It’s Episode 200 of “Presenting the Transcription Feature” and Christmas in the land of Old Time Radio. On “The Jack Benny Program,” Jack and company are visiting New York in December. This allows him to try shopping in a Manhattan department store, which provides a little variety. Then, on “The Great Gildersleeve,” will the members of the Jolly Boys Club turn a charitable project into an exercise in egos, or will the true spirit of Christmas win out? Episodes The Jack Benny Program December 11,...
Dec 24, 2024•1 hr 1 min
It’s been a long time since we checked in with that loveable con man Harry Lime, in the person of Orson Welles. Not quite the psychopathic murderer he was in the movie “The Third Man,” where he originated the role, radio’s Harry was more of a ne'er-do-well criminal. In this episode, of “The Lives of Harry Lime,” Harry is on the Orient Express, hoping to work a counterfeit scam when someone tries to scam him. Then, on “The Bob Hope Show,” Bob is broadcasting from the campus of USC just before a g...
Jun 23, 2024•1 hr 1 min
We start off tonight with another episode of that great quiz show, “Information Please.” Are you up on babies and their guardians, military insignia, and devils in literature? Then, since it’s almost time for Easter, here’s the Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble of OTR: Phil Harris and Elliot Lewis. “The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show” starred actual married couple, Phil Harris, who was the band leader on “The Jack Benny Program,” and popular film star Alice Faye. Tonight, Phil and his band’s guitar...
Mar 30, 2024•1 hr 3 min
We start off tonight with an episode of “The Bob Hope Show.” It’s December of 1945, and the war is over. Hope had spent much of it broadcasting from military bases, but now he is back at the NBC studios in Hollywood. His guest, Jimmy Durante, promises to take Bob to a swanky party, but is Bob ready for Society, and vice-versa? Then, time for that excellent quiz show, “Information Please.” It’s an Armed Forces recording, which means the original was transcribed and then all the ads were taken out...
Feb 12, 2024•1 hr 6 min
For our New Year’s treat, here’s “The Lux Radio Theater” adaptation of the classic 1947 film “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.” The film is an unconventional romance of sorts starring Rex Harrison and Gene Tierney as the title characters. She’s a vibrant young widow, and he’s the ghost of a rollicking sea captain. The captain isn’t French, so I’m not sure why they cast Charles Boyer in the role, except that he does have sonorous voice. Madeleine Carroll takes on Tierney’s role. Episode The Lux Radio The...
Jan 01, 2024•1 hr 3 min
More Christmas here on “Presenting the Transcription Feature.” “Author’s Playhouse” was an anthology radio drama that ran from 1941 to 1945 on various networks. It featured adaptations of popular short stories by authors like James Thurber, W.W. Jacobs, and, in this case, O. Henry. The story you are about to hear first appeared in his 1907 collection “Heart of the West,” a collection of western tales. Here, the setting is a mining town during the gold rush, and I love the incredibly ornate way t...
Dec 23, 2023•1 hr 14 min
Welcome to December on “Presenting the Transcription Feature.” That means Christmas-themed episodes all month. We’ll start off with George Burns and Gracie Allen in the eponymous “The Burns and Allen Show.” Christmas is fast approaching, and George has no idea what to get his wife. Then “The Great Gildersleeve” himself is in a very good mood as he goes holiday shopping and plans a party for friends and family. Episodes The Burns and Allen Show December 18, 1947 “Gracie’s Last Minute Christmas Gi...
Dec 09, 2023•1 hr 4 min
“The Couple Next Door” was one of the many 15-minutes-a day, five-days a week programs that used to fill the airwaves. It was, like “Vic and Sade” a show about “nothing.” It lacks the absurdism of “Vic and Sade,” and that may have made it easier for its audience to relate to. The show was the creation of one woman, Peg Lynch, who wrote and co-starred in every episode. Tonight, we present two representative episodes depicting late 1950s suburban American life. Then, who better to spend Thanksgivi...
Nov 23, 2023•1 hr 4 min
It’s Halloween, and what says spooky goings-on more than … Jack Benny. Tonight, we have two episodes of very different shows, but both starring Jack Benny. We start off with “The Jack Benny Program.” Everyone is invited to Jack’s house for a Halloween party. There’s crazy costumes, disappointing food and drink, and lots of jokes about the bygone days of vaudeville. Then Jack takes a dramatic turn playing a mild-mannered piano tuner who stumbles into the worlds of theft and murder on “Suspense.” ...
Oct 30, 2023•1 hr 3 min
It’s back-to-school time on this episode of “Presenting the Transcription Feature.” And we all need to laugh, so here’s two comedy episodes. First, we’ll visit Ivy College, where the mellifluous British actor Ronald Colman and his real-life wife, the equally mellifluous Benita Hume, star as “The Halls of Ivy.” He is the president of one of those small Midwestern colleges that predominated in movies and radio shows of the era. She, his wife, who has given up her career on the stage to be his help...
Aug 20, 2023•59 min
"HORNET, SAVE THYSELF"AIRED: MARCH 3, 1967 Britt is accused of murder after he kills a former employee in a room full of witnesses. Now, he must break ranks with Scanlon and go rogue as the Hornet in order to prove his innocence. John and Jim use this episode as an example of a point they've been making since the very beginning of the podcast, the missed potential in only making these episodes thirty minutes in length. Despite this, one of the two ranks this episode as one of the best in the ser...
Aug 09, 2023•26 min
"Bubi, Bubi, Who's Got the Ruby?" & "1001 Faces of the Riddler"Aired October 12, 1968 Catwoman and Penguin are at odds over a priceless ruby and the Terrific Trio are caught in the middle in our two-part story review. Next, Riddler is back in town and he's using disguises to throw the Dynamic Duo off his trail even more so than his riddles. In addition, John and Dan Greenfield, creator and author of the 13th Dimension discuss whether Ted Knight did the voice of Commissioner Gordon and how ...
Aug 04, 2023•56 min
Episode 44 Jack C. Harris With the conclusion of our reviews of DC Comics' 1977 run of The Mighty Isis comic series, we're proud to present our interview with The Mighty Isis writer Jack C. Harris. Harris talks with us about how he got the assignment to write the book, the abrupt cancellation, and his plans with the series had it moved forward. Plus, we talk Kamandi and Captain Marvel in this all new episode.
Aug 02, 2023•37 min
We’ll start off tonight with The One, The Only, Groucho! on “You Bet Your Life.” Tonight, Groucho Marx interviews the usual assortment of unusual high school students, assistant district attorneys, housewives, and are dog trainers that different from piano teachers? Then on Old Time Radio’s premier science fiction anthology program, “X Minus One,” comes an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s "C-Chute.” It was first published in the October 1951 issue of “Galaxy” magazine. It’s a study in racism, patrio...
Jul 28, 2023•1 hr 2 min
For the Fourth of July, we’re going to present two Independence Day-themed episodes of classic old time radio. First drama then comedy. “Family Theater” was a family-friendly anthology show featuring a mix of original stories and adaptations of literary classics, usually starring big names from Hollywood. This week’s program is a dramatization of a particular moment in history -- the writing of The Declaration of Independence. It’s narrated by Loretta Young and stars Robert Stack as Thomas Jeffe...
Jul 03, 2023•56 min
It’s summer time, and I want to present a couple of summer-themed and summer-adjacent radio shows. We’ll start off with real American politician, writer, and newspaper publisher Will Rogers, Jr playing a fictional Will Rogers, Jr who runs the fictional small-town newspaper, the “Illyria Weekly Gazette.” What else says summer more than a county fair, with lots of people partaking in various competitions? Well, this year, the ladies of Illyria have decided not to participate. Whither the jams, jel...
Jun 17, 2023•1 hr 1 min
The character of A.J. Raffles was created by E.W. Hornung in 1898. Hornung was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s brother-in-law, and he was inspired to write about a sort of anti-Sherlock Holmes. His Raffles is thief, to be sure, but one who was charming. Raffles an “an amateur cracksman,” who lives the life of a gentleman. But if you don’t actually have an independent income, you have to be able to finance your lifestyle somehow. “Screen Directors’ Playhouse” adapted popular films to radio, often with t...
May 30, 2023•1 hr 4 min
We begin with the “College Quiz Bowl,” as students from Tulane go up against their counterparts from Northwestern. As always, some of the topics are very specific to the day, but we 21st Century residents should still be able to answer quite a lot. Are you up on the names of pop culture family members, Winston Churchill’s writings, and tea in the news? Then, we return to the contemporary (1950s, as opposed to the “old”) west with the adventures of “Bobby Benson and the B Bar B Riders.” This West...
May 14, 2023•1 hr 2 min
“Forecast” was a radio show specifically designed to try out new shows. Both “Suspense” and “Duffy’s Tavern” got their starts there. Tonight, we present the pilot for a show I would have absolutely loved had it gone to series, but alas it did not. “Leave It To Jeeves,” was inspired by the P.G. Wodehouse tales of young man-about-town Bertie Wooster and his personal gentleman’s gentleman, Jeeves. Starring Edward Everett Horton and Alan Mobray, respectively, this tale doesn’t actually adapt any of ...
Apr 26, 2023•1 hr 5 min
Tonight, we return to Orson Welles’ “The Mercury Theatre on the Air.” In this adaptation of Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days,” Welles plays British gentleman adventurer Phileas Fogg, who has wagered his personal fortune that he can circumnavigate the globe in just that time. Filled with fantastic music by Bernard Herrmann, top-notch sound effects, and a great supporting cast, Welles does the tale proud. Episode The Mercury Theatre on the Air October 23, 1938 "Around the World in 80 Day...
Apr 08, 2023•1 hr 4 min
Nero Wolfe, the brilliant, but lazy, detective created by Rex Stout, famously almost never left his house. One of the few things that could stir him was his love of orchids. In tonight’s episode of “The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe,” starring Sydney Greenstreet, it is indeed some of those lovely plants that draw him into a murder at a flower shop. Then on “The Jack Benny Program,” Jack and the gang are planning to take the train to New York … if their adventures at the station don’t derail them ...
Mar 26, 2023•1 hr 2 min
We start off tonight with an episode of “Suspense” that isn’t all that suspenseful, i.e. spooky. But it’s a lot of fun. “The Lost Special” is based on a non-Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which first appeared in “ The Strand Magazine ” in August, 1898. Orson Welles narrates. This is an Armed Forces Radio rebroadcast, which means the ads have been taken out. It was played overseas for US troops. Then, our guests on tonight’s episode of the quiz show “Information Please” are scie...
Mar 11, 2023•1 hr 4 min
We start off tonight with a murder as investigated by those charming amateur sleuths, “Mr. and Mrs. North.” Then we get seasonal with “Fibber McGee and Molly,” as Fibber attempts to celebrate Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday, aka Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras) by serving his wife a pancake breakfast in bed. Episodes Mr. and Mrs. NorthSeptember 1, 1953“No Vacation From Murder”1:35 Fibber McGee and Molly Pancake DayFebruary 26, 195227:54
Feb 20, 2023•55 min
This late January marks both the birth and death of actor J. Carrol Naish, who was born on January 21, 1896 and died just shortly after his 77th birthday on January 24, 1973. Naish received two Oscar nominations for his supporting roles in the films “Sahara” (1943) and “A Medal for Benny” (1945), the latter of which also earned him a Golden Globe. But he also had an extensive radio career. Most prominently, he was the star of “Life With Luigi,” which cast him as a naïve Italian immigrant, Luigi ...
Jan 20, 2023•1 hr 3 min
I like to start off the new year with these adaptations by “The Lux Radio Theater.” Tonight, Leslie Howard reprises his 1934 starring role as the original secret identity hero, “The Scarlet Pimpernel.” Here, Olivia de Havilland plays his wife. A year later, the two would appear as husband and wife again, in “Gone with the Wind,” as Ashley Wilkes and Melanie Hamilton. Radio lends itself well to “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” which began life as a 1903 play, and so, from the start, has always relied hea...
Jan 01, 2023•1 hr 3 min
Here’s two more Christmas episodes to round out this December. We’ll start off with a drama, then some comedy. “This Is Your FBI” ran on ABC radio from April of 1945 to January of 1953. It dramatized real cases from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. No less than the head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, praised the show, calling it “the finest dramatic program on the air.” Then for comedy, who else but the crew from “The Jack Benny Program.” This episode is from December 1937. The sh...
Dec 23, 2022•1 hr 4 min
All December it’s Christmas episodes on “PTTF.” We’ll start off tonight with a mystery and then a comedy. These Christmas episodes are from the same year, and, as it happens, only one day apart. First up, we hear from that sultry-voiced PI, “Candy Matson.” Then we’ll see what Eve Arden as “Our Miss Brooks” has planned for Christmas. Episodes Candy Matson December 19, 1949 “Jack Frost” 2:40 Our Miss Brooks December 18, 1949 “A Letter to Santa” 32:27
Dec 09, 2022•1 hr 2 min
As we approach Thanksgiving, we’re going to start off with a Turkey Day-themed crime drama and then then a comedy. “Jeff Regan, Investigator” starred Jack Webb as a private investigator working for the International Detective Bureau. The show just barely pre-dates “Dragnet,” and Webb’s Regan is even drier in delivery than Joe Friday, and more sarcastically verbose. In tonight’s episode, he’s dispatched to retrieve a turkey from a mysterious estate, and finds murder and mayhem. Then “My Friend Ir...
Nov 23, 2022•1 hr 4 min
It’s a Karloff-fest tonight as we prepare to celebrate Halloween. We start off with an episode of “Information Please” that originally aired on Christmas Eve, but features Boris Karloff as one of the guests. Are you up on literary skulls, crossers of the English Channel, and poems that feature murder? Then Boris drops by “Duffy’s Tavern” in an effort to scare off a potential buyer. Episodes Information Please December 24, 1945 “Guests: John Mason Brown and Boris Karloff” 2:00 Duffy’s Tavern Octo...
Oct 30, 2022•1 hr 2 min
We start off tonight with an episode of “Broadway Is My Beat.” If you think the sophisticated avenues of Time Square to Columbus Circle are free from murder and crime, you’re dead wrong. It’s “the gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world." “Broadway Is My Beat” ran from February of 1949 to August of 1954 on CBS. For most of that run, it starred Larry Thor as New York City detective Danny Clover, whose assigned “beat” was the theater district. Not that that made his job any ea...
Oct 15, 2022•1 hr 4 min
