Random Rarities 2

Rare Drama, Music, Western, Suspense, Mystery, Detective, Crime, Adventure and Canaries (1930s-1950s)

Here are 50 more Random Rarities to soothe the soul please the ear. Rare drama, mystery, horror, detective, music, and comedy are all here at your fingertips.

Between the Bookends, NBC, September 14, 1945, sponsored by Westinghouse. Popular writer and War Correspondent Ted Malone reflects upon "The Star-Spangled Banner", the importance of a national anthem, and how Francis Scott Key wrote ours.

Eden's Shampoo College Sorority Dance, 1933. Pretend band remote from a sorority dance with music from Freddie Martin and his Orchestra. The music is quite danceable, but the real fun is overhearing the coeds tell each other about how wonderful Eden's Shampoo is.

Hartz Radio Canaries, Mutual Network, December 3, 1944. Music and patter in a quarter-hour plug for Hartz Mountain Pet Foods. The show features several live canaries in the studio.

The Hinds Honey and Almond Cream Program, WJR Detroit, January 1936. The hand lotion company brings us popular tunes, close harmonies, featuring Don Lange, Harold Keene, John MacKenzie, "The Three Aces".

Command Decision, MGM Syndication(?), air trailer, 1948. Preview of the film starring Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson and Brian Donlevy. The movie deals with the loneliness of command, politics, and the high cost of B-17 daylight bombing over Germany.

Lora Lawton, NBC January 16, 1946. The continuing story of the conflict between love and riches. An influential woman has invited Peter to a party where his estranged Lora will be taking pictures. What will happen when husband and wife meet?

Crime On the Waterfront (Lou Kagle, New York Detective), NBC March 1, 1949, Audition. The ace NY Detective who works the waterfront is assigned to sail to Bermuda to guard some art and has to foil a kidnap plot on the return trip.

Lyons Busy, Possible Syndication, Christmas 1949. The busy telephone line ("Line's Busy"-"Lyons Busy" tips us off to the Yule-tide irreverence to come. Even a visit from Old Saint Nick is not as important as the hot jazz from Dave Brubeck, Cal Jader, Barbara Richie, and host Jimmy Lyons.

Mystery Theatre (Mark Sabre of the Homicide Squad), ABC, 1952. A reformulation of Molle Mystery Theatre for a new network and new sponsor, and without Inspector Hearthstone. You can't stop the Hummert Radio Machine!

The Mad Masters, KGO San Francisco, March 16, 1946. Sitcom about a shoe salesman who comes home every night to his lonely ad harping wife. Tonight they listen to a prize fight on the radio and he dreams of being the Champ.

Mercer's Music Shop, AFRS, 1944. Hot jazz and swinging tunes served up by shopkeeper Johnny Mercer himself for our boys overseas. The show was also used as a summer replacement for Bob Hope's Pepsodent Show.

Macy's Morning Show, November(?) 1935, The famous Department Store has some great morning music for us, a message about children's clothes, and a report from Hollywood.

Magic Carpet, AFRS, 1946. A series of band remotes from the swingingest clubs across the land, recorded for our boys serving "over there".

The Make-Believe Ballroom, 1940(?). Tonight, Tommy Dorsey, Bunny Berigan, Harry James, Coleman Hawkins, John Kirby, Gene Krupa, Count Basie, and others hold an impromptu "battle of the bands" in the Ballroom.

Make Believe Town, Hollywood, CBS, 1948-49. An anthology of drama's set in and around the movie capital.

The Man Behind the Masterpiece, NBC, 1946. Dramatized biographies of great artists, heavy on the drama and organ music!

Manhattan Playhouse, Mutual Network, January 18, 1949. The program emulates the excitement of a Broadway opening, tonight's show, "The Perfect Secretary", is about a young executive who has a habit of falling in love with his secretary.

Maritime History, no information available, possible syndication. A rousing sea yarn about the Confederate Raider, CSS Shenandoah, which did a great deal to disrupt Yankee commerce on the high seas and fired the last shot of the Civil War.

March of Dimes, CBS, January 25, 1941. Hosted by Eddie Cantor on the occasion of FDR's birthday. Baby Snooks and Daddy open the festivities.

Marriage for Two, NBC, December 9, 1949. A combination Sitcom and soap opera, this episode opens with Vicki hanging up on her mother when the maid screams and quits after hearing noises in the basement. Is the house haunted? What light can Vicki's new husband shed on the situation?

Martin Kane, Private Detective, NBC, 1953. Easy going but determined New York private eye always gets the bad guy while plugging pipe tobacco for the U.S. Tobacco company. Soon heralded as "TV's first private eye".

The Mary Lee Taylor Program, CBS, September 21, 1939. Sponsored by PET Milk, Mary Lee shares a positively decadent recipe for Coconut Cream Stuffed Vanilla Wafers. The program will become a soap opera in the next decade.

ABC Mystery Time/Masters of Mystery, ABC, 1956. "Four-Time Loser", George has a good job and a pretty fiancé, but he's hiding a dark secret, twelve years ago he broke out of the penitentiary. Out of nowhere, his old cellmate shows up with his hand out. George is willing to kill to keep his secret, but will it be enough for a Four-Time Loser?

Max Haines Mystery Hall of Fame, No Information, mid-70s. Max Haines was a collector of true-crime stories. In this episode, a jeweler in 1949 Quebec is carrying on with a much younger woman, so he comes up with an original way to get rid of his wife.

The Maxwell House Showboat, Red Network, July 1936. An Old Time Showboat Variety Show originating in Portland, Maine, featuring Bob Hope.

Me and Janie, October 20, 1949. The adventures of George and Janie O'Hanlon. Very entertaining family situation comedy about a man who wants to talk his wife into getting a dog for their son.

Meet Miss Sherlock, CBS Pacific Network, September 12, 1946. Amateur detective Jane Sherlock tries to put together the clues with her long-suffering boyfriend, up-and-coming attorney Peter Blossom.

Sammy Kaye's Melody Showcase, Audition program, June 6, 1939. A show in search of a sponsor, "sweet" band leader Sammy Kaye presents songs which are not well known, yet! The audience is asked to call in their votes for the best song of the evening and that tune will get the backing it needs which might launch it to potential hit-dom.

The Old Gold Show, CBS, October 20, 1944. Jackie Gleason is introduced as "radio's newest comedian". He performs a sketch as the station manager of WYOU, wooing a new sponsor. Even in this early appearance, Jackie works in an "And Away We Go!"

Sun-Up Serenade, WSM Nashville, January 1947. Saturday morning country music program featuring the music of Bill Cantrell and "The Blue Seal Pals". Sponsored by the Blue Seal Flour and Milling Company. Remember, you can never have enough pedal-steel guitar in your life.

Ted Drake, Guardian of the Big Top, Mutual Network, 1949, weekday after-school program, in rotation with Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders. Produced at the Mutual Studios in Nashville, this circus adventure centers on the adventures of a private detective who provides security for a traveling circus.

Tell Me a Story, NBC, May 7, 1947, Audition Program. Ida Lupino hosts a series of stories by Carlton E. Morse, each of the stories will be about a woman, this week the story is about a frightened woman who imagines herself drowning in "The Pond".

That's My Pop, CBS, July 29, 1945. Family sitcom based on the Milt Gross cartoon. Lots of great scheming loafer and mother-in-law humor.

The Croupier, ABC, September 9, 1949. Stories of the inevitability of Fate told by the Croupier who spins the wheel. Vincent Price stars as "the Roman", an ancient soul doomed to immortality and dreaming of the peace of death.

The Free Company, CBS, April 6, 1941, Sustained. The Free Company is a group of radio writers and performers who come together to create radio plays about America's Basic Liberties. This episode, "His Honor the Mayor" features and is written by Orson Welles. Other shows featured Norman Corwin, Stephen Vincent Benet, Archibald MacLeish, and others.

The Will Hay Programme, BBC, 1944. Hay plays school headmaster Dr. Muffin, a character which he created for the music hall circuit in the 1920's. Hay was inspired to begin acting after seeing W.C. Fields juggle in Manchester around 1910.

Three Hundred Party, Mutual Network, April 26, 1946. An All-Star party in celebration of Mutual gaining its 300th affiliate, WKRZ Oil City, Pennsylvania. Oil City listeners (and the rest of the country) are taken on a nationwide tour of what the network has to offer.

The March of Time, Blue Network, February 3, 1938. Time Magazine's radio dramatization of news events from around the world, as well as a major plug for LIFE Magazine's value to advertisers.

Tom Powers Original Life Studies, NBC, December 23, 1936, sponsored by Johnson Wax. Tom presents stories about crazy fliers, himself in the Great War and the trials of a control tower operator at Las Lunas Airport, New Mexico.

The Maytag Frolics, National Radio Advertising Inc Syndication, January 1929. A medley of college songs sure to impress the "Flappers" in your neighborhood. Racoon coat optional.

Whatever your pleasure, you're sure to find it in these wonderfully diverse Random Rarities! So warm up the tubes and get that ear ready to hear some splendid old rare radio programs!