Breaking Walls

In 1974, Mel Blanc sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran to talk about his career as a voice actor for their WTIC program, "The Golden Age of Radio" (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/log.html). In this clip Mel talks about how he was originally hired by Jack Benny and the many voices he could do.

In November of 1973 Howard Duff was a guest of Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran's for WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-44.html). During the course of the conversation, which focused mostly on Duff's radio career, he spoke about those Sam Spade rehearsal sessions in the late 1940s.

In Breaking Walls Episode 104 Part 5, we finish off our story on Orson Welles’ radio career in the 1940s.

PRODUCTION NOTE: This episode will be split into five parts and released on 6/1/2020 ; 6/5/2020 ; 6/10/2020 ; 6/15/2020; and 6/20/2020. On 6/25/2020 the entire episode will be available in long form.

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Highlights:

• Around the World in Eighty Days

• The Mercury Summer Theater

• The Lady From Shanghai

• Divorce

• Macbeth

• Europe and the end for Welles on American radio

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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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WallBreakers Links:

Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

URL - thewallbreakers.com

On September 12th, 1987 actors Shirley Mitchell and Jack Kruschen were in-studio guests of Jim Bohannon for a special broadcast of his radio show from Westwood One in Los Angeles, California. During the course of the conversation, Jim asked the duo what separated a great radio actor from the rest of his/her talented peers.

This is My Best debuted over CBS airwaves on Tuesday September 5th, 1944.

Originally, it was a book of the book of the month club. Producer Homer Fickett chose works from modern authors to be adapted for Hollywood radio stars.

Six months later Orson Welles abruptly took over. He initiated a shift to classics, debuting with Heart of Darkness on March 13th, 1945.

It’s the Spring of 1835. We’re at the offices of The New York Sun, published by Benjamin Day and edited by George Wisner. When the Sun launched in 1833, it became New York’s first successful one-cent newspaper.

Prior to the Sun’s launch, the most widely-read city papers were the Courier and Enquirer, Evening Post, Evening Star, and Commercial Advertiser. The City’s eleven merchant papers had a combined circulation of only 26,500. All were produced within a few blocks of each other near Wall Street, William and Nassau. The papers covered foreign affairs, Washington dealings, and little of local culture.

But, by 1833 as New York City’s population soared passed two-hundred thousand, you’d have heard English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and any number of other foreign languages on the streets of New York. These six-cent merchant papers were missing an opportunity, and Benjamin Day stepped in.

The New York Sun was dramatically different. It was smaller in size, and just below the nameplate was the price: ONE PENNY.

Many of the reports on tariffs and trade politics were replaced by stories littered with sex, romance, intrigue, violence, and death. The Sun’s daily circulation soon reached over ten thousand.

Then an old rival, James Gordon Bennett, launched a new penny paper—The New York Morning Herald—and his readership was catching up.

Benjamin Day needed help. He wanted an editor capable of captivating the entire city, and changing the literary landscape in New York forever.

With a well-timed hire, and a well-timed fire, Benjamin Day will get his wish.

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Coming soon to your favorite podcast app, Burning Gotham, the new scripted audio fiction set in 1835 New York City. Subscribe everywhere you get your podcasts by searching for Burning Gotham, or go to BurningGotham.com.

In Breaking Walls Episode 104 Part 4, we pick up with Orson Welles as the calendar turns to 1945 and World War II comes to an end.

PRODUCTION NOTE: This episode will be split into five parts and released on 6/1/2020 ; 6/5/2020 ; 6/10/2020 ; 6/15/2020; and 6/20/2020. On 6/25/2020 the entire episode will be available in long form.

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Highlights:

• Christmas 1944

• This is My Best

• Our President is Dead

• More Collaborations with Corwin

• The War Ends

• The Stranger

——————————

The WallBreakers:

http://thewallbreakers.com

Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.

To support the show:

http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers

——————————

WallBreakers Links:

Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

URL - thewallbreakers.com

In November of 1970, famed actress June Havoc—along with her husband, acclaimed radio producer and director Bill Spier—sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for their Hartford, CT-based WTIC radio show, "The Golden Age of Radio." (full interview here - https://goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-08.html) In this clip, June talks about her radio career and her love for the medium.

At a SPERDVAC meeting on March 14th, 1992 which featured Jeanette Nolan, Mary Jane Croft, and Sam Edwards, radio legend Jeanette Nolan explained how Orson Welles asked her and husband John McIntire to appear in his 1948 version of Macbeth.

This Halloween 1944 episode of the Chase and Sanborn program starring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy featured Orson Welles. It aired on October 29th, 1944 on NBC.

Welles was then heavily campaigning for President Franklin D. Rosevelt's third re-election. Election day was the following week.