Boxcars711 Old Time Radio

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Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Theater 1030 "Dr. McGreggor The Case Of The Curious Bones" May 04, 2007

Show notes

Thanks to everyone who has cast their vote for Boxcars711. My rating continues to rise. Please remember to vote each month. It only takes a minute and it truely helps to keep these great shows coming to you. Click on the PodCast Alley Icon found on the right side of this page. Thanks so much, Bob Camardella

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Inner Sanctum "Voice On The Wire" (11-29-44) May 04, 2007

Show notes

Tales of horror recreated by great actors, a spooky organ and chilling sound effects presented by a creepy, rib-tickling host, was a strange brew indeed. Inner Sanctum did it in spades! To this day the show remains a wonderful "guilty" pleasure of many old time radio fans, who listened back then when these shows first fired the imaginations of all but the most jaded.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Father Knows Best "The Elusive Card Game" (1-12-50) May 03, 2007

Show notes

Father Knows Best, a family comedy of the 1950s, is perhaps more important for what it has come to represent than for what it actually was. In essence, the series was one of a slew of middle-class family sitcoms in which moms were moms, kids were kids, and fathers knew best. Today, many critics view it, at best, as high camp fun, and, at worst, as part of what critic David Marc once labeled the "Aryan melodramas" of the 1950s and 1960s.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Nightfall "Late Special" (5-13-80) May 02, 2007

Show notes

NIGHTFALL was a horror series heard over the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation first from July 4, 1980 to May 22, 1981 and then from November 20, 1981 to June 24, 1983. Thirty shows were selected from the first season to be rebroadcast on NPR from October 2, 1981 to June 25, 1982. Since it is a fairly modern series, most shows are available in stereo. Because it's a modern series, it's not widely available (copyright issues). This show may be the most horrifying series ever done. It was so terrifying, that many stations refused to play it or had to cancel the broadcasts due to listener complaints. This is a well done series and well worth searching for sources.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Jack Benny Show "Pinocchio" (3-31-40) May 02, 2007

Show notes

The Jack Benny Program is a classic comedy that is truly one of the best-loved programs from the Golden Age of Radio. It started life as The Canada Dry Program in 1932 on the Blue Network and finished off as The Lucky Strike Program on CBS in 1955. In between, it kept the audience in stitches and established Benny as one of America's all-time great comedians.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - I Was A Communist For The FBI "The Red Gate" (11-12-53) May 01, 2007

Show notes

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 Old Time Radio Pod - Dr Kildare "Dr Gillespies New Office" (5-25-51) May 01, 2007

Show notes

The Story of Dr. Kildare was based on the popular MGM films that were produced in the 1940's, so a radio version in 1949 made perfect sense. The screen actor Lew Ayres played Dr. Kildare in the films, and continued the role in this radio show. The great thespian Lionel Barrymore continued in his role as Kildare's mentor, Dr. Leonard Gillespie. Together the two fight an unending battle against disease and bureaucratic boneheadedness. In a sense, Dr. Kildare is good old fashioned soap opera, but then medical dramas have always been popular, and the good Dr. Kildare is a quiet and devoted medical hero who creates a better world one patient at a time, despite whatever gets in the way. That makes for good radio and a good object lesson for us all - good is usually done a little at a time, and there's always something or someone in the way.

Boxcars711 Weekend Matinee - The Sears Radio Theater "Survival" (7-19-79) Apr 29, 2007

Show notes

The series premiered on Monday 02/05/79 and offered a different genre each weekday night. Each genre was hosted by a different celebrity. The program was produced on Paramount's Stage F in Hollywood. These first 130 programs were broadcast over a six month period and then rebroadcast over the following six months. From 02/14/80 to 12/19/81 this series was heard again, this time over Mutual, as The Mutual Radio Theater. This was clearly one of the last big attempts to produce radio programming, with many of radio's best talents. Despite budget and talent, it just wasn't to be.

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - The Sealed Book "Death Spins A Web" (4-01-45) Apr 28, 2007

Show notes

The Sealed Book starred Philip Clarke as the keeper of the book, a croaking, cackling hermit, with knowledge of the black arts, who in each show unlocked the great padlock that kept the sealed book safe from prying eyes. There was a spook story each week with tales of secrets and mysteries of mankind through the ages. This MUTUAL network entry in the horror and mystery genre was far from the best remembered, such as Suspense, Quiet Please, and Inner Sanctum. The Sealed Book begins with a classic intro, in which when gonged, we are escorted by the tuxedoed announcer with unseen organist as the keeper of the book opens the ponderous, albeit squeaky door "to the secret vault wherein is kept the great sealed book, in which is recorded all the secrets and mysteries of mankind through the ages, Here are tales of every kind, tales of murder, of madness, of dark deeds strange and terrible beyond all belief."

Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Our Miss Brooks "Tears For Mister Boynton" (4-10-55) Apr 28, 2007

Show notes

Our Miss Brooks, an American situation comedy, began as a radio hit in 1948 and migrated to television in 1952, becoming one of the earlier hits of the so-called Golden Age of Television, and making a star out of Eve Arden (1908-1990) as comely, wisecracking, but humane high school English teacher Connie Brooks. The show hooked around Connie's daily relationships with Madison High School students, colleagues, and pompous principal Osgood Conklin (Gale Gordon), not to mention favourite student Walter Denton (future television and Rambo co-star Richard Crenna, who fashioned a higher-pitched voice to play the role) and biology teacher Philip Boynton ( Jeff Chandler), the latter Connie's all-but-unrequited love interest, who saw science everywhere and little else anywhere.

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