The Twenty Greatest Old-Time Radio Shows
Selected by John McDevitt
Introduction:
Before reading my list, I would like to make sure that you know a bit about what to expect and how to read
it. Each of the items in my list consists of
1)
2)
3)
4)
the title of a radio play or an episode (in bold type)
the date on which it first aired
the program or series on which it aired (in italicized type)
a description of what makes the play/episode and the program/series so exceptional.
They are not organized by which is better, for each of them is outstanding in its own way. They are
organized chronologically by the dates on which each first aired, from the earliest to the latest. The
episodes are all from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Please note that each of the episodes is just as worthy of a
mention as the program on which it aired, so both should be regarded with equal attention. My goal was to
cover the full range of genres. In this, I feel that I have been successful. My list pays homage to
exceptional comedies, stories of suspense, adventures, science-fiction tales, mysteries, westerns and
combinations of these. Since it is just a top twenty list, there are numerous other plays that are very worthy
of mentioning but are not. Nevertheless, the following are very good and worthy choices.
“Cat Wife”
04/06/38
Lights Out
Description: The program Lights Out is radio’s first horror series. “Cat Wife” is one of the best plays to air
on the program, and reins as one of the greatest psychological thrillers in the history of Old-Time radio. It
stars Boris Karloff as John Taylor, a husband to an insensitive, manipulative wife. At the story’s
beginning, John insults her at the peak of an intense argument by repeatedly calling her a cat. Mrs. Taylor
is dismayed by this and pleads for her husband to stop, but he does not. Then, John watches in horror as
she turns very slowly into a huge cat. There are very few sound effects, for the extremely powerful and
realistic performances are what moves the story along. Mrs. Taylor’s meow is terrifying and unforgettable.
“White God”
05/01/38
The Shadow
Description: “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? …The Shadow knows…” It is difficult to
forget the haunting words, the eerie laughter, and the deep string music that begin each episode of The
Shadow. The program is full of an intriguing mystery that does not loosen its hold from the listener. For
nearly two decades, The Shadow was radio’s highest rated daytime series. “White God” begins with The
Shadow, played by Orson Wells, investigating the disappearance of fifteen ships. His investigation leads
him to a remote island where a scientist uses his mastery of magnetism to pose as a god before a tribe of
natives. As always, The Shadow’s female friend Margot Lane comes along with him to help.
“War of the Worlds”
10/30/38
The Mercury Theatre on the Air
Description: In “War of the Worlds,” a radio program of “dance music” is interrupted numerous times by
reports of a Martian invasion of New Jersey. The Martians quickly attack and conquer Earth, but one
survivor does not lose hope for the future of mankind. The power of this play comes through its using
news reports to tell the story, giving it an eyewitness, simultaneous quality. The famous live reportage of
the Hindenburg disaster was used as a model for a newscaster’s reaction to the first attack. This innovative
approach to telling a story made many people believe the tale and fear for their lives.
“Death Rides the Highway”
1940
Big Town
Description: At its peak, the program Big Town was radio’s highest rated drama. It stars Edward G.
Robinson as newspaper editor, Steve Wilson, crusading against crime and injustice. Robinson believed that
the show “would be ample opportunity for me to deal with pressing social matters.” In “Death Rides the
Highway,” Wilson becomes outraged by all of the traffic accidents that occur each year, particularly a
recent case involving a truck hitting a school bus. Wilson’s co-worker, Lorelei, believes that there might
have been a third vehicle that caused the truck to swerve, suggesting the truck driver’s moral innocence.
The excellent acting makes for a very moving drama.
“Sorry, Wrong Number”
08/21/43
Suspense
Description: A mysterious person who calls himself “the man in black” introduces each episode of the
Saturday morning program, Suspense. As he says before each show, “Suspense is compounded of mystery
and suspicion and dangerous adventure. In the series are tales calculated to intrigue you, to stir your
nerves, to offer you a precarious situation, and then withhold the solution until the last possible moment.”
“Sorry, Wrong Number” stars Agnes Moorehead as a bedridden invalid who begins to panic one night after
she accidentally hears a murder plot over crossed telephone lines. The action is in real time, something
very rare in radio plays and that is used here to produce incredible suspense.
“The Undecided Molecule”
07/17/45
Columbia Presents Corwin
Description: Norman Corwin is often said to be “radio’s poet laureate.” “The Undecided Molecule” is one
of the eight plays that he produced, directed, and wrote for the program Columbia Presents Corwin. “The
Undecided Molecule” is an absolutely wonderful, entirely clever, and hilarious fantasy told entirely in
verse. It concerns a molecule that is undecided whether it would like to be part of the vegetable, mineral,
or animal kingdom. The cast is lead superbly by Groucho Marx and Vincent Price and features delightful
music by Carmen Dragon.
“The Meteor from Krypton”
09/25/45
The Adventures of Superman
Description: At the beginning of every Adventures of Superman episode, listeners were greeted with the
words that would live for so long: “Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!” It was
on the air when editor Perry White, Inspector Henderson, copyboy Jimmy Olsen, and the Daily Planet
newspaper were first introduced. In “The Meteor from Krypton,” Clark Kent vividly tells Lois Lane and
Perry White the story of the Man of Steel’s coming to Earth as an infant due to the destruction of his home
planet, Krypton. The story is told at a fast and exciting speed that captures the full attention of the listener.
“The Hitchhiker”
06/21/46
The Mercury Summer Theatre
Description: “The Hitchhiker,” a radio play by the writer of “Sorry, Wrong Number,” stars Orson Wells as
a driver on a cross-country trip from his home in Brooklyn to California. He becomes more and more
unnerved as he sees the same ominous hitchhiker on the road ahead over and over again. This was one of
Wells’ favorite plays to act, and he does so with entirely convincing confusion and terror. The play uses
inventive sound techniques that give a very controlled pace to the play, which was a trademark of Wells’
radio productions with The Mercury Summer Theatre and his other programs.
“The Jazz Singer”
06/02/47
The Lux Radio Theatre
Description: In its time, The Lux Radio Theatre was the biggest dramatic program on radio. Its success
came through showcasing America’s top stars in adaptations of Hollywood’s most popular movies. “The
Jazz Singer” allowed star Al Jolson to more fully voice his title role than he was able to do with his 1927
film of the same name in which the talking had to be limited to the musical numbers. In the radio
production, Jolson plays Jack Robbin, a man who was disowned by his father for following his dream to
become a jazz singer instead of following the family tradition. The story is nostalgic and very moving.
“Red Wind”
06/17/47
The Adventures of Philip Marlowe
Description: The character Philip Marlowe is a detective who was first introduced to the world in the 1939
classic mystery novel The Big Sleep. The Adventures of Philip Marlowe is a very serious and atmospheric
program about the experiences of the title private detective. Marlow is one of the more intriguing
detectives to be heard on the air, and his adventures are of the more grave and suspenseful. The pace of
each episode is slower and more mature than what was represented by most of the other detective programs
that caught audiences with their quick pace and ample humor. “Red Wind” was the first episode in the
summer series.
“Leinengen vs. the Ants”
01/14/48
Escape
Description: Escape was a program that alternated between classical adaptations of adventure, horror,
westerns, and science fiction. “Leinengen vs. the Ants” is the “Sorry, Wrong Number” of Escape. It aired
four times during the program’s seven-year run. The episode is introduced as follows: “You are isolated on
a remote plantation in the crawling Amazon jungle. An immense army of ravenous ants is closing in on
you, swarming to eat you alive, a deadly black army from which there is no—Escape!” When listened to,
the story is completely believable, and, with its countless twists, intense situations, and vivid imagery, it is
completely engaging and utterly terrifying.
“The Caper with Two Death Beds”
06/20/48
The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective
Description: Sam Spade is a quick-witted, fast-talking private detective played by Howard Duff. He is a
very humorous character, especially in his interaction with Effie Perrine, the woman who types up his case
reports as he dictates. The show grabs the listener’s attention with its quick and exciting pace until the very
end of each episode. “The Caper with Two Death Beds” begins with a one Gordon Starbuck asking to be
Spade’s client. He has been accused of murdering his brother and asks Spade to help prove his innocence.
It doesn’t help that the brother’s death bed statement is that Spade’s client killed him.
“The Thing on the Fourble Board”
08/09/48
Quiet Please
Description: Quiet Please is one of the most imaginative radio series. It was created and written by the
very talented Wyllis Cooper, also the creator of the legendary program Lights Out. “The Thing on the
Fourble Board” is widely considered as Quiet Please’s masterpiece. The narrator of the story speaks
directly to the viewer, telling of a very gruesome experience that he had twenty years ago. It begins with
two oil riggers (the narrator and his friend) shocked to discover a gold ring and an ancient stone finger
imbedded in a sample of rock that was brought up from a mile underground. The two men become terrified
as they hear something above them on the fourble board. This tale is one of the most terrifying that I’ve
ever heard.
“.22 Rifle for Christmas”
12/22/49
Dragnet
Description: “Ladies and gentleman, the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been
changed to protect the innocent.” Radio’s Dragnet introduced a new style of documentary realism. The
program’s lead character is cop Joe Friday, played by Jack Webb. “We try to make cops human beings,”
says Webb. “We try to combine the best qualities of the men I’ve seen downtown, incorporate their way of
speaking, make a composite.” The show is excellent in its drama. It has a very serious and dark quality
that is rarely found anywhere else in radio. The introduction to “.22 Rifle for Christmas” is as follows:
“You’re a detective sergeant. You’re assigned to a homicide detail. A small boy is reported missing from
his home. His age: nine years. Foul play is suspected. Your job: find him.”
“Deadly Merchandise”
1950s
Bold Venture
Description: The program Bold Venture stars Hollywood couple Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.
Bogart plays Slate Shannon, the owner of a run-down Havana hotel, with Bacall as his “ward,” Sailor
Duval. Together, Slate and Sailor find “adventure, intrigue, mystery, and romance in the sultry settings of
the Caribbean” aboard Slate’s boat, The Bold Venture. In “Deadly Merchandise,” they are wrongly
suspected of having a mysterious cargo—one that people are willing to kill for. As usual, there is a
charming humor that results from how flirtatious and stubborn Slate and Sailor are with one another, even
in the most intense situations.
“The Corpse Said Ouch”
08/06/50
The Saint
Description: The most charming person to play Simon Templar, The Saint, is no doubt Vincent Price. His
adventures are always as fun as they are exciting, and there are always ample amounts of humor flowing
throughout each delightful episode. “The Corpse Said Ouch” begins with a woman named Frances Blake
waking Templar one night with her knock at his door. She asks him for help in finding out why her own
obituary is in the newspaper. As Templar helps her avoid harm and solve the mystery, he is his usual
charming and humorous self.
“The Martian Chronicles”
08/18/50
Dimension X
Description: Dimension X was a program that featured radio adaptations of works by some of the greatest
science-fiction authors of the time. “The Martian Chronicles” adapts six short stories by Ray Bradbury into
one flowing script. The story concerns the life of a family on Mars, the technologically advanced condition
of Earth in the future, and the traveling of humans to Mars. The acting is very moving, the story is told
with a captivating eloquence, and creative sound effects are used to create an extremely vivid feeling of
what Earth’s future and life on Mars might be like.
“Nightfall”
12/07/55
X-Minus One
Description: The program X-Minus One always begins with the narration: “From the far horizons of the
unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future,
adventures in which you’ll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds.” The world that
“Nightfall” brings the listener to is one with six suns. Its citizens await a planetary nightfall that occurs
only once every two thousand fifty years. The leading scientists predict that madness will come to the
world with the darkness that no living person has ever experienced.
“Brave New World”
01/27/56
The CBS Radio Workshop
Description: “This is The CBS Radio Workshop…dedicated to man’s imagination…the theater of the
mind.” The program regularly featured adaptations of works by some of the world’s greatest writers.
“Brave New World” is narrated by Aldous Huxley, the author of the original classic novel. Bernard
Herrmann contributes some excellent futuristic music to the play, and there are many creative sound
effects, making the described “brave new world” extremely vivid. The story concerns the world six
hundred years in the future, at a time when every “civilized” human being is raised out of a test-tube and
conditioned to be happy with a set future. However, there are still a few places where one may find
individualism, marriage, and natural birth.
“The Photographer”
05/06/56
Gunsmoke
Description: Radio’s greatest western tells the story of U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon, “the first man they look
for and the last they want to meet.” With its sound effects and acting, the program gives a very genuine
and vivid feeling of the Old West. “The Photographer” is a very grim tale of a photojournalist, Professor
Jacoby, who is determined to satisfy the Eastern press’ morbid curiosity about the violent West. When
Dillon sees tripod marks by a scalped old man, he becomes suspicious of the photographer. What results is
shocking images and excellent drama.
I hope that my list has interested you enough to at least hear one of these radio shows at some
point in your future. Radio is a very special medium that is unlike any other. In some respects, radio is
much more vivid that television or film. You are able to imagine the setting and the appearance of the
characters, just as you would while reading a book. Making a good radio show requires a particular type of
creativity. The shows listed above are those that I feel to be some of the very best. Each of them takes
advantage of the immense possibilities in radio with outstanding results.
Thank you for reading,
John McDevitt