Showing results by narrator "Old Time Radio" in All Categories

The ultra-realistic crime dramas of Dragnet were tight, tense, and always on target. Guided by Jack Webb from its radio premiere in 1949 right through to the series' end, the medium's most memorable police procedural never cut corners in its meticulous recreation of crime, investigation, and punishment. Follow LAPD Sgt. Joe Friday and his partners, Sgts. Ben Romero and Frank Smith, in 20 real-life cases from both the early weeks of the program's run and its later years!

From out of the rain-swept postwar night comes Harry Nile - a man who's seen it all, because he just can't look away. Here are 19 state-of-the-art radio noir dramas, produced by West Coast legend Jim French, and starring Larry Albert as the hard-boiled, straight-shooting Harry! This collection includes four more installments of the "War Comes To Harry Nile" storyline, a Christmas episode, two two-part adventures, and more. You'll hear Pat French, Jay Green, John Patrick Lowrie...and a whole bunch of killer cases.

Out of the rain and fog of the teeming Pacific Northwest he comes - the tough, methodical, incorruptible private eye Harry Nile. He's the foe of corruption, enemy of gangland, and the best friend you'll ever have when you're up against the wall. Harry gives as good as he gets in this collection of powerful radio adventures, produced, written, and directed by Jim French. Larry Albert takes over the role of Nile from the late Phil Harper, with Pat French back as the detective's assistant Murphy, for 16 cases of back streets and bad news.

He’s a smart tough guy…or a tough smart guy. Either way, he’s Pacific Northwestern private eye Harry Nile. From the imagination of Seattle-based writer-producer Jim French come 24 tense, exciting radio thrillers produced in the classic style by modern talent. Phil Harper is back as Nile, with Pat French as Murphy, in these hard-boiled cases for hard luck customers. Get set for radio excitement the way you like it best - with The Adventures of Harry Nile!

In the darkest reaches of the human psyche, there is no corner quite so dark as the fear of nameless, inevitable Fate. With its startling twists and its mocking laughter, Fate can take any of us at any time. We confront this fear by taking a grim satisfaction with the cruelties that Fate metes out to others. Because if it's happening to someone else, it isn't happening to us...right? The Whistler, the sneering narrator of each story, is the personification of Fate - bringing characters to their grim, well-deserved destinies with considerable panache.

Fred Allen specialized in literate wordplay, lacerating satire, and a squinty-eyed critique of the passing scene. His style was entirely his own: the slate-pencil whine of his voice, the ludicrously-named supporting characters, and the small-town-cum-big-city rattle of his dialogue. Join him in a promenade through parody, along with co-stars Portland Hoffa, Alan Reed, Kenny Delmar, Minerva Pious, John Brown, Charlie Cantor, and Parker Fennelly. Even Fred’s guest stars jump into the jest!

Michael Waring is the freelance investigator, troubleshooter, and adventurer known to one and all as The Falcon. One part The Saint, one part Boston Blackie, and one part Philip Marlowe - Waring can be suave and charming, especially when a lady is involved. But, there's never any doubt about his nail-spitting toughness, nor of his impatience with the plodding methods of the police - most often expressed in an endless stream of clenched-teeth wisecracks.

In the realm of unforgettable radio voices, there is one that stands head and shoulders above all others - one distinctive voice that could never be convincingly duplicated, one that brought its owner undreamed of success. It was a voice of sandpaper and gravel and rusty scrap iron, rasping over a nation's loudspeakers for more than 30 years.

When great stars (like Kirk Douglas and Ava Gardner) took their talents to the radio microphones, it was always a treat. But when these accomplished actors worked under the masterful direction of William Spier, it was radio's outstanding theater of thrills. You'll hear Angela Lansbury, Donald O'Connor, Gloria Swanson, José Ferrer, and more in well-crafted tales of doubt, double cross, and death. Steady your nerves for 20 classic tension-packed thrillers from 1947!

John Stanley takes over the role of the World's Most Famous Consulting Detective in this collection of Sherlock Holmes radio adventures, with Wendell Holmes as Watson! Priceless artifacts, vital plans, and human lives are at stake through eight hours of exciting episodes. This series goes back to basics with 16 classic tales of deductive mystery in the grand manner, mixing original adaptations of the Doyle canon with brisk new stories - including a three-part tale of international intrigue and espionage.

Deck the halls and prop up the antenna - because Christmas is on the air! Here come all of your radio favorites in a holly-wreathed collection of priceless holiday moments. These classic episodes are accented with humor, tinged with adventure, and well-seasoned with all the good family feelings that fill our hearts during this season of the year! From Fibber McGee & Molly to Suspense, from Red Skelton to Marshal Matt Dillon, from Mr. Benny to St. Nick himself, tune in to 10 full hours of seasonal entertainment!

By the 1956-57 season, Gunsmoke had reached the peak of its dramatic power as radio’s foremost adult western, with its powerful scripts and careful characterizations. William Conrad leads the cast as Marshal Matt Dillon, along with Parley Baer as Chester, Howard McNear as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty. The citizens of Dodge City, Kansas emerged as living, breathing embodiments of frontier America in radio dramas that represent the medium at its most potent. Experience 27 hard-hitting adventures from this landmark season in this collection!

Wherever there’s trouble - there’s Paladin. He is called on to find missing people, to find a way to protect those who have been targeted by the unscrupulous, to find criminals, and to find a resolution. John Dehner stars as the peripatetic champion of justice in twenty taut, thrilling tales of Western adventure from 1959. Ben Wright co-stars as Hey Boy, with Virginia Gregg as Miss Wong, in this series produced and directed by Norman Macdonnell.

Doses of concentrated thrills and pure, raw excitement are delivered directly on the heels of the most explosive musical theme in radio - a crashing rendition of Mussorgsky's "Night On Bald Mountain." Produced and directed by William N. Robson, Norman MacDonnell, and Antony Ellis - and featuring stories by Rudyard Kipling, Ambrose Bierce, and more - Escape is capable of chilling spines as expertly as it accelerates heartbeats.

Radio Spirits is pleased to present 20 classic tales from one of radio's greatest action and adventure series. This collection will bring you tales of black pearls, headhunters, volcanoes, Nazi convoys and cargos of gold in exotic settings and locales - from South of the Border to Dutch East India, Paris, North Africa, and points unknown! These tightly scripted and directed episodes feature many of radio's finest voices, including William Conrad, Paul Frees, Georgia Ellis, Harry Bartell, Raymond Burr, Joseph Kearns, Parley Baer, Jeanette Nolan, John Dehner, Virginia Greg and many more.

They say the "Old Time Radio Era" ended in 1962, but radio drama carried right on...and here's the proof! Provocative, thoughtful, and up-to-the-minute in its treatment of life as it was lived, that was Theatre 5! This powerful anthology series featured an invigorating combination of veteran performers and rising young actors in sharp, concise stories with a message and an impact!

Your nerves, drawn wire-taut. Your heart, thundering in your chest. Your knuckles, drawn white against your chair. Your mind, leaving the comfort and confinement of "the four walls of today" to tempt the whims of the high seas, to venture to the frozen tundra, the mysterious east, the wild west...to travel to Istanbul, to Europe, and to nightmares. The only limit to the excitement in these 20 episodes of red-blooded adventure drama is the scope of your own imagination.

Once she has your rapt attention, she begins to tell you - with a gleeful cackle - her tales of ghosts, devils, and curses. The narratives she weaves convey countless examples of how jealousy, revenge, greed and ambition can result in circumstances as frightening as any caused by supernatural beings.

From the very beginning of its two-decade run on radio, Suspense was tops in thriller entertainment! Its first year on the air brought together stories from such outstanding masters of the genre as John Dickson Carr, Dashiell Hammett, and Edgar Allan Poe! Tune in to 20 tense classics from Radio's Outstanding Theatre of Thrills - starring Peter Lorre, Mary Astor, Susan Hayward, Richard Dix, Lou Merrill, Agnes Moorehead, Frank Readick, Alice Frost, and more.

Rough, rugged, and ready for anything, Jack Benny braves the howling winds atop an icy mountain peak…until he falls down and drags himself back to the ski lodge. Get ready for the comic adventures of radio's favorite comedian as you've never heard him before. He's the manliest of men, the conqueror of every wilderness, the very personification of virile vigor! Jack heads off for 16 rootin'-tootin' outdoor escapades, along with Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Bob Crosby, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Kenny Baker, Dennis Day, and Don Wilson.