Breaking Walls

La Jolla, California. 1947. We’re at 6005 Camino de la Costa at the home of Raymond Chandler. It’s been three years since the fifty-nine year-old wrote a full length novel. Instead he’s worked on two screen plays. Chandler co-adapted Double Indemnity with Billy Wilder, and penned The Blue Dahlia. Both earned him Academy Award nominations.

Looking for more income, his agent has negotiated a deal for Chandler to help bring a thirteen-week summer series to NBC. It’ll sub for Bob Hope on Tuesday nights.

The main character? Chandler’s detective Philip Marlowe. To date Marlowe had been the focal point of four novels and four films — including two almost simultaneously released this past winter.

This will, however, be the first time that Philip Marlowe comes to radio’s airwaves in a regular show. Tonight, we’ll go back in time and spotlight that summer’s highest-rated replacement series The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, starring Van Heflin.

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Raymond Chandler was born on July 23rd, 1888 in Chicago, Illinois. He spent his early years in Nebraska until his father, an alcoholic railway civil engineer, abandoned the family. In 1900 his Irish mother Florence moved with Raymond to England.

Chandler went to Dulwich College in London. In 1907 he became a naturalized British subject and took a job as an Admiral, but resigned. He grabbed a reporter position at the Daily Express and later the Westminster Gazette. Unhappy in England, Chandler wanted to be a writer, so he returned to America in 1912. He settled in San Francisco, where he took a correspondence course in bookkeeping. His mother joined him there soon after.

They moved to Los Angeles in 1913, where he strung tennis rackets, picked fruit, and found steady employment with the Los Angeles Creamery. But then, The U.S. and Canada finally joined World War I.

In 1917 Chandler enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He saw combat in the trenches in France and was twice hospitalized with Spanish flu. He was in flight training with the Royal Air Force when the war ended.

He returned to Los Angeles and began a love affair with Cissy Pascal, a married woman eighteen years his senior. She amicably divorced her husband in 1920, but Chandler's mother disapproved of the relationship and refused to sanction the marriage. For the next four years Chandler supported both. His mother passed away in 1923. Raymond married Cissy on February 6th, 1924.

Having begun in 1922 as a bookkeeper and auditor, by 1931 he was a highly paid VP at the Dabney Oil Syndicate. But he suffered frequent mental health breakdowns. He drank too much, skipped work, was promiscuous with female employees, and he publicly threatened suicide. Chandler was fired in 1932.

Detective and suspense shows had been on radio since the medium’s inception. They were often similar to dime store novels. Sherlock Holmes began in 1930.

Chandler taught himself to write pulp-style fiction by analyzing a novelette by Erle Stanley Gardner. His first story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in Black Mask Magazine in 1933. His lead character was called “Mallory.” It took him five months to finish the story. Erle Stanley Gardner wrote entire stories in three or four days.

He later said, “Wandering up and down the Pacific Coast in an automobile, I began to read pulp magazines. This was in the great days of Black Mask. It struck me that some of the writing was pretty forceful and honest, even though it had a crude aspect. I decided that this might be a good way to try to learn to write fiction and get paid a small amount of money at the same time. I spent five months on an eighteen-thousand word novelette and sold it for one-hundred-eighty dollars. After that I never looked back, although I had many uneasy periods looking forward.”

In Breaking Walls episode 129 we honor the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Roswell incident by focusing on Radio and the mid-century flying saucer craze.

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Highlights:

• World War II, Kenneth Arnold, Roswell, and “Project Saucer”

• The Chicago Roundtable Attempts to Answer What Life on Other Planets Would Look Like

• Sightings in The Spring of 1950 — Dimension X Launches

• The 1950 Radio Landscape with Red Skelton

• Fibber McGee Sees a UFO

• Harris And Remley’s UFO Hoax

• Edward R. Murrow’s Report on Flying Saucers

• Dangerous Assignment’s UFOs in Ecuador

• UFO Sightings during the Korean War

• You Bet Your Life’s UFO Enthusiast

• KNX, Ralph Story, And UFO Mania

• Roy Rogers Takes Us Home

• Conclusions? Closing Credits and a New Mystery

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The reading material used in today’s episode was:

• On the Air — By John Dunning

• Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg

As well as articles from:

• Broadcasting Magazine

• LIFE Magazine

• Radio Daily

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On the interview front:

• Alice Faye, Jim Jordan, Elliott Lewis, and Lurene Tuttle spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.

• John Gibson, Jim Jordan, and Arnold Moss spoke to Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org.

• Jim Jordan also spoke with John Dunning for his 71KNUS program from Denver

• Lilian Buyeff and Sam Edwards spoke to SPERDVAC. For more info, go to SPERDVAC.com.

• Elliott Reid spoke with Frank Bresee

• Red Skelton spoke with Dini Petty

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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:

• I Put a Spell on You — By Screaming Jay Hawkins

• Pyramid of the Sun — By Les Baxter

• What A Fool I Was — By Percy Mayfield

• Happy Trails To You — By Dale Evans and Roy Rogers

• Someone To Watch Over Me — By Blossom Dearie

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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.

For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.

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Thank you to:

Tony Adams

Steven Allmon

Orson Orsen Chandler

Phil Erickson

Jessica Hanna

Perri Harper

Briana Isaac

Thomas M. Joyce

Ryan Kramer

Earl Millard

Gary Mollica

Barry Nadler

Christian Neuhaus

Aimee Pavy

Ray Shaw

Filipe A Silva

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WallBreakers Links:

Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

By 1955 radio’s days as America’s chief entertainment medium were over. However, while radio drama was dying out, UFO sightings were becoming more prevalent. Some were so outlandish they were hard to believe. Others were chillingly real.

For example: On September 19th, 1961 Betty and Barney Hill had a widely known abduction experience. The Hills saw a huge flying disc while driving home one night on Route 3 in New Hampshire. They later awoke back in their car with missing time, something common for abductees.

Hypnosis later revealed they were abducted and medically examined by small extraterrestrials. What added to the Hills’ credibility was the fact that both were afraid to tell their story. They were an interracial couple, and concerned it would hurt their credibility as they were active in the Civil Rights movement. Their experience was most certainly not for publicity.

In recent years, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena has been verified by various world governments, and the public’s fascination with the mystery remains. Well, it’s a good thing that the subject of our next Breaking Walls episode knows how to get to the bottom of a hard-boiled mystery.

Next time on Breaking Walls we head back to the Summer of 1947 as for the first time in a major series, Raymond Chandler’s famous detective Philip Marlowe signs on the air.

Roy Rogers was born on November 5th, 1911 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He spent much of the early 1930s performing with groups like Uncle Tom Murray’s Hollywood Hillbillies, The Texas Outlaws, and The Rocky Mountaineers.

In mid-decade he joined up with Bob Nolan to form the Sons of the Pioneers. By 1935, they were appearing in bit parts for Republic Pictures. Two years later Republic’s top cowboy, Gene Autry, quit in a dispute, and Rogers became a star.

He bought a palomino colt, named it Trigger, and taught it tricks that were guaranteed crowd- pleasers. Rogers was soon nip-and-tuck with Autry at the box office.

In the mid-1940s he was among the top ten money-makers in the entire industry. He came to radio in 1944 over Mutual. His second wife, Arline, died in 1946. He married his co-star Dale Evans on New Year’s Eve, 1947.

Hollywood radio’s best loved working with Roy. His radio show moved to NBC in 1951 where he also ventured into TV. In 1953 new sponsor Dodge, asked the show to be more adult-oriented. Writer-director Ralph Rose came up with a mystery format, with Evans’s song usually figuring in the plot.

The January 27th, 1955, episode was called “Faraway Places.” The Roy Rogers Show went off the air on July 21st, 1955. His television series ran until June 9th, 1957.

Ralph Story was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan on August 19th, 1920. He served as a US Army Fighter Pilot during World War II and started a career in broadcasting after the war.

His big break came in 1948 when he was hired to host and direct an early morning show on KNX in Los Angeles. Story's casual style and witty observations about life in LA won him national recognition. He went on to do various shows before going to TV in the 1950s.

This afternoon show, Ralph Story’s Backyard featured Story, sidekicks and musical accompaniment. On July 16th, 1953 his guest was UFO follower George Adamski. (A Damn Ski)

Adamski claimed to have met with friendly Nordic aliens, and to have taken flights with them to the Moon and other planets.

Many of Adamski’s assertions were widely disputed. Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, head of Project Blue Book, the U.S. Government’s Air Force group assigned to investigate UFOs, considered Adamski a talented con artist and likened him to P.T. Barnum.

Have you been enjoying Breaking Walls? If so, give the show a quick rating on whatever platform you listen, especially iTunes.

In October of 1952 You Bet Your Life was in the middle of its sixth season on the air and third over NBC. That month’s rating was 8.8, down significantly from its peak, but still good enough for fifth overall.

The October 15th’s secret word was “water,” and the male member of the middle couple had a very unusual hobby.

In 1955 CBS was relaunching Yours Truly Johnny Dollar as a transcribed, fifteen minute evening strip serial, which was set to air weeknights at 8:15PM eastern, 8:30 pacific.

On August 29th, 1955 Gerald Mohr recorded an audition for the lead. Mohr recently finished a successful run as Christopher Storm on TV’s Foreign Intrigue. The role eventually went to Bob Bailey.

This is Mohr's audition for parts one and two of the "Trans-Pacific Matter"

Like with Germany, Korea was divided into occupation zones after World War II. The Soviets helped establish communism in the North, while the US supported the South. By June of 1950 fighting along the border had been going on for months. However on the weekend of June 24th, bulletins increased and it became clear a major crisis was underway.

After a UN Security Council meeting President Truman‘s motion to send troops was approved. Less than five years after the end of World War II, the U.S. was back at war.

That August the manager of a Montana semi-pro baseball team took color film of two UFOs flying over Great Falls. The next year, several V-Shaped formations were spotted flying over Lubbock, Texas. Witnesses included professors and students from Texas Tech University.Then in the summer of 1952 some of the most famous UFO sightings of the 20th Century occurred.

In July, a series of sightings happened at three separate airports in Washington, D.C. Simultaneously in Norfolk, Virginia, Pan-American pilots saw eight large, glowing red objects.The sightings made front-page headlines around the nation, and led to the formation of a CIA Panel.

Ten days later, two US Air force Colonels saw three unusual aircrafts flying in formation over Carson Sink, Nevada.

And perhaps most sensationally, in Flatwoods, West Virginia on September 12th, six local boys and a woman reported seeing a UFO land and a spade-headed creature near the landing site. It was met with considerable skepticism.

On Saturday July 9th, 1949, Dangerous Assignment debuted on NBC starring Brian Donlevy as Steve Mitchell. Each week Mitchell was sent to a different location to crack into the bed of discontent and rout the perpetrators. Herb Butterfield and Betty Moran co-starred, with Hollywood regulars, like the just-heard Sam Edwards filling out the supporting roles.

The initial Summer run ended on August 20th, but NBC picked the series up in February of 1950. That April Ford Motors signed on for a few broadcasts. April 17th’s episode was called “UFOs in Ecuador.” This episode featured Elliott Reid as Drake.

After Ford, Wheaties sponsored the program for their Big Parade in the summer of 1950, but it was short-lived.

Dangerous Assignment ran in the States until February 13th, 1953, but never achieved widespread fame. A syndicated version was produced the following year in Australia with Lloyd Burrell as Mitchell.