Boxcars711 Old Time Radio

Latest Episodes:

Boston Blackie - Double Feature (08-04-44) and (08-06-45) May 12, 2009

Show notes

The Boston Blackie radio series, also starring Morris, began June 23, 1944, on NBC as a summer replacement for The Amos 'n' Andy Show. Sponsored by Rinso, the series continued until September 15 of that year. Unlike the concurrent films, Blackie had a steady romantic interest in the radio show: Lesley Woods appeared as Blackie's girlfriend Mary Wesley. Harlow Wilcox was the show's announcer. On April 11, 1945, Richard Kollmar took over the title role in a radio series syndicated by Frederic W. Ziv to Mutual and other network outlets. Over 200 episodes of this series were produced between 1944 and October 25, 1950. Other sponsors included Lifebuoy Soap, Champagne Velvet beer, and R&H beer. While investigating mysteries, Blackie invaribly encountered harebrained Police Inspector Farraday (Maurice Tarplin) and always solved the mystery to Farraday's amazement. Initially, friction surfaced in the relationship between Blackie and Farraday, but as the series continued, Farraday recognized Blackie's talents and requested assistance. Blackie dated Mary Wesley (Jan Miner), and for the first half of the series, his best pal Shorty was always on hand. The humorless Farraday was on the receiving end of Blackie's bad puns and word play. Kent Taylor starred in the half-hour TV series, The Adventures of Boston Blackie. Syndicated in 1951, it ran for 58 episodes, continuing in repeats over the following decade.

TODAY'S SHOW:

Alice Manweather (08-04-44) and Hipnotic Murder (08-06-45)

The Haunting Hour - (Hands Of Mr. Smith) and (Mystery Of Southern Star) 1948 May 11, 2009

Show notes

The Haunting Hour - 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."

TODAY'S SHOW

1848 Program #3. NBC syndication. "The Hands Of Mr. Smith". Commercials added locally. A fine story with an unexpected ending about Tiny, a big guy whose hands have a mind of their own! The date is approximate . 28:10.

1948. Program #33. NBC syndication. "The Mystery Of The Southern Star". Commercials added locally. A missing diamond aboard ship, and a dead body in a trunk. 27:42.

The Falcon - Double Feature (Rich Racketeer 11-05-50) and (Gangster's Girl 04-04-51) May 09, 2009

Show notes

The Adventures Of The Falcon - This hard boiled spy drama began as an RKO Radio Pictures theatrical serial in the 1940s, went on radio in 1945, and then came to TV ten years later in this Syndicated series produced for distribution by NBC Films; Charles McGraw had been in many motion pictures before and after including "The Killers", "Spartacus" and "Cimarron"; in this series he played the title role of a man whose real name was supposedly Mike Waring, an American agent whose code name was "Falcon"; Later Charles McGraw starred in a short lived TV version of "Casablanca" (1955 - 1956) in the character of Rick; He also had a role on the detective drama "Staccato" (1959) Actor McGraw (whose birth name was Charles Butters) met an unfortunate death in real life when he fell through a shower glass door in 1980 at his home in Studio City, CA.

TODAY'S SHOW:

November 5, 1950. NBC network. "The Case Of The Rich Racketeer". Sponsored by: Kraft. A gangster double crosses his lawyer and slaps his wife, right after being acquitted of tax evasion. Later, he bears up his girlfriend's brother. Not-too-surprisingly, he's soon found murdered. Les Damon, Ed Herlihy (announcer), Drexel Drake (creator). 29:30.

March 4, 1951. NBC network. "The Case Of The Gangster's Girl". Sponsored by: Kraft Velveeta. Not auditioned. A girl tries to break off with her boyfriend, but he loves her too much to let her go. Will he love her to death? Les Damon, Ed Herlihy (announcer), Drexel Drake (creator), Bernard L. Schubert (producer), Richard Lewis (director), Jerome Epstein (writer), Arlo (music), Jan Miner. 30:56.

The Whistler - Lady On A Yacht (11-29-53) May 08, 2009

Show notes

The Whistler was one of radio's most popular mystery dramas, with a 13-year run from May 16, 1942 until September 22, 1955. If it now seems to have been influenced explicitly by The Shadow, The Whistler was no less popular or credible with its listeners, the writing was first class for its genre, and it added a slightly macabre element of humor that sometimes went missing in The Shadow's longer-lived crime stories. Writer-producer J. Donald Wilson established the tone of the show during its first two years, and he was followed in 1944 by producer-director George Allen. Other directors included Sterling Tracy and Sherman Marks with final scripts by Joel Malone and Harold Swanton. A total of 692 episodes were produced, yet despite the series' fame, over 200 episodes are lost today. In 1946, a local Chicago version of The Whistler with local actors aired Sundays on WBBM, sponsored by Meister Brau beer.

THIS EPISODE:

November 29, 1953. CBS network origination, United States Air Forces In Europe rebroadcast. "Lady On A Yacht". A German woman, pretending to be from Argentina, plans to wed a fabulously wealthy American. An artist on a small Italian island presents a considerable complication. It sounds like John Dehner is in the cast. John Dehner (?). 23:04.

Inheritance - America's Greatest Bargain (07-11-54) May 07, 2009

Show notes

Inheritance - A Dramatized look into American History. NBC Networt in cooperation with the AMERICAN LEGION Sundays 4:30 - 5:00 pm PRUDUCER/DIRECTOR: Albert McCleary ANNOUNCER: John Wald MUSIC: Robert Armbruster.

THIS EPISODE:

Inheritance. July 11, 1954. Program #14. NBC network. "America's Greatest Bargain". Sustaining. Not auditioned. 4:30 P. M. The program is produced in co-operation with The American Legion. There is no after-drama speaker. Albert McCleary (producer, director), John Wald (announcer), Robert Armbruster (composer, conductor), Milt Kahn (writer), Whitfield Connor, Dennis Patrick, Clarence Straight, Gil Harmon, Ann Seaton, Tyler McVey, Jay Barney, Ben Wright, Donald Lawton. 29:32.

The Campbell Playhouse - The Bad Man (05-19-39) May 06, 2009

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:

May 19, 1939. CBS network. "The Bad Man". Sponsored by: Campbell's Soup. Comedy-Adventure about a Mexican Bandito and the mixed bag of Americans who cross his path. Bernard Herrmann (composer, conductor), Diana Stevens, Edwin Jerome, Ernest Chappell (announcer), Everett Sloane, Frank Readick, Ida Lupino, Orson Welles (host), Ray Collins (narrator), William Alland. 59:55.

Crime Does Not Pay - Death On The Doorstep (02-20-50) May 05, 2009

Show notes

Crime Does Not Pay was an anthology radio crime drama series based on MGM's short film series. The films began in 1935 with Crime Does Not Pay: Buried Loot. For the most part, actors who appeared in B-films were featured, but occasionally, one of MGM's major stars would make an appearance. The radio series aired in New York on WMGM (October 10, 1949-October 10, 1951) and then moved to the Mutual network (January 7-December 22, 1952). Actors included Bela Lugosi, Everett Sloane, Ed Begley, John Loder and Lionel Stander.

THIS EPISODE:

February 20, 1950. Program #20. MGM syndication. "Death On The Doorstep". Commercials added locally. An out-of-town hit-man does his job with a smile on his face and a silencer on his rifle. John Beal, Jon Gart (composer, conductor), Marx B. Loeb (director), Burton B. Turkas (technical advisor), Bob Williams (announcer), Ira Marion (writer). 27:34.

The Hall Of Fantsy - Black Figurine Of Death (01-26-53) May 04, 2009

Show notes

The Hall Of Fantasy - This thirty-minute suspense series was written and produced by Richard Thorne who also played many of the roles. There were at least 35 episodes broadcast, telling tales of the supernatural and the dark forces of the unknown. There were often terrifying tales of vampires, killer fog, the walking dead and anything and everything that your imagination could stretch to.

THIS EPISOPE:

January 26, 1953. Mutual network, WGN, Chicago origination. "The Black Figurine Of Death". Sustaining. Uncle Amos and his little statuette have fun from beyond the grave. One of the announcements has possibly been deleted. . 25 minutes.

The Creaking Door - White Scarf Strangler (1953) May 02, 2009

Show notes

The Creaking Door was an old-time radio series of horror and suspense shows originating in South Africa. There are at present anywhere from 34-37 extant episodes in MP3 circulation, yet no currently available program logs for the series indicate the year of the series' broadcast (though it was likely sometime in the 1950s, given the generally high audio quality of the available shows), or the total number of episodes, and only a handful of them are known by their broadcast order. The stories are thrillers in the Inner Sanctum vein, and generally thought of favorably by most fans of OTR.

Cruise Of The Poll Parrot - 3 Episodes From 1937 May 01, 2009

Show notes

Cruise Of The Poll Parrot - In 1922, businessman Paul Parrot sold his shoe business "Poll Parrot Shoes" to the International Shoe Company, which was already selling Red Goose and Weatherbird shoes. The shoes were designed for children and so sponsoring a children's radio show seemed like a good idea. In 1937, they launched a syndicated children's serial named "Cruise of the Poll Parrot". The show was sold in thirteen segment blocks, and three complete blocks exist today. The shows exponentially boosted shoe sales, helping International compete against the leader in children's shoes: Buster Brown.The main character for the show was a 24 year old man from St. Louis, Missouri, named Marvin Miller. This was some of his first radio work. He was the voice for the main character, Captain Roy Dalton, the Master of the ship Poll Parrot, and also the voice of the parrot that was the pet of the Captain. Marvin Miller went on to work on hundreds of other radio shows, mostly as an announcer. He acted in a number of films, most notably in 1947 starring with Humphrey Bogart in "Dead Reckoning". Miller played a crooked gambler's sadistic henchman named Krause. He became most famous as Michael Anthony, the man who handed out the million dollar checks in the 1950s TV series, "The Millionaire". Miller died in Los Angeles of a heart attack in 1984 at the age of 71.

TODAY'S SHOW:

Ep01 "The Crew Is Hired" (09-25-37) Ep02 "Plans For The Voyage Are Discussed (10-02-37) and Ep03 "Johnny Is Captured By El Teste" (10-09-37)

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