The cast of radio’s Superman. From left: Jackson Beck (narrator); Joan Alexander (Lois Lane); and Bud Collyer (Clark Kent/Superman).
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“It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s SUPERMAN!”
Two years after his debut in Action Comics, Superman took flight on radio. As he thrilled readers in the comic books and dazzled audiences in movie theaters, the Man of Steel soared on the airwaves, battling the mob, Nazi spies and saboteurs, mad…
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Jackson Beck, versatile radio actor who served as narrator and cast member on “The Adventures of Superman.” It was Beck who delivered the famous introduction that opened with “Faster than a speeding bullet!”
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“She didn’t love you, you fool! Now we’ve got to dispose of the body. We’ll need a hacksaw, quicklime, some plastic sheeting and the largest trunk we can find.”
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The Dragon’s Teeth
The Adventures of Superman Radio Serial - February 1941It’s a shame that this arc of Superman’s serialized radio adventures is also such a pivotal one, if only because it begins with Perry White’s exceptionally distasteful recounting of the “Orientals”’ many failings and vices, spoken with curt authority and tangible disdain. As I said elsewhere, it takes the Gold in the Racism Olympics - although you can count on good ol’ Clark to stand up for his fellow man. The Chinese aren’t all bad; they invented gunpowder, after all, he later remarks…
At this point in the series, of the regular cast only Jimmy Olsen both knows of and believes in the existence of Superman. Perry still dismisses the whole idea as hogwash - despite having caught a glimpse of the Man of Steel during The Invisible Man - and Lois has never seen him at all - until now.
Superman saves Jimmy and Lois from certain doom, revealing his existence to the keen girl reporter for the first time. At this stage, she doesn’t yet suspect his dual identity nor, for that matter, is there anything like a romantic triangle yet established for the characters, but finally Lois is part of the select few to know of Superman’s existence (in the radio serial, anyway, of course).
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The original and greatest cast of Gunsmoke! William Conrad, Harry Bartell, Parley Baer and Georgia Ellis. Until the radio series premiered in 1952, westerns were just for kids. This ground-breaking radio series redefined the western and drama.
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WHOOP SORRY I WAS at a convention last week and forgot!
BOSTON BLACKIE
EPISODE: ATKINS, JEWEL THIEFSummary of this episode: A doctor and wife have a nanny for their baby. Things get out of hand when the nanny’s husband comes by, and after an argument, brags about stealing pearls from the doctor’s safe. When the police arrive, he has no pearls on him and the pearls are nowhere to be found in the house. Where the hell are they?
Short review: And the third in consecutive episodes. This one barely has anything to do with the other two but it starts out with Blackie seeing a doctor about his throat and segways into the mystery.
This one has a cool concept on how the thief gets the pearls off the premises without getting caught. It gets kind of obvious when they talk later about a certain thing (but I’ll keep from saying it just in case it’s just obvious to me).
Overall I enjoy this one a lot since it does require some thought and it keeps interest with how the pearls elude the police and everyone else.
Summary of the series: Boston Blackie is an ex-jewel thief who’s gone clean. He now acts as a private detective in sorts, using his cunning to solve mysteries for those in need. He’s accompanied by his girlfriend Mary Wesley and is constantly bombarded and accused for any crime ever by Inspector Faraday. It’s a light-hearted series filled with good dialogue, great voice acting, and well planned murder mystery stories.
This series is free to copy, distribute, and transmit. Original source of the material and further details can be found at archive.org!
Let me know! Did you enjoy the show?
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Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Ronald Colman, and Noel Coward on the 1939-40 radio series The Circle.
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Mask of the Red Panda #3 (of 3)
The thrilling conclusion of this debut story arc! The Red Panda and the Flying Squirrel now know all of the players, but can they call the tune in time to prevent the power of the sun itself from falling into mortal hands?
This is on sale tomorrow.
The first episode of the Adventures of Superman, “The Baby from Krypton”, broadcasted on February 12, 1940.
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