The World Adventurers Club

Adventurer/Explorer series (1932)

Another of the fine early shows of radio, this 15-minute series was created and transcribed by the Los Angeles company Transco, an un-heralded early pioneer of radio production. It first was aired on radio station KFWB in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the names of the many talents who created this show are lost like a ruin in the steamy jungles of time.

The setting is the plush and highly decorated World Adventurer's Club, where members relax and regale each other with their exploits in distant and exotic places. One can imagine that Phineas Fogg's Explorer's Club in London might have been a model. In our World Adventurer's Club (in San Francisco, perhaps next door to the hotel where once stayed the man called Paladin) one can imagine gentleman with brandy and cigars reclining in overstuffed leather couches and chairs, the room lined with mahogany bookcases. Tall red velvet draped windows throw dim sunlight on walls covered with strangle masks and hand weapons, while statues in the corners stare out between potted palm fronds. There's even an Explorer Quartet to sing of adventure! Ah, the wild world that still lay in wait in 1932! In fact, alternate titles for the show were "Adventures in a Strange Land," as well as "The Adventurer's Club."

These hearty souls coerce each other into tales of amazing adventure. Titles such as "Land of Doomed Souls," "Fire Dog," "Living Shroud," "Hairy Wild Man," "Muckin' In The Khyber," "Pancho Villa's Treasure," and " Mad Monk Of Ankor Wat" simply thrill and amaze! Some are supposedly based on reality. Enjoy listening to these tales of action and adventure, and you be the judge!

For more tales of action and adventure, you have only to click on Escape, which tells classic tales of mysterious places and adventure to perfection. The Voyages of the Scarlet Queen is a great sailing adventure show in the Far East. Also on the adventure list would be Adventures by Morse, Suspense, Bold Venture, Cloak and Dagger, The Adventures of Frank Race, the classic serial I Love a Mystery, Jungle Jim, Tarzan, Moon Over Africa, and You Are There, which features true history stories from many times and places. Many of the radio serials for kids are high adventure, especially Speed Gibson of the International Police, Terry and the Pirates and Sergeant Preston of the Yukon.