Old Time Radio Shows

A listener writes in looking to find an episode of John Nesbitt's Passing Parade which he heard around 1950 on the radio - probably a filler on a Sunday concert program. It concerned a counterfeiter in Spain who briefly lifted the Depression in Spain.  He bought a bank and forged an order to print a new issue of Spanish currency by the British printer who always printed it. With new money he made loans to the locals which revived the economy.  He retired the new issue currency as he received deposits of legal currency.  As prosperity flowed out from his community a sharp eyed banker in another city noticed that some currency in circulation had never been authorized and was thus illegal.  An investigation found him out, closed his bank, declared the money counterfeit, and plunged Spain back into Depression.  The banker was subsequently consulted on finance in his jail cell for his brilliance in finance. The story has stuck in my mind these 60+ year...

Detective drama  (1945-1950) Enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend. Chester Morris plays  Boston Blackie , "a modern Robin Hood, a little on the gangster side, wise to all the tricks but always reversing to do a lot of good. Boston Blackie  is especially apt at slipping the rug out from under them and making the police look like foolish lollygags. Smart Boston always solves the  mysteries  before his arch nemesis, harebrained Police Inspector Faraday. Master sleuther and smooth talker, Boston can always slip in some time between crime scenes for his gal Mary Wesley (played by Lesley Woods). For more hard hitting detective action, don't forget to call on some of the most popular detectives:  Phillip Marlowe ,  Richard Diamond ,  Let George Do It ,  The Saint , and   The Falcon .

A rendition of  When Irish Eyes are Smiling  plays in the background and Archie answers the phone with the  show’s trademark signature, “Hello, Duffy’s Tavern, where the elite meet to eat.” The program always opened with a call from the owner of  Duffy’s Tavern . Never seen, the boss would check up on his manager, Archie via phone. Although Archie never had direct supervision, Duffy knew he had to keep tabs on Archie.  Duffy’s Tavern  premiered March 1, 1941 on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) network. Created by Ed Gardner (no relation to Ava Gardner ), the show centered on Archie and his relationships with the local bar customers. Gardner, a veteran radio director had prior success with  Ripley’s Believe it or Not!   and the  Rudy Vallee Hour . Ironically, Gardner professed that he never touched alcohol. Nevertheless, his imaginary bar enjoyed success for just over a decade.  By 1942, the show moved to the National Broadcas...

--> A counter part to the Smart-Aleck Kid, a staple character in Family Sit-coms, is the Big-Hearted Blue Collar Oaf. Both are interesting characters to build a show around. The SAK is typified by the long time comic page regular, Dennis the Menace, and immortalized on Radio by such favorites as Henry Aldrich , My Son Jeep, and Leroy from The Great Gildersleeve . The modern incarnation of the SAK is Bart Simpson. Fox TV's The Simpsons is unique in that it features the adventures and misadventures of both a SAK and a BHBCO. Fox made a minor splash on Sunday nights beginning in the late 1980s with a pair of BHBCOs, Both Homer Simpson and Al Bundy from Married With Children . Married pays backhanded homage the original BHBCO, Chester A. Riley from Radio's Life Of Riley . While Married With Children often pushed the boundaries of bad taste, Life of Riley was wholesome family fun. Riley was originally intended as a radio vehicle for Groucho Marx (the Riley ...

On December 27, 1932, Radio City Music Hall opened its doors to a packed house of 6,000 people. Billed as  “The Showplace of a Nation,” Radio City Music Hall enamored the audience with over 500 performers on its opening night. Some notables included dancer/choreographer Martha Graham, vaudeville actor/film star Ray Bolger, the newly formed Rockettes and a performance by a military band.  Unfortunately, the programming lasted much longer than expected, causing half the audience to exit midway through the event. Subsequent events and programs were fine-tuned and changed. In 1933, Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) pictures began to sponsor and premier films on a regular basis. Over the years, entertainment would extend to symphony orchestras, stage productions and beginning in the 1970’s, rock and pop concerts.  At 60 feet wide and 100 feet deep, the Great Stage of Radio City Music Hall has supported thousands of performers over a span of nearly eighty years (which includes t...

Christmas seems to bring out the best in most of us, even when our best isn't that much to brag about! In 1936, Gracie Allen takes time out from her crush on Tony Martin to share with us a play she has written, Charles Dickens ' A Christmas Carol . George Burns is surprised, having thought that Charles Dickens had written it, but in the tradition of the Burns and Allen Show , he is corrected by his lovely bride. Of course for Gracie, we are haunted by the Ghosts Radio Past, Present and Future. These ghosts wind up being impressions of Eddie Cantor , Jack Benny , and Fred Allen to George's Scrooge, the Joke Miser, who steals everyone else's jokes! The real  Fred Allen  celebrates Christmas of 1937 with Portland Hoffa and the rest of the Town Hall Tonight crew, joined by his old Vaudeville pal, Jack Benny. This is a fun paring for Old Time Radio fans, taking place within a few months of the opening salvos of the famous Jack Benny, Fred Allen Feud . Be...

While listening to  Mail Call  the other day I got to thinking about the real Mail Call. When I entered the service, mail call was still a big deal; we would all live for our letters from home. When the mail bags came on board, if we weren't working or on watch we would haunt the passageway until "Stamps", the under-appreciated Postal Clerk, could get the letters and packages sorted. By the time I left the Service, emails and satellite phones had begun be the most important means of keeping in touch with the folks back home. Although these were immediate means of communication, electronics can not replace a letter that your sweetheart has taken the time to write and held in her hand. Finding time to write has always been a problem for the serviceman. That is part of why the picture postcard was so great for G.I.s. The picture of cartoon on the front of the card would help to frame the message that he was trying to send home, which he didn't have the time t...