Happy Sunday OTR fans and Trumpsters everywhere...people are starting to say “summer is almost over” and to that a say harrumph...long live summer...
We have an unusual and interesting lineup tonight of August shows and armed forces radio....after the core 3 shows we hit serious OTR programing with Suspense from ‘45 with the appropriate August Heat...then Norman Corwin Presents, which I’ve never heard of, but given that it’s 15 minutes long it may not be that complex...and then into 1hr and 45min of armed forces radio of VE or VJ Day...
How’s it going?...
Ed is commemorating VJ Day, and we have a "Suspense" with "August Heat. I remember that one. It's a good one.
These brief synopses are used with permission from the RadioGOLDINdex © 2015 J. David Goldin.
7:00 PM Eastern War Time Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. May 11, 1958. CBS net origination, AFRTS rebroadcast. "The Rolling Stone Matter". A beautiful pink diamond is stolen. Bob Bailey. 25:59. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
7:30 Dragnet. December 29, 1953. Program #228. NBC net origination, AFRTS rebroadcast. "The Big Steal". A wave of burglaries have taken place against women...all with brand new fur coats. Jack Webb, Ben Alexander. 25:46. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
8:00 Gunsmoke. October 14, 1956. CBS net. "Gunshot Wound". Sponsored by: L & M. Jim Nielson, who has only a short time to live, returns to Dodge to kill the Mahler Brothers. William Conrad, Parley Baer, Harry Bartell, Vic Perrin, Lawrence Dobkin, Jess Kirkpatrick, Georgia Ellis, Gil Doud (writer), John Meston (editorial supervision), Rex Koury (music), Norman Macdonnell (producer, director), Bill James (sound patterns), Ray Kemper (sound patterns), George Walsh (announcer). 24:52. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
8:30 Suspense. May 31, 1945. CBS net. "August Heat". Sponsored by: Roma Wines. A very hot day finds strange predictions of the future starting to come true. The story was subsequently produced on "Suspense" on March 20, 1948 (see cat. #38) and on "The Hallmark Playhouse" on September 29, 1949 (see cat. #40410) and on, "Sleep No More" on November 28, 1956 (see cat. # 84139). Ronald Colman, W. F. Harvey (author), Joseph Kearns (announcer), Dennis Hoey, Lud Gluskin (conductor), Lucien Moraweck (composer, a biographer of Bernard Herrmann credits him with music for this broadcast), William Spier (producer, editor, director), Mel Dinelli (adaptor), Truman Bradley (commercial spokesman), Elsa Maxwell (commercial spokeswoman). 29:29. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
9:00 Fourteen August, A Message For The Day Of Victory. August 14, 1945. CBS net. Sustaining. A moving and dramatic anti-war reading. See cat. #66185 for a production about this broadcast (and the events) heard almost fifty-years later, on August 1, 1995. The program was rebroadcast on "Same Time, Same Station" (see cat. #20190). The program was written on short notice; after the detonation of the atomic bombs and the surrender of Japan. The script was expanded to a half-hour and rebroadcast on August 19, 1945 as, "God and Uranium Were On Our Side" (see cat. #9234). Norman Corwin (writer, director), Orson Welles, Lucien Moraweck (composer), Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (composer), Lud Gluskin (conductor). 16:12. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
9:15 Command Performance. August 15, 1945. AFRS origination. "Victory Extra". The program begins with a prayer by Ronald Colman, followed by "Ave Maria," sung by Rise Stevens. Bing Crosby (m. c.), Rise Stevens, Dinah Shore, Bette Davis, Jimmy Durante, Jose Iturbi, Lionel Barrymore, Marlene Dietrich, Burgess Meredith, Ginny Simms, Frank Sinatra, Janet Blair, William Powell, Harry Von Zell, Lucille Ball, The King Sisters, Cary Grant, Robert Montgomery, Loretta Young, Lena Horne, The Armed Forces Radio Service Orchestra, Meredith Willson (conductor), Thomas Lewis (Commandant of the AFRS), Martha Wilkerson (mentions G. I. Jive recently finished program #1000), Johnny Mercer, Edward G. Robinson, Orson Welles, Lina Romay, Danny Kaye, Herbert Marshall, Carmen Miranda, Claudette Colbert, Ed Gardner, Marilyn Maxwell, Greer Garson, Ken Carpenter (announcer), Ronald Colman, Rita Hayworth (cameo), Desi Arnaz (cameo), Ernest Whitman (cameo), Ida Lupino (cameo), Ginger Rogers (cameo), Ruth Hussey (cameo), Claire Trevor (cameo), Don Wilson (cameo), Norman Mauldin (cameo), George Montgomery (cameo), John Conte (cameo), Jinx Falkenburg (cameo), Dinah Lewis (?). 1:39:59. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.