Radio days
It’s summer, so perhaps you can permit me this posting which does not raise a single Big Question. The memories describe days shortly after the dinosaurs died off.
It was first aired a few years ago, but it was only yesterday that a good friend told me that NPR had celebrated the 75th anniversary of my favorite radio show, The Lone Ranger, so I went online and found that I could listen to the tribute here. For some of the broadcasts themselves, see here.
We had a big console radio in our living room, and even though it could be heard very clearly all over the room, we competed for places in chairs or on the floor as close to the radio as we could get. If you had to leave your place to go to the bathroom, you had to declare that you were coming back to your spot, or you lost it for the evening.
The Lone Ranger was my favorite show. His voice was deep and resolute, exuding righteousness. (When the Catholic Hour dramatized the retelling of the Gospels in Fulton Oursler’s The Greatest Story Ever Told, they surrounded the voice of Jesus with choirs of angels sweetly humming, but it couldn’t match in awe-producing power that of the Lone Ranger.) The show was sponsored by Cheerios, which to this day is my favorite breakfast cereal. For many years I won trivia-contests by being able to name not only the Lone Ranger’s nephew but also his horse. (Don’t cheat by googling it.) In the Spring, when Daylight Savings Time began and we had an extra hour to play outside after supper, it was a hard decision to make, whether to go in and hear the Lone Ranger at 7:30. The theme-music was Rossini’s William Tell Overture, and I still can’t hear it without being brought back to my childhood, huddled near that radio. When a TV show of the Lone Ranger began, it was a great disappointment to find him played by a mere mortal.
We were usually sent to bed at 8:00. Detective stories usually followed and could be heard up in our bedrooms. I used to try to fall asleep before one of them ended, because it always concluded with a police alert: “Be on the Lookout!” And there’d be a detailed description of, say, Scarface Malone who had just escaped from a prison for the criminally insane, and whose face I could imagine staring in at us from the roof.
“Be on the Lookout!”
Was that Gangbusters? Radio drama is great; the amazing part is when a show is over and you realize how immersive it really was. You sit back and review the plot and there are all of those pictures there- there’s nothing else quite like it, it’s more visceral then books, unable to convey the same depth- like a tabloid to literature’s broadsheet, but not really lacking for that. The emotional impact of shows like Dragnet, Suspense can be quite profound and art on its own terms.
Loads of OTR can be found online for free download. It’s a shame the format died out in the US. Just this year BBC Radio 4 axed radio drama. I wonder if it survives anywhere now. I’ve heard it was very popular in Germany and FRance.
Here’s another good show: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.
It traced the evolving masculine ideal from the late 40′s to the late 50′s:
First you had Charles Russell’s wild, fun-loving ex-GI
then the wounded, hard bitten cynicism of Edmond O’Brien
the slightly detached coolness of John Lund
and then finally Bob Bailey’s friendly, hyper-competent company man.
Radio drama was hypnotic and handled surrealism uniquely well.
I’m a bit of an enthusiast, obviously.
It might seem that audio books have taken up where radio drama left off, but I suspect that’s a different phenomenon. I realized just the other day when I was looking for a CD to replace an old LP of Robert Frost reading some of his poems that there was a lot more of that sort of thing fifty years ago than there is today. Audio LP’s, it seems, have often not been made into CD’s. And there aren’t many audio CD’s being made today, I think. (Garrison Keillor is a sterling exception.)
I wonder whether this is consumer driven or simply profit driven. Videos, by the complicated nature of their production, cannot have the direct simplicity of audio, yet videos predominate. Video is a very-large-group project, whereas audio was an individual or, at most, a small-group project.
“I wonder whether this is consumer driven or simply profit driven.”
Both, David, the two are inextricably intertwined. This was before tivo, remember, you either watched television or listened to the radio, you could not do both. The novelty of television was too big of a draw and the audience unavoidably drifted over to television, taking the advertising dollars with them. The money to be made in television was impossible to pass up, and the writers and the actors naturally went where the money was. By the early-50′s the decline in script quality is painfully obvious. There was only so much talent to go around, and both art-forms could not flourish simultaneously.
When I was growing up my older relatives all told me that radio had been better, demanding more and delivering more. But they all swtitched over to television. The lure of *seeing* was to great. I though they were engaging in nostalgic b.s., but when I discovered OTR online, it really is remarkable. Early television is very primitive by comparison and hard to watch, but trendiness won out. Everybody had to have the brand new whoo-whoo atomic age gizmo.
Joseph mentions the Rossini theme for The Lone Ranger. I remember the von Reznicek theme – the Donna Diana Overture – for Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. I don’t remember much about the program itself, but, ah, that music :O)
OMG, I LOVED Sgt Preston and his sled dog King! Thanks for the blast from the past.
I only remember the Lone Ranger from TV with its “we return you now to those thrilling days of yesteryear” and the William Tell Overture.
A friend bought me some cassette tapes of radio plays years back, including “The Lodger” with Peter Lorre. When The Boy was about four, it scared the heck out of him. I felt bad that he got scared, but certainly it speaks to the power of radio to make pictures in our heads.
I have my students do a short assessment to determine whether they learn better through visual, auditory, or kinesthetic modes. Not surprisingly, most are visual–about 60 percent of the population is–but I turned out to be pretty much auditory/kinesthetic. Hence the knitting while listening to books or NPR ias my favorite downtime activity.
I loved Sgt. Preston too. “Gold! Gold! Discovered in the Yukon!” … “On King! On you huskies!”
And then there was “Sky King” (can you name his nephew and niece?), “The Shadow,” “The Green Hornet” (with his faithful Japanese servant Kato, who after Pearl Harbor suddenly became Filipino), not to mention all the comedy shows.
And baseball: The home games were carried live, but for away games the announcer in a studio received word by ticker tape (which you could hear in the background) and he then described the action with appropriate sound-effects supplied by the studio engineers. Those were the glory days of New York baseball, and our preferences in sports-casters tended to follow our passionately felt fan-allegiances. Red Barber and Connie Desmond (and Vince Scully, fresh out of Fordham) were way better than Mel Allen, that awful homer!
At least to this child, the broadcasts were as dramatic in impact as anything seen since. I can still remember one program in which the murderer had a wooden leg, and as he approached a potential victim, you could hear his peg-leg sharply striking a wooden floor, alternating with his quiet good and shoed leg. Pock … Pock … Pock … I was terrified.
I loved the great old radio shows and still do.
The Lone Ranger, Sergeant Preston, Sky King, all the mysteries, Gildersleeve, Our Miss Brooks, A Date with Judy, Henry Aldrich, Lux Presents Hollywood, etc., etc., etc.
This is a good source for the old shows, including soap operas, Ma Perkins, etc.
http://www.archive.org/browse.php?field=subject&mediatype=audio&collection=oldtimeradio
Anybody remember Orson WElles’ The Mercury Theatre? Before he became an all-time Hollywood great he wrote for radio. His presentation of “The War of the Worlds”, about the arrival of aliens from outer-space arriving to take over Earth, was so realistic it caused some people to panic. Unfortunately, I wasn’t listening that evening. There was also a science fiction series whose name I forgot, but I’ll never forget one terrifying episode, called “Altitude Zero” — about two young people who descend into the Earth into anothere dimension, In the process of trying to find their way home they are haunted by a ghostly voice at a distance that keeps telling them, “Go back! Go back!!!” Positively existential or theological or something important.
Then there were the funny programs. This isn’t politically correct, but one of the most popular was Amos and Andy, about some stereotypical black folks, except that Andy wasn’t a stereotype he was a good and wise man, and, I think, did a lot to erase the image of black men as either silly or mean. It was really about human nature generally, and I think we all saw ourselves in the various character types. But there was also that racial put down, unfortunately. It had a lot of merit otherwise. (ALL situation comedies are about stereotypes — see, for example, The Mary Tyler Moore Program, or the Jack Benny Program on radio. And then there was Fred Allen . . .
Ann, I loved Jack Benny, but I have never been able to pin down exactly why he was hilarious.
Here’s a skit with Benny and Groucho. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wNK1Jt4JLg
When you listen to “Amos and Andy” today, you recognize the features of Jewish comedy, or vaudeville, only transposed to blacks. You can hear the joke coming from a mile away.
I loved Bob and Ray who did wonderful satires of other radio shows, whether mysteries or soaps, or even sports. I can’t remember the name of another radio satirist, but I recall his satire of the 1957 Debbie Reynolds hit “Tammy”. It was entitled “Clammy”.
Gerelyn, pay dirt! Thanks!
JAK –
Bob and Ray didn’t get as much attention as Benny and Allen, but I thought they were every bit as funny in a different way — they were somewhat younger, as I remember and TV was starting to take hold. Great satirists, especially of things mid-Western and “all-American”.
I’ve always thought that black (as in African-American) humour had a lot in common with Jewish humour. Both groups needed humour of a sort that would help them survive. In fact, the Amos and Andy show was first broadcase about a mile and a half from my house from a tiny radio station on Lapeyrouse Street. I don’t know where the first writers were from, but it first took root here in New Orleans — even before my time :-)
I don’t know why Jack Benny was so funny eiher, except that he had absolutely perfect timing. Remember those long pauses? Brilliant!!
Robber: “Your money or your life!” Pause
Again, annoyed: “Your money or your life!”
Benny: “I’m thinking; I’m thinking.”
A musical note. In addition to Rossini’s overture to William Tell, the Lone Ranger’s program also occasionally made use of Liszt’s Les Preludes. And I Love a Mystery (which no one has mentioned here — the characters wer Jack, Doc, and Reggie) used Sibelius’s Valse Triste.
And Gangbusters, if I remember rightly, depended on part of Prokoviev’s Love for Three Oranges (clear evidence of Radioland’s subservience to the Commnunist Party of the Soviet Union!!!)
Fred Allen, definitely. Also Jane Ace, the wife of Goodman Ace, on their short-lived show Easy Aces. But does anyone else remember the daytime serial Vic and Sade? I have some tapes, and they are as funny as ever.
Isabelle –
Yah! One of the great moments of American comedy:-)
Looking for the “Altitude Zero” story and the series it was part of, I checked out its author, Carlton E. Morse at Wikipedia. Couldn’t find it there, but Wiki says that Morse wrote both the I LOve a Mystery series and the big soap favorite One Man’s Family that also ran for years and years. Some talent! The Library of Congress has lots of his scripts.
Are you sure about the title, Ann?
There were a few sci-fi radio series: X minus 1, Dimension X, and 2000 Plus are the ones I am aware of. Quiet, Please, the Wyllis Cooper penned series, also dealt with sci-fi themes from time to time (“Nothing Behind the Door” is a favorite of mine, but “The Thing on the Fourble Board” is considered THE episode).
I have to agree about the brilliance of Carleton E. Morse, his serials are so deft in their creation of mood. I noticed that he uses adjectives sparingly but to great effect in set-up episodes, and then dials back further as each series plays out.
Speaking of radio writers, Blake Edwards did amazing work on Richard Diamond, PI (though I woul avoid the first 3-4 episodes as he was finding his balance), something he did not get enough credit for when he died. The Adventures of Sam Spade was also wonderfully well written, so exuberant in its use of language- those writers were having great fun (Jason James and Bob Tallman. I think Gil Doud was involved, too??). Sadly, both Dash Hammett and lead actor Howard Duff ran afoul of the Red hunters and the series fell apart when Duff was replaced by an earnest Super Patriot type. (The Spade series can be found here: http://otrrlibrary.org/index.html It has disappeared from the Internet Archive for some reason) Tallman and Doud went on to script the wonderful “Voyage of the Scarlet Queen serial- recommended listening, a noir/adventure series that appeals to the boy in all of us.
Rex Stout’s character Nero Wolf was made into a great radio series of the same name as was Leslie Charteris’s Simon Templar who appeared in the radio show “The Saint”. A short-lived (a year, perhaps is my recollection) but nevertheless excellent Western was “The Six Shooter” starring Jimmy Stewart. Those are some of my favorites. I used to listen to them on a local college station where I live and there was a syndicated show called “When Radio Was” which was also broadcast in my area. Sadly, the terrestrial broadcasts which I am able to receive today no longer carries the old American radio dramas and the like. I listen to them now on some internet radio stations. Satellite radio also has a 24-7 channel dedicated to that format.
There is also still some good programming out there on shortwave but not as much as before. Although I guess what is left tends to be more accessible now with the internet formats such as podcasts and streaming. Still, I used to enjoy spending the wee hours of the morning trying to tune into Play of the Week from the BBC on my shortwave or some of the novels and short stories on Voice of Russia’s Treasure-Trove, for example.
Bob and Ray did a great parody of One Man’s Family and called it One Fellow’s Family. But my favorite B & R parody was Mary Backstage, Noble Wife, which featured a character called Pop Beloved, Stage Doorman.
Bob did a hilarious bit part in the Bill Murray movie “Quick Change” as a bank security guard.
Norman ==
I’m pretty sure that the title “Altitude Zero” is the name of the episode that scared me so much. I just don’t remember the name of the series and can’t find references to either the episode or the series on the net. The Wikipedia article on Morse doesn’t mention either. But why would my memory make up such a connection?
About More’s use of adjectives (or non-use) — I notice that the titles of the I Love a Mystery episodes are very, very vivid == and include few adjectives. Here are a few that really grabbed me — and only two adjectives (including “twenty”) in the bunch:
You’ll Be Dead in a Week
A Coffin for the Lady
Dead Men Prowl
The Twenty Traitors of Timbuktu
The Thing Wouldn’t Die
Whose Body Got Buried?
Bury Your Dead, Arizona
Escapades of the Desert Hag
Blood on the Cat
The Man Who Hated to Shave
Worthy of Hemingway in their simplicity. I wonder if “Just the facts, Ma’m, just the facts” was influenced by such writing. Reminds me of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Terse.
I’ve looked for the episode, Ann. A lot of these shows have been lost. Until Crosby made transcription standard in the late 40′s the marquee programs were broadcast live. It’s really great that so much has survived :) Your memory would not be so specific in this case if it wasn’t accurate, I believe.
Radio was especially good at scaring us, And “I Love a Mystery could get far more grotesque than, say “Inner Sanctum” with its hokey squeaking door and “Heh-heh_ this is your host , Raymond.” I recall a program with Mercedes McCambridge (who seemed to appear frequently with various accents on “I Love a Mystery” ) playing a sinister maniac holding the lads captive on some island. It was terrifying.
Bob and Ray’s parodies were fantastic fun, but even funnier when you knew the sources they were kidding. “Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife” was a takeoff on “Mary Noble, Backstage, Wife” a sentimental soap opera about a long-suffering woman married to a matinee idol who always was getting into trouble. They had all the favorite soap opera motifs down pat. Long lost identical twins– one evil, of course, like Backstayge’s identical brother, Fielding– dramatic cliff-hangers, and the insanely slow pace of some of the action on the soaps. One of their parody soaps was a version of “One Man’s Family” that seemed to consist largely of dull, pointless conversations by a dreary bore who sat on a seawall and harangued his hapless family. And one seemed to consist solely of a day in the life of a lady named Edna who always intended to do something but never did. The closing line was always the same. “Tune in tomorrow, when Edna goes to the village.” But she never got there.
Bob and Ray: Everybody is raving about them and I’ve never heard them.
Fred Allen’s caustic edge: I’d compare him to David Lettermen. The edge was there, but it grew over time, until the point where he filled his appearances raving against television, quiz shows, commercialism, etc, and then he was done. At his best that edge was balanced by a deep love of ordinary people; listen to his early shows where he coaxes amateur’s through performing before national audiences, brings regular people up on the stage to discuss the events of the day, or wanders through Allen’s Alley, an affectionate take on the American scene based on Odd McIntyre’s columns: he loved regular people. Heck, the interplay between him and his wife Portland Hoffa was by all accounts genuine and is deeply endearing. He was sharp, yes, and quick on his feet, but it only worked because of the love, and stopped working when he tilted towards bitterness.
So many great shows: anybody heard The Whistler, Rocky Jordan, Escape, Lux Radio Theater, Philip Marlowe, Beyond Midnight, On Safari, The Hermit’s Cave, Columbia Workshop… there’s no end to it, really.
Norman –
I really didn’t hear much of Bob and Ray. Do I remember correctly — they came out of Chicago? Maybe your local stations didn’t carry them. Do look them up. GREAT comics, great as any.
My grandmother listened to something called “Bachelor’s Children” and “Young Dr. Malone.” Somebody got married in one of the soaps and you could send in a Duz boxtop and get a picture of the wedding, which she had hanging in her bedroom for years b/c she thought it was so pretty.
Here’s a link where Norman can listen to Bob and Ray:
http://www.bobandray.com/listen.html
I see “One Fella’s Family: Foggy Day at the Seawall” mentioned earlier is on the home page. Gosh, it really is foggy. Careful. I’ve often wondered …
Thanks Jean! There’s neat info on that site about son Chris and granddaughter Abby Elliot- three generations of high level funny.
Both Chris and Bob were on Chris’s show, “Get a Life,” which I thought was hilarious. Bob played Chris’s curmudgeon father who would say things like, “I always thought ‘Sea Hunt’ was a show for morons.’”
Bob and Ray were New England boys as was Fred Allen.
And the Aces were from Kansas City. Goodman Ace was a reporter for the great old Journal-Post.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodman_Ace
Here are some thoughts from my sister Bernie:
“I really enjoyed the blog and printed it out for a friend, but I didn’t see any mention of the Lone Ranger’s faithful Indian guide Tonto nor any comment as to exactly what Chemosabe meant and from what language it came, if any. The blog brought back to mind a fellow graduate student Charles (Carlos) Carlyle who studied for PhD comprehensives with Bill Forbes and me. We would get together three times a week and share info from courses that one of us had taken but others had not. We’d take a break at 9 for some relaxation and food before resuming. Carlos had an incredible memory for all the radio shows and was a gifted mimic. A British student once told me that Carlos was the only person other than the comedian Danny Kaye (whose wife was British) who could fool another Brit with his imitation of the accent. Anyway Carlos used to reenact the old shows. He knew the sponsors, all the advertising ditties and all the standard repeated lines from those shows which he would deliver in the voice of the actor.
“The other memory it called up was of Matt [her son] in 1982 in Spain listening to reruns of “I Love a Mystery” being broadcast from the US base at Torrejon, outside of Madrid. One night we heard the story of the murderer who bludgeons the victim to death with a frozen leg of lamb and then cooks it and serves it to the police who come to investigate the case. For some rerason I think Alfred Hitchcock was involved in that story. We also used to hear “The Twilight Zone” there. Was it Rod Steiger who was on that show?”
jak: I believe that Alfred Hitchcock did that story on his TV show. My father, who was a court stenographer, loved it. Is it my imagination, or was there another story about an icicle being used as a murder-weapon?