Old Time Radio

When Radio Ruled #151 – A 1930s Christmas

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Holiday Spirit from 1937, 1938, and 1939
as served up by Old Time Radio!

Christmas Time is here again. A time when us older folks reconnect with the child we once were. Moments from past Christmases relived, smiles and tears remembered. Longing and gratitude and the laughter of those we’ve lost.

At least that’s what happens to me. Every Christmas that passes magnifies the memories of Christmases from a lifetime ago.

Old Time Radio like this helps me through the bittersweet nostalgia for days that no longer exist.

Starring Santa Claus and The Christian God

Also Appearing

Don Wilson

Mary Livingstone

Jack Benny

Eddie “Rochester” Anderson

Kenny Baker

Rudy Vallee

Fred Allen

Shirley Temple

Nelson Eddy

Orson Welles

Eddie Cantor

Dennis Day

Robert Young

Baby Snooks and Daddy

Lionel Barrymore

Reginald Owen

And More!!

Click Here to Visit Christmas in the 1930s!!!

When Radio Ruled #148 – OTR Thanksgiving 2025

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Happy Thanksgiving!!

The concept of Thanksgiving is as ancient as ancient can be. Harvest festivals dedicated to the god or gods currently in fashion as thanks for abundance and the survival it would provide.

But like so many things, Americans have made thanksgiving their very own with traditions and customs created and nurtured here in the good old USA.

FEATURING:

Lionel Barrymore

Edward Arnold

Fanny Brice

Hanley Stafford

Nelson Eddy

Cecil B. DeMille

Mickey Rooney

Don Wilson

Amos ‘n Ady

Wally Brown

Dinah Shore

Winston Churchill

And More

CLICK HERE FOR TURKEY TALK FROM THE 30s AND 40s

When Radio Ruled #147 – SoundScape 1939 part 20

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Curated clips of live broadcasts from popular radio shows of the day. Radio highlights originally broadcast live October 8 through October 15, 1939.

A tapestry of History through the eyes of people as they lived it, reported by radio.

In today’s SoundScape:

What the Jack Benny cast did on Summer Vacation!

Dennis Day Joins the Jello Cast!

Orson Welles takes us to Tangiers!

Bert Lahr visits Fred Allen!

Andy Devine visits Jack Benny!

And More!!

Featuring:

Jack Benny

Eddie “Rochester” Anderson

Mary Livingston

Phil Harris

Don Wilson

Dennis Day

Orson Welles

Paulette Goddard

Fibber McGee and Molly

Fred Allen

Portland Hoffa

Wynn Murray

The Merry Macs

Bert Lahr

Andy Devine

And More!

SoundScape 1939 part 20 is just a Click Away!!!

When Radio Ruled 143 – Birth of the SitCom

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Early American entertainment included the circus, the minstrel show, vaudeville, broadway revues, all popular forms of the variety show.

And it was talent from those stage shows that created radio.

But radio wasn’t the same as the stage.

Radio was different manifesting new possibilities for entertainment.

An opportunity to entertain with new formats.

The situation comedy was one such format, brand new, a child of radio, never before seen in the history of man.

Although the situation comedy format is only a hundred or so years old, there is still a mystery surrounding who was the first and when.

My research indicates three radio shows have claim to be the first situation comedy. But the early recordings that exist casts some doubt on each claim.

That is, according to my definition of Situation Comedy.

If you know others who might be the first, or have recordings I have failed to discover, or want to argue a different definition of SitCom, please let me know in a comment on BeforeTvBlog.com.

FEATURING:

Sam ‘n Henry

Jim and Marion Jordan

George Burns

Gracie Allen

Fibber McGee and Molly

Groucho Marx

Chico Marx

Jack Benny

Phil Harris

Mary Livingstone

Kenny Baker

Eddie “Rochester” Anderson

And More!!

Click Here if You Got Time to Sit and Learn of SitComs!

When Radio Ruled #137 – Fred Allen’s People You Didn’t Expect to Meet 1939

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Fred Allen and the people you didn’t expect to meet 1939.

Fred Allen was famously a control freak on his radio shows. Although he used a staff of writers, it was just to generate ideas and jokes that would be incorporated into the final script that Fred always wrote personally.

Each minute of those shows were a reflection of Fred, including his frequent on air conversations from many folks from many walks of life.

I, personally, am grateful to Fred for helping me to appreciate the lives lived by folks in that past by allowing those folks to tell their own stories.

I think you will also enjoy those  real life stories.

Give Old Fred’s 1939 Conversations a Listen!

When Radio Ruled #132 – SoundScape 1939 part 12

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Curated clips of live broadcasts from popular radio shows of the day.

History through the eyes of people as they lived it, reported by radio.

In today’s SoundScape:

The Town Hall News!

A Newsreel Camera Man!

Fred Allen Bad Mouths Jack Benny!

Life Begins at 40!

And More

Featuring:

Cecil B DeMille

Dr. Ronald W. McCorkle

Fibber McGee and Molly

Harry Van Steeden

Fred Allen

Portland Hoffa

The Merry Macs

Jack Benny

Don Wilson

Phil Harris

Mary Livingstone

Andy Devine

Eddie “Rochester” Anderson

Edgar Bergen

Charlie McCarthy

Don Ameche

Ginger Rogers

And More!

Click Here To Take a Trip to 1939!

When Radio Ruled #130-SoundScape 1939 part 11

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Curated clips of live broadcasts from popular radio shows of the day.

History through the eyes of people as they lived it, reported by radio.

In today’s SoundScape:

Royalty are just regular folks!

Jack Benny with the Hollywood Gossip!

The Patent Office is Your Friend!

Frank Morgan talks Wizard of Oz and World Fairs!

A Big Dose of Great Swing Music!

And More

Featuring:

Cecil B Demille

Fibber McGee and Molly

Jack Benny

Mary Livingstone

Don Wilson

Kenny Baker

Orson Welles

Zasu Pitts

The Green Hornet

Barney Rapp and His New Englanders featuring Ruby Wright

Baby Snooks and Daddy

Frank Morgan

Connie Boswell

Doris Day

Phil Harris

Eddie “Rochester” Anderson

Andy Devine

And More!

Click Here for a Radio Journey Down Memory Lane!

When Radio Ruled #114 – SoundScape 1939 part 3 (January 24 – March 2, 1939)

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1939 was a year where everything changed. An uneasy peace became all out war.  Society and culture and government were questioned as never before. The evil inside the human race made itself known that year, as ferocious as in the past but applied with an improved efficiency.

Radio was there to witness it.

And I got to Live 1939 second hand through these radio voices from the past.

In my OTR collection I have hundreds of hours of 1939 broadcasts. I listened to them in Chronological order to research the documentaries, the year 1939 as seen through comedy, drama, music, and of course news broadcast at the moments the history happened.

Here are curated highlghts of that journey for you to experience. This Soundscape delivers January 24 – March 2 1939 as seen by Old Time Radio, presented by the following voices from the grave, alive again because you’re listening:

Fibber McGee

Harlow Wilcox

Orson Welles

George Kaufmann

Jack Benny

Don Wilson

Mary Livingston

The Phil Harris Orchestra

Andy Devine

Eddie “Rochester” Anderson

Nelson Eddy

Charlie McCarthy

Edgar Bergen

Don Ameche

Dorothy Lamour

Maureen O’Sullivan

The Family Doctor

The Billy Mills Orchestra

Helen Hayes

And more!

Give a Listen to SoundScape 1939 part 3!

When Radio Ruled #104 – SoundScape 1938 part 30

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My personal OTR collection contains thousands of hours of old time radio I use  in order to create the year by year historical When Radio Ruled documentaries, and as I listen to each episode I extract the most interesting and entertaining bits to create a best of reel as a reference for when writing the scripts. And that’s what you are about to hear, part of that best of reel, a one hour chunk of really great audio artifacts from 1938.

The Episode consists of a curated collection of Old Time Radio Clips originally broadcast live November 25 through December 11, 1938.

Starring:

Orson Welles

Agnes Moorehead

Don Wilson

Jack Benny

Phil Harris

Kenny Baker

Mary Livingstone

Eddie “Rochester” Anderson

Cast of Family Doctor

Featured Songs Include

They Say – Helen Forrest with the Artie Shaw Orchestra

My Reverie – Helen Forrest with the Artie Shaw Orchestra

Who Blew Out The Flame – Helen Forrest with the Artie Shaw Orchestra

Pocketful of Dreams – Phil Harris and His Orchestra

In this episode:

Some Smoking Jazz From Artie Shaw!

Jack Benny has a bad cold!

Flash Benny Football Hero!

The Benny Gang Visits New York!

Jack’s Annual Christmas Shopping Trip!

And More!!

Click Here to Hear SoundScape 1938 part 30