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Otto Kruger Collection

A pioneer in Method Acting years before there was such a thing as Method Acting, Otto Kruger specialized in playing villains for most of his Hollywood career but was known around town as a very nice person.

Otto Kruger

32 old time radio show recordings
(total playtime 22 hours, 1591 min)
available in the following formats:

1 MP3 CD
or
24 Audio CDs


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Play a sample episode from August 14, 1945:

"When Strangers Marry"



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Text on OTRCAT.com ©2001-2024 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved. Reproduction is prohibited.

Otto Kruger
(1885 – 1974)

Otto KrugerAny drama coach will tell you that acting is reacting. To understand the character one is playing, the audience needs to see how your character reacts to the other characters on stage. Another "given" is that actors have to be big, their reactions need to be big so that the audience can see them, and they need a big, booming voice which can be heard from every seat in the house.

Otto KrugerDuring the second act of George M. Cohan's 1915 revue Young America, matinee idol William Simpson arched back and resonated "Where is Annie tonight?" Somewhat bored with the overacting shenanigans, Otto Kruger calmly flicked a piece of imaginary lint from his sleeve and calmly replied in a normal speaking voice, "She's outside." Without the reaction he was expecting to react to, Simpson left the script for a moment and bellowed, "What did you say?" Nonplussed, Kruger stuck his hand in his pocket, jingled some change, and calmly repeated, "She's outside." By now, Simpson is lost but he is saved by a commotion in the orchestra pit, George M. Cohan found the bit so funny that he was breaking up in fits of laughter. Kruger let on in an interview in 1964 that "the idea spread – that is, that actors could talk like real people, and all of them began doing it."

No stranger to theatrical innovation, Kruger also has a small claim to "inventing" sound movies. Otto Kruger, a grandnephew to South African political figure Paul Kruger, was born in Toledo, Ohio, 1885. Early on, Otto mastered the piano as well as the cello and violin. In 1905, he was earning his daily bread 'pounding the ivories' in a Toledo nickelodeon house when the theater owner got the idea that the pictures needed more spectacle than just a rinky-dink piano. He had Kruger and another fellow stationed behind the screen and use props to synchronize sound effects with the action. "It worked out very well," Kruger later related, "and we even used our voices for shouts and a few words now and then. I think you could say it was the first 'talking picture'."

Otto moved on to Columbia University in New York but decided to study acting instead of music. After working with Cohan, he made his film debut in the five-reeler A Mother's Confession (1915) and The Runaway Wife (1915). In Hollywood, he built a reputation for playing suave villains who were menacing if not full-blown heavies. He sometimes got the call to play lawyers or businessmen, but usually, they were corrupt or set upon foreclosing on the heroine. "For a while I played sad husbands, then I got nothing but lawyers," he told an interviewer. "Then I was a doctor, and during the war I specialized in Nazis. Lately I've been playing sugar daddies."

Otto KrugerOne of his best-known roles was as a slick Nazi sympathizer in Hitchcock's Saboteur (1941), where he calmly listens to the hero's speech about the American Way before having him knocked out by his butler. In Cover Girl (1944), Kruger is an aging magazine editor who tries to make amends for a past affair by raising a nightclub singer from obscurity, but if he succeeds it means that Rita Hayworth will leave the man she loves. One of his best-played parts came in the poverty-row noir thriller 711 Ocean Drive (1950) with Edmund O'Brien. Kruger plays a mob boss who is forced to drink only milk because of ulcers. In 1952, he is the judge who tries to get Gary Cooper to leave town before it is too late in High Noon.

As a character actor, Kruger never found the commercial success that comes to leading men, and so had to find as much work as possible. In addition to radio appearances, he often appeared on television in the late fifties and through the sixties. He made guest appearances on the science fiction series The Man and the Challenge, as well as the western The Rebel and the legal drama The Law and Mr. Jones. He made annual appearances on Perry Mason from 1961 to 1964, twice as the accused, once as the accused's grandfather, and once as a judge.

Kruger was forced to retire after a series of strokes in the mid-sixties. He passed away at the Motion Picture and Television Country House on September 6, 1974, his 89th birthday. Two Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame are dedicated honoring Otto Kruger, one at 1757 Vine St for Motion Pictures, and the other at 6303 Hollywood Blvd for Television.

Text on OTRCAT.com ©2001-2024 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved. Reproduction is prohibited.

These classic recordings are available in the following formats:

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    I truely love all teh goodies you guys put out there for us OTR junkes!!! Thanks again!!!

    Debbie Verified Purchase

    He's great (and perpetually clueless) in the Thin Man movies.

    Dan Verified Purchase

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  • MP3 CDs are delivered by mail. These archival quality MP3 CDs are playable in your computer and many MP3 player devices.



    32 recordings on 1 MP3 CD for just $5.00. Total playtime 22 hours, 1591 min
    32 recordings on 1 MP3 CD for just $5.00
    total playtime 22 hours, 1591 min
    Add MP3 CD Collection to Cart

    1. 32 shows – total playtime 22 hours, 26 minutes
    2. Ft 470904 030 No Man Is Stranger.mp3
    3. Ft 480715 075 Music Of Broken Bell.mp3
    4. Ft 491214 148 Other Wise Man.mp3
    5. Ft 500823 184 20000 Leagues Under Sea.mp3
    6. Ft 510822 233 Seeds Of Promise.mp3
    7. Ft 530603 321 Abalone Boat.mp3
    8. Ft 541215 400 Cobblers Window.mp3
    9. Ft 550309 411 Retiring Mr Hewitt.mp3
    10. Great Scenes From Great Plays 481231 14 You And I.mp3
    11. Keep Em Rolling 420412 Captain From Connecticut.mp3
    12. Lux Radio 370315 124 Desire.mp3
    13. Lux Radio 390313 210 So Big.mp3
    14. Lux Radio 390417 215 Bullets Or Ballots.mp3
    15. Lux Radio 400422 260 Abe Lincoln In Illinois.mp3
    16. Lux Radio 400708 271 To Ladies.mp3
    17. Lux Radio 410113 290 Libel.mp3
    18. Lux Radio 421116 370 To Mary Love.mp3
    19. Lux Radio 430315 387 Libel Repeat.mp3
    20. Lux Radio 430524 397 Hitlers Children.mp3
    21. Lux Radio 440529 441 Old Acquaintance.mp3
    22. Lux Radio 450205 469 Laura.mp3
    23. Lux Radio 450212 470 For Whom Bell Tolls.mp3
    24. Lux Radio 450319 475 Grissleys Millions 1.mp3
    25. Lux Radio 461104 544 Ive Always Loved You.mp3
    26. Radio Readers Digest 461128 039 Like Remember George Saxton.mp3
    27. Radio Readers Digest 470306 053 Petes Thanksgiving.mp3
    28. Screen Mystery Club 450815 When Strangers Marry.mp3
    29. Sgt 450806 257 Little Foxes.mp3
    30. Shell Chateau 350629 Otto Kruger.mp3
    31. Suspense 430909 Marry For Murder.mp3
    32. Suspense 431026 After Dinner Story.mp3
    33. Treasury Star Parade 420000 38 Moon Is Down.mp3
  • MP3 downloads are available instantly after purchase!



    32 recordings on 1 MP3 Collection Download for just $5.00. Total playtime 22 hours, 1591 min
    32 recordings on 1 MP3 Collection Download for just $5.00
    616 MB – total playtime 22 hours, 26 min
    Add Instant Download Collection to Cart

    1. 32 shows – 616 MB – total playtime 22 hours, 26 minutes
    2. Ft 470904 030 No Man Is Stranger.mp3
    3. Ft 480715 075 Music Of Broken Bell.mp3
    4. Ft 491214 148 Other Wise Man.mp3
    5. Ft 500823 184 20000 Leagues Under Sea.mp3
    6. Ft 510822 233 Seeds Of Promise.mp3
    7. Ft 530603 321 Abalone Boat.mp3
    8. Ft 541215 400 Cobblers Window.mp3
    9. Ft 550309 411 Retiring Mr Hewitt.mp3
    10. Great Scenes From Great Plays 481231 14 You And I.mp3
    11. Keep Em Rolling 420412 Captain From Connecticut.mp3
    12. Lux Radio 370315 124 Desire.mp3
    13. Lux Radio 390313 210 So Big.mp3
    14. Lux Radio 390417 215 Bullets Or Ballots.mp3
    15. Lux Radio 400422 260 Abe Lincoln In Illinois.mp3
    16. Lux Radio 400708 271 To Ladies.mp3
    17. Lux Radio 410113 290 Libel.mp3
    18. Lux Radio 421116 370 To Mary Love.mp3
    19. Lux Radio 430315 387 Libel Repeat.mp3
    20. Lux Radio 430524 397 Hitlers Children.mp3
    21. Lux Radio 440529 441 Old Acquaintance.mp3
    22. Lux Radio 450205 469 Laura.mp3
    23. Lux Radio 450212 470 For Whom Bell Tolls.mp3
    24. Lux Radio 450319 475 Grissleys Millions 1.mp3
    25. Lux Radio 461104 544 Ive Always Loved You.mp3
    26. Radio Readers Digest 461128 039 Like Remember George Saxton.mp3
    27. Radio Readers Digest 470306 053 Petes Thanksgiving.mp3
    28. Screen Mystery Club 450815 When Strangers Marry.mp3
    29. Sgt 450806 257 Little Foxes.mp3
    30. Shell Chateau 350629 Otto Kruger.mp3
    31. Suspense 430909 Marry For Murder.mp3
    32. Suspense 431026 After Dinner Story.mp3
    33. Treasury Star Parade 420000 38 Moon Is Down.mp3
  • Standard Audio CDs are delivered by mail on archival quality media with up to 60 minutes on each CD and play in all CD players



    32 recordings on 24 Audio CDs. Total playtime 22 hours, 26 min
    32 recordings on 24 Audio CDs
    total playtime 22 hours, 26 min

    Otto Kruger Disc A001

    1. Shell Chateau 350629 Otto Kruger

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A002

    1. Lux Radio 370315 124 Desire

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A003

    1. Lux Radio 390313 210 So Big

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A004

    1. Lux Radio 390417 215 Bullets Or Ballots

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A005

    1. Lux Radio 400422 260 Abe Lincoln In Illinois

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A006

    1. Lux Radio 400708 271 To Ladies

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A007

    1. Lux Radio 410113 290 Libel

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A008

    1. Treasury Star Parade 420000 38 Moon Is Down
    2. Keep Em Rolling 420412 Captain From Connecticut

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A009

    1. Lux Radio 421116 370 To Mary Love

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A010

    1. Lux Radio 430315 387 Libel Repeat

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A011

    1. Lux Radio 430524 397 Hitlers Children

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A012

    1. Suspense 430909 Marry For Murder
    2. Suspense 431026 After Dinner Story

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A013

    1. Lux Radio 440529 441 Old Acquaintance

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A014

    1. Lux Radio 450205 469 Laura

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A015

    1. Lux Radio 450212 470 For Whom Bell Tolls

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A016

    1. Lux Radio 450319 475 Grissleys Millions 1

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A017

    1. Sgt 450806 257 Little Foxes
    2. Screen Mystery Club 450815 When Strangers Marry

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A018

    1. Lux Radio 461104 544 Ive Always Loved You

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A019

    1. Radio Readers Digest 461128 039 Like Remember George Saxton
    2. Radio Readers Digest 470306 053 Petes Thanksgiving

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A020

    1. Ft 470904 030 No Man Is Stranger
    2. Ft 480715 075 Music Of Broken Bell

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A021

    1. Great Scenes From Great Plays 481231 14 You And I
    2. Ft 491214 148 Other Wise Man

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A022

    1. Ft 500823 184 20000 Leagues Under Sea
    2. Ft 510822 233 Seeds Of Promise

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A023

    1. Ft 530603 321 Abalone Boat
    2. Ft 541215 400 Cobblers Window

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Otto Kruger Disc A024

    1. Ft 550309 411 Retiring Mr Hewitt

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00

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