January 25, 2009
Filed under:
drama — randsesotericotr @ 12:08 pm
“Hello creeps!”
Let’s take another listen to “Mystery Playhouse”, that AFRS series that was a “catch-all” for programs from network series such as “Inner Sanctum”.
Program 134 in the series is “A Death is Caused”, originally broadcast on “Molle Mystery Theater” on October 12, 1945 on NBC. The show was written by novelist Cornell Woolrich, who also penned several episodes of “Suspense” and was regarded as one of the best mystery writers of the 40s. The story concerns a woman that plots to kill her husband by frightening him to death with snakes.
The show was transferred from an original AFRS transcription.
Now let’s turn back the clock to World War II. If there was anything that was a constant in American life during the War, it would have been rationing, daylight savings time, and Bob Hope.
Although Hope was beloved by troops for his many appearances and became an icon of American comedy with his tv specials up through the 1980s, I never really cared for his brand of “one liner” radio and television comedy, though I can find the Hope-Crosby “Road” movies enjoyable. After you listen to several of his radio shows, particularly those from the War period, the sameness of the jokes and Hope’s womanizing gets a little old.
However, I know Hope has his fans out there, so I’m offering up a rare uncirculated Bob Hope program.
Originally broadcast June 5, 1945 on NBC as the “Pepsodent Show”, via an Armed Forces Radio Network transcription where the program was broadcast as program 110 in the Bob Hope series, here’s Hope at the Sedalia Army Air Field near Kansas City, Missouri. It’s the last show of the season and the main sketch has Bob going for a physical checkup, so he gets out his joke files marked “Hospital Jokes”, “Nurse Jokes” and “Doctor Jokes”.
The program features Skinnay Ennis singing “Got a Date with an Angel”, Francis Langford performing “You Belong to My Heart” and comedy appearances by Vera Vague (Barbara Jo Allen) and Jerry Colonna.
Our mp3 file was transferred directly from an original AFRS transcription. Sorry for the rough sound in spots; the disc hasn’t seen the best storage conditions in the past sixty plus years.
We turn now to one of the great musical variety programs of the OTR era, “Kraft Music Hall”.
During the show’s long run, it featured stars like Al Jolson and Bing Crosby. This program, originally broadcast on NBC July 3, 1947, is headlined by Nelson Eddy and features Met opera star Nadine Conner, announcer Ken Carpenter, and Robert Armbruster and His Orchestra. Eddy kicks off the show with “Listen to the Band” and performs “Beautiful Dreamer” and “The Owl and Bobcat” (from “Naughty Marietta”) among other tunes. Of course, we get to enjoy Carpenter’s wonderful commercials for Kraft Miracle Whip and Cheese Spreads.
Can you pass up the chance to hear Nelson Eddy operatically “meow” in “The Owl and the Bobcat”?
The program was transferred from an original lacquer line-check recorded at an unknown NBC affiliate and includes the NBC chimes. It appears to be not in common circulation among old time radio collectors.
Here’s another in our weekly series, “The Adventures of Frank Race”, starring Tom Collins and originally recorded and syndicated in 1949.
Program 4 in the series is titled “The Adventure of Seventeen Black” and Race investigates an embezzlement case that, like all noir crime stories, involves an attractive woman with a dark side.
The show was transferred from an original set of Bruce Eells and Associates vinyl transcriptions, matrix numbers UR-138635 and UR-138636.
January 16, 2009
NBC, best known for quality live shows on their network, also offered a wide range of programs especially recorded for syndication to local stations. In some other blog posts, we heard “Playhouse of Favorites”, but you might have heard the more famous program “Five Minute Mysteries” (a show I’d like to collect in original transcriptions) or “Weird Circle”.
This week, we take a listen to one of the more unusual programs in the NBC syndication library, “Mercer McLeod, the Man With the Story”. Each fifteen minute episode dramatized a story dealing with the mysterious or supernatural. What makes it unique, and the little “gimmick” for the show, is that Mercer McLeod plays all the roles in the show. (Except the female roles, which are handled by an actress credited only as “Rita”.)
McLeod was a busy character actor in radio and television. He was a member of the Frank Benson Shakespeare Company and the the Ben Greet Players in England toured several countries with the Bernard Shaw Players. “The Man With the Story” was, according to an online bio, his entry into American radio. He was so versatile and impressive on the show, that he received many offers for radio and television work through the 1950s and 60s.
Here’s program 1 in the series, “The Mysterious Drawing”, transferred from an original vinyl NBC Orthacoustic Syndicated Program Series transcription, matrix number ND5-MM-11444-3.
If you have any other original discs in the series, let me know - I’d love to work on collecting a set.
You might remember Alan Young from his most famous role playing opposite the talking horse Mister Ed on CBS television in the early 1960s. But, you may not realize this talented actor and comedian got his start with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and had his own popular radio series on NBC and ABC.
In this post, we hear “The Alan Young Show”, originally broadcast October 3, 1944 on the ABC radio network, one of his early series on American radio. This was episode 3 in the series in the series as broadcast by the Armed Forces Radio Network.
The show features Diane Courtney, Peter Van Steeden and His Orchestra, Jack Kirkwood and announcer Kenny Delmar. Alan meets with gossip columnist “Harriet Hatch” and tells his life story. A highlight is the opening bit featuring a salesman touting custom records of radio shows! It reminds me of the kind of off the wall comedy that Stan Freeburg would be doing in the 1950s. The program appears to not be in common circulation among collectors.
Young is still active in the business providing the voice for Scrooge McDuck and other cartoon characters. In 2007, he released a new expanded edition of his memoirs, “Mister Ed and Me and More”.
Our mp3 was transferred from an original AFRS vinyl transcription of the program.
We continue our weekly visit to Tom Collins in “The Adventures of Frank Race”, a program recorded and first syndicated in 1949, from a near-complete run of the series in my collection.
In this week’s exciting episode, Race encounters a woman in Istanbul who is being pursued by killers and is mixed up with some smugglers. It’s program 3 in the series, “The Istanbul Adventure”. Dames! Bullets! Fisticuffs! Now that’s the stuff to get a post-War male audience on the edge of their seats.
The show was transferred from an original set of Bruce Eells and Associates vinyl transcriptions, matrix numbers U-137477 and U-137478-N.
Oh, and be sure to check out the labels of these discs as we progress through the series. You can see rubber stamps and notations from the different stations that ran the series from this set of discs all the way through 1957.
Filed under:
music — randsesotericotr @ 11:48 pm
Here’s another rare one. Dixieland Jazz and Boogie Woogie had something of a resurgence in the late 40s and early 50s and Mutual ran a daily show called “Dixieland Matinee” as part of this nostalgic craze.
In this blog post, we offer up an episode of the series as it was broadcast on AFRS under the title “Dixieland Club”. (Why couldn’t AFRS stop renaming series all the time?) In program 169, originally broadcast April 30, 1952 on Mutual, Preacher Rollo and The Five Saints with Marie Marcus on piano play “South Rampart Street Parade”, “Someday Sweetheart” and other tunes.
The show was transferred from an original AFRS vinyl transcription and appears to be a previously lost episode of this rare series.
Updated 2/22/2009 - Corrected broadcast date of program.
Filed under:
updates — randsesotericotr @ 11:46 pm
A tip of the hat this week to Doug of Dad’s OTR for his generous donation to the blog.
Your donation will help towards this month’s purchase of rare discs for future posts!
January 10, 2009
Wrapping up our short run of this rare early 50s sitcom, we drop in for the last time on the Allison Family of Grove Falls.
This week, we listen to the broadcast of April 26, 1953, where Jeep is sent some money for opening a bank account by an aunt. Of course, Jeep starts thinking about things like compound interest, access to his money, and all the things he can do with ten dollars and winds up turning Doctor. Allison’s office into a bank.
This episode of “My Son Jeep” appears to already be in circulation, but this mp3 has been taken directly from a set of NBC reference acetates.
I still haven’t heard any episodes of the 15 minute version of “My Son Jeep” that was broadcast a couple of years later on CBS and I haven’t run into any episodes of the television version that ran concurrently with the NBC series.
I find it curious that not more episodes of this series have cropped up, since it was broadcast on AFRS. Perhaps more will come out of the woodwork eventually.
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