This week, the original horror--"The Witch's Tale," with an excellently preserved recording of the show originally broadcast on May 16, 1932. Plus, a look at how the show's creator, Alonzo Deen Cole, began his career and started a trend that still reverberates throughout media today.
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1930s Radio Programming Originally Broadcast on This Date.
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1930s Radio Programming Originally Broadcast on This Date.
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For Every Andy, There was a Lum... For Every Amos, an Abner

It was a common practice among producers and writers in radio: Take a proven character type and reproduce it in another form, keeping the original appeal and story structure as closely as possible.

Amos 'n' Andy was the serial that triggered a flood of duo-comedies in the 1930s. Some were more successful than others, ranging from the short-lived "Si and Elmer" to the long-running Lum and Abner, which comes closest among these to matching the ratings and fame of the original.

The parallels between "Amos 'n' Andy" and "Lum and Abner" are hard to miss: two friends who set up and run a local small business, but who also face connivers and personal trials along the way.

In both serials, there is a proud, boastful leader and a meek, trusting follower. The follower often appears surprisingly to have more philosophical insight than the leader, one of the deeper ironies of these shows. In the original, the proud leader was Andy; in "Lum and Abner," it was Lum. The followers were Amos and Abner.

Amos and Andy originated the format of the continuing story line, often attributed as the main cause of its success. "Lum and Abner," like all the other serials, borrowed that formula, as well.

Even in the creators, the parallels are astonishing: Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll wrote all the scripts for "Amos 'n' Andy," and they acted most of the roles on the radio. Likewise, Chester Lauck and Norris Goff created, wrote, and acted the characters of Lum and Abner. And they built their careers based entirely on these characters.

There was one crucial difference, however. Amos 'n' Andy was charged with controversy, despite the writers' conscious attempts to avoid it. "Lum and Abner" was not.

Gosden and Correll faced one barrier to full public acceptance: they were whites performing as blacks. This was not necessarily an obstacle to success, and in many ways it may have actually boosted their audience. But it was the source of all the charges of racism that have haunted the show even until today.

Lauck and Goff, by contrast, played exactly the people they really were: white, rural southerners from a poor, isolated mountain hamlet in Arkansas. Like their "blackface" counterparts, they did not have much opportunity for education or affluence. But they had heart and soul.

As a result, Lum and Abner remains a radio classic, as enjoyable as Amos 'n' Andy. It also has stereotypes and borders on the offensive at times, however lovable the characters may be.

And with Lum and Abner, you can actually enjoy the stereotyping... without all the guilt.

Radio Journeys presents all the 1935 episodes of "Lum and Abner," four times a week just like the original broadcasts. Check each daily schedule for the times.

Today's episode is scheduled as follows, U.S. Eastern time: 4:45 am 11:45 am 6:45 pm 1:45 am

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A Case of "The Last and Only..."

The Marx Brothers may have been a hit at the movies, but their success on the radio was, well, animal crackers.

Five-Star Theater debuted on NBC's Blue Network on Monday, November 28, 1932. The idea behind this "series of series" was novel: So that sponsors Colonial Oil Company and Standard Oil--soon to be known as Esso--could get maximum exposure, NBC gave the show a nightly timeslot--weeknights at 7:30, but with a different program each night. On Tuesday night, Josef Bonime's Orchestra was on the air. Wednesday night featured "The Esso Theater," one of the earliest big-budget drama shows. Thursday night was opera night, with the Aborn Opera Company, and Friday was mystery night with Charlie Chan.

But the highlight was to be "Beagle, Shyster, and Beagle," heard on Monday nights, and starring those royal buffoons of the boxoffice, Groucho and Chico Marx. Groucho played Waldorf T. Beagle, a somewhat shady attorney, while Chico was Emanuel Ravelli, his assistant, a role Chico carried to the big screen in the movie Animal Crackers.

With the Marx Brothers, producers were confident Five-star Theater would be the biggest hit on the radio, and Standard Oil/Esso would be the happiest sponsors. But a real-life turn of events even zanier than anything Groucho could cook up would spell the early end of this series.

After hearing the show's very first broadcast, a real-life attorney named "Beagle" threatened to sue everyone involved in the show, from NBC to Standard right down to Groucho, for using his name. On the program's 4th broadcast, December 19, 1932, listeners suddenly found themselves tuning into "Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel." Nothing had changed, except that Groucho's character was now known as Waldorf T. Flywheel. The writers needed to explain this sudden name-change, and they did it in classic Groucho style: Waldorf's secretary told a client on the phone that Flywheel was divorced from his wife--and he was now using his maiden name.

The name change stopped the real Beagle from barking, but the critics started growling instead. Variety, the entertainment newspaper, complained that the show was violating Hollywood's restrictive self-censorship code by highlighting adultery and divorce.

The show we hear today is the last broadcast--and the only known recording-- of "Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel," from Monday, May 22, 1933. Although it had attained a 12th-place rating among all prime-time entertainment shows, Esso was turned off by the negative publicity, and a 12th-place rating wasn't enough to compensate. Meanwhile, rival oil company Texaco was blazing to the top with "Texaco Fire Chief Program" starring Ed Wynn. Fire Chief reached third place in ratings, dousing Esso's hopes.

And so the entire FIVE STAR THEATER format came to a screeching halt. None of the other segments had gained nearly the ratings of Groucho and Chico. The two returned to the movies, leaving Esso to look for another box of animal crackers.

Five-Star Theater's "Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel" is scheduled today, U.S. Eastern Time: 4 am 11 am 6 pm 1 am

Note: This recording is exceedingly rare and old and suffers from audio problems throughout.

--This article is based largely on one written by Danny Goodwin and published at www.old-time.com/commercials/

This week's feature is the Majestic Theater of the Air, a show that had been a mainstay of the late '20s CBS lineup, only to become an obscure 15-minute syndicated serial in the early 1930s. And, of course, three more installments of the serials of '32: Si and Elmer, with a new mystery in "The Lost Baby and Dog;" Family Doctor, episode 8; and Ann of the Airlanes, episode 18.
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1930s Radio Programming Originally Broadcast on This Date.
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1930s Radio Programming Originally Broadcast on This Date.
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"Here they are"... Restored!

Yes, here they are, once again... Amos 'n' Andy. Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll.

They were the most important writers in early radio, and their show was the most listened to on the radio until the mid-1930s. It is even today one of the most controversial.

On the one hand, the recordings of their shows are the trickiest for collectors, yet we are fortunate--or unfortunate, depending on your views of the show--to have so many from their earliest period.

In summer 2005 on the Radio Journeys podcast, we presented the complete recordings of Amos 'n' Andy's pre-network run of 1929, when it was syndicated, recorded and sent out to member stations in a "chainless chain."

These recordings were originally sent to member stations without any opening comments or introductions. Each episode was broadcast live only over WMAQ Chicago, and recorded earlier to be shipped on disc to stations. The WMAQ shows featured the mellifluous brogue of Bill Hay as the announcer, and Hay would later be heard nationwide after Amos 'n' Andy joined NBC. However, local stations had to find staff announcers to read the opening announcements, which were written on scripts accompanying each disc. There was no opening musical theme for Amos 'n' Andy in its pre-network run.

To present these shows in the most authentic manner possible last summer, we obtained copies of these opening scripts from broadcast historian and Amos 'n' Andy scholar Elizabeth McCleod. Podcast producer John Grimmett read the scripts, practicing the announcing style of the 1920s, and added some record noise from the Amos 'n' Andy recording to make each episode more complete.

Now, for May and June, we present these reconstructed episodes once again--the bodies of the shows as they were originally shipped to stations, but with added openings and closings, read straight from original scripts.

These episodes lead off each cycle, scheduled today as follows, U.S. Eastern Time: 3 am 10 am 5 pm 12 mid

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Today's Highlight, Wednesday, May 18:

Thursday is Americana Day...

Every Wednesday night during 1937 and '38, Americans heard a primetime lineup on CBS that included two of the now-great classics of 1930s radio: Cavalcade of America and Calling All Cars. The shows aired on CBS stations between 8 and 9 p.m., with Cavalcade aired nationwide and Calling All Cars on the West Coast. In 1939, Calling All Cars moved to Thursdays.

Both shows were ground-breakers in radio. Cavalcade was the first attempt to present a factually accurate representation of U.S. history in dramatization. Sponsored by Dupont, the chemical company, the show began in 1935 and won acclaim for its excellent writing and soundstage production.

Calling All Cars began in 1933 over CBS stations as one of the first--but not quite the first--police drama. It had much in common with the shorter, syndicated series "Police Headquarters," which aired in 1932, both in writing and plot. But Calling All Cars is considered by many today to be the first in a long line of police dramas, with features and elements seen even in t.v. police dramas today.

Both shows are presented on this stream in the order they were original broadcast on CBS, back to back, when possible. On Fridays, you can hear them exactly as they were originally broadcast, in their original Wednesday night pairing from 1937.

Cavalcade is scheduled today as follows, U.S. Eastern Time:
5 am 11 am 5 pm 11 pm
(NOTE: This recording has some audio problems during the first 5 minutes, but the rest of the recording is clean.)

Calling All Cars:
5:30 am 11:30 am 5:30 pm 11:30 pm

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Today's Highlight, Wednesday, May 17:

The little game show that could...

The network executives thought it would never have an audience, and even the panelists thought they'd be wasting their time, but on this date in 1938, Information, Please premiered.

Dan Golenpaul was the creator, a man with a reputation for stubbornness and tenacity. Golenpaul set out to raise the bar on quiz shows, turning them into shows that would educate and edify, not just entertain with empty content.

One of the most important innovations of this show was the element of listener participation, with listeners sending in questions to try to stump a panel of experts. the harder the questions, the more obscure the subject, the better. By stumping the experts, listeners could win.

And the grand prize? A full set of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Golenpaul selected Clifton Fadiman, a book editor and literary critic for New Yorker magazine, to be the host. Fadiman proved to be quite a draw, and rather than repelling the audience with its high-brow content, Fadiman was able to turn the show into something accessible by all. Such knowledge became fun, and more often than not, the questions and answers simply led to witty, highly entertaining conversation. It was relaxing, too.

On today's episode, the very first ever broadcast, Fadiman and Golenpaul did not yet have a listening audience to send in questions, so members of their families provided some of the questions, with Fadiman himself providing some as well. But by the very next episode, listener questions were streaming in, and a radio phenomenon was underway.

The premiere episode, from May 17, 1938, is scheduled today at:

4:30 am 9:30 am 2:30 pm 7:30 pm 12:30 am (All times U.S. Eastern)

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Today, we inaugurate our new Stream: "Daily OTR," with background on how the stream works, and what you can expect to hear there. Then, into four more episodes from the serials of 1932: Si and Elmer, "The Family Doctor," Omar (illustration at right), and "Ann of the Airlanes." More authentic than ever, and growing more so... That's Radio Journeys.

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This week, we celebrate the 50th episode, and first anniversary, of Radio Journeys with a special on Jack Benny... How and why he got into radio, featuring Benny's first "professional" appearance on the radio, from May 2, 1932. And, of course, two more episodes of the serials, "Si and Elmer" and "Family Doctor." It's the 50th episode of Radio Journeys, and that marks one full year of the Radio Nostalgia Network. Join us!

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Three programs this week from the same evening, Thursday, April 21, 1932: Omar the Wizard of Persia, Episode 10, Chandu the Magician, and Anson Weeks and His Orchestra--the last is the final surviving episode of Anson Weeks. Plus, Episode 17 of "A Dangerous Mystery Case" with those clumsy country sleuths, Si and Elmer.