A Look Back at History, OTR Style

Edward Arnold played Mr. President
on radio, but left his mark
primarily in film, starring in
pictures like "Meet John Doe"
and "You Can't Take It With You". 

This week on the Old Time Radio Express, we present a couple of historical events - one fictional, and two non-fictional.

First off is Mr. President, an historical drama which each week detailed an event - sometimes important, sometimes quite unimportant - from a U.S. President's life.  Esteemed actor Edward Arnold played the President every week, whose identity was kept secret until the end of the broadcast.  See if you can't guess this week's President, who is struggling to avoid letting the U.S. get pulled into war.

Speaking of war, we have an interesting soundbite from World War II, as might have been heard by our fighting forces in the Pacific.

And we've got another special treat - what I would argue might be the most famous radio news broadcast ever.  Disagree?  Feel free to leave comments on the blog!

Radio's Clown Prince and A Look Forward to Baseball in the 1990's

Yes, you read the headline correctly.  We look forward to 1990's baseball this week on the OTR Express.

But first, we have a fun show from Red Skelton, he of the many characters. 

If this photo doesn't tell you everything you need to know about Red Skelton, I don't know what will.

Then, we take a hard left and listen to one of my favorite radio programs of all time - X Minus One.  X Minus One could be counted on consistently to stretch the listener's imagination, and this week is no different. 

Though considerably less "heavy" than normal X Minus One material, "Martian Sam" gives us a prediction of what baseball will be like 40 years in the future...in the far off distance of the 1990's.  In one aspect, the show gets it right...teams were looking for any advantage they could get.

Except instead of Martian pitchers named Sam with long arms, they had Earthmen sluggers named Barry and Sammy with big heads.... 

Sam's home planet.

Show #42 - Singer, Comedian, Newscaster and Superhero

Yep, we have it all here this week on the OTR Express.  Dennis Day kicks off the program with his eponymous sitcom, alternatively titled, A Day in the Life of Dennis Day.

A Day in the Life of Dennis Day gave the boyish sounding Day a chance to showcase his vocal and comedic talents, and the show we picked out for you this week has no fewer than 3 songs performed by Day.

The comedy is purely of the situational variety, but that doesn't make it bad. 

We then turn  our attention to the news of the day, with a radio broadcast from H.V. Kaltenborn.  If you watch any news commentary shows nowadays, then you'll see the descendants of the Kaltenborn school of broadcasting.  A very interesting man, and you can read more about him here:  http://www.otr.com/kaltenborn.shtml

Lastly, we have the national debut of Captain Midnight.  'Nuff said.  So gather round the radio, gang, (after drinking some rich chocolately Ovaltine, of course), and enjoy a night of old time radio.