Lou Holtz (April 11, 1893 – September 22, 1980, Beverly Hills, California) was an American vaudevillian and comic actor. He was discovered by vaudevillian Elsie Janis in San Francisco while still in his teens, and came to New York. He appeared in his first Broadway show in 1913, World of Pleasure. He appeared on Broadway […]
Lorenzo Jones (Lorenzo de Angelis) was a daytime radio series which aired on NBC in different timeslots over an 18-year span. Produced by Frank and Anne Hummert, the series could be classified with its own unique category of “comedy soap opera”, highlighted by organist Rosa Rio’s rollicking rendition of the opening theme music, “Funiculi, Funicula”. During the early 1950s, the 15-minute […]
The Adventures of Father Brown is a 1945 radio crime drama that aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System, adapted from G. K. Chesterton’s stories of Father Brown. The 30-minute detective series starred Karl Swenson as Father Brown, introduced as “the best loved detective of them all.” (Original plans called for “either Walter Huston or Spencer Tracy in the title role.”) Bill […]
Little Orphan Annie is a daily American comic strip, created by Harold Gray (1894-1968), that first appeared on August 5, 1924. The title, suggested by an editor at the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, was inspired by James Whitcomb Riley’s popular 1885 poem “Little Orphant Annie” which begins: Little Orphant Annie’s come to our house to stay, […]
Dragnet, many networks and producers began to play follow the leader. On NBC, Dragnet was followed up with Tales of the Texas Rangers which dramatized real life tales from the Texas Rangers. CBS countered with The Line Up, later 21st Precinctfollowed by Nightwatch.
When Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons first debuted over the Blue Network on October 12, 1937, the show’s title accurately described Keen’s stock-in-trade; the “kindly old investigator” tracked down individuals who had mysteriously vanished, leaving behind their families, homes, jobs and other day-to-day activities. Keen (he never had a first name, unless it was “Peachy”) was assisted in these duties by an Irishman named Mike Clancy.
Enjoy this free episode of The Kingmen with Hoagy Carmichael. The entire MP3 disc is available for purchase here.
You’re walking alone on the street at night, but then you hear another set of footsteps and a haunting tune being whistled by an unseen stranger. Fritz Lang used an similar premise in his 1930s German movie with Peter Lorre playing M, a psychopathic murderer of children. But the American radio series was even creepier. The […]
Joyce Jordan, M.D. is a radio soap opera in the United States. It was broadcast on ABC, CBS and NBC at various times during the era of old-time radio. Donna Halper, in her book, Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcasting, cited Jordan as one of the women in soap operas who “had careers … which, of course, became a struggle as they […]
First broadcast in 1949, John Steele, Adventurer was a thriller/drama that wasn’t considered a major force in the world of radio although it is considered to have offered great entertainment.