Missing Episodes of the Whistler

One thing that I wish the OTR community was better at celebrating is circulating news when missing episodes of popular shows are discovered. I've been online for almost 30 years and the amount of OTR that's freely circulating today is much greater than when I used a dial-up modem to download shows; episodes that were confidently listed as "lost" have been found and circulating for many years. And whenever that happens, I think we OTR fans should get the word out to each other, because there is no single comprehensive authority on what's out there.

To that end, as a huge fan of the Whistler I was very pleased to notice at the fan page the Whistler Files that no less than 3 previously-lost episodes of the Whistler have been found and released by fans this year - "The Havana Lee," "No Questions Asked" and "The Croupier's Wife." There are links on the Files' main page to where you can find those episodes. If you, like me, want to hear every episode of the Whistler, well, happily there are a few more out there now.

Radio Recap: The Damon Runyon Theatre

The Damon Runyon Theatre was a half-hour syndicated program from 1949-1950 which adapted stories from the works of author Damon Runyon (who had died in 1946). It was produced by Mayfair, Alan Ladd's production company (although Ladd never appeared on the show). Mayfair also made Ladd's Box 13. It was directed by Richard Sanville of Box 13, Escape and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

John Brown served as the program's narrator, Broadway; Broadway wasn't the narrator in all of the Runyon stories when they were first printed, but it didn't seem to take much effort to simply have Broadway encounter the protagonist of another story then listen as they narrated their tale to him. The stories always had a humorous edge, especially while Broadway was narrating with his Runyon patter (such as the phrase "more than somewhat"). Most of the stories were about big city living and the various classes of criminals but the series also adapted Runyon's World War II stories. Some tales were simply funny, some were heartwarming, some were true hardboiled crime thrillers and a few were tearjerkers.

Other familiar voices in the terrific cast included Jack Webb, William Conrad, Hans Conreid, Gerald Mohr, Ed Begley, Willard Waterman, Frank Lovejoy, Alan Reed, Jeff Chandler, Joseph Kearns, Sara Berner and Sheldon Leonard.

I rather agree with John Dunning's view in On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio: "In an era when radio emphasis was on Hollywood stars in film adaptations, The Damon Runyon Theater,/B> was like a cool breeze." This program was my introduction to Damon Runyon's writing and I certainly enjoyed delving into Runyon's fiction. Runyon is mostly remembered today for the Guys and Dolls musical that was inspired by his work but those who know his stories like them a lot; having read the short story collection of Guys and Dolls I'm immensely grateful to The Damon Runyon Theatre for exposing me to his writing.

My favourite episode is "Tobias the Terrible" but I also give high marks to "Little Miss Marker," "The Lemon Drop Kid," "For a Pal," "Butch Minds the Baby," "That Ever-Lovin' Wife of Hymie's," "Dark Dolores" and "Dream Street Rose." (Note that one story they didn't adapt to The Damon Runyon Theatre is "Three Wise Guys," which was instead adapted on the Whistler, complete with John Brown!).

You can hear the Old-Time Radio Researchers' collection of all 52 episodes of The Damon Runyon Theatre at this link on the Internet Archive.

New Video: The Angola Mural Projects

Here's a video of my wife and I introducing the murals we created in Angola:

Radio Recap: Our Miss Brooks

Our Miss Brooks was an extremely successful old-time radio situation comedy that lasted well into the latter days of scripted radio drama, lasting on CBS from July 19, 1948 til June 30, 1957 (I strongly suspect the last season was repeat broadcasts). It started out with Palmolive Soap and Lustre Creme Shampoo as its sponsors. It was produced by Larry Berns and directed and written by Al Lewis.

The show starred Eve Arden as Connie Brooks, the English teacher at Madison High School. The show emphasized how difficult it was to make ends meet on a teacher's salary. She forever hoped to be promoted to head of the English department, but the goal was always just out of reach; she also hoped for Mr. Boynton to marry her, only to be disappointed.

Gale Gordon was Osgood Conklin, the principal of Madison. Gordon, of course, could be terrifically bombastic when his characters would explode in anger, and he seemed to know that Conklin's anger was at its funniest when set to a slow burn. There was a particular knack he had to deliver increasingly histrionic dialogue until suddenly halting and, switching to a calm, mellow voice, would ask Miss Brooks to verify whatever the episode's misunderstanding had been, then hit his top.

Jeff Chandler was Philip Boynton, the bashful biology teacher; Chandler was a legitimate Hollywood heart throb and a radio tough guy who'd played the hardboiled Michael Shayne. His performance as the stammering, awkward Mr. Boynton was a departure for him and really showed off his range.

Richard Crenna was Walter Denton, a helpful student with a piercing nasal voice; Walter thought of himself as a loquacious and erudite young scholar but he would frequently mangle his English, much to Connie's annoyance; he also had a habit of eating up Mrs. Davis' food. Walter would drive Connie to Madison each morning and frequently he would be the one to bring up the episode's particular problem.

Jane Morgan was Margaret Davis, Connie's scatterbrained landlady; she frequently would begin stories about her absent-minded sister Angela, only to forget her own anecdote mid-story.

Gloria McMillan was Harriet Conklin, the principal's daughter and girlfriend to Walter; she was simply a nice girl, but would sometimes unwittingly exacerbate the episode's problem, especially if she thought she was "helping" Miss Brooks.

Other recurring characters included Stretch Snodgrass (Leonard Smith), Madison's star basketball player but also the dimmest character in the school; Miss Enright (Mary Jane Croft), Connie's rival English teacher both for the position as head of the English department and in dating Mr. Boynton; Jacque Monet (Gerald Mohr), the school's French teacher; custodian Mr. Jensen (Bob Jellison), who took his grammar very seriously (such as objecting to the phrase "pick up" when the object in question is above Connie's head); Mrs. Conklin (Virginia Gordon) occasionally appeared; and Mr. Stone (Joseph Kearns), the school's superintendant, who seemed to visit Madison only when things were especially chaotic. There was an appreciable amount of lore as well, such as Madison's rivalry with Clay City High, as their principal Jason Brill was a rival to Mr. Conklin who would sometimes try to lure Madison's faculty to his school; Jason Brill did appear in a few episodes (played by Frank Nelson in one) but he was usually more spoken of than he was present.

CBS ran three auditions before finally launching the series. The 1st audition starred Shirley Booth as the series had originally been intended as a vehicle for her, but she fell out with the producers; the 2nd audition (which we don't have) starred Joan Blondell; finally, Eve Arden was cast in the 3rd audition. The first actual episode was also drawn from the same script as the audition scripts. Beyond the change in lead the role, there are interesting differences between the 3 versions we have of the first script. In the 1st audition, Mr. Conklin was the new President of the school board, rather than the principal. In the 3rd audition, Mr. Conklin was the new principal (but played by Joe Forte) and Jeff Chandler and Richard Crenna took over the roles of Mr. Boynton and Walter Denton; Gale Gordon didn't become Osgood Conklin until the 2nd broadcast episode (which is also when Gloria McMillan debuted as Harriet). It's also interesting that in all the version of the audition script, Walter's mother is set up as an important character on the school board, but she was mostly out-of-focus in the series proper.

I found it interesting that early on, it's established Mrs. Davis went to school with Mr. Conklin; I'd noticed that he always referred to her as "Margaret," but she was portrayed as being much older than he was; anyway, it's only in those early episodes that their past is mentioned. It's also interesting that early on, Mr. Stone was introduced as a former wartime comrade of Mr. Conklin's. Although Mr. Conklin's status as a veteran remained an important part of his character (his style of calling out "dismissed!" at Miss Brooks, for instance), he and Mr. Stone's character bond seemed to disappear and Mr. Stone seemed forever suspicious of Conklin, rather than the guardedly favourable impression he had of Conklin early on.

The series was set around the school, but seldom depicted scenes in the classroom. Usually, scenes were set at Mrs. Davis' home, in Mr. Conklin's office, in Mr. Boynton's biology lab or in the school cafeteria. The series' economy of locations is unusual for a radio series and suggests that from early on, Larry Berns and Al Lewis were thinking how they might adapt their stories to television; the TV series ran from 1952-1956, then ended with a theatrical Our Miss Brooks in which Connie finally got engaged to Mr. Boynton.

Our Miss Brooks let Eve Arden demonstrate she was an extremely capable lead performer, when for most of her career she'd been someone's sidekick (as on the Danny Kaye Show, for instance). Much like Marie Wilson on My Friend Irma, Eve Arden was known, but not a star; Our Miss Brooks became the work she remains best-known for.

The biggest change the show endured during its run was the loss of Jeff Chandler, who was replaced with Robert Rockwell in 1953. Rockwell likewise portrayed Mr. Boynton on the TV series. In fact, the TV version did an excellent job of retaining the radio cast: Eve Arden, the indispensable Gale Gordon, Richard Crenna, Gloria McMillan, Jane Morgan, Joseph Kearns, Virginia Gordon, Mary Jane Croft, even Leonard Smith - all appeared on the small screen.

The Old-Time Radio Researchers have a YouTube playlist with 188 videos (the first 4 are biographies of the cast):

Lubango Vlog: Full CEML Succession Video

I finally had time to upload the full 90+ minute version of my Uncle Steve's succession ceremony at CEML from last month:

Radio Recap: Stars Over Hollywood

Stars Over Hollywood was a half-hour Saturday daytime program heard on CBS from May 31, 1941 to September 25, 1954. It featured stories from all sorts of different genres, most of them radio originals; the attraction was that it featured a big-name Hollywood stars in the lead roles; stars like Vincent Price, Jessica Tandy, William Demarest, David Niven, Ronald Reagan, Lionel Barrymore, Angela Lansbury and Edmund Gwenn. Art Ballinger was the program's host and it was sponsored by Carnation Milk for most of its run.

Paul Pierce (Wild Bill Hickok) was the show's initial producer-director; Hans Conreid directed and acted in many episodes. Ivan Ditmars (of The Adventures of Frank Race, The Diary of Fate, Escape, Frontier Town, The Whistler) supplied music. Apparently a young Rod Serling wrote for this series, but it appears none of his episodes have survived.

According to John Dunning in On the Air, Stars Over Hollywood challenged presumptions in radio that Saturday daytime could draw in listeners; apparently the success of this series caused the networks to start investing money on more daytime Saturday programming than they had previously.

Most of the stories were original scripts, although they did run adaptations of "A Christmas Carol" twice (with Edmund Gwenn as Scrooge). Although the stories featured a host of different genres from comedy to crime, because it was aimed at the housewife demographic it mostly centered itself on relationships - so, romantic dramas or romantic comedies. The two best romantic comedies I've heard are "The Perfect Mate" (December 1, 1951) with a computer matchmaking service.

The best episode of the series by far is also the earliest surviving recording- "Southern Hospitality" (April 18, 1942), with Phil Harris as himself (or, rather, Phil Harris as the person he portrayed on the Jack Benny Program). It concerned Phil being mistaken for a wealthy heir in North Carolina. What helps the episode stand out (besides Phil's vivacious personality) is that his sidekick in the story was Elliott Lewis, several years before he became his sidekick on the Phil Harris/Alice Faye Show!

There are 84 episodes of Stars Over Hollywood in the Old-Time Radio Researchers' Library.

25 Years of the Marvel Appendix!

The Marvel Appendix website is celebrating 25 years since its launch! As one of the site's first contributors I created hundreds of new profiles to celebrate the anniversary. They'll be slowly released all through September and I won't post about all of them here, but here's which profiles of mine are available today:

Alpha-Tron (Hydra weapon)

Boswell Boliver (time traveler)

Bull Barton (Kid Colt foe)

Crusher (wrestler, sparred against Captain America)

Deacon (Captain America foe)

The Desert Hawk (Sgt. Fury ally)

John (robot, sci-fi character)

John Warden (S.H.I.E.L.D. psychic)

Josh Kittling (Spider-Man ally)

Manuel (Captain Savage ally)

Marion (Iron Man love interest)

Molecular Condenser (Stilt-Man weapon)

Molecule Ray (The Leader's weapon)

Sen-Yu (Dr. Strange ally, fellow mystic)

Sidney Blake (sci-fi character)

Sonic Shark (anti-Silver Surfer weapon)

Zantor (Atlantean villain)