Old Time Radio Listener

By Sara WelchArts Performing Arts

Old Time Radio Listener episodes

November 10, 2022 Danny Kaye - The Great Donivitch Kayeoff
THE DANNY KAYE SHOW
In December 1944 it was announced that Pabst Sales Co. was dropping The Kenny Baker Show in favor of a vehicle for rising star Danny Kaye. Pabst had tried to sign established comedian Fred Allen for the show at a whopping cost of $25,000 per episode but the effort fizzled when Allen reportedly sniffing that he didn’t care to work for a beer company. Kaye agreed to a package costing the beer producer $16,000 per week, 2/3 the cost of Fred Allen.

The Danny Kaye Show debuted on January 6, 1945 and featured Eve Arden, Frank Nelson, Lionel Stander among others. Music was provided by Harry James and a 26-piece orchestra. Interestingly, before signing onto the show James contractually insisted that his wife would never be mentioned and that he would not serve as a comedy stooge for Kaye. Lionel Stander served as the second man while Ken Niles was announcer (followed by Fred Robbins and Dick Joy). Dick Mack of Warwick & Legler was the producer.

Initially Phil Rapp was approached to script the show but talks fell through and Kaye’s wife Sylvia Fine was responsible for much of the writing when it first took to the air. The highly regarded Goodman Ace took over writing duties when the show returned in the fall on September 28 at a salary of $3,500 per episode. Eventually Ace walked away calling the entire effort a “lost cause.” During its sixteen-month run (minus a 1945 summer hiatus) The Danny Kaye Show never really found its rhythm and could only draw mediocre ratings. In an effort to steady the ship after a shaky start, Kaye, who owned the show package, called in MCA to advice in March 1945 – after just months on the air – when early ratings for the show proved disappointing for Pabst. Even bandleader Henry James ran into issues with the American Federation of Radio Artists early in the show’s run when the organization insisted that he was talking too much and should have to join the actors’ union.

When the series returned in the fall of 1945 Danny Kaye was on a European tour and could not even appear on his own show. Big name talent including Frank Sinatra, Jack Benny, and George Burns and Gracie Allen were hired to take Kaye’s place. Pabst pulled the plug on The Danny Kaye Show on May 31, 1946. Samuel Goldwyn, who had Kaye’s motion picture contract, had opposed his getting into radio from the beginning, claiming the performer relied too much on visual gimmicks to be successful in the purely aural arena. While the radio program did little to further Kaye’s career although it did not hinder him much, either, as indicated by his many years of success that were still to come.

To learn whom Danny Kaye is then follow this link:
Danny Kaye - Wikipedia
31 min
November 07, 2022 CBS Radio Workshop - The Ex-Urbanites
A factual yet incredible report of those New Yorkers who try to mix work in the city with country living and who almost always invariably end up behind the eight ball.
Author: A. C. Spectorsky
Duration: 28:21
Starring: Eric Severied, John Larkin, Jan Miner
Broadcast Date: 30th March 1956
29 min
November 02, 2022 Luke Slaughter of Tombstone - The Henry Fell Story
Folks that write dictionaries must have a tough time with the word tolerance. I guess if you had to boil it down to just one other word it would have to be understanding. Some of them in Tombstone found that out when Luke Slaughter gave Chief Margono and a few of his Apache braves the loan of a couple of sections of his spread to try their hand at cattle raising. And Luke got chewed out plenty about it every time he went in to town. . .
Duration: 24:16
Starring: Sam Buffington
Broadcast Date: 20th April 1958
24 min
October 29, 2022 Yours Truly Johnny Dollar - The Ghost to Ghost Matter
Ian MacAndrews was the man who founded Lake City. He died five years ago and his life policy had been paid out but now it seemed that he had come back or his ghost had come back.
Duration: 24:57
Starring: Bob Bailey
Broadcast Date: 18th May 1958
27 min
October 21, 2022 Official Detective - Murder in Butcher Shop, Gay Sailor Suspected
Official Detective ran from 1950 to 1956 and was a classic old time radio police drama starring Craig McDonnell as Detective Lieutenant Dan Britt and Tommy Evans as Sergeant Al Bowen....
The show features a crime from the start to the end from a drunk accused of murder to bride that murders her groom after discovering that he married her for her money. Even spinsters are unsafe at the hands of madmen and murderers. Plots in this police melodrama offer great twists and an unusual lineup of the usual suspects including a "gay sailor" as a suspect in murder in a butcher shop.
23 min
October 16, 2022 Old Gold Comedy Theater - Nothing But The Truth
Bright young comedian from Canada, Alan Young plays the part of Bob Bennett a young stockbroker working for E.M Ralston the big bad wolf of Wall Street. He is sitting in his office chatting to a client over the phone when a beautiful woman enters his office. It is Gwinn Ralston his boss’s daughter and his love interest played by Anne Baxter. She has $10,000, which she collected for Seaside Charities but she promised to raise $20,000 and now wants Bob to invest it and double it in three days!
Duration: 29:45
Starring: Alan Young, Anne Baxter
Broadcast Date: 14th January 1945
30 min
October 12, 2022 Black Musem - The Wool Jacket a.k.a. The Baby’s Jacket
In Scotland Yard’s museum of murder here lies death dressed in its Sunday best. And here we find a jacket somewhat inconspicuous in its place on the shelf sleeveless and unstitched, a tragic relic of passion and violence.
Duration: 26:06
Starring: Ozzie Nelson
Broadcast Date: 1952
25 min
October 11, 2022 Suspense - The Customers Like Murder
Roland Young plays the part of an author of detective novels who invented his best part when his life was at stake. With Mr Young to play his long-suffering secretary is Miss Peggy Conklin. Written by John Dickson Carr.
Duration: 28:53
Starring: Roland Young
Broadcast Date: 23rd March 1943
29 min
October 10, 2022 The Chase - Hardluck Ethel
thel seemed to have a jinx on the horses and was always loosing. She considered herself hardluck Ethel until one day she went to see a fortune teller who told her she will be lucky very soon that she will win five times. But beware a handsome man who will chase her and catch her because he wants to kill her. . .
Duration: 29:42
Starring: Ruth Gilbert, Ann Thomas, Ralph Bell
Broadcast Date: 8th June 1952
30 min
October 07, 2022 Robert Arden News Commentary
Robert Arden News Commentary ran from 1940 to 1942 and featured Robert Arden, who was a foreign correspondent. Arden made insightful comments about the current events of the time. Most of the episodes in this collection aired before the US became involved in WWII and offer a interesting and introspective pre-war American viewpoint. Once the USA became involved in WWI Arden reported on the news of the war in Europe and examined both side of the war, including the life history of Adolf Hitler.
SHOWS LIST
Pre-War Commentary and War News
A Biography of Hitler
New Year's War News
The Balkan Situation
President Roosevelt Comments
Labor Day
FDR's Warning to the Axis Powers
Roundtable Discussion on WW2
Address to Police Officers
2 hr 37 min

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