Radio America

clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month 24 hour radio streaming Pulp magazine publisher Street and Smith decided that instead of advertising their magazines on newsstands, they would try something new: radio. In 1930, they sponsored a weekly show called the Detective Story Hour featuring adaptations of mystery stories from their magazine of the same name. The shows were first announced, then later narrated by a strange and shadowy figure named - appropriately - The Shadow. The voice was done by James La Curto, and later Frank Readick Jr. Much to Street and Smith's amazement, it was the narrator that became more popular than the show. Audiences were requesting for "that Shadow Detective Magazine". Walter B. Gibson was soon hired to write what would become one of the most successful pulp novel series in the 1930s and 1940s. In the meantime, The Shadow remained a narrator for other radio show such as Blue Coal Radio Revue and Love Story Hour (another Street and Smith magazine) during 1931-1932. During 1932, he had gotten his own show, but still remained a narrator.

clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month 24 hour radio streaming American comedy team that was popular on stage, screen, and radio for 30 years. They were celebrated for their inventive attacks on the socially respectable and upon ordered society in general. Five Marx brothers became entertainers: Chico Marx (original name Leonard Marx; b. March 22, 1887, New York, New York, U.S.—d. October 11, 1961, Hollywood, California), Harpo (original name Adolph…

clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month 24 hour radio streaming American comedy team that was popular on stage, screen, and radio for 30 years. They were celebrated for their inventive attacks on the socially respectable and upon ordered society in general. Five Marx brothers became entertainers: Chico Marx (original name Leonard Marx; b. March 22, 1887, New York, New York, U.S.—d. October 11, 1961, Hollywood, California), Harpo (original name Adolph…

clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month 24 hour radio streaming Lum and Abner, an American radio comedy which aired as a network program from 1932 to 1954, became an American institution in its low-keyed, arch rural wit. One of a series of 15-minute serial comedies that dotted American radio at its height as America's number one home entertainment—others included Amos 'n' Andy, Easy Aces, The Goldbergs, and Vic and Sade—Lum and Abner included various elements of each but yielded something as singular as the others and became somewhat more of an institution. The creation of co-stars Chester Lauck (who played Columbus "Lum" Edwards) and Norris Goff (Abner Peabody), Lum and Abner was as low-keyed as Easy Aces, as cheerfully absurdist as Vic and Sade, and raised The Goldbergs ethnic focus by amplifying the protagonists' regional identities. As the co-owners of the Jot 'em Down Store in the then-fictional town of Pine Ridge, Arkansas, who were always stumbling upon moneymaking ideas only to get themselves fleeced by nemesis Squire Skimp, before finding one or another way to redeem themselves, Lum and Abner played the hillbilly theme with deceptive cleverness: the hillbillies just knew the slickers were going to get theirs, sooner or later, and either didn't mind or knew more than they let on that the slickers getting theirs was a matter of fortunate circumstance.

clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month 24 hour radio streaming Lum and Abner, an American radio comedy which aired as a network program from 1932 to 1954, became an American institution in its low-keyed, arch rural wit. One of a series of 15-minute serial comedies that dotted American radio at its height as America's number one home entertainment—others included Amos 'n' Andy, Easy Aces, The Goldbergs, and Vic and Sade—Lum and Abner included various elements of each but yielded something as singular as the others and became somewhat more of an institution. The creation of co-stars Chester Lauck (who played Columbus "Lum" Edwards) and Norris Goff (Abner Peabody), Lum and Abner was as low-keyed as Easy Aces, as cheerfully absurdist as Vic and Sade, and raised The Goldbergs ethnic focus by amplifying the protagonists' regional identities. As the co-owners of the Jot 'em Down Store in the then-fictional town of Pine Ridge, Arkansas, who were always stumbling upon moneymaking ideas only to get themselves fleeced by nemesis Squire Skimp, before finding one or another way to redeem themselves, Lum and Abner played the hillbilly theme with deceptive cleverness: the hillbillies just knew the slickers were going to get theirs, sooner or later, and either didn't mind or knew more than they let on that the slickers getting theirs was a matter of fortunate circumstance.

clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month 24 hour radio streaming MacDonnell and Meston wanted to create a radio Western for adults, in contrast to the prevailing juvenile fare such as The Lone Ranger or The Cisco Kid. Gunsmoke was set in Dodge City, Kansas during the thriving cattle days of the 1870s. Dunning notes that "The show drew critical acclaim for unprecedented realism." He also writes that among old-time radio fans, "Gunsmoke is routinely placed among the best shows of any kind and any time." (Dunning, 304) The show's cast, writing and sound effects have received much praise. The radio series, which first aired April 26, 1952, and ran until June 18, 1961, on CBS, starred William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon, Howard McNear as the ghoulish, brittle Doc Charles Adams, Georgia Ellis as Kitty Russell and Parley Baer as Dillon's assistant (but not his deputy) Chester Proudfoot. (On the television series, Doc's first name was changed to Galen, and Chester's last name was changed to Goode.) Chester's character had no surname until "Proudfoot" was ad libbed by Baer during a rehearsal early on, while Doc Adams was named after cartoonist Charles Addams. In a 1953 interview with Time, MacDonnell declared, "Kitty is just someone Matt has to visit every once in a while. We never say it, but Kitty is a prostitute, plain and simple." (Dunning, 304) William Conrad was actually one of the last actors who auditioned for the role of Marshal Dillon. He was already one of radio's busiest actors and had a powerful and distinctive baritone voice. Though Meston championed him, MacDonnell thought that Conrad might be overexposed. During his audition, however, Conrad won over MacDonnell after reading just a few lines. The show was distinct from other radio westerns, as the dialogue was often slow and halting, and due to the outstanding sound effects, listeners had a nearly palpable sense of the prairie terrain where the show was set. The effects were subtle but multilayered and utilized very well, given the show's spacious feel. Dunning writes, "The listener heard extraneous dialogue in the background, just above the muted shouts of kids playing in an alley. He heard noises from the next block, too, where the inevitable dog was barking." (Dunning, 305)

clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month 24 hour radio streaming MacDonnell and Meston wanted to create a radio Western for adults, in contrast to the prevailing juvenile fare such as The Lone Ranger or The Cisco Kid. Gunsmoke was set in Dodge City, Kansas during the thriving cattle days of the 1870s. Dunning notes that "The show drew critical acclaim for unprecedented realism." He also writes that among old-time radio fans, "Gunsmoke is routinely placed among the best shows of any kind and any time." (Dunning, 304) The show's cast, writing and sound effects have received much praise. The radio series, which first aired April 26, 1952, and ran until June 18, 1961, on CBS, starred William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon, Howard McNear as the ghoulish, brittle Doc Charles Adams, Georgia Ellis as Kitty Russell and Parley Baer as Dillon's assistant (but not his deputy) Chester Proudfoot. (On the television series, Doc's first name was changed to Galen, and Chester's last name was changed to Goode.) Chester's character had no surname until "Proudfoot" was ad libbed by Baer during a rehearsal early on, while Doc Adams was named after cartoonist Charles Addams. In a 1953 interview with Time, MacDonnell declared, "Kitty is just someone Matt has to visit every once in a while. We never say it, but Kitty is a prostitute, plain and simple." (Dunning, 304) William Conrad was actually one of the last actors who auditioned for the role of Marshal Dillon. He was already one of radio's busiest actors and had a powerful and distinctive baritone voice. Though Meston championed him, MacDonnell thought that Conrad might be overexposed. During his audition, however, Conrad won over MacDonnell after reading just a few lines. The show was distinct from other radio westerns, as the dialogue was often slow and halting, and due to the outstanding sound effects, listeners had a nearly palpable sense of the prairie terrain where the show was set. The effects were subtle but multilayered and utilized very well, given the show's spacious feel. Dunning writes, "The listener heard extraneous dialogue in the background, just above the muted shouts of kids playing in an alley. He heard noises from the next block, too, where the inevitable dog was barking." (Dunning, 305)

clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month

clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month

clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact Many Flee Homes to Escape 'Gas Raid From Mars'--Phone Calls Swamp Police at Broadcast of Wells Fantasy This article appeared in the New York Times on Oct. 31, 1938. A wave of mass hysteria seized thousands of radio listeners between 8:15 and 9:30 o'clock last night when a broadcast of a dramatization of H. G. Wells's fantasy, "The War of the Worlds," led thousands to believe that an interplanetary conflict had started with invading Martians spreading wide death and destruction in New Jersey and New York. The broadcast, which disrupted households, interrupted religious services, created traffic jams and clogged communications systems, was made by Orson Welles, who as the radio character, "The Shadow," used to give "the creeps" to countless child listeners. This time at least a score of adults required medical treatment for shock and hysteria. In Newark, in a single block at Heddon Terrace and Hawthorne Avenue, more than twenty families rushed out of their houses with wet handkerchiefs and towels over their faces to flee from what they believed was to be a gas raid. Some began moving household furniture. Throughout New York families left their homes, some to flee to near-by parks. Thousands of persons called the police, newspapers and radio stations here and in other cities of the United States and Canada seeking advice on protective measures against the raids. The program was produced by Mr. Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air over station WABC and the Columbia Broadcasting System's coast-to-coast network, from 8 to 9 o'clock. The radio play, as presented, was to simulate a regular radio program with a "break-in" for the material of the play. The radio listeners, apparently, missed or did not listen to the introduction, which was: "The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air in 'The War of the Worlds' by H. G. Wells." They also failed to associate the program with the newspaper listening of the program, announced as "Today: 8:00-9:00--Play: H. G. Wells's 'War of the Worlds'--WABC." They ignored three additional announcements made during the broadcast emphasizing its fictional nature. Mr. Welles opened the program with a description of the series of which it is a part. The simulated program began. A weather report was given, prosaically. An announcer remarked that the program would be continued from a hotel, with dance music. For a few moments a dance program was given in the usual manner. Then there was a "break-in" with a "flash" about a professor at an observatory noting a series of gas explosions on the planet Mars. News bulletins and scene broadcasts followed, reporting, with the technique in which the radio had reported actual events, the landing of a "meteor" near Princeton N. J., "killing" 1,500 persons, the discovery that the "meteor" was a "metal cylinder" containing strange creatures from Mars armed with "death rays" to open hostilities against the inhabitants of the earth. Despite the fantastic nature of the reported "occurrences," the program, coming after the recent war scare in Europe and a period in which the radio frequently had interrupted regularly scheduled programs to report developments in the Czechoslovak situation, caused fright and panic throughout the area of the broadcast. Telephone lines were tied up with calls from listeners or persons who had heard of the broadcasts. Many sought first to verify the reports. But large numbers, obviously in a state of terror, asked how they could follow the broadcast's advice and flee from the city, whether they would be safer in the "gas raid" in the cellar or on the roof, how they could safeguard their children, and many of the questions which had been worrying reside(continued)

clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact Many Flee Homes to Escape 'Gas Raid From Mars'--Phone Calls Swamp Police at Broadcast of Wells Fantasy This article appeared in the New York Times on Oct. 31, 1938. A wave of mass hysteria seized thousands of radio listeners between 8:15 and 9:30 o'clock last night when a broadcast of a dramatization of H. G. Wells's fantasy, "The War of the Worlds," led thousands to believe that an interplanetary conflict had started with invading Martians spreading wide death and destruction in New Jersey and New York. The broadcast, which disrupted households, interrupted religious services, created traffic jams and clogged communications systems, was made by Orson Welles, who as the radio character, "The Shadow," used to give "the creeps" to countless child listeners. This time at least a score of adults required medical treatment for shock and hysteria. In Newark, in a single block at Heddon Terrace and Hawthorne Avenue, more than twenty families rushed out of their houses with wet handkerchiefs and towels over their faces to flee from what they believed was to be a gas raid. Some began moving household furniture. Throughout New York families left their homes, some to flee to near-by parks. Thousands of persons called the police, newspapers and radio stations here and in other cities of the United States and Canada seeking advice on protective measures against the raids. The program was produced by Mr. Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air over station WABC and the Columbia Broadcasting System's coast-to-coast network, from 8 to 9 o'clock. The radio play, as presented, was to simulate a regular radio program with a "break-in" for the material of the play. The radio listeners, apparently, missed or did not listen to the introduction, which was: "The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air in 'The War of the Worlds' by H. G. Wells." They also failed to associate the program with the newspaper listening of the program, announced as "Today: 8:00-9:00--Play: H. G. Wells's 'War of the Worlds'--WABC." They ignored three additional announcements made during the broadcast emphasizing its fictional nature. Mr. Welles opened the program with a description of the series of which it is a part. The simulated program began. A weather report was given, prosaically. An announcer remarked that the program would be continued from a hotel, with dance music. For a few moments a dance program was given in the usual manner. Then there was a "break-in" with a "flash" about a professor at an observatory noting a series of gas explosions on the planet Mars. News bulletins and scene broadcasts followed, reporting, with the technique in which the radio had reported actual events, the landing of a "meteor" near Princeton N. J., "killing" 1,500 persons, the discovery that the "meteor" was a "metal cylinder" containing strange creatures from Mars armed with "death rays" to open hostilities against the inhabitants of the earth. Despite the fantastic nature of the reported "occurrences," the program, coming after the recent war scare in Europe and a period in which the radio frequently had interrupted regularly scheduled programs to report developments in the Czechoslovak situation, caused fright and panic throughout the area of the broadcast. Telephone lines were tied up with calls from listeners or persons who had heard of the broadcasts. Many sought first to verify the reports. But large numbers, obviously in a state of terror, asked how they could follow the broadcast's advice and flee from the city, whether they would be safer in the "gas raid" in the cellar or on the roof, how they could safeguard their children, and many of the questions which had been worrying reside(continued)

clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month William Alexander Abbott (born October 6, 1897 in Asbury Park, N.J.) was already an experienced 'straight man' when he first met his partner Louis Francis Cristillo (born March 6, 1906 in Paterson, N.J.) on the burlesque circuit. In 1936 the duo teamed up and became a much in demand act. However, it wasn't until an appearance on the Kate Smith Radio Hour, performing what would soon become their most famous sketch "Who's On First," that Bud Abbott & Lou Costello were to experience true stardom and a Hollywood career. Signed by Universal in 1939, Bud & Lou were hailed by the studio as "The New Kings Of Comedy," and went on to produce a decade of box office hits.

clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month William Alexander Abbott (born October 6, 1897 in Asbury Park, N.J.) was already an experienced 'straight man' when he first met his partner Louis Francis Cristillo (born March 6, 1906 in Paterson, N.J.) on the burlesque circuit. In 1936 the duo teamed up and became a much in demand act. However, it wasn't until an appearance on the Kate Smith Radio Hour, performing what would soon become their most famous sketch "Who's On First," that Bud Abbott & Lou Costello were to experience true stardom and a Hollywood career. Signed by Universal in 1939, Bud & Lou were hailed by the studio as "The New Kings Of Comedy," and went on to produce a decade of box office hits.

clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 The Superman animated cartoons, commonly known as the "Fleischer Superman cartoons" were a series of seventeen animated Technicolor short films, released by Paramount Pictures between 1941 and 1943, based upon the comic book character Superman. The first nine cartoons were produced by Fleischer Studios (the name by which the cartoons are commonly known). In 1942, Fleischer Studios was dissolved and reorganized as Famous Studios, which produced the final eight shorts. These cartoons are seen as some of the finest, and certainly the most lavishly budgeted, animated cartoons produced during The Golden Age of American animation. In 1994, the series was voted #33 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month

clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00