Showing results by author "Original Radio Broadcast" in All Categories

Crime is everywhere in postwar Los Angeles—and so is Sgt. Joe Friday. From robbery detail to the Bunco Squad, from narcotics to homicide, he's on the job in radio's definitive police procedural series.

Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar was a man of contradictions. He was tough and compassionate, sardonic and thoughtful. You never knew quite what he might do to solve a case - but you always knew he'd get it done! You also knew that he'd be supported by many of the greatest radio performers ever to haunt "Radio Row": Virginia Gregg, Howard McNear, Lurene Tuttle, Joseph Kearns, John Dehner, Stacy Harris…even Vincent Price! Bob Bailey stars as Johnny for five fascinating five-part serial adventures, and a collection of harrowing half-hour tales! Prepare the expense report!

Nero Wolfe is "a gourmet who never walks when he can sit and never sits when he can lie down." Join Rex Stout's reclusive, overweight, orchid-loving super-sleuth as masterfully portrayed by Sydney Greenstreet in this exciting radio series. Ever in search of a perfect meal and a cold bottle of beer, Wolfe often sends Archie Goodwin, his secretary and operative, in his stead. Learn the logic of this armchair detective extraordinaire as he presides over 18 digitally remastered cases of treasure maps and love triangles, carelessness and con artists, bad business and bad medicine.

Radio Spirits is pleased to present 20 classic tales from one of radio's greatest action and adventure series. This collection will bring you tales of black pearls, headhunters, volcanoes, Nazi convoys and cargos of gold in exotic settings and locales - from South of the Border to Dutch East India, Paris, North Africa, and points unknown! These tightly scripted and directed episodes feature many of radio's finest voices, including William Conrad, Paul Frees, Georgia Ellis, Harry Bartell, Raymond Burr, Joseph Kearns, Parley Baer, Jeanette Nolan, John Dehner, Virginia Greg and many more.

From fishing in the lake for Old Muley to fishing in the closet for just about everything else, wartime America’s favorite couple keeps the fun coming. Head on down to Wistful Vista and hear it for yourself in this collection of comedy classics from 1944 and 1945! Jim and Marian Jordan star as Fibber McGee and Molly - with Arthur Q. Bryan as Doc Gamble, Shirley Mitchell as Alice Darling, Bea Benaderet as Mrs. Carstairs, Marlin Hurt as the unforgettable Beulah, and Harlow Wilcox selling the Glo-Coat!

Lum and Abner aspire to open a moving picture theater in Pine Ridge. In order to make their dream a reality, they'll need to find an appropriate building in town, a piano (and someone to play it), plus a projector (and someone to operate it). Will the boys manage to pull this project together? Will they find the money for the startup costs? And will Squire Skimp find a way to horn in on their new business? Come on down to the Jot 'Em Down Store and find out!

Ronald and Benita Colman made 20 guest appearances on The Jack Benny Program, including some of the most hilarious entries in the series. The Colmans' refined personaes played an excellent "grand opera" to the "ragtime" of Jack's mercenary enterprises. In this set, you'll hear the dashing Ronald read the winning entry of the "I Can't Stand Jack Benny" contest. You will also hear Benita receive the third longest laugh ever on the Benny radio program. It's no wonder that The Colmans' visits to Benny's radio series have become listener classics.

Academy Award-winner Mercedes McCambridge stars as Martha Ellis Bryant, an experienced lawyer in private practice who has accepted the "challenge of defending the defenseless." Howard Culver plays her loving boyfriend, Jud Barnes, a reporter for the City Dispatch. In search of justice (and a good story), the two work both independently and together, checking records, talking to witnesses, and exchanging information with the police.

Delve into this series of stories that pit Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's immortal creations Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson against all manner of villainy! These adventures, in the classic style of the original Holmes mysteries, have been produced by Jim French. The clients who appear at 221b Baker Street may be desperate or dangerous, illustrious or irregular, but they all require the services of the world's only consulting detective. John Patrick Lowrie stars as the legendary investigator, with Larry Albert as his loyal associate in 16 stimulating radio mysteries!

Out of a rainy Seattle night comes crime, mystery, adventure...and Harry Nile! Here is Jim French's legendary private eye, investigating the dark corners of the 1940s Northwest. Larry Albert stars in this collection of 20 radio adventures - which include the first four episodes of the ongoing WWII story line "War Comes to Harry Nile"! It's new-time radio drama in the old-time tradition!

Based on the famous detective created by Rex Stout, The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe stars Sydney Greenstreet as “the balkiest, bulkiest, smartest, and most unpredictable detective in the world...that brilliant eccentric private detective, orchid fancier and gargantuan gourmet.” Nero Wolfe, armchair detective in the classic tradition, and Archie Goodwin, wisecracking hard-boiled investigator, shine in eight radio tales from this classic detective series first broadcast in 1950-1951.

From out of the rain-swept postwar night comes Harry Nile - a man who's seen it all, because he just can't look away. Here are 19 state-of-the-art radio noir dramas, produced by West Coast legend Jim French, and starring Larry Albert as the hard-boiled, straight-shooting Harry! This collection includes four more installments of the "War Comes To Harry Nile" storyline, a Christmas episode, two two-part adventures, and more. You'll hear Pat French, Jay Green, John Patrick Lowrie...and a whole bunch of killer cases.

No crime in the 1950s? Don't tell Joe Friday that! Here's radio's top cop taking on all the vice the postwar decade had to offer in 20 true-life police procedurals starring Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday and Ben Alexander as Det. Frank Smith! Whether radio's most earnest cops were on robbery detail or working missing persons, narcotics, or homicide, each story was told in a straightforward manner that never questioned the intelligence of its audience.

Johnny Dollar was a freelance insurance investigator with an “action-packed expense account.” On radio each week from 1949 until 1962, he traveled the world for clients who would cover his expenses. From 1955 through 1956, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar ran as a popular five-a-week 15-minute serial starring Bob Bailey. Enjoy these six five-part programs.

Simon Templar, played here by Vincent Price (with Barry Sullivan substituting in two episodes), was wealthy and refined. He was well dressed, well traveled, and well educated. He was also The Saint, the "Robin Hood of modern crime," who was not afraid to break the law if that's what had to be done to ensure that justice was served. Larry Dobkin co-stars as Louie the Cabbie in these digitally restored and remastered tales that find Templar sailing, skiing, and delving in to the disparate worlds of mining, baseball, prizefighting, mystery writing, and more. The Saint sets all manner of matters straight, all the while maintaining excellent form.

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar takes a turn towards the hardboiled as film-noir favorite Edmond O'Brien takes over the role of America's Fabulous Freelance Insurance Investigator. His gritty, driven performance is well worth rediscovering. O'Brien's harder, more cynical Dollar brought him harder and more cynical clients…and adversaries. In this collection of original radio episodes from 1950-52, Johnny finds more than his quota of murder, mystery, and malfeasance.

Radio's favorite couple is back with more neighborhood mix-ups, ill-starred schemes, and (as always) a whole closet full of laughs. Come spend twenty relaxing half-hours with warm, familiar old friends: Fibber McGee and Molly. Jim and Marian Jordan star, along with Gale Gordon, Arthur Q. Bryan, Cliff Arquette, Dick Le Grand, and Elvia Allman—plus salesman extraordinaire Harlow Wilcox. Listen in as Fibber suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous bureaucracy, do-it-yourself home repairs, locked doors, rummage sales, and rumors.

If there's one lesson to be learned from science-fiction, it's that nothing lasts forever. From human lives to vast civilizations, the overarching theme of the genre is that the old will give way to the new. Look to futures past with X Minus One! One of the most imaginative series of the 1950s brings you to adventures in worlds beyond fear, beyond imagination, beyond the farthest stars. Works by the leading genre authors of the day (including Philip K. Dick, Robert Sheckley, and Clifford Simak) were turned into tight, well-acted half-hour dramatizations.

Here are Western stories with an adult sensibility - complex tales of difficult choices and moral dilemmas played out against the backdrop of frontier America. William Conrad is Marshal Matt Dillon in 20 thoughtful, exciting episodes of Gunsmoke!

It's a rainy night in postwar Seattle. There's a crime to be solved, and an investigator is needed. But it's a dangerous profession! Sometimes the source of a scream is elusive, sometimes a surveillance job goes south, and sometimes someone's got their gun sight set on you! From out of the Pacific Northwest come 24 more adventures produced by Jim French. Phil Harper stars as Harry Nile, with Pat French as his all-knowing assistant Murphy. It's new-time radio drama produced in the classic style.