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Book Covers the Years Ellery Queen Fought Crime on Radio

Poster for Ellery Queen and the Murder Ring (1941) Martin Grams Jr. has gained the reputation of being somewhat of a research dynamo. Rarely will you speak to Grams when he's not engrossed in researching a particular show for an article, a book or simply for the sake of knowing more about it. He's gotten the reputation of being one of the most productive old time radio scholars today. For his latest book, The Sounds of Detection: Ellery Queen's Adventures in Radio, Grams teamed up with Francis ... (read more)

2022/12/14

NBC Announcer Ben Grauer's Book Collection Goes Back to 1555

Ben Grauer in DC's Real Fact Comics 9 (1946) Reporting an eclipse of the sun from the jungles of Brazil, giving listeners a tense description of the state-by-state returns during a hotly contested presidential election, commentating with quiet dignity on the next selection of the NBC Symphony orchestra, bringing the theatre into your own living rooms each weekday morning on his WNBT Footlights and Klieglights program and covering the news wherever and whenever it happens is the day-by-day job ... (read more)

2022/11/26

Book Covers All 1,693 Episodes of Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons

Bennett Kilpack, star of Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons on CBS In his previous books, author Jim Cox has written about two of radio's most prolific producers (Frank and Anne Hummert's Radio Factory), the last decade of the golden age of radio (Say Goodnight Gracie) and several radio programming genres (Radio Crime Fighters, The Great Radio Audience Participation Shows and The Great Radio Soap Operas). In his current book, Jim focuses his considerable research and writing talents on a single ... (read more)

2022/11/10

Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd Meet a New Generation

Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd on Charlie McCarthy #6 (1949) This past semester I've been teaching American humor to a group of 11th and 12th graders who have been brought up on Steve Martin, Bill Cosby, George Carlin and Richard Pryor. Sure, they've seen Bob Hope and Edgar Bergen and they remember Jack Benny and Groucho Marx. But Jack Carson? Judy Canova? Joe Penner? Fred Allen? Wasn't he the coach of the Red Sox? Well, being a OTR freak,I had to set these kids straight on just ... (read more)

2020/07/26

Escape With Us Now -- To the Bookstore

In the seven years that Escape was on the air, over 200 broadcasts were made. If, in retrospect, the years 1947 through 1954 were some of radio's best years, this body of Escape programs is one very good reason why. I think that one of Escape's strengths was in the careful selection of material on which writers based their scripts. Many of the shows, especially in the '40s, were adapted from outstanding works by American and British authors. Great stories, put into radio play form by ... (read more)

2020/06/05