Showing results by author "Original Radio Broadcasts"

Harry Nile is a former Chicago cop, who quit the force after uncovering a vein of corruption. He stalks the rainy streets of pre-war Seattle on behalf of private clients with the help of his assistant, a lady named Murphy. Phil Harper stars as Nile, with Pat French as Murphy, in this exciting series that has been heard on radio stations coast to coast in the US and Canada, on satellite radio, and reached a worldwide audience online. After more than 25 years, it's the longest running private-eye show in American radio history.

Next stop: Summerfield! Join Fibber McGee's battling next-door neighbor as he sets out on a brand new life in this collection of early episodes of The Great Gildersleeve! Gildy's new family fast becomes the most important part of his life - and this bombastic bachelor quickly develops a strong sense of heart.

Lamont Cranston (aka The Shadow) and Margot Lane are intrepid world travelers, adventuring in major countries, remote islands, hidden valleys, and bizarre towns. Their perilous ports of call included places like “Devil’s Island” and “The Valley of Living Terror”. Join them on their journeys, in which you will hear four of the outstanding actors who played The Shadow: Orson Welles, Bill Johnstone, John Archer, and Bret Morrison. We also pay tribute to eight actresses who braved the jungles, swamps, and curses as risk-taking heroine and damsel-in-distress, Margot Lane....

Racketeers and robbers, crap-shooters and kidnappers, hit men and hard cases - watch out! Joe Friday's on the job, and he isn't here to fool around! Join Jack Webb for 20 gritty true-life tales of urban crime from the files of the Los Angeles Police Department. Ben Alexander, Martin Milner, Jack Kruschen, Virginia Gregg, June Whitley, Stacy Harris, and more co-star as the city's cops, concerned citizens, and cold criminals. 

Molle Mystery Theatre, the program that brings you “the best in mystery and detective fiction”, is presented here in eight digitally restored and remastered episodes, including rare recordings. The brilliant Bernard Lenrow plays the role of your host “Geoffrey Barnes” - a connoisseur, criminologist, and expert on crime, suspense, and detective fiction - guiding listeners through superior adaptations of mystery classics and original stories by the best radio writers. These exciting episodes will keep you riveted and tense.

Johnny has a way with the ladies, but will his last date be with death? For free trips and a fat fee, Johnny Dollar descends into cases of missing money and missing men. But, what can he do when the bodies are walled up, washed up, and fallen down? When the jewels and the paintings are fake? And, when everything from trucks to trout to widows are on the loose? He'd better bring his gun.

Phil Harris and Alice Faye are back in 20 new digitally remastered episodes - including 18 episodes available for the first time anywhere. As we join Curly and the Mrs., spring is in the air, but the show is on thin ice with its sponsor RCA Victor and its president Clyde Scott (Gale Gordon). Amid contract worries, battles with writers, family outings, sorority girls, and selling television sets, the show takes a dramatic turn - and chaos and hilarity follow!

Widely acclaimed as the greatest writer-director-producer of the Golden Age of Radio, Norman Corwin perfected his own unique recipe for success: Begin with the human mind and knead gently; add a dash of poetry, wit and wonder; add a cup of raw passion and stir vigorously; garnish with sound effects, and marinate in a musical score. Season liberally with intelligence and digest slowly. Corwin’s works - musicals, fantasies, satires, and dramas - were presented on CBS in prestige series under his own direction.

Come back to the tradition and warmth of Christmas in the Golden Age of Radio, with the great performers and shows of yesteryear. Go shopping with Jack Benny. Go to the snow covered woods with Johnny Dollar. Go to Bethlehem with Family Theater. The voices of Vincent Price, George and Gracie, Bergen and McCarthy, Abbott and Costello, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, and more are lifted in story and song. They celebrate the yuletide with equal parts hope and hokum, silliness and sacrifice, merriment and mystery....

Wealthy dilettante Lamont Cranston led a double life as a mysterious crime fighter. He dispatched his share of racketeers and kidnappers but was at his fiercest when facing globe-threatening villains and insane masters of the occult. Orson Welles, Bill Johnstone, and Bret Morrison star as The Shadow. This collection includes many rare episodes not heard since their original broadcast (one with Welles in the lead and others featuring Johnstone). In addition, several are presented here with sound upgrades. Listen to Lamont fight crime with unmistakable panache!

Encounter the death who walks, rats, descents into madness, ghosts, mad scientists, crimes against nature, and much more in this classic collection presenting 22 tales of the supernatural from authors such as Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, and Ambrose Bierce. Features performances from Peter Lorre, Hal Holbrooke, Boris Karloff, and the work of many leading radio directors, writers, and actors of the day. Also included are episodes from Strange, a rarely heard series narrated by Walter Gibson, creator and author of The Shadow.

Headless monks, disappearing scientists, demon barbers, and clever killers abound when Sherlock Holmes is on the case! Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are the World's Greatest Detective and his doughty sidekick in this collection of 16 classic episodes! Journey back to those foggy days in London Town when, at the slightest provocation, "the game's afoot"! Let yourself be led by the legendary pipe-smoking, cap-wearing genius who solves the mystery, saves the day, and even seems to come back from the dead!

Mask in place, cloak flowing, gas gun at the ready - radio's pulpiest crime-fighter prowls the streets of a corrupt American city as The Green Hornet! Hop aboard the sleek, supercharged vehicle known as The Black Beauty with wealthy young publisher Britt Reid and his faithful valet Kato for 20 thrilling tales of urban crime! Jack McCarthy stars as Britt Reid, the mysterious vigilante, skulking in the night - raining sudden vengeance down on unwitting evildoers before vanishing back into the mists of his secret identity.

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.

With a crash and and a thump and a tumble and a bang, open up the closet door for another hilarious visit with Fibber McGee and Molly! Head down to Wistful Vista with Jim and Marian Jordan for 20 zany radio comedy classics! Bill Thompson is heard as The Old Timer and Wallace Wimple, with Gale Gordon as Mayor LaTrivia and Foggy Williams, Arthur Q. Bryan as Doc Gamble, and Harlow Wilcox announcing in these entertaining episodes from 1948.

Here comes the cowboy hero who took 1950 by storm - thundering across the West of your own wild imagination! Dressed in his famous black suit and riding his trusty horse Topper, it’s Hopalong Cassidy in 16 original radio adventures! William Boyd stars as Hoppy, with Joseph Duval as California Carlson. Though most of their adventures are in the general vicinity of the Bar 20 ranch, our heroes do venture out on occasion for exploits in the wider world. Listen in as they encounter scoundrels and schemes from the frontier to the formidable streets of New York!

Radio’s greatest sleuths, bar none - here are Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson! Deep voiced Basil Rathbone (with his deerstalker cap and chiseled silhouette) gives his definitive portrayal of Holmes, while Nigel Bruce (Hollywood’s favorite jolly old Englishman) lends support as the delightfully amazed Watson. Venture into the fog and mist of Victorian London for 16 mind-challenging thrillers. Solve cases of intrigue and blackmail, of missing gems and missing persons, of maharajas and murder - all inspired by incidents in the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

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.

Actor and singer Dick Powell, after many musicals for the Warner Brothers and Fox studios, embarked on a new career as a hard-boiled tough guy. Powell got the opportunity to further flex his new tough-guy muscles in the medium of radio, starring in the role of investigator Richard Rogue in the crime drama Rogue’s Gallery. In this collection, Powell portrays Rogue with a charming lack of care and refusal to take things too seriously, all while delivering solid entertainment for detective and crime drama fans.

Radio Spirits brings you classic tales of mystery, crime, and suspense featuring everyday individuals caught in a web of their own making and tripped up by a twist of fate in the end. And heard throughout each radio play, as the events become a tangled web of crime, is that shadowy voice-of-fate, your host, The Whistler! Dripping with sarcasm, The Whistler follows the murderers’ slow descent into destruction while cautioning listeners about the futility of the criminal act they just heard.