The Good Old Days of Radio Show

It’s been a bit since we’ve featured "The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective" on the show, but it’s one of our favorite unconventional detective series from vintage radio, and we have a lot of these in sourced from original transcription discs once owned by the show's producer, William Spier. So we’re bringing you one originally broadcast on September 19, 1948, over CBS Radio. The program, a mystery and crime drama, was brought to a...

Continuing our “August Monster Madness" we have an unusual science fiction radio drama titled "Student Body" from the X Minus One series, originally broadcast in 1956. This is a highly unusual monster story, not concerned so much with scares as venturing into the territory of wondrous curiosity. The story is about a colonial expedition to a planet called Glade, where the scientific team encounters a unique and rapidly evolving indi...

Today we are featuring comedy, with a rare chance to hear this episode of The Henry Morgan Show in better sound quality. This is a later episode from the series from March 28, 1950, originally broadcast on NBC and later rebroadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The show includes performances by Art Carney, Arnold Stang, and the Billy Williams Quartet. Again Morgan’s absurdist observations contrast societal norms and eve...

It’s our second in a series of summer “monster movies.” This episode of the horror anthology "Lights Out" is called "Superfeature," written by Arch Oboler. It describes a bizarre scenario where a movie monster steps off the screen into the audience, a concept Oboler uses to explore the frightening potential of the familiar becoming unfamiliar. This horror story bears a lot of resemblance to modern horror, where the plot is minimal,...

Today we are once again pulling transcription discs off the shelves, and we have another "lost" Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show AFRS disc from January 16th, 1944. The show includes the comedic banter between ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy Charlie McCarthy, a skit where Charlie blackmails his principal, and a performance by guest Carmen Miranda, who also participates in a comedic opera sketch. The episode concludes ...

This week we are beginning a new series featuring great monsters on radio. We’re kicking off with a 1947 CBS "Escape" episode titled "Taboo," a terrific werewolf story featuring voice actor Paul Frees. The story focuses on a man investigating mysterious disappearances in Eastern Europe, where locals suspect a werewolf. In addition, we have a unique challenge for you in this episode.

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Here’s something rare I bet you didn’t know existed. A 1954 radio pilot of The Honeymooners. Starring the original cast (Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows, Art Carney) this audition recording, never aired on CBS, was created for a potential radio series to run concurrently with the television show, which debuted in 1955. The episode itself showcases the familiar comedic dynamic between Ralph, Alice, and Norton, centering on Ralph's hi...

Today we are presenting a rare, previously unbroadcast recording of a Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters (PPB) luncheon from November 15, 1974, honoring renowned radio writer and director Norman Corwin. This two-hour recording features speeches and anecdotes from numerous prominent figures in radio, television, and film, such as Hans Conried, Lynn Murray, Perry Lafferty, Elliot Lewis, Ray Bradbury, Stan Freberg, and William Shatner, all ...

This is the final week in our mini-tribute to writer/director/producer Norman Corwin. Today we are bringing you  a special broadcast, "God and Uranium," originally aired on August 19, 1945. This historical recording showcases the commemorative writings of Norman Corwin, presented by Orson Welles and Olivia de Havilland, reflecting on VE and VJ Days and the implications of the atomic bomb. The broadcast emphasizes the end of World W...

Today on our shorter-than-usual episode we have a rare rehearsal recording of "The Pursuit of Happiness," a radio program written by Norman Corwin and starring Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester from December 8, 1939, showcasing Laughton's performance and even capturing a moment where he realizes he is missing script pages, providing a unique glimpse into the unscripted reality of radio rehearsal. And John tells a story about the...

Continuing our short tribute to radio writer/director/producer Norman, we present an episode of "Columbia Presents Corwin," features Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester in a Corwin comedy about Charles E. Gumpert, a seemingly ordinary man who experiences sudden, dramatic personality shifts, believing himself to be various historical figures like Niccolo Paganini, Julius Caesar, Sigmund Freud, and even Samson. These transformations...

Today it’s our annual Independence Day episode. This year, we are bringing you a rare chance to hear a rehearsal recording of Norman Corwin's famous "We Hold These Truths" program, originally aired on December 15, 1941, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This newly discovered audio was recorded two days prior to the live broadcast and features different actors in key roles, along with the notable absence of President Frankli...

Today in our tribute to Norman Corwin, we’re bringing you his 1939 Columbia Workshop production, "Seems Radio is Here to Stay." The broadcast is a poetic exploration of the nature and reach of radio, celebrating its ability to connect people across vast distances and its multifaceted role in society, including news, entertainment, and the work of countless individuals behind the scenes. The program features narration and excerpts o...

Today we bring you a lovely radio show from the series "Columbia Presents Corwin," in Norman Corwin's work titled "Daybreak," which stars actor Ronald Coleman. This is the second performance from July 10, 1945,  repeat of a highly regarded radio play written in the early 1940s, known for its poetic style. The central segment of the broadcast is the radio drama "Daybreak" itself, which chronicles the journey of dawn as it circles th...

We continue to feature programs written, directed, and produced by Norman Corwin. Today’s episode shows not only the strong poetic touch of Corwin, but integrates it with music, as sung by folk great Burl Ives. It is the historical drama and folk cantata, "The Lonesome Train," which recounts the journey of Abraham Lincoln's funeral train after his assassination. Film buffs will recognize Raymond Massey (Abe Lincoln in Illinois) rep...

We continue our short series dedicated to writer/director/producer, Norman Corwin, with an episode of The Fred Allen Show that is not broadly in circulation, originally broadcast on May 14th, 1944, with Corwin as special guest. Allen does a satirical adaptation of the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme presented in Corwin's dramatic style. The second half of the discs were badly damaged, but worth presenting, as it is the only time we kno...

This podcast is dedicated to showcasing the very best of vintage radio, and with that effort in mind, for the next few weeks we will be highlighting the work of writer/director/producer Norman Corwin. These days he's not exactly a household name, but once you hear his work from the '30s, '40s, and '50s, you will understand why he was so influential. We're kicking things off with a Corwin program from 1939 called "So This Is Radio,"...

This is week 11 of our series dedicated to comedians on the thriller series Suspense, and we decided to extend it one more week to present an episode that is not one of the better scripts but stars one of our favorite comedian-couples Phil Harris and Alice Faye. Joining us one last time in this series is Suspense Researcher Joe Webb. There were many other comedians who appeared on the series during its long history, and you can fin...

This is the final week on our series Comedians on Suspense. The stars are bandleader Phil Harris and his real-life wife, glamour movie star Alice Faye, appearing here in an episode of their sitcom from April 22, 1951. The storyline centers on a farcical attempt by Phil to write a serious drama, ultimately a parody of the series “Suspense.” Harris and Faye would appear as guest stars on “Suspense” two weeks later, which we will hear...