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Many of these episodes, which included both original stories and adaptations, centered on a protagonist facing a life-or-death situation. Numerous actors made appearances on the show, including Elvia Allman, Eleanor Audley, Parley Baer, Harry Bartell, William Conrad, Ted de Corsia, John Dehner, Sam Edwards, Virginia Gregg, Lou Merrill, Howard McNear, Jeanette Nolan, Alan Reed, Bill Johnstone, Marvin Miller, Frank Lovejoy, Berry Kroeger, Vic Perrin, Elliott Lewis, Jack Webb, Peggy Webber, and Will Wright.

Have Gun - Will Travel follows the adventures of Paladin, a soldier of fortune turned hired gunfighter, played by John Dehner. Paladin prefers to settle problems without violence, yet when forced to fight, he excels. He lives at the swanky Carlton Hotel in San Francisco, where he dresses in formal wear, eats gourmet food, attends the opera, and enjoys the company of beautiful women. When working as a gun-for-hire, he dresses in all black, uses calling cards, and wears a holster decorated with a chess knight emblem. This symbol refers to his name and his occupation as a champion-for-hire.

Conceived as a potential radio vehicle for Alfred Hitchcock to direct, Suspense was a radio series of epic proportion. It aired on CBS from 1942 to 1962 and is considered by many to be the best mystery drama series of the golden age. Often referred to as "Radio's Outstanding Theater of Thrills", it focused on suspenseful thrillers starring the biggest names in Hollywood.

Escape was radio's leading anthology series of high-adventure, airing on CBS radio from 1947 to 1954. The series' well-remembered opening combined Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain with an introduction spoken by Paul Frees and William Conrad: "Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you... Escape!"

Among several newspaper-based dramas during radio's golden age, Night Beat was a cut above the others. It was the story of Randy Stone, a hard-nosed Chicago Star newsman, and his quest for the human-interest story behind the headlines. Frank Lovejoy starred as Randy Stone, who came to vivid life thanks to expert scripts by Russell Hughes, Larry Marcus, E. Jack Neuman, and John Michael Hayes. Lovejoy's distinctive voice and approach to the role, combined with top performances by veteran radio actors, gave Night Beat a noir style that listeners loved.

The Falcon radio series aired from 1943 until 1954. "The Falcon" was an alternate identity for detective Michael Waring. Like the Falcon movies, the radio plots mixed danger, romance, and comedy in equal parts. Each show began with a telephone ringing and Michael Waring, the Falcon, answering the phone. Speaking with a woman whose voice was never heard, Waring would explain that he had an urgent situation he had to deal with.

From 1947 to 1954, CBS' Escape was radio's leading high-adventure anthology series. The show's famous opening, delivered by Paul Frees and William Conrad, asked: "Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you... Escape!" This was followed by another announcer adding, " Escape! Designed to free you from the four walls of today for a half hour of high adventure!" Many of the episodes, which included both original stories and adaptations, centered on a protagonist facing a life-or-death situation.

Conceived as a potential radio vehicle for Alfred Hitchcock to direct, Suspense was a radio series of epic proportion. It aired on CBS from 1942 to 1962, and is considered by many to be the best mystery/drama series of the golden age. Often referred to as "Radio's Outstanding Theater of Thrills" it focused on suspenseful thrillers starring the biggest names in Hollywood.

Damon Runyon was a newspaperman and writer. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of New York City's Broadway that grew out of the Prohibition era. He created a little world of characters that live on even today in such classic movies as Little Miss Marker and Guys and Dolls, both based on Runyon's stories. Actor Alan Ladd's Mayfair Productions brought Runyon's short stories to radio in the early 1950s.

When real-life husband and wife George Burns and Gracie Allen worked together in vaudeville, George was the comic and his wife Gracie had the straight lines. They switched their roles upon discovering that Gracie’s delivery got a bigger laugh than George’s punch lines. The duo became a big hit on vaudeville and in films so when radio beckoned, they delivered. Their first regular radio work were as supporting players on CBS’s The Guy Lombardo Show in the 1930s. When Lombardo switched to NBC, George and Gracie took over the show. Enjoy sixteen of their greatest radio broadcasts.

The Lux Radio Theatre was one of the longest running - and most extravagant - shows from radio's golden age. The show featured the greatest stars in Hollywood appearing in hour-long radio adaptations of their biggest motion pictures. Cecil B. DeMille was the host for the lavish production of what was to become a veritable checklist of many of Hollywood's best films from the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s.

Movie star Alan Ladd played Dan Holiday, a former newspaperman turned mystery novelist and adventurer. To gain ideas for his books, Holiday placed an ad in the Star-Times newspaper: "Adventure wanted - will go anywhere, do anything - write Box 13, Star-Times." It wasn't long before his post office box became jammed with adventure offers galore. The stories follow his escapades when he responds to the letters.

In 1949, NBC brought handsome Irish American actor Brian Donlevy to the radio microphones as international troubleshooter Steve Mitchell in the spy series Dangerous Assignment. Mitchell worked for an unnamed US government intelligence agency, whose boss, "the Commissioner," dispatched him to world trouble spots. Mitchell's assignment was to solve problems in record time and in accordance with US interests.

Benny’s radio and television shows entertained audiences for more than three decades and is generally regarded as the high-water mark in twentieth century American comedy.

Some might remember My Friend Irma as the movie that served as the launching pad for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Others recall a television show of the same name. But My Friend Irma actually originated as a radio sitcom that aired on CBS from 1947 to 1954. The show chronicled the daily highjinks of an extremely dim-witted blond stenographer named Irma Peterson and her screwball friends.

Here are 12 episodes from the greatest Western shows ever broadcast during the golden age of radio! You'll hear William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke; John Dehner as the man called Paladin in Have Gun - Will Travel; Alan Ladd in a Western tale well calculated to keep you in suspense; John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Gregory Peck reprising their film roles in Fort Apache, Destry Rides Again, and Yellow Sky; plus other great Western radio episodes, including four episodes of the high-adventure series Escape.

This collection contains 12 episodes from the greatest science fiction shows ever broadcast during the golden age of radio, including a two-part Suspense episode starring Orson Welles, written by Curt Siodmak, author of The Wolf Man, one of Universal Pictures' biggest hits. Other classics include stories by H. G. Wells, Robert Heinlein, Frederick Pohl, and Murray Leinster on Dimension X, Escape, and X Minus One.

This Is Your FBI, as the title suggests, was a crime drama that featured true cases from the FBI and was told from an agent's viewpoint. The show's producer and director, Jerry Devine, had once worked for the FBI, so having him for the show would allow each story to be told in the best way possible. J. Edgar Hoover, who was the chief of the FBI at the time, gave it his endorsement, calling it "the finest dramatic program on the air", and gave Devine access to the FBI files for the stories used in the show.

Like Mike Hammer and Philip Marlowe, Shayne is a loner. Once happily married, Mike is devastated when his wife is suddenly and tragically murdered. Grief stricken, Shayne loses himself in his work as a private eye, prowling the dark streets of New Orleans, seeking out his style of revenge on injustice.

This collection contains 12 of the greatest Western shows ever broadcast during the golden age of radio, including many first episodes from their series. You'll hear William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke, John Dehner as the man called Paladin on Have Gun - Will Travel, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans on The Roy Rogers Show, Gene Autry on Gene Autry's Melody Ranch, Raymond Burr as Captain Lee Quince on Fort Laramie, and Jack Mather in The Cisco Kid.