Hey Folks! Sorry I've been traveling for my day job to several cities in US and in Germany and made it too hard to post, so I'm back and will continue with the RARE SHOWS Theme...I promise to double up when I can to make sure I'm sharing great OTR suggestions for your listening pleasure...BTW if you have a suggestion for future post or Themes you'd like me to do please email contact@ultimateotr.com or leave a comment! Thanks so much!!!
Top Secret was short lived spy series taking place during WW2 it starred the Hungarian actress IIona Massey...Pretty good stories and her voice which sounds a bit like Marlene Deitrich . It lasted only 5 months on NBC...Here is the first episode from June of 1950.
This short run show a well done dramatic anthology about heroic acts. The Search was hosted by Robert Young star of Father Knows Best. Starring Willard Watermen from Gildersleeve fame.Interesting well done show give it a try see what you think....
Shirley Temple the adorable curly top child star was a huge movie draw in the 1930's and was the box office champ 4 years in a row, but like Mickey Rooney and many other child stars as they grew up the audience shied away....So by the 1940's when she was entering her teens she did very few movies and retired completely from acting at age 22 in 1950. She tried radio on this short lived series called Shirley Temple Time but it didn't catch on since she was past her adorable moppet stage.
Late in life she would have a whole different career in politics and served on the United Nation and U.S. Ambassador. No other show in OTR history had the spin-off success the Jack Benny Program had...numerous shows came from the popularity of Jack and his talented cast. Bandleader Phil Harris on Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, Singer Dennis Day on Day in the Life of Dennis Day, Voice Man Mel Blanc on Mel Blanc's Fix it Shop and Ronald Coleman and Benita Hume on Hall's of Ivy....One other Benny regular tried his turn at his own series...
Eddie Anderson a audience favorite was also a theater and vaudeville star who became famous as the wisecracking gravel throat valet Rochester on The Jack Benny Program. The short lived series lasted only a few episodes in 1950 and was called both The Rochester Show and Life of Rochester Van Jones. Here is the premiere episode of that series from Feb. 8, 1950. |