Five series were
uploaded to Archive.org in January, 2022. Two were updated, three are new. The
series are:
·
Black Flame of the Amazon, OTRR Maintained
v2112, web address: https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Maintained_Black_Flame_of_the_Amazon
·
Dangerous Assignment, OTRR Maintained updated v2112, web address: https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Certified_Dangerous_Assignment
·
A Case for Doctor Morelle, OTRR Maintained updated v2112, web address: https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Certified_Dr_Morelle
·
Stardust Time, OTRR Curated v2112, web address https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Curated_Stardust_Time
·
The Strange Romance of Evelyn Winters, OTRR
Curated v2112, web address: https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Curated_Strange_Romance_of_Evelyn_Winters
The synopsis of each series follows:
A
Case for Dr. Morelle
A
Case for Dr. Morelle”
was a 13-episode series which ran weekly in 1957 on the BBC Light Programme
from April 23 to July 16. According to the author Ernest Dudley, the character
of Dr. Morelle began life in 1940 during the World War Two air raids, as he was
trying to think up a different kind of detective while also providing a comic
role for the actress Jane Grahame, who was also his wife.
The
result, originally heard on the radio show Monday Night at Eight,
involved the acerbic criminal psychologist Dr. Morelle and his eager but less
than helpful secretary Miss Frayle. In the 1957 series, Dr. Morelle was played
by the English comic actor Cecil Parker and Sheila Sim played the
long-suffering and devoted Miss Frayle. In addition to radio plays, Dudley
wrote a stage play as well as a number of novels and short stories featuring
these characters.
Audiences
loved the opinionated and eccentric Morelle, whose disdain for his loyal
secretary was an extension of his general lack of regard for humanity. Unlike
Sherlock Holmes, who based his analysis on physical clues left at the scene of
the crime, Morelle generally conducted his investigations via a series of
interviews, although he sometimes included physical evidence in his analysis.
He used his knowledge of criminal psychology to determine which of the suspects
fit the psychological profile of the criminal. Often during the story, Miss
Frayle would irritate the doctor by interrupting him as he was conducting an
experiment or testing some
scientific
theory. His solutions to the crimes - whether murder, blackmail, larceny or
some other
crime
- were always based on psychology.
(Sources:
archive.org web page for series, 1958 New Zealand article, transcribed at
http://www.oocities.org/gregorym101/morelle.html;
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/ernestdudley/)
The
Black Flame of the Amazon
Ryan
Ellett
When
Van Cronkhite Associates Incorporated, a Chicago-based radio consulting agency,
dissolved in early 1938, some of its former employees promptly created TransAir
Incorporated, another agency focused on building and selling radio programming,
especially news and transcribed shows.
With
William F. Arnold as president, Ray Launder as vice-president, and John Taylor
Booz as secretary, TransAir quickly sold its first series to Toledo, Ohio’s
Hickok Oil Company. That first sale was The Black Flame of the Amazon, a
quarter-hour show that Hickok wanted on the Michigan Network as well as
stations in Toledo, Cleveland, Canton, and Youngstown. Recorded by Aerograms
Incorporated out of Hollywood, The Black Flame of the Amazon premiered
on February 14, 1938.
The
program aired five days per week and featured adventurer and explorer Harold
Noice. Noice had spent the last half of the 19-teens on Arctic exploration
trips and spent significant time among the Inuit. He later turned his attention
to South America and the Amazon region, the period during which the The
Black Flame of the Amazon is very loosely based. Noice played himself in
the series and the scripts were written and produced by Aerogram’s J. B.
Downie.
After
going off the air for the summer, Hickock Oil renewed The Black Flame of the
Amazon on September 26, 1938 for a 39-week run to last through the school
year. The show’s reach expanded to Cincinnati’s WCKY, Richmond, Virgina’s WRVA,
and other stations in Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia under the
sponsorship of Strietmann Biscuit Company and Felber Biscuit Company, both
subsidiaries of United Biscuit Company.
Promoted
as an educational adventure series, the producer created a Hi-Speed Explorer’s
Club after a gasoline brand of the Hickock Oil sponsor. Executives boasted that
over 450,000 youngsters joined the Explorer’s Club after hearing about it on The
Black Flame of the Amazon. Other sponsor information includes the
Independent Packing Company backing the program in St. Louis and Jefferson
City, Missouri, in 1940 and Pacific States Oil Company underwriting it over San
Francisco’s KFRC in 1941. Industry records show it was still on the air as late
as 1943.
Sources:
Dunning,
John. On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio.
Broadcasting
February
1, 1938, August 15, 1938, October 15, 1938, August 1, 1938, December 1, 1938,
January 1, 1939, January 1, 1940, February 10, 1941
Radio Daily January
31, 1938
Dangerous Assignment
Ryan Ellett
Dangerous Assignment,
with Brian Donlevy in the lead role of Steve Mitchell, was developed by NBC
during the summer of 1949 at a cost of $15,000. Other shows developed as part
of this new programming blitz by the network included Dragnet at a cost
of $34,000, Richard Diamond at $51,000, and Four Star Playhouse at
$60,000. Seven episodes were broadcast that summer, from July 9 to August 20,
1949. When no sponsor stepped forward the show left the airwaves for six
months.
Originally scheduled to replace Dean Martin and Jerry
Lewis’ program at 10:00 in early February 1950, Dangerous Assignment instead
took Dave Garroway’s slot at 10:30 with Garroway pushed back to 11:30 while Night
Beat claimed the 10:00 time. Sustained initially, in the spring of 1950
General Mills signed to take sponsorship of the show beginning May 10 as part
of a large bundle sale with NBC.
In September 1950 it was announced in the trades that
Donlevy had formed a production company – New Colony, Inc. – to bring Dangerous
Assignment to television. He purchased the video rights from writer Bob
Ryfe, who was also the package owner, and signed Ryf to script the visual
version in addition to continuing his radio responsibilities. While Donlevy
funded the start-up himself, he had an understanding with radio sponsor General
Mills that the cereal manufacturer would take over production costs if the initial
results were satisfactory.
When Dangerous Assignment was once again looking
for a sponsor in 1951 NBC advertised to potential backers that it had a gross
weekly cost of $4,117, in comparison to $1,823 for Hollywood Love Story and
$8,820 per half hour of Tallulah Bankhead’s The Big Show.
Dangerous Assignment ran
until July 1953 on radio and could be found in syndication on various
television stations throughout the 1950s and even into the early 1960s. An
Australianbased version was produced in 1954.
In addition to Donlevy as lead character Steve Mitchell,
his boss The Commissioner was played by Herb Butterfield and the Commissioner’s
secretary, Ruth, was played by Betty Moran. Under the authority of a
never-named federal spy agency, every week secret agent Steve Mitchell was off
to an exotic locale to solve an international mystery. Interestingly,
destinations in U.S-allied countries were regularly identified, from Italy to
France to Norway, while Communist-bloc nations were not, usually referred to as
simply a Balkan or Eastern European country. Old-time radio author John Dunning
found the episodes “predictable” but audiences found the series if not
ground-breaking at least enjoyable enough to afford it more than three years on
the airwaves.
The head writer was Bob Ryf with Adrian Gendot frequently
attributed as co-writer. Bill Cairn directed and Robert Armbruster provided
music for most of the run.
The
Strange Romance of Evelyn Winters
Brian
Kavanaugh
The
Strange Romance of Evelyn Winters was a 15-minute serial soap opera that was
broadcast weekdays at 10:30 A.M. on CBS radio stations between November 20,
1944 and November 12, 1948. The show told “the story of Gary Bennett,
playwright, who suddenly and unexpectedly finds himself the guardian of lovely
Evelyn Winters.” Gary was a friend of 20-year-old Evelyn’s father, who died in
the war, and felt an obligation to take care of her. Only fifteen years older
than her, an inevitable romantic attraction between them developed. The show
opened with the following question to its listeners: “Do you think 15
years is too great a difference for marriage?”
Only
a handful of episodes of this series are known to exist.
Reference:
Dunning, J. (1998). On the air: The encyclopedia of
old-time radio. Oxford University Press.
Stardust Time (1959) were short five-minute (including advertising time)
entertainment vignettes intended to be broadcast at 25 minutes past the hour,
Monday through Friday, featuring some of the bigger names in NBC radio at the
time.
Dave Tysver
