rand’s esoteric otr

Broadcast from 1952 through 1953, “Best Plays” was a one-hour sustaining anthology series on NBC hosted by John Chapman, drama critic for the New York Daily News, and focused on works from the New York stage.  Program 5 in the series as broadcast by the Armed Forces Radio Service and originally run on NBC on August 30, 1953, is Noel Coward’s “Tonight at 8:30″.

Of course, “Tonight at 8:30″ is a cycle of ten one-act plays by Coward and any combination of the works can be performed during a performance.  In “Best Plays”, we hear two of the one-acts, “Ways and Means” and “Still Life” featuring Madeleine Carroll and Jerome Cowan.

While the scripts, acting and direction are quite good, “Best Plays” suffers from the “canned” quality of several dramatic series from the late Old Time Radio period.  You’ll recognize several stock music cues that were frequently used in shows at this time - one dramatic bit of music, used at the beginning of the show, will be recognizable to anyone who has heard an episode of “The FBI in Peace and War” and “Tales of the Texas Rangers”.

Several episodes of “Best Plays” were written by Earl Hamner.  He would go on to a successful career writing for television, including a half dozen scripts for “The Twilight Zone”.  His most famous work was for “The Waltons”, inspired by his own experiences growing up in Depression-era Virginia.

If you want to explore some of John Chapman’s reviews for the Daily News, you can browse through them at the newspaper’s web site.  (I enjoyed the headline for his review of the original Broadway production of “Hair” that he headlined “Itchy, Twitchy and Dirty”.)

Our mp3 was transferred directly from an original AFRS vinyl transcription set.

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This week, we turn back to Bing Crosby’s show for General Electric, originally broadcast on CBS.  The program of March 12, 1953 features guest Jimmy Stewart.

In the show, Bing sings a swingin’ version of “Jeepers Creepers” as the first tune, then a big chunk of the program is taken up by banter and an extended comedy sketch/GE commercial with Jimmy talking about being on Jack Benny’s television program and then shopping for a General Electric washer for his wife.

The program was transferred from an original Radio Recorders laquer transcription set.  These are a group of KCBS/KCBS-FM, San Francisco, airchecks that I obtained recently of Bing’s show.  At the opening, you’ll hear the station ID and a bit of a fun singing Burgermeister Beer commercial.

More Bing pitching for GE in the coming weeks in the blog.

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This week’s episode of “The Adventures of Frank Race” is the first in the series with Paul Dubov in the title role.  Dubov, would carry on through the conclusion of the series, replacing Tom Collins.  Dubov has an extensive list of credits at radiogoldindex.com; his acting career on radio spanned from 1940 through the 1970s with bit parts on many popular series including “Gunsmoke” and “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar”.

Program 23 in this series, “The Adventure of the Green Dubloon”, has Race investigating a case near the Panama Canal that involves a former radio actor who is a master of dialects, but has since become an accountant.

The show, originally recorded circa 1949 and syndicated throughout the 1950s, was transferred from an original Bruce Eells and Associates red vinyl transcription set, matrix numbers UR-149421 AU-6 and UR-149422 AU-6

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Here’s another episode in the long-running series “Front Page Drama”, a weekly quarter hour dramatic show based on stories in the “American Weekly” distributed with Hearst Newspapers.

Our little play in this episode is “The Devil’s Crib”, a mysterious story about old lighthouses, star-crossed lovers and ghosts from the depths of the tumultuous sea.  This was syndicated as program 147 in the series and was intended for broadcast February 15, 1936.

Transferred from original RCA Victrolac transcription, matrix MS98935.

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Let’s drop in on Jim Nesbitt again this week to see what story of the unusual and strange he has in store for us in this series syndicated in the early 1950s by MGM.

In program 23 of the series, we hear the fascinating tale of Wild Jack Howard, the Man Who Searched for Death.  It seems that Howard was an Earl with a longing for adventure and danger who made a contribution to the War effort.  And then … well, I’ll let Jim Nesbitt finish the story.

Our mp3 was transferred from an original vinyl MGM Radio Attractions transcription, matrix number MGM JN 1623.

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“Mystery Playhouse” was a “catch-all” Armed Forces Radio anthology series that drew on programs from series such as “Molle Mystery Theater”.  Program 154 is from the CBS series “Inner Sanctum”.

In this episode, “The Dark Chamber”, originally broadcast December 11, 1945, a man and woman are kidnapped by an evil scientist and made the subjects of an experiment in fear.

Sounds like something that would happen on “The Shadow”, doesn’t it?

The show was transferred from original AFRS vinyl transcription.

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We continue with our weekly look at “The Adventures of Frank Race”, a program syndicated by Bruce Eells and Associates throughout the 1950s and originally recorded for broadcast circa 1949.

In program 22 of the series, “The Adventure of the Roughneck’s Will”, Frank is called into a case by an old college chum who is now a lawyer.  It seems he has a client with one of those “survival of the fittest” wills that causes all his hiers to want to bump off each other.

Sounds like something you’d hear on “Inner Sanctum”, doesn’t it?

This is last program in the series that features Tom Collins in the lead role.  Next week, we’ll hear Paul Dubov take over the microphone as Frank Race.

The show was transferred from an original Bruce Eells and Associates red vinyl transcription set, matrix numbers UR-148771 AU-6 and UR-148772 AU-6.

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We continue our look at the work of Bing Crosby this week with what may be the most famous program on AFRS that he appeared in.  It’s program 162 in the series “Command Performance”, the comic strip operetta, “Dick Tracy in B Flat”.

The once-in-a-lifetime cast includes Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Jimmy Durante, Judy Garland, Cass Daley, Frank Sinatra, Frank Morgan, Bob Hope, Jerry Colonna, the Andrews Sisters and announcer Harry Von Zell.

There are several unusual aspects to this episode of “Command Performance”.  The show was usually a half-hour and it’s not clear why they expanded it to an hour for this show that was distributed at that particular time.  In fact, if you listen closely, it sounds like it may have been originally recorded as a “two-parter”, since there’s a break in the middle telling you to tune in next week.  This reference falls a couple of minutes into side three of the transcription set, so I don’t think it’s there to give the local stations flexibility in programming it on their schedule.

I’d also like to know how the show originated - who came up with the idea and if it was the work primarly of one or more writers on the “Command Peformance” staff.

Our digital file was recorded directly from an original vinyl AFRS transcription set.  This may be an upgrade for your collection, since at least one popular version of the recording that’s floating around in mp3 format sounds as though it was transferred from a second generation tape and was dubbed too slow, making the cast sound like they have a bad cold.

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Before I started collecting radio transcriptions, I really wasn’t that interested in Bing Crosby.  I enjoyed his early 30s recordings, especially with Paul Whiteman, but didn’t pay much attention to his later work.

Now that I’m hearing what Bing could do on a weekly basis in high quality sound, I’m beginning to understand what made him such a remarkable performer and a steady presence on radio for so many years.

Take, for example, the February 12, 1953 episode of “The Bing Crosby Show”, sponsored General Electric, originally broadcast on CBS.  It’s a prime example of Bing’s voice, smooth and cool, and his laid back style with guests sounding almost effortless and improvised.  Bing isn’t so much entertaining us as he is inviting the audience in for some relaxed fun.

In the show, it’s guest Jack Benny’s birthday and we finally discover Jack’s real age when Bing gives him a cake in an extended comedy sketch that takes up most of the show.  Bing sings “Glow Worm”, with special lyrics in praise of GE light bulbs, and Joe Venuti plays “Body and Soul” in the music segements of the program.  Ken Carpenter is our faithful announcer, giving us the pitch for GE ranges and engaging in banter with Bing about a series running in the “Saturday Evening Post” about Bing’s life.

The mp3 is a direct transfer from a rather odd disc I picked up recently.  It’s from a set of airchecks made of Bing’s show on KCBS/KCBS-FM in San Francisco.  They bear Radio Recorders labels and there are a couple of things about them that are strange.  Two are recycled parts from NBC reference acetates that have a blank side used for the Crosby show.  They’re cut with a microgroove stylus, rather than the usual 78 stylus, and have trail-off grooves at the end of each side that look like they were done by manually moving the cutting head.

Of course, Bing’s show was recorded on tape at the time - at the show opening, you can hear something go badly wrong with the tape.  (I’m sure that made some network and ad agency execs and Ampex employees cringe.)

In the recording, there’s also a brief incorrectly cut section of the transcription that skips over a line of Jack’s dialogue at the beginning of the second side - I never could get it to track right, so I just left it in “as is”.

More of this series of Bing’s shows will be posted in the blog in the coming weeks.

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Our weekly dose of “The Adventures of Frank Race” continues with program 21 in the series, “The Adventure of Three on a Match”.  A rainy night in Bordeux brings a mysterious woman into Frank’s life that’s mixed up in a plot to embezzle funds from a charity for War orphans.  Tom Collins, playing the part of Race, exudes his usual quota of nonchalant cool as bullets and fists fly in all directions.

The show was transferred from a red vinyl Bruce Eels and Associations transcription set, matrix numbers UR-148505 AU-6 and UR-148505 AU-6

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