Thursday Night - Old Time Radio

Mr. Rob Hancik of Bethlehem, Pa presented two great science fiction shows on Thursday
on Radio out of the Past. They are Space patrol with Commander Buzz Cory and Cadet
Happy and Space Cadet with Tom Corbett and his two buddies, Roger and Zastro.

Presenter Joy Jackson ofSeattle, Washington, an OTR fan for over 14 years and the
founder of the American Radio Theater which recreates many wonderful oldtime radio
programs. The shows are: A Shipment of Mute Fate from Escape, and The Trap from X
Minus One. One is adventure/suspense, the other is pure but funny science fiction.
A shipment of Mute Fate–a large deadly snake is being transported aboard a passenger
liner. Following a freak wave, the locked storage container is found smashed to smithereens.
But where is the snake? The trap–(from Science Fiction on Radio by James Widner
and Meade Frierson): “After finding a new type of trap on their doorstep, two hunters
try it out. They make a number of very strange catches.”

we welcomed Danny Goodwin, a noted expert on old-time radio commercials to our chat
room. Devon Wi lkins, a Canadian who is also a fan of OTR commercials, will conduct
a brief interview with Danny before throwing it open for questions from our participants.
Our ever-helpful Fred Bertelsen will also be on hand to play some of the commercials
referred to in our discussion. And now for some information on our guest of honor.
From the small mill town of Lincoln, Maine (about 50 miles north of Bangor), Danny
Goodwin would be considered among the first generation of the “New Generation” old
time radio fans. He didn’t have the opportunity to hear the radio programs firsthand
because he was born in 1954. Despite this minor problem, he would become a fan of
old time radio with the help of his mother, Kathryn B. Goodwin.
When Danny was about 11, his mother would tell him about the wonderful things she
heard on her radio. She also mentioned how much she loved the commercials for Lifebuoy
Health Soap— complete with the foghorn and “B.O.” sound effects. This was where
a small bud was beginning to blossom in young Danny’s head concerning the subject
of old time radio.
His interest would take on a new dimension when he heard his first old time radio
program on cassette tape in 1977. As time went on, he would collect more cassettes
of many different radio programs. In 1988, Danny combined his talent to program a
computer (in BASIC language) with the information he had on old time radio in magazines,
cassettes, and other radio books. He would begin his own personal research on radio
programming and radio advertising. The technology has changed since 1988, and he
has modernized his work with those changes. He has now accumulated over 60 binders
of information on different subjects of old time radio and radio advertising. Of
the different subjects, putting the radio jingles, sayings, and excerpts into print
is Danny’s personal favorite, because his mother loved the Lifebuoy commercials.
With his keen awareness of radio sponsors, Danny would develop himself into an expert
on radio advertising. His expertise would lead him to a nationwide audience of old
time radio fans. He took part in a panel discussion on radio commercials and advertising
at the 1992 Friends Of Old Time Radio convention in Newark, New Jersey with John
Rayburn and Dick Beals (a.k.a. “Speedy Alka Seltzer”). Today, Danny has dedicated
all his research on radio advertising to the memory of his mother.

Delma Bliss the hostess with the mostest of VIP’s Oldtime Radio hosted two programs
on the Radio out of the Past Oldtime Radio Audio Chat Room. Delma played Ray Bradbury’s
“The Screaming Woman,” and “The Big Grab,” of Dragnet fame.

we listened to an interview with Jim Dolan in our Old time Radio chat room hosted by Joy Jackson. Jim Dolan has been active in Seattle radio for over twenty five years. Along with Kevin Clark, he has operated Creative Media Concepts, a recording studio sp

listen to Bobby Benson and the riders of the B Bar B Ranch on Thursday evening at
8 pm Eastern time. We will visit Bobby and his friends, Tex Mason, the ranch foreman,
Harka, the noble indian friend, Irish, the talkative ranch hand and of course Don
Knotts who was Windy Wales. Mr.
Rob Hancik, the host of Yesterday once More will play these programs.

Mr. Rob Hancik, the host of Yesterday once More played two wonderful Gangbuster shows.

As I continue my stroll down Memory Lane, I will continue to visit a couple more
of Old Time Radio’s Mounties. First we will pay a visit to one of the earliest, if
not the first Mountie on radio, Blair of the Mounties. Blair was written by Colonel
Rhys Davies and he was featured in the lead role as well. Blair is set in the pre
World War I era. Unlike most Mounties, Blair was not limited to working in Canada.
The two episodes I will be featuring have Inspector Blair on three months leave visiting
his Sister and Brother-in-law in England. His brother-in-law recruits him to help
solve a murder case. This series was aired as a 15 minute weekly serial, and usually
took two episodes to complete a story. Continuing with a more recent series, we will
hear an episode of The Queen’s Men. The Queen’s Men ran for only 21 episodes in 1954
and was a more modern story of how the RCMP worked to always get their man. The story
we will hear, The Duncan Underhill case, is about a murder which had been committed
several months earlier and the severed head of the dead man turns up on the Underhill
farm. Having been bored to the brink of insanity by a lack of action, a new Mountie,
Constable Henry, eagerly accepts the case. With only the few articles of clothing
found on the body for clues, Constable Henry proceeds to work on this apparently
hopeless case.

Fred Bertelsen plays The Silver Eagle from July 20, 1954 starring Jim Ameche as Sgt
Jim West of the Canadian Northwest Mounted Police which was sponsored by Wheaties.
The episode is titled Decoy for Death. Fred Bertelsen then played King of the Royal
Mounted from 1943. The episode is titled Constable Reardon’s First Case and stars
Richard Dix as Sgt. Dave King. King of the Royal Mounted is a fictional character
created by Stephen Slesinger in 1936. Slesinger licensed popular Western writer Zane
Grey’s byline, and marketed the character as Zane Grey’s King of the Royal Mounted.
Corporal, and later Sergeant, Dave King is a Canadian Mountie who always gets his
man. King has appeared in newspaper strips, comics, Big Little Books, Motion Pictures
and other ancillary items.