Posted on 12/18/2009 12:29:11 PM PST by BluesDuke
Bear in mind that some of the following actually did air on Christmas days past. But if you're any kind of old-time radio nut---and I am, certifiable, glazed, and dry-roasted---you have got to love the cornucopia of surviving Christmas-themed radio shows.
(No, Virginia, this nice Jewish boy does not have a problem with what amounts to saying "Happy birthday!" to a nice Jewish boy!)
You could consider the survival of these shows something of a miracle in itself. (When you consider that a lot of the original sponsors and even network outlets saw fit to trash several thousand shellac discs on which the broadcasts were preserved originally---if there's justice Crisco should be administered a lethal injection for letting so much of Vic & Sade die, and it's a comparable crime that only about two hundred of Fred Allen's incandescent exercises survive . . . but never mind for now.)
As best I can, I'm presenting them in chronological order within any categories sculpted below. Merry Christmas in advance; Happy Hanukkah in retrospect. And don't let the grinches steal your Christmas!
First, the absolute masters . . .
THE LINIT BATH CLUB REVUE: THE MAMMOTH DEPARTMENT STORE (CBS, 25 DECEMBER 1932)---The oldest-known surviving program to feature the master satirist as its host; here, he plays a man with a sometimes unenviable profession---a department store manager on and the day after Christmas.
Cast: Portland Hoffa, Sheila Barrett, Roy Atwell, Charles Carlile. Announcer: Ken Roberts. Music: Lou Katzman Orchestra, Mary Leaf at the organ. Writer: Fred Allen.
TOWN HALL TONIGHT: SANTA CLAUS SITS DOWN (A.K.A> SANTA WILL NOT RIDE TONIGHT (NBC, 22 DECEMBER 1937)---Precious enough: Any surviving Christmastime or Christmas themed installment of any Fred Allen show, considering how few of them have survived among the truckload of surviving Allen shows.
Precious more: Jack Benny as his guest, for this installment done from Hollywood while Allen was in town to make a film. After the opening round of Town Hall gags and one-liners and a brief music selection, Benny and Allen exchanged rapiers in the slot where Allen would normally begin the show.
JACK BENNY: Jello again, this—
FRED ALLEN: Go away
BENNY: —is Jack Benny talking.
ALLEN: Go away. Go away, boy.
BENNY: Oh, all right, gee, right away y—
ALLEN: Get away from this microphone here. (Pause.) Good evening. We must get a weather strip put on this floor.
And—--after a cleverly low-keyed “Town Hall News” segment zapping the cold spell of the day, another smartass break-in by Benny, an interview with Warner Brothers backlot lunch cart operator Willie King (“I’ve invited him to jump out of his frying pan and into our fire tonight”), a jivey musical number about a riveter (bear in mind that this was before World War II), a segment with Radio Guide photographer Eugene Lester (who’d been shooting Burns and Allen, Phil Baker, Allen, and Benny) in a little Christmas caroling (“I do a lot of singing in the darkroom, where nobody can hear me”), some bars of music that went unheard during the station break (a typical Allen zap at radio administrators), a segment with Portland Hoffa (his wife and second bananette), Benny (“I didn’t expect to get paid for this, I haven’t any more right to take money for working on this program than you have”), and Benny’s Maxwell (phat-phat-bang!)---the Mighty Allen Art Players perform a clever routine around Santa going on sit-down strike.
But you’ll have to listen to rediscover why, kiddies.
The Mighty Allen Art Players: John Brown, Charles Cantor, Minerva Pious, Walter Tetley. Announcer: Harry Von Zell. Music: Peter Van Steeden Orchestra. Writers: Fred Allen, Arnold Auerbach, Herman Wouk. (Yes, children---that Herman Wouk.)
THE FRED ALLEN SHOW: SUING TO RETURN FRED'S CUCKOO CLOCK (NBC, 28 DECEMBER 1947)---The final Allen show sponsored by Blue Bonnet Margarine and Tender Leaf Tea as his sponsors, ending a four-year relationship. (Ford Motor Company would sponsor him for his final two years as a radio host.) And, after a smart "Allen's Alley" sketch in which the Alley denizens are asked their take on 1947's outstanding event, Allen asks Hoffa about a used fragrance---which she's wearing, thanks to the perfume "Fight Back" her mother gave her for Christmas.
Upon which Allen ruminates on Christmas gifts from radio friends like Mary Margaret McBride (a wicker muffler with her sponsors' names on it), Jack Eigen (a potato), and a cuckoo clock whose bird comes out backwards. The trouble begins when Allen tries to exchange the clock. It only continues when he bumps into Monty Woolley, doing his Christmas shopping after Christmas and bragging about listening to A Christmas Carol so he could hiss at Lionel Barrymore.
The laughs don't stop there.
Senator Claghorn: Kenny Delmar. Titus Moody: Parker Fennelly. Mrs. Nussbaum: Minerva Pious. Ajax Cassidy: Peter Donald. Music: Al Goodman Orchestra, the Five DeMarco Sisters. Writer: Fred Allen.
THE JELL-O PROGRAM STARRING JACK BENNY: AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS (NBC, 20 DECEMBER 1936)
JACK BENNY: Gather around, everybody, it’s my turn to play Santy Claus. I’ve got a little surprise for most all of you. Here’s a little gift for you, Kenny—a beautiful red silk necktie.
KENNY BAKER: Aw, thanks, Jack.
BENNY: Isn’t it pretty?
BAKER: (giggles) Gee. (Pause.) Y’know, this looks like the same tie I gave you last year.
BENNY: Well, it isn’t. It’s different.
MARY LIVINGSTONE: Yeah—--it’s got spots on it now.
That’s only a clever interlude, midway through the show. But it’s as genial a way to introduce (or re-introduce) you to Jack Benny’s kind of Christmas program, especially when it’s hooked around his supporting players’ gifts to him and a genially dopey yuletide squeeze of Don Wilson’s infamous Jell-O commercial interjections.
Music: Phil Harris Orchestra, Kenny Baker. Writers: Al Boasberg, Ed Beloin, Bill Morrow.
THE JELL-O PROGRAM STARRING JACK BENNY: CHRISTMAS SHOPPING (NBC, 12 DECEMBER 1937)---Everyone’s being effusively nice and flattering to Jack as Christmas approaches. “You know, folks, it’s funny how the yuletide season can put wings on a rat,” warbles the Big Cheese. But of course. And then along comes Mary . . .
MARY LIVINGSTONE: (singing) Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way---
JACK BENNY: Oh, hello, Mary.
LIVINGSTONE: Hello, honeybunch.
BENNY: Honeybunch, huh? Well, I suppose I’m a swell guy, you’re glad to see me, and I look like a million dollars.
LIVINGSTONE: You took the words right out of my hint.
Kenny Baker finds the courage to buy silk stockings for his girl for Christmas. Mary reads a letter from her mother. (“I received your letter, and thanks very much for the check. It would have come in handy, but the landlord grabbed it on the first bounce.”) Then Jack and Mary go Christmas shopping at one of Hollywood’s biggest department stores. “Pardon me, sir,” Jack warbles to a clerk, “I’d like to buy a chain.” Replies the clerk: “Dog, watch, or daisy?”
You didn’t really expect me to spoil it from there, did you?
Announcer: Don Wilson. Music: Phil Harris Orchestra, Kenny Baker. Writers: Ed Beloin, Bill Morrow, Howard Snyder, Hugh Wedlock, Jr.
THE LUCKY STRIKE PROGRAM STARRING JACK BENNY: JACK MEETS FRANK SINATRA IN A DRUGSTORE (NBC, 17 DECEMBER 1944)---It begins with Rochester thinking how lucky he is to work for a man like Jack.
ROCHESTER: Now, you take my friend Sam. He works for one of the stingiest men in the world. Why, last year for Christmas, all he gave Sam was three little hanka-chiefs.
JACK BENNY: But, Rochester, I don’t think that’s such a bad present.
ROCHESTER: I’ll never forget Christmas day. Down on Central Avenue, everyone was showin’ off their new wristwatches, ‘n’ gold cigarette cases, ‘n’ diamond rings, ‘n’ there was Sam with those three little hanka-chiefs.
BENNY: Aw, that’s a shame.
ROCHESTER: Yeah. It really embarrassed poor Sam when people asked him what his boss gave him for Christmas and he had to pull out those---three little hanka-chiefs.
BENNY: How can a---how can a man be that cheap?
ROCHESTER: It’s possible, boss! It’s possible!
BENNY: Well, Rochester, you don’t understand the spirit of Christmas. The important thing is that you’re remembered. The gift itself is nothing.
ROCHESTER: I know. That’s the kind of propaganda I’m tryin’ to overcome.
On the way to Mary's house, Jack bumps into Frank Sinatra, who reminds him he's guesting on Sinatra's radio spot the following night---and, into a pair of swooning autograph hunters. ("Well, how do you like that? I only spoke to Frankie and I got some of it on me!") Then, Jack and Mary make for the department store. You tell me whether you think the store recovered after all these years or before its demise---whichever came first.
Additional cast: Frank Nelson. Announcer: Don Wilson. Music: Phil Harris Orchestra, Larry Stevens. Writers: George Balzer, Milt Josefsberg, Sam Perrin, John Tackaberry.
MORE JINGLE BENNY: "Christmas at Jack's" (25 December 1938), "Christmas Shopping Horseradish" (14 December 1941), "Trimming a Tree" (24 December 1944), "Armed Forces Radio Service Christmas Special" (25 December 1946).
COLUMBIA WORKSHOP: THE PLOT TO OVERTHROW CHRISTMAS (CBS, 24 DECEMBER 1942)---Set in hell, delivered in verse (some of it, admittedly, is a little on the awkward side but the archness of the delivery and the quality of the bulk makes up for it), some of history's most notorious villains to that point convene to plan Christmas's demise---as soon as they can quell this little, ahem, family squabble. (Sit down, Haman---for I am Ivan the Terrible! Brother Ivan is a demagogue/with the brain like a fly and the manners of a hog) Also in on the plot: Lucrezia Borgia, Caligula, Medusa, and Nero, among others. I'll tell you only that Caligula has visions of men hanging from Christmas trees and let you take it from there, Nero's a little snippy ("Today I note with a bitter shrug/They've made Scheherezade a jitterbug"), and the ayes have it for Dame Borgia's idea . . . or do they? Repeated from the original Words Without Music broadcast of 1938. Nero: Eric Burroughs. The Devil: Will Geer. Santa: House Jameson. Additional cast: Unknown, but likely including Orson Welles. Music: Bernard Herrmann. Writer/director: Norman Corwin.
THE BIG SHOW: CHRISTMAS EVE PROGRAM (NBC, 24 DECEMBER 1950)---This installment kicked off with a slight variation on the standard introduction that simply had to be a grabber from the outset.
TALLULAH BANKHEAD: To the men and women in service all over the world on this Christmas Eve, through the cooperation of the Associated Services of the Armed Forces, you are about to be entertained by some of the biggest names in show business. For the next hour and thirty minutes, this program will present in person such bright stars as . . .
As custom on this last-gasp, big-bucks variety offering, the stars introduced themselves: Jimmy Durante. Bert Lahr. Robert Merrill. Margaret O'Brien. Edith Piaf. Fran Warren. Ed Wynn. And, music director Meredith Willson. And, following that soaring theme music around and behind Ed Herlihy's introduction, back came Madame Tallulah.
BANKHEAD: A safe and Merry Christmas, darlings, to all our Armed Forces, wherever you may be. And to you here at home, I hope all your stockings are hung, and that you find in them all the things you wished for. I know what I'm going to find in mine---a run! I always do on this show!But when I heard that one of our guests today would be Margaret O'Brien, I decided to make it my business to see that this child has a Merry Christmas away from her home. After all, it's only been a few years since I was a child, heh heh heh. (Laughter.) Those darling writers---they'll stop at nothing for a Christmas present. And that's exactly what they're getting.
But to make sure little Margaret has a wonderful Christmas, I invited three of the theater's greatest clowns---Jimmy Durante, Bert Lahr, and Ed Wynn.
JIMMY DURANTE, BERT LAHR, and ED WYNN (in unison): Hello, Tallulah! (Applause.)
BANKHEAD: Hello Ed, Jimmy, Bert. Hello Bert, Ed, Jimmy. Hello Jimmy, Bert, Ed. Well, now that I've given you all equal billing, we can get down to our problem. We've got to arrange a wonderful Christmas party for this little girl. Anybody have an idea what to give her?
LAHR: I've got an idea, Tallulah.
BANKHEAD: Uh, huh.
LAHR: Something that's very popular this time of the year.
BANKHEAD: Oh, really, darling? What is it, Bert?
LAHR: How about givin' her a Christmas present?
BANKHEAD (lowers voice smugly): Uh, now, isn't that brilliant?
From there the foursome swaps gags about Christmas bed jackets, horses, and John Dillinger, before Lahr reprises "If I Was The King of the Forest" from The Wizard of Oz (with a little help from O'Brien, of course); before Durante suggests a toy-spangled Christmas tree and finds a way to sing "Isn't It A Shame That Christmas Comes But Once A Year"; before Wynn and company try to prove Santa Claus; and, before some stunning music from Warren ("Look to the Rainbow"), Metropolitan Opera star Merrill ("O Holy Night") and the tragic French chanteuse Piaf. (A beautiful "Autumn Leaves.")
There is also a gentle message from Army Gen. Jonathan Wainwright at Camp Breckenridge (Kentucky). The message could be deployed today without losing a beat or a drop of relevance.
And I didn't even stop to mention the soaring, caroling almost-finale. But I'm leaving you to hear it for yourself.
Music: Meredith Willson, the Big Show Orchestra and Chorus. Writers: Goodman Ace, George Foster, Mort Greene, Frank Wilson.
THE BICKERSONS: CHRISTMAS EVE (NBC, ORIGINAL AIR DATE UNKNOWN)---This is the sketch on which Jackie Gleason drew for the eventual Honeymooners classic about Ralph having to hock his brand-new bowling ball at the last minute to buy Alice a Christmas present for which he forgot (as usual) to sock a few bucks away . . . and the dent his jaw put in the floor when he saw what Alice got him.
Here, the Bickering Bickersons open with husband John (Don Ameche) snoring on the ladder and shrewish wife Blanche (Frances Langford) awakening him off the ladder, after he faded away following his usual spurn of her dinner, and continuing with one of their usual arguments---this time, over John's daily bag (and gag) lunch, the money for the bills (Blanche spent it on Christmas presents, including a $24 bottle of perfume), and the Christmas card Blanche thought John didn't send her---before bourbon-loving John and highfalutin' Blanche end by opening their presents just after midnight . . . and discover just what each sold (hint: something the other could have used with his or her gifts) to buy each other gifts.
I won't reveal just what they said once the shock eroded, but the Bickering Bickerson's closing exchange beats the living tinsel out of Ralph and Alice's. Practically.
Writer/director: Philip Rapp.
LUM & ABNER: CHRISTMAS STORY (CBS, 1938)---Grandpap asks Lum (Chester Norris) and Abner (Norris Goff) to drag through the Pine Ridge snow with him, following the east star, bringing supplies for a couple expecting a baby find another place to stay after Doc reveals they're staying in an abandoned barn. Lum offers to put the family up for awhile after the baby is born, with Abner's approval. The old friends salute the coming of 1939. And the trio wait outside as Doc brings and arranges the supplies inside for the couple . . . a carpenter and his pregnant wife. Writers: Chester Lauck, Norris Goff.
VIC & SADE: FIVE CHRISTMAS CARD SALESMEN (NBC, 30 OCTOBER 1939)---Vic (Art Van Harvey) and Rush (Bill Idelson) are amused when Sade (Bernadine Flynn) receives five letters from an "ardent gentleman" out of a Toledo, Ohio company, charming enough to cause Sade to giggle and Vic to mock---and it's tied to Sade's Christmas card business, such as it is. "Maybe it's like you say," Sade muses. "The Christmas card people figure they'll get better results sending everybody five letters." And you thought our era was the season to be starting Christmas shenanigans almost three months early! Writer/director: Paul Rhymer.
FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY: MAILING CHRISTMAS PACKAGES (NBC, 10 DECEMBER 1940)---Fibber's (Jim Jordan) mood drops when he learns Uncle Dennis is going to be staying for the holiday, but that's almost nothing compared to how hard it is to get the packages to the post office before somebody else knocks on the door---and that only begins when Gildersleeve (Harold Peary) wants Fibber to get him some four-cent stamps. Molly: Marian Jordan. Announcer: Harlow Wilcox. Music: Billy Mills Orchestra, the King's Men. Director: Cecil Underwood. Writer: Don Quinn.
THE BURNS & ALLEN SHOW: SANTA AND THE WICKED PIRATE (CBS, 22 DECEMBER 1942)---Two days before Christmas, while trimming the tree, Gracie fears her favourite duck, Herman, is missing . . . until he returns home after eluding Akim Tamiroff's hands around his neck, Tamiroff tiring of the duck's poaching his goldfish---but will Herman quack up listening to Gracie telling him a Christmas story? Additional cast: Elvia Allman, Jimmy Cash, Lawrence Nash. Announcer: Bill Goodwin. Music: Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra, Six Hits and a Miss. Writers: George Burns, Paul Henning.
VARIOUS PERFORMERS: THE CHRISTMAS PACKAGE (NBC, 25 DECEMBER 1943)---Coordinated with the U.S. War Department, this charming holiday half-hour hosted by film star Linda Darnell yields up a package including music by the Andrews Sisters, Ginny Simms, and Lena Horne; messages from the Army's and Navy's chiefs of chaplains; a comic monologue from Bob Hope ([O]ur Santa Claus for tonight---the man who's been trying to get me on his lap all afternoon to whisper what I want for Christmas---Darnell); and, a sweet but not sugary holiday sketch from Jim and Marian Jordan as Fibber McGee, Molly, and Teeny with the Wistful Vista kids. Writers: Unknown, but assume that Fibber McGee & Molly mastermind Don Quinn at least wrote their sketch.
THE HENRY MORGAN SHOW: CHRISTMAS STORY---THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS (ABC, 25 DECEMBER 1946)---The cheerfully cantankerous comedian's opening monologue does a pretty good (and subtly racy) job of setting it up:
Not so many Christmases ago, we broadcast a little Christmas story for children. And, ah, it was definitely for children, but we heard later that a number of grownups sneaked out of bed and listened.Welllllll, you know how parents are, kids. Just when you think they're asleep, they come out of the bedroom with all kinds of excuses. They want a drink of water . . . or, uh, there's a tiger in the room . . . or, their blanket fell on the floor, or something. So this year, ah, we might as well let 'em stay up and listen.
But parents---no snickering. We're not gonna stand for a lot of grownups listening to the radio and shaking their heads doubtfully, as though we were making the whole thing up. Now, kids, if you notice your mommy or your daddy saying things like, um, "ohhhhh, nonsense! or, uh, "Well, that couldn't happen," just look 'em in the eye and say, "I find this story thoroughly credible!"
Of course, I don't have that kind of trouble with my parents. If they say "oh, nonsense!" to me, I just don't give 'em tickets to my show.
Then, he presents the story, which begins the day after Christmas. Little Joey sits examining the ruins of an electric train "that took a dozen graduate engineers to put together" . . . and which his father wrecked when the kid let the old man fool around with it until he came up with a theory about how to make it run different. "What's a theory?" asks little Norman. "I dunno," answers Joey. "Something ya father has when tells ya to hand him a screwdriver." All little Norman had to worry about was getting Santa into the house---because they had not a chimney but radiators.
What the kids had to worry about was being careful what they wished for. Especially if they were audacious enough to ask Congress for it. For details, you'll have to listen.
Cast: Arnold Stang, Pert Kelton, Fran Warren, Art Carney, Jack Albertson, Joan Gibson, and children Butch Cabell, David Anderson, Joan Laser. Announcer: Ben Grauer. Music: Bernie Green Orchestra. Writers: Henry Morgan, Carroll Moore, Jr., Aaron Ruben, Joseph Stein.
LUX RADIO THEATER: MIRACLE ON 34th STREET (CBS, 20 DECEMBER 1948)---Edmund Gwenn reprises his Oscar-winning role as what TV Guide would describe memorably enough in due course: the department-store Santa who goes on trial to prove he's the real Kris Kringle, abetted in spite of herself by an otherwise embittered Macy's buyer (Maureen O'Hara, reprising her film role) whose little daughter adores the old man and whose paramour (John Payne, also reprising his film role) defends him at trial. Additional cast: John Payne, unknown. Adapted from the screenplay by George Seaton.
DUFFY'S TAVERN: MIRACLE IN MANHATTAN (NBC, 22 DECEMBER 1948)---One measly egg nog atop some bad nutmeg and Duffy's snide Christmas card puts Archie (Ed Gardner) in a slightly sour mood . . . until a stranger (Jeff Chandler) tries to convince him a spell in church ("There's two kinds of guys go to church: them that doesn't and them that don't," Archie snorts) might lift a spirit that isn't prepared for the moment of faith---and, a miracle right before his eyes---to be opened to him. Eddie: Eddie Green. Finnegan: Charles Cantor. Miss Duffy: Sandra Gould. Writers: Ed Gardner, Vinnie Bogert, Robert Schiller.
THE ALDRICH FAMILY: CHRISTMAS PROGRAM (NBC, 23 DECEMBER 1948)---For an old-time radio collector it is a pain in the rump roast to find a few too many classic holiday shows called, "Christmas Program." Or, "Christmas Show." Never mind. Here, 'tis the week before Christmas, and all through the house, Father (House Jameson) thinks Henry's (Ezra Stone) solicitousness of late carries an ulterior yuletide motive; Mother (Katherine Raht) thinks Father's being too suspicious for his own good; and, Hennn-reeeeeeeeeeeeee! really is maneuvering for a particular Christmas present---unsuspecting that Mother and Father think he's angling for something else. There's still a perversely insane charm about the show even though it's long enough past its 1941-42 peak. Homer: Jackie Kelk. Announcer: Hugh James. Music: Jack Miller. Director: Writers: Norman Tokar (who once played Henry when Ezra Stone went off to World War II, before he himself went into the Signal Corps!), Ed Jurist.
GUNSMOKE: A CHRISTMAS STORY (CBS, 20 DECEMBER 1952)---Stranded after he has to put his injured horse out of his misery as Christmas Eve arrives, Dillon (William Conrad) is offered a ride the rest of the way home by a drifting former sailor, but when the sailor's old mare tires the two men are forced to make camp, where Matt tells a story of last year's Christmas in Dodge that moves the sailor to unburden a terrible secret and make a major decision. Kitty: Georgia Ellis. Chester: Parley Baer. Doc: Howard McNear. Director: Norman Macdonnell. Music: Rex Khoury. Writer: Antony Ellis.
THE PHIL HARRIS-ALICE FAYE SHOW: ALICE VOLUNTEERS TO PLAY SANTA CLAUS (NBC, 21 DECEMBER 1952)---It starts with Alice (Faye) springing on Phil (Harris) that he's playing Santa in her women's club play. "I'm not the Santy Claus type," he protests. "I'm a lover." Replies his loving wife, "How would I know?" And neither will you until you listen. Elliott: Elliott Lewis. Little Alice: Jeanine Roos. Phyllis: Anne Whitfield. Willie: Robert North. Music: Walter Sharp, Phil Harris, Alice Faye. Writers: Ray Singer, Dick Chevillat.
THE SIX SHOOTER: BRITT PONSET'S CHRISTMAS CAROL (NBC, 20 DECEMBER 1953)---Ponset (James Stewart) has a tour-de-farce for the sake of a young runaway boy, spinning the Dickens classic into a Western stretcher with his usual laconic charm. Scrooge: Howard McNear. Additional cast: Unknown. Announcer: Hal Gibney. Music: Basil Adlam. Director: Jack Johnstone. Writer: Frank Burt.
Great! Thanks for the links!
This sure beats listening to Sean Hammity. ☺
This sure beats listening to Sean Hammity. ☺
Or any other political yammerer . . . ;)
Thanks for the great links
This Bickersons show is a H00T!
Great source of Old Time Radio shows.
Really, really great.
http://www.archive.org/details/oldtimeradio
Enjoy!
I forgot to thank you for your great post.
Thanks a bunch!
(I also forgot to tell you about archive.org!)
This Bickersons show is a H00T!
Generally, they were avatars of domestic blitz. Think of them as Married . . . Without Children. Only a lot funnier.
Thanx, BD! I really enjoy these kind of old-time radio shows! The writing was so sharp! I’ll have to come back here and listen to these over the holidays.
Great thread. Thanks for all the effort.
Bookmark!
Did you forget the Dragnet story about the little Mexican boy who takes the baby Jesus from the church’s manger and rides it around in his new wagon? This was on radio and the TV show.
I listen to http://radio.macinmind.com/ Radio Antioch everyday. I love the old time stuff - especially the shows from the 30s before the censors.
Thanks for the memories bump! Merry Christmas y’all.
Did you forget the Dragnet story about the little Mexican boy who takes the baby Jesus from the church’s manger and rides it around in his new wagon? This was on radio and the TV show.This may sound strange, but that was the one time I thought the television version was better than the radio original. The radio version was a little too wooden; the television take was just the right kind of understatement.
can any shows of Bill Stearn sportscaster with the colgate sponsorship be had for free?
can any shows of Bill Stern [sic] sportscaster with the colgate sponsorship be had for free?
Yes they can. I believe there is a group of them at http://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio. Beware, however---the Stern broadcasts are mostly worth entertainment value; Stern has fallen under severe criticism by historians (as indeed he was in his time) for wild exaggerations and what we'd call urban mythmaking today. It's fun, though, to hear some of the great sports figures of the era (including Casey Stengel himself) talking on a Stern broadcast.
THANK YOU BLUESDUKE!!!
I'm going to save all of these so that I can broadcast them from my low power AM station (under construction)! Legal under part 15 of FCC regs, I live on a hill top and will cover about a 3 mile radius. My station will be called Victory Radio, with a 24 hour big band format. I currently have over 80 hours of music. Along with that I have old commercials (Bromo Seltzer, Bromo Seltzer, Bromo Seltzer...), Every episode of "The Shadow", and a ton of "Mystery Theatre". I also have quiet a bit of old news broadcasts of important dates. I am working on some automation software that will run station id's at set times, and will play a radio program at a set time each week. The system will be about 95% automated. I will, of course, be able to manually broadcast at any time I choose.
The purpose behind the station was so that I could listen to the music that was meant to be heard through my 1941 Zenith Tabletop or 1938 Zenith Console. The first night I got the 1941 Zenith (on a Tuesday) I was able to tune in 740AM out of Canada (and I'm in Tennessee.) They were rebroadcasting the final concert performance by Glenn Miller's Army Air Corp Band, from New York City. NBC radio had even flown in (Tech Sargeant) Tex Beneke from Texas for the performance. This was my father's music (he was a WWII Submarine Sailor), and to get to hear that concert on an original Zenith... It was priceless. So, I decided to create my own station. It costs less than $150 to do this, if you can use a soldeing iron and read a schematic...
Imagine sitting in your favorite chair with nothing but the light of the radio dial... A deep radio voice comes on...
"You are listening to Victory Radio ...-" (the old WWII V for Victory in morse code) "Victory Radio, broadcasting on a frequency of 1.5 kilocycles, is dedicated to the music of the greatest generation." Then a period correct commercial, followed by Tommy Dorsey's version of Opus One... Now that was music...
-Raven6
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