A British radio drama series from 1957 about a criminal psychologist, Dr Morelle, who solves murder cases which are too complex for the police. Each of the stories is self-contained, with Morelle solving the mystery in the final scene. Unusually for the time, he solves each case not by hunting for clues in the manner of Sherlock Holmes, but instead through a psychiatrist's insight into the personality of the killer: using his professional experience to consider the suspects, in order to determine which of them matches the deduced personality of the murderer.

Ralph Richardson as Scrooge

A Date With Judy was a 1940s teenage comedy radio show. Starting out as a summer substitute for Bob Hope's Show. The show aired on NBC from 24th June - 16th September. The star of the show was 14 year old Ann Gillis at first. The following season Dellie Ellis took over Judy's role.

Dennis Day plays a naive soda jerk boarding at the home of the parents of his girlfriend, Mildred Anderson. The show is basically a vehicle for Day's beautifully songs (two per show), so the storylines often aren't given enough time to fully develop. When he's not singing, Dennis is often written into scenes that require he step out of character, making the stories a bit outrageous. There is a bit of detectable writing laziness, too, as story elements are occasionally used in several different programs. Still, the performances are fine; the jokes are funny enough (and sometimes border on the risque); and the singing is excellent.

Jonathan kegg on his journey for justice, old time radio murder drama from 1949-1952.

BBC OTR from 1953-1959.

William (Bud) Abbott and Lou Costello (born Louis Francis Cristillo) performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work in radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 50s. Thanks to the endurance of their most popular and influential routine, "Who's on First?"—whose rapid-fire word play and comprehension confusion set the preponderant framework for most of their best-known routines—the team is, as a result, featured in the Baseball Hall of Fame. (Contrary to popular belief, however, the duo was not inducted into the Hall.)

Academy Award Theater began its full 39 week season with a high note -- with Bette Davis in her Oscar winning role in Jezebel. By looking at the list of actors who appeared during the series, you can see that this series ranked up there with the Lux Radio Theater in its range of movies chosen to be dramatized as well as the actors involved. Gene Hersholt, veteran radio and movie star, spoke as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences during the first show welcoming the E.R. Squibb Co., giant pharmaceutical company as sponsor. These 30 minute programs consisted of dramatizations of movies whose pictures, players, techniques, and skills won or were nominated for the coveted golden Oscars.

The thirty nine episodes of this series aired between March 30, 1946 and December 18, 1946.

The title of this series refers to the writer and director of the show, Carlton E. Morse. There were 52 episodes of this thirty-minute adventure series featuring a San Francisco detective, Captain Bart Friday, and his sidekick, Skip Turner. Captain Friday and Skip roamed the world together seeking danger and solving mysteries. The stories told bordered on the supernatural, though there was usually a rational explanation for the superbly written terror-chillers. 1944.

Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo recreated their roles on a one-hour Lux Radio Theater program broadcast on January 21, 1952.

Elements of mystery have always been represented in literature, but the detective story didn't arrive on the scene until the mid 1800's. Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue, published in 1841, was the first. The Murder's main character, C. Auguste Dupin, was a brilliant detective who relied on superior deductive powers to solve the crime. He and his unnamed narrator companion solved this and two other mysteries.

Later in the 19th century Sir Arthur Conan Doyle expanded on Poe's new concept in his Sherlock Holmes stories. Many think that Doyle patterned Holmes and Watson after Dupin and his friend. The Sherlock Holmes stories were wildly popular in England, and after Conan Doyle, the British continued to dominate the detective genre with other detectives who depended on keen observation and deductive logic to solve crimes. These detectives most commonly applied their brilliance to crimes in quaint country houses outside small useridyllic villages.

Then, in the 1930's and 1940's American writers added a grittier urban element to the detective genre -- the hardboiled detective. As opposed to the typical British detective, the hardboiled detective was generally a cynical loner with a strong sense of justice that wasn't necessarily limited to that provided by the court system. Instead of country houses, these detectives were more likely to be found in shady all-night bars or on the mean streets of Los Angeles, Chicago, or New York City.

Dashiell Hammett introduced the new genre, and Sam Spade, in 1930 in his novel The Maltese Falcon. A few years later Raymond Chandler came along and perfected the type, with his detective, Philip Marlowe. Chandler introduced Marlowe in his first novel, The Big Sleep, and Philip Marlowe continued to solve crimes in six subsequent Chandler novels. Chandler had previously published a number of short stories featuring other detectives; however, Marlowe proved so popular that when the stories were later republished the author often switched the detectives to Philip Marlowe.

Marlowe was a more complex character than some of his hard boiled brethren. Sure he could handle a gun and take a beating. But, he was more than just a tough guy, he had gone to college, could play chess, and appreciated classical music. He also had his own strong ethical standards and turned down jobs that didn't measure up to those standards.

The Adventures of Sam Spade was a radio series based loosely on the private detective character Sam Spade, created by writer Dashiell Hammett for The Maltese Falcon. The show ran for 13 episodes on ABC in 1946, for 157 episodes on CBS in 1946-1949, and finally for 51 episodes on NBC in 1949-1951. The series starred Howard Duff (and later, Steve Dunne) as Sam Spade and Lurene Tuttle as his secretary Effie, and took a considerably more tongue-in-cheek approach to the character than the novel or movie. The series was largely overseen by producer/director William Spier. In 1947, scriptwriters Jason James and Bob Tallman received an Edgar Award for Best Radio Drama from the Mystery Writers of America.

Before the series, Sam Spade had been played in radio adaptations of The Maltese Falcon by both Edward G. Robinson (in a 1943 Lux Radio Theater production) and by Bogart himself (in a 1946 Academy Award Theater production), both on CBS.

Dashiell Hammett's name was removed from the series in the late 1940s because he was being investigated for involvement with the Communist Party. Later, when Howard Duff's name appeared in the Red Channells book, he was not invited to play the role when the series made the switch to NBC in 1950.

A husband and wife crime-fighting team based on the detective fiction books by Francis Crane. Starring Claudia Morgan and Les Damon as the husband and wife detective team, Jean and Pat Abbott. The show aired from 1945-1947.

Originally aired between 1939-1941.

Originally aired 1936.

Alan Young went on to be Wilbur on the TV Show Mr. Ed.

BBC radio comedy series, broadcast from 1971-72.

This is the radio version of the BBC television series "All Gas and Gaiters". The television scripts have been adapted for radio.

This is a situation comedy depicting the goings-on at a fictional English Cathedral called St Ogg's. The main characters are the Bishop and his chaplain. The latter, who is notionally the star of the show, is the Bishop's secretary; but the Bishop treats him as a general dogsbody. The other regular characters are the Archdeacon (who is also the Bishop's oldest friend), and the Dean (the Bishop's principal antagonist).

Political discussions from 1935 - 1952

George Bernard Shaw once said, “There are three things I’ll never forget about America – Niagara Falls, the Rocky Mountains and Amos 'n' Andy.”

Amos ‘n’ Andy was the story of two black characters—the modest, pragmatic Amos and the blustery, self-confident Andy—created by two white actors, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. The characters first aired as Sam ‘n Henry on Chicago’s WGN in 1926. In 1928, the duo went to rival station WMAQ as Amos ‘n’ Andy.

By 1931, Amos ‘n’ Andy had become a national phenomenon, a comedic serial with nearly 40 million listeners. Movie theaters were forced to stop their features each night to pipe in the 15-minute show for their audience. Although Amos ‘n’ Andy’s dialect humor caused much controversy among African-Americans, the show’s appeal during its prime was not restricted to any single race.

From 1943 to 1955, Amos ‘n’ Andy was a weekly situation comedy. The duo hosted The Amos ‘n’ Andy Music Hall from 1954 until their final broadcast on November 25, 1960.

Charles Correll died on September 26, 1972. Freeman Gosden died on December 10, 1982.

Amos ‘n’ Andy was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988.

An Evening with Groucho is a look at the life of Groucho Marx and the Marx Brothers, as told by Groucho.

Groucho was born Julius Henry Marx on October 2, 1890 in New York. He was the third of the five surviving sons of Sam and Minnie Marx. He was the first of the brothers to start stage career aged 15 in an act called The Leroy Trio. Other acts followed, but none of them was a great success. Twice the other user of the act disappeared overnight and left him penniless in a town far away from home.

When his brothers came on stage, they finally had a success with the musical comedy called I'll Say She Is. It was at one of the performances of this show that Groucho got his painted mustache. He arrived late at the theater and used greasepaint to create a mustache. He found this so much easier than a glued on mustache that he insisted on using this technique from then on.


In the later years of the Marx Brothers movie career, Groucho started working on radio. He hosted several programs and was a guest on many shows. His biggest success was the comedy quiz show You Bet Your Life which started in 1947. The show later moved to television and was on the air until 1961.

Always being a liberal, Groucho sometimes made critical remarks about politics and had friends which were regarded as communist by the US of the 1950s. This let to Groucho being investigated by the FBI.

Groucho died on August 19th, 1977 at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. His ashes are at Eden Memorial Park, San Fernando, California.

Radio Show based on the Archie Comics.

The Armed Forces Radio Services (AFRS) has its origins in the War Department's quest to improve troop morale. This quest began with short-wave broadcasts of educational and information programs to troops in 1940. In 1941, the War Department began issuing "Buddy Kits" (B-Kits) to departing troops, which comprised radios, 78 RPM shellac records, and electrical transcription disks of radio shows. However, with the entrance of the United States into World War II, the War Department decided that it needed to improve the quality and quantity of its offerings.

This began with the broadcasting of its own original variety programs. Command Performance became the first of these, when it was produced for the first time on March 1, 1942. On May 26, 1942, the Armed Forces Radio Services was formally established. Originally, its programming comprised network radio shows with the commercials removed. However, it soon began producing other original programming, such as Mail Call, G.I. Journal, Jubilee, and G.I. Jive. At its peak in 1945, the Service produced around twenty hours of original programming each week.

After the war, the AFRS continued providing programming to troops in Europe. In addition, it also provided programming for future wars that the United States was involved in. It survives today as a component of the American Forces Network.

All of the shows aired by the AFRS during the Golden Age were recorded onto electrical transcription disks and shipped to stations, in order to be broadcast to troops overseas. People in the United States rarely ever heard programming from the AFRS, although AFRS recordings of Golden Age network shows were occasionally broadcast on some domestic stations beginning in the 1950s.

Author’s Playhouse utilized the works of short story authors and playwrights from a variety of genres.

Originally aired 1935-1955.

William Gargan, who also played the better known television (and radio) detective Martin Kane, was the voice of New York eye Barrie Craig while Ralph Bell portrayed his associate, Lt. Travis Rogers. Craig's office was on Madison Avenue and his adventures were fairly standard PI fare. He worked alone, solved cases efficiently, and feared no man. As the promos went, he was "your man when you can't go to the cops. Confidentiality a specialty."

Radio broadcasts of baseball games from 1948-1967.

Behind the Mike was a behind-the-scenes view of radio personalities, personnel and operations. This version of the program aired from 15 Sep 1940 until 19 Apr 1942. The program was developed as a way for radio listeners to learn more of their favorite radio personalities, programs, and behind-the-scenes people who contributed to the production of radio programs. The host of the show was Graham McNamee.

A take-off of "Believe it Not".

Several hundred of Ripley's one minute Believe it or Not shows.