Showing results by author "original radio broadcast" in All Categories

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.

Jack Webb and Barton Yarborough star as Joe Friday and Ben Romero - just a couple of cops doing their job. Follow them step-by-step through 20 true-to-life cases, drawn from the files of the Los Angeles Police Department. Their dialogue was never clichéd or exaggerated, and their cases never relied on jumped-up action sequences to deliver impact. Whether they were on the trail of a car thief with violent tendencies, a fast-moving gang of safecrackers, a kidnapper, a mail thief, or a murderer, their job was the same: Get 'em.

Here are eleven exciting radio adventures produced by Jim French, starring John Patrick Lowrie as Holmes, Larry Albert as Watson, and Rick May as Lestrade. Listen in and you’ll hear one female criminal suspect, two Christmas-themed episodes, a little international intrigue, and a lot of mystery!

The late 1950s were the golden age of the radio western, and Gunsmoke stood at the top of the mesa, proudly overlooking the terrain! These searing dramas of frontier life - told with honesty, sensitivity, and nail-biting tension - feature William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon. Here are 24 unforgettable adventures of the Old West, originally broadcast between 1956 and 1958. Parley Baer co-stars as Chester, with Howard McNear as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty.

When great stars (like Kirk Douglas and Ava Gardner) took their talents to the radio microphones, it was always a treat. But when these accomplished actors worked under the masterful direction of William Spier, it was radio's outstanding theater of thrills. You'll hear Angela Lansbury, Donald O'Connor, Gloria Swanson, José Ferrer, and more in well-crafted tales of doubt, double cross, and death. Steady your nerves for 20 classic tension-packed thrillers from 1947!

While George Burns and Gracie Allen were uproariously funny on stage, screen, and television, radio was - and remains - the preeminent showcase for their comedic talents. Here you’ll find 20 digitally remastered and restored radio episodes, including some available here for the first time anywhere, featuring big name guest stars like Cary Grant, Ray Milland, Hedy Lamarr, Charles Boyer, Ida Lupino, Bing Crosby, Cesar Romero, and more! Aiding and abetting the stars was a top-notch supporting cast that included announcer-sidekick Bill Goodwin and others!

Encounter the death who walks, rats, descents into madness, ghosts, mad scientists, crimes against nature, and much more in this classic collection presenting 22 tales of the supernatural from authors such as Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, and Ambrose Bierce. Features performances from Peter Lorre, Hal Holbrooke, Boris Karloff, and the work of many leading radio directors, writers, and actors of the day. Also included are episodes from Strange, a rarely heard series narrated by Walter Gibson, creator and author of The Shadow.

Dodge City and frontier Kansas come to life on the limitless plain of your imagination in 20 intense western dramas. In these gritty and poignant stories, originally broadcast in 1955, making a wrong call about whether or not to trust a man could cost you your fortune…or your life.

Based on the famous detective created by Rex Stout, The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe stars Sydney Greenstreet as “the balkiest, bulkiest, smartest, and most unpredictable detective in the world...that brilliant eccentric private detective, orchid fancier and gargantuan gourmet.” Nero Wolfe, armchair detective in the classic tradition, and Archie Goodwin, wisecracking hard-boiled investigator, shine in eight radio tales from this classic detective series first broadcast in 1950-1951.

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.

Racketeers and robbers, crap-shooters and kidnappers, hit men and hard cases - watch out! Joe Friday's on the job, and he isn't here to fool around! Join Jack Webb for 20 gritty true-life tales of urban crime from the files of the Los Angeles Police Department. Ben Alexander, Martin Milner, Jack Kruschen, Virginia Gregg, June Whitley, Stacy Harris, and more co-star as the city's cops, concerned citizens, and cold criminals.

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!

Head to distant worlds and alternate futures! Explore the limitless potential for twists and turns when stories are fueled by the infinite power of imagination! Here are twenty-four thought-provoking tales as up-to-date as tomorrow. It's new-time radio in the classic old-time-radio manner, from the mind of producer Jim French.

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!

Presented here are Western stories of unparalleled realism and uncompromising emotional complexity. Marshal Matt Dillon (William Conrad) doesn't revel in violence, but he uses it because he lives in a violent place at a violent time, where only the violent can survive.

Jim French, the producer-director of Imagination Theatre, kept the tradition of great radio drama alive for nearly 40 years. He combined old-time skills with new-time production values - and here are 17 thought-provoking thrillers to prove it! In this collection, you'll hear favorites from his stock company, actors from radio's "Golden Age", and performers better known for their television work. You'll even hear a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who guest stars as a writer of horror novels!

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.

She's like Sherlock Holmes with a sassy 1930s attitude! She's Hilary Caine, staff investigator for a British tabloid who knows her way around London…and around every murder case that comes her way!

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.