The head man was George W. Trendle, who by 1935 had The Lone Ranger well established and was looking for a Ranger derivative. This would not be a spinoff as such, except for the fact that the characte...
HERCULE POIROT, mystery drama, based on the novels by Agatha Christie. BROADCAST HISTORY: Feb. 22–Oct. 14, 1945, Mutual. 30m, Thursdays at 8 until Oct. 7; then Sundays at 9. April 1, 1946–Nov. 21, 194...
The Lineup took its listeners behind the scenes of a police headquarters where under the cold, glaring lights pass the innocent, the vagrant, the thief, the murderer. The police lineup opened and clos...
Wyllis Cooper, who created, wrote, and produced it, was then a 36–year-old staffer in Chicago’s NBC studios. Cooper, Newsweek continued, created his horror by raiding the larder. For the purposes of L...
KING’S ROW, soap opera, based on the novel by Henry Bellamann. BROADCAST HISTORY: Feb. 26–Oct. 12, 1951, CBS. 15m, weekdays. Oct. 15, 1951–Feb. 29, 1952, NBC. 15m, weekdays at 11:30 A.M. Colgate. CAST...
He was successful where it counted, at the box office and record stores. He was one of the most ardent bond salesmen on the air during the war years, making an estimated 1,000 appearances at camps, ho...
Richard Durham was a black writer whose credits in radio would run a gamut from Irna Phillips serials to prestige plays for such as The CBS Radio Workshop. But in Destination Freedom Durham wrote from...
Gale Gordon as Rumson Bullard, the rich, obnoxious neighbor who lived across the street from Gildersleeve. Jim Backus as Bullard, ca. 1952.
But DeMille’s tenure came to an abrupt end in January 1945, in a political dispute with the American Federation of Radio Artists, the actors’ union. At issue was Proposition 12, a ballot proposal popu...
The show was not generous with acting credits: the unmistakable voice of Frank Lovejoy can sometimes be heard among the East Coast actors who worked the series
She was sometimes called the female Arthur Godfrey, combining a down-home charm with a keen and astute interviewing style. Her voice was girlish, hesitant, often bewildered, in the opinion of Life mag...
MICHAEL SHAYNE, detective melodrama, based on the books by Brett Halliday.
Welles wanted a spook show, deciding against better judgments to dust off the 40-year-old H. G. Wells fantasy The War of the Worlds and air it Oct. 30. The dissenting voices were afraid that the story...
The camera would miss it all. A magnificent picture is never worth a thousand perfect words. Ansel Adams can be a great artist, but he can never be Shakespeare. His tools are too literal.
Though the series took its name from, and promoted, Simon and Schuster’s Inner Sanctum line of mystery novels, the radio stories were mostly originals. More than 100 shows are available, valued today...
They reworked their fibber-man, Uncle Luke, named him Uncle Luke Gray, and moved him into a store that would be called Smackout, at the junction known as The Crossroads of the Air. The series opened u...
On radio, the character’s name was Michael Waring. Each show began with a telephone ringing. It was always a woman calling. Waring, whose smooth voice was laced with a hint of the British, usually add...
GRANBY’S GREEN ACRES, situation comedy. BROADCAST HISTORY: July 3–Aug. 21, 1950, CBS. 30m, Mondays at 9:30. CAST: Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet as John and Martha Granby, ex-bank teller and wife who m...
Richard Gump, a real-life San Francisco importer, became the prototype for Gregory Hood, serving also as a consultant whenever they get stuck on a bit of importing business. The artifacts found by Hoo...
It was Striker, most agree, who came up with the ideas of the silver bullets and the silver shoes for the great stallion. It was Striker who at least pointed the way toward the Ranger’s famous call, H...