"The Big Broadcast" Live Sunday 12/27 7-11pm est

WAMU ^ | WAMU | Ed Walker

[Vision]

It's Sunday night again. Warm up the tubes for another 4 hours of classic radio programs.

Listen Live

Info

[Vision]

"The Big Broadcast is a Sunday night tradition for families throughout the WAMU listening area. Each week, Big Broadcast host Ed Walker offers listeners priceless recordings of popular radio programs from the '30s, '40s and '50s. Priceless, especially, for a man whose first sentence as a child was, 'Turn the radio on.' "

[Vision]

Happy Sunday Night. Classic Radio Time.

Last show of 2009!

[Vision]

• 7:00p Johnny Dollar
  10/01-02/56 The Picture Postcard Matter Pts. 1-2 (Sus.)(CBS)(27:24)
• 7:30p Dragnet
  06/01/54 #250 Big Cowboy (AFRS)(24:44)
• 08:00p Gunsmoke
  04/10/60 Dave's Lesson (CBS) (24:44)
• 8:30p Phil Harris/Alice Faye Show
  12/26/48 No Present From Rexall(Rexall)(NBC)(29:40)
• 9:00p Our Miss Brooks 12/31/50 Returning Christmas Gifts (Colgate)(CBS)(28:04)
• 9:30p Cavalcade of America 10/11/43 Bob Hope Reports (Dupont)(NBC)(29:59)
• 10:00p Escape 05/09/48 #052 The Time Machine (Sus.)(CBS)(29:30)
• 10:30p Shadow 11/19/39 The Shadow Returns (Sus.)(MBS)(28:48)

[steelyourfaith]

Thanx again !

• 7:00p Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
  
10/01-02/56 "The Picture Postcard Matter" Pts. 1-2 (Sus.)(CBS)(27:24) Bob Bailey, Lucille Meredith (Ilsa Shaffer), Victor Perrin (Tom Wilkins), Forrest Lewis (Anton the gunman), Stan Jones (Otto Weider), Ben Wright (Jeffrey Harris) ; Writer - Robert Ryf ; Producer/Director - Jack Johnstone ; Announcer - Roy Rowen ; Musical Supervision - Amerigo Marino ; Expense Account Total - $1723.00 ; "Well, they say that diamonds are a girl's best friend. But I wonder - when they are a motive for murder." Tom Wilkins, Global Casualty, Hartford, reports that $100,000 of insured, uncut, diamonds have been stolen in the Zurich airport from a courier. The only lead is a letter which arrived from someone named Sebastian, in Zurich, who offers information on the theft. Johnny travels to Zurich, and goes to the Polo Hotel, as specified by Sebastian. He shares a cab with an attractive woman named Ilsa Shaffer. Two blocks later she quickly leaves, kissing him, after she hears Johnny's name, but leaves her purse. At the Hotel a big man sticks a gun in his ribs and orders him back outside into a car. The man saw the incident and believes that Ilsa passed the diamonds to him in her purse. Johnny breaks away. He goes back to his Hotel and waits for Sebastian to show. Eventually, Sebastian approaches Dollar and asks about the reward. He says he will arrange for the return of the diamonds for $25,000. He passes a picture postcard to Dollar, which is part of the key to the location of the diamonds. The picture is of the Klibach Inn, an Alps resort, and was sent by F. Grunner. He also leaves his newspaper which has his address written on one of the inner pages. He asks Dollar to meet him at his apartment in two hours. Sebastian was floating face down in the bathtub. Inspector Honeger, Zurich Police, calls Dollar the next day. Dollar's theory is that Sebastian was part of the team that robbed the courier and his efforts to return it are to benefit him, while double-crossing his cohorts. Johnny goes to the Klibach Inn. Otto Weider, the inn-keeper of the Klibach Inn, checks Dollar in. Otto claims not to have heard of Sebastian. Soon knocking on his door is Englishman Jeffrey Harris, who had a friend back in London named John "Bunny" Dollar. Johnny shakes Harris off when he sees Ilsa at the bar. She thanks him for turning in her purse. She claims to come to this resort often, but Otto says he had never seen her before. Johnny arranges to go skiing with Ilsa. While on the ski trail they become the targets of rifle fire. Honeger sends Dollar another picture postcard that had been sent to Sebastian. It is of a chalet for skiers. Ilsa admits that Sebastian had told her to get into Dollar's cab, to throw off Sebastian's confederates. Ilsa was to meet Sebastian here for some skiing. Otto says that Harris had gone out mountain climbing at the same time that Dollar and Ilsa had gone skiing. Dollar finds the chalet of the second postcard. He sees Harris in the vicinity. The chalet is a ski hut on the ridge, and inside it has been torn apart. Police Inspector Honeger arrives in Klibach. They discuss the case over coffee. Dollar is sure that the stones are in Klibach. Johnny finds a recently fired rifle, with a telescopic site, in Harris' closet. Johnny goes into the village with Ilsa. Johnny sees a suspicious character following then, and so he and Ilsa split up, and she is to go back to the Hotel. Then another man falls from a window and dies. Ilsa recognizes him as Grunner, the last of Johnny's known leads. Ilsa and Johnny go to the room Grunner fell from. It is empty. They hear something down the hall. They break open the door to that room and see an open window leading to the fire escape. Looking out the window Johnny thinks he sees the big man who had him at gunpoint in Zurich. They go back to the Inn and Dollar runs into Harris, who denies he has a rifle. Otto gives a third postcard to Dollar of the village square. Dollar suspects that the diamonds may be located in the spot where the three postcard pictures can be seen. Dollar goes there and starts to dig, and finds the diamonds. Dollar is jumped by Anton, the gunman from Zurich, but Dollar overpowers him. He is working for Otto. Otto shows up with a gun, but gets distracted, and Johnny gets the gun. Otto could not figure out where the diamonds were so he had given the postcard to Dollar hoping that he would lead him to the stones.

• 7:30p Dragnet
  
06/01/54 #250 "Big Cowboy" (AFRS)(24:44) Program #250 Jack Webb (Joe Friday), Ben Alexander (Frank Smith) ; Writer - John Robinson ; Announcer - George Fenneman ; homicide Man Thinks Indians are Coming. Dudley Gray is holed up with a lot of guns and refuses to come out. He thinks he's a cowboy defending a fort from the Indians! His wife and child are prisoners in the apartment.

• 08:00p Gunsmoke
  
04/10/60 "Dave's Lesson" (CBS) (24:44) Program #418 William Conrad (Matt Dillon), Parley Baer (Chester Proudfoot), Howard McNear (Doc Adams), Georgia Ellis (Kitty Russell), Sam Edwards, Ralph Moody, harry Bartell, Joseph Kearns ; Director - Norman Macdonnell ; Writer - Marian Clark ; Music Composed and Conducted - Rex Koury ; Announcer - Roy Rowan ; Matt receives news that two of his friends, Joe and Lida Barrett, have died. The two had lived through the war, survived a riverboat disaster, and lived in renegade Indian territory, only to be stricken and taken by fever. They leave behind a sixteen year-old son, Dave, who has a fascination for guns. Will Barrett, Dave's uncle, sends Dave to spend the summer with Matt. While Matt is in Hayes City, Chester is left n charge of the boy.Unfortunately, Dave does not think pushing a broom is the kind of help a lawman needs. He is anxious to prove himself with a gun and sees his chance when old Hob Frank gets himself liquored up and shoots off his gun. Dave wants to help by shooting Hob.

• 8:30p Phil Harris/Alice Faye Show
  
12/26/48 "No Present From Rexall" (Rexall)(NBC)(29:40) Phil Harris, Alice Faye, Jeanine Roos, Lois Corbett, Anne Whitfield, Robert North, Elliott Lewis, Gale Gordon ; Music - Walter Scharf and His Orchestra ; Writers - Ray Singer &Dick Chevillat ; Announcer - Bill Forman ; Producer/Director - Paul Phillips ; How come everyone has gotten a Christmas present from Rexall...except Phil. When the present finaly arrives...it's in pieces! What was it? Phil sings, "Keep in The Middle Of The Road".

• 9:00p Our Miss Brooks
  12/31/50 "Returning Christmas Gifts" (Colgate)(CBS)(28:04) Program #115

• 9:30p Cavalcade of America
  10/11/43 "Bob Hope Reports" (Dupont)(NBC)(29:59) Bob Hope, Paul Hilton, Virginia Gordon, Jack Mather (doubles), William Johnstone (doubles), Georgia Backus (doubles), Edward Marr (doubles), Tom Collins (doubles), Howard McNear (doubles), Beverly Brown, Elliott Reid, Wally Maher (doubles), Frank Graham (doubles) ; Producer/Director - Homer Fickett ; Commercial Spokesman - Gayne Whitman ; Announcer - Jim Bannon ; Music Compoer/Conductor - Robert Armbruster ; Writer - Glenn Wheaton ; Bob recreates his first tour of the front in June, 1943. The program features memories of his trip to England, Algiers, Sicily, Iceland. The broadcast originates from Hollywood and marks the start of the program's ninth year on the air.

• 10:00p Escape
  05/09/48 #052 "The Time Machine" (Sus.)(CBS)(29:30) Episode # 52 Jeff Corey ; Author - H. G. Wells ; Radio Adptation - Irving Ravetch ; Director - Norman Macdonnell ; The classic story about two adventurers in the year 100,080 in the land of the Morlocks. The story is complete, the program closing has been deleted. The script was subsequently used on "Escape" on October 22, 1950

• 10:30p Shadow
  11/19/39 "The Shadow Returns" (Sus.)(MBS)(28:48) Bill Johnstone (Lamont "The Shadow" Cranston), Marjorie Anderson (Margot Lane) ; Writer - Brian J. Byrne ; Announcer - Ken Roberts ; Concern has been aroused for accidents occurring on incoming ocean going ships. Among the last 60 ships to enter port there have been 50 infections, 15 lost limbs and 4 deaths of seamen. Cabin boy Victor Payne has a bad arm after having received a vaccination from the ship's doctor, George Vadlow. Knute Johnson had warned Payne about letting Vadlow treat him. The Shadow visits Johnson who says that Vadlow is a butcher. Captain Blair elects for Lamont Cranston to do the operation, advised over shortwave by Dr. Sproul of the Empress Margarete. Vadlow shows up with a gun, and announces that he is going to take Victor's arm off. The Shadow returns and stops Vadlow. In the process Lamont gets wounded and Vadlow kills himself. A ruby is found embedded in Victor's arm. The scheme was to smuggle precious gems past customs.

[Vision]

Evening. For some reason I love it when there is a 500 word essay on what happens on a 30 minute program. LOL.

[steelyourfaith]

Of course you do ... even with the spoilers included ... I’m so sure.

[Vision]

Love the Shadow. And the Whistler.

[BluesDuke]

For some reason I love it when there is a 500 word essay on what happens on a 30 minute program. LOL.

How about a thousand? ;)

[Vision]

I am being serious. I enjoy it. Such care was put into all this.

[steelyourfaith]

Me too. I enjoy the Theater of the Mind. I especially enjoy the old time radio comedy writing. The writers did not have the luxury of falling back on sight gags or being augmented by visual slapstick, yet it was frequently very witty.

[Vision]

Yea, that’s probably why the writing is so good.

[Vision]

Sebastian’s dead. Crap.

[steelyourfaith]

And the acting. There was that cadre of radio actors who were highly experienced & skilled at verbally moving a story line along who, otherwise, had “faces for radio”. They often showed up as bit players in movies or TV and adeptly supplemented the principals. I always look out for them.

[Vision]

“Floyd the Barber” is one.

[steelyourfaith]

Howardd McNear for sure. :)

[Humbug]

I got into Old Time Radio several years ago, back when i started looking for things to while away the time on long trips. I have listened to and liked Gunsmoke, Suspense, Escape, Johnny Dollar, Jack Benny, but my favorite has actually turned out to be Lum & Abner. It's silly but there are a lot of LOL moments and the humor isn't as dated as, say, Jack Benny can sometimes be. By the way, the Internet Archive site hosts a lot of OTR shows that you can listen to or download.

Here's a link to Lum & Abner from there (i'm linking to "page 3" since the sound quality is better there than on the first two L&A pages, plus the commercials are fewer): L&A 03

[Vision]

Thanks for the info. Would you like on the ping list?

[Humbug]

Yes, please add me. Thanks.

[steelyourfaith]

Oh yeah. Lum & Abner are wonderfully funny. Quite the equal of Amos ‘n’ Andy. The Lum & Abner Society used to (until very recently) publish a periodical magazine, offer scripts of old radio shows for which there are (as yet) no existent audio, and a way to acquire all existent audio programs (I have them all). I think most of the Lum & Abner episodes are available still through SPERDVAC.

[steelyourfaith]

Oh yeah. The L&A Society still maintains a presence on the internet.

In addition, L&A made about a half dozen or so very low budget movies that never quite captured the flavor of the radio broadcasts. The movies were also available for purchase through the L&A Society at one time.