Showing posts with label Edgar Bergan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edgar Bergan. Show all posts

June 30, 2014

Afternoon Radio Theater: The Adventures of Frank Race - "The Darling Debutante" (May 8, 1949)

The Adventures of Frank Race was an American radio adventure serial syndicated by Bruce Eells Productions. The 30-minute program's first East Coast broadcast was 1949, and the show ran 43 episodes. Because it was syndicated, it aired on different stations on different days. For instance, in New York City, the first episode ran on WINS on April 9, 1949. The series was broadcast on the West Coast from 1951-52. Frank Race mainly investigated international insurance scams around the globe in various exotic locations, making him something of a cross between James Bond and Johnny Dollar. After Tom Collins played the title role for the first 22 episodes, Paul Dubov took over the lead role. Tony Barnett portrayed Race's sidekick, Mark Donovan. Other actors included Jack Kruschen, Wilms Herbert, Lillian Buyeff and Harry Lang. The series was written and directed by Joel Murcott and Buckley Angel. Ivan Ditmars provided the background organ music

Opening... 
one-minute organ theme and then the following from announcer Art Gilmore:Many things were changed during the war; the face of the earth was altered and the people of the Earth changed. Before the war, Frank Race was an attorney, but he traded his law books for the cloak and dagger of the OSS. When it was over, his former life was over, too... adventure had become his business! 

June 28, 2014

Afternoon Radio Theater: Family Theater - J. Smith And Family - w/Bing Crosby and Irene Dunne (Feb 27, 1947)

Family Theater was a dramatic anthology radio show which aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System in the United States from February 13, 1947 to September 11, 1957. The show was produced by Family Theater Productions, a film and radio studio extension of the Family Rosary Crusade founded by the Holy Cross Priest, Father Patrick Peyton, CSC, as a way to promote family prayer. The motto of the these Holy Cross Family Ministries is, The family that prays together, stays together. The program had no commercial sponsor, yet Father Peyton, CSC arranged for many of Hollywood's stars in film and radio at the time to appear. In its ten-year run, well-known actors and actresses, including James Stewart, Gregory Peck, Irene Dunne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Shirley Temple, Raymond Burr, Jane Wyatt, Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Scott, Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Gene Kelly, Kate Smith, William Shatner and Chuck Connors, appeared as announcers, narrators or stars. A total of 540 episodes were produced. The program featured not only religious stories but half-hour adaptations of literary works such as A Tale of Two Cities, Moby-Dick and Don Quixote.