Showing results by author "Original Radio Broadcast" in All Categories

Tight, tense, and packed with excitement! No director in radio could do more with 30 minutes than William Spier...and no half hour in radio could do more to keep you on the edge of your chair than Suspense!

This anthology of post-World War II crime radio drama presents fictionalized crime, dramatizations of actual crimes, and programs that presented on-the-spot recordings of real police investigations. Radio Spirits is proud to present 20 adventures from 15 of the best (and most unusual) programs broadcast in the last dozen or so years of commercial network dramatic radio. Series include Gang Busters, The Line Up, Broadway's My Beat, Man from Homicide, Night Watch, and more!

Headless monks, disappearing scientists, demon barbers, and clever killers abound when Sherlock Holmes is on the case! Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are the World's Greatest Detective and his doughty sidekick in this collection of 16 classic episodes! Journey back to those foggy days in London Town when, at the slightest provocation, "the game's afoot"! Let yourself be led by the legendary pipe-smoking, cap-wearing genius who solves the mystery, saves the day, and even seems to come back from the dead!

For gamblers, burlesque queens, murderers and innocents, comedy and tragedy were found in equal measure on the streets of Damon Runyon's Manhattan. Runyon, one of the most popular and widely-read figures of the Golden Age of the American Short Story, found his work was cut to measure for success in the most verbal medium of all: radio drama. John Brown stars as the glib Broadway, whose scene-setting brings a distinctive unifying touch to these fourteen digitally remastered episodes of the classic Damon Runyon Theatre radio series.

Explore 16 classic adventures of Rocky Jordan, hard-boiled proprietor of the Café Tambourine, as he solves crimes and mysteries in Cairo “where modern adventure and intrigue unfold against the backdrop of antiquity.” This fascinating series of foreign follies makes full use of its exotic locale and music score to deliver a memorable listening experience. If you liked movies like Casablanca, you’re sure to enjoy this series. Starring Jack Moyles as Rocky Jordan and Jay Novello as Captain Sam Sabaaya. Digitally remastered and restored for your listening enjoyment.

He's a con man, a manipulator, and a master of every form of deception. He'll look you right in the eye and rob you blind...but you won't care, because he's one of the most fascinating men you'll ever meet! He's Harry Lime - and before he met a memorable end in The Third Man, he cut a broad swath across most of the inhabited globe!

Come back to the tradition and warmth of Christmas in the Golden Age of Radio, with the great performers and shows of yesteryear. Go shopping with Jack Benny. Go to the snow covered woods with Johnny Dollar. Go to Bethlehem with Family Theater. The voices of Vincent Price, George and Gracie, Bergen and McCarthy, Abbott and Costello, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, and more are lifted in story and song. They celebrate the yuletide with equal parts hope and hokum, silliness and sacrifice, merriment and mystery....

For Detective Danny Clover, Broadway is more than just a street - it’s a living, breathing creature with a mood and a style all its own. Radio’s most lyrical crime drama comes to life in this collection, Broadway’s My Beat, featuring 16 unique tales of murder along the main stem. The series’ purple prose is counterbalanced by the gritty realism that was a specialty of the 16th Precinct and its endearingly eccentric characters. Larry Thor stars as Clover, with Charles Calvert as Sgt. Tartaglia and Jack Kruschen as Detective Muggavan.

Horror stars, action heroes, matinee idols, leading ladies - Suspense offered them all a showcase that expanded and emphasized their distinctive talents. Peter Lorre and Edward G. Robinson were particular favorites and appear here in tortured, desperate roles and never failing to wring every bit of tension from the scripts in their hands. Popular comedians - like Bob Hope and Milton Berle - were also regularly featured. Cast hard against type, the audience was forced to view them in an entirely different light and were left gasping in their wake.

During the late 1940s and early 1950s, several different radio programs brought in Hollywood stars to reprise their performances from popular films. Among them, Screen Directors' Playhouse offered something that no other show had: the directors. Imagine, if you will, listening to a radio play of A Foreign Affair and then hearing Marlene Dietrich and director Billy Wilder share their thoughts on the making of this classic film. In addition to Wilder, you'll hear directors like Tay Garnett, Robert Siodmak, and George Marshall in this set of 16 digitally remastered and restored episodes.

Agonizing predicaments, stellar sound effects, and high wattage Hollywood star power combine in radio's top thriller. Myrna Loy, Joseph Cotten, Lucille Ball, Robert Taylor, Ronald Colman, and Agnes Moorehead give brilliant performances in blood-chilling stories. Twenty white-knuckled episodes (produced and directed by the legendary William Spier) feature a superior supporting cast, including John Dehner, Howard Duff, Elliott Lewis, William Johnstone, Joseph Kearns, and more. The tension and excitement of this Peabody Award-winning series are well calculated to keep you in...Suspense!

Here comes “This Week’s Play” with Jack Benny and all the gang! Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Dennis Day, and Don Wilson all play their parts in parodies of Hollywood movies, wild Westerns, murder mysteries, and more. Kick back with 16 satirical skits in this collection of classics from the 1940s and 1950s, featuring guest appearances by Barbara Stanwyck, Oscar Levant, Charles Farrell, Sam Goldwyn, Frank Sinatra, and George Jessel!

Crime, mystery, and just a touch of the supernatural - they're all on display in Radio's Outstanding Theatre of Thrills! Join your host, The Man in Black, for 20 gripping installments of Suspense (including the first ever broadcast of "Sorry, Wrong Number"). Legends like Cary Grant, Agnes Moorehead, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, Orson Welles, and Gene Kelly star in stories by thriller greats like Agatha Christie, Lucille Fletcher, John Dickson Carr, and Cornell Woolrich. Enjoy these tales well calculated to keep you in…Suspense!

Ronald and Benita Colman made 20 guest appearances on The Jack Benny Program, including some of the most hilarious entries in the series. The Colmans' refined personaes played an excellent "grand opera" to the "ragtime" of Jack's mercenary enterprises. In this set, you'll hear the dashing Ronald read the winning entry of the "I Can't Stand Jack Benny" contest. You will also hear Benita receive the third longest laugh ever on the Benny radio program. It's no wonder that The Colmans' visits to Benny's radio series have become listener classics.

Simon Templar, played here by Vincent Price (with Barry Sullivan substituting in two episodes), was wealthy and refined. He was well dressed, well traveled, and well educated. He was also The Saint, the "Robin Hood of modern crime," who was not afraid to break the law if that's what had to be done to ensure that justice was served. Larry Dobkin co-stars as Louie the Cabbie in these digitally restored and remastered tales that find Templar sailing, skiing, and delving in to the disparate worlds of mining, baseball, prizefighting, mystery writing, and more. The Saint sets all manner of matters straight, all the while maintaining excellent form.

Karen Heaven is back as the bold, brassy, British investigator Hilary Caine! Our girl detective is as adventurous as ever in scripts adapted from the works of British mystery novelist M. J. Elliot. She takes a holiday in the Bahamas and travels to the United States on assignment for the British War Department - but wherever she goes, murder follows.

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.

Head to distant worlds and alternate futures! Explore the limitless potential for twists and turns when stories are fueled by the infinite power of imagination! Here are twenty-four thought-provoking tales as up-to-date as tomorrow. It's new-time radio in the classic old-time-radio manner, from the mind of producer Jim French.

Racketeers and swindlers, thieves and killers - they all feel the sting of The Green Hornet! World War II might be over, but there’s more crime than ever in Britt Reid’s corner of the world. That means action for the crusading publisher turned masked avenger - apprehending scheming crooks, corrupt politicians, and Communist spies. Jack McCarthy wields the gas gun as the streamlined Black Beauty prowls the streets in 20 exciting 1948 adventures - many of which have not been available since their original broadcasts!

There are no black hats or white hats in Dodge City, Kansas. Gunsmoke gives you Western stories for grown-ups, with hard-hitting tales set against the rugged majesty of the American frontier. Producer/director Norman Macdonnell and writer/editor John Meston bring you gripping accounts of folks who have come to Dodge to leave the past behind…and those who come to Dodge because they can’t. William Conrad stars as US Marshal Matt Dillon, with Parley Baer as Chester, Howard McNear as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty in 20 half-hours of radio drama at its best.