The Good Old Days of Radio Show

Our month-long tribute to the classic horror villain Vincent Price continues today. And this is your more traditional Vincent Price story, and a great role where he gets to exude menace and suspicion. Starring alongside Price, and the reason we picked this particular story, is another one of our favorite villainous character actors, the original Invisible Man, Claude Rains. It has to do with a serial killer on the loose, and it's great fun to see these two great horror movie actors performing together.

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We are featuring actor Vincent Price all through the month of November. Of course, he is well-remembered today for being a spooky character in film, but that reputation began later in his career. Often people forget that he played all sorts of roles before he was typecast in the more grisly roles. Today we are bringing you a comedy show with Price as a guest, and here in '51, he was already building this reputation. But here he gets to poke fun at himself, and this is a really fun show for Price fans.

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We've featured some Norman Corwin dramas here in the past (links in the description). Corwin was particularly noted as one of radio's most literary figures. He was certainly known for some hard-hitters, but did some light scripts, such as this one. Of course, having a reputation to uphold, he could not settle for anything easy, and so you have the entire thing written in verse. The cast is impressive: Vincent Price, Groucho Marx, Robert Benchley, Keenan Wynn, Sylvia Sidney, and Norman Lloyd. And you will probably be thinking in verse for awhile after listening to this, so we apologize for that.

Other Norman Corwin plays we've featured:

https://goodolddaysofradio.podbean.com/e/episode-78-on-a-note-of-triumph/

https://goodolddaysofradio.podbean.com/e/episode-88-we-hold-these-truths/

https://goodolddaysofradio.podbean.com/e/episode-95-the-best-of-lucille-fletcher-my-client-curly/

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Author Leslie Charteris had a popular and long-running book series about a suave character named Simon Templar, nicknamed "The Saint." During a time when quirky literary detectives got a treatment on radio, "The Saint" had a brief run starring Vincent Price. Of course, any similarity between the Saint of the novels and radio was purely coincidental. But the dialogue was surprisingly snarky, and worked well with Price's persona. Especially this episode where the Saint and "Louie" the cab driver explore a haunted house.

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November is Vincent Price month, featuring the astounding body of radio work from this beloved actor. This is Thursday, and as is our inclination, we feature slightly darker tales on Thursdays, and we don't have to look far to find a great mystery/horror story starring Vincent Price. This is a story of paranoia, as two old friends take a trip to an isolated cabin in the woods, with one (played by Lloyd Nolan) convinced the other (played by Vincent Price) is going to murder him.

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All this month we are celebrating actor Vincent Price, featuring in particular his work on radio. As usual, we have done our best to select programs that show Price's range and versatility as a performer, so you will be hearing everything from horror to comedy to drama. Price's style often felt very classical, leading many to believe he was British. So for our debut, we are featuring Mr. Price playing the role of William Shakespeare. But in this light-hearted fantasy, Shakespeare is brought back from the dead by a movie studio to write a screenplay!

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This is a broadcast we've been avoiding on this podcast, since it's been overdone by just about every old time radio program in history. But there is still so much interest in this historic broadcast, especially among younger listeners, we caved. So here is the famous panic broadcast in which real people really believed that real Martians had landed in Grover's Mill, New Jersey, and were marching across the country spreading poison gas and zapping people with heat rays. John explains the legend. Happy Halloween.

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This is the last Halloween-themed comedy show for now. Our Miss Brooks was a late-40s through 1950s classic sitcom that leaned heavily into character comedy. It was led by Eve Arden, who carried her persona of the wise-cracking character she developed in the movies, over to a high school English teacher, who was perpetually broke, ever pining for the reclusive biology teacher Phillip Boynton, a creating endless slapstick pandemonium for her high-strung boss, Osgood Conklin. This is their Halloween episode, all about an ill-timed and ill-advised Halloween surprise party.

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Well, our Carlton E. Morse series is wrapped up, and we are still one week away from our official Halloween show, so instead of starting something new, we are going to anticipate the dark and stormy night with this creepy little number from Wyllis Cooper. As usual, Quiet Please takes a little bit of figuring out ("are we listening to a comedy or a spoof?"). But this is one of John's favorites, so you better get cozy and hang onto a loved one, because this one is best heard in the dark...

Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/

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J. Carrol Naish was one of the great dialect performers from vintage film and radio. For a brief period he became known for a well-written radio show from Si Howard, about a number of immigrants struggling to acclimate to American culture. As you might imagine, this gave the writers plenty of fodder to mock modern pop culture. This Halloween show came late in the show's run, when it was beginning to lose steam, and perhaps not quite a crisp as some of the earlier shows. But nonetheless it's still fun to hear great performances by Naish and some of the iconic voices from vintage cartoons.

Visit our website: https://goodolddaysofradio.com/

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Our theme music is "Why Am I So Romantic?" from Animal Crackers: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KHJKAKS/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MK8MVCY4DVBAM8ZK39WD