Shadow Of A Doubt (Aired November 9, 1950)


From 01/09/49 to 09/28/51 this series was greatly enjoyed by the radio listening audience. It opened as NBC Theater and was also known as The Screen Director’s Guild and The Screen Director’s Assignment. But most people remember it simply as Screen Director’s Playhouse. Many of the Hollywood elite were heard recreating their screen roles over the radio. John Wayne in his rare radio appearances, Cary Grant, Edward G. Robinson, Lucille Ball, Claire Trevor, Tallulah Bankhead and many others were on the air week after week during these broadcasts. Many of Hollywood’s directors were also heard in the recreation of their movies. The President of the Screen Director’s Guild appeared on 02/13/49, and Violinist Isaac Stern supplied the music for the 04/19/51 broadcast.

THIS EPISODE:

November 9, 1950. Shadow Of A Doubt (An Alfred Hitchcock Thriller) (Stars: Carey Grant) - Uncle Charlie relies heavily on his relationship with his niece and name sake Charlie to make him appear like butter wouldn't melt. However, as soon as Niece Charlie puts two and two together and comes to realise the truth about her Uncle the close relationship between them deteriorates at a rapid pace. But, it is less the fact that niece Charlie realises what her uncle really is, but it is because she is growing into a woman that Charlie doesn't like. In becoming a woman niece Charlie now represents all that her uncle can't abide. And it is this misogynistic streak in Uncle Charlie that compels him to attempt to murder his niece, as opposed to what she knows of him.

Boxcars711 Overnight Western "Gunsmoke" - Doc Quits (Aired August 27, 1955)


The radio show first aired on April 26, 1952 and ran until June 18, 1961 on the CBS radio network. The series starred William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon, Howard McNear as Doc Charles Adams, Georgia Ellis as Kitty Russell, and Parley Baer as Deputy Chester Proudfoot. Doc's first name and Chester's last name were changed for the television program. Gunsmoke was notable for its critically acclaimed cast and writing, and is commonly regarded as one of the finest old time radio shows. Some listeners (such as old time radio expert John Dunning) have argued that the radio version of Gunsmoke was far more realistic than the television program. Episodes were aimed at adults, and featured some of the most explicit content of the day: there were violent crimes and scalpings, massacres and opium addicts. Miss Kitty's occupation was made far more obvious on the radio version than on television. Many episodes ended on a down-note, and villains often got away with their crimes.

THIS EPISODE:

August 27, 1955. CBS network. "Doc Quits". Sponsored by: L & M, Chesterfield. The last show of the season. Doc Betchell comes to practice medicine in Dodge and gives Doc Adams a bit of competition. So much in fact, that Doc Adams quits! The script was used on the Gunsmoke television series on February 21, 1959. This is a network, sponsored version. The system cue is added live. William Conrad announces that "Gunsmoke" is coming to television in two weeks. William Conrad, Parley Baer, Georgia Ellis, Howard McNear, Lawrence Dobkin, James Nusser, Anne Morrison, Frank Cady, John Meston (writer), Norman Macdonnell (producer, director), Rex Koury (composer, conductor), Tom Hanley (sound patterns), Bill James (sound patterns), George Walsh (announcer). 30:15.

The Lily of St. Pierre (Aired July 24, 1949)


Damon Runyon Theatre - Broadcast from January to December 1949, "The Damon Runyon Theatre" dramatized 52 of Runyon's short stories for radio. Damon Runyon (October 4, 1884 – December 10, 1946) was a newspaperman and writer. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. He spun tales of gamblers, petty thieves, actors and gangsters; few of whom go by "square" names, preferring instead to be known as "Nathan Detroit", "Big Jule", "Harry the Horse", "Good Time Charlie", "Dave the Dude", and so on. These stories were written in a very distinctive vernacular style: a mixture of formal speech and colorful slang, almost always in present tense, and always devoid of contractions.

THIS EPISODE:

July 24, 1949. Program #30. Mayfair syndication. "The Lily Of Ste. Pierre". Commercials added locally. A Runyonesque love story about an unsavory Broadway type and an innocent Canadian girl. John Brown, Damon Runyon (author), Russell Hughes (adaptor), Vern Carstensen (production supervisor), Richard Sanville (director), Frank Gallop (announcer). 26:40.

2 Ep. "Guest Is Louie Armstong" (Aired September 5, 1943) "Jack Meets Fred Allen (Aired January 15, 1950)

Benny had been only a minor vaudeville performer, but he became a national figure with The Jack Benny Program, a weekly radio show which ran from 1932 to 1948 on NBC and from 1949 to 1955 on CBS. It was consistently among the most highly rated programs during most of that run. With Canada Dry Ginger Ale as a sponsor, Benny came to radio on The Canada Dry Program, beginning May 2, 1932, on the NBC Blue Network and continuing there for six months until October 26, moving the show to CBS on October 30. With Ted Weems leading the band, Benny stayed on CBS until January 26, 1933. Arriving at NBC on March 17, Benny did The Chevrolet Program until April 1, 1934. He continued with sponsor General Tire through the end of the season. In October, 1934, General Foods, the makers of Jell-O and Grape-Nuts, became the sponsor most identified with Jack, for the next ten years. American Tobacco's Lucky Strike was his longest-lasting radio sponsor, from October, 1944, through the end of his original radio series. The show returned to CBS on January 2, 1949, as part of CBS president William S. Paley's notorious "raid" of NBC talent in 1948–49. There it stayed for the remainder of its radio run, which ended on May 22, 1955. CBS aired repeats of old radio episodes from 1956 to 1958 as The Best of Benny. Benny's stage character was just about everything the actual Jack Benny was not: cheap, petty, vain, and self-congratulatory. His comic rendering of these traits became the linchpin to the Benny show's success. Benny set himself up as the comedic foil, allowing his supporting characters to draw laughs at the expense of his character's flaws. By allowing such a character to be seen as human and vulnerable, in an era where few male characters were allowed such obvious vulnerability, Benny made what might have been a despicable character into a lovable Everyman character. Benny himself said on several occasions: "I don't care who gets the laughs on my show, as long as the show is funny."

Legal Loophole (Aired October 3, 1945) and Gloomy Room (Aired October 12, 1945)


Manhunt was a 15-minute crime drama anthology. The scripts ran twelve and a half minutes, so as to allow stations to insert their own commercial messages and announcements in the remaining two and a half minutes. Starring Larry Haines and featuring Frances Robinson, the series was introduced and narrated by Maurice Tarplin. Having instilled a sense of foreboding in the listener, the script would launch into the dramatic exposition necessary to frame the ensuing plot. Each episode posed a crime puzzle of one kind or another--usually a murder under impossible conditions. Larry Haines portrays Andrew 'Drew' Stevens, a police lab forensic detective and Frances Robinson portrays his secretary--and love interest--Patricia 'Pat' O'Connor. Homicide Detective Sergeant Bill Morton is Stevens' local police contact. The format is tight by mystery standards of the era. The introductory exposition usually provides enough intrigue to involve the listener. Show Notes From The Digital Deli

Show Business (Aired February 10, 1952)


The show was sponsored by Swan Soap, and Irma would usually make a silly remark about it so the name could be advertised. Frank Bingman was the announcer for Swan Soap. The program was also sponsored by EMMD's which got rid of breath and body odors and each tiny capsule was said to contain 100g (nearly four ounces) of chlorophyll, which is a miracle in itself. Pepsodent was also a sponsor. Because of the popularity of the show, early in the series (shows 41-43), a contest was run for the services of Irma/Marie Wilson to act as a secretary for the highest bidder for one day, with her willing to travel anywhere in America. The money was to go to the March of Dimes charity to fight polio. Three business men bid $1,000, but the winner was the Coca Cola Bottling Company of Fort Worth, Texas which bid $5,000 to have Irma as their secretary for a day. The TV version, seen on CBS from January 8, 1952 until June 25, 1954, was the first series telecast from the CBS Television City facility in Hollywood. The film My Friend Irma (1949) starred Marie Wilson and Diana Lynn but is mainly remembered today for introducing Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis to moviegoers, resulting in even more screen time for Martin and Lewis in the sequel, My Friend Irma Goes West (1950).

THIS EPISODE:

February 10, 1952. "Show Business" AKA: "Dictation System" - CBS network. Sponsored by: Ennds, Eye-Gene. Irma is tired of her job as a stenographer and gets a job in show business...being sawed in half by a magician! Alan Reed, Carl Caruso (announcer), Cathy Lewis, Cy Howard (writer, producer, director), Hans Conried, Leif Erickson, Lud Gluskin, Marie Wilson, Parke Levy (writer), Pat Burton (associate producer), Sara Berner, Stanley Adams (writer). 30:52.

Two Coffins To Fill (Aired July 4, 1949)


Murder By Experts was a radio drama anthology series that ran on American radio from 1949-1951, and was hosted first by John Dickson Carr, and later by Brett Halliday. Evidently, a mystery, authored by a leading crime fiction writer, was presented, and "guest experts," such as Alfred Hitchcock or Craig Rice, were invited to solve it. Or maybe not -- nobody seems to know much about this one. David Kogan, the writer/creator of Murder by Experts, also created and wrote The Mysterious Traveler. Guest experts: Alfred Hitchcock, Craig Rice. Guest stars: Ann Shepard, Larry Haines, Carl Eastman, Ann Sheperd, Bill Zuckert, Ralph Camargo, Burt Cullen, Lawson Zerbe, Marilyn Erskin.

THIS EPISODE:

July 4, 1949. Mutual network. "Two Coffins To Fill". Sustaining. The story of a man who decides to kill his rich wife, but all his plans backfire. John Dickson Carr (host). 28:12.

Hate Song (Aired December 31, 1952)


Throughout most of the 1940's, Matt Cvetic worked as a volunteer undercover agent for the FBI, infiltrating the Communist Party in Pittsburgh. In 1949, his testimony helped to convict several top Party members of conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government. Cvetic sold his account to "The Saturday Evening Post" and it was serialized under the title "I Posed as a Communist for the FBI". It later became a best-selling book. In 1951, Warner Brothers released a film based on these accounts entitled "I Was A Communist For The FBI", starring with Frank Lovejoy as Cvetic. In 1952, in the midst of the Red scare of the 1950's, the Frederick W. Ziv Company produced the syndicated radio series with the same title as the movie. It was produced without assistance from the FBI, which refused to cooperate. I Was a Communist for the FBI consisted of 78 episodes syndicated by the Frederick W. Ziv Company to more than 600 stations, including KNX in Los Angeles, California, with original episodes running from April 23, 1952 to October 14, 1953. Each episode ended with Dana Andrew's well-remembered words, ""I was a Communist for the FBI. I walk alone". The show had a budget of $12,000 a week, a very high cost to produce a radio show at the time.

THIS EPISODE:

December 31, 1952. Program #37. ZIV Syndication. "Hate Song". Commercials added locally. The Party tries to take over "Boys Inc.," a youth organization. Dana Andrews, Jeffrey Silver, Virginia Gregg, David Rose (composer, conductor), Truman Bradley (announcer), Henry Hayward (director). 26:33.

The Torment Of Henrietta Robinson & Why She Killed (Aired September 7, 1953)


Crime Classics was a U. S. radio docudrama which aired over CBS from June 15, 1953 to June 30, 1954. Created, produced, and directed by radio actor/director Elliott Lewis, the program was basically a historical true crime series, examining crimes, and especially murders, from the past. It grew out of Lewis's personal interest in famous murder cases, and took a documentary-like approach to the subject, carefully recreating the facts, personages, and feel of the time period. Comparatively little dramatic license was taken with the facts and events, but the tragedy was leavened with humor, expressed largely through the narration.

THIS EPISODE:

September 7, 1953. CBS network. "The Torment Of Henrietta Robinson and Why She Killed". Sustaining. A lady of Troy New York in 1845, and her doll Cecily. Very insane and very homicidal. The last show of "the summer series." Ben Wright, Bernard Herrmann (composer, conductor), Betty Harford, Bob Lemond (announcer), David Friedkin (writer), Elliott Lewis (producer, director), Joseph Kearns, Lamont Johnson, Lou Merrill (host), Morton Fine (writer), Paula Winslowe, Sam Edwards, Sammie Hill. 29:24.

The Late Christopher Bean (Aired June 20, 1948)


The Ford Theater, sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, presented hour long dramas first on NBC for one only season. The series moved to CBS for its second and last season. There were 39 NBC and 39 CBS hour- long shows (not verified). The show initially received an unfavorable review from the New York Times for poor script adaptation but was still highly rated for the actors' performance and overall production. The show was supposed to feature only original scripts but had to forgo that plan due to lack of quality material. The first season on NBC used radio actors under the direction of George Zachary. Martin Gabel announced the first show but was soon replaced by Kenneth Banghart. The second season, on CBS, used Hollywood screen actors in the lead roles, supported by radio actors. Fletcher Markle, who previously produced CBS's STUDIO ONE series, was the producer for the second season. Although a short series, it still has some of radio's best dramas.

THIS EPISODE:

June 20, 1948. NBC network. "The Late Christopher Bean". Sponsored by: Ford. A good story about a rural housekeeper whose one great love was a long-dead artist, whose paintings have suddenly become VERY popular. Alice Goodkin, Beatrice Pons, Warren Brian, Louis Calhern (substitute host), Kenneth Banghart (announcer), Richard Gordon, Jane Houston, Jo Ann McCoy, James Van Dyke, Harry Worth, Barbara Weeks, Cameron Prud'Homme, Sidney Howard (author), Sylvia Berger (adaptor), Howard Teichman (editor), Amadeo Di Filipi (composer), Howard Barlow (conductor), George Zacher (director). 1 hour.

The 3rd Degree (Aired November 21, 1948)


The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is an American sitcom, airing on ABC from October 3, 1952 to September 3, 1966, starring the real life Nelson family. After a long run on radio, the show was brought to television where it continued its success, running on both radio and TV for a couple of years. The series starred Ozzie Nelson and his wife, singer Harriet Nelson (née Hilliard), and their young sons, David Nelson and Eric Nelson, better known as Ricky. Don DeFore had a recurring role as the Nelsons' friendly neighbor "Thorny". The series attracted large audiences, and although it was never a top-ten hit, it became synonymous with the 1950s ideal American family life. It is the longest-running "live-action"/non-animated sitcom in US TV history. In the early 1930s, a booking at the Glen Island Casino landed Ozzie Nelson's orchestra national network radio exposure. After three years together with the orchestra, Ozzie and Harriet signed to appear regularly on The Baker's Broadcast (1933-1938), hosted first by Joe Penner, then by Robert L. Ripley, and finally by cartoonist Feg Murray. The couple married on October 8, 1935 during this series run, and realized working together in radio would keep them together more than continuing their musical careers separately.

THIS EPISODE:

November 21, 1948. "The 3rd Degree" - NBC network. Sponsored by: International Silver. Who is more curious...Ozzie or Harriet? And who is that beautiful girl that complimented Ozzie? A funny show. Ozzie Nelson, Harriet Hilliard. 29:29.

Murder One (Aired June 14, 1977)


A host of prominent actors from radio and screen performed on the series, including Agnes Moorehead, Joan Hackett, Mercedes McCambridge, Morey Amsterdam, Roy Thinnes, Keir Dullea, Fred Gwynne, Richard Crenna, Kim Hunter, Larry Haines, Morgan Fairchild, John Lithgow, and even a very young Sarah Jessica Parker. Actors were paid union scale at around $73.92 per show. Writers earned a flat rate of $350.00 per show. The production took place with assembly-line precision. Brown would meet with actors at 9:00 AM for the first reading of the script. He would then assign roles and recording would begin. By noon the recording of the actors was complete and Brown handed everyone their checks. Post-production would take place in the afternoon. In 1975, CBSRMT won the prestigious Peabody Award, and in 1990 it was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. In 1998, the still-active Brown attempted a brief revival of the series, rebroadcasting selected old episodes with his own introductions replacing Marshall's.

THIS EPISODE:

June 14, 1977. Program #664. CBS network. "Murder One". Commercials deleted. The story of a wealthy widow who may have considerably more on her mind than the loss of her husband. E. G. Marshall (host), J. Frederick Lewis (writer), Tammy Grimes, Teri Keane, Leon Janney. 43:57.

The Mysterious Stranger (Aired July 14, 1944)


Author's Playhouse was an anthology radio drama series, created by Wynn Wright, that aired on the NBC Blue Network from March 5, 1941 until October 1941. It then moved to the NBC Red Network where it was heard until June 4, 1945. Philip Morris was the sponsor in 1942-43. Premiering with "Elementals" by Stephen Vincent Benét, the series featured adaptations of stories by famous authors, such as “Mr. Mergenthwirker’s Lobbies” by Nelson Bond, "The Snow Goose" by Paul Gallico, "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs, "The Piano" by William Saroyan and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber. Cast members included Curley Bradley, John Hodiak, Marvin Miller, Nelson Olmsted, Fern Persons, Olan Soule and Les Tremayne. Orchestra conductors for the program were Joseph Gallicchio, Rex Maupin and Roy Shield. Directors included Norman Felton, Homer Heck and Fred Weihe. The series was a precursor to several NBC radio programs of the late 1940s and early 1950s: The World's Great Novels, NBC Presents: Short Story and The NBC University Theater.

THIS EPISODE:

July 14, 1944. NBC network. "The Mysterious Stranger". Sustaining. A fantasy about a boy who gets out of a sick bed of a day on the town with a strange yet somehow familiar man. Zachary Gold (writer). 28:30.

Boxcars711 Overnight Western "Cisco Kid" - Rodeo At Calico Corners (Aired January 11, 1955)


The Cisco Kid refers to a character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in the collection Heart of the West. In movies and television, the Kid was depicted as a heroic Mexican caballero, even though he was originally a cruel outlaw. The Cisco Kid came to radio October 2, 1942, with Jackson Beck in the title role and Louis Sorin as Pancho. With Vicki Vola and Bryna Raeburn in supporting roles and Michael Rye announcing, this series continued on Mutual until 1945. It was followed by another Mutual series in 1946, starring Jack Mather and Harry Lang, who continued to head the cast in the syndicated radio series of more than 600 episodes from 1947 to 1956. The radio episodes ended with one or the other of them making a corny joke about the adventure they had just completed. They would laugh, saying, "'oh, Pancho!" "'oh, Cisco!", before galloping off, while laughing. Renaldo returned to the role for the popular 156-episode Ziv Television series The Cisco Kid (1950–1956), notable as the first TV series filmed in color. The Cisco Kid's sidekick Pancho was portrayed by Leo Carrillo for the 1950s TV series.

THIS EPISODE:

January 11, 1955. Program #259. Mutual-Don Lee network, KHJ, Los Angeles origination, Ziv syndication. "Rodeo At Calico Corners". Commercials added locally. Bruce Taber and Cannon Ray plan to rob the bank during the town's rodeo. Jack Mather, Harry Lang. 27:38.

Dinner Of Death (Aired April 23, 1945)


The Bulldog Drummond stories followed Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, D.S.O., M.C., a wealthy former WWI officer of the fictional Loamshire Regiment, who, after the war, spends his new-found leisure time as a private detective. Drummond is a proto-James Bond figure and a version of the imperial adventurers depicted by the likes of John Buchan. In terms of the detective genre, the first Bulldog Drummond novel was published after the Sherlock Holmes stories, the Nayland Smith/Fu Manchu novels and Richard Hannay's first three adventures including The Thirty-Nine Steps. The character first appeared in the novel Bulldog Drummond (1920), and this was followed by a lengthy series of books and adaptations for films, radio and television. "Drummond... has the appearance of an English gentleman: a man who fights hard, plays hard and lives clean... His best friend would not call him good-looking but he possess that cheerful type of ugliness which inspires immediate confidence ... Only his eyes redeem his face. Deep-set and steady, with eyelashes that many women envy, they show him to be a sportsman and an adventurer. Drummond goes outside the law when he feels the ends justify the means." The opening of the radio show starts with a the sounds of footsteps, foghorn, then two shots ring out, followed by three blows of a police officer's whistle. Bulldog was a methodical crime-solving sleuth who let nothing get in his way of his goal, which was to put a stop to crime! Bulldog believed in uncomplicated and decisive means of getting his way with the lords of the underworld. This usually led to their swift capture, and the easing of the city's burden brought about by these ruthless thugs.

Double Cross In Space Part.2 of 2 (Aired April 3, 1952)


Tom's career covered every media outlet of the 1950's, except the movies. There were eight hardback books published by Grosset and Dunlap from 1952 to 1956, fourteen comics published by Dell & Prize comics from 1952 to 1955, a daily and Sunday newspaper strip written by Paul S. Newman and drawn by Ray Bailey from September 1951 to September 1953 , a six month run of radio shows in 1952 and the TV series from Oct 1950 to 1956. The TV series began on CBS (October 2, 1950 - December 29, 1950 ), then moved to ABC from January 1, 1951 to September 26, 1952. While on ABC, there were repeats on NBC (as a summer replacement for Victor Borge) from July 1951 to September 1951 . Then, after Kelloggs canceled the series, it returned on alternate Saturdays for one season on the DuMont network from August 29, 1953 to May 22, 1954. The last season, for Kraft, ran on NBC from December 11, 1954 to June 25, 1955. The show was broadcast in a Monday, Wed and Friday format with 30 minute shows on Saturday.

Andy Inflates His Tax Return (Aired March 2, 1945)


Amos 'n' Andy was a situation comedy popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s. The show began as one of the first radio comedy serials, written and voiced by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll and originating from station WMAQ in Chicago, Illinois. After the series was first broadcast in 1928, it grew in popularity and became a huge influence on the radio serials that followed. Amos 'n' Andy creators Gosden and Correll were white actors familiar with minstrel traditions. They met in Durham, North Carolina in 1920, and by the fall of 1925, they were performing nightly song-and-patter routines on the Chicago Tribune's station WGN. Since the Tribune syndicated Sidney Smith's popular comic strip The Gumps, which had successfully introduced the concept of daily continuity, WGN executive Ben McCanna thought the notion of a serialized drama could also work on radio. He suggested to Gosden and Correll that they adapt The Gumps to radio. They instead proposed a series about "a couple of colored characters" and borrowed certain elements of The Gumps. Their new series, Sam 'n' Henry, began January 12, 1926, fascinating radio listeners throughout the Midwest. That series became popular enough that in late 1927 Gosden and Correll requested that it be distributed to other stations on phonograph records in a "chainless chain" concept that would have been the first use of radio syndication as we know it today. When WGN rejected the idea, Gosden and Correll quit the show and the station that December. Contractually, their characters belonged to WGN, so when Gosden and Correll left WGN, they performed in personal appearances but could not use the character names from the radio show.

THIS EPISODE:

March 2, 1945. "Andy Inflates His Tax Return" - NBC network. Sponsored by: Rinso, Lifebuoy. Andy is going to have to pay income tax on the $250 he made in 1944. "The Mystic Knights Of The Sea Quartet" do a great "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans." Freeman Gosden, Charles Correll, Harlow Wilcox (announcer), The Mystic Knights Of The Sea Quartet, Lou Lubin, James Basquette. 23:23.

Cemetery Attack (Aired April 20, 1954)


Peter Chambers, the dashing playboy private eye, came from the pen of Henry Kane. The output of his writing career included over 60 novels, including about 30 featuring Peter Chambers. In an interest- ing twist, Mr. Kane became the writer, director and producer for the radio series based on his characters. Crime and Peter Chambers aired in 1954 on NBC stations, running from April to September, 1954. A total of 23 30-minute shows were broad- cast of which 21 are in circulation, according to Jay Hickerson's "Ultimate Guide" (see References section below). The part of Peter Chambers was played Dane Clark. Clark previously acted tough guy parts in a number of movies, starting in 1942. He made a fairly convincing detective. Bill Zuckert played Lt. Parker in the series.

Double Cross In Space Pt.1 of 2 (Aired April 1, 1952)


Tom Corbett is the main character in a series of Tom Corbett — Space Cadet stories that were depicted in television, radio, books, comic books, comic strips, coloring books, punch-out books and View-Master reels in the 1950s. The stories followed the adventures of Tom Corbett, Astro, and Roger Manning, cadets at the Space Academy as they train to become members of the elite Solar Guard. The action takes place at the Academy in classrooms and bunkroom, aboard their training ship the rocket cruiser Polaris, and on alien worlds, both within our solar system and in orbit around nearby stars. The Tom Corbett universe partook of pseudo-science, not equal to the standards of accuracy set by John W. Campbell in the pages of Astounding. And yet, by the standards of the day, it was much more accurate than most media science fiction. Mars was a desert, Venus a jungle, and the asteroids a haunt of space pirates, but at least planets circled suns and there was no air in space. Contrast this with Twilight Zone, years later, where people could live on asteroids wearing ordinary clothes, or Lost in Space, years after that, where a spaceship could be passing "Jupiter and Andromeda" at the same time. Before Star Trek, Tom Corbett — Space Cadet was the most scientifically accurate series on television, in part due to official science advisor Willy Ley, and later due to Frankie Thomas. Thomas read up on science and everyone on the set turned to him for advice on matters scientific.

The Money Maker (Aired August 2, 1948)


Bob Bailey played George Valentine as a detective handy man, who got his jobs from responses to a newspaper ad. Part-time detective and writer Dan Holiday in Box 13 also used the premise. It pays to advertise! The shows follow the usual formats of crime caper shows, with toughs, mysterious rendezvous and people who aren't who they say they are. Francis Robinson first played Brooksie, then Virginia Gregg took the role through its best years. Both ladies played Brooksie smart and sassy. Brooksie took every occasion to make it clear to George that the case he was the most off base on was the "Case of the Missing Engagement Ring." In the late '40's, an organist was used for the scene transitions, and sound effects were fairly minimal, as the show was loaded with snappy patter. In the 1950's, the music turns orchestral, and the production values are a little more thorough. Let George Do It was an excellent show in its own right, but it just so happened that it was to be the warm-up act for Bob Bailey's most masterful radio role, that of "the man with the action-packed expense account." He joined Yours Truly Johnny Dollar in 1955, and made the show golden as a classic of the final years of Old Time Radio.

THIS EPISODE:

August 2, 1948. - Mutual-Don Lee network. Sponsored by: Standard Oil, Chevron. Martin Kirsch of The Bonded Paper Company hires George Valentine to recover reams of very valuable paper which has been stolen from the mill. The fate of a country is at stake! Bob Bailey, Frances Robinson, Wally Maher, Herb Butterfield, Eddie Fields, Clayton Post, Don Clark (director), Joe Forte, Charlie Lung, Bud Hiestand (announcer), David Victor (writer), Herbert Little Jr. (writer), Eddie Dunstedter (composer, conductor). 31:10.

Three Cent Stamp (Aired January 14, 1951)


In 1951, NBC beckoned Skelton to bring his radio show to television. His characters worked even better on screen than on radio. TV also led to one of his best-remembered characters, "Freddie the Freeloader," a traditional tramp whose appearance suggested the elder brother of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus clown Emmett Kelly. Announcer and voice actor Art Gilmore, who voiced numerous movie trailers in Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, became the announcer on the show, with David Rose and his orchestra providing the music. A hit instrumental for Rose, called "Holiday for Strings", was used as Skelton's TV theme song. During the 1951–52 season, Skelton broadcast live from a converted NBC radio studio. When he complained about the pressures of doing a live show, NBC agreed to film his shows in the 1952–53 season at Eagle Lion Studios, next to the Sam Goldwyn Studio, on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood. Later the show was moved to the new NBC television studios in Burbank.

THIS EPISODE:

January 14, 1951. CBS network origination, AFRTS rebroadcast. "The Three-Cent Stamp." Red is looking for a postage stamp. Also, "World of Wheels." for network, sponsored, quality upgrade version. Red Skelton, Lurene Tuttle, Rod O'Connor (announcer), David Rose and His Orchestra, Dick Ryan, Pat McGeehan, John Holbrook (commercial spokesman). 29:28.

2 Episodes "New York" and "Out Of Control" (1932)


Over the years, many television series, books, and movies have taken a longing look at the past in programs such as Little House on the Prairie and The Waltons which served as a reminder of old fashioned values and a time when a sense of community was a reality. The quest for this sort of world continues in the 21st Century with the rise of Amish fiction stories. Family Doctor is not taking a look back, but is set in the then-present which is widely believed to be 1932 when the shows were produced. Like the other syndicated 15 minute shows we examined the last two weeks, Family Doctor's 39 episodes were syndicated to various radio stations and sold as a package. Unlike the other shows, Family Doctor had regular character and story archs. The show follows the adventures of Grant Adams, the longtime physician of the small town of Cedarton. Cedarton is a three-dimensional town brimming with wonderful characters who Doc Adams tries to help and encourage including Pete who runs the drugstore and Griff, the workaholic boat renter who works too hard and always promises that he'll find a younger man to do his hard work. Then there are two teenage girls who compete for the hear of a clerk at the drug store and then when he leaves, they fight for the next clerk hired. Show Notes From Great Detectives (greatdetectives.net)

The Man Who Stole The Bible (Aired May 5, 1950)


Escape was radio's leading anthology series of high adventure, airing on CBS from July 7, 1947 to September 25, 1954. Since the program did not have a regular sponsor like Suspense, it was subjected to frequent schedule shifts and lower production budgets, although Richfield Oil signed on as a sponsor for five months in 1950. Despite these problems, Escape enthralled many listeners during its seven-year run. The series' well-remembered opening combined Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain with this introduction, as intoned by Paul Frees and William Conrad: “Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you... Escape!” Following the opening theme, a second announcer (usually Roy Rowan) would add: "We offer you... Escape! Designed to free you from the four walls of today for a half-hour of high adventure!" Of the more than 230 Escape episodes, most have survived in good condition. Many story premises, both originals and adaptations, involved a protagonist in dire life-or-death straits, and the series featured more science fiction and supernatural tales than Suspense.

THIS EPISODE:

May 5, 1950. CBS network. "The Man Who Stole The Bible". Sponsored by: Richfield Oil (baseball book premium). It's Mardi Gras time in New Orleans, and a salesman has a date with the devil! The story was subsequently produced on Escape on August 30, 1951 and on "Suspense" on November 25, 1956. Ben Wright, Gwen Bagni (writer), Harry Bartell, John Bagni (writer), Lou Merrill, Mary Shipp, Nan Boardman, Paul Frees, Peter Leeds, Rick Vallin, Will Geer, William N. Robson (producer, director), Ivan Ditmars (special music arranger, performer). 29:00.

Boxcars711 Overnight Western "Have Gun Will Travel" - So True Mr. Barnum (Aired April 10, 1960)


The show followed the adventures of Paladin, a gentleman-turned-gunfighter (played by Richard Boone on television, and by John Dehner on radio), who preferred to settle problems without violence, yet, when forced to fight, excelled. Paladin lived in the Carlton Hotel in San Francisco, where he dressed in semi-formal wear, ate gourmet food, and attended opera. In fact, many who initially met him mistook him for a dandy from the East. When working, he dressed in black, used calling cards and wore a holster which carried characteristic chess knight emblems, and carried a derringer under his belt. The knight symbol is in reference to his name — possibly a nickname or working name — and his occupation as a champion-for-hire (see paladin). The theme song of the series refers to him as "a knight without armor." In addition, Paladin drew a parallel between his methods and the chess piece's movement: "It's a chess piece, the most versatile on the board. It can move in eight different directions, over obstacles, and it's always unexpected." Paladin was a former Army officer and a graduate of West Point. He was a polyglot, capable of speaking any foreign tongue required by the plot. He also had a thorough knowledge of ancient history and classical literature, and he exhibited a strong passion for legal principles and the rule of law.

THIS EPISODE:

April 10, 1960. CBS network. "So True, Mr. Barnum". Sponsored by: Winston, Doan's Pills. Hey Boy and the Celestial Dragon Society have spent $2000 on a phoney Mexican treasure map...or is it a phoney? This is a quality upgrade, network, sponsored version. John Dehner, Ben Wright, Virginia Gregg, Hugh Douglas (announcer), Lawrence Dobkin, Barney Phillips, Sam Edwards, Frank Paris (producer, director), Ann Doud (writer), Bill James (sound effects), Tom Hanley (sound effects), Sam Rolfe (creator), Herb Meadow (creator). 24:33.

Rubin Callaway's Pictures (Aired March 13, 1949)


Pat Novak for Hire was an old-time radio detective show which aired from 1946-1947 as a West Coast regional program and in 1949 as a nationwide program for ABC. The regional version originally starred Jack Webb in the title role, with scripts by his roommate Richard L. Breen. When Webb and Breen moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles to work on an extremely similar nationwide series, Johnny Modero, for the Mutual network, Webb was replaced by Ben Morris and Breen by other writers. In the later network version, Jack Webb resumed the Novak role, and Breen his duties as scriptwriter. The series is popular among fans for its fast-paced, hard-boiled dialogue and action and witty one-liners. Pat Novak for Hire is set on the San Francisco, California waterfront and depicts the city as a dark, rough place where the main goal is survival. Pat Novak is not a detective by trade. He owns a boat shop on Pier 19 where he rents out boats and does odd jobs to make money. Each episode of the program, particularly the Jack Webb episodes, follows the same basic formula; a foghorn sounds and Novak's footsteps are heard walking down the pier. He then pauses and begins with the line "Sure, I'm Pat Novak . . . for hire". The foghorn repeats and leads to the intro theme, during which Pat gives a monologue about the waterfront and his job renting boats. Jack Webb narrates the story as well as acts in it, as the titular character.

THIS EPISODE:

March 13, 1949. Program #5. "Rubin Callaway's Pictures" - ABC network origination, AFRS rebroadcast. A dying man in the harbor, a bunch of photos in a locker, and lots of trouble for Novak in the form of Alma Biggs. There was a rehearsal recording of this program, dated March 1, 1949. Jack Webb, William P. Rousseau (producer), Tudor Owen, Raymond Burr, Basil Adlam (composer, conductor). 29:30.

Luck (Aired March 28, 1949)


Radio City Playhouse was one of the last of a long series of premium Drama productions NBC offered as flagship, sustaining productions over the years. As with it's previous premium dramatic and Classic music productions, NBC spared no apparent expense to mount these flagship efforts. And it shows. NBC, yet again, brings the greatest voice talent, writing, and technical direction to this anthology of wonderful, popular modern dramas. NBC's previous dramatic sustaining productions consisted of either the pure Classics, or Modern Stage Plays from the 19th and 20th Centuries. This series of three seasons tended to feature a delightful mix of both contemporary original radio plays and classic dramas, backed by the very finest voice talent on contract with NBC. But Director Harry Junkin also introduced several new talents into the mix, which made for a wonderful combination of both tried and true productions with just enough orginal dramas and writers to keep the series both timely and timeless. As was the hallmark of all of NBC's corporate sustaining productions, the staff, music, sound engineering and voice talent were absolutely top-drawer from top to bottom and beginning to end. Even the newcomers the series showcased during its three seasons were remarkably talented young finds in their own right. This is yet another in a long, distinguished line of absolutely impeccable NBC-sustained productions, and its historic cultural contribution to The Golden Age of Radio merits inclusion in any serious Radio Collector's active holdings--active as in, the ones they actually listen to from time to time.

THIS EPISODE:

March 28, 1949. Program #32. NBC network. "Luck". Sustaining. The program is referred to as, "Attraction #30." The story of a troubled man who feels he has bad luck. Harry W. Junkin (director, host), Bob Warren (announcer), Wilbur Daniel Steel (writer), John McGovern. 32:19.

The Big Informant (Aired March 27, 1956)


Dragnet was a long-running radio and television police procedural drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from an actual police term, a "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects. Dragnet debuted inauspiciously. The first several months were bumpy, as Webb and company worked out the program’s format and eventually became comfortable with their characters (Friday was originally portrayed as more brash and forceful than his later usually relaxed demeanor). Gradually, Friday’s deadpan, fast-talking persona emerged, described by John Dunning as "a cop's cop, tough but not hard, conservative but caring." (Dunning, 210) Friday’s first partner was Sgt. Ben Romero, portrayed by Barton Yarborough, a longtime radio actor. When Dragnet hit its stride, it became one of radio’s top-rated shows. While most radio shows used one or two sound effects experts, Dragnet needed five; a script clocking in at just under 30 minutes could require up to 300 separate effects. Accuracy was underlined: The exact number of footsteps from one room to another at Los Angeles police headquarters were imitated, and when a telephone rang at Friday’s desk, the listener heard the same ring as the telephones in Los Angeles police headquarters.

THIS EPISODE:

March 27, 1956. Program #196. NBC network. "The Big Informant". Sponsored by: Chesterfield. Three safe burglars are in operation, one of them is under observation by the cops. But where's Shorty? Network, sponsored version. Jack Webb, Ben Alexander, Vic Perrin, Stacy Harris, John Robinson (writer), Walter Schumann (music). 30:01.

Bullets Or Ballets (Aired April 16, 1939)


Lux Radio Theater (Hollywood Radio) strove to feature as many of the original stars of the original stage and film productions as possible, usually paying them $5,000 an appearance to do the show. It was when sponsor Lever Brothers (who made Lux soap and detergent) moved the show from New York to Hollywood in 1936 that it eased back from adapting stage shows and toward adaptations of films. The first Lux film adaptation was The Legionnaire and the Lady, with Marlene Dietrich and Clark Gable, based on the film Morocco. That was followed by a Lux adaptation of The Thin Man, featuring the movie's stars, Myrna Loy and William Powell.

THIS EPiSODE:

April 16, 1939. CBS network. "Bullets Or Ballots". Sponsored by: Lux. A tough cop pretends to leave the force to break up a gang. Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor, Humphrey Bogart, Cecil B. DeMille, Chester Clute, Edward Marr, Galan Galt (doubles), Lindsay MacHarrie, Melville Ruick (announcer), Otto Kruger, Wallis Clark, Wally Maher, Seton Miller (author, screenwriter), Martin Mooney (author), Frank Gomphert (intermission guest: criminologist and motion picture technical advisor), Lou Merrill (doubles), Earle Ross, Ross Forrester (doubles), Frank Nelson (program opening announcer), Frank Woodruff (director), George Wells (adaptor), Charlie Forsyth (sound effects). 53:03.

Boxcars711 Overnight Western "Luke Slaughter Of Tombstone" - Wagon Train (Aired April 13, 1958)


CBS started the year 1958 off with the introduction on January 1, 1958 of Frontier Gentleman. That series lasted 41 broadcasts. Near the end of the year, the network launched Have Gun, Will Travel on November 11, 1958, which continued for 106 programs. In between, a very short series was offered and discontinued after only 16 broadcasts, Luke Slaughter Of Tombstone. Sam Buffington starred as Luke Slaughter, a Civil War cavalryman who turned to cattle ranching in post war Arizona territory near Fort Huachuca. William N. Robson, known from his work with such series as Escape, Suspense and The CBS Radio Workshop, directed. Sam Buffington enacted the title role on Luke Slaughter of Tombstone, another of CBS's prestigious adult Westerns. The series was produced and directed by William N. Robson, one of radio's greatest dramatic directors and Robert Stanley producer was aired from February 23 through June 15, 1958. Buffington portrayed the hard-boiled cattleman with scripts overseen by Gunsmoke sound effects artist (and sometimes scriptwriter) Tom Hanley. Each program had an authoritative opening statement: "Slaughter's my name, Luke Slaughter. Cattle's my business. It's a tough business, it's a big business. I got a big stake in it. And there's no man west of the Rio Grande big enough to take it away from me." Junius Matthews was heard as Slaughter's sidekick, Wichita.

THIS EPISODE:

April 13, 1958. "Wagon Train" - CBS network. Sustaining. Carl Justice has been robbed of $10,000, an attempt has been made to rob the bank, and Wichita has been pistol whipped! Suspicion falls on a small wagon train. This is a network version. Sam Buffington, William N. Robson (director), Tom Hanley (editorial supervisor), Don Clark (writer), Amerigo Moreno (composer, conductor), Lawrence Dobkin, Jean Carson, Junius Matthews, Chester Stratton. 25:42.

Circumstantial Evidence (Aired May 3, 1953)


NBC first envisioned The Chase as a new Television feature. This was not uncommon during the later 1940s and early 1950s. Several Radio features straddled both media, with varying success. Developed as a psychological drama, the premise was that many life situations place their subjects in a 'chase' of one type or another. A chase for fame. A chase from peril. A chase to beat the clock. A chase to escape death. The added twist was the question of who is the hunter or the hunted in these situations. The scripts were faced paced, starred quality east coast talent and were well written. The series' plots and themes focused primarily on predominantly fear inducing pursuits of one form or another. Thus most of the scripts were fraught with tension of one type or another. Whether mental tension, physical peril or a mix of both, the abiding theme throughout the series was the the contrasts between the 'hunter' and the 'hunted' in such Life situations. NBC's Television version of The Chase was in production during May 1953. It was to star Doug Fowley as both narrator and performer. Apparently the powers to be eventually decided to abandon the production. It would also appear that the TV production was abandoned at about the same time the Radio version was pulled, to be replaced by NBC's prestigious NBC Summer Symphony series.

THIS EPISODE:

May 3, 1953. NBC network. "Circumstantial Evidence". Sustaining. A series of strange coincidences finds a traveling salesman accused of murder. Lawrence Klee (creator, writer), Fred Weihe (director, transcriber), Fred Collins (announcer), Don Briggs, Joe Latham, Jane Webb, Ted Osborne, Ken Williams. 29:08.

Bobby Sox Bandit (Aired November 23, 1945)


This Is Your FBI was a radio crime drama which aired in the United States on ABC from April 6, 1945 to January 30, 1953. FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover gave it his endorsement, calling it "the finest dramatic program on the air." Producer-director Jerry Devine was given access to FBI files by Hoover, and the resulting dramatizations of FBI cases were narrated by Frank Lovejoy (1945), Dean Carleton (1946-47) and William Woodson (1948-53). Stacy Harris had the lead role of Special Agent Jim Taylor. Others in the cast were William Conrad, Bea Benaderet and Jay C. Flippen. This Is Your FBI was sponsored during its entire run by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States (now AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company). This is Your FBI had counterparts on the other networks. The FBI in Peace and War also told stories of the FBI, although some were not authentic. Earlier on, Gangbusters, and the previously mentioned Mr. District Attorney gave the authentic crime treatment to their stories. And Dragnet, and Tales of the Texas Rangers, took the idea on as well. Crime, especially true crime, was a genre in the magazines early on, with the Police Gazette and its predecessors in England printing lurid true crime stories prior to radio. This is Your FBI took the idea, and made it realistic, exciting and even informational.

A New Face For Joe Harvey (Aired November 5, 1946)


The Boston Blackie radio series, also starring Morris, began June 23, 1944, on NBC as a summer replacement for The Amos 'n' Andy Show. Sponsored by Rinso, the series continued until September 15 of that year. Unlike the concurrent films, Blackie had a steady romantic interest in the radio show: Lesley Woods appeared as Blackie's girlfriend Mary Wesley. Harlow Wilcox was the show's announcer. On April 11, 1945, Richard Kollmar took over the title role in a radio series syndicated by Frederic W. Ziv to Mutual and other network outlets. Over 200 episodes of this series were produced between 1944 and October 25, 1950. Other sponsors included Lifebuoy Soap, Champagne Velvet beer, and R&H beer. While investigating mysteries, Blackie invaribly encountered harebrained Police Inspector Farraday (Maurice Tarplin) and always solved the mystery to Farraday's amazement. Initially, friction surfaced in the relationship between Blackie and Farraday, but as the series continued, Farraday recognized Blackie's talents and requested assistance. Blackie dated Mary Wesley (Jan Miner), and for the first half of the series, his best pal Shorty was always on hand. The humorless Farraday was on the receiving end of Blackie's bad puns and word play. Kent Taylor starred in the half-hour TV series, The Adventures of Boston Blackie. Syndicated in 1951, it ran for 58 episodes, continuing in repeats over the following decade.

The Case Of The Disappearing Diamonds (Aired March 9, 1951)


Nero Wolf is a fictional detective created by American author Rex Stout in the 1930s and featured in dozens of novels and novellas.In the stories, Wolf is one of the most famous private detectives in the United States. He weighs about 285 pounds and is 5'11" tall. He raises orchids in a rooftop greenhouse in his New York City brownstone on West 35th Street, helped by his live-in gardener Theodore Horstmann. Wolf drinks beer throughout the day. He employs a live-in chef, Fritz Brenner. He is multilingual and brilliant, though apparently self-educated, and reading is his third passion after food and orchids. He works in an office in his house and almost never leaves home, even to pursue the detective work that finances his expensive lifestyle. Instead, his leg work is done by another live-in employee, Archie Goodwin. While both Wolf and Goodwin are licensed detectives, Goodwin is more of the classic fictional gumshoe, tough, wise-cracking, and skirt-chasing. He tells the stories in a breezy first-person narrative that is semi-hard-boiled in style.

THIS EPISODE:

March 9, 1951. NBC network. "The Case Of The Disappearing Diamonds". Sustaining. Willie Inch needs Wolf's help, He's a professional sneak thief accused of the murder of wealthy Mrs. Florence Avery Marsh. The final promotional announcement and the system cue have been deleted. Sydney Greenstreet, Mandred Lloyd (writer), J. Donald Wilson (producer, director), GeGe Pearson, William Johnstone, Don Stanley (announcer), Rex Stout (creator), Edwin Fadiman (producer), Harry Bartell, Bud Hiestand, Grace Stafford, Dick Ryan. 28:41.

Organ (Aired June 8, 1943)


Lights Out was created in Chicago by writer Wyllis Cooper in 1934, and the first series of shows (each 15 minutes long) ran on a local NBC station, WENR. By April 1934, the series was expanded to a half hour in length and moved to midnight Wednesdays. In January 1935, the show was discontinued in order to ease Cooper's workload (he was then writing scripts for the network's prestigious Immortal Dramas program), but was brought back by huge popular demand a few weeks later. After a successful tryout in New York City, the series was picked up by NBC in April 1935 and broadcast nationally, usually late at night and always on Wednesdays. Cooper stayed on the program until June 1936, when another Chicago writer, Arch Oboler, took over. By the time Cooper left, the series had inspired about 600 fan clubs. Cooper's run was characterized by grisly stories spiked with dark, tongue-in-cheek humor, a sort of radio Grand Guignol. A character might be buried or eaten or skinned alive, vaporized in a ladle of white-hot steel, absorbed by a giant slurping amoeba, have his arm torn off by a robot, tortured or decapitated -- always with the appropriate blood-curdling acting and sound effects.

THIS EPISODE:

June 8, 1943. CBS network. "Organ". Sponsored by: Ironized Yeast. The story of a strange summer house and its even stranger secrets. This is a network, sponsored version. The story is also known as, "Vacation With Death." The script was used previously on "Lights Out" on May 12, 1937. Arch Oboler (writer, host), Frank Martin (commercial spokesman). 29:04.

Tax Time Again (Aired March 15, 1950)


Burns and Allen were an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen.Burns wrote most of the material, and played the straight man. Allen played a silly, addleheaded woman. Both attributed their success to the other, to the ends of their lives. Early on, the team had played the opposite roles until they noticed that the audience was laughing at Gracie's straight lines, so they made the change. Burns and Allen developed their popular routine over more than three decades of stage, radio, film, and television. Historians of popular culture have often stated that Allen was a brilliant comedian, whose entire career consisted of engaging in dialogues of "illogical logic" that left her verbal opponents dazed and confused, and her audiences in stitches. During a typical 23-minute episode of the Burns and Allen show, the vast majority of the dialogue and speaking parts were written for Allen, who was credited with having the genius to deliver her lengthy diatribes in a fashion that made it look as though she was making her arguments up on the spot. (One running gag on the TV show was the existence of a closet full of hats belonging to various visitors to the Burns household, where the guests would slip out the door unnoticed, leaving their hats behind, rather than face another round with Gracie.) A continuing joke on the show was that George would say, "Say good night, Gracie," and Gracie would say, "Good night Gracie!" Ralph Pape used the catchphrase for the title of his play, Say Goodnight, Gracie, produced by Steppenwolf in 1983, and the phrase lives on as a title of other books and stage productions.

The Cat Woman (Aired July 13, 1964)


The Creaking Door was an old-time radio series of horror and suspense shows originating in South Africa. The Old Time Radio Researchers Group reports 42 extant episodes in MP3 circulation. The series was first aired in 1964-65. The stories are thrillers in the Inner Sanctum vein, and generally thought of favorably by most fans of OTR. It was sponsored by State Express 555 (pronounced "State Express Three Fives") cigarettes, a British American Tobacco product. One episode, "Face to Face" -- about a planned first landing on the moon -- refers to "Cape Kennedy" as the launch site, placing the broadcast between 1964 (when Cape Canaveral was renamed Cape Kennedy) and 1969 (the actual first moon landing). The Pumamouse website indicates a series run duration of three years (1966-1968). Other apocryphal sources indicate a possible run duration of seven years (1963-1970). As a weekly programme, there may have been a theoretical minimum of between 140 to 300+ episodes and/or re-broadcasts. The Creaking Door productions remain a highly engaging tribute to the supernatural thriller genre and, as such, continue to be a highly sought after series. Definitely still a compelling, 'lights-out' listening experience for young and old alike.

Checkerboard Murder Case (Aired September 13, 1949)


Philo Vance was the detective creation of S. S. Van Dine first published in the mid 1920s. Vance, in the original books, is an intellectual so highly refined he seems he might be ghostwritten by P. G. Wodehouse. Take this quote from The Benson Murder Case, 1924, as Vance pontificates in his inimitable way: "That's your fundamental error, don't y' know. Every crime is witnessed by outsiders, just as is every work of art. The fact that no one sees the criminal, or the artist, actu'lly at work, is wholly incons'quential." Thankfully, the radio series uses only the name, and makes Philo a pretty normal, though very intelligent and extremely courteous gumshoe. Jose Ferrer played him in 1945. From 1948-1950, the fine radio actor Jackson Beck makes Vance as good as he gets. George Petrie plays Vance's constantly impressed public servant, District Attorney Markham. Joan Alexander is Ellen Deering, Vance's secretary and right-hand woman. The organist for the show is really working those ivories, and fans of old time radio organ will especially enjoy this series. Perhaps one reason the organist "pulls out all the stops" is because there seems to be little, if any, sound effects on the show. Philo Vance, the radio series, does pay homage to the original books in that both were, even in their own time, a bit out of date and stilted.

THIS EPISODE:

September 13, 1949. Program #62. ZIV Syndication. "The Checkered Murder Case". Commercials added locally. A man in a checkered suit commits a robbery, shoots the victim and then vanishes! This crook then commits three crimes at the same time in three different places...and vanishes from each place! A better-than-usual plot for this series. Jackson Beck, Joan Alexander, S. S. Van Dine (creator), Jeanne K. Harrison (director), Henry Sylvern (organist), Frederick W. Ziv (producer). 27:36.

Trigger Man's Moll (Aired November 7, 1949)


MGM produced Crime Does Not Pay shorts through 1948, at which time WMGM began airing the Crime Does Not Pay radio program. While some of the Film version themes found their way into the Radio version, almost all seventy-eight Radio Crime Does Not Pay topics are original to the series. Many have theorized that some or all of the Crime Does Not Pay radio scripts had been works-in-progress for the Film version, or perhaps even envisioned for Television, where many of the Film shorts were already airing from time to time. Whatever the medium, Crime Does Not Pay seems to have touched a nerve with the American public. With another world war looming, suspected 'fifth columnists' around every corner, and scams from the post-Depression years still running their course throughout the country, there was plenty of material from which to draw for MGM's Shorts Division. All of this prologue is by way of explaining what appears to be an anomaly in Golden Age Radio--a series of radio programs recorded almost exclusively by movie actors. With the possible exception of Ed Begley, Everett Sloane, Lionel Stander and Joan Lorring, none of the other featured actors in the series ever played a major role in Radio.

THIS EPISODE:

November 7, 1949. Program #5. MGM syndication. "Trigger Man's Moll". Commercials added locally. Tootsie "gets a conscience" and is rubbed out by the mob. After the "disposal squad" gets rid of the body, two years go by and Tootsie's "moll" realizes he's worth more dead than alive and she refuses to identify his killer! Ira Marion (writer), Jon Gart (music), Marx B. Loeb (director), Nancy Kelly, Burton B. Turkas (technical advisor), Bob Williams (announcer). 25:51.

The Little Man's Lament (Aired November 9, 1949)


Jeff Regan, Investigator was one of the three detective shows Jack Webb did before Dragnet (see also Pat Novak For Hire and Johnny Modero: Pier 23). It debuted on CBS in July 1948. Webb played JEFF REGAN, a tough private eye working in a Los Angeles investigation firm run by Anthony J. Lyon. Regan introduced himself on each show "I get ten a day and expenses...they call me the Lyon's Eye." The show was fairly well-plotted, Webb's voice was great, and the supporting cast were skillful. Regan handled rough assignments from Lion, with whom he was not always on good terms. He was tough, tenacious, and had a dry sense of humor. The voice of his boss, Anthony Lion, was Wilms Herbert. The show ended in December 1948 but was resurrected in October 1949 with a new cast; Frank Graham played Regan (later Paul Dubrov was the lead) and Frank Nelson portrayed Lion. This version ran on CBS, sometimes as a West Coast regional, until August 1950. Both versions were 30 minutes, but the day and time slot changed several times.

#094 "Jane Opens A Checking Account" and #95 "Jane Has Problems With Her Checking Account" (1940)


Easy Aces, a long-running American serial radio comedy (1930–1945), was trademarked by the low-keyed drollery of creator and writer Goodman Ace and his wife, Jane, as an urbane, put-upon realtor and his malaprop-prone wife. A 15-minute program, airing as often as five times a week, Easy Aces wasn't quite the ratings smash that such concurrent 15-minute serial comedies as Amos 'n' Andy, The Goldbergs or Vic and Sade were. But its unobtrusive, conversational, and clever style, and the cheerful absurdism of its storylines, built a loyal enough audience of listeners and critics alike to keep it on the air for 15 years.

Whatever Happened To Grandad (Aired May 16, 1971)


The Clitheroe Kid was James Robertson Clitheroe, Jimmy Clitheroe to most, who by some strange coincidence did come from the town of that name without having to change his family name! At his full height he was 4ft 3in, and played the naughty schoolboy from 1958 to 1972. Although plausable from a distance, he was not really able to pass himself off as a youngster close up, so a TV career did not really take off too well, but at the peak of his fame the radio show was raking in about 10 million listeners, although by the end this had dropped to a tenth of that figure. Clitheroe was a very private person, and the shows became a sort of escape for him, as well as the release from the worries of his diminutive size, but despite this, his popularity increased and increased, making this series one of the longer running on the radio - a total of 17 series. It is surprising then that with such a success, and with such a long run that the shows are rarely broadcast. The humour was very obvious and probably wouldn't stand up in todays climes, but there has been one release from the BBC radio collection, so if you wanted to hear some of the shows, you can hunt this down in the shops.

Graveyard Mansion 2 Parts - COMPLETE (Aired March 6, 1933)


A seminal series which established the standard of a host-based anthology series, and the first horror series produced for radio. WOR, New York origination, Air Features Syndicate syndication. Music fill for local commercial insert. 9:30 P. M. lonzo Deen Cole (writer, producer, performer), Marie O'Flynn, Adelaide Fitz-Allen (as "Old Nancy"). John Dunning in his "On the Air, The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio," relates the odd tale of getting the replacement for the original Nancy, Adelaide Fitz-Allen, who died at 79 in 1935. A radio veteran, only a mere 13 years old, Miriam Wolfe by name, was then on the fine children's program, Let's Pretend. Of course, she wasn't considered for the part. She stayed in the studio during a late-night broadcast by Witch's Tale writer/director, Alonzo Deen Cole, and began her "Nancy" without warning. Cole was so chilled by her mimicry of an ancient crone that she got the part on the spot. Later in the show's run, the role was taken by Martha Wentworth.

THIS EPISODE:

March 6, 1933. WOR, Newark, New Jersey, Air Features Syndicate syndication. "Graveyard Mansion". Music fill for local commercial insert. 9:30 P. M. Old Nancy is 103 years old today. Two brothers inherit a suspicious old house in Louisiana and meet a beautiful woman who's been dead for one hundred years! Are there vampires within the mansion? A ghost perhaps? This story program was "produced by "Air Features Syndicate" but was advertised and distributed by "All-Star Broadcasts" (which was owned by Billy Jones and Ernie Hare). Alonzo Deen Cole is listed for each program as a performer. he played many roles, but was always, "Saten, The Wize Black Cat." Alonzo Deen Cole (writer, producer, performer), Marie O'Flynn, Adelaide Fitz-Allen (as "Old Nancy"). 30:50.

Putting Up A Porch Swing (Aired June 13, 1944)


Fibber McGee and Molly premiered in 1935. The program struggled in the ratings until 1940, when it became a national sensation. Within three years, it was the top-rated program in America. Few radio shows were more beloved than Fibber McGee and Molly. The program’s lovable characters included Mayor LaTrivia, Doc Gamble, Mrs. Uppington, Wallace Wimple, Alice Darling, Gildersleeve, Beulah, Myrt, and the Old Timer. 79 Wistful Vista was one of America’s most famous addresses and Molly’s warning to Fibber not to open the hall closet door (and his subsequent decision to do it) created one of radio’s best remembered running gags that audiences expected each week. Jim Jordan (Fibber) was born on a farm on November 16, 1896, near Peoria, Illinois. Marian Driscoll (Molly), a coal miner’s daughter, was born in Peoria on November 15, 1898. After years of hardship and touring in obscurity on the small-time show biz circuit, they arrived in Chicago in 1924, where they eventually performed on thousands of shows and developed 145 different voices and characters. Broadcast to the nation from WMAQ/Chicago, the show entertained America until March 1956, and continued on NBC’s Monitor until 1959. Jim Jordan died on April 1, 1988. Marian Jordan died on April 7, 1961. Fibber McGee and Molly was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1989. First Broadcast date April 16, 1935. Last Broadcast date September 6, 1959.

THIS EPISODE:

June 13, 1944. "Putting Up A Porch Swing" - NBC network. Sponsored by: Johnson's Wax. Fibber tries to put up the porch swing, with borrowed tools. The closet is heard. Jim Jordan, Marian Jordan, Harlow Wilcox, Billy Mills and His Orchestra, The King's Men, Ransom Sherman, Shirley Mitchell, Arthur Q. Bryan, Marlin Hurt, Don Quinn (writer), Phil Leslie (writer). 28:15.

Report Card Blues (Aired May 1, 1951)


Fanny Brice as Baby Snooks. Henley Stafford as Lancelot “Daddy” Higgins, Baby Snooks father. Lalive Brownell as “Mommy” Higgins (later played by Lois Corbet and Arlene Harris).Leone Ledoux as Snook’s little brother Roberspierre. ANNOUNCERS: John Conte (late 30s and early 40s). Tobe Reed (1944-45), Harlow Willcox (mid to late 1940s), Dick Joy, Don Wilson and Ken Wilson. VOCALIST: Bob Graham MUSIC: Meredith Willson (37-44), Carmen Dragon. PRODUCER-DIRECTORS: Mann Holiner (early 1940s), Al Kaye (1944), Ted Bliss, Walter Bunker, Arthur Stander. WRITERS: Phil Rapp, Jess Oppenheimer, Everett Freeman, Bill Danch, Sid Dorfman, Arthur Stander, Robert Fisher. SOUND EFFECTS: Clark Casey, David Light. Baby Snooks became a character for Fanny Brice at some point in the early 30s, nobody seems to know exactly when. What is for sure is that by 1934 Fanny was appearing on-stage in her baby costume as part of the Follies show on Broadway. In 1936, at 45 years of age, she used this baby persona to great effect on the CBS show The Ziegfield Follies of the Air and a radio legend was born. After various format and slot changes Snooks eventually got her very own show in 1944. Lalive Brownell took on the role of “Mommy” Higgins alongside the now well entrenched part of Lancelot “Daddy” Higgins played by Hanley Stafford. The half-an-hour slot was initially aired at 6:30pm on Sundays, but later to moved to an 8pm slot on Friday and then in Nov 1949 to an 8:30pm slot on Tuesday evenings.

THIS EPISODE:

May 1, 1951. "Report Card Blues" - NBC network. Sponsored by: Tums. Snooks signs Daddy's name on her report card and gets spanked for doing it. She gets her revenge when Daddy's boss and his wife come to dinner. Fanny Brice loses her place in the script during the final commercial, she died May 29, 1951. Arthur Stander (writer, producer), Don Wilson (announcer), Arlene Harris, Frank Nelson, Elvia Allman, Ken Christy, Vivi Janis, Fanny Brice, Hanley Stafford, Sid Dorfman (writer). 31:09.

Boxcars711 Overnight Western "Wild Bill Hickock" - Nobeards Treasure (Aired December 16, 1953)


Wild Bill Hickock was a real life Civil War soldier, sharpshooter, gunfighter and lawman of the Old West. He was an adventurer who had many brushes with death, but they were greatly exaggerated by the stories told about him in various media. His fame lives on, not so much for his real life tales, but because he was the first dime novel hero, he appears in various movies, television shows, and this old time radio program. His tale comes to a sad, yet iconoclastic end. He was killed while playing a round of poker. His hand was aces and eights. For those who know poker, that’s known as the ‘Dead Man’s Hand.’ Wild Bill started on the radio in 1951 as a kids western show. It emphasized the tracking down the bad guys and fighting for the law rather than the shootin, poker playin, rough and tumble Civil War vet, who lies about his life to get good publicity aspects of Wild Bill’s life. The show is in the tradition of the Lone Ranger and the Cisco Kid. Guy Madison starred as Bill with Andy Devine as his sidekick, Jingles. (Now there’s a name you want to go through Hollywood with.) This Wild Bill Hickock was quick with his fists and a quip, but Jingles (dear god that nickname) got all his glory by using his immense girth to fight the bad guys.

THIS EPISODE:

December 16, 1953. Program #192. Mutual network. "Nobeard's Treasure". Sponsored by: Kellogg's Corn Pops, Kellogg's Variety Pack. What is the meaning of the picture of Nobeard's saddle blanket? Whay are the two bad guys so eager to get their hands on it? The answer lies out in the badlands of the Indian reservation. The system cue is added live. Guy Madison, Andy Devine, Charles Lyon (announcer), Richard Aurandt (music), David Hire (producer), Paul Pierce (director), Sam Edwards, Joseph Du Val, Howard Culver, Jack Moyles, Larry Hayes (writer). 25:52.

Detour To Terror (Aired May 21, 1946)


Taking its name from a popular series of mystery novels, Inner Sanctum Mysteries debuted over NBC’s Blue Network in January 1941. Inner Sanctum Mysteries featured one of the most memorable and atmospheric openings in radio history: an organist hit a dissonant chord, a doorknob turned and the famous “creaking door” slowly began to open. Every week, Inner Sanctum Mysteries told stories of ghosts, murderers and lunatics. Produced in New York, the cast usually consisted of veteran radio actors, with occasional guest appearances by such Hollywood stars Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Claude Rains. What made Inner Sanctum Mysteries unique among radio horror shows was its host, a slightly-sinister sounding man originally known as “Raymond.” The host had a droll sense of humor and an appetite for ghoulish puns, and his influence can be seen among horror hosts everywhere, from the Crypt-Keeper to Elvira. Raymond Edward Johnson was the show’s host until 1945; Paul McGrath took over the role until the show left the air in 1952. Producer Hiram Brown would utilize the creaking door again in the 1970s, when he produced and directed The CBS Radio Mystery Theater. Inner Sanctum Mysteries was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988.

THIS EPISODE:

May 21, 1946. CBS network. "Detour To Terror". Sponsored by: Lipton Tea, Lipton Soup. A man and his twin sister are lured from a country road where they meet a strange blind man and his brother. Mason Adams, Emile Tepperman (writer), Mercedes McCambridge, Himan Brown (director), Paul McGrath (host), Mary Bennett (commercial spokesman), Berry Kroeger, Santos Ortega, Donald Dane. 28:42.

Grieving Families (Aired July 15, 1952)


The Lineup is a realistic police drama that gives radio audiences a look behind the scenes at police headquarters. Bill Johnstone plays Lt. Ben Guthrie, a quiet, calm-as-a-cupcake cucumber. Joseph Kearns (and from 1951 to 1953, Matt Maher) plays Sgt. Matt Grebb, a hot-tempered hot plate who is easily bored. The director and script writer often rode with police on the job and sat in on the police lineups to get ideas for The Lineup. They also read dozens of newspapers daily and intermeshed real stories with those that they used in the show. With Dragnet a smash hit, realism in police dramas was popular at the time this show aired.

Four Hours To Kill (Aired May 13, 1949)


Philip Morris invested heavily in radio advertising throughout the 1930s and ‘40s, often having two weekly programs on competing networks. The first, a variety show that ran for twelve seasons (1934-47) and combined musical and dramatic elements, was called Johnny Presents, essentially giving Roventini "top billing" above all the big name guests that appeared on the broadcasts. The cigarette company also sponsored Philip Morris Playhouse, a dramatic anthology series that lasted 14 seasons (1939-53), finally switching to television. Throughout it all, Johnny was a walking public relations campaign, reminding people of the product wherever he appeared. In exchange for $20,000 a year, Johnny promised never to appear in public without a bodyguard, and never to ride the New York subway during rush hour. When his salary rose to $50,000, PM insured his voice for the same amount. "Johnny" ads were prominent on billboards and in magazines. Always in his red bellhop’s uniform, he was seen "stepping out on storefronts all over America" to remind folks to smoke Philip Morris.

THIS EPISODE:

May 13, 1949. CBS network. "Four Hours To Kill". Sponsored by: Philip Morris, Revelation Pipe Tobacco. After killing his brother, a man has only four hours to find and kill the woman who heard the crime over the telephone. The script was also used on "Suspense" on January 12, 1950. Howard Duff, William Spier (producer, editor, director), Cathy Lewis, John Holbrook (announcer), Harold Swanton (writer), Lud Gluskin (music director), Art Ballinger (announcer). 29:14.

The Case Of The Careless Employees (Aired February 2, 1947)


Nick Carter, Master Detective - Nick Carter is the name of a popular fictional detective who first appeared in in a dime novel entitled "The Old Detective's Pupil" on September 18, 1886. In 1915, Nick Carter Weekly became Street & Smith's Detective Story Magazine. Novels featuring Carter continued to appear through the 1950s, by which time there was also a popular radio show, Nick Carter, Master Detective, which aired on Mutual from 1943 to 1955. Nick Carter first came to radio as The Return of Nick Carter. Then Nick Carter, Master Detective, with Lon Clark in the title role, began April 11, 1943, on Mutual, continuing in many different timeslots for well over a decade. Jock MacGregor was the producer-director of scripts by Alfred Bester, Milton J. Kramer, David Kogan and others. Background music was supplied by organists Hank Sylvern, Lew White and George Wright. Patsy Bowen, Nick's assistant, was portrayed by Helen Choate until mid-1946 and then Charlotte Manson stepped into the role. Nick and Patsy's friend was reporter Scubby Wilson (John Kane). Nick's contact at the police department was Sgt. Mathison (Ed Latimer). The supporting cast included Raymond Edward Johnson, Bill Johnstone and Bryna Raeburn. Michael Fitzmaurice was the program's announcer. The series ended on September 25, 1955. Chick Carter, Boy Detective was a serial adventure that aired weekday afternoons on Mutual. Chick Carter, the adopted son of Nick Carter, was played by Bill Lipton (1943-44) and Leon Janney (1944-45). The series aired from July 5, 1943 to July 6, 1945.

THIS EPISODE:

February 2, 1947. Mutual network. "The Case Of The Careless Employees". Sponsored by: Old Dutch Cleanser, Del Rich Margarine. Window washers are meeting "accidental" deaths...and Nick finds this a "pane." Lon Clark, Al Hodge. 25:20.

Nocturne (1945) *The Exact Date Is Uknown


The Haunting Hour is a work-in-progress collection within the holdings of many serious Radio Collectors. From the meager available productions currently in circulation it's clear that the series was popular for its time, at the very least. With a known run of at least 52 unique scripts and more doubtful further 39 to 52 scripts, it would appear that the series was in demand for at least four years--in and out of syndication. Given the high quality of NBC Network voice talent in the circulating episodes, one can well imagine that the remainder of the yet alleged, undiscovered, or uncirculated episodes have at least as much to recommend them. Thankfully, as with many other examples of Golden Age Radio productions, many of the existing episodes in circulation can be directly attributed to the efforts of the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service [AFRTS]. True to its genre, the circulating episodes provide some highly compelling supernatural dramas--as well as a subset of fascinating mysteries and detective dramas. There's no reason to expect any less of any new episodes that surface in the coming years.

Secret Word Is Smile (Aired October 12, 1949)


Contestant teams usually consisted of one male and one female, most selected from the studio audience. Occasionally famous or otherwise interesting figures were invited to play (i.e., a Korean-American contestant who was a veteran and had been a prisoner of war during the Korean War). After his signature introduction of "Here he is: the one, the ONLY..." by Fenneman and finished by a thunderous "GROUCHO!" from the audience, Marx would be introduced to the music of "Hooray for Captain Spaulding", his signature song. Some show tension revolved around whether a contestant would say the "secret word", a common word revealed to the audience at the show's outset. If a contestant said the word, a toy duck resembling Groucho with a mustache and eyeglasses, and with a cigar in its bill, descended from the ceiling to bring a $100 bill. A cartoon of a duck with a cigar was also used in opening title sequence. In one episode, Groucho's brother, Harpo, came down instead of the duck, and in another, a model came down in a birdcage with the money. Marx sometimes slyly directed conversation to encourage the secret word to come up. The duck was also occasionally replaced with a wooden Indian figure. After the contestants' introduction and interview, the actual game began. Contestants chose among available categories and then tried to answer a series of questions within the category. Each couple was staked with $20 and were asked four questions, wagering part or all of their bankroll for each question. The scoring format was later changed to a starting bankroll of $100 and couples selecting question values from $10 to $100. A correct answer added the value of the question to their bankroll and an incorrect answer cut their bankroll to that point in half. According to co-director Robert Dwan in his book, As Long As They're Laughing, Guedel changed the scoring format because too many couples were betting—and losing—all their money.

The The Man Who Murdered Time (Aired January 1, 1939)


"Who Knows What Evil Lurks In The Hearts Of Men? The Shadow Knows!" ...These famous words, and the sinister laugh that followed, have become part of Americana, forever embodying the special magic of radio drama and mystery. The adventures of The Shadow have thrilled millions for more than 70 years, demonstrating that "crime does not pay" on radio and movie screens, in pulp magazines, Big Little Books, comics and hardcover and paperback books. The Shadow featured radio's foremost crimefighter and was the highest-rated daytime series for many years. A man of mystery who was "never seen, only heard," The Shadow was also the first multimedia sensation and helped propel the young Orson Welles into the national spotlight. The famous character was also portrayed on radio by James LaCurto, Frank Readick, Carl Kroenke, Bill Johnstone, John Archer, Steve Courtleigh and Bret Morrison. The readers of Walter Gibson's pulp novels knew The Shadow as a master investigator who operated under the cover of darkness as he commanded a small army of agents in his war against the underworld and white-collar criminals. Radio listeners knew him as Lamont Cranston, "wealthy young man about town who years ago in the Orient learned a strange and mysterious secret--the hypnotic power to cloud men's minds so they cannot see him." However, The Shadow first materialized not as a crimefighting sleuth but as the sinister host and narrator of mystery stories adapted from the pages of the world's first detective fiction magazine.

THIS EPISODE:

January 1, 1939. Program #22. Mutual network origination, syndicated. "The Man Who Murdered Time". Sponsored by: B.F. Goodrich Tires. Possibly a syndicated version of the network program of January 1, 1939. A mad scientist, about to die, invents a time machine with the ability to repeat December 31st eternally. William Johnstone, Agnes Moorehead, Kenny Delmar, Ray Collins, Everett Sloane, Ken Roberts (announcer). 28:34.

The Black Figurine Of Death (Aired January 26, 1953)


Originally a local series out of Utah that found its way on to the airwaves sporadically from 1947 to 1952, this anthology was picked up for national syndication by the Mutual network and broadcast from mid-52 through mid-53. Written and directed by Richard Thorne, a prolific and talented writer and producer, this series is often overlooked, even by fans of OTR. It is unfortunate, since it provides some very unique and dramatic material; the acting in particular was superb. Early on, the series concentrated on murder mysteries, but later shows were devoted to horror and some sci-fi. Sadly, not all episodes have survived - only about 40 of perhaps over a hundred shows still exist. All episodes were standard half-hour format.

THIS EPISODE:

January 26, 1953. Mutual network, WGN, Chicago origination. "The Black Figurine Of Death". Sustaining. Uncle Amos and his little statuette have fun from beyond the grave. One of the announcements has possibly been deleted. 24:26.

The Case Of The Natural Seven ((Aired February 28, 1952)


This hard boiled detective drama began as an RKO Radio Pictures theatrical serial in the 1940s, went on radio in 1945, and then came to TV ten years later in this Syndicated series produced for distribution by NBC Films; Charles McGraw had been in many motion pictures before and after including "The Killers", "Spartacus" and "Cimarron"; in this series he played the title role of a man whose real name was supposedly Mike Waring, an American agent whose code name was "Falcon"; Later Charles McGraw starred in a short lived TV version of "Casablanca" (1955 - 1956) in the character of Rick; He also had a role on the detective drama "Staccato" (1959) Actor McGraw (whose birth name was Charles Butters) met an unfortunate death in real life when he fell through a shower glass door in 1980 at his home in Studio City, CA.

THIS EPISODE:

February 28, 1952. NBC network. "The Case Of The Natural Seven". Sustaining. "Sometimes, loaded dice can do more damage than a loaded gun." The system cue is added live. Les Damon, Drexel Drake (creator), Bernard L. Schubert (producer, transcriber), Eugene Wang (writer), Richard Lewis (director), Charles Webster, Fred Collins (announcer). 28:42.

The Next in Line (Aired January 1, 1984)


Bradbury was born in 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois to Esther Moberg Bradbury, a Swedish immigrant, and Leonard Spaulding Bradbury, a power and telephone lineman. He was the younger brother of twin boys, one of whom died in 1918. His paternal grandfather and great-grandfather were newspaper publishers. He is related to the American Shakespeare scholar Douglas Spaulding. Ray is also directly descended from Mary Bradbury who was tried, convicted and sentenced to hang as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. She was married to Captain Thomas Bradbury of Salisbury, Massachusetts. Bradbury was a reader and writer throughout his youth who was greatly influenced by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Bradbury was especially impressed with Poe's ability to captivate readers into his works. In his youth, he spent much time in the Carnegie library in Waukegan, Illinois, reading such authors as H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and his favorite author, Edgar Rice Burroughs who wrote novels such as Tarzan and Warlord of Mars. He loved Burroughs' "Warlord of Mars" so much that at the age of twelve he wrote his own sequel. Bradbury was pushed to writing by his aunt, who read him short stories when he was a child. He used this library as a setting for much of his novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, and depicted Waukegan as "Green Town" in some of his other semi-autobiographical novels—Dandelion Wine, Farewell Summer—as well as in many of his short stories.

The Lost Ones (Aired August 21, 1947)


The Man Called X was a old-time radio espionage drama series that aired on and off from 1944 through 1951 and sponsored by Frigidaire and later General Motors. Herbert Marshall stars as Ken Thurston, a globe hopping government agent. The show opens with the familiar line "Wherever there is mystery, intrigue, romance, in all the strange and dangerous places of the world, there you will find The Man Called X". Thurston works diligently every week to make the world a safer place by thwarting Cold War enemies and cooling off hotspots of unrest wherever they may be. He is aided/thwarted by his everpresent chiseling "sidekick" Pegon Zeldschmidt, played by Leon Belasco. Marshall, British by birth, starred in films with many of the greatest, especially Detreich in Blonde Venus, Bette Davis in The Virgin Queen, Vincent Price in The Fly, and a great cast in The Razor's Edge, where he portrayed W. Somerset Maugham.The Gordon Jenkins Orchestra supplied the exotic background music.

THIS EPISODE:

August 21, 1947. "The Lost Ones" - CBS network. Commercials deleted. Ken Thurston is in Mexico to track down wetbacks infecting the U. S. A. with smallpox. Herbert Marshall, Leon Belasco, Jack Johnstone (director), Johnny Green (composer, conductor), Sidney Marshall (writer), Paul Frees. 26:49.

The Robot Killer (1950) *The Exact Date Is Unknown


2000 Plus, for its part, clearly had all the makings of a truly exceptional science fiction canon. The sound engineering, in particular, was every bit the equal of anything heard previously on ABC, CBS or NBC. The music scoring for 2000 Plus was also quite effective and forward-looking for the era. An east coast production from beginning to end, the series tapped some of New York's finest dramatic talent for its productions. Indeed, the pace, direction, plot arcs and all-around finish of its productions were every bit the equal of any of MBS's finest popular productions from the early 1940s. In spite of John Crosby's ascerbic observations of science dramas in general, America was clearly ready, willing and able to embrace mainstream science fiction of a more provocative, adult nature. Though 2000 Plus was never quite the equal of the competing sci-fi dramas that succeeded it, it acquitted itself overall. Many of its stories had no equal in either Dimension X or X Minus One five years later. The other limiting factor in comparing 2000 Plus to either Dimension X or X Minus One is in its comparitive scarcity. As popular as science fiction was during the era, it's quite plausible to imagine any number of private recordings of 2000 Plus -- or even transcriptions -- in the holdings of some of the hobby's oldest collectors. Sadly, only fifteen to seventeen exemplars have found their way to popular circulation. Given its relative scarcity, we're willing to withhold any further comparison to the science fiction dramas that succeeded it, until more exemplars surface. But if the examples in circulation are representative, we're certain that 2000 Plus will again find its day in the sun--or should that be multiple suns. Show Notes From The Digital Deli

The Devil In The Deep Freeze (Aired November 10, 1949)


CANDY MATSON was the private eye star of Candy Matson, YUkon 2-8208, an NBC West Coast show which first aired in March 1949 and was created by Monty Masters. He cast his wife, Natalie Parks, in the title role of this sassy, sexy PI. Her understated love interest, Lt. Ray Mallard, was played by Henry Leff while her assistant and best pal, aptly named Rembrandt Watson, was the voice of Jack Thomas. Every show opened with a ringing telephone and our lady PI answering it with "Candy Matson, YU 2-8209" and then the organ swung into the theme song, "Candy". Each job took Candy from her apartment on Telegraph Hill into some actual location in San Francisco. The writers, overseen by Monty, worked plenty of real Bay Area locations into every plot. Candy was bright, tough, and fearless. She used her pistol infrequently, but was unintimidated by bad guys, regardless of circumstances. Threats, assaults, and even bullets would usually produce a caustic, but clever, response for this blonde sleuth. She and Mallard were frequently working the same case, but she usually solved it first. OTR experts generally agree that this show was the finest of all the female PIs.

THIS EPISODE:

November 10, 1949. NBC network, San Francisco origination. "The Devil In The Deep Freeze". Sustaining. A restaurant owner asks Candy to get rid of a body in his meat refrigerator, and he's dressed like the devil! Guest Dorothy Warenskjold (famous opera singer) helps Candy to solve this operatic murder. The title is subject to correction. Dorothy Warenskjold, Dudley Manlove (announcer), Harry Bechtel, Henry Leff, Jack Thomas, Jerry Walter, Monte Masters (writer, producer), Natalie Masters. 30:41.

The Sad Clown (Aired October 7, 1946)


The Casebook of Gregory Hood, starring Gale Gordon in the title role, took over where Sherlock Holmes had left off. Sponsored by Petri wine, it used the same "weekly visit" format and the same team of Anthony Boucher and Dennis Green that had written The New Adventured of Sherlock Holmes. Gregory Hood was modelled after true-life San Francisco importer Richard Gump, and many of the stories revolve around a mystery surrounding some particular imported treasure. Hood's sidekick Sanderson "Sandy" Taylor was played by Bill Johnstone. The show aired from June, 1946 through August, 1950. There were an additional couple of shows aired in October 1951. Hood and Sanderson were played in later episodes by Elliott Lewis and Howard McNear, respectively.

THIS EPISODE:

October 7, 1946. Mutual network. "The Sad Clown". Sponsored by: Petri Wines. A set of stolen cameos and a clown that doesn't speak (he honks like Harpo Marx) leads Hood to the circus. The sad clown is murdered during his act...he dies smiling of strychnine. A poorly written script in which Hood accuses a fellow detective of the crime, then decides to buy the stolen cameos. The system cue has been deleted. Hollywood origination. Elliott Lewis, Howard McNear, Anthony Boucher (writer), Denis Green (writer), Ned Bliss (producer), Lee Bowen (director), Arthur Fulton (sound effects), Art Surrence (sound effects), Dean Fosler (composer, conductor). 29:06.

I Didn't Do Nothing (Aired August 2, 1936)


In the Name of the Law was a True Crime radio show from 1936. It says "In the name of the law, we bring you another of the thrilling stories in this exciting series, taken from actual police case files. "In the name of the Law, we bring you another of the thrilling stories in this exciting series, taken from actual police case files."Two home invaders pick the wrong house and force the home owner (John Snyder) to take them to the targeted neighbors, two elderly brothers who were rumored to have cash and bonds. During the hold up, one of the brothers was shot to death. An angry town insisted on immediate results. The State Police joined the local Sherif and the search was on.

THIS EPISODE:

August 2, 1936. Program #13. Syndicated. "I Didn't Do Nothing". Commercials added locally. Two robbers take the life savings from two old farmers. One of them is killed, the other is beaten unmercifully. . 25:22.

The Dead Hand (Aired April 19, 1946)


Dubbed Murder At Midnight, the intent, from the outset, was to create a compelling crime fiction drama anthology targeted specifically for late night listening. Murder At Midnight, while ostensibly a crime fiction drama was as much thriller as crime drama. The series debuted over the newly coined American Broacasting Company on September 16, 1946 and within two years was airing over Mutual and several other independent affiliates throughout the U.S.. As much a crossover supernatural thriller as crime drama, the forboding introduction by host, Raymond Morgan, was very reminiscent of the competing Strange Dr. Weird (1944), Quiet! Please (1947), Cabin B-13 (1948), and The Whisperer (1951).

THIS EPISODE:

April 19, 1946. Program #1. KFI, Los Angeles origination, Cowan syndication, World transcription. "The Dead Hand". Commercials added locally. These programs are known to have been syndicated on World transcriptions and on transcriptions marked, "Louis G. Cowan Productions." These recordings may be from the World discs, or another label. A musician loses his hand in an accident, kills a pickpocket and forces a doctor to graft the man's hand onto his arm. Don't be too surprised by the grim results. The dates indicated for this series are subject to correction. They might represent the start of these program on one station. They might even indicate a suggested released date by the production company. The series is known to have started as early as April 19, 1946, the series was known to have started on KFI, Los Angeles on May 10, 1946 and on WJZ, New York City on September 26, 1946. Being syndicated, any station could broadcast the programs on any day, in any sequence. Charles Paul (organist), Anton M. Leader (director), Robert Newman (writer), Betty Caine, Carl Frank, Barry Hopkins, Lawson Zerbe, Raymond Morgan (host), Joseph Ruscoll (writer), Louis G. Cowan (producer). 25:58.

Murder Has A Signature (Aired January 15, 1945)


The Whistler is one of American radio's most popular mystery dramas, with a 13-year run from May 16, 1942 until September 22, 1955.The Whistler was the most popular West Coast-originated program with its listeners for many years. It was sponsored by the Signal Oil Company: "That whistle is your signal for the Signal Oil program, The Whistler." Each episode of The Whistler began with the sound of footsteps and a person whistling. (The Saint radio series with Vincent Price used a similar opening.) The haunting signature theme tune was composed by Wilbur Hatch and featured Dorothy Roberts performing the whistling with the orchestra. The stories followed an effective formula in which a person's criminal acts were typically undone either by an overlooked but important detail or by their own stupidity. On rare occasions a curious twist of fate caused the story to end happily for the episode's protagonist.

THIS EPISODE:

January 15, 1945. CBS Pacific network. "Murder Has A Signature". Sponsored by: Signal Oil. The servant of a miserly woman who is living otherwise alone, revolts and kills her mistress. A distant relative and his money-mad wife try their hand at murder, with predictable results. Wilbur Hatch (music), George W. Allen (producer), Louis Estey (writer), Bob Anderson (announcer). 29:04.

Boxcars711 Overnight Western "Dr. Six Gun" - Fred Garth Jailed For Murder (Aired October 7, 1954)


Doctor Six-Gun. NBC net origination, AFRTS rebroadcast. The stories revolve around physician Dr. Gray Matson who tends the sick and occasionally causes a pain or two with his quick-on-the-draw pistol. The stories are told by Pablo, the gypsy peddler and his pet raven "Midnight," sidekicks of the good doctor. Karl Weber and William Gruffis star as the doctor and the gypsy. The shows were written by Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, directed by Fred Weihe, Gene Hamilton usually announcing. Supporting players on the various shows below: William Redfield, Virginia Payne, Wendell Holmes, William Keene, Ralph Bell, Peter Capel, Kermit Murdock, Craig McDonald, Cameron Prud'homme, Joe De Santis, Roger De Koven, Edgar Stehli, Bob Haig, Jim Stevens, Santos Ortega, Lon Clark, Bill Adams, Les Damon, Kenny Delmar, Luis Van Rooten, Vicki Vola, Daniel Ocko, John Gibson, William Johnstone, Jim Boles, Bob Hastings, Ed Peck, Teri Keane, Bill Lipton, Ethel Everett, Ralph Camargo, Elaine Ross, Donald Buka, Nelson Olmstead, Robert Dryden, Jock MacGregor, Edwin Bruce, Leon Janney, Don Douglas, Humphrey Davis,, John Sylvester. This show: Doc and his gypsy sidekick Pablo come upon Mack Jarrett, a horse-breaker, who goes beserk when he can't get the better of a stallion. Ernest Kinoy (writer), Fred Weihe (director, transcriber), George Lefferts (writer), Karl Weber, William Griffis.

THIS EPISODE:

October 7, 1954. "Fred Garth Jailed For Murder" - Program #6. NBC network origination, AFRTS rebroadcast. Fred Garth returns to town to claim his bride and is accused of murder. He refuses to defend himself at his trial. Ernest Kinoy (writer), Fred Weihe (director, transcriber), George Lefferts (writer), Karl Weber, William Griffis. 29:30.

Murder Wins The Draw (Aired April 1, 1949)


The Fat Man premiered on ABC on Monday, January 21, 1946, at 8:30pm, as part of a block of four new programs which also included "I Deal in Crime," "Forever Tops," and "Jimmy Gleason's Diner." "The Fat Man" originated in the studios of WJZ in New York and began as a modestly priced sustainer [no sponsor but the station] vaguely based upon character ideas in Dashiell Hammett's writings and fleshed out by producer, E.J. ("Mannie") Rosenberg. The announcer was Charles Irving. The directors for the program were Clark Andrews, creator of "Big Town," and Charles Powers. The main writer for the series was Richard Ellington, but it was also scripted by Robert Sloane, Lawrence Klee and others. The veteran character actor Ed Begley was featured as Sgt. O'Hara. Regulars on the program included Petty Garde, Paul Stewart, Linda Watkins, Mary Patton as Lila North, and Vicki Vola, also the female lead in "Mr. District Attorney." Amzie Strickland played the ingenue, Cathy Evans, and Nell Harrison played Runyon's mother during the early episodes. The cast also included Dan Ocko, Roily Bester (wife of Alfred Pester, the science fiction writer), and Robert Dryden. An eleven-piece orchestra was on hand to provide live music, and was directed by Bernard Green, who also wrote that memorably stirring theme. The sound effects were by Ed Blaney, who actually did drop a coin in a change slot each week for the sound of the drug store scale."

THIS EPISODE:

April 1, 1949. ABC network. "Murder Wins The Draw". Sponsored by: Pepto Bismol, Unguentine. In Mexico, a beautiful woman leans Runyon to Guatemala City and a dead body in a hotel...murdered with a machete! J. Scott Smart, Dick Beals (commercial spokesman), Clark Andrews (director), Bernard Green (conductor), Bryna Raeburn, Charles Irving (announcer), Lawrence Klee (writer), Jean Ellen, Dashiell Hammett (creator). 23:08.

Literary Murder (Aired January 26, 1944)


Mr. and Mrs. North was a radio mystery series that aired on CBS from 1942 to 1954. Alice Frost and Joseph Curtin had the title roles when the series began in 1942. Publisher Jerry North and his wife Pam lived in Greenwich Village at 24 St. Anne's Flat. They were not professional detectives but simply an ordinary couple who stumbled across a murder or two every week for 12 years. The radio program eventually reached nearly 20 million listeners. The characters originated in 1930s vignettes written by Richard Lockridge for the New York Sun, and he brought them back for short stories in The New Yorker. These stories were collected in Mr. and Mrs. North (1936). Lockridge increased the readership after he teamed with his wife Frances on a novel, The Norths Meet Murder (1940), launching a series of 40 novels, including Death takes a Bow, Death on the Aisle and The Dishonest Murderer. Their long-run series continued for over two decades and came to an end in 1963 with the death of Frances Lockridge. Albert Hackett and Peggy Conklin had the title roles in the Broadway production Mr. and Mrs. North, which ran 163 performances at the Belasco Theatre from January 12, 1941, to May 31, 1941. Alfred De Liagre, Jr. produced and directed the play written by Owen Davis. In this version, the North's apartment was located on Greenwich Place, realized in a scenic design by Jo Mielziner. The Owen Davis play became a 1942 MGM movie starring Gracie Allen and William Post, Jr. with Millard Mitchell repeating his role of Detective Mullins from the Broadway production. Others in the cast were Paul Kelly, Rose Hobart and Keye Luke. In 1946, producer-director Fred Coe brought the Owen Davis play to television (on New York City's WNBT) with John McQuade and Maxine Stewart in the leads and Don Haggerty, Joan Marlowe and Millard Mitchell repeating their Broadway roles. Barbara Britton and Richard Denning starred in the TV adaptation seen on CBS from 1952 to 1953 and on NBC in 1954. Guest appearances on this series included Raymond Burr, Hans Conried, Mara Corday, Carolyn Jones, Katy Jurado, Jimmy Lydon, Julia Meade, William Schallert and Gloria Talbott.

Berkeley Square (Aired March 3, 1949)


The Hallmark Playhouse was heard over CBS stations Thursday evenings. This drama anthology of 30-minute shows was sponsored by, of course, Hallmark Greeting Cards. It was preceded by the RADIO READER'S DIGEST, which ran from September 13, 1942 thorugh June 3, 1948. Hallmark sponsored the RADIO READER'S DIGEST from January 13, 1946 to it's end. On Feb. 8, 1953, the series name and format was changed. It was now called The Hallmark Hall of Fame and presented biographal sketches of famous persons, past and present. The new format was used until the end of the 1955 season. The exception to the new format was the broadcast each Christmas season of "A Christmas Carol". Like other dramatic series of this time, this one made use of major screen actors in the productions. James Hilton, author of "Random Harvest", "Lost Horizon" and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" plus others, served as host and Narrator. Dee Engelbach produced and directed the shows. Jean Holloway was the writer. Sound Effects were by Harry Essman and Gene Twombly. Musical conductor was Lyn Murray. The show's theme was "Dream of Olwne" by Charles Williams.

THIS EPISODE:

March 3, 1949. CBS network. "Berkeley Square". Sponsored by: Hallmark Cards. British time-travel story about a love that transcends the centuries. David Niven, Lurene Tuttle, Frances Robinson, James Hilton (host), Jean Holloway (adaptor), John Balderston (author). 30:46.

The Case Of The Generous Killer (Aired September 4, 1948)


Brains, brawn, and an insatiable attraction to attractive and dangerous females. A cigarette dangling from the corner of the mouth, a slouch hat parked on a coat rack in a seedy downtown office, a willingness to get beaten, punched, sapped, shot, and generally abused for twenty bucks a day. It was everything that radio listeners came to expect from the tough guy noir detectives of the mid-1940s. And all of these traditional elements fit Michael Shayne to a tee. On radio, where postwar audiences could never seem to get enough detective adventure, Michael Shayne first appeared in the guise of Wally Maher, an actor who had already made a name for himself playing character roles on a variety of Hollywood-based dramatic series. Debuting over the Mutual Radio Network in October of 1946, Maher portrayed Shayne as an easygoing PI who preferred verbal sparring with his girl Friday Phyllis (Cathy Lewis) and police lieutenant Farraday (Joe Forte) over gunplay and right hooks.

THIS EPISODE:

September 4, 1948. Broadcaster's Guild syndication, AFRTS rebroadcast. "The Case Of The Generous Killer". A corpse on a tramp steamer. These syndicated programs were recorded 1948 to 1950. Jeff Chandler, William P. Rousseau (host, director), Brett Halliday (creator), John Duffy (composer, conductor), Don W. Sharpe (producer). 26:17.

The Case Of The Chicago Tunnel Gang (Aired October 2, 1948)


Gangbusters was an American dramatic radio program heralded as "the only national program that brings you authentic police case histories." It premiered as G-Men, sponsored by Chevrolet, on July 20, 1935. After the title was changed to Gangbusters January 15, 1936, the show had a 21-year run through November 20, 1957. Beginning with a barrage of loud sound effects — guns firing and tires squealing — this intrusive introduction led to the popular catch phrase "came on like Gangbusters."The series dramatized FBI cases, which producer-director Phillips H. Lord arranged in close association with Bureau director J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover insisted that only closed cases would be used. The initial series was on NBC Radio from July 20 - October 12, 1935. It then aired on CBS from January 15, 1936 to June 15, 1940, sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive and Cue magazine. From October 11, 1940 to December 25, 1948, it was heard on the Blue Network, with various sponsors that included Sloan's Liniment, Waterman pens and Tide. Returning to CBS on January 8, 1949, it ran until June 25, 1955, sponsored by Grape-Nuts and Wrigley's chewing gum. The final series was on the Mutual Broadcasting System from October 5, 1955 to November 27, 1957. It was once narrated by Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr., former head of the New Jersey State Police. The radio series was adapted for DC Comics, Big Little Books and a 1942 movie serial. The 1952 Gangbusters TV series was reedited into two feature films, Gang Busters (1954) and Guns Don't Argue (1957).

THIS EPISODE:

October 2, 1948. Program #549. ABC network origination, syndicated, WRVR-FM, New York aircheck. "The Case Of The Chicago Tunnel Gang". Sponsored by: World Wide Handicrafts. WRVR rebroadcast date: April 9, 1973. Ted de Corsia, Frank Readick. 22:35.

Katy Lane Murder Case (Aired July 25, 1954)


Broadway Is My Beat, a radio crime drama, ran on CBS from February 27, 1949 to August 1, 1954. With music by Robert Stringer, the show originated from New York during its first three months on the air, with Anthony Ross portraying Times Square Detective Danny Clover. John Dietz directed for producer Lester Gottlieb. Beginning with the July 7, 1949 episode, the series was broadcast from Hollywood with producer Elliott Lewis directing a new cast in scripts by Morton Fine and David Friedkin. The opening theme of "I'll Take Manhattan" introduced Detective Danny Clover (now played by Larry Thor), a hardened New York City cop who worked homicide "from Times Square to Columbus Circle -- the gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world." Danny Clover narrated the tales of the Great White Way to the accompaniment of music by Wilbur Hatch and Alexander Courage, and the recreation of Manhattan's aural tapestry required the talents of three sound effects technicians (David Light, Ralph Cummings, Ross Murray). Bill Anders was the show's announcer. The supporting cast included regulars Charles Calvert (as Sgt. Gino Tartaglia) and Jack Kruschen (as Sgt. Muggavan), with episodic roles filled by such radio actors as Irene Tedrow, Barney Phillips, Lamont Johnson, Herb Ellis, Hy Averback, Edgar Barrier, Betty Lou Gerson, Harry Bartell, Sheldon Leonard, Martha Wentworth, Lawrence Dobkin and Mary Jane Croft.

THIS EPISODE:

July 25, 1954. "The Katy Lane Murder Case" - CBS network. Sponsored by: Doublemint. Marty Lane has been pushed at a swimming pool and has a fractured skull, his wife Katy, later found dead. Larry Thor, Charles Calvert, Jack Kruschen, Elliott Lewis (producer, director), Morton Fine (writer), David Friedkin (writer), Alexander Courage (composer, conductor), Barney Phillips, Lou Merrill, Irene Tedrow, Cathy Lewis, Ted de Corsia, Bill Anders (announcer). 30:58.

Command Of The La-Mouch (Aired May 22, 1953)


Horatio Hornblower is a fictional Royal Navy officer who is the protagonist of a series of novels by C. S. Forester, and later the subject of films and television programs. The original Hornblower tales began with the appearance of a junior Royal Navy Captain on independent duty on a secret mission to Central America, though later stories would fill out his earlier years, starting with an unpromising beginning as a seasick midshipman. As the Napoleonic Wars progress, he gains promotion steadily as a result of his skill and daring, despite his initial poverty and lack of influential friends. Eventually, after surviving many adventures in a wide variety of locales, he rises to the pinnacle of his profession, promoted to Rear admiral of the Red Squadron, knighted as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, and named the 1st Baron Hornblower. Ernest Hemingway is quoted as saying, "I recommend Forester to everyone literate I know," and Winston Churchill stated, "I find Hornblower admirable." There are many parallels between Hornblower and real naval officers of the period, including Joseph Needham Tayler, Thomas Cochrane and Horatio Nelson. The name "Horatio" was inspired by the character in William Shakespeare's Hamlet and chosen also because of its association with contemporary figures such as Nelson. The name Hornblower was probably derived from the American film producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr., with whom C. S. Forester had been working prior to writing the first Hornblower novel. Forester's original inspiration was an old copy of the Naval Chronicle, which described the effective dates of the Treaty of Ghent. Because of the time required to communicate around the world, it was possible for two countries to still be at war in one part of the world after a peace was obtained months before in another.

The Brenner Pass Story (Aired June 4, 1950)


"Are you willing to undertake a dangerous mission for the United States, knowing in advance you may never return alive?" Cloak and Dagger first aired over the NBC network on May 7, 1950. It had a short run through the Summer on Sundays, changing to Fridays after its Summer run. The last show aired Oct. 22, 1950. This is the story of the WWII special governmental agency, the OSS, or Office of Strategic Services. Its mission was to develop and maintain spy networks throughout Europe and into Asia, while giving aid to underground partisan groups and developing espionage activities for Allied forces overseas.The show is based on the book of the same name by Lt. Col. Corey Ford and Major Alastair MacBain (who were associated with the OSS from its early days.) The dramas are not Hollywood-style, in that they sometimes end with plans foiled or leading characters dead.

THIS EPISODE:

June 4, 1950. NBC network. "The Brenner Pass". Sustaining. 4:00 P. M. Donald Harper, who was assigned to blow up an Italian highway and who succeeded with the help of a beautiful woman. Even though this O. S. S. agent did not live, his mission was a success. Hester Sondergaard, Boris Aplon, Sherman Marks (director, supervisor), Berry Kroeger, Virginia Payne, Raymond Edward Johnson, Karl Weber, Winifred Wolfe (writer), Louis Sorin, Jon Gart (music director), Louis G. Cowan (producer), Alfred Hollander (associate producer), Corey Ford (originator), Joseph Julian, Everett Sloane, Alistair MacBain (originator). 29:10.

Target For A Week (Aired May 22, 1952)


Broadcast on NBC, Nightbeat ran from 1949 to 1952 and starred Frank Lovejoy as Randy Stone, a tough and streetwise reporter who worked the nightbeat for the Chicago Star looking for human interest stories. He met an assortment of people, most of them with a problem, many of them scared, and sometimes he was able to help them, sometimes he wasn’t. It is generally regarded as a ‘quality’ show and it stands up extremely well. Frank Lovejoy (1914-1962) isn’t remembered today, but he was a powerful and believable actor with a strong delivery, and his portrayal of Randy Stone as tough guy with humanity was perfect. The scripts were excellent, given that they had to pack in a lot in a short time, and there was a good supporting cast, orchestra, and sound effects. ‘The Slasher’, broadcast on 10 November 1950, the last show of season one, has a very loosely Ripper-derived plot in which Stone searches for an artist. Supporting actors included Parley Baer, William Conrad, Jeff Corey, Lawrence Dobkin, Paul Frees, Jack Kruschen, Peter Leeds, Howard McNear, Lurene Tuttle and Martha Wentworth.

THIS EPISODE:

May 22, 1952. "Target For A Week". NBC network. Sustaining. Randy Stone is accused of being a killer by "Panagen," the mysterious muckraking columnist for the opposition Chicago paper. It appears Randy's going to be executed along with Johnny Liggett! Well written! Frank Lovejoy, Joan Banks, Peter Leeds, Lou Krugman, William Conrad, Warren Lewis (producer, director), Robert Armbruster (music), David Ellis (writer). 30:31.

Boxcars711 Overnight Western "Tales Of The Texas Rangers" - No Living Witnesses (Aired May 6, 1951)


Tales of the Texas Rangers, a western adventure old-time radio drama, premiered on July 8, 1950, on the US NBC radio network and remained on the air through September 14, 1952. Movie star Joel McCrea starred as Texas Ranger Jayce Pearson, who used the latest scientific techniques to identify the criminals and his faithful horse, Charcoal (or "Charky," as Jayce would sometimes refer to him), to track them down. The shows were reenactments of actual Texas Ranger cases. The series was produced and directed by Stacy Keach, Sr., and was sponsored for part of its run by Wheaties. Captain Manuel T. "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas, a Ranger for 30 years and who was said to have killed 31 men during his career, served as consultant for the series. The series was adapted for television from 1955 to 1957 and produced by Screen Gems. For the TV version, Willard Parker took over the role of Jace Pearson. On radio, Pearson often worked by request with a local sheriff's office or police department but on the TV show, he had a regular partner, Ranger Clay Morgan (who had been an occasional character on the radio show), played by Harry Lauter. During the opening and closing credits of the TV show, the actors would march toward the camera and sing the theme song, "These Are Tales of Texas Rangers", to the tune of "The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You", which is also the tune of "I've Been Working on the Railroad".

THIS EPISODE:

May 6, 1951. NBC network. "No Living Witnesses". Sustaining. Based on events of November, 1939. A doctor is found murdered in his office, a cowboy is found murdered too. What's the connection? Joel McCrea, Stacy Keach (producer, director), Hal Gibney (announcer), Tony Barrett, Virginia Gregg, Ed Begley, Parley Baer, Herb Ellis. 30:14.

2 Episodes From 1951 "Hospital Stay" and "The Operation"


The Bickersons was a radio comedy sketch series that began in 1946 on NBC, moving the following year to CBS where it continued until 1951. The show's married protagonists, portrayed by Don Ameche and Frances Langford, spent nearly all their time together in relentless verbal war. The Bickersons was created by Philip Rapp, the one-time Eddie Cantor writer who had also created the Fanny Brice skits (for The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air and Maxwell House Coffee Time) that grew into radio's Baby Snooks. Several years after the latter established itself a long-running favorite, Rapp developed and presented John and Blanche Bickerson, first as a short sketch on The Old Gold Show and The Chase and Sanborn Hour (the show that made stars of Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy), and then as a 15-minute situational sketch as part of Drene Time. This was a variety show starring Don Ameche and singer-actress Frances Langford as co-hosts, airing on NBC and sponsored by Drene Shampoo. Announcing the show—and later familiar to television viewers as The Millionaire's presenter and executive secretary, Michael Anthony—was Marvin Miller. Drene Time typically opened with Langford singing a big band-style arrangement before Ameche and Langford would slip into routine comedy, often aided by co-star Danny Thomas, in routines that often expressed Ameche's frustration that Thomas was more interested in modern technology and discoveries than in women. After another musical number and a commercial spot for Drene Shampoo, Miller would announce Ameche and Langford as the Bickersons, "in 'The Honeymoon's Over'," for the final 15 minutes of the show. The Bickersons were barely ready for prime time radio (they lasted only two full seasons) as it was, but a 1951 CBS television version didn't last half as long.

The Retired Colourman (Aired October 9, 1964)


Holmes states that he first developed his deduction methods while an undergraduate. The author Dorothy L. Sayers suggested that, given details in two of the Adventures, Holmes must have been at Cambridge rather than Oxford and that "of all the Cambridge colleges, Sidney Sussex [College] perhaps offered the greatest number of advantages to a man in Holmes’ position and, in default of more exact information, we may tentatively place him there". His earliest cases, which he pursued as an amateur, came from fellow university students. According to Holmes, it was an encounter with the father of one of his classmates that led him to take up detection as a profession and he spent the six years following university working as a consulting detective, before financial difficulties led him to take Watson as a roommate, at which point the narrative of the stories begins. From 1881, Holmes is described as having lodgings at 221B Baker Street, London, from where he runs his private detective agency. 221B is an apartment up seventeen steps, stated in an early manuscript to be at the "upper end" of the road. Until the arrival of Dr. Watson, Holmes works alone, only occasionally employing agents from the city's underclass, including a host of informants and a group of street children he calls the Baker Street Irregulars. The Irregulars appear in three stories, "The Sign of the Four", "A Study in Scarlet" and "The Adventure of the Crooked Man".

THIS EPISODE:

October 9, 1964. BBC Light Programme origination, WETA-FM, Washington rebroadcast. "The Adventure Of The Retired Colourman". Sustaining. A miser engages Mr. Holmes to recover his wayward wife...and his money as well. An excellent example of Mr. Holmes' deductive abilities. Arthur Conan Doyle (author), Michael Hardwick (adaptor), John Ruddock, Denis Goacher, Garand Green, Michael Kilgarriff, Janet Morrison, Graham Gauld (producer, director), Carleton Hobbs, Norman Shelley. 27:38.

Department Store Clerk (Aired November 24, 1949)


Maisie, the first in 1939, was from the book "Dark Dame" by the writer Wilson Collison,who did decades of scripting for the silver screen along with Broadway plays and magazine fiction. From the first, MGM wanted Ann Sothern to play Maisie. She began in Hollywood as an extra in 1927. "Maisie and I were just together - I just understood her," Sothern, born Harriette Arlene Lake, said after several of the films made her a star. Throughout the 1930s and '40s, Ann Sothern and Lucille Ball, like many performers in Hollywood, had not one but two careers - one in motion pictures and one on radio. MGM Studios had created the series of ten motion pictures based on a brash blonde with a heart "of spun gold." Sothern, due in great part to the Maisie films type-casting, would ultimately admit she was "a Hollywood princess, not a Hollywood queen." But in its time, the Maisie series in film and on radio made her known and loved the world over. And for many of us, Ann Sothern was a beautiful and intelligent actress whose warmth and charm were singularly beguiling. She continued to do TV (Private Secretary, The Ann Sothern Show) and movie work (A Letter to Three Wives, '49), and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1987 for The Whales of August.She died March 15, 2001.

THIS EPISODE:

November 24, 1949. Program #44. "Department Store Clerk" - MGM syndication. Commercials added locally. Maisie tries to get an overworked department store clerk (named Miss Hammerslogger) a vacation...with pay! The program has also been identified as program #39. Ann Sothern, Elvia Allman, Howard McNear, Jack McCoy (announcer), Peter Leeds, Sammie Hill, Frank Nelson, Arthur Phillips (writer), Harry Zimmerman (composer, conductor). 27:59.

Espionage & Murder In San Tomas (Aired May 7, 1951)


Bold Venture is a 1951-1952 syndicated radio series starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Morton Fine and David Friedkin scripted the taped series for Bogart's Santana Productions. Salty seadog Slate Shannon (Bogart) owns a Cuban hotel sheltering an assortment of treasure hunters, revolutionaries and other shady characters. With his sidekick and ward, the sultry Sailor Duval (Bacall), tagging along, he encounters modern-day pirates and other tough situations while navigating the waters around Havana. Aboard his boat, the Bold Venture, Slate and Sailor experience "adventure, intrigue, mystery and romance in the sultry settings of tropical Havana and the mysterious islands of the Caribbean." Calypso singer King Moses (Jester Hairston) provided musical bridges by threading plot situations into the lyrics of his songs. Music by David Rose. Beginning March 26, 1951, the Frederic W. Ziv Company syndicated 78 episodes. Some sources have claimed that the 78 episodes include reruns, and that there were only around 30 episodes but more than 50 shows have now come to light. Heard on 423 stations, the 30-minute series earned $4000 weekly for Bogart and Bacall.

Student Government Day (Aired January 16, 1949)


Our Miss Brooks was a hit on radio from the outset; within eight months of its launch as a regular series, the show landed several honors, including four for Eve Arden, who won polls in four individual publications of the time. Arden had actually been the third choice to play the title role. Harry Ackerman, at the time CBS's West Coast director of programming, wanted Shirley Booth for the part, but as he told historian Gerald Nachman many years later, he realized Booth was too focused on the underpaid downside of public school teaching at the time to have fun with the role. Lucille Ball was believed to be the next choice, but she was already committed to My Favorite Husband and didn't audition. Then CBS chairman Bill Paley, who was friendly with Arden, persuaded her to audition for the part. With a slightly rewritten audition script---Osgood Conklin, for example, was originally written as a school board president but was now written as the incoming new Madison principal---Arden agreed to give the newly-revamped show a try.

THIS EPISODE:

January 16, 1949. CBS network. Sponsored by: Palmolive Soap, Palmolive Shaving Cream, Lustre Creme Shampoo. As Mr. Conklin calls for Student Govenment Day at Madison High. Miss Brooks is back in trouble again. Eve Arden, Verne Smith (announcer), Richard Crenna, Gale Gordon, Jane Morgan, Wilbur Hatch (music), Jeff Chandler, Gloria McMillan. 26:09.

Rendevous With Death (Aired July 12, 1945)


Poirot, the famous Belgian detective, is the prominent character among Christie's works. He's known for his famous moustaches and his brain's "little grey cells." Poirot , in his novels and short stories, has proved that anyone can solve a crime just by simply thinking about it. Hercule Poirot is a fictional detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters: he appeared in 39 novels and 50 short stories. Poirot has been portrayed on screen, for films and TV, by various actors including Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov, Ian Holm, Tony Randall, Alfred Molina and, most recently, and famously, David Suchet. His character was based on two other fictional detectives of the time: Marie Belloc Lowndes' Hercule Popeau and Frank Howel Evans' Monsieur Poiret, a retired French police officer living in London. A more obvious influence on the early Poirot stories is that of Arthur Conan Doyle. In An Autobiography Christie admits that "I was still writing in the Sherlock Holmes tradition – eccentric detective, stooge assistant, with a Lestrade-type Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Japp."Poirot also bears a striking resemblance to A. E. W. Mason's fictional detective – Inspector Hanaud of the French surete-who, first appearing in the 1910 novel "At the Villa Rose," predates the writing of the first Poirot novel by six years.

Motive For Murder (Aired February 20, 1952)


Barry Craig, Confidential Investigator is one of the few detective radio series that had separate versions of it broadcast from both coasts. Even the spelling changed over the years. It was first "Barry Crane" and then "Barrie Craig". NBC produced it in New York from 1951 to 1954 and then moved it to Hollywood where it aired from 1954 to 1955. It attracted only occasional sponsors so it was usually a sustainer.William Gargan, who also played the better known television (and radio) detective Martin Kane, was the voice of New York eye Barry Craig while Ralph Bell portrayed his associate, Lt. Travis Rogers. Craig's office was on Madison Avenue and his adventures were fairly standard PI fare. He worked alone, solved cases efficiently, and feared no man. As the promos went, he was "your man when you can't go to the cops. Confidentiality a speciality."Like Sam Spade, Craig narrated his stories, in addition to being the leading character in this 30 minute show. Nearly sixty episodes are in trading circulation today.

THIS EPISODE:

February 20, 1952. NBC network. "Motive For Murder". Sustaining. "Death flies the Atlantic from Lisbon to New York, a corpse breaks the bank for $40 million dollars and yours truly almost sprouts wings!" William Gargan, John Roeburt (writer), Arnold Moss, Himan Brown (director), Don Pardo (announcer). 29:21.

The Open Ended Wrench (1952) *The Exact Date Is Unknown


Opening in 1875, the Crime Museum at Scotland Yard is the oldest museum in the world purely for recording crime. The name Black Museum was coined in 1877 by a reporter from The Observer, a London newspaper, although the museum is still referred to as the Crime Museum. The idea of a crime museum was conceived by Inspector Neame who had already collected together a number of items, with the intention of giving police officers practical instruction on how to detect and prevent burglary. It is this museum that inspired the Black Musuem radio series. The museum is not open to members of the public but is now used as a lecture theatre for the curator to lecture police and like bodies in subjects such as Forensic Science, Pathology, Law and Investigative Techniques. A number of famous people have visited the musuem including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Orsen Welles hosted and narrated the shows. Following the opening, Mr. Welles would introduce the museum's item of evidence that was central to the case, leading into the dramatization. He also provided narration during the show and ended each show with his characteristic closing from the days of his Mercury Theater on the Air, 'remaining obediently yours'.

THIS EPISODE:

1952. Program #10. Syndicated, WRVR-FM, New York aircheck. "The Open End Wrench". Sustaining. A woman found dead in a car leads Scotland Yard to uncover a wrench-wielding murderer. The date is approximate. Syndicated rebroadcast date: November 20, 1974. Harry Alan Towers (producer), Orson Welles (narrator), Ira Marion (writer), Sidney Torch (composer, conductor). 24:39.

New Years Eve (Aired December 31, 1944)


The Great Gildersleeve (1941-1957), initially written by Leonard Lewis Levinson, was one of broadcast history's earliest spin-off programs. Built around a character who had been a staple on the classic radio situation comedy Fibber McGee and Molly, The Great Gildersleeve enjoyed its greatest success in the 1940s. Actor Harold Peary played the character during its transition from the parent show into the spin-off and later in a quartet of feature films released at the height of the show's popularity. On Fibber McGee and Molly, Peary's Gildersleeve was a pompous windbag who became a consistent McGee nemesis. "You're a haa-aa-aa-aard man, McGee!" became a Gildersleeve catch phrase. The character was given several conflicting first names on Fibber McGee and Molly, and on one episode his middle name was revealed as Philharmonic. Gildy admits as much at the end of "Gildersleeve's Diary" on the Fibber McGee and Molly series (10/22/40). He soon became so popular that Kraft Foods — looking primarily to promote its Parkay margarine spread — sponsored a new series with Peary's Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve as the central, slightly softened, and slightly befuddled focus of a lively new family.

THIS EPISIODE:

December 31, 1944. "New Years Eve" - NBC network. Sponsored by: Kraft Parkay, Pabst-Ett. A quiet New Year's Eve at home for Gildersleeve and Leila Ransom. Harold Peary sings, "Speak To Me Of Love." Happy 1945! Arthur Q. Bryan, Claude Sweeten (music), Earle Ross, Harold Peary, John Whedon (writer), Ken Carpenter (announcer), Lillian Randolph, Louise Erickson, Richard LeGrand, Sam Moore (writer), Shirley Mitchell (?), Walter Tetley. 29:50.

Dead Man Control (Aired March 20, 1947)


Crime club was a Mutual Network murder and mystery series, a product of the Doubleday Crime Book Club imprints found weekly in bookstores everywhere. The telephone rings"Hello, I hope I haven't kept you waiting. Yes, this is the Crime Club. I'm the Librarian. Murder Rents A Room? Yes, we have that Crime Club story for you.Come right over. (The organist in the shadowed corner of the Crime Club library shivers the ivories) The doorbell tones sullenly"And you are here. Good. Take the easy chair by the window. Comfortable? The book is on this shelf." (The organist hits the scary chord) "Let's look at it under the reading lamp." The Librarian, played by Raymond E. Johnson, begins reading the tale. Veteran Willis Cooper (Lights Out, Quiet Please) did some of the scripts from the Crime Club books.

THIS EPISODE:

March 20, 1947. Mutual network. "Dead Men Control". Sustaining. A millionaire is killed while opening his wall safe. A large diamond is found missing, but is found again too soon. Helen Riley (writer), Ted Osborne, Alice Frost, Elspeth Eric. 31:14.

Marvin Thomas Entry (Aired June 8, 1948)


The twist with Diary of Fate was the total absence of pretense. The program jumps right to the 'source' of Man's ultimate destiny--Fate itself--in the form of the Guardian of the Diary of Fate. It is within the Diary of Fate, that every soul's fate is painstakingly chronicled by book and page number--or so we're very persuasively given to understand. Fate itself--in this instance, at least--is the great character actor Herbert Lytton, providing the forboding vocal gravitas we might expect from such an all-powerful cosmic force. Produced from Hollywood, the entire production was voiced by primarily west coast actors. Famous Radio and Television promoter Larry Finley produced and syndicated the program to at least some 94 affiliate stations throughout the U.S., Canada and Jamaica. Most local or regional broadcasts were either sustained offerings by an independent affiliate, or were sponsored by spot advertisers ranging over a wide variety of offerings or services. The production didn't stint on talent, as hinted above. No less than Ivan Ditmars provided the music direction and in addition to Herb Lytton as 'Fate', the varying casts included Lurene Tuttle, Larry Dobkin, Hal Sawyer, Gloria Blondell, Frank Albertson, Jerry Hausner, Howard McNear, Peter Leeds, Ken Peters, Daws Butler and William Johnstone. All in all a superb well of talent from which to draw each week. While a bit difficult to document, the production remains quite collectable and the perspective of the presentation is also unique for the era--or since for that matter. Diary of Fate is one of Radio's little, oft-overlooked gems that demand pulling out, polishing up for better enjoyment, then dutifully returning them to their preserve for another airing one day in the future.

THIS EPISODE:

June 8, 1948. Program #26. ABC network, KECA, Los Angeles origination, Finley syndication. "Marvin Thomas". Commercials added locally. Book 83, page 947. The meek secretary of a wealthy businessman murders his boss on a voyage to Australia and assumes his identity! The date is subject to correction. No cast credits given. Larry Finley (producer), Herb Lytton (as "Fate" and co-producer), Ivan Ditmars (organist), Ray Ehrlenborn (sound effects). 26:02.

Nor Gloom Of Night (Aired April 27, 1952)


The Hollywood star playhouse , well written and performed, presented many original plays and popular Hollywood stars. Some of those who accepted roles in this great series included Jimmy Stewart, William Conrad, Deborah Kerr, Vincent Price, Harry Bartell and Betty Lou Gerson. Highlights included an episode entitled The Six Shooter and which later became it’s own series staring James Stewart. In 1952, Marilyn Monroe made her radio debut on The Hollywood Star Playhouse. This 30 minute anthology program was heard over three different networks during its three seasons. Many leading Hollywood stars appeared before the microphones for this programs original scripts. Marilyn Monroe made her radio debut on the 08/31/52 broadcast. Several programs were intended to become new series. On 04/13/52, the broadcast # 99 of The Six Shooter w/James Stewart did indeed become a new NBC series The Six Shooter in 1953, while the broadcast of 05/18/52 #104 Safari w/Ray Milland failed to make it. There was a title change to this series. During the third network change to NBC the series picked up the sponsorship of the American Bakers and the series was called Baker’s Theater Of Stars.

Coins Of Death (Aired November 22, 1945)


The Avenger is a fictional character whose original adventures appeared from 1939 to 1942 in The Avenger magazine, published by Street and Smith Publications. Five additional short stories were published in Clues Detective magazine from 1942 to 1943, and a sixth novelette in The Shadow magazine in 1943. Newly-written adventures were commissioned and published by Warner Brother's Paperback Library from 1973 to 1974. The Avenger was a pulp hero who combined elements of Doc Savage and The Shadow though he was never as popular as either of these characters. The authorship of the pulp series was credited by Street and Smith to Kenneth Robeson, the same byline that appeared on the Doc Savage stories. The "Kenneth Robeson" name was a house pseudonym used by a number of different Street & Smith writers. Most of the original Avenger stories were written by Paul Ernst.

THIS EPISODE:

November 22, 1945. Program #5. Michelson syndication. "The Coins Of Death". Music fill for local commercial insert. Gilbert Braun (writer), James Monks, Helen Adamson, Ruth Braun (writer), Alyn Edwards (announcer), Doc Whipple (organist), Charles Michelson (producer), Walter Gibson (writer). 28:04.

Operation Hot Foot Microbes (Aired May 18, 1951)


Dangerous Assignment stands as one of the most durable programs of its genre and era in the waning days of The Golden Age of Radio. Espionage or foreign intrigue dramas weren't particularly groundbreaking undertakings by the 1950s. Bulldog Drummond was the first of the more successful exemplars of Radio espionage and intrigue, running from 1941 to 1954, most often under the lead of the gifted character actor, George Coulouris. The Counterspy series had been well underway since 1942 and ran in one incarnation or another through 1954. The Man Called X had already aired--to great popular and critical acclaim--for almost five years prior to 1949. Indeed, within a year of airing Dangerous Assignment's Summer 1949 season, The Man Called X returned to the air for another two years. For one of those years, Dangerous Assignment and The Man Called X ran back to back in the NBC line-up. Of the two foreign intrigue anthologies, NBC seemed to continue to favor the Herbert Marshall drama, The Man Called X. Whether in deference to Marshall's seniority, its former high ratings between 1944 and 1948, or simply out of perceived popularity, Dangerous Assignment, while airing ahead of The Man Called X, never seemed to get the buildup that The Man Called X invariably received.

THIS EPISODE:

May 18, 1951. NBC network. Sustaining. Steve Mitchell is sent to Trinidad for, "Operation Hot Foot Microbes." Brian Donlevy sings! The closing promotional announcement and system cue have been deleted. Robert Ryf (writer), Adrian Gendot (writer), Bob Cairn (producer, director), Don Diamond, Herb Butterfield, Robert Armbruster (music), Brian Donlevy, Jester Hairston (calypso singer, billed as "Lord Byron"). 28:16.

Cinderella Man (Aired March 14, 1945)


The Brownstone Theater premiered on February 21, 1945 as a nostalgic tribute to the many older Broadway and off-Broadway plays that were often mounted in 'brownstone theatres' much like Mutual's own Longacre Theatre. Mutual's The Brownstone Theater inaugurated its first cycle of sixteen, half-hour productions with an adaptation of Charles Klein's 1905 sensation, The Lion and The Mouse. Following a two-week break, the series returned on Sunday evenings with Edward Rose's 1919 hit Cappy Ricks. Thereafter followed another eleven productions, ending with yet another revival of Richard Sheridan's timeless comedy, The Rivals, on September 23, 1945. Dating from 1778, Sheridan's The Rivals had been revived eight other times between 1778 and 1942--and almost always in brownstone theaters much like Mutual's Longacre. The Brownstone Theater presentations were produced and directed by Mutual's 'Jock-of-All-Trades,' Jock MacGregor, with an ensemble cast comprised of some of New York's finest Radio voices and Stage actors, including Jackson Beck, Gertrude Warner, Les Tremayne, Jan Miner, Neil Hamilton, Walter Hampden, Michael Fitzmaurice and Shep Mencken. Show Notes From The Digital Deli

THIS EPISODE:

March 14, 1945. Mutual network, WOR, New York origination. "The Cinderella Man". Sustaining. A comedy first produced in 1916. A young, undiscovered writer meets a wealthy, lonely young lady. Jackson Beck, Jan Miner, Edward Charles Carpenter (author), Clayton Hamilton (host), Amzie Strickland (adaptor), Sylvan Levin (music director), Jock MacGregor (director). 29:00.

Companion To A Chimp (Aired December 15, 1953)


"Rocky Fortune" about a wanderer that took odd jobs to support himself and never stayed in one place too long. He almost always seemed to meet beautiful women along with trouble. Sinatra was good and was proving to Hollywood that he could do serious work. When casting began for the movie "From Here To Eternity", Frank campaigned tirelessly for a part and because of that and a good word put in for him by Gardner, who he was now separated from, he won a part that would mark his return to Hollywood. Sadly for us, it also meant he didn't have time to do radio and "Rocky Fortune" was rather short lived, although it was popular. It only ran from 1953 - 1954, but" It was a very good year".

THIS EPISODE:

December 15, 1953. "Companion To A Chimp" - NBC network. Sustaining. Rocky is hired to babysit for a chimp! Frank Sinatra, Gloria Ann Simpson, Barney Phillips, Jeanne Bates, Alice Backes, Jerry Hausner, Herb Vigran, Nestor Paiva, Ann Lucy Love (director), George Lefferts (writer). 24:59.

Boxcars711 Overnight Western "Gunsmoke" - Confederate Money (Aired March 13, 1954)


The radio show first aired on April 26, 1952 and ran until June 18, 1961 on the CBS radio network. The series starred William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon, Howard McNear as Doc Charles Adams, Georgia Ellis as Kitty Russell, and Parley Baer as Deputy Chester Proudfoot. Doc's first name and Chester's last name were changed for the television program. Gunsmoke was notable for its critically acclaimed cast and writing, and is commonly regarded as THE true adult western and one of the finest old time radio shows. Some listeners (such as old time radio expert John Dunning) have argued that the radio version of Gunsmoke was far more realistic than the television program. Episodes were aimed at adults, and featured some of the most explicit content of the day: there were violent crimes and scalpings, massacres and opium addicts. Miss Kitty's occupation was made far more obvious on the radio version than on television. Many episodes ended on a down-note, and villains often got away with their crimes.

THIS EPISODE:

March 13, 1954. CBS network. "Confederate Money". Sustaining. Neil Butler is fired by his boss Fate Ender when Lee Shin comes to town. Fate is bushwacked and wounded. He swears to get Neil for the crime. Barney Phillips, George Walsh (announcer), Georgia Ellis, Harry Bartell, Howard McNear, Jimmy Ogg, John Meston (writer), Norman Macdonnell (producer, director), Parley Baer, Rex Koury (composer, performer), Vic Perrin, William Conrad. 25:16.

Double Trouble (Aired July 10, 1949)


Ladd hired some excellent voice talent for his project, and these superb, veteran Radio professionals set a pretty high bar for Ladd, himself. Box 13 is highly expositional, as are most programs of the genre, and Ladd's grovelly, gritty voice lends itself well to the production. But by Episode #6 it seems apparent that Alan Ladd was beginning to hit his stride in the role. What seems to get in the way for many reviewers of this program is its somewhat implausible premise. Dan Holiday was purportedly a successful fiction writer for the Star-Times news magazine who becomes disenchanted with the utter, mind-numbing routine of it. Dan Holiday opts out. He posts an ad reading "Go anywhere, Do anything, Write Box 13". This had become a pretty well-worked theme by 1948. Perhaps a bit too reminiscent of George Valentine's "Personal notice: Danger's my stock in trade. If the job's too tough for you to handle, you've got a job for me. George Valentine," from 1946's Let George Do It. The gimmick certainly made for an open-ended range of potential adventures for Box 13's protagonist. And it resulted in some pretty outrageous assignments in the course of Holiday's fifty-two adventures. But adventures they are, which perhaps sets this erstwhile detective genre program as more of an adventure genre. Holiday isn't a detective per se. And it's clear that he's still interested in making some dough off the back end of his adventures--all perfect fodder for the Men's Adventure magazines so much the vogue throughout the 1940s and 1950s.

THIS EPISODE:

July 10, 1949. Program #47. Mutual network origination, Mayfair syndication. "Double Trouble". Commercials added locally. A typed letter from a "Pat Kennedy" puts Dan Holiday in a frame for murder. This is one case where Dan has to call the cops! Alan Ladd, Sylvia Picker, Vern Carstensen (production supervisor), Richard Sanville (director), Rudy Schrager (composer, conductor), Russell Hughes (writer). 26:50.

Winterset (Aired June 8, 1952)


Best Plays presents theatrical paramounts of excellence. It's hosted by the drama critic of New York’s Daily News, John Chapman. Dramatic and comedic performances outshine other theater radio shows, greatly performed by such greats as Boris Karloff and Alfred Drake. In This Episode, On Borrowed Time a 1939 film about the role death plays in life, and how we cannot live without it. It is adapted from Paul Osborn's 1938 Broadway play, which was a smash hit. The play, based on a novel by Lawrence Edward Watkin, has been revived twice on Broadway since its original run. Set in a more innocent time in small-town America, the film stars Lionel Barrymore, Beulah Bondi and Cedric Hardwicke. Lionel Barrymore plays Julian Northrup, a wheelchair-bound man (Barrymore had broken his hip twice previously and was now using a wheelchair, though he continued to act), who with his wife Nellie, played by Beulah Bondi, are raising their orphaned grandson, Pud. Another central character is Gramps's beloved old apple tree - by making a wish, Gramps has made the tree able to hold anyone who climbs.

THIS EPISODE:

June 8, 1952. NBC network. "Winterset". Sustaining. The first show of the series. John Chapman (host, editor), Fred Collins (announcer), Burgess Meredith, Maureen Stapleton, Maxwell Anderson (author), Joe DeSantis, Edwin Jerome, Roger De Koven, Joseph Julian, Ralph Bell, Bill Lipton, Gilbert Mack, Matt Crowley, Hal Benhoe (? music selector), William Welch (supervisor), Edward King (director). 59:28.

My Sister Eileen (Aired May 18, 1946)


The list of films and actors on Academy Award Theater is very impressive. Bette Davis begins the series in Jezebel, with Ginger Rogers following in Kitty Foyle, and then Paul Muni in The Life of Louis Pasteur. The Informer had to have Victor Mclaglen, and the Maltese Falcon, Humphrey Bogart, Sidney Greenstreet (this movie was his first major motion picutre role) plus Mary Astor for the hat trick. Suspicion starred Cary Grant with Ann Todd doing the Joan Fontaine role, Ronald Coleman in Lost Horizon, and Joan Fontaine and John Lund were in Portrait of Jenny. How Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio were done is something to hear!
Some films are less well known, such as Guest in the House, with Kirk Douglas and Anita Louise, It Happened Tomorrow, with Eddie Bracken and Ann Blythe playing Dick Powell and Linda Darnell's roles, and Cheers for Miss Bishop with Olivia de Havilland. Each adaptation is finely produced and directed by Dee Engelbach, with music composed and conducted by Leith Stevens. Frank Wilson wrote the movie adaptations. John Dunning in his book,"On the Air, The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio,"tells us why such a fine production lasted less than a year: "The House of Squibb, a drug firm, footed a stiff bill: up to $5,000 for the stars and $1,600 a week to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for use of the title. The production had all the class of a Lux or Screen Guild show…But the tariff took its toll, and after 39 weeks the series was scrapped."

THIS EPISODE:

May 18, 1946. CBS network. "My Sister Eileen". Sponsored by: Squibb. The classic light comedy about two innocents from Ohio adrift in the wilds of Greenwich Village. An announcement is made that this story is being turned into a radio series for next fall, to star Lucille Ball. Rosalind Russell, Janet Blair, Hugh Brundage (announcer), Frank Wilson (adaptor), Dee Englebach (producer, director), Leith Stevens (composer, conductor). 28:46.

Marble Knights (Aired November 1, 1968)


This series was written by Michael McCabe and was produced in South Africa. It was a replacement for another series McCabe produced, called SF68. That series adapted famous Sci-fi stories to radio, and it seems to have been the place where McCabe honed his craft. The subject matter to Beyond Midnight was more horror oriented, including madness, murder, and supernatural sleuths! What survives today doesn't involve a horror host per se, but a few include framing narration (by someone involved in the plot) while others just start up the story with no announcer or lead-in whatsoever. So it's possible the regular host or announcer was left off (edited out) of the recordings. The host-- if there was one-- may have only been heard by those who listened to this series when it first aired. It's another radio mystery we may never know for sure, but we're lucky to at least have some of the recordings!

Plantation Mystery (1942) *The Exact Date Is Unknown


The Hermit's cave Ghost stories ... weird stories ... of murder, too ... the Hermit knows them all. Horror stories with Mel Johnson and howling wolves in the background, obliterating some of the introduction. This syndicated show was one of the treats for the kiddies, cuddled up to their hollow-state radio sets to keep warm in Detroit, between 1940 and 1944. The show was also heard in Beverly Hills, CA in 1943-1944, a radio horror anthology series, syndicated by WJR Detroit in the mid-1930s, sponsored by Olga Coal after the first two years. As the wind howled, the ancient Hermit narrated his horror fantasies from his cave. The cackling character of the Hermit was played by John Kent, Charles Penman, Toby Grimmer, and Klock Ryder. William Conrad produced when the show moved to KMPC Los Angeles with Mel Johnson as the Hermit (1940-42), followed by John Dehner (1942-44).

THIS EPISODE:

1942. World syndication. "The House Of Purple Shadows". Sponsored by: Commercials deleted or added locally. A man goes home and becomes invisible! The terrible spell of the house soon falls upon the next owners of the house. 24:53.

The Courageous Come On (Aired September 8, 1949)


The show was at the top of the list among programs that had developed the technique of sound effects to a fine art. Each program was written with the sound in mind, not so much sound for sound's sake, but to advance the plot, add color or create atmosphere. Two sound effects men spent a reported ten hours in rehearsal for each broadcast, in addition to the time spent by the actors. East coast actors House Jameson, Don MacLaughlin, Phil Sterling and Lawson Zerbe [MBS] (Zerbe appeared as both David Harding and Harry Peters) were the only four actors to ever assume the role of David Harding--Jameson for the first two episodes only, replaced by Don MacLaughlin for the remainder of its twelve year run. Both Connecticut residents, House Jameson premiered in the role while Lord was still auditioning talent for the lead. By the third episode, Phillips H. Lord selected Don MacLaughlin for the role. MacLaughlin was by no means new to Radio, having already appeared in some 300 Radio productions since his debut over Radio in 1935. MacLaughlin's versatility, predominantly in action and straight dramatic roles, made him an ideal candidate among the twenty or so actors who auditioned for the part.

THIS EPISODE:

September 8, 1949. ABC network. "The Courageous Come-On". Sponsored by: Pepsi Cola. A girl is "good at being bad" until she sees a blind spot. Is the sword mightier than the pen? After the drama, Vice President Barkley speaks about hiring disabled veterans. The system cue has been deleted. Don MacLaughlin, Mandel Kramer, Phillips H. Lord (producer), Jesse Crawford (organ), William Sweets (director), Palmer Thompson (writer), Alben Barkley. 29:28.

The Annual Christmas Show (Aired December 19, 1945)


Amos 'n' Andy was a situation comedy popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s. The show began as one of the first radio comedy serials, written and voiced by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll and originating from station WMAQ in Chicago, Illinois. After the series was first broadcast in 1928, it grew in popularity and became a huge influence on the radio serials that followed. Amos 'n' Andy creators Gosden and Correll were white actors familiar with minstrel traditions. They met in Durham, North Carolina in 1920, and by the fall of 1925, they were performing nightly song-and-patter routines on the Chicago Tribune's station WGN. Since the Tribune syndicated Sidney Smith's popular comic strip The Gumps, which had successfully introduced the concept of daily continuity, WGN executive Ben McCanna thought the notion of a serialized drama could also work on radio. He suggested to Gosden and Correll that they adapt The Gumps to radio. They instead proposed a series about "a couple of colored characters" and borrowed certain elements of The Gumps. Their new series, Sam 'n' Henry, began January 12, 1926, fascinating radio listeners throughout the Midwest. That series became popular enough that in late 1927 Gosden and Correll requested that it be distributed to other stations on phonograph records in a "chainless chain" concept that would have been the first use of radio syndication as we know it today. When WGN rejected the idea, Gosden and Correll quit the show and the station that December.

THIS EPISODE:

December 19, 1945. CBS network. Sponsored by: Campbell's Soup. The Annual Christmas Show. Andy works as Santa so he can raise money for a special gift and for a special person. Bill Hay gives a warm Christmas greeting. The Paul Taylor Chorus, Bill Hay (announcer), Freeman Gosden, Charles Correll. 27:37.

Christmas Program (Aired December 21, 1950)


The series began August 25, 1949, on NBC Radio. Set in the Midwest, it starred Robert Young as the General Insurance agent Jim Anderson. His wife Margaret was first portrayed by June Whitley and later by Jean Vander Pyl. The Anderson children were Betty (Rhoda Williams), Bud (Ted Donaldson), and Kathy (Norma Jean Nillson). Others in the cast were Eleanor Audley, Herb Vigran and Sam Edwards. Sponsored through most of its run by General Foods, the series was heard Thursday evenings on NBC until March 25, 1954. On the radio program, the character of Jim differs from the later television character. The radio Jim is far more sarcastic and shows he really "rules" over his family. Jim also calls his children names, something common on radio but lost in the TV series. For example, Jim says, "What a bunch of stupid children I have." Margaret is portrayed as a paragon of solid reason and patience, unless the plot calls for her to act a bit off. For example, in a Halloween episode, Margaret cannot understand how the table floats in the air, but that is a rare exception. Betty, on radio, is portrayed as a status seeking, boy-crazy teenage girl. To her, every little thing is "the worst thing that could ever happen." Bud, on radio, is portrayed as an "all-American" boy who always seems to need "just a bit more" money, though he gets $1.25 per week in allowance. The actor had an affected "r" (similar to Elmer Fudd, but not quite as pronounced). Bud is in charge of always having to answer the front door, which he hates. He is also shown as a somewhat dim boy who takes everything literally; for example, Jim might say "Go jump in the lake," to which Bud would reply "Okay, Dad; which lake should I go jump into?" On radio Kathy often is portrayed as a source of irritation. She whines, cries and complains about her status in the family as overlooked. She often is the source of money to her brother and sister, although she is in hock several years on her own allowance.

THIS EPISODE:

December 21, 1950. "Christmas Show" - NBC network. Sponsored by: Maxwell House Coffee. A Christmas fable about Hans Christian Anderson and his many children's characters. Robert Young, Norma Jean Nilsson, Ted Donaldson, Rhoda Williams, June Whitley, Eleanor Audley, Bill Forman (announcer), Roy Bargy and His Orchestra, Clarence Nash (as the duck). 33:11.

A Korean Christmas Carol (Aired December 20, 1959)


Suspense was one of the premier programs of the Golden Age of Radio (aka old-time radio), and advertised itself as "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." It was heard in one form or another from 1942 through 1962. There were approximately 945 episodes broadcast during its long run, over 900 of which are extant in mostly high-quality recordings. Suspense went through several major phases, characterized by different hosts, sponsors and director/producers. There were a few rules which were followed for all but a handful of episodes: Protagonists were usually a normal person suddenly dropped into a threatening or bizarre situation. Evildoers must be punished in the end.

THIS EPISODE:

December 20, 1959. CBS network origination, AFRTS rebroadcast. "Korean Christmas Carol". the story of a strange G. I., his A. W. O. L. bag, and an even stranger Christmas battle. Bill Lipton, Lyle Sudrow, Allen Manson, Phil Meader, Santos Ortega, Guy Repp, Larry Robinson, Lawson Zerbe, Stuart Metz (announcer), George Walsh (announcer), George Bamber (writer), Paul Roberts (producer, director), Ethel Huber (music supervisor). 24:53.

Christmas Story (Aired December 25, 1946)


Henry Morgan saw through all that was phony and contrived in the world of American media and held it in contempt. While most performers in early television pretended that dancing girls dressed as giant packs of cigarettes was perfectly normal, Morgan was pointing out the lunacy. Morgan found television insipid but, incongruously, received his greatest fame as a game show panelist. That didn't soften his disposition any, although it may have humbled him somewhat. Listening to The Henry Morgan Show today is refreshing. Radio sponsors (that is to say corporate America) so dominated radio and television in the thirties, forties and fifties that it was rare to hear a point of view that contradicted that of R.J. Reynolds, Procter and Gamble or The United Fruit Company. Listening to Henry Morgan is to reassure us about the time period. Not everybody was Joseph McCarthy and not everybody bought the premise of the Cold War. Seven out of ten doctors did not actually recommend the leading brand of cigarette nor did most people believe that they did. Just as today, corporate media represented a minority opinion. A very wealthy and powerful minority that, were it not for voices like Henry Morgan's, we might believe represented the majority of Americans. Twenty years after Morgan had retreated from public life, he published his autobiography, Here's Morgan! The Original Bad Boy of Broadcasting (1994, Barricade Books). The book's introduction, featuring the first public words from Morgan since the early eighties, started with a sarcastic indictment of American foreign policy. Show Notes From The Digital Deli

The Night Before Christmas (Aired December 24, 1945)


Sherlock Holmes detective stories appeared on radio for more than 25 years, with a long list of performers playing the parts of Holmes and Dr Watson. FIRST BROADCAST: October 20th 1930 LAST BROADCAST: September 4th 1956. The stories were written by Edith Meiser, a self-confessed Holmes addict. These were so well written that she was warmly praised by Arthur Conan Doyle’s widow and son.

THIS EPISODE:

December 24, 1945. Mutual network. "The Night Before Christmas". Sponsored by: Petri Wines. A Christmas story with two Santas (one of them "Lou the Lisper," a henchman of Professor Moriarty)! The story is based on, "The Adventure Of The Blue Carbuncle." Anthony Boucher (writer), Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Harry Bartell (announcer), Denis Green (writer), Arthur Conan Doyle (author), Dean Fosler (music), Edna Best (producer). 35:28.

A Contemporary Christmas Carol (Aired 12-24-49)


Richard Diamond, Private Detective was a radio show starring Dick Powell which aired from 1949 to 1953, first on NBC, then ABC and finally on CBS. The title character was a rather light-hearted detective who often ended the episodes singing to his girlfriend, Helen. The television series was produced by Powell's company, Four Star Television, and that series ran for 3 years from 1957 to 1960. On TV, David Janssen played the hard boiled private eye and his secretary renamed “Sam”, was only ever shown on camera from the waist down, most assurardidly to display her beautiful legs. It was later leared that the legs belonged to Mary Tyler Moore. Original music by Frank DeVol and pete rugolo and later by richard shores. Good scripts, a solid cast and Powell’s exceptional talent made a good time 30 minute program that was quite popular during that Golden Age of Radio. So Let’s sit back now, relax and enjoy this truly otr radio classic.,…, Dick powell as Richard Diamond.., Private Detective.

THIS EPISODE:

December 24, 1949. NBC network. "A Christmas Carol". Sustaining. The famous story by Charles Dickens, but done by Richard Diamond, the private detective, and his friends. See the same script, broadcast two years later. Dick sings, "Mele Kalikimaka," after the story. Dick Powell, Edward King (announcer), Charles Dickens (author), Blake Edwards (writer). 32:06.

Dickens Other Christmas Story (12-24-45


Dickens Other Christmas Story (Aired December 24, 1945) In July 1845, Dickens contemplated forming a periodical focusing on the concerns of the home called The Cricket but the plan fell through, and he transformed his idea into a Christmas book in which he abandoned social criticism, current events, and topical themes in favour of simple fantasy and a domestic setting for his hero's redemption. The book was released on 20 December 1845 (the title page read "1846") and sold briskly into the New Year. Seventeen stage productions opened during the Christmas season 1845 with one production receiving Dickens's approval and opening on the same day as the book's release. Dickens read the tale four times in public performance. It has been dramatized in numerous languages and for years was more popular on stage than "A Christmas Carol." Vladimir Lenin publicly walked out of a performance of the "Cricket" play in the Soviet Union, calling it too sentimental, but it is less explicitly Christian than some of Dickens' other Christmas books. Best read as a fairy tale rather than realistic fiction, Cricket has been criticized for its sentimentality but contemporary readers were attracted to its depiction of the Victorian ideal of the happy home.

Holiday Inn (Aired January 11, 1943)


The Screen Guild Theater was a popular radio anthology series during the Golden Age of Radio that was heard from 1939 until 1952 with adaptations from films in programs starring top Hollywood actors of the time. The show had a long run, lasting for 14 seasons and 527 episodes. It ran on CBS from January 8, 1939 until June 28, 1948, continuing on NBC from October 7, 1948 until June 29, 1950. It was broadcast on ABC from September 7, 1950 to May 31, 1951 and returned to CBS on March 13, 1952. It aired under several different titles: The Gulf Screen Guild Show, The Screen Guild Players, The Gulf Screen Guild Theater, The Lady Esther Screen Guild Theater and The Camel Screen Guild Theater.

THIS EPISODE:

This is truly one of the great musicals to ever grace the silver screen. Between the great song, the dance numbers and the chemistry between Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, this film really is one of the the all time classics. What really makes it great is that it pretty much plays like a great Broadway review that uses the different holidays as an excuse to display the individual talents of each of the film's stars. However, the thing that this film will truly be remembered for is the fact that it introduced one of the all time classic song's to the world, "White Christmas". Another thing that makes this film so beloved is that it came out during a time when America needed somewhat of a diversion, World War II. This film helped to give people something to put smiles on their faces as the whole world was going to hell. At least for two hours, this film helped America to forget its troubles and put a smile on everyone's faces. Show Notes From: Brian Washington of Los Angeles, California. 31:20.

A Christmas Story (Aired December 20, 1952)


The radio show first aired on April 26, 1952 and ran until June 18, 1961 on the CBS radio network. The series starred William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon, Howard McNear as Doc Charles Adams, Georgia Ellis as Kitty Russell, and Parley Baer as Deputy Chester Proudfoot. Doc's first name and Chester's last name were changed for the television program. Gunsmoke was notable for its critically acclaimed cast and writing, and is commonly regarded as one of the finest old time radio shows. Some listeners (such as old time radio expert John Dunning) have argued that the radio version of Gunsmoke was far more realistic than the television program. Episodes were aimed at adults, and featured some of the most explicit content of the day: there were violent crimes and scalpings, massacres and opium addicts. Miss Kitty's occupation was made far more obvious on the radio version than on television. Many episodes ended on a down-note, and villains often got away with their crimes.

THIS EPISODE:

December 20, 1952. CBS network. "Christmas Story". Sustaining. A good Christmas story, told by Marshal Dillon to a stranger on a strange horse out on the prairie. Christmas in Dodge City. An excellent script, great radio! William Conrad, Parley Baer, Georgia Ellis, Lawrence Dobkin, Harry Bartell, John Dehner, Howard McNear, Roy Rowan (announcer), Antony Ellis (writer), Norman Macdonnell (producer, director), Rex Koury (music). 34:07.

Pasquale Takes Luigi's Christmas Money (Aired December 20, 1949)


Life with Luigi was a radio comedy-drama series which began September 21, 1948 on CBS. The story concerned Italian immigrant Luigi Basco, and his experiences as an immigrant in Chicago. Many of the shows take place at the US citizenship classes that Luigi attends with other immigrants from different countries, as well as trying to fend off the repeated advances of the morbidly-obese daughter of his landlord/sponsor. Luigi was played by J. Carrol Naish, an Irish-American. Naish continued in the role on the short-lived television version in 1952, and was later replaced by Vito Scotti. With a working title of The Little Immigrant, Life with Luigi was created by Cy Howard, who earlier had created the hit radio comedy, My Friend Irma. The show was often seen as the Italian counterpart to the radio show The Goldbergs, which chronicled the experience of Jewish immigrants in New York.

THIS EPISODE:

December 20, 1949. "Pasquale Takes Luigi's Christmas Money" - CBS network. Sustaining. Luigi plans a special Christmas gift for Pasquale. The envelope with $50 in savings disappears, making the purchase of gift difficult. A moving program, good radio! J. Carrol Naish, Cy Howard (creator, producer), Mac Benoff (writer, director), Lou Derman (writer), Bob Stevenson (announcer), Lud Gluskin (music director), Alan Reed, Mary Shipp, Joe Forte, Ken Peters, Hans Conried, Jody Gilbert. 33:00.

MOVIE - A Christmas Carol - 1951 (Alastair Sim)


Scrooge, released as A Christmas Carol in the United States, is a 1951 film adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. It starred Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge and was directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, with a screenplay by Noel Langley. The film also features Kathleen Harrison in an acclaimed turn as Mrs. Dilber, Scrooge's charwoman. Fans of British cinema will recognise George Cole as the younger version of Scrooge, Hermione Baddeley as Mrs. Cratchit, Mervyn Johns as Bob Cratchit, Clifford Mollison as Samuel Wilkins, a debtor, Jack Warner as Mr. Jorkin, a role created for the film, Ernest Thesiger as Marley's undertaker and Patrick Macnee as a young Jacob Marley. Michael Hordern plays Marley's ghost, as well as old Marley. Peter Bull serves as narrator, by reading portions of Dickens' words at the beginning and end of the film and also appears on-screen as one of the businessmen cynically discussing Scrooge's funeral. The film was released in Great Britain under its original title, "Scrooge", to marvelous acclaim. United Artists handled the US release under the title A Christmas Carol and the film was originally slated to be shown at New York City's Radio City Music Hall as part of their Christmas attraction. However, the theatre management thought the film was too grim and somber and did not possess enough family entertainment value to warrant an engagement at the Music Hall. Instead, the film premiered at The Guild Theatre (right near the Music Hall) in November, 1951. The reviews were mixed and the film was a box office disappointment. Then, the film made its television debut in 1954 (by local New York station WOR-TV). It became an annual Christmas Eve tradition in the 1960s when it was shown on the New York local station WCBS-TV Channel 2. For many years it was shown back to back in two or three consecutive airings on Channel 2 throughout Christmas Eve night as part of their Late Late Show installment. In other years, Channel 2 aired both the 1951 and the 1938 film versions alternately throughout the night and into Christmas Day morning. In 1975, WCBS-TV's rights to show the film expired and it returned to WOR-TV where it ran every Christmas until the 1980s. It did not attain its current popularity in the USA until the 1970s, when it began to be shown on local NET and later PBS, stations. Until then, the most widely seen film version in the U.S. was MGM's 1938 adaptation starring Reginald Owen. The Alastair Sim version had received a favourable notice from The New York Times when it opened in 1951,and a mixed review in Time magazine criticizing the direction while praising the performances, but otherwise had not caused much of a stir. However, in the years since, it has attained classic status in the U.S. and become a favorite of the viewing public as well. Sim's characterisation of Scrooge, from mean and sinister to happy and generous, receives particular praise.

The Christmas Carol (Aired December 21, 1945)


Duffy's Tavern, an American radio situation comedy (CBS, 1941-1942; NBC-Blue Network, 1942-1944; NBC, 1944-1952), often featured top-name stage and film guest stars but always hooked those around the misadventures, get-rich-quick-scheming, and romantic missteps of the title establishment's malaprop-prone, metaphor-mixing manager, Archie, played by the writer/actor who created the show, Ed Gardner.

THIS EPISODE:

December 21, 1945. NBC network. Sponsored by: Minit-Rub, Ingraham Shave Cream. Guest is harpist Robert Maxwell. The cast does, "The Christmas Carol," by Charles and Archie Dickens. Robert Maxwell (harp), Ed Gardner, Sandra Gould. 31:04.

Christmas By Injunction (Aired December 21, 1941)


Author's Playhouse was an anthology radio drama series, created by Wynn Wright, that aired on the NBC Blue Network from March 5, 1941 until October 1941. It then moved to the NBC Red Network where it was heard until June 4, 1945. Philip Morris was the sponsor in 1942-43.

THIS EPISODE:

December 21, 1941. Red network. "Christmas By Injunction". Sustaining. The program originates from Chicago. A western town needs a young child at Christmas to receive the benefits from one of its citizens who has struck it rich. Carl Kroenke, Clarence Hartzell, Cliff Soubier, Curley Bradley, Dan Bowers, Eva Parnell, Fern Persons, Harriet Allen, Hilda Graham, Jack Mitchell (adaptor), Jerry Spellman, Michael Romano, O. Henry (author), Percy Hemus, Roy Shield (composer, conductor), Sidney Ellstrom. 33:30.

O. Henry (1862-1910) was originally born William Sydney Porter in Greensboro, North Carolina. As a young man, he moved to Austin, Texas where he worked as a bank teller. He moved again to Houston, Texas in 1895 and became a newspaper columnist. In 1896, however, he was called back to Austin, where he was charged with embezzling money from the bank where he had worked. Not wanting to go to prison for his crime, O. Henry fled to Honduras, and stayed there for six months before returning to the United States. Upon his return, the court tried him and put him in an Ohio prison for three years. While in prison, he began writing short stories and it is there that he took the pen-name O. Henry for his writings. After his release from prison in 1901, he moved to New York, which is the setting for many of his stories. He is the author of over 250 stories and is most famous for his use of surprise or 'twist' endings.

Time For Christmas (Aired December 12, 1953)


Stars Over Hollywood was a Saturday morning radio program that became an instant sucess and ran for thirteen years and dispite strong suggestions against it's acceptence in such a time slot. The program, sponsored by Dari-Rich, Carnation Milk and Armour, was informal and light-hearted. Stars such as Alan Ladd, Joan Crawford, Mary Astor, Phil Harris, and Basil Rathbone starred, often showing up to the set in pajamas or bathrobes. The tone of this series seems to be similar to that of soap operas: often sentimental material, very clearly-conveyed characters and motivations, very little ambiguity. Director Paul Pierce, refused to accept the negative predictions of hollywood critics.

THIS EPISODE:

December 12, 1953. CBS network. "Time For Christmas". Sponsored by: Carnation Milk. The case of Santa Claus and the three cuckoo clocks! Anita Louise, Art Ballinger (announcer), Isa Ashdown, John Stevenson, Rex Koury (composer, performer), Rosemary De Camp, Stanley Farrar. 32:12.

The Christmas Show (Aired December 12, 1949)


On July 25, 1946, Jerry began a show business partnership with Dean Martin, an association that would soon skyrocket both to fame. It started when Jerry was performing at the 500 Club in Atlantic City and one of the other entertainers quit suddenly. Lewis, who had worked with Martin at the Glass Hat in New York City, suggested Dean as a replacement. At first they worked separately, but then ad-libbed together, improvising insults and jokes, squirting seltzer water, hurling bunches of celery and exuding general zaniness. In less than eighteen weeks their salaries soared from $250.00 a week to $5,000.00. For ten years Martin and Lewis sandwiched sixteen money making films between nightclub engagements, personal appearances, recording sessions, radio shows, and television bookings. Their last film together was "Hollywood or Bust" (1956). On July 25th of that year the two made their last nightclub appearance together at the Copacabana, exactly ten years to the day since they became a team.

THIS EPISODE:

December 12, 1949. "The Christmas Show" - NBC network. Sustaining. The program originates from Chicago. The boys get a job at a suburban resort. Madness follows, funny in spite of the mayhem. The cast does a skit called, "Love In Darkest Africa." Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Flo McMichaels, Sheldon Leonard, Dick Stabile and His Orchestra, Charlie Isaacs (writer), Ben Star (writer), Jack Douglas (writer), Robert L. Redd (producer), Charles Martin (announcer). 31:14.

Christmas Story (Aired December 25, 1951)


Written and directed by Robert A. Arthur and David Kogan, the series began on the Mutual Broadcasting System, December 5, 1943, continuing in many different timeslots until September 16, 1952. Unlike many other shows of the era, The Mysterious Traveler was without a sponsor for its entire run. The lonely sound of a distant locomotive heralded the arrival of the malevolent narrator, portrayed by Maurice Tarplin, who introduced himself each week in the following manner. This is the Mysterious Traveler, inviting you to join me on another journey into the strange and terrifying. I hope you will enjoy the trip, that it will thrill you a little and chill you a little. So settle back, get a good grip on your nerves and be comfortable -- if you can! Cast members included Jackson Beck, Lon Clark, Roger DeKoven, Elspeth Eric, Wendell Holmes, Bill Johnstone, Joseph Julian, Jan Miner, Santos Ortega, Bryna Raeburn, Frank Readick, Ann Shepherd, Lawson Zerbe and Bill Zuckert. Sound effects were by Jack Amrhein, Jim Goode, Ron Harper, Walt McDonough and Al Schaffer. "Behind the Locked Door," a popular episode which took place in total darkness, was much requested and was repeated several times during the years. The story involves two archaeologists who discover an old wagon train abandoned over one hundred years ago in an old cave. After a landslide traps them in the darkness, they are attacked by apparently human assailants and conclude that the descendants of the wagon train are still living in the cave.

THIS EPISODE:

December 25, 1951. Mutual network. "Christmas Story". Sustaining. A man driving across the country with a stranger decides to impersonate him to collect his inheritance when he dies suddenly. David Kogan (writer, producer, director), Maurice Tarplin, Robert A. Arthur (writer). 31:17.

Christmas Program (Aired December 22, 1944)


On September 10, 1933 Jimmy Durante appeared on Eddie Cantor's popular The Chase and Sanborn Hour, continuing until November 12 of that year. When Cantor departed, Durante took over the NBC show as its star from April 22 to September 30, 1934, moving on to The Jumbo Fire Chief Program (1935-36). He teamed with Garry Moore for The Durante-Moore Show in 1943. Durante's comic chemistry with the young, brushcut Moore brought Durante an even larger audience. "Dat's my boy dat said dat!" became an instant catchphrase. The duo became one of the nation's favorites for the rest of the decade, including a well-reviewed Armed Forces Radio Network command performance with Frank Sinatra that remains a favorite of radio collectors today. Moore left in mid-1947, and the program returned October 1, 1947 as The Jimmy Durante Show. Durante worked in radio for three years after Moore's 1947 departure, including a reunion of Clayton, Jackson and Durante on his April 21, 1948 broadcast.

To The Future (Aired December 14, 1955)


X Minus One was an NBC science fiction series that was an extension, or revival, of NBC's earlier science fiction series, DIMENSION X. which ran from Apr. 8, 1950 through Sept. 29, 1951. Both are remembered for bringing really first rate science fiction to the air. The first X MINUS ONE shows used scripts from DIMENSION X, but soon created new shows from storied from the pages of Galaxy Magazine. The series was cancelled after the 126th broadcast on January 9, 1958. However, the early 1970s brought a wave of nostalgia for old-time radio; a new experimental episode, "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg, was created in 1973, but it failed to revive the series. NBC also tried broadcasting the old recordings, but their irregular once-monthly scheduling kept even devoted listeners from following the broadcasts. All episodes of the show survive. Future Tense! was a 1974-76 radio series, produced in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with local actors performing scripts updated from X Minus One by Professor Eli Segal. The show was a production of WMUK, the college radio station of Western Michigan University. Segal also produced X Minus One recreations on his Audion Theater (1990).

THIS EPISODE:

December 14, 1955. NBC network origination, AFRTS rebroadcast. "To The Future". A trip two hundred years into the past...to 1955! The script was used previously on "Dimension X" on May 27, 1950. William Welch (producer), Ernest Kinoy (adaptor), Daniel Sutter (director), Fred Collins (announcer), Alexander Scourby, Mercer McLeod, Joe DeSantis, Guy Sorel, Al Jazzbeaux Collins, Stan Early, Ray Bradbury (author), Teri Keane. 28:46.

Christmas Shopping (Aired December 19, 1946


Originally appearing in the pages of Black Mask, under the watchful eyes of then-editor Joseph Shaw, Flashgun Casey was the originally fast-talking crime photographer, a big, hot-tempered Boston Mick with a gift for gab and a nose for trouble. No "artiste", Casey kept a bottle of hooch and a .38 in his desk drawer, and boasted of being able to put a "slug where he aimed" and having "two big fists he knew how to use". He appeared in several short stories in the pulps and several novels. Casey, whose first name was never revealed, was the major crime photographer at the fictional Morning Express newspaper. With the help of reporter Ann Williams, he tracked down criminals and solved numerous crimes on this popular mystery-adventure series. Often a picture snapped at a crime scene led Casey to play detective. Jackson Beck and Bernard Lenrow were heard as Captian Logan and John Gibson played Ethelbert. Sponsors included Anchor-Hocking glass, Toni home permanet, Toni Creme Shampoo and Philip Morris cigarettes. Richard Carlyle and John Gibson portrayed the roles when the series premiered in April, 1951, but by June they were replaced by Darren McGavin and Cliff Hall. Ann Williams, a reporter on The Morning Express, was Casey’s girlfriend. During the summer of 1951 he acquired a partner in cub reporter Jack Lipman, who wrote copy to go with Casey’s pictures. This live series was set in and broadcast from, New York City.

THIS EPISODE:

December 19, 1946. CBS network. "Christmas Shopping". Sponsored by: Anchor Hocking Glass. Casey uses the nimble fingers of a pick pocket and a 10 ton truck to catch a pair of murderers. Tony Marvin (announcer), Staats Cotsworth, John Gibson, George Harmon Coxe (creator), Herman Chittison (piano), Alonzo Deen Cole (writer). 33:26.

Boxcars711 Overnight Western "Cisco Kid" - Fight At The County Seat (Aired February 10, 1953)


The Cisco Kid refers to a character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in the collection Heart of the West. In movies and television, the Kid was depicted as a heroic Mexican caballero, even though he was originally a cruel outlaw. The Cisco Kid came to radio October 2, 1942, with Jackson Beck in the title role and Louis Sorin as Pancho. With Vicki Vola and Bryna Raeburn in supporting roles and Michael Rye announcing, this series continued on Mutual until 1945. It was followed by another Mutual series in 1946, starring Jack Mather and Harry Lang, who continued to head the cast in the syndicated radio series of more than 600 episodes from 1947 to 1956. The radio episodes ended with one or the other of them making a corny joke about the adventure they had just completed. They would laugh, saying, "'oh, Pancho!" "'oh, Cisco!", before galloping off, while laughing. Renaldo returned to the role for the popular 156-episode Ziv Television series The Cisco Kid (1950–1956), notable as the first TV series filmed in color. The Cisco Kid's sidekick Pancho was portrayed by Leo Carrillo for the 1950s TV series. After a long absence, the character galloped back onto TV screens in the 1994 made-for-TV movie The Cisco Kid, starring Jimmy Smits, with Cheech Marin as Pancho. The TV episodes and the 1994 movie ended with one or the other of them making a corny joke about the adventure they had just completed. They would laugh, saying, "'ey, Pancho!" "'ey, Cisco!", before galloping off, while laughing, into the sunset. Spanish-styled Western theme music was heard as the credits rolled.

THIS EPISODE:

February 10, 1953. Program #59. Mutual-Don Lee network, KHJ, Los Angeles origination, Ziv syndication. "Fight At The County Seat". Commercials added locally. Jack Mather, Harry Lang. 26:52.

The Pickwick Papers (Aired March 13, 1949)


The University Theater is an unusual series that focused on reenacting novels by great authors for college classes. Many accredited American universities such as Washington State College, University of Louisville, and University of Tulsa, used this dramatic series as a supplement to correspondent college courses. The series' creators made study guides to accompany the courses. Students studying great literature by Steinbeck, Faulkner, Hemingway, Huxley, and many others listened to these shows every week. It was an ambitious series that remained popular despite its academic and non-commercial appeal. The shows are high quality and will please many fans of great literature.

THIS EPISODE:

March 13, 1949. NBC network. "The Pickwick Papers". Sustaining. The famous trial of Mr. Pickwick, accused of breach of promise by Mrs. Bardell. Albert Harris (composer, conductor), Andrew C. Love (director), Ben Wright, Booth Coleman, Carl Harbord, Charles Coburn (guest), Charles Dickens (author), Crauford Kent, Don Stanley (announcer), Donald Morrison, Eric Snowden, Grey Stafford, John Frasier, Mark Van Doren (intermission commentator), Morton Wishengrad (adaptor), Nelson Welch, Norma Varden, Pat Aherne, Queenie Leonard, Ramsay Hill, Raymond Lawrence, Tom McKee, Whitfield Connor. 1:00:07.

Prelude To Christmas (Aired December 21, 1948)


Big Town is a radio show that aired from 1937 to 1952. Edward G. Robinson had the lead role of Steve Wilson from 1937 to 1942. Claire Trevor was Wilson's society editor sidekick Lorelei Kilbourne, with Ona Munson taking over that role in 1940. Edward J. Pawley portrayed Wilson from 1942 until 1952 when Walter Greaza was heard as Wilson in the final episodes in the radio series. When Big Town moved to television, the program was telecast live, but in 1952 the production switched to film after the move from New York City to Hollywood. The television series ran on CBS from 1950 through 1954, continuing on NBC from 1955 through 1956. Repeat episodes aired on the DuMont Network (under the title City Assignment) while Big Town was still showing first-run episodes on CBS. Reruns were also shown under the titles Heart of the City, Headline and Byline Steve Wilson.

THIS EPISODE:

December 21, 1948. NBC network. "Prelude To Christmas". Sponsored by: Rinso, Lifebuoy. Not auditioned. "The story of a child's simple faith." Edward Pawley, Fran Carlon, Jerry McGill (producer, writer), Casey Allen, Donald McDonald, Larry Haines, Bill Adams, Stefan Schnabel, Michael O'Day, Jimsey Sommers, Gloria Stegney, Jack Payne (engineer), John Powers (sound effects), Westin Conan (sound effects), James Hayes (NBC producer), Jon Gart (music arrangement), Hugh James (announcer). 29:40.

Christmas Party (Aired December 22, 1947)


My Friend Irma, created by writer-director-producer Cy Howard, was a top-rated, long-run radio situation comedy, so popular in the late 1940s that its success escalated to films and television, while Howard scored with another radio comedy hit, Life with Luigi. Dependable and level-headed Jane Stacy (Cathy Lewis) narrated the misadventures of her innocent and bewildered roommate, Irma Peterson (Marie Wilson), a dim-bulb stenographer. Wilson portrayed the character on radio, in two films and a TV series. The successful radio series with Marie Wilson ran on CBS Radio from April 11, 1947 to August 23, 1954. The TV version, seen on CBS from January 8, 1952 until June 25, 1954, was the first series telecast from the CBS Television City facility in Hollywood. The movie My Friend Irma (1949) starred Marie Wilson and Diana Lynn but is mainly remembered today for introducing Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis to moviegoers, resulting in even more screen time for Martin and Lewis in the sequel, My Friend Irma Goes West (1950).

THIS EPISODE:

December 22, 1947. "Christmas Party" - CBS network. Sponsored by: Swan Soap, Spry. It's Christmas Eve and Irma's going to spend it all alone! The script was subsequently reused on "My Friend Irma" on December 20, 1948, on December 26, 1949, on December 25, 1950, on December 23, 1951, December 23, 1952 and December 22, 1953. Marie Wilson, John Brown, Cathy Lewis, Gloria Gordon, Hans Conried. 30:42.

Boxcars711 Overnight Western "Fort Laramie" - Army Wife (Aired October 28, 1956)


Fort Laramie had one of the strongest supporting casts in radio history: John Dehner, Sam Edwards, Virginia Gregg, Barney Phillips, Larry Dobkin, Ben Wright, Jeanette Nolan, and Harry Bartell. Most of them were also working regularly on Gunsmoke. And while Bill Conrad ("Matt Dillon") and Georgia Ellis ("Miss Kitty") never got to Fort Laramie, Parley Baer ("Chester") and Howard McNear ("Doc Adams") did. They both had major roles in the 7-29-56 production entitled "Nature Boy" and McNear had a reoccurring role as "Pliny" the sutler. Later, to create a foursome of major cast members, Macdonnell introduced "Lt. Seiberts" in episode #7, which aired 3-4-56 and he gave the role to Harry Bartell. This show, "The Shavetail", was based upon the nickname that enlisted men in the U.S. Cavalry in the 1800s gave to new officers fresh out of West Point. The term originated from a custom of shaving or docking the tail of an untrained horse so the troopers would be wary of such a mount. Bartell, who in 1956 was 42 years of age, and older than both Perrin and Burr, related to me recently that he had doubts about being able to project the voice of a young, junior officer. However anyone who has heard Bartell in this role will be convinced his fears were groundless. His voice clearly portrays that of a youthful, inexperienced but earnest college graduate. For the next thirty three episodes, the expanded regular cast would consist of four characters: "Major Daggett", (Moyles), "Capt. Quince" (Burr), "Lt. Seiberts" (Bartell) and "Sgt. Goerss" (Perrin). While there were many other officers, enlisted men, scouts, and civilians in Fort Laramie, most of the actors who played them were present for only one or two separate episodes.

THIS EPISODE:

October 28, 1956. CBS network. "Army Wife". Sustaining. After thirty years, an army wife suddenly finds herself a widow. The last show of the series. This program is a repeat of the program of May 27, 1956 (which had a different title). Raymond Burr, Kathleen Hite (writer), Richard Crenna, Helen Kleeb, Virginia Gregg, Parley Baer, Anne Morrison, Sammie Hill. 25:13.

Hickory Dickory Doom (Aired February 26, 1979)


The CBS Radio Mystery Theater (or CBSRMT) was an ambitious and sustained attempt to revive the great drama of old-time radio in the 1970s. Created by Himan Brown (who had by then become a radio legend due to his work on Inner Sanctum Mysteries and other shows dating back to the 1930s), and aired on affiliate stations across the CBS Radio network, the series began its long run on January 6, 1974. The final episode ran on December 31, 1982. The show was broadcast nightly and ran for one hour, including commercials. Typically, a week consisted of three to four new episodes, with the remainder of the week filled out with reruns. There were a total of 1399 original episodes broadcast. The total number of broadcasts, including reruns, was 2969. The late E.G. Marshall hosted the program every year but the final one, when actress Tammy Grimes took over. Each episode began with the ominous sound of a creaking door, slowly opening to invite listeners in for the evening's adventure. At the end of each show, the door would swing shut, with Marshall signing off, "Until next time, pleasant...dreams?" Despite the show's title, Brown expanded its scope beyond mysteries to include horror, science fiction, historical drama, and even comedy. In addition to original stories, there were adaptations of classic tales by such writers as Edgar Allan Poe (no fewer than seven Poe stories were adapted in 1975 alone), O. Henry, Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Charles Dickens and others.

THIS EPISODE:

February 26, 1979. CBS network origination, WNEW, New York line feed. "Hickory Dickory Doom". Sponsored by: Maxwell House Coffee. E. G. Marshall (host), Bob Juhran (writer), Patricia Elliot, Tony Roberts, Sam Grey, Joan Shea. 43:14.

The Oblong Box (Aired June 9, 1944)


The Weird Circle is yet another backwater gem from The Golden Age of Radio that has been woefully mis-documented. The premise is noteworthy: an anthology of classic, supernatural mystery thrillers from the pens of the world's best known and respected supernatural fiction authors. The scripts--with rare few exceptions--acquit themselves well for the genre. The supernatural thriller genre was highly popular throughout the mid-1930s, right on through the mid-1950s over Radio. In the larger scheme of things, The Weird Circle fell in about the mid-range of the thrillers of the period. The Weird Circle was an RCA-syndicated feature from RCA Recorded Program Services, the independent programming production division of RCA Victor. Its sound quality, voice talent, and production values meet traditionally high RCA standards. As a consequence of those standards, the resulting recordings have stood the test of time--a huge bonus for Golden Age Radio transcriptionists, preservationists and collectors. Show Notes From The Digital Deli.

THIS EPISODE:

June 9, 1944. Program #64. NBC syndication. "The Oblong Box". Commercials added locally. An excellent horror story about an ill fated ocean voyage and the strange secret of the box on board a drifting longboat. The date is approximate. Edgar Allan Poe (author). 24:23.

Christmas Eve With The Family (Aired December 21, 1952)


The Aldrich Family as a separate radio show was born as a summer replacement for Jack Benny in NBC's Sunday night lineup, July 2, 1939, and it stayed there until October 1, 1939, when it moved to Tuesday nights at 8 p.m., sponsored by General Foods's popular gelatin dessert Jell-O---which also sponsored Jack Benny at the time. The Aldriches ran in that slot from October 10, 1939 until May 28, 1940, moving to Thursdays, from July 4, 1940 until July 20, 1944. After a brief hiatus, the show moved to CBS, running on Fridays from September 1, 1944 until August 30, 1946 with sponsors Grape Nuts and Jell-O,.before moving back to NBC from September 05, 1946 to June 28, 1951 on Thursdays and, then, its final run of September 21, 1952 to April 19, 1953 on Sundays.

THIS EPISODE:

December 21, 1952. "Christmas Eve With The Family" - NBC network. Sustaining. It's the day before Christmas and Eleanor Wentworth is giving Henry an expensive wallet. Henry tries to buy a battery-operated Christmas tree pin for Eleanor. A nice Christmas show. Bobby Ellis, Jack Grimes, House Jameson, Barbara Robbins, Clifford Goldsmith, Dick Dudley (announcer). 29:40.

Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem (Aired December 23, 1952)


The First Nighter Program was a long-running radio anthology comedy-drama series broadcast from 1930 to 1953. The host was Mr. First Nighter (Charles P. Hughes, Macdonald Carey, Bret Morrison, Marvin Miller, Don Briggs and Rye Billsbury [later known as Michael Rye]). The show's opening recreated the aural atmosphere of a Broadway opening. Before each week's drama began, Mr. First Nighter was first heard walking on Broadway, emerging from the noise of people and street traffic into the crowded lobby of "the Little Theater Off Times Square" and then taking his seat in the third row center, where he gave the whispered introduction: The house lights have dimmed, and the curtain is about to go up on tonight's production. Romantic comedies were the specialty of the series, and the principal roles were played by the teams of Don Ameche and June Meredith (1930-36), Ameche and Betty Lou Gerson (1935-36), Les Tremayne and Barbara Luddy (1936-43) and Olan Soule and Luddy (1943 and after).

THIS EPISODE:

December 23, 1952. NBC network. "Little Town Of Bethlehem". Sponsored by: Miller Beer. The twelfth annual presentation of the Christmas story on the program. A well-done nativity story. Rye Billsbury ("Mr. First Nighter"), Vincent Pelletier (commercial spokesman), Anthony Wayne (writer), Barbara Luddy, Olan Soule, Willard Waterman, Hugh Studebaker, Eddie Firestone, Parley Baer, Marvin Miller, Paul Dubov, Joseph Ainsley (director). 30:38.

The Brandon Jewel Robbery (Aired February 5, 1946)


The Boston Blackie radio series, also starring Morris, began June 23, 1944, on NBC as a summer replacement for The Amos 'n' Andy Show. Sponsored by Rinso, the series continued until September 15 of that year. Unlike the concurrent films, Blackie had a steady romantic interest in the radio show: Lesley Woods appeared as Blackie's girlfriend Mary Wesley. Harlow Wilcox was the show's announcer. On April 11, 1945, Richard Kollmar took over the title role in a radio series syndicated by Frederic W. Ziv to Mutual and other network outlets. Over 200 episodes of this series were produced between 1944 and October 25, 1950. Other sponsors included Lifebuoy Soap, Champagne Velvet beer, and R&H beer. While investigating mysteries, Blackie invaribly encountered harebrained Police Inspector Farraday (Maurice Tarplin) and always solved the mystery to Farraday's amazement. Initially, friction surfaced in the relationship between Blackie and Farraday, but as the series continued, Farraday recognized Blackie's talents and requested assistance. Blackie dated Mary Wesley (Jan Miner), and for the first half of the series, his best pal Shorty was always on hand. The humorless Farraday was on the receiving end of Blackie's bad puns and word play. Kent Taylor starred in the half-hour TV series, The Adventures of Boston Blackie. Syndicated in 1951, it ran for 58 episodes, continuing in repeats over the following decade.

THIS EPISODE:

February 5, 1946. Program #43. "The Brandon Jewel Robbery" - ABC network origination, Ziv syndication. Sponsored by: Champagne Velvet Beer (of Indiana). Blackie is framed for a jewelry store robbery and murder. Richard Kollmar, Lesley Woods, Maurice Tarplin. 23:55.