Sometimes things just kinda dovetail.  I was assimilating those new Columbia Workshop shows starring Agnes Moorehead from a few days ago and noticed some more CW banter going on over at OTR+, where the estimable Bingster has just unleashed a massive helping of these programs.  Found a couple handfuls that either were personal fills or corrected some errors in my holdings (egad!)… and then checked my new situation against the Library’s, at which point I found that I myself had stashed a few items that still needed sharing!

Included in this bunch are quite a few that I have found turn up as falsely labeled items most of the time… but not this time around.  These are all checked and I’ll stand by them.  The final item might raise some eyebrows, but “Once Upon a Tune” seems to be to have been a “sub-series” of Columbia Workshop much as “Columbia Presents Corwin” or “Twenty-six by Corwin” were, so I’ve asked to have that log appended to the Workshop’s Otter log and will include any shows that we find in the Workshop folder as well.  So far, all I have been able to get my hands on is this “Tortilla Jones” episode.  Anyone else got some to contribute?

Hope this fills some gaps for y’all.  Our new CW count is 186… only 140 or so to go!  (Sigh…)  Here’s the show list:

Columbia Workshop 36-12-19 (020) The Gods of the Mountain.mp3
Columbia Workshop 37-09-05 (055) S S San Pedro.mp3
Columbia Workshop 37-11-07 (064) The Horla.mp3
Columbia Workshop 40-10-20 (050) A Man’s House.mp3
Columbia Workshop 41-05-18 (003) The People Yes.mp3
Columbia Workshop 41-08-24 (016) Old Testament Trilogy Part 3.mp3
Columbia Workshop 41-09-21 (020) Human Angle.mp3
Columbia Workshop 41-10-05 (022) Wolfiana.mp3
Columbia Workshop 41-10-12 (023) Murder in Studio One.mp3
Columbia Workshop 41-10-26 (024) The Odyssey of Runyon Jones.mp3
Columbia Workshop 41-11-02 (025) Man with a Platform.mp3
Columbia Workshop 41-11-09 (026) Psalm for a Dark Year.mp3
Columbia Workshop 42-02-08 (012) Portrait of Jennie.mp3
Columbia Workshop 44-03-14 (002) The Long Name None Could Spell.mp3
Columbia Workshop 44-03-21 (003) Lonesome Train.mp3
Columbia Workshop 44-03-28 (004) Savage Encounter.mp3
Columbia Workshop 44-04-11 (006) You Can Dream, Inc.mp3
Columbia Workshop 44-05-30 (013) Untitled.mp3
Columbia Workshop 44-07-18 (018) The Moat Farm Murder.mp3
Columbia Workshop 45-08-07 (006) Savage Encounter.mp3
Columbia Workshop 47-03-15 (003) Once Upon A Tune-Tortilla Jones.mp3

Today we’ve got for you one series new to the Library, and some great additions to a couple of old classics thanks to the donations of our members.

For the police drama fans out there, we’ve got the “reality show” from 1957-58 called Unit 99.  In this one you get to follow the Sacramento police on their rounds, very much like the “Nightwatch” program of several years earlier.

We keep chipping away at Columbia Workshop… we’ve got about half of those thought to exist available here, but the rest are proving exceptionally difficult to get our mitts on.  Thanks to Edward Lawler, we’ve got five more today.  Someone at OTR+ was kind enough to draw the community’s attention to these a few days back… they all star Agnes Moorehead and are sourced from a fansite devoted to her work. 

38-11-24 (115)  Beauty and the Beast
39-05-01 (137)  Wet Saturday
40-05-05 (030)  The Honest Captain
41-01-26 (063)  This Is From David
41-02-16 (066)  A Crop of Beans

From Bruce Forsberg come seven Abbott and Costello episodes… all but one were considered to be out of circulation as far as Otter is concerned but Jim’s been notified to take ‘em off the missing persons list!  Among these is a very early program from the boys’ 1940 stint as summer replacement for Fred Allen on Time to Smile.

40-07-31 (005) Guest – Madame Lazonga.mp3
48-02-25 (203) Abbott And Costello Make A Picture.mp3
48-09-23 (223) Sam Reads His Mail.mp3
48-09-30 (233) Sam Shovel – Lifebouy Kills BO.mp3
49-01-20 (249) Sam Shovel – She Was On Her Last Lap.mp3
49-02-10 (247) Sam Shovel – He Lost His Aunt’s Pay.mp3
49-05-05 (264) Sam Shovel – They Caught Him With His Plants Down.mp3

Thanks, Edward and Bruce!

We’ve made major enhancements to one of the greatest of all radio comedy programs today and added the half-dozen examples we could find of another series you don’t hear too much about.

First, we’ve been fortunate enough to get access to MANY new episodes of the groundbreaking Ethel and Albert series, written by and starring the great radio talent Peg Lynch as Ethel with Alan Bunce sharing the mike as Albert.  Unlike many examples of radio situation comedy, Ms. Lynch’s contributions to the genre are remarkably naturalistic and exude the feeling of the kind of comedic truth we all experience in our own real lives.  It’s a real breath of fresh air.  I need to once again thank member Gary Smith for all the efforts he has made in the past year to get Peg’s work before a new audience… he’s done a ton of research and legwork and shared the results freely with us.  (There’s some more news on this front coming down the road a piece… stay tuned).  As a sort of just reward, Gary’s recently been promised a chance to converse with the lady herself and is, of course, absolutely besides himself.  Looking forward to hearing all about it, Gary.  So… if like myself, you’ve until recently only been able to lay hands on a dozen or so E&A programs, I’m happy to say you’ll now find 50 of ‘em here at the OTRR Library!

Also new to the Library today is The Fabulous Dr. Tweedy, a 1946-47 offering starring the inimitable Frank Morgan playing the usual sort of aerated self-proclaimed genius he specialized in throughout much of his career.  Hope you enjoy both of these additions, especially you distaff types on this Mothers’ Day 2010.

Until further notice, the issuance of new cards is on hold.

I have a tremendous back log, plus I will be at the Cincy
Con this week-end.

New at the Library today is Green Valley Line, courtesy of Jim Beshires.  It’s a syndicated series from the 1930′s detailing the ups and downs of a small rural railroad trying to succeed in the face of a variety of obstacles.  All aboard….

Sorry the posts have been a bit more sporadic lately, but real life has been a little in the way.  And it’s not that nothing is happening… over the last few weeks I’ve been “mastering” (hah!) web page management and putting the knowledge to use by getting our series pages to a more common look and feel and also correcting a bunch of series name typos and broken links.  Coming project (not sure just when):  treating series beginning with “A” and ”Adventures of” just as they (mostly) are in Otter.  I’ve also been sneaking a few minutes here and there to tighten up file naming standards and do some trash removal in series starting with “T” through “Z”.   So, work is ongoing and continuous even when it doesn’t surface as new and improved recordings.

But, we have a bunch of modest new offerings in that area as well!

– This Is My Story, a collection of inspiring tales of philanthropic doings sponsored by the American Red Cross in 1943.

– Better Living Radio Theatre, some 1953 progress propaganda foisted by your friendly neighborhood utility companies.

– Story Behind The Headlines, an NBC program designed to put current foreign affairs in their historical context.  We’ve got 23 programs spanning the period 1938-1947.

– Finally, a couple of sports shorties.  Heartbeats in Sports Headlines, a sort of “human interest” offering, seems to have been perhaps syndicated in the form of scripts sent to local radio personalities to narrate locally.  While our own recordings originated at WHAM in Rochester, NY in the early 1950s, Mike Harron has discovered evidence of a program of the same name and similar 5 minute duration running as early as 1940, in Charlestown, WV in 1950, and as late as 1958 in Morgantown, WV.  We also know that some scripts written by a gentleman from Ontario in the early 50s reside in Canadian archives.  And that’s ALL we know.  New (or corrected) info would be welcome!

Also, although they don’t quite qualify as OTR, we’ve got several examples of Sports Illustrated Interviews, a 3-minute program from the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Featured personalities are Gil Hodges, Bob Gibson, Ted Williams and John Havlicek.

Nothing earthshaking but hopefully a little something for everyone!

ERRATA:  Previously I had listed Daredevils of Hollywood as a program being added with this group… however, it was pointed out to me by Andrew Steinberg that the gap in the Library was merely a failure to link to the already-certified series stored over at archive.org.  That error has now been remedied.