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.

Radio Recap: Daredevils of Hollywood

"From Hollywood, the motion picture capital of the world, we bring you the thrilling, true life experiences of those men behind the scenes, those daring unsung heroes whose breathtaking adventures on the screen have thrilled millions, whose daily jobs bring them face-to-face with death, those men who comprise the strangest fraternity on earth, the suicide squad, the movie stuntmen, the Daredevils of Hollywood!"

Daredevils of Hollywood was a 15-minute syndicated program that ran from April 25 to July 22, 1938. The series celebrated the profession of Hollywood stuntmen, with each episode focussing on a particular stuntman.

The show would open with a dramatic performance of a stunt, then switch to an interview between Kurt Foreman and the stuntman. The only one of the stuntmen featured on the show who's known today is Yakima Canutt, but the other stuntmen featured were Bob Rose, Cliff Lyons, Ione Reed, Slim Talbot, Matt Gillman, Bob Clark, Frank McGrath, Kansas Mooring, Cecil Kellogg, Eileen Goodwin, Ken Cooper Frank Clark and Gordon Carvette.

I wonder, though, whether the actual stuntmen were being interviewed on the show-- listening carefully to Yakima Canutt, I'd swear that was radio veteran Lou Merrill.

To me, the most interesting tidbit from these programs was during Foreman's interview with Cliff Lyons:

Lyons: "...A few extras will do easy things such as falling down stairs or rolling down a cliff; we call those 'bumps' men.
Foreman: "Tell me, Cliff, what's the difference between a stuntman and a 'bumps' man?"
Lyons: "Well, when a 'bumps' man makes a mistake, he breaks an arm or a leg, but when a stuntman misses, it's curtains."

Frank Nelson narrated most of the events in the dramatic portions; other familiar voices included Hanley Stafford and Joseph Kearns.

The problem with the series for me is that the radio techniques were still a little too primitive; usually, in the opening re-enactment, when the stuntman's life inevitably ends up in danger, it turns into a series of people yelling and trying to describe what's happening. It doesn't make for good radio.

It's also a little irritating that at each episode's halfway mark, the stuntman will start to describe an anecdote, then get cut-off by Foreman, who promises they'll continue the anecdote after the commercial break. It was a deliberate creative choice to lure listeners into sticking around for the rest of the anecdote, but the interruption is always unwelcome.

The Old-Time Radio Researchers have a YouTube playlist of all 26 episodes of Daredevils of Hollywood.

Radio Recap: The Skippy Hollywood Theatre/Your Movietown Radio Theater

The series known as both The Skippy Hollywood Theatre and Your Movietown Radio Theater was a syndicated program heard from 1941-1949 through Ziv syndication; it then ran on CBS from December 1, 1949 to September 21, 1950. The series offered a variety of familiar names from Hollywood in the starring role of a half-hour drama. I've found that OTR collectors have put episodes from either show title into each other's collections; so be it.

Music was by Del Castillo (Escape) and it was produced, directed and hosted by Les Mitchel, who produced a similar-sounding program I've yet to listen to called The Theatre of Famous Radio Players.

The majority of the stories heard on the program were original dramas, which means if you haven't heard this show before, you'll find plenty of unfamiliar tales. One of the few adaptations I've heard is "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The stories are a mixed bag; for example, the episode "Sound of Her Voice" is a comedic supernatural story that riffs on Robert Louis Stevenson's "the Magic Bottle," in which a man obtains a genie but the story's primarily about how annoying the voice of the man's wife is. It's not successful as a comedy. Otherwise, I didn't find this series very remarkable.

The series did have a lot of light, comedic fare. Two that I enjoyed was the romantic comedy "Girl in the Galaxy" with a lovestruck astronomer and "A Book on Rock Gardening," a screwball comedy about children who give their father a thoughtless gift that consumes his life.

There are 42 episodes in the Old-Time Radio Researchers' Library collection of The Skippy Hollywood Theatre and 66 episodes of Your Movietown Radio Theater - there's duplication between the two series and at least one misfiled episode from another series.

Radio Recap: Presenting Charles Boyer

"That is Michel: Adventurer, bon vivant, connoisseur of words, wine and women! Our Michel is a familiar sight on the boulevards of Paris and the rumor is that he was born wearing a top hat, white tie, and tail! Michel, in the person of Mr. Charles Boyer, is perhaps the most fascinating barnacle ever to fasten on the ship of Parisian society. There he sits, in the Tour de Jean; impeccable and impecunious, telling his story to his author friend, Bart Conway."

Presenting Charles Boyer was a summer show on NBC from July 4-September 12, 1950. It was a summer replacement for Fibber McGee and Molly and starred, of course, Charles Boyer, the famous romantic lead. Boyer's career was in a bit of a slump, but his name was so well-known that it's no wonder the show was named for him.

As outlined in the intro, above, Boyer portrayed Michel, a penniless Frenchman whose life was full of romance and adventure. To make a buck, he'd tell his stories to Bart Conway (Hanley Stafford).

For a 1950s NBC dramatic program, it thankfully has its own unique musical score (primarily using the accordion).

Presenting Charles Boyer is fine for what it is - Michel is basically the same as Harry Lime in the Lives of Harry Lime, so fans of one show will almost certainly like the other.

There are 18 episodes of Presenting Charles Boyer (2 of them are auditions) in the Old-Time Radio Researchers' Library.

Radio Recap: Unit 99

"The job of a police officer is your protection; the cases you hear on this radio program are real cases; the police are real, the victims and the criminals are real; we are glad to provide Unit 99 and Sergeant Meredith so that you will hear how the police of a great city work night and day for your protection! Make no mistake about it, there are no actors on these tapes they are real from beginning to end; now to Unit 99 and Sergeant Meredith:"

Unit 99 was a latter-day old-time radio show, heard over ABC from June 2, 1956 to October 3, 1957. It doesn't seem to have been well-researched - at some stages it was a half-hour show, at others 15 minutes.

Unit 99 appears to be ABC's attempt to follow CBS' series Night Watch; like that series, it follows a policeman in his patrol car as he responds to various incidents. However, while Night Watch was mediated by reporter Donn Reed, Unit 99 used just policeman Sgt. Don Meredith to address the audience - so sometimes he's being followed by a microphone, at other times he speaking something very rehearsed.

It lacks the visceral impact Night Watch had at it's best because people sound a little too polished - my guess is that they were told to repeat something they'd said before when the microphone was brought up (Night Watch would censor profanity; it's not clear to me that anyone on Unit 99 even used profanity). There are also instances where the police are way too patronizing to the people they encounter, such as when they meet a man who was attacked but doesn't want to press charges, causing them to pressure him into reconsidering. It's inferior to Night Watch but okay if listening to a police ride-along is your idea of entertainment.

There are 177 episodes of Unit 99 in the Old-Time Radio Researchers' Library.

Radio Recap: The Grantland Rice Story

The Grantland Rice Story was a 15-minute syndicated program released from September 17, 1955 to September 8, 1956. It was based on the writings of Grantland Rice, a famous sports reporter who had died just before the series was made. In the show, Jimmy Powers would read from Rice's autobiography The Tumult and the Shouting (1945), giving the series a feel similar to that of a book-on-tape. Some episodes feature interviews between Powers and other sports writers who knew Rice, and with some of the sports figures whom Rice wrote about.

I found this a surprisingly interesting program; Rice met a lot of famous athletes in his time and there are lively anecdotes about some; it's also a look into a bygone age, something Powers remarked at the opening of the series as sports journalism in newspapers had already been greatly transformed due to television broadcasting. It also looks at sports which were not widely-known at the time, such as Rice's writing on the golf craze (I noted this phenomenon when I reviewed Judge magazine).

You can hear the Old Time Radio Researchers' collection of The Grantland Rice Story through the playlist below:

Radio Recap: Can You Imagine That?

Can You Imagine That? was a 15-minute syndicated program heard from March 11 to June 5, 1940. It was hosted, written and directed by Lindsay MacHarrie.

Can You Imagine That? featured stories about little-known facts, rather like Ripley's Believe It or Not. What makes it interesting to listen to is that the anecdotes are mostly dramatized; as the show is very short and contains multiple anecdites per episode, the dramas are very quick but well done. Each episode concluded with a story about a famous song, often examining how the song was based on an older tune but with different lyrics. Can You Imagine That? is fine for the type of program it is.

You can hear the Old Time Radio Researchers' collection of Can You Imagine That through the playlist below:

Radio Recap: Unsolved Mysteries

Unsolved Mysteries was a 15-minute syndicated program from 1936. It featured a variety of "unsolved" mysteries - some of them with supernatural overtones. Many of these will be familiar to fans of true crimes and the supernatural, such as the Lizzie Borden affair, the "mystery" of the Marie Celeste. There's also stories of zombies in Haiti and a pretty good story of seemingly-magical foreknowledge dubbed, "The Toll-Bridge Mystery."

As the episode would near its conclusion, the narrator would announce:

"Out of deference to people who are still alive, character names in these Unsolved Mysteries have been changed. In as much as any solution must of necessity be supposition, liberties of time, place and character exist in the solution that will be presented after you have heard from your sponsor."

The solutions offered by Unsolved Mysteries tend to reject the supernatural where it's present, instead offering reasonable explanations for how events might have transpired. It's a pretty good, rather unsung series, one of the better 1930s syndicated shows I've heard.

There are 27 episodes of Unsolved Mysteries in the Old-Time Radio Researchers' Library.

Radio Recap: Famous Jury Trials

Famous Jury Trials was an early crime program, heard from January 5, 1936 to June 25, 1949; it started on Mutual, then went to NBC Blue and remained there when the network became ABC. The series drew from real-life criminal cases and dramatized the trials. For example, one episode concerns the trial of Aaron Burr.

The cast included actors like Maurice Franklin, Roger DeKoven, DeWitt McBride, Raymond Edward Johnson, Frank Readick and Mandel Kramer. I'm sure I heard Bill Johnstone as well. It was produced and written by Don Becker.

The series would relate events from within the courtroom; rather than re-enacting the crimes, the crimes would instead be described for the jury, which did, of course, make events appear more subjective.

In the 1950s there was another version of this series produced for Australian radio. Most of what still exists is from the Australian run and collectors haven't done a great job of setting them apart; they tend to be filed together in collections.

There are 6 episodes of Famous Jury Trials in the Old-Time Radio Researchers' Library; there are more episodes out there, although most of the surviving programs appear to be from the Australian run.

Radio Recap: Europe Confidential

Europe Confidential was another program from producer Harry Alan Towers, the man behind The Black Musem, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Lives of Harry Lime and Theatre Royal.

As in Towers' other programs, Europe Confidential boasted a big name to draw in listeners - in this case, Basil Rathbone - but Basil was only there to host the episodes (he introdced it under a different title: "The World's Greatest Mysteries."). He would instead introduce the adventures of protagonist Mike Kinoy; it sounds like Towers used the same recording of Rathbone's introduction in every episode:

"In drama and fiction, newspapermen are invariably tough hard-boiled characters. In real life this is, well, it's not necessarily true, although several newspaper men I've known were as colourful as anything fiction has ever had to offer. Mike, whom you'll meet in a moment, is based on a real person who actually works for the European edition of a famous American newspaper. Not only is the character real, but, well, many of the stories which Mike tells are also based on fact. The tale you're going to hear today, for instance, you may even recognize from the headlines in your newspaper of, well, not so long ago. In a moment, Mike will introduce you to another mystery solved and signed with his own unmistakable trademark: Europe Confidential."

I've tried to be nice to Towers' works in my previous recaps but I have nothing kind to say about Europe Confidential; it uses the same musical bridges in his other works but he seemed inept in employing them, striking a suspenseful chord when nothing suspenseful had happened; exciting music when nothing exciting is happening. It's simply a dull program, I cannot recommend it, not even if you want to hear Rathbone slumming.

There are 22 episodes of Europe Confidential in the Old-Time Radio Researchers' Library.

Radio Recap: Behind the Mike

"Radio's own show: Behind the Mike!"

Behind the Mike is a must-listen program for anyone who considers themselves an old-time radio fan; it was an informative program about the behind-the-scenes workings of old-time radio, heard as an afternoon series on NBC Blue from September 15, 1940 to April 19, 1942. It was hosted by Graham McNamee.

Behind the Mike is simply the best old-time radio program about old-time radio; they featured a number of recurring segments such as "sound effect of the week" in which they explained how a particular sound effect was created; they would also recreate cancelled radio shows, reuniting the casts of programs which had ended years earlier (in some cases, these recreations are all we have of once-popular shows like the Gold Dust Twins); they also had a segment where they answered questions from listeners.

The show also lent a spotlight to radio supporting players as performers demonstrated how they could adopt various dialects or imitate animals. In one episode they demonstrate what goes into writing an episode of a soap opera. A few episodes featured auditions performed by a would-be announcer and a would-be singer. They would also re-create famous bloopers, mostly performed by radio announcers, along with one instance where a dog had to be chased from the studio during a dramatic scene!

I found anecdotes from the program Sundown on the Veldt (now lost) to be pretty interesting; there's also a recreation of Eno Crime Clues and a terrific recreation of the show Harbor Lights, which featured dramas set at sea.

As an NBC program, Behind the Mike they promoted a lot of NBC shows (once the sound effect of the week came from the mostly-lost program The Bishop and the Gargoyle!), even featuring Don Wilson and Jack Benny in one episode in which Jack reminisced about his first appearance on radio. There's also an episode where Raymond Everett Johnson and organist Lew White demonstrated how they created Inner Sanctum Mysteries, with particular attention given to how White's organ would enhance the drama. However, some non-NBC shows came up as well, such as a sound effect of the week from Mutual's the Shadow.

You can hear the Old Time Radio Researchers' collection of Behind the Mike through the playlist below:

Radio Recap: The Origins of Superstitions

"I am... superstition. You don't believe, do you? HA HA HA HA!"

The Origins of Superstitions was a syndicated radio series produced in 1933 by Transco. It appears to have had a 39-episode run; each episode runs less than 15 minutes, with quite a bit of music. They syndicated their shows again in 1948 and 1952, which probably helps account for the series remaining intact.

Transco's other syndicated shows included the World Adventurer's Club, which sounds very much like this series. The cast included familiar voices from their other shows, such as Gale Gordon and Hanley Stafford.

The Origins of Superstitions usually opened with a voice intoning, "I am... superstition." It's terrifically cheesy. You might think from the introduction that you're being set up for a horror series but The Origins of Superstitions was pretty firmly against the superstitions it depicted. Usually the dramas involve someone suggesting that a particular act - such as opening one's umbrella indoors - will bring about bad luck. The person's well-informed friend knows the history of that superstition and launches into a story which demonstrates how it's a mere superstition.

Indeed, the vast majority of these superstitions are "doing this is bad luck." There are some other superstitions such as the belief that an itchy palm means someone's coming into good fortune, but it's mostly stories of bad luck. Many of these superstitions I've never heard of - maybe they're very region-specific or have been totally forgotten, but I've never heard of the idea that if you have to immediately turn back from a journey you've started, you need to wait before resuming your journey.

Like the World Adventurer's Club, The Origins of Superstitions has low production values but it's fairly good for early radio (there's also a bit of the same racism found in that other series, such as in the Rabbit's Foot episode). Overall, the superstitions are kind of interesting to learn about; for early 30s radio, it's fine.

You can hear the Old Time Radio Researchers' collection of the Origins of Superstitions through this link to their website.

Radio Recap: Bulldog Drummond

"Out of the fog, out of the night and into his American adventures comes... Bulldog Drummond!"

Bulldog Drummond was a popular adventure hero from books written by H. C. McNeile ("Sapper"). The radio series aired April 13, 1941-January 12, 1949 on Mutual. Mutual revived the series in 1954 but it only lasted from January 3-March 28th. The titular hero was played by many actors over the years, including George Coulouris, Santos Ortega, Ned Wever and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Captain Drummond's valet, Denny, was portrayed by Everett Sloane, Luis van Rooten and Rod Hendrickson.

Like a lot of heroes who debuted between the wars, Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond was a World War I vet who found himself a bit restless and so plunged himself into adventures, as one does. In the radio version, he tends to just stumble into crimes, making him appear rather passive. He's another of those heroes you just can't go on vacation with.

The show was produced and directed by Himan Brown and had a similar sort of pace and patter as Brown's best-remembered series, Inner Sanctum Mysteries (but without the constant organ stings). The series used a lot of the same supporting talent as Inner Sanctum, such as Mercedes McCambridge and Jackson Beck.

While the series was off the air, Himan Brown's the Private Files of Rex Saunders aired over NBC with a lot of scripts recycled from Bulldog Drummond.

Although Bulldog Drummond featured in many novels, films, television and comic books he's been an unpopular character for decades now, as McNeile's racism (particularly towards Jews) made his works unpalatable. The radio version lacks the racism, thankfully - but Drummond was usually incredibly bland; Denny provided some lightness (he's sometimes a bit of a thick-headed idiot) and the villains usually had energy, but no matter who portrayed Drummond, his lip was far, far too stiff. The best episode I've heard is the early "Axis Submarine" episode (June 22, 1942).

Despite Bulldog Drummond's lengthy run, there's very little of it still circulating today. Many of the recordings we do have lack their music cues, which makes them very talky and hard to listen to.

You can hear the Old Time Radio Researchers' collection of 27 episodes of Bulldog Drummond through this link to their website.

Radio Recap: The Life of Riley

The Life of Riley was a long-running sitcom, among the most influential of all sitcoms in the history of the genre; it aired over the Blue Network from 1944-1945, then NBC from 1945-1951. William Bendix starred as the lead character, Chester A. Riley, an aircraft mechanic from Brooklyn who had transported his family to work in a wartime aircraft plant in Los Angeles. Paula Winslowe played his wife, Peg. Barbara Eiler was usually his daughter Babs, while Tommy Cook, Bobby Ellis and Scotty Beckett each played his son, Junior. Ken Carpenter and Harry Von Zell were the show's announcers. The series was created by Irving Brecher and had a remarkably consistent tone and backstory for the characters (Alan Lipscott and Reuben Ship were productive writers for the series).

Brecher was a friend of Groucho Marx and had written for him on two lesser Marx Brothers movies (At the Circus and Go West). He'd wanted to create a radio sitcom for Groucho but his sponsor couldn't envision Groucho as the head of a happy family (neither can I, to be fair). Outside of the Life of Riley, Brecher's greatest claim to fame was writing the film Meet Me in St. Louis (1947).

Chester A. Riley was basically a good-natured dope; usually the problems on the show were of his own making as he'd try to find a way to sneak off work or get into a poker game; Riley's attempts at covering up his minor infractions would then escalate until he'd eventually try to make good. Of course, arriving at the time this series did, sometimes Riley's problems simply stemmed from struggling out of the Great Depression; Riley's family were always struggling to make ends meet, didn't own a car and were often in danger of being evicted for falling behind on their rent. Trying to improve his family's standing was another way in which Riley would inevitably court disaster. His main catchphrase was, "Wotta revoltin' development this is!" His favoured malapropism was "my head's made up!"

John Brown had two major roles (and occasionally a variety of other small parts) as Digby O'Dell, "the friendly undertaker" and Riley's fellow factory worker Jim Gillis. Riley's boss, Mr. Stevenson, was usually played by Alan Reed (Reed also occasionally played Peg's father). Early on, Riley often interacted with his milquetoast neighbour Waldo Binney (Francis Trout). Lou Merrill was Peg's ex-boyfriend Sidney Monahan, whom Riley remained jealous of; Shirley Mitchell was Louella Lownesbury, the southern belle who made Peg jealous (Louella was virtually identical to Mitchell's Great Gildersleeve character Leila). And there were a host of other recurring minor characters like Junior's girlfriend Marilyn Morris (whose father was Riley's landlord) and Babs' boyfriend Simon, who even had his own catchphrase ("I love ya madly!").

The secondary characters were mostly there to exacerbate Riley's problems; Mr. Stevenson was a greedy, miserly boss, always looking for an honest way to cheat his hard-working employees. Gillis frequently would get Riley into trouble by bragging about how he'd cheated his way out of work or boasting about his son Egbert's achievements; trying to emulate Gillis' behaviour or forcing Junior to beat Egbert in a competition always led to trouble.

By contrast, Waldo and Digger provided a conscience to Riley; although Waldo would frequently express admiration when Riley would boast to him about his supposed triumphs, when Riley did something wrong, Waldo would meekly correct him. As the show went on, that became Digger's role and the show's formula became one of escalating problems until Riley would chance to meet Digger ("You're looking fine-- very natural!") and relate his woes to him; Digger would supply Riley with some sage advice which he'd attempt to use in the climax (but would usually garble Digger's advice).

In the show's first year, Riley was bedeviled by Peg's Uncle Baxter (Hans Conreid), a freeloader who was always abusing Riley's good nature. The very episode where Riley finally got rid of Uncle Baxter, his brother Uncle Buckley (Charlie Cantor) took his place. In either case, neither were a good fit for the series. The Life of Riley tended to feature sitcom misunderstandings and mistakes on Riley's part, but Baxter (and to a lesser extent, Buckley) was actively malevolent and would deliberately make trouble for Riley. They were right to eliminate the characters from the series.

There were many flashback episodes to times earlier in the Rileys' lives when they lived in Brooklyn; these had very similar framing devices where Riley would boast to someone (usually one or both of his kids or one of his co-workers) about how he succeeded at something earlier in he and Peg's relationship; once he left the room, Peg would tell Riley's audience the true story, setting up the flashback. These included stories set when Chester and Peg were in high school (Paula Winslowe would raise her falsetto for these) and the days when Peg dated Sidney; they wound up covering Chester and Peg's engagement, wedding, early married life and the birth of Babs. For a comedy program, there was a lot of lore!

The series was originally sponsored by the American Meat Institute; those ads will never not be funny to me as I try to imagine who on Earth thought Americans needed to be convinced to eat meat? Later they were sponsored by Teel dentifrice, then Dreft cleaner, Prell Shampoo (P-R-E-L-L, Prell Shampoo!) and finally Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. The latter was undoubtedly the most thematically-appropriate sponsor - a blue collar drink for a blue collar family.

In 1949, the Life of Riley became a pretty-good motion picture, written by Brecher with Bendix reprising the part of Riley and John Brown reprising Digby O'Dell. Rosemary DeCamp played Peg and noted radio announcer Bill Goodwin played Sidney Monahan. Episodes of the radio show around that time made a lot of jokes about the film; it was also adapted to radio as an episode of Lux Radio Theater.

The show became an early TV sitcom that year, with Jackie Gleason as Riley (John Brown again reprised Digby and Rosemary DeCamp again played Peg); it aired just one year, but was Gleason's big break on television and has been viewed in retrospect as a testing ground for the more successful the Honeymooners. Most of the plots were reused from the radio series (which had itself repeated scripts now and then). When Bendix was ill, Gleason played Riley on the radio for the November 11, 1949 episode.

After the radio series ended, Bendix reprised Riley yet again on television, a more successful series that lasted 1953-1955. Irving Brecher wasn't involved, however.

The Life of Riley didn't just pave the way for the Honeymooners but virtually every example of the family sitcom - a sub-genre that's mostly gone now, but which comprised much of the most popular programming from the 1950s to 1990s - can be found on this program; the bumbling, egotistical father; the sensible wife; the boy-crazy daughter; the wise yet ignored son; the wacky neighbours; the Life of Riley was a significant program in the history of the sitcom; more than that, I find it's still pretty funny. The Rileys blue collar troubles still resonate, especially as so many of the sitcoms that followed chose to place their casts in a comfortable middle to upper-middle class.

The quality of the series is, to my ears, pretty uniform throughout, although I find the last year has a few too many repeated scripts (and the latter-day actor playing Junior isn't as effective). My favourite episodes include Riley's visit to a haunted house, with a surprising touching conclusion (October 29, 1944); Riley teaching a lesson to his boss' obnoxious son Roswell on Christmas (December 24, 1944); Riley thinking Sidney's plotting a "Double Indemnity" hit against him (March 16, 1946); Riley tries to collect health benefits over a sprained ankle (May 31, 1947); Riley enrolls at a phony engineering school (September 6, 1947); the flashback story of Riley in the school play (November 15, 1947); the Rileys quarrel over whether to buy a piano or a TV set (December 27, 1947); Riley tries to control the family telephone (January 17, 1948); Riley running a neighbourhood curfew (April 3, 1948); Riley tries to study an encyclopedia (October 29, 1948); Riley turns against Junior's comic books (!) (November 5, 1948); Riley's sister gets engaged to a gambler (December 10, 1948); Riley tries to get his fellow employees their Christmas bonus (December 24, 1948); Riley's offended when he's compared to the character in the movie, "The Life of Riley!" (May 6, 1949); Peg gets a job (February 17, 1950) and Riley and Junior running competing hamburger stands (April 28, 1950).

You can hear the Old Time Radio Researchers' collection of 255 The Life of Riley episodes through this link to their website.

Radio Recap: Tarzan

Tarzan of the Apes had a variety of different radio programs over the decades but at this stage, I want to talk about the 1930s Tarzan serials, each of which was adapted directly from Edgar Rice Burroughs' novels; they covered Tarzan of the Apes (1932-1934), Tarzan and the Diamond of Asher (1934, adapted from Tarzan and the Golden Lion) and Tarzan and the Fires of Tohr (1936, adapted from Tarzan and the City of Gold).

I wrote about what makes Tarzan problematic many years ago in a blog post about Tarzan's comic strips, and I published an essay about the inherent racism of Tarzan in my series of essays about the Black Panther (the one titled: "Exploring White Privilege in Christopher Priest's Black Panther: Part 2").

All of this is just to say you can't wander into Tarzan with your eyes shut. The amount of racism varies (since Black people in Tarzan stories are often barely visible) and they can be enjoyed as simple adventure tales. Caveat emptor.

According to John Dunning in On the Air: "The original Tarzan radio adaptation has come to be regarded as the first major syndicated serial." It was sponsored by Signal Oil, better-known to us as the sponsors of The Whistler.

Tarzan of the Apes had an interesting cast, with James Pierce as Tarzan; he'd played Tarzan on the big screen in Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1927) and his wife, Joan Burroughs (Edgar's daughter) portrayed Jane Porter. Other cast members included Gale Gordon, Frank Nelson, Hanley Stafford and Jeanette Nolan - all terrific radio professionals (you can hear them in a lot of 1930s syndicated fare).

The latter two serials recast Tarzan with Carlton KaDell; apparently Edgar Rice Burroughs had withdrawn his support by then, which was probably why his daughter and son-in-law left the series.

I actually find these Tarzan serials to be a step-up from the majority of juvenile adventure serials; when you look at the best-regarded of the genre, I Love a Mystery, you find each episode tends to open on the characters recapping what happened to them in the previous installment; then each of the cast members will have a quick scene to remind listeners who they are; then in the last 2 minutes, something dramatic happens. By contrast, the Tarzan serials have a relentless pace - they don't follow a formula like I Love a Mystery, they just adapt from the books and go on and on until they run out of time! Consequently, the climax of each episode can be surprising because there are no cues to indicate when it's about to finish.

You can hear the Old Time Radio Researchers' collection of Tarzan of the Apes episodes with the YouTube playlist below:

You can hear the Old Time Radio Researchers' collection of Tarzan and the Diamond of Asher episodes with the YouTube playlist below:

You can hear the Old Time Radio Researchers' collection of Tarzan and the Fires of Tohr episodes with the YouTube playlist below:

Radio Recap: Front Page Drama

Front Page Drama was a 15-minute program produced by the General Broadcasting Company as a supplement to the Hearst magazine publication the American Weekly, which was itself a supplement to the Heart Sunday newspapers. A supplement to a supplement! Each episode featured a brief drama inspired by an article found in the American Weekly; sometimes a single article would inspire multiple episodes. Hearst syndicated this series themselves (another Hearst program I've covered is The Club Car Special). It appears the series aired from April 27, 1933 to June 27, 1942, then again from September 3, 1950 to March 28, 1954.

The kind of stories dramatized on Front Page Drama often had a crime or mystery bend to them; there was also a lot of supernatural content, such as ghost stories. I kind of like "the Christmas Eve Ghost," (December 24, 1933) about a visit from a ghost at Christmas time; I usually listen to it every Christmas.

Many episodes circa 1935 used the piece Omphale's Spinning Wheel as the show's opening theme - soon after it was used as the theme for the Shadow. In fact, it sounds like the same recorded performance was used on both shows; perhaps a classical music scholar out there can track down the specific version?

Another odd connection to the Shadow is a public service drama heard on the April 4, 1941 episode in which the voice which tells the audience to avoid causing forest fires sounds a lot like the Shadow - my guess is they used the same microphone filter as heard on that series. The RadioGold Index pig-headedly assigned a credit to Orson Welles for that episode, even though it's clearly not Welles and Welles was not the Shadow by 1941!

The cast usually went uncredited but I'm sure Walter Tetley played many of the children heard on the series and I think I heard Verna Felton too. The RadioGold Index credits Gale Gordon as one of the recurring performers in the 30s and Gerald Mohr in the 40s. Ralph Clarke Wentworth was the first announcer, later John Martin. In the 50s episodes, I recognized Raymond Edward Johnson's voice.

The 1950s version tends to veer more strongly into stories of romance than the show's earlier run - I have a feeling it was intended as daytime fare to compete with soap operas.

I find the show's greatest shortcoming (beyond the dodgy audio quality of majority of the recordings) is the reliance on dialogue with minimal sound effects, a common problem I have with 1930s radio drama. The sound effects are very slight on Front Page Drama and that makes even a 15-minute show a bit of a chore to listen to.

Still, I find the series fascinating because it's an early radio drama that we have a lot of examples of - hundreds of episodes! - yet has been barely indexed and categorized. I imagine there will be some great scholarship done on this series in the future when someone becomes interested enough to explore it.

You'll find 352 episodes of Front Page Drama at the Old Time Radio Researchers Library at this link.

Radio Recap: Did Justice Triumph?

Did Justice Triumph? aired on Mutual from January 29, 1947 to November 3, 1947. Stories on the program were adapted from features called "True Justice Stories" that appeared in the New York Sunday News syndicate. It was directed and produced by Jock MacGregor, whose many Mutual credits included Nick Carter, Master Detective, the Mysterious Traveler, the Strange Dr. Weird, the Sealed Book and Roger Kilgore, Public Defender.

The story was something of a police procedural series, demonstrating that Jack Webb was following a post-war trend when he debuted Dragnet two years later. The crimes described on the show were often violent but, perhaps fortunately, weren't usually dramatized, instead preferring to tell its stories through the eyes of the police.

At the close of each episode, the announcer would declare "Justice did triumph!" as something of an answer to the show's title. Maybe there were episodes where the announcer stated, "Justice did not triumph," but that would be unusual for the times.

The Old Time Radio Researchers Library has just 6 episodes of Did Justice Triumph? at this link.

Radio Recap: The Adventures of Frank Race

"Many things were changed during the war; the face of the Earth was altered and the people of the Earth changed. Before the war, Frank Race was an attorney, but he traded his law books for the cloak and dagger of the O.S.S., and when it was over, his former life was over too; adventure had become his business: The Adventures of Frank Race!"

The Adventures of Frank Race was a syndicated program that ran from May 1, 1950 to February 19, 1950. It starred Tom Collins as Frank Race and Tony Barrett as Mark Donovan, Frank's sidekick. It was written and director by Buckley Angel and Joel Murcott (writer on Suspense, Escape and Tales of the Texas Rangers). Ivan Ditmars (of Escape) supplied the music.

Post-World War II, there seemed to be a sub-genre of radio programs about men back from the service who were trying to assert their new position in society by taking on odd jobs and, inevitably, solving mysteries; Let George Do It, Box 13, I Fly Anything and the Adventures of Christopher London are all examples of this type.

In the case of Frank Race, he worked as an insurance investigator (Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar was already on the air). The sidekick, Donovan, was present to supply muscle when Frank needed, but otherwise he was written as a complete lunkhead (although he did supply Frank with someone to explain the plot to). The supporting roles were filled with familiar voices like Bill Johnstone, Jack Kruschen, Frank Lovejoy, William Conrad and Virginia Gregg.

The production quality of the Adventures of Frank Race was pretty high - they're professional and polished. Unfortunately, despite all the talent working on them, I don't find the stories memorable. It's an okay program, but given the premise and talent, it should have at least as good as, say, the Amazing Mr. Malone. So far as I'm concerned, it's just okay.

You can hear the Old Time Radio Researchers' collection of the Adventures of Frank Race episodes with the YouTube playlist below:

Radio Recap: Bright Star

Bright Star was a comedy/drama that starred Irene Dunne and Fred MacMurray; at the top of each episode announcer Harry Von Zell would introduce the series as "The Irene Dunne-Fred MacMurray Show," before giving the program's actual title, Bright Star. It was a syndicated program from Ziv syndication, and heard from October 23, 1952 to October 15, 1953; like most first-run syndicated radio programs (such as Ziv's Bold Venture) there were 52 episodes, totalling one full calendar year.

The series featured Irene Dunne as Susan Armstrong, editor of the Hillsdale Morning Star in the small town of Hillsdale. Fred MacMurray was George Harvey, the paper's top reporter, who had a knack of getting himself into trouble by tackling stories that were too big for him. The series was very gentle and homey; there were occasional sparks between Susan and George, but they were usually at odds with each other about what was best for the paper (somewhat like His Girl Friday).

At the time, Irene Dunne was coming off some hard times in film; Bright Star must have been an attempt to keep her name in the public; MacMurray, though, was doing just fine in his career, with plenty of big films (and a TV series, My Three Sons) still in his future.

Bright Star drew from radio's best performers to make up their supporting cast, with names like Sheldon Leonard, Howard McNear, Larry Thor, Hans Conreid and Betty Lou Gerson. Harry Von Zell was the announcer.

Unfortunately, Bright Star's cast also included Sammy the office boy (an uncredited role), the only other person on the newspaper staff. Sammy had one of those radio teenager voices that tried to emulate Henry Aldrich of the Aldrich Family. The usually sounded like he was holding his nose to make his voice sound higher; he also had a very annoying horselaugh (trying to sound like Richard Crenna's snicker from Our Miss Brooks). Since Sammy is in every episode, he brings down the entire series.

The Old Time Radio Researchers Library has 33 out of 52 episodes of Bright Star. As a syndicated show, I wouldn't be surprised if more episodes turned up. You can hear them through the YouTube playlist below:

Radio Recap: Old Gold Comedy Theatre

The Old Gold Comedy Theatre (or, as it was announced on air, "Comedy Theatre") was an anthology series heard on NBC Blue from October 29, 1944 to June 10, 1945. Like many 1940s anthologies (like Academy Award Theater, Lux Radio Theater and Screen Directors' Playhouse) it featured adaptations of popular films, truncated to fit a half-hour timeslot.

What makes The Old Gold Comedy Theatre stand apart is that it only featured adaptations of comedy films and it was hosted by the legendary Hollywood silent film comedian Harold Lloyd, who hadn't been involved in radio until the series launched (it's listed on some websites as Harold Lloyd Comedy Theatre). Lloyd would appear at the intro, half-way point (participating in the commercial) and at the close, engaging in banter with the program's guest stars. They even adapted one of his films, "The Milky Way" (February 18, 1945).

Many of the adapted films were popular choices on radio, like "Bachelor Mother," "My Favorite Wife" and "June Moon" but there are some great less-common comedy stories like "The Lady Eve" and "Vivacious Lady." My personal favourite is "True to Life" (November 12, 1944) with Dick Powell.

You can hear the Old Time Radio Researchers' collection of Old Gold Comedy Theatre episodes with the YouTube playlist below: