OTR, PULP, AND MORE FROM RADIO ARCHIVES!
January 4, 2013
Featuring the “big three” pulp heroes, Doc Savage, The Spider and The Shadow, the redesigned Pulp Book Store is much easier to navigate and find the products you want.
Whether it’s the latest Doc Savage double novel reprint or the 330 Pulp replicas offered by Girasol Collectables, you’ll be able to find exactly what you are looking for, quickly and easy. The Pulp Book Store also spotlights best selling products in its Highly Recommended section and offers great deals on special items in its Bargain Basement.
Popular Characters, quality products and more can be found in the new, easy to use Pulp Book Store!
Darrel Lantz writes:
“Keep the downloads half the price of CDs permanently please!”
Thanks, Darrel, and we’re listening! Due to your comment and hundreds of similar requests by many of our customers, Old Time Radio and Audiobook Digital Downloads will now be regularly priced at half the cost of our Audio CD sets! What started as a one newsletter experiment is now permanent!
Lorne Greene and Westerns. Andy Griffith and Comedy. Vincent Price and Mystery. Cicely Tyson and Love & Hate. Leonard Nimoy and Adventure. Only one Radio Program boasted this line up and lived up to it. And its 20 final episodes have been collected in Mutual Radio Theater, Volume 5 from Radio Archives!
An entry in the comeback of radio drama in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mutual Radio Theater provided new shows five nights a week for its entire run. Written by leading names in radio, Mutual Radio Theater also sported something that every show needs to succeed. Star power. And that didn’t stop with the nightly hosts.
The shows were peopled with stars from both classic radio and modern television and movies. Names from the golden era of radio drama included John Dehner, Vic Perrin, Hans Conried, Marvin Miller, Parley Baer, Elliot Lewis, Jeff Corey, Virginia Gregg, and Lurene Tuttle. Modern entertainment lent some of its best talent as well to Mutual Radio Theater, including Tom Bosley and Marian Ross, Lloyd Bochner, Rick Jason, Frank Campanella, Toni Tennille, Arthur Hill, and Jesse White.
The final volume from Radio Archives, Mutual Radio Theater, Volume 5 is a 20 CD set of programs as they originally aired, complete and uncut, with original commercials, and produced in full stereo-high fidelity. Thrills, chills, laughs, tears, and more. Radio Mutual Theater, Volume 5 is a star studded finale to a truly classic collection! Now available for $59.98 from Radio Archives! 20 hours $59.98 Audio CDs / $29.99 Download.
Bonus: Mutual Radio Theater broadcast 103 unique shows. The final three shows will be included FREE with every order of Mutual Radio Theater, Volume 5 until January 17th. These three hour long shows will not be available after January 17th.
Read by Michael C. Gwynne
Take Leslie Charteris’ popular rogue, Simon Templar—better known as The Saint—add a dash of Carroll John Daly’s merciless crime-crusher, Satan Hall, then mix well with the Spider, and you have William O’Sullivan’s Captain Satan.
A 1930s Robin Hood, dashing Cary Adair steals from the wealthy—and splits the proceeds with his well-named Satan’s Crew. They are a loose collection of shifty characters with monikers like Doc, Kayo, Soapy, Big Bill and Gentleman Dan—many of whom don’t survive working for the satanic captain for very long. That was the refreshing thing about William O’Sullivan’s dashing demi-hero: In the realistic and hard-hitting milieu he painted, not every heroic henchman lives to fight another day.
As Satan tells them: “You know my principles: To smash every crook I can lay my hands on—and what he has is mine. I’ll break every petty or large crook, every swindling racketeer or grafting politician or gyp banker I can lay my hands on. The terms you already know. What they have is ours. I pay the expenses and take a one third cut. You boys spilt the remainder on equal shares.”
William O’Sullivan was a prolific producer of pulp crime, sports and aviation stories. He penned only five novels for Captain Satan magazine, but they are nice smooth examples of 1938 pulp. And they carry the distinct fla
vor of Popular Publications—a kind of pulpy Warner Bros. movie on paper. One amusing thing about Cary Adair is that he was best buds with the head of the F.B.I.—in this series called Jo Desher. In real life, he was J. Edgar Hoover. Desher soon begins to suspect that his wealthy friend is the brains behind Captain Satan. But proving it is another matter….
The Mask of the Damned chronicles the first exploit of Cary Adair, and is ripped from the pages of Popular Publications’ premier issue of Captain Satan, dated March, 1938. Michael C. Gwynne narrates the action. Also included in this Total Pulp Experience audiobook is William R. Cox’s intriguing short story, “Mr. Detective is Annoyed.” 6 hours $23.98 Audio CDs / $11.99 Download.
Six New Will Murray’s Pulp Classics eBooks
The best of timeless Pulp now available as cutting edge eBooks! Will Murray’s Pulp Classics brings the greatest heroes, awesome action, and two fisted thrills to your eReader! Presenting Pulp Icons such as the Spider and Operator #5 as well as wonderfully obscure characters like the Octopus and more, Will Murray’s Pulp Classics brings you the best of yesterday’s Pulp today!
A mass-murder weapon, too horrible for war, was sweeping New York with fire — under the barbaric, pitiless direction of the Master of the Flame Men! First warning of the unseen cloud of death was a breath of tainted air that transformed a sombre populace into a laughing, drunken riot. Then came a blast that would smash a skyscraper into bits… From the charred and twisted embers of the towering holocaust, Richard Wentworth rose, in the fear-inspiring guise of the Spider, to smoke the arson assassin out from behind the machine guns of his flame-cloaked bodyguard — and fight for the lives of a reeling, giggling people too blind-drunk to flee! 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. $2.99.
At the coming of the Silencer, dread stillness blanketed all Manhattan — for no one’s most secret thought was safe from that prying terror-monarch who blackmailed men into bloody suicide! Neither trembling citizen, nor great corporation, was safe in this new crime empire, whose subjects were faceless corpses and whose coffers were jammed with gang-gathered gold. Richard Wentworth, in the Spider’s strange disguise, takes up his own weird weapons to fight the greatest battle of his career — against a monster who made a fortune out of harmless fools and struck a whole city dumb before it died! 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. $2.99.
The Scarlet Baron, a shrewd, criminal demagogue, had inflamed the American people to white-hot madness by his false promises of wealth for all! Great hosts of misguided men stormed the country, bent on plunder, rapine and murder. Countless innocent persons, were slaughtered, burned, crucified. No human was safe from one moment to the next. The greatest nation in the world had gone completely mad!… Only a pitiful handful of men were left to preserve the ideals of American liberty and justice. Headed by Jimmy Christopher, Ace of the Intelligence, they did their valiant best. With Diane Elliot and Tim Donovan apparently sacrificed in vain — with his own life a forfeited pawn — Operator 5 faces the gravest crisis of his career and his most dangerous enemy! 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. $2.99.
In 1934 a new type of magazine was born. Known by various names — the shudder pulps, mystery-terror magazines, horror-terror magazines — weird menace is the sub-genre term that has survived today. Terror Tales magazine was one of the most popular. It came from Popular Publications, whose publisher Harry Steeger was inspired by the Grand Guignol theater of Paris. This breed of pulp story survived less than ten years, but in that time, they became infamous, even to this day. This ebook contains a collection of stories from the pages of Terror Tales magazine, all written by Bruno Fischer, writing under the pen names of Harrison Storm and Russell Gray, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format. $2.99.
They called them the Ambassadors From Hell — these fighting fools of Satan’s Crew. Captain Satan! — only a name, but burned by the brand of justice into the heart of the underworld! Strange Detective Mysteries premiered in October of 1937. After two issues, it changed its title — and its focus — to Captain Satan. It featured a crime-fighting hero much in the style of Robin Hood or The Saint, who robbed from the crooks — a grim, hard vigilante of justice. By day, he was wealthy Cary Adair. By night, Captain Satan! Assisted by a dozen aides, none of whom knew the identities of the others, this scourge of the underworld brought terror to all men of evil who saw his calling card, a devil figure projected onto the wall by a portable light. The series lasted a short five issues from March 1938 until July 1938, and then returned to Strange Detective Mysteries where it continued for 26 more issues into mid-1943. Captain Satan now returns in these vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format. $2.99.
by Marian O’Hearn
Get a taste of Romance in the Old West in Rangeland Romances #14. One of the most popular genres of the Pulp era, the western romance appealed to men and women alike, combining the draw of love and drama with the six-gun. In Fiesta Kisses are Sweetest, Nedra despised rancher Bill McVeigh so furiously and unalterably — that she decided to be that arrogant cattle-king’s very last romance. When she gave rancher Bill a double dose of love-’em-and-leave-’em — she never figured she’d get stuck on the lovin’! Presented in a beautifully formatted eBook for easy reading, this tale of love and action on the frontier is a good addition to your eBook collection. $0.99.
All eBooks produced by Radio Archives are available in ePub, Mobi, and PDF formats for the ultimate in compatibility. When you upgrade to a new eReader, you can transfer your eBook to your new device without the need to purchase anything new.
Find these legendary Pulp tales and more in Will Murray’s Pulp Classics, now available in the Kindle store, Barnes and Noble Nook store, and RadioArchives.com! Search for RadioArchives.com in iTunes for over 200 eBooks are available.
Receive an exciting original Spider adventure FREE! Part of the Will Murray Pulp Classics line, The Spider #11, Prince of the Red Looters first saw print in 1934 and features his momentous battle with The Fly and his armies of crazed criminal killers.
For those who have been unsure about digging into the wonderful world of pulps, this is a perfect chance to give one of these fantastic yarns a real test run. With a full introduction to the Spider written by famed pulp historian and author Will Murray, The Spider #11 was written by one of pulp’s most respected authors, Norvell W. Page. Writing as Grant Stockbridge, Page’s stories included some of the most bizarre and fun takes on heroes and crime fighting in the history of escapist fiction.
Even today Page’s scenarios and his edge-of-the-seat writing style are still thrilling both new and old fans everywhere. For those who have never read one of these rollercoaster adventures, you are in for a thrill. If you already know how much fun a classic pulp is, make sure you get a copy of this classic.
See what the Total Pulp Experience is for yourself. 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.
Send an eMail to eBooks@RadioArchives.com and start reading your FREE copy of the Spider #11 within seconds! Experience The Best Pulps the Past has to offer in the most modern way possible!
The legendary Master of Men returns in two classic stories from the 1930s. First, a spider should be able to catch a fly, but this particular Fly has other plans in mind! In Prince of the Red Looters (1934), you’ll join Richard Wentworth as he battles a criminal mastermind more lethal, more ruthless than any he has encountered before. So confident is the Fly of his own abilities that he dares challenge The Spider himself to a duel – to the death! Then, in The City That Dared Not Eat (1937), New York City staggers under a vicious crime wave aimed at controlling the very food supply! Mass murder, wholesale poisoning — nothing is beyond the maniac leading a gang of ruthless killers in their battle for supremacy. While The Spider matches guns and wits against an army of crime, the city starves! These two exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading and feature both of the original full color covers as well as interior illustrations that accompany each story. $14.95! On sale for $12.95, save $2.00
Margo Lane Special
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows! The Knight of Darkness explores deadly enigmas in the Walter Gibson thrillers that introduced Margo Lane into the Shadow pulp mythos. First, The Shadow and Margo Lane (in her pulp debut) confront the deadly lightning of Thor, The Thunder King. Then, The Shadow investigates the strange machinations of the Secret Six whose giant sapphire, The Star of Delhi. is the centerpiece for serial murders. BONUS: The Witch Drums, a long-lost thriller from Orson Welles’ legendary Shadow broadcasts! This instant collector’s item showcases both classic pulp covers by Graves Gladney plus the original interior illustrations of Paul Orban, with historical commentary by Will Murray and Anthony Tollin. who pays tribute to the late Margot Stevenson, “the Woman who was Margo Lane.” $14.95.
The pulp era’s legendary superman returns in two action-packed novels by Alan Hathway and Lester Dent writing as “Kenneth Robeson.” First, the Man of Bronze confronts the deadly menace of The Headless Men, decapitated zombies commanded by a mad genius in the landmark 100th Doc Savage novel. Then, in his first solo adventure, a disguised Doc Savage travels to King Joe Cay to infiltrate a gang of schemers. This double-novel collector’s edition features the original color pulp covers by Emery Clarke and Modest Stein, Paul Orban’s classic interior illustrations and historical commentary by Will Murray, writer of ten Doc Savage novels. $14.95.
Unseen, impregnable, the strange war engine of a foreign power hovered over America, waiting the fatal moment to hurl death upon a thousand cities and towns. Foredoomed to destruction and desolation before the ravaging hordes of the Yellow Empire, bleak despair gripped the nation’s millions. And then men held their breath in agonizing hope — as Operator 5, single-handed, seized the last grim chance to save the United States!
This is an authentic replica of an original pulp magazine published by Girasol Collectables. This edition is designed to give the reader an authentic taste of what a typical pulp magazine was like when it was first issued – but without the frailty or expense of trying to find a decades-old collectable to enjoy. The outer covers, the interior pages, and the advertisements are reprinted just as they appeared in the original magazine, left intact to give the reader the true feel of the original as well as an appreciation for the way in which these publications were first offered to their avid readers. To further enhance the “pulp experience”, this edition is printed on off-white bond paper intended to simulate the original look while, at the same time, assuring that this edition will last far longer than the original upon which it is based. The overall construction and appearance of this reprint is designed to be as faithful to the original magazine as is reasonably possible, given the unavoidable changes in production methods and materials. $35.00
The shattering sequel to Fortress of Solitude.
The Doc Savage exploit that went untold for 74 years—Death’s Dark Domain!
In the aftermath of the evil John Sunlight’s pillaging of the secret Fortress of Solitude, a dreadful super-weapon has fallen the hands of a Balkan dictator intent upon seizing control of the vampire-haunted zone of desolation known as Ultra-Stygia. War is imminent. Monsters are loose in the disputed region. A strange darkness falls over the sinister landscape. Only Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze, understands the terrible threat to humanity. And only he can prevent the terror from spreading…
There are unknown Things prowling the darkest patch of land on the planet. Haunted by creatures that might have emerged from the Hell’s lowest regions, ancient Ultra-Stygia has turned into a cauldron of conflict between rival countries. Monster bats careen through the night sky. Invisible Cyclopes patrol the scorched battleground. And a power beyond understanding robs men of their vision.
Can the 20th century’s premier scientist and superman untangle this Gordian knot of carnage before neighboring nations are drawn into an apocalyptic new world war? Or will the Man of Bronze succumb to an unstoppable power he himself has unleashed upon mankind?
From the frozen Arctic to the war-torn Balkans, Doc Savage and his fighting five follow a winding trail of terror to a blood-freezing climax.
Death’s Dark Domain features a fantastic cover painted by Joe DeVito! $24.95.
Back in print after 20 years! The rare Lester Dent-Will Murray collaboration resurrecting the original pulp superman…
Also available is the first Altus Press edition of Will Murray’s 1993 Doc Savage adventure, The Forgotten Realm. Deep in the heart of the African Congo lies a secret unsuspected for thousands of years. Doc Savage and his men embark on a quest to discover the secret of the strange individual known only as X Man, X for unknown. Before they come to the end of the trail, they find themselves fighting for their lives like gladiators of old!
No one knows who—or what—the strange being who calls himself “X Man” truly is. He was found wandering the ruins of a crumbling Roman fort, dressed in a toga, speaking classical Latin—and clutching a handful of unearthly black seeds.
Declared insane, the X Man patiently tends his weird plants until the day, impelled by a nameless terror, he flees Wyndmoor Asylum to unleash a cyclone of violence that is destined to suck the mighty Man of Bronze into the blackest, most unbelievable mystery of his entire career. For far from Scotland lies a domain of death unknown to the world and called by the ancient Latin name of Novum Eboracum—New York!
From the wild Scottish moors to the unexplored heart of darkest Africa, Doc Savage and his indomitable men embarked upon a desperate quest for the Forgotten Realm….
The Forgotten Realm features a spectacular cover painted by Joe DeVito! $24.95.
By John Olsen
City of Crime takes The Shadow to Westford. Crime had infiltrated to the very highest levels of city government and it would take all the power and abilities of The Shadow to defeat the mobsters who ruled with impunity.
Westford is in the hands of mobsters, starting with low-lifes like Lance Gillick who runs the Club Adair as a gambling joint, and his lieutenant Beezer Dorsch. Gillick and Dorsch are getting away with murder… literally! It’s all simple when the Director of Police Kirk Borman is one of the mobsters running the show. And he’s created the Flying Squadron, a special khaki-clad force of forty officers who are in actuality hand-picked thugs. To the public, this is a special task force that can be rapidly deployed into action against crime. But in reality, it’s a cover-up squad that covers for crooks and guns down any innocents in the way.
The Shadow is on the case! And it’s a good thing, because without The Shadow, the entire town of Westford would fall under the evil sway of the mobsters hidden in the guise of high-level officials. During most of the story, The Shadow works alone in Westford in his disguise as Theo D. Shaw, described as a tall, haggard-faced individual, whose eyes were restless. But this character is soon framed by the corrupt officials, and is on the run, himself. So The Shadow shows up next in another disguise; that of Trig Callister, a New York gangster and trigger-man.
It should be pointed out that The Shadow’s disguise as Theo D. Shaw was never used again in any other pulp novel. Apparently it was a throw-away disguise, one which he had no interest in keeping.
Even though World War II was still a ways off, apparently feeling against Japanese was running high. It shows in the racial slurs in this story. Haija, crime boss Stephen Ruthley’s Japanese house-man, is constantly referred to as a “grinning Jap.” And The Shadow has oppor-tunity to whip him good, using his own jujitsu against him. American readers probably found satisfaction in that.
This was a fun little crime drama. No ghosts, mad scientists or exotic locales. Just a straight-forward gangster tale, well told as only Walter Gibson could. And this tale plus another full length Shadow novel can be yours in The Shadow, Volume 16. $12.95
Comments From Our Customers!
Elizabeth Hill writes:
Happy New Year! Thank you for all the wonderful deals you have offered this Christmas season. Thanks for good quality entertainment! I look forward to each newsletter to see what wonderful treasures you have saved for us to enjoy. Happy New Year!
Ken Prestley writes:
I love your newsletters.
Carolyn Andersen writes:
I am delighted and grateful that Railroad Hour, Vol. 4 has arrived! I had made a suggestion that Rise Stevens be included in a volume, but Jeanette MacDonald is most welcome! Thanks, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Darrel Lantz writes:
A fabulous sale! More sales like this and I’ll keep coming back! Keep the downloads half the price of CDs permanently please! Thank you so much for your great customer service!
Eric Troup writes:
The Fibber McGee and Molly Show: The 1939/1940 Season
I’ve had this great Fibber and Molly set for quite a while now, and I’ve been meaning to write you and thank you for it for nearly as long, but life got in the way. This set is amazing–not only because of the quality of the restored recordings, but also because of the number of firsts which occurred in this season of the show.
First, the quality. One would think that by now, I’d have become so accustomed to the great quality of your work that it would cease to amaze me, and yet, that is simply not the case. Considering the age of these episodes, I listen to the orchestral numbers and marvel at the separation which can be heard among the instruments. Oh, of course, I don’t mean separation in a stereophonic sense, but rather, in the clarity of the sounds. I can hear the crispness of the saxophones, the brightness of the brass, the smoothness of the strings. To compare to my average listening experience with old-time radio programs, if I heard a similar song, I’d know there was a brass section, a saxophone section and a string section, but the sound would not be nearly so well-defined. And that’s just the music! Barring small sections where one can hear some scratching buried deep in the background (which in no way affects the listening experience, I assure you!), the actors’ dialogue shines through with a pristine clarity which far surpassed my admittedly high expectations. (Hey, don’t blame me if you set the bar so high as to raise my expectations to such a degree.) And my, how young Harlow Wilcox sounds in these recordings!
Okay, enough about the quality. What are the “firsts” listeners can look forward to herein? Let’s see …
The first appearance of a certain Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve. There are even a few instances in the early episodes of the set where Hal Perry makes an appearance as other small roles, before Gildy is “officially” introduced. By the end of 1941, he would have his own spin-off show.
The first occurrence of the hall closet being opened. One of the most famous bits of Fibber and Molly comedy, and it got its start right here in this season of the show.
And last, but in no way least, this season introduces us to the King’s Men, who, if I’m not mistaken, would stay with the show to the end of the Johnson’s Wax run. We don’t get to hear their traditional “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” piece yet, but we do get to hear plenty of examples of why these four men are among the most talented quartets of the era … at least, in this listener/reviewer’s opinion.
All of this is just a long-winded way of saying thank you for providing this complete season of shows, which is not only a great season of comedy, but also a real slice of Fibber and Molly history. I hope there are more season sets to come. You can be sure I wil be a proud purchaser!
If you’d like to share a comment with us or if you have a question or a suggestion send an email to Service@RadioArchives.com. We’d love to hear from you!
The products you’ve read about in this newsletter are just a small fraction of what you’ll find waiting for you at RadioArchives.com. Whether it’s the sparkling audio fidelity of our classic radio collections, the excitement of our new line of audiobooks, or the timeless novels of the pulp heroes, you’ll find hundreds of intriguing items at RadioArchives.com.
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