After talking about, and listening to, War Of The Worlds on Bob Merritt's station this Halloween evening, it got me to wondering --

This is obviously the greatest radio broadcast of all time, and probably the ONLY one that most of today's population has ever heard, but there are certainly a lot of other notables.

Another in my opinion is the Campbell Playhouse, "A Christmas Carol" starring Lionel Barrymore. Yet another is the Suspense episode "Sorry Wrong Number" where Agnes Moorehead missed her cue and fainted near the end of the show. Seems I have that one, and the next week's "Banquo's Chair" where at the beginning the narrator clarified what happened on last week's show.

I also think another classic has to be Amos 'n Andy where Andy gets a job as Santa Claus in the department store. This was done a few times; a few different jokes but the same story.

I'm curious to hear what others think.

War Of The Worlds really ranks high on the list.

How about Herb Morison's description of the Hindenburg fire on May 6, 1937. It was the day after I was 8 years old, and I remember seeing it in the papers. I heard recordings of the broadcast later.

Also, wasn't Lou Gehrig's farewell speech broadcast? that should qualify, also.

Maybe stretching a bit, but "God Bless America" was introduced on the Kate Smith program, Armistice day, 1938. A re-enactment of that program appears in the film, of "This Is The Army".

Those are all good. One of my personal favorites of extant radio programs is Adventures By Morse "City of the Dead" and "Dead Men Prowl."

Of non-extant ones, I would love to hear I Love A Mystery "The Case of the Transplanted Castle."

I wish the Captain Post mysteries were extant.

Hindenburg fire.

"Giants win the pennant"

War of the Worlds

When it comes to songs being introduced live on the radio, I learned recently that the song, "The Night Before Christmas" was introduced by Teenie, the little girl on Fibber McGee & Molly. I've heard this version of the song of course, but didn't know it was the original.

Don't remember the notable cast, but remember the story quite well. The one standing out in my memory is about the invasion of the killer ant horde onto a Central or South American plantation. It's about as gripping a story of survival as could be told.

The next most horrendus tale that makes me shudder is the one about the lighthouse that's stormed by starving rats coming onto land from a nearby shipwreck -- to feast on the lighthouse crew.

My imagination was so peaked by the art of these productions, television was unnecessary and could not improve on the storytelling.

I don't have one... Radio was dead before I was even born

Those would be "Lenigen vs. the Ants" and "3 Skeleton Key" either on Suspense or X Minus One. I agree - VERY scary. My favorite was "Zero Hour" a show where the children led by a alien (Drill) from space took over the adult world. It starts, innocently enough when parents discover that their children all over seem to be playing the same harmless little game.The tape copy I had was with a background of ac hum so it was even more realistic. I heard it in the 50's - it scared the hell out of me then and still does.
Some of the post Orson Welles "The Shadow" broadcasts were pretty scary as well. I often wonder if Margo ended up in an asylum.

It seems to me that 99% of television drama of this sort are adaptations of eary radio shows. Even "Twilight Zone" was guilty.
If anyone still watches TV, which I do not, and remembers the utter drama and suspense conjured up in one's imagination listening to the radio, TV becomes more meaningless every day. I'm afraid, it reflects the low quality of entertainment people will settle for. To me it became like getting a bucket of manure dumped on your head from a 20th story window. We miss the radio drama but not the television.
Sorry to get off topic.

If I'm not mistaken, the two mentioned above were " Suspence " and " Escape " The best " X minus 1 " was by far, ' Star Bright '. ..... Gregg

I also thought "Mars is Heaven" was scary. Might have been on Dimension X or X minus One.

I'd consider the WJSV 1939 Complete Broadcast Day recording a classic.

My favorite part?


At 34:48 into the first segment, Arthur Godfrey says the following:


"How do you like Pepsi-Cola, mother? Do you like Pepsi-Cola? Why don't you get a lot of it and keep it around the house and serve it to the kids when they come home from school...it won't hurt 'em, it's good for 'em. Wholesome, healthful, made from the essence of pure fruit juices, you couldn't hurt anybody with it. And its tangy fruit flavor appeals to young and old alike. And it's only 5 cents. Five cents for a big 12 ounce bottle that contains two full glasses. Or two glasses full. Now why don't you get one of the handy carry home cartons, six bottles of Pepsi-Cola. The price is only six dolla...six for a quarter. You get that? Six for a quarter! When you buy six of them, you get one free. Buy it straight, it's five cents a bottle. Six for a quarter, and the carton is easy to carry, handy to store, convenient for returning the empty bottles. Drink Pepsi-Cola!"

Great slogan, don't you think?

Truely that's right up there with Jack Benny's Lucky Strike ads and more doctors smoke Camels. I relisten to Mercury Theatre "War of the Worlds" about every 6 weeks. For presence, really scary "ghosts" and suprise ending it's The Whistler episode "Retribution". And I agree. The picture is still better on the radio.

Doug,

You are very accurate here. War of The Worlds will always be number one. There is no doubt about that. Good point also on the Lou speech. Although that is probably more of a Television moment than a radio one.

War of The Worlds, most classic broadcast ever!

WOW would not have been as noticed, had Nelson Eddie not broken into some ' lite opra ' on the Edgar Burgan, Charlie McCarthy show. Most people were listening to Burgan,and changed stations when Eddie started singing, thereby missing the opening of Mercury Thea. The rest is history. I have recordings of both pgms., and would have changed stations also ! ..... Gregg

I think that the most under rated show was Orson Welles "The Third Man", also known as "The Lives Of Harry Lime". These are astonishingly good shows. Many (most? all?) sound like they were written by Welles also.

Sophisticated stories, clever jokes, and just generally very well written. These would have been way "over the heads" of most people in 1951/52 when they were originally broadcast.

It helps if you have seen the the movie "The Third Man", so you know who/what kind of person Harry Lime is. You can enjoy the radio shows without seeing the movie, but the movie is also highly recommended if you are an Orson Welles fan.

Fortunately all 52 episodes are available in good quality MP3 files.

Orson Welles at his very best. Better than The Shadow and War Of The Worlds combined.

Over the head? Hmmm . . . maybe.

I never saw the movie, so maybe something's missing here. But it seems the story is basically that of some kind of white-collar crook, written in a fashion that has you rooting for the crook. The guy runs around, finds out somebody has a treasure somewhere, and flirts with ladies -- whatever -- in an effort to snatch the treasure himself, but something always goes wrong and he never does. Interspersed with snippets of that mandolin theme, enough to make you grow really tired of the mandolin. If someone likes it, fine -- but I prefer Mercury Theatre and the Shadow.

Not mandolin, zither. But I must agree with Gary, the show grew old for me long before I heard all the episodes. The same with "I Was a Communist for the FBI". I guess I would have had to have lived during the Joe McCarthy red scare to appreciate that heavy of handed propaganda. I personally like the Jack Benney shows. That guy was a comic genius.

Zither, whatever, I stand corrected. I just heard another episode of it this morning, from Bob Merrit's station. Harry has some bag of $100,000 in counterfeit bills, trades it with some Greek guy with $10,000 in his pocket. They spend the train ride, on the Orient Express no less, each talking about the money they're carrying. They trade each other's bills. Then some girl comes in and sits down. Then they go through a tunnel and lights go out, and when they can see again the bag of money is gone. He discovers the little bag is in a bigger bag. He opens the window. Another tunnel and suddenly the big bag is gone. Must've gone out the window. So he pulls the emergency cord, gets out of the train which apparently is still inside the tunnel, and trips over a body. It's the Greek guy who arranged to get the money back, but the big bag hit him on the head. The police are there too, and they give Harry a medal for capturing a crook.

All the while I'm going, "Yeah, right!"

Apparently it is still over the heads of most people. There is more to it than that. The zither music makes it even better.

Its like saying Gone With The Wind is "about a spoiled little rich girl who loses everything because of the civil war, then she runs a lumber yard and gets rich again due to all the post war reconstruction. Yeah right!"

There is slightly more to it than that.