D Day Full Day Broadcast from CBS Radio
One listener put it this way, “Listening to this stuff, was like stepping back in time. The suspense leading up to the actual report of the D-Day invasion was totally gripping. I couldn’t stop listening to it.” These recordings are the closest thing to time travel back to one of the most important and…
The Whistler
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….
Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theatre was indisputably the biggest, most important, most expensive drama anthology program on radio. It ran from October 14, 1934 until June 7, 1955, then continued on television as Lux Video Theatre until 1957. In all, some 926 episodes were broadcast, providing a record of the most important entertainment events in American theatre…
Melody Ranch with Gene Autry
“Hard-riding, sweet-singing, cowboy picture star Gene Autry” was heard each Sunday evening on radios across America via CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System. Gene’s Melody Ranch radio show aired for an unprecedented 16 years (between 1940 and 1956), featuring songs, comedy and action filled drama. Throughout the run, the show’s sponsor was cool, refreshing Doublemint…
The Red Skelton Show
Red Skelton kept audiences laughing for many years with his many characters and rolls on The Red Skelton Radio Show. Red’s radio career actually began in the 1930s, but he is most remembered for his shows after he finished his service in the army. Here several The Red Skelton Show episodes that you can…
The Strange Dr. Wierd
The Strange Dr. Weird was a radio program broadcast on Mutual from 1944 to 1945. Sponsored by Adam Hats, the drama is notable in part because it was a sister series to The Mysterious Traveler, both in theme and its narrator, Maurice Tarplin, who was also the creepy voice of the Mysterious Traveler. Many of…
The Great Gildersleeve
The Great Gildersleeve is a radio situation comedy broadcast from August 31, 1941, to March 21, 1957. Initially written by Leonard Lewis Levinson, it was one of broadcast history’s earliest spin-off programs. Here are several episodes of The Great Gildersleve that you can enjoy listening to right know. Each episode also provides a download…
Dragnet Radio Show
ragnet, the brainchild of Jack Webb, may very well be the most well-remembered, and the best, radio police drama series. From September, 1949 through February 1957, Dragnet’s 30 minute shows, broadcast on NBC, brought to radio true police stories in a low-key, documentary style. Here are several episodes of Dragnet that you can enjoy…
Richard Diamond Private Detective
Richard Diamond, Private Detective came to NBC in 1949. Diamond was a slick, sophisticated detective, with a sharp tongue for folks who needed it. Diamond enjoyed the detective life, but not as much as entertaining his girl, Helen Asher. After each show, he would croon a number to his Park Avenue sweetheart. Mr. Powell,…
The Life of Riley
The Life of Riley”: starring William Bendix as lovable, blundering, Chester A. Riley, was a radio situation comedy broadcast during and after wartime 40s. Because of its overwhelming radio popularity, Riley graduated as easily to a 1949 feature film, as it did to 1950s television. Also, in 1958, it hit the newsstands, when Dell Comics…