Thursday Night - Old Time Radio

Hearthstone of the Death Squad was a spinoff from The Molle Mystery Theater. It featured
homicide cases investigated by Inspector Hearthstone. Starring Alfred Shirley, the
series was produced by Frank and Anne Hummert. Tonight’s show, “The Terrifying Letter
Murder Case” is from January 10th, 1952. Then we shall hear an episode of The Adventures
of Father Brown, which was broadcast on Sundays over Mutual from June 10, to July
29, 1945 and starred Karl Swenson. Tonight we will listen to the episode “The Three
Tools of Death” from July 22, 1945.

Rob hancik plays two exciting shows from Frontier Gentleman. Frontier Gentleman,
J.B> Kendall played by John Danar ran in 1958. Unfortunately, this program came to
us at a time when old time radio was waning.
Rob will play two parts of a four-part story. This program concerns the life of the
famous madam gambler, Belle Siddens played by jean Bates. I believe that J.B. kendall
fell in love with Belle.

kelly Sapergia of Canada played two fine shows. Ellery Queen, the Mischief Maker
and the World Adventurer’s Club. This show features John Steel, Adventurer.

Join Joy Jackson and the American Radio Theater in two recreations from the days
of old time radio. “In the Bag” is a charming tale of love in the fast city of Las
Vegas. We finish off with a visit with Vic and Sade. January is the month for resolutions.
Rich and Vic have resolved to exercise, but they’re having a little trouble getting
started.

Crime Fighters will take a look at Calling All Cars, which was broadcast from Nov
29th, 1933 to Sept 8th, 1939. Calling All Cars was one of the earliest police shows
on the air. It dramatized true crime stories and was introduced by officers of Los
Angeles and other police departments. None of the cast was credited, with one exception.
We will feature the episode, “Death In The Moonlight” from March 8th, 1938.
Then we will take a look at everyone’s favorite, Nero Wolfe, who first appeared on
radio on July 5th, 1943 on the Blue Network in The Adventures Of Nero Wolfe. This
will be an episode from the third Nero Wolfe series, The New Adventures Of Nero Wolfe.
It starred Sidney Greenstreet as Nero Wolfe. In this series, the part of Archie was
first played by Lawrence Dobkin, then Gerald Mohr and finally Harry Bartell. Tonight
we will hear the episode titled “The Party For Death,” from Feb 2nd, 1951, in which
Nero sends Archie to a cocktail party and tells him not to come home until after
the murder.
Information for these series is based on information contained in Dunnings On The
Air.

we introduce a new Old-time Radio presenter, and we are very proud to present Mr.
John Beaulieu, of Townsend, Mass. John has brought us a lot of very good music over
the last couple of years both in Joanie’s Corner and during the Holiday OTR Marathon’s.
Please join him as he presents his new series of Old-time Radio Shows.
Welcome to the first edition of What Once Was Radio. Thursday Dec. 27, 2007. We will
hear two Dragnet shows, the first being the fifth in the series dated July 7th, 1949,
called Helen Corday, and the ninth show dated August 4th, 1949, called Benny Trounsel.
Join me for chitchat before the shows and then again after. Remember it’s What Once
Was Radio and I’m your host, John Beaulieu.

There is an ongoing debate as to whether science fiction is considered classic literature.
Both stories are considered classroom reading but again we’ll not see the books but
the otr resemblance to the books.
We’ll be looking first at “Escape.” We’ve been there before but now we’ll be looking
at “The Most Dangerous Game.”
Then we’ll be diving in to Bradbury with “Dimenssion X,” and “Mars Is Heaven.”

it is my great pleasure to present a classic which may seem weighty to some. If you
are wondering “How can they do this in an hour?”, when you arrive, I think your doubts
will be pleasantly appeased by the end of the evening. Here some elaboration is required.
In 1859, Charles Dickens first published A Tale Of Two Cities through the venerable
firm of Chapman and Hall. It is one of two historical novels in the Dickens cannon,
the other being Little Dorian Grey. A Tale Of Two Cities though has probably the
most well known line in English literature. “It was the best of times, it was the
worst of times.” It also tells the story of the French peasantry’s uprising and the
beginnings of the French Revolution. The cities in question are London and Paris
and the action starts in 1757 with the fals imprissonment of Dr. Alexandre Manette
in the Bastile. The book is long and while enjoyable it can be a bit cumbersome if
one is not familiar with the Dickens form of prose. But this is not a book discussion.
Let’s jump almost eighty years in the future. For those who have been paying attention
and regularly listening you know my friend Mr Hancik has brought us two Mercury Theater
broadcasts. His Sunday night debut was Treasure Island he then followed that up by
request with Dracula during the Halloween Marathon. If you listened to Treasure Island
you remember Orson Wells saying that next week it would againbe be the best and worst
of times as the theater troupe would be doing A Tale OF Two Cities. On Thursday we
will revissit that third eppisode and dive in to late eighteenth century London and
Paris. We’ll be in the Bastile with Dr. Nanette in court with Sydney Carton and Charles
Darnier and intensely listening as a French aristocracy is brought swiftly under
the guillotine.

Thursday night Radio Out Of The Past adds another presenter to its roster as Rick
Spurgeon from Woodstock, Ontario, Canada, brings his Radio Renaissance series to
us.
Leading off will be “The Royal Treatment”, a 1957 episode from The F. B. I. In Peace
And War.
Then we make a 180 degree turm as we switch to a 1935 episode of Fibber McGee And
Molly in which the McGees meet Wistful Vista for the first time.

We enter the land of make believe as we discuss and play Lets pretend produced by
Nila Mack and starring such great people as uncle Bill Adams, Arthur Anderson,Gwen
Davies, Albert Allie and jack Grimes to mention but a few. This great program started
in the early 30’s to be concluded in the mid 50’s. Joan leonard will review the book
“Lets Pretend written by Arthur Anderson.” We shall then follow her discussion with
two Lets pretend programs.