Boxcars711 Old Time Radio

Latest Episodes:

Hercule Poirot "Murder Wears A Mask" (5-03-45) - Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod Jan 22, 2008

Show notes

Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters: he appeared in 39 novels and 50 short stories. Poirot has been portrayed on screen, for films and TV, by various actors including Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov, Ian Holm, Tony Randall, Alfred Molina and, most recently, and famously, David Suchet. His character was based on two other fictional detectives of the time: Marie Belloc Lowndes' Hercule Popeau and Frank Howel Evans' Monsieur Poiret, a retired French police officer living in London. A more obvious influence on the early Poirot stories is that of Arthur Conan Doyle. In An Autobiography Christie admits that "I was still writing in the Sherlock Holmes tradition â eccentric detective, stooge assistant, with a Lestrade-type Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Japp."Poirot also bears a striking resemblance to A. E. W. Mason's fictional detective â Inspector Hanaud of the French surete-who, first appearing in the 1910 novel "At the Villa Rose," predates the writing of the first Poirot novel by six years.

Crime Classics "Shockingly Peaceful Passing Of Thomas Bartlett" (6-22-53) - Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod Jan 21, 2008

Show notes

Crime Classics was a U. S. radio docudrama which aired over CBS from June 15, 1953 to June 30, 1954. Created, produced, and directed by radio actor/director Elliott Lewis, the program was basically a historical true crime series, examining crimes, and especially murders, from the past. It grew out of Lewis's personal interest in famous murder cases, and took a documentary-like approach to the subject, carefully recreating the facts, personages, and feel of the time period. Comparatively little dramatic license was taken with the facts and events, but the tragedy was leavened with humor, expressed largely through the narration.

The Shadow "Firebug" (6-19-38) - Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod Jan 21, 2008

Show notes

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.

The Adventures By Maisie "Clothes Make The Woman" (1-19-50) - Boxcars711 Sunday Matinee Three Jan 21, 2008

Show notes

Maisie, the first in 1939, was from the book "Dark Dame" by the writer Wilson Collison,who did decades of scripting for the silver screen along with Broadway plays and magazine fiction. From the first, MGM wanted Ann Sothern to play Maisie. She began in Hollywood as an extra in 1927. "Maisie and I were just together - I just understood her," Sothern, born Harriette Arlene Lake, said after several of the films made her a star. Throughout the 1930s and '40s, Ann Sothern and Lucille Ball, like many performers in Hollywood, had not one but two careers - one in motion pictures and one on radio. MGM Studios had created the series of ten motion pictures based on a brash blonde with a heart "of spun gold." Maisie, the first in 1939, was from the book "Dark Dame" by the writer Wilson Collison, who did decades of scripting for the silver screen along with Broadway plays and magazine fiction.

The Philip Morris Playhouse "Four Hours To Kill" (5-13-49) - Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod Jan 21, 2008

Show notes

The Philip Morris Playhouse was originally called "Johnny Presents" and named after the Philip Morris trademark, a bellhop by the name of Johnny Roventini. Johnny was discovered when an ad man for Philip Morris, spotted him in a popular New York Hotel. The thought occured that the new show could lead off with Johnny walking through the lobby yelling "Last Call For Philip Morris". The idea was an instant success and the tabacco company paid him $20000.00 a year for his participation. Guest stars included some of Hollywood's tops, Marlene Dietrich, Vincent Price and Howard Duff to name a few.THIS EPISODE:May 13, 1949. CBS net. "Four Hours To Kill". Sponsored by: Philip Morris, Revelation Pipe Tobacco. After killing his brother, a man has only four hours to find and kill the woman who heard the crime over the telephone. The script was also used on "Suspense" on January 12, 1950 (see cat. #16382 and #72438). Howard Duff, William Spier (producer, editor, director), Cathy Lewis, John Holbrook (announcer), Harold Swanton (writer), Lud Gluskin (music director), Art Ballinger (announcer). 29:14.

The Lux Radio Theater "Nobody Lives Forever" (11-17-47) - Boxcars711 Sunday Matinee Two Jan 20, 2008

Show notes

Lux Radio Theater strove to feature as many of the original stars of the original stage and film productions as possible, usually paying them $5,000 an appearance to do the show. It was when sponsor Lever Brothers (who made Lux soap and detergent) moved the show from New York to Hollywood in 1936 that it eased back from adapting stage shows and toward adaptations of films. The first Lux film adaptation was The Legionnaire and the Lady, with Marlene Dietrich and Clark Gable, based on the film Morocco. That was followed by a Lux adaptation of The Thin Man, featuring the movie's stars, Myrna Loy and William Powell.

Richard Diamond Private Detective "Double Feature" From 1949 - Boxcars711 Sunday Matinee One Jan 20, 2008

Show notes

"Charles Walsh" (7-09-49) and "Counterfeiting Ring" (10-15-49)Dick Powell was known as a song and dance man until his rebirth as a movie tough guy in Murder My Sweet, where he played Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. He then appeared in a string of crime and detective flicks, and eventually parlayed it into a successful radio show. Powell played RICHARD DIAMOND, "radio's singing gumshoe", an ex-OSS man turned New York City private detective who was tough when he needed to be, but tried to have a little fun while on the job. He often closed the show with a song to his uptown girlfriend, Helen. The show was a hit, the first of many for writer/director Blake Edwards, who went on to create Peter Gunn and the Pink Panther movies. And when that upstart new medium television beckoned, deciding at this point he was too busy (or a bit long in the tooth) to star, Powell became a producer, formed Four Star Productions, and unleashed Richard Diamond, Private Detective on the world, with newcomer David Meyer (who changed his name to Janssen, at Powell's suggestion) as Diamond (pictured). He remained in New York, but the former OSS operative became the former cop. He remained in New York for two seasons, but the third season began with Diamond moving to Los Angles where he gets a girlfriend, Karen (Barbara Bain), a spiffy car with a phone in it, and an answering service, run by Sam (played by Mary Tyler Moore's legs). And what LA gumshoe needs is an eccentric fading movie star as a client. In this case, former film queen Laura Renault (Hillary Brooke) filled the bill.

The Campbell Playhouse "Mr. Deeds Goes To Town" (2-11-40) - Boxcars711 Saturday Matinee Three Jan 20, 2008

Show notes

The Campbell Playhouse was a sponsored continuation of the Mercury Theater on the Air, a direct result of the instant publicity from the War of the Worlds panic. The switch occurred on December 9, 1938. In spite of using the same creative staff, the show had a different flavor under sponsorship, partially attributed to a guest star policy in place, which relegated the rest of the Mercury Players to supporting cast for Orson Welles and the Hollywood guest of the week. There was a growing schism between Welles, still reaping the rewards of his Halloween night notoriety, and his collaborator John Houseman, still in the producer's chair but feeling more like an employee than a partner. The writer, as during the unsponsored run, was Howard Koch.

Fort Laramie "Capture" (4-29-56) - Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod Jan 20, 2008

Show notes

The Golden Age of Radio was ending, not with a whimper, but with a robust bang. Many of the best network and syndicated shows began in the 1950s, even though public interest and advertising dollars were switching to television, FORT LARAMIE was certainly one of the finest radio series, and were it not for GUNSMOKE, it could be termed the best adult Western program ever aired. FORT LARAMIE is a close relative of GUNSMOKE since it had the same producer-director, same writers, same sound effects men, and many of the same actors. GUNSMOKE had been running for almost four years when Norman Macdonnell brought FORT LARAMIE to CBS. The latter had the same gritty realism, attention to detail, and integrity that audiences admired in GUNSMOKE.

The CBS Radio Workshop "Starboy" (7-27-56) - Boxcars711 Saturday Matinee Two Jan 19, 2008

Show notes

The CBS Radio Workshop was an experimental dramatic radio anthology series that aired on CBS from January 27, 1956, until September 22, 1957. Subtitled âradioâs distinguished series to manâs imagination,â it was a revival of the earlier Columbia Workshop, broadcast by CBS from 1936 to 1947, and it used some of the same writers and directors employed on the earlier series. The premiere broadcast was a two-part adaptation of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, introduced and narrated by Huxley. It took a unique approach to sound effects, as described in a review that week in Time (February 6, 1956): It took three radio sound men, a control-room engineer and five hours of hard work to create the sound that was heard for less than 30 seconds on the air. The sound consisted of a ticking metronome, tom-tom beats, bubbling water, air hose, cow moo, boing! (two types), oscillator, dripping water (two types) and three kinds of wine glasses clicking against each other. Judiciously blended and recorded on tape, the effect was still not quite right. Then the tape was played backward with a little echo added. That did it. The sound depicted the manufacturing of babies in the radio version of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Music for the series was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, Amerigo Moreno, Ray Noble and Leith Stevens. Other writers adapted to the series included Robert A. Heinlein, Sinclair Lewis, H. L. Mencken, Edgar Allan Poe, Frederik Pohl, James Thurber and Thomas Wolfe.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected