The lights are finally on, the internet is up and we are finally back – and there is a lot to catch up on! This coming weekend, CONTAGION infects theaters and we talk to star MATT DAMON and the others involved on just how scary this really can be. Plus here’s the plan for when you can see THE WALKING DEAD finally return, DC’s NEW 52 continues to sell out and ROMANCING THE STONE is coming back – shockkkkker!
For some, age defines you. You are either young or old. For others, age is a number and you remain your youthful, exuberant self. Then there are the ageless wonders, among them actress Janet Waldo. Generations of people have grown up with Janet’s work even though her name may not be a familiar one. The 87 year old actress sounds as vibrant as she did when she first wowed audiences on radio with Meet Corliss Archer.
Today, she is best known as Judy Jetson or Penelope Pitstop, but she has portrayed countless characters of all ages in a rich career that includes stage, screen, television and tons of animation. After high school in Seattle, Waldo, a distant relative of Ralph Waldo Emerson, was performing in local theater when she won an award presented to her by fellow alum Bing Crosby, who was accompanied by a latent scout. She left for Los Angeles where she appeared in several films before beginning her radio career.
She did numerous roles in comedies and dramas before CBS cast her in Meet Corliss Archer, a teenage sitcom series designed to compete with A Date with Judy. She played the part from 1943 until it ended its radio run in 1956. By then she was married and turned down the part for television in order to raise Lucy and Jonathan with her playwright husband Robert Edwin Lee (Inherit the Wind).
When Waldo resumed her career, she wound up doing some television work, such as the recurring character Emmy Lou on The Ozzie & Harriet Show, commercials and the then-new field of television animation. She was cast as teenage Judy Jetson in Hanna-Barbera’s The Jetsons and has voiced the character exclusively ever since (the one exception being having her recorded voice replaced by pop star Tiffany for the 1990 movie).
During the 1960s, Waldo could be heard on all three networks and in multiple roles from Granny Sweet and Anastasia on Secret Squirrel to Penelope Pitstop (first seen in Wacky Races), and of course, Judy. (more…)
PULP CLASSIC- Reviews by Joshua Pantalleresco TARZAN OF THE APES by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Ask me to pick my all time Edgar Rice Burroughs creation, and I think most people would say John Carter. To me, however, Tarzan was Burroughs at his most refined.There is a level of sophistication in Tarzan that is unsurpassed with any other of Burroughs’ characters.In fact, I’ll go so far to say that Tarzan of The Apes is probably Edgar Rice Burroughs’ most complex book in terms of character development, as the Tarzan that starts the novel is not the Tarzan that finishes it.Part origin, part coming of age and part adventure, I’m amazed with just how layered Tarzan really was, and it makes me realize just why this character is still so popular to this day.
Tarzan of the Apes begins with his parents arriving in to the harsh unforgiving jungle.Alice and Clayton battle the jungle valiantly, yet ultimately succumb to the harsh terrain, leaving baby Tarzan alone in the jungle, where he is eventually adopted by apes.The first half of the book is about Tarzan growing up in this environment.This stuff is among my favorite writing of Burroughs period.From covering the harsh realities of the jungle, to Tarzan discovering how to use tools, Burroughs does a great job separating Tarzan from a conventional savage and was able to show that Tarzan had a lot of cunning, reason and a little bit of a sense of humor.
One of my favorite scenes is Tarzan discovering his parent’s house and discovering the books in the library.The fact that he spends his time learning how to read astounded me when I first read it as a kid and still astounds me now.The thing I tend to hate with Tarzan in most of the television shows is that they make him out to be an above average ape man and nothing more.I can’t think of anything cooler than the fact that he used a children’s book to teach himself how to read in English.That’s an incredible feat and I’ve always thought that always having him be the simple ape man he is in most movies and television shows takes away a real important aspect of his character – his desire to become more than he is.
This facet of him is presented best when Jane enters the story.He sees her and feels an instant attraction.He starts communicating with her with the English he learns through letters.He is sprung into action when one of his local enemies captures Jane, which leads to Tarzan rescuing her.When he attempts to woo her with a very simplistic approach and is rebuked, he takes the first steps into becoming the gentleman English lord he is descended from.When she leaves, Tarzan seeks her out, learning more how to communicate, act like a man, and all the while making some acute observations about the ways of men he doesn’t approve of.
In the end, he saves Jane from a marriage that would have made her miserable, yet doesn’t walk away with the girl.All in all, it left me wanting more, just like it did when I first picked up the book years ago.Tarzan is everything you want in a great story.Despite the savage setting, there is something we can all relate to in Tarzan in this first book.It’s one of my favorites.I can’t recommend it enough.It’s a solid five out of five stars.
One of the joys of the Warner Archive program is that movies and television shows for small groups of fans can be released. The restoration costs seem to have reached a reasonable scale and these direct-to-order projects don’t really require the bells and whistles higher profile releases deserve. As a result, we can revel in the stuff we grew up or recall fondly. In my case, that includes a ton of Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears stuff that has been coming out over the last year or two. It also meant I finally got a good copy of the pilot to theSearch series.
And while some will turn their noses up to those offerings, they may begin salivating at some of the others that have been released; titles which I personally find not worth our time and attention. One such series is the short-lived NBC clunker Man from Atlantis, best known as the vehicle that gave the world Patrick Duffy pre-Dallas. The premise is certain high concept enough to have been interesting: amnesiac Mark Harris displayed the ability to breathe underwater and withstand the crushing deep sea water pressure. His origins remained murky but as was the formula from the 1970s, he was immediately set up with a purpose that served others rather than himself: working for the Foundation for Oceanic Research, a front for top secret activity. He was accompanied by a team of humans (co-stars Belinda J. Montgomery and Alan Fudge) aboard the high-tech sub called the Cetacean. And rather than delve into her personality or explore the things that made him unique, he became another handsome, shirtless hunk who went through the motions.
NBC’s Fred Silverman green lit the series, first as a number of telefilms, running four during the 1976-1977 television season and these are collected in the just-released two-disc Man from Atlantis: The Complete TV Movies Collection.
The concept proved durable enough it was given a weekly series order and those 13 episodes have also been collected and released as a four-disc Man from Atlantis: The Complete Television Series. I should stress, the pilot film was previously released on its own. (more…)
The Latest News from RadioArchives.com! * New in Classic Radio: Claudia, Volume 5 * New in Digital Downloads * New in Pulp Fiction: Doc Savage Volume 49 and The Shadow Volume 51 * Rave Reviews for “Python Isle” and “The Adventures of Doc Savage” * Coming Soon: The Exciting Audio Adventure “White Eyes” New in Classic Radio: Claudia, Volume 5If you were a stay-at-home housewife in the 1930s and 1940s, you were most likely a fan of the soap operas. Ever-present on radio, and later on television, these daytime dramas of romance, heartbreak, mother love, sacrifice, and somewhat overdramatized family life became a staple in the lives of millions of avid listeners – many of whom planned their daytime chores around the five-times-a-week adventures of “Our Gal Sunday”, “Ma Perkins”, “Stella Dallas”, and the other dramas that dominated the airwaves between 10 AM and 5 PM.
But, in 1947, a new soap opera debuted that was far more quiet and gentle and down-to-earth than its strife-ridden neighbors on the radio dial. “Claudia”, based on the best-selling novel and play by author Rose Franken, told the tale of Claudia and David Naughton, two newlyweds just beginning their married life. Young, enthusiastic, and very much in love, they weren’t suffering from any of the crises or tragedies that were the common plot points of most daytime dramas. Instead, they were two people simply facing the many challenges of marriage and learning to live together as husband and wife. Thanks to insightful scripting, as well as charming performances by Kathryn Bard and Paul Crabtree in the leading roles, “Claudia” remains one of the unsung classics of radio’s golden age – as well as one of the most entertaining soap operas ever aired.
One of the sad things about radio show preservation is the fact that so many long-running series exist today only in fragments – a broadcast here and a broadcast there, rather than long continuous runs of a particular program. Happily, that’s not the case with “Claudia”; RadioArchives.com has been able to locate and preserve the entire eighteen-month run of the series – 390 episodes in all – allowing you to enjoy the complete series just as it was originally aired.
In “Claudia, Volume 5”, you’ll enjoy 24 more consecutive broadcasts that were first heard in April and May of 1948. Priced at Just $17.98 for the six audio CD set and Just $11.98 for the six hour digital download, this charming series is one you’ll want to share at home with your family – or keep it in the car and play one episode a day as you drive to or from work. Either way, we know you’ll be delighted by the endearing adventures of “Claudia”, now available from RadioArchives.com!
New in Digital DownloadsFor well over a decade, RadioArchives.com has been known for the amazing audio quality of our classic radio compact disc collections – and it’s no wonder. We insist upon finding the absolute best quality masters, and then carefully restoring them so that they retain all of the audio luster of the original recordings with none of the crackle, pops, hiss, or muffling so often heard in radio shows from other sources.
So, when we decided to start offering digital downloads of these same collections, we knew that you’d accept nothing but the absolute best quality. That’s why every classic radio collection you download from RadioArchives.com comes to you as a zip file containing each individual show encoded as a mono 128 kpbs MP3 file with a sampling rate of 44,100.
If you often enjoy audio entertainment on your computer, your cell phone, or a portable device, you’ll be glad to hear that we’re continuing to add selections to the Digital Downloads page at RadioArchives.com. The latest additions include such long-time customer favorites as “Amos ‘n’ Andy”, the star-studded variety series “The Big Show”, the understated police dramas of “Dragnet”, and the hilarious comedy series “Father Knows Best”.
Digital downloads from RadioArchives.com give you the best of everything. Top quality shows in sparkling audio fidelity, available to you for instant delivery around the clock – and, with digital downloads, you’ll pay no postage or delivery charges! No matter what continent or time zone you may live in, just place your order and, within minutes, you’ll be enjoying some great entertainment.
Stop by RadioArchives.com often and see what’s new in our digital downloads section. Great shows, great sound, and at great prices, too! New in Pulp Fiction: Doc Savage Volume 49 and The Shadow Volume 51Anyone living in the world today knows that true heroes are very hard to come by. But, in the pulp fiction world of the 1930s and 1940s, heroes were always on watch to fight the criminals and evildoers that threatened our way of life. You’ll find proof of this in the two new double-novel pulp reprints now available from RadioArchives.com, featuring the top heroes from this Golden Age of literary entertainment:
First, in “Doc Savage Volume 49”, you’ll thrill as the Man of Bronze and his daredevil cousin Patricia Savage battle deadly menaces in two classic pulp novels by Lester Dent, writing as Kenneth Robeson. First, a fatal force is destroying America’s Naval fleet. Can Doc Savage end “The Terror in the Navy” before a weakened America falls victim to a foreign power? This novel has been restored with the addition of 3,500 never-before-published words from the author’s original manuscript. Then, Doc and Pat Savage investigate the mystery of bizarre fifteen-foot “Waves of Death” on Lake Michigan. This classic pulp reprint features the original color pulp covers by Robert G. Harris and Emery Clarke, Paul Orban’s classic interior illustrations, and historical commentary by Will Murray.
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? In “The Shadow Volume 51”, the Knight of Darkness battles strange supercrime in two pulp thrillers by Walter Gibson that foreshadowed classic Batman stories. First, The Shadow goes undercover in Chinatown to battle a legendary oriental demi-god in “The Living Joss”. Then, what can prevent “Judge Lawless” from making a mockery of the law? Only The Shadow knows! BONUS: “Djaruti, Goddess of Death”, a lost Orson Welles thriller from the Golden Age of Radio! This instant collectors’ item features both classic cover paintings by George Rozen, the original interior pulp illustrations by Tom Lovell and Paul Orban, and historical commentary by Anthony Tollin.
Also available: “The Spider Volume 19”, featuring two stories of pulp fiction’s Master of Men: “Slaves of the Dragon” and “The Spider and his Hobo Army”.
Escape the worries and troubles of today with the exciting adventures featured in these pulp fiction classics. Each beautifully formatted issue features impressive cover art, full-length stories reformatted for relaxed reading, and many special features to add to your enjoyment. Each of these issues is priced at Just $14.95 – a true bargain for such engrossing entertainment. Make RadioArchives.com your source for the best in pulp fiction classics! Rave Reviews for “Python Isle” and “The Adventures of Doc Savage”“Python Isle”, the new Doc Savage audiobook from RadioArchives.com, has been generating a lot of buzz lately, with an impressive number of excited reviewers weighing in with their opinions. They’ve got us blushing…but that’s not going to stop us from sharing their thoughts with you!
On the Retroist website, Vic Sage writes: “I began listening to Python Isle at my computer. It just didn’t feel right so I popped out the CD and placed it in my Emerson “old time radio” replica, laid back on the floor, and thrilled to the exploits of Doc Savage and his compatriots! I’m hard pressed to think of a better way to spend an evening as the sun starts to set, the room illuminated by the soft yellow glow of the radio dial as Michael McConnohie’s soothing voice reads Will Murray’s prose, both mingling flawlessly together to transport me to a pulp world that I sometimes wish I could do more than just visit. This is what all radio plays and audiobooks should strive to sound like!”
Meanwhile, at Audiobook Heaven, critic Steven Brandt writes: “Radio Archives has taken the well-traveled hero, and brought him to life in this amazingly high-quality production. Michael McConnohie lends his voice talent to this adventure. His narration comes through the center channel as usual, but his character voices come from the left or right, putting the listener right in the middle of the action. I’ve heard this production method once before, and I like it a lot. McConnohie’s melodramatic voices are perfect for this recording as well, giving it kind of an old-time radio feel. Doc Savage is one more pulp fiction hero revived with modern technology. I’m liking this trend in audiobooks, and I hope Radio Archives will bring us many more Doc Savage stories.”
But it isn’t just “Python Isle” that’s drawing rave reviews. At Mystery Scene Magazine, Dick Lochte has written a review of “The Adventures of Doc Savage”: “About 25 years ago, two tales featuring pulp-master Lester Dent’s 1930s adventure hero Doc Savage were adapted by producer Roger Rittner and author Will Murray for a rip-snorting 13-part series that aired on National Public Radio. The result, commercially unavailable until now, is an entertaining replication of radio’s golden age, when a muscled renaissance Man of Bronze and his gifted but eccentric crew could do battle with seemingly unconquerable foes, wind up in trouble at the end of each episode and just as easily escape in the next. In the seven-part adaptation of the 1934 adventure “Fear Cay” Doc and his gang fly to a dangerous Caribbean Isle where they fight a wily old bird who claims to be the 130-year-old discoverer of the Fountain of Youth. The other story, presented in six chapters, finds our heroes in Indo-China battling baddies and deadly serpents in the city of “The Thousand-Headed Man”. The stories and the performances by Daniel Chodos as Doc and the other cast members are properly a bit over the top. It’s good clean fun.”
“Python Isle”, written by Will Murray and directed and produced by Roger Rittner, is now available from RadioArchives.com as an 8 audio CD set priced at Just $25.98 and as an 8-hour digital download priced at Just $17.98. “The Adventures of Doc Savage”, featuring all thirteen episodes of the original series plus many special features, is available as an 8 audio CD set for Just $24.98 and as an 8-hour digital download priced at Just $17.98. Join the thousands of excited listeners who are thrilling to the audio exploits of the Man of Bronze. Order your copies of these two exciting sets right away! Coming Soon: The Exciting Audio Adventure “White Eyes” The place: New York City. During the depths of the Great Depression, in the shadow of streamlined skyscrapers, reporters scramble for clues about an insidious wave of bizarre deaths – everyday citizens struck dead, the eyes in their lifeless bodies turned a sightless and ghastly white. The Blind Death has the teeming city paralyzed with fear; in desperation, civic leaders turn to the one man who can discover who or what is behind this gruesome series of murders: Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze.
From his offices high above the city, Doc and his band of trusted colleagues soon uncover a terrifying scheme to gather together all of the city’s criminal elements as a single and seemingly undefeatable force. Their intent: to seize the wealth of the Man of Bronze and destroy him once and for all!
“White Eyes”, the second in a new line of audiobook adventures from RadioArchives.com, is an epic tale of crime from the pen of Will Murray, heir apparent to Lester Dent, creator of Doc Savage. Featuring dramatic narration by Richard Epcar, “White Eyes” is a roller coaster ride of action and excitement that will leave you on the edge of your seat. Produced and directed by Roger Rittner, who joined with Will Murray to bring you both “The Adventures of Doc Savage” radio series and the thrilling audiobook “Python Isle”, “White Eyes” will bring you ten hours of engrossing entertainment. Soon to be available as both a ten audio compact disc collection and a ten hour digital download, this new release from RadioArchives.com will also feature evocative cover art by Joe DeVito and two fascinating and exclusive audio interviews with the author.
Join the Man of Bronze for a suspenseful tale of action and adventure in “White Eyes”, the new Doc Savage audiobook coming soon from RadioArchives.com!
Listen to this Newsletter!
Sit back, relax, and enjoy this newsletter as an Audio Podcast! Click anywhere in the colorful banner at the top and you’ll automatically hear the Radio Archives Newsletter, enhanced with narration, music, and clips from our latest collections! This audio version of our regular newsletter is a pleasant and convenient way to hear all about our latest products, as well as the newest pulp fiction reprints, special offers, and much, much more!
The releases we’ve described in this newsletter are just a small fraction of what you’ll find waiting for you at RadioArchives.com. Whether it’s pulp fiction classics, our new line of audiobooks, colorful and exciting items from Moonstone, timeless movies and television shows on DVD, or the over 150 compact disc collections and digital downloads containing thousands of sparkling and fully restored classic radio shows, we hope you’ll make RadioArchives.com your source for the best in timeless entertainment.
On Monday, Syfy kicks off their “Powerful Mondays” with Season 4.5 of EUREKA. Colin Ferguson and Salli Richardson-Whitfield catch us up on one of the network’s hottest shows,
plus news on the TV Barrage coming to ComicCon and it’s a classic Marvel Comics brawl coming to FEAR ITSELF.
Apparently the first case taken on by the television adaptation of Powerswill be “Who Killed Retro Girl?” now that the title character has been cast. Sexy model Carly Foulkes, best known for the T-Mobile ad campaign of the last two years, has been added to the FX pilot.
Series co-creator Brian Michael Bendis revealed this casting tidbit when appearing on on Sirius XM’s Geektime radio show over the weekend. The 23-year old Canadian model turned actress will leap from pretty-in-pink pitchman to geek immortality with this move.
She joins a cast already including Jason Patric and Lucy Punch as the Powers Homicide detectives in the drama series based on the long-running series by Bendis and co-creator Michael Avon Oeming.
Who Killed Retro Girl? is the name of the first Powers collection, including the debut storyline from the series when it was published in 2000 from Image Comics. The story remains in print as a hardcover or softcover.
One of the more enduring concepts introduced on Saturday morning television in 1967 was Hanna-Barbera’s Herculoids. Some of this has to do with its fabulous Alex Toth design work and much of it has to do with the unusual assortment of people and creatures that band together to fight for survival in a hostile environment.
The series debuted on September 9 and CBS aired 18 original episodes before it vanished on September 6, 1969. Thanks to the miracle of on-demand DVD manufacture, Warner Archive has released the complete series on two DVDs this week. The eleven new episodes created in 1981 remain to be rediscovered.
The series was the brainchild of Toth but episodes were directed by Bill Perez, Paul Sommer, Ken Spears, Joe Ruby, and David Scott. Clearly Ruby and Spears were inspired by this because there’s a direct correlation between this and their Thundarr the Barbarian (also available from Warner Archive). The Herculoids do not live on a post-apocalyptic Earth, but instead reside on the distant world of Amzot (oddly, not named until the “The Molten Monsters of Moltar” episode of Space Ghost, guest starring the Herculoids; a rare crossover at the time). The team of fighters is led by the husband and wife duo of Zandor (Mike Road) and Tarra (Virginia Gregg), accompanied by their son Dorno (Ted Eccles) and “Zok the laser-ray dragon! Igoo the giant rock ape! Tundro the tremendous! Gloop and Gleep, the formless fearless wonders!”
While the menaces were stock form the H-B factory, the series gets credit for letting Tarra have intelligence and work on a par with Zandor, a rarity in its day. Despite all the high tech gear that turns up, and its attractiveness to alien invaders, it appears the inhabitants are disinterested in technological evolution, happy with their fairly primitive lifestyle. They are nomadic, going wherever they are needed, from their more familiar homeland to the mysterious Gravite Island.
These were clearly not human beings given their prodigious abilities. Zandor, for example, had the strength of two terrans and used a slingshot that fired energy rocks. He also has a shield that returns to him much as Thor’s uru hammer can.
Some of their opponents, like Mekkano or Sta-Lak, want revenge on Zandor for something that has happened in the past, which enriches their mythos without giving anything away. Then there are menaces such as the “Destroyer Ants” which are accidentally hatched and threaten all Amzot life. With breathlessness, each thirty minute episode featured two stories so there are really 36 adventures in these two discs. The transfers are pretty good, although far from perfect. Hey are more than serviceable for those of us yearning to relive those carefree Saturday mornings when we weren’t bombarded with public service themes or teachable moments (beyond good wins out in the end).
As we hinted earlier today, Speed Racer is returning to comics, with new stories by Len Wein (Human Target, Swamp Thing, X-Men, Wolverine), Tommy Yune, Robby Musso, Lee Kohse, and James Rochelle.
[[[Speed Racer]]] is an English adaptation name of the Japanese manga and anime, Mach Go Go Go, but is best known in the US from the 60s television series translation and the 2008 film. Selected chapters of the manga were released by NOW Comics in the 1990s under the title Speed Racer Classics, later released by the DC Comics division, Wildstorm Productions under the title Speed Racer: The Original Manga, then collected by IDW.
The release date of the new series has yet to be announced. Maybe in this new series, the Mach 5 will actually have a trunk lock? Or is that too much to hope for?
After a brief hiatus, the column spotlighting a different book each day (or most days at least) that would add to any Pulp fan’s, writer’s, and artist’s knowledge and toolbox, is BACK! Bear Manor Media is once again the go to source for the content for this column, but as always, if you have another resource or a suggested title to spotlight here, please email allpulp@yahoo.com and let us know! And now….
During the golden age of magazine fiction, motion pictures, and radio-roughly the 1920s through the late 1940s-three Oriental crime fighters were introduced to the American public. Through the media which they inhabited they became fictional icons in American popular culture: Honolulu Police Inspector Charlie Chan, International Secret Agent Mr. I. A. Moto, and Justice Department Agent Mr. James Lee Wong-commonly known as the Oriental Sleuths.
Created by respected authors Earl Derr Biggers, Pulitzer Prize-winner John P. Marquand, and Hugh Wiley, the three Oriental sleuths’ adventures first appeared in popular magazines and then were quickly snapped up by Hollywood to sate the appetites of film-goers for detective thrillers on the silver screen. Charlie Chan carried his case loads over into radio, television, newspaper comic strips, comic books, Better Little Books, and games. Mr. Moto followed with radio adventures and a graphic novel, and Mr. Wong added comic book exploits to his résumé.
Now author David Rothel brings all three Oriental sleuths together for the first time in one volume as he examines their origins and covers their development in all the media forms they encompassed through the years.
THE SUSPENSEFUL NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES
THE EXCITING FILMS
THE MYSTERIOUS RADIO EPISODES
THE LIVE-ACTION TELEVISION EPISODES
THE ANIMATED TELEVISION EPISODES
THE CLASSIC COMIC BOOKS, BETTER LITTLE BOOKS, AND GAMES
IN FACT, JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT
If you were a stay-at-home housewife in the 1930s and 1940s, you were most likely a fan of the soap operas. Ever-present on radio, and later on television, these daytime dramas of romance, heartbreak, mother love, sacrifice, and somewhat overdramatized family life became a staple in the lives of millions of avid listeners – many of whom planned their daytime chores around the five-times-a-week adventures of “Our Gal Sunday”, “Ma Perkins”, “Stella Dallas”, and the other dramas that dominated the airwaves between 10 AM and 5 PM.
For well over a decade, 
If you often enjoy audio entertainment on your computer, your cell phone, or a portable device, you’ll be glad to hear that we’re continuing to add selections to the Digital Downloads page at 
Anyone living in the world today knows that true heroes are very hard to come by. But, in the pulp fiction world of the 1930s and 1940s, heroes were always on watch to fight the criminals and evildoers that threatened our way of life. You’ll find proof of this in the two new double-novel pulp reprints now available from 
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? In 
Listen to this Newsletter! 
