One of the best: Halls of Ivy

A couple of years ago, I ran across Halls of Ivy and listened to a few episodes.  I really didn't like it then; it came across as a 'soap opera' to me and one with moral overtones.  While the show was in the comedy genre, I could find nothing funny about it.  Basically, I just didn't like the show and moved on.

Chemistry

About six weeks ago, a friend from a forum made the show sound so good (and I trust his judgment about old time radio) that I was persuaded to give the show another go.

30 episodes later, I am very happy I decided to listen to it again.  This second stab at the show makes me realize how totally wrong I was about the first go-round and how right my friend was about the show.

The Halls of Ivy is a show about a husband and wife (William "Toddy" and Victoria "Vickie" Hall.)  Toddy is the president of Ivy University, a college somewhere in the United States, while Vickie is a dramatics teacher at the school.

My memory of the show the first time revealed that the show was "heavy" and carried a moral message.  I realize now that I misunderstood the show; for though the show can be dead serious about issues such as racism, cheating, stealing, ethics and the usual problems associated with college students at that age (except sex, of course) the show is really about the love of Toddy and Vickie.

After all, Toddy and Vickie were Ronald and Benita Colman in real life and there is a chemistry there that you rarely feel on radio.  As a matter of fact, I can't think of another husband-wife couple on radio who come anywhere near it.

School problems are just a buffering peripheral to the message of love, understanding and admiration for husband and wife.

Each episode includes a flashback of Toddy's younger days when he found himself falling hopelessly in love with Vickie while on sabbatical in England and she was a rising English stage star.  These are well-acted scenes - as is the show in whole.

While this may sound a bit corny or mushy, I assure you, it's not.  This may not be a show for the 20-ish year old single male, I'll grant you, but it is a show most can appreciate for it's well-acted, well written value.

Written by Don Quinn (he was the main writer for Fibber McGee and Molly) you might expect a show full of clever puns and word jokes; instead The Halls of Ivy is warm, intelligent humor - the humor of life.

One of my favorites: This I Believe

This I Believe is not one of the shows in My Top 75; the reason for this is simple. I really never listen to it.

I know, you are scratching your heads. How can This I Believe be one of your favorites, yet you never listen to it? I'll get to that in a second.

This I Believe was a 5 minute syndicated series that was hosted by Edward R. Murrow from 1951-1955. Famous people and everyday people were given a chance to stand up to the microphone and present what it was that motivated them in life; their belief system.

The show is really fascinating. It's a very serious show, it should hold most anyone's attention for the short 5 minutes.

Murrow presented the guest and then the rest was up to them. Often, people would speak of their parents or a kind person who helped them along the way; sometimes one would speak of church or a pastor or some spoke of their children.

Well, if I enjoy this show so much, why wasn't in my top 75?

The truth of the matter is, if I ranked it, it would be in the 30's. But I never really listen to the show. It is the show I use to go to sleep by at night. "What people believe" rocks me to slumber and I rarely do "listen" to the show.

But this is a good one. It's real radio and there's very little of that left to cherish that doesn't belong to NPR. (Oddly enough, this series was not only re-run on NPR as late as 2009 but they also created their own version which may still run in some areas.)

Below, an example of the series. Barbara Stanwyck, the actress, provides the belief:

One of the best: Dragnet

There may not be an old-time radio fan anywhere who doesn't listen to Dragnet. It's one of the all-time greats, thanks to Jack Webb's terrific imagination in coming up with the show.

For those who don't know, the radio show is almost a carbon copy of the television show, if you've seen that. Detective Joe Friday is a stern, fast-talking, no-nonsense gumshoe who is (somehow and without explanation) in a different department of the police in every show on radio (and televsion to boot.) He may be in Bunco one show but rest-assured, he'll be Homicide or Forgery or Juvenile the next. It's like a roulette wheel. 

It's not just Friday who acts "robotic" as almost everyone on the show, including the victims, act this way. There are no long pauses and few words are used as possible. While this may seem to make the show cold and uncaring, it's just a directoral approach that now we can look back on and associate with Dragnet. It became it's own genre.

However, whoever was Friday's partner was a bit more slower-talking than Joe but generally this is will be the only "slow talker" in the entire episode. It makes for a nice play off Friday.

Friday was prone to going off on some incredible verbal rant against a criminal to make them feel like a heel. He was pretty vicious when you come down to it - yet the 30-something year-old Friday lived with his mother. Go figure.

This is one of the all-time greats and there are about 300 episodes floating around, most with great sound quality - so if you haven't already, you should go download the entire lot of them and enjoy them.

One of the best: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle

I like Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle because Tarzan is not some, "Me Tarzan, you - Jane" man-beast but rather, an articulate peace-maker who roams the jungles of Africa and occasionally the business offices of places far, far away.

This is not the Tarzan you imagined when you read Edgar Rice Burroughs' books as a kid.  This Tarzan is savvy.  He's not without adventure; seems his job in every show is to rescue some white person who has somehow made their way to jungle for escape or for profit.   Needless to say, their jaunt into the darkness of the jungle would end in their death if not for Tarzan's empathy and bravery.

He's not afraid to tangle with any beast.  He's so strong that he can defeat by strength and cunning, all animals he goes up against - even though he knows most of them by name.

If he needs to eat, he'll kill one of them - to heck with the Politically Correct, Tarzan is hungry!

I remember one episode where a girl needed shoes.  He killed a beast and made shoes out of it for the girl's walking pleasure.

This is a fun show, with no commercials and with great sound quality.   This series began in 1951, so like most shows after 1950, sound is not a major issue.