A 14 minute track of an excerpt from a CBS Big Band broadcast on July 4, 1948... featuring The Band of Renown of Les Brown. Recorded when the latest craze of "Bop" music was at its peak... this features three songs related to that genre of music. Les Brown was known for his 50 year association with Bob Hope, his service to his country through performances of the USO... and for adapting his music as the music in the culture evolved.

The "King of the Vibes" was indeed Lionel Hampton and on this track you will find him and his orchestra as the featured performers on this June 4, 1944 rebroadcast of the Armed Forces Radio Service's One Night Stand. These were performances that were recorded live as some of the best night spots in America and were broadcast via the AFRS to our troops during WW II, Korea and even Vietnam. The series ended in 1965. You won't be disappointed... go ahead.. give it a listen! Thanks for "tuning in" to Heirloom Radio, a Different Kind of Oldies Show.

Mixing humor with some great music, The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street accomplished the task with excellence. Paul Lavalle Orchestra, guest singers Gertrude Neeson (Slinky Neeson) and Dick Todd introducing the "new" song Mairzy Doats. February 13, 1944 Armed Forces Radio Service broadcast.

NBC University Theater (also known by several other variations of this) was a radio series directed by Homer Heck that presented adaptations of classic novels. The series began in Chicago on WMAW an NBC affiliate... and ran from 1944-48. The broadcast then moved to Hollywood. The Chicago-based programs were unique in that the University of Louisville, University of Tulsa, Kansas State Teachers College, and Washington State College offered listeners college credit through associated literature correspondence course. Once in Hollywood the NBC changed the format to include adaptations of short stories and plays as well as novels. The NBC series won a Peabody Award and was considered one of the most distinguished radio programs of its day. Fortunately all the episodes still survive. The series ended in February of 1951. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was produced in 1947.

Armed Forces Radio Service broadcast from the Cafe Rouge of the Hotel Statler in NYC presented this Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra One Night Stand program on April 7, 1949... Excellent show.

The creaking door opens and our host, Raymond Edward Johnson, lets us into the Inner Sanctum where Richard Widmark stars in this horror thriller entitled "Make Ready My Grave." Widmark's character, John Loomis brings his new bride to the family mansion, where she discovers the many nooses and learns the secret of the family curse! Betty has just gotten married, and is in a state of euphoria, which ends quickly. On the train, her new husband gives her a gun and makes her promise to shoot anyone who tries to kill her, even if it's him. Then she notices that he absent-mindedly twisted a bit of string into a hangman's noose. And when they arrive at his ancestral home, they find a ..... listen and find out what they found! Happy Halloween

The Hall of Fantasy was a radio anthology program that focused on murder mysteries (good vs evil). It originally aired from KALL studios in Salt Lake CIty, UT. in the late 1940's. The announcers were RIchard Thorne and Carl Greyson. Though they dropped the series in 1947 they were reunited at WGN in Chicago in 1949. They started the series up again, but this time focused on man's unfortunate encounters with the supernatural. The series went nationwide in August of 1952 on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" was perfect for the series and this is a very good adaptation of the work to a radio audience in 1953. There are about 112 episodes that still survive.

First heard as a summer replacement for the Abbott and Costello show in 1945... Mystery in the Air began as a crime series about a Detective Stonewall Scott... but in 1947 it switched genres to become a horror series of psychological and supernatural tales featuring the incredible character actor, Peter Lorre. The Black Cat is another show from that series which is on Heirloom Radio. Harry Morgan of Dragnet fame is the announcer. Lorre was the weekly narrator and often the raging psychopath! It is said the Lorre got so involved in the character he was portraying that he would end the half hour sweat-drenched and exhausted. According to historian John Dunning, only 8 shows from this series are known to have survived... this is one of them. Enjoy... and Happy Halloween!

An Edgar Allan Poe classic... Tell Tale Heart... For a man who lived only 40 years (1809-1849) and certainly had his physical and emotional problems... he created some of the most incredible stories and poetry in American history. Boris Karloff stars in this Poe favorite story of a man who has super sensitive hearing... who kills a blind man...at least he thinks he did... but he can still hear the heart beating from underneath the bedroom floor boards where he "buried" the body. The Tell Tale Heart... Happy Halloween!

What makes this track particularly entertaining and interesting is that it is one of the very first musical broadcasts that featured swing music... back in 1937. The announcer, Don Wilson, even makes a point of introducing the fact that the show is unique as it is about to present a new form of music... and he goes into a brief explanation of what "swing music" is and how it differs from the traditional radio broadcast featuring an orchestra. It is quite good and the quality is fantastic for being 80 years old!