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[josemas]

Narf recently made the suggestion that someone start a topic along these lines and since no one else has jumped on it I reckon I might as well get it goin'!

I figure I'll mainly be talking about OTR episodes I've been checking out but the column title is open enough that I guess we can chime in about music or any other notable audio experiences.

Anyway without further ado here's what I've been getting into recently regarding OTR (Old Time Radio).

I listened to a collection of The Burns and Allen Show from Radio Spirits that I checked out of the library which contained all of the surviving episodes of the 1940 "Gracie Allen for President" sequence.  Also included were a couple of appearances that Gracie made on other radio shows (The Jack Benny Show and Fibber McGee and Molly) during the course of her "campaign." 
I find that the more I read about history the more I enjoy many of these old comedy and variety shows because now I'm "getting" many of the topical references that went over my head when I was younger.

I also listened to a couple of Radio Spirit collections of The Shadow that the library recently got in.  Both collections had a number of episodes that I had never heard before including some neat early Orson Welles episodes that only turned up in the last few years.

Another set that I recently started is a neat Radio Spirits collection The Green Hornet: Spies and Rackets that contains quite a few rare Hornet episodes.  There are 20 episodes (on 10 discs) containing a nearly complete run of wartime episodes from May to October 1944.   I'd only heard a couple of the episodes on this collection before and was under the impression, that like a number of wartime shows, many were considered lost.  I don't know where they tuned these up but I'm glad they did.  One that occasionally cracked me was the episode "Dope Versus the War Effort" (June 20, 1944) where the actor playing the "dope fiend" seems to have taken his cue from Dave O'Brien's giggling over-the-top performance in the cult classic movie Reefer Madness.

Besides the above collections I've also been going to my favorite OTR site- The Old Time Radio Researchers Group- to listen to shows from their OTRR library.   

http://www.otrrlibrary.org/

The site is kind of like GAC and DCM in that it collects PD OTR and makes it available for others to listen to. They've currently got over 61,000 episodes on hand (which at one episode per day should only take me about a zillion years to get through)! 
I've been checking out some of the early episodes of the 1950-1952 NBC series Night Beat starring Frank Lovejoy as investigative reporter Randy Stone.  I like the episodes I've heard so far.
Also because I like to listen to musical shows while working on the computer I've recently been listening to several 1933 episodes of The Kraft Music Hall when it was being hosted by the King of Jazz himself, Paul Whiteman.  In fact one episode is just finishing up right now as I type this.

Anyway I'm always looking for suggestions about other shows that might be of interest so feel free to chime in.

Best

Joe

[profh0011]

I haven't done it in ages, but back in the 90's I was collecting a lot of tapes of radio shows, or "books-on-tape", mostly of SHERLOCK HOLMES.  In addition to his famous radio show of the 40's, Basil Rathbone also did some dramatic readings in the early 60's. The slightly bizarre thing about this is, as the stories are "narrated" by Dr. Watson, this means Rathbone was "doing" Dr. Watson.  On the first set (2 stories, "The Speckled Band" and "The Final Problem") he read everything in his regular voice. But on the later ones, he did "voices".  His voice for the narrator was slightly different than that of Holmes, but when he did Watson, he did an amazing impression of Nigel Bruce!  (For him, who else?)

Along the same lines, Christpher Lee did a reading of "THE VALLEY OF FEAR", one of the stories Jeremy Brett never got around to. This was somewhat mind-blowing, as Lee did multiple voices throughout the entire book, with various accents, and if you didn't know it was ALL HIM, you'd never guess. (He was that good!)

The other year some fan sent me (in trade for some rare TV soundtrack music), a disc with a large number of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P.Lovecraft stories.  Some were dramatic readings, a couple, I believe, were old radio shows.  A few of them were read by Vincent Price!

A few months back, I downloaded a LONE RANGER radio episode, entitled "Ghost Riders", about a gang of crooks whose gimmick was very similar to that of US Marshal Rex Fury's (the original western GHOST RIDER).

I've also got on my computer (but haven't gotten to listening yet) a book-on-tape of DR. NO.  I read the book back in the 70's, and always felt it was vastly superior to the movie, which unfortunately eliminated most of the mystery in the first 10 minutes, and cut out all the heavy-duty "weird" stuff near the end of the story. The newspaper strip did a more faithful adaptation, so I'm looking forward to enjoying the book again.  Over the years, the movie has steadily grown on me, it's now one of my favorites, mostly because Connery is SO GOOD in it. But it still doesn't touch the book.

[bowers]

An awful lot of really good free entertainment out there. When I'm puttering about in the basement or garage, I find that an episode of "The Whistler" or "Escape" is the perfect companion. For the drive to work, "The Shadow", "The Saint" or "Terry and the Pirates" can make the travel time fly by. In the U.S., we had "CBS Mystery Theater" up until the 1980s or so- some very well-written and performed plays. Several of these are available at the Internet Archive. A few years ago, PBS  did an homage to old time radio with a broadcast of "The Lost World" starring John DeLancey ("Q" from Star Trek). This television broadcast was set in a studio with the actors reading from scripts, sound effects people with tables full of fun and noisy stuff, and, I believe, there was a live audience. Lotsa fun! Cheers, Bowers 

[Ratty]

The Saint with Vincent Price, some of the best stuff available on archive.org

[narfstar]

I do not think I have listened to The Saint yet. So much free stuff to watch, read and listen to

[profh0011]

I heard a few episodes of THE SAINT decades ago.  I would never have pictured Vincent Price for that role... and yet, if I ignore what he looks like, and just listen to his voice and personality, he actually comes CLOSER to the character in the book than probably every other actor who's ever played the part!  (Must be the writing.)

[Ratty]

I do not think I have listened to The Saint yet. So much free stuff to watch, read and listen to

You should give it a try when you have the time. It may be a little more gothic than the rest of the series but "The Hawthorn House Mystery" would be a great episode to start with I think.
http://www.archive.org/details/TheSaintVincentPriceOTR

I heard a few episodes of THE SAINT decades ago.  I would never have pictured Vincent Price for that role... and yet, if I ignore what he looks like, and just listen to his voice and personality, he actually comes CLOSER to the character in the book than probably every other actor who's ever played the part!  (Must be the writing.)

One of the reviewers on archive.org said as much about getting the characterization right. Unfortunately I've only had the chance to read one Saint story and that years ago, so I couldn't comment on faithfulness to the source. While the writing is superb (in all the episodes I've listened to) I wouldn't downplay Vincent Price's natural charisma and sheer acting talent when considering what makes The Saint so rich on radio. If I recall correctly there are some episodes with another man playing Simon in the list, might make for an interesting comparison.
I know what you mean about Price not matching the ST image though, maybe I'll read some of the comics available on the site to make him look more like he was originally intended in my minds eye. One of the cool little things you'll notice at the end of some episodes is the announcer advertising the comic books.

PS- Duplicate episodes are included in the archive.org upload, so you might want to try and find a list of those as the names are (slightly) different. Since I noticed at least one or two instances where a bright and clear episode also had a muffled and inferior version uploaded. And you'd of course want to listen to the former given a choice.

[narfstar]

Price had a voice made for radio as did Wells and others

[josemas]

If I recall correctly there are some episodes with another man playing Simon in the list, might make for an interesting comparison.

That could well be Tom Conway, who played The Falcon in the movies and who was the brother of George Sanders (who played both The Saint and The Falcon in the movies).
Conway played The Saint on radio in the early 1950s, taking over the role from Price.  Back in the 1940s Conway had also taken over the role of Sherlock Holmes on radio when Basil Rathbone left the series.

Best

Joe

[paw broon]

I listen occasionally to OTR and I got a new laptop recently and installed a Zone Alarm firewall which gave me a radio button on the bar with umpteen choices.  I also have some Green Hornet and Shadow episodes that I enjoy but my favourite is Journey Into Space, the set of BBC radio serials by Charles Chilton.  There are 3 different stories; Operation Luna; The Red Planet; The Earth in Peril.  All in 1/2 hour episodes. A classic of radio S.F.  I've listened to these so often that I almost know them by heart.  These stories feature the adventures of Jet Morgan, Doc, Mitch and Lemmy and were made in the 1950's.  I don't think they are free anywhere.  But BBC Radio 7 still broadcasts reruns.

[narfstar]

My son listens to Journey Into Space annually.

[josemas]

Got through a few more episodes of The Green Hornet from that war time Radio Spirits collection.  The Hornet's just been tackling regular crooks in the latest couple of episodes I've listened to but the PSAs are vintage WWII.

Moved from 1933 into 1934 on the Kraft Music Hall episodes.  Paul Whiteman is still the host.  Not sure exactly when Bing Crosby took over as host.  I think he was still with Whiteman's Rhythm Boys at this time.

Found 4 episodes of the Cocoanut Grove Ambassadors which proved to be great examples of early 1930s Jazz club band music.

Another Radio Spirits collection that I recently started is the comedy series Our Miss Brooks starring Eve Arden.  I've only listened to a few scattered episodes of this series about a high school teacher over the years so am enjoying getting into it in a more detailed manner.  In addition to Arden (who's quite good with the ad libs when lines are blown) the series also features the very capable Gale Gordon (The Lucy Show on TV), Richard Crenna (The Real McCoys on TV) and Jeff Chandler.

Also got a few more episodes of Night Beat starring Frank Lovejoy (as reporter Randy Stone) under the belt.  Some of the episodes have a nice noirish quality to them.

Finally, after only finding only one episode of the 1950s Louisiana Hayride to listen to, I started listening to a vintage country music series from the mid 1940s- Hollywood Barn Dance.  I like the country-boogie-woogie mix from this period although the humor bits between the singing are pretty lame.  They seem to feature one B-movie cowboy star each week.  Jimmy Wakely (who also had his own DC comic-some nicely illustrated by Alex Toth) guested and sang on a couple of episodes before he had to go off on location to shoot his next picture.

Best

Joe

[narfstar]

I have listened to and enjoyed a few scattered episodes of Our Miss Brooks.
I am surprised no one has mentioned the long running Johnny Dollar. Some of the eariest OTR that I listened to. His expense reports are even more interesting when comparing to current costs. His tipping of a dollar was rather extravagent for the time.

[josemas]

I have listened to and enjoyed a few scattered episodes of Our Miss Brooks.
I am surprised no one has mentioned the long running Johnny Dollar. Some of the eariest OTR that I listened to. His expense reports are even more interesting when comparing to current costs. His tipping of a dollar was rather extravagent for the time.

I listened to a good number of the Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar shows some time back.  The earlier half hour eps were okay but IMHO just routine for the most part.  However when it went to a fifteen minute Monday-Friday format with each storyline running a solid week the show had more time to devote to characterization and more complex plots and got a lot better. 

Best

Joe

[bowers]

I just ran across a series I hadn't heard of before called "The Price of Fear" starring (of course) Vincent Price. This evidently was  broadcast by BBC in the '70s. Found ten episodes on Radiolovers.com, and they're really quite good. Cheers, Bowers

[narfstar]

gotta check that out thanks Price is always awesome

[josemas]

The PSAs on the Green Hornet episodes (from the Summer/Fall of 1944) that I've most recently been listening to are interesting in that they all show the man power shortage in the US at this time, caused by having so many men in the armed services.

Some examples are pleas for women to join the WACS (so as  to free up men for other tasks), appeals to civilian men (with non essential jobs) to join the Merchant Marine and appeals to anyone to help any and all farmers bring in their crops (IIRC, I think we got a lot of help from migrants from Mexico to help with that last one during the war).

Interesting stuff.

Best

Joe

[CharlieRock]

http://www.radiolovers.com/pages/scifi.html

[josemas]

Finished that Radio Spirits collection of The Green Hornet (or "The Harnet" as Irish newspaper man Mike Axford calls him).  Lots of war time spies and saboteurs in those final episodes.  The last episode I listened to had a PSA that indicated that gas rationing had gotten to the point in the Fall of 1944 that many Americans were going to have no choice but to car pool.

Only have about a half dozen episodes of Our Miss Brooks to go in that collection.  Really like the cast on this one-  Eve Arden, Gale Gordon, Jeff Chandler and Richard Crenna.  They really make the show work.

Just started another Radio Spirits collection I got from the library-Gangbusters!  This one had a really long run on radio (1935-1957) and it's easy to see after listening to just a couple episodes how shows like these had an influence on the crime comics that came out in their wake.

Off the internet I'm still listening to episodes of vintage 1940s country music on Hollywood Barn Dance and also found a show that has some good Dixieland Jazz from the mid 1950s Jazz Band Ball.

Best

Joe

[bowers]

Just wondering if anyone else is having problems trying to download old radio programs from the usual sources. All my sites worked fine last week, but this week every time I attempt to burn a disc, I get a message something to the effect of " too many errors or someone may have rights to this program". I can understand getting a few of these, but I get this message for every program on every site I've tried. I'm wondering if Windows snuck in an anti-burning program on one of it's upgrades or if the PD Police are out in force? Then, again, it just be my computer messing up! Please let me know if anybody else is having these problems. Cheers, Bowers

[narfstar]

I do not burn mine to disk so I would not know. I use an mp3 player

[josemas]

I don't burn discs either but have had no problem accessing OTR programs for listening to this past week.

Best

Joe

[bowers]

I have no problems downloading programs for listening, just can no longer burn them to disc. Pity, because I really enjoyed playing them in the car. Really nice for long vacation drives. Cheers, Bowers

[josemas]

Finished up that collection of Our Miss Brooks and then found another at the library.  I'll be well versed in this show by the time I finish it.

For musical enjoyment I'm still listening to episodes of Hollywood Barn Dance and Jazz Band Ball but only have a few more episodes of each left to go before I have to move on to something else.

Found one episode of a show from 1949 hosted by Vincent Price called The 13th Juror that took a look at Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth and questioned whether the man that was killed was really Booth.  Interesting.

Recently started listening to the 39 episode Tarzan serial "The Diamond of Asher" from 1935.  I figure at the rate I'm going I'll be through it in 2 or 3 months.

Almost finished with that collection of Gang Busters I started last month and it has got me interested in listening to other crime shows such as Calling All Cars, Crime Does Not Pay, Thrills of the Highway Patrol and Call the Police.
After listening to a number of these I got to wondering.  These shows preceded, influenced and ran concurrently with crime comics books (just as the various suspense/horror radio shows did with horror comics) but it seems I've read little that suggested that parents and politicians were also up in arms about such shows which you know kids must have been listening to just as much as they read comics.
What gives with that?  Why were comics taking most of the heat?

Best

Joe

[narfstar]

I guess a picture is worth a thousand words. The sight was worse on the poor little darlings than the sound.