Theme Time Radio Hour Archive » Theme Time Radio Hour

It’s night time in the big city

The last train from Overbrook pulls into the station

A man runs out of excuses.

“Here we are smack-dab in the middle of February, so we’re gonna talk about that fist sized muscle that lies in your chest, right behind and slightly to the left of the breast bone. Just sittin there between your lungs. It’s a remarkable organ; it works hard for you 24 hours a day.”

It’s night time in the big city

Bananas ripen on the dock

A number 5 bus breaks down.

“Get out your shoe horns, because today we’re going to trumpet those things at the end of your legs.”

It’s night time in the big city

A truck driver runs a red light

A ringing phone goes unanswered.

(Somewhere Over The Rainbow) (Background during intro)

It's night time in the big city

The people upstairs are making noise

A coyote cowers in the bushes on Observatory Hill

It’s night time in the big city

A night watchman rinses out his thermos

The last train from Overbrook pulls into the station.

“Today we’re gonna hit the road, we’re gonna ride the blinds, and dodge the yard bulls. We’re gonna take a ride on the Redding, transfer over to the B & O, and if we have time, pick up our tickets for the Orient Express. So all you box car tourists, get yourselves out of the roundhouse and hop aboard, as we spend the next hour contemplating the iron horse. It’s not a crazy idea, but we got a ‘loco motive’ and it’s all about trains. In the background, Meade Anderson Lewis; perhaps you know him better as Mead Lux Lewis. He was one of the kings of the honky tonk piano and, like a lot of the great piano players, he used his rockin’ left hand to imitate the rhythm of the trains on the tracks.”

It’s night time in the big city

Fog horns bellow in the gloom along the wharf

A spinster finishes a jigsaw puzzle

“This is Theme Time Radio Hour and last week we played a bunch of train songs. We had so many that this week we’re gonna do it again this week. We’re gonna buckle the rubbers, grease the pig and hook her up and pull her tail because it’s railroad time.” (background intro music is Blue Train/Coltrane)

It’s night time in the big city

A businessman kisses his secretary under a street light

A drunken security guard drops his flashlight

“James Thurber once said, ’you can fool too many of the people too much of the time’ and for the next hour we’re gonna try and do just that…for the next hour we‘re gonna play the greatest records about our favorite half-wits, the fools.”

It’s night time in the big city

The rain soaked streets reflect the glare of passing headlights

A cab driver tosses a fifty cent tip out the window

A woman with a torch stands in the harbor.

“Tonight we’re gonna be goin’ from the Bowery to the Bronx, from the East Village to Harlem, from Hudson Heights to Lenox Hill and from Korea Town to Little Italy, from Hell’s Kitchen to Greenwich Village, from Manhattan Valley to Marble Hill, from Midtown South to Midtown itself, from Murray Hill to NoHo, from Roosevelt Island to SoHo, from Spanish Harlem to Sugar Hill, from Sutton Place to Tribeka, from Tudor City to Turtle Bay, from the upper Eastside to the upper Westside, from the West Village to Washington Heights, from West Harlem to Yorkville…”

It’s night time in the big city

A woman pulls out a 1099 form

A man lies about his deductions

“Well it’s the middle of April, and if you’re like me you were up all night last night finishing your tax returns. As Benjamin Franklin once put it, in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes. One other thing is certain, for the next hour we’re going to be covering both those subjects with our usual musical abandon so call all the deductions into the room, gather around the radio and enjoy the next 58 minutes. It would 60 minutes, but the government wants its taste…”

It’s night time in the big city

You can smell rain in the air

I really gotta get those boxes out of the basement