Old Radio

  January 22, 1956: Raymond Burr played the role of Captain Lee Quince in ‘ Fort Laramie ’ which was first broadcast on CBS. The show revolved around “ Gunsmoke tradition". Laramie' portrayed life on the frontier of a young United States. Some of the radio western stories were good, some sad, but authenticity was key, which held listeners' attentions.

January 19: Happy Birthday,  Patricia Highsmith Stangers on a Train , The Talented Mr. Ripley and Edith's Diary are the novels of Patricia Highsmith , who was born on this day in 1921. Adaptations of her work crackled over the airwaves in the era of Classic Radio. In 1951, Lux Radio Theater presented an adaptation of  Stangers on a Train , starring Ruth Roman and Ray Milland . Highsmith walked a tightrope between literary and crime fiction. The themes of lesbianism in her work are part of what lend her work its literary tint. As one can see, her work was widely adapted, not just into old time radio shows but also movies .

  January 18, 1937: Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories was aired for the first time by CBS. The story was broadcast completely in a 15 minutes episode which aired five times a week, Monday through Friday. Edith Spencer played Aunt Jenny, but she was eventually replaced by Agnes Young. The show lasted until 1956 and was sponsored by Spry Shortening and Lux Soap. The animal imitator, Henry Boyd, played Aunt Jenny's whistling canary. Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories was a radio soap opera that aired weekdays  from 1937 to 1956 on CBS. It featured Edith Spencer (and later, Agnes Young) as Aunt Jenny, who would narrate the story for the day's episode. After the story, she would offer the listeners her valuable advice. She would also introduce recipes that used the product of the show's sponsor.

January 14, 1927: Marriageof Jack Benny and Sadye Marks . In 1921, Jack Benny and the Sadye Marks first met  in a Vancouver, British Columbia vaudeville house.  Sadie was only 14 years old at the time, and Jack was 27. Five years later, they again met accidentally when she was working at the May Company in Los Angeles. After Sadie Marks married  Jack Benny , she performed with her husband in Vodafone and then played as Mary Livingstone on the radio show. Their love story was later aired on one of episode Jack Benny's TV Show.

January 13, 1910: From the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, Enrico & Emmy Destinn heard speaking through the phone's transmitter of the DeForest Radio Telephone Company.  The broadcast lead the way for additional operas to hit the airwaves including Andre Kostelanetz Show Bell Telephone Hour Encores Chicago Theater of the Air Concert Hall Enchanted Hour Hour of Charm Telephone Hour (Music From America) The Magic Key Lauritz Melchoir Collection Voice of Firestone The 1910 opera broadcast was transmitted from wireless transmitter had 500 watts of power and was reported that the broadcast could reach 20 km away on a ship at sea. The radio opera broadcast was heard by the member of the press with receiver set on board ships in New York Harbor, in large hotels on Times Square and at New York city locations. The broadcast was also heard in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Born on this day in 1904, Ray Bolger may be best known as the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz .  But this is a radio blog!  Let's talk old time radio .  The curious Ray Bolger, who'd have parts in Little House on the Prairie, Rich Man, Poor Man, and Babes in Toyland (the 1961 re-make), also has a chapter in the history of classic radio. Remember those Summer replacement shows? Ray's was The Ray Bolger Show , a stand-in for Jimmy Durante and Gary Moore in 1945. Later, the quixotic song and dance man would record a children's record called Churkendoose, about a fowl that was a hybrid of--guess which--animals.  Add to this the fact that he was originally up for the part of the Tin Man role in Wizard but coveted the Scarecrow instead, and you have a very colorful, odd addition to the pantheon of character actors in radio 's grand history.

On this day in 1941, the creaking door of the The Inner Sanctum Mysteries opened for the first time. Enjoy a thrill today and listen to could use a thrill today and listen to a sample episode today at old time radio ! Pleasant dreams....