Radio Drama

OTR Wednesday – The Rocket Ship

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I am a child of the 80s, and like most children of that time one fear overrode all others for me – nuclear war. It probably sounds strange to anyone born after 1985 or so, but I assure you, the threat was very real during that days of the Cold War. I distinctly remember the Fallout Shelter signs on the walls of basement classrooms in elementary school – as if hiding under a little desk with my hands over my head would have helped at all if it had come to that…

One day I’ll do into just how deep this fear ran, but if you don’t know who Samantha Smith is – read up on her. She made a big impression on me. (Also The Day After and War Games – if those things don’t ring a bell and you have a few extra minutes)

I didn’t hear this episode of Lights Out until a few years ago (thank goodness). It aired on July 28, 1945 – only 12 days after the first atomic bomb was tested (near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, during the Manhattan Project) and a little over a week before those bombs were used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 1945).  I didn’t realize the significance of this until I looked up the dates just now.

Maybe leave the lights on for this one?

 

 

OTR Wednesday – Big Town (with an Edward G. Robinson tangent)

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Today I’m sharing another old radio show that influenced my fictional detective serial “The Darkness Knows”. This is Big Town starring Edward G. Robinson (“See?”) and Claire Trevor. Robinson plays Steve Wilson, the crusading editor of the Illustrated Press. Trevor plays his sidekick who also happens to be the society editor of the paper. This episode is from 1937 right about the time Vivian was breaking into the radio biz.

Edward G. Robinson is probably one of the stars of the golden age of Hollywood that you recognize (even if you aren’t a fan) due to his reputation for playing gangsters and his distinctive tough guy way of speaking. He’s also parodied in a that Merrie Melodies cartoon that I’ve featured before on the blog called “Hollywood Steps Out” from 1941.

And as an added bonus I’m including this episode of Suspense called “The Man who Wanted to be Edward G. Robinson” from 1946. If you think the whole pop culture meta thing is a recent invention… you have to listen to this. It’s about a henpecked husband who meets the real Edward G. Robinson and wants him to help him kill his wife because he believes he is exactly like the heartless gangsters he plays on the screen.

OTR Wednesday – Dark Journey

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I’m sharing another Suspense episode today – one I hadn’t heard before this week. But thanks to a new to me podcast (The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society) I found this gem. And it is a gem. It was written by the master radio scribe, Lucille Fletcher who also wrote my favorite Suspense episode “Sorry, Wrong Number”.

What makes Dark Journey so special, you ask? Well, it’s an entire dramatic program that stars two women – just women. Which was rare in the 1940s – and rare still in 2018, unfortunately. It also goes in an unexpected direction that I should have seen coming, but didn’t. That’s how good Lucille Fletcher was. This episode of The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society has a great discussion on it.

If you haven’t seen this chart about women’s speaking time in Oscar-winning films that’s been going around Twitter have a look.

Disheartening, isn’t it? It comes from a BBC article which also states women were better represented in films in the 1930s vs. today. As a classic film fan, I could have told you this, but it’s really starkly represented in this article. Give it a read after you listen to Dark Journey.

OTR Wednesday – “And the Moon be Still as Bright”

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In honor of today’s #superbluebloodmoon (that I couldn’t see because of cloud cover… grr…) I’m sharing another unsettling adaptation of a Ray Bradbury short story. This one’s from the short-lived sci-fi program Dimension X (1950-51) and is adapted from one of the stories in Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles.

“And the Moon be Still as Bright” is about the 4th attempt at Mars colonization, and well, things don’t go great (with direct allusions to the European colonization of the US).

OTR Wednesday – The Mercury Theater’s A Christmas Carol

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If you’ve read HOMICIDE FOR THE HOLIDAYS, then this is the rendition of A Christmas Carol that’s mentioned in the first chapter (although not by name). This version aired December 23, 1938 – the night of the Witchell’s Christmas party.

A movie version of A Christmas Carol had just come out starring Reginald Owen. That was a bit of casting blasphemy at the time since Lionel Barrymore was famous for his portrayal of Scrooge on the radio. He’d reprise the leading role (on radio at least) in 1939.

By the way, if Lionel Barrymore sounds familiar to you it’s probably because you know him as nasty old Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life. (That character isn’t far off Ebenezer Scrooge – except that Mr. Potter never has an epiphany and never becomes a better person…)

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.

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.

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.