The Good Old Days of Radio Show

Happy Christmas week! Today we feature a brilliant comedian, Red Skelton. Skelton's clean, super charged comedy style centers around a cast of characters he portrays, including Clem Kadiddlehopper and the Mean Widdle Mean Kid, and they are still hilarious now. This is one of the funniest Christmas shows ever aired on network radio. Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Subscribe to ou...

Today on our top science fiction series, we journey to the Middle Cretaceous with a group of time travelling sportsmen. So grab your Continental .600, and let's go get a nice Tyrannosaur head to hang over your mantle in L. Sprague de Camp's exciting adventure/sci-fi yarn, "A Gun For Dinosaur." Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions,...

A few weeks ago we brought you Dracula from Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre. Today we set sail for Treasure Island with Orson Welles's second excursion into classic literature from the "first person singular," an excellent adaptation of this Robert Louis Stevenson adventure classic beautifully crafted for radio. Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Subscribe to our Facebook Grou...

This week, we have a mouse infestation of a most unusual kind. A mild-mannered mouse, the bi-product of an experiment in a top secret laboratory, causes all sorts of mayhem when he asks the government to remove the trap from his front door. Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https://www.facebook.com/grou...

Today we're dropping you in the middle of a 40-year legacy with a show from what many consider the number one comedian on radio, everyone's favorite vain, insecure tight-wad, Jack Benny. This show revolved around a  large cast of characters, and each became well-known to listeners, even splitting off into shows of their own, as you will hear in this episode from 1946. Visit our website: https://go...

John's selection of 10 best science fiction radio shows continues today, with a creepy story of "lifelike" dolls with an evil streak, bent on world domination. This story was written by George Lefferts, a man who was responsible for bringing many classic science fiction short stories to the air. Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussion...

This week John introduces the first episode of a short running comedy series starring the Capitol Records comedy artist, Stan Freberg, and a host of other iconic cartoon voices. Stan came late to radio, but he was a lifelong advocate for audio invention and imagination well after the end of the golden age, and here he is at the top of his game. Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Su...

Happy Thanksgiving from The Good Old Days of Radio Show! Today you can enjoy your turkey and mashed potatoes, and we brought a special treat of our own. Walt Disney's Pinocchio, but this time, a fun comedy version with Baby Snooks and Daddy, and Arthur Q. Bryan (Elmer Fudd) in a hilarious take on Jiminy Cricket. Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https:/...

On today's episode, a full hour humorous, strange, unique fantasy from the golden age, about a prize fighter who dies in the first minutes of the story. Cary Grant was great on radio and gives a wonderful, sympathetic performance here. Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/881779245938297 Visit our website: https://goodoldday...

Today we kick off a new series as John presents his top 10 list of science fiction stories produced on radio in the 1950s. Today's episode features the bewildering tale by Ray Bradbury of space explorers to Mars who discover an impossible dreamlike world that is too good to be true. Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/88177...

Today we travel to the early 1950s and listen to an exciting and technically superb production from the series Dragnet, a game of cat and mouse with a man holding a bomb in his lap who threatens to blow up city hall if his brother isn't released from prison by 9 o'clock. Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/881779245938297 V...

Today we finish off the current series of “Top 10 Horror” with an episode of Inner Sanctum. Lots of people knew this show only as “The Creaking Door,” so iconic was the show’s opening sound effect. This one stars Universal Studio’s most famous monster, Boris Karloff, a henpecked husband haunted by “The Wailing Wall.” Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: ht...

Prior to the release of beloved classic The Wizard of Oz in 1939, MGM produced a full hour "behind-the-scenes" promotional/variety show with the original cast, Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Bert Lahr, and Ray Bolger, hosted by Robert Young. If you're a fan of the movie, and if you love the music, this show is a real treat. Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast...

There are many intense performances on radio, and the Suspense series was well-known for pushing actors to their limits. As we near the end of our current horror series, John presents maybe the most disturbing in this series about a couple of sisters, one of whom is insane, and the other is, well, also insane. Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https://w...

One of the most popular types of programs during the '40s and '50s were quiz shows. This week, by popular demand, It Pays To Be Ignorant returns, the zany quiz show spoof, with Tom Howard, George Shelton, Lulu McConnell, and Harry McNaughton as the crazy panelists in this never before released episode from August 10, 1945. Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podca...

Happy Almost Halloween! Today we’re going to break from our usual “top 10” horror shows to bring you our Trick or Treat special, a story with a dark sense of humor, cleverly penned by perhaps the best dialogue writer on radio, Wyllis Cooper. “Don’t Tell Me About Halloween” concerns a man stuck in a difficult relationship... with a witch! Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and t...

During World War II, many programs were made for overseas broadcast. Today’s podcast features such a show, perhaps the best ever done, “Dick Tracy in B Flat.” There is a staggering cast of big name stars here, including Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, and the Andrews Sisters. Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and th...

It wasn't often the series Suspense did a story of the supernatural, but when they did it was extraordinary. As we approach Halloween, today’s podcast features one of the best ghost stories from this era, about a disc jockey who decides to spend a night in a haunted house. Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/881779245938297...

On today's episode, it's John Huston's early noir classic, The Maltese Falcon, Sweetheart. This radio version gathered together (almost) the complete original cast of the film about five years later in a streamlined version of this story about "the stuff dreams are made of." Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/8817792459382...

On today's creepy-cast, we descend into ancient Egyptian tombs with a strange archeological expedition in Wyllis Cooper's radio version of The Mummy. And John talks about his favorite radio performers. Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/881779245938297 Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/ Our theme music is "...

Today on the podcast, John talks about a largely forgotten personality, who during his time was considered one of the great wits in American comedy, Fred Allen. A lot of Fred Allen's jokes and jabs were ripped out of the headlines of the day, and John plays the last episode from his famous radio show. Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https://www.facebo...

On today’s “scary” podcast, John presents a story many people consider one of the best ever done in any medium; “Three Skeleton Key,” with a famous star of many 1950-’60s horror films, Vincent Price. If you have a phobia of rats, you may want to stay away from this one! Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/881779245938297 Vi...

Today’s special extended podcast will present two programs specially chosen for families. First, a beautifully produced audio version of Walt Disney’s Pinocchio with the full original cast, followed by an imaginative Ray Bradbury story called “The Rocket.” Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/881779245938297 Our website is:...

Today we feature Arch Oboler’s famous series, Light’s Out! John was friends with Arch Oboler, and in today’s podcast he’s going to talk about that. And don’t let the innocuous title fool you, this story about a locked chest and what is inside is one of the most horrific radio shows ever done. Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https://www.facebook.com/gr...

Today on the podcast, Wildroot Cream Oil “makes your hair stand on end” with a terrific thriller, featuring the detective originally made famous in The Maltese Falcon, Sam Spade. If you like fast-paced, action-packed pulp stories from the 1940s with great performances, this is one of the best. Subscribe to our Facebook Group for news, discussions, and the latest podcast: https://www.facebook.com/g...