[1] Deadline Dramas' roots can be traced back to medieval days when a court jester would take plot suggestions offered by noblemen and improvise short plays.
John Dunning described the technique as follows in On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio:Listeners submitted plot situations of no more than 20 words.
White and his cast of two would retire to a soundproof control room where they had just two minutes to work out a fully developed plot.
While they frantically picked at story threads, a sound man listened in via earphones, improvising his effects and devising cues for organist Rosa Rio.
"[1] Others were panned, as exemplified by a 1944 episode about which Joe Koehler wrote in the trade magazine Billboard, "There's everything in Deadline Dramas but entertainment.