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The Challenge Of The Yukon - 2-Episodes (1943) (1944) Sep 23, 2009

Show notes

Challenge of the Yukon was a long-running radio series that began on Detroit's station WXYZ (as had The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet). The series was first heard on February 3, 1938. Under the title Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, it later transferred to television. The program was an adventure series about Sergeant William Preston of the Northwest Mounted Police and his lead sled dog, Yukon King, as they fought evildoers in the Northern wilderness during the Gold Rush of the 1890s. Preston, according to radio historian Jim Harmon, first joined the Mounties to capture his father's killer, and when he was successful he was promoted to Sergeant. Preston worked under the command of Inspector Conrad, and in the early years was often assisted by a French-Canadian guide named Pierre. Preston's staunchest ally, who was arguably the true star of the show and indeed often did more work than he did, was the brave Alaskan husky, Yukon King. Typical plots involved the pair helping injured trappers, tracking down smugglers, or saving cabin dwellers from wolverines. Sgt. Preston's faithful steed was Rex, used primarily in the summer months, but generally Yukon King and his dog team were the key mode of transportation (as signalled by Preston's cry of "On, King! On, you huskies!."TODAY'S SHOW: "Return To Crime" (11-20-43) AND "Revenge In The Yukon" (01-06-44)November 18, 1943. Program #303. WXYZ, Detroit origination, The Michigan Radio Network. "Return To The Crime". Sustaining. Will Conover is shot for his gold dust by Cass Fenton. King's nose smells out the killer. Possible recording date: October 1, 1943. Not auditioned. Jay Michael, Bill Morgan (announcer), Betty Joyce (writer), Fran Striker (writer). 14:11.January 6, 1944. Program #310. WXYZ, Detroit origination, The Michigan Radio Network. "Revenge In The Yukon". Sustaining. At the Black Crow Cafe, Les Peterson meets Lucky Wally. The Doc would like to meet him too...to kill him! Possible recording date: December 28, 1943. Not auditioned. Jay Michael, Bob Hite (announcer), Betty Joyce (writer), Fran Striker (writer). 14:30.

You Bet Your Life - Secret Word Tree (05-24-50) Sep 22, 2009

Show notes

You Bet Your Life - Groucho Marx matches wits with the American public in four episodes of this classic game show. Starting on the radio in 1947, You Bet Your Life made its television debut in 1950 and aired for 11 years with Groucho as host and emcee. Sponsored rather conspicuously by the Dodge DeSoto car manufacturers, the show featured two contestants working as a team to answer questions for cash prizes. Another mainstay of these question and answer segments was the paper mache duck that would descend from the ceiling with one hundred dollars in tow whenever a player uttered the "secret word." The quiz show aspect of "You Bet Your Life" was always secondary, to the clever back-and-forth between host and contestant, which found Groucho at his funniest. It's in these interview segments that "You Bet Your Life" truly makes its mark as one of early television's greatest programs. Directed by: Robert Dwan.TODAY'S SHOW - Secret Word Today Is "TREE"

The Great Gildersleeve - College Chum Visits (05-17-42) Sep 21, 2009

Show notes

The Great Gildersleeve - (1941-1957) was the arguable founding father of the spin-off program, as well as one of the first true situation comedies (as opposed to sketch programs) in broadcast history. Hooked around a character who had been a staple on the classic radio hit Fibber McGee and Molly, The Great Gildersleeve enjoyed its greatest period in the 1940s, when Harold Peary graduated the character from the earlier show into the sitcom and in a quartet of likeable feature films at the height of the show's popularity.THIS EPISIODE:May 17, 1942. NBC network. Sponsored by: Kraft Foods. Gildersleeve's old college chum comes to visit and starts selling shares in a magnesium mine! Harold Peary, Lurene Tuttle, Lillian Randolph, Walter Tetley, William Randolph (composer, conductor), Jim Bannon, Leonard L. Levinson (writer). 29:28.

Hallmark Playhouse - Free Land (11-25-48) Sep 20, 2009

Show notes

THE HALLMARK PLAYHOUSE was heard over CBS stations Thursday evenings. This drama anthology of 30-minute shows was sponsored by, of course, Hallmark Greeting Cards. It was preceded by the RADIO READER'S DIGEST, which ran from September 13, 1942 thorugh June 3, 1948. Hallmark sponsored the RADIO READER'S DIGEST from January 13, 1946 to it's end. On Feb. 8, 1953, the series name and format was changed. It was now called THE HALLMARK HALL OF FAME and presented biographal sketches of famous persons, past and present. The new format was used until the end of the 1955 season. The exception to the new format was the broadcast each Christmas season of "A Christmas Carol". Like other dramatic series of this time, this one made use of major screen actors in the productions. James Hilton, author of "Random Harvest", "Lost Horizon" and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" plus others, served as host and Narrator. Dee Engelbach produced and directed the shows. Jean Holloway was the writer. Sound Effects were by Harry Essman and Gene Twombly. Musical conductor was Lyn Murray. The show's theme was "Dream of Olwne" by Charles Williams.THIS EPISODE:November 25, 1948. CBS network. "Free Land". Sponsored by: Hallmark Cards. A good story about the tribulations of a pioneering couple in the Dakota Territory. Martha Scott, Jack Kirkwood. 1/2 hour.

CBS Radio Mystery Theater - Witches Almanac (05-26-75) Sep 19, 2009

Show notes

CBS Radio Mystery Theater - As you walk through the creaking door you enter into another world, the world of imagination. This world is inside you, a part of you, and you take this journey alone. Each person hears and then sees with his or her mind's eye the events portrayed within these dramas. All of us interprets what they hear differently. The images we see is unique to ourselves. A voice becomes a person, living, breathing they come alive. They take on a physical form and characteristics that we assign to them. The wonders of your own mind are boundless. Scary thoughts? Perhaps, but what powers they bring us! To exercise one's imagination is to exercise one's soul. These dramas provide us with an escape from reality. To adventures beyond our own lives. Enjoy them. And pleasant dreams!THIS EPISODE:May 26, 1975. Program #280. CBS net. "The Witch's Almanac". Sponsored by: Buick. E. G. Marshall (host), Ian Martin (writer), Virginia Payne, Robert Dryden, Jada Rowland, Marshall Borden, Dan Ocko. 52 minutes.

The Milton Berle Show - Salute To Gambling (02-03-48) Sep 18, 2009

Show notes

The Milton Berle Show - In 1934-36, Berle was heard regularly on The Rudy Vallee Hour, and he got much publicity as a regular on The Gillette Original Community Sing, a Sunday night comedy-variety program broadcast on CBS from September 6, 1936 to August 29, 1937. In 1939, he was the host of Stop Me If You've Heard This One with panelists spontaneously finishing jokes sent in by listeners. Three Ring Time, a comedy-variety show sponsored by Ballantine Ale was followed by a 1943 program sponsored by Campbell's Soups. The audience participation show Let Yourself Go (1944-45) could best be described as slapstick radio with studio audience members acting out long suppressed urges (often directed at host Berle). Kiss and Make Up, on CBS in 1946, featured the problems of contestants decided by a jury from the studio audience with Berle as the Judge. He also made guest appearances on many comedy-variety radio programs during the 1930s and 1940s. Scripted by Hal Block and Martin Ragaway, The Milton Berle Show brought Berle together with Arnold Stang, later a familiar face as Berle's TV sidekick. Others in the cast were Pert Kelton, Mary Schipp, Jack Albertson, Arthur Q. Bryan, Ed Begley, vocalist Dick Forney and announcer Frank Gallop.THIS EPISODE:February 3, 1948. NBC network. Sponsored by: Philip Morris. A salute to gambling. Miltie has a friendly poker game with the boys. Frank Gallop (announcer), Milton Berle, Ray Bloch and His Orchestra. 1/2 hour.

Amos & Andy - Kingfish Thinks Sapphire Wants To Kill Him (05-11-45) Sep 17, 2009

Show notes

Amos 'n' Andy was a situation comedy popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s. The show began as one of the first radio comedy serials, written and voiced by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll and originating from station WMAQ in Chicago, Illinois. After the series was first broadcast in 1928, it grew in popularity and became a huge influence on the radio serials that followed. Amos 'n' Andy creators Gosden and Correll were white actors familiar with minstrel traditions. They met in Durham, North Carolina in 1920, and by the fall of 1925, they were performing nightly song-and-patter routines on the Chicago Tribune's station WGN. Since the Tribune syndicated Sidney Smith's popular comic strip The Gumps, which had successfully introduced the concept of daily continuity, WGN executive Ben McCanna thought the notion of a serialized drama could also work on radio. He suggested to Gosden and Correll that they adapt The Gumps to radio. They instead proposed a series about "a couple of colored characters" and borrowed certain elements of The Gumps. Their new series, Sam 'n' Henry, began January 12, 1926, fascinating radio listeners throughout the Midwest. That series became popular enough that in late 1927 Gosden and Correll requested that it be distributed to other stations on phonograph records in a "chainless chain" concept that would have been the first use of radio syndication as we know it today. When WGN rejected the idea, Gosden and Correll quit the show and the station that December. Contractually, their characters belonged to WGN, so when Gosden and Correll left WGN, they performed in personal appearances but could not use the character names from the radio show.THIS EPISODE:May 11, 1945. NBC network. Commercials deleted. The Kingfish is convinced that Sapphire plans to kill him for the insurance money. Freeman Gosden, Charles Correll, Ernestine Wade, Lou Lubin, Harlow Wilcox (announcer). 23:05.

Arch Oboler's Plays - The Ivory Tower (7-08-39) Sep 16, 2009

Show notes

Arch Oboler's Plays was a radio drama series written, produced and directed by Arch Oboler. Minus a sponsor, it ran for one year, airing Saturday evenings on NBC from March 25, 1939 to March 23, 1940 and revived five years later on Mutual for a sustaining summer run from April 5, 1945 to October 11, 1945. Leading film actors were heard on this series, including Gloria Blondell, Eddie Cantor, James Cagney, Ronald Colman, Joan Crawford, Greer Garson, Edmund Gwenn, Van Heflin, Katharine Hepburn, Elsa Lanchester, Peter Lorre, Frank Lovejoy, Raymond Massey, Burgess Meredith, Paul Muni, Alla Nazimova, Edmond O'Brien, Geraldine Page, Gale Sondergaard, Franchot Tone and George Zucco.

Strike It Rich - August 21, 1951 Sep 15, 2009

Show notes

Strike It Rich - The show made it's debut on CBS radio in 1947. Strike it rich was on CBS's primetime schedule July 4, 1951 through January 12, 1955. There were two attempts to revive the show, with Bert Parks as host in 1973 and Tom Kelly as host in 1978. Neither revival was successful. A syndicated game show of the same name with host Joe Garagiola was aired 1986-1987, but it had a different format. Known as "The quiz show with a heart" and the contestants who appeared on the show were people in need of money or down on their luck. A player was given $30 and bet part of his or her bank on the ability to answer four general knowledge questions. If unable to answer the questions correctly, the contestant could turn to the "heart line" where viewers would call in and donate money or merchandise. When needy families desparate to become contestants began arriving in New York on one-way tickets, the city's Welfare Department labeled the game show "a national disgrace."

Richard Diamond Private Detective - Red Rose (03-02-51) Sep 13, 2009

Show notes

Richard Diamond, Private Detective was a radio show starring Dick Powell which aired from 1949 to 1953, first on NBC, then ABC and finally on CBS. The title character was a rather light-hearted detective who often ended the episodes singing to his girlfriend, Helen. The television series was produced by Powell's company, Four Star Television, and that series ran for 3 years from 1957 to 1960. On TV, David Janssen played the hard boiled private eye and his secretary renamed "Sam", was only ever shown on camera from the waist down, most assurardidly to display her beautiful legs. It was later leared that the legs belonged to Mary Tyler Moore. Original music by Frank DeVol and pete rugolo and later by richard shores. Good scripts, a solid cast and Powell's exceptional talent made a good time 30 minute program that was quite popular during that Golden Age of Radio. So Let's sit back now, relax and enjoy this truly otr radio classic.,…, Dick powell as Richard Diamond.., Private Detective.THIS EPISODE:March 2, 1951. ABC network. Sponsored by: Camels, Prince Albert tobacco. Diamond is hired by a man who has hired a killer to murder him, then changes his mind. He hires Diamond to protect him from the assassin, who wears a red rose. Listen for Diamond interviewing a dance instructor named, "Belle de Canto!" Arthur Q. Bryan, Dick Powell, Frank Worth (music), Helen Mack (director), Blake Edwards (writer), Virginia Gregg, Wilms Herbert. 29:43.

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