The complete title of this wildly comic story  based on Tall Tales from the Hunters' Camp  by  South Carolina humorist William Gilmore Simms is  "Bald Head Bill Bauldy and How He Went Through the Flurriday Campaign."  At the nightly "Lying Camp' in a remote corner of the Smoky Mountains, camp cook and bottle washer Bill Bauldy is persuaded to retell his well-known account of how he was inveigled into the U.S. Army when they were chasing the Florida Seminoles.    His uselessness as a soldier leads to his assignment as regimental cook.  During his time off he samples the regiment's  liquor and "long nine cigars" imported from Cuba.   Lying low while his regiment fights a battle, Bauldy is captured first by the Seminoles,  then by an alligator who takes him to an underwater island ruled over by a carnivorous mermaid queen with an army of alligators marching in formation.   Sentenced  to death by his commander for desertion, he is pardoned after he explains what happened  and the unit is glad to  enjoy decently cooked food once again.   Adapted and directed by Robert Clem with a music score performed by Donald Stark,,  Produced by Anne Blythe Meriwether.   Funding from the Southern Humanities Media Fund.    Mixed by Bill Sexton at South Carolina Education Broadcasting.   With George Altman as Bald Head Bill and Ron Hale as the Colonel determined to make his life miserable.

Support the show

A tale of the Progressive era, this two-part drama tells the story of how Woodrow Wilson becomes New Jersey's governor in 1910, embraces a progressive agenda and is soon on his way to the U.S. presidency.   In Part One of the drama,  George B.M. Harvey, editor of Harper 's Weekly and a conservative Democrat with strong ties to Wall Street, sees in Wilson a man who can offset the burgeoning reform movement.  Harvey convinces New Jersey Democratic party boss Jim Smith to back Wilson as a way, finally,  to take back control of the state.  Wilson accepts only on their assurance he will be allowed to make his own decisions in matters of "morals and men."  After a wooden start, Wilson begins to respond to the crowd and meets with Joe Tumulty, a member of the party's insurgent wing.  Wilson wins the election with a strong finish and is sought out by George B.M. Harvey and Boss Jim Smith to offer their congratulations.  Produced by Charles Potter and Robert Clem.  Written and directed by Robert Clem and aired on the Pacifica network in 1992.  Original music score by Donald Stark.   With:

• Timothy Jerome as Woodrow Wilson
• Merwin Goldsmith as Boss Smith
• Jack Gilpin as Joe Tumulty
• Ed Steele as George B.M. Harvey
• Ron Marshall as Boss Davis
• Earl Hammond as Jim Nugent
• Mitchell Jason as the Narrator

Support the show

In the aftermath of Wilson's victory in his campaign to become New Jersey's governor in 1910, Boss Jim Smith comes to collect his reward -- Wilson's support for Smith to fill a vacant seat in the U.S. Senate.   But Democratic voters have decided in a non-binding primary that one James L. Martine is their choice for the Senate.   Wilson's refusal to back Smith after Smith had backed him ignites a struggle for power between New Jersey Democratic party bosses and the party's insurgent wing, now backing Wilson.   Wilson launches a public campaign on behalf of a progressive agenda of workmen's compensation and safety, an end to child labor, government regulation of the economy and an end to machine politics.  In the end Jersey City's Boss Davis goes for Wilson, and Boss Smith is defeated.  Woodrow Wilson emerges as a leading contender as president of the United States in 1912.    

Produced by Charles Potter and Robert Clem.  Written and directed by Robert Clem and aired on the Pacifica network in 1992.  Original music score by Donald Stark.   With:

• Timothy Jerome as Woodrow Wilson
• Merwin Goldsmith as Boss Smith
• Jack Gilpin as Joe Tumulty
• Ed Steele as George B.M. Harvey
• Ron Marshall as Boss Davis
• Earl Hammond as Jim Nugent
• Mitchell Jason as the Narrator

Support the show

• Charles Chesnutt was a pioneering African-American author who wrote a number of novels about middle class and professional blacks but found that white readers wanted only to hear about black characters from the lower strata, who spoke in dialects reminiscent of slavery.  White author Joel Chandler Harris had created in Uncle Remus a kindly black man who looked back fondly on his slavery days.  In The Conjure Woman, his best known work, Chesnutt created the character of Uncle Julius, who was wily enough to be deferential to the well to do  but told told tales  in which there was no trace of nostalgia for the brutalities of slavery.  Produced for public radio in the late 1996, the program features scholars from Yale, Rutgers and North Carolina State about Chesnutt's legacy, and features a dramatization of Chesnutt's conjure story "Dave's Neckliss."  The cast features:
• Ossie Davis as Uncle Julius
• W.T. Martin as the plantation owner
• Welker White as the owner's wife

Music composed and performed by Donald Stark
Produced, adapted and directed by Robert Clem

Support the show

Broadcast worldwide as part of a radio series celebrating William Faulkner's 100th birthday, the short story "Honor" from 1930 shows Faulkner in his Hollywood mode.  He worked as a screenwriter on several films directed by Howard Hawks, including To Have and Have Not, and many of his novels were adapted as films including Douglas Sirk's Tarnished Angels (1957) based on Faulkner's 1935 novel Pylon and starring Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone.  In the story "Honor" a former World War I pilot becomes a wing-walker in a flying circus and takes a step too far with a dangerous woman.  Recorded in New York City with:

• Campbell Scott as Buck Monaghan
• Hope Davis as Nicole Rogers
• Michael O'Keefe as Rogers
• Leo Burmester as Waldrip
• Guy Boyd as the Owner
• J.R. Horne as Rinehart

Music composed and performed by Donald Stark
Adapted, produced and directed by Robert Clem

Support the show

Part of a drama series hosted by Stacy Keach, based on short stories by William Faulkner.  Spotted Horses, one of his greatest stories,  introduces the Snopes clan, a humorless, devious bunch who descend on Yoknapatawpha County like locusts, in this case to sell a herd of worthless wild horses to the local residents.  Recorded in New York City, with:

• John Glover as Buck Hipps
• Betty Buckley as Mrs. Armistid
• Lois Smith as Mrs. Littlejohn
• Will Patton as the Narrator
• Bill Raymond, Lanny Flaherty, David Little, Rusty DeWees, David Costabile, Frank Licato as townsmen.
• Music composed/performed by Donald Stark
• Produced, written and directed by Robert Clem
  
  

Support the show

Part of a dramatic series based on short stories by William Faulkner.   Mountain Victory, a dark tale written in 1932 at Faulkner's peak, tells of a Confederate officer and his former slave traveling home to Mississippi after the war's end who find their way blocked by embittered Unionists in the mountains of Tennessee.   With:

• David Strathairn as Maj. Weddell
• Jeffery Wright as Jubal
• William Fichtner as Vatch
• Jeff DeMunn as the Father
• Welker White as Liddy
• Sloane Shelton as the Mother

Support the show

Hernando de Soto had  helped conquer the Incas of Peru and in 1539 was sent by the Spanish crown to subjugate the native tribes of what is now the American Southeast, where he would look for treasures like those found in Central and South America.  Eli Wallach is host and a cast of Hispanic and Native American actors play the roles of the Spaniards and the Cherokees, Choctaws and other American tribes who at first welcomed de Soto, then resisted fiercely.   With an original music score by Donald Stark, the series was adapted by Robert Clem from the eyewitness account of the Portuguese "Gentleman of Elvas," published in 1557.  Broadcast by NPR in 1994 and 1996 and produced and directed by Robert Clem.

Support the show

After landing in Tampa Bay in 1539, Hernando de Soto finds that the natives have gone into hiding in the swamps.  He burns their villages, then moves inland and northward, seeking gold.  The Spaniards with some difficulty find their way through the swamps but are soon desperately short of food. Having reports of gold in a province called Cale, the Spaniards find the villages of the province abandoned and the reports of gold false.  To avoid a breakdown in morale De Soto orders new rumors of gold to be circulated among his soldiers.   Taking grain from Indian cornfields, the Spaniards are attacked by Indians and a series of battles ensue. Large numbers of Indians are executed and others put in chains to carry supplies.  Following another rumor of gold, De Soto  travels up the Atlantic seaboard through a vast wilderness, finally reaching a country called Cofitachequi in what is now South Carolina. The local chieftain, a woman who presides over large territories, receives the Spaniards in peace.  A cast of Hispanic and Native American actors play the roles of the Spaniards and the Cherokees, Choctaws and other American tribes the Spaniards encountered.   With an original music score by Donald Stark, the series was adapted by Robert Clem from the eyewitness account of the Portuguese "Gentleman of Elvas," published in 1557.  Broadcast by NPR in 1994 and 1996 and produced and directed by Robert Clem.

Support the show

Some of De Soto's lieutenants urge that a colony be established in the fertile country of Cofitachequi, near the Atlantic Ocean. But finding no gold in Cofitachequi   only copper, mica and pearls, De Soto ignores the advice of his lieutenants and orders an immediate departure. When the princess of Cofitachequi refuses to give them bearers, complaining of pillaging and rape by De Soto's soldiers, the princess is taken hostage by Don Hernando.  Her escape a few days later leaves the expedition exposed to attack. De Soto takes other chiefs hostage to provide insurance as the Spaniards move north, west, then south again.  They arrive in 1540 in the country of chief Tascaluza, whose warlike reputation precedes him.  De Soto deliberately seeks to provoke the chief by  sending him worthless beads as a token of  esteem.  A cast of Hispanic and Native American actors play the roles of the Spaniards and the Cherokees, Choctaws and other American tribes the Spaniards encountered.   With an original music score by Donald Stark, the series was adapted by Robert Clem from the eyewitness account of the Portuguese "Gentleman of Elvas," published in 1557.  Broadcast by NPR in 1994 and 1996 and produced and directed by Robert Clem.

Support the show