Radio Recap: The Radio Hall of Fame

The Radio Hall of Fame - also called Philco Radio Hall of Fame after the series' sponsor - was a variety program that aired over the Blue network, continuing with them even after the network changed its name to ABC. It started in 1943 as an hour-long program, then shifted to a half-hour in 1945 before completing its run in 1946 (the following fall, Philco continued on ABC with Philco Radio Time starring Bing Crosby). The series offered a chance for audiences to hear repeat performances of popular radio stars in their most famous roles. Music throughout the series was provided by bandleader Paul Whiteman.

I haven't posted many Radio Recaps of Blue network shows; NBC Blue seldom had big name stars - those were usually reserved for the primary NBC network. Radio Hall of Fame was obviously a very expensive show, considering the vast number of talents who made themselves available for it. Compare this extravaganza to Philco's modest Phyl Coe Radio Mysteries series from just 6 years earlier - clearly time had been very good to Philco's business!

The show was strongly connected to Variety magazine; the magazine's critic Deems Taylor was the show's original host. Apparently that caused a lot of problems for the series because most of the newspaper coverage of Radio Hall of Fame consisted of the series insisting it wasn't just a mouthpiece for Variety. As of the second season, Deems Taylor was gone and the series was led by a series of guest hosts, usually popular film and radio stars.

During the summer time the series became the Philco Summer Theater; Paul Whiteman stayed on to introduce the acts but it became almost entirely musical numbers (with a brief news break). But in every incarnation, the Radio Hall of Fame had a lot of music - sometimes the musical acts go on for about 10 minutes-- occasionally, longer than that!

Now, the repeated performances varied quite a bit. At the beginning of the show, they genuinely did offer fans a chance to hear a popular performance a second time, which was a novelty in the days when "re-runs" didn't exist. The show's fourth episode featured a recreation of a sketch heard two weeks earlier on the Texaco Star Theatre with Fred Allen's entire comedy cast appearing for the recreation - that's kind of a big deal for a Blue network series to be highlighting a popular CBS comedy! But many of the comedy sketches on Radio Fall of Fame weren't from the recent past of radio, instead comedy stars would turn up to repeat their most well-known performances.

Radio Hall of Fame had radio stars: Fred Allen, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, George Burns and Gracie Allen, George Jessel, Ed Wynn, Bing Crosby, Chico Marx, Oscar Levant, Eddie Cantor, Abbott and Costello; they had comedians who at the time were best-known for their stand-up acts: Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle, Henny Youngman; they had popular singers: Ginny Sims, Lauritz Melchior, Mary Martin, Burl Ives, Dick Powell, Kenny Baker, Kate Smith, Victor Borge; they had movie stars: Joan Fontaine, Brian Aherne, Laird Cregar, Raymond Edward Johnson, Paul Muni, William Gargan, Mary Astor, Orson Welles, Judy Garland, Boris Karloff, Ingrid Bergman, Lionel Barrymore; heck, they had Terry and the Pirates cartoonist Milton Caniff!

But Radio Hall of Fame also featured the likes of Arch Oboler recreating his script "Alter Ego" (first heard on Texaco Star Theatre in 1938) which was being made into the film Bewitched that same year; they recreated "Sorry, Wrong Number" from Suspense with Agnes Moorehead in her famous role; they brought in the casts of Vic and Sade, Lum and Abner, It Pays to Be Ignorant, Mr. District Attorney; and a satire of Inner Sanctum Mysteries complete with Raymond Edward Johnson.

The music heard was of all varieties - there was opera, Broadway musical comedy, classical music - along with a variety of old jazz pieces led by Paul Whiteman. Often there's at least one musical number that had no vocalist, just orchestra. Much of the music wasn't typically heard on radio, which isn't exactly fitting with the "Hall of Fame" part of the series title. When you pair that with many of the nightclub comedians heard on the series, it really does sound like an attempt to put Variety on the radio.

The original content also included (for the 1st season only) a lot of dramatic plays written by Milton Geiger that were usually heard in the last quarter of the show. The series was produced relatively early in the USA's involvement in World War II and Geiger's plays were frequently about the conflict. In the 2nd season, the dramatic plays were usually familiar stories, such as Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" (with Peter Lorre) and Maupassant's "A Piece of String" (with Claude Rains). By the show's last season, the runtime had been trimmed to 30 minutes and the dramatic parts almost entirely excised, leaving the series just another music-comedy variety show.

I can't quite recommend the Radio Hall of Fame despite its high production values and immense array of talents. If any of the famous names above pique your interest then by all means you should search out the episodes they appeared in -- but for me, the series has too much music. The occasional great comedy routine (and there are some great ones, especially the Jackie Gleason, Chico Marx and Victor Borge appearances) doesn't really make up for the lengthy musical numbers you have to listen to in order to discover them. There are better musical-comedy variety shows (Command Performance comes to mind).

You can hear nearly 100 episodes of the Radio Hall of Fame at the Old Time Radio Researchers' Library.

RIP: Val Kilmer

Actor Val Kilmer passed away this week, aged only 65.

I'm sure every film buff out there has a favourite Val Kilmer movie, but mine is his first film - Top Secret! (1984), the ridiculous comedy film in which he portrayed the Elvis-like singing sensation Nick Rivers, who journeys behind the Iron Curtain and gets involved in a spy plot that is very much like the 1944 movie the Conspirators. As Kilmer himself noted, being that he was a young actor, it was a huge challenge to take on such a wacky comedy role; Kilmer succeeded because he portrayed Nick earnestly, a straight man in a very, very wacky movie.

But I'm sure most film buffs are going to point to Tombstone (1993). And yes, even I - a man who does not especially like westerns - point to Kilmer's performance as Doc Holliday as a terrific piece of acting. Perhaps Tombstone is the western movie for people who don't like westerns? Anyway, go watch Tombstone if you haven't already.

Obviously, there's much more I could mention; I have one friend who loves the Ghost and the Darkness (1996); my sister loved Willow (1988); my wife really likes the Saint (1997).

Rest in peace, Mr. Kilmer.

Columbia Workshop: The Recommended Listening List

With more than 300 episodes of the Columbia Workshop still in existence, it's pretty difficult to know what someone might like from the series. Everything I've learned about Columbia Workshop has confirmed how John Dunning summed it up in his encyclopedia:

"That this was not a show for the masses is especially true today. Some of these shows, on first listening, seem to move at a glacial pace; some seem quite old and date. The techniques they pioneered have become so routine, their high-tech counterparts bombarding people in radio commericals around the clock, that a listener seldom gives a thought to a time when they didn't exist."

Columbia Workshop was a pioneering, groundbreaking series, but people prefer to hear radio shows that implemented their solutions rather than listen to those early experiments. But if you're willing to dig through Columbia Workshop you'll find a massive vault full of compelling dramas, great performances and unusual uses of sound.

Here's what I consider to be the most worthwhile episodes:

• "The Gods of the Mountain" (December 19, 1936) an adaptation of Lord Dunsany's tale of beggars who masquerade as gods and the horrible fate they suffer.
• "Split Seconds" (March 14, 1937) a man struggles to swim to shore as scenes from his life echo in his ears.
• "Danse Macabre" (March 21, 1937) Death itself sets out to find companionship, killing everyone who refuses to dance to his fiddle.
• "The Fall of the City" (April 11, 1937 and again September 28, 1939) the drama of a great city's destruction, notable for the 1st version's cast of 200 voices and the 2nd version's 500+ cast!
• "R.U.R." (April 18, 1937) an adaptation of Karel Capek's play which introduced the word "robot."
• "S. S. San Pedro" (September 5, 1937) a story with heavy supernatural overtones as a ship at sea nears a disaster it can't survive.
• "The Killers" (October 17, 1937) a good adaptation of Ernest Hemmingway's short story of two gunmen and their willing victim.
• "The Horla" (November 7, 1937) an adaptation of the Guy de Maupassant story (although poor Alfred Shirley can't compare to Peter Lorre's majestic Mystery in the Air performance).
• "Night Patrol" (February 26, 1938) an Irish cop on the beat has various encounters with neighborhood folk one evening (at the time, an innovative use of footstep sound effects).
• "Seven Waves Away" (April 2, 1938) men on a lifeboat decide to sacrifice some of their fellow survivors believing it will better their odds for rescue.
• "The Fisherman and His Soul" (May 7, 1938) an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's fairy tale of a fisherman who sacrificed his soul so that he could love a mermaid, which proves to be a fatal error.
• "Bury the Dead" (May 28, 1938) an anti-war story in which the dead slain in war rise and society wonders how to make them rest again.
• "Mr. Whipple Is Worried" (January 16, 1939) a comedic episode in which a meek little man discovers he can hear statues talk.
• "Nine Prisoners" (February 20, 1939) an anti-war story in which nine soldiers are told to execute their prisoners and how each of the nine copes with their orders.
• "Jury Trial" (February 27, 1939) a look at members of a jury and how their personal prejudices and preferences interfere with justice.
• "The Law Beaters" (May 15, 1939) in which two criminals swap stories about their greatest triumphs- with a great twist ending.
• "The Man with the One Track Mind" (June 30, 1940) a whimsical story about a man who becomes a train and the unusual culture among other living train engines.
• "Carmilla" (July 28, 1940) an adaptation of Sheridan le Fanu's famous vampire story.
• "The Pussy Cat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man" (September 29, 1940) Arthur Miller(!)'s humorous tale of a talking cat who decides to run for public office.
• "The Plot to Overthrow Christmas (December 22, 1940) Norman Corwin's humorous bit of verse in which the fiends of Hades (ladies) attempt to snuff out Santa Claus.
• "Miracle in Manhattan" (December 21, 1941) a Christmas story of a cynical taxi driver who ferries around a mysterious man who might just be Jesus (this one was repeated several times as an episode of Duffy's Tavern).
• "Someone Else" (July 20, 1942) an offbeat supernatural tale about a man who is haunted by relics of the past.
• "Remodeled Brownstone" (October 19, 1942) a horror story in which new homeowners find their home haunted by a ghostly infant.
• "The Trial" (May 19, 1946) an adaptation of Kafka's most famous novel.
• "The Parade" (December 7, 1946) on the anniverary of the Pearl Harbor attack, a tale in which dead soldiers march silently through the city streets.

Here are some of the more "weird" episodes:

• "Maker of Dreams" (September 26, 1936) opens with a comedic drama about the spirits who give people dreams; it's followed by a discussion of how sound effects are created to give people the impression that ghosts exist.
• "The Tell-Tale Heart" (July 11, 1937) a very unusual adaptation that's less-faithful than most radio adaptations; the content of the story is the same but there's none of Edgar Allan Poe's prose - all the dialogue is unique to this production.
• "Surrealism" (June 11, 1938) a celebration of surrealism, with a variety of odd poems and songs with unusual musical accompaniment and sound effects.
• "So This Is Radio" (September 7, 1939) an explanation of how music is utilized in radio and the different means by which music is used in drama.
• "Double Exposure" (February 15, 1940) an adaptation of a Grand Guignol play; it's not what you'd expect, given the theatre's reputation for gore; it's definitely a horror play but it's very restrained and the horror doesn't really come until the climax.

Here's again is a massive collection of the Columbia Workshop at the Internet Archive.