December 20, 2024
1 new The Black Bat Audiobook, 5 new eBooks, and 8 featured products from Radio Archives this week!
All new and featured products are discounted the first week.
25th Anniversary Celebration!
Radio Archives is celebrating 25 years of creating great products and we're commemorating this anniversary with a 50% sale on the Preservation Library.
Did you know that the Preservation Library subscription program is now larger than the RadioArchives.com website? Hard core OTR collectors are loving it.
Over the past 25 years, Radio Archives has digitized an impressive library of approximately 36,000 radio shows. While only a portion of these have been restored and made available for purchase on our website, we are thrilled to offer you an exclusive opportunity to own this vast collection.
We are offering Volume 1 of our 60 volume subscription at a remarkable 50% discount. For just $60.00, you can download the first 600 radio shows today, with no further obligation. Immerse yourself in the captivating world of radio's golden era with this unparalleled collection of timeless broadcasts. To get a taste of the treasures that await you, be sure to listen to the Audio Clip on the Preservation Library Product Page. Embrace the magic of radio's past and preserve it for generations to come.
Featured: previously released
Volume 6
Dragnet is considered a classic program for a multitude of reasons. The memorable opening theme, classic lines, and dedication to detail and more have imprinted this program on American society permanently. One of the best aspects of Dragnet and the very reason for the show’s existence was its creator and star Jack Webb. Webb’s portrayal of Joe Friday takes center stage in Dragnet, Volume 6 from Radio Archives.
Jack Webb made sure that Joe Friday was a policeman that other policemen could relate to and that listeners enjoyed. Played almost to understated perfection, Friday walks listeners through every episode, unfurling the case as he sees it in stark detail. While most of his fictional peers were cracking wise on other shows, Webb took a different approach with Friday. Stripped down, essential dialogue in a tone that oftentimes bubbled with an emotional undercurrent was Friday’s trademark.
Webb also imparted a particular humanity to Joe Friday that many other fictional policemen and detective of the era lacked. He remained a bachelor for the entire run of the show, living with his mother. He showed sympathy for those who deserved it and sarcasm for those who earned it. He playfully picked on his partners. He never rushed to violence first. In essence, Joe Friday was as real a cop as a fictional one could be, thanks to Jack Webb. Dragnet, Volume 6 features Jack Webb as Joe Friday at his best and meticulously restored for your listening enjoyment.
Featured: previously released
Volume 2
“The Adventures of Marco Polo,” penned in 1300, has long enchanted readers with its extraordinary tales of exploration in the then-mysterious and exotic regions of Asia, Persia, China, and Indonesia. During its creation, the world was vastly different; Venice, with its immense wealth, was the hub of trade for much of the civilized world. The Polo family, consisting of Niccolo and his brother Maffeo, were among its most prosperous merchants. Driven by the desire to expand their wealth by establishing trade connections with distant lands, the Polos set their sights on the Far East—a largely uncharted territory perceived by outsiders as uncivilized, perilous, and too intimidating to enter, let alone engage in business. However, the allure of great riches did not dissuade these daring brothers. Instead, they decided to bring Niccolo’s young and spirited son, Marco, along on their journey.
At that time, Marco Polo was a very young and somewhat frivolous man, enjoying a life of luxury and comfort funded by his family’s substantial wealth. According to legend, Marco’s father, Niccolo, had become disheartened by his son’s immaturity and lack of responsibility and insisted that Marco join them on their expedition. Marco initially declined, preferring to remain in Venice and indulge in his pursuit of pleasure, often in the company of attractive young women. To assert his authority and compel his son into maturity, Niccolo had Marco kidnapped and imprisoned on the ship that would carry them on the first part of their journey. Marco, naturally, resented this at first—but it wasn’t long before he began to comprehend and appreciate the excitement of adventuring.
In its original form, “The Adventures of Marco Polo” became a best-seller—or, at least, as much of a best-seller as a book could be in an era when such achievements were all documented by hand. It was eventually translated into most of the European languages, and although essentially a travelogue (albeit a captivating one), it inspired explorers as renowned as Christopher Columbus. Columbus found the promise of great wealth in the Far East compelling enough to consider traveling there by sea.
Given the legendary nature of Marco Polo’s extensive adventures, it is unsurprising that his travels would eventually find their way into the entertainment industry—and in 1938, they did. Starring Gary Cooper in the title role, “The Adventures of Marco Polo” was a high-budget romantic adventure film that drew inspiration from the legend of Polo, if not for its storyline. Despite being somewhat outlandish and occasionally absurd, this Sam Goldwyn-produced spectacle proved to be immensely entertaining to audiences of the time and may, at least in part, have inspired the creation of a radio version two years later. This six-hour set contains the remaining twenty-five episodes of the series.
Featured: previously released
“I’m The Comic Weekly Man, the jolly Comic Weekly Man and I’m here to read the funnies to you happy boys and honeys.”
This memorable theme song welcomed its audience to one of the most unique programs of the era of Classic Radio. The concept was simple. The Comic Weekly Man sang his song, then picked up the newspaper, flipped right to the comic strips, and read them aloud to millions of listeners, replete with different voices, music, and sound effects.
Airing on Mutual beginning in 1947, The Comic Weekly Man combined two pastimes important to American families, Radio and Comic strips. Reading from Puck: The Comic Weekly found in the papers owned by William Randolph Hearst, The Comic Weekly Manbrought comic strip favorites – from Flash Gordon to Beetle Bailey, from Prince Valiant to Snuffy Smith - to life in a way most strips had never been heard.
One amazing aspect of this program is just how many voices were heard each week. The Comic Weekly Man, voiced by veteran radio actor Lon Clark, voiced all the male parts while Little Miss Honey, a young girl, assisted with the female roles. A whole cast of comic strip heroes and villains performed by two actors.
Fully restored, the sparkling audio quality of this collection features 12 episodes of comic strips turned radio adventures. Listen as the comic strips of your childhood joke, fight, and tickle their way to your ears with the The Comic Weekly Man.
Featured: previously released
Volume 36
The Great Gildersleeve’s writer in its first year was Leonard L. Levinson. Although he would only be with the show for a year, Levinson set the standard by which the show would develop with his writing style. Moving away from the blowhard braggart that Gildy had been on Fibber McGee and Molly, Levinson worked empathy and compassion into the windbag’s personality. Even though the arguments continued with the likes of Judge Hooker, Levinson expanded Gildersleeve in a way that made him care about those around him, something that would contribute more than anything else to the best episodes.
Leonard L. Levinson entered the army in 1942. Sam Moore and John Whedon took over as lead writers and, using the improvements Levinson had made in the character, took both Gildy and Summerfield in even better directions. Even though most of the stories took place within an eight-block radius in Summerfield, Whedon and Moore made the locale authentic simply by recreating a 1940s era small town on the air, replete with patriotism and antics. Both writers also added new characters, like neighbor Bullard, and expanded on existing characters around Gildy, adding to the feel that the people in the show were real and lived just down the street.
Over the years, the various writers would transform Gildersleeve from essentially a laugh with legs into an almost real character. . His originally abrasive personality was toned down quite a bit. At the start of the series, Gildersleeve owned a girdle manufacturing company in Wistful Vista whose motto was: “If you want a better corset, of course, it’s a Gildersleeve.” He would later become Summerfield’s water commissioner, with all past references to his former business no longer being mentioned.
Discover why The Great Gildersleeve is not only considered a great comedy, but also one of the best shows of classic radio in the twelve original broadcasts in this collection, The Great Gildersleeve, Volume 36, complete with Kraft Foods commercials and restored to sparkling digital quality.
The Black Bat’s Summons
by G. Wayman Jones
Out of the night comes a menacing winged figure! Blind district attorney Tony Quinn takes his battle for justice from the courtrooms to the streets, battling evil as The Black Bat!
Tony Quinn, masked avenger of crime, fights to save a city from the grimy clutch of sinister looters and death dealers — pitting himself against the mysterious menace of the evil men with blank faces!
Although considered by many to be a part of the third round of Pulp heroes during the Magazines’ heyday, The Black Bat numbered among the second wave of heroic lead characters produced by The Thrilling Publishing Group, also known at various times as Standard or Nedor Publishing. Norman A. Daniels not only created The Black Bat but was also responsible for other characters included in this new push into Pulp hero territory by Thrilling.
History of more than a few characters may have been drastically different if The Black Bat had appeared as Daniels originally conceived him. A different animal inspired Tony Quinn in the original concept when he was stricken blind and left with scars around his eyes. Daniels’ plan was for Quinn to call himself The Tiger, but the powers at be at Standard had a different idea. Not only had there been precedent in the company’s past offerings for there being a Bat or even a Black Bat, but they’d also recently acquired *Black Book Detective* and felt that Quinn’s alter ego should somehow associate with that more than a killer feline. So, Daniels acquiesced, and The Tiger became a dark costumed death dealing avenger known as The Black Bat, complete with bat like costume, ribbed winglike cape and all. This would not last however, as The Black Bat stopped wearing the cape in late 1944, content to only wear black to hide in the darkness the city provided.
Thrill to The Black Bat’s Summons, originally published in Black Book Detective #46 July 1941 and read with two fisted excitement by award winning voice actor Milton Bagby.
5 hours - MP3 regular price $9.99
Featured: previously released
The Forgotten Realm
by Will Murray and Lester Dent writing as Kenneth Robeson
Read by Michael McConnohie
Back in 1933, Lester Dent outlined a great Doc Savage story involving a lost city of Romans hidden in the African Congo. For reasons unknown, he abandoned the best part of his plans, taking the tale in a different direction, to another part of the world.
Sixty years later in 1993, Will Murray dusted off that plot and turned it into his seventh Doc novel, The Forgotten Realm. It’s the bizarre story of a mystery man who escaped from a Scottish madhouse, who embroils archeologist Johnny Littlejohn in a quest that ranges from the British Isles to the impenetrable core of the Dark Continent. And whenever Johnny swings into action, the mighty Doc Savage is not far behind!
Here is another riveting exploit of the superhuman Man of Bronze. This is pulp high adventure at its most exciting. Tricks and traps propel the plot. Not everyone is who he seems to be. The colorful cast includes the mysterious X Man, the brutal Waterloo O’Neil, the mystic Goona Bey, and lovely Princess Namora. Doc, Johnny, Monk and Ham are on hand to pit their powers against the forces of evil. As always, the thrilling narrative grips straight through to the ultimate climax, and the final reveal.
Before it’s all over, Doc Savage will struggle against marauding sea serpents, murderous rogues, and end up in a gladiatorial arena battling ferocious lions in the best tradition of Tarzan of the Apes. All to unravel the riddle of the enigmatic individual known as X Man—who may or may not be a survivor of a lost Roman outpost still operating as if time had passed it by. A place beyond the fabled Veil of Silence called Novum Eboracum, which translates as New York!
The multi-talented Michael McConnohie again brings another fantastic Doc Savage adventure to life, one that takes the listener on a roller coaster of thrills and perils that you won’t want to end. This is the Man of Bronze at his most magnificent, using his might and mechanical skill to battle across two continents to a satisfying pulp conclusion.
10 hours - MP3 regular price $19.99
Featured: previously released
The Mad Dog Squadron
by Robert J. Hogan
Read by Nick Santa Maria
They called G-8 the Flying Spy. History never recorded his exploits—and for good reason! No one would ever believe World War I was that wild!
It hung in the night sky — the gigantic head of a mad dog whose open mouth dripped water. Men who saw it went mad, suddenly stricken with the strange plague that had already tom a death path through American ranks. Doctors struggled in vain to learn the plague’s secret. “Water — water!” as G-8 heard that pitiful cry, he knew that the strange plague had struck again, that more Yanks had been turned into cringing beasts who yelled and begged and killed — for water. Death stalks the Front as G-8 follows the Devil’s hounds straight into a madman’s sky trap.
In the early 1930s, Street & Smith enjoyed much success with its publication of The Shadow magazine. Wanting to get a piece of that action for himself, Popular Publications’ Henry Steeger decided his outfit should publish a couple of hero types of its own. For one of these new characters, he turned to an author who had become one of his go-to scribes, a man who could spin a good Western yarn and lay down a great war story, but who also had a certain affinity for Aviation stories. Steeger went to pilot and author Robert J. Hogan with a request for a new hero to take on evil overhead.
If Steeger wanted something a little different, he got it. Hogan didn’t just respond with any run of the mill sky jockey. He peopled the skies with giant bats and floating heads and G-8 and His Battle Aces took to the airways in October of 1933. From that first issue, Pulp fans never looked at Aviation stories the same way again.
Nick Santa Maria brings G-8, Nippy and Bull to thrilling life in their desperate struggle to defeat a deadly nemesis unlike anything they have ever before encountered in ‘The Mad Dog Squadron’. Originally published in the November 1934 issue of G-8 and His Battle Aces magazine.
Nick DeGregorio composed the music for the G-8 and His Battle Aces series of audiobooks.
5 hours - MP3 regular price $9.99
Featured: previously released
Army of the Damned
by Norvell W. Page writing as Grant Stockbridge
Read by Nick Santa Maria
The reaching tentacles of this new and ghastly crime machine struck at the very heart of a nation already fighting for its life. When it framed youngsters from our armed services straight into the filthiest racket known to mankind, it became too rotten a game for even the crooked mayor of “Bloody” Bentonville. He called on the Spider. And that Master of Men plunged straight into the murder maw of Bentonville — to save, if he could, our fighting youth!
The Spider was wealthy Richard Wentworth III, master of disguise, dilettante of the arts, in perfect physical condition, and completely devoted to the pursuit of justice for the down-trodden, no matter what the cost to himself or loved ones. Secretly donning a decrepit black hat, a tattered black cape, a false hunch to his shoulders, a lank wig of stringy hair, an application of sinister face makeup and a pair of .45 automatics, Wentworth prowls the streets of New York as his alter-ego the Spider, chasing down criminal masterminds bent on enslaving or destroying humanity. Much of the action takes place in the tenements and slums.
One of the things that sets the Spider apart from other hero characters is magnitude; the villains commit acts of destruction on a grand scale, sinking whole ocean liners, toppling entire buildings, wiping out entire towns with germ warfare.
Nick Santa Maria breathes life into the Spider in Army of the Damned. Originally published in The Spider magazine, October, 1942.
 New eBook
Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
Black Book Detective magazine was probably best known for its long-running series of adventure stories featuring the crimefighter known as The Black Bat. But The Black Bat didn't appear until six years into the magazine's run with the July 1939 issue. The magazine first hit the newsstands with the June 1933 issue. For the next six years, it tried different approaches. Issue one began with a featured novel and several backup short stories. The following year it started promoting "three new complete novels" in each magazine, but abandoned that approach after four issues. It then tried shorter novelets, combined with short stories. In 1935 and 1936, it tried the "weird menace" approach, featuring scantily-clad women in peril on the covers, then switched back to hard crime. In 1938 they tried featuring recurring characters in their main novel. Gentleman thief Raffles appeared in two consecutive issues. Jonathan Drake, Ace Manhunter appeared in three issues.
The editors struck gold with The Black Bat, who first appeared in the July 1939 issue. Supposedly blind District Attorney Tony Quinn was secretly the master crime fighter known as The Black Bat. The stories were credited to the house name of G. Wayman Jones, but in actuality were written mainly by Norman A. Daniels. The Black Bat stories ran exclusively in the bi-monthly Black Book Detective magazine until it finally printed its last issue in the Winter of 1953. Black Book Detective returns in these vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
Regular price $3.99
 New eBook
Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
Thrilling Mystery magazine came from Thrilling Publications, who also produced titles such as Thrilling Wonder Stories, Thrilling Adventures, Thrilling Western, Thrilling Sports, Thrilling Love, Thrilling Baseball, Thrilling Detective, Thrilling Ranch, Thrilling Sports. They also published a number of pulp magazines without "Thrilling" in the title, such as Captain Future, The Black Bat, The Green Ghost and the Phantom Detective.
Thrilling Mystery made its debut in October 1935 as a weird menace publication, following the success of other magazines like Dime Mystery and Terror Tales. As public tastes changed, so did the magazine, gradually phasing out the weird menace angle, and becoming a conventional mystery magazine. With the winter 1945 issue, the title changed to Thrilling Mystery Novel Magazine. In the summer of 1947 it became Detective Mystery Novel Magazine, and finally in the winter of 1949 issue, the title became 2 Detective Mystery Novels Magazine. It was a long-lived pulp magazine that published its last issue in the winter of 1951. Thrilling Mystery returns in these vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
Regular price $3.99
 New eBook
Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
The dreaded Junkers Ju87 filled with Nazi munitions flew the skies over Europe, as sturdy little Spitfires swarmed around it, cordite fumes from the eight jabbering Brownings filling the air. Scenes like these were played out as American airmen took on the Axis war machine. And these stories were told in the war aviation magazine Sky Raiders. Over the globe, wherever war touched, Sky Raiders took you there. Over the islands of the Pacific, in the hot skies above Africa, and the deadly European theater, Sky Raiders was a magazine of the war. It was conceived after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the first issue hit the magazine racks in the summer of 1942 with a December 1942 cover date. It lasted ten issues, until the Summer 1944 issue. Columbia Publications (aka Double-Action Magazines and Blue Ribbon Magazines) brought readers some amazing air action stories in those ten issues. Sky Raiders returns in these vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
Regular price $3.99
 New eBook
Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
The Masked Rider — Robin Hood outlaw of the range — was a masked, cloaked combination of Zorro and the Lone Ranger. But, who is that masked man... that vigilante of justice... known far and wide as the Masked Rider? Only Blue Hawk, warrior of the Yaqui tribe and the Masked Rider's faithful companion, knows that his friend often takes on the disguise of Wayne Morgan, a wandering cowpuncher. But even Blue Hawk doesn't know the true identity behind the face of Wayne Morgan. That was the secret of the Masked Rider alone. The two rode the old West, The Masked Rider on his black stallion Midnight, Blue Hawk on his sorrel El Acedero, fighting lawlessness, battling for the innocent, for a total of 100 pulp stories published between April 1934 and April 1953. The Masked Rider Western returns in these vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
 New eBook
Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
As the magazine title promised, each issue of this pulp contained two complete and unedited detective novels. Fiction House publishers, through their Real Adventures Publishing imprint, bought up the reprint rights to detective books that had already seen publication in hardback book form, a practice which allowed them to obtain the previously-printed books much cheaper. Radio's famous "Mr. and Mrs. North" detective series began as a series of print books, six of which appeared in the Two Complete Detective Books magazine. The first of Two Complete Detective Books was released in the Winter 1939 issue. Two complete books for a quarter was quite a bargain, and the magazine was popular with customers. It lasted for 76 issues, and printed the final magazine in its run with the Spring 1954 issue. Two Complete Detective Books returns in vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
Featured eBook
Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine. As a special bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction especially for this series of eBooks.
Another epic exploit of America’s best-loved pulp-fiction character of the 1930s and 1940s: The Spider — Master of Men! Richard Wentworth — the dread Spider, nemesis of the Underworld, lone wolf anti-crime crusader who always fights in that grim no-man’s land between Law and lawless — returns in vintage pulp tales of the Spider, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
Radio Archives Pulp Classics line of eBooks are of the highest quality and feature the great Pulp Fiction stories of the 1930s-1950s. All eBooks produced by Radio Archives are available in ePub and Mobi formats for the ultimate in compatibility. If you have a Kindle, the Mobi version is what you want. New Kindle's use ePub. If you have an iPad/iPhone, Android, or Nook, then the ePub version is what you want.
The Bargain Basement is where you find all the discounted Audio CDs including everything featured in this newsletter.
Comments From Our Customers!
Stephen K Lau writes:
The Big Show, Volume 3. Great collection. 90 minute variety shows. Good quality. Enjoyable listening
Jill McDaniel writes:
Doc Savage discs. Radio Archives sends me these stories and I receive them in a timely manner.I'll keep on ordering them from RA, they've been very helpful.
If you'd like to share a comment with us or if you have a question or a suggestion send an email to [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you!
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Audio CD ordering information
We offer Audio CDs of all of our Old Time Radio sets and Pulp Audiobooks. To order click here for the Audio CD Order Form or by voicemail at 800-886-0551. All discounted Audio CDs are in the Bargain Basement.
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