Happy Birthday to you...

This week on the OTR Express, we threw an aural birthday bash for one of the show's earliest supporters, my sister Laura.  A day early, we've packaged up some old time radio that we know she'll like (Our Miss Brooks) with a couple of nuggets we hope she'll like (The Shadow (Australian Version) and Mike Nichols & Elaine May).

Our Miss Brooks was, at one point, radio's top rated show, and was one of the few shows that made the transition to television keeping intact the main stars from the radio cast.  More often than not, the lead actor or actress from the radio program would make the leap, but the TV network or director would determine that the rest of the radio cast "didn't look like their characters".  (Which, of course, is ironic, given that radio allowed listeners to create their own visions of characters in their minds.  America would have been deprived of a lot of great radio talent had looks factored in.  But I digress...)

Following Our Miss Brooks we have an Australian broadcast of The Shadow.  Old time radio in other cultures isn't often thought about, but just like each country has their own TV entertainment, so it was with radio.  Similar to TV, some of the best shows from each country are imported or redone to fit locally, and so it was with the very popular American series, The Shadow. 

I will post a link to the full Shadow program shortly.

And finally, a short bit of very dry, educated humor from the comedy team that got its start at (surprise, surprise) the University of Chicago, Mike Nichols and Elaine May.

Happy Birthday, Laura!