House of Myths was an early radio series which aired on NBC in 1926-29.

It was unique in that programs broadcast on the East Coast were soon followed by totally different programs in a West Coast series broadcast from San Francisco.

The West Coast version was scripted by Carlton E. Morse

Carlton E. Morse

Carlton Errol Morse was a Louisiana-born producer/journalist best known for his creation of the radio serial One Man's Family, which debuted in 1932 and ran until 1959 as one of the most popular as well as long-running radio soap operas of the time. He also was responsible for the radio serial I...

. In 1928, Morse was working at the San Francisco Bulletin

San Francisco Call

The San Francisco Call was a newspaper that served San Francisco, California. Because of a succession of mergers with other newspapers, the paper variously came to be called The San Francisco Call & Post, the San Francisco Call-Bulletin, San Francisco News-Call Bulletin, and the News-Call Bulletin...

, when it merged into the San Francisco Call, leaving Morse out of work. He then applied for a job with NBC, as he later explained:

They had a show coming in from New York -- it was called The House of Myths, dramatizations of Greek classics. They said, "We can't do these -- they're terrible. Can you take them and rewrite them, or dramatize some myths that we could produce?" So, they sent me home, and I conceived the idea of doing the myths in modern vernacular with a heavy tongue-in-cheek innuendo on the sex life of the Gods.

While working on the script, Morse got a job offer from The Seattle Times

The Seattle Times

The Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...

and had to make a decision. He decided radio had great possibilities, quickly completed the script, returned to NBC offices and was immediately hired. He never returned to newspaper work because radio offered him creative freedom, as he later recalled during a radio interview:

During those days, the thing that was so very pleasant was that there were no standards of writing. You were turned loose to think of something and do it. And out of this maelstrom of confusion came many of the shows that later developed into Coast and National shows. It was a wonderful time. It was a new era in a new medium and everybody has his opportunity.

He continued scripting House of Myths until the series came to an end.