Friday, December 12, 2014

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas: Day 12 - Lionel Barrymore's Mayor of the Town

Working on sending out one blog entry each day in December to showcase great Old Time Radio for the Christmas season.  Here is a link to all the entries.  Here is day #12 - Lionel Barrymore's Mayor of the Town Christmas Episodes.

If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#82). He has a number of great programs available throughout the month of December on his great show.  You can also get a large number of these programs at a variety or resources on the web. One place to find these shows is the 500 OTR Christmas Shows from the Internet Archive. This is a great resources for many of these wonderful radio shows!

Christmas Trees

Decorative Trees, Holidays 2007

If your 50...like some people I know...one could guess that your first exposure to the great actor Lionel Barrymore was in Frank Capra's brilliant It's a Wonderful Life.  In this 1946 holiday classic, Barrymore played the bitter and evil Mr. Potter - the arch rival to Jimmy Stewart's George Bailey.  His distinct voice and menacing role forever made him the evil heavy in any movie.  But then I started listening to Barrymore on old time radio, especially as Dr. Gillespie in the radio series Dr. Kildare.

Not that long ago, I discovered Mayor of the Town.  In that series, Lionel Barrymore plays the mayor of an unnamed small town, somewhere in America.  Playing the mayor's housekeeper, Marilly, was the great actress Agnes Moorehead, who is best know for her role on Bewitched.  The series is pretty sweet, as Barrymore not only plays the Mayor, but also as a virtual grandparent for everyone in town.  In these two Christmas episodes, Barrymore is at his best - and is just perfect for radio.

On Christmas Eve 1942, the cast of Mayor of the Town performed Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  Barrymore naturally plays Scrooge and does a fantastic job.  Listen for yourself:


A few years later, and a few weeks after Christmas, there was a great Christmas themed episode on this series.  In the Burning Christmas Tree episode, the Mayor seeks to help out a sick girl who is tremendously saddened when the tree that was by her bed had to be thrown out.  The little girl needed a reason to be happy when her tree was taken away from her.  And the Mayor had just the perfect way to do that.


Here are some links to programs relating to Mayor of the Town:
25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas:
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Thursday, December 11, 2014

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas: Day 11 - Candy Matson's Christmas Episodes

Working on sending out one blog entry each day in December to showcase great Old Time Radio for the Christmas season.  Here is a link to all the entries.  Here is day #11 - Candy Matson's Christmas Episodes.  These are great fun and definitely worth a listen.

If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#82). He has a number of great programs available throughout the month of December on his great show.  You can also get a large number of these programs at a variety or resources on the web. One place to find these shows is the 500 OTR Christmas Shows from the Internet Archive. This is a great resources for many of these wonderful radio shows!

Mission San Jose (Freemont, California) - Sunday April 21, 2013

Mission San Jose (Freemont, California) - Sunday April 21, 2013

There are a number of series set in San Francisco on old time radio: Sam Spade; Pat Novak For Hire;  Have Gun, will Travel, just to name a few.  One that you need to add to that list is a West Coast series run by NBC called Candy Matson, YUkon 2-8209.  Candy Matson was voiced by Natalie Masters, who was heard in the mid 1950s on the Fibber McGee and Molly show.  Candy Matson was the brainchild of her husband, producer Monty Master.  The Digital Deli article (see the link below) cited that they never quite found the national audience and she never became a household name.  Maybe having a female lead of a detective series was ahead of the times.  Maybe it was too smart or the references were made too much to San Francisco elements that few outside the city could get (also from Digital Deli article).  In the Jack Frost episode listed below, there were three reference to Lefty O'Doul and the San Francisco Seals (of the Pacific Coast League).

And while there are only a handful of episodes that are with us, we do have two Christmas shows to share.  I need to dig around a bit, but it is interesting that in these episodes, it always starts with the phone ring and Candy giving her phone number (YUkon 2-8209).  It is just like the way that Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar would open week after week.  They both started doing that in 1949.  You know that imitation is the dearest form of flattery!  Candy is constantly joined by Mallard (a police lieutenant played by Henry Leff) and Rembrandt (a photographer played by Jack Thomas) in the adventures.  It is a great series that is very well written - shame we only have a few examples.

There are two Christmas themed episodes that are among the 14 or so recordings that survive.  On December 19, 1949, the episode "Jack Frost" aired.  It is the holidays and things are crazy at Department Store.  Candy's dear friend Myra is the Advertising Director at the store and is in a crisis when Jack Frost is missing!  Jack Frost, Santa's helper, is missing and Myra is in a pinch!  Who will the kids share their Christmas wishes with???  Candy talks her friend Rembrandt to play Jack Frost, but then they discover a plot filled with jealousy...and MURDER!
I will write up a few entries later next year on the interest in the old California Missions in Old Time Radio.  One of these episodes will be Candy Matson's holiday episode that first aired on December 18, 1950.  Candy, Rembrandt and Mallard head to San Juan Bautista to take a break from the city.  While in town, they pay a visit to the old Mission.  And while meeting a Father at the Mission, they are alerted to a tragic suicide.  But upon examining the body, they discovered that it was actually a case....or MURDER!
Here are some links to programs relating to Candy Matson:
25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas:

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Wednesday, December 10, 2014

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas: Day 10 - Juggler of Notre Dame (Nelson Eddy)

Working on sending out one blog entry each day in December to showcase great Old Time Radio for the Christmas season.  Here is a link to all the entries.  Here is day #10 - The Gulf Screen Guild's Theater Production of the Juggler of Notre Dame.  This wonderful performance includes beautiful songs by Nelson Eddy.

If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#82). He has a number of great programs available throughout the month of December on his great show.  You can also get a large number of these programs at a variety or resources on the web. One place to find these shows is the 500 OTR Christmas Shows from the Internet Archive. This is a great resources for many of these wonderful radio shows!

93/365/2284 (September 12, 2014) - Squirrels at the University of Michigan (September 12, 2014)

Juggling Squirrel at the University of Michigan - September 12, 2014

I have wanted to write about this piece for a while - and thought I did.  Better late than never.  The Screen Guild Theater is quite interesting.  It is best summed up by the start of the article in the Digital Del:

"The Screen Guild programs were some of Radio's longest running charity programs. Why charity? From the outset, the various Screen Guild programs were conceived, produced and broadcast for the express purpose of raising money for the Motion Picture Relief Fund. Over the years, the Motion Picture Relief Fund appeal extended to raising funds for a Country Home and Hospital for retired, ill, indigent, or destitute Motion Picture Industry artists."

This wonderful series was broadcast at CBS Radio and supported by Gulf Oil.  This episode was first performed on December 22, 1940 (and repeated the following two years as The Juggler of Our Lady), this dramatization Anatole France's 1892 miracle story, Le Jongleur de Notre Dame. Brought into the performance were narrator Ronald Coleman and singer Nelson Eddy.  The Juggler of Notre Dame tells the story of Barnaby, a poor traveling juggler who traveled the countryside performing for children and townspeople for coins that kept him going.  Barnaby did not speak in this story, but his activity was told through the narration by Ronald Coleman and the songs of Nelson Eddy, playing the monk who befriended the juggler.

The monk came across Barnaby on an awful stormy evening and took him to the monastery.  So taken by the warmth of the monastery, Barnaby begged to stay there and work, forsaking his the juggling that had been his vocation for all these years.  As the days grew closer to Christmas, each of the monks were carefully creating a gift to celebrate the birth of the Lord.  What Barnaby did was simply beautiful.

While it is a wonderful story, the piece is wonderful to listen to because of the beautiful singing Nelson Eddy provides.  My wife's uncle loved Nelson Eddy, so his songs are always welcome in my home.  I hope that he can bring the Christmas spirit to your home.  Here is the episode:



Here are some links to programs relating to Screen Guild Theater:
25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas:
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Tuesday, December 9, 2014

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas: Day 9 - The Story of Silent Night (Hallmark Playhouse)

Working on sending out one blog entry each day in December to showcase great Old Time Radio for the Christmas season.  Here is a link to all the entries.  Here is day #9 - The Story of Silent Night - first heard on Radio's Hallmark Playhouse.

If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#82). He has a number of great programs available throughout the month of December on his great show.  You can also get a large number of these programs at a variety or resources on the web. One place to find these shows is the 500 OTR Christmas Shows from the Internet Archive. This is a great resources for many of these wonderful radio shows!

MSVMA All-State Choir at Michigan Youth Arts Festival (Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 15, 2010)

MSVMA All-State Choir at Michigan Youth Arts Festival (Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 15, 2010)

Long before the Hallmark Channel or the Hallmark Hall of Fame (a mainstay on TV since its early days), the Hallmark company hosted a radio series that showcased great stories, both fiction and nonfiction alike.  The radio series was hosted by author James Hilton, who is most famous for Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr. Chips.  Hilton died only a few years later in December 1954.  In fact it was Hilton's Lost Horizon that is announced as the featured work in the following week's Hallmark Playhouse.

In this Christmas-themed story on the Hallmark Playhouse, they tell the story of the song, Silent Night.  The song was written by Father Joseph Mohr and the music was written by Franz Xaver Gruber.  It was first performed on Christmas Eve, 1918, though Father Mohr had written the words a few years earlier.  This piece is a lovely accounting of the story of how the song came to be (seriously, did you expect something else from Hallmark?)  James Hilton was the narrator and Father Mohr was played by Gerald Mohr (of Phillip Marlowe fame) - pretty sure there is no relationship between the actor and the historical figure he depicted.  The piece also featured Parley Baer, who was best known for playing Chester on the radio version of Gunsmoke (a series that will be featured later in the holiday season).

As you can expect, the story is lovely and the singing is wonderful.  And if you can get past the idea that Father Mohr sounds like Phil Marlowe, you will enjoy this wonderful piece of Christmas history. Here is the episode:


 Here are some links to programs relating to Hallmark Playhouse:
25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas:
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Monday, December 8, 2014

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas: Day 8 - Arch Oboler's Christmas 1918

Working on sending out one blog entry each day in December to showcase great Old Time Radio for the Christmas season.  Here is a link to all the entries.  Here is day #8 - Christmas Story from Lights Out on December 22, 1937.  Lights Out is a great series that features the work of one of the greats of Radio - Arch Oboler.  So this should have been yesterday's entry - since Arch Oboler was born in Chicago on December 7, 1909.  Oh well...so we celebrate a day late!  And with a great Christmas entry.

If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#82). He has a number of great programs available throughout the month of December on his great show.  You can also get a large number of these programs at a variety or resources on the web. One place to find these shows is the 500 OTR Christmas Shows from the Internet Archive. This is a great resources for many of these wonderful radio shows!

My Antique Radio

My Detrola Radio, from 1937 when this episode first aired

Nativity Scene at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church (Saline, Michigan)


A Nativity Scene in my town of Saline, Michigan - Taken Monday December 23, 2013

One of the great visionaries of old time radio was Arch Oboler. He had so many fantastic stories in his Lights Out series that remains one of the best loved and appreciated series on the radio. The series was created by another visionary, Wyllis Cooper, who handed the show over to Oboler in 1936.  And while this series focused on the supernatural, it provided many great morality tales, including Profits Unlimited - which will be something I write about later.

One of the scripts that I love is A Christmas Story. It is also called "Uninhabited" or "Three Men". I need to dig a bit more and see if this is an Arch Oboler or a Wyllis Cooper script.  The recording I am sharing was originally broadcast on December 22, 1937 and told the story of three officers who shared a train car in the days following the end of World War I. It was Christmas Eve 1918 and the three officers were heading for a long needed rest. The three solders were very different, one from France, one from Australia and one from America. These three officers dozed off, and simultaneously dreamed about being the three Magi, looking for the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem nearly two thousand years earlier. I love the story because it is a beautiful telling of the three Magi.  It also has a nice message about race relations from the perspective of 1937.

 Here is the episode:


Here are some links to programs relating to Arch Obler & Lights Out:
25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas:
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Sunday, December 7, 2014

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas: Day 7 - Christmas at Mission San Gabriel (Romance of the Ranchos)

Working on sending out one blog entry each day in December to showcase great Old Time Radio for the Christmas season.  Here is a link to all the entries.  Here is day #7 - for Romance of the Ranchos.  This historical series featured Frank Graham, who I recently wrote about on the 100th Anniversary of his birth in November.

If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#82). He has a number of great programs available throughout the month of December on his great show.  You can also get a large number of these programs at a variety or resources on the web. One place to find these shows is the 500 OTR Christmas Shows from the Internet Archive. This is a great resources for many of these wonderful radio shows!

Visit to Mission Santa Barbara - Friday November 1, 2013

Statue of Father Junipero Serra at Mission Santa Barbara, November 1, 2013

Romance of the Ranchos is an interesting radio series.  Frank Graham had his great radio role on this show where he was the "Wandering Vaquero" on this historical series which came to the air thanks to the Title and Trust Insurance Company of Los Angeles.  This historical series revealed how complicated it was to ensure that you held title to your land - which makes sense given the difficult tracking of land ownership in California.  The Ranchos were lands given to settlers by Spain and then Mexico in California before the western settlement of the state.  These Ranchos were tied with the growth of the missions as well.  Given the great history of the Ranchos in Southern California, this radio series was a perfect way for the Title and Trust Insurance Company to share its stories.  Each episode featured a historical depiction of a certain area in Southern California.  When I travel in Southern California, I always make sure I have these on my phone or my  MP3 player.

The episode that aired on Christmas Eve 1941 (only a few weeks after Pearl Harbor) showcased the early days of the Mission San Gabriel.  I have enjoyed visiting these beautiful missions on my recent trips to California (see my pictures of the missions here).  I have not visited Mission San Gabriel, which sits in Los Angeles County in San Gabriel - but I hope to do so in the not to distant future.  Sometime after the holidays, I hope to write up the missions on the radio, though I expect there will be one more for this Christmas season.

The story called Christmas at Mission San Gabriel starts with Father Junipero Serra planing for the missions that would dot the California coast.  The scene shifts to the building of the Mission San Gabriel and the Spanish settlements in that area.  These episodes work within the framework of the cultural sensitivities that were in place at the time, so they freely refer to "White" and "Indian" populations in describing the tensions and clashes between the two.  The last scene represents Christmas in the 1820s around the Mission and how these populations began to live together.  The episode closes with a transcription (or recording) of the 24 members of the Title and Trust Insurance Company of Los Angeles Men's Chorus singing "Joy to the World."  Here is the episode:

Here are some links to programs relating to Romance of the Ranchos:
25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas:
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Saturday, December 6, 2014

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas: Day 6 - The Plot To Murder Santa Claus (with Frank Sinatra as Rocky Fortune)

Working on sending out one blog entry each day in December to showcase great Old Time Radio for the Christmas season.  Here is a link to all the entries.  Here is day #6 - from what many consider a less than spectacular series - which stared one of the biggest names...well, ever!

If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#82). He has a number of great programs available throughout the month of December on his great show.  You can also get a large number of these programs at a variety or resources on the web. One place to find these shows is the 500 OTR Christmas Shows from the Internet Archive. This is a great resources for many of these wonderful radio shows!


Antique Postcard of the NBC Radio Studios in Hollywood, California 

The first time I heard Rocky Fortune...I was not hooked.  The series was created in 1953 to showcase the great American singer, Frank Sinatra.  Sinatra was showcased in a large number of musical specials in the 1940s and 1950s - some of which I will share later this holiday season.  But there was this one series where he was featured for his speaking voice - not his singing.  Rocky Fortune was on NBC from October 6, 1953 through March 30, 1954.  The timing for the end of the series was not a fluke.  A few days before the last episode aired, Frank Sinatra won the 1954 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the 1953 From Here to Eternity.  With that, Sinatra's career portraying Rocky Fortune (Rocko Fortunato if you are not into the brevity thing) came to an end.

Rocky Fortune  was a "footloose and fancy-free young man" who was always searching for the next job - since he started most episodes without one.  In the series, he was a social director at a Catskills Resort, a truck driver, an oyster shucker, and just about anything else.  There is, however, a real charm in Sinatra's hard-luck Rocky as he fumbles through missed opportunities and problems with both the police and bad guys.  While many called this a "B grade series," I enjoyed it a great deal and sometimes wish there were more than 25 episodes.

On December 22, 1953, The Plot to Murder Santa Claus was aired over the NBC Network. In this episode, Rocky is employed as an assistant store detective for the Krackenbaum Department Store in New York City.  They had just had a theft at the store of $8,000 in pearls and they were still missing.  Rocky finds himself in the middle of the entire situation when he discovers that in addition to be the assistant store detective, he also needs to play Santa when the main one had lunch.  That leads to him meeting a young girl and his older sister as they tried to tell Santa about the Elf doll she wanted.  Turns out, the little girl had expensive taste!  Here is a link to the episodes along with a few of the many Sinatra appearances on old time area:

Here are some links to programs relating to Rocky Fortune:
25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas:
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