It is with great pride that Radio Spirits has teamed with Walter Cronkite in selecting The 60 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows of the 20th century. You'll hear Orson Welles' legendary "War of the World's", Abbott and Costello's famous "Who's on First?" routine, Jack Benny's hilarious "Money or Your Life" show and many more oldtime radio favorites! This unparalleled collection includes a booklet containing rare photographs and a detailed history on each of the 60 greatest old-time radio shows of the 20th century and a foreword written by Walter Cronkite. This collection also includes a wonderful audio foreword detailing the history of radio by Walter Cronkite.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
The advent of the VCR has made the movies of the 1930s and 1940s available to a contemporary audience, but radio shows from that era have remained elusive. This wonderful collection sets out to rectify that problem, offering 60 shows from that golden age of radio. The range of entertainment--the set contains 20 hours of material--is breathtaking, running the gamut from comedy routines (Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First") through mystery serials ("The Saint" with Vincent Prince) to variety shows (Jack Benny's "Money or Your Life") and radio plays (Orson Welles's infamous 1937 "panic broadcast" of the "War of the Worlds"). The table of contents reads like a "Who's Who" of entertainment legends--Jimmy Durante, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Groucho Marx--and classic characters--Sam Spade, the Shadow, the Lone Ranger.
The collection also has tremendous historical cachet, providing an intriguing glimpse of the sensibilities of a bygone era. Retro buffs will be delighted by the vintage radio ads that accompany the broadcasts. These unbelievably enthusiastic pitches for cigarettes and hair tonics are fascinating, occasionally hilarious reminders that these were very different times: in one 1946 broadcast, Camel Cigarettes boasts of the cartons of smokes it donated to veterans' hospitals. As both a time capsule and a survey of first-rate entertainment, the collection is a treasure, whether you were raised on radio or are uncovering its charms for the first time. (Running time: 30 hours, 20 cassettes) --Andrew Neiland
From AudioFile
For younger listeners, this program is a glimpse of the first half of the century; for older ones, it's a walk down memory lane. From either perspective, Walter Cronkite has selected a comprehensive collection of the "best" of Old-Time Radio--including comedy, Abbott & Costello doing their "Who's on First" routine; drama, Mercury Theatre doing "War of the Worlds" with Orson Welles; family listening, Jimmy Stewart in Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Unfortunately, the sound quality varies considerably in the 60 shows--from scratchy and unintelligible to perfect quality. Overall, an excellent collection, and a wonderful collector's item. W.L.S. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Valuable living history,
By
This review is from: The 60 Greatest Old-Time Radio Shows of the 20th Century selected by Walter Cronkite (Audio Cassette)
Radio Spirits, Inc. is in the process of making available on tapes (and a few on CDs) to a video-oriented public just about every popular radio show of the century that will end on New Year's Eve of 2000. Not only is their catalogue bursting with individual programs, but they have boxed sets of 60 shows each on 20 cassettes packaged by type: science fiction, detective, comedy, and so on. Their latest offering in that format is titled <The 60 Greatest Old-Time Radio Shows of the 20th Century> -- and lest one exclaim "Sez who?" the rest of the title is "Selected by Walter Cronkite." Of course, we cannot be sure if he chose each episode personally. The box tells us that "Radio Spirits has teamed" with him in the selection. For some of these choices, I fell into violent disagreement with the use of "greatest"; but all in all this is as remarkable a collection as are the earlier releases and quite different from them in one important respect. Several of the shows are highly poetical and designed to help audiences through the war and postwar years back in the 1940s. The one called "We Hold These Truths" gives us Jimmy Stewart in a Norman Corwin tribute to the Bill of Rights, while Orson Welles intones the purple prose of Corwin's "Fourteen August." I found a salute to Carl Sandburg somewhat overlong. However Corwin's "The Undecided Molecule" is not only all in verse and truly funny, but features Robert Benchley and Groucho Marx among several other stars. Of course Cronkite would include a full Walter Winchell broadcast when a few seconds' sample would have sufficed, and the Vic and Sade episode chosen is particularly vapid. (Were they all like that, can some reader tell me?) But choosing the Abbott and Costello show that has not only the "Who's on First" but also the "Bob Feller" routine was right on target, as was the Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy show in which Mae West got herself banned from the air for her suggestive reading of Eve in a sketch in which Don Ameche plays Adam. Other highlights are the "Sorry, Wrong Number" with Agnes Moorehead ("Suspense") and the same author's "The Hitchhiker" with Orson Welles ("Mercury Summer Theater"). Mr. Welles' famous Mercury Theater "War of the Worlds" is the first selection, by the way, to be matched in terror only by "Three Skeleton Key" ("Escape") in which Vincent Price and two men are trapped in a lighthouse by millions of rats! Or the classic "Leinengen vs. the Ants" ("Escape") in which William Conrad defies several square miles of the man-eaters. For comedy we have Baby Snooks, Fibber McGee and Molly, Burns and Allen, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Desi and Lucy (with the Mertz's), Eddie Cantor, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby (in a particular funny Philco Radio Time Episode), and a host of comics in a Dick Tracy spoof on a "Command Performance" designed for GI's overseas. For drama we have, among many, the science fiction "Nightfall" ("X-Minus One") the western "From Here to Boston" ("Have Gun, Will Travel") the mystery "The Death Bed Caper" ("Sam Spade, Detective") the suspenseful "The Shadow of Death" ("Inner Sanctum") and the speculative "Brave New World" ("The CBS Radio Workshop"). (I regret I simply do not have the space to list them all, but you can contact me for more details.) Different from the other sets is the format that mixes 60 and 90 minute shows with shorter ones, so that an entire tape can be devoted to a sequence of "Johnny Dollar" episodes. But you still get 60 shows, if each episode counts as one! As I said when I reviewed some of the earlier releases, this is a terrific educational tool if used correctly. The Bill of Rights broadcast, for example, would do a better job letting the young know about those original 10 amendments than any textbook could. And think what a teacher could do in having a class write its own radio show after hearing some of these! I believe there is a CD version available, but I find CDs leave out the commercials to make room on a side that cannot hold more than 79 minutes. But in either format, this collection (as are the others, of course) is a most enjoyable, if not a most valuable, set to have and to play many times. Perhaps if we understood better where we came, we might make a better job of where we are going.
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The best collection available,
This review is from: The 60 Greatest Old-Time Radio Shows of the 20th Century selected by Walter Cronkite (Audio CD)
I am very happy with this collection. Old Time Radio continues to be hard to obtain in a decent format, and finding it on CD is even more difficult. In light of this, "The 60 Greatest Old-Time Radio Shows of the 20th Century" is the best, all-around collection I have found.There are some real gems here. The dramatization of Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall (X Minus One)" is very well done. Adolph Huxley introduces his classic "Brave New World (CBS Radio Workshop)," and Abbott and Costello shine as usual with "Who's on First (Abbott and Costello Show)." Orson Wells is well represented in a variety of genres, doing good work with "The Hitchhiker (Mercury Summer Theater) and "White God (The Shadow)." His classic "War of the Worlds (Mercury Theater on the Air)" is included, although if you buy any Old Time Radio collections, you tend to end up with several copies of this. A nice episode of Bold Venture stars Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. "Sorry Wrong Number (Suspense)" is considered one of the finest examples of the genre, and Orson Welles considered it to be the best script available. Bing Crosby is great in his performances Personally, I would have picked a slightly different collection of the 60 greatest, but they did not ask me. The collection is a little heavy on comedy and variety shows. This type of humor tends not to translate well over the years, and you may not know the references. The patriotic pieces are very heavy handed, and America operates under a different set of morals. "God, and plutonium, are on our side..." I could do without any Baby Snooks. All together, the good episodes far outweigh the mediocre. I am definitely happy with this purchase, and have listened to episodes multiple times.
31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Valuable living history,
By
This review is from: The 60 Greatest Old-Time Radio Shows of the 20th Century selected by Walter Cronkite (Audio Cassette)
Radio Spirits, Inc. is in the process of making available on tapes (and a few on CDs) to a video-oriented public just about every popular radio show of the century that will end on New Year's Eve of 2000. Not only is their catalogue bursting with individual programs, but they have boxed sets of 60 shows each on 20 cassettes packaged by type: science fiction, detective, comedy, and so on. Their latest offering in that format is titled <The 60 Greatest Old-Time Radio Shows of the 20th Century> -- and lest one exclaim "Sez who?" the rest of the title is "Selected by Walter Cronkite." Of course, we cannot be sure if he chose each episode personally. The box tells us that "Radio Spirits has teamed" with him in the selection. For some of these choices, I fell into violent disagreement with the use of "greatest"; but all in all this is as remarkable a collection as are the earlier releases and quite different from them in one important respect. Several of the shows are highly poetical and designed to help audiences through the war and postwar years back in the 1940s. The one called "We Hold These Truths" gives us Jimmy Stewart in a Norman Corwin tribute to the Bill of Rights, while Orson Welles intones the purple prose of Corwin's "Fourteen August." I found a salute to Carl Sandburg somewhat overlong. However Corwin's "The Undecided Molecule" is not only all in verse and truly funny, but features Robert Benchley and Groucho Marx among several other stars. Of course Cronkite would include a full Walter Winchell broadcast when a few seconds' sample would have sufficed, and the Vic and Sade episode chosen is particularly vapid. (Were they all like that, can some reader tell me?) But choosing the Abbott and Costello show that has not only the "Who's on First" but also the "Bob Feller" routine was right on target, as was the Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy show in which Mae West got herself banned from the air for her suggestive reading of Eve in a sketch in which Don Ameche plays Adam. Other highlights are the "Sorry, Wrong Number" with Agnes Moorehead ("Suspense") and the same author's "The Hitchhiker" with Orson Welles ("Mercury Summer Theater"). Mr. Welles' famous Mercury Theater "War of the Worlds" is the first selection, by the way, to be matched in terror only by "Three Skeleton Key" ("Escape") in which Vincent Price and two men are trapped in a lighthouse by millions of rats! Or the classic "Leinengen vs. the Ants" ("Escape") in which William Conrad defies several square miles of the man-eaters. For comedy we have Baby Snooks, Fibber McGee and Molly, Burns and Allen, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Desi and Lucy (with the Mertz's), Eddie Cantor, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby (in a particular funny Philco Radio Time Episode), and a host of comics in a Dick Tracy spoof on a "Command Performance" designed for GI's overseas. For drama we have, among many, the science fiction "Nightfall" ("X-Minus One") the western "From Here to Boston" ("Have Gun, Will Travel") the mystery "The Death Bed Caper" ("Sam Spade, Detective") the suspenseful "The Shadow of Death" ("Inner Sanctum") and the speculative "Brave New World" ("The CBS Radio Workshop"). (I regret I simply do not have the space to list them all, but you can contact me for more details.) Different from the other sets is the format that mixes 60 and 90 minute shows with shorter ones, so that an entire tape can be devoted to a sequence of "Johnny Dollar" episodes. But you still get 60 shows, if each episode counts as one! As I said when I reviewed some of the earlier releases, this is a terrific educational tool if used correctly. The Bill of Rights broadcast, for example, would do a better job letting the young know about those original 10 amendments than any textbook could. And think what a teacher could do in having a class write its own radio show after hearing some of these! I believe there is a CD version available, but I find CDs leave out the commercials to make room on a side that cannot hold more than 79 minutes. But in either format, this collection (as are the others, of course) is a most enjoyable, if not a most valuable, set to have and to play many times. Perhaps if we understood better where we came, we might make a better job of where we are going.
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