Breaking Walls

At a SPERDVAC meeting on March 14th, 1992 which featured Jeanette Nolan, Mary Jane Croft, and Sam Edwards, radio legend Jeanette Nolan explained how she got involved in radio during the 1930s.

On the August 4th, 1949 episode of CBS' Escape, "You are isolated on a remote plantation in the crawling Amazon Jungle and an immense army of ravenous ants is closing in on you - swarming in to eat you alive. A deadly black army from which there is no escape."

This is the third broadcast of "Leiningen Versus The Ants" broadcast on Escape. This version features Gerald Mohr and Tudor Owen.

In the early 1990s, Red Skelton was a guest of Canadian television host Dini Petty's talk show. They spoke about his life and career. In this clip, Red Skelton explains how comedian Ed Wynn got him started in show-biz when he was just a kid.

Breaking Walls is the podcast on the history of American network radio broadcasting. It focuses on people, places, stories, and events from the Golden Age of American Radio. Find us and subscribe everywhere you get your podcasts and at TheWallBreakers.com

In Breaking Walls episode 118 we hit the road with part one of an Americana mini-series. We’ll gas up with some of radio’s best and examine shows taking place at America’s filling stations.

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Highlights:

• Al Hodge and The Green Hornet

• Getting a Checkup at Doctor Christian’s

• Lux Presents: They Drive By Night with Lana Turner and Lucille Ball

• Orson Welles and The Hitchhiker

• ABC competes with NBC and CBS

• Dragnet leads to The Lineup

• Stacey Keach and The Last Tales of the Texas Rangers

• The Gas Crisis and the CBS Radio Mystery Theater

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The WallBreakers:

http://thewallbreakers.com

Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.

To support the show:

http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers

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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

• The Association For Convenience and Fuel Retailing

• Family Tree Magazine

• NationalParkService.Org

• Newsweek

• The Smithsonian Magazine

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On the interview front:

• Virginia Gregg and Lurene Tuttle spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.

• Himan Brown, Larry Haines, Vincent Price, and Rudy Vallée spoke with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. Hear these full interviews at Goldenage-WTIC.org.

• Herb Ellis, Byron Kane, Stacy Keach Sr, and Herb Vigran were with SPERDVAC. For more information, go to SPERDVAC.com.

• Bing Crosby and John Scott Trotter spoke with Same Time, Same Station.

• Lucille Ball was with both Dick Cavett and Joan Rivers.

• Orson Welles with Johnny Carson.

• Al Hodge with Richard Lamparski.

• Vic Perrin with Neill Ross for KMPC.

• Joel McCrae was interviewed by Al Greenberg for Orco Development.

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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:

• Route 66 — By Nat King Cole

• Deep Night — By Rudy Vallée

• The Klezmer’s Wedding — By Andre Moisan

• Living Without You — By George Winston

• Fly Me To The Moon — By Julie London

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Special thanks to:

The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/

The Fireside Mystery Theatre

https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/

Twelve Chimes, It’s Midnight

https://www.twelvechimesradio.com/

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Subscribe to Burning Gotham—the new audio drama set in 1835 New York City. It’s available everywhere you get your podcasts and at BurningGotham.com.

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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

Briana Isaac

Thomas M. Joyce

Ryan Kramer

Gary Mollica

Barry Nadler

Christian Neuhaus

Aimee Pavy

Chris Pilkington

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WallBreakers Links:

Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 90: The Hollywood People Behind Radio’s Baby Boomer Boom (1945 - 1954).

By 1946 Los Angeles was the number one location for dramatic radio’s production. Hollywood had the country’s biggest stars and radio’s most famous performers. Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, and many others called Hollywood home.

Even before the war, Los Angeles had been attracting hopeful radio actors, writers, and producers. By America’s first year of peace, a troupe of hungry professionals had assembled.

These are some of their thoughts on the people they knew and the industry they worked so closely with.

On October 7th, 1971 Chuck Schaden interviewed famous host and emcee Ralph Edwards about his life and career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/edwards-ralph/). During the course of the conversation Mr. Edwards explained how he found himself at CBS in New York very early in his career after giving radio up on the West Coast.

On February 7th, 1982, Bob Bailey's daughter Roberta Bailey-Goodwin joined John Dunning on 71KNUS for a chat about her father's life and career. Bailey was famous on radio for playing the lead in Let George Do It and later Yours Truly Johnny Dollar.

In the July 23rd, 1956 episode of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar starring Bob Bailey, Dollar receives a telephone call from Ralph Kearns of Great Plains Guarantee. The company is investigating a fifty-two-year-old man who married a twenty-seven-year-old woman eight months ago. The man is the Chief of Police in Greensport, Missouri.

One month after they were married an insurance policy was taken out for $50,000 on his life, with his wife as the beneficiary. Three days ago, the man was shot to death. Twenty-four hours later the man's "grieving widow" filed a claim on the policy. Great Plains wants Johnny to go to Greensport to investigate.

To listen to the next four episodes in this storyline, go to - https://archive.org/details/OTRR_YoursTrulyJohnnyDollar_Singles

In August of 1987, famed radio director Jack Johnstone was a guest of SPERDVAC's at the Thousand Oaks Library in California. During the course of the conversation on Johnstone's life and career he told a brief story about the Johnny Dollar recording process. Jack Johnstone directed the show between 1955 and 1960 when Bob Bailey was the star.