Showing results by author "Radio Shows of the Past!" in All Categories

The play involves several elderly Jewish men from the old country, Russia, all members of a small synagogue in Mineola, Long Island. The play opens with the hapless Sexton's daily quest to gather ten males to constitute a minyan required in Jewish tradition to conduct a religious service. This search has suddenly become critical as the granddaughter of one of the men has apparently become possessed by the spirit of a dybbuk, an evil spirit. The grandfather leaves the girl sitting in the office of the temple's young rabbi, who is progressive and not likely to believe in the existence of ...

Rocky Fortune is an American radio drama that aired weekly on NBC Radio beginning in October 1953. The series ended its run in March 1954 after 25 episodes. The program was created by George Lefferts. Frank Sinatra voiced the title role of Rocky Fortune for the entire series.Rocky Fortune aired Tuesday nights on NBC at 9:35 pm Eastern, immediately following Dragnet (and a five-minute John Cameron Swayze newscast). It was a sustaining series, meaning that NBC presented the program without corporate sponsorship. The premiere episode, "Oyster Shucker", originally aired on October 6,...

The period 1948-1950 brought major changes to network radio, as CBS hired a number of stars from NBC in what some have called "talent raids". Some of the top performers who changed networks were Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Edgar Bergen, and the husband-and-wife duo George Burns and Gracie Allen. One result of the changes was that 12 of the 15 highest-rated radio programs at the end of 1949 were on CBS. Harold Peary did not find such success, however. Peary switched to CBS, while the program in which he had starred, The Great Gildersleeve, stayed on NBC. Those changes resulted in a new ...

The Campbell Playhouse (1938–1940) is a live CBS radio drama series directed by and starring Orson Welles. Produced by Welles and John Houseman, it was a sponsored continuation of The Mercury Theatre on the Air.The series offered hour-long adaptations of classic plays and novels, as well as adaptations of popular motion pictures.When Welles left at the end of the second season, The Campbell Playhouse changed format as a 30-minute weekly series that ran for one season (1940–41).

Counterspy was an espionage drama radio series that aired on the NBC Blue Network (later ABC) and Mutual from May 18, 1942, to November 29, 1957. David Harding (played by Don MacLaughlin) was the chief of the United States Counterspies, a unit engaged during World War II in counterintelligence against Japan's Black Dragon and Germany's Gestapo. United States Counterspies was a fictional government agency devised by the program's creator, Phillips H. Lord after Lord "had a certain amount of difficulty with J. Edgar Hoover over story content in Gang Busters."[3] Mandel ...

The Buck Rogers comic strip had been commercially very successful, spawning novelizations and children's toys, and King Features Syndicate decided to create its own science fiction comic strip to compete with it. At first, King Features tried to purchase the rights to the John Carter of Mars stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs. However, the syndicate was unable to reach an agreement with Burroughs. King Features then turned to Alex Raymond, one of their staff artists, to create the story.One source for Flash Gordon was the Philip Wylie novel When Worlds Collide (1933). The book's themes ...

The Big Show was an American radio variety program featuring 90 minutes of comic, stage, screen and music talent. It was aimed at keeping American radio in its classic era and making it robust against the rapidly growing television tide. For its year-and-a-half run (November 5, 1950 – April 20, 1952), the show's quality made Their ambitions seem plausible.

Webb, who had previously starred on the Mutual detective drama, Johnny Madero, Pier 23, played the title character, a private investigator working for Anthony J. Lyon (originally Wilms Herbert, later Herb Butterfield) at the International Detective Bureau. In the first incarnation of the series, Lyon was played by Wilms Herbert, while Webb's future Dragnet co-star, Barton Yarborough, played his co-worker, Joe Canto. This format continued until the end of the year, when Webb left the program. According to writer William Froug, Webb was fired for asking for too much money.[3] Police ...

The Man Called X is an espionage radio drama that aired on CBS and NBC from July 10, 1944, to May 20, 1952. The radio series was later adapted for television and was broadcast for one season, 1956–1957.Herbert Marshall had the lead role of agent Ken Thurston/"Mr. X", an American intelligence agent[2] who took on dangerous cases in a variety of exotic locations. Leon Belasco played Mr. X's comedic sidekick, Pegon Zellschmidt, who always turned up in remote parts of the world because he had a "cousin" there. Zellschmidt annoyed and helped Mr. X.Jack Latham was an announcer for the program...

The series was a Ziv Production, produced at RCA's New York studios and licensed by the Mutual Broadcasting System, and later, NBC's Red network. It lasted two seasons, 39 shows each (78 total) consisting mostly of radio adaptations of classic horror or supernatural stories written by authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson and Charles Dickens. A few scripts were written specifically for the series. The production values were modest and The Weird Circle featured very little music.

Philo Vance is a fictional amateur detective originally featured in 12 crime novels by S. S. Van Dine in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, films, and radio. He was portrayed as a stylish—even foppish—dandy, a New York bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent. "S. S. Van Dine" was the pen name of Willard Huntington Wright, a prominent art critic who initially sought to conceal his authorship of the novels. Van Dine was also a fictional character in the books, a sort of Dr. Watson figure who accompanied Vance and chronicled his ...

This is the fascinating story of Dantro, The Planet Man, troubleshooter for the League of Planets organization, the law enforcement body for peace and justice in the celestial world -- whose headquarters and center of operations are situated on the capital of all planets, Planteria Rex. From Mercury to Pluto, where ever danger threatens the universe, you will find Dantro the Planet Man fighting for fair play. The Planet Man was a juvenile science ficton series of the 1950's transcribed and syndicated by Palladium Radio Productions. The stories are campy and predictable, but silly fun none ...

Originally portrayed by a white male actor, Marlin Hurt, Beulah Brown first appeared in 1939 when Hurt introduced and played the character on the Hometown Incorporated radio series and in 1940 on NBC radio's Show Boat series. In 1943, Beulah moved over to That's Life and then became a supporting character on the popular Fibber McGee and Molly radio series in March 1944.On July 2, 1945, Beulah was spun off into her own radio show on CBS, The Marlin Hurt and Beulah Show, sponsored by Tums.Hurt was still in the role of Beulah, and also played the voice of Beulah's boyfriend, Bill ...

This is a 13 episode radio show that aired in 1952. it telss the tales of important events in the history of growing and expanding the American continent.

Fire Fighters was a syndicated series produced by Cincinnati’s William F. Holland Productions, Inc. in 1948. It was aired in various markets from coast-to-coast, including Portland, OR, Omaha, NE, and Washington, D.C., into the early 1950s. It followed the adventures of rookie firefighter Tim Collins and fire chief Bob Cody. Written by Frank Jones, Fire Fighters starred Cameron Prud’Homme and Lyle Sudrow.

For most of the program's time on the air, Dennis Day played a soda jerk who sang as he worked. His character was naive, innocent, and prone to making wisecracks, much like the character Day played on The Jack Benny Program. Radio historian John Dunning wrote, "His [the character's] name was Dennis Day, but not, he emphasized, the same Dennis Day as that bright young man on the air with Jack Benny." Plots often derived from problems with his girlfriend and her parents. Before the show ended, it changed to a variety format. Being the star of his own program was a departure from Day's ...

Pepper Young's Family was a popular daytime drama radio series that ran from 1932 to 1959. The show followed the lives of a young man and his family from high school to adulthood. It was created and written by Elaine Sterne Carrington, a short story author and playwright, and was sponsored by Beech-Nut Gum and Camay. The show went through several format and title changes over its long run.

In the early 1930s, Wynn hosted the popular radio show The Fire Chief, heard in North America on Tuesday nights, sponsored by Texaco gasoline. Like many former vaudeville performers who turned to radio in the same decade, the stage-trained Wynn insisted on playing for a live studio audience, doing each program as an actual stage show, using visual bits to augment his written material, and in his case, wearing a colorful costume with a red fireman's helmet.He usually bounced his gags off announcer/straight man Graham McNamee; Wynn's customary opening, "Tonight, Graham, the show's gonna be ...

In 1937, he moved to NBC as their "Sunshine Melody Man", offering hymns and uplifting messages. McConnell’s blend of "songs, humor and philosophy" aired over network affiliates at 5:30pm. Guests included the Doring Trio, The Four Grenadiers, The Campus Choir and the Rhythmaires.In 1936, McConnell was featured in Acme Sunshine Melodies on WMAQ in Chicago. The Sunday afternoon program was sponsored by Acme White Lead and Color Works.[3]McConnell became known in New York City when he was heard over WJZ, though the show was broadcast from Chicago and he lived in Elk Rapids, ...

Night Editor is a 15-minute anthology television series aired on the DuMont Television Network from March 14 to September 8, 1954. Hal Burdick wrote and narrated the episodes and sometimes acted out the stories. Ward Byron was the producer, and Dick Sandwick was the director. In December 1952, the series was syndicated by Harry Goodman Productions Incorporated, with 26 15-minute episodes available. Mickey Baron directed, and Burdick again wrote the scripts. Kaiser-Frazer sponsored the show in five markets.The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows described Night ...