Friends it's Sunday night again, and time to relax. Warm up the tubes for another four hours of classic radio Americana.
The Big Broadcast is a Sunday night tradition for families throughout the WAMU listening area. Each week, Big Broadcast host Ed Walker offers listeners priceless recordings of popular radio programs from the '30s, '40s and '50s. Priceless, especially, for a man whose first sentence as a child was, 'Turn the radio on.'
Hello, FRiends! We have a lonely Big Broadcast this evening, because Vision is out taking care of business.
It's a baseball lineup with one of the masterpieces of old time radio, Abbott and Costello's "Who's On First" routine from their show on April 17, 1947.
These brief synopses are used with permission from the RadioGOLDINdex © 2014 J. David Goldin.
7:00 PM EST Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. June 22, 1956. Part 5. CBS net. "The Perling Matter". Sustaining. The conclusion of the story. There's still money in it, more money than it takes to save a life. The closing credits and system cue have been deleted. Bob Bailey, Roy Rowan (announcer), Jack Johnstone (producer, director), John Dawson (writer). 12:3. Audio condition: Excellent. Incomplete.
7:15 Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. June 25, 1956. Part 1. CBS net. "The Long Shot Matter". Sustaining. A lonely girl, a fine young man, a gentle father, and one of them is a killer! The system cue has been deleted. Bob Bailey, Roy Rowan (announcer), Jack Johnstone (producer, director), Tony Barrett (writer), Virginia Gregg, Vic Perrin, Lillian Buyeff, Russell Thorson, James McCallion, Edgar Barrier, Don Diamond, Herb Butterfield, Amerigo Moreno (music supervisor), Carl Fortina (music supervisor). 13:0. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete as above.
7:30 Dragnet. May 29, 1952. Program #155. NBC net. "The Big Fourth". Sponsored by: Fatima. An eight-month-old baby has been stolen...it's a continuing problem. A prominent club woman is the suspect. George Fenneman (announcer), Hal Gibney (host), Harry Bartell, Herb Ellis, Jack Webb, James Moser (writer), Vic Perrin, Virginia Gregg, Walter Schumann (conductor). 29:4. Audio condition: Very good to excellent. Complete.
8:00 Gunsmoke. June 18, 1955. CBS net origination, AFRTS rebroadcast. "The Reed Survives". A young cowboy is tricked into killing Ephraim Hunt, the bible-quoting husband of a scheming woman. However, Lucy Hunt gets one more killing than she counted on. See cat. #47824 for a quality upgrade, network, sponsored version of this broadcast. The script was used again on August 23, 1959 (see cat. #52184). The script was used on the Gunsmoke television series on December 31, 1955. William Conrad, Parley Baer, Howard McNear, Georgia Ellis, Norman Macdonnell (producer, director), Michael Ann Barrett, Edgar Barrier, Sam Edwards, Rex Koury (composer, conductor), Tom Hanley (sound patterns), Bill James (sound patterns), Ralph Moody, Les Crutchfield (writer), George Walsh (announcer). 25 minute. Audio condition: Very good to excellent. Complete.
8:30 The Abbott and Costello Show. April 17, 1947. NBC net. Sponsored by: Camels, Prince Albert Pipe Tobacco. The opening routine is about girls. Costello is going to play baseball with the New York Yankees. This leads to the famous, "Who's On First" routine. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Skinnay Ennis and His Orchestra, Michael Roy (announcer), John Brown, Elvia Allman, Will Osborne and His Orchestra, Nat Wolff (producer, director), Marilyn Maxwell, Bert Cordon (sound effects), John Pawlick (engineer). 29:1. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete.
9:00 My Favorite Husband 09/16/46 Liz & Iris Want to Learn to Play Baseball (Jello) (CBS) (29:22). Synopsis is missing from the Index.
9:30 Our Miss Brooks. March 26, 1950. CBS net. "The Baseball Uniform Shortage". Sponsored by: Colgate Toothpaste, Lustre-Creme Shampoo. The Madison High Athletic Fund is so depleted that there's no money for the school baseball team. Eve Arden, Al Lewis (writer, director), Jane Morgan, Frank Nelson, Gloria McMillan, Gale Gordon, Jeff Chandler, Verne Smith (commercial spokesman), Richard Crenna, Larry Berns (producer), Bob Lemond (announcer), Maurice Carlton (director), Wilbur Hatch (composer). 30:0. Audio condition: Very good to excellent. Complete.
10:00 Biography In Sound. August 16, 1955. NBC net. "The Legend Of The Babe". Sustaining. The story of the famous baseball player, well told! Part of the program closing has been deleted. Mel Allen (narrator), Tom Glazer (composer, performer), James Farley, Wait Hoyt, James Farrell, Branch Rickey, Hubert Pruett, Senator Ford, Frank Stevens, John Kieran Jr., Tom Meany (of Collier's Magazine), Ben Grauer, Ed Byron, Paul Carey. 54:3. Audio condition: Excellent. Incomplete.
