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

Two radio stalwarts, Ted DeCorsia and Ben Wright, give voice to the dignified, professional, and persistent Peter Black. Once on a case, he never relents until the suspect is behind bars. Black’s boss, Chief Inspector Harkness, is portrayed by Bill Johnstone - who also sets the tone each week as the powerful narrator of the series. Skillfully directed by William Robson and Elliott Lewis, and taughtly written by masters of the craft Antony Ellis, Morton Fine, and David Friedkin, this series is sure to capture your imagination.

Johnny has a way with the ladies, but will his last date be with death? For free trips and a fat fee, Johnny Dollar descends into cases of missing money and missing men. But, what can he do when the bodies are walled up, washed up, and fallen down? When the jewels and the paintings are fake? And, when everything from trucks to trout to widows are on the loose? He'd better bring his gun.

Walk the streets of Dodge City with William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon in 20 masterpieces of western storytelling. Dillon was not a straight-backed rider with a steely jaw. He was a man who had seen too much, a survivor of conflicts he'd rather have avoided…a man who knew only too well what errors of judgment could cost on the frontier. Parley Baer played Dillon's sidekick Chester, a seemingly naive yokel who was nevertheless as cold-blooded as Dillon when occasion demanded.

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.

Radio Spirits is pleased to present 20 classic tales from one of radio's greatest action and adventure series. This collection will bring you tales of black pearls, headhunters, volcanoes, Nazi convoys and cargos of gold in exotic settings and locales - from South of the Border to Dutch East India, Paris, North Africa, and points unknown! These tightly scripted and directed episodes feature many of radio's finest voices, including William Conrad, Paul Frees, Georgia Ellis, Harry Bartell, Raymond Burr, Joseph Kearns, Parley Baer, Jeanette Nolan, John Dehner, Virginia Greg and many more.

In the anything-goes world of post-Civil War California, there were some who went looking for trouble. And there was one who sat back and let trouble come to him. Stern-voiced John Dehner stars as Paladin in twenty exciting radio adventures. The black-clad troubleshooter was a thoughtful man, a figure of erudite sophistication who preferred not to use his gun unless pressed to do so by circumstance. But you really didn't want to press him.

The ultra-realistic crime dramas of Dragnet were tight, tense, and always on target. Guided by Jack Webb from its radio premiere in 1949 right through to the series' end, the medium's most memorable police procedural never cut corners in its meticulous recreation of crime, investigation, and punishment. Follow LAPD Sgt. Joe Friday and his partners, Sgts. Ben Romero and Frank Smith, in 20 real-life cases from both the early weeks of the program's run and its later years!

Enter the world of The Whistler, a scheming story-teller who goads the guilty towards their own downfall. Oh, the identity of the murder is never a mystery, but there's always a shocking twist in the tale!

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.

Invite faith, hope, love, and laughter into your home this Christmas with classic holiday programs from the Golden Age of Radio. Ranging from the solemn to the slapstick, each of these heartwarming episodes celebrates the spirit of the season. This collection brings you yuletide tales from Jack Benny, Gunsmoke, Fibber & Molly, The Great Gildersleeve, The Whistler, and more. There are Christmas comedies, merry mysteries, wintry Westerns, and poignant dramas to lend meaning and merriment to your festivities this, and every, holiday season.

The voice of Orson Welles - smooth and sure, but edged with danger – speaks to you from London. He’s here to tell you about a repository of death, a warehouse of homicide “in the grim stone structure on the Thames which houses Scotland Yard.” Welles will draw your attention to small artifacts from murders most foul, each of which provide a vital clue to a killer’s identity. An international cast - including Joan Lord, Harp McGuire, and Joe McCormick – breathe life into these twelve tales of death.

Dodge City and frontier Kansas come to life on the limitless plain of your imagination in 20 intense western dramas. In these gritty and poignant stories, originally broadcast in 1955, making a wrong call about whether or not to trust a man could cost you your fortune…or your life.

From the late 1940s through the 1950s, in a world where space travel and nuclear annihilation were no longer merely the stuff of fantasy, science fiction began to achieve a new popularity. And the work of noted genre writers began to be adapted in movies and radio programs. Based (however implausibly) on science, these radio broadcasts reflected the depths of the nation's fears and the boundlessness of its imagination. The science fiction series presented here offer adventures that seek to find a place for humanity in a world of machines.

No crime in the 1950s? Don't tell Joe Friday that! Here's radio's top cop taking on all the vice the postwar decade had to offer in 20 true-life police procedurals starring Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday and Ben Alexander as Det. Frank Smith! Whether radio's most earnest cops were on robbery detail or working missing persons, narcotics, or homicide, each story was told in a straightforward manner that never questioned the intelligence of its audience.

Presented here are Western stories of unparalleled realism and uncompromising emotional complexity. Marshal Matt Dillon (William Conrad) doesn't revel in violence, but he uses it because he lives in a violent place at a violent time, where only the violent can survive.

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!

He might seem like just a regular guy, but don't let that fool you. Beneath the affable exterior he's tough as nails, smart as a whip, and ready for whatever crime wants to dish out! He's Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator - and he's on the track of 16 red-hot cases in this exciting eight-hour collection starring William Gargan! Cases cross the threshold of his Madison Avenue office, and he's got a crack team of supporting cast members to back him up.

Wherever there's a scheme afoot, radio's fabulous freelance insurance investigator is on the job to stop it! Bob Bailey stars as Johnny Dollar, picking up the ringing telephone to take on cases of double indemnity and double cross, foul weather and foul play. Bailey is the definitive Dollar - the character's wry sense of humor fits the actor like a tailor-made suit. He's a man of keen analytical skills and good nature, a man who can use his fists in a tight spot without being an obnoxious "tough guy".

In the darkest reaches of the human psyche, there is no corner quite so dark as the fear of nameless, inevitable Fate. With its startling twists and its mocking laughter, Fate can take any of us at any time. We confront this fear by taking a grim satisfaction with the cruelties that Fate metes out to others. Because if it's happening to someone else, it isn't happening to us...right? The Whistler, the sneering narrator of each story, is the personification of Fate - bringing characters to their grim, well-deserved destinies with considerable panache.