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Lux Radio Theatre - Story Of Louis Pasteur

April 11, 2026·58 min·4 clips

A mother brings her nine-year-old boy bitten by a rabid dog to Pasteur — who has only ever used his untested vaccine on animals.

Hollywood, California, opens the house. On Monday, November 23rd, the Lux Radio Theater gives Paul Muni the role of Louis Pasteur, with Cecil B. DeMille keeping the evening formal and brisk. The sponsor gets in first, as Lux Flakes slips into a small domestic scene about gentler dishwashing hands before the play takes over. DeMille enjoys introducing Muni, calling him a paragon of paradoxes, born in Vienna and trained in the Yiddish art theater. Then the room sharpens. Pasteur hears Dr. Charbonnet's challenge and accepts it in front of skeptics who are sure the old order will survive. Fifty sheep wait at Arbois. All are infected with the deadly anthrax bacillus, but only half have Pasteur's vaccination. The field goes quiet until the answer arrives: the unvaccinated sheep are dead, and Pasteur's sheep are alive. Dr. Rossignol is pushed toward apology, and the crowd treats the result like a verdict. At home, Annette and Joe announce their marriage, giving Pasteur's household its own burst of relief. Lister arrives from Edinburgh, honors Pasteur's work, and receives respect in return, with antiseptics named as another front in the same fight. Then a mad dog changes the air. A bitten man is sent to the blacksmith for a red-hot iron, and Pasteur's win against anthrax turns into a harder question about rabies. Dinner can wait. Even after eleven, he cannot let it go. The play has moved from proof to mercy. Muni leaves lightly, mentions Zola's I Accuse, calls himself poor copy, and thanks the theater before DeMille points listeners toward Polly of the Circus.

As heard by us

A Louis Pasteur drama that builds to the anthrax experiment and its blunt proof.

Lux Radio Theatre turns Louis Pasteur into a straightforward science drama, with Paul Muni leading and Cecil B. DeMille introducing the setup.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for an old-time radio science showdown and a sheep-field triumph.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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