The Good Old Days of Radio Show

Today our 10-week tribute to the radio series "Suspense" continues, with "The Thin Man" star William Powell giving an incredibly intense performance as a fugitive on the run, in a fast-paced, exciting thriller. This story is a great example of what Suspense did so well, taking a simple concept (trapping a man in a pair of handcuffs), and embellishing it out as far as it could possibly go. Joining...

Last week we brought you one of the all time classic Suspense shows that starred the great versatile radio supporting actor Wally Mahr. Today Mr. Mahr takes a huge leading role as the hero and storyteller in an adaptation of Mark Twain's classic fantasy of a 1800s inventor who gets knocked back to medieval times. Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Subscribe to our Facebook Group fo...

Today, on our journey through 10 of the best shows from the radio series, "Suspense," we are looking at one of the most famous Suspense stories, that was repeated many times, about a man who appears to be dead, but is not. And here once again to bring us the interesting story behind this story is Suspense expert Dr. Joe Webb. Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Suspense TV episode h...

Last Thursday Joseph Cotten appeared as an obsessively unhinged scientist on Suspense. Today we bring you Cotten as a wanderer traveling the countryside who stumbles upon a strange girl (played by Jeanne Cagney), and a dreamlike village trapped in time, in the German fantasy, Germelshausen. Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, an...

Today we find the radio series "Suspense" at the top of its game, with a classic Hitchcockian psychological Suspense story of an obsessed scientist (played by Joseph Cotten) who sets out on a dark path to prove his own twisted hypothesis in "The Earth Is Made of Glass". Joining us once again to discuss this lavishly produced, dream-like episode is "Suspense" expert Dr. Joe Webb. Visit our website:...

Happy Jack Benny's Birthday! We're celebrating Valentine's Day with an episode of Jack's wildly popular radio program. The famous husband and wife comedy team, and good personal friends of Jack, George Burns and Gracie Allen figure prominently, as Gracie is so determined to hear Jack's show, she misses pretty much everything. Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Subscribe to our Face...

Today we continue on our in-depth journey through some of the best and most unusual episodes of the radio series, Suspense. Joining us is Dr. Joe Webb to discuss the wildest Suspense show ever, which stars the Hitchcock villain Norman Lloyd. This recently found program is a real curiosity for radio historians, and a delight to Suspense collectors. So buckle in today for one crazy ride! Visit our w...

Today we have part two of an interview we did with Elva Green, the daughter of Eddie Green, the famous comedian, filmmaker, and radio actor of the 1930s and '40s, who was a regular cast member of the popular radio series "Amos 'n' Andy." John and Elva talk about the controversies around "Amos 'n' Andy", her father's role as "Stonewall" the lawyer, and listen to an episode chosen by her from 1948....

We come to the second in our series looking at "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" today, with one of the great supernatural Suspense episodes, starring Ronald Colman as a man haunted by premonitions of impending doom. Joining us once again is "Suspense" expert Dr. Joe Webb to discuss the series' move to Hollywood. Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ War Loan Drives https://en....

We're beginning a two-part interview with Elva Green, the daughter of the famous comedian, filmmaker, and radio actor of the 1930s and '40s, Eddie Green. We talk about Elva's journey as she discovered her father's story as a black American entertainment pioneer in early Hollywood, and hear an episode of Duffy's Tavern, chosen by Elva, with Eddie as the role of "Eddie" the bartender. Elva Green’s b...

Today we are beginning a new series of 10 episodes taking an in-depth look at one of radio's top dramatic series, Suspense. Joining us for this journey is one the world's greatest "Suspense" authorities, Dr. Joe Webb. In this first episode we will be listening to an early Suspense story written by the famous mystery writer John Dickson Carr, as well as exploring the origins of the series.  Visit o...

We promised comedy for this week, so we're bringing you one of our favorite nutty comedians, Red Skelton, and we're going back to 1946 for this winter themed episode. Hear "Deadeye," Wonderful Smith (as O'Brien), Verna Felton (as Grandma), and "Junior, the Mean Widdle Mean Kid." Red is quite rowdy in this New Year's episode, with lots of straying from the script! Visit our website: https://goodold...

For the past nine weeks we have examined a lot of different concepts of A.I. as presented through the eyes of writers from the '40s and '50s. Today is our final program looking at this topic, and although we could simply end with another story of tech-gone-wrong, we are going with a wholly different approach... the story of man becoming a machine. So many fascinating ideas and questions are posed...

Today we are bringing you a first on the show, a radio western. Now, typically radio westerns could be quite generic. But there were a few that from the very first lines of the story were simply stunning. Such is the case with this gritty early episode of the series "Gunsmoke." Discovered only last year, this recording has been a holy grail for radio collectors and the star of the show for decades...

In our series on artificial intelligence as seen through the lens of the early science fiction writers, we've selected stories that have ranged from silly robots to darker studies of technology out of control. Today's story touches on one of the fears in the 1950s of technology taking a sudden turn from serving to enslaving, in Jack Williamson's 1947 novelette, "With Folded Hands." Visit our websi...

"Quiet Please" was a genre busting horror series that presented mostly dark and brooding plays. But unlike "Lights Out!" writer Wyllis Cooper often spun off into the realms of the light and whimsical, as in this well-written fantasy involving two children, a snow storm, and the old woman picking her geese.  Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news...

Our dire predictions of the wacky and frightening future co-existing with the gods of our own creation continues in 2023. And today we bring you a story that takes place in a bizarre future where there's nearly nothing we can do that a machine cannot do better... except perhaps our ability to invent nonsense. Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Subscribe to our Facebook Group for ne...

It's our first podcast of 2023, and what better way to ring in the New Year than to bring you another episode of You Bet Your Life in glorious, sparkling sound. This is a later episode, and the rules of the game have changed. But what remains the same is the witty banter of Groucho Marx with weird and wacky contestants. Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Subscribe to our Facebook G...

Today our 10-part series on sentient machines touches on our love-hate relationship with technology, and its relationship with us, with a brilliant story by Ray Bradbury. If you are the type of person who embraces every new gadget that comes down the pike, you may want to listen carefully to this story of a family who underestimated the power of modern invention to serve the darkness of the human...

Christmas 2022 has come and gone, but as we all know, there's usually a lot of post-Christmas clean up, and today Phil and Alice are taking an inventory of their presents, and trying to figure out what became of a mysterious package from their sponsor, Mr. Scott. Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https:...

Well, here it is... our big Christmas show! And this year we are bringing you one of the most prestigious programs from the Golden Age of Radio, the great actor Lionel Barrymore as Ebenezer Scrooge (many will consider Barrymore the quintessential Scrooge), with Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre in support, in Charles Dickens Christmas Carol. This one-hour live production from Christmas Eve of 1...

Christmas is right at our chimney this week, and as we prepare for the big day we are taking a trip back to Christmas 1946 to hear the fun Red Skelton Christmas Show. So grab a pack of moisturized cigarettes, and get ready for Christmas with Bolivar Shagnasty, Deadeye, and the Mean Widdle Mean Kid. Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discuss...

Today on our series of stories from the 1950s about A.I., we are in the company of the highly-esteemed science fiction writer, winner of three Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award, Clifford D. Simak. This light-hearted story concerns a future where model-building is the latest fad, and our “average guy” with too much time on his hands, winds up with a build-it-yourself kit that lands him deep problems...

This week, we are catching a glimpse of the back of the closet with some Christmas goodies from years past. This time, Christmas 1948. Dominating radio at this time was the comedy show Jack Benny. Phil Harris (a cast member on The Jack Benny Show) and his then retired glamor-star bride Alice Faye are looking to hire an actor to play Santa Claus, and showing up is none other than “guess who.” Visit...

Author Murray Leinster was one of the oldest and most prolific writers from the Golden Age of Science Fiction, beginning with pulp stories published as early as 1918. Today we are featuring as part of our series on artificial intelligence what is considered his most famous story dealing with “Logics,” which sound uncannily close to the Internet decades later. This story’s very fascinating touch on...