OTR Wednesday – Jonathan Thomas and His Christmas on the Moon

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In keeping with the theme of shows that Vivian and her friends and family may have listened to during the events of Homicide for the Holidays, today’s show is a children’s program that aired between Thanksgiving and Christmas 1938. It’s in the vein of The Cinnamon Bear (if you’ve heard of that) about two children who find a tiny bear in the attic that takes them on a fantastic adventure. That program is from 1937 so it doesn’t qualify for my 1938 series – though it was repeated every Christmas for years. As a matter of fact, my daughter and I are going to a live stage production of The Cinnamon Bear next weekend.

Jonathan Thomas and His Christmas on the Moon is about a six-year-old that goes on an adventure to the moon to rescue a kidnapped Santa. It’s amazing to me that small children would sit quietly in front of the radio and listen intently to a story like this using only ::gasp:: their imaginations. It was a different time.

Santa’s always been a shill

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If you’ve read The Darkness Knows or Homicide for the Holidays you know that the detective serial that Viv and Graham star on (also called “The Darkness Knows”) is sponsored by Sultan’s Gold cigarettes – “You’ll be sold on Sultan’s Gold!” Cigarette companies were huge sponsors of radio programs, and later, TV programs. Cigarettes were touted as “healthy” and often used doctors – or images of doctors – in their advertising expressing their love for a certain brand of cigarette. 

Here’s a snippet from Homicide for the Holidays (Viv and Charlie #2):

She could picture the ad already: Graham’s face in three-quarter profile, a self-assured half smile on his lips, his dark-brown eyes trained on the reader, a Sultan’s Gold cigarette balanced in fingers held below his chin. The text appearing in a balloon above him would read:

Graham Yarborough, radio’s Harvey Diamond, says, “I smoke nothing but Sultan’s Gold. The mellow taste and smooth fla¬vor of Sultan’s Gold cigarettes calm my throat and assure me of a confident vocal delivery every time.”

And one from Dig Deep My Grave (Viv and Charlie #3):

The national campaign for Sultan’s Gold cigarettes that she’d appeared in with Graham had been a success. “You’ll be sold on Sultan’s Gold,” she thought. It was a catchy slogan. The ad had featured illustrated photos of her and Graham smiling at each other from opposite sides of the page. Speech bubbles came out of each of their mouths. Vivian’s said, “Here, Graham, smoke a Sultan’s Gold. That mellow flavor and cool menthol taste will assure you of a confident vocal delivery every time.” Graham’s said, “Thanks, Viv. Harvey Diamond’s got to be on top of his game, and with Sultan’s Gold, that’s assured.”

Of course, advertisers pulled Santa into their schemes at the holidays as well. It’s weird to think there was a time when this wasn’t weird, isn’t it?

You can read more about the history of cigarette advertising at the Smithsonian blog.

Old Time Radio Wednesday – Jack’s Christmas Open House

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This episode of the Jack Benny Show aired on December 25, 1938. That’s right in the middle of the events of Homicide for the Holidays, and Vivian would have certainly been listening (along with almost everyone else in the country). If you’re not familiar with Jack Benny, his schtick was that he was a cheapskate and sort of an arrogantly loveable loser. So it’s no surprise that when he invites the celebrity couples of the day (Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor, Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, Ginger Rogers and Ronald Coleman) to his Christmas open house that none of them show up.

Listening to Jack Benny is like getting a big, warm hug for me – especially his Christmas shows. So get yourself some hot chocolate (or a hot toddy), put your feet up, and escape to Christmas 1938 for 30 minutes or so.

Another kind of debut

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It took much longer than anticipated to get this little guy up and running, but our little free library is now open for business! Too bad that the weather has turned colder, and we no longer have the kind of foot traffic past our house that we do in the warmer months. Still, it’s adorable, isn’t it? I saw a girl from down the street stop on her way to the bus and pick out a book yesterday morning. That made my day.

It even has motion-activated lights inside so people can browse at night.


Kate is beyond thrilled. She made invitations (with her dad’s help) for all the kids in her class to come visit and share their books. Here she is checking it at night before bed in her jammies and winter coat.

If you’re inspired to put up your own check out the resources on the Little Free Library website. You can see if there are any near you on their map.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

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And I have a HOMICIDE FOR THE HOLIDAYS Pinterest board! If you’d like to peruse what the holidays looked and sounded like in late 1930s Chicago – go have a look. There’s also some gorgeous 1930s fashion, Chicago locations – and some hints about some pop culture mentioned in the book (I’m lookin at you, Rudolph Valentino).

Happy Birthday, War of the Worlds!

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I first heard the original War of the Worlds broadcast in Sister Barbara Jean’s 8th grade reading class. The first ten minutes or so gave me goose bumps and sparked my love of old time radio. It made such an impression on me that I set my first mystery, The Darkness Knows, in October 1938 to coincide with the original Mercury Theatre on the Air broadcast on October 30, 1938 (a character is actually listening to the live broadcast near the end of the book).

Do yourself a favor and listen to the original (It’s brilliant and so far ahead of its time.):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzC3Fg_rRJM

One of my current favorite radio shows, Radiolab, did a fascinating episode around the psychology of the broadcast – why it worked so well and what happened when it was repeated (spoiler alert – bad things): Radiolab War of the Worlds Live Episode 

There’s also a PBS documentary on the subject: American Experience War of the Worlds

Old Time Radio Wednesday – Halloween #6 Snow Shadow Area

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I’ve saved the creepiest of the lot for last. Today’s program is another not-so-old-time radio production. Snow Shadow Area is an episode of the Canadian show Vanishing Point from 1986. I’m not sure what draws me to horror stories about people being stranded by snow (see my earlier entry in this series, The Porch Light), but this one is by far the freakiest – especially because of the ambiguous ending.

Listen and hear for yourself.

Old Time Radio Wednesday – Halloween #5 Valse Triste

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Lights Out is head and shoulders above all other horror old time radio, in my opinion. It’s so original – and so dark.

I’ve previously shared an episode of Lights Out called It Happened. Today I’m sharing an episode from December 29, 1942 called Valse Triste that is the horrific story of two young women that get lost in the woods and come upon a hermit’s cabin. The hermit… well, he has plans.

Old Time Radio Wednesday – Halloween #4 The House in Cypress Canyon

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This episode from December 5, 1946 is a bit hard to describe, so bear with me. It’s a story within a story about a notebook found in a house that was just recently built telling of what happened to the people that lived in it before. That’s right – before. It’s truly spooky, and Suspense is just the best. Sidenote: The star of this episode, Robert Taylor, was the physical inspiration for hunky Graham Yarborough in my books. Hubba hubba.