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Happy Sunday Night...Classic Radio Time...

07:00 p.m. Johnny Dollar
11/27/60 #716 The Empty Threat Matter (CBS) (21:18)
07:30 p.m. Dragnet
09/24/49 #17 The Brick Bat Slayer (NBC) (29:30)
08:00 p.m. Gunsmoke
02/21/53 #44 The Meshougah (Sus.) (CBS) (29:46)
08:30 p.m. Suspense
12/05/46 The House in Cypress Canyon w/Robert Taylor (Roma Wines) (CBS) (29:50)
09:00 p.m. Escape
11/05/47 #013 Evening Primrose (Sus.) (CBS) (29:30)
09:30 p.m. Quiet Please
08/09/48 The Thing on the Fourble Board (Sus.) (MBS) (24:30)
10:00 p.m. Mercury Theater
10/30/38 #17 War of the Worlds (Sus.) (CBS) (59:34)

Thanx again, Vision !

October 30, 2011 (WARNING: These Raw Notes Contain Spoilers)

7:00 p.m. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
11/27/60 "The Empty Threat Matter" Matter #716 Bob Bailey, Virginia Gregg (Joyce Stockerly), G. Stanley Jones (George Reed), Ben Wright (Dr. Bentley), Ralph Moody (Charles Stockerly), Harry Bartell (Dr. Bill Peters), Carleton G. Young (Andrew Stockerly) ; Writer/Producer/Director - Jack Johnstone ; Expense Account Total = $2561 ; "One of the roughest, toughest and most unusual investigations I ever gets involved in." George Reed, head of the North American office of Floyd's of England, sends Johnny to Tahiti in search of client Charles Stockerly. Stockerly is being tended to by Dr. Bentley after an injury. Stockerly is a retired attorney, in his early 60s, who believes that attempts are being made on his life, and he believes that the culprit is Harry Linker, recently released from prison and now running a Hartford hardware store. Stockerly had been responsible for Linker being sent to prison. The attempts began after the death of his wife Martha in 1958, and have occurred all over the planet as Stockerly has traveled around. Dollar believes that they sound like coincidences. Dollar brings Stockerly back to his Hartford apartment - and changes his mind when a couple of .38 slugs crash through the window. Dollar calls Dr. Bill Peters over to tend to the suicidal Stockerly, then leaves to interview Stockerly's adopted daughter Joyce. Joyce is the sole beneficiary of Stockerly's insurance policies. Johnny is convinced that she is innocent when he gets a call from Dr. Peters that he has had to give Charles Stockerly a hypo to calm him down after he attempted to jump through the window. A thought strikes Dollar. He checks with George Reed and finds that there is a suicide clause in Stockerly's policy that cancels any benefit. Dollar figures that it is Stockerly's adopted son Andrew who is making the attempts on Stockerly so that the crazed old man will commit suicide and therefore deprive Joyce of any inheritance. Andrew pulls a weapon on Dollar when confronted, but Dollar overwhelms him. (CBS) (21:18)
7:30 p.m.Dragnet
9/24/49 "Brick-Bat Slayer" Program #17 Jack Webb (Joe Friday), Barton Yarborough (Ben Romero), Raymond Burr (Ed Backstrand), ; Writers - James E. "Jim" Moser ; Technical Advice - W.A. Warden, acting Chief of the L.A. Police Department ; NBC ; Sustaining ; Sergeants Friday and Romero are working out of homicide detail. A mass killer loose in the city. A homicidal maniac who uses a brick-bat is on the loose. A large dragnet slowly gets him cornered. (29:30)
8:00 p.m. Gunsmoke
. 2/21/53 "Meshougah" Program #44 William Conrad (Matt Dillon), Parley Baer (Chester Proudfoot), Lawrence Dobkin, Vic Perrin, Bob Sweeney, John Dehner, Lou Krugman, Michael Ann Barrett, Ted Bliss ; Director - Norman Macdonnell ; Writer - Antony Ellis ; Music Composer/Conductor - Rex Koury ; Announcer - Roy Rowan ; CBS ; sustained ; Meshougah is Hebrew for "crazy". Matt and Chester are on their way to deliver government papers to Bill Holton in the little town of Pearceville, which has a population of 50. They initially find the town deserted, and then, too late, they discover that the town has been taken over by 11 desperados. Disarmed, Matt and Chester are imprisoned in the warehouse with the rest of the townsfolk and await their fate. Brill, the leaders of the desperados, wants the man who killed his brother to confess. In his anger he has two of the town's men shot. Matt, Chester, and Bill manage to acquire some guns, a couple of which when Brill managed to cleave the skull of a desperado who had wandered off with a hatchet. They storm the unsuspecting desperados and manage to capture what they don't kill. Matt makes it a point to be present at the trial and hanging of Brill. (29:46)
8:30 p.m. Suspense
12/5/46 "The House In Cypress Canyon" Program #222 Robert Taylor (James A. Woods), Howard Duff (detective Sam), Hans Conreid (real estate agent Jerry, unearthly wailer), Cathy Lewis (Ellen Woods), Joseph Kearns (policeman), Paul Frees (Dr. Wesley), Jim Backus (police dispatcher, Polanski murder scene on-looker), Wally Maher (policeman); Original Writer - Robert L. Richards ; Producer/Editor/Director - William A. Spier ; Music Composition - Lucien Moraweck ; Music Conductor - Lud Gluskin ; Announcer - Joseph Kearns ; Pitchman - Ken Niles ; Sponsor - Roma Wines ; CBS ; The Cypress Canyon houses have been built at a slow pace because of the war. Real estate agent Jerry tells detective Sam that he found a manuscript in a shoebox on a beam in the house at #2256 Cypress Canyon long before it was finished. The manuscript reads as follows. Thirty five year old chemical engineer James A. Woods and his school-teacher wife of seven years, Ellen, from Indiana have just rented a recently completed two bedroom house at #2256 Cypress Canyon, after meeting in the rain with a real estate agent. Soon after the Woods move in they hear a horrible, unearthly, wailing cry which seems to be coming from somewhere within the house - perhaps from the locked closet with the solid door in the little alcove off of the den that they have been unable to open. They then see blood oozing out from under the unopenable closet door. Ellen touches the blood. When they return with two Los Angeles policemen the blood is gone, and the closet door is no longer locked. The cops find the closet empty and with solid walls and no trap doors. Ellen is constantly scrubbing her hand that touched the blood. After midnight James wakes up and discovers that Ellen is gone. He opens the closet door, Ellen is inside, disheveled and crazed and then she sinks her teeth into his forearm, and then collapses into a deep, heavy, drug-like sleep. Later she wakes up and has no recollection of what transpired during the night. James consults Dr. Wesley who states that there is a very rapid onset of infection. When James returns home Ellen is gone. On the police shortwave James hears that milkman Frank Polanski has been found in the 4000 block of Laurel Canyon with his throat torn out, as though by the fangs of some wild animal. Jim goes to the scene. An on-looker describes what he found. One of the policeman who had been to the Woods home is also there. When James returns home he hears the wailing cries coming from the closet again and he is going to open it. The manuscript ends. Attached to it is a newspaper clipping. It reports that James Woods and wife Ellen are thought to have been involved in a suicide-murder, with Ellen having been blasted by a shotgun with signs of a struggle as James' body was ripped and lacerated. Jerry tells Sam he can't figure out the manuscript because the house at #2256 is just now finished. Jerry puts out the "For Rent" sign. Someone knocks at the door. It is raining. The man identifies himself as James A. Woods and introduces his wife Ellen. (29:50)
9:00 p.m. Escape
11/05/47 We "Evening Primrose" Episode #13 Pat Lowery, Elliott Lewis, Paul Frees ; Producer/Director - William N. Robson ; Author - John Collyer ; Radio Adaptation - John Dunkel ; Sustaining ; CBS ; A fascinating adventure with a strange assortment of characters who live inside New York's department stores. Great radio! Sam returns home to Sadie from an evening of bowling. She is in anguish because of a note that she discovered in her shopping bag from Bracey's Department Store. It is from a man, a poet named Charles Snell, who has written, beginning October 13th, to say that he is now living in Bracey's by choice. He tells a story about encountering many humanoid beings who also lived there. The leader appears to be called Mrs. Vanderpant, known as "The Grand Old Lady". One, named Mrs. Billby, is a playwright. Another inhabitant is Mr. Roscoe. One who Snell finds to be beautiful. She is perhaps 18, and her name is Ella, and is perhaps the only bright spot in what is becoming a bad experience to Snell. She has blonde hair, blue eyes and an turned-up nose. All are terrified of those they call the "dark men" as well as the night watchman. As fate would have it the "dark men" find Ella and Snell and turn them into manikins. The script was subsequently used on Escape on September 12, 1948 and on August 25, 1949. (29:30)
9:30 p.m. Quiet Please
8/9/48 "The Thing on the Fourble Board" Episode #59 Ernest Chappell (Porky, the roughneck), Dan Sutter (Billy Gruenwald), Pat O'Malley (Ted), Cecil Roy ; Producer/Writer/Director -Wyllis Cooper ; Performer/Director/Transcriber - Daniel Sutter ; Music - Albert Buhrman ; Sound Effects - Albert April ; Mutual Broadcasting System ; Sustaining ; Possibly dated September 18, 1948. The story was subsequently produced on "Audion Theatre" on October 13, 1990. ; A former roughneck oil driller, "Porky", narrates the tale of an invisible creature from beneath the earth's surface which climbs up an oil well pipe to emerge on the surface. The creature from the prehistoric earth kills the workers until only Porky remains. The creature becomes visible when paint is tossed on it, revealing a human/insect combination shape that unhinges the narrator. The most famous episode of the series is a great absurdist horror tale that builds artfully from the homey and workaday to the weird and chilling -- but it gives only a glimpse, however excellent, of the diverse treasures to be found elsewhere in Wyllis Cooper's fantasy universe. "The Thing on the Fourble Board" is one of radio horror's greatest gems ... Suffice it to say, the episode is commonly on many OTR fan's top ten list of best radio horror shows. (24:30)
10:00 p.m. Mercury Theater
10/30/38 "The War of the Worlds" Program #17 Orson Welles (Professor Richard Pearson) ; Writer - H.G. Wells ; Adaptation - Howard Koch ; Producer - Orson Welles ; CBS ; The radio broadcast of dance music from New York City by the Raymond Rocello Orchestra is interrupted. Orange explosions are seen on Mars. Later, the Grover's Mill, New Jersey, 22 miles from Trenton, farm of Mr. Wilmet is one of the sites of the landing of Martian space craft. Professor Richard Pearson, Princeton Astronomer, and radio reporter Carl Phillips investigate. Made of curious yellow-white metal, the cylindrical craft is about 30 yards in diameter, half-buried in a pit created by the landing. A humming sound comes from within the object. A hatch opens. Tentacles emerge from the craft, and then the Martian becomes visible. People approach with a white flag. A "heat ray" from the Martians burns the approaching people to death. Forty people in all are killed, including Carl Phillips. Later 7000 soldiers are decimated with only 120 survivors. Eight bomber planes are useless against the invaders. More and more machines are arriving all over the country from Mars. The shows format then shifts from a radio broadcast to Professor Pearson's personal observations. Pearson meets up with a lone National Guard soldier. Pearson then ventures on to a deserted New York City. At Central Park he sees abandoned Martian machines. Further observation showed that scavenger birds were picking apart the bodies of the dead Martians - killed by the putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their immune systems were unprepared. (59:34)

10:00 p.m. Mercury Theater 10/30/38 "The War of the Worlds"

Oh my gosh, this is famous. Too late for me tonight. Any way of taping this or picking it up later somehow?

Evening, folks. How much did you get in your yard, Vision?

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

Greetings! I would like to be put on the "Big Broadcast" Ping List, please!

I'm so glad to find this thread! I'm new to FreeRepublic (since July) and am still discovering so many wonderful topics and people.

Your threads are of tremendous interest to me, because my Dad is writer/announcer Bill Owen, who co-authored the bible of old-time radio, "The Big Broadcast 1920-1950". As you may know, he is also widely known as the "King of Trivia" from ABC-TV "World News This Morning", and his three recent books. (I illustrated two of them!) One of them, "The Over-60 Trivia Book", features a lot of trivia and illustrations of old-time radio.

My Dad's love of old-time radio and recording inspired me to become a singer/songwriter. I just released my new CD "Horse Sense" and the first song, "It's A Free Country", is getting a wonderful response on FreeRepublic, via my YouTube video posted here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2799803/posts.

Thanks in advance for adding me to your list!!