Boxcars711 Old Time Radio

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Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - The Adventures Of Frank Merriwell "Mystery Of The Iron Door" (5-22-48) Sep 25, 2007

Show notes

Frank Merriwell was the fictional creation of Gilbert Patten, who wrote under the pseudonym Burt L. Standish. The model for all later American juvenile sports fiction, Merriwell excelled at football, baseball, crew and track at Yale while solving mysteries and righting wrongs. He played with great strength and received traumatic blows without injury. A biographical entry on Patten noted dryly that Frank Merriwell "had little in common with his creator or his readers." Patten offered some background on his character: "The name was symbolic of the chief characteristics I desired my hero to have. Frank for frankness, merry for a happy disposition, well for health and abounding vitality." Merriwell's classmates observed, "He never drinks. That's how he keeps himself in such fine condition all the time. He will not smoke, either, and he takes his exercise regularly. He is really a remarkable freshie." Merriwell originally appeared in a series of magazine stories starting April 18, 1896 ("Frank Merriwell: or, First Days at Fardale") in Tip Top Weekly, continuing through 1912, and later in dime novels and comic books. Patten would confine himself to a hotel room for a week to write an entire story. The Frank Merriwell comic strip began in 1928, continuing until 1936. Daily strips from 1934 provided illustrations for the 1937 Big Little Book.The Adventures of Frank Merriwell first ran on NBC radio from March 26 to June 22, 1934 as a 15-minute serial airing three times a week at 5:30pm. Sponsored by Dr. West's Toothpaste, this program starred Donald Briggs in the title role. Harlow Wilcox was the announcer. After a 12-year gap, the series returned October 5, 1946 as a 30-minute NBC Saturday morning show, continuing until June 4, 1949. Lawson Zerbe starred as Merriwell, Jean Gillespie and Elaine Rostas as Inza Burrage, Harold Studer as Bart Hodge and Patricia Hosley as Elsie Belwood. The announcer was Harlow Wilcox, and the Paul Taubman Orchestra supplied the background music. There are at least three generations of Merriwells: Frank, his half-brother Dick, and Frank's son, Frank Jr. There is a marked difference between Frank and Dick. Frank usually handled challenges on his own. Dick has mysterious friends and skills that help him, especially an old Indian friend without whom the stories would not have been quite as interesting.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - The Bickersons "Blanches Expensive Injury" (7-17-51) Sep 25, 2007

Show notes

The Bickersons was an American radio comedy program that aired from 1946 to 1951. Born as a recurring skit on The Chase and Sanborn Hour and refined on the lesser-remembered Drene Time variety show, it stood the already-typical domestic presentation of radio and its infant offspring, television, so squarely on its head that there were those who feared the show. The show's married protagonists spent nearly all their time together in relentless verbal war, and many people believed that the show's sourly cynical take on the institution of marriage was more than merely detrimental to the nation's post-World War II health. (The same kind of charges of "detrimental" were later leveled against programs such as Married... with Children and The Simpsons.) The Bickersons was created by Philip Rapp, the one-time Eddie Cantor writer who had also created the Fanny Brice skits (for The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air and Maxwell House Coffee Time) that grew into radio's Baby Snooks. Several years after the latter established itself a long-running favourite, Rapp developed and presented John and Blanche Bickerson, first as a short sketch on The Old Gold Show and The Chase and Sanborn Hour (the show that made stars of Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy), and then as a 15-minute situational sketch as part of Drene Time. This was a variety show starring Don Ameche and singer-actress Frances Langford as co-hosts, airing on NBC and sponsored by Drene Shampoo. Announcing the showâand later familiar to television viewers as The Millionaire's presenter and executive secretary, Michael Anthonyâwas Marvin Miller. Drene Time typically opened with Langford singing a big band-style arrangement before Ameche and Langford would slip into routine comedy, often aided by co-star (and future Make Room for Daddy star) Danny Thomas, in routines that often hooked around Ameche's frustration that Thomas seemed more interested in modern technology and discoveries than in women. After another musical number and a commercial spot for Drene Shampoo, Miller would announce Ameche and Langford as the Bickersons, "in 'The Honeymoon's Over'," for the final 15 minutes of the show.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - 2000 Plus "The Rocket And The Skull" (1950) Sep 24, 2007

Show notes

2000 AD is known as the first of the network science fiction shows, although it ran on Mutual just a month prior to the introduction of the landmark series, Dimension X. It was a half hour of science fiction wonder in an exciting package. The stories have a charm that is always present in science fiction of the future that is written in the past. "When The Worlds Met" takes place "at the giant space port in Washington, temporary capitol of the federated world government as in April 21, 2000 Plus 20 (2020) crowds throng as audio and televox networks cover a space ship carrying in its space hold the first load of uranium taken from the pits of Luna, satellite of Earth.THIS EPISODE:Mutual network. "The Rocket and The Skull". Sustaining. The most important man in the country's race to the Moon is wounded in a plane crash...and starts to hear strange messages to Mars! The date is approximate. Arnold Robertson, Emerson Buckley and His Orchestra, William Griffis. 28 minutes.

Boxcars711 Sunday Matinee Two - Theater Five "A Million Miles To Nowhere" (4-08-65) Sep 24, 2007

Show notes

This was ABC's attempt to recapture some of what radio was. The effort was not the best, but at least an effort was made. The stories ranged from science fiction, comedy, social drama and human interest drama, to detective mystery, psychological drama, melodrama and suspense drama. News programs help fill out the remaining time left in the 30 minute time spot from 5 - 5:30 p.m.

Boxcars711 Sunday Matinee One - The General Electric Theater "State Fair" (9-10-53) Sep 23, 2007

Show notes

General Electric Theater featured a mix of romance, comedy, adventure, tragedy, fantasy and variety music. Occupying the Sunday evening spot on CBS following the Toast of the Town/Ed Sullivan Show from 1 February 1953 to 27 May 1962, the General Electric Theater presented top Hollywood and Broadway stars in dramatic roles calculated to deliver company voice advertising to the largest possible audience. Despite a long technical and practical experience with television production, GE's previous attempts to establish a Sunday evening company program had fared poorly. In the fall of 1948 GE entered commercial television for the first time with the Dennis James Carnival, a variety show dropped after one performance. A quiz program entitled Riddle Me This substituted for twelve weeks and was also dropped. In April 1949 GE returned to Sunday evenings with the musical-variety Fred Waring Show Produced by the Young & Rubicam advertising agency under the sponsorship of GE's Appliance, Electronics and Lamp Divisions, the program occasionally included company voice messages. In November 1951 GE transferred television production to the Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn (BBDO) advertising agency, under whose direction the General Electric Theater debuted 1 February 1953 as an "all-company project" sponsored by GE's Department of Public Relations Services.

Boxcars711 Saturday Matinee Two - I Was A Communist For FBI "Pennies From The Dead" (10-01-52) Sep 22, 2007

Show notes

I WAS A COMMUNIST FOR THE FBI - SYNDICATED STARS: Dana Andrews as MATT CVETIC who infiltrated top ranks of the Communist Party.I Was a Communist for the FBI was an American espionage thriller radio series with 78 episodes syndicated by Ziv to more than 600 stations in 1952-54. Made without FBI cooperation, the series was adapted from the book by undercover agent Matt Cvetic, who was portrayed by Dana Andrews.The series was crafted to warn people about the threat of Communist subversion of American society. The tone of the show is very jingoistic and ultra-patriotic. Communists are evil incarnate and the FBI can do no wrong. As a relic of the Joe McCarthy era, this show is a time capsule of American society during the Second Red Scare.

Boxcars711 Saturday Matinee One - Meet Miss Sherlock "The Case Of Wilma & The Widow" (9-12-46) Sep 22, 2007

Show notes

During World War II no more women sleuths arrived on the scene but 1946 was a banner year when three new ones debuted on network radio. One was as much comedienne as crime solver, Meet Miss Sherlock. This was a CBS summer sustainer that recounted the adventures of Jane Sherlock, a scatterbrained amateur detective, and her boyfriend, Peter Blossom, a civil attorney who occasionally fainted. There were two separate versions of this show; the first ran from July 3, 1946 to September 26, 1946 while the second one ran from Sept 28, 1947 to Oct 26, 1947. Both series were produced and directed by David Vaile, with scripts by E. Jack Neuman and Don Thompson. The announcer was Murray Wagner and the live orchestra was headed by Milton Charles. Sondra Gair had the title lead in the 1946 version, Captain Dingle of the NYPD was a youthful Bill Conrad and Joe Petruzzi played Peter Blossom.When the series resumed in the fall of 1947, Betty Moran did the first epiosde but her voice was not âditheryâ enough so Monty Margetts was brought in and she played the lead until it went off the air two months later. Barney Phillips was the voice of Captain Dingle. This series was more comedy than adventure, although crimes were eventually solved. Only two episodes have survived; both feature Gair in the 1946 version.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Easy Aces "Episode13 and Episode14" Sep 22, 2007

Show notes

Episode#13 "Jane And Neff Talk About Deal" and Episode#14 "Everett Talks To Ace About The Deal"Easy Aces, a long-running American serial radio comedy (1930-1945), was trademarked by the low-keyed drollery of creator and writer Goodman Ace and his wife, Jane, as an urbane, put-upon realtor and his malaprop-prone wife. A 15-minute program, airing as often as three times a week, Easy Aces wasn't quite the ratings smash that such concurrent 15-minute serial comedies as Amos 'n' Andy, The Goldbergs or Vic and Sade were. But its unobtrusive, conversational, and clever style, and the cheerful absurdism of its storylines, built a loyal enough audience of listeners and critics alike to keep it on the air for 15 years.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Jeff Regan Private Investigator "House By The Sea" (9-04-48) Sep 22, 2007

Show notes

Jeff Regan, Investigator was one of the three detective shows Jack Webb did before Dragnet (see also Pat Novak For Hire and Johnny Modero: Pier 23). It debuted on CBS in July 1948. Webb played JEFF REGAN, a tough private eye working in a Los Angeles investigation firm run by Anthony J. Lyon. Regan introduced himself on each show "I get ten a day and expenses...they call me the Lyon's Eye." The show was fairly well-plotted, Webb's voice was great, and the supporting cast were skillful. Regan handled rough assignments from Lion, with whom he was not always on good terms. He was tough, tenacious, and had a dry sense of humor. The voice of his boss, Anthony Lion, was Wilms Herbert. The show ended in December 1948 but was resurrected in October 1949 with a new cast; Frank Graham played Regan (later Paul Dubrov was the lead) and Frank Nelson portrayed Lion. This version ran on CBS, sometimes as a West Coast regional, until August 1950. Both versions were 30 minutes, but the day and time slot changed several times. A total of 29 episodes from this series are in trading currency.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - ABC Mystery Time [Masters Of Mystery] "Four Time Loser" (1957) Sep 21, 2007

Show notes

Mystery (1957-1958)ABC Mystery Time was hosted by Don Dowd and starred Sir Laurence Olivier. Great special effects will grab your attention, accented by creepy organ rips. Stories are offered such as death gathered round a card table at a local chapter of The Suicide Club, or a man who desperately tries to hire a 24 hour bodyguard all the while trying to make himself the victim of a murder, and other baffling peculiar tales of yore. Also known as Mystery Time and Mystery Time Classics, this one is sure to excite and mystify.

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