[paw broon]

Budgie!  Is this the Welsh heavy rock band, by any chance?

A friend gave me 2 Dr. Feelgood albums last week so, when Linda is out, I've been jumping about to that - to the detriment of my old knees!

[crashryan]

I'm having trouble commenting directly on the radio show pages, so I'm posting here. First I want to say what a great idea it was to host an OTR collection here. Thanks for all your hard work!

So far I've been scatter-shotting around sampling shows I haven't heard before.I finally listened to a "Space Patrol" episode and was surprised to find it was pretty good. Definitely better than the TV show because there are no budget restrictions! (Digression: in my opinion the TV "Space Patrol" is space-miles better than "Space Cadet." In the episodes I I've seen "Space Patrol"'s producers and directors seem to try everything they can to make live-cheap TV look exciting. "Space Cadet," on the other hand, always plays it safe and ends up rather boring.)

As a lifetime "Terry and the Pirates" strip fan I was interested in hearing the radio version. I tuned in "Terry Nurses the Dragon Lady" and was pleasantly surprised. The sound effects aren't so hot but Terry is convincing and it's great to hear that so many of the strip characters appeared in the show. The one sour note is the Dragon Lady--she sounds like an old lady!

[narfstar]

terry was a well written show that I enjoy

[jimmm kelly]

Having finished with THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER on this site (although I slept through some of them), I've moved over to OTR for THE WHISTLER, SUSPENSE and X-MINUS ONE. These are all programs I used to hear on radio, but not so frequently. When you hear one right after another they get quite redundant. On THE WHISTLER there's an obsession with inheriting madness in the family.

I think the prime of THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER was in the first half of the '40s. Once it got into the '50s, science fiction became prevalent and it's hard to make that work with a mysterious man who is telling you tales on a train.

I remember that X-MINUS ONE had some really good science fiction stories--but I haven't gotten that far with it in my present listening. It's a lot like the EC and DC science fiction anthologies from the '50s.

[narfstar]

But the Whistler had some great writing and mostly good stories. I was reading a lot of Andrew Klavan but he took sorta the same turn with the brain.

[jimmm kelly]

I expect that THE WHISTLER got better as it went along. The madness in the family thing is in the first episodes that I heard and diminishes as the season goes on, but then there's repetition of other themes. Inheriting money and paying off debts is very common. Usually four thousand dollars that someone owes to a mobster--and he gave them a rubber cheque.

Then at the end of that season, there was something like a clip show, where some guy has to plan a murder and he works back from the end to the beginning to figure it out. This plays scenes from an earlier episode but in reverse order. And the twist at the end is that this guy is a writer plotting a murder story. Quite clever.

Over on SUSPENSE, a nice version of "The Hitch-Hiker" with Orson Welles and all the Mercury Theater players--I've heard this one before. That is in the trial season for SUSPENSE which ends with the very good "One Hundred in the Dark"--quite an elegant piece of writing, but not too high brow I guess, because SUSPENSE returned for a full season the following year.

I wish I could find a listing of actor credits for these shows. Sometimes the actors are identified, but not always. Some voices are recognizable, others I know I've heard before but I can't place them. The main actor for "The Devil in the Summer House" on SUSPENSE does a tour do force performance--as an old man who is world weary and recalls days of youth thirty odd years ago.

Edit: I found this actor's name. He's Martin Gabel, who was a Mercury Theater player. Gabel married Arlene Francis. In addition to radio work, he had a long career on the stage and in film.

[jimmm kelly]

On one of these programs--I can't remember which now, unfortunately--there was an announcement encouraging paper recycling. Not unusual, but as I remember the announcer explaining it, the paper could be used inside bombs. Which I've never heard before. I know that it was used for packing bombs, but apparently it could be used as a kind of incendiary device. Which makes some sense. But I've never heard this before and I can't find any info online to back it up.

[bowers]

Jimm, I found  the episode "Devil in the Summer House" on the net. An excellent script by John Dickson Carr, and Martin Gabel was very, very good as Mr. Parker. "Suspense" is one of my favorite series- usually excellent writing and great actors, some quite big names. Generally pretty easy to find. Cheers, Bowers

[jimmm kelly]

It's good to see that more radio shows have been added here--including SUSPENSE and THE WEIRD CIRCLE. 

You know, there are so many old radio shows to listen to and old comics to read--I wonder why I bother with anything from the 21st century. I could listen to classic radio and read classic comics for the rest of my natural life and be quite content.

[Captain Audio]

Just rediscovered number 55 on this list of Mysterious Traveler episodes.
http://www.otr.net/?p=mtrv
"Behind the Locked Door".
You'll find story elements that have appeared in some of the more terrifying horror films of our day.
"Poltergiest", "the Cave", "the Descent" and the older film "the Mole People" all have a strong relationship to this old horror story.
Perhaps this story was itself influenced by the Morlocks of H G Wells "the Time Traveler".

[unclerobin@att.net]

Jimm Kelly I'm with you, classic comics rule! There's plenty here, that's for sure!

[josemas]

With Thanksgiving coming up this week here in the States I thought I'd post this link to a group of Thanksgiving OTR shows at archive.org

https://archive.org/details/100OtrThanksgivingHolidayShows

Enjoy

Joe

[BillyMal]

Hi! I also am an otr fan. I listen through the internet archive site. Which is how i came across this one. I especially love listening to The Jack Benny Program. Which is why I would to ask if anyone has old J B comics they could upload i would be forever greatful! Thanks in advance.AboutWilliam Conrad, he had a voice that was the epitome of all radio actors. He performed over 8,000 different roles on the radio. Only a few of which he was the star. Gunsmoke,for one.I also remember a role he played on the Johnny Dollar program that stands out in my mind. Though the title escapes me at the moment.

[narfstar]

The only thing I can find for Jack Benny at www.comics.org is in True Comics 69 a Fred Allen feature in Real Life Comics 42 not yet on CB+ but available in the JVJ collection for future uploads.

[profh0011]

I've seen this girl sing 26 times... but it's been awhile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJb5mfuPMF0

[paw broon]

That's pretty good, thanks.
I stumbled on some youtube films of XPT, being former (and current) members of The Pretty Things doing some of the PT tunes.  The new version of Sickle Clowns is excellent, especially Pete Tolson on guitar.
youtube.com/watch?v=qAldg0D2N8o

[paw broon]

As we all know, Wilko was seriously ill and didn't expect to see 2015 but good things do sometimes happen and according to the doctors, he has made an amazing recovery.  Here he is on Jools New Year show on BBC. Starts about about 1.18.00:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04wlgks/jools-annual-hootenanny-2014
Apologies if you can't access this outside UK.

[josemas]

Motown: 16 #1 Hits from the Late 60s-
Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Gladys Knight and the Pips-Great Stuff!

Sweet Soul Music-
Two disc collection containing 50 songs from the 60s.  Lots of great artists here-James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells, Solomon Burke, Ray Charles, Esther Phillips, the Supremes, the Miracles, the Drifters, Lavern Baker, the Isley Brothers, Ben E. King, Sam Cooke, Little Eva, the Cookies, the Marvelettes, Arthur Alexander and more.  Some big hits and some that didn't go so high on the charts.  All worth a listen.

Best

Joe

[profh0011]

Jimmm Kelly:
"It's good to see that more radio shows have been added here--including SUSPENSE and THE WEIRD CIRCLE.

You know, there are so many old radio shows to listen to and old comics to read--I wonder why I bother with anything from the 21st century. I could listen to classic radio and read classic comics for the rest of my natural life and be quite content."

UH HUH!

I've been listening to THE WEIRD CIRCLE and THE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER (both elsewhere), so far for the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, and posting direct links to them at the appropriate pages of my blog.  Also, dramatic readings of same by Basil Rathbone and Vincent Price!

Just noticed SUSPENSE the other day, and plan to go thru those as well, once I polish off the last CBS episode.

One of the most interesting adaptations of "A Cask of Amontillado" was on the TV series of SUSPENSE, with Bela Lugosi as a Fortunato who was involved with the Italian Fascists in WW2 and planned to murder Montressor-- so the murder in this version of the story was actually in self-defense!  Several different versions of "Amontillado" (in comics and elsewhere) have epilogues added where the killer winds up NOT getting away with his crime-- as he very much DOES in the Poe original.


HEY!  It just occured to me-- would the CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED version of "Amontillado" have been FORBIDDEN by the Comics Code because the killer GOT AWAY with his crime at the end???

Ironically, both the EC and Warren versions, the killer winds up dead by the end (while in the Roger Corman and CBS Radio versions, he's caught by the police)

[profh0011]

Thanks for pointing out that SUSPENSE has been posted here.  I ran across the Raymond Burr PIT & THE PENDULUM on Youtube by accident the other day.  Great version.  There was a link to the Jose Ferrer version on that page... EVEN BETTER!!!! But-- 2 days in a row, in different places, an "ERROR" cropped up on that one. Still haven't been able to hear the whole thing.

Today, I learned SUSPENSE did the same story 4 times over the years-- using the SAME script all 4 times, with different casts-- Henry Hull, Jose Ferrer, Vincent Price, and Raymond Burr.

Just heard the Henry Hull version from 1943-- and added a direct LINK to it at my blog.

Gonna save myself some trouble and go down the entire list HERE!!

[profh0011]

Just listened to 2 more radio shows I've never heard before:

FAMILY THEATER -- A show created with the goal of promoting family stability through prayer; the story I heard was "THE GOLD BUG" (10-5-49), w/ Howard McNear & Steven McNally.

INNER SANCTUM THEATER --I've heard of this for decades, but never heard it until just now.  It was created by Himon Brown, who much later directed apparently every episode of THE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER, and reused the "creaking door" opening and closing bit, as well as "Pleasant dreams... hmm?"  The story I heard was "THE TELL-TALE HEART" (8-3-41), with Boris Karloff & Everett Sloane.  A VERY "different" twist on this story, which I will not blow for anyone who wishes to hear it "cold".

As it turns out, INNER SANCTUM, hosted by "Raymond" (this was mentioned in a "WKRP" episode!) tended to be a mix of spooky drama with light-hearted humor (at least in the "host" sections-- clearly the inspiration for EC's horror comics and countless other such series).  Gee, just my thing!

[josemas]

The last ten days-

James Brown-5 Classic Albums Plus Bonus Rare and Live Tracks- (89 tracks-4 discs)

Nickel Creek-Nickel Creek- (12 tracks)

Nickel Creek-This Side- (13 tracks)

Jimmy Wakely-1942-1952- (28 tracks)

James Taylor- Best Live- (12 tracks)

Elton John-Greatest Hits-(11 tracks)

Diana Krall-When I Look in Your Eyes- (13 tracks)

Red Smiley and the Bluegrass Cutups-(21 tracks)

Red Smiley and the Bluegrass Cutups Vol 2-(20 tracks)

Mac Wiseman Sings Old Time Country Favorites -(21 tracks)

Great Songs of 1931-(25 tracks)

Great Songs of 1932-(25 tracks)

Great Songs of 1952-(26 tracks)

[Captain Audio]

I just downloaded all available episodes of "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre". Should be some good listening ahead for these cold nights.

[profh0011]

Have listened to 1 episode each so far of PHILIP MARLOWE and SAM SPADE.  The SPADE ep. was a sequel to "The Maltese Falcon", and featured a cameo by Marlowe, when Spade called him on the phone to ask about a mutual client.

The first 3 MARLOWE eps. all seem to be the SAME episode.  Unless I'm confused, "Who Shot Waldo?" sounds like an inferior recording of "Red Wind".  I see there's 2 different versions of "Red Wind", but the first 2 listings seem like the SAME recording.

[MarkWarner]

Thanks I will investigate!