We start off with the first episode of “Big Town.”  Edward G. Robinson creates the role of Steve Wilson, the crusading, yet sometimes muckraking, editor of a big city newspaper.  There’s dark humor, drama, and plenty of melodrama.  Then Joan Davis, who would eventually star in the early television classic comedy “I Married Joan,” begins her career in radio.  She plays the proprietress of a small village store in “The Sealtest Village Store.”  She’s prone to all the difficulties an unmarried woman in radio comedy had to face, but there’s some great laughs and songs.

Episodes

Big Town

October 19, 1937

“Steve Wilson Is Shot”

3:44

The Sealtest Village Store

June 7, 1945

“Sell Bonds, Win a Screen Test”

35:05

 “Lux Radio Theatre” presents yet another star-studded adaptation of a cinema classic.  This time, it’s the 1950 film “All About Eve.” Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, and Gary Merrill reprise their roles from the Academy- Award-wining film originally written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

Lux Radio Theater 

October 1, 1951

“All About Eve”

2:14

We start off with another episode of “The Aldrich Family,” that domestic sitcom featuring the adventures of teen-ager Henry Aldrich.  This episode, centering on a neighborhood wedding, is several notches above the usual fare, with some particularly clever lines and funny misunderstandings – all the elements you need for a solid sitcom.  Then let’s test our collective brainpower with an episode of “Information Please.”  Are you up on famous elopements, occupations of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, and schoolteachers in fiction?

Episodes

The Aldrich Family

May 13, 1948

“Date with Helen Forbes” 

aka “Wedding Day Date with Helen Forbes”

1:47

Information Please
August 1, 1941

“Guests:  Lyman Bryson and Henry Noble McCracken”

30:18

 Groucho Marx kicks things off with an episode of “You Bet Your Life.”  He trades barbs with a taxi driver from Vienna, and an Irish-American Texan tells how he met his wife when he ruined her cake at a St. Patrick’s Day party.  Then, on “Vic and Sade,” their teen-aged son Rush is staying up late hoping to finish off the leftovers from a neighbor’s party.  Later, both Rush and Vic have to fight the temptation to draw a mustache on a sleeping man.

Episodes

You Bet Your Life

December 6, 1950

“The Secret Word is ‘Hair’”

2:08

Vic and Sade

1940

“Too Many Faces in the Windows” 

aka “Ice Cream and Salted Peanuts at Midnight” 

“Mr. Sludge Grows a Mustache”

aka “Sleepers Beware”

31:48

 We start off this week with some clever science fiction in the form of “X Minus One.”  In this episode, some hapless humans find themselves at the mercy of an alien lifeboat bent on saving their lives no matter what.  It’s an adaptation of Robert Sheckley’s “The Lifeboat Mutiny.”  Then, on “The Jack Benny Show,” Jack obsesses about the $4.75 he lost on a horse race, and the event manifests itself in the form of a hilariously strange dream. Also, the gang sings a parody of that ballad of a fighting Irishman, “Clancy Lowered the Boom.”

Episodes

X Minus One

September 11, 1956

“The Lifeboat Mutiny”

1:46

The Jack Benny Show

May 2, 1954

“Jack Loses $4.75 at the Race Track”

31:56

It’s National Library Week, from April 19th to 25th of 2020, so we’re going to present two transcriptions, one a thriller and the other a comedy, centering on libraries.  First up, in this episode of “Suspense,” movie star Myrna Loy, who you probably know as Nora Charles in the “Thin Man” movies, is a librarian whose investigations into a vandalized copy of “Gone With the Wind” seem to point to a kidnapping.  Then on “Fibber McGee and Molly,” Fibber receives a bill for an overdue library book, which he can’t find.

Episodes

Suspense 

September 20, 1945

“Library Book”

2:13

Fibber McGee and Molly

November 21, 1939

“Overdue Library Book”

33:52

Will Rogers, Jr. was an American politician, writer, and newspaper publisher. When he wasn’t involved in politics, he was frequently found acting in movies, television, and even radio.  Tonight we present “Rogers of the Gazette,” his series where he plays a modified version of himself. Here he runs the fictional small-town newspaper, the “Illyria Weekly Gazette,” and dispenses homespun common sense and aphorism-filled advice to the betterment of his readers and fellow citizens.  Then on “Our Miss Brooks” what could possibly go wrong when one of Connie’s students whips up a new form of egg dye?

Episodes

Rogers of the Gazette

August 12, 1953

“Land Deal”

2:13

Our Miss Brooks

April 9, 1950

“Dyeing Easter Eggs”

32:21

Here’s another bonus quarantine-themed episode for you to help pass the time.  We begin with “The Adventures of Horatio Hornblower.”  Horatio Hornblower started life in a series of adventure novels written by C. S. Forester from the 1930s to the 1960s.  Hornblower is a British officer in the Royal Navy during the Age of Sail, the Napoleonic Wars of the 1800s.  That’s the same time period as Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin or “Master and Commander” series.  If you like one, you’ll like the other.  Then, on “Fibber McGee and Molly,” all the usual gang has been quarantined at the McGee residence for a week due to measles.  Let’s check in and see if everyone is still on their best behavior.

Episodes

The Adventures of Horatio Hornblower

August 18, 1952 / May 8, 1953

“Quarantined for the Plague”

2:47

Fibber McGee and Molly

March 11, 1941

“Quarantined With Measles”

24:27

“If Freedom Failed” was a radio program created by the Armed Forces Radio Service. It depicted an alternate America in the 1950s that had been taken over by Communists. Each of the 26 episodes was inspired by actual events in Communist nations, but presented filtered through the prism of American life in fictional Springfield, U.S.A. This episode centers on a museum where historical facts are being altered to suit the Party.  Then on “Duffy’s Tavern,” actor Vincent Price drops by to visit “The Ham’s Club,” a dining establishment for actors only that barkeep Archie is trying to promote.

Episodes

If Freedom Failed
Episode 1, 1951
“A Matter of Fact”
2:37

Duffy’s Tavern
January 26, 1951
“Actor’s Club at the Tavern”
34:55

Here’s a special bonus episode for everyone stuck inside and starved for entertainment -- two episodes on the theme of quarantine.  First up on “Have Gun Will Travel,” Paladin helps a Native American man whose sick cattle result in others enforcing a quarantine around his land with their rifles.  Then on “The Jack Benny Program,” Jack is sick in bed, and the gang is NOT practicing “social distancing” as they keep dropping by to visit.

Episodes

Have Gun Will Travel

February 22, 1959

“Winchester Quarantine”

1:43

“The Jack Benny Program”

March 18, 1951

“Jack Talks About His Illness the Previous Week”

26:36