Old Time Radio Shows

There is a revolution, of sorts, going on amongst professional comedians. Comics have always been at the heart of revolution and political discourse. Some of the earliest professional comedians, court jesters or "Royal Fool" were the only voices allowed to make fun of the King. Of course, that meant that the King would be the only one allowed to laugh (out loud) at the jokes, but that did not make them any less funny. A few scholars have pointed out that joke telling is becoming a lost art because we are getting more and more of our laughs from internet memes. A proper joke takes time, it is a small story which needs characters introduced, a situation and often conflicts developed, and then the punchline delivered. The explosion of social media means that everyone is on the same page. Rather than developing the involved story a joke requires, a simple meme with a picture and a few words will have to do. Since we are already on the same page, we all get it. During the Gol...

Sherlock Holmes is, without a doubt, one of the world's most famous people who never lived. He is listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as "the most portrayed movie character", having been played by at least 70 actors in more than 200 films. The character was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a Victorian-era physician who studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh under Dr. Joseph Bell. One of the most influential lessons Bell passed on to his students was the importance of closely observing a patient before rendering a diagnosis. To demonstrate the utility of this practice, Bell would call a stranger into the lecture hall and by observing his manners, clothing, and other factors, deduce the person's occupation. Demonstrating these skills led to Bell being credited as "the Father of Forensic Science". After graduating, Conan Doyle started a practice with a classmate in Plymouth but chaffed at working with a partner. Although he didn'...

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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...