Old Time Radio Listener: Recent Episodes
Sara Welch
You don't need to sit around the radio any longer to listen to radio programs. Now a days you can put in ear plugs and listen via your cell phones, or iPods.
I just want to share some of my favorite OTR programs that I personally enjoy listening too. You will find comedy, drama, new casts and a host of other programs that our grandparents listened too.
Check out the tumblr page. Here you will find longer details of my ideas of programing blocks that I'm going to plan on doing. You will also be able to send me messages.
What does “have your cake and eat it too” mean?Having your cake refers to keeping it with you. This means you want to preserve the cake for the future. But you also want to eat it. This is contradictory. The moment you eat your cake, you can’t have it because it is finished. Conversely, if you decide to have or keep your cake then you can’t eat it.This proverb highlights a very valuable lesson which is that you cannot have it both ways. When you are presented with two choices that are mutually exclusive, you have to choose one. You cannot choose both. Either you have to eat the cake or have it. If we examine the wording, we find that ‘eat your cake and have it’ sounds more logical.
With Lon Clark in the title role, the series commenced 11 April 1943, on Mutual, continuing in many different timeslots for well over a decade. Between October 1944 and April 1945, it was heard as a 30-minute program on Sunday afternoons at 3 pm, sponsored by Acme Paints and Lin-X, with a 15-minute serial airing four or five times a week in 1944 from April to September. In April 1945, the Sunday series moved to 6pm, continuing in that timeslot until June 1946, and it was also heard in 1946 on Tuesday from March to August.Sponsored by Cudahy Packing and Old Dutch Cleanser and later Acme Products (makers of such home-improvement chemicals as Kem-Tone paints and Lin-X floor-cleaning waxes, a near-rival to the more-popular Johnson's Wax products heard on numerous NBC Radio shows at the same time), the series finally settled in on Sundays at 6:30 pm for broadcasts from August 18, 1946 to September 21, 1952. Libby Packing was the sponsor when the drama aired on Sundays at 6pm (1952–53). In the last two years of the long run (1953–55), the show was heard Sundays at 4:30 pm.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. Walter B. Gibson, co-creator/writer of The Shadow pulp novels, was fired when he asked for a raise in 1946, and then became head writer for the Nick Carter radio series. Oddly enough, he never liked to write scripts for the radio version of The Shadow, though both characters were published by Street & Smith.Patsy Bowen, Nick's assistant, was portrayed by Helen Choate until mid-1945; then Charlotte Manson stepped into the role. Nick and Patsy's friend was reporter Scubby Wilson (John Kane). Sgt. Mathison (Ed Latimer) was Nick's contact at the police department. 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.
Kathryn Elizabeth Smith (May 1, 1907 – June 17, 1986) was an American contralto. Referred to as The First Lady of Radio, Smith is well known for her renditions of "God Bless America" and "When the Moon Comes over the Mountain". She became known as The Songbird of the South because of her tremendous popularity during World War II.
Notes:
More on Kate Smith:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Smith
The novel opens with mystery author Harriet Vane on trial for the murder of her former lover, Phillip Boyes: a writer with strong views on atheism, anarchy, and free love. Publicly professing to disapprove of marriage, he had persuaded a reluctant Harriet to live with him, only to renounce his principles a year later and to propose. Harriet, outraged at being deceived, had broken off the relationship.
Following the separation, the former couple had met occasionally, and the evidence at trial pointed to Boyes suffering from repeated bouts of gastric illness at around the time that Harriet was buying poisons under assumed names, to demonstrate – so she said – a plot point of her novel then in progress.
Returning from a holiday in North Wales in better health, Boyes had dined with his cousin, the solicitor Norman Urquhart, before going to Harriet's flat to discuss reconciliation, where he had accepted a cup of coffee. That night he was taken fatally ill, apparently with gastritis. Foul play was eventually suspected, and a post-mortem revealed that Boyes had died from acute arsenic poisoning. Apart from Harriet's coffee and the evening meal with his cousin (in which every item had been shared by two or more people), the victim appeared to have taken nothing else that evening.
The trial results in a hung jury. As a unanimous verdict is required, the judge orders a re-trial. Lord Peter Wimsey visits Harriet in prison, declares his conviction of her innocence and promises to catch the real murderer. Wimsey also announces that he wishes to marry her, a suggestion that Harriet politely but firmly declines.
Working against time before the new trial, Wimsey first explores the possibility that Boyes killed himself. Wimsey's friend, Detective Inspector Charles Parker, disproves that theory. The rich great-aunt of the cousins Urquhart and Boyes, Rosanna Wrayburn, is old and senile, and according to Urquhart (who is acting as her family solicitor) when she dies most of her fortune will pass to him, with very little going to Boyes. Wimsey suspects that to be a lie, and sends his enquiry agent Miss Climpson to get hold of Rosanna's original will, which she does in a comic scene exposing the practices of fraudulent mediums. The will in fact names Boyes as principal beneficiary.
Wimsey plants a spy, Miss Joan Murchison, in Urquhart's office where she finds a hidden packet of arsenic. She also discovers that Urquhart had abused his position as Rosanna's solicitor, embezzled her investments, then lost the money on the stock market. Urquhart recognised that he would face inevitable exposure should Rosanna die and Boyes claim his inheritance. However, Boyes was unaware of the will's contents and Urquhart reasoned that if Boyes were to die first, nobody could challenge him as sole remaining beneficiary, and his fraud would not be revealed.
After perusing A.E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad (in which the poet likens the reading of serious poetry to King Mithridates' self-immunization against poisons) Wimsey suddenly understands what had happened: Urquhart had administered the arsenic in an omelette which Boyes himself had cooked. Although Boyes and Urquhart had shared the dish, the latter had been unaffected as he had carefully built up his own immunity beforehand by taking small doses of the poison over a long period. Wimsey tricks Urquhart into an admission before witnesses.
George Valentine’s case started with a book of poems by Robert Burns a valuable early edition from Four Dials Press in Edinburgh a book that someone broke into Mr Humber’s shop just to read, a book that an agent wanted to buy for a collector named Emery Whitsill. And who is Emery Whitsill? Well lieutenant Johnson from homicide has an opinion on that because now it seems the little book may have been the cause of murder. . .
Duration: 30:34
Starring: Bob Bailey, Virginia Gregg, Ken Christie,
Robert Griffin, William Conrad, Jack Kruschen, Lillian Buyeff
Broadcast Date: 11th December 1950
San Francisco, the Barbary Coast, 1913 and the man with the belligerent voice is a beefy gentleman known as “Dirty Eddie” proprietor of Dirty Eddies Cafe, pride
of the coast. The gentlemen reclining on the sidewalk committed an unforgivable sin; he sang a sour note while entertaining Eddies select clientele composed
mostly of thugs from the waterfront. As Eddie stands glowering in the swinging doors a girl comes from the street stepping carefully over the fallen tenor. . .
Duration: 44:03
Broadcast Date: 3rd June 1940
A million dollars in cash provides the bait for two enterprising thieves who find themselves bankrupt before they have finished the chase.
Duration: 29:43
Starring: Leon Janney, Kathleen Cordell
Broadcast Date: 29th June 1952
George is sitting in his office when he hears a commotion outside. Jimmy Jones, an actor in western pictures, is outside signing autographs. Jimmy Jones enters the office. He has a confidential matter he needs George’s help with. Jimmy goes on to say, the kids like me, maybe because I like them and I would never want to let them down. Jimmy was brought up at Brookdale Orphanage, and every year Jimmy and Thunderbolt (Jimmy’s horse) put on a benefit performance for them, but now there’s a problem, and it’s a very serious problem for a cowboy movie star, he’s afraid of his horse.
Duration: 30:31
Starring: Bob Bailey
Broadcast Date: 25th October 1946
Death At 7:10 by H.F.S. Moore is the very intriguing story of a beautiful woman who was in love with death. . .
Duration: 28:58
Starring: Raymond Edward Johnson, Helen Shields
Broadcast Date: 3rd July 1947
Come and join Ozzie and Harriet Nelson as they raise their two sons; David and Ricky .... and remember the simple days of child raising.
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Jury Duty
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The Baseball Manager
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The Street Light
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Oz Enters An Essay Contest
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The New Dress Surprise
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Sports Heroes
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David's Date
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Argument about Rover Boys
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Have a Cigar
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The New Radio - Phonograph
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David Discovers Girls
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Going to a Concent
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The 3rd Degree
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Ricky's Third Prize in School
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A Cup of Coffee
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Fifi La Plume
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Retreat From Civilization
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Income Tax
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Apartment Building Next Door
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Card Tricks
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Unique Bowling Approach
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New Dresses
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Randolph's Come As You Are Party
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Knitting Contest
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House Cleaning
At about 3 o’clock Johnny Modero started down Post Street when he spotted the new auction House. It was small with enough dough changing hands to buy back Manhattan Island. Inside it was packed and a bald headed guy on a wooden stand was selling everything but his suspenders so Modero sat at the back and noticed a girl standing up against the wall. She walked over to Modero and asked him to do her a favor. A black leather suitcase was to be auctioned off that belonged to her and she wanted it back at any price. She offered Modero $50 to bid for her as she didn’t want someone there to know she was there.
Duration: 28:32
Starring: Jack Webb
Broadcast Date: Not known
Cathy is being questioned about the death of poor old Billy. Earlier Billy had confided in Cathy that he was concerned about something he’d found and now he’s dead.
Duration: 29:12
Starring: Bill Lipton
Broadcast Date: 14th August 1952
When Liz Cooper discovers an error on her wedding license she begins to wonder whether she is legally married to her husband George H Cooper. On their wedding license the husband is named as George C Hooper!
Duration: 22:57
Starring: Lucille Ball
Broadcast Date: 21st January 1949
Killer At Large is a radio station whose sponsors pay $50,000 for the arrest and conviction of a killer at large. The twist is that they deal with real facts, real people and real crimes and real criminals. With a tape recorder they reconstruct one of San Francisco’s more sensational unsolved crimes the murder of Carol Stevens. The show is made up of the simple and honest spontaneous statements of witnesses themselves. The radio show is set on this case except for the statement of one man, Jimmy Biddle who had been top suspect until he came up with an alibi. The radio show had been unable to find him until now when he turned up claiming to know whom the murderer was and wanting to claim the $50,000. The radio program employs Private Detective Sam Spade to investigate.
Duration: 28:00
Starring: Lurene Tuttle, Steven Dunne
Broadcast Date: 5th January 1951
Starring Robert Young. In every family there are special days like the day Junior had his hair cut, the day father reversed into the garage door, the day mother didn’t. And today was going to be one of those days in the Anderson family. It will be remembered as the day father received the Christmas bills!
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Robert Young
Broadcast Date: 12th January 1950
The makers of Maxwell House Coffee presents 60 star-studded minutes brought to you from Metro Goldwyn Meyer studios in Hollywood starring Fanny Brice as Baby Snooks with Hanley Stafford as Daddy Higgins, Connie Boswell and George Euston. As an added extra special treat this program which is the 100th anniversary episode of Good News it is Movie Night including a special preview of Twentieth Century Fox production Little Old New York in which you will hear Alice Faye, Richard Green, Brenda Joyce and an all star cast.
Music by Meredith Wilson and his orchestra.
Host: Edward Arnold
Duration: 60:19
Starring: Alice Faye, Edward Arnold, Fanny Brice, Hanley Stafford, Meredith Willson
Broadcast Date: 25th January 1940
Christmas on the Blue is a Christmas Variety show with two full hours with some of the biggest stars of radio. The show includes skits, music, and more and is an excellent radio show to listen to get into the holiday mood. The show opens with a very festive rendition of the favorite Christmas song "Deck the Halls."
One of the best parts of the Christmas on the Blue is the voices of WWII Military personal heard from overseas. Locations include Pearl Harbor, Paris, and the "European Battle Front." Families of servicemen could hear the voices of their loved ones from the WWII battle front. Truly a Christmas Miracle!
Wendell Niles serves as the announcer and Gracie Fields is the hostess. Guests of Christmas on the Blue include Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra, Walter Winchell, The Andrews Sisters, Alan Young, Andy Russell, Charlotte Greenwood, Ed Wynn, Keenan Wynn, and The Paul Taylor Chorus.
Join Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as they solve mysterious in turn of century England and aboard.
The Bruce Partington Plans
Murder by Proxy
Paradol Chamber
Case of the King Phillips Golden Salver
Haunting of Sherlock Holmes
The Waltz of Death
Colonel Warburton
Great Gandolf
Strange Case of the Persecuted Millionaire
Adventure of the Haunted Bagpipe
Blarney Stone
Darlington Substitution
Limping Ghost
Singular Affair of the Dying School Boys
The Adventure of the Tolling Bells
The case of the Dog Who Changed His Mind
The Dying Detective
The Harley Street Murders
Stuttering Ghost
Unfortunate Tobacconist
Vinnese Strangler
Retired Colorman
As far back as history has recorded our activities, woman has been a rather puzzling creature, especially when she’s going through what is known as the teenage. A good case in point is Betty Anderson. But before we can reveal the capricious maneuvers of her feminine mind we must first look in on the principle male member of the family, Jim Anderson as he settles himself in the Den to do some work in the quiet of his home. Like this. . .
Duration: 29:42
Starring: Robert Young
Broadcast Date: 15th January 1953
The Navy has given up it’s search for the missing yacht owned by a millionaire scientist last reported in that region of the Pacific which has in recent months has come to be known as the graveyard of the Pacific due to more than 15 disappearances of ocean vessels in that area of the Pacific in the last two years. The Shadow suspects that the disappearances are more than a coincidence and is set to prove it.
Duration: 29:04
Starring: Orson Welles
Broadcast Date: 10th July 1938
A Murder Of Necessity is a story about a man Paul Drake who commits a murder efficiently and safely only to find out there is a witness the person Herbie Sachs was talking to on the telephone before he was murdered. Paul Drake has to find out who that person was and commit another murder of necessity only to discover that it wasn’t necessary at all.
Duration: 28:52
Starring: Robert Young
Broadcast Date: 24th March 1952
Richard Red Skelton was an American entertainer best known for his national radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program The Red Skelton Show.
It had started like any other day, a widow named Mrs Coplis had hired Shayne to track down one of her boarders who had run away with her copper samovar and he feared the good widows heart, a guy had called to ask his rates for getting divorce evidence against his blond wife and then an old man named Peters came in. The kind of old guy you might see in Jackson Square sleeping on the grass with a newspaper over his face only this old man had a million dollars worth of the biggest pearls Shayne had ever seen in his whole life. . .
Duration: 26:45
Starring: Wally Maher, Cathy Lewis
Broadcast Date: 29th July 1948
Whitney "Cam" Cameron arrives at a hospital to be with his widowed sister-in-law Lynne, whose stepdaughter Polly has died under mysterious circumstances. A doctor cannot determine the cause of the child's death.
Cam has great affection for his young nephew Doug. He begins to fear for the boy's life when Maggie Sargent (Catherine McLeod), the wife of his lawyer, Fred, mentions that the dead girl's symptoms sound suspiciously as if she had been poisoned.
Fred reveals that the will of Cam's brother, who also died from unspecified causes, put all his money into a trust for the boy. Lynne would inherit it all if anything happened to Doug.
Police, prodded by Cam, exhume the girl's body. Poison is found and Lynne is brought to court, but a judge dismisses the charges for a lack of evidence against her.
A desperate Cam cannot think of any way to keep Doug safe, particularly once Lynne decides to take the boy away to Europe for at least a year. Cam surprises them by turning up on the ocean voyage. He begins romancing Lynne, all the while plotting to poison her.
He slips a tablet from her belongings into a cocktail. Lynne goes to great lengths to castigate Cam for his suspicions and demonstrate that the tablet contained nothing but aspirin. Cam leaves her stateroom, but a few minutes later Lynne's life is saved by the ship's doctor .....
Following 1936 Father Coughlin retired from all active organizations and now he is encouraging the growth of the Christian Front. Not that it is his organization but that he seeks to its promoters a word of encouragement and a word of advice. In this address Father Coughlin is concerned with the Popular Front that persists in coddling communism and with the Christian Front that is opposed to communism as well as Nazis and other foreignisms.
Duration: 61:00
Starring: Father Charles Coughlin
Broadcast Date: 21st February 1937
Starring John Brown as Broadway, the narrator of Damon Runyon’s dramatic stories of old Manhattan New York and the gangster life in the 1920’s and 1930’s. It is 11.30 on a Wednesday night and Broadway is standing at the corner of 48th and Broadway thinking about his blood pressure. This is a proposition that he’s never given much thought to before, in fact he’s never heard of it before he went to see Doc Brennan this Wednesday of which he speaks. Now the reason he thinks of his blood pressure is because of what happened that afternoon and what happens after that is enough to put him in the rack for good. Here Broadway will tell you about it. . .
Duration: 28:31
Starring: John Brown
Broadcast Date: 10th April 1949
Gordon Miller the shoestring producer has a headache and justifiably so, he’s about to be ejected from his hotel. The reason being that Wagner the managing director has made an unexpected visit to the hotel and is at the moment looking over the books. All that Gordon Miller has promoted is 22 rooms for his cast and has run up a bill for $1200. The manager Joe Gribble is his brother-in-law and Joe feels that he has been stuck in to this unhappy atmosphere.
Duration: 23:45
Starring: Jack Oakie, Stuart Erwin, Carol Williams, Donald McBride
Broadcast Date: 31st December 1944
Popeye was adapted to radio in several series broadcast over three different networks by two sponsors from 1935 to 1938. Popeye and most of the major supporting characters were first featured in a thrice-weekly 15-minute radio program, Popeye the Sailor, which starred Detmar Poppen as Popeye, along with most of the major supporting characters—Olive Oyl (Olive Lamoy), Wimpy (Charles Lawrence), Bluto (Jackson Beck) and Swee'Pea (Mae Questel). In the first episode, Popeye adopted Sonny (Jimmy Donnelly), a character later known as Matey the Newsboy. This program was broadcast Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights at 7:15pm. September 10, 1935, through March 28, 1936, on the NBC Red Network (87 episodes), initially sponsored by Wheatena. a whole-wheat breakfast cereal, which routinely replaced the spinach references. Music was provided by Victor Irwin's Cartoonland Band. Announcer Kelvin Keech sang (to composer Lerner's "Popeye" theme) "Wheatena is his diet / He asks you to try it / With Popeye the sailor man." Wheatena paid King Features Syndicate $1,200 per week.
The show was next broadcast Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 7:15 to 7:30pm on WABC and ran from August 31, 1936, to February 26, 1937 (78 episodes). Floyd Buckley played Popeye, and Miriam Wolfe portrayed both Olive Oyl and the Sea Hag. Once again, reference to spinach was conspicuously absent. Instead, Popeye sang, "Wheatena's me diet / I ax ya to try it / I'm Popeye the Sailor Man".
The third series was sponsored by the maker of Popsicles three nights a week for 15 minutes at 6:15 pm on CBS from May 2, 1938, through July 29, 1938.
Of the three series, only 20 of the 204 episodes are known to be preserved.
To the young and the valiant New York is a city for conquest and that is the name Warner Brothers gave to a fine motion picture drama, which Lux presents with Alice Faye and Robert Preston in the starring roles. City For Conquest is hard driving drama of a fight for success waged by one man and one girl in this fabulous town. A fight that takes courage and a stalwart but is not worth wining without love. It is a story with a very moving lesson, which is real and human.
Duration: 59:14
Starring: Alice Faye, Robert Preston, Cy Kendall, Eddie Marr, Howard McNear, Bea Benaderet, Charles Seel
Broadcast Date: 9th February 1942
A 6-foot well-dressed man in a dark grey overcoat turned up at Diamond’s office. But his face raised goose bumps, it was as grey as his overcoat even his tongue was grey as he spoke. The man offered him a $1000 to find a missing science teacher at the State College Mr. Carnes within 5 hours. He owed the man a debt and the reason he needed him finding in five hours? He only had 5 hours to live.
Duration: 29:11
Starring: Dick Powell
Broadcast Date: 16th February 1951
THE DANNY KAYE SHOW
In December 1944 it was announced that Pabst Sales Co. was dropping The Kenny Baker Show in favor of a vehicle for rising star Danny Kaye. Pabst had tried to sign established comedian Fred Allen for the show at a whopping cost of $25,000 per episode but the effort fizzled when Allen reportedly sniffing that he didn’t care to work for a beer company. Kaye agreed to a package costing the beer producer $16,000 per week, 2/3 the cost of Fred Allen.
The Danny Kaye Show debuted on January 6, 1945 and featured Eve Arden, Frank Nelson, Lionel Stander among others. Music was provided by Harry James and a 26-piece orchestra. Interestingly, before signing onto the show James contractually insisted that his wife would never be mentioned and that he would not serve as a comedy stooge for Kaye. Lionel Stander served as the second man while Ken Niles was announcer (followed by Fred Robbins and Dick Joy). Dick Mack of Warwick & Legler was the producer.
Initially Phil Rapp was approached to script the show but talks fell through and Kaye’s wife Sylvia Fine was responsible for much of the writing when it first took to the air. The highly regarded Goodman Ace took over writing duties when the show returned in the fall on September 28 at a salary of $3,500 per episode. Eventually Ace walked away calling the entire effort a “lost cause.” During its sixteen-month run (minus a 1945 summer hiatus) The Danny Kaye Show never really found its rhythm and could only draw mediocre ratings. In an effort to steady the ship after a shaky start, Kaye, who owned the show package, called in MCA to advice in March 1945 – after just months on the air – when early ratings for the show proved disappointing for Pabst. Even bandleader Henry James ran into issues with the American Federation of Radio Artists early in the show’s run when the organization insisted that he was talking too much and should have to join the actors’ union.
When the series returned in the fall of 1945 Danny Kaye was on a European tour and could not even appear on his own show. Big name talent including Frank Sinatra, Jack Benny, and George Burns and Gracie Allen were hired to take Kaye’s place. Pabst pulled the plug on The Danny Kaye Show on May 31, 1946. Samuel Goldwyn, who had Kaye’s motion picture contract, had opposed his getting into radio from the beginning, claiming the performer relied too much on visual gimmicks to be successful in the purely aural arena. While the radio program did little to further Kaye’s career although it did not hinder him much, either, as indicated by his many years of success that were still to come.
To learn whom Danny Kaye is then follow this link:
Danny Kaye - Wikipedia
A factual yet incredible report of those New Yorkers who try to mix work in the city with country living and who almost always invariably end up behind the eight ball.
Author: A. C. Spectorsky
Duration: 28:21
Starring: Eric Severied, John Larkin, Jan Miner
Broadcast Date: 30th March 1956
Folks that write dictionaries must have a tough time with the word tolerance. I guess if you had to boil it down to just one other word it would have to be understanding. Some of them in Tombstone found that out when Luke Slaughter gave Chief Margono and a few of his Apache braves the loan of a couple of sections of his spread to try their hand at cattle raising. And Luke got chewed out plenty about it every time he went in to town. . .
Duration: 24:16
Starring: Sam Buffington
Broadcast Date: 20th April 1958
Ian MacAndrews was the man who founded Lake City. He died five years ago and his life policy had been paid out but now it seemed that he had come back or his ghost had come back.
Duration: 24:57
Starring: Bob Bailey
Broadcast Date: 18th May 1958
Official Detective ran from 1950 to 1956 and was a classic old time radio police drama starring Craig McDonnell as Detective Lieutenant Dan Britt and Tommy Evans as Sergeant Al Bowen....
The show features a crime from the start to the end from a drunk accused of murder to bride that murders her groom after discovering that he married her for her money. Even spinsters are unsafe at the hands of madmen and murderers. Plots in this police melodrama offer great twists and an unusual lineup of the usual suspects including a "gay sailor" as a suspect in murder in a butcher shop.
Bright young comedian from Canada, Alan Young plays the part of Bob Bennett a young stockbroker working for E.M Ralston the big bad wolf of Wall Street. He is sitting in his office chatting to a client over the phone when a beautiful woman enters his office. It is Gwinn Ralston his boss’s daughter and his love interest played by Anne Baxter. She has $10,000, which she collected for Seaside Charities but she promised to raise $20,000 and now wants Bob to invest it and double it in three days!
Duration: 29:45
Starring: Alan Young, Anne Baxter
Broadcast Date: 14th January 1945
In Scotland Yard’s museum of murder here lies death dressed in its Sunday best. And here we find a jacket somewhat inconspicuous in its place on the shelf sleeveless and unstitched, a tragic relic of passion and violence.
Duration: 26:06
Starring: Ozzie Nelson
Broadcast Date: 1952
Roland Young plays the part of an author of detective novels who invented his best part when his life was at stake. With Mr Young to play his long-suffering secretary is Miss Peggy Conklin. Written by John Dickson Carr.
Duration: 28:53
Starring: Roland Young
Broadcast Date: 23rd March 1943
thel seemed to have a jinx on the horses and was always loosing. She considered herself hardluck Ethel until one day she went to see a fortune teller who told her she will be lucky very soon that she will win five times. But beware a handsome man who will chase her and catch her because he wants to kill her. . .
Duration: 29:42
Starring: Ruth Gilbert, Ann Thomas, Ralph Bell
Broadcast Date: 8th June 1952
Robert Arden News Commentary ran from 1940 to 1942 and featured Robert Arden, who was a foreign correspondent. Arden made insightful comments about the current events of the time. Most of the episodes in this collection aired before the US became involved in WWII and offer a interesting and introspective pre-war American viewpoint. Once the USA became involved in WWI Arden reported on the news of the war in Europe and examined both side of the war, including the life history of Adolf Hitler.
SHOWS LIST
Pre-War Commentary and War News
A Biography of Hitler
New Year's War News
The Balkan Situation
President Roosevelt Comments
Labor Day
FDR's Warning to the Axis Powers
Roundtable Discussion on WW2
Address to Police Officers
Young David Nelson has hardly said a word all morning and his mother is worried about him. It seems that Grace Johnson has invited him to her party on Friday night and he has told her he would come but his team is playing basketball on Friday night so he has to tell her he can’t make it and doesn’t know how to tell her. He doesn’t really want to let her down and is worried that if he does tell her he can’t make it and then the basketball is called off he will regret it. He decides to think about it but his father tells him not to procrastinate. Later Mrs Jones rings to remind Harriett that they are invited to dinner tonight and to give her directions. However Ozzie has forgotten and has accepted an invitation to dinner from a fellow at the bowling club.
Duration: 29:30
Starring: Harriet Hilliard Nelson, Ozzie Nelson
Broadcast Date: 20th February 1949
Original broadcast day Wednesday, July 25, 1979. A hard-working honest plumber and a small time hustler join forces for the perfect kidnapping. Only they discover they need their victims help to collect the ransom.
Muirock the bottom of a dried up lake is now the home of an air installation and all kinds of military airplanes where homed there. Max Westlake was a sergeant in 1937 who’s interested in science and skyrockets. Looking up one night he sees a parachute coming down with what looks like part of an airplane. A man was recovered from the crash landing and taken to the hospital with concussion. That man was a major in the United States Air force and his name was Max Westlake and he bore a striking resemblance to Sergeant Max Westlake. . .
Duration: 29:17
Starring: Ernest Chappell
Broadcast Date: 21st November 1948
First Show
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Jack Benny
Broadcast Date: 02 May 1932
A regular in vaudeville comedy, Jack Benny made his first professional on air appearance in May 2, 1932 on the Canada Dry Program. A different Jack Benny than you know and love, hear Jack Benny as MC in this early 1932 broadcast...
Running out of gas on a foggy back road in Maine, a couple become frightened by news reports of a murderous woman who's escaped from an asylum. Searching for help, the two take refuge in an abandoned shack. When an hysterical woman appears at the window wanting refuge, they're convinced she's the lunatic that's on the loose.
A man is killed by drowning in a bathtub in a small upstate town. His killers take his body to the city where they dump it in the sea lion pool at the zoo. When the body is found it looks like suicide until laboratory tests prove what Boston Blackie suspected.
Duration: 26:47
Starring: Dick Kollmar, Jan Miner, Maurice Tarplin
Broadcast Date: 14th May 1947
Granville Merryweather and Fennis Finny want to join the army claiming that they’re answering the call to the colors, but you could put it another way, they’re starving to death. But the kind of recruits that are coming to join the army these days are dregs, failures and fugitives.
Duration: 27:44
Starring: Raymond Burr, Harry Bartell, Parley Baer, John Dehner
Broadcast Date: 8th July 1956
“In our experience in our war against crime, nothing in the popular conception of crime is so widespread, and so erroneous, as the idea that honor exists amongst thieves. In this case of the deadly snowflake, we see this so-called criminal code for what it is. . .
Duration: 29:24
Starring: Dwight Weist
Broadcast Date: 26th May 1948
Lux Radio Theater presents the comedy romance Mr Blandings Builds His Dream Home with Cary Grant playing the part of Jim Blandings, the same role he payed in the 1948 RKO motion picture of the same name and Irene Dunne as Muriel Blandings. Like millions of other New Yorkers Jim and Muriel Blandings and their two young daughters live in an apartment. It is adequate but somewhat crowded. Not that Jim isn’t doing well he is a college graduate and makes $15000 a year in the Advertising business. Then they find their dream home in the country at a price that they can afford and they buy it with their heart and not their head against the better judgement of Jim’s friend and lawyer Bill Cole and without advice from a structural engineer.
Duration: 55:46
Starring: Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Don Randolph, Steven Dunne, Anne Whitfield, Anne Carter, Herb Butterfield, Charlotte Lawrence, Tim Graham, Lillian Randolph, Jack Petruzzi, Howard McNear, Earl Lee, Eddie Marr, Cliff Clark
Broadcast Date: 10th October 1949
Ray Milland stars as Rick Fitzgerald the same role he played in the 1944 film adaptation of Dorothy Macardle’s ghost story. Rick and his sister Pamela move to an old deserted seaside house and discover that it is haunted by the sound of a sobbing woman. When a neighbor Stella Meredith, calls upon them they discover that she lived there, as a child until the age of three when her mother had died after falling over a cliff in to the sea and that she hasn’t been since. Her grandfather forbade her to go there saying that her life would be in danger. . .
Duration: 29:06
Starring: Ray Milland, Alma Lawton, Mary Shipp, June Foray, John Dehner, Georgia Backus, Norman Field
Broadcast Date: 18th November 1949
Shell Chateau was a musical variety radio series heard on NBC from April 6, 1935 to June 26, 1937. Sponsored by Shell Oil, the hour-long program, sometimes called The Shell Show, was broadcast on Saturday evenings at 9:30pm.
More on Shell Chateau:
Shell Chateau | Old Time Radio (otrcat.com)
Shell Chateau - Wikipedia
Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Jane Temple; April 23, 1928 – February 10, 2014) was an American actress, singer, dancer, and diplomat who was Hollywood's number one box-office draw as a child actress from 1934 to 1938. Later, she was named United States ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia, and also served as Chief of Protocol of the United States.
The Pride of Potawatomie, PA is a story of the humorous adventures of a lieutenant in the army air force during World War II. It was specially written for Romance by William N. Robeson based on an actual incident reported by CBS newsman William Knielley
Duration: 23:31
Starring: Bob Bailey, John Dehner, Jack Kruschen, Virginia Christine, Herb Butterfield
Broadcast Date: 31st December 1955
Sherlock Holmes had noticed something about dogs and the way they behave and how this could help in detective work. For example who ever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family or a sad dog in a happy one. Snarling people have snarling dogs and dangerous people have dangerous dogs. What now interests Holmes is why Professor Presbury’s faithful wolfhound Roy, endeavours to bite him. The dog until recently most devoted animal had attacked his master twice but had attacked no one else. . .
Duration: 30:56
Starring: Tom Conway, Nigel Bruce
Broadcast Date: 17th March 1947
On the afternoon of 10 November, ninety-year-old General Fentiman is called to the deathbed of his estranged sister, Lady Dormer, and learns that under the terms of her will he stands to inherit most of her substantial fortune – money sorely needed by his grandsons Robert and George Fentiman. However, should the General die first, nearly everything will go to Lady Dormer's companion, Ann Dorland.
Lady Dormer dies the next morning, Armistice Day, and that afternoon the General is found dead in his armchair at the Bellona Club. Dr Penberthy, a club member and the General's personal physician, certifies death by natural causes but is unable to state the exact time of death. As the estate would amply provide for all three claimants, and as it is unknown whether the General or his sister died first, the Fentiman brothers suggest a negotiated settlement with Ann Dorland, but she surprisingly and vehemently refuses. Wimsey is asked to investigate.
..... read more ....
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club - Wikipedia
If you know anything about the Frontier maybe you know Dos Rios the home town of Chad Remington not only the only practising lawyer in the town but in the whole county. The early Spanish settled his section of the country and the Spanish influence is still evident wherever you go and it is not at all unusual for a Layer to get in to gun trouble because of it.
Duration: 27:45
Starring: Jeff Chandler
Broadcast Date: 14th November 1952
Pasquali is determined to get Luigi married to Rosa, but Luigi has other ideas and none of them involve the oversized Rosa in any way. Pasquali makes him a challenge. If Luigi can get an American girl to go out with him that night Pasquali will pay for the night, but if Luigi fails to get a date with an American girl then he must marry Rosa.
Duration: 29:36
Broadcast Date: 09 January 1949
St Louis Lady by Irene Winston is about three things, summer heat, a woman and a little black book. What is it about some woman that makes men want to kill for them and what sort of a man lists methodically in a little black book his victims, his expenses and his net profit from their deaths? Add to this the kind of heat that pushes people in to things they never meant to do and you have St Louis Lady. . .
Duration: 30:10
Starring: Elspeth Eric, Frank Lovejoy, Gilbert Mack
Broadcast Date: 23rd August 1946
In trying to train her son to close things behind him Mrs Aldrich has sent word down town for Henry to come back and close the cellar door. In so doing she has quite innocently started a rumor that someone has wrecked the Aldrich home.
Duration: 22:54
Starring: Ezra Stone
Broadcast Date: 13th April 1944
The Darlington Substitution adventure involves one of the most shocking scandals of the nineteenth century a scandal that had it ever emerged in the light of day might easily have brought ruin and disgrace to one of the most famous men who ever became a member of the House of Lords.
Duration: 30:10
Starring: Tom Conway, Nigel Bruce Broadcast
Date: 4th January 1947
Of course Ozzie Nelson is not a worrier he states that the worst thing in the world to do is to keep your troubles to yourself, if you have any worries get them out in the open. But then when everyone unloads their worries on him the tables are turned and he becomes the worrier!
Duration: 29:32
Starring: Ozzie Nelson, Harriet Hilliard Nelson
Broadcast Date: 12th December 1948
1947 ABC radio musical documentary, which features Jiminy Cricket, Donald Duck, and the 7 Dwarfs. This musical documentary was based upon the "America's Needs and Resources" white paper by the Twentieth Century Fund liberal think tank. (!) (We'll do less work and be more prosperous in 1960 thanks to our natural resources and improved labor relations.)
The Shadow: Orson Welles, Bill Johnstone, Bret Matterson
The Face
Ghosts Can Kill
The Firebug
**Terrible Legend Of Crownshield Castle
Night Without End**
The Three Ghosts
The Werewolf Of Hamilton Mansion
Shyster Payoff
Murder On Approval
Death Is A Colored Dream
Black Rock
The Power Of The Mind
On the Abbott and Costello Show listen top the music of Will Osborne and his Orchestra, the great song styles of Connie Haines and Bob Mathews and that happy, heavy, hippy, little horseman who when asked to pick the winner of the Kentucky Derby glanced at his racing form and calmly said, “Heeeeeeeere’s Abbott!”
Duration: 29:09
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello
Broadcast Date: 7th June 1945
reporter is pursued by sudden death in South America.
Duration: 29:31
Starring: Vinton Hayworth
Broadcast Date: 25th May 1952
This tale takes place in the beautiful English countryside. The story begins in small country village, they were there for a few days rest after solving a case before going back to Baker Street. They were staying in small but comfortable inn. Early in the morning of the third day as they began their morning ritual, they heard the nearby church bell tolling a funeral bell. Holmes then reflects on the history of bells tolling for numerous reasons. It seems that the girl bringing in some supplies seems very upset by the funeral going on, and this, of course, intrigues Dr. Watson, and will surely find out more of that tolling bell, or shall I say the reason and people for which it tolls.
Duration: 25:21
Starring: Tom Conway
Broadcast Date: 7th April 1947
Peter Grant is being blackmailed by his secretary Karen Wells and he has paid her $20,000 to prevent her telling his wife about his indiscretions. But he had borrowed $15000 of that money from Sidney Bonden who now wanted his money back and Grant feared that Bonden may kill him if he didn’t get the money soon. Grant depressed and not knowing what to do tells his wife everything and plans to mortgage their house and insurance to get the money and hopes that when he runs for election as Alderman they will be able to recover from this situation. Then Kevin Astio turns up and warns him not to rerun for election again but doing that would mean he couldn’t get the loans he needed. When Grant is killed Jonathan Kegg is called in to cross examine the witnesses including Grant’s neighbour who had called to borrow some milk moments before he was shot.
Duration: 28:34
Starring: Carlton KaDell
Broadcast Date: 27th August 1952
Bill Goodwin is trying to win a part in movie playing opposite Ingrid Bergman but the producer Lawrence Sherwood is after a family man. Gracie agrees to pretend that she’s married to Bill and when Lawrence Sherwood is invited round for dinner George pretends to be the butler.
Duration: 28:50
Starring: George Burns, Gracie Allen
Broadcast Date: 1st November 1945
Diana Powell, in 100 American Crime Writers, wrote:
Cabin B-13 is the harrowing tale of a new bride who boards an ocean liner for her honeymoon only to find out the groom has disappeared and that the ship's crew doubt his existence and her sanity. Her fear over her groom's whereabouts is heightened by a threat to her inherited wealth and the stress of not being believed.
Cabin B-13 was first broadcast on the American radio program Suspense on March 16, 1943, with Ralph Bellamy starring. It was broadcast again on Suspense on November 9, 1943, this time co-starring Margo and Philip Dorn. The trade publication Radio Daily reported in its December 26, 1948, issue that the play would "have its third airing over CBS Saturday, December 27" — as a standalone program rather than being broadcast as an episode of Suspense. Additionally, the article noted, "Screen executives on the West Coast will hear Cabin B-13 in a special rebroadcast over KNX, Hollywood, Saturday, January 3, 4:00-4:30 p.m. in order to weigh its screen possibilities."
On September 11, 1943, Cabin B-13 was used for the premiere of the British Broadcasting Corporation program Appointment with Fear. Richard J. Hand, in his book Listen in terror: British horror radio from the advent of broadcasting to the digital age, wrote, "Carr deliberately chose Cabin B-13 [for the first episode] as he felt it was his best Suspense play and would be an effective opening for this British series in the American style."
The night watchman of a particular warehouse is found one morning with his throat hideously ripped. The next watchman meets the same fate. Lamont, in disguise, volunteers for the job, and Margo goes along (without Lamont’s knowledge). The two are shocked when the killer appears–whatever they had expected, it wasn’t quite what they got. . .
Duration: 26:06
Starring: Bill Johnstone
Broadcast Date: 31st December 1939
Three weeks after Frances had been in hospital for an operation Michael turns up to see how she is. Frances is annoyed with him but Michael flatters her and asks her if they can be good friends. Just as she comes round to his flattering he shows a jealous streak and she tells him she doesn’t want to see him anymore. Michael decided the only way he can cure his longing for Fran and his jealousy is to kill her.
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Elliott Lewis, Lurene Tuttle, Wally Maher, Jerry Hausner, Betty Moran, Irvin Lee, Bill Johnstone
Broadcast Date: 25th July 1946
The time: Sunset. The place: A small fishing village on the coast of Portugal. Two fishermen trudge wearily homeward, past a deserted monastery near the waterfront. A sudden sound breaks the stillness of the evening air. Unbelievable. The monastery bells are ringing. But nobody has lived there for five years. . .
Duration: 29:28
Starring: Brian Donlevy
Broadcast Date: 13th August 1949
This is a classic episode of Columbia Presents Corwin entitled “The Undecided Molecule”, in which Norman Corwin brings you a rhymed fantasy concerning dangerous developments among the elements as disclosed by Robert Benchley, Norman Lloyd, Groucho Marx, , Vincent Price, Sylvia Sidney and Keenan Wynn.
Duration: 29:05
Starring: Norman Corwin
Broadcast Date: 17th July 1945
Fred Wilkinson from North Eastern Fidelity has a case for Johnny relating to the Alvin Summers fraud. A guy called Fred from a little town in Mexico called Santa Thomas with some vital information relating to the Summers case, but before Fred could get any additional details the line was cut off, which means Johnny has to set off on what could be a wild goose chase.
Starring: Bob Bailey
Broadcast Date: 24th October - 28th 1955
No man has a duty to do what he knows is not right so the cowardly bomber pilot is destined for the crazy town where people live and love and kill as their fancy strikes.
Duration: 27:27
Starring: Edmond O’Brien, Charlotte Manson, Paul Stewart, John Brown, Betty Caine
Broadcast Date: 20th May 1939
The phone rings, and Michael Waring, the Falcon, answers and tells the party on the other line, “You’ll have to count me out this evening, I have to see about a gambling debt, a boy I know tried to make a seven the hard way and discovered murder was a natural.” It is late evening in New York, and at Frency Devlin’s, a gambling house in the east 70s, a young man named Steve Richards is conducting an interesting experiment. Steve is trying to get a pair of ivory cubes to come up the right way.
Duration: 26:09
Starring: Les Tremayne
Broadcast Date: 30th August 1948
It is twelve o’clock midnight in the home of Carl and Mary Watson. Carl is sleeping restlessly, uneasily then suddenly he discovers Mary over him with a knife in her hand. . .
Duration: 26:19
Starring: Charlotte Holland, Alan Hewitt
Broadcast Date: Not Broadcast
“The war had come. In time they had joined up, they had fought to the end somewhere in Germany. Now here they were after the victory, the fighting over still in France in the mud and the rain and the chilly countryside. October 1945. . . ” Martin Wilson as the father, Robert Dryden as Welch and Myron McCormick as Captain Tainey.
Duration: 30:08
Starring: Fletcher Markle
Broadcast Date: 16th September 1947
Matt Dillon and Kitty are having a drink when Webb Johnson who thinks he has a way with women interrupts and asks Kitty to join him at the poker table. The previous night Johnson had offered Kitty a job at the Longhorn Saloon, which he had bought up. Matt Dillon thought Johnson was talky enough to cause trouble sooner or later. . .
Duration: 29:59
Starring: William Conrad, Parley Baer, Georgia Ellis, Lawrence Dobkin, John Dehner, Howard McNear, Charlotte Lawrence
Broadcast Date: 1st August 1953
Danny Clover received a call at headquarters from a frantic upset man telling them to get to Marley apartment on West 39 5th floor apartment 5c where someone he loved was lying there dead. . .
Duration: 29:42
Starring: Larry Thor
Broadcast Date: 27th November 1953
The great explorer, Peter Stranski, is giving a lecture on the head-hunters of the Amazon when he finds Ellen, his wife, in the arms of another man, John. Ellen wants a divorce. Peter invites John and Ellen to his home and asks John to witness the divorce papers and he scratches himself on Peter’s pen. Has Peter used the poison of the Amazon head-hunters? What strange and terrible revenge could a jealous husband take against his wife and the man she loved?
Duration: 30:47
Starring: Bret Morrison
Broadcast Date: 27th July 1943
Paddy Devlin, who has somehow acquired a very fast colt he calls Malachi, meets a small, young farmhand, Stevie Oakes, who, Paddy believes, can be trained to ride Malachi to the Triple Crown. Stevie's stepfather, Morton, agrees to allow the penniless Paddy to live in his barn with Malachi and teach Stevie how to ride after the boy has finished his chores. But when boy and horse are ready to race, Morton serves Paddy with legal papers stating that he now owns Malachi as payment for all the board and feed he has provided.
Cast: Ian Martin, Jackson Beck, Joen Arliss, Jack Grimes
Written by: Ian Martin
Broadcast Airdate: October 9th, 1978
Sebastian Packer is a clock maker and carries on the profession that his father taught him in London. He likes clocks, all that is but one. For 30 years he has looked for a certain clock and a certain man. Collectors know the clock as the Judas clock, the man he swore to kill when as a boy of 14 he closed his father’s gazing eyes and wiped the froth of blood from his lips. Last night he found the Judas clock and tonight he may have found the man.
Duration: 29:04
Starring: Berry Kroeger
Broadcast Date: 17th April 1945
Ever since Ozzie Nelson was a little boy his parents taught him courage, determination and a sense of honor. These are the virtues it takes to keep a promise. The Ozzie Nelson of today has the same grim determination to keep his promise to take his kids on a woodland hike even though he’d rather go to the game. David and Ricky too don’t want to let their father down even though they also would rather go to the game. Harriet has a plan so that they can all go to the game without anyone breaking their promises.
Duration: 29:27
Starring: Ozzie Nelson, Harriet Hilliard Nelson, John Brown, Tommy Bernard, Henry Blair, Janet Waldo, Lurene Tuttle
Broadcast Date: 12th October 1947
For the opening program two of the brightest stars of the American theatre, Miss Judith Anderson and Mr Maurice Evans in a starring performance of Jean La Touchet’s moving vignette in verse The Statue Of Liberty. But first the magnificent baritone voice of Igor Gorin singing Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
Duration: 14:34
Starring: Robert Montgomery
Broadcast Date: 1942
All sorts of people are going around making all sorts of surveys about the habits of the American male and female. If they ever questioned Pam and Jerry North they would learn something that would make their hair stand on end. For instance in the morning Jerry prefers regaining consciousness by degrees but Pam on the other hand is as gay, fresh and romantic as a lark. . .
Duration: 26:16
Starring: Joseph Curtin, Alice Frost
Broadcast Date: Not Known
Mrs Myra Wilson and her husband arrived in town and took a room at the Hotel Mica. After lunch she went shopping and to a movie and then she went back to the hotel. It looked the same but when she asked at the hotel for her husband the clerk told her that there was no one registered by that name.
Duration: 22:44
Starring: William Gargan
Broadcast Date: 9th February 1955
Most female teachers at Madison High School think of Mr. Boynton the bashful biologist as an extremely handsome, virile irresistible individual. But our Miss Brooks who teaches English there can take him with a grain of salt. . .
Duration: 24:34
Starring: Eve Arden
Broadcast Date: 24th April 1954
Last winter had been an especially severe winter, colder than usual with almost constant snows so deep and heavy that even the winter range was useless, cattle froze, starved and died right and left. It was late in February up in the mountain town appropriately named Headstone, the principle business building in Headstone is a long narrow room operated as a cafe or ´ saloon and run by a strange hard faced woman called Burbon Kate. This particular night was a blustery one, Kate’s saloon was empty for a change and Kate stood behind the bar cleaning up and polishing glasses when suddenly the door opened and the sheriff entered. . .
Announcer: Bill Foreman
Duration: 27:37
Starring: Jeff Chandler
Broadcast Date: 2nd January 1953
Judy has decided to augment her vocal talent by becoming a musician and as the scene opens she is practicing on the saxophone. . .
Duration: 28:53
Starring: Judy Canova, Mel Blanc
Broadcast Date: 3rd November 1945
Fearing the racketeers behind a brutal gang killing of a construction foreman may not know the only witness against them is their victims blind sister Lorelei has taken Anna Bartam to her apartment for safety while Steve Wilson managing editor of the illustrated press has set a trap for them.
Duration: 29:35
Starring: Edward Pawley
Broadcast Date: 14th September 1948
The Long Way Home – a glimpse of the future we trust will never happen. A story of the fate of man to whom it is given to do what they have to do who with or without understanding, but with patience, goodwill and a sense of comradeship.
Duration: 24:02
Broadcast Date: 12th May 1957
Liz’s maid Katie had been corresponding with Roscoe for sometime now and had told him that she travelled in fancy society and now he was coming to town and planning to stop in and see her. Katie didn’t know what to do as she didn’t want Roscoe to know that she had been fibbing then Liz came up with an idea that meant Katie could be everything she said she was, Liz would be Katie’s maid!
Duration: 23:28
Starring: Lucille Ball, Richard Denning
Broadcast Date: 6th November 1948
The sound you hear is that of a grave been dug on a hillside in a lonely section of England in the 17th century. It is a stormy night and the gravedigger is James Alsop, money clipper, highwayman, and father-in-law. It will take him about an hour to finish and another hour to give it a corpse for in that time James Alsop will add murder to his other attributes. . .
Duration: 29:32
Starring: Lou Merrill, Ben Wright
Broadcast Date: 24th August 1953
Over Here - Charles Laughton
One Night Stand - Count Basie Hotel Lincoln - First Song - Digging For Dex
Orson Welles Radio Almanac - Guest - Susan Hayward
Old Gold Comedy Theater - A Slight Case Of Murder
O’Henry Plays - Mrs Parker's Rooming House
One Out of Seven - Third World War
Our Miss Brooks - Convict Has Threatened To Kill Mr. Conklin
Our Freedom's Blessings - The Flying Piano
On Stage - The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
Once Upon a Tune - Ferdinand the Bullfrog
Operation Nightmare - Episode 01
Out of the Night - Dr.Wilkins Suspected of Killing Wife
Ozzie and Harriet - Disintegrating Family
Old Timers Program - First Song - Hop Light Ladies
Our Girl Sunday - The Letter and the Brothers
Official Detective - Murder in Butcher Shop, Gay Sailor Suspected
O’Hara - Judas Face
Order in the Court - Girl Marries the Wrong Boy
One Man’s Family - Book 129 Chapter 20
Old Tales - The Horse Who Loved Music
Oldsmobile Program Etting and Green - Program 2
Dixie is the story of a song that has been on the hit parade for over one hundred years and here you will hear Bing sing Dixie and some of the other great songs from the picture. In the period before the civil war a new form of entertainment flashed across the American scene, the Minstrel Show. This is the story of the first of the great Minstrels, Daniel Decatur Emmett who donned burnt cork and sang his way in to the heart of a nation with his immortal song Dixie which he composed in 1859.
Duration: 56:44
Starring: Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Barry Sullivan
Broadcast Date: 20th December 1943
Get ready for a Barrel of Fun and a variety of entertainment starring Charlie Ruggles, Benny Rubin, Verna Felton, Jerry Hausner, Sara Berner, Hanley Stafford, Charlie Lung, and Harry Lang. Music by Linda Ware and the Sportsmen and Dave Rose and his Orchestra who open the show performing Your Grand.
Announcer: Art Gilmore
Duration: 29:02
Starring: Charlie Ruggles, Benny Rubin, Verna Felton, Hanley Stafford, Jerry Hausner, Charles Lung, Harry Lang, Sara Berner
Broadcast Date: 18th December 1941
In this story we drop in on a very clever gentleman, a gentleman who perfected a plan to be rid of people he disliked without ever having to suffer for it. Mr. Jeffrey Andrews is temporarily confined to a hospital, so we start there to meet him. He’s just been given a routine checkup by the staff physician, Dr. French.
Duration: 28:57
Broadcast Date: 6th June 1950
The National Broadcasting Company brings you transcribed from New York The Martin and Lewis Show with special guest John Garfield and featuring, Flo McMichael, Dick Stabile and his orchestra and Starring Dean Martin with his wonderful singing voice and Jerry Lewis with his not so wonderful singing voice!
Duration: 29:59
Starring: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis
Broadcast Date: 26th May 1949
You learn the tragic wartime story of one man out of four who betray the location of thirty-seven refugees fleeing from fallen Singapore and if you are anything like George Valentine you’d like to meet the writer who wrote that story particularly when you see that his note book contains the words of that same telegram. The only trouble is, the writer’s dead. . .
Duration: 29:47
Starring: Bob Bailey, Frances Robinson, Wally Maher, Joe Forte, Robert Griffin, Mark Lawrence, Betty Moran, Martha Wentworth
Broadcast Date: 19th September 1949
Includes a public notice by Bulldog Drummond on inflation (boy does that ring true today) and war bonds.
Out of the fog. . . out of the night. . . and into his American adventures. . . comes. . . Bulldog Drummond! Champion of lost causes, amateur detective, the most celebrated soldier of fortune of the screen and radio Bulldog Drummond comes to you with more of his baffling and intriguing mysteries.
The story began when two men known as Barnaby Mullans and Spike Saunders were arrested for hijacking trucks.
Duration: 27:36
Starring: Ned Wever, Luis Van Rooten
Broadcast Date: 23rd April 1945
What starts out to be the first well-organized New Years Eve in the history of the Anderson family ends up becoming a mixed-up shambles. When Kathy’s plans fall through they have to get a sitter for her. When the sitter turns out to be a handsome young man Betty called off her date with Ralph and now Jim is upsetting Betty’s little scheme by letting the sitter go home.
Duration: 29:03
Starring: Robert Young
Broadcast Date: 31st December 1953
rnes motive for killing Marvin Rice was quite commonplace, fear, hatred, envy but the part he found fascinating was the crime itself. It was so original and amazingly clever, there wasn’t the slightest chance in all the world that it would fail, it didn’t fail; yet downstairs in the prison courtyard they are testing a gallows built especially for Barnes. . .
Duration: 23:05
Starring: Elliott Lewis
Broadcast Date: Not Known
It’s raining this morning in Spring Field one of those steady downpours that looks like it’s going to last all day. And out in the white-framed house on Maple Street the head of the Anderson family parts the curtains at the front window, surveys the weather and then makes a pronouncement, like this. . .
Duration: 29:13
Starring: Robert Young
Broadcast Date: 25th March 1954
Written by Anthony Wain Something In The Air is a farce which promises a half hour of hilarious entertainment. Olan Soule and Barbara Luddy head the all-star cast. Mr Soule plays Ted Brisedale a man who’s sure of his girl but not sure of his mother’s blessing and Miss Luddy takes the part of Anne Brown Ted’s fiancee the ´ girl in question. Also in the cast Parley Baer as Homer and Luis Van Rooten as Mr Brown.
Duration: 30:50
Starring: Barbara Luddy, Olan Soule
Broadcast Date: 11th March 1948
This classic stars Loretta Young and William Holden.
Merry Christmas. I wish I could find a description for this holiday show. But sadly I haven't found anything expect the above sentence.
The Salvation Army sponsored The Heartbeat Theatre old time radio show which gives dramatic accounts of regular people helping others through illness, tragedy, heartbreak, and more. Each episode illustrates that with faith, optimism, and the help of good Samaritans (sometimes too good to believe), we can work through any problem together.
The show was sponsored by The Salvation Army to raise funds. Many of the characters in the show either volunteer as Salvation Army Officers or live in a Salvation Army sponsored Home. There are numerous examples of how the organization aids others in need in every facet of life. The show quotes Bible verses and proclaims the power of prayer, but is neither pushy nor preachy.
Considered by many to be her best story. The discovery of a dismembered body in the churchyard of Fenchurch St. Paul, leads to many questions, who was he? who murdered him and why? and what significance do the Fenchurch bells themselves have? the Nine Tailors?
The elegant, intelligent amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey is one of detective literature's most popular creations, and Ian Carmichael is the personification of Dorothy L. Sayers' charming investigator in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation. Lord Peter Wimsey, man about town and amateur sleuth, and his man Bunter, are drawn into a series of intriguing incidents after being stranded in the remote village of Fenchurch St. Paul. What is the identity of the grotesquely disfigured corpse found in the churchyard? Who murdered him and why? Perhaps the Fenchurch bells hold their own answers to the mystery... Starring Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey, this Radio 4 dramatisation was first broadcast as a weekly serial in 1980.
Blarney Castle is an imposing 15th century ruin a few miles outside the town of Cork and this is where “The Blarney Stone ” is situated. The stone itself is considered to be a powerful talisman and whoever kisses it, is endowed with eloquence for life. Holmes and Watson are enjoying a drink in the local hostelry when a gentleman by the name of Geoffrey Hankin introduces himself and his partner Michael Corcoran. An argument ensues between the partners and a bet is made, that Hankin dare not kiss the blarney stone. Holmes feels there is something not quite right with the wager and agrees to act as referee to make certain things are done correctly, but dastardly deeds are on the cards. . .
Duration: 28:59
Starring: Basil Rathbone
Broadcast Date: 18 March 1946
December 27, 1942 Written by Richard Brooks
Cast: Norman Field, Pedro de Cordoba, John Tucker Battle, Hans Conried, Martin Stone, Orson Welles
January 17, 1943 Written by Milton Geiger Cast: Frank Readick (narrator), Eddie Jerome (Gaucho), Orson Welles (Famine), Carl Swenson, Joseph Cheshire (Cotten), Jack Moss, Louis Solomon
--- Notes ---
I find these episodes especially fitting with what is going on in the world today.
Hello Americans - Wikipedia
Carl Justice was dead bushwhacked for the $10,000 he was carrying. But justice wasn’t dead, the posse from the cattleman’s association would see to that if they had to cover every section to the Mexican border and it looked like they might. At least the first men on the saddle didn’t find any trace of Justices killer or the gold. . .
Duration: 24:20
Starring: Sam Buffington
Broadcast Date: 13th April 1958
John Tyler was the tenth president of the United States and was in the White House from 1841-1845
John Tyler had been elected vice president and became president when William Henry Harrison died after only a month in office. Throughout his term President Tyler fought for a treaty for the annexation of Texas to the United States and this was done during his term by joint resolution of congress. The mutiny on the USS Somers actually happened and Philip Spencer the son of secretary of war John Spencer was executed in a case that made naval history in 1843.
The events in this story took place during the last year of the administration of President John Tyler. The first Mrs Tyler passed away in 1842. The tragic explosion aboard the war ship Princeton occurred in February 1844 and on June 26th of that year President Tyler and Julia Gardiner were quietly married in New York City. The bride was just 24 years old and Tyler was some 30 years her elder. Never the less they lived very happily together until Tyler’s death in 1862. Their three sons grew up to serve their country well, one was a college president, one was a judge and the youngest a brilliant lawyer.
Starring: Edward Arnold
Broadcast Dates: 22nd 4th September 1947, February 1948, 16th May 1948
Tonight’s story is a triangle tale, concerning a man, a woman and a murderer. You’ve heard it said that those who laugh last, laugh best? Tonight’s story is to prove that it never pays to get into a laughing contest with a ghost. . .
Duration: 25:31
Starring: House Jameson
Broadcast Date: 23rd September 1946
Let Me Do The Talking is based on the novel by Richard Mayland. It is a behind the scenes inside the agents portrait of the literary business and its main concern is the young man who came to be known as the agent Gabriel. Charles Gabriel Bachelor moves with the speed of light through publishing and promotional circles.
Duration: 58:41
Starring: John Garfield, Mercedes McCambridge
Broadcast Date: 11th November 1947
Sanderson and Mary Taylor were driving home slowly one night in the dark misty fog when Mary commented on the beautiful playing of a clarinet coming from a house nearby. Just then the clarinet stopped and they heard a scream. Sandy stopped the car and Mary jumped out with Sandy following her but in the fog Mary disappeared.
Duration: 28:05
Starring: Gale Gordon
Broadcast Date: 24th June 1946
n this story written by Anthony Ellis Cathy plays the part of a famous picture actress and Elliott plays the part of a soldier going on furlough who wants a date with her. The scene is an army post in California about midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. It’s a bright clear day and off to the side of the drill field in one of the few permanent buildings is an orderly room. The corporal at the typewriter is deeply intent on his composition. At the other side of the room another soldier is practicing being a conman into the telephone. . .
Duration: 29:19
Starring: Cathy Lewis, Elliott Lewis
Broadcast Date: 29th January 1953
Post Cereals brings you The Roy Rogers Show starring the King of the Cowboys himself, Roy Rogers. The Double R Ranch, transcribed stories and songs of the real West with The Whipporwills, the wisest trail scout of the west Jonah Wilde played by Forrest Lewis and the Queen of the West Dale Evans.
Duration: 30:37
Starring: Roy Rogers, Dale Evans
Broadcast Date: 21st March 1952
The Bulletin Murder Case began when Myrna Harkins, Bulletin reporter was found stabbed to death in a cab. Philo Vance visited the Bulletin office where he talked to Eddie Henderson, reporter, and Mike Abbot, Editor. Neither could throw any light on the murder but the police believe that a story Miss Harkins was writing, which was later published unfinished is a clue. It concerns a concert pianist named Lillian White and her secret and up until now missing husband.
Duration: 29:16
Starring: Jackson Beck, Joan Alexander, George Petrie
Broadcast Date: 5th October 1948
Diane and Russell, while having an elicit affair, get caught up in a meteor shower. A large meteor hits the earth. Russell finds part of it. It is covered with strange markings. He breaks it open. What does he find inside? Is it flesh? Is it a living thing? It starts to grow! Is it from outer space? What does it want? Could this be a threat to the human race?
Duration: 23:16
Starring: Bret Morrison
Broadcast Date: 22nd December 1942
What kind of free lodging leaves everyone cold is when it’s yours - courtesy of the city morgue. Barrie Craig’s investigation takes him on a trip to an amusement park to visit the new wax exhibit. Barrie Craig’s investigation takes him on a trip to an amusement park to visit the new wax exhibit. Craig receives a circular inviting him to see the brutal murder of Vince Lorimer so real it will startle you. But how could a wax model be set up for the customers less than 24 hours after the murder of the human Vince Lorimer.
Written by: John Robard
Directed by: Himan Brown
Duration: 31:16
Starring: William Gargan, Ralph Bell, Joan Alexander
Broadcast Date: 21st November 1951
There’s been plenty of activity in the Nelson garage for the past few days and it looks like the shipbuilding firm of Ozzie and Sons are in business! Of course their first effort is only a rowboat but who knows where they’ll go from there this rowboat may the first of a whole fleet bearing the name of Commodore Nelson!
Duration: 26:57
Starring: Ozzie Nelson, Harriet Hilliard Nelson, David, Ricky Nelson, John Brown, Arthur Q. Bryan
Broadcast Date: 4th April 1952
For years an anonymous Cape Cod mural painter has been adorning the underpass to the Barnstable Village railroad bridge with images of scantily clad nudes in Clasical poses. An activity which, although many in the Village enjoy them and approve, is also illegal and a source of irritation particuarly to nearby neighbor, Otis Narwhal, who feels the paintings go too far. With night-vision binoculars he sits on his portch at night hoping to spy the Phantom Artist at work and report her to the local police.
When his spying succeeds he calls in the cops, (including Captain Underhill), thinking this will put an end to it, but, unfortunately, it is only the begininng: the beginning of the suspense and the beginning of the terror.
‘The Mermaid on Halloween Bridge’ is a real time suspense thriller perfect for the Jack-o-lantern season!
r Horn believed that we were all human corpses inhabited by ghosts an he had invented a machine that could separate the two without destroying them. Written by Frederick Pohl
Duration: 20:15
Starring: Edgar Stehli, Dean Olmquist, Walter Black, Lydia Bruce
Broadcast Date: 12th December 1957
The World Adventurers Club bids you welcome. You are invited to join an informal gathering of this international organization whose members have explored all the strange lands of the earth from the Russia28 ts and international diplomats. It is the custom of the club members to hold a private meeting in which each member recounts the most thrilling of his experiences. The members of the club invite you to pull up a chair and listen to a tale of the thrilling road to adventure.
28 episodes = 15 minutes each.
A man is alone in a room 100,000 miles from earth. His body lies dead before him and yet he speaks, feels and lives. Behind him is a tortured world and in-front the moon and destiny. He feels the surge of power and had he been able to he would have smiled as his mission had been accomplished. However, nobody knew and nobody understood, if they had they would not believe. This was a project 3,000 years old but nobody had guessed.
Duration: 30:00
Broadcast Date: 1950
Tonight’s story is about a liar, somebody who doesn’t tell the truth, somebody who injures people by not giving them the true facts. But suppose you have someone who injures you by telling you the truth would he be a liar? Such is the latest model of robot named Herby who can read minds and will always tell you what you want to hear so as not to break the rule not to hurt a human.
Duration: 20:08
Starring: John Campbell Jr
Broadcast Date: 195x
Can you predict the future? Can you tell what will come in 100 years or in five or in the next minute? Tonight we present two ventures in to the unknown two adventures of the future taken from the works of brilliant science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. First his 10 minute story entitled There Will Come Soft Rain and secondly Zero Hour.
Duration: 28:48
Starring: Norman Rose
Broadcast Date: 17th June 1950
This story is the same as the one originally broadcast on 22nd of September 1950.
What you will hear transcribed in the next half hour represents either a magnificent hoax or the true explanation of the famous Grimshaw sanatorium scandal, which made the headlines back in 1947. The manuscript upon which this account is based was removed by the New York State Police from a fountain pen cover found in the doorway to Dr Grimshaw’s study. We offer this manuscript as evidence only and whether it is authentic or not you must judge for your self. . .
Duration: 23:18
Starring: Fred Collins
Broadcast Date: 14th July 1955
Gregory Destus a custom shoemaker has become strangely involved with the young daughter of the wealthy and unscrupulous Henry Bollett and though Destus has denied any knowledge of the affair to his wife he is forced at the point of a revolver to go off in the custody of Bollett’s so called bodyguard Macintyre who has been assigned to take care of Destus. . .
Duration: 25:00
Broadcast Date: 1946
A year ago six men were in a lift when it tragically went out of control plunging 64 floors. The operator was killed and one man in distress killed himself with a shot through his heart. Now, a year later the father of that man has invited the four survivors for dinner and something else. . .
Duration: 28:26
Starring: Otto Kruger
Broadcast Date: 26th October 1943
t was in the year 1991 that man disappeared from the face of the earth. The third atomic war had ended leaving the land a mass of red radio active dust filling the air with gamma rays so deadly that life on the surface was no longer possible. There was only one way out. The few survivors went underground, burrowing their way deep into the earth like hunted moles, hiding from death in huge underground caverns. It was there that in the next two thousand years that they built the new civilization. A civilization in which the genetic survival of the race came first and every life and every law was shaped to serve that end. Stars Nancy Olson, the star of Sunset Boulevard.
Duration: 27.50
Starring: Norman Rose
Broadcast Date: 15th September 1950
scape with us now, to a small fishing boat off the California coast and a night of terror and death at the hands of a brilliant madman. . .
Duration: 28:46
Starring: William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 3rd November 1950
Marsha and Bert had been sent a pair of gold masks by her uncle Harold from his travels in Istanbul. He said that although they were gold he had bought them cheaply from a trader who seemed very keen to get rid of them. He said that there was a story behind them and once he discovered it he would let them know. Marsha felt uneasy about them, as if they had eyes that followed you.
Duration: 23:27
Starring: Harry Elders
Broadcast Date: 9th March 1953
It was Saturday and the headline in the paper, the only thing on the first page, read This Is The Day The World Ends. . . Author: F.L. Wallace
Duration: 21:31
Starring: Jack Grimes
Broadcast Date: 1st August 1957
The war had been going on for generations. Guided atomic missiles ruled the sea and air. Radiation and total destruction drove man under ground and there the war continued.
Duration: 23:43
Starring: Norman Rose
Broadcast Date: 3rd June 1951
There was a rough desert wind blowing in to Los Angeles that evening, one of those hot dry Santa Ana winds that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair, make your nerves jump and your skin itch. Philip Marlowe closed up his office early and went out to get a beer. There is a drunk in the bar then a guy named Waldo enters looking for a tall good-looking girl in a silk dress and bolero jacket. He finds she isn’t there and as he leaves the drunken guy kills him with a shot from his gun. Philip Marlowe finds himself investigating who shot Waldo and why.
This was the first episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe.
The music was composed and conducted by Lyn Murray.
Duration: 30:47
Starring: Van Heflin, Lurene Tuttle
Broadcast Date: 17th June 1947
In all these fantastic years fear was Matt Cvetic’s worst enemy. The average man in the normal course of events comes face to face with fear only a few times in his life but he faced the terror of fear almost constantly for nine years as a communist for the FBI. . .
Duration: 26:25
Starring: Dana Andrews
Broadcast Date: 11th June 1952
Mathew Slade: Private Investigator was a featured, half-hour mystery presentation by The Pacifica Players of Pacifica Radio of Berkeley, California and the Pacifica Foundation of North Hollywood, California. It premiered as a Starlight Mystery Theater production on July 5, 1964 over Pacifica Radio affiliate stations. Initially announced for alternating Sundays, the program soon began airing in erratic installments from August through November of 1964. Starring William Wintersole as Mathew Slade, the program was billed as a radio mystery revival series from the outset, presented in recognition of the hundreds of popular detective mysteries that had aired throughout The Golden Age of Radio. Show Notes From The Digital Deli.
Go to the website for more details:
Mathew Slade – The Thrilling Detective Web Site
The city was small and clean and comfortable. Seen from a train window it looked like many another American city but something new had been added to this one that could not be seen from a train window. It was Christopher Chance, young special prosecutor who’s been appointed by the governor to investigate corruption in the office of Anthony Pierce the district attorney.
Duration: 28:55
Starring: Sydney Smith, Charlotte Lawrence, Joseph Julian, Helen Shields, Larry Haines
Broadcast Date: 19th June 1947
You get used to gunfire in Tombstone, usually you hear a single shot or at most two. One gunslinger goes back to the bar and the other goes to Boot hill but when you hear a whole fusillade of shots in the middle of the afternoon you think of the ok coral and head for cover. But the fury of gunshots that Luke and Wichita heard that afternoon were from a local cowhand Paige Webster and his shots were for happiness as he was going to be married to Selina Cordell. But his happiness didn’t last long when his cousin turned up in Tombstone.
Duration: 24:35
Starring: Sam Buffington
Broadcast Date: 16th March 1958
Four Went Home
Crossing Paris
A Bullet For Mr Smith
How Love Came to Prof. Guildea
Wild Oranges
Sundown
The Man from Tomorrow
Journey Into Fear
Ancient Sorceries
The Game
The Man Who Stole The Bible
Casting the Runes
A Tooth For Paul Revere
The Great Impersonation
Evening Primrose
Young Man with Cream Tarts
The Man Who Would Be King
Ambassador of Poker
Papa Benjamin
Funeral Fires
Command
Zero Hour
An Ordinary Man
Figure A Dame
Judgement Day At Crippled Deer
The Sure Thing
According to the insurance guys, an average joker like Rocky can expect to show up on the census for about 66 years before he shuffles off the old mortal coil. However, a friend of Rocky’s who knows a little about these things, says that in the case of certain unfortunate citizens, these statistics are not valid, and then he precedes to produce a fresh corpse to prove it.
Duration: 23:48
Starring: Frank Sinatra
Broadcast Date: 9th March 1954
Dan Diamond has apparently resigned from his career of crime and is growing orchids at his home in Long Beach California. But right now he is in New York City and he just happens to have lifted $75,000 from a small but expensive jewellery store.
Duration: 23:24
Starring: Bob Bailey
Broadcast Date: 14th February 1960
A Good And Faithful Servant
On the eve of his retirement, a long-time bank employee is locked overnight in the vault by robbers who make off with several thousands, and all of his col[1]leagues are sympathetic towards him for having under[1]gone this terrible experience. Little do they know that there were no robbers; this “good and faithful servant” has taken necessary steps to ensure that he will retire in comfort.
Duration: 29:19
Broadcast Date: 2nd June 1952
Murder in G-Flat
Hercules Remington hasn’t seen his wife since this morning. Remington is a piano tuner and was picked up by the police in Coney Island from where he called them with his story which began with a simple mix up with his bag of tools being mistakenly taken and a murdered man in Madison Square Garden.
Duration: 29:32
Broadcast Date: 5th April 1951
Plan X
Plan X tells of the strange disappearance of experimental rocket ship Y272B set in the year 2053 on planet Mars and stars Mr. Jack Benny
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Mary Jane Croft, Norma Varden, Howard McNear, William Conrad, John McIntire, Truda Marson, Jack Kruschen, Joseph Kearns
Broadcast Date:2nd February 1953
The Face is Familiar
In a dramatic appearance Jack Benny stars in this story of a successful bank robbery including the astounding history of the unhappy man who perpetrated the crime.
Duration: 28:26
Broadcast Date: 18th January 1954
Hear It Now, an American radio program on CBS, began on December 15, 1950, ending in June 1951. It was hosted by Edward R. Murrow and produced by Murrow and Fred W. Friendly. It ran for one hour on Fridays at 9 pm Eastern Time.
Silent Men, The - Souvenirs Of War
Secrets of Scotland Yard - Jean Pierre Vaquier The Dapper Frenchman aka Battalier
Screen Director Theater - No Time for Love
Sexton Blake - No Trees for Peke
Story Behind the Song, The - Maryland, My Maryland
Swing and Sway Time - First Song - That's My Weakness Now
Screwtape Letters - CS Lewis
Shirley Temple Time - Mister Ideal
Saint, The - Color Blind Murderer Aboard Ship
Sam Spade - The Wheel Of Life Caper
Six Shooter - Escape From Smoke Falls
Sealed Book - Murder Must be Paid For
Secret Agent K7 - Delivery of Papers
Sherlock Holmes - Second Stain (Baker St. Irregulars)
Salute to Britain - Guest - Jean Hersholt
Sealtest Variety Theater - Gene Kelly & Dennis Day
Shadow, The - Etched With Acid
Suspense – The Card Game
Showtime from Hollywood - First Song - When the Music Stops, Everyone Kiss Your Sweetheart
Spotlight Bands – Ozzie Nelson
Space Patrol - The Prisoner Of Pluto
Scarlet Queen, The Voyage of the - The Bubble Dancer And The Buccaneers
Strange - Deja Vu In France
Suspicion – Silk Thieves
Lord Peter Wimsey is a series of full cast BBC Radio drama adaptations of Dorothy L. Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey detective novels broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1973 and 1983, with a further adaptation of Gaudy Night mounted for BBC Audiobooks in 2005 to complete the full sequence of Sayers' novels, all starring Ian Carmichael in the title role.
.... This is by far my favorite of the series ....
I highly recommend you go to this website to read more about this most interesting stories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The Five Red Herrings - Wikipedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Inheritance was a joint production of the National Broadcasting Company and The American Legion and it's Auxliary. The timing of the production is significant. This was the height of the 'Red Scare' era, during which The American Legion of the era-- with the assistance of several powerful right wing Conservative senators and congressmen--orchestrated the notoriously infamous 'Red Channels' pamphlet which purported to 'out' alleged communist sympathizers in the name of 'national security.' The Red Channels pamphlets prompted the development of several informal--and entirely illegal--blacklists of the era, especially in the areas of union organizing efforts and The Arts. This was by no means a Government-sponsored or sanctioned activity. Rather it was a political and economic activity instigated by powerful Congressmen and Senators in the pockets of Anti-Union lobbyists and Defense Industrialists. That the Federal Government of the era was either too co-opted or too politically cowardly to discourage this practice remains a national disgrace. But the fact of the disgrace continues to color virtually every aspect of the history of the Performing Arts, Literary Arts and Fine Arts of the era.
A cynic might characterize this series as a face-saving effort by the saner heads at The American Legion. Their connection to the infamous Red Channels pamplets had long been disclosed by the time the series aired. One might conjecture that both NBC and The Legion hoped to blunt the criticisms leveled at both organizations during this era. Given the almost non-existent promotion of the year long undertaking, the complete absence of detailed Radio listing information during its run, and the complete absence of any publicly announced connection between the broadcasts and their sponsors gives greater credence to this hypothesis. In fairness, these were also the waning years of Radio's influence; Television was--and would remain--the new novelty. Inheritance premieres over NBC Inheritance premiered on April 4th 1954. Airing for a total of fifty-seven installments, the production itself was extremely well-mounted--as might be expected of a year-long sustained network production. The huge, mostly West Coast casts comprised most of Radio's finest voice talent of the era.
The music direction, while not particularly 'A'-List, was well-suited to the production. The productions were reasonably historically accurate--yet predictably jingoistic for the era. As with the Ladies Auxiliary to The Veterans of Foreign Wars-sponsored American Trail series of the previous year, functionaries of the respective supporting organizations would give a brief, topical message throughout the series. The opportunity to recite one's patriotic beliefs seems to have been a focal point of most of the 'post-script messages' of the series. As a 'message series' Inheritance may have slightly missed its mark--through no real fault of its own, but as a reasonably accurate anthology of patriotic historical vignettes the series holds up quite well. As one of the last 'vanity' productions of the era, the exceptional array of Golden Age Radio West Coast talent makes for a fascinating snapshot of the waning years of California's contribution to Radio's wealth of great actors.
The writers that contributed to the series were also remarkable for their era. The writing staff included, among others, Ernest Kinoy, Karl Swenson, and George Lefferts. The appearance of two noteworthy science-fiction writers' contributions to an historical anthology series is interesting enough in itself, but the contribution of the 'Nancy Hanks' episode by Karl Swenson--as a writer--is just as interesting.
Britt Ponsett’s horse Scar Seemed pretty to clear the eight miles of prairie between the hills and Clay City. It was over six months since their last visit to Clay City and surely Scar couldn’t be remembering the filly form the livery, but something sure was spurring him on. . .
Duration: 28:14
Starring: James Stewart
Broadcast Date: 10th January 1954
“You Are There” is the best radio dramatization I have ever heard. Each show begins with “live” background coverage of the historical event, and then the “on the scene reporters” take over. Everybody knows there were no radio announcers onboard the Nina, Pinta, or Santa Maria, (or from Ancient Greece, Medieval France, or the Battle of Gettysburg either!) but you will be transported back in time anyway as the show “broadcasts” from the ships, the shore, and from Spain. The dialogue is very believable, historically accurate, and very much in character. It is apparent that the producers of this show did their homework! Let’s listen to the announcer now…”CBS take you back to 1492. All things are as they were then, except for one thing: when CBS is there, You Are There! You Are There is based on authentic historical fact and quotations, and now, on to our story.”
......
The significance of the encounter between the USS Monitor and the CSS Merrimack (renamed the Virginia following the Confederacy's decision to secede) was the fact that it represented the first clash of ironclad naval vessels in history. Previously, warships were constructed of wood. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the transformation in manufacturing techniques, designs for metal ships emerged, with the Monitor and Merrimack being among the first such ships built. The Merrimack had been successfully inflicting considerable damage on northern shipping, prompting the dispatch of the Monitor to confront it. That encounter occurred on March 8-9, 1862 off the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. The arrival off Hampton Roads of Monitor succeeded in relieving the wooden-hulled northern ships, especially the USS Minnesota, and the battle that ensued between the two ironclads ended in a draw, neither succeeding in inflicting much damage on the other. The encounter would be the only such clash between the two opposing vessels, but the uniqueness of the confrontation precipitated a rush among navies in Europe to emphasize iron over wood in the construction of their warships.
You are traveling east on a cross-country bus and among your fellow passengers seemingly innocent and friendly are a man and a woman who plan to destroy you and a hundred and fifty million of your countrymen. Now Escape brings you Anthony Ellis’s exciting story - Classified Secret.
Duration: 28:52
Broadcast Date: 12th April 1953
Three men want George Valentine to find out who’s been using the little town of Summer Springs as collection headquarters for city rackets. They want him to do it before the federal grand jury moves in. George Valentine thinks this might be an interesting case if he would ever get to work on it. The trouble is getting out from behind the eight ball because as matters stand he is wanted by the police for murdering himself. . .
Duration: 30:30
Starring: Bob Bailey, Virginia Gregg, William Conrad, Bob Jellison, Herb Butterfield, Will Wright, Stanley Farrar
Broadcast Date: 2nd April 1951
It is June 1912, The Great Gandolfo and his assistant Miss Florine Le Suer are playing at the Devonshire Theater in Eastbourne. At the same time a spy is operating which is causing some concern to the British Government. Holmes and Watson feel they may have solved the mystery, when suddenly the suspect gets murdered.
Duration: 28:55
Starring: Basil Rathbone
Broadcast Date: 22nd October 1945
This is a story of 24 hours in the life of a husband and wife and is as fresh and vital and true as when it was first played on Broadway and got the Pulitzer Prize. Fay Bainter was scheduled to play the wife but unfortunately was cut down with the flu so Ann Harding takes the lead part. When the Craig’s neighbors are found murdered Mr Craig becomes a murder suspect. Mrs Craig is more concerned with her house and material possessions than her husband and her gold digging ways become her downfall.
Duration: 43:59
Starring: Orson Welles, Ann Harding
Broadcast Date: 10th March 1940
“I eased in to the alley and waited. Pretty soon a side door opened and out came Helen. Just as I got to her I heard a noise behind me. I started to turn around but too late, a king sized comet exploded over my right ear and the ground came up and hit me in the face. . . ”
Duration: 26:29
Starring: Wally Maher
Broadcast Date: 1946
Hobb Wilson and his actors have been in Gunside for two days now, arranging to stage Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the local Opera House. Hobb and an actor named Eddie Clyde are also planning to rob the bank. A second floor store room in the Opera House overlooks the flat roof of the one storey bank. By climbing out of the Opera House window, Eddie can walk across the roof of the General Store to the freshly tarred roof of the bank. . .
Duration: 25:34
Starring: Brace Beemer
Broadcast Date: 10th September 1954
ichard Rogue is travelling on the train in a compartment with Betty a friend and journalist to the Charlie Miller trial when a Latin type woman enters his compartment and says that there is a man on the train that has designs on her life. When the man knocks on the door the woman asks Rogue to look after her briefcase before leaving the compartment. The man comes back and whacks Betty and Rogue knocking them out before jumping from the train with the briefcase. However he has taken the wrong briefcase. Then Rogue discovers the Latin woman in her compartment stabbed to death and he has the briefcase, which is obviously the reason for her death. Things get more interesting when Rogue is told that the dead woman is Diane Miller wife of Charlie Miller on trial for murder.
Duration: 24:43
Starring: Dick Powell
Broadcast Date: 23rd May 1946
The Black Museum; here in the grim stone structure on the Thames, which houses Scotland Yard, is a warehouse of homicide where everyday objects, a mans neck tie, a woman’s glove, a boys school cap all are touched by murder. Here’s a champagne glass a long slim stem it’s a familiar object that belongs to New Years Eve, to weddings to anniversaries. Funny how human beings can take an article meant for happiness and use it for tragedy, which is why that champagne glass can be found in the Black Museum. . .
Duration: 25:17
Starring: Orson Welles
Broadcast Date: 1952
After more than his share of tough cases during a long hard winter Johnny Dollar felt he deserved a few days of relaxation fishing. However, when a case turns up to find Mrs Brownburgs missing husband Dollar takes it.
Duration: 32:46
Starring: Bob Readick
Broadcast Date: 5th March 1961
The "Sealtest Village Store" was a followup to the "Rudy Vallee Show" and premiered in 1943 with Joan Davis in the lead and Jack Haley taking over from Vallee as the male presence on the show. Davis carried the show so well, that she went on to her own solo series in mid-1945, leaving Haley to mind the store until he left in 1947. Then cast member Eve Arden took over the hosting duties for a few months when she was joined by Jack Carson. They both departed the series in 1948 with Arden getting the plum role of the sardonic schoolteacher in "Our Miss Brooks".
The story of a woman who went down in to darkness as she might bring another in to light Ann Sullivan Macy takes ranks among the foremost educators for her work with the labor of love and she found her reward in aiding her beloved pupil Helen Keller who knew her only as teacher.
Duration: 30:19
Broadcast Date: 2nd March 1938
“That fourth bullet tore through the flesh of my left shoulder. There was nothing between him and me now except a tree. I stood there waiting, there were two more shots left in the gun. I caught the glint of the barrel in the moonlight and then the grand daddy of all fire crackers blew up in my face. . . ”
Duration: 26:33
Starring: Jeff Chandler
Broadcast Date: 27th August 1949
Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes are on their way to visit Dr Ingleby when they come across a murder scene. The well-dressed man has been stabbed to death and identified as Dr Marsden and appears not to have been robbed. There is no apparent motive and no clues but when they meet with Dr Ingleby and another Doctor, Dr David McKenna Sherlock uncovers a possible connection.
Duration: 29:04
Starring: Nigel Bruce, Tom Conway
Broadcast Date: 19th May 1947
Lum and Abner – Fourth of July picnic
The Connie Boswell Show – Fourth of July picnic
The Great Gildersleeve – Fourth of July Speech
Yankee Yams – Fourth of July
In The Name of The Law – Fourth of July picnic
Heartbeat Theater – Fourth of July Reunion
Anthology – Special 4th of July edition
Quiz Kids – Most Appropriate Hairdo for July 4th
Life with Luigi – The 4th of July parade
Jean Shepard – The July 4th Weekend
Democracy in Action – 4th of July in Albany
Red Skelton – 4th of July picnic – Curt Massey joins the cast
The Great Gildersleeve – Flashback – Jolly Boys 4thof July picnic
Pat Nokak was approached by a woman in a bar who gave him $50 to go to a flower stand tomorrow at two o’clock and collect a geranium and deliver it to an address. She told him nothing more and said that would be the last time he saw her. He collected the flower but on his way to the address someone tried to run him down in their car.
Duration: 29:04
Starring: Jack Webb
Broadcast Date: 14th May 1949
Betrayal In Vienna is a story taken from life. It is a true story of a man who destroyed an empire one of the most dramatic spy stories ever told.
Duration: 29:50
Starring: Herbert Marshall, Ben Wright, Joseph Kearns, Bill Johnstone, Herb Butterfield, Charles Davis, Byron Kane, John Stevenson
Broadcast Date: 8th October 1951
Jackson from the Tri-Western Life Insurance Company calls insurance investigator Johnny Dollar. One of his clients is mixed up in a narcotics incident and Jackson wants Johnny Dollar to help him before it is too late.
Duration: 24:02
Starring: Mandel Kramer, Ralph Camargo, Robert Dryden, Lawson Zerbe
Broadcast Date: 13th August 1961
Rip and Big Mike arrive in Lhasa for an interview with the Dalai Lama. The holy one asks the adventurers to investigate a botanical gardens that shouldn't even exist! What is the secret behind the mysterious steam heated cave in the Himalayas? Postwar.
Duration: 12:58
Harden Wilgen and Stanley Creighton had invented a unit to cool the motor engine of a car that would make them millionaires. But Harden Wilgen had no intention of sharing any of the money with Creighton. Once Wilgen was sure the invention was perfect he poisoned Creighton and disposed of his body in the river after first being sure there was no way of identifying the body.
Duration: 24:29
Starring: Mel Johnson
Broadcast Date: 1940
r. and Mrs. Smith are being held in the Holly Military prison as spies. They are believed not to be American citizens. There is an immigration and identification racket going on. It all seems to tie in with a case that the Shadow is studying.
Duration: 28:19
Starring: Orson Welles
Broadcast Date: 23rd January 1938
A man was shot from outside by a bullet, which came in through the window. The killer was across the street in a parked car with a high-powered rifle. There had been another two auto killings with the same MO recently and the police suspected Bat McCoy but Casey wondered why he would want to kill his piano player. It seems that his piano player had married a woman that McCoy had a crush on. Casey and his girlfriend reporter, Ann Williams attend the funeral to see what they can discover.
Written by: Alonzo Deen Cole
Duration: 28:41
Starring: Staats Cotsworth, Jan Miner, John Gibson
Broadcast Date: 19th May 1949
Sergeant Burke drove slowly through the city streets dividing his attention between the traffic and the attractive girl who sat at his side. His pal Michael Oxford was also in the front seat of the police car. Linda Travis had been a reporter for less than a week. She had gotten her job on merit no one suspected she had come from the west expressly top work for the Daily Sentinel so she could give regular reports to Britt Reid’s father telling him how Britt conducted him how Brit Reid conducted himself as publisher of the influential newspaper.
Duration: 23:22
Starring: Bob Hall
Broadcast Date: 28th October 1947
dow never liked Dutch or working for his detective agency. She’d done her final case and thought she was through with Dutch when she married Jimmy Conway but then one day Dutch turned up wanting her to work on a case for him, a closed case that had been nagging him as he still felt that it was murder. A case that Shadow had done the groundwork for, the Conway case! Dutch was convinced that Shadow’s husband had killed his first wife but Shadow was sure that he was clean and decent.
Duration: 30:53
Starring: Lana Turner
Broadcast Date: 15th December 1949
This is the story of how one average family even as yours and mine spent a quiet night at their rented country house a night of terror. The Cummings were just an average family Harry was just 29 and worked as a sound engineer for a broadcasting studio in the city. Ethel was 27 and had been a schoolteacher before she was married. Now she was kept pretty busy between writing the great American novel and taking care of Judy, their 7 year old daughter. This was the first year they had rented a house in the country for the summer and Ethel didn’t take much to the idea of being alone in the evenings.
Duration: 25:52
Starring: Various, Paul McGrath
Broadcast Date: 9th September 1946
A bunch of wild kids have broken in to a warehouse and stolen 80 fur coats, silver blue mink. A night watchman has been slugged and lays dying in the hospital and he seems the only hope of a witness in a poor neighbourhood where the residents have closed ranks from fear
Starring: Bob Dailey
Duration: 1h 14m
Broadcast Dates: 7th May - 11th, 1956
Walter and Stretch were the best of friends until one night when Walter found out that his best friend had been to the movies with his girlfriend Harriet Conklin.
Duration: 29:08
Starring: Eve Arden
Broadcast Date: 1st May 1949
Casey and Anne Williams had an assignment at the circus to take some pictures for the Morning Press covering the feature act “King of the Apes” which was six wild orang-utans from Borneo trained by Charles King. When they arrived to interview King after the matinee performance they overheard him arguing with his wife.
Duration: 29:15
Starring: Staats Cotsworth
Broadcast Date: 1st May 1947
Post Cereals brings you The Roy Rogers Show starring the King of the Cowboys himself, Roy Rogers. The Double R Ranch, transcribed stories and songs of the real West with The Whipporwills, the wisest trail scout of the west Jonah Wilde played by Forrest Lewis and the Queen of the West Dale Evans.
Duration: 27:43
Starring: Roy Rogers, Dale Evans
Broadcast Date: 14th March 1952
t’s no wonder mothers get weary, after getting them up, getting them dressed, getting them fed Harriet gets her little family started on the daily routine. First 10- year-old David slides down the banister followed by 6- year-old Ricky and then Mother her self! When Ricky got third prize in a contest Ozzie and Harriet made quite a fuss of him and didn’t even ask David how he’d made out and now David thinking his mother and father are disappointed in him has disappeared.
Duration: 24:37
Starring: Ozzie Nelson, Harriet Hilliard Nelson
Broadcast Date: 8th December 1946
Maybe the costume was the decisive factor or maybe it would have happened anyway. In any event the occasion was the tenth reunion and the class of 29 as such occasions demand were all dressed identically in cowboy suits. There was Ted Wolf whom he hadn’t seen in ten years although in college he’d been by far his closest friend and so of course he brought him home to dinner. Gwen managed to be quite charming even though it was the maid’s night off. She didn’t even kick about the oven and that’s how it started off just like that, just like any pleasant casual, little evening. . .
Duration: 29:08
Starring: James Stewart
Broadcast Date: 19th May 1949
One of the most popular stories ever broadcast on The Mercury Theatre on The Air. A wonderful tale of a little boy and how he and his father deals with the trials of life. First it is the death of John, his treasured dog. Then it is the value of money. Next comes his first romance and his first fight. Along the way the story touches on everything from religion and the ten commandments through to racism. It’s a tale all parents will enjoy, particularly new parents.
Duration: 52:57
Starring: Orson Welles
Broadcast Date: 19th January 1942
ncludes a public notice by Bulldog Drummond on inflation and war bonds. Out of the fog. . . out of the night. . . and into his American adventures. . . comes. . . Bulldog Drummond! Champion of lost causes, amateur detective, the most celebrated soldier of fortune of the screen and radio Bulldog Drummond comes to you with more of his baffling and intriguing mysteries. The story began when two men known as Barnaby Mullans and Spike Saunders were arrested for hijacking trucks.
Duration: 27:36
Starring: Ned Wever, Luis Van Rooten
Broadcast Date: 23rd April 1945
Day in and day out Matilda Prindle sat in the rear of her husband’s general store rocking and knitting as Abe waited on their customers. One morning Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s faithful Indian companion entered the little shop. Abe greeted him and Tonto learned that Abe’s wife was blind but could tell what a customer was like just by the sound of his voice. Abe went to get Tonto some sugar when an undesirable character entered the shop to buy some tobacco but learning Mrs Prindle was blind tried to leave the shop without paying. When Tonto tackled him he left the shop leaving his gun behind. But it wasn’t his gun it was the gun of the Prindle’s son.
Duration: 28:03
Starring: Earle Graser, John Todd
Broadcast Date: 5th March 1941
Tonight, we escape to the old West and the story of a boy who had never owned anything, but a gun. . .
Duration: 28:17
Starring: William Conrad, Paul Frees
Broadcast Date: 23rd June 1950
Floyd Spencer Junior is due home from Portugal to inherit $40 million. His parents had separated when he was 6 years old and his mother had gone to live in Portugal taking her son who was raised and educated there. Now with both parents dead Floyd was to return from Portugal but Mr. Talbot who had been the families attorney for a very long time wanted to hire Barrie Craig to escort the young Spencer home as he was concerned about recent incidents upon his life in Portugal. The only other member of the Spencer family still alive was Floyd’s elderly uncle.
Duration: 30:27
Starring: William Gargan
Broadcast Date: 20th February 1952
cting for Mr X Jim Kendall is in Hong Kong attempting to break up the illegal traffic in American medicinal supplies being smuggled in to Red China. A Chinese pharmaceutical firm, The House of Lee is apparently involved but then the owner Sammy Lee turns up murdered.
Duration: 20:31
Starring: Van Heflin
Broadcast Date: 25th May 1951
Death Swims At Midnight is the very exciting story of a singular beach where the tide goes out and murder comes in. . .
Duration: 29:12
Starring: Arthur Vinton, Elspeth Eric, Murray Forbes
Broadcast Date: 28th August 1947
Come And Get It stars Edward Arnold in the lead role as Barney Glasgow the same role he played in Samuel Goldwyn’s 1936 screen production. Other stars include Miss Anne Shirley as Lotta and Lew Ayres as Bernie. Also from the original 1936 movie are, Walter Brennan as Swan, Mary Nash as Emmie and Mady Christians as Swan’s sister, Karie. It is 1880 lumberman Barney Glasgow leaves his true love, saloon singer Lotta Morgan, to marry Emmie Hewitt, his boss’s daughter. His buddy Swan marries Lotta instead. Twenty-five years pass and married to Hewitt’s daughter Barney Glasgow’s success was certain and his advancement rapid. He’s the head of the firm now. He is sad when he hears of the loss of Lotta and eventually goes to visit Swan when he meets Swan and Lotta’s daughter who is the spitting image of her mother. Barney still in love with her mother finds himself falling in love with the young Lotta but Lotta falls in love with Barney’s son Bernie. Before the story producer Cecille B. DeMille tells an interesting biography of Edward Arnold. Original novel by: Edna Ferber Once again Lux produce a wonderful adaptation for radio.
Duration: 59:45
Starring: Edward Arnold, Anne Shirley, Lew Ayres, Walter Brennan, Mary Nash, Mady Christians
Broadcast Date: 15th November 1937
Vernon Wallis was missing and was last seen on a night out with his friend Mr Burnett. He and Burnett had ended up in a run down gambling house run by a one legged soldier called Bill. Burnett told Nick Carter that Vernon had got into a card game with Bill and no matter what Bill did Vernon won. Burnett was afraid for him in a dive like that but Vernon told him to leave, which he did, but Vernon never arrived home. Mrs Wallis afraid for her husband asked Nick Carter to investigate and as he had a score to settle with Bill he agreed.
Duration: 29:33
Starring: Lon Clark
Broadcast Date: 3rd November 1943
They say one picture is worth 10 thousand words well here as narrated by William Conrad CBS bring you 1489 words which are worth innumerable pictures. Exactly how many only you can tell for it is the magic of your imagination that will paint them.
Duration: 26:55
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith
Starring: William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 10th February 1957
“Two days ago I saw your ad in the Star Times. I want you to do something for me, find someone who I know is in this city. You see I think the man I want you to help me locate will be killed unless I find him first.” Dan Holliday took on the job from Dorothy Simmons but when the case was over he wished the mail carrier had taken a detour somewhere on his appointed rounds.
Duration: 26:17
Starring: Alan Ladd
Broadcast Date: 20th March 1949
In the apartment of Joan Winslow an attractive young thing just out of bobby socks Plunger Belson a husky young boozer just out of football socks is talking to someone on the telephone. When he puts the phone down he tells Joni that he is going out to kill the man he has just been talking to. . .
Duration: 21:23
Starring: Claudia Morgan, David Gothard
Broadcast Date: 1st December 1944
Bradley Lane had stolen $4000 from his employers and let someone else take the blame but John Dunn found out and for the past few years had been blackmailing him. When the stakes became higher Lane had the idea to kill Dunn but something stopped him at the last minute. . .
Duration: 28:47
Starring: David Gothard
Broadcast Date: 8th August 1949
Soon after striking it rich, Sundown knocks Cisco down. Sundown is as Irish as Paddy's pig, and a bullet will never keep Sundown Kelly from a fight!
Duration: 26:20
Dr Albany’s discovery of Kalare temple would at last prove his theory that the Mayan people came from the Orient through what we now know as Alaska down the Pacific coast into Mexico and Yucatan. He was planning on an expedition to the Kalare temple to recover the golden treasure. Who knocked on the door, was there a struggle, where was the map?
Duration: 29:50
Starring: Carlton KaDell
Broadcast Date: 21st August 1952
In the fall of the year most drawing things shed their foliage and settle down to rest for the winter but an impulsive teenage boy never rests. In the case of Henry Aldrich the fall air merely increases his normal speed. The scene opens in the Centreville butchers shop on Main Street. It is early afternoon. . .
Duration: 25:31
Starring: Ezra Stone
Broadcast Date: 14th October 1948
A rich duke makes a wager with a rival to split his fortune if the man can remain locked in isolation within a prison house for ten years straight.
Duration: 26:12
Broadcast Airdate: December 4, 1961
It was a long ride from Dodge up to Ponka Creek in the Dakota Territory and Matt Dillon killed a good horse getting there but he caught Lee Trombow. He was asleep in a lump of willow and he took him without a fight. Trumbow was wanted for murdering a man but his brother Dolph was determined to get him free without a trial and hires a gunman to kill Dillon.
Duration: 29:25
Starring: William Conrad, Harry Bartell
Broadcast Date: 5th July 1954
George Lexington was in fear of his life and requested that Richard Diamond call to his house to see him at six o’clock on the dot. When Diamond arrives he finds a girl standing in the middle of Lexington’s room holding a shotgun and Lexington slumped over his desk. The girl does not deny shooting Lexington but who also took the trouble of stabbing him with a carving knife in his back?
Duration: 29:13
Announcer: Bill Forman
Starring: Dick Powell, Ted de Corsia, Wilms Herbert, Ted Osborne, Betty Moran, Howard McNear, Virginia Gregg
Broadcast Date: 13th September 1950
Escape to the prairie west of the Platt River and to the Indian fighting US cavalry of the old west as James Warner-Bella describes it in this exciting tale.
Duration: 28.51
Starring: William Conrad, Paul Frees
Broadcast Date: 6th December 1949
It seems Morten’s experiments for the master mechanical brain are succeeding. He has been working to produce electronic men that can produce other electronic men and the master electronic brain could control the electronic men absolutely.
Duration: 21:46
Broadcast Date: 26thApril 1950
Before the beginning of World War I there was started a mass migration within the United States that was destined to involve 2 million souls. It was a shift of 2 million Negro citizens from southern regions to northern cities and it radically altered the social and economic course of the country. In a chapter entitled The Birth of a League Destination Freedom tells the story of the greatest internal migration in American history and the story of the League that was organized as a result of it.
Duration: 30:08
Broadcast Date: 5th January 1950
Hannah Tolman is concerned that her father is going to get himself killed and wants Marshall Dillon to save his skin by placing him in jail. Jed won’t tell Dillon who is trying to kill him but he has an idea it could have something to do with Vic Tolman, his own son who is wanted for robbery and murder who just got out of jail last week.
Duration: 29:18
Starring: William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 9th August 1952
t happened during a routine skirmish in the great war. Patrols advanced from the defense perimeter under jet cover and preceded by napalm throwers. The enemy defended in depth, and mopped up with guided 98’s, fired from 40 miles to the rear. The blast area was 10 miles in circumference, and the medics didn’t find much to pick up over 500 yards in. . .
Duration: 29:13
Starring: Norman Rose
Broadcast Date: 12th July 1951
imon Templar arrives home a night out to find a removal van outside his house and the furniture they’re loading looks familiar. When he entered his office he discovered the reason why, it was his desk. So why did someone want to steal his furniture?
Duration: 28:24
Starring: Vincent Price
Broadcast Date: 4th March 1951
Several thousand people are gathered for the opening of the new Riverford tunnel, which cuts through South Mountain. It had eventually cost twice as much money as was planned for it as the engineers ran in to all kinds of trouble and advised the council more than once to abandon the idea. But now the tunnel is finished it will be well worth it relieving traffic congestion and making it easier to get into the city on the South side. The tunnel commissioner, Jonas Anderson drove set off to drive the first car through the tunnel but several minutes later he still had not appeared leaving no sign of him or his car.
Duration: 30:00
Starring: James Monks
Broadcast Date: 20th July 1945
Henry has decided that he needs a course in physical development and after filling out the rather intimate questions on the application blank he discovers that he has left the blank in a book belonging to Nancy Adams. . .
Duration: 29:01
Starring: Ezra Stone
Broadcast Date: 28th September 1952
Matt Cvetic was assigned to the communist finance committee in charge of collections for the district and he watched the figures mount up on comrade Nora’s adding machine. It was big money from reds and just plain suckers; dues paid monthly or as often as could be sucked out of so called voluntary donors. It was Cvetic’s job to make sure the FBI knew where the money came from and where it went. . .
Duration: 27:13
Starring: Dana Andrews
Broadcast Date: 9th July 1952
Captain Joe and his crew on board his ship in the Caribbean Sea are planning an ambush. When the right boat comes along Enricho must light oil on the bow and in the hold so they think the boat is on fire and send up a distress signal then when the ship comes to help they will take the ship. However the ship they intend to take has Lamont Cranston – The Shadow - and his friend Margo Lane on board. . .
Duration: 29:40
Starring: Bill Johnstone
Broadcast Date: 23rd October 1938
Written by Anthony Wain Something In The Air is a farce which promises a half hour of hilarious entertainment. Olan Soule and Barbara Luddy head the all-star cast. Mr Soule plays Ted Brisedale a man who’s sure of his girl but not sure of his mother’s blessing and Miss Luddy takes the part of Anne Brown Ted’s fiancee the ´ girl in question. Also in the cast Parley Baer as Homer and Luis Van Rooten as Mr Brown.
Duration: 30:50
Starring: Barbara Luddy, Olan Soule
Broadcast Date: 11th March 1948
An iron skull was their trademark, their business was climbing walls and it was all done on wheels at 70 miles an hour but that was a cinch for the death cheaters until they felt murder and a feminine touch. . .
Duration: 29:10
Starring: Gerald Mohr
Broadcast Date: 7th May 1949
This true story concerns the heart of a great city. It took fifty-eight minutes to resolve the question of its safety or its total destruction. This is the story of those fiftyeight minutes; only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Duration: 25:27
Starring: Jack Webb
Broadcast Date: 13th July 1950
Frank Bowers has a half interest in a gym and invites Richard Diamond to a fight tonight to watch his boy Max Farmer box against Lou Scott a bum from upstate. Max Farmer is favorite to win so it is a surprise to Frank when Farmer loses and he is convinced it was a fix and asks Richard Diamond to investigate. It is more of a surprise to Diamond when Frank Bowers seemingly commits suicide.
Duration: 28:007
Starring: Dick Powell, Virginia Gregg, Ted de Corsia, Wilms Herbert, Wally Maher, Howard McNear, Hy Averback, Jay Novello
Broadcast Date: 2nd August 1950
While playing chess during a blinding blizzard, Anchorage's police chief, George Teller, and his friend Dr. William Bertram hear a cry for help. They find a man in a snowdrift who doesn't know who he is or how he got there. They name him George Williams, and Teller gives him a job. He soon becomes an excellent policeman, but still cannot remember his real name - until he is sent to help the Juneau police unravel the mystery of a human skeleton found in a deep well.
Duration: 41:42
Created: Hiram Brown
Narrated: E.G. Marshall
Starring: Larry Haines, Court Benson, Bob Dryden, Joan Shay
Broadcast Airdate: March 10th, 1978
A skinner was brought in to town with fatal injuries from apparently spilling hot lead on himself. Marshall Matt Dillon was suspicious of the skinner’s boss Gatliff following his couldn’t care less attitude.
Duration: 21:115
Starring: William Conrad, Parley Baer, Tom Tully, Richard Beals, John Dehner
Broadcast Date: 19th June 1954
Amy Goodridge was a nightclub singer and needed to hire Jeff Regan to protect her. Two years ago she worked as a singer for Tim Connover at the Diamond Club and he was interested in her but she turned him down. Now he was casing the cub that she currently worked at and Amy was worried that he intended to hurt her.
Duration: 29:34
Starring: Frank Graham, Frank Nelson
Broadcast Date: 26th October 1949
Randy Stone covers the night beat for the Chicago Star. Stories begin in many different ways. This one began and ended with a confession . . . a confession to the crime of murder.
Duration: 28:25
Starring: Frank Lovejoy
Broadcast Date: 29th May 1950
The Saint meets up with Barbara, a famous movie actress. She’s very nervous and is thinking of giving up acting. Something has scared her, but she won’t say what. The Saint walks over to get her shawl from one of the deck benches, as he turns, he is horrified to see somebody pushing Barbara over the railings, into the icy water below. . .
Duration: 24:01
Starring: Vincent Price
Broadcast Date: 18th September 1949
Matt called early to the saloon to see Kitty. There was a party the following night a dance to benefit the new school and Matt plucked up courage to ask Kitty to go with him but she turned him down. Kitty was concerned at what the “ladies” would think him taking a hostess from the saloon but Matt was not going to take no for an answer.
Duration: 28:17
Starring: William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 29th November 1952
Arthur Stevens was prepared to pay Richard Diamond $500 for a quick trip to Florida. That was easy enough but Loucious Timken was going to make it tough. Stevens wanted Diamond to deliver a very rare European art object worth a considerable fortune and Loucious Timpken would try to stop him by killing him if necessary.
Duration: 29:42
Starring: Dick Powell, Virginia Gregg, Sidney Miller, Ted de Corsia, Tony Barrett, Alan Reed, Herb Butterfield
Broadcast Date: 11th January 1952
The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, was a comedy radio program which ran on NBC from 1948 to 1954 starring Alice Faye and Phil Harris. Harris had previously become known to radio audiences as the band-leader-turned-cast-member of the same name on The Jack Benny Program while Faye had been a frequent guest on programs such as Rudy Vallée's variety shows. After becoming the breakout stars of the music and comedy variety program The Fitch Bandwagon, the show was retooled into a full situation comedy, with Harris and Faye playing fictionalized versions of themselves as a working show business couple raising two daughters in a madcap home.
Well, many of us like to share Easter breakfast with our friends. Our Miss Brooks who teaches English at Madison High School looked forward all week to sharing hers with several of the students and some of the faculty, some of the faculty being Biology teacher Mr Boynton. . .
Duration: 30:08
Starring: Eve Arden
Broadcast Date: 9th April 1950
The Quiz Kids was TV game show that began on NBC during the earliest days of television in 1949. Host Joe Kelly would pose difficult questions to five teenager with exceptional IQs and academic records. The top three contestants would continue to the next week, where they would be joined by two new teens. All of the contestants were under 16 years of age. "Quiz Kids" began as a radio program in 1940. After the first TV version went off the air in 1953, later versions include a 1956 Quiz Kids with host Clifton Fadiman and a 1978 version with Jim McKrell.
nd now to Sycamore Terrace and the Higgins family. . . Easter is almost here and with it the new outfits for that stroll down the avenue on Easter Sunday, but Easter finery costs money and money is what poor daddy Higgins is always without. Having been victorious with mommy who wanted a anew Easter outfit he’s just started a second one with Snooks. . .
Duration: 28:49
Starring: Fanny Brice, Hanley Stafford
Broadcast Date: Not known
Pasquale plays what starts out to be an April Fools day joke on Luigi but fails to tell him it was a joke in the hope that his April fool will turn Rosa in to a June bride!
Duration: 29:48
Starring: J. Carrol Naish, Alan Reed
Broadcast Date: 1st April 1952
Our Miss Brooks who teaches English at Madison High School is has always tried to get along with her fellow faculty members regardless of whether they are male or female. There’s one thing that they all have in common they are all under paid. But as she points’s out when the male doesn’t have enough money to go to the movies at least he can stay at home and look at his Esquire calendar! Miss Brooks has overcome that advantage to some slight extent by making her own calendar using 12 snap shots of Madison’s bashful biology teacher; February sees Mr Boynton on Valentines day with his red heart shaped box under his arm -containing flies for his frog McDougal. Then as she tore the page off for March there was Mr Boynton with his arms around her – that’s why she knew it was April Fools Day!
Duration: 28:51
Starring: Eve Arden
Broadcast Date: 3rd April 1949
Mel plays an April Fool's Day joke on Mr. Colby by telling him that he's inherited a fortune from England.
-- Notes --
Mel Blanc is best known as the voice of the Looney Tunes characters, especially Bugs Bunny, but this "Man of a Thousand Voices" was a hit on radio, not just in his own show but with Jack Benny and many others.
The jokes take on a nautical feel, when Red Skelton talks about sailors, ships, and storms. Phil Davis plays, Begin the Beguine.
Red talks about his new suit. When the phone rings, he gets a gig at the policeman’s ball. Is he as big of a shot as his secretary, Edna Stillwell? Should he take the tickets to see the big fight, or stick to his public speaking class? The instructor in proper diction could use some lessons themself. Janette sings, I never Knew.
At the policeman’s ball, Red and Edna dance, but his jitterbug moves Donn’t impress anyone. Hercules shows his stuff as a uniformed cop.
The show is about to start, and Red takes his place. Try as he might, he just can’t get a laugh from the bulls.
Red Foley sings, Prairie Moon. Phil Davis plays a jazzy tune to play out the show.
The Comic Weekly Man Based on what is published in the weekly paper, The Comic Weekly Man entertains us with a dramatized reading of the Sunday comics, complete with sound effects and music. Young and old alike would follow along with the print copy in hand.
--- Notes ---
Major Bowes Amateur Hour - Wikipedia
About Major Bowes - Major Bowes and the Original Amateur Hour - Research Guides at Library of Congress (loc.gov)
Celebrity Performers - Major Bowes and the Original Amateur Hour - Research Guides at Library of Congress (loc.gov)
Major Bowes and His Amateur Hour – (Travalanche) (wordpress.com)
Adam had grown up in Chicago where he used to go for walks along the lake when fish used to swim in it before the dark days. It’s all swamp now and mutant stock lives in it now. Adam was about twenty when the war started and Chicago was pretty well destroyed and it wasn’t safe to be in the street. Adam stumbled upon a big warehouse, which looked like a fine big safe place and moved in. Then on the second day someone dropped an atom bomb and the whole of Chicago was blown up except this big safe warehouse. The whole country and it’s people where destroyed except for Adam, Emily and the Doc. . .
Duration: 29:11
Starring: Ernest Chappell
Broadcast Date: 7th November 1948
Bragston on the Marsh in the heart of the Norfolk Fens, is the scene at the beginning of this tale. Holmes is looking for a vital clue which he hopes will help convict the last of the Moriarty Gang. Whilst there, they visit a gypsy fair and a chance meeting brings them into contact with Arthur Threadgold and his wife Olive who live at the Manor House. He tells Holmes that the gypsies have threatened that they will kidnap his nephew, heir to the Threadgold fortune. . .
Duration: 28:26
Starring: Basil Rathbone
Broadcast Date: 11 February 1946
Abigail Murray receives a threatening letter telling her she should have stayed in Milwaukee but now it is too late for tonight she is going to die.
Duration: 28:00
Starring: William Gargan
Broadcast Date: 27th September 1947
Gildersleeve appears to be in fine spirits this morning and a pretty fair voice. What’s come over him? He’s up before daylight and in his bathroom shaving, yes believe it or not the clock stands at ten to seven and the kids have noticed he’s not as gruesome as usual and the reason? Aunt Hattie has decided that her job here his done and she is finally leaving.
Duration: 29:00
Starring: Harold Peary
Broadcast Date: 18th February 1945
It is morning at the Cougat’s house and Katy the maid has gone out to the mailbox to see if the postman has left any adds or blotters and Liz is cooking breakfast and George is still upstairs dressing. . .
Duration: 29:53
Starring: Lucille Ball, Richard Denning
Broadcast Date: 24th September 1948
It had been a long time since they’d had any real trouble and Matt Dillon, United States Marshall liked it peaceful for a change and hoped it would stay that way. But of course it doesn’t. The stage that was due in was carrying fifty thousand dollars in gold when it was held up and Mr. Carter’s fiance was kidnapped. However ´ the stage rider said it didn’t much look like she was kidnapped, more like she went along willingly.
Duration: 29:38
Starring: William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 12th July 1952
The 19th edition of the Academy Awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) was held on March 13, 1947 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, United States, awarding the best films of the year 1946. The ceremony was presented by Jack Benny.
The movie with the most nominations at the Academy Awards 1947 was The Best Years of Our Lives with 8 nominations and The film that won the most awards was The Best Years of Our Lives, winning 7 of the 8 nominations.
Herewith a disturbing broadcast, a dramatization by Milton Wain, George Orwell’s 1984. In his 1949 widely discussed novel Orwell has projected the totalitarian techniques abroad in the world to their terrible extreme. The plight of the individual in this world are left to you to assess for yourself as you listen to the story of Mr Winston Smith played by the internationally known British actor David Niven.
Duration: 54:15
Starring: David Niven
Broadcast Date: 27th August 1949
David Barr calls upon Diamond to discuss a business arrangement. He wants him to guard his store, a most fashionable haberdashery that had been vandalized two nights ago. The only item missing was 1 blue serge suit then last night the store was broken in to again and the whole stock of blue serge material was taken but leaving two other suits and a grey flannel suit untouched. Barr wants Diamond to solve the mystery of this unusual robbery.
Duration: 29:18
Starring: Dick Powell
Broadcast Date: 9th February 1951
Michael Shayne has received a letter requesting him to appear at Judge Forman’s house that night at seven o’clock. Shayne does not yet know why and before he arrives Judge Forman has seemingly committed suicide because of the threats he was receiving on his life.
Duration: 29:22
Starring: Wally Maher, Cathy Lewis
Broadcast Date: 14th October 1947
“Get this and get it straight, crime is a suckers road and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison or the grave. There’s no other end, but they never learn. This time the main theme was Main Street and the counter melody was full of sharps from a burlesque house in flats from Skid Row. It was wine, women and murder. . . ”
Duration: 29:22
Starring: Gerald Mohr, Jack Moyles, Michael Ann Barrett, John Stevenson, Sidney Miller, Norman Field, Jack Kruschen
Broadcast Date: 25th August 1951
Sun Up Serenade - Won't You Ride in My Little Red Wagon
Tales from the Diamond K - Horse Named Gunpowder
10-2-4 Ranch – First Song: Song of the Bandit
Red Skelton - Stolen Plans East Coast Broadcast
The Life of Riley - Riley Becomes An Actor On TV
Caltex Theater - You Only Die Once
Frontier Town - All Trails Lead to Trouble
Nero Wolfe - Room304
Inner Sanctum Mysteries - The Corpse Nobody Loved
Jack Benny Show - The Coleman's Ride In Jack's Car
Radio Adv Theater - Gulliver's Travels
Yank Swing Session - Guest - Bob Crosby
Jack Webb Show - 3 Minute Skit on Carson TV Show
Fred Allen Show - Rodgers And Hammerstein - 'Picadilly'
Philo Vance - Checkerboard Murder Case
Chase & Sanborn Hour [Bergen & McCarthy] - Guest - Dick Powell
Michael Shayne Private Detective - Too Many Suspects - Too Many Alibis
Let George Do It - The Common Denominator
Our Miss Brooks - Compliment Contest aka Planning Trip To Europe
Pat Novak For Hire - Mysterious Set of Books
History of Radio Comedy on the BBC - The Second World War
Mysteries in the Air - Queen of Spades
Bold Venture - Shannon Framed For Murder
Old Gold Comedy Theater - Bachelor Mother
Crime Classics - John Hayes--His Head--And How They Were Parted
Sherlock Holmes - The Adventure Of The Three Garridebs
Plays for Americans - Adolf and Mrs. Runyon
Blondie - Dagwood The Bank Robber
Green Valley - Coded Message
Harlem Hospitality Club - Guests Kirby Walker, Kit
The Chase - The Amusement Park
Orson Welles Radio Almanac - Guest - Lee and Lyn Wilde, Lois Collier
Crime and Peter Chambers - Masquerade Party
Frontier Gentleman - Gentle Virtue
Your’s Truly Johnny Dollar - Taxi Disappearance
Aldrich Family - Contest To Win Money For Motor Scooter
Texaco Star Theater - Jimmy Durantee. Romantic MixUp
The Whisper - Taken for a Ride
My Friend Irma - Billy Boy, the Boxer
A Cavalcade of Kings - Harold Son of Godwin
You Are There - William Penn Trial
Cisco Kid - Murder In The Gunsmith Shop
Lux Radio Theater - The Ghost and Mrs Muir
Jeff Regan Investigator - Cain and Able and the Santa Maria
A Date with Judy - New Dress For The Big Dance
Supper Club - George Bloom
Doctor Morelle - The Black Ruby
Stories to Remember - My Song, Yankee Doodle
Hello Americans - Rhythms of the Americas
Inspector Thorne - The Dark Cigarette Murder Case
George Bruce’s Air Stories - Deacon From Hell
Barrel of Fun - Winning A Prize In A Draw
For most teachers the first few schooldays after the Easter week vacation pose a problem in readjustment to routine but our Miss Brooks who teaches English at Madison High School didn’t let the idiosyncrasies of her pupils dampen her spirits one bit. . .
Duration: 29:11
Starring: Eve Arden
Broadcast Date: 24th April 1949
Because of a hobby that is dear to his heart and certainly innocent enough Lloyd Bascum he has received several threats on his life of late.
Duration: 29:54
Starring: Bob Bailey, Frances Robinson
Broadcast Date: 27th December 1948
It’s Sunday and it’s New Years Eve. Johnny wants to get a report finished so that they can celebrate the New Year with a quiet night, but oh no that’s not for Terry all year long she’s slaved in this office and now she wants to celebrate in style. But neither of them gets the night they’d bargained for sitting in a museum with an ancient Egyptian mummy called Queen Sheshack. . . This was the final episode of the short liverd series.
Duration: 29:03
Starring: Lloyd Nolan, Claire Trevor
Broadcast Date: 30th December 1944
The every day existence of an average teenage boy like Henry Aldrich is always a very complicated affair. Life is one crisis after another and if the normal run of problems isn’t baffling enough there are always adults around to make things even more difficult. . .
Duration: 29:08
Starring: Bobby Ellis, Jack Grimes, House Jameson
Broadcast Date: 30th November 1952
Philip Marlowe received a call from Sergeant Mathews regarding a brunette named Helen Lawton. Marlowe made out with Helen and sometimes still does though he hadn’t seen her for about a month. When he asked Mathews if she was in some kind of trouble he replied, “Not now, at about five o’clock this afternoon somebody put a bullet in her neck”.
Duration: 29:59
Starring: Gerald Mohr
Broadcast Date: 28th July 1950
You are trapped in the native quarter of Mozambique, two dead men at your feet and the police closing in on you and besides you a sultry girl who offers you escape. Ronald A Dawson, second class passenger who could of course have afforded first class but who was to know back at the department store where he worked. The important thing is that they would be saying “Ronald Dawson is taking a trip around the world”.
Duration: 29:05
Starring: Harry Bartell
Broadcast Date: 10th January 1948
This is the story of a simple melody, and of a killer. Who, as the story opens, is fighting desperately, alone, against a raging storm off the coast of Maine. The lifeboat that he is in is half pounded, and the man’s rowing does little good. . .
Duration: 27:39
Starring: House Jameson, Berry Kroeger
Broadcast Date: 29th May 1945
Whitey Gear was blackmailing Don Mason for $10,000. Whitey knew that Mason was really Jimmy Burke who was wanted for murder after being mixed up in a juvenile gang some years ago when a guard was killed. Don suffered from blackout periods when he couldn’t remember what had happened but he hadn’t had one for a while until apparently last night when he met and killed Whitey.
Duration: 24:42
Starring: Lon Clark
Broadcast Date: 7th November 1948
James Stewart’s inimitable style and voice make the Six Shooter stories an absolute pleasure for anyone who loves westerns, as I do. If you’ve seen films starring James Stewart, you’ll see that these stories were written for him. I love them all! In this story Al is having his hair cut and discussing a meeting they had last night. Al is not looking forward to telling Gabe that they feel that after 40 years it is time for him to quit being the sheriff of Yellow Crest, when Britt calls in. Britt has not seen Gabe for 4 years but he and Gabe are old friends and Breezy - the barber - suggests that Britt be the one to tell him.
Duration: 28:51
Starring: James Stewart
Broadcast Date: 22 November 1953
Archie wants to get some high spenders in to Duffy’s Tavern and when Fats quotes to him from a newspaper column that the biggest spender of the week is a South American gold miner named Senior Diego DeNiro and he’s staying in the Plaza Archie rings him right away and invites him down.
Duration: 30:24
Starring: Ed Gardner
Broadcast Date: 2nd November 1951
Smiley I Must Be Crazy Smith was a DJ and for his Friday Night Stunt Night he was going to spend the night on a spook hunt in a haunted house in which four people were known to have committed suicide.
Duration: 29:28
Starring: Ralph Edwards
Broadcast Date: 23rd June 1949
--- Note --
This is my personal favorite Suspense episode.
Luigi is just writing his letter to his mother in Italy when there is a commotion outside his apartment when someone is knocked down on the busy corner. Then a debate ensues as to why they can’t have traffic lights on this busy corner. Luigi decides he’s going to ask Miss Spalding if she has any ideas how the neigborhood can get a much needed traffic light. . .
Duration: 29:36
Starring: J. Carrol Naish
Broadcast Date: 4th April 1950
Mickey the Hood whose real name is Michael Jonathan O’Banyan had been a bootlegger, gun runner and jewel thief. After he served his term in order to fill out his parole he worked for a drug company before he opened a little importing company, which was probably just a little front for his bootlegging. He managed to secure half million insurance coverage on his business and a quarter million on his life. He’s a bad risk and likely to be bumped off at any time and is constantly behind on his premiums. In order to cancel his policy the insurance company need insurance investigator Johnny Dollar to find some legal proof that Mickey is still in the rackets.
Duration: 22:41
Starring: Bob Bailey, Virginia Gregg, Chet Stratton, Barney Phillips, Harry Bartell, Paul Frees
Broadcast Date: 20th November 1960
In the study of country home on the Hudson River, some 50 miles from New York. An attractive auburn haired young woman has just entered the room, and as she shakily picks up the telephone and dials a number it is obvious that she is under some frightful strain. She is telephoning the police but there is no answer. She telephones the operator to be put through to the police but the line has been cut. As she panics, someone enters the room and murders her. . .
Duration: 28:56
Starring: Bennett Kilpack
Broadcast Date: 22nd September 1949
Jim Doby runs the Dodge Hotel. But, he’s in for a little competition. One of the local cattle ranchers has decided that he wants a hotel too, so he has begun the building work. Jim Doby is not at all happy, and he has even begun threatening people. . . This episode was probably a rehersal show. It is hilarious. It’s a wonder this fantastic cast ever got any shows made they had so much fun which you can share in this episode! It’s a must listen to!!!
Duration: 20:15
Starring: William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 19th February 1956
Shorty’s been arrested by Inspector Friday for sticking up a gas station and even though he told them it was a guy named Donald Bolton Shorty has ended up in Jail. Inspector Friday informs Mary to tell Blackie that Shorty’s guilty and he’s to keep his nose out of this case.
Duration: 27:48
Starring: Richard Kollmar
Broadcast Date: 1st November 1945
He woke up on the floor shivering all his clothes had gone. It was like a nightmare that he had dreamed many times before and dreaded coming true. At first he thought he had awoken in his own room, that somebody had taken all his furniture as well as his clothes but then he realized it wasn’t so much a room as it was a cube, an empty sterile cube with luminescent walls that hummed with the soft blue-green light. He jumped up and threw himself against the walls trying to find a way out but there was none. . .
Duration: 23:21
Starring: Lawson Zerbe
Broadcast Date: 21st January 1962
Phillip Marlowe escaped a road accident with a fractured tibia and assorted bruises but ended up 10 days in a hospital worrying about the business he was missing. After 4 days laid up at home he finally Audine Patterson a girl with a multimillion dollar estate he’d worked on once insisted on seeing him immediately about a job, one that he could handle flat on his back.
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Gerald Mohr
Broadcast Date: 30th May 1950
A publisher named Hillary Grayson ran a “best first novel” contest with $50,000 for the winner. The prize winning manuscript was stolen mysrteriously and there was no copy. Grayson was willing to pay Craig $2000 to get it back.
Duration: 29:21
Starring: William Gargan
Broadcast Date: 5th December 1951
Sooner or later every man must learn this sad fact, come storm, come flood, come fire, come bill collectors a woman will make that trip to the beauty parlor. At this moment Teresa Travis, blond secretary of Results Incorporated is receiving the expert attention of Monsieur Jean Gillette hairstylist extraordinary. Terry watches his progress in the mirror. . .
Duration: 29:20
Starring: Lloyd Nolan, Claire Trevor
Broadcast Date: 16th December 1944
Before the Suspense story begins you will hear a CBS World News bulletin from an American wartime correspondent at Normandy beach. Harry Andrews was a laughing happy-go-lucky fellow before he began to have dreams about Aaron Burr dreams in which Burr would be mean to his friend Alexander Hamilton, dreams that became nightmares that began to plague him. . .
Duration: 32:00
Starring: Geraldine Fitzgerald, Richard Wharfe
Broadcast Date: 15th June 1944
Hard-boiled action mystery and thrilling adventure as the Lion’s Eye informs Jeff Regan that he has been hired by Alice Lafarge. She gives him instructions to be at the Gladstone Hotel where he meets her father Bill Lafarge. Bill Lafarge wants Regan to spend the weekend with him as a witness, just in case someone needs him to testify how he spent the weekend. Just as they settle in to a game of cards shots come flying in from the alley and Alice Lafarge is killed.
Duration: 28:15
Starring: Jack Webb
Broadcast Date: 27th November 1948
Mr Thurston calls insurance instigator Johnny Dollar regarding one of their most important clients from the standpoint of all the insurance she carries with them. Now it seems as though somebody might want to kill the fine lady to collect the insurance.
Duration: 25:05
Starring: Mandel Kramer, Lawson Zerbe, Daniel Ocko
Broadcast Date: 3rd September 1961
All Gas and Gaiters, predominantly farcical in nature, was set in the close of the fictional St Ogg's Cathedral and concerned various intrigues and rivalries among the clergy. The "gaiters" in the title refers to part of the traditional dress of bishops and archdeacons. The bishop was easygoing; his friend the archdeacon was elderly, tippling, and still appreciative of attractive women; and the bishop's chaplain was naïve and accident-prone. Their wish to live a quiet bachelor life was continually threatened by the overbearing dean, who tried to bring by-the-book rule to the cathedral.
-- Note --
This is a worthwhile British comedy radio show & TV show that anyone whom loves comedy will enjoy.
“The housing shortage may be bad but there’s one place I know of that always has room for another tenant. It’s a big grey structure near the river and the windows are crossed with iron bars and the landlord never asks you for a penny in rent. If you are an extra-special customer they even give you a private suite in a secluded part of the building that leads directly to a room with a heavy chair. That room is reserved for the guys who find out that they can’t get away with murder. . . ”
Duration: 28:06
Starring: Jack Scott Smart
Broadcast Date: 2nd January 1948
Lacey Abbott escapes from West View prison asylum by killing his visiting lawyer and forging his signature. Abbott is in prison accused of killing his wife but he knows he is innocent and that his ex-business partner Martin Avery was the guilty one. It was Avery’s testimony that convicted Abbott and now Abbott was planning on revenge.
Duration: 29:31
Starring: William Powell, John McIntire
Broadcast Date: 19th January 1950
The term 'music depreciation' is an interesting enough play on words in and of itself. Spike Jones and His Orchestra may well have coined the term in the course of their various irreverent, but brilliant send-ups of popular--and traditional--music over the years. Their aim being to both knock some of the most revered classics off their pedestals a notch or two, while at the same time deconstructing some of the most popular classics and contemporary music to their basic common denominators: beat and meter, dynamics, and harmony. Spike Jones, while ostensibly clowning with famous music, was brilliant at breaking down those three key essentials to illustrate what made truly great music great. Kay Kyser had also been a proponent of musical deconstruction. Over the course of their combined forty years of influence in musical entertainment, they both helped to fire the imaginations of countless music enthusiasts into looking at music, its structure and composition in a far different light. As mentioned above, The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street often went to great lengths to illustrate these very points. It was the popular success of The Chamber Music Society . . . that inspired the Don Lee-Mutual network to create a similar program that began airing in the Winter of 1944. Called Music Depreciation, it aired a format very similar to the long-running Chamber Music Society series, but in an even more abbreviated and light-hearted tone. And in a nod to the era, the overarching theme of most broadcasts was Swing Music of the era. The program was in all likelihood the brainchild of Ruben Gaines, a poet, writer and radio broadcaster with a flair for irony and music education. His previous Meet the Band series over Don Lee equally sought to shed light on not only the history of music, but its proponents as well. Gaines assembled the team for Music Depreciation comprised of the brilliant and versatile composer and arranger, Frank De Vol, and Les Paul and his Trio.
The makers of Maxwell House Coffee welcome you to an hour of entertainment brought to you from Metro Goldwyn Meyer studios in Hollywood with a special list of guest stars from the cast of the Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland, Bert Lahr and Ray Bolger plus the regular Good News gang Frank Morgan, Fanny Brice as Baby Snooks with Hanley Stafford as Daddy Higgins. Music by Meredith Wilson and his orchestra
. Host: Robert Young
Duration: 60:58 Starring: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan
Broadcast Date: 29th June 1939
In this show Judy is recollecting her memories of “dropping in” on the 13th Army division at Camp Beale, Sacramento, California the previous week!
Duration: 23:48
Starring: Judy Canova
Broadcast Date: 19th October 1943
The National Broadcasting Company brings you transcribed from New York The Martin and Lewis Show with special guest Arthur Treacher and featuring, Flo McMichael, Dick Stabile and his orchestra and Starring Dean Martin with his wonderful singing voice and Jerry Lewis with his not so wonderful singing voice!
Duration: 30:30
Starring: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis
Broadcast Date: 17th May 1949
At eleven o’clock one morning, Richard Diamond - Private Detective is in his office when he receives a visitor, Jerome J Jerome. He is slightly disturbed in the mind, to say the least! He insists that he wants to be Diamond’s bodyguard and that he has a freshly murdered corpse, whose cause of death needs to be investigated, which is where their adventures together begin. . .
Duration: 28:31
Starring: Dick Powell
Broadcast Date: 17th September 1949
Pretty Helen Standish is on the debating team and she talks to everyone except for Henry. Henry thinks that if he gets on the team she will talk to him. When Henry successfully makes the team the first debate is “the steam engine has contributed more to the progress of civilization than the horse” and they have to defend the negative. Oh dear Henry thinks if he can’t convince himself, how can he convince a hall full of people?
Duration: 29:03
Starring: Ezra Stone, Jackie Kelk
Broadcast Date: 16th November 1952
A paid killer is offered $5000 in gold to kill Marshall Matt Dillon.
Duration: 30:19
Starring: William Conrad, Parley Baer
Broadcast Date: 17th January 1953
Coney Island is a story of mirth and melody and romance and was a Twentieth Century musical film hit. It stars Alan Ladd and Chester Morris in a furious feud for the affections of Dorothy Lamour and Dorothy Lamour singing such beautiful tunes as Put your Arms Around Me Honey and Cuddle Up A Little Closer. It is pure and unadulterated entertainment.
Duration: 54:13
Starring: Alan Ladd, Dorothy Lamour, Chester Morris
Broadcast Date: 17th April 1944
The story began when a death mute clown from the circus who called himself Tommy, the saddest clown in town visited Gregory Hood. He showed Hood a cameo he had which Hood recognized as one of the famous cameos which was stolen in Canada a few months ago.
Duration: 29:20
Starring: Gale Gordon, Harry Bartell
Broadcast Date: 7th October 1946
One evening in late summer Mrs. Maud Kennedy a widow, her son and his wife and a friend ordered dinner in their home on 21st Street when the phone rang. . . please note whilst audible the quality is not very good with some hissing.
Duration: 31:48
Broadcast Date: 14th March 1934
Peter and Ann Stratton at their home on New Years Day remember via flashback other New Year’s Days telling the story of the couple’s 32 years of happy married life and of their very good friend Maud.
Duration: 29:19
Starring: Jan Miner
Broadcast Date: 1st January 1950
Happy New Year Everyone. I hope you have a great 2021.
Duration: 28:33
Starring: Staats Cotsworth
Broadcast Date: 1st January 1948
What starts out to be the first well-organized New Years Eve in the history of the Anderson family ends up becoming a mixed-up shambles. When Kathy’s plans fall through they have to get a sitter for her. When the sitter turns out to be a handsome young man Betty called off her date with Ralph and now Jim is upsetting Betty’s little scheme by letting the sitter go home.
Duration: 29:03
Starring: Robert Young
Broadcast Date: 31st December 1953
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Tom Howard
Broadcast Date: 29th December 1944
Notes:
It Pays to Be Ignorant was a 1942–1951 radio comedy show which maintained its popularity during a nine-year run on three networks for such sponsors as Philip Morris, Chrysler, and DeSoto.The series was a spoof on the academic discourse on such authoritative panel series as Quiz Kids and Information Please, while the beginning of the program parodied the popular quiz show, Doctor I.Q.
Harold is planning to ask Theodora to go to the barn dance. Harold sings, "Auld Lang Syne."
Broadcast Airdate: December 27, 1950
Notes:
Harold (Hall) Peary (July 25, 1908 – March 30, 1985) was an American actor, comedian and singer in radio, film, television and animation remembered best as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, a supporting character on radio's Fibber McGee & Molly that moved to its own radio hit, The Great Gildersleeve, the first known spinoff hit in American broadcasting history. Born as José Pereira de Faria in San Leandro, California to Portuguese parents, Peary (pronounced Perry) began working in local radio as early as 1923, according to his own memory, and had his own show as a singer, The Spanish Serenader, in San Francisco, but moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1937. In Chicago his radio work came to a peak when he became a regular on Fibber McGee and Molly, where he originated the Gildersleeve character as a McGee neighbor and nemesis in 1938. ("You're a haaa-aa-aard man, McGee" was a famous catch-phrase.) The character actually went through several first names and occupations before settling on Throckmorton Philaharmonic Gildersleeve and his stewardship of a lingerie factory. He also worked on the horror series Lights Out and other radio programs, but his success and popularity as Gildersleeve set the stage for the character's own program. At CBS, Peary began a new situation comedy, The Harold Peary Show, sometimes known as Honest Harold, a title that was actually the name of the fictitious radio show the new character hosted. Radio veteran Joseph Kearns (later familiar as Mr. Wilson on television's Dennis the Menace, played veterinarian Dr. Yancey, known better as Doc Yak-Yak and resembling former foil Judge Hooker. The new show also borrowed a few Gildersleeve plot devices, such as running for mayor and engagements to two women. In what was possibly a desperate attempt to recreate the Gildersleeve magic, it even brought in actress Shirley Mitchell, virtually recreating her Gildersleeve role of Leila Ransom, under the name of Florabelle Breckenridge. Additionally, Honest Harold's secretary at the radio station, Glory, bears a more than passing resemblance to Gildersleeve's Water Department secretary, Bessie: both are stereotypical giggly blondes. Despite these efforts to recreate the power and ratings of "The Great Gildersleeve", The Harold Peary Show lasted only one season of 38 episodes.-WikiPedia
December 31st 1899 in a charmingly furnished drawing room in an elegant house in London. It’s New Years Eve and we are about to enter a new century. The master of the house is about to leave for the war in South Africa. The usual British stiff upper lip attitude prevails as the clock chimes midnight and the new century begins but the joy of the moment soon dims and is replaced by sadness as the master goes off to war and the bands play “soldiers of the Queen”.
Duration: 58:42
Starring: Herbert Marshall
Broadcast Date: 28th December 1936
The Rail Road Hours review shows. What a better time to listen but on New Years Eve.
After all the end of the year is the perfect time to review the past year ....
The Rail Road Hours review shows. What a better time to listen but on New Years Eve.
After all the end of the year is the perfect time to review the past year ....
Like everyone else our Miss Brooks who teaches English at Madison High School had looked forward to celebrating New Years Eve with considerable anticipation. But as the poet Robert Burns put it, “the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley”. . .
Duration: 29:09
Starring: Eve Arden
Broadcast Date: 1st January 1950
George and Gracie plan a big New Years Eve celebration, but Gracie forgot to mail out the invitations. Everyone has made other plans for New Years and can't make it then, so Gracie decides to hold the party early and fool George into thinking he overslept a whole day.
Well it’s New Years Eve, and our friend Mr. Andrew H Brown hopes to go out on a big date with the very attractive Amethyst Dunbar. His one great problem is finding a tuxedo. After scouring the whole town without success, things look bad for Andy. . .
Duration: 27:58
Starring: Edward G Robinson
Broadcast Date: 31st December 1943
This charming radio broadcast of Christmas on the Moon series follows the bed-time story of protagonist, Jonathan Thomas. The series played one episode a day in 1938 between Thanksgiving and Christmas. With the help of his teddy bear and man on the moon, Jonathan sets out to rescue kidnapped Santa Claus.
There can be no Christmas without Santa Claus, so when our hero finds out that he has been kidnapped and taken to the moon there is no time to spare! Like any Christmas serial, Jonathan Thomas and His Christmas on the Moon is best enjoyed with your kids, one day at a time between Thanksgiving and the Most Special Day Of The Year.
A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas Carol, is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. A Christmas Carol recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man.
Isolationism was a popular sentiment in the years and months before December 7, 1941. After the Date Which Would Live in Infamy, people from all over the nation, from all walks of life suddenly rose as one and dedicated their efforts to defeating the Axis.
Industrial workers produced more planes and guns and bullets. Farmers raised more food than ever before. On the radio, they produced more... Soap Operas?
Yes, Soap Operas were part of the War Effort. No one tried to throw an organ at Mussolini, give Tojo amnesia, or find out that Hitler was having a secret affair with his best friend's sister who had been abandoned as an infant. Rather, the Soaps were employed as part of the Allied propaganda effort. Most of the sudsy dramas had a character, or the beloved of one of the characters who found themselves in uniform, only to return to their homes broken in someway in body or spirit, or with that Soap Opera favorite, a bad case of amnesia.
In 1942, CBS gave a portion of their day-time air to a sustained program called The Victory Front. The Victory Front was billed as being “sponsored by the United States Government”, although which branch or department of the Government is not listed. The show featured the stars of favorite soap operas, “the people many of us know and love, the people we meet every day on the radio”, showcasing issues important to the Wartime Housewife.
The scripts for The Victory Front were written especially for the program. A few of the episodes presented new characters and stories for “serial drama”. Give Us This Day was a series centered on a city-boy who visits a farm for the summer and learns about life and food production, and on We Love And Learn a school teacher learns as much from her pupils as they do from her.
On Second Husband, our heroine is alone in New York on Christmas Eve while her husband is on a submarine, prowling the depths of the Atlantic.
The World's Great Novels Experience distance learning 1940s style with The World's Great Novel presented by the NBC University of the Air.
The World's Great Novels, produce by the NBC University of the Air, worked with the University of Louisville, the University of Tulsa and Washington State University to present serialized adaptions of classic novels over two to six episodes. Listeners could enroll in correspondence courses and earn college credit for listening to the books. For a quarter, students could purchase a companion study guide, The Handbook of the World's Great Novels.
The show was broadcast out of Chicago from 1944 to 1948 on WMAQ and other NBC stations with a group of actors from Chicago. In 1948 the show changed names to NBC University Theater, moved to Hollywood and changed the format from 30-minute shows to one hour shows. This version of the show aired from 1948 to 1951.
Guest commentators appeared on some shows providing commentary about the book currently being reuded novelists, magazine editors, and academics.The universities also provided messages during the broadcast to let listeners know that they can earn college credit for listening to and reading the classics.
Well, most of us spend Christmas Eve with our family and friends but our Miss Brooks who teaches English at Madison High School wasn’t quite so fortunate, her family were too far away to visit and it seemed her friends had other plans.
Duration: 25:49
Starring: Eve Arden
Broadcast Date: 25th December 1949
Claudia is an old time radio show about the ups and downs of being a newlywed. Topics include dealing with in-laws, burning dinner, losing socks, buying really big dogs, and all the little moments that make up a life together.
Originally originating as a script on The Kate Smith Show, the original roles were played by Patricia Ryan (Claudia) and by Richard Kollmar (David).
The characters Clauda and David Naughton were created by Rose Franken who wrote a series of popular short stories about the fictional newlywed in the 1930s. The books were later adapted into 3 films by RKO. Due to the popularity of these films, Coca-Cola decided to sponsor a 15 minute weekday show. Staring Kathryn Bard and Paul Crabtree, Joe King is the announcer.
Claudia is a lighthearted soap with relatable characters doing what regular people were doing. David is a WWII veteran trying to have a good life with his new wife and Claudia, although sometimes silly, is a loving wife. The show offers an excellent glimpse of a realistic 1940s American household.
Joe Wharton didn’t expect to be out of jail for Christmas but with his good behaviour he was out and Christmas was as good a time as any for what he had to do. He planned on killing the cop who testified and got him convicted and finds he has more reason to do it when he discovers the cop has fallen in love with and married his girl Lucile. Lucile had promised she’d wait for Joe and now Joe plans to kill them both.
Duration: 24:02
Starring: Raymond Burr, Joan Banks, Lillian Buyeff, Karl Swenson, Howard McNear, Richard Beals
Broadcast Date: 21st December 1958
Christmas day has come and gone and there reposes now in the Riley living room a very special gift. Just how this particular package from Santa Claus came to be there is quite a story. A story that began three days before Christmas. . .
Duration: 26:33
Starring: William Bendix
Broadcast Date: 27th December 1947
Heartbeat Theater (1956 - 1985) was the last live, regularly scheduled radio drama produced in Hollywood. The first one was produced in December of 1955 and released in March, 1956. I think Preston Foster was in the first one. Raymond Burr did some, Greer Garson--everyone's done a 'Heartbeat' at one time or another. All sorts of famous people appeared on the show. The Salvation Army saved "Heartbeat" in 1977 with its plan to update sound effects and dramatize social issues. After the 1977 transformation, Hills' new "Heartbeat Theater" wallowed in prostitution, incest and homosexuality with the regularity of a 1980s TV sitcom. At one point, Hills had to discourage an overenthusiastic would-be TV writer from submitting "Heartbeat" plays with a Kojak-like Salvation Army captain climaxing final acts by chasing down villains in a squad car. The final show, featuring Daws Butler and hosted by "Days of Our Lives" soap-opera doctor MacDonald Carey, was taped Oct. 10, 1985 at Studio House in Hollywood, just after producers George Galbraith and Don Hills got word that the Salvation Army had written them out of their 1985 budget. Hills, who cranked out 52 morality tales a year for the show, said the Salvation Army spent half its annual media budget on keeping the half-hour drama alive for the 500 U.S. radio stations on the "Heartbeat" distribution list.
The Charlotte Greenwood Show was a radio situation comedy in the United States. It was broadcast on ABC June 13 - September 5, 1944, and on NBC October 15, 1944 - January 6, 1946.
The program began as a summer replacement for The Bob Hope Show. Newspaper columnist Hedda Hopper reported, "The interesting thing is that she [Charlotte Greenwood] got the job on a couple of scripts written by her husband, Martin Broones, who's never before written for radio.
The 1944 version of the show had Greenwood in the role of a cub reporter who worked for a small newspaper while she harbored dreams of becoming a Hollywood star. When the program resurfaced in 1945, Greenwood's character had the responsibility of raising three children, teenagers Jack and Barbara and little Robert after her good friend died, making her executor of the estate. The setting was the mythical town of Lakeview. An old time radio reference commented that Greenwood's character "managed to be single, moral, and peppy.
Christmas Seals Recordings brought in top stars like Fibber McGee and Molly and Frank Sinatra to be sure that every card and package sent during Christmas included a Christmas Seal.
Christmas Seals donated money to various charitable organizations for over 100 years. The organization began in the early 1900s when in the industrial cities many children and adults alike suffered from tubercuosis. In Denmark, a postage stamp was used to gather extra money for children suffering from tuberculosis.
In the United States, the Christmas Seals began in 1907 by Red Cross worker Emily Bissell and seals were originally sold in post offices for one cent. Money from the seals went to the American Red Cross and an organization that helped prevent tuberculosis which went from the number one cause of death to the seventh cause y charitable money gathered from Christmas Seals benefit the American Lung Association.
A university lecture is down in his cellar digging up the floor when his nagging wife catches him. She asks him what he’s doing and he explains that he is planting some rare flowers called “Devil Orchids”. She nags him about his barber’s appointment and their impending trip to America. He has no option but to do as he is told - as usual. On his way back from the barbers he calls into his favorite old bookshop and gets talking to a rather appealing young lady. One thing leads to another and before long the professor is contemplating murder.
Duration: 29:00
Starring: Herbert Marshall
Broadcast Date: 23 December 1948
After the Christmas gifts have been opened, one exception is noticed: Ricky's catcher's mitt. Ozzie guesses it might have been delivered to another Nelson family across town, as a package had before. They go there and find a poor, young widow with small kids. Ozzie, Harriet and the boys decide to give them a merry Christmas.
The story, which Holmes always referred to as the Adventure of the Christmas Bride concerns a ghostly lady in white who was supposed to have disappeared centuries ago, the honor of a noble family and a certain Father Christmas who suddenly sang base. . .
Duration: 27:22
Starring: John Stanley
Broadcast Date: 21st December 1947
In 1945 the name of this show changed from Casey, Press Photographer to Casey, Crime Photographer. Casey and his girlfriend Ann Williams, reporter, are out Christmas shopping and stop off in a bar when Casey sees well known pickpocket “Fingers” take the wallet from a fat guys pocket. When Casey informs the fat guy, the fat guy denies having his wallet picked. The story thickens when fingers gets arrested for passing forged notes and he claims to have picked them from the fat guy.
Duration: 29:15
Starring: Staats Cotsworth
Broadcast Date: 19th December 1946
Gildy Earns Christmas money by selling Insurance
Christmas Shopping
Leory's Christmas Job
Christmas Gift for Fibber Mcgree
Disappearing Christmas Gifts
Christmas Present for Paula
Christmas Show - Present for Kathryn
Gildy and Hooker Feud at Christmas
Twas the Night Before Christmas
Christmas Carling at Gildersleeve
Gildy and Leory Alone for Christmas
Leory's Christmas Dog
Christmas Eve at Gildersleeve
Christmas Eve at Home
The Christmas Spirit
Christmas Program
Sit back and listen to Jean Hersholt in his Christmas Dr Christian story and also featuring miss Gloria Holden as the young nurse Goldie. There’s no place on earth that you’d get a better feeling of excitement at Christmas than the children’s ward of a hospital. Those little tots have something to look forward to at last, the Christmas party, cake, candy a tree with a present. It was a few days before Christmas and Dr Christian was hurrying along the corridor of the Centre City hospital on his way out when he heard somebody call him. . .
Duration: 29:21
Starring: Jean Hersholt
Broadcast Date: 20th December 1938
I have decided to put together a block of Jack Benny's Christmas Episodes for your enjoyment.
Christmas Shopping
Cactus Christmas Tree
Christmas Gopher
Jack Buys A Wallet for Don for Christmas
Trimming the Christmas Tree
Christmas Show With Fred Allen
Jack's Christmas Party
Day After Christmas
It’s Christmas Eve on Broadway, creatures are stirring in police H.Q. In the office of Danny Clover Nick Norman the ex-con is released after 15 years in Jail and Detective Danny Clover has got him a job as Santa Claus at the Police Kids Christmas Party. However he doesn’t make it to the party as two guys in a Black Sedan abduct him.
Duration: 29:34
Starring: Larry Thor
Broadcast Date: 24 December 1949
Archie is in a cranky mood over Christmas and has just locked up when he notices a stranger in the bar who knows his name. The stranger takes Archie out for a walk and forces him to look into his heart for faith and human kindness.
Duration: 28:55
Starring: Ed Gardner
Broadcast Date: 23rd December 1948
Granville Merryweather and Fennis Finny want to join the army claiming that they’re answering the call to the colors, but you could put it another way, they’re starving to death. But the kind of recruits that are coming to join the army these days are dregs, failures and fugitives.
Duration: 27:44
Starring: Raymond Burr, Harry Bartell, Parley Baer, John Dehner
Broadcast Date: 8th July 1956
It is 48 hours before Christmas. Archie Goodwin receives a telephone call from Santa Claus! He is coming around to Nero’s office at 8pm. Two Santa’s have been murdered and this Santa is very worried. It seems that someone is trying to murder all the Santa Claus’s of Carlisle Avenue and they seem to be succeeding!
Duration: 27:54
Starring: Sydney Greenstreet
Broadcast Date: 22nd December 1950
Francis Xavier Wick the columnist, the gossip, the collector of rounded anecdotes the man who this year was celebrating Christmas in January and why apparently because he likes to collect presents too. He wouldn’t miss Christmas for anything and nor would George Valentine. By now he’s learned enough about the man in the Santa Claus suit to know that his vast collection of friends and retainers are not exactly loyal to him in fact one of them has just murdered him. . .
Duration: 30:59
Starring: Bob Bailey, Virginia Gregg, Lawrence Dobkin, Lee Patrick, Shirley Mitchell, Ted de Corsia, John Dehner
Broadcast Date: 29th January 1951
Well the holiday season is practically with us. To our Miss Brooks who teaches English Madison High School it means more than just a respite from a difficult school term. . .
Duration: 27:42
Starring: Eve Arden
Broadcast Date: 18th December 1949
It’s Saturday afternoon as we look in on the Andrews home and at the moment we find Mr. Andrews alone in the living room sitting in his favorite armchair reading the newspaper when the telephone rings. It’s Veronica and she mentions to Mr. Andrews that she’s going to do her Christmas shopping at Stacy’s, which reminds him he needs to do his Christmas shopping. It seems that everyone has decided to do their Christmas shopping today, and all at Stacy’s Department store!
Duration: 26:19
Starring: Bob Hastings
Broadcast Date: 13th December 1947
Dr. Frank C. Baxter who was a professor of English at the University of Southern California interviews the distinguished author William Shakespeare as if he were alive in 1956 to ascertain who wrote the works of Shakespeare.
Duration: 30:10
Starring: Ben Wright, Hans Conried, Ramsey Hill, Jay Novello, William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 24th February 1956
Madame Ottilie Tibault, owner of a prosperous little cafe in the French quarter of New Orleans, gives the $25,000 she has been keeping under her mattress to Gaspard Morin, one of her customers, for "investment". But, before he can tell her what he ahs invested in, Morin dies. O. Henry agress to help Madame Tibault find out what happened to the money. His most promising clue is the name of a woman Morin uttered just before he died: "Miss Liberty."
Host: Himan Brown
Duration: 43m 52s
Cast:Bob Dryden, .n Martin, Bill Griffis, Bryna Raseburn,
Broadcast Date: January 15th, 1977
It was just twenty four hours before the commencement of The Battle of the Marne In the first winter of World War 1. Holmes and Watson found themselves in the front seat of an army staff car. They were taken to General Morris’s Headquarters four miles from the front line. The General’s brother Maitland and his wife, both famous Shakespearian actors, accompanied them. They were to give a performance for the troops that evening. But shortly before the performance it is discovered that the General’s brother has mysteriously disappeared.
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Basil Rathbone
Broadcast Date: 14th May 1945
Cain Vestel is a musician who came in to Dodge last night and is leaving for Arizona tomorrow. Cain, a very nice fellow is suffering from consumption and the Doc said he would be dead in a couple of months.
Duration: 30:02
Starring: William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 3rd October 1952
In a couple of weeks Wilma Lord is going to marry John Waring a man a lot older than she is and she wants nothing to happen to that marriage and hires Barry Craig to make sure that no one is murdered!
Duration: 29:57
Starring: William Gargan
Broadcast Date: 7th May 1951
Ellery Queens Minute Mysteries are exactly that, a one minute mystery. A problem is posed for you to work out the answer to but you only have a few seconds to work it out befor Ellery Queen gives you the answer.
It'll only take a minute out of your time ... enjoy these really minute long mysteries. See if you can beat Ellery Queen to the punch before the minute is up.
The Bishop
“So long as these problems are not solved, so long as ignorance and poverty remain on earth, these words cannot be useless”. These words set forth the soul and spirit of one of the world’s great literacy masterpieces, Les Miserables. Out of the depth of his pity for suffering mankind Victor Hugo drew a compelling story, one that will live so long as bewildered humanity shall continue to grope towards the light. The Bishop is the 1st of 7 broadcasts specifically adapted for radio by Orson Welles. Each program portrays some development in the progress of Jean Val Jean, the roll played by Orson Welles.
Javert
Javert is the 2nd of 7 broadcasts based on the Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables. Orson Welles has adapted the book specifically for radio. Each program portrays some development in the progress of Jean Val Jean, the role played by Orson Welles. This episode introduces Fontine and Javert.
The Trial
The Trial is the 3rd of 7 broadcasts based on the Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables. Orson Welles has adapted the book specifically for radio. Each program portrays some development in the progress of Jean Val Jean, the role played by Orson Welles.
Cosette
Cosette is the 4th of 7 broadcasts based on the Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables. Orson Welles has adapted the book specifically for radio. Each program portrays some development in the progress of Jean Val Jean, the role played by Orson Welles.
The Grave
The Grave is the 5th of 7 broadcasts based on the Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables. Orson Welles has adapted the book especially for radio. Each program portrays some development in the progress of Jean Val Jean, the role played by Orson Welles.
The Barricade
The Barricade is the 6th of 7 broadcasts based on the Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables. Orson Welles has adapted the book specifically for radio. Each program portrays some development in the progress of Jean Val Jean, the role played by Orson Welles.
The Final Episode
The Final Episode as the title suggests is the last of 7 broadcasts based on the Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables. Orson Welles has adapted the book specifically for radio. Each program portrays some development in the progress of Jean Val Jean, the role played by Orson Welles.
Duration: 3:18:03
Starring: Orson Welles
Broadcast Dates: 23rd July - : 3rd September 1937
Johnny Dollar phoned Lieutenant Joe Benson on behalf of Federal Underwriters to get a report on the National Savings and Loans hold-up. The watchman died, shot three times but lived long enough to give a make on one of the four guys who heisted the place. . .
Duration: 24:44
Starring: John Lund
Broadcast Date: 21st April 1953
Well last Thursday was Thanksgiving Day and most of us realize that we have quite a bit to be thankful for even our Miss Brooks who teaches English at Madison High School. . .
Duration: 28:56
Starring: Eve Arden
Broadcast Date: 27th November 1949
While Mr Aldrich is having turkey troubles of his own the duck, which Henry has been forced to buy for, the class turkey run has flown the coup and is causing mayhem in the school!
Duration: 25:33
Starring: Ezra Stone, Jackie Kelk
Broadcast Date: 25th November 1948
Gracie couldn’t make it to the show on account of her Grandaddy being sick and it’s not that George needs Gracie to do the show but he decides if she can’t come in he’ll to go to her house. George tells Gracie that tonight’s show is about Thanksgiving and then has to explain to her what it is!
Duration: 28:57
Starring: George Burns, Gracie Allen
Broadcast Date: 18th November 1940
Before the story begins the old Ranger tells us, for those that don’t know, that a Burro is the same as a donkey or a jackass, they stand about four foot high with furry coats and long ears and with a tail like a piece of rope frayed at the end. The scene opens in the mining camp, it’s the year 1905. Walter Scott Smith known as Smitty and his partner Owen Martin are negotiating with a fellow for a string of Burro’s with which to start out in to the hills.'
Duration: 24:12
Starring: Dresser Dahlstead
Broadcast Date: 17th June 1938
"The Case Of The Priceless Prose". Sponsored by: Old Dutch Cleanser, Del Rich Margarine. Stolen manuscripts and a few murders thrown in. Clever twist at the end...you won't guess whodunit. + There has been a robbery at Bancroft hall the ancestral home of famous writer Joshua Bancroft. His two great grand daughters shared the home now and Victoria was killed in the robbery and Julia Bancroft badly beaten. Just after Nick Carter read of the crime in the morning newspaper he receives a call from Arthur Haskell an old friend of his father’s who owns the Haskell Bookstore that deals in rare books and old manuscripts. It seems like more than a coincidence that he should call to see him now. Then when Nick and Patsy call at Haskell’s store that night, before Haskell can tell them what he wanted to see them about somebody shoots through the window and Haskell is killed.
Duration: 29:11
Starring: Lon Clark
Broadcast Airdate: December 14, 1947
A fear of animals is not easily understood by people who don't share the same phobia, as Julia Smolett discovers when her husband attempts to bring a fearsome dog into their home. After being terrorized by the fierce dog, she decides to make the four- legged creature her friend, thus making the animal turn on its master.
Duration: 41:49
Directed by: Himan Brown
Written by: Henry Sleasar
Starring: Kim Hunter, George Matthews, Mandy Potamkin, Bob Dryden, Gilbert Mack.
Broadcast Date: January 9th, 1974
Every highway and byway is destiny’s trail and where it leads and what lies ahead is destiny’s secret. Down a dark road speeds a car bearing in it two who are destiny’s children though they don’t know it. To themselves they are two people on their way to a masquerade ball. Steve Raymond and his fiancee Marsha ´ Phillips, heading for an evening of gaiety and laughter but they’re destined to spend a strange and macabre evening in fear for one of the guests at the masquerade is death. . .
Duration: 25:00
Broadcast Date: 1946
Doc has been talked in to being umpire at a baseball game but Matt is concerned that it is not the game it used to be and fears there will be trouble if the fans or even the teams themselves cause some kind of ruckus.
Written by: Vic perrin
Duration: 28:10
Starring: William Conrad, Howard McNear, Parley Baer, Georgia Ellis, Joseph Kearns, Ralph Moody, Vic Perrin, Harry Bartell, Barney Phillips
Broadcast Date: 2nd August 1959
Here are episodes from each of the men whom played the role of Johnny Dollar.
Which is your favorite Johnny?
................
Milford Brooks III – Dick Powell
The Search for Michelle Marsh - Charles Russell
The Eighty-Five Little Minks – Edmond O’Brien
The Marigold Matter – John Lund
The Empty Threat Matter – Bob Bailey
The Short Term Matter – Bob Readick
The Fiddle Faddle Matter – Mandel Kramer
It’s nine o’clock in the evening at the Blue Note Cafe,´ too early for the late crowd and the early crowd have gone home for dinner. The place is practically deserted when Casey and Miss Williams enter. Ethel Bert, proprietor of the Blue Note Cafe advised him that a dame ´ had been in looking for him.
Duration: 28:17
Starring: Staats Cotsworth
Broadcast Date: 6th November 1947
Dr Kildare is based on the Metro Goldwyn Mayer films. It is set in Blair General Hospital, one of the great citadels of American medicine and described as a clump of grey-white buildings planted deep in the heart of New York. It is the nerve centre of medical progress where great minds and skilled hands wage man’s everlasting battle against death and disease. Where life begins, where life ends, where life goes on. Each episode begins with Dr Kildare’s medical oath: whatsoever house I enter, there will I go for the benefit of the sick, and whatsoever things I see or hear concerning the life of men I will keep silence thereon, counting such things to be held as sacred trusts.
The strange tale of an old woman and of three heirs, Blanche, Vivien and Chris, all greedy for her millions. In a great mansion far from the city, Mrs. Olivia Drake lies dying. Olivia has two weeks to live. In that two weeks she has to decide which grandchild she will leave her fortune to.
Duration: 28:02
Starring: Philip Clarke
Broadcast Date: 1st April 1945
Includes a public notice on inflation and its affect on America. Out of the fog. . . out of the night. . . and into his American adventures. . . comes. . . Bulldog Drummond! Champion of lost causes, amateur detective, the most celebrated soldier of fortune of the screen and radio Bulldog Drummond comes to you with more of his baffling and intriguing mysteries. Frederick Trent is found murdered and with Bull Drummond away on important business Denny decides he is going to solve this case alone.
Duration: 30:54
Starring: Luis Van Rooten
Broadcast Date: 13th August 1945
I hope you enjoy this block of radio programing.
Men Whom Made America - The Gray Spirit
Red Skelton - Travel to Hawaii
Fort Laramie - War Correspondents
The Hardy Family - Fred Jr and the Visiting Dignitary
Story Behind The Headlines - The Big Four Meet
Candy Matson - NC9-8012
My Little Margie - Does Margie Marry Freddie
Thirty Minutes In Hollywood - Tribute To Vaudeville
Martin & Lewis Show - New Nightclub
The Great Gildersleeves - Appartment for Bronco and Marjorie
Nero Wolfe - Party For Death
Golden Radio Era Interviews - Robert Montgomery
Let George Do It - Three Times and Out
Duffy’s Traven - Guest Lucille Ball
The Eisenhower Years - President And Politics
Ellery Queen's Minute Mysteries - Fancy Fugitive
Coconut Grove Ambassadors - First Song - I'm Thankful
Louella Parsons - Guest - Martin and Lewis
Mail Call - Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope
Dr. Six Gun - Bartender and Project Investment
Sherlock Holmes - Unfortunate Tobacconist
Our Miss Brooks - Writing Magazines Articles With Aliases
Campbell Playhouse - Murder Of Roger Ackroyd
Box 13 - Actor’s Alibi
You Are There - Philadelphia July 4th 1776
Yours Truly Johnny Dollar - Morning After Matter
Jack Benny Program – Jack Attends Isaac Stern Show
Frontier Town - Lady Luck
Music
Music
Music
The Shadow - Can The Dead Talk
Andrew Sisters - Navy Day Lou Holtz
Lone Ranger - Banker Reforms
15 minutes of news
Crime Classics - James Evans Fireman He Extinguished A Human Torch
NBC's First Fabulous Fifty - Host, Bing Crosby
The Six Shooter - Ben Scofield
Michael Shayne - The Return To Huxley
Music
Music
Music
Your Radio Almanac – Host Orson Wells
The Green Valley Line - Spider And The Stranger
Archie Andrews - Getting Dressed for a Date
Exploring Tomorrow - Overpopulation
Marshall Matt Dillon is on his way to Dodge House to meet Mr Davis at two o’clock when he sees young Cullen being thrown out of the store. Jonas said he threw him out for trying to buy ammunition for the Cheyenne Indians. The Indians stole him from his mother eight years ago in Madison River but Matt told Jonas young Cullen was a white boy and lived back with his mother now. There were others in Dodge, too that didn’t like Cullen and referred to him as the little Indian boy.
Duration: 29:46
Starring: William Conrad, Parley Baer, Georgia Ellis, Howard McNear, Virginia Gregg, Joseph Kearns, Harry Bartell, John Dehner, Ralph Moody
Broadcast Date: 24th September 1955
Part James Bond, part Wonder Woman, The Avengers epitomized Sixties British Cool on the small screen. The infrastructure for TV broadcasting was slow to be adopted in South Africa, but they had this terrific version of The Avengers from Springbok Radio.
The Avengers burst in the door of spy and super-hero adventure drama on South African radio in 1971, starring Donald Monat as John Steed, and Diane Appleby as the wonderful Emma Peel. It was based on the fine TV series, which was very popular from the start in the UK, and is an excellent example of radio's adaptation of the television medium...as it had done with movies all along.Part pop art, part super hero, and part adventure serial... This radio show has all of the excitement and intelligence of the original television hit. Donald Monat has said, "I guess I was aiming to interpret the script in the spirit of the TV series, but in my own way - as my voice is quite different to Patrick's." Patrick McNee played Steed on the original television show, and the radio format, as national TV wasn't available in South Africa until '76, was the way it was popularized there. It was produced as usually six fifteen-minute serial episodes (with space for commercials), very unlike the hour TV show with the entire adventure. The "cliff hanging" segments keep the action moving and always leading up to a thrill to be continued. The quality of production sounds great. The radio stars even caught the fever and appeared to sign autographs as Steed and Peel to promote the show!
Exactly as the television show did, it features outlandish, quirky villains, mad scientists, secret organizations and off-the-wall situations. Each adventure presents the Avengers with a Gordian knot of plot twists that they almost always manage to fray with aplomb. (Part James Bond, part Wonder Woman...why not?) A quick scan of the stories give the flavor: "From Venus with Love" is a fine example, featuring a very odd organization with a hidden agenda. Another excellent adventure is "Super Secret Cypher Snatch" the title alone titillates! "Not to be Sneezed At..." are the Avengers.
Such madcap multi-parted adventures with two perfectly adept and adroit Avengers is a great radio example of why the pictures in the mind are the most exciting. As for the lovely Emma Peel, you may substitute the television vision of Diana Rigg if you desire.
Audition Program Audition program with Bob Corley (a white man)in the part of Beulah who had originally appeared on the Fibber McGee and Molly show as their black maid. Bob Corley played the part following the death of Marlin Hurt who had played Beulah on the Fibber Mcgee and Molly show. It is interesting that both actors were white men playing the part of a black woman. It’s early morning at the Kirk residence and there’s no indication whatsoever that this is going to turn in to an eventful day. Ten minutes in to the show Carol Stewart sings You Won’t Be satisfied.
Duration: 29:05
Starring: Bob Corley, Jess Kirkpatrick, Erik Rolf, Ernie Whitman, Eddie Green, Carol Stewart, Lois Corbet
Broadcast Date: 26th August 1946
The makers of Maxwell House Coffee presents 60 starstudded minutes brought to you from Metro Goldwyn Meyer studios in Hollywood. Guest stars include Lionel Barrymore, Lew Ayres, Eleanor Powell, Alan Jones, Francis Wallis famed for football authority along with regulars, Fanny Brice “Baby Snooks” with Hanley Stafford and Frank Morgan. Music by Meredith Wilson and his orchestra.
Host: Robert Young
Duration: 60:08
Starring: Robert Young, Hanley Stafford, Fanny Brice, Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Frank Morgan
Broadcast Date: 13th October 1938
The wireless is interrupted by a special bulletin. “Professor Farrell of the Mount Jennings Observatory reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars. The spectroscope indicates the gas to be hydrogen which is moving towards the earth at enormous velocity”. What is this unexplained phenomena? Most definitely the most famous radio drama ever broadcast and still as gripping today as ever. Author: H.G.Wells Adapted for radio by Howard Koch & John Houseman
Duration: 51:18
Starring: Orson Welles
Broadcast Date: 30th October 1938
--- Notes ---
The after effects of a radio program that unfortunately not everyone realized was just that a radio program. This broadcast happened during the worlds unrest as they heard; and didn't want to believe what was happening in Europe by the mad man that we know of as Adolf Hitler. This is the radio broadcast that helped change how radio stations (and later TV stations) aired warnings that programs are just that programs, and that it's not really going on in real life.
https://www.history.com/news/inside-the-war-of-the-worlds-broadcast
Ozzie has been reading about hypnotism and thinks that he night make a good hypnotist, However when he tries it on Harriett it doesn’t work so he decides to try it out on their housekeeper Gloria. Gloria has always had an ambition to be a great dramatic actress like Ethel Barrymore and Ozzie hypnotises her to believe that. Three hours later she still appears to be hypnotized despite Ozzie’s attempts to bring her back.
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Ozzie Nelson, Harriet Hilliard Nelson, Bea Benaderet
Broadcast Date: 28th January 1945
Dolly Preston member of a Mob disappeared three years ago in a faked accident together with some $600,000 worth of gang money. Returning to her house to recover the money she has hidden there Dolly is met by the boss Fred Blake who kills her when she refuses to disclose where in the house the money is hidden.
Duration: 26:13
Starring: Dick Kollmar
Broadcast Date: 9th March 1949
Harry Pope’s wife had died four months ago and he had moved from Boston out to Dodge and built himself a little house out on the prairie. Now he told Chester that he was scared to death of the Indians in the area but Marshal Matt Dillon advised him that it was most likely not Indians that he could hear hollering and hooting.
Duration: 29:45
Starring: William Conrad, Parley Baer
Broadcast Date: 11th July 1953
Luigi would like to do something big for his country and asks Pasquale for his advice. Pasquale suggests he marry his daughter Rosa to which Luigi replies that he wanted to do something big for America but not that big. Miss Spaulding suggests that he go to the blood bank and give blood for the soldiers of America.
Duration: 30:19
Starring: J. Carrol Naish, Alan Reed
Broadcast Date: 3rd October 1950
Edna’s father had told her that if you walked or danced on a grave the poltergeist would come an evil spirit that comes out of the grave to kill and destroy so that night as she and two friends were singing merrily on their way home and accidentally danced on a gravestone Edna became hysterical. As she fled in tears a rock came flying at her from the graveyard knocking her unconscious.
Duration: 26:00
Starring: Arch Oboler
Broadcast Date: 20th October 1942
The man stands in the dim lit room looking down at the motionless body on the floor his large muscular hands are in stark contrast to his thin sensitive face. For another moment he stands there staring vacantly then he walks to the telephone dials the number to the police and reports the murder. The man is Victor Corbet who had been dead for five years. As he sits and waits for the police he thinks back over the five years, back to the night that he died. . .
Duration: 24:35
Starring: Berry Kroeger, Jean Ellen
Broadcast Date: 17th October 1949
Dan Holiday was a fiction writer who got his material for his books through his provocative ads in the Star Times which read “adventure wanted – will go anywhere –do anything-Box 13”. Today in Box 13 he received a note as follows:- I know my life is in danger, I think you can help me I’m desperate and dare not go to the police. Please if you want to help go to the Tivoli theatre box office for the ticket left there. That’s how it started, the note from a girl named Maria, the ticket and then murder.
Duration: 27:36
Starring: Alan Ladd
Broadcast Date: 24th October 1948
You are the victim of a native witch doctor . . . pursued from the west coast of Africa to the West End of London by the grinning face of a dead man. You are under the curse of a Porrah man. A radio adaptation of the H.G. Wells gripping short story of the same name.
Duration: 29:47
Starring: Luis Van Rooten
Broadcast Date: 29th October 1947
The story of the activities of the famed British slasher, as seen through the eyes of a young lass. This is a more complete, different AFRTS version than cat. #16793. The middle public service announcement has been deleted. Good Evening, My Name Is Jack The Ripper is the final episode of this yearlong fantastic series. It is set in the year 1888 in London, England. The first murder had taken place on April 3rd and was not reported in the London Times. The woman’s name was Emma Elizabeth Smith and she had blond hair. The second murder took place not far from the first. The woman’s name was Martha Tabram and she had died horribly like the first victim and she too had blond hair, as did Ann Nichols who was the third woman to murdered by knife in such a horrible way. Who could possibly have committed these horrible crimes against the women in the White Chapel area of London in the 19th century? Written from the original newspaper reports by: Morton Fine and David Friedkin
Duration: 29:18
Broadcast Date: June 30, 1954
It was in the year 1991 that man disappeared from the face of the earth. The third atomic war had ended leaving the land a mass of red radio active dust filling the air with gamma rays so deadly that life on the surface was no longer possible. There was only one way out. The few survivors went underground, burrowing their way deep into the earth like hunted moles, hiding from death in huge underground caverns. It was there that in the next two thousand years that they built the new civilization. A civilization in which the genetic survival of the race came first and every life and every law was shaped to serve that end. Stars Nancy Olson, the star of Sunset Boulevard.
Duration: 27.50
Starring: Norman Rose Broadcast
Date: 15th September 1950
Columbia gave the famous young Orson Welles the chance to bring his celebrated repertory company from Broadway to “The Broadway of The Air”. In this first of these excellent shows you are treated to the most famous horror story in the world, Bram Stokers Dracula. The recording is a little crackly, but even after over 60 years it is still well worth listening to.
Duration: 56.01
Starring: Orson Welles
Broadcast Date: 11th July 1938
The Frontier saw its share of needless killings and now Dodge City watches the most useless of all. Because of a bullet fired two months earlier, three men die.
Duration: 20:49
Starring: William Conrad, Parley Baer
Broadcast Date: 14th October 1956
Broadcast in 1937, each episode of Jerry of the circus is approximately 15 minutes long and are stories set around characters of the circus and their lives. Young Jerry turns up at the circus in search of Sam Randall the circus boss. Randall informs him they’ve no jobs at present then Jerry hands him a letter from his late father Tim Duggan. Sam Randall knew Tim from years ago “a great showman”. He read the letter, “If things don’t break and I’m gone before you get here take care of the kid. He’s been brought up with horses, the circus is in his blood.” So that begins the tales of Jerry and the circus.
Broadcast Date: 1937
Episodes: 121 - 130
This is the end of the series.
Broadcast in 1937, each episode of Jerry of the circus is approximately 15 minutes long and are stories set around characters of the circus and their lives. Young Jerry turns up at the circus in search of Sam Randall the circus boss. Randall informs him they’ve no jobs at present then Jerry hands him a letter from his late father Tim Duggan. Sam Randall knew Tim from years ago “a great showman”. He read the letter, “If things don’t break and I’m gone before you get here take care of the kid. He’s been brought up with horses, the circus is in his blood.” So that begins the tales of Jerry and the circus.
Broadcast Date: 1937
Episodes: 101-120
Broadcast in 1937, each episode of Jerry of the circus is approximately 15 minutes long and are stories set around characters of the circus and their lives. Young Jerry turns up at the circus in search of Sam Randall the circus boss. Randall informs him they’ve no jobs at present then Jerry hands him a letter from his late father Tim Duggan. Sam Randall knew Tim from years ago “a great showman”. He read the letter, “If things don’t break and I’m gone before you get here take care of the kid. He’s been brought up with horses, the circus is in his blood.” So that begins the tales of Jerry and the circus.
Broadcast Date: 1937
Episodes: 81-100
Broadcast in 1937, each episode of Jerry of the circus is approximately 15 minutes long and are stories set around characters of the circus and their lives. Young Jerry turns up at the circus in search of Sam Randall the circus boss. Randall informs him they’ve no jobs at present then Jerry hands him a letter from his late father Tim Duggan. Sam Randall knew Tim from years ago “a great showman”. He read the letter, “If things don’t break and I’m gone before you get here take care of the kid. He’s been brought up with horses, the circus is in his blood.” So that begins the tales of Jerry and the circus.
Broadcast Date: 1937
Episodes - 61 -80
Broadcast in 1937, each episode of Jerry of the circus is approximately 15 minutes long and are stories set around characters of the circus and their lives. Young Jerry turns up at the circus in search of Sam Randall the circus boss. Randall informs him they’ve no jobs at present then Jerry hands him a letter from his late father Tim Duggan. Sam Randall knew Tim from years ago “a great showman”. He read the letter, “If things don’t break and I’m gone before you get here take care of the kid. He’s been brought up with horses, the circus is in his blood.” So that begins the tales of Jerry and the circus.
Broadcast Date: 1937
Episodes: 41-60
Broadcast in 1937, each episode of Jerry of the circus is approximately 15 minutes long and are stories set around characters of the circus and their lives. Young Jerry turns up at the circus in search of Sam Randall the circus boss. Randall informs him they’ve no jobs at present then Jerry hands him a letter from his late father Tim Duggan. Sam Randall knew Tim from years ago “a great showman”. He read the letter, “If things don’t break and I’m gone before you get here take care of the kid. He’s been brought up with horses, the circus is in his blood.” So that begins the tales of Jerry and the circus.
Broadcast Date: 1937
Episodes 21-40
Broadcast in 1937, each episode of Jerry of the circus is approximately 15 minutes long and are stories set around characters of the circus and their lives. Young Jerry turns up at the circus in search of Sam Randall the circus boss. Randall informs him they’ve no jobs at present then Jerry hands him a letter from his late father Tim Duggan. Sam Randall knew Tim from years ago “a great showman”. He read the letter, “If things don’t break and I’m gone before you get here take care of the kid. He’s been brought up with horses, the circus is in his blood.” So that begins the tales of Jerry and the circus.
Broadcast Date: 1937
Episodes 1 - 20
Duffy has Archie going over the books and he find that Politician Ward Haler is their best customer – he owes them eighteen bucks! When Archie approaches him to settle his tab Ward Haler flatters Archie in to believing that he would make a great politician.
Duration: 28:23
Starring: Ed Gardner
Broadcast Date: 2nd February 1951
“This woman may spend a lot of money in time in your store Billy. But is a good customer worth more than your life. . . ?”
Duration: 24:51
Starring: John Dehner
Broadcast Date: 23rd October 1960
On the very day his life insurance policy is due to laps a man dies of a gunshot to the head while discussing his policy with the insurance agent over the phone.
Duration: 28:58
Starring: Staats Cotsworth
Broadcast Date: 20th February 1947
I find that this episode is a good episode to broadcast six days before the 2020 for the next American President. This election truly does feel like the feel that I'm show that the election between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.
Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr and the Election of 1800 For seven days, as the two presidential candidates maneuvered and schemed, the fate of the young republic hung in the ballots. (Does this sound very familiar? Not just for the 2020 election but going back to the 2016 election. And pretty much all the other elections also .... but we are talking about the current President after all right now).
I as an American find this a very fitting program to be broadcasting six days before we the American people will be voting for our next President.
“Dear Mr Valentine, I’m a freshman at Western State University. I’m majoring in botany and I’ve suddenly found out that flowers can smell of murder. My professor of botany is about to be killed. Several attempts have been made on him but nobody takes me seriously. I’m sure I’m not imagining things so give me a chance to tell you the whole story. . . Louise Doraine”
Duration: 29:31
Starring: Bob Bailey, Frances Robinson, Wally Maher
Broadcast Date: 1st November 1948
A quiz show spoof that lampooned other quiz shows of the time such as Information, Please and The Quiz Kids. The format of the show was simple. Three nitwits made up the “board of experts”. They spent more time trying to figure out what the question was than actually giving a sensible answer. The questions were as ludicrous as “For what meal do we wear a dinner jacket?” Critics slated the show when it first appeared and said it wouldn’t last. They were wrong. The show ran for nine years.
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Tom Howard
Well, running a high school is usually a difficult task, but Osgood Conklin, principal of Madison High where our Miss Brooks teaches English somehow manages to make it seem even harder. Last week for instance it was his anti gambling crusade. . .
Duration: 29:28
Starring: Eve Arden
Broadcast Date: 15th October 1950
Johnny is trotting the globe on a mission to discover the truth. First he catches a plane to China, then onto Calcutta to visit his old army chaplain. The chaplain wants him to save the life of Lionel Brook-Nichols who is currently awaiting execution in Cairo. The chaplain is relying on Johnny to get justice for the innocent BrookNichols. Johnny sets of to Cairo on a cargo plane along with a leper and a mysterious, but extremely beautiful woman.
Duration: 29:34
Starring: Charles Russell
Broadcast Date: 04 September 1949
From an Indian city 200 miles north of Calcutta in 1894 Sherlock Holmes received an urgent summons from the Maharaja. In 1750 the first white elephant was given to his family with the legend that the Maharajah’s rule would be happy healthy and successful only as long as the elephant should flourish. If the animal were to die then the reign would come to an end and the Maharaja was doomed to a sudden death.
Duration: 28:42
Starring: Basil Rathbone
Broadcast Date: 8th October 1945
QUALITY NOTICE: For the first 50 seconds of this episode it sounds like Thomas Hyland has sucked in some helium. After the first minute the recording is very good quality so stick with it! Set in England in 1684 it’s cold and windy and John and Judith hate each other and wished they’d never killed anybody and gotten in to this situation in the first place. Listen here to the story of John and Judith, their crime and why they didn’t get to enjoy it.
Duration: 28:56
Starring: Lou Merrill, Ben Wright, Jeanette Nolan, Betty Harford, Irene Tedrow, Norma Varden
Broadcast Date: 16th December 1953
Cuff Peters is an Army Scout and on his way to Fort Wallis passes through Dodge with his Mexican wife, Nina. Matt Dillon prevents a fight happening in the bar when Hank Lawson calls Cuff’s wife a dirty Mexican.
Duration: 25:07
Starring: William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 23rd January 1954
Rocky Jordan had been warned by Sam Sabiya to keep out of his trouble but when a couple of guys, one waving a stiletto crossed his path with a similar warning he decided to poke around some more as Sam had been wounded by a stiletto.
Duration: 30:01
Starring: Jack Moyles
Broadcast Date: 14th August 1949
Step by step each of the 52 episodes of the story will take you along the tortuous path followed by young Henry Jekyll, fortunes darling, born to great riches, talented and handsome until we see the final disillusion of this unhappy being who sought to split his soul in twain and assume a separate identity for each side of his dual nature, one entirely good and the other completely evil.
Starring: George Edwards
Broadcast Date: 1943
--- Book Notes ---
Gabriel John Utterson and his cousin Richard Enfield reach the door of a large house on their weekly walk. Enfield tells Utterson that months ago, he saw a sinister-looking man named Edward Hyde trample a young girl after accidentally bumping into her. Enfield forced Hyde to pay £100 to avoid a scandal. Hyde brought them to this door and provided a cheque signed by a reputable gentleman (later revealed to be Doctor Henry Jekyll, a friend and client of Utterson). Utterson is disturbed because Jekyll recently changed his will to make Hyde the sole beneficiary. Utterson fears that Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll. When Utterson tries to discuss Hyde with Jekyll, Jekyll tells Utterson he can be rid of Hyde when he wants and for Utterson to drop the matter.
One night in October, a servant sees Hyde beat Sir Danvers Carew, another one of Utterson's clients, to death. The police contact Utterson, who leads officers to Hyde's apartment. Hyde has vanished, but they find half of a broken cane (the other half having been left at the crime scene). Utterson recognizes the cane as one he had given to Jekyll. Utterson visits Jekyll, who shows Utterson a note, allegedly written to Jekyll by Hyde, apologizing for the trouble that he has caused. However, Hyde's handwriting is similar to Jekyll's own, leading Utterson to conclude that Jekyll forged the note to protect Hyde.
For two months, Jekyll reverts to his former sociable manner, but in early January, he starts refusing visitors. Dr. Hastie Lanyon, a mutual acquaintance of Jekyll and Utterson, dies of shock after receiving information relating to Jekyll. Before his death, Lanyon gives Utterson a letter to be opened after Jekyll's death or disappearance. In late February, during another walk with Enfield, Utterson starts a conversation with Jekyll at a window of his laboratory. Jekyll suddenly slams the window and disappears.
In early March, Jekyll's butler, Mr. Poole, visits Utterson and says Jekyll has secluded himself in his laboratory for weeks. Utterson and Poole break into the laboratory, where they find Hyde wearing Jekyll's clothes and apparently dead from suicide. They find a letter from Jekyll to Utterson. Utterson reads Lanyon's letter, then Jekyll's. Lanyon's letter reveals his deterioration resulted from the shock of seeing Hyde drink a serum that turned him into Jekyll. Jekyll's letter explains that he had indulged in unstated vices and feared discovery. He found a way to transform himself and thereby indulge his vices without fear of detection. Jekyll's transformed body, Hyde, was evil, self-indulgent, and uncaring to anyone but himself. Initially, Jekyll controlled the transformations with the serum, but one night in August, he became Hyde involuntarily in his sleep.
I look just like any other guy standing on a platform waiting for a train at night. The other people walking up and down here waiting for their train they might look and they might not, just a guy waiting for a train, waiting to say goodbye to New York. They don’t know I’m different, they think that the way I’m clutching my coat collar together is because I’m cold. They don’t know I’ve got a bullet in my neck. . .
Duration: 30:48
Starring: Victor Mature
Broadcast Date: 27th October 1949
Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin are expecting a prospective client at 8pm who apparently has misplaced his prizefighter! He wants Nero to find him, preferably alive.
Duration: 29:22
Starring: Sydney Greenstreet
Broadcast Date: 5th January 1951
Here we are in the Black Museum, Scotland Yard’s museum of murder. Yes here lies death upon these tables, within these cabinets the files of death, labelled with day and date and name of victim. Here’s a brickbat, coarse grained, rough edged, familiar. Perhaps your own home is built of bricks exactly like this one. In this no home was built by such a brick, rather a home was destroyed by it. . .
Duration: 22:09
Starring: Orson Welles
Broadcast Date: 1952
Lamont Cranston and Margo Lane are having tea in his old college gardens when Margo interrupts his daydream to remind him he has to go to the faculty reception tonight. When an old teacher, Professor Kalima considered by Lamont a great scholar and teacher is accused of causing students to commit suicide by his teachings, it is time for The Shadow to investigate.
Duration: 25:23
Starring: Orson Welles
Broadcast Date: 4th September 1938
Brigid O’Shaunessy under the name of Miss Wanderlee had employed private detective Sam Spade to locate her sister who had run off with a guy named Floyd Thursby. Spade’s partner Miles Archer was killed whilst trailing him and then Spade discovers that Miss Wanderlee is not who she claimed she was but one of many dubious characters Sam Spade becomes mixed up with all of whom are seeking a black statue of a Maltese Falcon.
Duration: 57:22
Starring: Edward G Robinson, Gail Patrick, Laird Cregar
Broadcast Date: 8th February 1943
When the Western United States was first opened to settlers the gun law ruled the cattle country. It was then that the phantom figure of the plain rode in the cause of Justice. It was he who led the fight for law and order and the stories of his adventures have come down to us through the generations. Return once more to those thrilling days when the West was young. From out of the past come the thundering hoof beats of Silver, the Lone Ranger rides again. . .
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Earle Graser
Broadcast Date: 5th September 1938
Pete returns home to see his ma and hope that she can heal him to discover from his little brother Joe that she had died last year. When Joe offers to get Doc Pete confesses to his little brother that he is wanted by the police for robbing a bank with his two partners in crime. Joe wants to help his little brother but rejects the law, as he doesn’t want to see his brother get locked up. However Joe learns the hard way that the law would have been the best chance for his brother. Georgia Ellis as Kitty is credited as Georgia Hawkins, which was an alternative name she sometimes used.
Duration: 26:03
Starring: William Conrad, Parley Baer, Howard McNear, Georgia Ellis, Sam Edwards, Lawrence Dobkin, Harry Bartell, Vic Perrin
Broadcast Date: 29th November 1959
Whilst the quality of this first episode is not brilliant with some hissing, I still found myself gripped to these stories. (Note, you can be assured that the subsequent chapters were of much improved quality.) Chapter 1 begins with Baron Victor Frankenstein wandering in the white icy wastes of the North Pole in search of the monster, which he has created. A ship that has been forced to wait for the thaws picks him up. It is then that Baron Frankenstein begins to tell the story of his life and his interest in science which led to his creation. Presenting George Edwards as Frankenstein.
Starring: George Edwards
Broadcast Date: 1938
--- Book Notes ---
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley (1797–1851) that tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared in the second edition published in Paris in 1821.
n a series of letters, Robert Walton, the captain of a ship bound for the North Pole, recounts to his sister back in England the progress of his dangerous mission. Successful early on, the mission is soon interrupted by seas full of impassable ice. Trapped, Walton encounters Victor Frankenstein, who has been traveling by dog-drawn sledge across the ice and is weakened by the cold. Walton takes him aboard ship, helps nurse him back to health, and hears the fantastic tale of the monster that Frankenstein created.
Victor first describes his early life in Geneva. At the end of a blissful childhood spent in the company of Elizabeth Lavenza (his cousin in the 1818 edition, his adopted sister in the 1831 edition) and friend Henry Clerval, Victor enters the university of Ingolstadt to study natural philosophy and chemistry. There, he is consumed by the desire to discover the secret of life and, after several years of research, becomes convinced that he has found it.
Armed with the knowledge he has long been seeking, Victor spends months feverishly fashioning a creature out of old body parts. One climactic night, in the secrecy of his apartment, he brings his creation to life. When he looks at the monstrosity that he has created, however, the sight horrifies him. After a fitful night of sleep, interrupted by the specter of the monster looming over him, he runs into the streets, eventually wandering in remorse. Victor runs into Henry, who has come to study at the university, and he takes his friend back to his apartment. Though the monster is gone, Victor falls into a feverish illness.
Sickened by his horrific deed, Victor prepares to return to Geneva, to his family, and to health. Just before departing Ingolstadt, however, he receives a letter from his father informing him that his youngest brother, William, has been murdered. Grief-stricken, Victor hurries home. While passing through the woods where William was strangled, he catches sight of the monster and becomes convinced that the monster is his brother’s murderer. Arriving in Geneva, Victor finds that Justine Moritz, a kind, gentle girl who had been adopted by the Frankenstein household, has been accused. She is tried, condemned, and executed, despite her assertions of innocence. Victor grows despondent, guilty with the knowledge that the monster he has created bears responsibility for the death of two innocent loved ones.
........ and we have an gothic legend .........
The Hound of the Baskervilles opens with a mini mystery—Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson speculate on the identity of the owner of a cane that has been left in their office by an unknown visitor. Wowing Watson with his fabulous powers of observation, Holmes predicts the appearance of James Mortimer, owner of the found object and a convenient entrée into the baffling curse of the Baskervilles.
Entering the office and unveiling an 18th century manuscript, Mortimer recounts the myth of the lecherous Hugo Baskerville. Hugo captured and imprisoned a young country lass at his estate in Devonshire, only to fall victim to a marauding hound of hell as he pursued her along the lonesome moors late one night. Ever since, Mortimer reports, the Baskerville line has been plagued by a mysterious and supernatural black hound. The recent death of Sir Charles Baskerville has rekindled suspicions and fears. The next of kin, the duo finds out, has arrived in London to take up his post at Baskerville Hall, but he has already been intimidated by an anonymous note of warning and, strangely enough, the theft of a shoe.
Agreeing to take the case, Holmes and Watson quickly discover that Sir Henry Baskerville is being trailed in London by a mysterious bearded stranger, and they speculate as to whether the ghost be friend or foe. Holmes, however, announces that he is too busy in London to accompany Mortimer and Sir Henry to Devonshire to get to the bottom of the case, and he sends Dr. Watson to be his eyes and ears, insisting that he report back regularly.
Once in Devonshire, Watson discovers a state of emergency, with armed guards on the watch for an escaped convict roaming the moors. He meets potential suspects in Mr. Barrymore and Mrs. Barrymore, the domestic help, and Mr. Jack Stapleton and his sister Beryl, Baskerville neighbors.
A series of mysteries arrive in rapid succession: Barrymore is caught skulking around the mansion at night; Watson spies a lonely figure keeping watch over the moors; and the doctor hears what sounds like a dog's howling. Beryl Stapleton provides an enigmatic warning and Watson learns of a secret encounter between Sir Charles and a local woman named Laura Lyons on the night of his death.
Up in the Catskill mountains Mama Greenspan runs Greenspan Villa, which was the place to go until her son Larry started to gamble away the profits. Rocky worked there for a while a couple of years ago as the Assistant Social Director. Last week Rocky received a call from Mama asking if he could fill in for a few days until she found a new Social Director. Rocky agreed, but en route, he nearly loses his life.
Duration: 23:44
Starring: Frank Sinatra
Broadcast Date: 9th February 1954
Most Americans are familiar with the names of those early American explorers Lewis and Clarke who are two of the characters in this broadcast of Cavalcade of America. Lewis and Clark launched their expeditions in to the wilds of the northwest in 1804. Also with music of the time from the Cavalcade Orchestra.
Duration: 30:08
Broadcast Date: 11th December 1935
All Gas and Gaiters is a British television ecclesiastical sitcom which aired on BBC1 from 1966 to 1971. It was written by Pauline Devaney and Edwin Apps, a husband-and-wife team who used the pseudonym of "John Wraith" when writing the pilot. All Gas and Gaiters was also broadcast on BBC Radio from 1971 to 1972.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Gas_and_Gaiters
Sexton Blake is a fictional character, a detective who has been featured in many British comic strips, novels and dramatic productions since 1893. Sexton Blake adventures were featured in a wide variety of British and international publications (in many languages) from 1893 to 1978, comprising more than 4,000 stories by some 200 different authors. Blake was also the hero of numerous silent and sound movies, radio serials, and a 1960s ITV television series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexton_Blake#Radio
It’s late on Friday night in the Andrews home and Mr and Mrs Andrews are in their bedroom sound asleep when they hear a scream from Archie’s room. But Archie is sound asleep – talking in his sleep. Then Archie gets hiccups and the whole household is kept awake.
Duration: 27:23
Starring: Bob Hastings, Harlan Stone
Broadcast Date: 15th May 1948
Richard Rogue never goes round looking for trouble but it seems that trouble always finds him. Take that afternoon a few months ago when he walked into the press room at the hall of justice and found among others Clark Ames the young city hall reporter for the Chronicle expounding on his favorite subject, a deep hatred for a man named Fred Curtis nicknamed the Alibi Master. Ames and the other newspapermen had watched Curtis win acquittals for a dozen different clients and always with the same ruse, unbreakable alibis. This made the clients very happy and the district attorney very miserable. The Chronicle, the crusading newspaper had at the instigation of Clark Ames been running an anti Curtis campaign bordering pretty close on libel and Curtis hated Ames with a passion. Curtis had won the last round and Clark Ames was telling Richard Rogue about it. . .
Duration: 25:25
Starring: Dick Powell
Broadcast Date: 21st February 1946
Mr Newbury has been stabbed in the back and his dead body placed in an exhibit at the wax museum. Philo Vance has three suspects Frances the wife, Ed Newbury a nephew who apparently has nothing better to do in life than wait for the reading of his uncles will and Tom Rhinelander who to put it delicately is interested in Mrs Newbury.
Sponsored by: Lifebuoy
Announcer: Don Hancock
Duration: 28:53
Starring: Jose Ferrer, Frances Robinson
Broadcast Date: 9th August 1945
A Scandal In Bohemia
Dr. Watson recounts an exciting adventure in which for once Holmes came off second best. It is an exciting story of high society and romance which Dr. Watson calls A Scandal In Bohemia. Announcer: Harry Bartell
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Harry Bartell
Broadcast Date: 10th December 1945
Second Generation
Dr. Watson recounts an exciting adventure, which is a sequel to the exciting story of high society and romance A Scandal In Bohemia. However, it is a sequel that took place twenty years afterward in 1909. Sherlock Holmes is living on his Suffolk bee farm and in June Dr Watson received a telegram asking him to come and spend a long weekend with him. On the way there on the train Dr Watson met a young woman who told him that Sherlock was an old friend of her mother’s. She was now in need of help as a neighbor of Sherlock’s was blackmailing her and when Dr Watson told Sherlock she was the daughter of Irenee Naughton he agreed to help her instantly.
Duration: 28:47
Starring: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Harry Bartell
Broadcast Date: 17th December 1945
Marshall Dillon and Chester meet beautiful Miss Colleen Tawny who tells them that she is destitute. She is an orphan and her aunt recently died leaving her all alone in the world. Then she put her baggage down and lost all her possessions and money. Matt tells her that they will help her out for a few nights but suspects that with her charm and innocent beauty she ‘s going to bring trouble.
Duration: 21:04
Starring: William Conrad, Parley Baer, Georgia Ellis, Howard McNear
Broadcast Date: 3rd March 1957
Dependable, level-headed Jane Stacy (Cathy Lewis - plus Joan Banks during Lewis' illness in early 1949 and Mary Shipp later) began each weekly radio program by narrating a misadventure of her innocent, bewildered roommate Irma, a scatterbrained stenographer from Minnesota. The two central characters were in their mid-20s. Irma had her 25th birthday in one episode; she was born on May 5. After the two met in the first episode, they lived together in an apartment rented from their Irish landlady Mrs. O'Reilly (Jane Morgan, Gloria Gordon).
Irma's boyfriend Al (John Brown) was a deadbeat, barely on the right side of the law, who had not held a job in years. Only someone like Irma could love Al, whose nickname for Irma was "Chicken". Al had many crazy get-rich-quick-schemes that never worked. Al planned to marry Irma at some future date so she could support him. Professor Kropotkin (Hans Conried)), the Russian violinist at the Princess Burlesque theater, lived upstairs. He greeted Jane and Irma with remarks like "My two little bunnies with one being an Easter bunny and the other being Bugs Bunny." The Professor insulted Mrs. O'Reilly, complained about his room, and reluctantly became O'Reilly's love interest in an effort to make her forget his back rent. In 1953, Conried left the program and was replaced by Kenny Delmar as his cousin Maestro Wanderkin.
Irma worked for the lawyer Mr. Clyde (Alan Reed). She had such an odd filing system that once when Clyde fired her, he had to hire her back again because he couldn't find anything. Useless at dictation, Irma mangled whatever Clyde dictated. Asked how long she had been with Clyde, Irma said, "When I first went to work with him he had curly black hair, then it got grey, and now it's snow white. I guess I've been with with him about six months."
Irma became less intelligent and even more ditzy as the program evolved. She also developed a tendency to whine or cry whenever something went wrong, which was usually at least once every episode. Jane had a romantic inclination for her boss, millionaire Richard Rhinelander III (Leif Erickson). Another actor in the show was Bea Benaderet.
When brown October rolls around the air is crisp and clear and hearts of men are happy in the twilights of the year. In Springfield in the white-framed house on Maple Street the Andersons are at breakfast. It’s a beautiful day, bright and brisk. Well, it starts out as a beautiful day anyway. . .
Duration: 29:41
Starring: Robert Young
Broadcast Date: 29th October 1953
The last time Johnny Dollar saw Tom Pinkley from New Orleans they took in a boxing match and Johnny won $20 from him on an Italian kid who called himself Touchy Tarrantino. That boy was a fighter with a real future, which is why Pinkley covered his losses by selling him a $25000 life policy. However now Pinkley is afraid Tarrantino has no future and suspects the kid is either going to commit suicide or be murdered.
Duration: 23:17
Starring: Bob Readick, Robert Dryden, Joan Loring, Ralph Camargo, Mandel Kramer, Daniel Ocko
Broadcast Date: 12th March 1961
To most school teachers early rising becomes a habit but not to our Miss Brooks who teaches English at Madison High School, she’s always been cautious of anything that is habit forming, especially getting up before 7.00 a.m. That’s why Mrs Davis her landlady had a particularly tough time waking her last Friday morning. . .
Duration: 28:40
Starring: Eve Arden
Broadcast Date: 24th July 1949
The announcer gives them an intro, and the two begin teasing each other about their role in the comedy team. Dean sings, Bye Bybe Blackbird.
The nightclub comedy team share a behind the scenes glimpse at themselves as they prepare for their first radio show. They talk, and dream a little about their potential success as actors. They talk about meeting Bob Hope, and being on his show.
Before they leave to meet Bob, they spend a few moments talking with the downtrodden maid. As they enter the studio, Jerry talks candidly with a couple old ladies. They go in to rehearse. While Jerry Aledgedly leads the band, Dean sings, Dreamland Is Not Very Far.
Bob Hope appears with the guise of introducing them on his own show. Bob talks about his worries over his own show, and encourages Dean and Jerry. Jerry has his hair teased. Jerry also gets teased about how young he is. Bob plugs their new movie, and Jerry talks to Bob about his film. . If Dean's lucky, maybe Bob and Jerry will let him cut in.
The guys flub some lines, but comeback with adlibs. Bob invites the guys to an informal party. By now, the script has been left far behind, and adlibs rule the day. Despite the adlibs, the script is almost returned to.
With all the rflubbed lines in an adlib, it works. There are some hilarious moments. Obviously enough to get them their own series in the weeks to come.
Note: Because this is an audition, and with the additional adlibs, the show does run quite long. Well over 30 minutes. In fact, about the time that Bob makes a comment about being an hour show, it just went past the 30 minute mark.
Fred Allen (May 31, 1894 – March 17, 1956) was an American comedian whose absurdist, topically pointed radio show (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the so-called classic era of American radio. Fred Allen's first taste of radio came while he and Portland Hoffa waited for a promised slot in a new Arthur Hammerstein musical. In the interim, they appeared on a Chicago station's program, WLS Showboat, into which, Allen recalled, "Portland and I were presented... to inject a little class into it." Their success in these appearances helped their theater reception; live audiences in the Midwest liked to see their radio favorites in person, even if Allen and Hoffa would be replaced by Bob Hope when the radio show moved to New York several months afterward. The couple eventually got their Hammerstein show, Polly, which opened in Delaware and made the usual tour before hitting Broadway. Also in that cast was a young Englishman named Archie Leach, who received as many good notices for his romantic appeal as Allen got for his comic work. Hammerstein retooled the show before bringing it to New York, replacing everyone but two women and Allen. Leach decided to buy an old car and drive to Hollywood. "What Archie Leach didn't tell me," Allen remembered, "was that he was going to change his name to Cary Grant." Polly never succeeded in spite of several retoolings, but Allen did go on to successful shows like The Little Show (1929–30) and Three's a Crowd (1930–31), which eventually led to his full-time entry to radio in 1932. Allen first hosted The Linit Bath Club Revue on CBS, moving the show to NBC and becoming The Salad Bowl Revue (in a nod to new sponsor Hellmann's Mayonnaise, which was marketed by the parent company of Linit) later in the year. The show became The Sal Hepatica Revue (1933–34), The Hour of Smiles (1934–35), and finally Town Hall Tonight (1935–39) [in 1939–40, however, sponsor Bristol-Myers, which advertised Ipana toothpaste as well as Sal Hepatica during the program, altered the title to The Fred Allen Show, over his objections]. Allen's perfectionism (odd to some, considering his deft ad-libs) caused him to leap from sponsor to sponsor until Town Hall Tonight allowed him to set his chosen small-town milieu and establish himself as a bona fide radio star.-WikiPedia
Maisie Revere has just graduated in manicuring but at the bottom of the class. Her professor asks her that if anyone should ask her where she learnt manicuring, to do him a favor and don’t tell him or her! Maisie goes to Joe’s Barbers for a job but he tells her he doesn’t need a manicurist as he already out numbers his customers. However Maisie talks the next person to look in to the shop in to a manicure.
Duration: 28:39
Starring: Ann Sothern
Broadcast Date: 9th March 1950
Two years ago Matt Dillon had run Elvin Grebb out of town letting him get away with everything but murder for his mother’s sake. And now Elvin Grebb was back in Dodge and Matt tells him this time there won’t be a second chance. Then Matt realizes he is only keeping him talking while his gang raid the bank. Matt tries to arrest him but Grebb draws his gun.
Duration: 20:23
Starring: William Conrad, Parley Baer, Georgia Ellis, Howard McNear
Broadcast Date: 10th March 1957
The first show of the series. While investigating a murder involving a beautiful widow in negligee, Johnny is beat up by two cops.
Duration: 28.57
Starring: Charles Russell
Broadcast Airdate: February 18, 1949
--- notes ---
Charles Russell originated the role of insurance investigator Johnny Dollar in the CBS Radio series Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar in 1949, playing the role until being replaced by Edmond O'Brien in 1950.
My favorite part about Halloween was always sitting with the lights out; and listening to the spooky; scary stories that I had discovered through OTR. I have decided to share my joy this Halloween by giving anyone else whom also enjoys this tradition with a 12 hour block of some of my favorite spookiest, and scariest shows that thrilled me.
Escape - Casting the Runes
Suspense - Dead Ernest
Quite Please - Symphony of Death
Inner Sanctum Mysterious - The Man Who Couldn’t Die
The Whisperer - Policeman in Danger
Suspense – The 13th Sound
Quiet Please – Please Don’t tell me about Halloween
Lights Out – The Author and the Thing
Inner Sanctum Mysterious – Terror By Night
Suspense – After Dinner Story
Lights Out – Murder in the Script Department
Molle Mystery Theater – Yours Truly Jack the Ripper
Ellery Queen – Nick the Knife
Mystery in the Air - The Queen of Spades
ABC Mystery Time – Suicide Club
Box 13 – Find Me Find Death
Price of Fear – Cat’s Cradle
Inner Sanctum Mysteries – Study For Murder
Quite Please – Symphony in D Minor
Escape – Evening Primrose
The Whisper – Police Lieutenant Paranormal
Suspense – Footfalls
The Mysterious Traveler – No Grave Can Hold Me
I Was a Communist For the FBI – Trail by Fear
Lights Out – Stage Executioner
Suspense – You Died Last Night
Escape – Zero Hour
Hermits Crave – Buried Alive
The first show with host Joey Adams (who's quite good at it). The first contestant is a chicken plucker. The first question is, "The twenty-fifth anniversary is the "silver" one, what is the first one?" The system cue has been deleted, this may have been an audition recording. The first show with host Joey Adams (who's quite good at it). The first contestant is a chicken plucker. The first question is, "The twenty-fifth anniversary is the "silver" one, what is the first one?" The system cue has been deleted, this may have been an audition recording. Joey Adams (host), Mark Goodson (producer), Bill Todman (producer), Peter Arnell (associate producer), Hal Sims (announcer).
Duration: 28:11
Broadcast Airdate: August 5, 1950
Created by Federal Civil Defense Administration as a public service program to be broadcast by participating radio stations throughout the country with music and practical advice for Americans fearful of an impending attack during the Cold War.
Stars of Defense was a series of recordings made between 1956 and 1967 for the United States Federal Civil Defense Administration as a public service program to be broadcast by participating radio stations throughout the country. The intent was to keep Americans prepared for threats from the Cold War. As an early episode states, "Real family preparedness is a big contribution to world peace, for if our defense is strong, no enemy would dare attack us."
Basil Rathbone whom for a very long time played the role of Sherlock Holmes.
Here a few sound bits of Basil telling us about:
Melba Toast
Stoic
Tangerine
The Saxophone
To Get One's Goat
Sounds like a real storm is coming up when Annie hears what sounds like little kittens meowing outside and she sends him out to rescue them. But when he goes out he is attacked and killed by what sounds like a pack of wild dogs. Meanwhile Lamont Cranston and Margo Lane are in Louisiana on their way to see Arthur Whittington an old friend of Lamont’s from college who was ridiculed for his strange voice. When come to the end of the road they see a sign which says Whittington Hall, Keep Out. Then Margo hears some meowing like kittens and goes to search for them only to be forced back by giant snarling dogs. . .
Duration: 22:50
Starring: Dwight Weist, Margot Stevenson
Broadcast Date: 26th December 1937
It is 8:30 on Wednesday morning in Texas on July 7th 1951. As Sheriff Alan Hankins answers the telephone in his office. Buck Whatley has had four of his calves stolen. . .
Duration: 29:16
Starring: Joel McCrea
Broadcast Date: 16th March 1952
Mrs. Carlton is having her piano tuned when her husband arrives home. She asks if he has managed to get his partners to lend him some money to get them out of their debt. They have mad some unwise investments and the only way Mr. Carlton can see to getting out of trouble is to get a loan against his wife’s jewels. Mrs. Carlton is not prepared to let him have her jewels and in the ensuing argument Mr. Carlton is shot, but how and by whom? It is either suicide or murder.
Duration: 30:00
Starring: James Monks
Broadcast Date: 3rd August 1945
A tale as old as the bible, but with a ghostly twist. A mother and her two sons, Thomas, a good, loving man, keeping the family a float with his meager earnings; Paddy, his brother, is just the opposite- mean-spirited and lazy. Its the day of Thomas’ wedding, and his brother comes to him with a story of treasures under the sea. “It will only take a couple of hours”, says Paddy, “and then you’ll have money to be married with”. So the two take to the sea, but the sea takes its payment and only one man returns. . . Reviewed by Sarah B.
Duration: 22:13
Starring: Arch Oboler
Broadcast Date: 16th September 1936
The grey stone building stands at the end of the alleyway. There’s a small brass plate on the door which reads, Metropolitan Police Morgue. Inside the morgue a dead man has been delivered, just another tramp involved in a hit and run case.The grey stone building stands at the end of the alleyway. There’s a small brass plate on the door which reads, Metropolitan Police Morgue. Inside the morgue a dead man has been delivered, just another tramp involved in a hit and run case or so it seems. . .
Duration: 28:20
Broadcast Date: Not known
Angelino Guiseppie runs butchers shop and was a friend of Richard Diamond’s. He came to Diamond for some help on behalf of all the owners of all independent butcher’s shops who had got together last night to discuss their troubles. Every week a couple of guys come round and collect and if they don’t pay they get their shops bust up and sometimes even themselves. It was too dangerous to go to the police as they had been warned they would be beaten for it. In order to help Richard Diamond became Angelino’s new assistant butcher.
Duration: 28:56
Starring: Dick Powell, Virginia Gregg, Wilms Herbert, Arthur Q. Bryan
Broadcast Date: 9th March 1951
One of Joshua Masters three sons is trying to kill him and he wants to find out which two are innocent.
Duration: 29:51
Starring: Mercedes McCambridge
Broadcast Date: 10th April 1952
Phyliss Kenny had hired Michael Shayne to find out if her husband was two-timing her. He wasn’t but he’d gotten himself mixed up with a character named Jasper who was following his usual routine of getting close to his blackmail victim by working for him. In this case he was the gardener at the Duval estate and that’s how Dick Kenny got mixed up with him, Dick was the Duval chauffer.
Duration: 25:24
Starring: Wally Maher, Cathy Lewis, William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 6th August 1948
A thoroughly enjoyable adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s novel, Rebecca, by and starring Orson Welles. Introduced by newsman Edwin C. Hill and broadcast only a month after the famous broadcast of War of the World. If you have not read the book or seen the film then this really is a must. It is radio drama at its very best.
Duration: 59:36
Starring: Orson Welles
Broadcast Date: 9th December 1938
On a beautiful summer day in 1895 Holmes had just concluded his investigation of the sudden death of Cardinal Tusker. Holmes and Watson thought a couple of weeks rest would be a pleasant change and they chose Stratford-Upon-Avon as the destination. For the first week life was calm and peaceful and it wasn’t until the following Tuesday when the troubles began. They decided to take a walk through the Forest of Avon when a shot fired out and a bullet hits Sherlock Holmes in the shoulder. Was it just a poor shot or was it intended. Another mystery was afoot.
Duration: 28:40
Starring: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce
Broadcast Date: 26 November 1945
Life with Luigi was created by Cy Howard, who had earlier created the hit radio comedy, My Friend Irma. The working title was The Little Immigrant, echoed in the sign-off of each episode, "Your lovin-a son-a, Luigi Basco, the li'l immigrant."
,,,,,
Here's a website that details this wonderful radio program.
http://www.jimramsburg.com/life-with-luigi.html
Again it’s early evening as we look in on the Andrew’s home in Riverdale and we find Mrs. Andrews sitting in the living room sewing when Archie arrives home excitedly. He wants to have a Halloween party there tonight, as it would really impress Veronica. His mum agrees but when Mr. Andrews arrives home from a hard days work he’s expecting a quiet relaxing night!
Duration: 24:52
Starring: Bob Hastings
Broadcast Date: 31st October 1949
Marshall Matt Dillon and Chester find themselves in the middle of a feud between Alvin Peevie and Jack Kade and his wife who believe Peevie shot and killed their son, Ben and took his body too.
Duration: 30:03
Starring: William Conrad, Parley Baer
Broadcast Date: 16th April 1955
Miss Carmen is associated with the famous psychic consultant, Prince Kayrou. She helps the prince look in to people’s minds and deals with the Prince’s outside matters. The Prince feared that his life was in danger after being threatened over the telephone that morning.
Duration: 30:56
Starring: Jack Webb
Broadcast Date: 4th September 1948
1957 NFL Championship Game
Enjoy the game.
The 1957 National Football League Championship Game was the 25th annual championship game, held on December 29 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit, Michigan. The Detroit Lions, winners of the Western Conference, hosted the Cleveland Browns, champions of the Eastern Conference. Detroit had won the regular season game 20–7 three weeks earlier on December 8, also at Briggs Stadium, but lost quarterback Bobby Layne with a broken right ankle late in the first half. Reserve quarterback Tobin Rote, a starter the previous year with Green Bay, filled in for Layne and won that game with Cleveland, the next week at Chicago, and the tiebreaker playoff game at San Francisco.
“We take you now to England. If it only were as simple as that, if you could take a man like a radio wave and whisk him over the Atlantic and then drop him through a loudspeaker and let him wander for a month over the face of this island would he be any different at the end of his wandering? How would he feel about the war and about England? Would the United States look very much different to him from the outside, from the Anglo American angle?”
Duration: 30:09
Starring: Joseph Julian
Broadcast Date: 7th September 1942
Sam Dodsworth has just sold his automobile company and he and his wife Fran are just about to set of on a trip to Europe. They set sail from New York and eventually arrive in England for their six months tour. As the story unfolds it becomes apparent that Fran Dodsworth has an eye for other men and to make matters worse they seem to be attracted to her. They cross the channel to visit Paris and it looks as if they’ve reached the point of no return when he returns to the States alone.
Duration: 60:00
Starring: Walter Huston
Broadcast Date: 4th October 1937
In the corridor of a metropolitan hotel, a man with a briefcase in his hand has been knocking impatiently at one of the room doors as a bell-boy approaches with a pitcher of ice-water and some glasses. The man at the door is Mr. Orston. He had been called by Mrs. Bradley, the occupier of the room, to come to her room as she desperately needed to speak to him. Mr. Orston demands that the bell-boy open the door. As the door swings open, they see Mrs. Bradley dead, killed by a bullet through her throat. . .
Duration: 27:28
Starring: Bennett Kilpack
Broadcast Date: 15th September 1949
Bogart plays Slate Shannon who owns a hotel in Havana and gets involved in intrigue with his beautiful sidekick "Sailor." Shannon and Sailor get involved with a shipment of arms for a planned revolution. But Shannon never picked up the "merchandise" in Key West, and two murders follow because he doesn't have the guns. The characters in this series are based on those in, "To Have and Have Not," which featured both Boagrt and Bacall. The plot of this episode is based on the story of the film. The date above is noted as the first known broadcast of the first episode, but that is subject to correction. The title of the story is also subject to correction. These programs were heard on over 500 stations and were broadcast is no particular sequence at no particular time. + A guy name Scarn sent a wire requesting the Bold Venture meet him in Key West as he wanted them to ship his cargo but when they arrived he wasn’t there to Slate’s annoyance. So they were even more surprised when they arrived back in Havana empty-handed to be met by a guy named Mario who demanded to remove the cargo stating that it was a matter of life or death…
Duration: 25:49
Starring: Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart
Broadcast Airdate: March 26, 1951
We have an expert on murder here tonight. He has a rather strange idea, something about everyone being a potential murderer. Maybe he’s right. Take a good look at your neighbor, maybe he’s the one – maybe its you. . . Boris Karloff stars as Mr Herbert March in this original radio play by Sigmund Miller. At the time of going to broadcast Boris Karloff was appearing in the smash Broadway hit Arsenic and old Lace
Duration: 32:00
Starring: Raymond Edward Johnson
Broadcast Date: 3rd May 1942
He had traveled hard for three hundred miles to find the man who had killed his brother and that afternoon he ended up in Pleasant Valley. The town was quiet but then he saw them, maybe 60 or 70 standing in a circle gathered around two men, two men who were digging. He saw the looks on the faces of the people standing there and it was a look he had seen before. Not a good look, it was the look some people had had two years before in Abilene when they discovered his brother’s body.
Duration: 29:37
Starring: Alan Ladd
Broadcast Date: 14th December 1950
The story begins in one of the manufacturing plants in the Worldwide Business Machines Corporation. In one wing of the plant is housed the huge laboratory where newly designed and experimental calculating machines are built and tested. It is evening, and the vast laboratory with the small rows of intricate looking machines is deserted except for a young university professor Lester DeWitt who is tall, lanky and in his early 30s. DeWitt stands before a massive machine that dwarfs all others in the laboratory. Swiftly and efficiently he presses tabulating keys on the control board, oblivious of all else. Written, produced, and directed by Robert A. Arthur and David Kogan and starring Leon Janny and Marilyn Erskin. Reviewed by Kitty
Duration: 29:47
Starring: Maurice Tarplin
Broadcast Date: 14th March 1950
Tribes are getting restless even the Arapaho. They were promised meat by the government and it hasn’t been forthcoming. They tried to hunt buffalo but there weren’t any. A squaw man warns Captain Quince that they may attack the wagon train that is on its way to Silver Springs right now.
Duration: 28:24
Starring: Raymond Burr
Broadcast Date: 5th February 1956
Ozzie is on his way home from downtown when he gets in to a conversation with a man who is humming Haydn’s Surprise Symphony. The man is talking to Ozzie about classical music and by Ozzie’s response he thinks he is really in to classical music. The man tells him how his cousin is the conductor at the classical symphony concert, which is on tomorrow night. Ozzie thinks that he might like to go the concert. . .
Duration: 26:02
Starring: Harriet Hilliard Nelson, Ozzie Nelson
Broadcast Date: 14th December 1951
The father of a kidnapped woman asks Blackie to deliver his daughter’s ransom.
Broadcast Air Date: February 12, 1946
The Mystery Theater was a radio series that was written, adapted, produced and broadcast by the CBC from 1966 to 1968. Chills, thrills, mystery and adventure make up the stories from this classic series from the CBC. Includes episodes 10 episodes from the ABC Mystery Theater.
It’s January and the time of year when we all make our New Year resolutions and Gildy has decided to go on diet. His niece Marjorie has decided she’s going to do everything she can to help him.
Duration: 27:25
Starring: Harold Peary
Broadcast Date: 4th January 1942
One of the Lone Rangers most amazing adventures began when a bolt of lightening flashed across the sky and met the earth at the top of Thunder Mountain. A massive rock as large as a house was blasted from the foundation upon which it had rested through the ages. Rolling down the mountain with increasing force it loosened other rocks and soft shale and the landslide was started. A Stage Coach on the trail around the side of Thunder Mountain was trapped with no hope of escape, a boulder struck it squarely, sweeping it off the trail and down the slope into the valley and the smaller rocks and shale came down like a flood.
Duration: 28:00
Starring: Brace Beemer
Broadcast Date: 18th February 1948
20 years ago in 1928 there was a train wreck and he doesn’t have any memory of his childhood or his schoolmates. He remembers nothing but the hospital and people asking him a lot of questions. Suffering from amnesia, he doesn’t even remember his name or who he is so he goes by the name of Ulysses Smith. Here we hear the story of how he has built his life, a new life and then one evening whilst working late at the shop he has a visit from a young boy and what he learns from him is quite a revelation. Note there is some hissing in the background of this recording but the story is so interesting that is hardly noticeable.
Duration: 24:40
Starring: Ernest Chappell
Broadcast Date: 5th January 1948
The year is 1714 and the place is the Caribbean. The sound you will hear is a pair of scissors snipping away. The young lady who is using them is trimming her husband’s beard. The beard has just been washed to get the blood out of it for a few hours ago he stabbed a few fellows from up close. He had been in a battle and was very vain about his beard. It is a black beard which caused some eighteenth century pundit to dub him Blackbeard. His real name is Edward Teach, profession pirate his wife Hannah one would think was such a good wife but oh no she wasn’t and here is Thomas Hyland’s report on Blackbeard’s 14th wife and why she was no good for him.
Duration: 29:53
Starring: Lou Merrill, William Conrad, Betty Harford, Alistair Duncan, Ben Wright, Joseph Kearns
Broadcast Date: 11th November 1953
Simon Templar had a visit from a cowboy named McGowan but known as Tex. Seems that someone was trying to kill him as he was bushwhacked stepping out of a taxi in New York. In a couple of days he was due in Chicago to see a guy who knew he was coming but wasn’t hankering after seeing him seems he was trying to make sure Tex didn’t make it. So Tex he wanted The Saint to make sure he managed to stay alive.
Duration: 28:05
Starring: Tom Conway
Broadcast Date: 1st July 1951
The Origin of Superstition also known, as Superstition On The Air is a series of short stories designed to disclose the origins of many of the more popular superstitions. This one deals with the belief that crossing your fingers will avert bad luck.
Duration: 14:01
Broadcast Date: 1935
George Valentine has been out of uniform only a few weeks blessed with an abundance of energy, adventuresome spirit and not too much money, he has sunk his last dime in office rent a few pieces of furniture and an ad in the classified section of the daily paper. An ad, which reads, “Do you have a crime that needs solving? Do you have a dog that needs walking? Do you have a wife that needs spanking? Let George do it”. Now three days have passed and George is still anxiously waiting for a call when suddenly the door bursts open.
Duration: 29:37
Starring: Bob Bailey
Broadcast Date: 14th May 1946
All good things must come to an end but bad things come to an end too which means that Phil Harris’s band rehearsal is finally over. Right now we find Phil and Elliott strolling casually up Hollywood Boulevard on what would otherwise be a very pleasant afternoon. . .
Duration: 30:47
Starring: Phil Harris, Alice Faye, Bill Forman, Elliott Lewis
Broadcast Date: 11th December 1953
Dagwood Bumsteads of Shady Lane Avenue and his next-door-neighbor Herb Woodley are usually feuding with each other and today is no exception. Already there have been a couple of border clashes and right now while Blondie is in the kitchen Dagwood is doing a little reconnaissance around Woodley’s garage. All is quiet and then. . .
Duration: 26:07
Starring: Penny Singleton
Broadcast Date: 19th June 1944
Philip Lock from Philadelphia arrived in Dodge City from Philadelphia looking for a girl. This girl had apparently written to her mother telling her that she was working at a school in Dodge but the school had never heard of her and Lock was worried that something had happened to her. When Marshall Matt Dillon asked her name and description he was told Laura Simmons whom he knew well but he did not let on to Lock instead he went to see Laura. He wanted to know why Philip Lock was looking for her.
Duration: 24:29
Starring: William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 19th December 1953
Are you willing to undertake a dangerous mission behind the enemy line knowing that you may never return alive? This was the question asked during the war to agents of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) ordinary citizens who to this question answered yes.
Before this first episode begins you will hear from the co-author of the book Cloak & Dagger who was also a former OSS officer on whom the series is based, Colonel Corey Ford.
Duration: 28:42
Starring: Joseph Julian, Berry Kroeger
Broadcast Date: 7th May 1950
Ken Thurston “the man called X” is working out in Cairo when a female visitor came calling with a message, three silver bullets for Thurston. However, she shot a local man who was working with him but Thurston put out the message that he was killed so that the killers may relax a little and give them space to track the killer.
Duration: 26:05
Starring: Herbert Marshall
Broadcast Date: 19th June 1947
A Single Case of Murder is the radio version of the Warner Brothers production. It is a story that deals with a benevolent gentleman a former bootlegger of some importance whose tenderness of heart is equalled only by his firmness of mind. After the days of prohibition were over Remmy Martin decides to go legitimate and he went in to business making real beer the only thing was he wasn’t accustomed to doing things legitimate and he owed the bank $40,000 which he didn’t have!
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Edward G Robinson, Alan Jenkins
Broadcast Date: 8th April 1945
Today Hoppy and his partner California are many miles away from the Bar-20 riding along an old wagon road that winds through the lonely brush country. This is a land of superstition and Indian legends. But as they ride California shows little enthusiasm for Hoppy’s current venture, which is to buy some bulls from a bankrupt ranch north of Skull Valley.
Duration: 28:26
Starring: William Boyd
Broadcast Date: 22nd January 1950
When US Marshall Matt Dillon arrived at the jail office that morning Caylip Andrews was waiting for him. He had a court order from the US district Court, which he wanted Dillon to serve. It was for the eviction of Ed Blake who had borrowed money from Caylip Andrews in the form of a mortgage on his farm to the sum of $420. Matt Dillon was sympathetic to Blake and felt that if Andrews would allow Blake the winter he would clear his debt but for some reason Andrews had already foreclosed. . .
Duration: 29:51
Starring: William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 24th October 1952
Its two night before Halloween and Riley is full of the spirit of the thing. It’s quite dark out and Riley’s son Junior is just returning from a meeting of the wild cats, his club, in a very thoughtful mood. . . .
Duration: 26:27
Starring: William Bendix
Broadcast Date: 29th October 1944
Liz has just come out of the beauty parlor where her beautician Sally told her that the Atterbury’s are having a Halloween costume party. Liz is not in a good mood, as it seems that they haven’t been invited. The next day she is anxiously awaiting the mailman sure that there’ll be an invite in the post for them but oh dear she’s in for disappointment. Then when they next see the Atterbury’s the Atterbury’s purposefully avoid the subject of Halloween and Liz begins to feel that they are social misfits.
Duration: 25:46
Starring: Lucille Ball, Richard Denning
Broadcast Date:28th October 1949
A rambling house on the outskirts of a small university town and in the house a room that seems more like the cell of a medieval alchemist than the study of a college professor. . .
Duration: 26:00
Starring: James Van Dyke
Broadcast Date: 30th December 1946
This is a strange story about ordinary people, two girls just like you or your daughter or the girl that sits next to you in the office. Alice and her friend Lona have been diving for sometime to Alice’s Aunt Harriet’s for their vacation. Alice hasn’t seen her aunt for ten years and is surprised by how old she seems. But they are more surprised by the cat that Aunt Harriet has in her shed.
Duration: 29:20
Broadcast Date: 25th May 1943
Of all man’s symbols of power and security, the greatest and perhaps the worst, is the gun. And this symbol of man’s alter ego is the background of this story. It begins on an old coal dock on the waterfront of Big Town as two young boys met for what was to be a tragic rendezvous.
Duration: 29:03
Starring: Edward Pawley
Broadcast Date: 15th March 1949
Broadway where the vision of beauty stands in the doorway at night you go looking for it and a guy shoots you. It’s Broadway the Beat of Danny Clover. He was sent to respond to a call from a rest home - Primrose Sanitarium - to investigate the death of a stabbed man found on their doorstep. An anonymous man who has now just become an important man.
Duration: 31:14
Starring: Larry Thor
Broadcast Date: 19 November 1949
This was an audition episode of Gunsmoke and starred Rye Billsbury as Marshall Mark Dillon in an episode entitles Mark Dillon Goes To Gouge Eye. This show was never aired on the radio. When Gunsmoke finally came to air in 1952 it starred William Conrad as Marshall Matt Dillon. They all drifted here to Dodge City one time or another, the buffalo killers, the saddle bums the spoilers. It was the end of the track and the start of the wilderness, a place to stop and take the kind of pleasure you need. It’s a place to pass through and sometimes it’s a place to die.
Duration: 28:58
Starring: Rye Billsbury
Broadcast Date: 11th June 1949
Sam is called up to the third floor by Mrs. Kelsey due to a commotion going on between Rosemary Thelma and Joe Dunnigan. Rosemary is convinced that Joe is going to murder her and wants Sam to prove it.
Duration: 24:35
Starring: Howard Duff
Broadcast Date: 16th January 1949
A mans disguise at a masquerade ball is usually the key to his honest opinion of himself. So naturally how would Andy Hardy go to a masquerade? He tells his mum that naturally he’s going to the masquerade as the greatest lover in history!
Duration: 26:37
Starring: Mickey Rooney
Broadcast Date: 1950
Francis Albert Sinatra was an American singer, actor and producer who was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide.
Enjoy a few hours of the sweet cooing style of the 'Ol Blue Eyes" Sinatra.
"The Nitrate Shipment" (April - May 1941) (9 parts) Beginning August 25, 1941, a second series of transcriptions designed to air five days per week (although many stations continued the previous three-per-week schedule) aired.
One corporal wrote to command Performance to ask, “How’s the feud getting on between Fred Allen and jack Benny?” And here to host this performance is the Eastern half of the feud Fred Allen who advises us that the feud has slowed down a little then commences with a barrage of jokes against Benny! other Commands bring music from Kenny Baker and comedy from Henny Youngman.
Duration: 30:22
Starring: Fred Allen, Jack Benny & Rochester
Broadcast Date: 18th March 1942
Birdseye Frosted Foods presents The Dinah Shore Show with Wally Brown, Robert Emmett Dolan and his Orchestra, the Joseph Lilley singers and special guest Charles Laughton and of course Dinah Shore!
Duration: 29:53
Starring: Dinah Shore, Charles Laughton
Broadcast Date: 29th June 1944
On this show Bing does his little bit from New York, having just returned from the European theatre of war. On the other coast in Hollywood George Murphy and Marilyn Maxwell open the show with Thou Swell Thou Witty Thou Grand. George goes on to welcome Spike Jones and his City Slickers after their tour entertaining the troops in France. Bing comes across the airwaves from a studio in New York and a surprise visit by Bob Hope completes an excellent show.
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Bing Crosby
Broadcast Date: 12th October 1944
Charming Dr. William Hall is the urbane president of rural Ivy College. His pleasant life include his attractive wife, former actress Vicky and their all knowing housekeeper Alice. Occasionally school chairman Clarence Wellman causes a disruption.
Duration: 25:08
Starring: Roland Coleman, Benita Hume
Broadcast Airdate: March 19, 1952
The story begins in 1889. Holmes and Watson are in Vienna because Holmes has been engaged in important investigations. The case has just concluded and Holmes is playing his violin whilst Watson makes notes about the investigation when there is a knock at the door. It is a female German pianist. She is being blackmailed by a Hungarian painter. He knows a secret about her and she wants Holmes to get her out of her horrible predicament.
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Basil Rathbone
Broadcast Date: 09 April 1945
Chad Remington received a long letter a desperate cry for help from people he’d never seen from a part of the country he’d never been to and hardly even heard of. He was sitting in his office above the Dos Rios livery discussing it with Cherokee O’Bannon. Dust storms had made Mr Newsom’s farm and his neighbor’s farm worthless and they wanted some legal advice on how to obtain new land from the government.
Duration: 27:59
Starring: Jeff Chandler, Wade Crosby
Broadcast Date: 27th February 1953
Billy Saxton had killed Joe Powell shot him in the back and now he was about to be lynched by Joe’s brother. When Matt Dillon found him he told Ken Powell that if it were him that had arranged the lynching he would get a fair trial for the murder the same way that Saxton should have had one.
Duration: 28:01
Starring: William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 16th August 1952
Our Miss Brooks is very fond of Biology teacher Philip Boynton and he is very fond of his frogs and guinea pigs. This absorption in his laboratory is largely due to Mr. Boynton’s natural shyness. That is to say that he is shy in the world of reality but in the dreams of our Miss Brooks Philip Boynton is every bit as ardent and attentive as any woman could desire.
Duration: 27:47
Starring: Eve Arden
Broadcast Date: 24th October 1948
The Philip Morris Playhouse grew from an earlier program called Johnny Presents, which included music and drama performances. Johnny Presents, too, was sponsored by Philip Morris. It was named after Philip Morris' trademark midget bellhop, Johnny Roventini. This show includes the famous commercial, "Callll for Philip Morrriiiiiiaaaasssss, yelled by none other than Johnny. This commercial began when ad man for Philip Morris spotted Johnny the bellhop in the Hotel New Yorker, and thought up the scheme to have him run around the lobby yelling "Last call for Philip Morris! He was an instant hit, henceforth receiving $20,000 a year for advertising for the company.
For some people there is only one chase and no other exists: the chase to secure and hold money, nothing, nothing else matters. There is no love except for pennies, dimes and dollars and only hate for those who would deprive them of it…
Duration: 28:44
Broadcast Date: February 8, 1953
It is 4:30am on the morning of June 6th 1943. About 12 miles east of Humbole, Texas an army troop train draws westwards through the darkness. In the smoking room of one sleeping car a virile private of thirty plays solitaire. . .
Duration: 29:02
Starring: Joel McCrea
Broadcast Date: 6th April 1952
The Knock This story starts with the wonderful words ” The last man on earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door”. With such a wonderful opening it is impossible not to listen on to this sinister little tale.
Duration: 29.40
Starring: Norman Rose
Broadcast Date: 6th May 1950
Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, affectionately known as TP or Gildy is owner of Gildersleeve Girdle works and onetime neighbor of Fibber McGee and bearer of an inimitable dirty laugh! In this first episode of “The Great Gildersleeve we see the departure of TP from his home town Wistful Vista to Summerfield. On the train journey TP enters into a disagreement with a man over a lower berth and it later turns out that the man in question is Judge Horace Hooker. Here begins a wonderfully comic relationship of feuds and arguments!
Duration: 33:51
Starring: Harold Peary
Broadcast Date: 16th May 1941
Listening to the problems of the Riley’s for the next half hour is sure to make you forget your own problems. The Riley’s are on the move again as the apartment they’ve been renting in LA must be vacated by the end of the week. While breadwinning father has been hard at work in his defense job Peggy has been out house hunting all day, unsuccessfully!
Duration: 29:03
Starring: William Bendix
Broadcast Date: 25th July 1943
Mr. and Mrs. North are fictional American amateur detectives. Created by Frances and Richard Lockridge, the couple were featured in a series of 26 Mr. and Mrs. North novels, a Broadway play, a motion picture and several radio and television series.
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. The characters, 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.
Mrs Amelia Harwell has died of poisoning. The family fortune was built by the deceased’s father. Amelia Harwell was his only child and he trained her to take over the business. When she died she was over 70 and was still taking an active part in the business. She was an extremely domineering woman and earned little warmth from her husband Thomas, her daughter Maxine or her son Dexter. Any one of them stood to win a lot of money upon her death as besides her fortune she carried insurance of 150,000 for the family and $200,000 corporation.
Duration: 27:33
Starring: Edmond O’Brien, Vic Perrin, John McIntire, Herb Butterfield, Jeanette Nolan, Virginia Gregg, Peter Leeds
Broadcast Date: 2nd July 1952
The Blue Beetle had a relatively short career on the radio, between May and September of 1940. Motion picture and radio actor Frank Lovejoy was the Blue Beetle for the first 13 episodes, while for the rest of the shows, the voice was provided by a different, uncredited actor. The Blue Beetle was a young police officer who saw the need for extra-ordinary crime fighting. He took the task on himself by secretly donning a superhero costume to create fear in the criminals who were to learn to fear the Blue Beetle's wrath.
The 13-minute segments were usually only two-parters, so the stories were often more simple than other popular programs, such as the Superman radio serial.
You are groping in the midnight dimness of a gigantic department store and suddenly you realize that you are not alone, but a hundred eyes are glaring at you from the shadows and a hundred hands are reaching for your throat and your most urgent desire is to . . . escape! Based on the eerie short story Evening Primrose by John Collier
. Duration: 29:45
Starring: Elliott Lewis, Paul Frees
Broadcast Date: 5th November 1947
Tonight it’s the big testimonial dinner and Archie is telling Duffy over the phone that Georgie Jessel is coming down to Duffy’s Tavern and other people beside. Who’s the testimonial dinner for? Why Archie of course. Join in the fun along with Archie and his gang Finnegan, Miss Duffy and Eddie and also appearing Rudy Vallee.
Duration: 30:24
Starring: Ed Gardner
Broadcast Date: 5th November 1947
Wendy Morris was a very rich lady whose five years ago married a man by the name of Stanley Morris and immediately after he joined the army and hasn’t been see since, that is until a month ago. And now that he’s back something very peculiar has happened to lead Wendy’s lawyer not to believe that he is her husband. He wants Novak to investigate.
Duration: 29:08
Starring: Jack Webb
Broadcast Date: 30th April 1949
There it is, an echo of the past – an exciting past, a romantic past – the era of the horse and carriage, gas-lit streets and free for all football games: the era of one of the most beloved characters in American fiction, Frank Merriwell. Merriwell is loved as much today as ever he was and so the NBC brings him to radio in a brand new series of thirty minute stories. Listen here to The Riddle Of The Wrong Answer or Gambling is the Devil’s Pastime.
Duration: 30:30
Starring: Lawson Zerbe
Broadcast Date: 5th October 1946
Breaking Walls is a once-per-month audio documentary on the history of American Network Radio Broadcasting, focusing on people, places, and events from the Golden Age of Radio.
http://thewallbreakers.com/breaking-walls/
To find out more about James Scully:
http://thewallbreakers.com/jamesscully/
I personally recommend listening to episodes in this order to get the full story of the beginning of Radio Wave, and the beginning of the three major networks NBC, CBS, ABC.
EP75: We Are Echoes—The Birth Of Radio (1887 - 1912)
EP76: Over There—The War for Radio’s Airwaves (1912 - 1922)
EP77: The Birth Of The Radio Networks—From NBC To CBS To Mutual Broadcasting (1922 - 1934)
EP82: Depression, War, And The Birth of ABC (1932 - 1946)
EP83: Sarnoff & Paley: Tainted Friendships, Tall Tales, Talent Raids, and TV (1934 - 1952)
..................
Okay so I'm going to copy and paste from James Scully's page for the high lights .... because truly I can not beat his own words for his own podcast.
Highlights:
• David Sarnoff announces the birth of TV at The 1939 World’s Fair
• Edwin Howard Armstrong Invents FM
• Television Experiments in the 1920s and 1930s
• Sarnoff and Armstrong’s Crumbling Friendship
• How World War II Stopped Television’s Commercial Expansion
• William S. Paley’s Plan to make CBS the #1 Network
• The Rise of Arthur Godfrey
• Sarnoff’s Court Battles
• The Death of Edwin Howard Armstrong
• The CBS Talent Raids of 1948-49
• Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
• The Simple Art of Macabre
.....
If you are interested in learning about the history of the Radio; going as far back as learning about the waves that make Radio possible then James is the best person to listen too. He makes learning about the actual beginning of wireless telegraphy; and building the very first radio into a story .... he brings to life the men and the women whom strive to bring the beginning of sharing of information beyond the newspaper; or telegraph. He uses background music and sounds that is highly fitting for the time period.
Bright Star, also called the Irene Dunne and Fred MacMurray Show, used big film stars to add to the appeal of the show and gain listeners.
Best known for her films with Cary Grant, Irene Dunne left film action in 1952 to save her legacy as "Hollywood's First Lady. She had been nominated for five Academy awards in such films as "The Awful Truth and "Love Affair, but failed to win the award.
Later President Eisenhower chose her to be the alternate U.N. delegate of the General Assembly in 1959. Though a prolific film actor through the 1930s and 1940s, Fred MacMurray is best known as Steve Douglas the patriarch on "My Three Sons (1960-1972). A personal friend of Walt Disney, MacMurray starred in many Disney films including "The Shaggy Dog, "The Absent Minded Professor, and "Son of Flubber.
Text on OTRCAT.com ©2001-2020 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved. Reproduction is prohibited.
Lasting only one season, Bright Star is about Susan Armstrong (Dunne) the editor of a struggling newspaper the Hillsdale Morning Star. MacMurray plays George Harvey an idealist star reporter who often conflicts with his editor over stories. MacMurrayand Dunne have a good rapport as both have excellent comedic timing. Overall, this is a charming show that will delight fans of both Fred MacMurray and Irene Dunne.
Julius has been accused of robbery. Phil, Alice and Elliott goes to the police to see if they can help out. Alice sings, "Glow-Worm." Phil sings, "Where The Blues Began."
Broadcast Date: December 7, 1947
“It’s always good to visit old friends. But I didn’t know this meeting would lead to such a calamity. . . ”
Duration: 23:40
Starring: John Dehner
Broadcast Date: 25th September 1960
Adeline Fairchild the niece of Liela has arrived in Summerfield and is now living next door to Gildersleeve. Gildy has taken quite a shine to her and get’s Birdie to make some scrumptious goodies for him to take round to her. But then later he is worried that Miss Fairchild has plans to take Birdie away from their household and has terrible dreams about missing Birdie’s pot roast.
Duration: 29:50
Starring: Harold Peary, Walter Tetley, Lillian Randolph
Broadcast Date: 25th February 1948
Dependable, level-headed Jane Stacy began each weekly radio program by narrating a misadventure of her innocent, bewildered roommate, Irma, a dim-bulb stenographer from Minnesota. The two central characters were in their mid-twenties. Irma had her 25th birthday in one episode; she was born on May 5. After the two met in the first episode, they lived together in an apartment rented from their Irish landlady, Mrs. O'Reilly.
Duration: 28:45
Starring: Marie Wilson, Cathy Lewis
Broadcast Date: April 11, 1947
“No doubt the telephone is an ingenious invention but as far as I know no one as yet has been able to commit murder over it although many people have wanted to. Still there are worse things you can get on the phone than the wrong number especially if you happen to call the voice on the wire. . . ”
Duration: 28:57
Starring: Lesley Woods
Broadcast Date: 29th November 1944
Al Rocco and Ed Regan two convicts have escaped from Lock Moore penitentiary. Al Rocco has only one thing on his mind and that is to pay Lamont back as he blames him for the five years he has spent locked up.
Duration: 25:10
Starring: Bret Morrison
Broadcast Date: 11th May 1947
The Suicide Club by Robert Louis Stevenson starring Laurence Olivier. A shuffle of the cards and then they were drawn out and if you draw the wrong card it you will be either the killer or the victim. . .
Duration: 21:28
Starring: Laurence Olivier
Broadcast Date: Unknown
Breaking Walls is a once-per-month audio documentary on the history of American Network Radio Broadcasting, focusing on people, places, and events from the Golden Age of Radio.
http://thewallbreakers.com/breaking-walls/
To find out more about James Scully:
http://thewallbreakers.com/jamesscully/
I personally recommend listening to episodes in this order to get the full story of the beginning of Radio Wave, and the beginning of the three major networks NBC, CBS, ABC.
EP75: We Are Echoes—The Birth Of Radio (1887 - 1912)
EP76: Over There—The War for Radio’s Airwaves (1912 - 1922)
EP77: The Birth Of The Radio Networks—From NBC To CBS To Mutual Broadcasting (1922 - 1934)
EP82: Depression, War, And The Birth of ABC (1932 - 1946)
EP83: Sarnoff & Paley: Tainted Friendships, Tall Tales, Talent Raids, and TV (1934 - 1952)
..................
Okay so I'm going to copy and paste from James Scully's page for the high lights .... because truly I can not beat his own words for his own podcast.
Highlights:
• Early days at NBC’s Radio City in New York
• How Press Associations caused NBC and CBS to launch a news service
• The Birth of the Mutual Broadcasting System and their Struggles
• NBC Red and NBC Blue
• The FCC and US Justice Department Get Involved with Radio
• The Murrow Boys and Encroaching War in Europe
• The War Comes Home
• NBC sells The Blue Network
• Norman Corwin and His World War II Work
• Bing Crosby, Philco Radios, and Network Transcription
• The Talent Raids of 1949
.....
If you are interested in learning about the history of the Radio; going as far back as learning about the waves that make Radio possible then James is the best person to listen too. He makes learning about the actual beginning of wireless telegraphy; and building the very first radio into a story .... he brings to life the men and the women whom strive to bring the beginning of sharing of information beyond the newspaper; or telegraph. He uses background music and sounds that is highly fitting for the time period.
Speed McFarland middleweight champion of the world and Spider, his trainer are in Speed’s apartment after a very convivial night. They are trying to do two things, recall what happened the night before and get back in to condition. They are failing miserably on both accounts when the door opens and Anne Wesley walks in. . .
Duration: 30:06
Starring: Robert Walker, Jimmy Gleason, Eve Arden, Nat Pendleton
Broadcast Date: 18th February 1945
John isn’t a usual sort of man although he has a very ordinary sort of name, John Smith, what could be more ordinary than that? But he is a most unusual man take his blood group for instance. His blood group is group AB, very rare indeed as the doctor is pointing out to him. . .
Duration: 28:56
Broadcast Date: Not known
Randy Stone covers the night beat for the Chicago Star searching through the city for strange stories waiting for him in the darkness. It was early morning when Randy was called in the morgue to identify Ted Carter a guy he’d known since they were kids. He knew that Ted had been going straight and Randy was determined to uncover the story.
Duration: 31:17
Starring: Frank Lovejoy
Broadcast Date: 8th May 1950
It’s a rainy Tuesday evening in New York, and the city streets are deserted save for a red convertible which is parked at the curb, and at the wheel sits Brenda Sinclair, petting her pet Pekinese. She sits in the car with a man named Kenny, who is not her husband, when her husband, Ray Sinclair comes up to the car. Brenda says she’s going to leave Ray, an argument begins, and Ray pulls out a gun. This story is not as clean and easy as it sounds, and it will keep you guessing and wondering for the full episode. Reviewed by Kitty
Duration: 29:41
Starring: James Meighan
Broadcast Date: 27th November 1945
The people of his county elected Paul Remson to the Supreme Court bench in November he was sworn-in in January and by April he was already one of the most popular judges in the county. Paul Remson has always been against capital punishment but now according to the law he had to pass the sentence on to Martin Rivers who was tried and convicted of murder in the first degree.
Duration: 29:06
Starring: Raymond Edward Johnson, Helen Shields, Maurice Franklin, Irene Hubbard, Bill Smith
Broadcast Date: 9th October 1947
Sears Radio Theater was a radio drama anthology series which ran weeknightly on CBS Radio in 1979, sponsored by the Sears chain. Often paired with The CBS Radio Mystery Theater during its first season, the program offered a different genre of drama for each day's broadcast.
In 1980, the program moved to the Mutual Broadcasting System and became the Mutual Radio Theater. The Mutual series broadcast repeats from the CBS run until September 1980, when a short season of new dramas was presented. Sears continued as a sponsor during the Mutual run.
Monday was "Western Night" and was hosted by Lorne Greene. Tuesday was "Comedy Night", hosted by Andy Griffith. Wednesday was "Mystery Night" with Vincent Price as host. Thursday was "Love And Hate Night" with Cicely Tyson doing honors as host. Finally, Friday brought "Adventure Night", first hosted by Richard Widmark and later by Howard Duff and then by Leonard Nimoy.
Actors heard on the series included Parley Baer, Mary Jane Croft, Howard Culver, John Dehner, Virginia Gregg, Janet Waldo, Vic Perrin, Hans Conried, Marvin Miller, Elliot Lewis, Jeff Corey, Lesley Woods, Robert Rockwell, Lurene Tuttle, Eve Arden, Keith Andes, Harriet Nelson, Alan Young, Tom Bosley, Marion Ross, Lloyd Bochner, Rick Jason, Frank Campanella, Toni Tennille, Arthur Hill, Dan O'Herlihy, Jesse White and Frank Nelson.
It was produced and directed by Fletcher Markle and Elliott Lewis. The theme was composed and conducted by Nelson Riddle.
Though less long-lived than NPR's Earplay or the Mystery Theater, it was an ambitious attempt to reinvigorate a neglected field. Like Earplay, it was broadcast in stereo.
The Line Up,as the title indicates, centered around the police line up. The show always began with one. The Sergeant in charge of line would say, “May I have your attention please? You people on the other side of the wire in the audience room, may I have your attention please.” He would then give his name and say, “I’ll explain the line up to you. Each of the suspects you will see will be numbered. I’ll call of their number, their name, and charge. If you have any questions or identifications, please remember the number assigned to the prisoner as I call his name. At the end of each line when I ask for questions or identifications, call out the number. If you’re sure or not too sure of the suspect, have him held. The officers who took your name will assist you, they’re seated among you. Please be prompt with your questions or identifications. When the prisoners leave here, they are sent to the washroom and dressed back into their jail clothes. It makes it quite difficult to bring them back after they leave here. The questions I ask these suspects are merely to get a natural tone of voice so do not pay too much attention to their answers as they often lie. Bring on the line.”
Duration: 29:36
Broadcast Air Date: November 23, 1950
We tune in to find that Jack is late for the broadcast. As Mary tries to cover for him in the studio, we are transported to Jack's wisecracking cabbie who gets stopped by the cops, but do you think Jack makes it to the studio? No? Yes! Don't worry, that'll make more sense when you listen.
In the studio, Don Bestor plays, but his song is snipped. Jack jokes on music, the sponsor, Don Wilson being cheap. That's right Don Wilson is cheap. Jack didn't quite corner that treait at this point in his famous career.
Jokes also include being in the movies, but Mary's remarks brings Jack down. Don's next number is snipped as well. Frank Parker enters for a few jokes about the theater scene in town. In the process, Frank invites Jack to visit him at home and meet his folks. As Jack leaves the audience in the hands of Don Bestor, his number is again snipped.
The visit at Franks turns into a musical, operetic spoof as Jack meets the musical family. Jack and Mary have some fun with the musical conversation as they hold their own.
Let George Do It was an American radio drama series produced from 1946 to 1954 by Owen and Pauline Vinson. Bob Bailey starred as private investigator George Valentine; Olan Soule voiced the role in 1954. Don Clark directed the scripts by David Victor and Jackson Gillis.
Samson tries to goad his son in to doing what he wants him to do by insulting him and calling him a fool but his son'a response is to run away from home.
Duration: 29:35
Broadcast Date: 24th August 1947
The last time Johnny Dollar saw Tom Pinkley from New Orleans they took in a boxing match and Johnny won $20 from him on an Italian kid who called himself Touchy Tarrantino. That boy was a fighter with a real future, which is why Pinkley covered his losses by selling him a $25000 life policy. However now Pinkley is afraid Tarrantino has no future and suspects the kid is either going to commit suicide or be murdered.
Duration: 23:17
Starring: Bob Readick, Robert Dryden, Joan Loring, Ralph Camargo, Mandel Kramer, Daniel Ocko
Broadcast Date: 12th March 1961
Today the 14th of July a free France celebrate the anniversary of their escape from the tyranny of the kings of their times. On the 14th of July 1789 the people of Paris stormed the Bastille and let loose the French revolution. The torch of liberty set afire that day never burned more fiercely than during the years when France was occupied by the Nazi. We escape tonight to occupied France from which in 1944 there was no escape.
Duration: 31:02
Starring: Jack Webb, Harry Bartell
Broadcast Date: 14th July 1947
At around 11.30am a tall, bald, gray faced and dusty man named Mr. Timothy R. Lazarus visits Sam at his office. He has a remarkable tale of a false insurance claim for $100,000, a hideaway in Mexico, plastic surgery, malaria, a death that didn’t happen, and a return from the dead that nobody wants to believe. How do they fit such a complicated storyline into less than half an hour?
Duration: 28:39
Starring: Howard Duff
Broadcast Date: 12th September 1948
Dan Paterson had left his big dog Shep tied to a post on the main street in the town of Selkirk. The seventeenyear-old boy was in a store when he heard his dog snarling and growling viciously. Dan rushed from the store to see a boy his own age striking Shep with a stick.
Duration: 25:09
Starring: Jay Michael
Broadcast Date: 13th February 1941
Breaking Walls is a once-per-month audio documentary on the history of American Network Radio Broadcasting, focusing on people, places, and events from the Golden Age of Radio.
http://thewallbreakers.com/breaking-walls/
To learn more about James Scully:
http://thewallbreakers.com/jamesscully/
I personally recommend listening to episodes in this order to get the full story of the beginning of Radio Wave, and the beginning of the three major networks NBC, CBS, ABC.
EP75: We Are Echoes—The Birth Of Radio (1887 - 1912)
EP76: Over There—The War for Radio’s Airwaves (1912 - 1922)
EP77: The Birth Of The Radio Networks—From NBC To CBS To Mutual Broadcasting (1922 - 1934)
EP82: Depression, War, And The Birth of ABC (1932 - 1946)
EP83: Sarnoff & Paley: Tainted Friendships, Tall Tales, Talent Raids, and TV (1934 - 1952)
..................
Okay so I'm going to copy and paste from James Scully's page for the high lights .... because truly I can not beat his own words for his own podcast.
Highlights:
• July 2, 1921— Jack Dempsey defends his heavyweight boxing title in front of 80,000 fans as RCA broadcasts the event Closed Circuit to over 300,000 fans. Its the first broadcast of its kind.
• The Radio Craze begins as almost 600 stations sign on in 1922
• Herbert Hoover tries to better organize the radio dial and put small stations out of business
• AT&T’s attempt to monopolize radio broadcasting
• The formation of the National Broadcasting Company
• The Radio Act of 1927
• William S. Paley buys The Columbia Broadcasting System and turns it into a 2nd major network
• Rudy Vallee becomes radio’s first mega-star
• Chicago becomes radio’s 2nd capital
• Hollywood’s radio recording rise in the late 1930s
• The Mutual Broadcasting System is formed—The Shadow debuts
• War, once again, comes to Europe
,....
If you are interested in learning about the history of the Radio; going as far back as learning about the waves that make Radio possible then James is the best person to listen too. He makes learning about the actual beginning of wireless telegraphy; and building the very first radio into a story .... he brings to life the men and the women whom strive to bring the beginning of sharing of information beyond the newspaper; or telegraph. He uses background music and sounds that is highly fitting for the time period.
Golden Boy is the story of Joe Boneparte, a story that begins in the small cheaply furnished office of the fight manager Tom Moody. It begins with him and his girlfriend Lorna. Joe is a young and good fighter who wins but who won’t slug for fear of breaking his hands and ruining his true passion in life.
Duration: 30:39
Starring: John Garfield
Broadcast Date: 8th October 1946
Guest - Jack Teagarden
Guest - Bob Cosby
----- There are only two surviving recordings so I combined them. ----
When Maisie stepped in to a hamburger joint leaving her two suitcases parked on the sidewalk she ends up with a fine from Officer Riley. It seems that this hick town is full of crazy laws when she tries to contest the fine she only makes it worse and ends up with fines totalling $50.
Duration: 28:16
Starring: Ann Sothern
Broadcast Date: 9th February 1950
Starring Robert Young. The Anderson Kids are all down in the dumps at the thought of going back to school after the summer vacation but not so Mrs. Anderson, she’s concerned that Father has done something to the house. Jim assures her that there’s nothing to worry about; he hasn’t done anything, well nothing much really!
Duration: 29:36
Starring: Robert Young
Broadcast Date: 7th September 1950
In the first of all the Sherlock Holmes stories, Dr. John Watson, discharged from military service after suffering severe wounds, is at a loose end until a chance encounter leads him to take rooms with a remarkable young man. The arrogant, irracible Sherlock Holmes is a master chemist, a talented musician and an expert on all aspects of crime. And when Watson is drawn into the investigation of a bizarre murder in which Holmes is involved, he is unaware that it is the beginning of the most famous partnership in the history of criminal detection.
--- this is the BBC Radio Presents version ---
In the days of the old west early fall was the time of the big cattle drives from Texas ranches to the railheads in Kansas. One such drive suckled up Wild Bill Hickok and his deputy Jingles in some real trail herd trouble.
Duration: 24:36
Starring: Guy Madison
Broadcast Date: 22nd of July 1951
Grover Cleveland was the Twenty-Second President of the United States and served in the White House from 1885-1889. He was the only President to leave the White House and return for a second term four years later to become the Twenty-Fourth President from 1893-1897. The event in this episode occurred in 1893 during his second term.
Duration: 29:38
Starring: Edward Arnold
Broadcast Date: 3rd July 1947
Hilarious comedy sketches and skit takes and quick fire banter with special guests. Also features music and singing from various artists.
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Red Skelton
Broadcast Date: 5th May, 1942
Written by Charles Dickens The Trial For Murder is the strange story as related by Hugh Trilani a juror on the trial of Peter Cook for the murder of John Talbot, to the prosecutor of the trial. Trilani has found that of all those involved in the trial he alone can see and hear the ghost of the murdered man. As foreman of the jury his questions have revealed important evidence against the defendant, Peter Cook.
Author: Charles Elster Collins.
Duration: 28:23
Broadcast Date: 30th April 1944
A mysterious tale involving young boys who are falling off a one-thousand foot cliff, a pack of vicious hounds, a haggard old witch-like hag called Old Sadie and Jake, her hunchbacked son. When the fourth boy vanishes, assumed to have fallen off the cliff top like the other boys, Lamont is suspicious and decides to look into the matter.
Duration: 29:05
Starring: Orson Welles
Broadcast Date: 20 February 1938
Mary and Bernice are working late in the script room when Mary gets a little spooked by the Lights Out script they are typing up. Her imagination runs away with her when their typewriters suddenly jam and the lights in the office go off. . .
Duration: 23:07
Starring: Arch Oboler
Broadcast Date: 11th May 1943
Harry Lime: “I’ve messed around in a lot of messy things, you know me I’m certainly no angel but I never had anything to do with murder and dope or blackmail except just once, with blackmail that is. Not my fault either as I think you’ll agree but all the same I’m sorry to have ever come within breathing distance of that caper because as several people during the course of this little story had occasion to point out, blackmail is a nasty word”.
Duration: 28:51
Starring: Orson Welles
Broadcast Date: 13th June 1952
Pete is a booking agent, flesh peddlers as agents are sometimes unkindly called. But he doesn’t peddle flesh, he sells talent, singers, musicians and nightclub acts. He’s pretty good at it and when he finds a new act that’s got talent he goes after it until it is his, only the ventriloquist team of Wilson and Oliver he wishes he’d never heard of them and then he could sleep better nights. . .
Duration: 29:48
Starring: DeForest Kelley
Broadcast Date: 4th August 1957
This episode of The Thin Man entitled Murder In The Record Shop was actually presented by the Mystery Playhouse. When Nick and Nora Charles discover a woman murdered in a record shop, of course Nora cannot mind her own business and they become involved in solving the case.
Duration: 29:10
Starring: Claudia Morgan
Broadcast Date: Not known
Dudley Haines is an architect who thinks that the bank that is handling his bid might try to put something over on him and The Lion calls Jeff Regan in to investigate.
Duration: 30:58
Starring: Jack Webb
Broadcast Date: 28th August 1948
A Pitch In Time is the very unusual story of a baseball game that was held up by foul play. Hank Harper was young and handsome and he trusted everyone and just why he became a policeman no one in Spencer Town could understand and after the initial surprise was over, no one cared. It was beautiful Sunday afternoon just the right kind of a day for the annual baseball game between the police and the firemen.
Duration: 30:01
Starring: Ann Thomas
Broadcast Date: 7th August 1947
As Nick Carter was walking along minding his own business a man stopped him and asked for directions only to then hold him up with a gun and demand his wallet. Carter recognized the gun as fake straight away and challenged the man who then confessed he didn’t normally do this sort of thing but was desperate as he was out of work and recently married. Nick Carter decided not to hand him over to the police and instead went home with him only to discover how desperate he and his wife had become.
Duration: 29:07
Starring: Lon Clark
Broadcast Date: 8th January 1944
Breaking Walls is a once-per-month audio documentary on the history of American Network Radio Broadcasting, focusing on people, places, and events from the Golden Age of Radio.
http://thewallbreakers.com/
To find out more about James Scully:
http://thewallbreakers.com/jamesscully/
I personally recommend listening to episodes in this order to get the full story of the beginning of Radio Wave, and the beginning of the three major networks NBC, CBS, ABC.
EP75: We Are Echoes—The Birth Of Radio (1887 - 1912)
EP76: Over There—The War for Radio’s Airwaves (1912 - 1922)
EP77: The Birth Of The Radio Networks—From NBC To CBS To Mutual Broadcasting (1922 - 1934)
EP82: Depression, War, And The Birth of ABC (1932 - 1946)
EP83: Sarnoff & Paley: Tainted Friendships, Tall Tales, Talent Raids, and TV (1934 - 1952)
..................
Okay so I'm going to copy and paste from James Scully's page for the high lights .... because truly I can not beat his own words for his own podcast.
Highlights:
• How the Titanic’s Sinking changed Guglielmo Marconi’s business
• The Radio Act of 1912 – What it portended
• Charles Herrold and KCBS San Francisco
• Lee Deforest sells out to AT&T
• Edwin Howard Armstrong invents regeneration, and later the superheterodyne receiver
• War comes to Europe
• The Navy takes over wireless
• How World War I caused radio technology to boom
• AT&T, Westinghouse, General Electric, and the newly formed RCA make a deal
• David Sarnoff’s Rise to power
• KDKA and the birth of regular broadcasting
.....
If you are interested in learning about the history of the Radio; going as far back as learning about the waves that make Radio possible then James is the best person to listen too. He makes learning about the actual beginning of wireless telegraphy; and building the very first radio into a story .... he brings to life the men and the women whom strive to bring the beginning of sharing of information beyond the newspaper; or telegraph. He uses background music and sounds that is highly fitting for the time period.
Tonight we escape with the story of the murderous priests of a weird cult, hidden in the barren desert of Mexico. . .
Duration: 27:46
Starring: William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 18th August 1950
For a change Ozzie has put himself out on a limb. Instead of taking the antique vase, which is Harriett’s pride and joy out to the garage he’s decide to save himself some physical labor in the future by following that old slogan out of sight out of mind and we find him going to Mr McQueen’s antique shop to sell the vase which he finds so hideous.
Duration: 29:57
Starring: Harriet Hilliard Nelson, Ozzie Nelson, Bea Benaderet, Louise Erickson
Broadcast Date: 12th August 1945
Bob Lamb was engaged to be married to Evelyn and then for no apparent reason she called it off. Everything was fine until her uncle Professor Gardener killed himself and now she was going to marry Ed Macklin her uncle’s assistant. Even more puzzling Bob could think of no reason that the professor would want to kill himself. That’s why he contacted Dan Holliday at Box 13 to investigate.
Duration: 26:31
Starring: Alan Ladd
Broadcast Date: 9th January 1949
How often have you had that strange experience that makes you say it seems like all this has happened to me before? Psychologists call that phenomenon prevision and this story explores an experience in prevision and will hold you spellbound up to its stunning and fearful finish.
Duration: 29:31
Starring: Robert Cummings, Rosalind Russell, Fred MacMurray, Loretta Young
Broadcast Date: 14th August 1949
He is the epitome of the word "mad scientist." This top scientist doesn't care whether his inventions have already vastly altered the world, all that he cares about is the vast amount of knowledge that he acquires in his research. What the world sees as a destructive weapon is nothing more but a mere scribble of equations for him. The world is starting to reach a crucial point when human knowledge has become dangerous and unwise. A satellite rocket has been circling the earth for three months and has little chance of ever coming back. Dr Andersons’s brother Edward was onboard the ship and wrote a message before he died which said, “if I should wake before I die…” and there it ended…
Duration: 29:37
Starring: Don Briggs, Ernest Chappell
Broadcast Air Date: February 27, 1949
Tuning up his violin, Jack breaks a string, and needs to get a new one. Taking a walk, since the Maxwell is broken down, Jack greets people on the street. Namely a French nurse maid, a baby, but will they believe that Jack can get them into the movies? In the music store, Jack ponders where he'd be without his success in radio and TV.
It’s only natural for a member of the bird watchers society even when he’s a professional statistician like Dr. Wormsley to be watching starlings on a penthouse roof. But when instead his binoculars reveal one man pushing another off that self same roof that is just sort of the case George valentine would get involved in.
Duration: 29:31
Starring: Bob Bailey, Frances Robinson, Wally Maher
Broadcast Date: 19th April 1948
Breaking Walls is a once-per-month audio documentary on the history of American Network Radio Broadcasting, focusing on people, places, and events from the Golden Age of Radio.
http://thewallbreakers.com/
To find out more about James Scully:
http://thewallbreakers.com/jamesscully/
I personally recommend listening to episodes in this order to get the full story of the beginning of Radio Wave, and the beginning of the three major networks NBC, CBS, ABC.
EP75: We Are Echoes—The Birth Of Radio (1887 - 1912)
EP76: Over There—The War for Radio’s Airwaves (1912 - 1922)
EP77: The Birth Of The Radio Networks—From NBC To CBS To Mutual Broadcasting (1922 - 1934)
EP82: Depression, War, And The Birth of ABC (1932 - 1946)
EP83: Sarnoff & Paley: Tainted Friendships, Tall Tales, Talent Raids, and TV (1934 - 1952)
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Okay so I'm going to copy and paste from James Scully's page for the high lights .... because truly I can not beat his own words for his own podcast.
Highlights:
• Why the Blizzard of 1888 played such an important role in the need for wireless telegraphy
• Who Was Heinrich Hertz? What experiment made him the father of Hertzian Waves?
• What Oliver Lodge, Nikola Tesla, Alexander Graham Bell, and Amos DollBear have in common
• Guglielmo Marconi, father of
• The benefits to wireless telegraphy
• David Sarnoff — His start between 1900 – 1906
• Why the press want to get involved
• Lee Deforest — Inventor, Fraud, or both?
• What incredibly important event happened in December of 1901 in New Foundland
• Why the American Government wanted to regulate wireless telegraphy
• Reginald Fessenden, Christmas Eve, Oh Holy Night, and Brant Rock
• The Titanic Disaster — How it changed wireless telegraphy forever
• The Radio Box Memo
• What’s next?
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If you are interested in learning about the history of the Radio; going as far back as learning about the waves that make Radio possible then James is the best person to listen too. He makes learning about the actual beginning of wireless telegraphy; and building the very first radio into a story .... he brings to life the men and the women whom strive to bring the beginning of sharing of information beyond the newspaper; or telegraph. He uses background music and sounds that is highly fitting for the time period.
Cathy Lewis begins by thanking the listeners for the cards and best wishes they have received for their wedding anniversary!
John Bradford rings District Attorney Dale Christian to tell him that Helen Randal Dudley has been found and arrested. Apparently Mrs Dudley’s husband Roger Aimes Dudley has been found dead and a coroners report shows it as a result of wounds inflicted by Mrs Dudley with a hatchet. Further evidence points towards Mrs Dudley being guilty and Mr Christian needs to determine what plea can be made on her behalf. Mrs Dudley asks him what will happen supposing she doesn’t admit anything. Story written by: E. Jack Neuman
Duration: 29:37
Starring: Cathy Lewis, Elliott Lewis, Jack Kruschen, Tyler McVey, Truda Marson, Joseph Kearns, Byron Kane
Broadcast Date: 14th May 1953
Suffolk England in 1676 and Roger Nems is playing croquet with his cousin John and friend Guy Marcy. The sound you will hear is that of Guy Macy hitting Roger Nems on the head with his mallet and killing him. So here is Thomas Hyland connoisseur of crime, student of violence, and teller of murders report on Roger Nems and how he, though dead won the game.
Duration: 27:29
Starring: Lou Merrill, Ben Wright, Alistair Duncan, Richard Peel, Betty Harford, Gary Montgomery, Ellen Morgan
Broadcast Date: 3rd March 1954
Ellery Queen begins by dedicating this program to the fight against crime. Not merely crimes of violence and crimes of dishonesty but crimes of intolerance, discrimination, and bad citizenship, crimes against America. He then tells us the story of a mysterious international figure suspected of diamond smuggling.
Duration: 29:28
Starring: Hugh Marlowe
Broadcast Date: 7th September 1947
This is the audition show for Halls of Ivy in which Gale Gordon and actress Edna Best were originally cast as Dr William Todhunter Hall, the Ivy college president and his English Theatre actress wife formerly Victoria Cromwell. The story is the same as the first episode of Halls of Ivy entitled “Reappointment” starring Mr and Ronald Coleman in the title roles. We are all familiar with the Coleman’s as The Halls but Gordon and Best played superb roles. Fantastic!
Duration: 32:23
Starring: Gale Gordon, Edna Best
Broadcast Date: 22nd June 1949
Private Jobey Turler’s horse Belle Shannon was 11 years old and lame but she meant more to him than just a form of transport to be changed. When he found she was on the remount order list Jobey appealed to Captain Quincy. Understanding what she meant to him, Quincy agreed to take her off the order for the time being.
Duration: 28:14
Starring: Raymond Burr, Harry Bartell, Lawrence Dobkin, Barney Phillips
Broadcast Date: 3rd June 1956
Draw close your chair and if there are no faint hearts among us we’ll begin tonight’s tale of terror.
Three doctors have told Elwood Fitch that he has only a year to live unless he moves to Arizona but Elwood doesn’t know how he would make a living there. While driving home from a movie with his wife he ran a red light at speed and hit a man killing him. Elwood believes that no one saw them and he does not want to spend his last year in prison for manslaughter so they flee the scene.
The dead man turns out to be an underworld character named Stenga. Later a man named Chandler who was sitting in his car and saw the whole thing turns up and blackmails Elwood threatening to shop him to the police.
Elwood discovers that when you only have a year to live you act totally out of character.
Duration: 28:51
Starring: Santos Ortega, Paul McGrath, Mary Bennett
Broadcast Date: 7th May 1946
In class Miss Spalding explains that their street is 50 years old this year. Luigi suggests that it would be a good idea to have a block pary so that the neighbors can get to know each other but Pasquale the “head of the block” or as Luige puts it the “block head” won’t donate the food unless Luigi marries his daughter Rosa. Oh no, it looks like there isn’t going to be a party!
Duration: 29:20
Starring: J. Carrol Naish
Broadcast Date: 1st May 1949
Richard Rogue was extremely busy when Mrs Eccle a little old lady called in for his help concerning her granddaughter. Mrs Eccle reminded him so much of the grandma he spent so much of his youth with that he couldn’t resist helping her. When Rogue went round to the girl’s apartment there was no answer so he went in only to find a girl dead.
Duration: 30:15
Starring: Dick Powell
Broadcast Date: 18th October 1945
Our story tonight takes us to Brooklyn New York. Brooklyn is a quiet little place at the end of a bridge, it is noted for its cemetaries, a tree that grows there and its baseball club, the Dodgers. Now Brooklyn is also the home of an assortment of rather odd characters not the least of whom is Aubery Piper played by Fred Allen. Aubery has recently blown in to the Fisher home as the suiter of daughter Amy and you can tell exactly what the rest of the family feels about him if you listen to what mother Fisher has to say. . .
Duration: 30:14
Starring: Fred Allen
Broadcast Date: 21st January 1945
Orchids don’t grow up overnight. They have to be carefully planted, tended, watered and watched and the same thing goes for murder. Take Zavros’ Flower shop minutes after Archie Goodwin got that phone call for Nero Wolfe. . .
Duration: 29:07
Starring: Sydney Greenstreet
Broadcast Date: 29th December 1950
“The big gun in his hand turned over and over. He leaned his face close to mine hissing softly between his teeth it was a face that held all the evil in the world, a kind that gets up close when somebody’s gonna die. Suddenly everything shattered in front of me like a bulb smashed against a rock. I got the last funny flash Michael Shayne, a guy head deep in nothing. . . ”
Duration: 26:27
Starring: Jeff Chandler, William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 25th September 1948
Good question: should they?
Duration: 29:03
Starring: Jimmy Durante
Broadcast Date: 16th June 1948
Carrying a trunk with mysterious contents to be dumped overboard, two sisters soon discover that the ship they've boarded is mysterious as well..
There is a man loitering outside the Broderick Private Detective Agency. He looks strange, but very intelligent, like a professor. His name is Mr. Grapheus, and he has come to New York to locate the Martian Embassy and the agents of the government of the planet Mars. Broderick obviously believes him to be a crackpot, until he hands him a document, an authentic 5th century note. .
Duration: 29:13
Starring: Norman Rose
Broadcast Date: 3rd June 1950
Doc wants to speak to Matt. There has been some trouble between a man and his lady, known by the name Tebbs. Doc had popped around to their house to introduce himself. But, when he got there, the man was lying on the bed with a knife wound to his leg. Doc thinks that the lady is trying to kill him. . .
Duration: 23:48
Starring: William Conrad
Broadcast Date: 5th February 1956
The story that Dr. Watson is about to relate is a Cornish horror known as the Adventure of the Devils Foot. It was spring of the year 1897 Holmes iron constitution had shown some signs of giving way due to some particular arduous nerve-racking winter. In March of that year Dr. Moore Aver of Harley Street positive injunctions that Holmes get out in to the country and the third week in March found Dr Watson and Holmes in a small cottage on a grassy headland on the Cornish peninsular. One morning their peace was violently interrupted and they were precipitated into the mysterious series of nerve shattering events. . .
Duration: 24:54
Starring: Richard Gordon, Leigh Lovel
Broadcast Date: 30th May 1936
Abbott’s the coach of the Yanks for as long as Costello is on the team and you know nowadays they give the players strange names such as Who and What!
Duration: 30:00
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello
Broadcast Date: 18th June 1947
:Someone is trying to jump out of a window and that scene triggers a crowd of photographers. While taking the pictures, a person seems to be always getting in the way of a photographer which makes him yell "13 and 8" to warn all the photographers around to be on their guard for that person. But that photographer can't prove the existence of that person because he doesn't show up on his photos. This is a typical "the boy who cried wolf" story, but with a twist of horror.
Duration: 29:34
Broadcast Date: April 26, 1948
Sadly there is no summary for this episode.
Starring: Eve Arden, Jeff Chandler, Gale Gordon, Jane Morgan, Richard Crenna, Gloria McMillan, Leonard Smith
Duration: 29:18
RECORDING NOTE: While audible there is a lot of hiss on this 1930 recording.
This playlet is offered as a tribute to the men who served in World War I. It is a story of a reunion of friends who served together at Dunkirk. It brings a picture of what actually happened along the many miles of frontline trenches when word was received that the World War was over. It was written by an American army officer who was there.
Duration: 27:48
Starring: Harvey Hays
Broadcast Date: 11th November 1930
Blackstone’s newest addition to his magic studio is an organ and of course there’s a story behind its acquisition. Helen was a friend of Rhoda’s and when her husband was shot she asked Blackstone if there was anything he could do. . .
Duration: 12:41
Starring: Ed Jerome
Broadcast Date: 21st November 1948
There is no summary for this play: so we are getting some background history of the Mercury Theater.
Mercury Theatre. The Mercury Theatre was an independent repertory theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and producer John Houseman. The company produced theatrical presentations, radio programs and motion pictures.
The Mercury Theatre began with a groundbreaking, critically acclaimed adaption of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar that evoked comparison to contemporary Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
The Mercury Theatre on the Air was an hour-long program. Houseman wrote the early scripts for the series, turning the job over to Howard E. Koch at the beginning of October. Music for the program was composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann.
The beginnings of The Mercury Theatre on the Air actually go back to the formation of The Mercury Theatre itself. Having successfully produced Marc Blitzstein’s controversial labor union opera, The Cradle Will Rock, for the Federal Theatre Project in June of 1937, John Houseman and the 21-year-old “boy wonder” of the theatre, Orson Welles, decided to form their own theatrical producing company. In August of that same year The Mercury Theatre was born, starting off with total monetary assets of $100 (about $1150 in modern funds). Their first production, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, adapted by Mr. Welles (and set in fascist Italy), opened in New York on November 11 and created as much controversy as the young producers had hoped; The Mercury Theatre (along with the widespread public recognition of Orson Welles) was off and running.
By this time Orson Welles was already a radio veteran, having made frequent appearances on The March of Time as early as 1935 and, in fact, at the time of The Mercury Theatre’s formation, was engaged in a seven-part dramatization of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, which was airing on Friday evenings between July and September of 1937 over the Mutual Broadcasting System. Although not officially a Mercury (the series had been airing for a few weeks before The Mercury even came into existence), several actors who were to become fixtures of The Mercury Theatre of the Air such as Martin Gabel, Alice Frost, Ray Collins, Virginia Welles (Mrs. Orson Welles), Agnes Moorehead, and Everett Sloane, appeared in the program, which Mr. Welles produced, directed, scripted, and starred in.
The proverbial "Little Old Lady" reports a little old knife killing that never really gets solved. An elderly widow calls the police to report the murder of her female lodger.
Quality – Good - sound drops slightly at 5:15
Duration: 29:08
Starring: Staats Cotsworth, Lesley Woods, John Gibson, Eva Condon
Broadcast Date: 7th March 1947
The French artillery officer Captain Alfred Dreyfus is wrongfully convicted of communicating French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris, initiating a political scandal that rocks the Third Republic.
---- Important Information ----
The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal that divided the Third French Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francophone world, and it remains one of the most notable examples of a complex miscarriage of justice and antisemitism. The role played by the press and public opinion proved influential in the conflict.
A scandal that rocked France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Dreyfus affair involved a Jewish artillery captain in the French army, Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), who was falsely convicted of passing military secrets to the Germans. In 1894, after a French spy at the German Embassy in Paris discovered a ripped-up letter in a waste basket with handwriting said to resemble that of Dreyfus, he was court-martialed, found guilty of treason and sentenced to life behind bars on Devil’s Island off of French Guiana. In a public ceremony in Paris following his conviction, Dreyfus had the insignia torn from his uniform and his sword broken and was paraded before a crowd that shouted, “Death to Judas, death to the Jew.”
In 1896, the new head of the army’s intelligence unit, Georges Picquart, uncovered evidence pointing to another French military officer, Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, as the real traitor. However, when Picquart told his bosses what he’d discovered he was discouraged from continuing his investigation, transferred to North Africa and later imprisoned. Nevertheless, word about Esterhazy’s possible guilt began to circulate. In 1898, he was court-martialed but quickly found not guilty; he later fled the country. After Esterhazy’s acquittal, a French newspaper published an open letter titled “J’Accuse…!” by well-known author Emile Zola in which he defended Dreyfus and accused the military of a major cover-up in the case. As a result, Zola was convicted of libel, although he escaped to England and later managed to return to France.
The Dreyfus affair deeply divided France, not just over the fate of the man at its center but also over a range of issues, including politics, religion and national identity. In 1899, Dreyfus was court-martialed for a second time and found guilty. Although he was pardoned days later by the French president, it wasn’t until 1906 that Dreyfus officially was exonerated and reinstated in the army.
Starring: Winston Burdett, Walter Cronkite, Don Hollenbeck, Edward P. Morgan, E.G. Marshall, Frances Reid
When Miss Van Allan’s aunt Emma dies she leaves her entire estate to her beloved cat Stanley with a weekly stipend of $500 to be paid to a distance niece Mrs Bird from Brooklyn whom she referred to as the only member of her family who never asked her for money in return for her for taking care of the cat. Mrs Bird will only receive the money whilst Stanley is in her care and Miss Van Allan is none too happy. When Stanley goes missing the chase is on to find him and become the benefactor.
Duration: 28:38
Starring: Larry Haines, Ann Thomas
Broadcast Date: 12th October 1952
“Frontier Town eh? Yes, I guess that’s what most folks would call Dos Rios, a frontier town, loud and lusty, tough and tumbling like a score of other frontier towns, El Paso, Cheyenne, Tombstone. The only difference probably is the name of the town, Dos Rios, Spanish for two rivers. My name is Remington, Chad Remington, born in Dos Rios twenty odd years ago, reared there until I went upstate to school to study law. And I wouldn’t have come back I guess if I hadn’t got word that my father was found murdered, murdered in cold blood. . . ”
Duration: 30:21
Starring: Jeff Chandler
Broadcast Date: 26th September 1952
It was early on January morning and Detective Danny Clover had not even had time for his coffee or paper before a call came in to get down to St Anthony’s Hospital. Sister Angela was waiting to see him; it appeared that her patient Jimmy Hunt had committed suicide with a steak knife from his dinner plate. However, further inspection confirmed that it was murder.
Duration: 29:00
Starring: Larry Thor
Broadcast Date: 03 February 1950
The first three expeditions to Mars left Earth in a mushroom of flames arched through the atmosphere and finally dwindled to tiny specks on the big eye of mount pelimars telescope and then were lost to the eye altogether. Prearranged landing signals flashed back to Earth and the radios went dead. One after the other ships had disappeared and were never heard of again. But still the rockets came. The fourth expedition emerged from the silent gulfs of faith and angled down towards the floating red bits of Mars down into orbit as the order came to land. A story by Ray Bradbury which is the same as the one done by Dimension X and broadcast 1950.09.29.
Duration: 23:53
Starring: John Larkin Broadcast
Date: 22nd April 1955
Let Me Do The Talking is based on the novel by Richard Mayland. It is a behind the scenes inside the agents portrait of the literary business and its main concern is the young man who came to be known as the agent Gabriel. Charles Gabriel Bachelor moves with the speed of light through publishing and promotional circles.
Duration: 58:41
Starring: John Garfield, Mercedes McCambridge
Broadcast Date: 11th November 1947
Henry is walking down his street on his way home when the police stop him. It seems that a murderer has been hiding out in the boarding house next to their apartment and the police have the whole area surrounded. Henry goes to phone his wife and son Johnny to tell them why he is late home and to tell them to stay safe at home but something in her voice worries him. He fears that the murderer Roy Jelescoe may be in their apartment.
Duration: 22:35
Starring: John Forsythe, Anthony Ross
Broadcast Date: 15th March 1951
Gildy has won a canary named Napoleon in a raffle, but for some reason the bird won't sing. Gildy and Leroy head to the library to find a book on canaries and get into trouble.
Duration: 29:50
Starring: Harold Peary
Broadcast Date: 30th November 1941
My Man Godfrey is the comedy story of an eccentric rich family and all begins with a game of “scavenger hunt” in which you have to find something that nobody wants. Miss Irene, flighty socialite heiress finds Godfrey a down-and-out “forgotten man” at a dump and feeling sorry about the way her family ridiculed him she hires him as the family butler. His humility, honesty, directness and outlook have him teaching the whole family a thing or two about life.
Duration: 55:53
Broadcast Date: 9th May 1938
Coney Island Nocturne is the very absorbing story of fingers that were nailed by death. When Mike Donahue brought Helen O’Malley to Coney Island for an evening of fun he had only the best intentions, naturally, he was an officer of the law, a detective and she was his fiancee. ´ But three hours later as they stood in the middle of a crowded noisy carnival street they were faced with a crisis of catastrophic proportions.
Duration: 28:58
Starring: Joan Alexander
Broadcast Date: 10th July 1947
The FBI was after four men and one woman in the vicinity of Park Dale after they abandoned their getaway car following a hold-up. Meantime tension is building between the gang members.
Duration: 28:06
Starring: Larry Haines Broadcast
Date: 14th September 1950
The Randolph’s are having a party with a difference, It’s a come as you are party. The rules dictate that when they receive the phone call sometime in the afternoon from Joe Randolph they have to drop everything and come as they are even if they have their old clothes on or just their underwear. Ozzie decides he’s not getting caught out in his old pyjama’s like last year and is going to put on his best suit and sit in it all afternoon.
Duration: 25:16
Starring: Ozzie Nelson, Harriet Hilliard Nelson
Broadcast Date: 19th February 1954
Bill Stern brings you the 340th edition of the Colgate Shave Cream Sports Newsreel featuring strange and fantastic stories, some legends others mere hearsay but all so interesting. Guest tonight in person is the famous football star of the Washington Redskin’s Sammy Baugh.
Duration: 14:03
Starring: Bill Stern
Broadcast Date: 10th May 1946
When David Grant passes Miss Newton a neighbor of his that morning and greets her by saying Good morning and good luck and shortly afterwards she is bestowed with good luck she decides to make a business proposition to him. She has a hunch that if he buys a sweepstake ticket with her they’d be lucky partners and could stand to win $150,000.
Duration: 29:16
Starring: Herbert Marshall, Jane Wyman, Sheldon Leonard, Will Wright
Broadcast Date: 17th December 1941
As Pat Novak leaves his office an old man is mowed down by a car on the corner of the street. Pat bent over the old man and turned him on his back. He was breathing heavily and asked Novak to help him. He has two envelopes one is money which he offers to Novak the other is to be kept sealed and given to John St. John but before the man can explain any more he takes his last breath of air and dies.
Duration: 30:44
Starring: Jack Webb
Broadcast Date: 21st May 1949
Charles Sylvester Braden II, a rich boy from New York, falls in love with a not so rich young lady who lives in a rooming house on New York’s west side. His father does not approve and when she rebuffs his proposal of marriage he shoots her and then commits suicide. An unethical photographic journalist is the first to the scene and captures the dead bodies on film, but by the time he gets back to the newspaper office he finds out from his boss that young Braden’s body has vanished from the scene and it now looks like a simple suicide. The hack decides not to tell his boss about the pictures and instead use them to blackmail Braden senior.
Duration: 24:48
Starring: Les Damon
Broadcast Date: 19th November 1950