Episodes
Saturday Dec 22, 2018
Fun at Breakfast with Ford Bond - Dec 23 - Dec 30, 1946
Saturday Dec 22, 2018
Saturday Dec 22, 2018
Our first post this week in the blog is a little bit of holiday cheer. It’s a set of six five-minute syndicated programs, “Fun at Breakfast With Ford Bond” featuring comedians Tom Howard and George Shelton and sponsored by Mennen. Each show has Howard and Shelton with gags related to the Christmas and New Years season.
Rather than create a blog post for each individual program, all are available in a single .zip file here.
All the shows were transferred from an original Orthacoustic vinyl transcription, matrix numbers ND6-MM-11208 and ND6-MM-11209. These are sides 5K and 5L in the series set.
Our thanks to blog listener William Harris for his donation of the disc to the collection!
Friday Dec 23, 2016
Christmas in California - Dec 24, 1952
Friday Dec 23, 2016
Friday Dec 23, 2016
It’s been quite a while since I’ve been posting in the blog. I just haven’t been finding too many interesting transcriptions the past couple of years. But, over time, I’ve built up a bit of an inventory and will start posting them in the coming weeks.
As a little Christmas gift, here’s an uncirculated show I ran into recently. “Christmas in California” is a half-hour broadcast sponsored by Bank of America originally heard on December 24, 1952 from 7:30 to 8:00 pm PST on eleven Columbia Pacific Radio Network stations. (see Broadcasting Telecasting Sept 22, 1952, p 10, “New Business” column).
The show is a Christmas-themed story of the Little Shepherd performed by the Franciscan students at the Old Mission San Luis Rey. The songs are in Spanish, giving a little glimpse into California’s multicultural history. In 1952, the Christmas Eve performance had been a tradition at the Old Mission for many years.
The announcer and narrator for the program is Ralph Story, a popular radio host on KNX in Los Angeles. Story would go on to host the CBS tv game show “The $64,000 Challenge”, in 1956, and later develop a television news magazine for KNX television.
The program was dubbed to digital direct from a 10” microgroove lp that was apparently given away to customers or employees by Bank of America. The matrix numbers are RR-19602 PT1 and RR-19602 PT2. I’m assuming “RR” stands for Radio Recorders, who regularly did recordings of CBS network programming. I’m not sure who might have pressed the disc - the matrix numbers look like a style that Columbia used.
The disc was fairly scratched and there’s one skip in the audio I wasn’t able to overcome, but the transfer turned out quite well.
I wonder what other otherwise lost or unknown shows might pop up on promotional albums like this - I always try to keep a look out for them.
Sunday Dec 19, 2010
Uncle Remus - Pgm 11
Sunday Dec 19, 2010
Sunday Dec 19, 2010
Note: This program contains racial stereotyping themes that may be offensive to some listeners. Here's the last disc I have in the syndicated Christmas series, "Uncle Remus". Jimmie Scribner tells Remus stories to a group of children getting ready for the holidays in this series designed to run a few weeks leading up to Christmas.
Program 11 of the series is a story about Brer Fox plotting to capture Brer Rabbit with a singing bird. The show was digitized from an original Cardinal vinyl transcription, matrix number CAR-A-741.Sunday Dec 19, 2010
VA Hospital Christmas Show 1955
Sunday Dec 19, 2010
Sunday Dec 19, 2010
Did you know that VA hospitals were a part of the Armed Forces Radio Service? Those with AFRS referred to it as "The Bedpan Network" and the facilities received the full AFRS distribution of music library and radio show discs - many of the AFRS discs we have today were salvaged after being thrown away by VA hospitals.
In this post, we have a program that was distributed just to VA hospitals for Christmas Eve, 1955. The show features holiday greetings from Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dinah Shore, along with the director of the Veteran's Administration. It's not a radio broadcast, per se, since it was probably played over a closed circuit pa system, but it's close enough to include on the blog. The show was transferred from an original one-sided Allied Record vinyl transcription, matrix number 57533.Tuesday Dec 07, 2010
Christmas Seals - 1950 Campaign - Thunder in the Valley
Tuesday Dec 07, 2010
Tuesday Dec 07, 2010
Since it's the holiday season, I'm starting a short run of a few Christmas-themed shows on the blog.
First up this week is "Thunder in the Valley", a special drama produced as part of the 1950 Christmas Seal Campaign. Ralph Bellamy stars in this short drama about a rural doctor that needs an x-ray machine to detect TB in his patients. The show is marked "Style E" - I'm still not sure what that designation means and it shows up on some other Christmas Seals discs I've run into. The show was transferred from an original National Tuberculosis Association, New York, vinyl transcription pressed by RCA Victor, matrix number NE0-MM-3229-4. My thanks to Michael Utz, who donated the disc to my collection.Thursday Dec 24, 2009
Comedy Caravan - Pgm 19
Thursday Dec 24, 2009
Thursday Dec 24, 2009
For your holiday enjoyment, we now offer some Christmas comedy, courtesy of the "Jimmy Durante and Garry Moore Show". Broadcast as "Comedy Caravan" on Armed Forces Radio and marked as program 19 in the network's Christmas series, the show was probably originally broadcast on CBS on December 21, 1945. The main sketch has Durante and Moore operating a zoo and looking for a six-legged octopus. Moore also does his version of "White Christmas".
This appears to be a previously lost episode of the series and finding it was a treat for me since I've always enjoyed Durante and Moore's program. However, it can be hard to tell sometimes with AFRS shows of this period - it could have been assembled from other Durante-Moore shows just for the AFRS holiday programming schedule. The show was transferred from an original AFRS vinyl transcription; the date is from the transcription matrix. The original is the worse for wear and has gone through click reduction to make it more listenable.
Thursday Dec 24, 2009
World Program Service - Disc 474
Thursday Dec 24, 2009
Thursday Dec 24, 2009
We now come to the last in a series of previously uncirculated Christmas dramas from the World Program Service. The company offered discs of music libraries, jingles and the like to local stations. One of their offerings was a group of holiday themed dramas featuring prominent Hollywood stars.
Disc 474 is "Christmas, with Love" is a drama starring James Gleason. Gleason was a familiar face in films as a character actor for many years, but he also was a writer and director. He was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for his work in "Here Comes Mr. Jordan". In "Christmas, with Love", Gleason tries out his best Western drawl, playing a ranch foreman in this drama about a young boy's parents who reunite and learn the true meaning of the holiday season. Or, at least, why they should be afraid of the wild outdoors. The show was transferred from a vinyl World Program Service transcription, matrix numbers BB-53547-B1 and BB-53548-B1. My sincerest thanks go out to blog listener Michael Utz for this interesting set of discs.
Thursday Dec 24, 2009
Virginia War Memorial Carillon - December 25, 1949
Thursday Dec 24, 2009
Thursday Dec 24, 2009
Here's a rather unusual transcription produced by WRVA, Roanoke, Virginia. The disc features a quarter-hour program of holiday music played on the Virginia War Memorial Carillon, constructed as a memorial to Virginians that served in World War I.
The program appears to have been distributed to stations in Virginia for broadcast December 25, 1949. The flip side of the disc features a program of music for broadcast on November 11, 1949 for Veteran's Day. The show was transferred from an original WRVA red vinyl transcription. The sound has been run through click reduction software to improve the sound since the disc had been stored without a sleeve for many years. Thanks to Michael Utz for his donation of this unusual disc to my collection.
Sunday Dec 20, 2009
World Program Service - Disc 425
Sunday Dec 20, 2009
Sunday Dec 20, 2009
Here's another in a series of obscure Christmas-themed radio dramas, sold to individual radio stations as part of a station library package by World Program Service in the 1940s. Blog listener Micheal Utz donated this set of discs to my collection.
Disc 425 is a drama titled "Christmas for Eve" that stars Lorraine Day and it's a bit of a doozey, if you like melodrama. A woman, scarred from a childhood fire that happened on Christmas finds new hope during the holiday season after much emotional angst. This one's such a downer, it makes "Mildred Pierce" seem like an Abbott and Costello movie in comparison. (I could see Joan Crawford in this thing if she had an opportunity to slap someone during the show.) The show was transferred from a vinyl World Program Service transcription, matrix numbers BB-53319-B1 and BB-53320-B1. There's no open and close to the program; those would have been covered by your local announcer giving Christmas greetings from one of your area businesses. There's one more disc in this set that will go up just before Christmas.
Thursday Dec 10, 2009
Mystery Castle - Pgm 9
Thursday Dec 10, 2009
Thursday Dec 10, 2009
And now a special piece of local old time radio history, previously unheard since it was originally broadcast. I posted to a couple of mailing lists about the show, but couldn't turn up any more info on it, so what I have here is based on the disc itself.
"Mystery Castle" was a local serial adventure show from WKBN in Youngstown, Ohio. Run during the holiday season, and probably inspired by the success of "The Cinnamon Bear", the program follows the adventures of a boy and girl in an enchanted forest as they try to figure out "mystery packages" hidden around the forest. The show was sponsored by a local department store, Stambaugh Thompsons, and if you were a young listener you were encouraged to have mom and dad take you down to the store to buy your own "Mystery Package" (for only 25 cents!) that you can open as you follow the program. The store also had displays featuring characters from the show. Episode 9 of the series has Happy and Ronny stealing a special key from Santa that they hope will open one of the mystery packages in the castle. It includes the original Stambaugh Thompsons commercials at the beginning and end of the program. The show was written by Ellamae Casteel, produced and directed by Chick Lynn and the sound effects were by Howard Rampus. There's no date on the label, but a sharp-eyed listener to the blog spotted entries for the show in the WKBN schedule listings in the Massilon, Ohio Evening Independent showing that the series ran in December 1947. Jay Hickerson noted that Clay Cole, host of an influential New York rock and roll tv show in the late 50s and early 60s, mentions in his autobiography being part of the cast of the program when he was a child. WKBN, according to Wikipedia, was founded in 1926 by Warren P. Williamson, Jr. and was Youngstown's first radio station. Early on, the station became an affiliate of the CBS radio network and remained so until the station was sold by the Williamson family in 1999. Currently, WKBN is one of many stations owned by Clear Channel Communications. Our program was transferred from an original lacquer transcription from WKBN, Youngstown, Ohio. The show is previously uncirculated among otr collectors and appears to be the only surviving episode of the series. Update: See the comments for detailed info on the show from readers of the blog. The local paper in Youngstown, the Vindicator, has made a post on their blog seeing if any locals remember the show and looking for more info.