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

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.

Karen Heaven is back as the bold, brassy, British investigator Hilary Caine! Our girl detective is as adventurous as ever in scripts adapted from the works of British mystery novelist M. J. Elliot. She takes a holiday in the Bahamas and travels to the United States on assignment for the British War Department - but wherever she goes, murder follows.

From out of the rain-fogged nights of 1940s Seattle strides the thinking-listener's private investigator on the trail of crime, intrigue and mystery! Tune in to The Adventures of Harry Nile, produced by modern radio legend Jim French. Larry Albert and Mary Anne Dorward star in eighteen radio tales produced in the classic style!

Come back to the tradition and warmth of Christmas in the Golden Age of Radio, with the great performers and shows of yesteryear. Go shopping with Jack Benny. Go to the snow covered woods with Johnny Dollar. Go to Bethlehem with Family Theater. The voices of Vincent Price, George and Gracie, Bergen and McCarthy, Abbott and Costello, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, and more are lifted in story and song. They celebrate the yuletide with equal parts hope and hokum, silliness and sacrifice, merriment and mystery....

Invite faith, hope, love, and laughter into your home this Christmas with classic holiday programs from the Golden Age of Radio. Ranging from the solemn to the slapstick, each of these heartwarming episodes celebrates the spirit of the season. This collection brings you yuletide tales from Jack Benny, Gunsmoke, Fibber & Molly, The Great Gildersleeve, The Whistler, and more. There are Christmas comedies, merry mysteries, wintry Westerns, and poignant dramas to lend meaning and merriment to your festivities this, and every, holiday season.

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.

The inimitable Ed Gardner stars as Archie, the bartender at Third Avenue’s most magnificent dive bar: Duffy’s Tavern. He’s got big dreams and wild schemes – most of which rely on the participation of prominent celebrities. But that’s okay, because the stars saunter in right on cue! Come hear Jimmy Durante, Esther Williams, Rudy Vallee, Rex Harrison, Dinah Shore, and many more banter with the bartender. Regulars Eddie Green and Charlie Cantor add a little local flavor, along with the three actresses who take on the role of Miss Duffy, Florence Halop, Florence Robinson, and Sandra Gould.

Shhhhh. Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills is here to tell you a story. Would you like to revisit classic characters (like Frankenstein, Edwin Drood, John Dillinger, and Captain Bligh)? Perhaps a tale or two of bad men…or mad men? Or would you like to hear a story about someone just like you…who has found themselves in utterly desperate circumstances? They are all here…waiting for you.

Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar was a man of contradictions. He was tough and compassionate, sardonic and thoughtful. You never knew quite what he might do to solve a case - but you always knew he'd get it done! You also knew that he'd be supported by many of the greatest radio performers ever to haunt "Radio Row": Virginia Gregg, Howard McNear, Lurene Tuttle, Joseph Kearns, John Dehner, Stacy Harris…even Vincent Price! Bob Bailey stars as Johnny for five fascinating five-part serial adventures, and a collection of harrowing half-hour tales! Prepare the expense report!

The fog is thick, the atmosphere is heavy, and the game's afoot once again! World famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusted aide Dr. Watson roam the streets of Victorian London in search of the vital clues that will bring malefactors to justice! Adapted from the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and produced by Jim French, The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is radio drama at its 21st-century best! John Patrick Lowrie stars as Holmes, with Lawrence Albert as Watson, in 16 immortal adventures in sparkling up-to-the-minute audio!

For over 40 years, Seattle-based radio personality Jim French kept the flame of radio drama alive with Imagination Theatre! Noir-ish private eye Harry Nile, globetrotting adventurer Dameron, Kincaid the Strangeseeker, the methodical investigator Mr. Darnborough - plus fresh new takes on Raffles the Gentleman Thief, and even Sherlock Holmes himself - all had compelling stories to tell.

Tough, hardboiled, and with a dry sense of humor, Jack Webb stars as Jeff Regan, doing the leg work for his not-always-agreeable boss, Anthony J. Lyon. Regan takes on hard and difficult assignments as he investigates counterfeiters, embezzlers, and encounters general mayhem, and most of all murder, in these 16 classic radio episodes. Joining Webb is a cast of many of radio’s finest supporting actors, including Herb Butterfield, Lawrence Dobkin, Barry Kroeger, Lurene Tuttle, Ed Begley, Wilms Herbert, Betty Lou Gerson, and many more.

If there's one lesson to be learned from science-fiction, it's that nothing lasts forever. From human lives to vast civilizations, the overarching theme of the genre is that the old will give way to the new. Look to futures past with X Minus One! One of the most imaginative series of the 1950s brings you to adventures in worlds beyond fear, beyond imagination, beyond the farthest stars. Works by the leading genre authors of the day (including Philip K. Dick, Robert Sheckley, and Clifford Simak) were turned into tight, well-acted half-hour dramatizations.

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!

Crime, mystery, and just a touch of the supernatural - they're all on display in Radio's Outstanding Theatre of Thrills! Join your host, The Man in Black, for 20 gripping installments of Suspense (including the first ever broadcast of "Sorry, Wrong Number"). Legends like Cary Grant, Agnes Moorehead, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, Orson Welles, and Gene Kelly star in stories by thriller greats like Agatha Christie, Lucille Fletcher, John Dickson Carr, and Cornell Woolrich. Enjoy these tales well calculated to keep you in…Suspense!

Follow Jack Benny and his gang around the calendar in this 16-episode collection that takes you from week to week, from season to season, from holiday to holiday, and from laugh to laugh! And you never know who might pop up to join in the fun. It might be Barbara Stanwyck, or Claude Rains, or Jack's real life daughter, Joan.

It's a rainy night in postwar Seattle. There's a crime to be solved, and an investigator is needed. But it's a dangerous profession! Sometimes the source of a scream is elusive, sometimes a surveillance job goes south, and sometimes someone's got their gun sight set on you! From out of the Pacific Northwest come 24 more adventures produced by Jim French. Phil Harper stars as Harry Nile, with Pat French as his all-knowing assistant Murphy. It's new-time radio drama produced in the classic style.

Follow wild cases of snowmen, dragons, and ghosts...loot, letters, and lyricism...revenge, curses, and clues. Here are 19 engrossing all-new dilemmas of deduction for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes....

Artifacts of crime's darkest moments and souvenirs of sinister significance can be found on display in The Black Museum. Presented here are 16 stranger-than-fiction tales of depravity and detection from 1952, hosted and narrated by the incomparable Orson Welles.

Delve into this series of stories that pit Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's immortal creations Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson against all manner of villainy! These adventures, in the classic style of the original Holmes mysteries, have been produced by Jim French. The clients who appear at 221b Baker Street may be desperate or dangerous, illustrious or irregular, but they all require the services of the world's only consulting detective. John Patrick Lowrie stars as the legendary investigator, with Larry Albert as his loyal associate in 16 stimulating radio mysteries!