Harvard Square Library exists solely on the basis of donations. If you have benefitted from any of our materials, and/or if making Unitarian Universalist intellectual heritage materials widely available and free is a value to you, please donate whatever you can–every little bit helps: Donate
Who Knew it? The original character on “The Guiding Light,” the longest running television drama ever, was modeled on Chicago’s famous Unitarian Minister, the Rev. Preston Bradley (1888-1983). The original radio series was developed and written by Irna Phillips (1901-1973), an enormously successful radio actress turned writer. The radio show ran from 1937-1956, while the TV show aired from 1952-2009 (you can listen to an early episode of the radio show here). Phillips based “Dr. Charles Mayhew, a minister who devotes his life to the needs of others,” on Bradley, whose radio sermons had comforted her after she gave birth to a still born child as a young woman. You can listen to some of Rev. Bradley’s inspirational messages below:
“An Inspirational Message in Troubled Times” (January 25, 1943)
“What is Christianity” (January 18, 1959)
“Thanksgiving Sermon” (November, 1960)
“The Religious Atheist” (April 12, 1964)