Halloween Radio Recap #2: The Mysterious Traveler

"This is The Mysterious Traveler, inviting you to join me on another journey into the realm of the strange and the terrifying; I hope you will enjoy the trip, that it will thrill you a little and chill you a little. So, settle back, get a good grip on your nerves, and be comfortable... if you can..."

The Mysterious Traveler was a half-hour horror/mystery anthology program that was heard over Mutual from December 5, 1943 to September 16, 1952. Maurice Tarplin was the titular Mysterious Traveler, a man who would greet the listener from his seat aboard a train, then narrate a story. There are early episodes where he took a part in the dramas, probably because Mutual didn't have a huge budget; but mostly, he kept to his role as a horror host.

The Mysterious Traveler was different from the other horror hosts in that he didn't enter cackling like Old Nancy in The Witch's Tale or the Hermit in The Hermit's Cave, nor with the puns of Raymond on Inner Sanctum Mysteries. Tarplin made the Traveler sound somewhat menacing, but he was extremely restrained next to the rest of his siblings.

When I first got on the internet, I found many OTR fans complaining about Inner Sanctum Mysteries and it's "cop-out" endings. They were referring to the lack of the supernatural on that program; Inner Sanctum Mysteries seldom committed to the supernatural. If that's what you want from a horror program, then The Mysterious Traveler would seem to be the program you really want, because there are plenty of episodes that embrace the supernatural head-on.

...I wrote "would seem to be," though, because that's not true of every episode of The Mysterious Traveler. For example, sometimes there are ghosts; in other episodes, the ghosts are fakes. But still further, not every episode of The Mysterious Traveler was a horror story - there are science fiction stories, mystery stories and crime stories. You can't always be certain what you'll get when you tune in.

The most talked-up episode of The Mysterious Traveler is "Behind the Locked Door" (November 6, 1951), in which a young man tells his fiancee about his expedition underground and the weird creatures he met there; it is indeed a very good episode. I'm also fond of (links to the Internet Archive files):

• "The Queen of the Cats" (July 2, 1944): A woman with a supernatural connection to cats haunts her lover.
• "Death Comes for Adolf Hitler" (March 24, 1945): Hitler takes an ill-advised submarine ride.
• "Death Is the Visitor" (August 18, 1946): A man tries to get rid of his mother-in-law for good.
• "If You Believe" (December 29, 1946): A scientist's experiments in protoplasm are hyped up as a menace by the media.
• "New Year's Nightmare" (January 5, 1947): After a drunken New Year's, a man discovers he lived an entire year under another alias.
• "The Woman in Black" (March 9, 1947): A reporter trails a woman in black who appears at the time of murders.
• "The Locomotive Ghost" (July 6, 1947): A killer is haunted by a ghostly train.
• "The Man the Insects Hated" (July 27, 1947): Exactly what it claims to be.
• "Murder Is My Business" (June 8, 1948): A radio writer wants to kill his producer.
• "Death Has a Cold Breath" (March 29, 1949): A talent agent plots his client's murder.
• "S.O.S." (May 2, 1950): A heist with a surprising finish.
• "Strange New World" (February 19, 1952): Giant radioactive crabs; 'nuff said?

The series was primarily written by Robert A. Arthur and David Kogan. They'd previously created the horror anthology Dark Destiny for Mutual in 1942, but only 1 episode of that show has survived. They also created the Mutual syndicated show The Sealed Book in 1945, which recycled scripts from The Mysterious Traveler but had to trim a few minutes to fit the shorter timeslot; we can compare some programs that exist in both The Mysterious Traveler and The Sealed Book formats and it does show The Sealed Book to be inferior, as the material they trimmed really enhanced the The Mysterious Traveler's scripts.

Robert A. Arthur had a lengthy career in radio and later television and he was never one to let a perfectly good script lie idle. He and Kogan also created the 15-minute show The Strange Dr. Weird in 1945 with Maurice Tarplin also as the host. I've long assumed stories heard on The Strange Dr. Weird were condensed from The Mysterious Traveler scripts but I've yet to prove it; anyway, Arthur went on gamely recycling The Mysterious Traveler into the latter-day of Suspense's radio run. The duo also wrote for Murder by Experts and ABC Mystery Time.

The Mysterious Traveler had a comic book that lasted just one issue in 1948; I blogged about it here. It ran its own pulp magazine for six issues in 1951-1952. Later, Charlton published a comic that lasted from 1956-1959 and featured a lot of early work by Steve Ditko; Ditko published his own reprint of those stories in 2016, which I blogged about here. There were also two Mysterious Traveler comics by Moonstone in 2003 and 2004 that were by Trevor Von Eeden; I blogged about those too.

Despite the show's 9-year run, there are presently only 69 episodes in circulation. It's also unlikely more will turn up, given most Mutual shows vanished into the ether. For that reason, do treasure the fact we have The Sealed Book to supplement The Mysterious Traveler!

You'll find the Old Time Radio Research Group's YouTube playlist of The Mysterious Traveler below:

Next Thursday: Lights Out!

Halloween Radio Recap #1: The Haunting Hour!

Every Thursday this October, I'm going to write a recap on an old-time radio horror program as we gear up for Halloween!

"No, stay where you are; Do not break the stillness of this moment; for this is a time of mystery, a time when imagination is free and moves forward swiftly, silently... This is: The Haunting Hour!

When I first bought John Dunning's book On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio in 1998, one of the first things I did was look up each of the horror programs I enjoyed so I could learn more about them. I was a bit annoyed that there was nothing in his book about The Haunting Hour; it was one of the first horror anthology programs I ever heard, but no one seemed to know anything about it; who produced, directed or starred in it? When did it air?

Thanks to the sorely-missed Digital Deli website, I finally got some answers. They identified it as an NBC syndicated program produced in Philadelphia. It was produced by Herbert Wood and featured Rosa Rio on the organ and music by Tilden Brown. Berry Kroeger was the show's narrator and it drew from familiar voices like Frank Lovejoy and Jackson Beck. According to the Deli, it ran for 52 episodes from June 8, 1945 to May 26, 1946.

In some ways the show reminds me of the Weird Circle, which was also from NBC syndication (1943-1945); I even wonder if The Haunting Hour were in some sense a continuation of that program - they featured many of the same actors. There's one episode of The Haunting Hour called "Revenge" that's inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's poem "Annabel Lee" which reminded me of how the Weird Circle's stories were inspired by the works of Poe and others (although they usually made drastic changes to the original texts).

It's not entirely accurate for me to call The Haunting Hour a horror program because, taken as a whole, it was simply a mystery anthology. The word "haunting" invites you to think of an underlying supernatural menace to the stories, but the supernatural seldom looms that large. Some stories are simply detective tales; others are crime stories which delve more into suspense than mystery.

When The Haunting Hour was at it's best, it was pretty good; I highly recommend the episode "The Uptown Express," which concerns a woman who suddenly finds herself living five years into her future. I also recommend "Breakdown," about a woman who seems to be losing her grip on sanity.

The most interesting story to me is "Ptolemy's Grave," about a woman haunted by a mummy whose face resembles her husband. Amazingly, this is a story I knew from a 1943 comic book adaptation! I blogged about it before at this link; but when it appeared in Super-Magician Comics, it was introduced as an adaptation from Inner Sanctum Mysteries. I'm left wondering if this episode of The Haunting Hour recycled a script from Inner Sanctum Mysteries and if so, are other stories on The Haunting Hour recycled scripts?

The Old-Time Radio Researchers have 40 episodes of The Haunting Hour at this link.

Next Thursday: The Mysterious Traveler!

Radio Recap: The Adventures of Jungle Jim

The Adventures of Jungle Jim was the 15-minute weekly syndicated program that replaced Flash Gordon in Hearst Syndication. It proved much more successful (under whatever terms Hearst considered successful) and ran from November 2, 1935 until July 31, 1954. Alex Raymond's Jungle Jim was the "topper" to his Flash Gordon on the Sunday comics page (meaning his adventures appeared on the top of the page above Flash Gordon; toppers were sometimes omitted in newspapers whose page size was smaller than the standard).

The role of Jungle Jim was played by a few people, with Matt Crowley apparently holding the role the longest (Gerald Mohr played Jim for a few weeks). Jim Bradley was a big game hunter, but the series seldom featured him hunting big game; instead, Jim would be hired out by governments to use his wilderness skills to investigate strange goings-on around in jungle climes, usually in Asia. Accompanying Jim was Kolu (Juano Hernandez), an Indian guide-- though he spoke in the type of speech radio usually gave to American Indians.

The initial storyline where Jim investigates the "Bat Woman" cult, which proves to be led by the criminal Shanghai Lil (Franc Hale), is a pretty darn good adventure serial. Shanghai Lil would turn out to be an undercover good guy who would renounce her criminal past and accompanied Jim on many of his adventures - a sort-of Burma to his Pat Ryan. But to complicate matters, Jim also wound up with his female sidekick Kitty St. John, who would make Lil jealous.

After Pearl Harbor, the show rapidly changed as Jim started fighting German and Japanese foes; he joined the Marines and was sent back to the States to ferret out undercover foreign agents (because when your speciality is hunting and tracking in Asia, obviously your greatest usefulness in World War II is to hang around stateside as a secret agent). By spring of 1942, the show's format was radically reinvented as, instead of the show's accustomed rhythm of lengthy adventures, it tended to feature Jim battling enemy agents and wrapping it all up within his 15 minutes; there were still some continued adventures, but typically they fell into no more than 2-part stories. My suspicion is that the radio show had stopped adapting the comic strip around this time. This version of The Adventures of Jungle Jim is an interesting change to witness, but it's inferior to what came before.

Because there are no shows from 1943 available I don't know when the series changed, but by 1944 Jim and Kolu (a new actor playing Kolu) were back in Asia, going on guerrilla missions against the Japanese in Malaya, which makes a lot more sense for their particular skills. They led an "Allied" team with members hailing from India, Australia, the Soviet Union and China, which meant the actors portraying those characters could use a variety of dialects.

After the war, the series shifted back into what it had been before; Shanghai Lil returned and joined Jim and Kolu on globe-trotting adventures that seemed to be based around Latin America.

Although the show didn't like to credit anyone (including Alex Raymond!) recognizable voices include Gale Gordon (who'd previously been Flash Gordon), Hanley Stafford and Elliot Lewis. The show's theme was taken from the William Tell Overture (a different part of the Overture than that used on the Lone Ranger). Up to 1942 the theme was played with a band, then it shifted to an organ.

Alex Raymond left Jungle Jim and Flash Gordon in 1944; the strip continued with John Mayo and Paul Norris and even spawned a series of movies starring Johnny Weissmuller, but the comic strip, movies and radio show ended in 1954; Weissmuller kept going with a TV show that only lasted 1955-1956. As I noted yesterday, Flash Gordon has transcended his humble origins and enjoys occasional revivals; Raymond's Flash Gordon is considered one of the greatest comic strips of all time. Jungle Jim, by contrast, is a historical artifact; today, it's mostly brought up when discussing Flash Gordon, not for its own merits. Flash Gordon had the last laugh.

The Old-Time Radio Researchers Library has 526 episodes of The Adventures of Jungle Jim; it's pretty much complete up into 1942, then gets a little spottier in later years. A clear sign that this series needs more love is that the OTRR Library files are badly missorted and misidentified. You can view their files at this link.

Radio Recap: Flash Gordon

Flash Gordon (also called the Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon) was a 15-minute weekly juvenile adventure serial syndicated by Hearst from April 27 to October 26, 1935. It starred Gale Gordon (of all people!) as Flash Gordon and was adapted directly from Alex Raymond's famous comic strip - although Raymond received no credit in the dramas. It was apparently produced by Himan Brown, best-known for Inner Sanctum Mysteries and The CBS Mystery Theater.

The Hearst syndicate apparently released Flash Gordon on discs with Front Page Drama on the reverse. Both were designed to get listeners to buy a Hearst publication - in this instance, the Hearst's colour funnies, the Comic Weekly.

At this point I've covered Hearst's Front Page Drama and Club Car Special and they all demonstrate a kind of literal-mindedness on their part; they didn't want Flash Gordon to simply promote the comic strip, they wanted each drama to represent that week's installment of the comic strip. But first, they had to get the radio audience caught up with the strip's goings-on.

Consequently, the first 4 episodes of Flash Gordon quickly summarize everything that had happened in the comic strip up until that point. Thus, the episodes move at a dizzying pace with intense, dramatic moments simply glanced over and given absolutely no time to land. Yes, it moves fast, but there's no time spent on characters or the environment, just one peril after another.

Once the show was all caught up, from then on it moved at a more able pace, dramatizing the events of that week's installment of the comic strip. It's pretty amazing that there was a time in comics history that a single page of comic art could spawn a 15-minute drama every week!

Although the Flash Gordon comic strip lasted up until 2003 (recently revived with new strips by Dan Schkade since 2023), something clearly went wrong behind-the-scenes of the program because it was discontinued after 6 months. Maybe there was a prejudice against science fiction, because the series shifted to a different Alex Raymond series, Jungle Jim, which was then the "topper" strip above Flash Gordon. Jungle Jim continued as a weekly adaptation of the comic strip (well past Raymond's exit) up to 1954.

The closing weeks of Flash Gordon are a delightful mess. Abruptly, Flash's love interest Dale Arden demands they quit their adventures and go back to Earth at the end of the 23rd episode. In the 24th episode, the series is suddenly called The Adventures of Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim. There is no Jungle Jim in that episode, as Flash, Dale and Dr. Zarkov fly back to Earth. In the 25th episode, the action shifts entirely to Jungle Jim and appears to reference events going on in the Jungle Jim comic strip at the time. Finally, in the 26th episode, Flash, Dale and Dr. Zarkov meet Jungle Jim; Flash and Dale get married, then depart, never to be spoken of again. The following week, Jungle Jim took over. What a bizarre transition!

Of course, time has been kinder to Flash Gordon than to Jungle Jim. The Alex Raymond years of Jungle Jim have their devotees, but the rest of his considerable media presence has been forgotten; Flash Gordon, however, not only still has his comic strip but featured in a well-remembered campy 1980 feature film; every now and then he pops up in cartoons, TV shows or comic books as well.

You can hear the entirety of Flash Gordon at the Old Time Radio Researchers' Library.

Tomorrow I'll write about Flash Gordon's successor, Jungle Jim.

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.

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):

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.