I love Christmas old-time radio shows. My interest in OTR began when I would listen to "Those Old Radio Shows" on QR77, which used to be broadcast on every night of the year (currently they broadcast on Fridays & Saturdays). When I first became a listener the shows were taken from a pretty limited library. Each year before Christmas, they would run "The 12 Days of Christmas" from Dec. 14-25 and the first program of each block would be a Christmas episode of an OTR show. Some of them were programs which didn't otherwise exist in their library.
As I've noted before, initally I didn't care for comedy programs and I'd often turn off my radio when one came on, but during "The 12 Days" I would listen to the Christmas shows. Eventually I developed a better appreciation for radio comedy. And so, my hope is that during this 31-day blogging exercise I might get you to try out a radio program you might not otherwise sample.
As Jack Benny became my favourite old-time radio comedian, it's Jack Benny who I'm beginning with. On December 12, 1937, The Jack Benny Program featured Jack and Mary Livingstone shopping for presents. It's not the greatest episode in the series as there were still a few kinks being worked out, but it's a very snappy episode. More to the point, it established what became a tradition - an episode of Jack going shopping and being frustrated by unhelpful store staff, with various jokes about how cheap Jack is. You can listen to the episode on Youtube here.
More seasonal OTR tomorrow!
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