Since images are kind of borked and it's 2AM I'm going to dispense with the usual structure and prattle and just say that after a couple of months of being extremely busy and having a few computer issues, here is the very belated December classic radio post:
drive.google.com
With 2 days to go before Christmas it would seem only fitting that aside from the omnipresent Star Wars shows, the only other thing in the radio folder is a collection of classic Christmas-themed programs that can literally last you two whole days (it's over 100 programs and clocks in at like 15 minutes short of 50 hours).
Sorted into 5 "discs" (by tags, not within sub-folders) the collection is by no means an exhaustive assortment of holiday programs but it covers some of the most prominent shows of the time/that I had easy access to and is divided up more or less by genre.
Disc 1 is a quartet of dramatic adaptations, featuring two years of The Mercury Theatre starring Orson Welles adapting A Christmas Carol. The 1938 performance has Welles in the lead as Scrooge while in the 1939 version he cedes the role to Lionel Barrymore, who had a long history of portraying Scrooge on radio before eventually being cast as the villainous Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life. And speaking of, the other two programs on this disc are Lux Radio Theatre adaptations of popular Christmas films, the first being It's a Wonderful Life starring James Stewart and Donna Reed reprising their roles from the movie. The second Lux offering is a condensed version of Miracle on 34th Street again retaining two primary cast members in Maureen O'Hara (the film's lead, Doris Walker) and Edmund Gwenn (Kris Kringle)
Disc 2 offers the bulk of the collection, over half of all shows contained in this release, and comprises the comedy and variety portion of the set. You've got shows from an array of series including The Jack Benny Program, Abbott & Costello, Burns & Allen, the various Fred Allen series, an episode of Bing Crosby's variety series, Fibber and Molly McGee, and a few more. Burns & Allen and Jack Benny especially had long runs with yearly Christmas episodes and make up the most significant chunk of the disc but they're generally top notch quality.
Disc 3 shifts gears to detectives, mystery shows, and dramas as The Saint, Nick Carter, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, Gunsmoke, Dragnet and others get in on the action with holiday capers.
Disc 4 is some yuletide mystery and suspense with The Shadow, Suspense, The Whistler, and more providing a bit of creepy fun with a Christmas edge
and Disc 5 finishes up with some modern public domain offerings from BBC Radio: A 10-part dramatic reading of A Christmas Carol, a 4 part full-cast adaptation of The Nutcracker & The Mouse King, which was later adapted into the famous Tchaikovsky ballet (via an adaptation of the story by Alexandre Dumas), and a 5 part anthology of tales themed around Twas The Night Before Christmas. They're a little odd in a set of mostly vintage American shows, but they were there for the taking and I figured might have some interest.
If the drive link above isn't working by the morning let me know and I'll check into it. I had some issues getting the old files deleted and new ones synced properly so I'm not 100% if everything worked.
Given the timing of everything I also can't promise a timely January release of shows as I've fallen way behind on cataloging my collection but we'll see how things proceed from here.
variety.com
The up-to-date progression of my BW collection over the last 6 or so years:
