Tony D.'s Old Time Radio (OTR) Webpage

Tony D.'s
Old Time Radio (OTR)
Webpage

Philco Radio Courtesy of Jerry Haendiges

The Cast of The Mickey Mouse Theatre of The Air

The Mickey Mouse Theatre of The Air was on from January 2, 1938 to May 22, 1938

I've been listening to Old Time Radio (OTR) Shows for over 10 years, and seriously collecting for the past couple of years. I currently have over 800 tapes in my collection. Many of these were taped off the radio, though, with the old commercials and some songs taken out so they could be played on the radio, and modern commercials could be put in. I also have a few hundred shows on my Hard Drive. They take up a lot of room, and I REALLY need a CD-ROM Burner. My favorite OTR show is probably Lights Out. Arch Oboler wrote some amazing stories. Lights Out is definately my favorite Scary program. My favorite comedy program is Fibber McGee and Molly. Fibber McGee and Molly provided one of the first (if not THE first) Spin-Off Program, a character that was so successful that said character was given their own show. The Great Gildersleeve was the first Spin-Off of Fibber McGee and Molly, but also the show Beulah was another spin-off of Fibber and Molly. Fibber McGee and Molly, The Great Gildersleeve and Beulah were also Television shows in the 1950's. My favorite Kids show is Superman. Perry White and Jimmy Olsen were both invented on The Superman Radio Show.

Other favorite shows of mine include: The Lone Ranger, Have Gun, Will Travel, Gunsmoke, Arch Oboler's Plays, Beulah, The Blue Beetle, The Joe Penner Show, Suspense, The Whistler, The Shadow, The Six Shooter, Captain Midnight, Escape, The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, The Fat Man, The Great Gildersleeve, The Jack Benny Program, Dragnet, The Mysterious Traveler, The Charlie McCarthy Show, I Love A Mystery and way too many more to list. Some of the links to the shows mentioned above deal more with their Television counterparts rather than the Radio versions. I'm especially interested in OTR Super-Heroes, and I'm looking for proof if there was ever a Captain Marvel Radio Show in the 1940's or not. Apparently there WAS a Captain Marvel Radio Show, and it also featured both Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr. If that's the case, it had to be on Radio in 1943 at the earliest, because Mary Marvel didn't appear in comic books until late in 1942. Since there are no known episodes of Blackhawk in existence, does anybody know how to get ahold of the scripts?

Click Here To See My Collection of Old Time Radio Shows

I get asked the question alot "Why do you like Old-Time Radio?" How can I answer that one? If you have to ask, then you've either not listened to it, or you didn't give it a fair chance. Of course, I'm asked this question by my parents, and they remember radio shows, so maybe it's more than that, because they certainly listened to it and gave it a chance. It does require a bit of imagination, but once you're into the story, you'll find that it's better than television. Lights Out is my favorite scary shows, and my favorite episode of Lights Out is The Ugliest Man in The World. It starts off with a man named Paul Martin who's about to commit suicide, but first he tells you his life story and what a painful life it's been. Everyone that listens to that story hears the same words, but they all come off with a different mental picture as to how UGLY the Ugliest Man in The World must be. The Ugliest Man in The World is a VERY effective Radio Drama, but I don't think it would be nearly as powerful on Television. On TV, we'd be subject to one interpretation of what The Ugliest Man in The World must be like, and we'd all think that we could do better. Your Ugliest Man in The World might be uglier than mine, but mine is ugly enough for me.

Part of the reason that I got involved in OTR was because of my Dad. He was old enough to remember a few shows. Three that he talked about fondly were Straight Arrow, The Clyde Beatty Show, and Big Jon and Sparkie. So in addition to collecting shows that I liked and finding out more about the hobby, I wanted to get some episodes of those three shows. I downloaded the very first episode of Straight Arrow a couple of years ago, and Radio Spirits featured a Clyde Beatty episode back in 1998. I never was able to find an episode of Big Jon and Sparkie, though, and now it's too late because my Dad passed away on Tuesday, July 6, 1999 at the age of 61. I recently got an episode of Sky King off The Internet, and he said that he might listen to it later. I was thinking of e-mailing a few people that have OTR for download on their site so see if they could upload some Big Jon and Sparkie but I should've thought of that sooner. I found a picture of Big Jon and Sparkie online before Dad died, and we were both surprised to find out that it was one guy and a hand-puppet. We were both expecting something different. That's part of the magic of OTR.

Jerry Haendiges has a complete episode of Judy and Jane avaiable at his website. Before Dad died, I started to play it and Dad said "Folgers Coffee, Mountain Grown, brings you the transcribed adventures of Judy and Jane." Unfortunately, that episode was the premiere episode of Judy and Jane, so there wasn't a commercial.

Dad got to hear Straight Arrow and Clyde Beatty before he died, and I still want to hear some episodes of Big Jon and Sparkie.

I've written 15 Old Time Radio Trivia Programs in Turbo Pascal 7.0. All 15 of my games are currently available to download at my Old Time Radio Trivia Page. I expect to have all 15 of my Cheat Sheets available at my OTR Trivia Page soon. There is a zip file so you can download all 15 games at once, and there will also be a zip file to download all 15 Cheat Sheets at once too. Each game contains 40 Questions (except for the 20 question demo) 14 of the games feature multiple choice questions, the other game is a True/False test. The games I've written include:

Old Time Radio Trivia 20 Question Demo
Old Time Radio Trivia 20 Question Demo Cheat Sheet
Old Time Radio Trivia Volume 1
Old Time Radio Trivia Volume 2
Old Time Radio Trivia Volume 3
Old Time Radio Trivia Volume 4
Old Time Radio Trivia Volume 5
Old Time Radio Trivia: Comedy
Old Time Radio Trivia: Detectives
Old Time Radio Trivia: Kids Shows
Old Time Radio Trivia: Scary
Old Time Radio Trivia: Westerns
Old Time Radio Trivia: Soap Operas
Old Time Radio Trivia: Science Fiction
Old Time Radio Trivia: Actors and Actresses
Old Time Radio Trivia: True/False

All 15 Cheat Sheets will be available online ASAP
Download my Old Time Radio Trivia Games Here.

In the future, I plan on writing such games as: OTR Quiz Shows, OTR Sponsors, OTR Big Bands, OTR Super-Heroes, OTR Actors and Actresses II, OTR True/False II, and more. The 15 Games and 15 Cheat Sheets (so anybody can play these games, even if they know nothing about OTR) that I have done now all fit on a High-Density Diskette.

If you'd like to send me questions and answers for my Trivia Games, either Multiple Choice or True/False questions (with answers), feel free to do so. I could always use a little help in coming up with questions. I have lists of questions for programs still to write, but I could always use more.

Also, I've just about finished an OTR Article called "I Don't Like Spiders and Worms." It deals with suchs shows as "Spider" and "Revolt of The Worms" from Lights Out, and "Leinnengen Vs. The Ants" from Escape. Find out about Spiders, Worms, and South American Ants, and why you should be afraid.

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