Are you ready to relax and focus on the birth of Christ and what that means? Presents bought?
We have a good lineup of My Friend Irma, and a great 10pm hour of Escape and Suspense! Make sure to turn your lights down.
Let me know if there is interest in a thread on Christmas Eve and Day.
From my heart I wish you all a magical Christmas and thank you for a year of great OTR radio listenership...
Christmas programming continues with more of Ed's Christmas standbys in Johnny Dollar, Dragnet, Gunsmoke and Our Miss Brooks--really most of the lineup are Ed's Christmas usuals--and we have an Escape and a Suspense!
These brief synopses are used with permission from the RadioGOLDINdex © 2014 J. David Goldin.
7:00 Eastern War Time Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. December 23, 1956. CBS net. "The Missing Mouse Matter". Sustaining. A $50,000 singing mouse named Gulliver has been kidnapped. Kepp your eye on the cat! A delightful Christmas show! Bob Bailey, Howard McNear, Dan Cubberly (announcer), Charles Smith (writer), G. Stanley Jones, Amerigo Moreno (musical supervisor), Dick Beals, Parley Baer, Jack Johnstone (producer, director), Mary Jane Croft, Bill James, Lawrence Dobkin. 30:02. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
7:30 Dragnet. December 22, 1953. Program #227. NBC net origination, AFRTS rebroadcast. "The Big Little Jesus". A Christmas story. A Los Angeles Mission reports the statue of Jesus has been stolen the day before Christmas. Well written, a good show. Title and date are tentative. Jack Webb, Ben Alexander. 25 minutes. Audio condition: Very good to excellent. Complete.
8:00 Gunsmoke. December 20, 1959. CBS net origination, AFRTS Christmas Show Library. "Beeker's Barn". A young couple take shelter in her estranged father's barn, just before she has a baby! A rebroadcast of the script first used on the program of December 23, 1956 (see cat. #54844). William Conrad, Parley Baer, Georgia Ellis, Howard McNear, Ralph Moody, Vic Perrin, Virginia Gregg, Les Crutchfield (writer), George Walsh (announcer). 24:56. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
8:30 Our Miss Brooks. December 25, 1949. CBS net. "The Magic Christmas Tree". Sponsored by: Colgate Toothpaste, Lustre-Creme Shampoo. A party at Miss Brooks', with a magic Christmas tree, or was it all a dream? The script was used previously on the program on December 19, 1948 and subsequently on December 24, 1950 (cat. #88671), December 23, 1951, December 21, 1952 and December 25, 1955 (see cat. #45767). Eve Arden, Jane Morgan, Al Lewis (writer, director), Richard Crenna, Gale Gordon, Gloria McMillan, Jeff Chandler, Virginia Gordon, Jeffrey Silver, Wilbur Hatch (music), Bob Lemond (announcer), Verne Smith (announcer), Larry Berns (producer). 29:50. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
9:00 My Friend Irma. December 22, 1947. CBS net. Sponsored by: Swan Soap, Spry. It's Christmas Eve and Irma's going to spend it all alone! The script was subsequently re-used on "My Friend Irma" on December 20, 1948 (see cat. #84226), on December 26, 1949, on December 25, 1950, on December 23, 1951 (see cat. #10399), December 23, 1952 and December 22, 1953. Marie Wilson, John Brown, Cathy Lewis, Gloria Gordon, Hans Conried, Cy Howard (creator, writer, producer, director), Frank Bingman (announcer). 1/2 hour. Audio condition: Very good to excellent. Complete.
9:30 Night Beat. December 21, 1951. NBC net. Sustaining. Randy Stone gets a 5 day Christmas vacation and doesn't know what to do with it. A well-written story! Frank Lovejoy, William Conrad, Warren Lewis (writer, producer, director), David Ellis (writer), Larry Marens (editor), Robert Armbruster (music), Don Rickles (announcer), Kate McKenna, Sammy Ogg, Ralph Moody, Jan Arvan, Gail Bonney, Lou Rusoff (writer). 29:30. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
10:00 Escape. December 24, 1950. CBS net. "The Cave". Sustaining. A throughly great Christmas story about two ten year old boys and what they found in "The Cave." The script was subsequently used on "Suspense" on December 20, 1955 (see cat. #48589) and on "Romance" on December 22, 1956 (see cat. #70333). The program was broadcast on the west coast on December 29, 1950 (would they program a Christmas story on the 29th?). John Dehner, Georgia Ellis, Antony Ellis (writer), Norman Macdonnell (director). 1/2 hour. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
10:30 Suspense. December 21, 1958. CBS net. "Out For Christmas". Commercials deleted. Santa Claus has a gun and is out for revenge. He's really an ex-con out to get the rat who testified against him, and his girl who ran off with him! Raymond Burr, Joan Banks, Dick Beals, Howard McNear, Lillian Buyeff, Karl Swenson, William N. Robson (writer, producer, director), Charles Seel, George Walsh (announcer). 19:59. Audio condition: Excellent. Otherwise complete.