Old Time Radio Shows

It is extremely serious business when a nation employs spies in order to gather secrets. Even more important than gathering secrets from other nations is protecting the nation's own secrets. In many ways, counterintelligence is the business of spying on spies. As such, it is the most intriguing and dangerous part of the espionage world. During the Second World War , the services each had their own intelligence service. The Office of Strategic Services was created to coordinate intelligence operations behind enemy lines. All of them went after spies working against the Allies in the various theaters of the war, while domestic counterintelligence came under the jurisdiction of the FBI. While looking for a wartime counterpart to Gangbusters, writer/producer Phillips H. Lord took on the inky world of Counter Intelligence with David Harding, Counterspy . The United States Counterspies were a fictional agency of the Federal Government which combined the roles of the FBI and the O...

March 6: Happy Birthday,  Virginia Gregg 100 Years ago in 1916, the reliable radio actress  Virginia Gregg  was born. While not particularly famous, she could be heard up and down the dial on series such as  Richard Diamond ,,  Sam Spade , and  Voyage of the Scarlet Queen .  A regular during Bob Bailey 's tenure on " Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar ".   Jack Webb used her so many times for his late Dragnet , she could almost be credited as "costar." Others might best remember her for her film and television roles: she was a hill person on the show  The Waltons , one of the "masks" in  The Twilight Zone  and the voice of "Mother" in  Psycho .    A marvelous voice, she appeared in the movie "Operation Petticoat," as the nurse that was a major and the one who used a girdle to solve a problem in the engine room.   Virginia Gregg You can hear her in a broadcast of  Frontier Gentleman  ...

It seems that every day is the anniversary of something important. And that is especially true when you look at Old Time Radio . However we think that Dec 17 th  is one anniversary that is more than worth remembering. 79 years ago, on Dec 17, 1936, Edgar Bergen brought his companion, Charlie McCarthy , to the radio waves for the first time. The show was  The Royal Gelatin Hour  hosted and directed by Rudy Vallee . Better known as  The Rudy Vallee Show , the program was going through a barely noticeable shakeup of its own. From 1929 Tuesday nights were dedicated to Rudy entertaining radio audiences and pushing Fleischmann's Yeast. Rudy Vallee was one of the earliest "crooners"; his voice wasn't really strong enough to fill theaters before electric amplification, but he was able to use the microphone to create an intimate and appealing (to young women) sound. NBC head of programming, Bertha Brainard, pushed for Vallee to host the show, explaining that "only...

She was a lady of quality, beauty and class - Bob Hope Dorothy 'Dottie' Lamour may not be that highly appreciated for her talent as an actress but, sure, she was one of those glamorous and most celebrated film stars of her time. Sadly though, only a few, if any, remember her today. Mary Leta Dorothy was born on December 10, 1914 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her mother was twice a divorcee , first when she was still a preteen and second, when she was already in her early teens. She took her mom's second husband's surname from whom her mom divorced later. She witnessed her mom's hardship raising her so she dropped out of school soon after, at the age of 15, by forging the signature of her mother. Her desire to earn her keep landed her in a beauty contest in 1931 which she handily won as Miss New Orleans. She always wanted to become a singer but when her mother moved to Chicago, she ended up as an elevator operator instead, earning a measly $17 a week...

Enjoy this 1941 broadcast of It's Time to Smile with a rare appearance by Sidney Toler (best known for his role as Charlie Chan ) If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element

There is plenty in OTR to keep "serious" listeners busy. By serious, we mean grown ups! The simple fact is that sponsors wanted to put their message (and their money) where it would be heard by the people who had cash to spend. Through the years, this made for some interesting programming decisions. The radio noir and hard boiled detective shows of the post-War era were meant to appeal to the adventurous vets coming back to a humdrum home life. The radio soaps were designed to tug at the heartstrings of the stay-at-home housewife who did most of the shopping for the household. Comedy variety programs were for the whole family. Programming for kids was often an after thought, sustained programs without sponsors, since kids don't buy anything because they don't have any money. However, cereal makers realized that even though the kids were not the ones buying breakfast cereal, they did have a big influence on what Mom picked off the store shelves. Kids may or ma...

Radio detective dramas ofte n ne eded a "hook" in order to stand out in the crowded postwar marketplace. Shows of all types used some sort of gimmick to attract listeners. The real trick was to hold enough listeners to get the program renewed for the next season. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar held listeners until the end of the golden age of radio era. Few detective radio programs had as many gimmicks as Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar . Being smart-mouthed, independent, and tough had appeal for an audience filled with veterans adjusting to work-a-day civilian life, and tough, smart-mouthed, independent detectives filled the airwaves. A popularly gimmick was the method a detective would find his cases. In Box 13 , Dan Holiday, played by Alan Ladd , had a decidedly generalized Want Ad that brought him interesting clients. Frank Sinatra as Rocky Fortune found cases when he went out on temporary employment. There would be no lack of jobs for Johnny Dollar a...