Boxcars711 Old Time Radio

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Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Best Plays "Mr. Roberts" (4-17-53) Sep 18, 2007

Show notes

Best Plays presents theatrical paramounts of excellence. It's hosted by the drama critic of New York's Daily News, John Chapman. Dramatic and comedic performances outshine other theater radio shows, greatly performed by such greats as Boris Karloff and Alfred Drake.THIS EPISODE:Henry Fonda returned to films after an eight-year absence in this masterful adaptation of the actor's Broadway hit Mister Roberts. Written and partially directed by Joshua Logan, the film stars Fonda as Lt. Doug Roberts, chief cargo officer of the supply ship "Reluctant." WW2 is in its last few months, and Roberts is itching for combat duty. But the Reluctant's surly, despotic captain (James Cagney), anxious to use Roberts to expedite his own promotion, refuses to sign any of Roberts' transfer requests. Helping to brighten Mister Roberts' humdrum existence are his best friends, Ensign Frank Pulver (Jack Lemmon, in an Oscar-winning performance) and the ship's philosophical doctor (William Powell, in his final film appearance). Most of the laughs are provided by Pulver, officer "in charge of laundry and morale." When he isn't wheeling and dealing to bring a bevy of beautiful nurses on board the Reluctant, Pulver is concocting elaborate schemes to avenge himself against the Captain -- even though he's spent 14 months on the Reluctant without ever meeting his nemesis. The film's highlights include the efforts by Roberts, Pulver, and Doc to mix a bottle of Scotch from Coca-Cola, Iodine, and other vital ingredients; and Mister Roberts' (and later Ensign Pulver's) assertion of manhood by tossing the Captain's precious palm tree overboard. Halfway through shooting, legendary director John Ford was replaced, ostensibly because of illness, by Mervyn LeRoy. One of the finest service comedies ever made, Mister Roberts spawned a less amusing sequel, Ensign Pulver (1964), as well as a 1965 TV sitcom. Hal Erickson.

Boxcars711 Sunday Matinee - The Lux Radio Theater "Key Largo" (11-28-49) Sep 16, 2007

Show notes

The Lux Radio Theater. November 28, 1949. CBS network. "Key Largo". Sponsored by: Lux Soap, Spry. An excellent Edward G. Robinson vehicle as a typical gangster. Johnny Rocco is returning to the United States to start his rackets once again. The intermission guest is nineteen year old Debbie Reynolds. Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor, Dan Seymour, Debbie Reynolds (intermission guest), Edmond O'Brien, William Keighley (host), John Milton Kennedy (announcer), Louis Silvers (music director), Maxwell Anderson (author), Sanford Barnett (adaptor), Frances Robinson, Herb Butterfield, William Johnstone, Howard McNear, Edward Marr, Harry Lewis, Paul Dubov, Frank Richards, Jay Novello, Lou Krugman, Don Diamond, Dorothy Lovett (commercial spokesman: as "Libby"), Richard Brooks (screenwriter), John Huston (screenwriter), Fred MacKaye (director), Charlie Forsyth (sound effects). 60:19.

Boxcars711 Saturday Matinee - The Lux Radio Theater "Murder My Sweet" (6-11-45) Sep 15, 2007

Show notes

Lux Radio Theater, one of the genuine classic radio anthology series (NBC Blue Network, 1934-1935; CBS 1935-1955), adapted first Broadway stage and then (and especially) films to hour-long live radio presentations and became the standard by which future radio and early television anthologies would be judged. Cecil B. DeMille was the host of the series each Monday evening from June 1, 1936 until January 22, 1945. The 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.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - The Haunting Hour "Skyscraper Mystery" (1944) Sep 14, 2007

Show notes

The shows are classic chills from the old school, with creepy organ, overwrought women and over the top men. Perhaps not the highest of melodrama, but obsessively workmanlike. After all, they might have known they were a skeleton staff toiling relentlessly without a ghost of a chance of fame. Thanks to transcription, these unknowns are still with us. John Dunning, succinctly states in "On the Air, The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio," "There were no credits, so casts and production crews are unknown."

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - The Adventures Of Philip Marlowe "Who Shot Waldo" (6-12-47) Sep 13, 2007

Show notes

The first portrayal of Phillip Marlowe on the radio was by Dick Powell, when he played Raymond Chandler's detective on the Lux Radio Theater on June 11, 1945. This was a radio adaptation of the 1944 movie, from RKO, in which Mr. Powell played the lead. Two years later, Van Heflin starred as Marlowe in a summer replacement series for the Bob Hope Show on NBC. This series ran for 13 shows. On September 26, 1948, Gerald Mohr became the third radio Marlowe, this time on CBS. It remained a CBS show through its last show in 1951.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Space Patrol "Captain Hackett's Planetoid" (5-08-54) Ep0084 Sep 12, 2007

Show notes

May 8, 1954. ABC network. "Captain Hackett's Planetoid". Sponsored by: Ralston cereals, Nestle's chocolate (Cosmic Rocket Launcher premium). When an old asteroid miner strikes "wolfenite" ore, Prince Bacaratti grubstakes him for his own evil purposes! Bela Kovacs, Dick Tufeld (announcer), Ed Kemmer, Ken Mayer, Larry Robertson (producer, director), Lou Houston (writer), Lyn Osborn, Mike Devry (executive producer), Mike Mosser (creator), Norman Jolley, Tony Sides. 29:40.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - The Campbell Playhouse "Dodsworth" (11-26-39) Sep 12, 2007

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.THIS EPISODE:Samuel Dodsworth (Walter Huston) is an ambitious automobile designer, who builds his fortunes in Zenith. In addition to his success in the business world, he succeeds in winning the hand of Fran Voelker (Ruth Chatterton), a beautiful socialite. At the age of fifty, he sets out to do what he had always wanted - take a leisurely trip to Europe with his wife. His forty-one year old wife, however, is dissatisfied with married life and wants to live in Europe, not just visit. Passing up advancement in his company, Dodsworth leaves for Europe with Fran. Soon, both Sam and Fran are caught up in vastly different lifestyles. Fran falls in with a crowd of frivolous socialites. Sam meets Edith Cortright (Mary Astor), a woman who is everything his wife is not: self-assured, self-confident, and able to take care of herself. As they follow their own pursuits, their marriage is strained to the breaking point. Both Sam and Fran are forced to choose between marriage and the new lifestyles they have pursued.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Journey to the Center of the Earth "2 Episodes" (6-26-63) and (7-09-63) Sep 11, 2007

Show notes

"Lost" (6-26-63) and "Battle Of The Monsters" (7-09-63)Journey to the Center of the Earth is an 1864 science fiction novel by Jules Verne (published in the original French as Voyage au centre de la Terre). The story involves a professor who leads his nephew and hired guide down a volcano in Iceland to the "center of the Earth". They encounter many adventures, including prehistoric animals and natural hazards, eventually coming to the surface again in southern Italy. From a scientific point of view, this story has not aged quite as well as other Verne stories, since most of his ideas about what the interior of the Earth is like have since been proven wrong. However, a redeeming point to the story is Verne's own belief, told within the novel from the viewpoint of a character, that the inside of the Earth does indeed differ from that which the characters encounter. Compared to his previous works, Verne takes a radically different approach to storytelling by making the main character and narrator a 16 year old boy who relates to the events as his own adventures. It is unknown whether this was done under the influence of his publisher Hetzel who wanted to distribute Verne's work as aimed towards growing teens, but the result is quite remarkable. While his previous novel and many of his later works are in fact fictionalized science, this is a grippling story of the adventures of an adolescent boy, the science taking a backdrop against his own experiences.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - The Fat Man "Murder Wins The Draw" (4-01-49) Sep 11, 2007

Show notes

The Fat Man" premiered on ABC on Monday, January 21, 1946, at 8:30pm, as part of a block of four new programs which also included "I Deal in Crime," "Forever Tops," and "Jimmy Gleason's Diner." "The Fat Man" originated in the studios of WJZ in New York and began as a modestly priced sustainer [no sponsor but the station] vaguely based upon character ideas in Dashiell Hammett's writings and fleshed out by producer, E.J. ("Mannie") Rosenberg. The announcer was Charles Irving. The directors for the program were Clark Andrews, creator of "Big Town," and Charles Powers. The main writer for the series was Richard Ellington, but it was also scripted by Robert Sloane, Lawrence Klee and others. The veteran character actor Ed Begley was featured as Sgt. O'Hara. Regulars on the program included Petty Garde, Paul Stewart, Linda Watkins, Mary Patton as Lila North, and Vicki Vola, also the female lead in "Mr. District Attorney." Amzie Strickland played the ingenue, Cathy Evans, and Nell Harrison played Runyon's mother during the early episodes. The cast also included Dan Ocko, Roily Bester (wife of Alfred Pester, the science fiction writer), and Robert Dryden. An eleven-piece orchestra was on hand to provide live music, and was directed by Bernard Green, who also wrote that memorably stirring theme. The sound effects were by Ed Blaney, who actually did drop a coin in a change slot each week for the sound of the drug store scale." THIS EPISODE:The Fat Man. April 1, 1949. ABC net. "Murder Wins The Draw". Sponsored by: Pepto Bismol, Unguentine. In Mexico, a beautiful woman leans Runyon to Guatemala City and a dead body in a hotel...murdered with a machete! J. Scott Smart, Dick Beals (commercial spokesman), Clark Andrews (director), Bernard Green (conductor), Bryna Raeburn, Charles Irving (announcer), Lawrence Klee (writer), Jean Ellen. 29:30

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Crime Classics "Dread Events Surrounding Mr Thrower's Hammer" (8-03-53) Sep 11, 2007

Show notes

Crime Classics. August 3, 1953. CBS net origination, AFRS rebroadcast. "Mr. Thrower's Hammer". A gentleman of England in 1804 has bashed in the heads of a father and daughter. Eleven years later, a doubt arises. The program closing has been deleted. See cat. #65754 for a more complete, network version of this broadcast. The program is also known as, "The Dread Events Surrounding Mr. Throwers Hammer." Lou Merrill (host), Morton Fine (writer), David Friedkin (writer), Bernard Herrmann (composer, conductor), Elliott Lewis (producer, director), William Johnstone, Eric Snowden, Alistair Duncan, Bob Lemond (announcer), Jay Novello, Joseph Kearns, Paula Winslowe, Tudor Owen. 28:09.

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