Showing results by author "Original Radio Broadcasts" in All Categories

Dragnet was radio's most successful police procedural series, and by far its most influential, shaping an entire generation's view of law enforcement, and bringing police work to life in carefully-documented detail. Never sensationalistic, but always a gripping listening experience, Jack Webb's signature creation remains the standard against which crime dramas are judged. Webb, who produced and directed the series, stars as Sergeant Joe Friday in gritty dramas of unprecedented realism.

If there's one lesson to be learned from science-fiction, it's that nothing lasts forever. From human lives to vast civilizations, the overarching theme of the genre is that the old will give way to the new. Look to futures past with X Minus One! One of the most imaginative series of the 1950s brings you to adventures in worlds beyond fear, beyond imagination, beyond the farthest stars. Works by the leading genre authors of the day (including Philip K. Dick, Robert Sheckley, and Clifford Simak) were turned into tight, well-acted half-hour dramatizations.

Tight, tense, and packed with excitement! No director in radio could do more with 30 minutes than William Spier...and no half hour in radio could do more to keep you on the edge of your chair than Suspense!

Out of a rainy Seattle night comes crime, mystery, adventure...and Harry Nile! Here is Jim French's legendary private eye, investigating the dark corners of the 1940s Northwest. Larry Albert stars in this collection of 20 radio adventures - which include the first four episodes of the ongoing WWII story line "War Comes to Harry Nile"! It's new-time radio drama in the old-time tradition!

John Stanley takes over the role of the World's Most Famous Consulting Detective in this collection of Sherlock Holmes radio adventures, with Wendell Holmes as Watson! Priceless artifacts, vital plans, and human lives are at stake through eight hours of exciting episodes. This series goes back to basics with 16 classic tales of deductive mystery in the grand manner, mixing original adaptations of the Doyle canon with brisk new stories - including a three-part tale of international intrigue and espionage.

Jim Brandon is a biochemist, a scientific marvel, a master of the Black Light of Invisibility. He's the Avenger! This classic pulp hero was adapted for radio, continuing to fight evil-doers with the help of the Telepathic Indicator and the Diffusion Capsule.

So Frankie Remley asked Phil Harrisand they'd soon find out, kicking off a memorable run of The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. The Rexall years marked the peak of the program's popularity, and the laughs come thick and fast! Join Phil, Alice, Elliott Lewis, Walter Tetley, Robert North, and the whole gang for the first 20 surviving episodes of the 1948-49 season.

From out of the rain-swept postwar night comes Harry Nile - a man who's seen it all, because he just can't look away. Here are 19 state-of-the-art radio noir dramas, produced by West Coast legend Jim French, and starring Larry Albert as the hard-boiled, straight-shooting Harry! This collection includes four more installments of the "War Comes To Harry Nile" storyline, a Christmas episode, two two-part adventures, and more. You'll hear Pat French, Jay Green, John Patrick Lowrie...and a whole bunch of killer cases.

Doctors and nurses exchanging tense, meaningful dialogue! A gurney rumbles down a corridor, surgical instruments clatter, and a rubber glove snaps at the end of a life-saving operation! Here is medical drama at its best - tense, taut, and intensely human! Lew Ayres stars as Dr. James Kildare, an intern at the start of his medical career, who takes on the hectic routine of a major metropolitan hospital. Lionel Barrymore co-stars as his gruff-but-kindly mentor Dr. Leonard Gillespie.

There are no black hats or white hats in Dodge City, Kansas. Gunsmoke gives you Western stories for grown-ups, with hard-hitting tales set against the rugged majesty of the American frontier. Producer/director Norman Macdonnell and writer/editor John Meston bring you gripping accounts of folks who have come to Dodge to leave the past behind…and those who come to Dodge because they can’t. William Conrad stars as US Marshal Matt Dillon, with Parley Baer as Chester, Howard McNear as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty in 20 half-hours of radio drama at its best.

A soft-spoken paragon of virtue on the range, Hopalong Cassidy brought law, order, and justice to the frontier. He was a model of integrity, courage, hard work, tolerance, patriotism, chivalry, and good-natured decency - and he attempted to instill these values in his young listeners - all while delivering action-packed entertainment. Cassidy, the creation of Clarence E. Mulford, who dreamed of the West he had never visited, was brought to life by former silent-movie matinee idol William Boyd.

He's a specialist in insurance fraud and the finer points of human nature. He's insouciant, cynical, and glib...but honest when it counts. Wherever he goes, there's intrigue, excitement, and mystery! He's the Man with the Action Packed Expense Account: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

Harry Nile is a former Chicago cop, who quit the force after uncovering a vein of corruption. He stalks the rainy streets of pre-war Seattle on behalf of private clients with the help of his assistant, a lady named Murphy. Phil Harper stars as Nile, with Pat French as Murphy, in this exciting series that has been heard on radio stations coast to coast in the US and Canada, on satellite radio, and reached a worldwide audience online. After more than 25 years, it's the longest running private-eye show in American radio history.

Nero Wolfe is "a gourmet who never walks when he can sit and never sits when he can lie down." Join Rex Stout's reclusive, overweight, orchid-loving super-sleuth as masterfully portrayed by Sydney Greenstreet in this exciting radio series. Ever in search of a perfect meal and a cold bottle of beer, Wolfe often sends Archie Goodwin, his secretary and operative, in his stead. Learn the logic of this armchair detective extraordinaire as he presides over 18 digitally remastered cases of treasure maps and love triangles, carelessness and con artists, bad business and bad medicine.

Tough crimes in a tough world call for a tough man to solve them! That man is Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler's king of the hard-boiled detectives - and you'll hear him in 20 radio-noir adventures produced by Norman Macdonnell and starring Gerald Mohr! Jeff Corey co-stars as Detective Lieutenant Ybarra, and Larry Dobkin is heard as Detective Lieutenant Matthews, in these action-packed tales of bullets, broads, and the good old fashioned double-cross.

Box Thirteen is your address for radio mystery at its best! Alan Ladd stars in sixteen intriguing episodes as former newspaper reporter turned freelance fiction writer Dan Holiday. His excursions into mystery and crime for the characters in his books lead him to thrill-packed adventures all his own! At his side is a scatter-brained secretary named Suzy (played by Sylvia Picker), and in his way is the gruff Lieutenant Kling (portrayed by Edmund McDonald) and Inspector Black (Luis van Rooten).

Journey back to a time when turning on your cathedral radio transported you to a fog-swirled 221-B Baker Street...and you spent a most enjoyable half-hour as "the world's greatest detective" matched wits with the most challenging criminal elements in all of London. The brilliant Sherlock Holmes is more than equal to the baffling clues and confounding mysteries that he faces. John Stanley stars as the clever Consulting Detective, with Alfred Shirley as his loyal assistant Dr. Watson. The game's well and truly afoot in 16 exciting tales from 1947-48!

They say the "Old Time Radio Era" ended in 1962, but radio drama carried right on...and here's the proof! Provocative, thoughtful, and up-to-the-minute in its treatment of life as it was lived, that was Theatre 5! This powerful anthology series featured an invigorating combination of veteran performers and rising young actors in sharp, concise stories with a message and an impact!

Come back to the tradition and warmth of Christmas in the Golden Age of Radio, with the great performers and shows of yesteryear. Go shopping with Jack Benny. Go to the snow covered woods with Johnny Dollar. Go to Bethlehem with Family Theater. The voices of Vincent Price, George and Gracie, Bergen and McCarthy, Abbott and Costello, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, and more are lifted in story and song. They celebrate the yuletide with equal parts hope and hokum, silliness and sacrifice, merriment and mystery....

Once she has your rapt attention, she begins to tell you - with a gleeful cackle - her tales of ghosts, devils, and curses. The narratives she weaves convey countless examples of how jealousy, revenge, greed and ambition can result in circumstances as frightening as any caused by supernatural beings.