Golden Age of Radio

March 12, 1979 PRINCIPALS IN PRODUCTION OF “ MYSTERY THEATER ” WIN SPECIAL CITATIONS FROM DIRECTORS GILD OF AMERICA Honored Are CBS Radio Network, Sam Cook Digges, Himan Brown The CBS Radio Network, Sam Cook Digges and Himan Brown each received a special citation Saturday Night (March 10) from the Eastern Directors Council of Directors Guild of America, Inc., for their “major roles in the resurgence of radio drama,” namely, the CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER . Mr.Digges is President of the CBS Radio Division and Mr.Brown the producer-director of the mystery series. The citations were presented during the 1979 Annual Directors Guild of America Awards Dinner in New York City’s St. Regis Hotel. The citations read as follows: “The Eastern Council of the Directors Guild of America salutes the CBS Radio Network for its major role in the resurgence of radio drama, initiated by the production of CBS MYSTERY THEATER . This series, now its sixth year, with over 1100 one-hour programs...

SAY HELLO TO . . . ARTHUR Q.BRYAN – who weighs 241 pounds without his hat and is known to a careless world as “Little Man.” You’ll hear him tonight on AI Pearce’s CBS program. Arthur Q. Bryan has been in radio since 1924, when he weighed only 150 pounds and sang on the air for the fun of it (which was about all you could get out of radio in those days.) He earned his living by selling insurance. Finally his singing got him the offer of a salary and he gave up insurance. In 1929 he turned announcer, then moved on to writing, producing and acting. Four years ago he went to Hollywood for a vacation and has been there since.

April 30, 1979 SALT LAKE CITY’S KSL SPONSORING RADIO MYSTERY THEATER WRITING CONTEST In a movie designed to encourage high school students and the general public in its listening area to try their hand at writing radio drama scripts, KSL Radio, the CBS affiliate in Salt Lake City, is sponsoring a Radio Theater Writing Contest. KSL, which broadcasts both the CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER and SEARS RADIO THEATER, will award two winners of the contest week-long, all-ex-penses-paid trips to any city or cities on the Eastern Airlines Unlimited Mileage System. The winners and their companions will spend at least two days in New York where they will visit the studio of Himan Brown, producer-director of MYSTERY THEATER. The remaining five days can be spent in any of 107 cities, 12 countries, and one Magic Kingdom served by Eastern. Subject matter in not limited, says KSL. Writers may choose fiction, real life, Western, mystery, history, comedy, science fiction or any other category. Ju...

One of my favorite intros is from CBS Radio Mystery Theater MP3 : "Welcome to the sound of suspense; Welcome to the fear you can hear. For the next 52 mintues, I will be your companion to the world of your own terrifying imagination..."  The renowned actor and radio voice, EG Marshall , would intone these words each night over the CBS Radio network. His voice would herald us into "another adventure into the macabre." With these words, we were introduced to villains and heroes, to monsters and poltergeists; even an alien or two. Many familiar names would welcome us to familiar places; Shakespeare and Twain, Jefferson and Lincoln, Holmes and Watson. Other names, other we never heard of before, beconed to us to dark places of horror, suspense and terror. Each and every night, some places at 11, other places at midnight, but each night we would await eagerly, under our blanks, straining our ears to listen to the transistor radio that we had turned down low ...

Target audience: liquor store owners, 1975 Client: Heublein Agency: Marschalk, Inc., New York Copywriter: Giff Crosby Copy: Don't be surprised if your customers start asking you for more Vinya Rosé wine than ever before. And don't be concerned if they seem a bit more nervous than usual. You see, it'll all be the result of Vinya's biggest media buy ever -- co-sponsorship of CBS Radio's terrifying "Mystery Theater." This season, " Mystery Theater " will bring not only fear and suspense to its 220 markets, but some terrific Vinya commercials, as well. And with sales already up 60% over last year, 1975 ought to be Vinya's biggest sales year ever. To make the most of it, just stock up on plenty of Vinya Rosé. And be there to take the money.

NOTES ON MARY JANE “When a Girl Marries” (afternoons NBC) is another of the top-ranked serials. It celebrated its 11 th  year on the air last May. In the Hooper-Nielsen charts it usually has rated among the first four daytime programs. Petite, blonde Mary Jane Higby has been the show’s star (“ Joan Davis ”) since its beginning. Daughter of the owner of a stock company, Mary Jane did her first “walk on” part at the age of one. Mary Jane Higby She was making . . . columnist, too movies in Hollywood at six. Highly trained, versatile, the star occasionally plays supporting roles to herself on her own program. More recently Mary Jane added another role: that of columnist. She is conducting a query department on marriage in “Radio Mirror,” nationally circulated magazine. SAY HELLO TO . . . MARY JANE HIGBY – who was a child star in Hollywood and plays Joan Davis on the CBS serial, When a Girl Marries . Mary Jane was born in St. Louis, Mo., but at the age of fiv...

December 20, 1976 “ CBS MYSTERY THEATER ” TO OPEN FOURTH YEAR JAN. 10 WITH SEVEN O. HENRY SHORT STORIES Robert Dryden To Star as Author The CBS MYSTERY THEATER , which began its second year with seven consecutive adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories and its third year with seven from the pen of Mark Twain, will open its fourth year, Monday, Jan. 10, with seven from one of America’s -- and the world’s -- best short story tellers, O. Henry. Chosen by producer-director Himan Brown from the over 300 O. Henry wrote, the seven stories reflect the experiences the author encountered while living in Texas when the west was the Wild West and during his brief stay in New Orleans, his year-and-a-half in Honduras, his three years in an Ohio penitentiary and his eight years in New York City, which he christened Begdad-on-the-Subway. In their order of broadcast the seven are: “Two Renegades,” “The Passing of Black Eagle,” “Tobin’s Palm,” “Don’t Die Without Me” (originally “The F...

Some of my favorite listening are detective old radio programs .  This holds true for the more recent series of recordings from the 1970s  Radio Mystery Theater : There was an episode "The Winds of Time" Bryce Bond, a paranormal investigator who actually played himself on some episodes. Another paranormal one which I believe was fictitious was the character Flaxman Low. There was con artist turned investigator Andrew Wolf in several episodes and of course Sherlock Holmes episodes including: Hound of the Baskervilles (The) Sign of Four (The) Study in Scarlet (A) Adventure of the Red-Headed League (The) Boscombe Pool Mystery (The) Adventure of the Speckled Band (The) Scandal in Bohemia (A) Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle (The) Adventure of the Beryl Coronet (The) Gloria Scott (The) Nightmare in Gillette Castle Vanishing Herd (The) Murder on the Space Shuttle Musgrave Ritual (The) Naval Treaty (The) Reigate Mystery (The) Sam Dann used the name Mac...

    March 20, 1978 FEATURE DAYTIME TELEVISION STARS COME OUT AT NIGHT IN SURPRISING ROLES ON “ MYSTERY THEATER ” Troubled by day and mysterious by night, the same actors and actresses who are so embroiled in marital and social problems on daytime television dramas, can be heard, evenings, in stories of mystery, suspense, science fiction and the occult on the CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER .  William Griffis of “All My Children,” Lloyd Battista of “Love of Life,” Nat Polen of “One Life To Live,” Mandel Kramer and Teri Keane of “The Edge of Night,” Jada Rowland of “The Doctors” and Larry Haines and Anne Williams of “Search for Tomorrow” are regularly featured on the CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER in roles that would surprise their soap opera fans. William Griffis, who has portrayed Harlan Tucker, the friendly retired banker on “All My Children” since last April, has been appearing on MYSTERY THEATER for over two years, “portraying everything from...

April 9, 1979 SERTA, INC, MAKES FIRST NETWORK RADIO BUY: 26 WEEKS ON “ CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER ” Serta, Inc., in its first venture in network radio, has become a participating sponsor of CBS MYSTERY THEATER . The company, for its Prefect Sleeper mattresses and foundations, has purchased one-minute announcements five times a week for 26 weeks on the Peabody Award-winning dramatic series now in its sixth year on the air. The Serta announcements will be heard in three flights: April 2-May 20; June 4-July 1, and July 23-Nov. 4. “For the first time ever,” said Curt Burdick, Advertising Vice President of Serta, “network radio will a part of our overall media schedule. It is a viable medium with which to maintain awareness of the Serta name and to reinforce our television and print support of this year’s major campaign. “The CBS MYSTERY THEATER was our logical entry into radio because it is one of the best produced shows on the air and a most popular one. More importantly, it has...

QUOTES "Now talk nice and save teeth."   --AGNES BOTTON "Around here a set of morals won't cause any more stir than Mother's Day in an orphanage. Maybe that's not good, but that's the way it is. And it wouldn't do any good to build a church down here, because some guy would muscle in and start cutting the wine with wood alcohol. All you can do is try to make the books balance, and the easiest way to do that is to keep one hand on your billfold and the other hand on somebody else's." "If anything goes wrong, your trouble comes hard, and it doesn't do any good to sing the blues, because down here, you're just another guy in the chorus." "How do I spot her? Read it off an ankle bracelet?" "She was at least 50, because you can't get that ugly without years of practice." "I noticed her eyes for the first time. They were small and so close together, they could have saved time and put 'em ...