12 Days of Christmas Radio Shows, Part 7: "The Desert Shall Rejoice"

Today's program is about a cynical hotel owner. On Christmas Eve, his inn is visited by a number of unusual characters, such as husband and wife who are expecting a child and three men bringing gifts. While his wife keeps insisting these parallels to the Nativity mean something, the innkeeper resists her line of thinking.

"The Desert Shall Rejoice" originally aired December 16, 1948. It was adapted from a Warner Bros. short film titled Star in the Night, written by Robert Finch and directed by Don Siegel; it won the 1945 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film!

Tomorrow: Matinee Theater!

12 Days of Christmas Radio Shows, Part 6: "The Bad Will Ambassador"

Today's program is an episode of Orson Welles' series Hello, Americans. This was a wartime program designed to foster good relations among the Americas and it primarily featured Welles teaching facts about South American countries in a fun way. But for Christmas, Welles came up with a full narrative, something quite different; it concerns an American businessman travelling in South America who refuses to give up his seat on an airplane to a child who wants to go home for Christmas. From then on, everywhere he goes, the businessman is followed by a man known only as "Señor" who seems to be silently judging him.

"The Bad Will Ambassador" originally aired December 27, 1942.

Tomorrow: The Hallmark Playhouse!

12 Days of Christmas Radio Shows, Part 5: "The Messiah"

Today's program is an episode of The Theater of Romance (a series often called "Romance"). As a Christmas offering, "The Messiah" tells the story of how George Frideric Handel was inspired to compose his choral "Messiah." It includes some brief choir performances of the selfsame piece of music.

"The Messiah" originally aired December 25, 1945. It was written by Jean Holloway and narrated by Edward Arnold.

Tomorrow: Hello, Americans!

Christmas at the Marvel Appendix!

I wrote up a few new character profiles with a Christmas theme at the Unofficial Appendix to the Marvel Universe, my old stomping grounds. It includes Cool, a Psi-Force foe who fought them on Christmas; Elias Hodge, an Atlas horror character who was visited by the three Christmas ghosts yet refused to change; Shorty, an Atlas war hero who lived through a fight on Christmas Eve; Corporal Ryan, an Atlas crime character, a Mountie who solved a crime on Christmas; Mary Jane Bromley, an Atlas romance heroine who sought love at Christmas; and Marley, a Luke Cage foe with one Dickens of a gimmick. Merry Christmas!

12 Days of Christmas Radio Shows, Part 4: "Scapegoats in History"

Today's program is a very different kind of radio program - an episode of Words at War, a wartime series that promoted interested books to its audiences. For Christmas, 1944, they presented the books Scapegoats in History by Kenneth Miller Gould and History of Bigotry in the United States by Gustavus Myers. Words at War dramatizes elements of the books and performs a sober reflection on the persecution of other people across the centuries, noting to its Christian audience that the story of Jesus at Epiphany - the flight from Egypt - was itself an escape from persecution.

"Scapegoats in History" originally aired December 26, 1944. The narrator is Bernard Lenrow.

Tomorrow: The Theater of Romance!

12 Days of Christmas Radio Shows, Part 3: "Three Wise Guys"

On this episode of the Whistler, three gangsters go looking for some money they hid in a barn, only to find a woman there who's about to have a child. The name of the place? Bethlehem... Pennsylvania.

"Three Wise Guys" is based on a story by Damon Runyon and originally aired December 24, 1950. The Whistler normally didn't adapt stories from other mediums! John Brown, who portrayed Broadway on the Damon Runyon Theatre, stars in this episode.

Tomorrow: Words at War!

12 Days of Christmas Radio Shows, Part 2: "The Big Little Jesus"

Dragnet was not a serious that indulged in many happy endings - their first major Christmas episode - "A .22 Rifle for Christmas" - is definitely not a happy time. Yet "The Big Little Jesus" offers a rare easygoing Christmas crime; a church's state of baby Jesus has been stolen from their Nativity display. It's a small, inexpensive thing, but important to the community.

"The Big Little Jesus" originally aired December 22, 1953. It was written by Jack Webb's good friend (and frequent Dragnet writer) Richard L. Breen. It appeared on the Dragnet television series just three days after the radio version.

Tomorrow: The Whistler!

12 Days of Christmas Radio Shows, Part 1: "The Santa Claus of Bum's Blvd."

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I credit my love of old-time radio shows to the radio station QR77. Each year they had a series they called "12 Days of Christmas" and would present one Christmas episode of an old-radio show each evening for the 12 nights leading up to Christmas Day. I've done the same on this blog every now and then but this year I've decided to follow the actual 12 days of Christmas - meaning, I'm starting today and will finish on January 5th. I hope this may help you keep some fine Christmas sentiment through the entire Christmas season.

We'll begin with "The Santa Claus of Bum's Blvd." from Casey, Crime Photographer. On this Christmas program, Casey and his reporter friend Ann Williams investigate a philanthropist called "Mr. Shepherd" who visits the rundown "Bum's Blvd." each Christmas to hand out money. This year, someone has taken Mr. Shepherd's money.

"The Santa Claus of Bum's Blvd." originally aired December 12, 1947. It was written by the show's producer, Alonzo Deen Cole. Is it just me, or does "Mr. Shepherd" sound a lot like one of the performers from the Greatest Story Ever Told?

Tomorrow: Dragnet!

"You wanna reach the stars?" Fantastic Four Fanfare review

Fantastic Four Fanfare was a 4-issue mini-series released this year to celebrate the release of the film Fantastic Four: First Steps. It's an anthology series with 3 stories per issue. I do wonder why the series didn't feature 4 stories per issue - I mean, why not? What we have here is a mix of stories either featuring the Fantastic Four as a team or a spotlight tale on one (or two) members of the FF. Several of these stories were written or drawn by past creative teams on Fantastic Four. I'll briefly describe the 12 stories:

Fantastic Four: Fanfare #1 spotlights the Human Torch and features "You Realize, of Course, This Means War" by Mark Waid and Ramon Rosanas, "Life's a Gas" by Alan Davis and "Monster Island of Love" by Andrew Wheeler and Sara Pichelli. Waid wrote Fantastic Four 2002-2005; Davis has been a frequent Fantastic Four cover artist, served as penciler briefly in 1998 and wrote and drew the 2007 mini-series Fantastic Four: The End; and Pichelli was briefly the Fantastic Four penciler in 2018.

Waid's story is about Johnny's love of playing practical jokes on Ben, which Waid accelerates to the nth degree; in this story, Johnny had an entire filing cabinet labeled "Ideas for Pranking Ben." Many of the pranks are depicted in the style of a 1960s "Marvel Masterwork Pin-Up," which is a fun joke. Davis' story features the FF on a mission underground where Johnny's flame is bit more dangerous than usual; it's pretty light, but Davis is maybe the finest living FF illustrator, so it's worth a look. The final story features Johnny as a constestant on a reality TV program which turns out to be the favourite program of the Mole Man.

Fantastic Four: Fanfare #2 spotlights Mr. Fantastic and features "Dinner and a Movie" by Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver, "Future Uncertain" by John Tyler Christopher and "Hide and Seeker" by Mark Buckingham. Hickman wrote Fantastic Four 2009-2012; Buckingham drew a few Fantstic Four stories in 2003.

This issue is very mixed; Buckingham's story concerns two of Dr. Doom's underlings trying to recover his robot the Seeker; it looks terrific but it's incredibly slight. The other two stories are simply underwhelming.

Fantastic Four: Fanfare #3 spotlights the Thing and features "Fight or Flight" by Dan Slott and Marcos Martin, "Another Round" by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz and "Universal Appeal" by Chip Zdarsky and Mike Allred. Dan Slott wrote Fantastic Four 2018-2022 and wrote a Thing solo series in 2006; DeFalco wrote Fantastic Four 1991-1996 and the Thing's solo adventures in Marvel Two-in-One 1981-1983; Zardsky wrote the Thing and Human Torch in Marvel 2-in-One 2018-2019 and Allred drew F.F. 2013-2014.

This issue is certainly my favourite, as it features three writers whose work I truly admire. Slott's story - with phenomenal art by Martin - focuses on Ben's experiences as a pilot over the decades. It's a very good character piece. DeFalco/Frenz's story brings back the Sandman, whom they'd done a bit of work rehabilitating into a hero back in the 80s, only for later writers to revert Sandman to a villain; this story tries to thread the needle, restoring his friendship with Ben but suggesting he'll still be a problem in the future. The final story features Johnny heading to an extraterrestrial fashion shoot, only to be upstaged by Ben.

Fantastic Four: Fanfare #4 spotlights the Invisible Woman and features "Ain't No Grave" by J. Michael Straczynski and Cafu, "One Night" by Greg Weisman, Mark Bagley and John Dell and "Clobberin' Time" by Daniel Warren Johnson and Tyrell Cannon. Straczynski wrote Fantastic Four 2005-2006 and Bagley penciled Fantastic Four 2013-2014.

Straczynski's story (which seems to be set circa 1970?) is about the Mole Man on his deathbed - which means this anthology won't read well in a trade paperback as this follows on the humourous treatment of Mole Man in issue #1. Still, it's a very good character piece on Mole Man that takes him seriously, which is not how... well, anyone else in the last 35 years has treated the character. Weisman's story is set around the time of Fantastic Four Annual #5 and features the Circus of Crime; it's appealing fluff. The last story is a kind of embarrassing story about the Sub-Mariner fighting the FF in a tournament but at least the art's appealing.

Anthologies are always a mixed bag; in this case, you might want to just cherry-pick the creators you enjoy the most. Still, taken as a whole, this is a fine collection of stories.

Radio Recap: Casey, Crime Photographer

Casey, Crime Photographer (frequently announced as just "Crime Photographer") was a half-hour CBS radio program that ran from July 11, 1945 until November 16, 1950; it came back for another run from January 13, 1954 'til April 22, 1955. The series was derived from the pulp magazine hero Flashgun Casey, created by George Harmon Coxe; Casey appeared in movies (1936's Women Are Trouble and 1938's Here's Flash Casey), a 1951-1952 television series and a 1949 Marvel comic book. They all featured Jack "Flashgun" Casey, a crime photographer from the Morning Express who frequently solved crimes with reporter Ann Williams.

The series was originally called Flashgun Casey in its first year, then became Casey, Press Photographer in the second year. Matt Crowley and Jim Backus were the first to play Casey until the role went to Staats Cotsworth, who held the part from then on. Ann Williams was played by numerous actresses over the years including Jone Allison, Alice Reinheart, Lesley Woods, Betty Furness and Jan Miner. Jackson Beck played Captain Logan, Casey's contact on the police force; and when they weren't working, Casey and Ann would visit the Blue Note Cafe, run by Ethelbert (John Gibson).

The series was written by Alonzo Deen Cole, best-known for the horror anthology the Witch's Tale. In fact, he adapted at least two of his Witch's Tale scripts for Casey ("Great Grandfather's Rent Receipt" from October 30, 1947 - itself an uncredited adaptation of a Sir Walter Scott story - and "the Serpent Goddess" from December 4, 1947); I wouldn't be surprised if many more episodes of Cole's Casey started out on the Witch's Tale because there's frequently a strong note of violence and supernatural tropes.

The series was sponsored by Anchor Hocking, "a great name in glass" (1946-1948) in most of the surviving episodes, with Tony Marvin reading their advertisements. I guess those ads still work since when I went shopping for wine glasses for the first time and I saw a box of Anchor Hocking in the store, I immediately thought, "a great name in glass!" and bought them. The series was later sponsored by Toni Home Permanents (1948-1949) and Philip Morris tobacco (1949-1950).

Casey, Crime Photographer was a surprise hit in the ratings and ranked among radio's top shows in 1948 and 1949; partly, this was due to following Suspense on the CBS schedule. Still, this was apparently very embarrassing to NBC, who had spent years insisting that it was comedy and big name stars who brought in big audiences; Suspense may have had big stars, but Casey didn't so their triumph over NBC gave the network something to think about.

Given Casey's occupation, it kind of makes sense that he'd turn up at various kinds of crime scenes around Manhattan. What's surprising is that his occupation was just an artifice to get him involved in the week's case; his particular speciality - photography - was usually ignored by the show's creators! He might as well have been Casey, Crime Sketch Artist for all the importance photography was in solving crimes.

Strangely, I find a lot to recommend in Casey, Crime Photographer; it's full of lurid, pulpy tales that are unlike what any of the more polished radio detective of the time were doing. Here's some notable episodes:

• "The Reunion" (June 3, 1946): A sculptor's wife disappears and he has a new statue.
• "The Demon Miner" (March 20, 1947): Someone is murdering miners underground (this episode was originally written for the Shadow!)
• "Busman's Holiday" (August 21, 1947): Casey is completely absent so his supporting players Ann and Captain Logan solve the crime!
• "The Santa Claus of Bum's Boulevard" (December 25, 1947): A charming Christmas tale about a man who gives away money to the needy.
• "Thunderbolt" (November 10, 1949): A madman with a hammer thinks he's Thor, the god of thunder!
• "Road Angel" (January 13, 1954): A beautiful hitchhiker robs the people who pick her up.

The Old Time Radio Researchers have a YouTube playlist containing 76 episodes of Casey, Crime Photographer!