March of old time/Feb. 7

55 years ago...
Suspense 560207 Variations On A Theme
Dragnet 560207 Big Press

60 years ago...
Great Gildersleeve 510207 Peavey's Day Off

65 years ago...
Abbott and Costello 460207 Lou Needs An Apartment
Burns and Allen 460207 Marriage Contest

70 years ago...
Bob Hope 410207 Beethoven with Bing Crosby Doris Day
Lone Ranger 410207 (1255) Unlucky Strike

75 years ago...
Front Page Drama 360207 River Belle

Fred Allen meets Rochester (racial slur?)

In 1938, during the famous Fred Allen-Jack Benny "feud", Allen got the chance to meet Rochester, Benny's butler. It really sounds to me as if he racially insults him by calling him a "nougatine Jeeves." What do you think?




There may be a slight delay before you hear anything...

Mixed-up LaTrivia [#06]

The mixing up of Mayor LaTrivia (Fibber McGee and Molly) continues.  While still not classic McGee-LaTrivia, you can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This episode is about Frank Lloyd Wright:

Little-known treasure: Man From Homicide (Audition)

If you will recall, I really am not a fan of the Audition episode.  Normally, things are rough, the music is different and characters change.

Charles McGraw: there's no tougher cop

Man From Homicide is a little different. The Audition for the show starred B-movie extraordinaire Charles McGraw instead of Dan Duyea, who eventually got the part.

McGraw plays Lt. Dana and is tougher than any other two OTR policeman put together. He's like Luke Slaughter and Matt Dillon rolled into a 1940's Homicide dick.

McGraw's voice has always fascinated me - as good as he was in the movies he comes off even better on radio. His voice is a grimy gravel pit of I'm-gonna-get-you.

The other available Man From Homicide epsiodes feature Duryea as Lt. Dana, but his voice is smooth - it reminds me of Harry Bartell in a Petri Wine commercial.  While Duryea plays the tough guy, his toughness is diminished greatly upon hearing McGraw's wonderful performance.  The script for the audition, The Wintrhop Case, is also very good and fits McGraw perfectly.

I hope you will listen to the episode below or you can download it if you prefer.  This is not only the best audition ever, it's one of the finest episodes of anything out there.

March of old time/Feb. 6

60 years ago... 
Fibber McGee and Molly 510206 National Pancake Week
 
65 years ago...
Jack Armstrong 460206 Man Of Ice

One of the best: Information Please

Information Please is a panel quiz show made up of 4 celebrities contestants.  Three of the panel were usually Franklin P. Adams (a newspaper columnist and writer of verse), John Kieran (another newspaper columnist and writer of books) and Oscar Levant (a composer, pianist and actor.)  Generally, the fourth spot would be held for an actor or actress but sometimes a noted author or newspaper columnist would wind up there.

Clifton Fadiman

The host was Clifton Fadiman a book editor and noted intellectual.  I dare say his wit was more clever and sly than any known game show host since or before.

While this crew sounds as if it were dryer than the desert, just the opposite is true.  While each had their own strength in the intelligence department, each was also very witty.  And this is a recipe for laughter -- intellectualism + cleverness.  Not a show goes by that I am not both amazed and also taken with laughter.

I'm usually surprised as well; for who knew the brilliance of Boris Karloff?   Karloff shows up as a guest now and again and wows you every time.

John Kieran

A young Orson Welles shows up and makes a monkey of the intellectuals; it seems he knows the answer to almost every question.

This goes on with almost the complete lot of guests - although it is obvious some are much brighter than others.

The questions are a bit high hat - a lot of Shakespeare questions and finish the quotation from books and plays and operas no one has ever heard of.  It really seems as though it would be boring - but I swear, nothing is further from the truth.

This is more than a quiz; the show is a spontaneous machine that makes me smile due to the panel's always-ready cleverness.  If you've never tried it before, give yourself a treat and try listening to this show.

March of old time/Feb. 5

55 years ago...
Our Miss Brooks 560205 The Auction
Gunsmoke 560205 Legal Revenge

60 years ago...
Bob Hope 510205 Guests Peggy Lee and Dorothy Lamour

65 years ago...
Boston Blackie 460205 The Brandon Jewel Robbery
Green Hornet 460205 Washington Story
Red Skelton 460205 Hospital Capers  

70 years ago...
Lone Ranger 410205 Fool's Gold

75 years ago...
Cavalcade of America 360205 Loyalty to Family

One of the best: Third Man -The Lives of Harry Lime

From the film, The Third Man

If you were to take a poll of die-hard film fans and movie critics and ask them which is the best foreign film ever, there's a good chance The Third Man would be in the top five, if not number one.  The Third Man may also be the best post-war film ever made in Europe as well.

The radio series, Third Man: The Lives of Harry Lime is based on the film.  In the movie, Harry Lime was played by the too-incredible-for-words Orson Welles.  Lime is an unscrupulous two-faced character, an outlaw of very questionable ethics (stealing medicine, selling it and replacing it with cheaper medicine) that somehow remains (even shines as) a likable person.

How can this be?  It happens that Welles is like King Midas on the screen or on the radio. And The Lives of Harry Lime is no different.  Although instead of penicillin, Lime is stealing paintings and jewelry and taking it from little old ladies (actually greedy spies) and people who can barely speak English (but always far greedier than he.)

From Kuwait to South Africa and every corner of the globe, Lime was a double-dealing butterfly.  And even when he gets caught red-handed, somehow he usually manages not only come out with no jail time but manages to steal some bounty as well.  We're talking large sums of money ($100,000 or a quarter of a million.) 

And the radio show, like the movie, features the memorable zither music of Anton Karas:



It doesn't at all hurt the series that Welles wrote many of the episodes - how many, we don't know but it does appear that he wrote at least five of them.

Not all of the shows have perfect sound but the shows are so good you tend to forget about that. I would give this show at least 4 and a half stars.

March of old time/Feb. 4

60 years ago...
Amos and Andy 510204 The Parking Lot
Red Skelton 510204 Helter Shelter 

65 years ago...
Sherlock Holmes 460204 -The Indiscretion of Mr Edwards
The Whistler 460204 Panic 
Lux 460204 This Love Of Ours

70 years ago...
Fibber McGee and Molly 410204  Fibber Buys A New Suit And Steals A Hat.

Stuff I'd buy if I was a millionaire [#29]

78 RPM Harry Lime Theme/The Lives of Harry Lime Theme