Alice Faye was amazing: She was much hotter than Phil Harris at the time of that show, and she gave it all up to raise her kids.
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Elliott Lewis was also on that show, and may have been the funniest thing on it. In addition to acting in hordes of radio shows, he was a writer, director and producer.
Bob and Ray were hilarious. Most people who are familiar with Bob Elliott today will probably remember him playing the dad on his son Chris’ sitcom Get a Life, which was nearly as zany as Bob and Ray’s incredibly inventive radio work.
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I’ve been listening to comedy in the final half hour of work as I’m wrapping everything up, it’s a good palate cleanser, and I’m usually alone, so nobody’s there to wonder if the job has finally broken me, laughing at paperwork and all.
Love Dick Powell, especially in tough guy mode - Murder My Sweet, Cry Danger, Cornered (one of his best performances), and Pitfall - sure wish his TV appearance “The Long Goodbye” survived. Gave a Richard Diamond a try, and he’s great in that too, gonna listen to more of those.
There’s one bit where Fred and another character, mix Jack Benny up with John Bunny - a comedian who died in 1915. Other than silent film fans, not many would get that joke today, at least not without a googlesearch, but it made me laugh (and anyone over 30 when it originally played, would know who Bunny was)
Gave the first episode a listen and really enjoyed it, very eerie. I like your website too, bookmarked it for future reads and listens.
Lastly, FlyingSquid, I think, mentioned on another thread that some of Arch Oboler’s radio work could be cheesy too, and I have to say the Sub-Basement ep on “Lights Out” went that way with the reveal, good set-up though.
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I don’t know. From what I have read, she gave up her film career because Fox studio head Daryl Zanuck cut down her role in the film Fallen Angel in order to build up the role of his star-in-the-making, Linda Darnell. Ms. Faye vowed never to work for Fox again, and since her contract with the studio called for her to make two more films, she couldn’t work anywhere else either. Still, as you say, she seemed happy to be a stay-at-home mom and I have not read of any regrets she had about not making any more movies.
I’ve only seen a couple of Alice Faye’s movies, Fallen Angel being one of them.
One of the writers on the Phil Harris & Alice Faye show was Dick Chevillat, who later went on to be one of the main writers of Green Acres.
It always seemed to me that Green Acres would have worked even as a radio show. Sure there were sight gags that would have to be dropped, but a lot of the humor was verbal and Oliver and Lisa were the new George and Gracie anyway. Imagine my surprise that there was once a short-term summer replacement radio show called Granby’s Green Acres that bears a striking similarity to the TV series. Both were created/produced by the same man, Jay Sommers
The best part though, is that the radio version starred the dream team of Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet! I listened to a couple episodes years ago; while it’s not great, it’s interesting to hear the roots of the later TV show and compare/contrast the two versions.
Dick Powell starred as Richard Rogue in the radio series Rogue’s Gallery, so those shows might be worth seeking out too. I like Richard Diamond better.
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Anyone a fan of Dimension X?
That was the first sci-fi OTR program I got into (thanks to a friend)
Before that were comedies from Britain like The Goon Show but I haven’t listened to that for 20 years so I don’t know if it still holds up
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Well, she’d already retired at that point, and I don’t doubt that the difficulties she had juggling motherhood (and I think almost miscarrying?) played a big part in that: Why take the time away when they were going to replace you anyway?
The funny thing for me, I guess, is that I always thought of her as a singer first and an actress second because my main exposure to her was on these old radio shows, but I think that’s skewed.
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It’s almost the exact same show as X-Minus One. Both are good.
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One of them seems to have redone some of the same stories as the other had already done.
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And Paul Henning, who was the executive producer of Green Acres, wrote for Burns and Allen, so I’m sure the similarity between Gracie and Lisa Douglas isn’t coincidental.
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It took me a few days to get to this. But, yes! Old Time Radio! My story has been told above… found old radio shows through a satellite radio channel. Way past my time, but totally fell for it. What a way to pass the workday. Since dropped the satellite subscription (for reasons/complaints that are probably for another Off Topic!!! thread), but have rediscovered them through an OTR app. The Shadow. Gunsmoke & Have Gun Will Travel. (Especially Have Gun.) Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar is my personal fave. For someone who missed this era, finding a radio drama about an insurance investigator investigating insurance claims, all the while filling out an expense report, was so out there, yet so darned entertaining.
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I find a lot of them on archive.org.
X Minus One is one of my favorites, didn’t know it was a “reboot” of an older series called Dimension X until I started listening to that show and noticed the same stories being told. Most of the shows have almost the same script but are different productions with different voice actors. It’s interesting to listen to both versions of the same story done about 5 or 6 years apart.
Edit: Was looking things up and just the first 15 episodes of X Minus One used the same scripts as Dimension X, after that they are new stories.
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Just picked up a promising book on Old Time Horror Radio in America called Terror on the Air!
It’s an overview of radio horror programs from 1931 to 1952. There are dedicated chapters on The Witch’s Tale, Lights Out, The Hermit’s Cave, Inner Sanctum Mysteries, The Mysterious Traveler, and Quiet, Please.
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