Boxcars711 Old Time Radio

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Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - The Phil Silvers Show "New Recruits" (9-20-55) Sep 05, 2007

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THE PHILS SILVERS SHOW (aka YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH) remains the single most underrated sitcom in television history and that Phil Silvers remains the most underrated comedian in that medium. This is really saying something because the series has indeed received great acclaim over the years. Even so, Silvers is just not given his proper due for creating the Bilko character. As for the jewels in the supporting cast--they are simply terrific in this Nat Hiken creation that surely stands shoulder to shoulder with Jackie Gleason's THE HONEYMOONERS as perhaps the greatest sitcom ever on television. Silvers did not just play Ernie Bilko--he WAS Ernie Bilko! The character of the scheme-driven, gambling-addicted army sergeant forever duping the lovable Col. Hall (Paul Ford) while manipulating his platoon for his personal aggrandizement, is so fast-paced, fresh, and funny that one wonders if BILKO ought not be a stage play.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - The Falcon "Rolling Stones" (8-07-52) Sep 04, 2007

Show notes

August 7, 1952. NBC net. "The Case Of The Rolling Stones". Sustaining. Not auditioned. Army Intelligence sends Mike Waring to Sicily, where "some boy is running wild with a knife." They want "The Falcon" to offer him a proposition "he might like to take a stab at." The system cue is added live. Fred Collins (announcer), Bernard L. Schubert (producer, transcriber), Richard Lewis (director), Eugene Wang (writer), Les Damon, Jone Allison, Drexel Drake (creator). 30:55.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Big Town "The Deadly Doll" (11-23-48) Sep 04, 2007

Show notes

Big Town is a radio show that aired from 1937 to 1952. Edward G. Robinson had the lead role of Steve Wilson from 1937 to 1942. Claire Trevor was Wilson's society editor sidekick Lorelei Kilbourne, with Ona Munson taking over that role in 1940. Edward J. Pawley portrayed Wilson from 1942 until 1952 when Walter Greaza was heard as Wilson in the final episodes in the radio series. When Big Town moved to television, the program was telecast live, but in 1952 the production switched to film after the move from New York City to Hollywood. The television series ran on CBS from 1950 through 1954, continuing on NBC from 1955 through 1956. Repeat episodes aired on the DuMont Network (under the title City Assignment) while Big Town was still showing first-run episodes on CBS. Reruns were also shown under the titles Heart of the City, Headline and Byline Steve Wilson.

Boxcars711 Sunday Matinee - Family Theater "At 155 Pounds (11-10-54)" Sep 02, 2007

Show notes

Meaningful Stories from Years Past that Continue to Inspire Families Today. Families, then and now, face similar situations and struggles: communication, honesty, gambling, music, alcoholism, sports and many spiritual questions, such as life after death. How we address these struggles makes all the difference in strengthening our family bonds. These compelling half-hour dramas offer inspiring insights into how to build unity within your family. Join us on a visit with the stars of the past for an uplifting, humorous and meaningful look into family life.This show is posted with the expressed written consent of the owner and exclusively granted to Boxcars711 Old Time Radio.

Boxcars711 Saturday Mainee - Hollywood Radio Theater "Battleground" (12-07-54) Sep 01, 2007

Show notes

Hollywood Radio Theater (Lux), 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. 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 - Rocky Jordan "Death In The Sand" (1-02-49) Aug 31, 2007

Show notes

ROCKY JORDAN was the title character of one of the better and more exotic radio detective series. In fact, it's one of the best detective series I have ever heard. The series had two separate incarnations. The first, A Man Named Jordan, started as a daily 15 minute show and after about six months changed to a weekly 30 minute show. It took place in Istanbul and the Cafe was described as "a small restaurant in a narrow street off Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, permeated with by the smoke of Oriental tobacco, alive with the babble of many tongues, and packed with intrigue." The second incarnation, Rocky Jordan, was a weekly 30 minute series took place in Cairo - "the gateway to the ancient East where adventure and intrigue unfold against the backdrop of antiquity." Jordan was a hard-boiled owner of the Cafe Tambourine who spent most of his time solving mysteries that he usually became involved in by accident. During the Cairo-based run, he often encountered Captain Sam Sabaaya of the Cairo police. John Dunning in his "On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio" describes Jordan as "a rugged hero who each week was confronted by a crime, a mystery, a beautiful woman or a combination of the three. It was a detective show with a difference: the Oriental background was played to the hilt, giving it a sound like no other." The writers worked hard to give it authenticity - actual places and streets in Cairo were often and accurately mentioned. The music score also added to the exoticness of the series. Moyles, a veteran of radio, was much more believable in the role than Raft.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Martin & Lewis Show "Guest William Bendix" (3-24-49) Aug 31, 2007

Show notes

On July 25, 1946, Jerry began a show business partnership with Dean Martin, an association that would soon skyrocket both to fame. It started when Jerry was performing at the 500 Club in Atlantic City and one of the other entertainers quit suddenly. Lewis, who had worked with Martin at the Glass Hat in New York City, suggested Dean as a replacement. At first they worked separately, but then ad-libbed together, improvising insults and jokes, squirting seltzer water, hurling bunches of celery and exuding general zaniness. In less than eighteen weeks their salaries soared from $250.00 a week to $5,000.00. For ten years Martin and Lewis sandwiched sixteen money making films between nightclub engagements, personal appearances, recording sessions, radio shows, and television bookings. Their last film together was "Hollywood or Bust" (1956). On July 25th of that year the two made their last nightclub appearance together at the Copacabana, exactly ten years to the day since they became a team. THIS EPISODE:The Martin and Lewis Show. March 24, 1949. NBC net. Sustaining. Possibly their first show for NBC. Unedited tape, lots of wild ad libs with Bob. The program aired right before the program with guest William Bendix. The above date might be the recording session, possibly for broadcast April 3, 1949. Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope, Flo McMichaels, Michael Roy, The Martingales, Dick Stabile and His Orchestra. 43:59

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Murder At Midnight "Trigger Man" (1946) Aug 31, 2007

Show notes

Murder At Midnight â 1946-1947The Murder at Midnight series was a thirty-minute broadcast featuring tales of the supernatural. The actors included Mercedes McCambridge and Lawson Zerbe and the show was narrated using the spooky, creepy voice of Raymond Morgan and always opened using the same gripping signature; âthe witching hour, when night is darkest, our fears are the strongest, our strength at its lowest ebbâ Midnight! â when graves gape open and death strikes!âCAST: Elspeth Eric, Mercedes McCambridge, Berry Kroeger, Betty Caine, Carl Frank, Barry Hopkins, Lawson Zerbe, Charlotte Holland NARRATORS: Raymond Morgan MUSIC: Charles Paul PRODUCERS/DIRECTORS: Lewis G Cowan, Anton M Leader WRITERS: Robert Newman, Joseph Ruscoll, Max Ehrlich, William Morwood

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Adventures Of Ellery Queen "The Armchair Detective" (3-27-46) Aug 31, 2007

Show notes

Tuska cited Ellery Queen, Master Detective (1940) and Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery (1941) as the best of the Bellamy-Lindsay pairings. "The influence of The Thin Man series was apparent in reverse", Tuska noted about Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery. "Ellery and Nikki are unmarried but obviously in love with each other. Probably the biggest mystery... is how Ellery ever gets a book written. Not only is Nikki attractive and perfectly willing to show off her figure", Tuska wrote, "but she also likes to write her own stories on Queen's time, and gets carried away doing her own investigations." In Ellery Queen, Master Detective, "the amorous relationship between Ellery and Nikki Porter was given a dignity, and therefore integrity", Tuska wrote, "that was lacking in the two previous entries in the series", made at Republic Pictures before Bellamy and Lindsay were signed by Columbia.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Michael Shayne "Borrowed Heirloom" (12-11-48) Aug 30, 2007

Show notes

Michael Shayne was a fictional sleuth created by Brett Halliday (a pen name for author Davis Dresser) who was first initiated into the fraternity for detectives in the 1939 novel "Dividend of Death". Dresser based the character on a âtall and rangyâ brawler who once saved his life during a braw in a Mexican cantina. The Shayne character would go on to appear in 69 novels, plus a long-running mystery magazineâand in 1941, was brought to the silver screen in Paramountâs Michael Shayne, Private Detective, an adaptation of Dividend of Death that starred Lloyd Nolan, and paved the way for six additional B-mysteries to follow. The New Adventures of Michael Shayneâpremiered on July 15, 1948 starring Jeff Chandler.

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