"The Big Broadcast" Live Sunday 2/28 7-11pm est

"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.' "

Happy Sunday Night. Classic Radio Time.

07:00 p.m. Johnny Dollar
10/22-23/56 Phantom Chase Matter Pts. 6-7 (Sus.)(CBS)(27:23)
07:30 p.m. Dragnet
07/27/54 #258 Big Match (AFRS)(24:24)
08:00 p.m. Gunsmoke
07/03/60 #430 Little Girl (CBS)(23:26)
08:30 p.m. Burns and Allen
01/18/44 w/William Bendix & Herbert Marshal (Swan)(CBS)(29:30)
09:00 p.m. Destination Freedom
11/21/48 #21 The Rhyme of the Ancient Dodger (Jackie Robinson)(NBC/WMAQ)(Sus.)(29:23)
09:30 p.m. Let George Do It
#03 There Ain't No Justice (Synd)(27:16)
10:00 p.m. Lux Radio Theater
06/29/36 Irene w/Jeanette MacDonald, Regis Toomey (Lux)(CBS)(59:56)

February 28, 2010 (WARNING: Contains Spoilers)

07:00 p.m. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
 10/22-23/56 "Phantom Chase Matter" Pts. 6-7 (Sus.)(CBS)(27:23) Bob Bailey, (First five episodes:) Virginia Gregg (Lola Chase), Michael Ann Barrett (Connie), Lawrence Dobkin (Pat McCracken), Forrest Lewis (George Emerson, Freddy Quintana), Peter Leeds, Barney Phillips, Tony Barrett, Victor Perrin ; (Last four episodes:) Michael Ann Barrett (Connie), Jack Edwards, Ben Wright (Inspector Witset), Virginia Gregg (Lola Chase), Don Diamond, Forrest Lewis (George Emerson), Richard Crenna (Thomas James Chase) ; Writer - Robert Ryf ; Producer/Director - Jack Johnstone ; Musical Supervisor - Amerigo Marino ; Announcer - Roy Rowan ; Expense Account Total = $ 1723 ; Nine part series ; "Ever chase a phantom? Well, believe me I have. And I will next week in the Phantom Chase Matter." Pat McCracken, Universal Adjustment Bureau, Hartford, calls Dollar about 38 year old Thomas James Chase who embezzled $120,000 from his high class New York City investment brokerage company, Emerson & Chase, and has now jumped bail. The 42 year old senior partner, George Emerson, is reluctant at first to believe Chase is guilty, and put up the bail money. Chase's wife is beautiful Lola, and the marriage seemed ideal. She says that Tom liked jazz music, and he had been working late at nights, and that he had sent her alone on a vacation to Martha's Vineyard, saying at the last moment that he couldn't go. George Emerson comes across a newspaper article about New Orleans jazz with a picture from a jazz bar called Ace's Castle, and he is sure that he sees Tom Chase in the background. Johnny heads for New Orleans. At Ace's Castle Johnny talks to blind trumpeter Pops Harker, who can provide no help. Then, a fellow named Freddy Quintana says he can tell Dollar where Tom Chase is hiding for $500. Quintana says Chase is going under the name of Tom James, and provides a sample of handwriting that Johnny verifies is authentic. Pops Harker tells Johnny that Quintana is a mean, bad actor. Lola Chase surprises Johnny by showing up at his hotel door. Quintana, in Lola's presence, tells Johnny to be at his apartment at midnight to get Chase. Johnny tells Lola she can go with him. They arrive 10 minutes early and wait a long time, but no one shows up. Johnny takes Lola back to her hotel. Then he goes back to Ace's castle. Lieutenant Lefevre, New Orleans police, sidles up to Dollar at Ace's Castle. He takes Dollar out in the alley to see Quintana's dead body. Chase looks to be the likely suspect for the murder. Lefevre calls Johnny with the news that they had found Chase's rooming house. In the waste basket they find a partially burned letter on Emerson & Chase stationery, with some legible numbers, 12 and 23. Dollar talks to Roger Carliss, rental agent for the rooming house. He says the room was rented a month in advance in cash for "James" by a very beautiful woman. Johnny sees the newspaper showing the harbor news and he wonders if maybe the numbers meant that a ship was departing pier 23 at 12 o'clock. Lefevre verifies that "The Caribbean Star" did leave pier 23 at 12 o'clock, bound for Trinidad, via Havana, and Haiti. A Tom James is booked among the passengers. Dollar gets to Haiti, and breaks into "James" room. It is empty. The purser tells Johnny that James left the ship in Havana, two days ago, heading for the airport. A Havana policeman, Lieutenant Escobar, tells Johnny that James booked a flight to Barbados, British West Indies. Johnny goes to Barbados. A woman, identifying himself only as Connie, approaches Dollar and says she knows about Tom Chase. She is his girlfriend and she wants out. For money, she will turn chase over to him. She says to be at the "Trade Winds Bar" in the rough waterfront district. As Dollar is approaching the bar, someone follows him and saps him. It is Tom Chase. A night watchman saves Johnny. Connie calls and says that she waited for Dollar to show. He agrees to meet her in the lobby. When he gets to the lobby she is gone. A clerk says that she left the lobby right after the phone call with a man that fits Chase's description. Dollar goes to the Colonial Police and meets with Inspector Witset. Next, Johnny goes back to the Trade Winds bar. Dollar makes eye contact with Connie, who immediately ducks out. Dollar catches up with her. She says that she is really not Chase's girl. She met him two days ago in Barbados. She is broke, stranded in Barbados and wants to get back to the States. She was hoping to get some money. She said that Chase talked for a long time to a fisherman on the waterfront. She takes Johnny to him. He says he was up all night with a passenger with lots of provisions to deserted Largos Island, three hours from Barbados, with one abandoned house. Lola Chase shows up in Barbados and gets a hotel room at Merisol Beach. Dollar calls Emerson who says that he is going to immediately come to Barbados and take Lola back to New York City. Johnny rents a boat , with radio call letters 6X3, to go to Largos Island and finds Lola stowed away on board. Johnny and Lola reach Largos Island. As they trudge toward the house shots ring out. Chase circles around and gets to Dollar's rented boat and takes it out to sea, stranding Dollar and Lola. They are rescued by Inspector Witset in a police boat. Back at Barbados, they see the boat Chase had taken from them - so he came back to Barbados. Dollar talks to George Emerson. Back at his hotel room Tom Chase is waiting. He says it is the end of the line for Dollar. He has a gun and he means business. Lola calls. It disorients Chase and he saps Dollar. He comes to with Lola and George Emerson tending to him. Later, Lola says that Chase wildly confronts her, and then heads into the mountains. She says he was acting crazy, saying that he wanted to see her one time "before". Johnny and Lola go after him. They see his car at the edge of a cliff. His dead body is smashed on the rocks below. Chase is buried in Barbados. Where is the money? Dollar checks Chase's last residence. He compares the writing of Chase with the sample given to him, and then he calls Pat McCracken for some information. Dollar has figured that instead of going to Martha's Vineyard Lola had gone to New Orleans to rent a room. Chase has been dead for two weeks. She killed Quintana. Emerson was the embezzler of the $120,000. Emerson says he is backing out, and fires a shot that wounds Lola, but Dollar overpowers him. The embezzled money was in a New York City safe deposit box. The real Tom Chase was buried on a deserted spot on Long Island.
07:30 p.m. Dragnet
07/27/54 "Big Match" (AFRS)(24:24) Program #258 Jack Webb (Joe Friday), Ben Alexander (Frank Smith) ; Writer - John Robinson ; Charles Cain, the owner of an auction house has been robbed and assaulted. A partially burned book of matches provides the needed clue.
08:00 p.m. Gunsmoke
07/03/60 "Little Girl" (CBS)(23:26) Program #430 William Conrad (Matt Dillon), Parley Baer (Chester Proudfoot), Howard McNear (Doc Adams), Georgia Ellis (Kitty Russell), Lawrence Dobkin, Anne Whitfield (Charity Gil), Joseph Kearns ; Director - Norman Macdonnell ; Writer - Kathleen Hite ; Music Composed and Conducted - Rex Koury ; Announcer - George Walsh ; Matt and Chester find a little girl in the ruins of a burned down cabin. It appears that her stepfather fell asleep while drinking a jug of whiskey and knocked over the kerosene lamp that started the blaze. All that is left of the man is "just a cinder". Matt takes 10 year old Charity Gil back to Dodge with him to find a good home. However, Charity wants to live with Matt. "She tags along like a little stray." To add to Matt's trouble, all the women in Dodge have gone to a women's suffrage meeting in Wichita. The only woman left in town is Kitty and she refuses to keep a little girl in the Long Branch saloon. Matt does not know what to do with little Charity.
08:30 p.m. . Burns and Allen
1/18/44 "w/William Bendix & Herbert Marshal" (CBS)(29:30) 1/18/44 with William Bendix & Herbert Marshall (fund appeal for the March Of Dimes), George Burns, Gracie Allen, Bill Goodwin, Hans Conreid (Nigel Bowlingbroke); Jimmy Cash (vocalist), the Swantets and Felix Mills and his Orchestra ; Announcer - Bill Goodwin ; Sponsor - Lever Brothers, makers of Swan the new white floating soap that is as pure an new Castiles ; Gracie persuades William Bendix to be the first student at Nigel Bowlingbroke's School of Culture and Dramatic Arts.
09:00 p.m.
Destination Freedom
11/21/48 #21 "The Rhyme Of The Ancient Dodger: The Story Of Jackie Robinson" (NBC/WMAQ)(Sus.)(29:23) Excellent writing, great radio, the story is partially told in verse! Jack Lester, Everett Clark, Tony Parish, Janice Kingslow, Oscar Brown Jr., Studs Terkel, Ernie Andrews ; Director - Homer Hecht ; Announcer - Hugh Downs ; Writer - Richard Durham ; Music Composer/Arranger - Emil Soderstrom ; Music - Elwyn Owen, Bobby Christian
09:30 p.m. Let George Do It
#03 "There Ain't No Justice" (Synd)(27:16) October 31, 1952. Mutual-Don Lee net. "There Ain't No Justice". Robert Bailey ; Writers - David Victor, Jackson Gillis ; Director - Don Clark ; Producers - Owen & Pauline Vinson ; Music Composed and Presented by - Eddie Dunstedter ; Announcer - John "Bud" Hiestand ; Mutual Broadcasting System ; Sponsor - Standard of California, for independent Standard and Chevron Gas Stations ; When the jail burns down in the town of Melody, goofy Abner accuses the chief of police of setting the fire! Then there's Walter Smith, who seems to have died in the fire...with his $200,000 missing!
10:00 p.m.
Lux Radio Theater
06/29/36 "Irene" (Lux)(CBS)(59:56) Jeanette MacDonald, Regis Toomey, Cecil B. DeMille, Theresa Maxwell-Conover, Arthur Lake, Elizabeth Dunn, Victor Rodman, Lou Merrill, Anne Stone, Margaret Brayton, Frank Nelson (doubles, program opening announcer), Leora Thatcher ; Intermission Guest - D. W. Griffith, Cora Cobb (wardrobe mistress with Warner Brothers) ; Announcer - Melville Ruick ; Director - Frank Woodruff ;Commercial Spokespeople - Vicki Vola), Maureen Ryan, Claudia Hyams, Charles Emerson, Bret Morrison, Lee Chadwick ; Author - James Montgomery ; Radio Adaptation - George Wells ; Music Director - Louis Silvers ; Music Composers - Joseph McCarthy, Harry Tierney ; Sound Effects - Charlie Forsyth ; A shop girl from the upholstery department of a large department store is changed into Irene O'Dare, the famous Irish singer. D. W. Griffith is interviewed; it makes fascinating listening. Jeanette MacDonald is also interviewed after the story and sings, "Would You?"

Hey there.

Hi and thanks again.

I listened to last week's show on archive. Looking forward to this week's show.

Frost bitten fingers? WTH.

Thanks. Two-part Johnny Dollar and now it’s Sergeant Friday. Olympic closing ceremonies, too. Now that’s multi-tasking.

It is.

Good stuff tonight. But these guys blew a chance to play something genuinely memorable that was first aired on tonight's date: the first of Burns & Allen's "Gracie for President" stunt of 1940 . . .

They did. Will have to listen later.