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Classic Radio’s Greatest Comedy Shows, Vol. 1
This collection contains twelve of the greatest comedy shows ever broadcast during the golden age of radio. You’ll hear Ozzie and Harriet Nelson in The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll as Amos ’n’ Andy, Robert Young in Father Knows Best, Jim and Marian Jordan as Fibber McGee and Molly, William Bendix as Chester A. Riley in The Life of Riley, Lucille Ball in My Favorite Husband, Eve Arden as English teacher Connie Brooks in Our Miss Brooks, plus many others, including The Fred Allen Show, The Aldrich Family, The Great Gildersleeve, Life with Luigi, and Lum & Abner. Relive twelve of the best classic radio comedy shows from yesterday and hear the legendary stars who made them great in this incredible collection. Contents include: The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, “Housekeeping,” starring Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Hilliard The Aldrich Family, “Henry Forgets to Mail a Letter,” starring Ezra Stone The Amos ’n’ Andy Show, “Andy Gets a Job as Charles Boyer’s Valet,” starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, with special guest Charles Boyer Father Knows Best, “The Elusive Card Game,” starring Robert Young Fibber McGee & Molly, “Jewelry Store Robbery,” starring Jim and Marian Jordan The Fred Allen Show, “The Chicken Surplus,” starring Fred Allen, with special guest Orson Welles The Great Gildersleeve, “Gildersleeve vs. Golf,” starring Willard Waterman The Life of Riley, “Staying Out Late,” starring William Bendix Life with Luigi, “The Traffic Light,” starring J. Carrol Naish The Lum & Abner Show, “Baby Cedric the Mind Reader,” starring Chester Lauck and Norris Goff My Favorite Husband, “Trying to Cash the Prize Check,” starring Lucille Ball and Richard Denning Our Miss Brooks, “Trying to Sell a Trailer,” starring Eve Arden “[The Host of Hollywood 360, Carl Amari] helps preserve the heyday of radio.”—Chicago Tribune
Hollywood 360 (Author), Various, Various Narrators, Various Performers (Narrator)
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Tales of the Texas Rangers, Vol. 1
“Texas, more than 260,000 square miles! And fifty men who make up the oldest and most famous law enforcement body in North America!” Like its predecessor, Dragnet, Tales of the Texas Rangers adapted actual police cases for its broadcasts. Leading each week’s investigation was Texas Ranger Jayce Pearson, portrayed by movie star Joel McCrea. Because the stories were set in the present, Pearson used the latest scientific techniques to identify criminals. Unlike Joe Friday, Pearson didn’t have a regular partner, typically working with the local sheriff instead. Working environments would range from big cities to isolated wilderness areas that could only be reached on horseback. Produced and directed by Stacy Keach Sr., Tales of the Texas Rangers ran from 1950 to 1952 and featured radio’s top supporting actors. Its popularity spawned a 1955 Saturday morning television series starring Willard Parker and Harry Lauter broadcast on CBS until 1958. Included are the following episodes: “Apache Peak” “The Trigger Men” “Play for Keeps” “Dead or Alive” “The Hatchet” “Sweet Revenge” “Death Plant” “Pick-Up” “Last Stop” “Cover-Up” “Three Victims” “Misplaced Person”
Hollywood 360 (Author), A Full Cast (Narrator)
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“Around Dodge City and in the territory out West, there’s just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that’s with a US marshal and the smell of … Gunsmoke!” Radio Westerns were strictly for kids until 1952, when Gunsmoke hit the radio airwaves. The stories were grim, the deaths brutal, and life on the plains was harsh. Radio audiences had never heard anything like Gunsmoke, and they made it the number one Western on the radio. It soon made a successful transition to television, becoming the longest-running dramatic series in television history. Join William Conrad (Marshal Matt Dillon), Parley Baer (Deputy Chester Proudfoot), Georgia Ellis (Kitty Russell), and Howard McNear (Doc Adams) in the continuing “story of the violence that moved west with young America and the story of a man who moved with it,” Matt Dillon, United States marshal. Episodes include: “Cain” “The Round-Up” “Meshougah” “Trojan War” “Absalom” “Cyclone” “Pussy Cats” “Quarter-Horse” “Jayhawkers” “Gonif” “Bum’s Rush” “Tacetta”
Hollywood 360 (Author), A Full Cast, A Full Cast, William Conrad (Narrator)
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Here are twelve episodes from Crime Classics, a true-crime radio docudrama that aired on CBS from 1953 to 1954. Created, produced, and directed by Elliott Lewis, the program examined crimes and murders throughout history. Founded in Lewis’ own personal interest in famous murder cases, the program meticulously recreated the facts, atmosphere, and personages of the era in which the crime took place. Very little dramatic license was taken with the facts, but a touch of humor was added to the narration of the story to soften the tragedy. The crimes dramatized spanned from ancient Greece to late nineteenth-century America. Some were famous assassinations, such as Abraham Lincoln and Julius Caesar, and others were more obscure cases, such as Bathsheba Spooner, who became the first woman tried and executed in America after killing her husband in 1778. Actor Lou Merrill played the host, Thomas Hyland, and the series featured radio’s finest supporting players.
Hollywood 360, Various Authors (Author), Others, Thomas Hyland, Various, Various Narrators (Narrator)
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The Damon Runyon Theatre, Vol. 1
Damon Runyon was a newspaperman and writer. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of New York City's Broadway that grew out of the Prohibition era. He created a little world of characters that live on even today in such classic movies as Little Miss Marker and Guys and Dolls, both based on Runyon's stories. Actor Alan Ladd's Mayfair Productions brought Runyon's short stories to radio in the early 1950s. Each episode of The Damon Runyon Theatre is told through the eyes of a hoodlum with a heart of gold named "Broadway," who takes the listener inside the world of some of the Big Apple's toughest yet most charming perpetrators. Broadway and the many thugs, touts, dames, and palookas he encounters speak in a thick present-tense Brooklynese that is a delight for the listener to hear. John Brown played Broadway, and the supporting casts were a who's who of radio, including William Conrad, Alan Reed, Frank Lovejoy, Sheldon Leonard, Hans Conreid, Anne Whitfield, and Ed Begley. The series made a brief transition to television. Included here are the following episodes, which aired from October 1950 to January 1951: "The Hottest Guy in the World" "All Horseplayers Die Broke" "Princess O'Hara" "For a Pal" "A Piece of Pie" "Barbecue" "The Brain Goes Home" "Hold 'Em Yale" "Old Em's Kentucky Home" "Blood Pressure" "Lonely Heart" "Broadway Complex"
Hollywood 360 (Author), A Full Cast (Narrator)
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Classic Radio Spotlights: Lucille Ball
This collection showcases Lucille Ball's amazing spectrum of radio work, from comedy to mystery and everything in between. As Lucy Ricardo, Lucille Ball brought a tomboy's enthusiasm and a scatterbrained quality to the long-running television program I Love Lucy. She was the wacky wife making life difficult for her loving but exasperated husband Ricky Ricardo, played by Ball's real-life husband Desi Arnaz. Long before I Love Lucy, Ball worked her way up Hollywood's ladder, appearing in films and many radio shows, including dramatic roles in which she could show her acting chops. In the summer of 1948, she accepted the role of Liz Cooper, a zany housewife who found herself facing comical situations, in the radio comedy My Favorite Husband. In the series, Liz Cooper's husband George Cooper was played by veteran actor Richard Denning. But Lucille Ball also acted in episodes of the radio mystery Suspense and in Lux Radio Theatre's adaptation of Broadway plays. This collection of eleven episodes that aired from 1945 to 1951 includes: From My Favorite Husband: "George's Mother Visits" From Suspense: "A Shroud for Sarah" From Lux Radio Theatre: "The Dark Corners" with Lucille Ball and Mark Stevens From "Bill Stern Sports Newsreel" with Lucille Ball as guest From Suspense: "A Little Piece of Rope" From The Screen Guild Players: "Too Many Husbands" with Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, and Lucille Ball From The Screen Director's Playhouse: "Bachelor Mother" with Lucille Ball and Robert Cummings From Suspense: "The Red-Headed Woman" with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz From The Screen Director's Playhouse: "Her Husband's Affairs" From The Kraft Music Hall with Al Jolson and Lucille Ball From The Screen Director's Playhouse: "Miss Grant Takes Richmond"
Hollywood 360 (Author), A Full Cast, Lucille Ball (Narrator)
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Mr. District Attorney came to radio in 1939 and focused on a crusading DA named Paul Garrett. Created, written, and directed by former law student Ed Byron, the series was inspired by the early years of New York governor Thomas E. Dewey. It was Dewey's public war against racketeering which led to his election as governor and enabled him to run for the presidency of the United States. Phillips H. Lord, the creator of Gang Busters, helped Byron develop the concept and coined the title. Dwight Weist was radio's first Mr. District Attorney. With the help of his sidekick, Len Harrington, and his secretary, Edith Miller, Mr. District Attorney proved each week to be "champion of the people-guardian of our fundamental rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!" Near the end of its radio run in the early 1950s, the series made a transition to television with the current radio cast reprising their roles. Episodes included are: "The Fifteen-Year-Old on Trial," "The Joy Ride Murder," "The Murderous Hitchhiker," "The Staircase Killer," "The Charity Killer," "The Hit and Run Killer," "The Desert Killer," "The Missing Corpse," "The Bank Killer," "Knifing in the Park," "Hungry Hobo," and "Phony Confessions."
Hollywood 360 (Author), A Full Cast, A Full Cast (Narrator)
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This Is Your FBI, as the title suggests, was a crime drama that featured true cases from the FBI and was told from an agent's viewpoint. The show's producer and director, Jerry Devine, had once worked for the FBI, so having him for the show would allow each story to be told in the best way possible. J. Edgar Hoover, who was the chief of the FBI at the time, gave it his endorsement, calling it "the finest dramatic program on the air," and gave Devine access to the FBI files for the stories used in the show. The show's main character was Agent Jim Taylor, who handled crime cases on the West Coast. In each episode, thirty minutes were allowed for the presentation of the criminal's actions, which was then followed up with Taylor's investigation of the crime. This long-running series starred Frank Lovejoy (and later Dean Carlton and William Woodson) as the narrator, Betty White, and Stacy Harris. Episodes included are: "The Serviceman's Fraud," "The Desert Dictator," "The Unwelcome Guest," "The Sinister Souvenir," "The Cautious Killer," "The Corrupt City," "The Pan American Patriots," "The Castaway Killer," "The Paroled Killer," "The Delinquent Parents," "The Nylon Hijacker," and "The Singing Swindler."
Hollywood 360 (Author), A Full Cast, A Full Cast (Narrator)
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Classic Radio Spotlights: Orson Welles
This collection spotlights the iconic Orson Welles in nine of his works from the golden age of radio. These radio dramas, airing from 1938 through 1951, are among his very best and can be enjoyed for years to come. Armed with the nickname the "Boy Genius," Orson Welles graduated from the New York stage to expand his creative talents in the radio industry, hoping to use the audio medium to promote his stage ventures. Welles followed the practice followed by most stage actors: he played roles in hundreds of radio dramas produced by advertising agencies and the radio networks. After creating a minor panic among radio listeners with his 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast, Welles attracted the attention of a movie studio that offered the actor the spotlights of tinsel town-resulting in Citizen Kane. Making the move to California, Welles continued to appear on radio programs, became established as a Hollywood actor, and made numerous guest appearances on variety, comedy, and dramatic programs. In 1941 and again in 1946, he starred in a chilling story titled "The Hitch-Hiker," scripted by Lucille Fletcher, which thirteen years later was adapted into a television episode of The Twilight Zone. In the early 1950s, when Welles was temporarily blacklisted, he moved to England and narrated the radio program The Black Museum and starred in The Lives of Harry Lime, a prequel to the classic The Third Man, now regarded as one of the 100 best movies ever made. In this collection: The Mercury Theatre on the Air: "Three Short Stories" The Campbell Playhouse: "Mutiny on the Bounty" Suspense: "The Marvelous Barastro" The Black Museum: "The Champagne Glass" The Lux Radio Theatre: "The Break of Hearts" This Is My Best: "Diamond as Big as the Ritz" The Mercury Summer Theatre: "The Hitchhiker" The Lives of Harry Lime: "Art Is Long and Lime Is Fleeting" The Lives of Harry Lime: "In Pursuit of a Ghost"
Hollywood 360 (Author), Orson Welles, Orson Welles (Narrator)
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Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, Vol. 2
First heard on network radio in 1948, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar chronicled the adventures of freelance insurance investigator Johnny Dollar, “the man with the action-packed expense account.” For fourteen years it was one of the most popular detective shows on the air, lasting until the final days of network radio drama in 1962. Each story started with a phone call from an insurance executive calling on Johnny Dollar to investigate an unusual claim. His investigations usually required him to travel to distant locales and often involved murder. The stories were recounted in flashback, as Dollar listed each line item from his expense account: “Item one, $3.75 cab fare to the airport.” Over the years, many actors portrayed Johnny Dollar, including Charles Russell, John Lund, and Edmund O’Brien. But in 1955 Bob Bailey took over as the series was switching to a new dynamic format of seventy-five-minute storylines told in five fifteen-minute installments, Monday through Friday. While other radio shows were waning in the mid-1950s, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar was at its peak. Experts place these adventures in with the best of the best of radio’s golden age. This collection contains thirty fifteen-minute episodes. Episodes include “The Broderick Matter,” “The Amy Bradshaw Matter,” “The Henderson Matter,” “The Cronin Matter,” “The Lansing Fraud Matter” and “The Nick Shurn Matter.”
Hollywood 360 (Author), Bob Bailey (Narrator)
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The Lives of Harry Lime, a.k.a. The Third Man, Vol. 1
Made as a prequel to the hit film The Third Man, this radio show was created to follow the adventures of the popular character Harry Lime, played here, and in the movie, by Orson Welles. The 1949 film The Third Man won an Academy Award and was an international success, called "magic" by Roger Ebert and "one of the finest films ever made" by the New York Times. Written by New York Times bestselling novelist Graham Greene and directed by Carol Reed, the production starred Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins, an America who travels to postwar Vienna at the request of his old friend Harry Lime, played by Orson Welles. But it was the character of Harry Lime who nearly stole the show. While living in London, Orson Welles became acquainted with producer Harry Alan Towers, who convinced Welles to appear in a radio series based on his character in The Third Man and to be titled The Lives of Harry Lime. Since Lime meets his end in the sewers of Vienna in the movie, Towers, with Welles' involvement, decided to make the radio show a prequel. Produced in England and recorded in London's IBC Studios, The Lives of Harry Lime had an authentic continental flavor, with adventures taking place in such exotic locales as Paris, Rome, Venice, Tangiers, and the French Riviera. Thanks to brilliant scripts, expertly performed by Welles and a stock company of talented actors, the underworld activities of Harry Lime and his always-questionable associates make for great entertainment. "Welles brings a mischievous portrayal to life to the delight of many, even writing a few of these shows himself. All most enjoyable half hours, they are definitely a case of rooting for the bad guy to win."-JohnBrown.tv
Hollywood 360 (Author), A Full Cast, A Full Cast, Orson Welles, Orson Welles (Narrator)
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Rogue's Gallery was an old-time radio program starring Dick Powell as Richard Rogue, a private detective who trailed luscious blondes, protected witnesses, and did whatever else detectives do to make a living. What set this show apart from others in the genre was that midway through every episode, Rogue would invariably end up getting knocked out and spending his dream-time in acerbic conversation on Cloud 8 with his subconscious self-named Eugor-"Rogue" spelled backwards. The presence of the alter ego served to give Rogue enough information for his final deduction. Eugor would appear cackling like the host of The Hermit's Cave while imparting some vital information our hero had overlooked. Rogue would then awaken with a vague idea of what to do next. Directed by Dee Englebach, with music by Leith Stevens, Rogue's Gallery employed radio's best supporting actors including: Lou Merrill, Gerald Mohr, Gloria Blondell, Tony Barrett, Lurene Tuttle, and Peter Leeds. Dick Powell left the series in 1946 and would later star in Richard Diamond, Private Detective. Rogue's Gallery continued on until 1952 starring Barry Sullivan and later Paul Stewart. Rogue's Gallery, Vol. 1 features the following twelve episodes: "Blondes Prefer Gentlemen" (10/18/1945) "Murder with Muriel" (10/25/1945) "Little Drops of Rain" (11/8/1945) "Lovely Little Old Lady" (11/29/1945) "Triangle of Death" (2/21/1946) "A Fortune in Furs" (12/20/1945) "The Stark McVey Case" a.k.a. "Murder at Minden" (1/3/1946) "The Pamela Leeds Case" a.k.a. "A Will in Question" (1/17/1946) "Carlotta, the Magnificent" a.k.a. "Special Added Attraction" (1/31/1946) "Death House Legacy" (4/4/1946) "The Star of Savoy" (6/23/1946) "Cabin on a Lake" (7/7/1946)
Hollywood 360 (Author), A Full Cast, A Full Cast, Dick Powell (Narrator)
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