How we looking on red and white paint then?
'Barbie' production emptied a company's worldwide supply of pink paint
The 'Barbie' film used so much pink paint that it depleted the global reserves of its supplier, Rosco, which were already limited by supply chain issues.www.latimes.com
In a world, where there is no more pink paint....
) It will take a few seconds to compress the content into the requisite files and begin the download and then *boom* you've got the stuff on your computer. Open the compressed download files with Windows' innate ability to read zip files or with a program like WinZip or WinRAR if you have it and extract it and you will have a folder full of MP3 audio files of all the episodes that were available.
www.winamp.com
It's time for the June release of my radio collection. For anyone who doesn't know what this is from the previous month's post, here is a spoiler-tagged version of the original preamble, including instructions on how to download the files:
WHAT IS THIS POST?
As I've discussed previously in this thread, at the end of the regular season there was some discussion that started from an off-hand mention I made of listening to some old radio shows that turned into posting a few youtubes of such shows that in turn became multiple posters expressing interest in classic radio content.
Thus was born this idea where once a month I'm going to post a google drive link with maybe 3-7 GB of Old Time Radio (OTR) content from my collection free to download and listen as you see fit.
Yes I realize that actually loading content onto a device has somewhat gone the way of the dodo in favor of streaming directly from services like Spotify or even just Youtube, but I have actual files here because a) I like archiving stuff in case the streaming platform goes *poof* one day, b) I like not being tethered to internet access for times where I might be too far away from a stable wifi network or not want to use my phone data/might not want to use my phone itself (like when I'm cutting the lawn. If I drop an old MP3 player that I bought cheap off Amazon and it gets eaten by the mower that sucks but life goes on. If I do it to my phone that's a big loss), and c) having actual files gives me greater control over their info and sorting in terms of stuff like being tagged with correct info or having album art or whatever.
So below you will find a Google Drive link to a folder, which should be accessible to anyone. In there will be sub-folders for the shows I am sharing
WHY MIGHT YOU WANT TO GIVE THESE A LISTEN?
Because essentially these are no different than a modern dramatic/comedy podcast in terms of how they're delivering content. It's a 20-60 minute story or series of sketches or whatever that you can enjoy. The fact that these were a thing going back into the 1930s or beyond makes me laugh because I remember when podcasts started and they were all just "people talking about stuff" until someone hit on the idea of recording audio shows in podcast form and it was like this revelation of unexplored new content. Meanwhile there was anyone who's ever listened to OTR content saying "that's not new. That's how mass media entertainment first evolved beyond books. Contained audio dramas or comedy shows were a thing a century ago and only died out en masse into the 50s with the rise of television as the dominant home entertainment delivery vehicle.
Yes, it's a fair point that some of the acting is going to be a bit hammy. If you've ever watched old movies from the 30s to the 50s or 60s, when the school of acting was still largely driven by stage performances, you know what it's like. People emote hard, sometimes over-state things that could be left to subtext, and occasionally deliver hackey or cringey lines that sound ridiculous. And yes on occasion there's going to be some stuff that's a bit inappropriate or insensitive given the progression of racial or gender sensitivities in the last 80+ years. But there are also plenty of examples of relatively positive (or at least positive-for-their-day portrayals and some fun and interesting stories or legitimately hilarious jokes and comedy bits.
Basically if you ever find yourself in a place where you need some entertainment while driving/traveling, working outside, exercising, or any other time where you can't necessarily watch a screen, then this might be for you. An if it turns out this month isn't, maybe next month will be. It's a wide world of content out there.
HOW TO GET/USE THE FILES (& INFO ABOUT THEM)
Each month my available files will be placed in a google drive folder called Nem's OTR Collection, located here:
Nem's OTR Collection - Google Drive
drive.google.com
(I believe spoiler tags are missed by search engines and webcrawlers, so I'm hoping that this might help keep the link a little more focused to the direct audience here on HF)
In it you will find folders corresponding to each show I have made available, all formatted as "[OTR] <name of show> <years of production>"
The name structure is just so that when I have the folders in my content library they are grouped by type and easier to find. You're free to rename them however you want once downloaded.
If you want to download a whole show in one go, at the end of the subfolder name (exact positioning varies based on what view you're in, folder or list) is a little icon of 3 vertical dots. Click it and from there you should be able to select a "download" option.
View attachment 701204
I believe google drive portions out folder downloads in chunks no bigger than 2GB at a time, zips them up into a compressed folder and then downloads that to wherever your browser downloads go on your computer (the dedicated download folder or you have to specify or whatever. I don't know, I'm not you
If you just want individual episodes or a few at a time, double-click the folder to open it up to its contents and from there you can pick and choose what to download, taking just a selection of episodes at a time.
From there it's just a matter of loading them into the player of your choice. You can copy them onto a device like your phone or an iPod/MP3 player, simply locate them in an audio player program/app like iTunes or Winamp, link them into your digital assistant/home audio system if it supports that (I don't have one, I don't know) or whatever you want.
If you don't have a player on your computer I recommend Winamp. It's free and historically has been pretty good for this sort of stuff.
Downloads - Winamp
Looking for the current version of Winamp? While we’re working hard on the new Winamp, we recommend downloading the latest desktop version here, as we guarantee it is safe for you to use.
If you're having any issues with making any of this work, let me know and I'll do my best to help
As for the files themselves, I have done my best to update their internal tags that would be used by most audio players and programs so that the will sort and display in a logically consistent way with appropriate information. Just to quickly run down how things should be formatted (I may not have been totally consistent on this):
Show/series titles are listed as the "album". For shows that existed with multiple titles over the years, or were titled with the sponsor in the name and changed each time the sponsor changed I default to a general, all-encompassing name. Ditto for shows that had multiple distinct runs separated by months or years and possibly the network they were on.
The "artist" for a show is usually the star or stars and will change as the primary role is recast (for example any episodes of The Saint not featuring Vincent Price will be credited to the actor playing Simon Templar for that episode instead of Price)
The "album artist" is a complete listing of the radio networks that broadcast the series across it's time on air. The individual network at the time for an episode is listed as the "composer" (because iTunes at least separates albums by album artist even if the album title itself is identical)
The "disc number" field is used to separate broadcast runs or seasons that have breaks in between if they exist.
Track Numbers are, wherever possible, set based on actual broadcast episode #s. so you may find that you play a show where the track numbers go 1, 2, 4, 6, 23, 45, etc. This is because the 3rd, 5th, 7th-22nd, 24th-44th episodes are all missing and unavailable. This won't always hold true though as some shows make it prohibitively difficult to source episode numbers.
The genre is always set to "Old Time Radio" to make the shows easily searchable in your library by genre.
Each album and episodes also have custom album art by me.
THIS MONTH'S THEME/SELECTION & SHOWS
As always the Google Drive is located here:
Nem's OTR Collection - Google Drive
For this month I felt like breaking with any specific theme and instead just casting a bit of a wider net to go for for a collection that's a bit more upbeat, fun, and enjoyable while spanning a couple of significant genres. To that end, our 4 collected series for this month are:
1) The complete (surviving) collection of 1951-55 detective series Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator
2) The complete (surviving) collection of 1950-51 adaptation of Rex Stout's seminal mystery stories, The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe
3) A selected portion (roughly 1/3rd of surviving episodes) from the iconic comedy duo of George Burns & Gracie Allen. This is not the entirety of my collection of the series, I have chosen to release just a portion of it to keep the size of the release managable.
4) A selected portion (approximately 1/5th of surviving episodes) from one of the most enduring and acclaimed comedy series of the radio era, The Jack Benny Program
What do these series have in common? Well, collectively not a ton. Barrie Craig and Nero Wolfe are both protagonists of mystery detective series, albeit in dramatically different settings and tones. The other two shows are standard comedy/variety format programs with some overlap and interaction between the two shows' major stars. Burns & Allen dipped their toes into the detective show world, but that was with Sam Spade and not either of these shows. But on the whole if I had to say there's a thread tying them together it's that all the shows are fun. Both Barrie Craig and Nero Wolfe are a bit more comedic and lighthearted than the usual detective noir fare there genre was built on. Craig was known for his cutting and sometimes flippant attitude in defiance of the standard brooding and hardboiled personality of most detectives. Nero Wolfe was known for his eccentricity and lack of concern for the normalcies of detective work. Neither is your archetypal detective show and is well-suited for some more relaxed and upbeat listening. Meanwhile the two comedies are among the better samples of the heights reached by radio comedy starring a trio of the most acclaimed comedians of their day.
Basically my intent is for you to be able to spend a light summer afternoon or evening getting a laugh or just relaxing with a cool drink and a breezy tale.
Now, in a bit more detail, what are you getting in each show? (along with a YT episode preview):
Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator
By the time Barrie Craig came to radio waves in October of 1951 the genre of detective dramas was already winding down. Philip Marlowe had gone off the air the previous September. Sam Spade wrapped up earlier in the year at the end of April. Radio was already facing the oncoming spectre of television and the changing tastes of its audience, but that didn't mean the genre had died only required some amount of alteration and evolution.
For Barrie Craig, that meant eschewing the genre's staples of serious, hardboiled gumshoes in favor of a more laid-back and approachable attitude, described as the "everyman" detective (or, as Barrie himself would insist, confidential investigator). Character actor William Gargan brought the role to life with a rotating cast of supporting actors playing the broad array of cops, dames, shysters, victims, and ne'er-do-wells. Though the series wasn't as grim and grimy as classic detective yarns, it still featured its titular investigator getting tangled up in all sorts of unsavory goings on and having to work his way out with quick thinking, fast talking and a little bit of preparedness and sometimes a fair amount of luck.
An original creation not cribbed from existing noir fiction like many of his compatriots, Gargan played the role of Barrie Craig (though some sources insist the series began life as Barrie Crane but even in the earliest preserved episode, the 3rd of the series, he is clearly referred to as "Craig" in dialogue and narrator patter) for the entire run of an estimated 143ish episodes over 5 years before the show wound down and ended in 1955. Along the way it moved production from New York to California and survived at least one apparent cancellation (the September 7th, 1954 episode, "Ghosts Don't Die in Bed." concluded with the narrator announcing the conclusion of the series and the hope that it will return to air some time in the future. That time would be like 3 weeks later in early October) and was generally praised for its high production value and quality work from the writers and cast.
Of those 143(ish) episodes, 60 have survived to the present though some have mild amounts of corruption or missing portions. Still, 42% of a series is a solid survival rate for an old time radio series.
Barrie Craig might rank as my second favorite "true" detective series (excluding things like The Saint or The Shadow that straddle into other genres) behind only Philip Marlowe for its unique voice and lighter, enjoyable air. Gargan is good as a more affable, glib investigator and the supporting cast is solid and includes some of the great radio talents of the era (this includes the show's narrator for most of its run, Don Pardo. He might be more famous now as the long-running announcer for Saturday Night Live from its early era in the late 70s until his death in 2014.)
The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe
In the 1930s American novelist Rex Stout created his seminal character of Nero Wolfe. Turning the detective genre on its head, Wolfe wasn't a classic private eye or even a wealthy man-about-town in the vein of Lamont Cranston or Simon Templar. Instead he was an irritable, irrascable, set-in-his-ways gourmand whose distaste for unpleasant physical work was matched only by his deep interests in his vices such as food, beer, books, and flowers. After several less-than-successful attempts to adapt Wolfe to radio in the 30s and 40s we fast-forward to 1950 where NBC launched their effort starring acclaimed character actor Sydney Greenstreet as Wolfe and a variety of actors over its one-season run as Wolfe's leg-man Archie Goodwin.
Like Barrie Craig, this is not a "funny" series, but it definitely skews more lighthearted than other detective shows and the primary focus is on the characters and their interactions rather than the mystery that drives the story. It makes for a satisfying casual listen and gives you enough plot to get you engaged while the interactions of Wolfe, Archie, and the characters in their orbits will be what hooks you on the series.
Though Rex Stout praised the series as a successful adaptation of his works, it failed to last more than its one season on the air and finished after a run of 26 episodes. On the bright side all but one of those episodes survived and except for the missing 4th episode you can listen to the entire rest of the series in this set.
The Burns & Allen Show
A reliable vaudeville act and stars of a number of popular movies in the early 1930s, eventually radio came calling for husband-and-wife comic double act George Burns and Gracie Allen. Though I can't swear the story is true, I have a recollection of a story in which their original act featured Burns as the comic focal while Allen played the straight man (or woman) to him. However over time George noticed that Gracie would tend to get the bigger laughs on her lines. One day during a performance Gracie forgot the next line of her bit and rather than cause the performance to lose steam as she regrouped, she shifted gears, rattling off a string of rapid-fire, densely packed pie-in-the-sky nonsense that confounded George and generated huge laughs from the audience. From that point the act was changed into George as the beleaguered, put upon straight man while Gracie operated on a wavelength that made sense only to her. It wasn't a total shift as George retained his arrogance and delusions of grandeur which Gracie would alternately play into or reject as the bit required. Still, this new wavelength for their act catapulted them to greater fame and eventually a lengthy tenure hosting a semi-self-titled show sponsored by a number of companies over its nearly 15 years on the air.
The show generally followed a simple format. A major throughline story featuring George, Gracie, and some of their friends would carry most of the runtime, with segments dedicated to the show's musical acts (usually an orchestra with a band leader who served as a character all his own. For a portion of the series' early run they also had a singing act, either a solo singer or a group) and to sponsorship segments extolling the virtues of whoever was paying the bills for the show (the most recognizable brands that carried runs of the series were Hormel and its flagship product, Spam, and later Maxwell House Coffee.) Often the sponsor plug was integrated into the plot or flow of the major storyline for comedic effect usually by chief supporting actor (and friend of George Burns) Bill Goodwin.
As the series hopped between CBS and NBC over the years some of the cast changed but the core of the show was always Burns, and Allen, with Goodwin along for most of the ride. Notable contributors included character actor Bea Benederet (famously of 60s sitcom Petticoat Junction, a recurring role on the Beverley Hillbillies, and as the original voice of Betty Rubble on The Flintstones), "The Music Man" producer and star Meredith Wilson (as one of the regular band leaders while also playing a fictionalized version of himself as a well-meaning but bumbling country goof constantly jostled around by the machinations of the show's stars) and a recurring run by voice legend Mel Blanc in a variety of zany roles including the Burns' mailman, an employee of various odd jobs who is unable to perform his task if he is interrupted, needing to start again from his opening lines each time, and a rich Texas oil baron who constantly stumbles into more fortune and looks down on the rest of the country for not being Texas.
Eventually in 1950 the show transitioned to television and after a few short years in that new medium Gracie decided to call it a career. Legend goes that during a wrap party, already suffering ill health for several years, she looked around the set and said something along the lines of "You know, I think that's enough."
George would continue the series for another year or two before ending it. After Gracie passed away in 1964 George would withdraw from the spotlight for a time before making a return in the 70s as one of the original "cool old guys" of Hollywood, keeping pace with younger comedians and showing he still had the chops. Fame found him again with his 1975 Oscar-winning turn in "The Sunshine Boys" and he officially became the elder statesman of comedy, working almost continuously until his death in 1996, shortly after his 100th birthday.
Burns & Allen were a pioneering doubles act in comedy, one of the first where the woman was the unquestioned star of the show. And in spite of his character's numerous gripes and frustrations over being upstaged by Gracie in their years on the air, the real George Burns made no secret of the fact that he was second banana in their duo.
This run of episodes does not encompass the entire run of the series. Of its almost 270 surviving episodes I have included just under 100, covering the surviving episodes of the show's earliest years (one episode from 1936, the majority beginning in 1940) through 1943.
The Jack Benny Program
Though Burns and Allen are often regarded as trailblazers of radio comedy, perhaps no show had a greater influence on the medium and the profession than the one belonging to Burns and Allen's good friend, Jack Benny.
Like most stars of his era, Benny began as a Vaudeville performer. However his stock and trade was as a violin performer, which served him well but not necessarily to great success. However over time he parlayed that skill into an act that more heavily relied on the comedy he would become known for. The transition to radio was a massive step forward for him, as the show he would assemble became one of the staples of the radio for over 20 years with its sharp focus and equally popular cast. The show found its groove as essentially a fictitious version of itself, with Benny and the cast playing exaggerated versions of their own personalities as the real show followed them in their efforts to produce its in-universe equivalent. It was essentially one of the early examples of the Sitcom on any airwaves and would influence the genre for decades to come.
The series was noted for its improvisation and running gags, often turning happy accidents and flubs into ongoing bits that would be referred back to for weeks or even years, and solified Jack Benny in his stage persona as a legendary cheapskate, always looking to save a buck by any means possible while also vastly overestimating his own musical and comedic prowess. Benny's ability to make others pay for almost everything, avoid spending even a penny without a fight, and constant use of his perpetually breaking down jalopy of a car were among the backbone of the jokes on the show over the years and became more synonymous with the man than any of his actual life exploits.
The other major contribution that the program made to the entertainment industry was its progressiveness. Benny was well known to be extremely intolerant of racist attitudes or discrimination around him and often fought with producers, recording locations, lodgings and basically anyone who sought to deny equal treatment to minority performers. He also made efforts to feature black musical acts on the show including Louis Armstrong The Ink Spots. But most notably one of the regular cast members was pioneering Black comedian Eddie Anderson in the role of Jack's valet and friend Rochester van Jones. It was the first regular role for a Black performer on a major nationwide American radio program and while some my still insist that the issue of Rochester being an employee of Benny reinforces racial stereotypes and keep him subservient, the two always treat each other with an appropriately friendly sense of rivalry and respect and Rochester often gets one over on his unscrupulously tight-fisted employer. Additionally, Benny altered the show's humor in its post World War II period to tone down and remove as much of the racially-tinged humor surrounding Rochester as possible, usually with only the character himself poking fun at aspects of the situation that would relate to his status as a Black man. Away from the show, Benny routinely went to bat for Anderson and other minority performers. During a World War II tour, on a rare instance in which Anderson was able to perform in the show because of army segregation rules, Benny spoke to a soldier who admitted his favorite character in the program was Rochester. When Benny offered to introduce Anderson to the man, the soldier refused, saying that it wouldn't be appropriate for a black man to sit at the table the soldiers were occupying in the base's mess. Benny was infuriated and promptly excoriated the soldier for his attitude before leaving the engagement early. Another time the cast and grew were staying at a hotel when several guests complained about the presence of Anderson in the establishment. When hotel staff informed Benny that Anderson would be required to leave, Benny said he would take care of the problem. The next morning Anderson checked out of the hotel along with the entire Jack Benny Program cast and crew, vowing not to return.
Like with Burns and Allen, this is not a complete run of the series. That would be impossible to do within the constraints I have on Google Drive's storage limits as the Jack Benny program is not only one of the most prolific series in radio history, but also one of the most well preserved. I am providing about 175 episodes running from its earliest days in 1932 through 1939. But that's just the tip of the iceberg as there are nearly 800 surviving episodes from a series that produced over 1000 entries in its run before transitioning to television.
As a final warning, it is probably worthwhile to note that as with most classic radio shows, these shows may at times have elements that are inappropriate or uncomfortable by modern sensibilities, especially the comedy shows. Though I have taken time to highlight their progressive aspects, there are going to be some things that haven't aged well in the 70+ years since they were recorded. I can't really excise all of those things, but I can at least caution you to approach them with an open mind, recognizing that they are products of their time and that progressiveness is always relative. The shows may have had things that are inappropriate now, but we wouldn't be at the place we are now without the steps that they had taken to be better than what came before them.
I loved him in Things to do in Denver when You're DeadTreat Williams, Star of 'Everwood' and 'Hair,' Dead at 71 Following Motorcycle Accident
"He was the nicest guy. He was so talented," Treat Williams' agent, Barry McPherson, tells PEOPLEwww.yahoo.com
RIP. Veteran character actor.
)
) It will take a few seconds to compress the content into the requisite files and begin the download and then *boom* you've got the stuff on your computer. Open the compressed download files with Windows' innate ability to read zip files or with a program like WinZip or WinRAR if you have it and extract it and you will have a folder full of MP3 audio files of all the episodes that were available.
www.winamp.com
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1> hahahaha1) Godzilla wouldn't pay attention to the invite regardless. He'd just show up, empty out the open bar, smash all the place settings, set the decorative floral archway on fire, then leave with an armful of the wedding gifts. Mothra can stick it.
2) I learned a long time ago that Japan's grievously random and unfettered use of English is like karmic revenge for all those dorks who got kanji tattoos but instead of "inner peace" they say "this side up" and other similar abuses of the Japanese language (my favorite of which is disgraced former comics artist/publisher/scummy asshat Pat Lee who got some intern to make his personal website up and include a string of katakana under his name to presumably be his name "in Japanese". But instead of figuring out how to write "Patorikku Ri" in kana, the person seemingly just got a kana-mapped typeface and typed out p-a-t-r-i-c-k-space-l-e-e as if that's how translations work. So for years his personal website gave his name in kana as "Michiyamenotehi Funana".
