Posted on 03/27/2016 12:40:51 PM PDT by Vision
Friends it's Sunday night again and time to relax. Warm up the tubes for another 4 hours of classic radio Americana.
Info *tonight's show will be available at the "Info" link starting tomorrow.
Official OTR Blog of "The Big Broadcast" thread:
Longtime radio personality and The Big Broadcast host Ed Walker passed away early on Oct. 26 at age 83. We invite you to leave your thoughts and remembrances.
Ed Walker spent 65 years on the radio. His last program was unlike any other.
We've got a mystery Easter lineup...Gina's favorite the Great Gilderselleve...Halls of Ivy...and then we'll see...
How's your day been?
No “Fibber McGee and Molly?” I just watched them not too long ago in what I think was their first film, “This Way Please” (1937), a little musical-comedy from Paramount. The more curious element, though, was seeing a solo Mary Livingstone (sans Jack Benny) paired off romantically with Ned Sparks, as she played the wise-cracking friend of leading lady Betty Grable.
I’m pretty lukewarm myself. Their shows can be awfully repetitious, but I find them okay in small doses. It was interesting to see the Jordans play a supporting comedic part in a film, not unlike the way Burns and Allen were also shuffled into all-star features at Paramount. Especially compared to their later RKO items.
Mostly I’m intrigued by old films that utilize the radio backdrop, or feature radio personalites. A while back, I also watched “Wake Up and Live” (1937), which played up the old Ben Bernie and Walter Winchell radio feud.
Here's the complete lineup for tonight.
These brief synopses are used with permission from the RadioGOLDINdex © 2016 J. David Goldin.
7:00 PM Eastern War Time Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. June 26, 1960. CBS net origination, AFRTS rebroadcast. "The Wholly Unexpected Matter". Johnny and Pat McCracken fly out to fish at the Lake Mojave Resort, but find themselves the target of an escaped convict who has sworn to kill Johnny! Really? One public service announcement has been deleted. Bob Bailey, Jack Johnstone (writer, producer, director), Virginia Gregg, Barney Phillips, Edgar Barrier, Shirley Mitchell, John Wald (announcer), Lawrence Dobkin, Sam Edwards. 24:22. Audio condition: Very good. Complete as above.
7:30 Dragnet. July 13, 1954. Program #256. NBC net origination, AFRS rebroadcast. "The Big Rescue". Two robbers hold up the "814 Club" and lots of other places. One of them has a .45, but the other carries a machine gun! After they're captured, they're sprung from jail by another gunman with a machine gun. Jack Webb, Ben Alexander, George Fenneman (announcer). 25:42. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
8:00 Gunsmoke. January 10, 1953. CBS net. "Word Of Honor". Sustaining. After treating a wounded man, Doc gives his word of honor not to reveal the identity or hiding place of the killers. The script was used on the Gunsmoke television series October 1, 1955. See cat. #47826 for the same script produced four years later, see cat. #47835 and #39962 for subsequent broadcasts of this program. William Conrad, Howard McNear, Parley Baer, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, Harry Bartell, Roy Rowan (announcer), John Meston (writer). 30:12. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
8:30 The Great Gildersleeve. April 25, 1943. NBC net. Sponsored by: Kraft Pabst-Ett. Leroy's going to make big money raising rabbits. Kay Francis makes an appeal for the Second War Loan. The president of the Kraft Cheese Company, J. L. Kraft, delivers his annual Easter message. Ben Alexander, Earle Ross, Harold Peary, James L. Kraft, John Whedon (writer), Kay Francis, Ken Carpenter (announcer), Lillian Randolph, Lurene Tuttle, Richard LeGrand, Sam Moore (writer), Shirley Mitchell (?), Walter Tetley. 29:18. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
9:00 The Halls Of Ivy. March 17, 1950. NBC net. Sponsored by: Schlitz Beer. Is "Willow Walk" a lover's lane or a den of vice? Dr. Hall battles P.T. Grainger, a machine politician. Benita sneezes on cue in the script, but must have sprayed someone as the audience cracks up. Ronald Colman, Benita Hume, Ken Carpenter (announcer), Edwin Max, Eleanor Audley, Herb Butterfield, Henry Russell (composer, conductor), Walter Brown Neuman (writer), Don Quinn (creator, writer), Nat Wolff (director). 29:25. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
9:30 My Favorite Husband. March 24, 1951. CBS net. Sponsored by: Jello. Will the girls be able to lose weight and get a new Easter outfit? Lucille Ball, Richard Denning, Gale Gordon, Frank Nelson, Bea Benaderet, Shirley Mitchell, Isabel Scott Rorick (creator). 1/2 hour. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
10:00 Inner Sanctum. September 20, 1948. CBS net origination, AFRS rebroadcast. "Hangman's Island". Good "sanctumesque" story about a madman on a booby-trapped island, a crazed woman living in a cave with her mother carefully preserved in a coffin, and a treasure in gold! Mason Adams, Elspeth Eric, Santos Ortega, Lawson Zerbe, John Roeburt (wrtier), Paul McGrath (host). 24:46. Audio condition: Very good. Complete.
10:30 Hall of Fantasy. 03/11/50 He Who Follows Me (Sus.) (MBS) (24:26). Synopsis is missing from the Index.
Hi, Vision! Happy Easter! I hope you had a good dinner.
We’re fine. We had a system move through here early today and most of the day, leaving two inches of rain. It’s nice. Keith smoked some pork ribs. All’s well, thank the Lord.
Good. Had dinner with family, the cherry blossoms are blooming and it is really beautiful.
Oh, that sounds so nice. You guys have the cherry blossoms there. We have azalea blooms right now. Beautiful.
The Hall Of Fantasy was a dark series where the supernatural forces of darkness often triumphed!
When it comes to The Hall of Fantasy, there are some mysteries that persist to this day. Maybe that’s appropriate, because it claimed to be “the series of radio dramas dedicated to the supernatural, the unusual, and the unknown.” One mystery that remains unknown is who the announcer actually was. His lines were so over-the-top, maybe he wished to remain anonymous. But it’s this same dead serious approach to monsters, horror, and the supernatural that makes this series so much fun to listen to in a modern context. Despite this campy dimension to the program, do not assume that the series wasn’t scary. Many episodes were rather frightening. If the dark, desolate atmospheres didn’t get at your nerves, the down-beat endings usually did. A common scene occurred at night, with the crickets chirping in the background. The two protagonists would be lost or running for their lives (or both!). One would hear a far off scream, and he would realize— along with the audience— that his friend was a goner. One episode, ‘Hang Man’s Rope,’ never revealed exactly how the killer managed to catch and hang his victims, or why. The only thing we knew for sure was when the crickets stopped chirping and the dog started howling, someone would wind up hanging from the nearest tree. The protagonists spent most the show trying to solve the mystery. They failed. But at least one of them saw how the killer accomplished his dark deed. Unfortunately, he didn’t live long enough to explain it. All we heard was a sudden scream, the snap of his neck, and the stretching of the rope as his body swayed. Talk about dark, the lights in The Hall of Fantasy always seemed to be shot out!
But not everything about the show is shrouded in mystery. We know that the series started as a different program altogether. It began at KALL in Salt Lake City in 1946 and lasted a year. Richard Thorne and Carl Greyson were announcers who created a bare bones murder mystery drama with stories written or adapted by Robert Olson. But when Thorne and Greyson went separate ways, the series discontinued. Then in 1949, Thorne and Greyson happened to work at the same station again (WGN in Chicago) and the series resumed. This time, the focus was on supernatural horror with Richard Thorne writing or adapting the stories. (OTR Cat.com) The three dozen or so shows that survived appear to have been recorded for broadcast transcriptions. (A recorded scene from the climax is played at the beginning of the program as a teaser.) Richard Thorne is one of the main recurring actors (Dunning, 307).
Hall of Fantasy didn’t seem to have much of a budget. The actors weren’t big names and the music and sound effects were sometimes lackluster. But the situations and original writing often made up for these shortcomings. It was similar in that way to another low budget but even more imaginative series, Quiet Please.
http://www.radiohorrorhosts.com/halloffantasy.html
Halls of Ivy...
Holy smokes! We’ll have to go back and listen to that Hall of Fantasy! Thanks for posting that, Vision.
Good night! I hope you have a good week.
Go back? It’s the 10:30 show...
We tuned out at the Halls of Ivy, Vision. That’s why we’ll have to go back.
Oh ok, night.
Loved the Easter programming and pined for the days of yesteryear when the CEO of Kraft could give the gospel message with “Jesus Christ is Risen Today” playing in the background.
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