Have Yourself A Macabre Halloween

 

 

 

 

The early 1960s saw the demise of the golden age of radio, killed by the unstoppable juggernaut of television.  With few exceptions, radio was morphing into a medium mostly of music and talk.

 

Daytime soaps Our Gal Sunday, This is Nora Drake, Backstage Wife, and Road of Life all ended their runs in 1959.  Gunsmoke ended its stellar primetime radio run in 1961, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar was put to bed after 811 episodes in September of 1962. 

 

There were a few hangers on, particularly during the morning and afternoon time slots.  Shows like Arthur Godfrey Time, Garry Moore, and the Bing Crosby – Rosemary Clooney show continued into the mid-1960s, but even their fates were becoming obvious.

 

Although radio drama was on the decline stateside, because many of its listeners were in far-off places and unable to gather in front of a television set, the AFRS (Armed Forces Radio Service) continued to provide a wide variety of audio entertainment for the troops well into the 1960s.

 

Created in 1942, shortly after the onset of WWII, AFRS provided radio broadcasts and V-Discs (78 & 33 rpm records) to troops around the world. Often the shows beamed to the troops were the same shows heard stateside, but sometimes they were created specifically for AFRS.

 

One such home-brewed show was Macabre – which ran for only 8 episodes during 1961-1962, and was produced by FEN (the FAR EAST NETWORK) of AFRS. Despite this short run, it is well remembered for its excellent production values and spooky subject matter.

 

The Internet Archive has all eight episodes available for listening or download.  Being only 50 years old, the audio quality is better than you’ll find on many of the older recordings.

 

The episodes, all appropriate for the week leading up to Halloween, are:

Macabre 611113 - [1] Final Resting Place

Macabre 611120 - [2] Weekend

Macabre 611127 - [3] The Man in the Mirror

Macabre 611204 - [4] The House in the Garden

Macabre 611211 - [5] The Midnight Horseman

Macabre 611218 - [6] The Avenger

Macabre 620101 - [7] The Crystalline Man

Macabre 620108 - [8] The Edge of Evil

The link to download them is Macabre

I’ll have more Halloween Horror from the golden age of radio, TV, and movies later in the week.

The First James Bond

 

 

In 1953 Ian Fleming published the first of 12 James Bond novels, Casino Royale, and launched what is arguably the most successful entertainment franchise of the 20th century. More than 100 million copies of his novels have been sold, and the series has spawned more than 2 dozen films.

 

Casino Royale sold very well in the UK, but a year later in 1954, Commander James Bond was still relatively unknown in the United States.

 

The earliest attempt at a filmed version of James Bond came in October of 1954, when an American anthology  TV series called  CLIMAX! produced a live broadcast of Casino Royale.

 

Fleming was reportedly paid $1,000 for the rights to the story, and Barry Nelson played an `Americanized’  Jimmy Bond of `combined intelligence’.

 

Bond aficionados will immediately notice a few `discrepancies’ in this production, including the changing of American CIA Agent Felix Leiter  into a British agent named  Clarence Leiter.

 

Linda Christian becomes the first `Bond girl’, in a character that was an amalgam of the Royale characters Vesper Lynd and Rene Mathis.

 

Peter Lorre is appropriately menacing as the first Bond Villain, playing Le Chiffre, whom `Jimmy Bond’ must bust playing Baccarat.

 

Admittedly stage bound, and lacking the sort of sexual conquests, fast cars, jazzy music, and gadgets that Bond movies are famous for, this still makes for an interesting hour of early TV.

 

A copy of this early TV production has just showed up on the Internet Archive, and you can either watch it online, or download it for your collection.

 

 

Climax!: Casino Royale

 

Interestingly, the only time the words `Casino Royale’ are uttered during this production is during the intro by series host William Lundigan. 

 

For more live productions from the golden age of TV, you may wish to check out:

Seeking A Satisfying Climax!

 

Although CBS briefly toyed with the idea of a James Bond TV series in the the late 1950s, it would be another 8 years before Bond would return to the screen (Dr. No). 

Casino Royale has been remade twice since this Climax version, with the 1967 James Bond spoof called starring David Niven, and most recently in 2006 with Daniel Craig playing a darker, earthier Bond sans many of the gadgets that had defined earlier screen portrayals.

Ramar Of The Jungle

 

 

 

 

 

Juvenile adventure television series were a staple of 1950s television, with shows like Sergeant Preston, Sky King, and Tom Corbett taking their audiences from the Yukon territory, to the cockpit of a soaring Cessna T-50 `Bamboo Bomber’, to the far reaches of the asteroid belt.

 

For 30 minutes (minus commercials) these shows would transport kids of all ages to exotic locales, where adventure awaited and despite any adversity, the good guys always won.

 

One of the best remembered shows of my childhood was a syndicated adventure series staring Jon Hall, called Ramar of the Jungle.

 

For this all-American youth of the 1950s a scientist-doctor who lived and worked in the jungle, carried a rifle, and always saved the day . . . well, that was a hard combination to beat.

 

The series consisted of 4 13-episode blocks. With the 1st, 3rd, and 4th blocks taking place in `Africa’ and the 2nd series in `India’.

In reality, they were really shot on the back lot in Hollywood, with cheap sets, dubious looking `natives’, and stock jungle footage liberally spliced into each episode. The same jungle scenes had a habit of showing up repeatedly week after week, but then, it wasn’t supposed to be a documentary.

 

Each of the 4 season’s had a 3-part story arc, that allowed the producers to repackage these episodes into four separate feature films.  Another seven `TV movies’ were stitched together for syndication as well, long after the series ended.

 

The show starred Jon Hall – an actor who first appeared in movies in 1935, but didn’t really gain attention until the 1937 movie The Hurricane, with Dorothy Lamour.

 

He worked steadily throughout the 1940s playing the lead in lightweight escapist adventures like Arabian Nights (1942), White Savage (1943), Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944), Cobra Woman (1944), and Prince of Thieves (1949).

Hall was married for 20 years to the beautiful and talented songstress Frances Langford, who played opposite Don Ameche in The Bickersons.  They divorced in 1955, but remained friends until Hall’s death in 1979.

 

While able to find work in B movies, Hall – like many of the B-list stars of the time – moved to television in the 1950s.  He played Dr. Tom 'Ramar' Reynolds in 52 episodes of Ramar of the Jungle between 1952 and 1954.

 

Hall’s career languished post-Ramar, with few roles offered, and ended with the ultra-low budget horror film The Beach Girls and the Monster in 1965.

 

It is a testament to just how long Ramar ran in syndication that I remember it vividly playing on Saturday afternoon television as much as a decade after filming ended.

 

Hall’s co-star was Ray Montgomery, a contract player with Warner Bros. in the 1940s who appeared in mostly minor roles.  Handsome, and a capable enough actor, there wasn’t anything that set him apart from the crowd.

 

Unlike Hall, however, Montgomery managed to stay active in show business throughout the 1960s and into the 70’s and 80’s, playing guest roles in shows like 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, The Virginian, and  Lassie.

 

The third member of the cast was Nick Stewart, who played a native guide named Willy-WIlly.

 

Despite third billing, Stewart actually had a longer (and better) resume than either of his two co-stars. He’d started out as a dancer at the Cotton Club, moved to Broadway in the 1930s, and appeared in the movies (bit roles) as early as 1932.

 

Most famously, he’d played Lightnin' (as Nick O'Demus) on the the TV version of the Amos & Andy Show.

Stewart and his wife Edna Stewart founded the Los Angeles' Ebony Showcase Theatre, which worked to give black actors roles beyond the traditional maid and porter stereotypes.

We’ve 5 episodes of Ramar for you to sample from the Internet Archive.   

Ramar of the Jungle - Evil Trek
Ramar of the Jungle - Season 1, Episode 1

Ramar of the Jungle - White Savages
Ramar of the Jungle - Season 1, Episode 2

Ramar of the Jungle - Drums of Africa
Ramar of the Jungle | Season 1, Episode 3

Ramar of the Jungle - The Doomed Safari
Ramar of the Jungle | Season 1, Episode 4

 

Ramar of the Jungle - Tribal Feud
Ramar of the Jungle | Season 1, Episode 5

 

Jon Hall died at his own hands in 1979 while in the final stages of terminal cancer. Upon retirement from show business, Ray Montgomery successfully transitioned into California Real Estate.

Nick Stewart passed away in 2000, but along the way his Ebony Showcase Theatre helped launch many careers,including those of such noted performers as Nichelle Nichols, John Amos, and Isabel Sanford.

 

Not a bad legacy. Not bad at all.

Spike Jones: Musical Depreciation

 

 

 

 

My twin brother makes his living as an infamous banjo player, but my musical ambition was to grow up to play second shotgun in the Spike Jones Orchestra. Alas, Spike died in 1965, before I could really handle a 12 gauge, and so that dream died with him.

 

But the zany music of Lindley Armstrong `Spike’ Jones lives on.

 

Although he started out as a `straight’ musician, playing percussion with Victor Young’s  orchestra and then the John Scott Trotter Orchestra throughout much of the 1930s, Spike emerged from the background in 1941 with the formation of his City Slicker’s band.

 

Spike was to big band music what the Marx Brothers were to to the movies.

 

Utilizing a madcap array of cowbells, gunshots, whistles, pots & pans, chicken clucks, hiccups, sneezes, and other unusual vocalizations, along with some truly fine jazz musicians they produced a string of novelty hits that spanned three decades.

 

Amplifying and building upon the antics of earlier novelty orchestras (and contemporaries) like The Hoosier Hotshots, and Freddie Fisher and the Schnickelfritz Band, Spike Jones and his City Slickers struck gold in 1942 with a wickedly funny parody of Adolph Hitler called In Der Fuehrer’s Face.

 

The song was featured prominently in a 1943 Donald Duck cartoon by the same name, and became one of the best remembered of the war-era songs.

 

Below, a short Movietone News performance of Der Fuehrer’s Face by Spike & Company while on a war bonds tour.

What would follow would be a series of highly successful musical parodies, a popular radio show (plus numerous guest appearances across the radio dial), movie shorts and guest shots in feature films, many early appearances on TV, and a couple of TV shows of his own.

 

Between Youtube and the Internet Archive, we’ve numerous videos and recordings to sample.

 

An early example comes from a `Soundie’ – a precursor to today’s music video – which could be viewed on video jukeboxes placed in bars and restaurants during the 1940s (see Soundies . . . Music Videos Of The Past).

 

This one is from 1942.

One of their most enduring songs was `Cocktails For Two’, which was written in 1934 at the end of prohibition by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow and debuted in the movie Murder at the Vanities (1934).

 

The song is remembered today, however, due to the 1944 send up by Spike and his Orchestra. Starting off by playing sweetly, in short order mayhem ensues.

 

 

One of the secrets to his success is that his musicians – while playing for laughs – were arguably some of finest jazz performers in the business.

Next we’ve a 30 minute NBC TV show from the early 1950s.

As you can probably tell by now, Spike’s music was as much meant to be viewed as it was to be heard.  And that would make him a natural for early television shows of the 1950s.

For more Youtube Videos of Spike Jones, including many segments from his TV show, follow THIS LINK.

 

Moving over to the Internet Archive, we have more than 50 radio episodes gathered from three different Spike Jones radio shows;

"Chase and Sanborn Program" - 1945 Summer Series
"Spotlight Revue" - 1947/48 Series
"Spike Jones Show" - 1949 Series

 

Spike Jones

 

Spike is one of many radio performers you can see in the 1946 movie Breakfast in Hollywood. Also featured are Nat King Cole, Andy Russel, Hedda Hopper, and Billie Burke.

Breakfast in Hollywood

 

 

In 1951, Spike hosted the Colgate Comedy Hour.

Spike Jones Colgate Comedy Hour

And for scores of Spike Jones audio recordings, you need look no further than:

SPIKE JONES RECORDS on the Internet Archive

 

The rock & roll revolution in the mid-1950s made it difficult for bigger bands to compete, and comedy records were moving to the spoken word (Tom Lehrer, Bob Newhart, Stan Freberg), but Spike Jones kept recording until the early 1960s.

 

A lifelong heavy smoker, Spike suffered from emphysema and died far too young in 1965 at the age of 53.

 

But for his many fans, and thanks to archival sites like Youtube and the Internet Archive, his memory lives on.

 

Seeking A Satisfying Climax!

 

 

 

Unlike today, where most TV shows feature a regular cast playing the same characters in a `series’ of stories, during the 1950s dramatic anthology series were common.

 

Nearly every week, either live or on film, shows like Studio One, Playhouse 90, Lux Theatre, and Climax! would present an original teleplay or an adaptation of a famous book, movie, or stage play.

 

The result was what is now recognized as the `golden age’ of televised drama, where young unknown actors could learn their craft working along side stage and movie veterans, and promising writers could hone their skills.

Since many of these shows were performed and broadcast live. . . goofs, gaffs and miscues would sometimes add to their already considerable entertainment value.

 

Between 1954 and 1958 CBS television aired 166 hour-long dramatic presentations on their show Climax!  sponsored by Chrysler motors.

 

Hosted first by actor William Lundigan and then later co-hosted by singer, actress, and Disney legend Mary Costa, these shows featured an impressive list of established stars and up and coming talent including:

Michael Rennie, Red Skelton, Barry Nelson, Peter Lorrie, Linda Christian, Linda Darnell, Steve McQueen, Thomas Mitchell, Anne Francis, Howard Duff, Vera Miles, Sebastian Cabot, Lee Marvin, Elaine Stritch, along with many others. 

A number of these actors would made multiple appearances over the years, albeit playing different characters.

 

Perhaps most famously, Climax! in its 3rd episode marked the first screen appearance of super secret agent James Bond, although in their 1954 production of Casino Royale  Barry Nelson played an Americanized CIA agent `Jimmy Bond’ in a battle with villainous Peter Lorre.

 

Other famous adaptations included Sorry, Wrong Number, The Champion,  Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, The Lou Gehrig Story, and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

 

The live performances are necessarily stage-bound, and are not as slickly mounted as the filmed episodes, but provide ample entertainment nonetheless.

 

We are fortunate to have nearly a dozen of these shows available on the Internet Archive, and that number appears to be growing.

 

You can view a list of their current offerings at THIS LINK.

 

 

While this list will hopefully expand, right now the following episodes are available.

Climax: Trail of Terror
Climax!: The Scream in Silence
Climax!: A Promise to Murder
Climax!: Public Pigeon #1
Climax!: The Volcano Seat
Climax!: Trial By Fire
Climax!: Fours Hours in White
Climax!: An Error in Chemistry
Climax! - The Lou Gehrig Story (1956)
Climax!: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Climax - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 

During its four year run Climax! garnered nearly a dozen Emmy nominations, including best dramatic series in 1956 and 1957. Of note,11 of their scripts were subsequently sold to the movies.

 

For those who miss the Golden Age of Televised drama, or those who would like to know what it was all about,  I feel certain you’ll get a lot of satisfaction out of having these multiple Climaxes in your collection.