Breaking Walls

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BW - EP132—012: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—Looking Ahead To Thanksgiving Oct 27, 2022

Show notes

We’re going to stop here, but we’re not even close to finishing with I Love A Mystery. Next time on Breaking Walls, while we spend Thanksgiving with Carlton E. Morse, Russell Thorson, Jim Boles, and Tony Randall, we utter a simple statement: Bury Your Dead, Arizona. The reading material used in this episode was: American Radio Networks: A History — By Jim Cox On the Air — By John Dunning Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio — By Christopher Sterling WOR: The First Sixty Years As well as articles from the archives of • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Daily News • The New York Times • Radio Daily • The Saturday Evening Post —————————— On the interview front: • Jim Boles, Bret Morrison, Carlton E. Morse, and Russell Thorson, were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Joseph Julian was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • Harry Bartell and André Baruch were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. •Orson Welles was with Johnny Carson —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Halloween — By Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians • Manhattan — By Blossom Dearie • Flag of Columbia — By Jacqueline Schwab • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers The reading material used in today’s episode was: American Radio Networks: A History — By Jim Cox On the Air — By John Dunning Network Radio Ratings — By Jim Ramsburg The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio — By Christopher Sterling WOR: The First Sixty Years As well as articles from the archives of • The Los Angeles Times • The New York Daily News • The New York Times • Radio Daily • The Saturday Evening Post —————————— On the interview front: • Jim Boles, Bret Morrison, Carlton E. Morse, and Russell Thorson, were with Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com. • Joseph Julian was with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these at Goldenage-WTIC.org. • Harry Bartell and André Baruch were with SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com. •Orson Welles was with Johnny Carson —————————— Selected music featured in today’s episode was: • Halloween — By Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians • Manhattan — By Blossom Dearie • Flag of Columbia — By Jacqueline Schwab • Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns —————————— A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. —————————— Thank you to: Tony Adams Steven Allmon Orson Orsen Chandler Phil Erickson Jessica Hanna Perri Harper Briana Isaac Thomas M. Joyce Ryan Kramer Earl Millard Gary Mollica Barry Nadler Christian Neuhaus Aimee Pavy Ray Shaw Filipe A Silva John Williams —————————— WallBreakers Links: Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

Frontier Gentleman — Full Pilot — The Shelton Brothers Oct 26, 2022

Show notes

James Scully here. You’re about to listen to the pilot episode of a reimagined Frontier Gentleman, which was originally created by Antony Ellis for CBS. In 2020 I met Mr. Ellis’ daughter, Briana Ellis-Isaac thanks to an episode on the original series I produced for Breaking Walls. Briana and I became fast friends who shared an appreciation for the Golden Age of Radio, and a mutual belief in the growth of new scripted audio fiction productions. In 2021 Briana hired me to help bring Frontier Gentleman back to life in a new adaptation using Mr. Ellis’ previously written scripts and updating the story in order to introduce Frontier Gentleman to current audiences. This is that pilot episode. To find out more about the new Frontier Gentleman. Please go to FrontierGentleman.com And now, enjoy the show.

BW - EP132—011: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—Finishing With I Love A Mystery Oct 25, 2022

Show notes

Carlton E. Morse’ I Love A Mystery first took to the air Weekdays at 3:15PM on NBC’s West-Coast network in January of 1939. Michael Raffetto starred as Jack Packard, head of the A-1 Detective Agency, with Barton Yarborough as Texan Doc Long, and Walter Paterson as the British Reggie Yorke. The show told of three world travelers in search of action, thrills, and mystery. From the ghost towns of wind-swept Nevada, to the jungles of vampire-infested Nicaragua, they righted wrongs, rescued women, battled evil, and explored unknown parts of the globe. By that autumn it was airing nationally. The show ran from the west coast for five years, first over NBC’s Red Network, then its Blue, and then CBS. It went off the air at the end of 1944, but was revived in the spring of 1948 on ABC and then from New York for Mutual Broadcasting in October of 1949. It ran for three more years, this time starring Russell Thorson, Jim Boles, and Tony Randall, as Thorson remembered. Jack Packard was a hero with quiet strength. Once a medical student, he shrugged off superstition in favor of logic. Reggie Yorke was educated, strong, and had the British stiff upper lip. Doc Long was a red-headed alley fighter from Texas who defied the laws of chance and loved women. Three characters could be murdered in a single episode. People were killed in ghoulish, imaginative, and sometimes mystifying ways. Throats were ripped out by wolves; there were garrotings, poisonings, and mysterious slashings. On Halloween, 1949, part one of a new story, “The Thing That Cries in The Night” aired over Mutual.

BW - EP132—010: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—Murder By Experts Oct 23, 2022

Show notes

Murder By Experts debuted over Mutual on June 13th, 1949. Written by David Kogan and Bob Arthur, it quickly gained the respect and approval from the radio world at large. Mystery writers like John Dickson Carr and Brett Halliday hosted with New York’s best character talent like Lawson Zerbe, Ann Shepherd, Santos Ortega, Ralph Bell, and William Zuckert being featured. This is from the debut episode, “Summer Heat” which aired on June 13th, 1949. Murder By Experts won a prestigious Edgar Award in 1950, and aired until December 17th, 1951.

BW - EP132—009: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—Truman Wins Reelection Oct 20, 2022

Show notes

On Tuesday November 2nd, 1948 The United States held its forty-first presidential election. If you’d tuned into the results early in the evening, you’d have been convinced that the pre-election polls were correct and Thomas Dewey would become the next president. You’d have been wrong. Dewey ran a low-risk campaign. His advisers believed all he had to do to win was avoid major mistakes. So Dewey spoke in platitudes, avoided controversial issues, and was vague on what he planned to do as president. But, many republicans disliked Dewey, feeling he was too cold and stiff, and surprisingly against outlawing the Communist Party. Believing he had nothing to lose, Harry Truman ran a feisty campaign. He ridiculed Dewey’s platitudes, and claimed Communists were rooting for a GOP victory to ensure another Great Depression. Energizing traditional Democrats, as well as Catholic and Jewish voters, Truman also fared surprisingly well with Midwestern farmers. When it was all over, Harry Truman’s victory was considered one of the greatest election upsets in American history, garnering 303 electoral votes to Thomas Dewey's 189. With simultaneous success in the 1948 congressional elections, the Democrats also regained control of both the House and Senate, which they lost in 1946.

BW - EP132—008: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—Halloween 1948 With The Shadow And Sherlock Holmes Oct 18, 2022

Show notes

At 5PM Mutual’s most famous program, The Shadow signed on. The show was in its eleventh season on the air in 1948. Andre Baruch handled emcee duties while Grace Matthews played Margo Lane. Bret Morrison was Lamont Cranston. Halloween’s episode was called “Murder By A Corpse.” This season’s Shadow rating was 13.2. It was Mutual’s highest-rated show. As night descended on New York on October 31st, temperatures dropped into the upper 40s and an eerie fog rolled in. Police were ready for mischief as children went trick or treating. The Halloween tradition was still seen by many as an act of begging and vandalism. In response, members of the Madison Square Boys Club paraded through the Lower East Side carrying a banner that read "American Boys Don't Beg.” Politically, Progressive Henry Wallace was making a dent in Harry Truman’s campaign. On Election Day, Truman still carried the City, collecting 1.6 million votes to Dewey’s 1.1 million, but Henry Wallace received over four-hundred thousand votes. It’s this split that allowed Thomas Dewey to narrowly win New York state by sixty-thousand votes, giving the republicans forty-seven important electorates. At home, the Mutual Broadcasting System’s prime time programming featured news and music, but at 7PM literature’s most famous detective—Sherlock Holmes—took to the air from WOR. Sherlock Holmes peaked on radio between 1939 and 1946 with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce playing Holmes and Watson. They made over a dozen films and their rating climbed to 14.1 in 1942 on NBC. The next year, the entire cast moved to the Mutual Broadcasting System. Petri wine sponsored the series. Famed radio character actor Harry Bartel became the announcer. They remained on Mutual for three seasons until Holmes left for ABC. Basil Rathbone stayed with Mutual to star in a new series called Scotland Yard. Nigel Bruce still played Watson while Tom Conway became Holmes. When the Semler Company discontinued sponsorship in the spring of 1947, ABC canceled the show. That summer Clipper Craft Clothing signed to pay the bills. The program moved back to Mutual with John Stanley as Holmes and Alfred Shirley as Watson. By Halloween 1948 it was airing Sundays at 7PM. As radio audiences changed, Holmes and Watson couldn’t keep up. That Spring Mutual canceled the series. ABC revived it for one final season before the last version of an American Sherlock Holmes series departed the air.

BW - EP132—007: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—True Detective Mysteries Oct 16, 2022

Show notes

At 4:30PM on Sunday October 31st, 1948, True Detective Mysteries signed on. The program had a rating of 10.7. It was Mutual’s number two show overall. Based on items from True Detective magazine, the series was sponsored by Oh Henry Candy bars. Many of the stories unfolded from the criminal’s viewpoint: the show was much like Gangbusters in allowing the audience to witness the fatal mistakes that led to the culprit’s capture. Borrowing yet another page from Gangbusters, the magazine offered rewards of $500 (later $1000) for information leading to the arrest of real criminals. Clues were given after each broadcast: these were highly descriptive, focusing on scars and deformities, and the show resulted in many arrests.

BW - EP132—006: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—The House Of Mystery Oct 13, 2022

Show notes

By October 31st, 1948, The Mutual Broadcasting System’s flagship WOR in New York was approaching its twenty-seventh anniversary. It was argued that no station matched its signal coverage. WOR-Mutual was known for its cop shows, soap operas, and on Sundays, it’s mysteries. At 4PM eastern time, House of Mystery signed on for General Foods. John Griggs was Roger Elliott, ghost hunter and scientist of the supernatural. The show was directed by Olga Druce, who guided the program along a fine line. Because House of Mystery was geared for children, it couldn’t be overtly gruesome or vulgar.

BW - EP132—005: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—1948 Halloween News With Arthur Bario Oct 10, 2022

Show notes

The 1948 DNC convened in July with President Truman’s approval rating as low as 32%. Northern Democrats pushed for a strong civil rights platform, which the President was in favor of. Conservative southern Dems were opposed. Moderates feared voter alienation. When the convention adopted the civil rights plank in a close vote, Southern Dems walked out and split off, nominating Strom Thurmond for President. They became known as Dixiecrats, hoping to force a contingency in the House of Representatives, extracting concessions from either Truman or Republican nominee Thomas Dewey. The post-war strikes didn’t end. On October 26th the Radio Writers Guild struck for fair wages and for RWG guideline adherence by ad agencies. Their focus was the coming new medium: Television. Negotiations would continue into 1949. On Halloween 1948, the Presidential election was on everyone’s mind. The night before, Thomas Dewey ended his campaign at Madison Square Garden. He’d run against FDR in 1944, losing, but received 46% of the popular vote. After President Roosevelt passed away, there were many who felt Dewey made a better post-war choice than Harry Truman. In the 1946 New York Gubernatorial election, Dewey won by nearly 700,000 votes, the most in New York history to that point. Tuesday, November 2nd was the 41st U.S. presidential election in history. Truman was a massive underdog with South Carolina’s Governor Strom Thurmond opposing on the Dixiecrat ticket, and another FDR VP, Henry Wallace as the Progressive Party nominee. Meanwhile in the Middle East, The Arab-Israeli war raged on. Fighting started the previous November. It ramped after Palestine was officially dissolved, and Israel declared Independence on May 14th. Count Bernadotte of Visborg was assassinated in September by four members of Lehi, a Jewish Zionist group. One of whom—Yitzhak Shamir would go on to be the Seventh Prime Minister of Israel. Operation Hiram ended on Halloween with Israeli forces claiming to have complete control of Galilee. The fighting would continue into 1949. The Cold War was growing, with Americans investigating potential communist cells within the government, fearing the world could split into two distinct groups: those who supported democracy, and those who supported totalitarianism.

BW - EP132—004: Mutual Mystery Shows Of The 1940s—Quiet Please Oct 09, 2022

Show notes

In 1934 Chicago was the center for radio production. Writer and director Wyllis Cooper created a program for NBC affiliate WENR that drastically altered the tone of horror. Cooper had been writing advertising copy in the late 1920s when he entered radio, working first as a continuity editor, then for NBC's Empire Builders. His idea was to offer listeners a late-night terror program, at a time when other stations were mostly airing music. It emphasized crime thrillers and the supernatural. The first series of shows were fifteen minutes and ran on Wednesdays at midnight to local audiences. It was called Lights Out. In April, the series expanded to a half-hour. The following year, it went national. Cooper stayed on until 1936 when he left to write film scripts in Los Angeles. He wrote The Phantom Creeps and The Son of Frankenstein before returning for the final season of The Campbell Playhouse on CBS and The Army Hour on NBC. Then in the Spring of 1947 a new opportunity arose in New York. Quiet Please debuted on Sunday June 8th, 1947 at 3:30PM over the Mutual Broadcasting System. Quiet Please elevated the genre to high art. For the weekly lead, Cooper cast Ernest Chappell, The Campbell Playhouse announcer. He proved a natural, playing Scotsman, oil riggers, drunks, and archaeologists. They were every-men who got tied up in the otherworldly. Few supporting voices could be afforded or deployed. Those few were part of New York radio’s elite like Frank and Claudia Morgan. The cast was told to play it straight. It resulted in an almost dream-like study in horror, like on October 27th, 1947 when Quiet Please presented “Don’t Tell Me About Halloween.” In March of 1948, CBS executive Davidson Taylor sent an internal memo expressing his interest in purchasing the Mutual-sustained series for CBS. Taylor had a keen eye for talent, but nothing materialized. Quiet Please shifted to ABC in September of 1948, but never found sponsorship and went off the air on June 25th, 1949.

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