OTR's Greatest Shows 1-02 November 2014


(4 stars; 1 reviews)

Old Time Radio's Greatest Shows Production 1-02 : November 2014 Run Time : 3 Hours Remastered in High Quality 64kbps Mono to preserve the best presentation -------------------------------------------------- Presenting Old Time Radio's Greatest Shows podcast, three hours of the best radio shows ever broadcast! On this week's edition (November 2014), I spotlight some of my favorite series. The set begins with one of my all-time favorite situation comedies, The Life of Riley, which puts Junior's entire football team in jeopardy because of... HOMEWORK? Then stay tuned for Alan Freed's Rock n' Roll Dance Party, a unique short-lived series from circa 1956 which features Rock'n'Roll artists performing some of their greatest hits. In our next hour, we venture into the Wild Wild West with a pair of classic Western Series premieres: James Stewart stars as "The Six Shooter", followed by the series premiere episode of the long-running "Gunsmoke". Finally, in our Feature Presentation hour, the Western theme concludes with James Stewart in Lux Radio Theatre's adaptation of his classic film, "Winchester '73". Enjoy! -J.G.O. Hour 1 : Fun and Laughs - Genres: Comedy, Music/Variety, Situation Comedy >>> Full Episode 1- The Life of Riley (Episode 44) Big Football Bet (11/12/44) >>> Full Episode 2- Alan Freed's Rock'n'Roll Dance Party (Episode 4) (ca.1956)  Songs: 1. You For Me (Count Basie and his Orch.); 2. Play It Fair (Lavern Baker); 3. Why Do Fools Fall In Love (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers); 4. Everyday I Have The Blues (Joe Williams with Count Basie and his Orch.); 5. Tweedle Dee (Lavern Baker); 6. Please Be Mine (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers); 7. Cherry Point (Count Basie and his Orch.). Comments: This is an AFRTS-edited rebroadcast which deleted the Camel Cigarette commercials from the original broadcast version. This is also the only OTR series I could find that features Rock'n'Roll music and artists. I would be extremely interested to know if there are other OTR series in circulation which features R'n'R music, instead of the exhaustive collections of Big Band / Pop Standards variety shows. >>> Intermission--- Vintage Commercial: Introducing the New 1951 Buick (1/20/51) >>> Intermission--- Vintage Short: Abbott and Costello perform their classic routine, "Who's On First?" (4/17/47) Hour 2: Rivetting Drama - Genres: Western Adventure Drama >>> Full Episode 3- Hollywood Star Playhouse (04/13/52) The Six Shooter, starring James Stewart Comments: I quickly became a huge fan of James Stewart's radio carreer and the entire "The Six Shooter" series is a must-listen for any fan of Stewart's or OTR in general. Presented here is what eventually became the audition recording for the series. Though the broadcast of this episode from the Hollywood Star Playhouse was intended to simply be a one-off episode in the anthology series, Stewart's star power and engaging performance convinced NBC to create a series, which regretfully only lasted 1 season; I would have enjoyed a long run of this series. The entire episode (except for the very opening scene) was extracted for the audition recording found in the collection for "The Six Shooter" currently circulating amongst OTR collectors, but I prefer this version for its exceptional audio quality and the bonus scene at the beginning of the show. >>> Intermission--- Vintage Network Promo: Listen to Radio NBC (11/16/55) >>> Full Episode 4- Gunsmoke (Episode 1) Billy The Kid (4/26/52) Comments: Another must-listen for any new OTR fan, Gunsmoke is considered to be among the first "adult" western to feature true-to-life sound "patterns" and gripping stories that captured the listener's imagination for many years. Instead of an audition recording, I decided to include the actual first episode of the series that featured William Conrad as Marshall Matt Dillon. There were three previous audition recordings that set the tone for the series, featuring different lead players, but this episode introduces all of the major recurring characters with the actors that originated their roles.  Hour 3: ** OUR FEATURE PRESENTATION ** - Genres: 1-hour Drama, Western Note: To preserve the original length of this broadcast, it begins at aproximately 1h59m00s into the podcast, 1 minute before the top of our last hour. >>> Full Episode 5- The Lux Radio Theater (ep.765) "Winchester '73" (11/12/51), starring James Stewart; featuring William Conrad. Summary: Lin McAdam (James Stewart) pursues notorious outlaw Henry "Dutch" Brown into Dodge City, Kansas. There, in an effort to flush out the criminal, McAdam enters a sharp-shooting contest and wins the top prize: the eponymous Winchester rifle. Brown, desiring the rifle for himself, sneaks into McAdam's room and makes off with it. After finding the rifle missing, McAdam chases Brown across the state and toward an epic confrontation. (IMDB.com) Comments: Yes, I am definitely a fan of James Stewart and this movie is one of my favorites that he made (along with, of course, "It's A Wonderful Life" which you might see on an upcoming Holiday compilation).  This program was produced by J.G.O. Brunet and released under a Creative Commons License (CC 2014 BY-ND 2.5).  Many hours have been invested for each compilation of this series. Attribution would be very much appreciated.  To the best of our knowledge, all material included in this series is found in the Public Domain. Copyright infringement is not intended. All comments, concerns or suggestions for future shows are welcomed! greatestotrshows@gmail.com Check out the blog for this podcast: http://PublicDomainRadio.blogspot.ca/ or http://PublicDomainRadio.blogspot.com/ Please consider a small donation to continue support and production of this series. (Contact us or visit my blog for more details.) Be sure to check out Production 1-01 here: https://archive.org/details/OTRsGreatestShows10120141015Halloween About this series: This series can be enjoyed as an on-demand podcast or to run as a complete block of programming for any terrestrial or online radio station. Each three-hour compilation includes an hour of OTR's funniest comedies and variety shows, followed by rivetting dramas from various genres, capping off the block with classic movie adaptations as heard on the Lux Radio Theatre, Screen Director's Playhouse, and others. Each production has been skillfully remastered and edited from the best source material currently available in the Public Domain. Designed to run on the hour, every hour, each block of programming features favorite episodes from the most popular Old Time Radio series currently in circulation, complete with original commercials (where available), along with bonus material filling out each hour when a program finishes early. Such bonuses include vintage sponsor ads and short featurettes starring Boris Karloff, Bing Crosby and many others. Look for special editions compiling the best of multi-part series and serials such as Your's Truly, Johnny Dollar, the Adventures of Superman, and more. 

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.

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