media. A study of the radio roots of docudrama reveals how these programs engaged audiences with a unique combination of fact and emotion. By comparing a commercially-sponsored series, Cavalcade of America (1935–1953), with a government-sponsored series, Americans All, Immigrants All (1938–1939), this study explores how early radio docudramas addressed audiences as members of a national community. An analysis of program form and content, together with an assessment of contemporary audience research, shows how docudramas positioned listeners not just as audiences, but as actors in the unfolding drama. This study offers a new perspective on the pre-war era of broadcast docudrama and the format's unique strategy of audience engagement.