The Good Old Days of Radio Show

Nightbeat was a noir-style suspenseful melodrama from the early 1950s, and a vehicle for the actor Frank Lovejoy. We featured Frank Lovejoy in last Thursday's episode, so we're showing you his showcase series, where he played a newspaper reporter searching the night for unusual human interest stories. This is the first episode of this series, which was created at a time when NBC was attempting to...

Today's story is a grim departure from Cornell Woolrich's usual man-on-the-run suspenseful mystery, as we plunge into the gloomy world of New Orleans, voodoo, and jazz music. This is an extraordinary production of the Cornell Woolrich story, "Papa Benjamin," about a bandleader who steals an unholy rhythm, and gets a curse put upon him, which leads him to the edge of madness. Dr. Joe Webb is here w...

Another East Coast vintage comedy program this week. Fred Allen was far, far more mainstream than the programs we featured for the preceding two weeks, and he is probably best known for his "Allen's Alley" segment. But like Henry Morgan and It Pays To Be Ignorant, many of these jokes tended toward topical and regional. Though this type of humor was considered bleeding-edge at the time, it unfortun...

It begins with a train wreck, and an unhappy woman who assumes the identity of a burn victim. But how long can she continue this charade? That's the premise of today's story by mystery writer Cornell Woolrich. Our very special guest researcher Dr. Joe Webb is with us again to discuss this episode of the radio series "Suspense" from 1946 which stars Susan Peters, whose own tragic backstory lends a...

Like last week's Henry Morgan Show, we are again featuring zany East Coast comedians. This week, a "lost" episode of It Pays To Be Ignorant from February 16, 1945. This one is another onslaught, machine-gun round of rapid-fire Dad jokes, some of them hitting so fast, by the time you get it you are halfway through the next one. We are happy to be able to save and resuscitate this weird brand of lon...

Today on the podcast, a woman learns that her husband won a lottery. The only problem is, the ticket is in the pocket of his coat... buried with his body. So begins a story with a darkly comic bent from the pen of Cornell Woolrich, the king of the pulps all throughout the 1940s. Agnes Moorehead (best remembered for her intense performance on "Sorry Wrong Number") stars, and Dr. Joe Webb joins us f...

Today, the second episode of the fully produced half-hour Henry Morgan Show. This episode is a non-stop barrage of wise-cracks, crazy voices, and weird musical interludes. Who cares if one bombed? It was on to the next so fast, it didn't matter. This is before Morgan got a sponsor for the show, so like the later Stan Freberg Show, he gets a chance to invent mock commercials for non-existing produc...

What would you do if you knew your spouse was a wanted criminal? To make matters worse, she was a fire starter and you were an insurance investigator? That's the dilemma of the protagonist in this story by the popular mystery writer we are featuring all this month on the podcast, Cornell Woolrich. We are pleased to be joined once again by radio researcher Dr. Joe Webb to discuss today's story from...

Today we are venturing into the world of 1957 sci-fi. The story is called "The Coffin Cure," by physician turned science fiction writer Alan E. Nourse. A cure for the common cold has been found, but it's pushed out to the public a little too quickly, with unpleasant side effects (sounds like something ripped out of modern day headlines). The whole tone of this story is tongue-in-cheek satire, and...

Actor Jack Webb was best known for his persuasive portrayal of police Sergeant Joe Friday. Today we get to hear Jack Webb as a criminal. The story is another in our 10-week tribute to the prolific pulp mystery writer and novelist Cornell Woolrich. Joining us once again to discuss this story is researcher Dr. Joe Webb (no relation to Jack Webb or Joe Friday). Joe Webb's Blog Post: https://suspensep...

The following story is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. We bring you "Dragnet," the granddaddy of all true crime police procedurals. Jack Webb was the mastermind behind the series that showed the boys in blue in a heroic light after many years of media mockery. This is an early episode of the series, and the first to feature the famous Dragnet theme. Visit our websit...

Today we have another story of a person seemingly vanishing off the face of the earth. But this time her finance is having none of it! We continue with our 10 episode series devoted to mystery writer Cornell Woolrich, the author of Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window." His story "I Won't Take A Minute" is about a man trying desperately to find his sweetheart, who went into a building to run an errand...

Today we present the classic of dystopian fiction, George Orwell's hopeless tale of the future, "1984." There are a few curious things about this adaptation, not least of which is the proximity of this broadcast to the release of the book just a few months prior. It's the story of "Big Brother is Watching You", TV screens with no on/off switches, "thought crimes," and "double-think." It was an edg...

It's our annual Easter program, and those of you who have been with us from the start know we have presented some unusual selections for this episode. This year is no exception, with the little known story of Martin Niemöller, and an obscure little episode of "Cavalcade of America" about a German pastor who stood up against Hitler during the rise of the Nazi Party, and experienced persecution for...

The movie "Buck Privates," which launched Bud Abbott and Lou Costello into meteoric box office superstars, is one of the best fun flicks of the early 1940s. Months prior to the US entering WWII, "Buck Privates" has the added curiosity of the army as a "peacetime" operation, but with all the flair of a rah-rah America-at-war classic. We are presenting a one hour audio version of Buck Privates today...

Cary Grant gives a powerful performance in the story of a man who wakes up in the street after an accident, not remembering the last few years of his life. The problem is, he is being pursued by the police for a crime he supposedly committed, and now must prove his innocence before he's caught. This is another exciting fast-paced thriller from the mystery writer, Cornell Woolrich, and joining us t...

Edgar Bergen and his wooden dummies Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd, though predominantly radio stars, briefly appeared in the Walt Disney film "Fun and Fancy Free.” This episode of the Bergen show will be a treat for Disneyphiles. Walt himself makes a rare guest appearance to promote the film, as well as Donald Duck (played by Clarence Nash), who joins the cast for a parody of the Jack and th...

If you prefer your murderous plots to be confined to the comfort of your podcast listening, you have come to the right place. Today a man is convinced he has been implicated in a crime while drugged, and he must find the killer. The only clue he has is the terrible dream in which he remembers only fleeting details. Our subject is Cornell Woolrich's tense thriller "The Singing Walls," and the star...

It’s the 10th show of the Stan Freberg Show. This clever variety/comedy is a real slice of 1957, with its early Rock 'n' Roll, big band music, and Heartbreak Hotel parody. This episode includes a build-it-yourself knock-down grand piano, a tour through a Chinese fortune cookie factory, and another (and last) lecture on Hi Fi by Dr. Herman Horn. Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Su...

If you like Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film "Rear Window," you may know it was based off a story by one of the kings of the pulp mystery, Cornell Woolrich. Today we are beginning a new 10 part series presenting the best Cornell Woolrich stories adapted for radio. And, yes, they are very much like Hitchcock's "Rear Window." Returning to our microphones to join us for this roller coaster of exciting st...

In the 1930s, comedian Fanny Brice created the character Baby Snooks, which she performed with character actor Hanley Stafford on MGM’s big budget series “Good News.” The skits were well written, and Brice’s performance is so convincing on radio it’s sometimes difficult to tell she was a 60-year-old woman. Today we’re bringing you four skits with Baby Snooks and Daddy. Visit our website: https://g...

We have one last visit with researcher Keith Scott today as he packs up his bag of magic tricks. But he has one last tale to amaze, a good example of "Escape" in its latter days. It's a fun adventure story of an average American Merchant Marine caught up into international intrigue, and shows the level of excellence in technical innovation that had been achieved in audio drama in radio's dying day...

While tracking down a criminal on the open range, United States Marshal Matt Dillion loses his horse and must bring his convict in on the rustic stagecoach, and the two strike up an unusual trust. This is an absorbing picture of the sensationalized American west, with wonderful immersive sound, colorful characters, and a great example of why this was such a powerful radio series. Visit our website...

As our "Top 10 Escape" series nears a close, Keith Scott has returned with an interesting adventure yarn from late in the run all about explorers competing to be the first to reach the top of Mount Everest. This exciting story of tough men vs. nature follows a fictional expedition to the top, and is a fascinating combination of truth and lore, just two years before Edmond Hillary would make the fi...

Husband and wife comedy teams on radio continues, and we are looking at the East Coast counterpart of Jack Benny and his wife Mary Livingstone today. Fred Allen was the comedian, and his beautiful wife Portland Hoffa participated as a foil. Nonetheless, she was with Fred from the early days of vaudeville and always exchanged lines with him in his opening monologue in her distinctive “ditzy” vocal...