The Good Old Days of Radio Show

This month was Groucho Marx's birthday, and as a late tribute, we are bringing you another show from his long running radio series, "You Bet Your Life." It was a light game show that was less about the questions, and more about Groucho's silly conversations with the contestants. 

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Angela Lansbury is the star of this week's radio noir. This gothic story about a rising starlet and her actor husband who is in the twilight of his career resembles "A Star Is Born", but with a dark twist. This is a rare radio appearance by Lansbury in the first phase of her career, where she often played villains like Sibyl Vane from "The Picture of Doiron Gray," and Eleanor Shaw Iselin from "The Manchurian Candidate."

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We return to comedy with one of our favorites from golden radio, Red Skelton. Skelton preferred to see himself as a clown rather than a comedian. Indeed his energy and performance elevated him to an unusual place among other comics of the era. This one is all about the post-war meat shortage. Plenty of humor set around a serious topic that gives us a glimpse of the frustration of everyday American life of the time.

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Some may debate whether today's selection is actually film noir at all, But we think so! The hard-boiled private eyes, femme fatales, and ex-cons are nowhere to be seen in "Five Fingers." In their place is an upper-crust valet for the British ambassador in war-time Turkey, who is feeding secret documents to the Nazis purely for personal gain. This unusual spy tale features strong performances by a cast of radio regulars, and is engaging and flips the genre on its head.

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During the golden age of comedy, an audience favorite was entertainers that roasted one another. Perhaps the most famous of these "feuds" was between Fred Allen and Jack Benny, who started accidently by hurtling sideways barbs at one another on their popular radio shows, and developed into an all-out, but good-natured insult-fest. Fred Allen's parody of radio quiz shows "King For A Day" many consider the culmination of this feud. Today we are bringing you one of the essential comedy shows of radio "King For A Day."

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Joseph Cotten had a diverse leading man career in the movies. On radio he played some characters that made Uncle Charlie from Hitchcock's "Shadow of the Doubt" look innocent in comparison. In this Suspense story, he plays twins, one of which murders the other and disposes of the body in suitcases. He has one problem, however... getting rid of that pesky head.

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Today we are bringing you the 9th show of a series. Of a "brand new" radio series. Stan Freberg is back with his cast of cartoon voices in an amusing comedy/variety show featuring a visit with the abominable snowman, "Crossington Washing the Delaware," and the "Honeyearthers."

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Dashiell Hammett, the author of "The Maltese Falcon," wrote another famous novel, "The Glass Key." It's a murder mystery that revolves around the seedy world of corrupt politicians, crime syndicates, and grift. Today in our journey through "radio noir" we are bringing you Orson Welles's nuanced adaptation of the story. Although it has all the hallmarks of noir, including murky motives and startling bursts of violence, don't expect a mile-a-minute, action-packed juvenile pulp adventure here. What it does have is underplayed performances, interesting character relationships, and a more cerebral crime noir.

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We started a quest through Jack Benny's 1946-47 season, which is a period where Jack had established a strong cast of characters and his writing team hit a stride that would carry him into his best loved comedy. This week, Jack and Mary have just seen "It's A Wonderful Life," and he is joined by the director Frank Capra, and Victor Moore as Jack's guardian angel, in a little fantasy of their own.

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In the 1940s, a new film making style surged into popularity that featured light and shadow crime dramas that looked dirty, gritty, and violent. "Film noir" featured hard-boiled anti-heroes who were often driven by animalistic, morally ambivalent motives, and met with a grim end. At the same time, radio explored these same areas, so this week we are going to be starting a dark journey through... "radio noir"! 

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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