Old Time Radio Shows

 Who could be better at celebrating a holiday which is all about fun than Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, the Great Man Himself ? During the program's long run (1941-1957) we got to hear Gildy's “dirty laugh” at quite a few Halloween gatherings. One of our favorites was from 1943. The character of Throckmorton Gildersleeve first appeared on Fibber McGee and Molly October 3, 1939, as a collector who hires McGee to get “Killer” Canova's autograph. Harold Peary had been with Fibber McGee and Molly for many seasons, but the character of Gildy was such a good fit that he became a regular foil for Fibber. It was a pretty even match as to who would get the better of whom, but we were usually treated at least once with the catchphrase “You're a haaaard man McGee!” Fibber McGee and Molly When Kraft Foods began looking for a project to promote Parkay Margarine in 1941, a program centered around Peary's Gildersleeve was ready to go. Moving from Wistful Vista to Summerf...

How does one become an expert on murder? According to the creators of Murder By Experts , expertise in murder is demonstrated by writing about murder in a highly entertaining fashion. No university has a recognized degree program in murder, and consulting someone with "experience in the field" is too ghastly to contemplate. The subject itself seems too ghastly to consider, but murder mysteries make for highly entertaining fair and they are the centerpiece of the majority of the crime dramas which filled the air during the Golden Age of Radio. The average listener might drive a few miles over the speed limit on occasion or could neglect to tell Uncle Sam the whole truth on their tax returns, but by and large, they are law-abiding people who would go out of their way to help their fellow man. The psychological makeup of someone who is actually capable of murder is fascinating to behold. Remember the old joke about going to a party dressed as a homicidal maniac? ...

Old Time Radio shows are more than simply historical audio artifacts. They are a high entertainment value. The stories and humor are timeless. Although they come from a supposedly “more innocent time”, the plots and stories you will hear in radio drama and situation comedies are still being used on TV sitcoms and dramas today. One of the terrific things about getting into Old Time Radio, or OTR, is that it is a form of entertainment that can be enjoyed just about anywhere without interfering with what is going on in your world. Listening to a 50 year old or earlier radio program is not as current or high tech as enjoying the latest viral video. However, it is difficult to really enjoy a video while you are cleaning the house, fixing a meal, walking the dog or taking the kids to the park. You can even enjoy your OTR programs while driving. The half-hour or 15 minute format of these old programs make them an easy fit into a commute, shopping trip or a road trip. With a po...

 It was simple concept, but it made for a revolutionary format in children's radio. If the stories were for children, kids should be reading them. That was the concept for Nila Mack's Let's Pretend, and the show aired for two decades. Let's Pretend started radio life as The Adventures of Helen and Mary in 1934 when it was transformed by Nila Mack into the show that would last for two decades until 1954. Mack believed that, if the stories were for children, then children should tell the story. Nila Mack used a core of regular children's actor's including Sybil Trent, Arthur Anderson, Jack Grimes, Miriam Wolfe , Gwen Davies and Michael O'Day. Anderson went on to write a book about his time on the show called Let's Pretend and the Golden Age of Radio. Mack died in 1953 and the show lasted one more year under the direction of Jean Hight. The Peabody award-winning show was broadcast with an audience full of children beginning with Uncle Bill Adams'...

When we study the personalities of Old Time Radio, every once in a while we encounter the story of what appears to be a very happy man. One such person was Harry Frankel, better known as Singin' Sam .  Harry was born in Ohio in 1888 to a men's clothing merchant who soon took the family to Danville, Kentucky. The family business would take them to Richmond, Indiana when Harry was nine, but by this time the "Old Kentucky Home" had a hold on the lad. For the rest of his life, Harry was a Son of the South. In 1908, Harry joined Al G. Fields' Minstrels and began his vaudeville apprenticeship. In 1930, an offer from the Great States Lawnmower Company allowed Harry to leave the hectic life of vaudeville, and he settled in Cincinnati, to sing over WLW as Singin' Sam, The Lawnmower Man. Exposure on WLW led to an opportunity to move to New York to become Singin' Sam, the Barbasol Man. Life in New York was not happy for the confirmed Son of the South, and he ...

  The movie hero generally fits a specific physical type. Not necessarily handsome in the classic sense, he has a manly, rugged appearance, tall, with a V-shaped torso, tapering from wide, solid shoulders to a narrow waistline. In classic films, he may not have the chiseled "six-pack abs" which are the trademark of modern leading men, but there is an undeniable masculine toughness about him. Fortunately, Hollywood has nearly as many of this type running around as it does pretty girls. On the radio, the equivalent of broad shoulders and a narrow waist is a commanding basso profundo voice. Several actors were blessed with such a commanding voice, but few were able to use it to the degree William Conrad did, especially when we consider how far Conrad was physically from the leading man type. William Conrad was born in Lexington, Kentucky, 1920, where his parents owned and operated a movie theater. Little Bill was babysat by the flickerin...