Boxcars711 Old Time Radio

The ruthless, moneyed Hubbard clan lives in, and poisons, their part of the deep South at the turn of the 20th century. Regina Giddons nÃe Hubbard has her daughter under her thumb. Mrs. Giddons is estranged from her husband, who lives in Chicago and suffers from a terminal illness. But she needs him home, and will manipulate her daughter to help bring him back. She has a sneaky business deal that she's cooking up with her two elder brothers, Oscar and Ben. Oscar has a flighty, unhappy wife and a dishonest worm of a son. Will the daughter have to marry this contemptible cousin? Who will she grow up to be - her mother or her aunt? Or can she escape the fate of both? Written by J. Spurlin

Adventures of Sam Spade â 1946-1951 Sam Spade was a tough private investigator. Each case was unfolded as a report dictated to his secretary, Effie, who was always flustered and secretly in love with him. He always quoted his license number and referred to each investigation as a âcaperâ. Each report was dated with the actual airdate. CAST: Howard Duff, Steve Dunne, Lurene Tuttle, John McIntire, William Conrad, Cathy and Elliot Lewis, June Havoc, Joseph Kearns, Jerry Hausner, Elliott Reid, Mary Jane Croft, Jeanette Nolan, Betty Lou Gerson.

Zero Hour - Desperate Witness (Aired December 10, 1973) Show 1 of A 5 Part SeriesThe Zero Hour was a 1973-74 radio broadcast hosted by Rod Serling. The Zero Hour featured well known actors and actresses. The stories were exciting and action-packed and will keep you on the edge of you seat, as we approach the Zero Hour. The 5-part series was syndicated by Mutual and the programs were allowed to be aired when convenient. Therefore, broadcast dates vary around the country. This section of the log is listed in Mutual's suggested ordering. Broadcast dates start on the premier date and continue until completion without break. The single-part show broadcast dates were more tightly defined by Mutual.

Dramatic IntrigueFIRST BROADCAST: October 14, 1951LAST BROADCAST: May 28, 1952NBC, 30 min. "This is Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.... In a moment, it will be my pleasure to introduce to you stories of the Silent Men, the special agents of federal law-enforcement who silently, and for little material reward, daily risk their lives to protect the lives of all of us. Their tradition is long and proud, yet to guard our welfare and our liberties, they must remain nameless..." Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. played the parts of "special agents. At each episode, Fairbanks checked in with his chief, played by either William Conrad or Herb Butterfield.

This hit radio series with Marie Wilson ran on CBS Radio from April 11, 1947 to August 23, 1954. The TV version, seen on CBS from January 8, 1952 until June 25, 1954, was the first series telecast from the CBS Television City facility in Hollywood. The movie My Friend Irma (1949) starred Marie Wilson and Diana Lynn but is mainly remembered today for introducing Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis to moviegoers, resulting in even more screen time for Martin and Lewis in the sequel, My Friend Irma Goes West (1950).

Whitehall 1212 is a crime drama featuring cases from New Scotland Yard's "Black Museum". Unlike the show starring Orson Welles, however, this series was done with the official support of The Yard and tries to downplay the sensational aspects of thes cases and highlight the rigorous police work that went into solving them.THIS EPISODE:Whitehall 1212. September 28, 1952. NBC net. Sustaining. The last show of the series. An electric torch is in the "Black Museum" because it made an excellent wepon. A drunkard has been killed, by a man in love with the alcoholic's wife. It sounds as if the announcer had some fun with the writer-director of the program and pronounced his name at the very end of the show "Wyllis Cuckoo." Percy Hoskins (research), Wyllis Cooper (writer, director), Horace Braham, Lester Fletcher, Harvey Hayes, Cathleen Cordell, Maurice Delamore, Carl Harburg, Florence Sears. 29:32.

The Lone Ranger was a long-running early radio and television show based on characters created by George W. Trendle, and developed by writer Fran Striker. The titular character is a masked cowboy in the American Old West, who gallops about righting injustices, usually with the aid of a clever and laconic American Indian called Tonto, and his horse Silver. He would famously say "Heigh-ho Silver, away!" to get the horse to gallop.

On July 31, 1930 a sinister voice came over the radio into American Homes. The voice of the Shadow appeared for the first time. In the beginning the Shadow was not a crime fighter. He was a mysterious narrator of mystery tales taken from the pages of Street & Smith's Detective Story Magazine. The publisher Street & Smith began to use radio as an advertising medium to promote their fiction publications. The Shadow was a perfectly creepy teller of tales promoting Street & Smith. This format continued until 1935 when creative differences between Street & Smith and NBC called a halt to the Shadow on the air. On September 26, 1937, the Shadow reappeared on radio with the voice of Orson Welles playing the part. The Shadow was now a full-fledged character on radio, not just narrating and introducing stories. The Shadow had an identity as Lamont Cranston, a wealthy man about town. He was accompanied by Margo Lane, originally played by Agnes Moorehead. Margo Lane was the only person who knew that Lamont Cranston and the Shadow were one and the same. No other agents assisted the Shadow, as did in the Walter Gibson fictional accounts. This radio Shadow had hypnotic power to make himself invisible to those around him and he possessed mental telepathy to read minds. Orson Welles played the Shadow from 1937 through March 1938. The Shadow became the highest rated radio show on the air at that time.

Mr. TelevisionIn 1948, NBC decided to bring Texaco Star Theater from radio to television, with Berle as one of the show's four rotating hosts. For the fall season, NBC named Berle the permanent host. His highly visual, sometimes outrageous vaudeville style proved ideal for the burgeoning new medium. Berle and Texaco owned Tuesday nights for the next several years, reaching the number one slot in the Nielsen ratings and keeping it, with as much as an 80% share of the recorded viewing audience. Berle and the show each won Emmy Awards after the first season. Berle is credited for the huge spike in the sale of TV sets during the medium's early years. After Berle's show began, set sales more than doubled, reaching two million in 1949. His stature as the medium's first superstar earned Berle the sobriquet "Mr. Television." [3] He also earned a slightly more familiar nickname after ending a 1949 broadcast with a brief ad lib remark to children watching the show: "Listen to your Uncle Miltie and go to bed."

Throughout the early 1940's on American Radio, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce performed as Holmes and Watson, respectively, in several series of canonical and original Sherlock Holmes stories. When Rathbone finally departed the role before the 1947 season, Tom Conway played Sherlock Holmes opposite Nigel Bruce for one season. After a change of networks, there were two more pairings: John Stanley as Holmes and Alfred Shirley as Watson in 1947-1948 and John Stanley and Ian Martin in 1948-1949. The stories were written by Edith Meiser, a self-confessed Holmes addict. At first she used Arthur Conan Doylesâ original stories, but, after the series outlived the original material, she created her own new stories. These were so well written that she was warmly praised by Arthur Conan Doyleâs widow and son. First broadcast date October 20, 1930. Last broadcast date September 4, 1956.

The CBS Radio Mystery Theater was an ambitious effort by veteran radio producer Himan Brown to revive interest in American radio drama. Every night from 1974 to 1982, host E. G. Marshall (later Tammy Grimes) ushered listeners through a creaking door -- similar to the one Brown used on Inner Sanctum decades earlier -- for an hour of âthe fear you can hear.â Actors were paid union scale at around $73.92 per show. Writers earned a flat rate of $350.00 per show. The production took place with assembly-line precision. Brown would meet with actors at 9:00 AM for the first reading of the script. He would then assign roles and recording would begin. By noon the recording of the actors was complete and Brown handed everyone their checks. Post-production would take place in the afternoon. In 1975, CBSRMT won the prestigious Peabody Award, and in 1990 it was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. In 1998, the still-active Brown attempted a brief revival of the series, rebroadcasting selected old episodes with his own introductions replacing Marshall's.

"Yesterday's Secret Weapon" (3-09-43) and "The King Of Ice" (2-16-43)A wonderfully informative old time radio series can be found in Adventures In Research. With tales that are not only wonderfully dramatic, but at the same time extremely interesting and entertaining. Adventures In Research offers the listener accounts in American scientific research history. You will be enthralled, as will your children. Best of all, in regards to providing a great educational tool for children, the episodes are made for their attention span, and run approximately fifteen minutes. Series ran from the early 1940's -mid 1950's. HOST: Paul Shannon.

As you walk through the creaking door you enter into another world, the world of imagination. This world is inside you, a part of you, and you take this journey alone. Each person hears and then sees with his or her mind's eye the events portrayed within these dramas. All of us interprets what they hear differently. The images we see is unique to ourselves. A voice becomes a person, living, breathing they come alive. They take on a physical form and characteristics that we assign to them. The wonders of your own mind are boundless. Scary thoughts? Perhaps, but what powers they bring us! To exercise one's imagination is to exercise one's soul. These dramas provide us with an escape from reality. To adventures beyond our own lives. Enjoy them. And pleasant dreams!

The radio show first aired on April 26, 1952 and ran until June 18, 1961 on the CBS radio network. The series starred William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon, Howard McNear as Doc Charles Adams, Georgia Ellis as Kitty Russell, and Parley Baer as Deputy Chester Proudfoot. Doc's first name and Chester's last name were changed for the television program. Gunsmoke was notable for its critically acclaimed cast and writing, and is commonly regarded as THE true adult western and one of the finest old time radio shows.

Hop Harrigan first appeared in All American Comics #1 created by Jon Blummer (Fighting Yank, Little Boy Blue) as one of the first successful aviation heroes in comic history (Hop appeared after Tailspin Tommy, Barney Baxter, Connie Kurridge and others). Hop Harrigan was technically not a true superhero (as he had no costume or special powers) though he did meet the Justice Society of America in All American Comics #8 and he did eventually become a superhero from All American Comics #25 (April 1941) to #28 (July) as the costumed Guardian Angel.

I Deal in Crime ran for almost two years on ABC network radio and starred the very capable radio and Hollywood actor, William Gargan. In this, one of his many PI radio series (heâs best known, of course, for his role as Martin Kane), Gargan played Ross Dolan, described as a veteran detective who returned to his sleuthing job after his WW II service as a sailor. Or as Dolan puts it, âa hitch in Uncle Sugarâs Navy.â

A Question Of Discipline adapted for radio aired on October 31, 1957. The Real McCoys was a situation comedy that aired on the ABC network from 1957 through 1962. It aired for one more season on CBS before its end in 1963. The series revolved around the lives of a mountain family who originally hailed from West Virginia. The McCoys moved to California where they became dirt farmers. The family consisted of Grampa Amos McCoy, the head of the family played by Walter Brennan, his grandson Luke played by Richard Crenna, Luke's new bride Kate played by Kathleen Nolan, teenage sister Hassie played be Lydia Reed, and 11-year-old brother Little Luke played by Michael Winkelman. The Real McCoys paved the way for such rural hits as The Beverly Hillbillies and The Andy Griffith Show.

ESCAPE opened with the gripping voice of William Conrad booming out over the airwaves: "Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you - ESCAPE!". Moussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain", the show's theme, assisted Conrad in creating the right opening atmosphere. (The actual series of questions used in the opening varied from week to week, frequently to match the goings-on of the times.) Over its long run, narriators included William Conrad, Paul Frees, Jack Webb, John Dehner, Jay Novello, Joan Banks, Stacy Harris, Georgia Ellis, Ben Wright and Will Geer. The show featured spine-tingling tales from such masters as Joseph Conrad, Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allen Poe. It was produced by William N. Robeson, and featured many seasoned radio actors. ESCAPE was heard on CBS from July 1947 to September 1954. First Show: July 7, 1947 Last Show: Sep 23, 1954. There were two pilot shows before it's first run. The first pilot was OUT OF THIS WORLD: "Dead of Night" on February 28, 1947. This show was repeated as ESCAPE: "Dead of Night" on March 21.

THE SECRET WORD IS "HAND"Groucho Marx matches wits with the American public in four episodes of this classic game show. Starting on the radio in 1947, You Bet Your Life made its television debut in 1950 and aired for 11 years with Groucho as host and emcee. Sponsored rather conspicuously by the Dodge DeSoto car manufacturers, the show featured two contestants working as a team to answer questions for cash prizes. Another mainstay of these question and answer segments was the paper mache duck that would descend from the ceiling with one hundred dollars in tow whenever a player uttered the "secret word." The quiz show aspect of "You Bet Your Life" was always secondary, to the clever back-and-forth between host and contestant, which found Groucho at his funniest. It's in these interview segments that "You Bet Your Life" truly makes its mark as one of early television's greatest programs. Directed by: Robert Dwan.

Authorâs Playhouse - Famous stories by celebrated authors: among them, Elementals (Stephen Vincent Benet), The Piano (William Saroyan), and The Snow Goose (Paul Gallico).March 5, 1941 till June 4, 1945, NBC; Blue Network until mid-October 1941, then the Red Network. Many briefly held 30m timeslots, including Sundays at 11:30, 1941-42; Wednesdays at 11:30, 1942-44; Mondays at 11:30, 1944-45. Sponsor was Philip Morris, 1942-43. Cast: John Hodiak, Fern Persons, Arthur Kohl, Laurette Fillbrandt, Kathryn Card, Bob Jellison, Nelson Olmsted, Marvin Miller, Olan Soule, Les Tremayne, Clarence Hartzell, Curley Bradley, etc. Orchestra: Rex Maupin, Roy Shield, J6seph Gallicchio. Creator: Wynn Wright. Directors: Norman Felton, Fred Weihe, Homer Heck, etc.

Danger With Granger arrived too late in the Golden Age of Radio to have any real impact on the listening public. Mutual aired this show, starting in 1956, on Monday nights at 8:30 pm. It was a half hour show that featured a private eye in New York City, STEVE GRANGER. His two primary companions were Cal Hendrix, a reporter who served as an all-purpose source of criminal info, and Jake Rankin, a police detective with whom he had a grudging rivalry. The writing on the show seemed to incorporate most of the standard cliche's of the P.I. world. Granger, who was both the star and the first-person narrator of the show (not an uncommon practice with radio gumshoes), never saw a woman, instead "he gave the doll the once-over." He didn't kick with his foot, he "lifted a size 10." Instead of paying cash, he "forked over numbered lettuce. "The mysteries he solved were fairly reasonable, and while he was a tough guy who roughed up lesser mortals, he seemed to get knocked unconscious at least once in every program. A total of 28 episodes survived and are in trading currency.

FAVORITE STORY aired from September 1947 through December of 1949 hosted by Ronald Colman. This is an excellent dramatic series of great stories from classic literature brought to radio. It's popularity was so high and with such well done stories, it was rebroadcasted for many years.THIS EPISODE:Ben-Hur is a 1959 epic film directed by William Wyler, and is the most popular live-action version of Lew Wallace's novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880). It premiered at Loews Theater in New York City on November 18, 1959. The film went on to win eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, a feat equaled only by Titanic (1997) and The Lord of the Rings.

Broadcast from 1936 through to 1947 with just an occasional break. Revived again from January 1956 to September 1957 as CBS Radio Workshop with pretty much the same format. This was drama with a difference. Columbia Workshop was not everybodyâs cup of tea and in terms of audience popularity it was always noted that it was never a strong contender for the title âRadios Top Rated Drama Seriesâ and yet it was always considered to be the drama program that led the way in radio standards. Columbia was the first to experiment with what radio drama was all about, introducing new techniques never before used in over the airwaves drama and because it received little encouragement from established writers, actors, etc., it was only by breaking new ground with new ideas and new techniques from writers who were not versed in the old ways that it was going to survive. Unlike theater drama which required scenery to stage the settings of a play. Radio drama relied only on the imagination of the listener to interpret the scene.

Our Miss Brooks, an American situation comedy, began as a radio hit in 1948 and migrated to television in 1952, becoming one of the earlier hits of the so-called Golden Age of Television, and making a star out of Eve Arden (1908-1990) as comely, wisecracking, but humane high school English teacher Connie Brooks. The show hooked around Connie's daily relationships with Madison High School students, colleagues, and pompous principal Osgood Conklin (Gale Gordon), not to mention favourite student Walter Denton (future television and Rambo co-star Richard Crenna, who fashioned a higher-pitched voice to play the role) and biology teacher Philip Boynton ( Jeff Chandler), the latter Connie's all-but-unrequited love interest, who saw science everywhere and little else anywhere.

Series Description: THE HALLMARK PLAYHOUSE was heard over CBS stations Thursday evenings. This drama anthology of 30-minute shows was sponsored by, of course, Hallmark Greeting Cards. It was preceded by the RADIO READER'S DIGEST, which ran from September 13, 1942 thorugh June 3, 1948. Hallmark sponsored the RADIO READER'S DIGEST from January 13, 1946 to it's end. On Feb. 8, 1953, the series name and format was changed. It was now called THE HALLMARK HALL OF FAME and presented biographal sketches of famous persons, past and present. The new format was used until the end of the 1955 season. The exception to the new format was the broadcast each Christmas season of "A Christmas Carol". Like other dramatic series of this time, this one made use of major screen actors in the productions. James Hilton, author of "Random Harvest", "Lost Horizon" and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" plus others, served as host and Narrator. Dee Engelbach produced and directed the shows. Jean Holloway was the writer. Sound Effects were by Harry Essman and Gene Twombly. Musical conductor was Lyn Murray. The show's theme was "Dream of Olwne" by Charles Williams. THIS EPISODE:Hallmark Playhouse. October 21, 1948. CBS net. "Mrs. Parkington". Sponsored by: Hallmark Cards. A woman rises from poverty in Nevada to a position of power and wealth in New York. Louis Bromfield (writer), Rosalind Russell, James Hilton (host). 1/2 hour.

TWO EPISODES: "The Train Wreckers Mystery" (4-18-38) and "The Case Of Leftenant Ralston" (4-25-38)Blair of the Mounties is the story of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police -- a fictional series based on the work of the Northwest Mounted Police before the World War I. It was a fifteen minute weekly serial heard every Monday for 36 weeks beginning January 31st, 1938 and running through the 3rd of October of 1938. It may have been on the air as early as 1935, although thereâs no actual proof of this. Little is known of the series other than it followed the exploits of Sgt. Blair of the Northwest Mounted Police. and probably was the inspiration for Trendell, Campbell and Muir's Challenge of the Yukon. The series was written by Colonel Rhys Davies, who also played the Colonel Blair in the series. Jack Abbot played the Constable. Jack French, one of OTRâs best researchers says this about the series: âBlair is not restricted to Canada, as other Mounties, as we find him, in a few cases, in Great Britain, solving cases. Overall the series is amateurishly written, with the actor playing Blair coming accros as a bit stuffy.â

The series premiered on Monday 02/05/79 and offered a different genre each weekday night. Each genre was hosted by a different celebrity. The program was produced on Paramount's Stage F in Hollywood. These first 130 programs were broadcast over a six month period and then rebroadcast over the following six months. From 02/14/80 to 12/19/81 this series was heard again, this time over Mutual, as The Mutual Radio Theater. This was clearly one of the last big attempts to produce radio programming, with many of radioâs best talents, the way radio was heard in its âgolden days.â Despite budget and talent, it just wasnât to be.

Starring Brian Donlevy as Steve Mitchell, Dangerous Assignment is a product of the Cold War, with mystery and intrigue cropping up across the globe. Mitchell, an agent for an unnamed U.S. goverment agency, is dispatched to some exotic, faraway place at the beginning of each episode. Herb Butterfield was the Commissioner, a taskmaster shrouded in secrecy who served up the situations that Mitchell seems never to refuse. The Commissioner's secretary is played by Betty Moran. She actually seems to care about the Steve's welfare. The Commissioner is just concerned about the fare.Mitchell's narration is done in first person, present tense, adding an unusual twist for this type of show. But the plot is always good (USA and Freedom) against unspeakable evil (Communism and the Iron Curtain).

The Campbell Playhouse was a sponsored continuation of the Mercury Theater on the Air, a direct result of the instant publicity from the War of the Worlds panic. The switch occurred on December 9, 1938. In spite of using the same creative staff, the show had a different flavor under sponsorship, partially attributed to a guest star policy in place, which relegated the rest of the Mercury Players to supporting cast for Orson Welles and the Hollywood guest of the week. There was a growing schism between Welles, still reaping the rewards of his Halloween night notoriety, and his collaborator John Houseman, still in the producer's chair but feeling more like an employee than a partner. The writer, as during the unsponsored run, was Howard Koch.THIS EPISODE:Andrew Manson, a young, enthusiastic doctor takes his first job in a Welsh mining town, and begins to wonder at the persistent cough many of the miners have. When his attempts to prove its cause are thwarted, he moves to London. His new practice does badly. But when a friend shows him how to make a lucrative practice from rich hypochondriacs, it will take a great shock to show him what the truth of being a doctor really is. January 21, 1940. CBS net. "The Citadel". Sponsored by: Campbell's Soup. A. J. Cronin (author), Edgar Barrier, Ernest Chappell (announcer), Everett Sloane, George Coulouris, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Orson Welles (host), Ray Collins (narrator). 53 minutes.

Lux Radio Theater strove to feature as many of the original stars of the original stage and film productions as possible, usually paying them $5,000 an appearance to do the show. It was when sponsor Lever Brothers (who made Lux soap and detergent) moved the show from New York to Hollywood in 1936 that it eased back from adapting stage shows and toward adaptations of films. The first Lux film adaptation was The Legionnaire and the Lady, with Marlene Dietrich and Clark Gable, based on the film Morocco. That was followed by a Lux adaptation of The Thin Man, featuring the movie's stars, Myrna Loy and William Powell.THIS EPISODEThe Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer is a 1947 screwball comedy film starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Shirley Temple. Sidney Sheldon was awarded the 1948 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for this film in his first and only Academy Award nomination during his career in Hollywood. The film was directed by Irving Reis and was one of the few non-film noir outings for noted cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca.

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

Elspeth McGillicuddy has come down from Scotland to visit her old friend, Jane Marple. On the way, she sees a woman strangled in a passing train. Only Miss Marple believes her story, and soon sets about solving the mystery. The first task is to ascertain where the body could have been hidden. Comparison of the facts of the murder with the train timetable and the local geography lead to the grounds of Rutherford Hall as the only possible location. Miss Marple calls upon an acquaintance, Lucy Eyelesbarrow, who is a professional housekeeper renowned for her efficiency and organizational skills. Lucy agrees to take a position at Rutherford Hall, and the hunt is on. Rutherford Hall was built by Josiah Crackenthorpe, purveyor of tea biscuits. His son, Luther, now a semi-invalid widower, had displayed spendthrift qualities in his youth. To preserve the family fortune, Josiah's will provided Luther with a home and income for life but otherwise left everything in trust for the grandchildren. They share equally in the estate, but only if they live long enough to inherit it.

The CBS Radio Mystery Theater (or CBSRMT) was an ambitious and sustained attempt to revive the great drama of old-time radio in the 1970s. Created by Himan Brown (who had by then become a radio legend due to his work on Inner Sanctum Mysteries and other shows dating back to the 1930s), and aired on affiliate stations across the CBS Radio network, the series began its long run on January 6, 1974. The final episode ran on December 31, 1982. The show was broadcast nightly and ran for one hour, including commercials. Typically, a week consisted of three to four new episodes, with the remainder of the week filled out with reruns. There were a total of 1399 original episodes broadcast. The total number of broadcasts, including reruns, was 2969. The late E.G. Marshall hosted the program every year but the final one, when actress Tammy Grimes took over. Each episode began with the ominous sound of a creaking door, slowly opening to invite listeners in for the evening's adventure. At the end of each show, the door would swing shut, with Marshall signing off, "Until next time, pleasant...dreams?"

Two Episodes:"King Spots Murder" (11-25-43) "Eleventh Hour" (12-16-43)Challenge of the Yukon was a long-running radio series that began on Detroit's station WXYZ (as had The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet). The series was first heard on February 3, 1938. Under the title Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, it later transferred to television. The program was an adventure series about Sergeant William Preston of the Northwest Mounted Police and his lead sled dog, Yukon King, as they fought evildoers in the Northern wilderness during the Gold Rush of the 1890s. Preston, according to radio historian Jim Harmon, first joined the Mounties to capture his father's killer, and when he was successful he was promoted to Sergeant. Preston worked under the command of Inspector Conrad, and in the early years was often assisted by a French-Canadian guide named Pierre. Preston's staunchest ally, who was arguably the true star of the show and indeed often did more work than he did, was the brave Alaskan husky, Yukon King.

Diary of Fate is a mystery and horror program where âFateâ narrates and always wins by the end of the story. These are great suspense filled stories about average people who are subject to the mysteries of their âFateâ. In This episode, March 16, 1948. Program #14. Finley syndication. "Joe Mattock". Commercials added locally. Book 63, page 397. A truck driver and his beautiful hitch-hiker commit murder to get their hands on $100,000, kept in a little black bag. The date is subject to correction. Ivan Ditmars (music), Larry Finley (producer), Hal Sawyer, Frank Albertson, Gloria Blondell, Herb Lytton, Jerry Hausner, Ray Ehrlenborn (probable sound effects). 26:47

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

The Saint â 1945-1951 There were at least 24 episodes broadcast of this series. It was a fascinating detective adventure series based on the books by Leslie Charteris. Edgar Barrier first played Simon Templar, aka The Saint, a debonair private detective in January 1945. He was then played by Brian Aherne in June 1945 and later Vincent Price from July 1947 up until May 1951. The Saint was said to have been like a modern day Robin Hood. He didnât care for justice and always helped victims hindered by the lawâs restrictions.

Hancock's Half-Hour is the yardstick against which all subsequent British sitcoms have been measured, the vast majority failing to size up to its extremely high standards. Based on his famous radio show of the same name, the TV run consolidated Tony Hancock's standing as Britain's leading comic of the day, the entertainer providing ample proof that his wonderfully flexible face could be as expressive as his dextrous radio voice. Tony Hancock was at the height of his powers during the late 1950s, squeezing every comic ounce out of his lines, pulling off perfectly judged pauses and demonstrating a sense of timing to match the great Jack Benny's. His character - Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock - was invariably a loser, whose aspirations and plans were dashed by fate, circumstance, Sid James or, more often than not, his own pomposity or unfettered ambition.

The Hollywood husband and wife team of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall set sail for adventure in the Bold Venture radio series in early 1951. There were well over 400 stations that aired the program. Since thiswas syndicated * the starting date varied from station to station but Mar 26, 1951 was the official date of the first show. Humphrey Bogart portrayed Slate Shannon, owner of a rundown Havana hotel, Shannon's Place. The action took place on land as well aboard Slate's boat, The Bold Venture, thus the title of the series. Lauren Bacall was his ward Sailor Duval, a stubborn and flirtatious young woman whose late father had willed her to Slate for her protection. Together the duo found adventure, intrigue, mystery and romance in the sultry settings of tropical Havana and the mysterious islands of the Caribbean.

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

Adventures of Superman â 1938-1951This juvenile adventure series was first broadcast on Mutual in 1940 with Clayton (Bud) Collyer starring as Superman/Clark Kent. It first began as a fifteen-minute show but later, in 1949, it moved to ABC as a thirty-minute Saturday show with Michael Fitzmaurice as Superman. At the end of its thirteen-year run it had totalled over 1600 episodes. The opening for the show was one of radioâs best, setting the stage for those flights into fantasy with a cascade of voices, narration and sound effects. âFaster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound!â âLook! Up in the sky!â âItâs a bird!â âItâs a plane!â âItâs Superman!â

Tuska cited Ellery Queen, Master Detective (1940) and Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery (1941) as the best of the Bellamy-Lindsay pairings. "The influence of The Thin Man series was apparent in reverse", Tuska noted about Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery. "Ellery and Nikki are unmarried but obviously in love with each other. Probably the biggest mystery... is how Ellery ever gets a book written. Not only is Nikki attractive and perfectly willing to show off her figure", Tuska wrote, "but she also likes to write her own stories on Queen's time, and gets carried away doing her own investigations." In Ellery Queen, Master Detective, "the amorous relationship between Ellery and Nikki Porter was given a dignity, and therefore integrity", Tuska wrote, "that was lacking in the two previous entries in the series", made at Republic Pictures before Bellamy and Lindsay were signed by Columbia.

Lights Out was an American old-time radio program featuring "tales of the supernatural and the supernormal." It was immensely popular, and was one of the first horror programs, predating Suspense and Inner Sanctum. In its heydey, Lights Out rivalled the popularity of those shows. Lights Out ran through several series and networks, from January 1, 1934 to August 6, 1947. The principal sponsor was Ironized Yeast. Most episodes were broadcast at midnight. Lights Out then made the transition to television in 1949, where it was broadcast until 1952. Created in Chicago by writer Wyllis Cooper in 1934.

It's A Crime Mr. Collins. 1956. Mutual net origination, syndicated. "The Lost Film". Commercials added locally. A vacation in New York leads to a mysterious traffic homicide and the kidnapping of Mrs. Collins! The date is approximate. Mandel Kramer, Gail Collins, Richard Denning. 26:07.

As you walk through the creaking door you enter into another world, the world of imagination. This world is inside you, a part of you, and you take this journey alone. Each person hears and then sees with his or her mind's eye the events portrayed within these dramas. All of us interprets what they hear differently. The images we see is unique to ourselves. A voice becomes a person, living, breathing they come alive. They take on a physical form and characteristics that we assign to them. The wonders of your own mind are boundless. Scary thoughts? Perhaps, but what powers they bring us! To exercise one's imagination is to exercise one's soul. These dramas provide us with an escape from reality. To adventures beyond our own lives. Enjoy them. And pleasant dreams!THIS EPISODE: November 20, 1975. Program #382. CBS network. "The Lamps Of The Devil". Sponsored by: Luden's Cough Drops, Buick, Sine-Off. E. G. Marshall (host), Sam Dann (writer), Kristoffer Tabori, Russell Horton, Ian Martin, Joan Shea. 52 minutes.

The Plainsman is a 1936 Western movie directed by Cecil B. DeMille that presents a highly fictionalized account of the adventures and relationships between Wild Bill Hickok (Gary Cooper), Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur), Buffalo Bill Cody and General George Custer, with a gun-runner named Lattimer (Charles Bickford) as the main villain. The film is notorious for mixing timelines and even has on opening scene with Abraham Lincoln setting the stage for Hickock's adventures. Anthony Quinn has a cameo as an Indian.With the end of the American Civil War, military industrialists are left with an oversupply of weapons. Some of the more unscrupulous ones view the Indians as possible new customers. Having been just discharged from the Union Army, Wild Bill Hickok is making his way back west. On a paddle steamer, he bumps into his old army scout colleague, Buffalo Bill Cody and his new bride. Later, Calamity Jane is the driver of their stagecoach to Hays, Kansas.

The Sealed Book starred Philip Clarke as the keeper of the book, a croaking, cackling hermit, with knowledge of the black arts, who in each show unlocked the great padlock that kept the sealed book safe from prying eyes. There was a spook story each week with tales of secrets and mysteries of mankind through the ages. This MUTUAL network entry in the horror and mystery genre was far from the best remembered, such as Suspense, Quiet Please, and Inner Sanctum. The Sealed Book begins with a classic intro, in which when gonged, we are escorted by the tuxedoed announcer with unseen organist as the keeper of the book opens the ponderous, albeit squeaky door "to the secret vault wherein is kept the great sealed book, in which is recorded all the secrets and mysteries of mankind through the ages, Here are tales of every kind, tales of murder, of madness, of dark deeds strange and terrible beyond all belief." First broadcast date march 18th 1945. Last broadcast date september 9th 1945. Narrated by Philip Clarke and written by Bob Arthur and David Kogan, this mystery anthology was aired over the MUTUAL network Sunday nights at 10:30 p.m.

Dimension X was an NBC radio program broadcast on an unsponsored, sustaining basis from April 8, 1950 to September 29, 1951. The first 13 episodes were broadcast live, and the remainder were pre-recorded. Fred Wiehe and Edward King were the directors, and Norman Rose was heard as both announcer and narrator. Preceded by Mutual's 2000 Plus (1950-52), Dimension X was not the first adult science fiction series on radio, but the acquisition of previously published stories immediately gave it a strong standing with the science fiction community, as did the choice of well established, respected writers in the field: Isaac Asimov, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Fredric Brown, Robert A. Heinlein, Murray Leinster, H. Beam Piper, Frank M. Robinson, Clifford D. Simak, William Tenn, Jack Vance, Kurt Vonnegut, Jack Williamson and Donald A. Wollheim. Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts adapted most of the stories and also provided original scripts.

By the early 40s, Burns decided that their act needed a change. He decided that the audience knew Gracies and his reactions well enough that it would be possible to play off them, and create situations something like screwball comedy, but with the Burns and Allen touch. Jack Benny and Burns and Allen worked much the same way with their comedy. Vaudevilles snappy patter and give and take jokes, good even if the audience didnt know you, could be developed into running gags and put-downs based on character. Burns was always astute when it came to comedy - he lead the brainstorming sessions that wrote the shows, and carefully edited his writers with the final word on what was cut and what stayed. Elvia Allman played Gracies griend Tootsie Sagwell and Gale Gordon and Hans Conried made frequent appearances. So in 1942, George and Gracie became, in their characters, the perfectly normal husband and wife that is, if Gracie's non sequiturs and impulsive behavior could be considered perfectly normal. For Gracie, of course, it was perfectly normal, and the American public continued their love affair with her.

The Man Called X was an espionage radio drama which aired on CBS and NBC from July 10, 1944 to May 20, 1952. Herbert Marshall had the lead role of Intelligence Agent Ken Thurston who took on dangerous cases in a variety of exotic locations. Gordon Jenkins Orchestra supplied the background music. Cast: Leon Belasco as Pagan Seldchmidt ANNOUNCER: Wendell Niles DIRECTOR: Jack Johnstone.MUSIC: Johnny Green. CBS FRIGIDAIRE - GENERAL MOTORS Thursdays 10:30 - 11:00 pm