Mercer McLeod, The Man With the Story - Pgm 1

NBC, best known for quality live shows on their network, also offered a wide range of programs especially recorded for syndication to local stations.  In some other blog posts, we heard "Playhouse of Favorites", but you might have heard the more famous program "Five Minute Mysteries" (a show I'd like to collect in original transcriptions) or "Weird Circle".

This week, we take a listen to one of the more unusual programs in the NBC syndication library, "Mercer McLeod, the Man With the Story".  Each fifteen minute episode dramatized a story dealing with the mysterious or supernatural.  What makes it unique, and the little "gimmick" for the show, is that Mercer McLeod plays all the roles in the show.  (Except the female roles, which are handled by an actress credited only as "Rita".) McLeod was a busy character actor in radio and television.  He was a member of the Frank Benson Shakespeare Company and the the Ben Greet Players in England toured several countries with the Bernard Shaw Players.  "The Man With the Story" was, according to an online bio, his entry into American radio.  He was so versatile and impressive on the show, that he received many offers for radio and television work through the 1950s and 60s. Here's program 1 in the series, "The Mysterious Drawing", transferred from an original vinyl NBC Orthacoustic Syndicated Program Series transcription, matrix number ND5-MM-11444-3. If you have any other original discs in the series, let me know - I'd love to work on collecting a set.