The Good Old Days of Radio Show

It's kind of a spooky week here, and we are going to keep with the creepy crawlies of the season with a fun offering today: a 1943 broadcast of Lux Radio Theatre with “A Night to Remember,” starring Robert Young and Ann Sothern. It's a comedy/murder mystery about a writer and his wife who move into a creepy Greenwich Village apartment, discover a dead body, and begin uncovering blackmail and suspicious dealings among their eccentric neighbors. 

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It's Thursday and time for another unusual episode of the supernatural series Quiet, Please!: “Kill Me Again,” written and directed by Wyllis Cooper. This one is about a man who sells his soul for a million dollars, only to be immediately murdered and sent to the afterworld. There’s just one problem: He arrives “innocent”, leaving the underworld’s director, Mr. Hellman, with no legal grounds to punish him. Instead, Hellman finds a rather unconventional solution, which you'll have to hear to find out. It's a darkly comic tale of murder and bureaucracy, and a twist on the popular ”mistake in the afterlife” trope. 

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Today we have comedy and variety with a 1945 episode of Request Performance, the CBS variety program sponsored by Campbell’s Soup. The series lasted only 29 episodes, about half of which appear to be unavailable. It was a very expensive show with a large list of top celebrities of the era, a fact that would soon lead it to early cancellation. This one has Frank Morgan, Rudy Vallée, Diana Lynn, and Jimmy Lydon, and produced by William N. Robson, of all people. There’s music, comedy, piano performances, dramatic readings, and even a short adaptation featuring characters from Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn.

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Today another eerie classic from Quiet Please: “Camera Obscura,” written and directed by Wyllis Cooper. This is a ghost story about a guilt-ridden murderer confessing to the killing of a man named Philip Vandervert years earlier. But his past comes back to haunt him after he visits a strange tourist attraction in Santa Monica. Inside the darkened building, a lens projects live images from outside onto a circular table, and before long, the murderer sees his victim. 

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A listener sent us some rare, uncirculated discs of The Bob Hope Show. This is one originally broadcast on December 17, 1946. It’s a Christmas-season broadcast packed with music and comedy, featuring singer Jane Harvey, bandleader Desi Arnaz, and special guest Gene Kelly. Bob and the cast joke about Hollywood life, Christmas shopping, and the usual headaches of getting through the holidays, including a department-store sketch so familiar to American life in the mid to late ‘40s.

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We’re back to Wyllis Cooper today and his dark fantasy series Quiet Please. This time we meet Walter McCoy, a mechanic who has spent four years secretly building a working time machine at a remote farmhouse. When Walter travels fifty years into the past, he finds himself in 1897, where a run-in with the local sheriff leads to an unexpected romance with a young woman. But when Walter is forced to make a hasty return to his own time, he leaves Carrie behind with a promise to come back. John also discusses the history of Quiet Please and the poor condition of the surviving transcription discs, making this another rare piece of vintage radio preserved by the seat of its pants.

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It’s the first Tuesday of the month, and in keeping with our goal to bring you a long “lost” radio show, we have another Adventures of Sam Spade, starring Howard Duff as the hard-boiled San Francisco private detective. The episode is “The Firebug Caper” from February 6, 1949 and finds Spade investigating a series of suspicious building fires that point to a large insurance fraud scheme. The theme gives the writers plenty of fuel for over-the-top incendiary puns. 

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It’s October again, and John is back, bringing us an imaginative and tongue-in-cheek early episode of the classic supernatural radio series Quiet Please: “Bring Me to Life,” originally broadcast in 1947. It’s about a struggling writer who discovers that his typewriter can bring his characters to life. With this fun premise, and Cooper’s knack for quirky and realistic dialogue, “Bring Me to Life” is a perfect example of the fantastic, pre-Twilight Zone fare the series would become known for.

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Well, this week John is hurrying back from the East Coast through massive storms, and was not able to be here in time to record a podcast. But stepping up to the plate, and for the very first time on the podcast I might add, we are welcoming Zach Eastman, Vice President of SPERDVAC, who has very kindly agreed to pinch hit today as our emergency fill-in host. Zach brings us a rare 1945 episode of Inner Sanctum Mystery, “Portrait of Death,” about a mysterious painting that seems to bring death to everyone who owns it. Zach talks about SPERDVAC’s preservation of these classic radio recordings, and gives us a stunning sneak peak at the amazing restoration work being done right now to provide the clearest sound possible for modern listeners.

DISCLAIMER: We don't think any actual harm came to Zach during the making of this episode. That's about as thorough as this investigation is going to get.

SPERDVAC (The Society for the Preservation & Encouragement of Radio Drama, Variety, & Comedy ) has been celebrating Classic Radio, preserving its history, & encouraging new audio art since 1974z Interested in learning more?  Visit sperdvac.com to learn how you can become a member & support their preservation efforts!

Be sure to follow SPERDVAC on Social Media-

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1EbHdHfiw4/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sperdvac?stkn=bnk2bmNwcmx4NG9p&utm_source=qr

Want to have some SPERDVAC fun in person? Then be sure to attend SPERDVAC LIVE! in 2027. visit https://sperdvac.com/live/ for more details! 

And check out  Behind The Dial - A SPERDVAC Podcast • A podcast on Spotify for Creators or wherever else you get your podcasts

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-the-dial-a-sperdvac-podcast/id1872194743
• YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxQklH1lANW1_VxYmYIjYC3CgUVPdxAsc&si=s7NQBA6Z8tNB1Fi5

You can follow Zach Eastman on his show YESTERYEAR BALLYHOO REVUE at ballyhoorevuepodcast.com  or on your favorite podcast apps

• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/yesteryear-ballyhoo-revue/id1540142449
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/10s2uLtkb8qTNS202Kkiog?si=UaSwH3QtQ0KjfPIbVw9jFA&utm_source=copy-link
• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@ballyhoopodcast?si=QDEOTXwl93CGhgZX

and you can follow him on social media 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ballyhoorevuepod?stkn=MXFhbDhveTZ3bHI5Yg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ballyhoorevuepod?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

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

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This is the final episode in a mini-tribute to writer Robert Bloch. John Tefteller and historian Karl Schadow continue our look at the rare and largely forgotten radio horror series, Stay Tuned for Terror. The series produced 39 episodes, but only four recordings are known to have survived. In this episode, we hear the final two. The first follows a scientist who attempts to resurrect Adolf Hitler. The second takes us into werewolf territory, as a mysterious writer may not be quite what he seems. John and Karl also dig into the history of the series, including its connection to the classic Universal horror films, the performers and production team behind it, and the financial problems that ultimately brought the show to an end.

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

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