December 6, 2024
1 new The Black Bat Audiobook, 5 new eBooks, and 8 featured products from Radio Archives this week!
All new and featured products are discounted the first week.
25th Anniversary Celebration!
Radio Archives is celebrating 25 years of creating great products and we're commemorating this anniversary with a 50% sale on the Preservation Library.
Did you know that the Preservation Library subscription program is now larger than the RadioArchives.com website? Hard core OTR collectors are loving it.
Over the past 25 years, Radio Archives has digitized an impressive library of approximately 36,000 radio shows. While only a portion of these have been restored and made available for purchase on our website, we are thrilled to offer you an exclusive opportunity to own this vast collection.
We are offering Volume 1 of our 60 volume subscription at a remarkable 50% discount. For just $60.00, you can download the first 600 radio shows today, with no further obligation. Immerse yourself in the captivating world of radio's golden era with this unparalleled collection of timeless broadcasts.
To get a taste of the treasures that await you, be sure to listen to the Audio Clip on the Preservation Library Product Page. Embrace the magic of radio's past and preserve it for generations to come.
The Preservation Library was recently featured on a podcast. We thought you'd like to listen to it.
We are offering 8 audio products every week in the newsletter until Christmas. The Audio CD version of these Radio sets and Audiobooks are in the Bargain Basement for easy ordering. Both Audio CDs and MP3s are discounted by $1 per CD when they are featured in the newsletter.
Featured: previously released
Volume 1
A creaking door and a chorus of haunting organ music. No radio show opening is more memorable for many fans than the one heard on Inner Sanctum Mysteries. This disturbing simple salvo led people into thirty minutes of suspense and horror sprinkled with puns from a creepy host, all of which can now be heard again in sparkling audio quality from Radio Archives.
Inner Sanctum Mysteries was the brainchild of producer Himan Brown, inspired by the unsettling creaking door in the basement of a studio where he once worked. Brown took that inspiration and built around it a formula that lived on beyond the show itself. Listeners tuned in every week to hear that door open and be welcomed by the sinister, yet often humorous host to join him in a chair near the fire inside the Inner Sanctum for a story sure to chill them to the bone.
Stories on Inner Sanctum Mysteries originally included both classic and original tales, the new stories taking center stage as the show continued. With writers like pulp scribes Emile Tepperman and Robert Newman, as well as Robert Sloan, Milton Lewis, and others, it is little surprise that Inner Sanctum is still beloved by fans today. Utilizing numerous clichés and literary devices, Inner Sanctum Mysteries carried listeners into the heart of horror, a liberal dose of camp often thrown in. Using voices ranging from star Boris Karloff to a veteran crew of New York radio actors, Inner Sanctum set the standard for horror programs both on radio and even inspired decades of horror hosts on television.
Inner Sanctum Mysteries, Volume 1 features the best of fright, terror, and fantastic storytelling the series has to offer! Ten hours, twenty shows of spine tingling fun.
Featured: previously released
Volume 2
 Family life in the post-war years changed considerably from that which was common in the depression-ridden 1930s. For the first time, thanks to the G. I. Bill of Rights, everyday people could afford to get an education and a decent job or career - with returning veterans by the thousands taking advantage of the opportunity to establish themselves a far more solid foundation than they had known in the previous decade. Thus, gradually, America developed a new economic base with a new and ever-increasing standard of living. This new middle-class lifestyle, coupled with the baby boom that ran throughout the 1950s, changed the country from a rural/urban mix into a rural/urban/suburban culture -- with housing developments, highways, shopping centers, and all of the other hallmarks of this new society becoming the norm.
The brainchild of actor Robert Young and writer Ed James, "Father Knows Best" began as an audition disc in December of 1948. In its initial incarnation, the series was not much different than similar situation comedies of the period -- shows like "Ozzie and Harriet" and "The Life of Riley," the concepts of which were basically that "daddy is a well-meaning dumbbell, but we still love him." (In fact, the original title of the series was "Father Knows Best?" -- with a definite question mark at the end of the phrase.) However, by the time the show was bought by General Foods for its Maxwell House Coffee brand and first aired over NBC on August 25, 1949, most of the clichés had been removed. What was left was a solid, well-written portrayal of typical Midwestern family life -- with a surprising emphasis on well-shaded characters, rather than outlandish situations, to bring out the humorous side of suburban life.
As portrayed by Robert Young, the title character of Jim Anderson is a successful insurance salesman living in Springfield with his wife Margaret (June Whitley, Jean Vanderpyl) and their three children: Betty (Rhoda Williams), Bud (Ted Donaldson), and Kathy (Norma Jean Nilsson). Jim is ambitious, likable, and a good provider for his family -- though he often grows exasperated by the turmoil that is a part of his everyday home life. The plots generally begin quite simply - Jim surprises Margaret with tickets to a show, for instance - then quickly become complicated as the plans, schemes, commitments, and miscommunications of their children and their friends and neighbors get in the way. As with all sit-coms, the complications are never all that serious and are, of course, all resolved by the end of the show -- but, thanks to excellent writing and the outstanding acting talents of the principals, these hilarious slices of everyday life rise above the norm to make "Father Knows Best" one of the highlight series of late-era network radio entertainment.
Heard today, "Father Knows Best" still retains its ability to hilariously reflect the interpersonal relationships of a typical American family. Though life is certainly more complicated and diverse today than it was in the 1940s and 1950s, listeners can still easily recognize a bit of themselves and their children in the characters, their quirks, and their foibles. After all, though times change, people don't; raising good kids today is no easier or less complicated than it was in 1950, as you'll discover when you listen to these delightful episodes.
Featured: previously released
I'm a little elf, no feet three.
Very, very tiny, as you see.
I never walk, I never run,
I always jump -- it's much more fun!
My name is Jump Jump,
jolly little Jump Jump.
Work is always play.
I'm quick as the wind and my very best friend
Is Mary Holiday!
It's nearly Christmas and a young boy named Tim is worried. Tim is an orphan and his friend Billy is concerned that Santa Claus might prefer to concentrate on "whole families" with mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and may not visit the orphanage this year. To ease everyone's worries, Tim decides to find the answer once and for all. Late one night, he sets off to find Santa by following the North Star through the woods - but after walking for many hours he gets tired and lies down to take a nap. Imagine his surprise when, awakened by tapping on his knee, he discovers a little boy elf not more than three inches high, jumping from one knee to the other and excitedly gabbing in real elf talk! He soon learns that the elf's name is Jump Jump and that he lives at Holiday House, a place where every day is a holiday. Mary Holiday lives there, too -- and she's Santa's own personal secretary!
So begins "Jump Jump and the Ice Queen," a children's radio series first broadcast in November and December of 1948. Throughout twenty-five imaginative and fantasy-filled episodes, Tim also meets such unique characters as Achi Paggli, the clown who changes his hair color to match his mood, a lion named Sleepy Slim, who is so lazy that he naps far more than he moves, a moody poet who speaks only in rhyme, and, of course, Santa Claus himself -- who asks Tim and his new friends for help in saving Christmas after the selfish Ice Queen kidnaps his reindeer.
Heard today, "Jump Jump and the Ice Queen" may well remind you of the simple but charming children's records produced in the 1940s and 1950s by such companies as Capitol and RCA Victor's Little Nipper Records. (Indeed, Jump Jump himself had appeared with Mary Holiday in "The Ugly Duckling," a 1945 set of commercially released 78 RPM recordings, produced by Bel-Tone Records in Los Angeles, California.) Given that it is a Christmas serial, it is inevitable that comparisons will be made with the better-known "Cinnamon Bear" series, produced in 1937 -- but the two are very different in both concept and execution. Whereas "The Cinnamon Bear" was lavishly produced at the height of network radio with a full orchestra and a large cast, "Jump Jump and the Ice Queen" is a small and intimate affair, relying on the writing and performing talents of a very small cast to capture the attention of the listener and send his or her imagination traveling to many different and exciting places. It's quiet good nature, coupled with effective characterizations and real heart, make this series a pleasure to play and enjoy with the entire family.
Featured: previously released
Volume 34
Being a family centered comedy, The Great Gildersleeve often revolved around the lives and antics of Gildy’s well behaved niece, Marjorie, and wiseacre nephew, Leroy. Portrayed originally by Lurene Tuttle, many of the episodes focused on Marjorie involved her suitors, and then her own family once one of the boyfriends, Bronco Thompson, married her. Gildy’s twelve-year-old nephew, Leroy, was actually portrayed by an adult, Walter Tetley. Tetley made a career of playing child roles as voice actor well into his thirties. Leroy was just obstinate and stubborn enough to be the perfect needle to pop the windbag Gildy, at just the funniest moments.
The Great Gildersleeve portrayed its lead character as not only a family man, but also as one of Summerfield’s most eligible bachelors. Perhaps one of the best-remembered suitors pursuing Gildy was the one who actually almost caught him. The Widow Ransom, played by Shirley Mitchell, spoke with a syrupy Southern drawl, referring to her man as ‘Throck-mahhhtin’.
The Widow’s pursuit of Gildersleeve was a major part of the early shows, leading right up to the altar itself. In June 1943. The nuptials were interrupted, however, when the Widow’s supposedly dead husband interrupted the services! Making use of such dramatic turns is just one reason The Great Gildersleeve stood out as more than just another comedy.
The Widow would return in later episodes, actually dating Gildy off and on. The chemistry between the actors, made any time Widow Ransom was on the program one to be enjoyed, even though she brought continual conflict to Gildy’s life.
Laughter in the midst of small town life makes The Great Gildersleeve one of the best shows of classic radio. Experience it for yourself in twelve original broadcasts in this collection, The Great Gildersleeve, Volume 34, complete with Kraft Foods commercials and restored to sparkling digital quality.
The Black Bat and the Red Menace
by G. Wayman Jones
Out of the night comes a menacing winged figure! Blind district attorney Tony Quinn takes his battle for justice from the courtrooms to the streets, battling evil as The Black Bat!
Follow Tony Quinn on the trail of killers who try to smash America’s defense effort!
The Black Bat’s crusade against crime very much resembles that of Tony Quinn, his true identity. Using his position as a Special Attorney, Quinn identifies criminals that need to be brought to justice and The The Black Bat’s crusade against crime mirrors that of Tony Quinn, his secret identity. Quinn uses his position as a Special Attorney to identify criminals that need to be brought to justice and The Black Bat lends a gauntleted hand to law enforcement by doing so, often outside the very law that Quinn stands for. This leads Quinn to facing off more with racketeers, gangsters, and murderers than he does monsters, dictators, and mad scientists. It also often leaves him not only pursued by the lawless, but also by those sworn to uphold the law.
Although The Black Bat often assists Commissioner Warner’s police force, one man in particular makes discovering who The Black Bat is his personal mission. Promoted from lieutenant and detective sergeant, the eventual Captain McGrath is a friend of Tony Quinn’s. Even with that, however, McGrath remains convinced for much of the series that The Black Bat and the ‘blind’ lawyer are in fact the same person. He bases this on them having similar physical appearances and other characteristics. McGrath, as is always the case in these situations, is always one step behind in proving that Tony Quinn is The Black Bat!
Thrill to The Black Bat and the Red Menace, originally published in Black Book Detective #45 May 1941 and read with two fisted excitement by award winning voice actor Milton Bagby.
5 hours - MP3 regular price $9.99
Featured: previously released
A Detective Fey Croaker LAPD Novel
With the unit she leads facing a run of unsolved cases, Los Angeles homicide detective Fey Croaker is under intense pressure to solve the murder of a woman with multiple IDs, a million dollars in cash hidden in her dryer, and only brand new clothing and furniture in her brand new condo. When fingerprints inexplicably reveal the mystery woman was murdered eighteen years earlier in San Francisco, Fey feels her career crashing down around her. Complications in the twisted case compound when investigation reveals the woman’s husband—the man convicted of killing her the first time—was released on parole only weeks before she was killed again. However, the victim has many more surprises for everyone involved—especially for Fey, who finds herself a suspect when the investigation takes a turn for the deadly.
Having outlasted three dead-end marriages, a severely abusive upbringing, and the relentless resentment of her male colleagues on the force, Fey is a hard-bitten, cynical, and driven survivor. With her integrity, freedom, and life on the line, Fey Croaker is about to unleash all the anger inside her—and nobody better get in her way...
Noted author Paul Bishop’s Fey Croaker returns in new editions from Pro Se Productions! Also included in this volume is a true story by Bishop from his thirty plus year career with the Los Angeles Police Department!
“Paul Bishop is the real deal—real cop, real writer. You never go wrong with a Bishop novel.”
—Max Allan Collins bestselling author of Road to Perdition.
9 hours - MP3 regular price $17.99
Featured: previously released
White Eyes
Written by Will Murray, Based on a Concept by Lester Dent
Read by Richard Epcar
He was a role model during the Great Depression and World War II and a pop icon for the millions who thrilled to his paperback exploits from the 1960s thru the 1980s. Now Doc Savage, the legendary Man of Bronze, comes to vivid life in White Eyes.
In White Eyes, a new supercriminal emerges from the underworld. Dressed all in white, his face masked, eyes blank as a blind man's, he calls himself White Eyes. Who is he? What are his goals? All of Manhattan reels under the onslaught of the Blind Death, a scourge so terrible that innocent people are struck dead, their eyes turning white as hardboiled eggs. From his skyscraper headquarters high above the streets of New York City to the sugarcane fields of Cuba, Doc Savage races to crush gangland's latest uncrowned king!
Written by Will Murray and produced and directed by Roger Rittner. White Eyes features dramatic narration by Richard Epcar, cover art by Joe DeVito, and two exclusive audio interviews with Will Murray on the continuing history of Doc Savage and the original Lester Dent manuscript that led to the writing of this exciting edge-of-your-seat adventure.
10 hours - MP3 regular price $19.99
Featured: previously released
Fangs of the Dragon
by Norvell W. Page writing as Grant Stockbridge
Read by Nick Santa Maria
Who was the Dragon — that monstrous mastermind whose weird power turned the little town of Bethbury into an octopus of crime, spreading its slimy tentacles across the land? As a chemist breeds germ-culture in a test tube, so did the Dragon, an unknown murder genius to whom horror was a weapon and a toy. How could the Dragon’s venom make ruthless killers of innocent people? How could Richard Wentworth — as long as the Spider’s body throbbed with the dread poison — destroy the Dragon . . . and escape the crazed legions who hunted him for the hundred thousand dollars on his head? Richard Wentworth was fighting a hopeless, losing battle, until — with the Dragon virus spreading in his own veins — he rallied his crippled band to invade the enemy’s stronghold in a conflict certain to be his last!
The great pulp magazines of the 1930s and 40s produced a number of heroes, but none as action-oriented as the Spider. For almost exactly a decade, from October 1933 to December 1943, the Spider was the scourge of the Underworld, doling out his own particular brand of justice and imprinting his dreaded red Spider seal on the foreheads of those he has killed for the good of mankind.
Never before or since has there been a hero like the Spider. Driven, hunted, and violently committed to exterminating criminals of all calibers.
Nick Santa Maria once again brings the Spider to life in Fangs of the Dragon. Originally published in The Spider magazine, August, 1942.
 New eBook
Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
The Super-Detective magazine was best known for the pulp hero Jim Anthony. Anthony was patterned after Street & Smith's popular Doc Savage. Anthony was one of the world’s wealthiest men, an amateur criminologist, a scientist, inventor, art collector, research engineer, and expert in aerodynamics. His skill at unraveling mysterious crimes made his name feared throughout the nation’s underworld.
When the magazine made its debut, Jim Anthony was not a part of it. The inaugural issue of Super-Detective Stories was March 1934. It featured standard detective stories and lasted 15 issues. After being off the newsstands for five years, the magazine returned with a slight name change. Known simply as Super-Detective, it now started off each issue with a novel containing the heroic exploits of Jim Anthony. There were twenty-five Jim Anthony novels, the last being October 1943. The magazine continued without Jim Anthony until October 1950, at which time the magazine folded. A total of 80 issues were printed, 15 in the early run, and 65 in the later series. Super-Detective returns in these vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
Regular price $3.99
 New eBook
Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
Ki-Gor, son of the jungle! Orphaned son of missionary Robert Kilgour, raised in the jungle, he grew to a six foot bronzed-skin giant who ruled the jungles. Joined by Helen Vaughn, his fiance and later wife, Timbo George, the Masai chief, and N'Geeso, the chief of a Pygmy tribe, this band of adventurers roam the wilds of Africa in a series of pulp magazine stories that began in 1939 and ended with the last published story in 1954. Now, Ki-Gor is back, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
Regular price $3.99
 New eBook
Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
Even before America entered World War II, RAF Aces were battling the Axis forces over Europe. Americans wanted to read adventures of these aviation heroes, and Standard Magazines (aka, Thrilling Publications) sought to meet that demand with a new air-war publication which hit the newsstands in August of 1941. For one thin dime, readers could experience the stalwart heroism of the flying men of the R.A.F. as they battled Nazis in the war-torn skies of England and Europe. The magazine lasted for thirteen issues, ending in the summer of 1944, as the Axis was beginning to topple. Relive those tales of high-flying heroism! RAF Aces now returns in these vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
Regular price $3.99
 New eBook
Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
For more rootin’-tootin’ excitement, a new western magazine made its debut in the fall of 1940. It seems that there could never be enough western adventures to slate the public thirst for saddle-slappin’, gun-bustin’ outdoors thrills. The publisher was Better Publications (aka Standard Magazines, aka Thrilling Publications), who also provided readers with such other western fare such as The Masked Rider, The Rio Kid, Range Rider Western, Thrilling Ranch, Thrilling Western, Thrilling Ranch Stories, Rodeo Romances, Texas Rangers and West. Whew! And the issues quickly disappeared from the newsstands, as customers eagerly sought the latest tales set in the old west. Git ‘em up cowboy! They kept enjoying the western tales until the final issue in October of 1953, when so many pulps were being discontinued due to the competition from comic books, paperbacks and, of course, television. This magazine title lasted an impressive 76 issues. Exciting Western returns in these vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
 New eBook
Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
Mystery and thrills... times ten! That was Ten Detective Aces. Each magazine featured ten stories of action and adventure. The magazine got off to a shaky start in November 1928, under the title of The Dragnet Magazine. Ace Magazines published this pulp containing stories of gangsters and organized crime, but it failed to click with readers. In April 1930 the magazine was retitled to Detective-Dragnet Magazine and its new focus was on detective tales. This caught the reading public's attention, and sales surged. With the March 1933 issue, the title was changed to Ten Detective Aces, and that was the title that stuck. Authors such as Lester Dent, Novell Page, Frederick C. Davis, Norman Daniels, and Emile C. Tepperman wrote for the pages of Ten Detective Aces. It lasted until September 1949, offering up detective excitement for a total of 202 issues. Ten Detective Aces returns in these vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
Featured eBook
Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine. As a special bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction especially for this series of eBooks.
Another epic exploit of America’s best-loved pulp-fiction character of the 1930s and 1940s: The Spider — Master of Men! Richard Wentworth — the dread Spider, nemesis of the Underworld, lone wolf anti-crime crusader who always fights in that grim no-man’s land between Law and lawless — returns in vintage pulp tales of the Spider, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
Radio Archives Pulp Classics line of eBooks are of the highest quality and feature the great Pulp Fiction stories of the 1930s-1950s. All eBooks produced by Radio Archives are available in ePub and Mobi formats for the ultimate in compatibility. If you have a Kindle, the Mobi version is what you want. New Kindle's use ePub. If you have an iPad/iPhone, Android, or Nook, then the ePub version is what you want.
The Bargain Basement is where you find all the discounted Audio CDs including everything featured in this newsletter.
Comments From Our Customers!
Donnie Pitchford writes:
Great Gildersleeve, Volume 32. The quality continues to be exceptional!
Timothy Dil writes:
Sky Fighters eBook Fall 1949. An exciting set of aviation tales that was very entertaining. Also the letters to the editor section contained full addresses of several fans which I Googled to see their homes 76 years after this magazine was originally published!
If you'd like to share a comment with us or if you have a question or a suggestion send an email to [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you!
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