Old Time Radio Shows

  Although a short-lived anthology, The Radio City Playhouse stories and production were a match for anything from the Tiffany Network The competition between the NBC and CBS Radio Networks was one of the great rivalries of corporate America, on par with Ford vs Chevy, Pizza Hut vs Domino's, Marvel vs DC Comics, McDonald's vs Burger King, or Coke vs Pepsi. It is a story of innovation, imitation, strong personalities, and more than a few lucky breaks for each side. It is difficult to determine which network came out on top as the competition evolved into the broadcast TV market, but we can state that the overall winner was the audience. One huge programming victory that the "Tiffany Network" enjoyed was in Anthology Programs. Although NBC's University Programs put out some great dramas, they could not match the artistic or commercial triumphs of CBS's Columbia Workshop , Escape , or Suspense . However, as TV was beginning to cut into Radio's domina...

Ma Perkins was not the first radio program to use continuing story lines to build a loyal audience. It was not the first serial drama to be directed at housewives during daytime broadcast hours, it was not the first show whose characters dispensed "country wisdom", it was not even the first show of the sort to come from the " Hummert Radio Factory ". It was, however, one of the very first radio shows sponsored by a Proctor & Gamble product, Oxydol, and Oxydol was, that's right, soap. Formed when a candle maker and his soap maker brother in law realized that they were competing for the same resources in 1837, P&G was one of the first American companies to realize the value of branding and advertising. One of the company's major successes was supplying soap and candles to the Union Army during the Civil War. They made it a point to stamp the crates carrying their products with their 'moon and stars' logo, and soldiers from around the country...

 Have you listened to every episode of Dragnet ? Here's some quick facts you can draw from the show. Joe Friday ... lived with his mom carries a badge was an avid smoker takes his coffee black WWII veteran liked to date a policewoman (SHE makes the first move), but his mom gives him the third degree... relationship progresses ... unknown loved talking about weather [its often "cold in Los Angeles"] was something of a sports fan including baseball and football gave his Alma mater a speech about how booze and drugs turn kids bad loves dogs, but has two cats given to him by Ben Romero asks people to repeat what they just said [maybe he is hard of hearing because or maybe just a slow writer to write down what they said in his notebook?] familiar with San Francisco and Phoenix is a total city boy. In a episode where Friday and Romero go to a farmhouse in the Valley one night, they walk behind the house and enter a darkened...

 Radio listeners got to know a pretty important geography of important addresses over the years. There was 79 Wistful Vista , Dodge City , The Big Town , The B-Bar-B Ranch, the Melody Ranch , 6121 Sunset Blvd (CBS Columbia Square in Los Angeles), 30 Rockefeller Center (NBC Radio City, New York ), Maybeland (home of the Cinnamon Bear ), and the little town of Summerfield (where Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve serves as water commissioner). Few addresses were as exclusive or was well listened to as Allen’s Alley . Fred Allen was one of many vaudeville veterans to make the transition to from life on the road to life in front of the microphone. Allen was also one of the first to realize that even though the vaudevillians were getting the majority of the laughs in the early years of commercial radio, radio was not and never would be vaudeville! He could not understand why some of his fellow radio comics would perform while wearing funny hats or costumes, the audience at home couldn...

Orson Welles was a man who lived his life taking big bites. He also resembled the kid who is allowed to eat his dessert first- the rest of the meal tends to be a letdown. The big bites Welles took allowed him accomplishments by artists much further in their careers than Welles. His early successes often gained more notoriety than acceptance by his supposed peers. Welles was born in Kenosha, WI, in 1915. Both of Welles' parents were intelligent and worldly persons. Richard Welles made a respectable fortune by inventing a carbide lamp for bicycles, but lost it to drink. Beatrice was a concert pianist, and supported her son by playing after the couple split. She took her son to Chicago where she played accompaniment to lectures. Beatrice passed away soon after Orson's ninth birthday. The precocious young man was entrusted to a series of guardians who provided him with an eclectic but somewhat advanced education. Always an exceptionally bright lad,  Orson  won a scholarship ...

Old time radio featured many spy-themed shows , which were popular during the Cold War era . These shows often depicted heroic spies and agents who worked to protect their countries from enemy spies and espionage, adding to the cultural fascination with the world of espionage and intrigue during this time. Spy shows were popular in the 1950s for several reasons. Firstly, the Cold War was in full swing , and the fear of Soviet espionage and infiltration was widespread. As a result, there was a heightened interest in stories and characters that dealt with the world of espionage and intrigue. Spy shows offered a way for listeners to vicariously experience the world of espionage and feel a sense of excitement and danger. Additionally, radio was one of the primary sources of entertainment during this time, and spy shows offered a way for audiences to escape the anxieties of everyday life and engage with exciting stories and characters. Many of these shows also featured strong, heroic prot...

Valentine's Day is Benjamin Kubelsky's birthday. “There will be a slight pause while you say 'Who cares?'” Old Time Radio fans will recognize the quote as the second sentence uttered on the radio by Kubelsky's alter-ego, Jack Benny . The path from becoming Benjamin Kubelsky to Jack Benny is pretty typical for a vaudevillian on the radio. That is if there is anything typical about a 42 year career at the top of radio and TV. Little Ben Kubelsky was born to a Polish immigrant saloon owner in Chicago and grew up in Waukegan, Ill. Little Ben was given a violin at the age of six, and his parents had high hopes that he would become a concert violinist. Ben loved the violin, but the little boy lacked the discipline to practice seriously. He was able to use the violin to gain pocket money, playing with local dance bands by the time he was 14. A poor student, Ben was attracted to Vaudeville. In 1911, Minnie Marx invited Ben to join her son's act, but his parent would...