Show #18 - "Suspense" and "Baby Snooks and Daddy"

mypodcast.com has been on the fritz the past couple of weeks, so I hope you're finding the detour to mediafire easy to use for these downloads.

This week, we've got Suspense, with the venerable Ronald Colman in "Vision of Death".  Suspense from this era was produced and directed by Elliott Lewis, one of the great old radio actors.  From this show, you can tell that he's not too bad behind the glass either.  "Vision of Death", though is an anomaly of Suspense from the Elliott Lewis era, as Suspense presents more "based on a true story" tales.  For my money, those shows are not close to holding a candle to the classic tales that sometimes pop up like "Vision of Death".

Show #17 of the OTR Express - "The Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy Show" and "Lights Out!"

One might think being a ventriloquist on radio was an added skill for a comedian to have - not only could you tell jokes, but you had a prop there with you, a built-in counterpart for witty banter.  In fact, as Edgar Bergen found, ventriloquism was seen by many producers and evaluators of talent as something to be overcome. 

Well, Bergen successfully overcame this deficiency, if one could call it that, for 20 years on radio.  Charlie McCarthy was (and is) one of the best-loved figures on radio. 

I, like I'm sure many other children on hearing Bergen & McCarthy, checked out a book on ventriloquism from the library and tried to learn the tricks of the trade.  As I quickly learned (and didn't have the patience to overcome), speaking without moving your mouth isn't that hard until you get to the "B", "M" and "P".  Those are a bit trickier.  Poor Bergen... everytime Charlie called his name, he had do the "B" sound. 

Show #16, Season #1 - "The Six Shooter" and "Dark Fantasy"

Two shows different in almost every respect fill the airwaves of the OTR Express this week, as we listen to The Six Shooter (a slickly-produced Western with a big-name Hollywood star and radio veterans in supporting roles) and Dark Fantasy (a fantasy/horror program out of Oklahoma City starring a group of unknowns). 

And yet, despite these differences, both are great examples of quality old time radio.