Corey's Ramblings

Saturday, December 12, 2015

25 More Days of Old Time Radio Christmas: Day 11 - A Radio Nutcracker

OK - I am running behind. Things have been busy all over - and those Nutcrackers are not going to dance themselves.....I will catch up this week - promise!

This is the second year I have showcased different Old Time Radio programs for Christmas. Here is a link to all the 2014 OTR Christmas entries. If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#148). He does a great job of showcasing great holiday themed episodes, especially as we get closer to Christmas and the end of December.

Ann Arbor Dance Classics Nutcracker 2015 (Milan High School, Michigan)

Ann Arbor Dance Classics Production of the Nutcracker - Milan High School December 2015

A ballet is a hard thing to convey via the radio. But that was just what happened in 1952 when the Railroad Hour broadcast their Christmas Party on December 22nd of that year. The Railroad Hour is a classic variety show that was sponsored by the Association Of American Railroads and was on the NBC Network. This show features great songs and music and Gordon MacRae was the longtime host. Ironically, it never was an hour (as far as I can tell). This episode is 30 minutes.

From their site - you can read that the Association of American Railroads (or AAR):

America's freight railroads operate the safest, most efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally sound freight transportation system in the world — and the Association of American Railroads (AAR) is committed to keeping it that way. Founded in 1934, AAR is the world's leading railroad policy, research, standard setting, and technology organization that focuses on the safety and productivity of the U.S. freight rail industry. AAR Full members include the major freight railroads in the United States, Canada and Mexico, as well as Amtrak. AAR Railroad Affiliate and Associate Members include non-Class I and commuter railroads, rail supply companies, engineering firms, signal and communications firms, and rail car owners.

This show is called Christmas Party and is hosted by Gordon MacRae. Included among the stars on the program (from the great RadioGOLDINdex) are: Dorothy Kirsten, Noreen Corcoran, , Marvin Miller (announcer), Carmen Dragon (conductor), Norman Luboff (choir director) and Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee as writers (pretty sure that we are not talking about THAT Robert E. Lee). This musical variety show has great Christmas carols, including the 12 days of Christmas, Silent Night, O Holy Night, among others. The reason I wanted to showcase this today was the Nutcracker portion of the Christmas party. In the second half of the program, they created a radio version of the Nutcracker, with words set to the great Tchaikovsky music. Hope you enjoy the great music from this episode. Bet you did not know that the Nutcracker had words!

Christmas Party (December 22, 1952)

Here are some links to programs relating to the Railroad Hour:

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2015) & Other Links

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2014)

Thursday, December 10, 2015

25 More Days of Old Time Radio Christmas: Day 10 - Department Store Contest with Connie Brooks

Well - when you are thinking about the holidays - you often think about presents. Two days ago, I featured the centennial honoree Frank Sinatra as a department store detective Rocky Fortune trying to solve the thefts in his store. Yesterday, we headed back to a department store with one of the earliest episodes of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. So for today, I thought we would stay in the department stores - and visit Madison High School favorite English teacher, Connie Brooks. This is part of my Christmas series on Old Time Radio (I will fall behind - but catch up next week - promise!) Here is a link to all the 2014 OTR Christmas entries. If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#148). He does a great job of showcasing great holiday themed episodes, especially as we get closer to Christmas and the end of December.

274/365/2100 (March 12, 2014) - Snowing Again on the Squirrels at the University of Michigan (March 12, 2014)

Squirrel at the University of Michigan - March 2014

Last year, I featured two of the standard Christmas episodes from Our Miss Brooks, one of my favorite comedies on Old Time Radio. From 1948 through 1957, Eve Arden played the lovelorn English teacher at Madison High, Connie Brooks. This series is one of the very best comedies that we have from Old Time Radio days. Arden leads an all-star cast in this well written series on CBS Radio that actually holds up well, even today. Between never having enough money, job responsibilities that seem to change from week to week, a cat that is a character all to herself and a love interest who is more fixated on frogs than women...Eve Arden's Connie Brooks always maintains her grace and charm. The show also featured Jeff Chandler as Mr. Philip Boynton (Connie's long suffering love interest), Jane Morgan as Mrs. Margaret Davis (Connie's landlord), Gale Gordon as Mr. Osgood Conklin (Madison High School's principal, and Richard Crenna as Walter Denton (a student at Madison High).

The show also was on television starting on October 3rd, 1952. Through TV and Radio, she became one of the most famous teachers of her day! From her obituary in the Los Angeles Times in 1990, they wrote:

But it was as Connie Brooks, the wisecracking English teacher in mid-America's mythical Madison High where she constantly engaged in hilarious battles with her stuffy principal, that she became a Friday night favorite.

She was offered the role of the classroom humanist with the smart mouth and warm heart after being heard as radio's Miss Brooks for four years.

There she had developed a following of hundreds of teachers across American and had even been offered teaching jobs in real schools. Miss Arden (making $200,000 a year at the time) did not accept, but she did begin speaking at PTA meetings.

Department Store Contest (or Connie's Letter To Sandy Clawsss) - December 18, 1949
In the weeks before Christmas, Mrs. Davis is sharing with Connie Brooks that Bush's Department Store is having a contest for little children to write Santa Claus. The best letter earns the winning child a free toy! Since Mrs. Davis goes to the store often, she volunteered to bring the letters from the children in her neighborhood. Mrs. Davis even found a letter that Connie wrote when she was only 7 years old:

Dear Sandy Claws:

I don't want you to bring me very much toys at all 'cause then you would not have enough for all the other little children. Please Sandy, just bring me a slate with some chalk and a eraser and some crayons and a ruler on account cause when I grow up I want be a English teacher.

Signed Connie Brooks, age 7.

Just hope this letter does not get mixed up with the ones Mrs. Davis is collecting!

Here are some links to programs relating to the Our Miss Brooks:

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2015) & Other Links

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2014)

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

25 More Days of Old Time Radio Christmas: Day 9 - Department Store Woes with Johnny Dollar

Yesterday I featured the centennial honoree Frank Sinatra as a department store detective Rocky Fortune trying to solve the thefts in his store. Today, I am heading back to a department store with one of the earliest episodes of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. I am not sure I heard it before I started working on this entry. But that is the fun part of this project - listening to new recordings. Here is a link to all the 2014 OTR Christmas entries. If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#148). He does a great job of showcasing great holiday themed episodes, especially as we get closer to Christmas and the end of December.

Squirrels Outside the Michigan State Capitol (Lansing, Michigan) - December 7, 2015

Squirrel at the Michigan State Capitol Christmas Tree in Lansing (December 7, 2015)

Last year, I featured the great five part Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar series called the Nick Shurn Matter. This is one of my favorite multi-part series. It stars Bob Bailey (who is my favorite actor who played Johnny Dollar). Also, with a 75 minutes to play with (15 minutes for five consecutive nights), there is a whole lot more the writers can do to make the story more complex. That does not even take into account the ability to have more drawn out conversations between the characters. Well, that was in 1955 and 1956. When it started out in 1949, it was a basic 30 minute detective series. After Dick Powell did the audition show for Johnny Dollar, but he opted to do the great series Richard Diamond (with many scripts written by a young Blake Edwards). With Dick Powell turning down the role, CBS went with Charles Russell who played Dollar for the first year.

While Johnny Dollar is a basic detective program, the gimmick was that it revolved around his expense report. Johnny Dollar provided the exposition around the expenses incurred during the case. At first, I could not believe that they had a show featuring an insurance investigator with an expense report. But it quickly became one of my favorite series.

On December 24, 1949, the producers found an opportunity to work in a Christmas show during the first season. And in many ways, the show tried by like Richard Diamond in not only having a good story, but also having a lot of fun with it. That comes over loud and clear as Johnny Dollar tries to figure out who is the phantom burglar hitting New York Department Stores.

Johnny Dollar is called into the offices of the Association of Department Stores of Greater Manhattan when it is discovered that a burglar is dressing up as a store clerk, working with a customer, taking their cash and never returning. Upon arriving in New York, Johnny Dollar discovers that this happened again, and is off to the store to find the witness, a little girl who wanted to buy a camera. Thinking the camera had film, our mystery burglar tries to take it from the girl, only to be bit on his hand by the victim. And when the store detective turns up dead, the simple theft becomes murder. Johnny Dollar works his magic to solve the case. And in the process, not only gets things wrapped up, but he also gets free shipping (trust me on this one - it makes sense).

So when your shopping this season, be extra nice to the sales staff. Who knows if they have a worried store manager making their lives very difficult! Actually, we should be nice to sales staff all year long. What a wonderful world it would be.

How I Played Santa Claus - or Small Time Swindlers Of Big Time Department Stores (December 24, 1949)

Here are some links to programs relating to Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar:

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2015) & Other Links

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2014)

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

25 More Days of Old Time Radio Christmas: Day 8 - The Plot To Murder Santa Claus (with Frank Sinatra as Rocky Fortune)

One of the oldest conventions among radio programming is the reused script. Gunsmoke did it. Richard Diamond did it...and I will do it... So with all sorts of stuff going on, I am going to reuse a blog entry that I used last year. But there is a really good reason. First, it is a great show. Second, more people are reading the blog this year. Third, it stars Frank Sinatra who we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth this week (on December 12).

So with this, I am highlighting for Day 8 Frank Sinatra as Rocky Fortune in The Plot to Murder Santa Claus. (Here is a link to all the 2014 OTR Christmas entries). If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#148). He does a great job of showcasing great holiday themed episodes, especially as we get closer to Christmas and the end of December.

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!

This is a great episode for the holidays - enjoy!

The Plot to Murder Santa Claus (December 22, 1953)

Here are some links to programs relating to Rocky Fortune:

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2015) & Other Links

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2014)

Monday, December 7, 2015

25 More Days of Old Time Radio Christmas: Day 7 - Dr. Sixgun's A Pony for Christmas

Here is a series I have not written about before. It was a relatively short run series called Dr. Sixgun. And now - an Old Time Radio Quiz:

Q: Dr. Sixgun was a radio series that...

...was a spun-off from Dr. Two-Packs-a-Day.
...featured a renegade Dr. who generates his own patients.
...a Coen Brothers kids show.
...a situation comedy featuring the misadventures of the Sixgun family.
...a NBC feature from 1954 to 1955 to capture the growing adult western-themed market created by Gunsmoke.

I hope you guessed #5...and if you did, treat yourself to something nice! And this is where I am going to take my next day in my review of Christmas episodes from old time radio. (Here is a link to all the 2014 OTR Christmas entries). If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#148). He does a great job of showcasing great holiday themed episodes, especially as we get closer to Christmas and the end of December.

Dressage at Woodbine Schooling Show (September 20, 2015 - Chelsea, Michigan)

My Niece on a somewhat white pony (hey - it's the best I can do) - September 2015

Dr. Sixgun was a NBC program that was broadcast from September 1954 through October 1955. And it was definitely a program aimed at adults interested in westerns with characters that were not so black and white - good and bad - as the westerns aimed at younger audiences. NBC did a great job with The Six-shooter starring Jimmy Stewart in 1953-1954, just before Dr. Sixgun came out (I highlighted the Christmas Carol adaptation from that series last year).

I have heard Dr. Sixgun a few times on Greg Bell's Radio Classics and they have good stories and production values as would anything produced by NBC at the time. I am happy that this is the first time I am writing about it. The show stared Karl Weber as Grey Matson. Who is Grey Matson...wait - that is Dr. Grey Matson. Still need help??? This is how the episodes started:

"Across the rugged Indian Territory, rides a tall young man on a mission of mercy; his medical bag strapped on one hip and his six-shooter on the other. This is Dr. Sixgun. Grey Matson, M.D. was the gun-toting frontier doctor who roamed the length and breadth of the old Indian territory; friend and physician to white man and Indian alike, the symbol of justice and mercy in the lawless west of the 1870s." (opening transcribed from the Digital Deli site).

On December 19, 1954, the show featured its only Christmas episode. Called A Pony for Christmas, the episode told the story of the troubles for the Munoz family. Poor little Tomasito Munoz was very sick and was struggling to regain his health. The Munoz family were sheep herders and they were financially strapped with the holidays and winter fast approaching. They had little more than $20 in all their savings. With food and medicine that would be needed over the winter, there were little prospects for a happy Christmas.

Tomasito asked his grandfather for a pony - a white pony. The grandfather thought it would be the thing that would make him well and took all their savings into town to try to buy that horse for his sick grandson. All is well when he finds someone who will sell him a pony for the money that he had. Sadly, the grandfather unknowingly purchased a stolen pony and it was pulled from the family. On Christmas Eve, they had no money and no pony.

Dr. Matson did everything he could, but when the sheep herders and the cattlemen realized what had happened, they decided that they needed to do something for that poor family. So just like in the musical Oklahoma, this is a case where the farmer and the cowmen can get along! Definitely a sweet story of family, helping your fellow man, and the dangers of holiday scams (which sadly are not a recent invention). I hope you enjoy this episode of Dr. Sixgun!

A Pony for Christmas (December 19, 1954)

Here are additional links to Dr. Sixgun items on the web.

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2015) & Other Links

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2014)

Sunday, December 6, 2015

25 More Days of Old Time Radio Christmas: Day 6 - Santa Claus of Bums' Boulevard (Casey Crime Photographer)

If you knew anything about me, you would know that I am an avid photographer, so when I find another one out there - we have something in common. This is true of people in both fiction and non-fiction. So one of the great radio characters I found was Casey, Crime Photographer. I love the idea of following a cameraman through the rough streets of the city. The series was sponsored by Anchor Hocking glass company of Lancaster, Ohio.

So this is where I am going to take my next day in my review of Christmas episodes from old time radio. (Here is a link to all the 2014 OTR Christmas entries). If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#148). He does a great job of showcasing great holiday themed episodes, especially as we get closer to Christmas and the end of December.

Self-portrait at Scenes at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (Phoenix, Arizona) in 2012.

Casey, Crime Photographer is the crime series as features...as you could imagine...a guy named Casey who is...anyone...a photographer for a newspaper. He is joined out and about in the city finding stories with reporter Ann Williams. The show almost always opens and closes at the Blue Note Tavern and their great bartender Ethelbert. The voice talent was primarily Staats Cotsworth as Casey, Jan Miner as Ann Williams and John Gibson as Ethelbert the bartender. Despite being part of the CBS Network, these are not brilliant shows. I love them because they have a charm that comes with the opening and closing conversations at the Blue Note. It is a great frame for these programs and I think gives it a bit more than what one might imagine.

The Christmas episode I want to highlight is The Santa Claus of Bums' Boulevard from Christmas day, 1947. As the episode opens, Casey, Ann and Ethelbert lament all having to work on Christmas Day. The quiet Blue Note Tavern did not find that many people besides those three on Christmas. Such is the life of a tavern keeper and newspaper staff! Well, the staff without family or anyone else at home to give them an incentive to try to get the day off. Casey and Ann are killing time at the Blue Note waiting to head to the worst part of town at mid-day. Why? Because the previous few years, a mysterious visitor handed out one dollar bills to all the people (or rummies as they were called) who are walking the streets among the down and out. They were trying to catch this mysterious benefactor to see what his motives are. But when this mysterious Santa Claus is jumped and the money that he had to give away is taken, Casey and Ann jump into action. Among the others who come under scrutiny are a petty crime boss from that neighborhood, a down and out actress, and an old gent who lives there, but is so much more than he appears. Casey and Ann Williams help shepherd the story to a happy ending!

The Santa Claus of Bums' Boulevard (December 25, 1947)

Here are additional links to Casey, Crime Photographer items on the web.

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2015) & Other Links

2015 Day 1 - Honest Harold's Christmas Party
2015 Day 2 - The Innocent Santa Claus (This is Your FBI)
2015 Day 3 - Christmas Story from The Mysterious Traveler
2015 Day 4 - All is Bright (the story of Silent Night)
2015 Day 5 - Beeker's Barn (a Christmas tale from Gunsmoke)
2015 Day 6 - Santa Claus of Bums' Boulevard (Casey Crime Photographer)
All my entries covering OTR and Christmas
All my OTR blog posts
Also visit 500 OTR Christmas Shows from the Internet Archive.
Christmas Programs from Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs
Christmas Scripts at Generic Radio Workshop - no they are not from Abbot and Costello!
Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#148)

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2014)

Saturday, December 5, 2015

25 More Days of Old Time Radio Christmas: Day 5 - Beeker's Barn (a Christmas tale from Gunsmoke)

For day five, I am going to head out to Dodge City and one of my favorite series, Gunsmoke. As a long-standing show on CBS, Gunsmoke had a number of Christmas episodes, including one that I featured last year. Here is a link to all the 2014 OTR Christmas entries. If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#148). He does a great job of showcasing great holiday themed episodes, especially as we get closer to Christmas and the end of December.

Farms at Sunset in Saline, Michigan - Saturday January 10, 2015

Farm in the snow near my house in Saline, Michigan (January, 2015)

When most old time radio fans list their favorite five or ten programs, Gunsmoke is almost always on the list somewhere. It is certainly on my list and a definite top five - if not higher. The first western for adult audiences on radio, this CBS produced show featured the best cast, the best stories, and the best production values. Gunsmoke had one of the best casts on radio, a group that stuck together during its entire run (1952 to 1961). Each radio episode started the same way, with the narrator setting the scene:

Around Dodge City and in the territory out west, there's just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers... And that's with a U.S. Marshal, and the smell of...Gunsmoke!

Gunsmoke!... the story of the violence that moved west with young America. And the story of a man who moved with it...

Then, Matt Dillon would chime in...

I'm that man...Matt Dillon, United States Marshal. The first man they look for, and the last they wanta meet. It's a chancy job, and it makes a man watchful. And a little lonely...

CBS radio superstar William Conrad starred as Marshal Matt Dillon, He was joined by Howard McNear as Doc Charles Adams, Georgia Ellis as Kitty Russell, and Parley Baer as Dillon's assistant Chester Wesley Proudfoot. They were often joined by the stars of CBS radio, most commonly it seems was John Dehner, who almost always played the bad guy. Joseph Kearns also was a regular guest on the show, and was featured in the Christmas episode featured today.

First aired on December 23, 1956 (and reused on December 20, 1959), Beeker's Barn tells the story of a young lost couple trying to make their way in the cold snowy storm in the area around Dodge City on Christmas Eve. In the driving snowstorm, they needed to seek shelter. And when they realize that they are approaching a barn, the grim reality is that there is something familiar about this place strikes the pair. For the young woman, named Harmony, it was all too familiar. It was the farm of her estranged father. And while she and her young husband Ross would have liked to be anywhere else, they knew that they needed to find a place to rest, especially with the baby on its way.

The owner of the barn, Jethro Beeker, stormed into Marshall Dillon's office the next day, demanding that he toss out the unwelcome guests. While Marshall Dillon agreed to go out to the barn, he tried to convince Jethro that he should be kind to a stranger at the holidays. When Matt realized that it was his daughter and her husband and that they were going to have the baby soon, he called off Jethro and called in Doc! What they received that day was a wonderful Christmas gift that brought them together again.

There are two versions, both offered here with different stars (I love the Joseph Kearns script). He is one of the best names in radio, especially on CBS. The 1956 original stars Ralph Moody as Jethro Beeker. Enjoy them both!

Beeker's Barn (Gunsmoke - December 20, 1959 with Joseph Kearns)

Beeker's Barn (Gunsmoke - December 23 1956 with Ralph Moody)

Here are some links to programs relating to Gunsmoke:

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2015) & Other Links

2015 Day 1 - Honest Harold's Christmas Party
2015 Day 2 - The Innocent Santa Claus (This is Your FBI)
2015 Day 3 - Christmas Story from The Mysterious Traveler
2015 Day 4 - All is Bright (the story of Silent Night)
2015 Day 5 - Beeker's Barn (a Christmas tale from Gunsmoke)
All my entries covering OTR and Christmas
All my OTR blog posts
Also visit 500 OTR Christmas Shows from the Internet Archive.
Christmas Programs from Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs
Christmas Scripts at Generic Radio Workshop - no they are not from Abbot and Costello!
Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#148)

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2014)