rand’s esoteric otr

Here we offer the very first performance of “Sorry, Wrong Number” with Agnes Moorehead from the CBS series “Suspense”, originally broadcast May 25, 1943.  This version is the one heard by our Armed Forces on AFRS in 1943 as program number 8 in the “Suspense” series.

I posted a later performance from the following year in a previous blog entry.  This first performance contains a “flub” at the end where the sound effects person makes a mistake and the actor who plays the killer gets mixed up.  The end of the show confused listeners and, the following week after many letters and phone calls, the producers of “Suspense” started the program with a special announcement explaining how the episode ended.

There are some MP3 files floating around that are labeled as “east coast” and “west coast” versions of the episode, with the “east coast” version containing the mistake and the “west coast” version done properly.  The “west coast” version is actually a fake - someone tacked on a correctly done ending from a performance done months later.  “Sorry, Wrong Number” was only presented once on May 25, 1943 on the network and it was not repeated at a special time for west coast listeners.

The show was transferred from an original AFRS vinyl pressing in nice condition.  Get a load of the AFRS announcer doing the opening with the echo chamber.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [30:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (85)

In this post, “Wet Saturday”, originally broadcast December 16, 1943 on CBS’s “Suspense”.  The episode is a very British black-humored story about a murdered curate and a cast of eccentrics who may have killed him.  The show stars Charles Laughton and also features character actor Hans Conreid trying out his best British accent.  This is the AFRS version of the show, distributed as number 30 in the AFRS “Suspense” series.

“Wet Saturday” reminds me a bit of one of Hitchcock’s lesser-known films, “The Trouble With Harry”.  There’s the whole premise of having a kind of “mixed up” murder, but also a kind of droll attitude about the killing that makes it seem like something rather bothersome and inconvenient.  According to the Goldin index, the story was performed on “Suspense” in 1942, 1947, and 1948 in addition to the 1943 version heard here.

The program was transferred from an original AFRS vinyl disc.  The AFRS opening announcer is our old friend Howard Duff and there’s a five minute classical music fill at the end of an unknown work conducted by Donald Vorhees.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [30:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (92)

Here’s another episode of the long-running weekly dramatic series, “Front Page Drama”, sponsored by Hearst Newspapers and featuring adaptations of stories appearing in the “American Weekly” magazine.

This episode, number 144 in the series, was broadcast January 25, 1936 and is titled “Repayment”.  The story concerns international intrigue about a small European country and a US treaty.

The show was transferred from an original RCA Victrolac pressing, matrix 98715.  The disc, by the way, came from an antiques dealer with the original railroad shipping container and special needle originally used to play the disc at the station.  Amazing that the whole package survived over 70 years in this state.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [14:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (71)

Here’s another episode of “Your Playhouse of Favorites”, a program syndicated by NBC consisting of dramas based on classic literature.

Program 50 in the series, dating from circa 1949-50, is “Enoch Arden”, based on the poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson.  It’s the story of a sailor who leaves his wife behind to earn money and make a better life for them as he travels the high seas; of course, life goes on while he’s away.  Regrets, heartbreak and much emoting ensue.

The program was transferred from an original set of vinyl NBC Radio Recordings transcriptions pressed by RCA, matrix numbers  ND6-MM-9219 and ND6-MM-9220-1.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [27:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (65)

In this episode of the classic NBC science fiction series “X Minus One”, a group of human traders at a far planetary outpost deal with an alien population that can control the characteristics of their offspring.

“If You Was a Moklin” was originally broadcast on June 12, 1956; the version heard here is an excellent condition copy broadcast on the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service as program 77 in the “X Minus One” series.  It was transferred directly from a set of AFRTS vinyl transcriptions.

The episode was written by Murray Leinster and adapted for the series by Ernest Kinoy.  The program stars Joe Julian, Patricia Weil, Karl Weber and Ralph Camargo.

This really is “X Minus One” at its best - great little stories that focus on the characters and use just the right touch of humor with the sci-fi element as a backdrop and motivator of the plot.  It’s frustrating to me how the sci-fi genre has become centered on all kinds of quasi-technical gobbledygook or new age mysticism and quack philosophy in recent years, rather than using a sci-fi theme or setting to create good storytelling.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [24:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (96)

With Presidential candidate Barack Obama visiting Europe and the Middle East, it seemed like a good time to once again delve into a program that highlights how media in the US depicted foreign countries in the past. “Ports of Call”, syndicated circa 1935-36, was produced by the Philip J. Meany Advertising in Los Angeles and mastered at Radio Recorders in Hollywood. The program is similar in style to the popular CBS radio network show “The March of Time” that dramatized current events in a magazine format.

In this episode, we visit the exotic land of Persia, and are treated to three thousand years of the country’s history in a brisk half-hour. Highlights include the development of early religious philosophy of Zarathustra (and, yes, an announcer intones, “Thus spake Zarathustra!”), Mohammed, the story of Scheherazade and the Thousand and One Nights, and British conflicts over oil exploration as Persia sought to become more Western, but independent from European influence. Of course, Persia became Iran in 1935, so this show likely pre-dates that change.

“Persia” is a previously uncirculated episode of the series. The Old Time Radio Researchers group has episodes at archives.org of the show, certifying it as complete, but I believe other episodes may turn up since the series is rather obscure. (Program 33, “New Zealand”, previously posted on the blog, is another not in the archives.org set.)

This program in the series uses a different theme than two other examples I previously posted in the blog; I suppose the excerpt of the “Nutcracker Suite” sounded more exotic. The show was transferred from an original blue Flexite pressing by Columbia, matrix numbers RR2328 and RR2329; the label doesn’t indicate an episode number.

If you’re interested in exploring more about how the US viewed other countries, check out my friend Sean Martin’s blog, High School Musicals - The Origins, which looks at musicals written especially for performances in schools and local light opera companies.  His current entry, helpfully enough, is The Belle of Baghdad.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [29:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (121)

“Guest Star” was a series with hundreds of episodes released to radio stations in the 1940s and through the early 60s to promote the sales of US Savings Bonds.  The program is more well-known for musical guests, but, on occasion, an actor or comedian would be given a turn at the microphone.

In program 443, dated September 18, 1955, we hear Vincent Price in a short drama called “Portrait by Cupid” that involves a talented painter, counterfeiting and, of course, love.  It’s not the best-known or best work in Price’s long career, but it’s fun to hear him in this setting.  The fifteen minute format didn’t allow for much character or plot development, so the script is a little simplistic; that’s probably why they didn’t try this format often for the series.

The show, in near hi-fi quality, was transferred from an original Treasury Department transcription in almost mint condition.  This comes from a period when the discs were pressed extra-thin - if you saw it and you were a knowledgeable record collector, it might remind you of RCA’s “dynaflex” albums from the 1970s.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [14:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (86)

“The Whistler” is a popular otr mystery anthology series that was on CBS for several years. Here we offer an Armed Forces Radio Service version of a show that’s in circulation in its network version; this particular AFRS version of the program survives in remarkable condition and is near hi-fi in quality.

AFRS program 211, “Borrowed Byline”, was originally broadcast January 27, 1952 on CBS. The story concerns a reporter who is drawn into a scheme involving deception and murder in Hong Kong. A small part of the show might sound familiar - if you listen closely around the six minute mark, they use a library sound effects recording of boat sounds in a harbor; it’s the same record used in the Welles broadcast of “War of the Worlds” where the announcer is on top of the “broadcasting station” and the killer gas envelopes the city.

The show was transferred from an original Armed Forces Radio vinyl transcription.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [24:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (158)

See an update at the end of this post on this puzzling disc …

In this post, we take a look at an uncirculated episode of the adventure series “Rocky Jordan” which may be from a previously undocumented run of the series. Directly transferred from an AFRTS set of discs dating to June, 1956, it’s the episode “The Nile Runs High”, program 7 in the AFRTS run of “Rocky Jordan”, series IED-557.

“Rocky Jordan” was a mystery-adventure series set in Cairo running on CBS’s Pacific Network. The show started as a quarter hour serial broadcast five days a week in January, 1945 as “A Man Named Jordan”. By July, the show took on a half-hour format and ran for two years. The show returned to CBS in October 1948 as “Rocky Jordan”.

Jack Moyles played the title character for most of the run with George Raft taking over the part during the summer of 1951 through the end of the series run in June 1953. The First Generation Radio Archives offers a ten-cd set of “Rocky Jordan” shows transferred from original acetates and has an informative page about the series here and here.

This disc has me a bit puzzled. On the same AFRS discs is an episode of “X Minus One”, “If You Was a Moklin”, broadcast on June 12, 1956. (I’ll be posting the “X Minus One” episode soon.) The 1956 broadcast date would put the origin of the discs three years after the end of “Rocky Jordan”’s run on CBS, according to logs of the series and lists of existing episodes I’ve researched.

“The Nile Runs High” was performed on the series on September 18, 1949 and survives in a copy that includes ads for Del Monte and an orchestral score. This AFRS disc uses the same script, but an organ is used for the music. (The September, 1949 version of the show is available at archive.org.)

What’s really strange about the show is that there are no actor or other credits and it sounds like Rocky Jordan was being played by Jack Moyles (remember that George Raft was playing the part from 1951 through the end of the series in 1953). Also, sampling several episodes of the series at archives.org, I don’t find any that use this sparse production style with minimal sound effects and organ accompaniment like this show.

So, was AFRS re-running episodes of “Rocky Jordan” after it left the network and did Moyles play the part in later episodes, which would make this show from the 1953 period? Was this taken from an undocumented version of the show recorded for syndication or broadcast locally in 1956 after its CBS run?

Martin Grams, Jr. from the OTR mailing list suggested it might be a rehearsal recording since it features organ accompaniment and minimal sounds effects. I’d be curious to hear other discs in the AFRTS series if they turn up to see what they might contain to see if they’re similar in style.

Regardless of the origins, sit back and enjoy this uncirculated and rather mysterious episode of “Rocky Jordan” and please leave a comment on the blog if you have some ideas or information on where this episode may have came from.

Update, 7/6/08 –

Dee from the OTR mailing list notes that the “Directory of Armed Forces Radio Series” by Harry McKenzie lists the show as being broadcast in 1957; the series was a 22 episode run of shows previously broadcast on AFRS in 1949.

The Directory also lists the series with the correct number (557), but the disc I have has it as “IED-557″. The series should have had a END prefix - END was used for entertainment shows and IED was for information and education. (The flip side label lists the “X Minus One” program correctly as “END-483″.)

The show is still puzzling - it doesn’t match the production style of any of the circulating 1949 “Rocky Jordan” shows, but the cast and script sound the same as the 1949 version of the episode. So, is this a rehearsal recording?

Update, 7/8/08 –

See the comments for an in-depth comparison of this show to the original 1949 CBS network version and some possibilities on the show’s origins from Stewart Wright.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [25:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (157)

Here’s another episode of a long-running fifteen minute dramatic series, “Front Page Drama”, syndicated by Hearst Newspapers and featuring dramatizations of stories appearing in the “American Weekly” newspaper supplement. In this episode, “Conqueror’s Son”, the setting is Vienna in 1832 and the story deals with mixed identities and intrigue in a royal court. The program, number 143, was syndicated for broadcast on January 18, 1936.

The program was dubbed directly from an RCA Victrolac pressing, matrix number MS98586. This is one of four discs in this series, also containing episodes of “Jungle Jim”, that I picked up from an antiques dealer; the discs included the original shipping containers where they were sent to a radio station in Prescott, Arizona in 1936. One also included an original steel “Shadowgraphed” needle used to play the disc - the needle, used during a transition period to early vinyl discs, was “pre-worn” to fit the groove properly.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [14:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (108)