Old Time Radio For The 21st Century
There was many classic radio shows back in the 1930′s, 40′s and 50′s, many call “The Golden Age of Radio”. There were decent radio classics on every night that you could huddle round the fire to and be thrilled by, Suspense, Escape, Inner Sanctum and The Whilster are just a few of these. There is no surprise really that it became known as the Golden Age of Radio
When it came to the 1960s these old radio shows died out completely. They didn’t die out straight away. It took about 10 years die out from when it started to decline and had pretty much disappeared by time the last episode of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar was broadcast in 1962.
In the 1970s and early 80s there was a brief renaissance when Himan Brown produced CBS Radio Mystery Theater, which ran from January 6th, 1974 through to December 31st 1982. Since then there has been very little in the way of mainstream radio thrillers.
One series that has bucked the trend is “Tales from the Morgue”
This is a tale of short stories told by Chet Chetter who is an elderly morgue attendant and licensed embalmer.
All these stories are all fairly interesting or superstitious. They deal with topics that could be classified supernatural and science fiction. They border on outrageous but that is how they are meant to be.
Roughly half of the shows feature a nice, likeable, rural southern manure hauler by the name of Elmer Korn who always finds himself involved in some inane predicament.
The show can be considered as rather off-beat and even the writer admit the stories are humours and there are may recurring characters which listeners enjoy.
This series was created and produced by M&J Audio Theater. The M standing for Mark Sawyer and the J for J Reel.
They are childhood friends who met in school. X Minus One, Lum and Abner and Gunsmoke are examples of old time radio shows that they both enjoyed and started their interest in radio drama. You can tell that the stories they wrote are heavily influenced by these shows from the plots and the character voices.The creaking door opening, the host’s oddly humorous manner and the pleasant dreams ending are an undeniable salute to “The Inner Sanctum” and Himan Brown.
In these stories Mark and Jay collaborated on over 20 characters. Jay is the main voice and did the voice of Chet Chetter, Elmer Korn. The Sheriff Roland and Hale Headrush Tayor. Mark only admits to being the voice of Cecil Farris and various incidental characters.
In 1989 the first Chet Chetter story was produced my Mark and Jay, it was called “The Highway of Death”. This was the start of a series of 95 episode recorded between 1980 to 1995. They call it “The Conofrof Saga”.
They submitted “The Highway of Death” to National Public Radio and were amazed when NPR responded with an order for three more stories. NPR Playhouse accepted and broadcast there 4 stories in 1990. In 1991 NPR requested 9 more episodes be written of “Tales from The Morgue”. All 13 episodes were played in 1992 as a full series.
Since this a few production houses have found audiences for their own shows online.
Isn’t it strange how things can go in full circle. From the Golden Age of Radio to these stories being available online today.
It is clear that the demand for listening to these high quality old radio shows has not gone away. It that people’s choice of entertainment hasn’t changed as much as the ways we listen to audio has done.
There are sites that cater for peoples desire to listen to these old time radio shows and radio plays, an example of such a site is www.rusc.com where you can download or stream these radio classics.!