Adventures Of Ace Williams
The Joe Hehn Memorial Collection
The Adventures of Ace Williams was a juvenile serial about the experiences of the famous newsreel cameraman and his assistant, teenager Dick Holt. It was syndicated, and broadcast three times per week. (Note that syndicated programs have very long musical segments; during the music, the local station’s announcer would read the ads of the sponsor for their listening area). The series began in the southwestern US as a syndicated program in October 1936. Dating the episodes can be difficult because of the syndication arrangement . S tations would start broadcasting the series whenever the ir contract began . These programs, the fifth and tenth of the series, were likely played during the second and fourth week of broadcasting since it was broadcast three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). Copies of these two episodes have been in circulation among collectors for decades dated either 1937 or 1938. The mo st likely earliest date for these episodes is October 1936 based on newspaper archive research that early radio program collectors did not have access to, and that is why they are dated as such . For these episodes, Ace and Dick are in Europe with a valuable box of film, but their trip is under a constant threat of danger from “the Tunis Terror, an international organization of anarchists .” The second episode involves Ace getting into a duel with politician Don Carlos Domingo. He gives Dick instructions about how to secretly film the duel. The main characters in the series are Ace, Dick , along with Jane Parson, a lively 13 year old girl, Seaman Diggles, a comical cockney sailor, Mr. Parsons, an American millionaire, and Steve Parker, a rival cameraman. Not all of these characters are in these two episodes. * * * These recordings are part of the Joe Hehn Memorial Collection. Mr. Hehn (1931-2020) was a pioneering collector of radio recordings when the hobby emerged in the 1960s. Digitizing his collection of reel tapes and discs is the effort of a wide range of North American volunteers, and includes assistance of some international collectors. The groups supporting this effort with their funds, time, technology and skills are the Old Time Radio Researchers and a small group of transcription disc preservationists who refer to themselves as the "The Knights of the Turning Table."
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.