Radio Dramas From the 1940s

JustDave

JustDave

Well-known Member
I remember discovering these when I was less than 10. Back then it seemed as wonderful as TV, which was not yet present as far as I remember, so it all happened on Radio. Either Saturday or Sunday there was a all afternoon line up of wonderful shows, and I made it a point to be there. The Shadow was crime fighter who could make himself invisible. And there was an array of other characters. Gun Smoke got it's start late in the game and quickly transitioned to television.

I can't remember them all, but I looked up a very incomplete list:

Comedy​

A Date with Judy Abbott and Costello Amos 'n' Andy Blondie Bob Hope Ed Wynn The Fire Chief Father Knows Best Fibber McGee and Molly It Pays To Be Ignorant Jack Benny Judy Canova Show Magnificent Montague Our Miss Brooks Red Skelton The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet The Aldrich Family The Baby Snooks Show The Great Gildersleeve

In the 1970s there was an attempted revival when the 50,000 Watt radio station KLS in Salt Lake City made nightly presentations of Mystery Theater that broadcast all over the Midwest and out to the Pacific Coast. I was driving across country with my wife, and we would make it a nightly event as we were driving. I remember radio as being a lot of fun, as much fun as TV. Until there was TV, anyway.
 

I never got to listen to those on the radio, Grandma always had it on her L.A. Dodger games :ROFLMAO:
I do vaguely remember the Fibber McGee one, must have been an uncle who listened during off
season of baseball.
 
hawkdon said:
"ONLY THE SHADOW KNOWS" HAHAHHA
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"What evil lurks in the minds of men! Only the shadow knows."

Yeah, that introduction to the program used to give me goosebumps. Maybe he was a mind reader rather than invisible. I can't remember. Boy, that was a long time ago. He was the only radio character I could remember, other than Jack Benny, but that incomplete list did have some I remember now.
 
I remember them. And living in a 55+ community, many of my neighbors do, also. I like producing/directing plays for our local theatre group. About 10 years ago, I got the idea of getting hold of some of the scripts of those old radio shows and putting them on, supposedly as "radio shows" of our own (but performed on a stage, of course not really on the radio.)

I found that although there are many scripts out there on the internet, free of charge, many of them are really corny, dated, sometimes pretty offensive. The world has changed a lot since those days. Of all of them. I've found Jack Benny to be the best of the lot. They are still funny and not at all offensive. We did two Jack Benny shows, and one of the mystery ones, I forget which one.

But some of the TV sitcoms can be turned into "radio shows" with scripts that can be read. I had a lot of success with All in the Family, and Frasier. They worked because there was very little physical action, it was almost all talking.
 
JustDave said:
"What evil lurks in the minds of men! Only the shadow knows."

Yeah, that introduction to the program used to give me goosebumps. Maybe he was a mind reader rather than invisible. I can't remember. Boy, that was a long time ago. He was the only radio character I could remember, other than Jack Benny, but that incomplete list did have some I remember now.
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Yes I have never forgotten that intro!!!!
 
Radio was the major source of home entertainment when "I were a lad". Spent many winter nights watching the old floor model Zenirh. We actually did sit and stare at the lighted dial while images swirled around in our imagination.
 
I just remember another opening introduction for another drama that went something along the lines of, "He walks into the office. He steps on the scale.... Four hundred and twenty pounds!..... The FAT MAN!" I think he was a crime fighter too. But probably without chase scenes.
 
Llynn said:
Radio was the major source of home entertainment when "I were a lad". Spent many winter nights watching the old floor model Zenirh. We actually did sit and stare at the lighted dial while images swirled around in our imagination.
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Yes. My grandfather had one of those floor models too. Maybe it was a Zenith. It was as big as one of those later upscale floor model televisions, but it stood more vertical than horizontal. Why would anyone need a radio that big? More furniture?

Zenith, oddly enough, later pioneered the smallest of all portable radios about the same size as today's smart phones, but a little thicker to accommodate the speaker.
 
debodun said:
Many well-known celebrities of the 1940s and 50s had their start in show business on radio, hen transitioned to TV when that began to cut into radio - Jack Benny, Arthur Godfrey, Burns & Allen, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Ed Sullivan.
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William Conrad was Marshall Dillon on radio Gunsmoke but didn’t make the cut to become television Marshall Dillon.
1760813808352.jpeg

He went on to have a successful television career as Frank Cannon in the hit series Cannon.
1760814024604.jpeg
 
Aunt Bea said:
William Conrad was Marshall Dillon on radio Gunsmoke but didn’t make the cut to become television Marshall Dillon.
View attachment 458877

He went on to have a successful television career as Frank Cannon in the hit series Cannon.
View attachment 458878
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I was introduced to radio Gunsmoke by my father who noticed I had taken an interest in radio drama. It was fairly new and my father gave me an article singing the praises of the radio version. It wasn't so much about the script or plot, but that the program excelled at background sounds like campfires, squeaky wagon wheels, owls, and so forth. So I started to listen, not so much for the adventures, but always listening for the sound effects. It was a audio version of an Easter Egg hunt.
 
I can remember the huuuge radio in my grandparent's house sitting in the corner, always polished to a high shine with a doily on top and a vase of flowers. It was a regular shrine...LOL.

At home, we just had a table-top radio.

When we lived in Turkiye, there was no television, so we relied on Armed Forces Radio for news, plays and music, and short wave radio for everything. There was always something interesting going on.
 
JustDave said:
I remember discovering these when I was less than 10. Back then it seemed as wonderful as TV, which was not yet present as far as I remember, so it all happened on Radio. Either Saturday or Sunday there was a all afternoon line up of wonderful shows, and I made it a point to be there. The Shadow was crime fighter who could make himself invisible. And there was an array of other characters. Gun Smoke got it's start late in the game and quickly transitioned to television.
...
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I remember "The Shadow" very well. It was in my mind that Orson Welles spoke the memorable line, "Who knows what evil lurks in the heats of men", but it wasn't he, it was
Frank Readick. But Welles did voice the main alter ego character of The Shadow, Lamont Cranston, for a couple of years in the late '30s. Most people are aware of Welles' fame from radio for sure.

Also "Inner Sanctum" sticks out in my mind, what with the scary creaking door-- both at the beginning and ending of the show. The creepy organ music heightened the terror.

We got a TV in 1949 so that dominated entertainment. But we had a desktop radio in the kitchen, so at many meals I'd listen to radio shows. I remember "The Lone Ranger" of course, but also "Fibber McGee and Molly", Jack Benny, and "The Great Gildersleeve".

Radio dramas were fascinating because you didn't have to stare at the receiver, and you could actually do something else while listening. But the best part was you got to use your imagination, picturing all the action in your mind. In a way I'm sorry that TV was invented....:(
 
used to listen to CBS mystery radio late at night along with Art Bell who had a call in show. I believe it was in the 70s. Didn't I sleep back then?

Anyway
Here's the link to hear lots of fun, scary and creepy hour long radio shows

I hope the link works but you can search or google CBS mystery theatre.
 
Coco said:
used to listen to CBS mystery radio late at night along with Art Bell who had a call in show. I believe it was in the 70s. Didn't I sleep back then?

Anyway
Here's the link to hear lots of fun, scary and creepy hour long radio shows

I hope the link works but you can search or google CBS mystery theatre.
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E. G. Marshall! So the KSL Mystery theater was from CBS.
 
ChiroDoc said:
I remember "The Shadow" very well. It was in my mind that Orson Welles spoke the memorable line, "Who knows what evil lurks in the heats of men", but it wasn't he, it was
Frank Readick. But Welles did voice the main alter ego character of The Shadow, Lamont Cranston, for a couple of years in the late '30s. Most people are aware of Welles' fame from radio for sure.

Also "Inner Sanctum" sticks out in my mind, what with the scary creaking door-- both at the beginning and ending of the show. The creepy organ music heightened the terror.

We got a TV in 1949 so that dominated entertainment. But we had a desktop radio in the kitchen, so at many meals I'd listen to radio shows. I remember "The Lone Ranger" of course, but also "Fibber McGee and Molly", Jack Benny, and "The Great Gildersleeve".

Radio dramas were fascinating because you didn't have to stare at the receiver, and you could actually do something else while listening. But the best part was you got to use your imagination, picturing all the action in your mind. In a way I'm sorry that TV was invented....:(
Click to expand...
Some of those shows that I couldn't remember are coming back to me now during this thread.
 

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