Paul Frees, June 22, 1920

 

Happy 105th to audio's greatest voice man.  

People of Earth, attention....

The Mort Drucker Dracula

Extremely Scary Trailers

The complete 3-part anthology (including these excerpts) can be found on our podcasts page.

 

  

 

Leftover pic of Isabel Randolph

 

This happened to be the frame I paused it at, the other night when I was fixing dinner, and since I'd mentioned her recently...seen here with the venerable Roy Roberts, who always came across like a distant relative visiting from Butte.  

It's from a Dick Van Dyke episode, "Sol and the Sponsor", and although Isabel did play Rob's mom in the series, she isn't here.  

Why are they doing this?

 

The Goons

The Goon Show was an audio comic strip featuring Spike Milligan (who basically wrote the series), Harry Seacombe (heroic Welsh tenor) and Peter Sellers (no mean shakes as a voice-man, himself).  Programs and scripts are available at the Internet Archive.

This bit is a pretty good mental picture of how the program sounded, and shows how some things can only be turned into what they already are.  

The Goons (2:49) 

Broken Record Sale 2014

Ad-block Cutup

 (16:35) Once upon a time, in a far off land with free radio, there was a small community called The Outside World.  Although it appeared only once a week, the residents were numerous, since they were linked by a golden net that was spread out over the sleeping countryside, at midnight every Friday.

Each year, the village elders (and anyone else they could encourage to join them) gathered together to announce an annual book and record sale.  They did this by playing and reading things that would be on sale.  As many and as much of it as they could.  All at the same time.  

These polyrhythmic sound streams, lasting several hours, would usually just burn off into the air.  But in 2014, a traveling anthropologist managed to capture some of the festivities.  Here, with minimal curating, is 16 or 17 minutes of same.

Broken Record Sale 2014 

 

Those (Radio) Gals

The overnight creation of the radio broadcasting biz in the second decade of the 20th Century led to an explosion of voice talent.  Excellent actors that would have got no further than teaching high school Drama were propelled to fame by a brand-new industry that staged hundreds of programs every week.  Some of them went on to film and television.  Today I'd like to remember a few of the ladies who followed this route from radio to recognition as That Gal.

CBS Radio

Agnes Moorehead 

Debuted as a singer at KMOX St Louis in 1920.  Her first film appearance was 1938- "The Mercury Theatre On The Air"- a result of her work with that program.  She had the only exclusive MGM contract that allowed outside radio work, and she performed on radio throughout her career.

 

 

 

 

CBS Radio

Bea Benedaret

TV's Betty Rubble started in radio when she was 12 years old.  Programs included Burns and Allen, Jack Benny, and Fibber McGee and Molly.  Her trip to the big and little screens started out through animated cartoons (not uncommon for radio folks).  

 

 

 

 

Look Who's Laughing

Isabel Randolph

Rob Petrie's mom on The Dick Van Dyke Show was famous as Abigail Uppington on Fibber McGee and Molly (five movies in that role.)  Before that, she was a regular on radio soap operas, and seems to have specialized in snooty, upper-crust types.  (Her hooting, melodious greeting to the McGees is one of the audio hallmarks of that show- like Fibber's closet.)  It was a character that was profitable for her, assuring regular appearances as dowagers and bluenoses through the 1960s.  

CBS Radio: Daws Butler, June Foray, Stan Freberg

June Foray

She started in radio at age 12, and was writing and performing in her own show when she was 15.  Hundreds of radio programs, cartoons, commercials, TV shows...I think I heard her in one of those Norman Corwin VE and VJ Day programs, as Young Housewife Now In Time Of Peace.  (Turns out, it was her, OTR Cat has it in a collection.  Not a plug.  They also have a good summary of her resume.)