May 30, 2009
Wouldn’t it be neat if you were a biochemist and could invent a Telepathic Indicator to pick up thought flashes and a Secret Diffusion Capsule to make yourself invisible? Well, if you were smart, you might go out and go on a nice crime spree with stuff like that. But, if you’re Jim Brandon, you’ll get yourself an attractive assistant, run your voice through a telephone filter, and go out fighting crime.
“The Avenger” ran for 26 episodes in the Fall of 1945, based on a Street and Smith Publications character that had its own magazine from 1939 to 1942. The Avenger combined elements of the more well-known Shadow and Doc Savage, but didn’t do as well as either one of his more famous siblings.
In this entry, we offer program 15 in the series, “The Department of Death” where the Avenger and his assistant, Fern, investigate murder in a department store. The whole idea is rather charming - today, the incredible Digital Security Camera would make the Avenger’s Telepathic Indicator rather obsolete.
Our show was transferred directly from a set of Charles Michelson, Inc-WOR red vinyl transcriptions.
I’d like to give a special tip of the hat to David Kiner for this week’s mp3 transfer. I recently arranged a trade for a couple of transcriptions with him and he generously threw in a digital transfer of the discs, complete with CEDAR processing. Kiner sells high quality discs of old time radio material and you can find his cds at his ebay store.
Last week, we heard program 27 in the series “The Adventures of Frank Race” as we run through a nearly complete set of episodes of the program from my collection. This week, we have to skip ahead a couple of episodes since I’m missing some of the discs in my set.
In program 30, Paul Dibov as Frank Race, stars in “The Adventure of the Runway Queen”, syndicated by Bruce Eells and Associates in the 1950s. Race mixes it up with show business types investigating the strange story of a radio singing personality with a seedy mysterious past.
The program was transferred from an original Bruce Eells and Associates vinyl transcription set, matrix numbers UR-152676 N-6 and UR-152677 N-6.
Let’s pause for some music and information about how you can help the economy.
Here’s program 1 in the series “Stars for Defense”, dating from the early 1950s. There were two government series with this title; one produced for the Civil Defense Administration and the other shilling for the Office of Price Stabilization and our show comes from the OPS series.
The Office of Price Stabilization was a successor a World War II government agency intended to help the government fight inflation because of the rationing and disruption to supplies that occurred because of the War. The OPS was formed during the Korean War for a similar purpose and both agencies are the origin of those references you hear in old radio shows or see in old newspapers and magazines to “ceiling prices”.
Program 1 of the series features music from Gordon Macrae and the Norman Luboff Choir with Carmen Dragon and his Orchestra. First song is “It’s a Grand Night for Singing”. Songs include “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” and a new tune called “Monotonous”.
The show was digitized from original Allied Record vinyl transcription, matrix number D-88783.
Special thanks to Michael Utz for donating the disc to my collection.
This week, John Nesbitt’s stories of the strange, ironic and unusual from the early 1950s takes a look at the march of science and progress with the remarkable story of the Mount Palmoar Telescope. Program 47 is part one of a two-part series; we’ll hear the conclusion of the story next week on the blog in program 48.
The show was transferred from an original MGM Radio Attractions syndication disc, matrix number MGM JN 1647.
May 22, 2009
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drama — randsesotericotr @ 12:08 pm
Once again, we join “Mystery Playhouse”, a “catch-all” AFRS series that drew on episodes of network mystery and detective shows like “Inner Sanctum”.
Program 210 in the series is taken from the June 7, 1946 broadcast of “Molle Mystery Theater”, originally broadcast on NBC. The story is “Female of the Species”, where a woman that owns a beauty parlor plots to kill her lover’s wife. The story sounds like the basis for a great 40s era movie, similar to “Leave Her to Heaven”.
The program was transferred from an original vinyl AFRS transcription.
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updates — randsesotericotr @ 12:06 pm
A tip of the hat goes out this week to Jonathan in Arizona for his generous donation to the blog.
Thanks!
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comedy — randsesotericotr @ 12:05 pm
Boys. Chatting on the telephone with your girlfriends. The perfect dress. These were the preoccupations of the teenage girl in the Old-Time Radio era, as typified by the series “A Date with Judy”.
Running from 1941 to 1950, the series was a popular sitcom aimed at teens, sort of the “Hannah Montana” of her day. The show, starting out as a summer replacement for “Bob Hope” and running first on NBC and on ABC near the end of its run, was extremely popular, spawning a 1948 movie musical from MGM an ABC television series that ran from 1951 through 1953 and even a comic book.
Only a few episodes of “A Date with Judy” are in circulation; this particular example dates from October 22, 1946. In the show, Judy is going to an important lecture by an author, struggling with that strange space between being a teenager and a more “serious” adult, so that means Judy needs a new raincoat.
The show was transferred from an original AFRS vinyl transcription.
“It was a dark and stormy night!”
Well, Frank Race doesn’t say those words, but that’s pretty much how this week’s episode of “The Adventures of Frank Race” starts out.
In our weekly visit to this syndicated show recorded circa 1949, we’re up to program 27, “The Adventure of the Brooklyn Accent”, where Race and his sidekick cab driver are on a case off the coast of Georgia, but no one seems to have a Southern accent. One of the non-Southern voices you’ll recognize is Frank Lovejoy, soon to be the star of his own NBC series, “Night Beat”.
The show was transferred from an original Bruce Eels and Associates red vinyl transcription set, matrix numbers UR-151253 N-6 and UR-151254 N-6. By the way, you may notice the abrupt ending of the show - as the organ music starts fading out, the groove just ends on the original transcription.
Here’s another colorful story in John Nesbitt’s notebook of the strange, unusual and ironic, “The Passing Parade”, syndicated by MGM Radio Attractions in the late 1940s and early 50s.
Program 24 in the series concerns a man who went in search of fairy tales, but wound up discovering ….
Well, I’ll let John Nesbitt tell you the fascinating story of what he found.
The show was transferred to digital from an original MGM Radio Attractions vinyl transcription, matrix number MGM JN 1624.
Let’s take a break with a quarter hour of light music provided by Eddy Duchin. “The Eddy Duchin Show” was syndicated in the late 1940s to promote the Naval Reserve.
In program 2 of the series, we hear “The Best Things in Life are Free”, “My Darling, My Darling” (sung by Tommy Mercer), “It Had to Be You” (sung by guest Georgia Gibbs); and medley of “A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody” and “Easter Parade”. This particular episode is in honor of the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland and the announcements promote opportunities for nurses and doctors in the Naval Reserve.
The show was dubbed directly from an original Allied Record vinyl transcription, matrix number DUCHIN-FS-ABC-127-1 D-33685.
I have the complete 13 episode Duchin series and will post occasional programs in the series.
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