(Orig. rel. 6/27/21) Season Two of Old-Time Radio Essentials concludes! It's our finale, and Pete's pick -- and he's bringing us an exciting episode of Tales of the Texas Rangers for us to enjoy and discuss.

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(Orig. rel. date 5/23/21) Season Two of Old-Time Radio Essentials continues! It's our new co-host's choice this episode -- and New Dave, for our 5th episode of 2021, and has picked a very exciting episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe for us to discuss.

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(orig. rel. 4/25/21) Season Two of Old-Time Radio Essentials continues! We introduce our new co-host this episode -- and we hope you enjoy the New Dave! This installment is our fourth for 2021, and Paul gets two choices in a row for some reason, so he selected an episode of Boston Blackie entitled "Murder at the Rodeo" for us to discuss.

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(Orig. rel. 3/14/21) Season Two of Old-Time Radio Essentials continues! This installment is our third for 2021, and we finally come back around to Paul, whose choice for this episode is an entry in the Duffy's Tavern series, just in time for St. Patrick's Day, with guest star Pat O'Brien. Archie and the gang are getting Duffy's Tavern decorated for the wedding anniversary of the boss and his wife, and film star O'Brien drops by to lend a hand.

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MINDSTREAM PLAYERS PRESENT: RED WIND

Vernon Wells (Commando, Mad Max) as Detective Philip Marlowe 

ADDITIONAL CAST:

Pete Handelman, Kate Enggren, Theresa Ireland, Kurtis Bedford, Tom Konkle , Gino Vianelli, Jude Gerard Prest

"There was a rough desert wind blowing into Los Angeles that evening, one of those hot dry Santa Ana winds that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair, make your nerves jump and your skin itch." Philip Marlowe closed up his office early and went out to get a beer. There is a drunk in the bar, then a guy named Waldo enters looking for a tall good-looking girl in a silk dress and bolero jacket. He finds she isn’t there and as he leaves the drunk guy calls him Waldo, then kills him with a shot from his gun. Philip Marlowe finds himself investigating who shot Waldo and why.  This was the first episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe. 

The Shadow Murders In Wax by Mindstream Players

Starring Kurtis Bedford

Karah Britton as Margo Lane

Jude Gerard Prest

Pete Handelman

Matt Fowler

Theresa Ireland

Tom Konkle as The Shadow

Bob Clendenin

Gino Vianelli

Cassidy Brown

Music by Bryan Arata

Adapted from the 1938 radio drama and directed by Tom Konkle

Produced by Kurtis Bedford and Tom Konkle

(Orig. launched 2/27/21) Season Two of Old-Time Radio Essentials continues! This installment is our second for 2021, and instead of rotating to Paul, we have brought in as our special guests, the co-hosts of THE MYSTERIOUS OLD RADIO LISTENING SOCIETY: Joshua, Tim, and Eric! Their choice for this episode is an entry in the Columbia Workshop series, called "A Radio Primer", written by Norman Corwin. (Dave couldn't make it for this episode but he'll be back next time!) Join us for a five-way discussion that is hilarious at times, but always informative!

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PROJECT AUDION #30, Season 3 Premiere!

Out of more than 900 episodes that the classic radio thriller Suspense produced between 1942 and 1962, there are 13 shows that are missing, and OTR researchers have tried for years to track them down. One of the missing 13 is "The Eavesdropper," which aired just once - January 3, 1956. No recording has ever been found. Thanks to Suspense historian Dr. Joe Webb, Project Audion is able to recreate "The Eavesdropper" so you can hear it for the first time in more than 65 years - a story of a high-rise murder plot that was discovered and which leads to a double execution.

Our transcribed-live recreation features a cast that reaches from Hollywood, California to Toronto, Canada. Watch and listen as we hope to keep you in...Suspense!

CAST:

Duane Noch, New Jersey

Patte Rosebank, Canada

Tim Burns, Kansas

Trevor Rines, Canada

Bob Beamont, California

Directed by Ms. Rosebank and produced by Larry Groebe

(Orig. rel. date 1/24/21) Season Two of Old-Time Radio Essentials continues! This installment is our first for 2021, and Pete's choice, so he's bringing us an episode of "Fibber McGee & Molly": PIONEER DAYS. Will our discussion cause Dave to apply Johnson's Glo-Coat to his cat? TUNE IN AND FIND OUT! 

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(Orig. rel. 11/22/20) Season Two of Old-Time Radio Essentials continues! In this installment, our 2nd annual Thanksgiving Special, Pete, Paul and Dave present another of Paul's selections, this time an episode of Life With Luigi: THANKSGIVING CELEBRATION. Will our discussion lead to overeating? Will Dave go into a cranberry coma? TUNE IN AND FIND OUT! 

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(Orig. launch date 5/7/21) Project Audion's 2nd season begins like our first season, with an episode of the classic radio drama Suspense. "Pearls are a Nuisance", aired on CBS 4/20/50, is a satirical detective drama based on a story by Raymond Chandler, which starred Ray Milland. Walter Gage is trying to track down some stolen pearls, and must call upon a gentleman of dubious morals to help him.

Our transcribed-live drama includes voice actors from California all the way to England:

Joe Mendell (UK) – Announcer

Pete Lutz (TX) - Harlow Wilcox, Henry

Doug Fain (TX) - Walter

Rhiannon McAfee (CA) - Ellen

Angela Young (FL) - Dora, Teller

Greg McAfee (CA) - Mr. Gallemore, Voice

Dana Gonsalves (TX) - Manager, Scandesi

Mr. Lutz directed, while Larry Groebe handled production and sound.

This Project Audion vintage radio recreation is an hour-long dramatization of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four...which was originally produced in August 1949, just months after the book, to great acclaim, was released. NBC University Theater adapted this scathing vision of a possible future where "Freedom is Slavery" and "Big Brother is watching you." Big Brother is part of our cultural currency now, but in 1949, "1984" was a new and daring novel, and this early audio adaptation feels fresh - and still terrifying.

WINSTON SMITH: Dana Gonsalves, TX

ANNOUNCER: John Bell, AL

O'BRIEN: Les Marsden, CA

JULIA: Jesirae Kesler, TX

MR. PARSONS & OTHERS: Tom Konkle, CA

MR. SYME: Jason Johnson, TX

MRS. PARSONS: Rachel Pulliam, MO

ASSORTED VOICES: Jessica Matthews, TX

CHARRINGTON, AMPLEFORTH AND DIRECTION: Pete Lutz, TX

MUSIC/FX/ASSTD. VOICES/PRODUCTION: Larry Groebe, TX

(Orig. launch date 7/24/20) Project Audion presents our recreation of an episode of Screen Guild Theatre, AKA Hollywood Soundstage. "The Ox-Bow Incident" was a best-selling book in 1940, a blockbuster Western movie in 1943, and adapted for the Screen Guild Theatre radio show no less than three times. Our version is from 1952. It's a story of vengeance and violence -- a gritty look at a group of men who turned into a mob.

"The Ox-Bow Incident" was directed by Pete Lutz / Corpus Christi, Texas and produced by Larry Groebe / Grapevine, Texas, and used a coast-to-coast cast of 14 people situated from Nova Scotia to San Francisco:

Paul Arbisi / Peoria, Illinois

John Bell / Alabaster, Alabama

Denise Cline / Nicholasville, Kentucky

Norman Cline / Nicholasville, Kentucky

Dana Gonsalves / Corpus Christi, Texas

John Mauldin / Nashville, Tennessee

Chris Messersmith / Dallas Texas

Ken Raney / Arlington, Texas

Carl Thomas / Rockport, Texas

Lothar Tuppan / San Francisco, California

Jack Ward / Halifax, Nova Scotia

Angela Young / Palm Coast, Florida

(Orig. launch date 10-25-20) Season Two of Old-Time Radio Essentials continues! In this installment, Pete, Paul and Dave present another of Pete's selections, this time an episode of "Escape": THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, adapted from Poe's classic Gothic horror tale. Will our discussion lead to property values in the 19th century? TUNE IN AND FIND OUT! 

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Originally released 5/29/20. Transcribed live from California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennesee, and Texas... Project Audion presents a recreation of the 1937 Columbia Workshop broadcast of "R.U.R: Rossum's Universal Robots."

Pete Lutz of Narada Radio Company, director of this radio drama, says this about his choice of show: "I love the historical sense of the story. Here's Carel Kapek, in 1920 or 21, foreseeing AI, prophesying humans' dependence on technology. Of course, robots themselves, thank the gods, haven't been perfected to the same extent. But there are so many wonderful elements in the story: all the men on the island are in love with Helena, and this unrequited love felt by Dr. Gall leads to their downfall. The robots evolve in different ways, though: some become murderous, yet two show more humane tendencies: love, compassion, sacrifice. I first heard the BBC's radio adaptation of this, which was about two hours long. Then I found the script we use here and felt that the main points of the story were covered sufficiently in a half-hour. It's exciting, dramatic, and sentimental. Columbia Workshop had geniuses working for them."

Project Audion is a collection of voice actors from across North America who are recreating classic shows from Radio's Golden Age via videoconference .

[Orig. launched 9/6/20] Season Two of Old-Time Radio Essentials continues! In this installment, Pete, Paul and Dave welcome Essential Listener Kelly, who brings us this episode of OUR MISS BROOKS from 1950, "School on Saturday", starring Eve Arden! Will our post-show discussion cause Kelly to give us all detention? TUNE IN AND FIND OUT! 

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"Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar" - that was both the title and the closing phrase of each episode of this well-loved crime drama, which aired on CBS for over 800 episodes and 13 years. The setup was always a big insurance settlement that will have to be shelled out... unless "America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator" can crack the case open - which he invariable does.

Project Audion's transcribed-live episode recreates the fourth-ever show from March 11, 1949, before the more-familiar cliches of the series took over.

Charles Russell played Johnny Dollar 73 years ago, but OUR transcontinental cast includes:

JOHNNY DOLLAR: Kim Titus, TX

ANNOUNCER: Geoffrey Mark, CA

LOUISA PEPPER: Jan Welch, NC

MYRTLE PEPPER: Rhiannon McAfee, CA

SHANTY BRENNAN: Greg McAfee, CA

CARTER LACEY: Tom Konkle, CA

It was directed by Joe Mendell from England, and Production was by Larry Groebe in Dallas Texas

(Orig. rel. 8/2/20) Season Two of Old-Time Radio Essentials continues! In this installment, Pete, Paul and Dave bring you this episode of THE SHADOW from 1946, "Gang Doctor", starring Bret Morrison! Will our post-show discussion have the ability to cloud men's minds? TUNE IN AND FIND OUT! 

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(Orig. rel. date: 6/20/20) It's Season Two of Old-Time Radio Essentials! And to kick off our new round of classic dramas, Pete, Paul and Dave bring you this episode of SUSPENSE from 1945, "Donovan's Brain", starring Orson Welles! Come for the radio drama, stay for the scintillating (OK, "scintillating" is a bit much, but at least we hope you find it interesting) discussion afterward! 

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AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS - Originally released 10/2/20

Project Audion's live-transcribed cross-continental Zoom-based production for October [2020] is an episode from Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre On the Air from 1938. No, not the "War of the Worlds" which everyone knows, but "Around the World in 80 Days" which aired the week before. Welles, John Houseman, and Howard Koch condensed Jules Verne's 1872 novel into a fast-paced 60 minutes, and fewer than 20 characters (which we handle by doubling each actor's part.) Phileas Fogg's journey started October 2, 1872 at about 9 PM: Project Audion's recreation premieres exactly 148 years later!

In our sterling cast:

Paul Arbisi / Illinois

John Bell / Alabama

Norman Cline / Kentucky

Aileen Corpos / Texas

Dana Gonsalves / Texas

Larry Groebe / Texas

Pete Lutz / Texas

Les Marsden / California

Pete Lutz directed, and Larry Groebe produced

ORIG. REL. 5/31/20 with the following commentary:

WELCOME TO SEASON TWO OF OLD-TIME RADIO ESSENTIALS!

Well, friends, here we are, two or three (or four) months into this COVID-19 pandemic, so Paul, Dave and I decided to kick off our second season with something reflecting the times. And so we present "The Peoria Plague", a one-shot original radio drama about an alien invasion and deadly plague that was produced by radio station WUHN in Peoria, Illinois, in 1972. While it has familiar overtones of "The War of the Worlds" 1938 broadcast, this program seems to have had no effect whatsoever to radio audiences of its day -- we could find nothing that reported how listeners reacted. Anyway, we three discuss that and many other things about this broadcast, and we hope you enjoy it. Remember to stay safe, keep your social distance, and DON'T DRINK THE TAP WATER! (P.S. watch out for Zombies...)

The Saint - "the Robin Hood of modern crime" and star of scores of books, TV shows, movies, and also a well-remembered radio series - is Project Audion's latest radio recreation. Vincent Price was urbanely brilliant as Simon Templar on the radio, but he only came to the show in 1947. The first series aired in 1945 with Edgar Barrier, and no recordings exist.

Project Audion's vintage script of the episode "The Million Dollar Day" was only the 4th-ever episode. This Saint has sidekicks! We were also lucky to speak with Saint expert Ian Dickerson in England for a pre-show interview, and doubly lucky to locate a still-working SONOVOX (and experienced operator Ken Justiss) to recreate the once-famous sound effect of the "Bromo-Seltzer Train."

Our transcontinental transcription recording session was challenged by electrical storms and some camera glitches, but we pulled it off!

Our cast includes:

THE SAINT: Les Marsden, CA

HOPPY/JANITOR: Pete Lutz, TX

PATRICIA: Rhiannon McAfee, CA

MONTEIRO: Dana Gonsalves, TX

KUZELA: Frank Guglielmelli, PA

FERNACK/ANNOUNCER: John Bell, AL

Mr. Lutz directed this episode, and Larry Groebe produced, managed sound, and growled.