Showing results by author "Original Radio Broadcasts" in All Categories

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar debuted in 1948 and endured for 14 years as one of the most popular programs of latter day radio drama. In fact, it became the last network drama when it ultimately signed off the air in 1962. An eminently appealing character, Dollar was pragmatic, flirtatious, and sympathetic (to a point) - better at reserving judgment than he was at restraining his impulses. This set brings you the voices of all eight men who took on the role of "America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator" - from the well-known to the obscure.

Everyone has secrets...but some secrets are more sinister than others. And the more malevolent the secret, the more The Whistler knows! Wander the foreboding, shadow-filled streets of the imagination in tales that explore the "nameless terrors of which we dare not speak." Bill Forman stars as The Whistler, alongside the suspiciously skillful William Conrad, Gerald Mohr, Elliott and Cathy Lewis, Howard Duff, Doris Singleton, Betty Lou Gerson, and more. Hear them all in in 20 tense tales of crime, suspense, and fate!

In the realm of unforgettable radio voices, there is one that stands head and shoulders above all others - one distinctive voice that could never be convincingly duplicated, one that brought its owner undreamed of success. It was a voice of sandpaper and gravel and rusty scrap iron, rasping over a nation's loudspeakers for more than 30 years.

Based on the famous detective created by Rex Stout, The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe stars Sydney Greenstreet as “the balkiest, bulkiest, smartest, and most unpredictable detective in the world...that brilliant eccentric private detective, orchid fancier and gargantuan gourmet.” Nero Wolfe, armchair detective in the classic tradition, and Archie Goodwin, wisecracking hard-boiled investigator, shine in eight radio tales from this classic detective series first broadcast in 1950-1951.

She's like Sherlock Holmes with a sassy 1930s attitude! She's Hilary Caine, staff investigator for a British tabloid who knows her way around London…and around every murder case that comes her way!

Explore 16 classic adventures of Rocky Jordan, hard-boiled proprietor of the Café Tambourine, as he solves crimes and mysteries in Cairo “where modern adventure and intrigue unfold against the backdrop of antiquity.” This fascinating series of foreign follies makes full use of its exotic locale and music score to deliver a memorable listening experience. If you liked movies like Casablanca, you’re sure to enjoy this series. Starring Jack Moyles as Rocky Jordan and Jay Novello as Captain Sam Sabaaya. Digitally remastered and restored for your listening enjoyment.

He's a con man, a manipulator, and a master of every form of deception. He'll look you right in the eye and rob you blind...but you won't care, because he's one of the most fascinating men you'll ever meet! He's Harry Lime - and before he met a memorable end in The Third Man, he cut a broad swath across most of the inhabited globe!

Step into radio’s legendary house of horrors. The only program on the air to combine pitch-dark horror with sardonic humor, sending forth its undead monstrosities with rotting tongue pressed firmly into cheek. The razor-voiced Raymond Edward Johnson handles his hosting duties like an oily insurance salesman with a sideline in ax murder, while playful Paul McGrath brings forth an effortlessly exaggerated sense of black comedy. Come in! You’ll never know what’s going on behind the rust-metal shriek of the infamous Creaking Door until you open it.

Lum and Abner meet Buster V. Davenport of Toledo, Ohio…but, he sure looks a lot like our old friend Grandpappy Spears of Pine Ridge! And, that's just one of the problems facing the proprietors of the Jot 'Em Down Store in this collection. There's a war on! The town's truck line is in trouble, "little" Pearl is leaving town to become a nurse, and the boys' secret recipe for making synthetic rubber is lost. Can the Golden Era Discussion Club study up a way to get things back to normal? Here are 36 serialized episodes from the winter of 1943!

Dan Holiday learned about crime as a hard-boiled newspaper reporter and writes about it as a best-selling mystery novelist. How does he find his plot ideas? He advertises for adventure! Sound like a man you'd like to know? Drop him a note care of Box Thirteen.

Just what is Wistful Vista, anyway? Is it a street? A neighborhood? A state of mind? Whatever it is, one thing's for sure—it had just the right mix of personalities to keep things lively! First and foremost, there's Fibber McGee and Molly, brought to life by Jim and Marian Jordan. When they heard a knock on their front door, they might open it up to discover the hard-headed Doc Gamble, played by Arthur Q. Bryan, who never once bought into anything Fibber had to say.

Your nerves, drawn wire-taut. Your heart, thundering in your chest. Your knuckles, drawn white against your chair. Your mind, leaving the comfort and confinement of "the four walls of today" to tempt the whims of the high seas, to venture to the frozen tundra, the mysterious east, the wild west...to travel to Istanbul, to Europe, and to nightmares. The only limit to the excitement in these 20 episodes of red-blooded adventure drama is the scope of your own imagination.

Get out the vote! It's no-holds-barred, winner-take-all small town politics at its best as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve sets his sights on high office! But can Gildy's mayoral aspirations stand up against the competition? And can he balance his campaign against his developing romance with the local school principal? All's fair in love and at the polls in 16 fun-filled 1944 episodes starring Harold Peary as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve!

Connie Brooks (Eve Arden) rewrote the textbook on how popular culture looked at teachers - with a fresh, funny, and always human take on the pedagogic profession. Come and study these 16 terrific episodes from 1954-1956. If you travel with her through the halls, you might encounter adolescent blunderer Walter Denton (Richard Crenna), the principal’s bobby-soxer daughter Harriet (Gloria McMillan), or the fumbling frog-obsessed science teacher Philip Boynton (Robert Rockwell). Principal Osgood Conklin (Gale Gordon) was her outstanding comic foil.

In early 1943, funnyman Jack Benny developed a serious case of pneumonia while traveling to entertain the troops. Someone would need to stand in for the sultan of Sunday night radio. But who? Orson Welles, the prestige-project prodigy, was an unlikely but inspired choice. Benny’s regular gang is on hand; Phil Harris returns from the military; and additional guests George Burns, Gracie Allen, Barbara Stanwyck, and Butterfly McQueen pop in for a visit. This is The Jack Benny Program like you’ve never heard it before.

From fishing in the lake for Old Muley to fishing in the closet for just about everything else, wartime America’s favorite couple keeps the fun coming. Head on down to Wistful Vista and hear it for yourself in this collection of comedy classics from 1944 and 1945! Jim and Marian Jordan star as Fibber McGee and Molly - with Arthur Q. Bryan as Doc Gamble, Shirley Mitchell as Alice Darling, Bea Benaderet as Mrs. Carstairs, Marlin Hurt as the unforgettable Beulah, and Harlow Wilcox selling the Glo-Coat!

With four new writers and plenty of brand-new gags, radio's favorite comedian entertains home front America, as well as troops at Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine camps. In fact, the whole gang is here! Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Dennis Day, Larry Stevens, and Don Wilson are all on hand—along with plenty of unexpected guests! Here are sixteen laugh-packed episodes from the early 1940s, featuring favorites like Mel Blanc, Frank Nelson, Minerva Pious, John Brown, and Butterfly McQueen.

He's settling in with his new life and his new family in Summerfield U. S. A.—and now Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve has a new job! How does a man whose only experience with plumbing is turning on the faucet end up as the new Water Commissioner? These 16 digitally restored and remastered episodes feature Walter Tetley as Leroy, Lurene Tuttle as Marjorie, Lillian Randolph as Birdie, Earle Ross as Judge Hooker, Dick LeGrand as Mr. Peavey, Shirley Mitchell as Leila Ransom…and Harold Peary as Gildy.

Spend your yuletide with the greatest stars of radio's Golden Age! Trim the tree, wrap the presents, and deck the halls as festive broadcast favorites like Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Abbott and Costello, and The Great Gildersleeve keep you entertained! Hark to the voices of Christmases past - including Frank Sinatra and Will Rogers, Jr. - as they bring you merry mysteries and endearing dramas.

Johnny Dollar was a freelance insurance investigator with an “action-packed expense account.” On radio each week from 1949 until 1962, he traveled the world for clients who would cover his expenses. From 1955 through 1956, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar ran as a popular five-a-week 15-minute serial starring Bob Bailey. Enjoy these six five-part programs.