Boxcars711 Old Time Radio

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Beyond Midnight "Thing In Cabin 105" (1950) - Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod Mar 29, 2008

Show notes

BEYOND MIDNIGHTLet us journey âinto the land that lies beyond midnight,â into a world of ghost hunters, men going mad, and DEATH DEATH DEATH! Written by the masterful Michael McCabe, these well-done South African radio shows will capture your attention and keep you up listening to them well beyond midnight.

Tom Corbett Space Cadet "Sparkling Meteor" Part 1 of 2 (04-08-52) - Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod Mar 29, 2008

Show notes

Tom Corbett is the main character in a series of Tom Corbett â Space Cadet stories that were depicted in television, radio, books, comic books, comic strips, coloring books, punch-out books and View-Master reels in the 1950s. The stories followed the adventures of Tom Corbett, Astro, and Roger Manning, cadets at the Space Academy as they train to become members of the elite Solar Guard. The action takes place at the Academy in classrooms and bunkroom, aboard their training ship the rocket cruiser Polaris, and on alien worlds, both within our solar system and in orbit around nearby stars. The Tom Corbett universe partook of pseudo-science, not equal to the standards of accuracy set by John W. Campbell in the pages of Astounding. And yet, by the standards of the day, it was much more accurate than most media science fiction. Mars was a desert, Venus a jungle, and the asteroids a haunt of space pirates, but at least planets circled suns and there was no air in space. Contrast this with Twilight Zone, years later, where people could live on asteroids wearing ordinary clothes, or Lost in Space, years after that, where a spaceship could be passing "Jupiter and Andromeda" at the same time. Before Star Trek, Tom Corbett â Space Cadet was the most scientifically accurate series on television, in part due to official science advisor Willy Ley, and later due to Frankie Thomas. Thomas read up on science and everyone on the set turned to him for advice on matters scientific.

The Blue Beetle "Whale Of Pirates Folly" (1944) - Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod Mar 29, 2008

Show notes

The Blue Beetle had a relatively short career on the radio, between May and September of 1940. Motion picture and radio actor Frank Lovejoy was the Blue Beetle for the first 13 episodes, while for the rest of the shows, the voice was provided by a different, uncredited actor. The Blue Beetle was a young police officer who saw the need for extra-ordinary crime fighting. He took the task on himself by secretly donning a superhero costume to create fear in the criminals who were to learn to fear the Blue Beetle's wrath. The 13-minute segments were usually only two-parters, so the stories were often more simple than other popular programs, such as the many-parted Superman radio show.

CBS Radio Workshop "Portrait Of London" (7-20-56) - Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod Mar 29, 2008

Show notes

The CBS Columbia Workshop was the first to experiment with what radio drama was all about, introducing new techniques never before used in over the airwaves drama and because it received little encouragement from established writers, actors, etc., it was only by breaking new ground with new ideas and new techniques from writers who were not versed in the old ways that it was going to survive. Unlike theater drama which required scenery to stage the settings of a play. Radio drama relied only on the imagination of the listener to interpret the scene.

The Adventures Of Sam Spade "The Sure Thing Caper" (2-09-51) - Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod Mar 28, 2008

Show notes

The Adventures of Sam Spade was first heard on ABC July 12, 1946, as a Friday-night summer series. The show clicked at once, and went into a regular fall lineup on CBS September 29, 1946. From then until 1949, Sam Spade was a Sunday-night thriller for Wildroot Cream Oil, starring Howard Duff in the title role. With Duff's departure, NBC took the series, leaving it on Sunday for Wildroot and starring Stephen Dunne as Spade. This version lasted until 1951, the last year running as a Friday sustainer. Spade's appearance on the air marked an almost literal transition from Dashiell Hammett's 1930 crime classic, The Maltese Falcon, where he first appeared.THIS EPISODE:February 9, 1951. NBC network. "The Sure Thing Caper". Sustaining. "Five Dollar Frankie" has been cheated by "Gentle Joe Higgins," a known horse-doper. "Gentle Joe" has a "sure thing," however, it's a most unusual "sure thing"! Part of one public service announcement has been deleted. Steve Dunne, Lurene Tuttle, William Spier (producer, editor, director), John Michael Hayes (writer), Lud Gluskin (composer), Robert Armbruster (conductor), Wally Maher, Dashiell Hammett (creator). 29:37

CBS Radio Mystery Theater "The Haunted Mill" (11-08-77) - Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod Mar 28, 2008

Show notes

The CBS Radio Mystery Theater (or CBSRMT) was an ambitious and sustained attempt to revive the great drama of old-time radio in the 1970s. Created by Himan Brown (who had by then become a radio legend due to his work on Inner Sanctum Mysteries and other shows dating back to the 1930s), and aired on affiliate stations across the CBS Radio network, the series began its long run on January 6, 1974. The final episode ran on December 31, 1982.

Great Gildersleeve "Gildy Repairs His Car" (4-04-43) - Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod Mar 28, 2008

Show notes

The Great Gildersleeve (1941-1957) was the arguable founding father of the spin-off program, as well as one of the first true situation comedies (as opposed to sketch programs) in broadcast history. Hooked around a character who had been a staple on the classic radio hit Fibber McGee and Molly, The Great Gildersleeve enjoyed its greatest period in the 1940s, when Harold Peary graduated the character from the earlier show into the sitcom and in a quartet of likeable feature films at the height of the show's popularity.THIS EPISIODE:April 4, 1943. NBC networek. Sponsored by: Kraft Pabst-Ett, Kraft Parkay. Gildersleeve's car isn't running well, and Marjorie's boyfriend is just the fellow to fix the problem! Claude Sweeten (music), Earle Ross, Harold Peary, John Whedon (writer), Ken Carpenter (announcer), Lillian Randolph, Lurene Tuttle, Richard LeGrand, Sam Moore (writer), Walter Tetley. 29:42.

Life With Luigi "Big Brothers Of America" (3-14-50) - Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod Mar 28, 2008

Show notes

Life with Luigi was a radio comedy-drama series which began September 21, 1948 on CBS. The story concerned Italian immigrant Luigi Basco, and his experiences as an immigrant in Chicago. Many of the shows take place at the US citizenship classes that Luigi attends with other immigrants from different countries, as well as trying to fend off the repeated advances of the morbidly-obese daughter of his landlord/sponsor. Luigi was played by J. Carrol Naish, an Irish-American. Naish continued in the role on the short-lived television version in 1952, and was later replaced by Vito Scotti. With a working title of The Little Immigrant, Life with Luigi was created by Cy Howard, who earlier had created the hit radio comedy, My Friend Irma. The show was often seen as the Italian counterpart to the radio show The Goldbergs, which chronicled the experience of Jewish immigrants in New York.

The Shadow "Chill Of Death" (1-04-48) - Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod Mar 27, 2008

Show notes

THE SHADOW - On July 31, 1930 a sinister voice came over the radio into American Homes. The voice of the Shadow appeared for the first time. In the beginning the Shadow was not a crime fighter. He was a mysterious narrator of mystery tales taken from the pages of Street & Smith's Detective Story Magazine. The publisher Street & Smith began to use radio as an advertising medium to promote their fiction publications. The Shadow was a perfectly creepy teller of tales promoting Street & Smith. This format continued until 1935 when creative differences between Street & Smith and NBC called a halt to the Shadow on the air. On September 26, 1937, the Shadow reappeared on radio with the voice of Orson Welles playing the part. The Shadow was now a full-fledged character on radio, not just narrating and introducing stories. The Shadow had an identity as Lamont Cranston, a wealthy man about town. He was accompanied by Margo Lane, originally played by Agnes Moorehead. Margo Lane was the only person who knew that Lamont Cranston and the Shadow were one and the same. No other agents assisted the Shadow, as did in the Walter Gibson fictional accounts. This radio Shadow had hypnotic power to make himself invisible to those around him and he possessed mental telepathy to read minds. Orson Welles played the Shadow from 1937 through March 1938. The Shadow became the highest rated radio show on the air at that time.

Box 13 "Look Pleasant Please" (12-05-48) - Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod Mar 27, 2008

Show notes

Box 13 - The premise of the program was that Dan Holiday was an author who wrote mystery novels. To get ideas for his novels he placed an advertisement in a newspaper saying "Adventure wanted, will go anywhere, do anything, Box 13." The ads always brought fun adventures of all kinds: from racketeer's victim to psychotic killer looking for fun. Most of the episodes were based on Dan Holiday replying to a letter he received at Box 13. He would generally solve a mystery in the process, and return to his office in time to enjoy a hearty laugh at the expense of Suzy, his amusingly stupid secretary. He would certainly not meet the strictest requirements for private eyes (not licensed, collected no fees from clients), but the definition should stretch to sneak him in under the rope.

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