October 15, 2009
Do you have a problem with your temper?
Perhaps you can pick up a few tips from Fibber McGee in program 85 of the “Fibber McGee and Molly” series from the Armed Forces Radio Service, originally broadcast December 26, 1944 on NBC.

The show features Jim and Marian Jordan, Arthur Q. Bryan, Billy Mills and His Orchestra, Harlow Wilcox, the King’s Men. Our transfer is directly from a vinyl AFRS Navy Department transcription. The program date is from the matrix and was verified by Goldin and a log of the series of otrsite.com.
A very special thanks to listener Michael Utz for donating this disc to my collection.
December 20, 2008
Last week, we heard the Jack Smith-Margaret Whiting Show for Christmas Seals. Now, let’s flip over the disc and pay a visit to Wistful Vista with a Christmas themed “Fibber McGee and Molly”.

In this episode, Fibber tries to get out of shoveling snow and gets a visit from Doc Gamble, the Old Timer, and a traveling salesman. In checking a log at otrsite.com, I found an episode called “Shoveling Snow” broadcast December 26, 1950 and the program is available at archive.org. It sounds like the same recording, skillfully edited for a 15 minute format. And you thought they didn’t have reruns in the days of live radio.
As I mentioned in the Margaret Whiting post, the “Style A” on the label indicates this is a 15 minute show; I’ve seen Christmas Seals programs where “Style A” was a fifteen minute show and “Style B” was a thirty minute show by the same artist. Anyone have a “Style B” version of this show?
The program was transferred from an original vinyl transcription pressed by RCA, matrix number NE1-MM-8137.
April 16, 2008
“Treasury Star Parade” was a fifteen minute program released to radio stations as a public service to promote the sale of War Bonds. The programs generally featured musical stars, but would occasionally have comedians or dramatic actors. The show was quite successful and was continued at least through the late 1950s as “Guest Star”, promoting the sale of Savings Bonds.
This episode, program 253, was released for broadcast on September 10, 1943 and features Fibber McGee and Molly in a kind of “reduced” version of their half-hour sitcom. In the show, Molly and Doc Gamble try to get Fibber to water the lawn. It also has a song, “The Man in the Big Sombrero”, by the Kings Men and Harlow Wilcox on board announcing. Don Quinn and Thelma Ritter were the writers.