Here's a holiday episode of The Shadow from 1939, and, yeah, it's been waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long since we checked in on radio's Dark Avenger.
Orson Welles stars in "The Stockings Were Hung". Disregard the fact that the thumbnail the YouTuber chose represents The Jack Benny Program.
The Aldrich Family, a radio sitcom built around teenager Henry Aldrich, began as a summer replacement for The Jack Benny Program, and proved popular enough to stand on its own for the next 14 years.
The series actually began as a series of sketches on Rudy Vallee's program, after it'd been adapted from a Broadway play. Ezra Stone, better known for his later work as a director (i.e. The Munsters and the TV version of Aldrich) had played Henry on Broadway, and had two tours of duty in the role on radio.
Stone left the show in 1942 to serve in World War II, and thus began a revolving door in casting the lead. Stone returned after the war for another 7 year run.
Following is a Thanksgiving episode.
A little change of pace, as we're reaching back for some old time radio to start our climb to Thanksgiving.
First up is a 1950 episode of Father Knows Best, starring Robert Young. This would be from season 2, in 1950.
Game show icon Bill Cullen ventured into radio in 1963 with a syndicated, sub-five minute daily program, Cullen's Adventures, sponsored by Grolier, famous for the World Book Encyclopedia. Until I ventured into a Cullen fan channel on YouTube, I didn't even know this show existed, but exist it did, and it lasted until 1970, nearly 7 years on the air. If I recall correctly, this was Cullen's return to radio.
Here, Bill discusses the origins of "The Circus":
Tobacco giants Brown & Williamson and rival American Tobacco sponsored radio shows with 2 of the biggest names in comedy back in the 40's. Jack Benny was associated with Lucky Strike. Red Skelton had two stints with Raleigh. B & W would eventually acquire Lucky Strike in the 70's.
Skelton's association with Raleigh began in 1941, and ended the first time when Skelton served in World War II. When Skelton was discharged in 1945, he relaunched The Raleigh Cigarette Program for another three years before Brown & Williamson pulled out, to be replaced by Procter & Gamble's Tide detergent.
Tide, however, backed out after a year, replaced by Norge appliances until the radio series ended in 1953, at which time Skelton was already on TV.
The radio cast during the first run included Ozzie & Harriet Nelson, who'd later spin off to their own show, both on radio & television. Composer David Rose replaced Ozzie Nelson as Skelton's bandleader when the series returned in 1945, and would remain with Skelton to the end of the TV run in 1971. Radio vet Lurene Tuttle was part of the repertory company, along with comic Wonderful Smith and voice actress GeGe Pearson.
DeadEye, not yet a sheriff, is the focus of this 1948 entry.
We've previously reviewed both TV iterations of Irving Brecher's The Life of Riley, so it's way past time to visit the radio series that started it all.
Film star William Bendix had the lead as Chester Riley, family man. Riley lasted a few years, shuttling between networks, leading to a feature film spin-off, followed by the first TV series with Jackie Gleason filling in for Bendix, who returned four years later.
Let's take a look at a Christmas Eve episode from season 1 in 1944. Bendix breaks character to address the audience at the end of the show.
The Jack Benny Program, aka The Lucky Strike Program, hits the road for a show at Corona Naval Hospital. Dennis Day had left by this point, succeeded by Larry Stevens.
This episode is built around an argument between Jack and announcer Don Wilson over famous statements.
We've previously reviewed the TV version of Mr. District Attorney, but now, let's go back to its radio roots.
Gang Busters producer Phillips Lord brought Mr. District Attorney to radio in 1939, and it spent 14 seasons on the air between three networks and syndication. It's a standard police procedural that doesn't get the same kind of love that its contemporaries, such as Gang Busters and Dragnet, received.
We're going to take a listen to a 1952 episode with David Brian as Jeff Garrett----Mr. District Attorney---in "The Case of The Supermarket Killer":
Over the course of 20 years on the air (1955-75), NBC Radio's Monitor was an eclectic mix of news, sports, interviews, and music. In just its 2nd weekend on the air, Monitor ran for an amazing 40 hours. This format was later discontinued due to affiliates not interested in a network program taking up all that time.
Hosts & announcers were billed as communicators, and they were just as eclectic as the show's format. A who's who of "communicators" included the likes of Jim Backus, singer and later NY radio personality Jim Lowe, Dave Garroway, Hugh Downs, and game show icons Art Fleming, Monty Hall, and, in this excerpt from 1970, Gene Rayburn, in between Match Game runs (in fact, this was Rayburn's last gig for NBC, as he'd leave for CBS 2 years later), who interviews Jimmy Stewart. A Stewart photo montage is the video.
Let's take a trip back in time to the Golden Age of Radio with Jack Benny, whose radio show at the time was known as The Jell-O Program as part of a deal with General Foods. The sponsor would shift to Grape Nuts 4 years later due to a wartime sugar shortage.
The 1938 Christmas show would be the last time singer Kenny Baker would spend the holidays with the Benny troupe. He left the series soon after, to be succeeded by Dennis Day. The plot here is Jack is holding an open house for Christmas......
Between 1981-5, NBC Radio presented a live Halloween special from the Magic Castle in Hollywood. A troupe of actors was assembled with some names familiar to radio, others not so.
The first annual show presented "A Halloween Story", with film star Yaphet Kotto as narrator, Marvin Miller (ex-The Millionaire), who had been doing voice-over work for the Kroffts during the 70's, and game show announcer Rod Roddy are the announcers. Roddy is heard at the end of the program. Our cast: Film legend John Carradine, Gary Owens (ex-The Green Hornet, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), June Lockhart (ex-Lost in Space, Lassie, Petticoat Junction), John Houseman (The Paper Chase), Lynn Redgrave, and the husband & wife team of Casey & Jean Kasem.
Here's "A Halloween Story", produced to benefit UNICEF.
Radio icon Paul Harvey had been on the air for 30 years when he launched a separate, daily commentary program, The Rest of The Story, in 1976. A few days a week, maxing out at 6 days a week at one point, Harvey filled the blanks on the stories of historical figures and celebrities.
Harvey's son, Paul, Jr., wrote & produced Story, and, one must assume, its video companion, which aired in these parts for a while. When the elder Harvey had health issues late in his career, a number of guest hosts, including Paul, Jr., and prominent politicians Mitt Romney & Mike Huckabee, filled in until Paul, Sr.'s passing in 2009.
Following is a tale explaining the origins, if you will, of the Wright Brothers.
What you're about to see is not a pilot episode in the traditional sense.
At the end of 1949, the producers of You Bet Your Life decided to record a radio episode on film in order to make a deal for a TV version of the series. As we know the TV version launched in October 1950, and ran for 11 seasons, ending in 1961. The radio version aired on ABC, CBS, & NBC radio for 13 years (1947-60).
Not included is a commercial with a voiceover by Myron Wallace, aka Mike Wallace.
Mutual Radio sought to give the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre some competition. Unfortunately, The Zero Hour was a half hour show, as opposed to the hour long Mystery Theatre. The series lasted 10 months (September 1973-July 1974) encompassing two "seasons" and formats to match.
Originally, Zero Hour would feature a complete five part serial each week. That didn't work, due largely to a glaring lack of promotion. A format change enacted in the spring of 1974 shifted the focus to one featured star per week, appearing all five days in five different dramas. This format offered a diversity in its leads from singer Mel Torme to veteran actors Joseph Campanella (ex-Mannix, The Bold Ones), Peter Lupus (Mission: Impossible), and Dick Sargent (ex-Bewitched, Broadside, et al). Rod Serling (ex-Night Gallery, Twilight Zone) is the series host.
From June 1974, here's "Riders Wanted: Share Expenses". Lupus is joined by Vic Perrin (ex-The Outer Limits), Julie Bennett, Hans Conreid, and Casey Kasem (American Top 40, etc.).
The Mets turn 60 today, and while they're in Philadelphia to play the Phillies, we'd like to take a trip down memory lane, all the way back to this day in 1962, when the Mets opened at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis to play the Cardinals. The legendary Bob Murphy, Ralph Kiner, & Lindsey Nelson would alternate between radio & television for broadcasts, save for games that didn't air on television back in those days.
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"You've got morals like a cash register!"---Jeff Regan (Jack Webb) to Anthony Lyon (Wilms Herbert).
Jack Webb had the tart-tongued, hard-boiled private eye down to a T by the time he was cast as Jeff Regan, Investigator in 1948 for CBS. As with Pat Novak For Hire and an earlier series we'll eventually look into, Johnny Madero, Webb demonstrated more emotion in his role than as the monotoned Joe Friday of Dragnet.
However, CBS decided they were moving Webb back to Novak, so radio vet Frank Graham took over the lead in Jeff Regan, with Frank Nelson (The Jack Benny Program) replacing Herbert. Graham's suicide in 1950 led to the series' abrupt cancellation. Regan & Lyon were not friends, as it's clearly implied in the above quote, which comes from the episode, "The Guy From Gower Gulch".
Early solicitations for the CD release of Jeff Regan at Radio Spirits used the nickname given to Regan, "The Lyon's Eye", as apparently, for most of the run, he was Lyon's only operative. Future Dragnet co-star Barton Yarborough was to be the lead as Joe Canto, but the network made a change of plans.
Here's "The Guy From Gower Gulch":
Most of you, I think, are familiar with the short-lived Screen Directors Playhouse, when it aired on NBC-TV in 1956. It lasted one season, but it was a follow-up to a 2 year radio series by the same name.
The radio version of Screen Directors Playhouse also aired on NBC from 1949-51, and the format was the same, feature films edited & compressed into a half hour broadcast. The TV version leaned more toward original content.
From the Radio Spirits "Gamblers & Gangsters" CD collection, here's an adaptation of "The Killers":
"The man with the action-packed expense account", Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, was a CBS Radio staple for 13 years (1949-62), alternating between a weekly, done-in-one mystery format, and a daily serial, which ran 15 minutes a day, five days a week.
The most definitive Dollar in the eyes & ears of fans was Bob Bailey (ex-Let George Do It), whose portrayal of the sleuth was as low-key as possible. Bailey left the series when CBS decided to move operations from Hollywood to New York.
Let's take a trip to November, 1959, and the episode, "The Larsen Arson Matter":
We'll close out 2021 with a trip back to 1944 with The Great Gildersleeve (Harold Peary). Seems Gildersleeve is feigning an illness to get out of a previous commitment.
Current Congressman Jim Jordan is no relation to the actor of the same name who brought Fibber McGee & Molly to life with his wife, Marion, back in 1935. To be sure, Jim Jordan probably would disown the Washington weasel that shares his name were he still alive today.
Fibber McGee & Molly premiered on NBC radio in 1935, shifting from NBC Blue to NBC Red the next year, and continuing for another 23 years after that, the last two as part of NBC's anthology series, Monitor. As we've previously discussed, Fibber also begat a spin-off, The Great Gildersleeve. The Jordans had started with a 15 minute series, Smackout, based, as was Fibber, out of Chicago. By the time Fibber ended, the series' operations had moved West to California.
As part of this year's Countdown to Christmas, let's go back to December 1945......
