Old Time Radio Shows

Summer Replacement radio shows allowed big name radio stars to have a break while up and coming stars got a break into show business. As radio's influence grew in the 1930s and 1940s, big name and big money radio ruled the airwaves. Many radio programs centered around a special radio star such as Jack Benny , Fred Allen , Dinah Shore , Red Skeleton , Bob Hope , and George Burns and Gracie Allen . As these stars fame and influence grew, they requested special privileges and most insisted on summer hiatus from their radio gigs. Many radio stars like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby were also film stars and were able to leverage time away from their radio programs to make films. Hope and Crosby created the films from the "Road to...(Singapore, Rio, Hong Kong, etc) series while on break from their respective radio shows. However, Some radio stars like married couple Jim and Marian Jordan, who portrayed Fibber McGee and Molly on radio from 1935 until 1959, took a real break and used t...

The back-stories of popular Comic Book Heroes complicated enough to make TV and  Radio Soap Opera  Serials look like "Dick and Jane" stories. The comics provided a good deal of material for  mystery  radio  theater   producers and writers to work with during the  Golden Age of Radio . Just give a listen to  Little Orphan Annie ,  Superman ,  Terry and the Pirates , or  Blondie   to see what we mean. These shows are all well done and enjoyable, but they raise the question "What about  Batman ?" While  Superman   enjoyed a great deal of success on the radio,  Batman  remained a side-kick for  Superman , joining the series in Sept 1945 (years before the two heroes would pair in the comic pages) and sometimes taking over the story later in the series (to allow  Superman   star Bud Collyer some vacation time). Some have conjectured that the Batman/Superman tie-in was intended a...

Enjoy this amazing old time radio program for  Memorial Day :  This experimental old time radio episode follows US troops occupying France and their philosophical and petty rambling pondering their role in the world. Columbia Workshop's "Brewsie and Willie" from Oct 12, 1946 was written by Gertrude Stein:

Today is the 8st anniversary of the premiere of The Jack Benny Program ! A regular in vaudeville comedy, Jack Benny made his first professional on air appearance in May 2, 1932 on the Canada Dry Program . A different Jack Benny than you know and love, hear Jack Benny as MC in this early 1932 broadcast...

The War Department created the Armed Forces Radio Service on May 26, 1942. The directive brought together separate attempts at broadcasting by and for military personnel. Some of these projects had mission significance, but largely they were attempts on the part of soldiers to entertain their barracks mates. In 1954 Television was added to the service, as well as a less than flattering moniker (AFRTS, "A-Farts"), which has held on even after the 1994 renaming as "The Armed Forces Network". Hollywood began providing free or extremely low priced programming to the AFRS from the very beginning, and this tradition was strengthened after Pearl Harbor. The explosion of patriotism as America entered the War explains this to a certain extent. It is also easy to believe that despite the very public pedestal radio celebrities perched, most held genuine affection and admiration for the boys in uniform. No name is more connected with performing for the troops than  Bob...

It is impossible to chronicle the birth of the Fred Allen-Jack Benny radio feud without going into the life and background of Fred Allen . At the age of fourteen, Fred Allen opened a book that would forever change the course of his life . Working as a stock clerk at the Boston Public Library, he picked up a book on the subject of humor. Not only did this literary work put him on the path of comedy, it also sparked a passion that culminated in a book collection. By the time of his death, Fred Allen’s personal library contained thousands of volumes written on the subject of comedy. Beginning his career in vaudeville, Allen soon learned that his comedic skills greatly outweighed his juggling ability and he decided to use the juggling act as an anchor for his comedy. He also appeared in a few short films, before getting his break on radio. At the age of thirty-eight, Fred Allen landed a job, as host of  The Linit Bath Club Revue . The show premiered on October 23, 1932 ...

In the mid 1950's the British Light Programme service had the idea that a Science Fiction radio series would be popular. The assignment was handed over to producer Charles Chilton. Chilton didn't have any background in science, or science fiction, but the general thought was that if he could produce a successful western from London (Riders of the Range had six seasons, ending in 1953) he should be able to handle a trip to the moon! Originally scheduled for eight episodes, Journey to the Moon proved to be somewhat tedious listening through the first four episodes, as the "groundwork' was established for a moon launch using the best guesses of the potential technology from a 1953 perspective. Once the mission "got off the ground, following the launch of the spacecraft in episode 5, the popularity soared as well, and the series was extended to 18 episodes (the network re-recorded the original series for overseas distribution in 1958, as Operation Luna. This time...