"Favorite Old Time Pulp Radio Show?" Topic

I'm partial to Rocky Jordan. Also Nero Wolfe, with Sidney Greenstreet. There's a whole bunch of shows for free here.
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Johnny Dollar, Richard Diamond, Jeff Regan and of course, Marlowe.

The Clithero Kid

Tha Shadow and thanks for the link!

I like Dangerous Assignment, Johnny Dollar, and Rocky Jordan. Actually, I like them all.

Not on that list – and maybe at only 40 years old not even old enough – but I really liked Lord Peter Whimsey with Ian Carmichael.

Fibber McGee and Molly

Another fan of "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar."

Especially those episodes with Edmund O'Brien in the title role.

Great Stuff, all of those mentioned. Pulp Gamers can't really get inspiration and ideas without tuning in and taking note.

TVAG

Casey, Crime Photographer is quite good, as are the pulp stories about him – a fine "forgotten" character. X Minus One is well done too.

The Shadow and Sherlock Homes.

Brian

The Shadow head and shoulders above all others!

Rob

"Lights Out" – the creepiest introduction from the heyday of creepy introductions and absolutely solid and scary stories. "Valse Triste", "Revolt of the Worms" and "The Dark" seriously get into your head.

For the single character series, I like Marlowe, and The Third Man, but only in small doses.

Chris

I have a whole bunch of "Lights Out" episodes on my MP3 player, and they can get really creepy; you can see why they actually scared our parents and grandparents back in the day.

My only quibble, of course, is that I'll occasionally hear Bill Cosby's "Chicken Heart" routine in my head while I'm listening to one of them, which tends to spoil the effect.

journeyyyyy intoooo spasss (said in a dramatic voice,that's how it sounded,) I'll never forget the first sight of the other sidwe of the moon.

While stationed in Germany in the early 1980's, AFN would broadcast the Jack Benny Show, Fibber McGee and Molly and George Burns on a rotating basis along with the CBS Radio Mystery Theater. I liked all of them. I also has a record of the entire "Orson Well's War of the World" as a kid.

'I Love A Mystery', 'I love Adventure' and 'Adventures By Morse'… all basically the same setup by the same writer… globe-trotting soldiers of fortune fighting crime, solving mysteries and occasionaly facing supernatural weirdness.
Jack, Doc and Reggie are some of my favorite pulp heroes… Jack (Captain Friday) in particular because he has a mean edge to him and seems less than sane at times.

Shadow
X minus One
Inner Sanctum
Dragnet
Lights Out
Suspense

plus lots others!!

Oh, yeah. x-1 and Suspense are great listens.

Doc Savage.. Man of Bronze and his amazing crew! I think only one episode survived the era of radio drama from what I know…

Mystery – "Suspense", which is, hands down, my favorite radio show. An incredible number of famous radio and film stars were featured over the years, usually promoting their latest film at the end of the program, and frequently playing against type as well, like Red Skelton or Micky Rooney as murderers. The story "Sorry, Wrong Number" was first done on "Suspense" and became so popular that it was later made as a film with Barbara Stanwyck.

Science Fiction – "X Minus One/Dimension X". Adaptations of stories by the best sci-fi authors of the era.

Detective – "Philip Marlowe". Really good "hard boiled" stuff. The stories sound like they're right out of "Black Mask".

Weird Horror – "Lights Out". Wheew! Arch Oboler was one of the best radio writers of all time!

Adventure – "Escape". I'm surprised that nobody mentioned this one. It's a great program that featured both original stories and well done adaptations of famous short stories like "Leinengen vs. the Ants", "The Most Dangerous Game" and "Three Skeleton Key".

Comedy – "Fibber Mcgee and Molly". Humor is a personal thing, but FM&M will top most lists for radio comedy.

Talk/Commentary – Jean Shepherd. I don't think that most people know that the guy who wrote "A Christmas Story" also had a long running commentary show on WOR radio out of New York City.

The Shadow of Fu Manchu
Speed Gibson
Terry and the Pirates
Inner Sanctum
Ann of the Airways

>>The Shadow head and shoulders above all others!<<

You might have thought that i'd pick "The Shadow" as one of my favorites, but I like the pulp magazine novels a *lot* better. The problem that I found with the radio show is that the episodes followed a format that was very predictable. Cranston and Margo investigate some kind of crime or mysterious situation that frequently *seems* supernatural, but turns out not to be. Cranston becomes The Shadow somewhere around the middle of the program and then becomes The Shadow at the end when the real situation or criminal is revealed. So, I dunno, I stopped listening after a while. The liked the earlier shows with Orson Welles the best, but he was only on for about a year.

Candy Matson was the best, toughest, and funniest female pulp character ever on the radio. My daughters idolized her.

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It is an absolute tragedy that only 14 of her shows survived.

Who's the little chatterbox,
The one with pretty auburn locks?
Who could it be?
It's Little Orphan Annie!

For comedy, it's hard to not mention George Burns and Gracie Allen. She was a real pearl.

If you like scarey stuff "The Thing on the Fourble Board" is one of the most disturbing shows that i've heard. It was an episode on "Quiet Please". You can download or "stream" it at this very good, and safe, web site that offers *many* "old time radio" shows of all kinds. Scroll down and you'll find it near the middle:

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Shadow, Thanks SO Much for that link! There's tons of stuff I've never heard before!

Angry Piper

I'm very happy to help. (-:

If you paint your figures or build models or terrain you have all of the entertainment that you need for years to come. Did you listen to "The Thing on the Fourble Board"?

Not yet. It's on the list. And yeah, I pretty much listen to old time radio whenever I paint, and sometimes when I drive. There's the Radio CLassics channel on Sirius/XM that I regularly tune into.

OK, I listened to "The Thing on the Fourble Board" and it was satisfyingly creepy and disturbing. Almost Lovecraftian…definitely an RPG scenario in there somewhere.
Thanks again for the link to that site. It's awesome!

>>OK, I listened to "The Thing on the Fourble Board" and it was satisfyingly creepy and disturbing.<<

One of the best things about radio is that you can do a story like "The Thing on the Fourble Board" and it will be much more effective than if it were done on TV or in a film. Another favorite of mine is "Three Skeleton Key" which was done on both "Suspense" and "Escape".

The Adventures of Sam Spade with Howard Duff.

I've come to depend upon OTR shows as a cure for insomnia. For about a decade now I often spend at least part of the night when my headphones on. Instead of tossing and turning and worrying I listen to OTR and it puts me out.

I've been through almost every show mentioned here but some of the shows like 'Suspense' or 'Quiet Please' can be a bit too intense for a semi-conscious state. 'The Thing on the Fourbleboard' can bleed into your dreams.

'The Great Gildersleeve' is a bit safer.