rand's esoteric otr

Red Horse Ranch - Pgm 1

"Red Horse Ranch" was a fun early syndicated show distributed by World Broadcasters.  A continuing serial about a group of cowboys, the show was a mix of adventure, romance and great cowboy songs.

Ryan Ellett has been researching the show at the University of Missouri-KC collections and is assembling a log of the program, and has dug up extensive background information on the series.  The show was created by Arthur Church, the head of KMBC, Kansas City and started out on a contract basis for the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company for the first 26 episodes.  Church hoped to produce at least 104 shows, but only 65 were made.  Socony's contract is dated March 30, 1935 for the series and the episodes were delivered by April 15th.  The series was recorded in World Broadcasting's Chicago facilities and the program ran mainly in the midwest US. The cast members of "Red Horse Ranch" were Gomer Cool, Doie Henlasey (Tex) Owen, Duane Swalley, Edward Cronenbold, Roderick May, Robert Crawford, Ruth Barth, John Preston, Paul Sells, Herbert Kratoska, Eddie Edwards, and Marion Folville.  You can see a photo of the cast at the University of Missouri-KC website and also read about the the Arthur B. Church KMBC Radio Portfolio Collection. The show was transferred from an original red acetate World Broadcasting, Inc. transcription, matrix number C-2208-1L. I'd like to thank the Old Time Radio Researchers Group for this disc and the others that comprise the first 26 episodes of the series in my collection.

Phyl Coe Radio Mysteries, Pgm 7

I'd like to give a special acknowledgment 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.

"Phyl Coe Radio Mysteries" is a distinctive series in many respects.  Marking the first appearance of a female detective, the show was syndicated in 1936 to about 250 radio stations and was structured for a unique sponsor promotional gimmick.  The show was sponsored by Philco and local dealers would give listeners a booklet to fill out clues from the mysteries for a chance at cash prizes.  Not only is the namesake detective ("Phyl" being short for "Phyllis") a sponsor tie in, but the show offered all kinds of opportunities for witnesses and suspects in the mysteries to casually listen to the radio and remark on great quality Philco sets and tubes! In program 7 of the series, "Last Will and Testament", Phyllis is called in to solve a murder that centers around a will, a hat pin, and annoying relatives.  Even though we do find out the name of the killer, the complete details of how Phyl solves the mystery isn't revealed for purposes of the contest.  However, you can match your wits with one otr listener who has posted their possible solutions to the mysteries. The show was transferred from an original World Broadcasting transcription and restored using CEDAR noise recution by David Kiner.  The matrix number of the disc is BB14924C1.

The Adventures of Dick Cole - Pgm 2

We had another program in this series a few weeks back.  "The Adventures of Dick Cole" was a half-hour kids show based on a character in Blue Bolt Comics and syndicated in the 1940s by Charles Michelson through World Broadcasting System, Inc.

In program two, Dick and his pal break up a ring of thieves operating in town.  Is a cadet at Farr Military Academy involved?  Will Dick and his pal escape from the clutches of the gang?  Listen and find out... The show was transferred from an original World Broadcasting System vinyl transcription.

America's Famous Fathers - Pgm 24

Continuing from the previous post, here's program #24 of "America's Famous Fathers". In this episode, Col. Theodore Roosevelt and the wife of author John Phillips Marquand debate the role of fathers in the household.

Roosevelt relates some fun and interesting stories about his own father, President Roosevelt. Howard Lindsay, who normally was host of the show, was ill and unable to appear, so announcer Ray Green conducts the interview. The program was syndicated by the Kermit-Raymond Corporation and the commercials were added by a local announcer; the show appears to date from circa 1941.

America's Famous Fathers - Pgm 12

"America's Famous Fathers" is an obscure syndicated radio that dates from around 1941; I haven't been able to dig up much information about it, but the label indicates that it was distributed by World Broadcasting and syndicated by the Kermit-Raymond Corporation. The commercials were added locally to the program.

The show seems to be connected to the hit Broadway play "Life with Father", which opened at the Empire Theater in November 1939 and ran for over 3,000 performances. The premise of the radio is that the co-author and star of the play, Howard Lindsay, would play host to "famous fathers". Program #24, in the next post, takes the form of a conversation and interview about fatherhood, while the program in this post, #12, features Lowell Thomas telling a dramatized story about two men that are stranded after their airplane crashes. Ray Green is the announcer. I'm not sure I quite understand the concept behind the series - the show in the next post, with Col. Roosevelt, is a conversation about fatherhood, but this episode with Lowell Thomas doesn't seem to have anything to do with the topic of fathers. If anyone has further info about the series, leave a comment or send me an email and I'll add some info the post. I'm wondering if it may have had a limited regional distribution in the Northeast because of the connection to the Broadway show or activity by the sponsor only in certain areas of the country.

The Townsend Plan - Pgm 2 (filmstrip soundtrack)

In this post, an unusual 16" record that isn't a radio show, as I initially thought when I saw the disc.  This is a soundtrack record that originally accompanied a filmstrip to promote "The Townsend Plan" and is number 2 in an apparent series of these presentations.

The program is a bit dull in the first ten minutes where they go through many economic facts and figures, but picks up when the plan is actually explained and they address questions about the plan from everyday folks.  The dry, authoritative style would be something that comedians like the Firesign Theater would poke fun at in later years.  "A flag will wave on high only so long as the people beneath it are provided for!" The Townsend Plan was a proposal by a physician, Dr. Francis Everett Townsend, that guaranteed a monthly pension of $200 per person (over $3,000 in 2007 dollars) with the stipulation that the money be spent by the recipients within a month.  The plan would have been paid for by a 2% tax on all business transactions.  The basic idea was to stimulate the economy by placing more money in circulation and end the Depression. Townsend clubs sprang up all around the country and the Plan gained considerable attention, leading to the enactment of Social Security Act in 1935.  Townsend continued to lobby for the plan, since he still opposed Social Security and many other aspects of the administration's handling of economic policy. This disc would appear to date from the late 1930's since it discusses the disadvantages of the Social Security Act and how the Roosevelt administration is using preparations for war as a means to lift the economy - it might have been produced as part of Townsend's push about the plan that lead to amendments to the Social Security Act in 1939.  The filmstrip and disc were likely used as informational programming by Townsend clubs to recruit new members or to motivate members to lobby their representatives. You can read more about the Townsend Plan at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Townsend_plan .