Tagged: The Shadow

AMOS ‘N’ ANDY, FRANK MERRIWELL, THE BLACK BAT, WILL MURRAY, THE SPIDER AND MORE FROM RADIO ARCHIVES!

RadioArchives.com Newsletter

 
May 4, 2012
 
 

 
During its radio heyday, Amos ‘n’ Andy was definitely a legend in its own time. While entertainment programs have an admirable capacity to instill loyalty in their audiences, though, very few have the magic to capture the public’s imagination forever. Proving itself to be a program dedicated to the best in entertainment for its audience, Amos ‘n’ Andy reinvented itself as necessary, becoming something different than it had been, yet remaining a favorite of listeners everywhere.
 
The Amos ‘n’ Andy shows after 1943 were radically different from the earlier program, but the revitalized show stood out in its own way. Now cast more in the mold of a traditional situation comedy, the later Amos ‘n’ Andy shows spotlighted a variety of black characters in many different walks of life. There were characters successful in business, entertainment, politics and more featured in the program and this was an area not explored much by other programs of the time.
 
These shows retained the heart that Amos ‘n’ Andy has always been known for among fans. The characters themselves remain at the center of the later shows as well. Even though Amos moved into the background somewhat, listeners still chuckled and laughed at the adventures of the well-realized cast, particularly Andy as he got in and out of whatever predicament The Kingfish got him into.
 
Restored to the best audio quality, Amos ‘n’ Andy, Volume 5 clearly shows the enduring humor and impact this series had on America, then and now. Available now on Audio CDs for $29.98.
 
by Tommy Hancock

 

Clean-cut heroes! Dastardly plots! Last minute rescues! All the earmarks of a great pulpy type tale! That and more can be found in The Adventures Of Frank Merriwell, Volume 1, a true Pulp Hero brought to life on the radio!
 
Frank Merriwell made his literary debut in 1896, the year that many state that magazines began printing stories on Pulp paper. Patterned in what many might consider a clichéd role now, Merriwell was one of the earliest representations of the All American athletic, justice minded hero that could thwart greedy businessmen, strange societies, and even the occasional murderous landlord with nothing but his brains, brawn, and rugged good looks. The character quickly became a role model and a hit with readers, due in part to the fact that Street and Smith published a new exciting tale almost every week.
 
Even with this sort of pedigree, which includes comic books and even a movie serial, it’s not a given that every good idea translates well into audio. Especially in the days of Old Time Radio, often a lot about an idea was lost or dramatically changed to make sure current listeners would enjoy it. Happily, though, that is not the case with The Adventures of Frank Merriwell. Set in the period he debuted in, these turn of the century tales are simultaneously wonderfully crafted wholesome adventures and finely executed, tightly plotted shots of action and adventure.
 
Even though it’s clear that Frank and his companions are cut from the whole cloth of American purity, the storytelling doesn’t let that stand in the way. Tension builds as it should in a good action tale and the dialogue is not forced or too purple to be believed. Yes, you can almost see Frank’s twinkling smile as he’s duking his way through danger, but it works seamlessly together. This show was in no way played for laughs or camp. It represented tales from an earlier time told in a way that both preserved what made them special, but also appealed enough to a modern audience that the show itself enjoyed a good healthy run.
 
The Adventures of Frank Merriwell, Volume 1 is definitely an all ages experience to enjoy with the entire family gathered around listening! It’s got equal parts adventure, tension, pathos, and morals to make it truly a fun classic to enjoy together! And it’s available now for $29.98 from Radio Archives!

 

 
 

The Spider Returns on “Wings of the Black Death”
 
A scourge not seen since the Middle Ages descends on America’s largest city, wielded by a criminal mastermind who threatens to wipe out New York … and reveal The Spider’s true identity in the process!
 
“Wings of the Black Death”, Norvell W. Page’s inaugural novel as author of The Spider, is now available in a deluxe audiobook from RadioArchives.com!
 
Following on the success of RadioArchives.com first Spider audiobook, “Prince of the Red Looters”, this new audio adventure pits Richard Wentworth, alias The Spider, against the first of a long line of evil malefactors devised by Page that would inhabit the webbed crusader’s life for the next ten years.
 
The Spider Battles a Vicious Foe
In “Wings of the Black Death”, Manhattan is under siege from a new brand of terrorist – a human monster who calls himself the Black Death. Unless the city fathers pay a monumental ransom, New York will become a city of unspeakable destruction.
 
As Will Murray says in his introduction, “With his first white-heat story, Norvell W. Page remade Richard Wentworth into a messianic avenger unlike anything pulp readers ever read before. Driven, deadly, The Spider was a daredevil caught between the law that branded him as a criminal and the underworld he terrorized with his metallic laugh and searing lead.”
 
Dynamic Narration and Production
Produced by Roger Rittner, with full period music score and extensive sound effects, “Wings of the Black Death”, like its predecessor, is narrated by Nick Santa Maria, with Robin Riker as Nita Van Sloan.
 
“Listeners who enjoyed ‘Prince of the Red Looters’ will delight in Nick’s dynamic narration,” Roger says, “as well as an extended and enhanced role for Robin as Nita battles the malevolent Black Death on her own. Will Wentworth come to the rescue? (Do you have to ask?)”
 

 

The Soul of The Spider

By Will Murray

 

Let’s be honest. If Street & Smith had not launched The Shadow in 1931, Popular Publications would never have followed suit with The Spider.

 

The Shadow was a sleeper in the pulp field. Coming in just as the Depression exerted its chilling grip on the traditional flock of detective and Western magazines, The Shadow’s stock kept rising as other genres simply sank. By spring 1932, the Bloody Pulps were awash in a different kind of red fluid—ink. That autumn, S&S reluctantly cut the weekly Detective Story Magazine back to a semi-monthly, while The Shadow went twice-a-month.

 

The minute the industry saw that, competitors began scrambling to cash in on the only positive pulp trend anyone know—mysterious crime avengers.

 

Beyond that mercenary impulse, the origins of The Spider are clogged with cobwebs. He burst forth in the September, 1933 issue, with R.T.M. Scott’s The Spider Strikes! A marvel-sleuth of the traditional millionaire-clubman-and-sportsman turned criminologist school, Richard Wentworth, alias the Spider, was nothing new. Even his Sikh aide, Ram Singh, was unoriginal. For Wentworth and Ram Singh and the obligatory girlfriend, Nita Van Sloan, were hardly more than cold recastings of Scott’s Secret Service agent Aurelius Smith, Hindu aide Langa Doonh and girlfriend Bernice Asterly.

 

There’s probably a wonderful story behind a hardcover novelist agreeing to turn pulpster. Even the loose jigsaw pieces are fascinating. There were two R.T.M. Scotts, father and son. The son worked for Popular Publications, and wrote pulp. Father and son were heavily into the occult. It’s not clear which Scott penned The Spider.

 

I’ll float a theory: R.T.M. Scott Senior had an Aurelius Smith novel kicking around loose, orphaned by Depression-wary publishers. Scott II mentions this to Popular’s publisher, Harry Steeger, who claims a spider walking along a tennis court inspired the character’s name, and a deal is struck. Aurelius Smith becomes Richard Wentworth. Very little magic is required. The Spider is simply an alias, nor a distinct person, known for a trick cigarette lighter that leaves his spidery scarlet seal on the foreheads of dead criminals.

 

The second novel, The Wheel of Death, is much weaker than the first. Could be Scott found the monthly deadlines not conductive to doing good work. Perhaps the son took over. Or they collaborated. Anyway, suddenly R.T.M. Scott bows out.

 

Enter new writer Grant Stockbridge—a  naked attempt to evoke the Shadow byline Maxwell Grant. In reality, this house name concealed Norvell Wordsworth Page, formerly of Virginia.

 

A rising star in the pulp world, Page broke into the field writing Westerns as N. Wooten Poge, shifted to action detective stuff under his own name and had just started a significant series for topshelf pulp, Black Mask.

 

Page had a dream: to become the next Edgar Allan Poe. Page shared Poe’s Southern roots and interest in the bizarre. He dabbled in the Tarot, was fascinated by the Holy Grail legend, and developed an interest in spirit communication—and like Poe, he got his career start via newspaper journalism.

 

Page once recounted his days as a reporter, writing:

“I don’t know why it is, but men who aspire to write the Great American novel always become newspapermen.  I did, too, and for the last twelve years have been sliding about the country doing one dirty job after another. I didn’t know, when I was patting corpses familiarly on the shoulder in the morgues, that it was all going to come in mighty handy some day. In fact, when I began to write fiction finally, I chose the one part of these United States I knew absolutely nothing about: the West. I wrote Western stories and, what’s worse, sold ‘em!

 

“One day the editor who purchased them looked at me sourly and said, ‘Why don’t you write about something you know…like gangsters.’ Well, he paid for that remark—for I’ve been writing detective stories ever since. Amazing how many midnight murders can chill your blood after a lapse of many years when at the time they happened it was ‘just another stiff.’ And we newspaper men grumbled about leaving our cans of coffee in the press room and pushing out into the night. We thought that was work.  I could get wistful about newspaper work and I would swear that when I sidle into a police-headquarters press room and whisper ‘I’m an old newspaper man myself,’ my voice is positively mournful.”

 

Page jumped in with Wings of the Black Death, and the true Shadowization of The Spider commenced. A proponent of the Black Mask school of hardboiled writing, he also dragged in elements of  a new subgenre Popular pioneered when they converted the dragging Dime Mystery Book Magazine into a horror title. Page had written the grisly lead story of the retooled Dime Mystery, “Dance of the Skeletons,” just months before. This sale probably won him the Spider contract.

 

In short order, Norvell’s Page’s Spider metamorphosed into a high-strung emotionally-charged human-arachnid-turned-predator who saw himself as a crusader with a holy mission: the extermination of criminals.

 

And what criminals! Where The Shadow was a cold-blooded crimebuster who operated in the shadows, The Spider blazed a bloody swath through a mad procession of psychopathic killers hell-bent on mindless plunder and destruction. 

 

Issue by issue The Spider mutated as a personality. He took to donning black slouch hat and cloak in imitation of The Shadow. He wore a spider ring. He packed twin automatics. He laughed vengefully as he slew. Sometimes he augmented this ebony ensemble with a fright wig and vampire teeth, suggestive of a hairy fanged spider in human form. 

 

“His deft fingers flew swiftly about their familiar task,” Page wrote. “Under their touch, a lotion tautened his skin so that it shone across the cheekbones and became darkly sallow. Circles now appeared under his eyes, and his lips vanished, leaving his mouth a sinister, knife-thin line. That was all, except a reconstruction of the nose so that it became a hooked predatory beak, crowned by harsh, shaggy eyebrows, all topped by a lank, long wig, while the face that stared back at Wentworth bore no resemblance at all to the debonair countenance of Richard Wentworth, clubman, dilettante of the arts, and amateur criminologist. This was a face from whose glare the criminal guiltily shrank as from a death ray! This was the face of the Spider!’”

 

He was The Shadow for grownups.

 

Another person also played an important part in the eerie evolution of The Spider. Rogers Terrill, the magazine’s first editor, and originator of an approach he called “emotional urgency.” To Terrill, the plot could run off the rails, the characters could descend into irrationality—just so long as the story was told in white-heat prose that grabbed the pulp reader by the throat and never let go.

 

Terrill believed in keying up the action to an unbelievable degree. It was not enough, he liked to say, to impel the hero into a race against time to save a subway full of innocents about to be slaughtered by blood-simple madmen. He had to face a soul-testing choice: save the precious innocents or rescue his about-to-be-tortured one true love, who was in equal and simultaneous danger. That impossible choice spelled drama to Rogers Terrill.

 

He described it to his writers in typically intense terms:

“Primarily there must be real emotion in our stories; in addition to the physical conflict, they should have emotional drama. A story, for example, on which conflicting forces are at work, in which the hero has strongly conflicting desires, where he must make a choice that will reflect his true character, his most vital interests and desires require one course of action, but a debt of honor demands sacrifice of his own free will. And while he is sorely tempted to protect his own interests, his better nature triumphs.”

 

Over the years Spider titles went from the relatively sedate City of Flaming Shadows to high-pitched fever dreams like Hordes of the Red Butcher and King of the Fleshless Legion.Wentworth battled the depraved, the insane, the wanton. Forerunners of the supervillains of today, they included the obligatory Tarantula and the Fly, the Wreck, who delighted in turning his victims into broken cripples, the Iron Man, who controlled a rampaging platoon of slaughter-bent robots, and the Living Pharaoh, whom Page introduced in a multi-book sequence he abandoned as mysteriously as R.T.M. Scott had walked away from his crimecrushing creation.

 

Page’s yearlong absence is as unfathomable as the puzzle of  the two R.T. M. Scotts. Editors agreed that the longer he penned the Spider, the more spiderlike Page became. He took to wearing floppy slouch hats, black velvet pants and carrying a brace of matched .45 automatics as if he were coming to identify with Richard Wentworth a little too closely. Page also started talking about the Spider cast like they were familiar friends instead of the fictional creations they really were.

 

Page’s friend, Shadow author Theodore Tinsley, recalled him vividly: 

 “Yes, Norvell’s personality was not ‘subdued’ in the manner of a young blondish bank clerk. He did like to wear a Spider ring.  He did like to wear a cape. He did like a slouch hat. And he did wear a beard, a black scrubby one. At times his flamboyant cape suggested he might be a Bolshevik. With a small bomb concealed for socially corrective action. Actually he was a nice guy, with a yen toward theatric, who simmered down considerably after he took his talents (they were many) to Uncle Sam during and after WW2.”

 

Maybe it was burnout. Perhaps a breakdown from overwork. Possibly Page asked for a raise and was replaced by a younger, cheaper pulpster. Whatever, Emile C. Tepperman took over for most of 1937. When Page returned, he alternated with Wayne Rogers, who under the name Archibald Bittner, had once been a pulp editor—until Bittner allegedly absconded to Florida with a Munsey secretary and some loose cash.

 

It took a few years, but eventually Norvell Page reasserted his dominance over his spidery cast and crew. As the 1930s shaded into the ‘40s, the novels cooled somewhat. Reader tastes were shifting, and the old “bang-bang” wild action was growing dated. Page retooled as best he could and branched out to writing classic fantasy novels for Unknown that are still remembered today.

 

Occasionally he moonlighted by ghosting a Phantom Detective novel like Death Glow, or the odd spiderized Black Bat tale. He revived N. Wooten Poge for the salacious  Spicy Detective Stories. Whenever Popular Publications launched an important new title like Detective Tales or Strange Detective Mysteries, they tapped Page to help kick off the first issue.

 

More and more, religious symbolism and mysticism crept into his writing. Richard Wentworth grew more messianic. He had always possessed a strong streak of it, but now it was out in the open, like a case of stigmata. This climaxed in the 100th novel, Death and the Spider, where aided by a Tibetan monk, a bullet-riddled Spider struggled back from the near-dead to rescue the nation on Christmas Eve. On a later occasion, the Master of Men battled to the death the villain of Zara—Master of Murder on a rooftop Manhattan statue of Jesus Christ, called simply the Redeemer of Men.

 

Another writer would have set his climax on the Statue of Liberty and let it go at that. Not Norvell Page. He invented over-the-top melodrama.

 

The Spider began winding down in 1943. Ten years is a long time in the pulp game. Everything had changed. The Depression was a fading ache. The nation faced another World War. Paper shortages were pounding the pulps. When new editor Robert Turner came in, he rewrote Page’s pulpy purple prose into the naturalistic style then in fashion. Page may or may not have cared. His first wife died of tetanus after stepping on a rusty nail that October. It was an end as horrible as anything a Spider villain ever inflicted on a suffering victim. Page fled The Spider, and forever abandoned the familiar pulp jungle of Manhattan for a government position in Washington, writing for the Office of War Information. He never returned to Black Mask, where he was starting to make a major name for himself, never became the next Edgar Allan Poe—and never looked back. He is remembered today as the soul of the Spider.

 

Near the end of his Spider career, Norvell Page wrote one fan: “Think of me as Wentworth, if you will. The line between us is not too distinct….”

 

Perhaps that might be his epitaph.

 

Want more of The Spider? Check out the wonderful Girasol Replicas and Double Novel reprints or thrill to the Spider with Will Murray’s Pulp Classic eBooks and Audiobooks!  The Spider from Radio Archives!

 

by Derrick Ferguson
 

I’ve never so much as read Word One of any novel featuring The Black Bat but I’ve heard and read so much about the character in other pulp oriented mediums that I feel like I do know the character well. The main thing that I always heard about him was that he debuted in pulp magazines so close to Batman’s debut in comic books that there was a brief legal scuffle. Now, after listening to Radio Archives Brand of the Black Bat I can see (or rather, hear) what everybody finds so intriguing about the character.
 
Me, I see him as what might have happened had Marvel’s Matt Murdock character become Batman instead of Daredevil. Crusading Distinct Attorney Tony Quinn is blinded by acid thrown into his face during a crucial courtroom trial. The case falls apart and Quinn quits his job and retires from public life, bitterly resigned to spending his life in darkness. But after about a year he is amazed at how acute his remaining senses have become. He can even walk around his house almost as well as when he was sighted. His explanation to his bodyguard/valet ‘Silk’ Kirby how he can do this sounds a lot like Daredevil’s radar sense to me. And then a true miracle comes along in the form of an operation that restores his sight. Quinn determines to keep the restoration of his sight and his enhanced senses a secret, his objective to use these abilities to fight crime on its own terms. But he’s not going to rely on a batarang or a billy club, oh no. If a pair of .45 automatics are good enough for The Shadow and The Spider then they’re good enough for The Black Bat.
 
Brand of the Black Bat is a pretty solid origin story and I think that for comic book fans, The Black Bat is a good character to start off their education about pulp heroes as The Black Bat is, for all intents and purposes a superhero due to his enhanced senses and his wearing of a definite costume when he’s out at night doing his nemesis of evil thing. And as always, the production qualities of a Radio Archive audiobook are geared totally to ensuring that it’s a thrilling and enjoyable listening experience.
 

 
1 cent Spider eBook!

 
For a limited time you can now download an exciting original Spider adventure for just one thin penny! 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. Their motto? Why “KILL THE SPIDER!” of course.
 
For those who have been unsure about digging into the wonderful world of pulps this is a perfect opportunity 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 download this bargain.
 
All eBooks produced by Radio Archives are available in ePub, Mobi, and PDF formats for the ultimate in compatibility. When you purchase this eBook from RadioArchives.com you receive all three formats in one ZIP file. When you upgrade to a new eReader, you can transfer your Spider novels to your new device without the need to purchase anything new. Use the PDF version when reading on your PC or Mac computer. If you have a Kindle, the Mobi version is what you want. If you have an iPad/iPhone, Android, Sony eReader or Nook, then the ePub version is what you want.

 

 

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 E-Reader! Presenting Pulp Icons such as the Spider and Operator 5 as well as wonderfully obscure characters like Doctor Death and more, Will Murray’s Pulp Classics brings you the best of yesterday’s Pulp today!
 
Five new golden age Pulp tales exquisitely reformatted into visually stunning E-books!

 

Meet the Spider — master of men! More just than the Law… more dangerous than the Underworld. Hated, wanted, feared by both! Alone and desperate, he wages deadly, one-man war against the super-criminal whose long-planned crime-coup will snuff a thousand lives! Can the Spider prevent this slaughter of innocents? Another epic exploit of America’s best-loved pulp-fiction character of the 1930s and 1940s: The Spider — Master of Men! As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction: “Meet the Spider” especially for this series of eBooks.
 
A woman lighted a cigarette, puffed it a few times, and began to scream, to tear her clothes from her body. Her head twisted back between her shoulders and she died a horrible convulsive death-death from tobacco smoke! The lascivious cultist, Deacon Coslin, had seen his mad prophesy fulfilled… for already other smokers, everywhere throughout the land, were dying by tens of thousands! With Richard Wentworth’s beloved Nita in the power of the enemy, facing an unspeakable death; with his faithful servants drugged and out of the battle; with the police hounding hint and the arch-criminal foreseeing every strategy, how can the Spider combat the overwhelming odds aligned against him? How can he save his compatriots from the Red Death Rain — save the land he loves from domination by an ambition-twisted brain? Another epic exploit of America’s best-loved pulp-fiction character of the 1930s and 1940s: The Spider — Master of Men! As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction: “Meet the Spider” especially for this series of eBooks.
 

Chaos, confusion, disintegration fall with swift, breath-taking disaster upon America! Already terrorized by a tottering, unstable world, American men and women are swept into a mad stampede when the great leaders of the nation are spirited away, one by one, to return broken men, useless, inept. Here Jimmy Christopher — Operator 5 — sets forth on his most thrilling and dangerous exploit while the great brains of America surrender to madness and despair; as a leaderless people seethe in revolt against a government which is crumbling before their eyes. How can Operator 5, single-handed, hope to prevail against that dread Master of Broken Men? As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction especially for this series of Operator #5 eBooks.

 
Curt Newton, spacefarer, and the Futuremen take off on the most thrilling treasure-hunt of all time in quest of the Solar System’s greatest prize!
 
Captain Future… the Ace of Space! Born and raised on the moon, Curt Newton survived the murder of his scientist parents to become the protector of the galaxy known as Captain Future. With his Futuremen, Grag the giant robot, Otho, the shape-shifting android and Simon Wright, the Living Brain, he patrols the solar system in the fastest space ship ever constructed, the Comet, pursuing human monsters and alien threats to Earth and her neighbor planets.

 

Follow the Futuremen along a multi-million miles of stellar speedway as they streak around the system in their greatest race for justice!
 
Captain Future… the Ace of Space! Born and raised on the moon, Curt Newton survived the murder of his scientist parents to become the protector of the galaxy known as Captain Future. With his Futuremen, Grag the giant robot, Otho, the shape-shifting android and Simon Wright, the Living Brain, he patrols the solar system in the fastest space ship ever constructed, the Comet, pursuing human monsters and alien threats to Earth and her neighbor planets.
 

When you purchase these beautifully reformatted eBooks from RadioArchives.com you receive all three formats in one ZIP file: PDF for PC or Mac computer; Mobi for Kindle and ePub for iPad/IPhone, Android, Sony eReader, and Nook. When you upgrade to a new eReader, you can transfer your eBook novels 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 and the Barnes and Noble Nook store! The best Pulp eBooks now available for only $2.99 each from Radio Archives!
 
Join the eBook Team!
Radio Archives is seeking motivated, excited people to add to our eBook staff! Will Murray’s Pulp Classics line of eBooks continues to rapidly grow and we are looking to add another person to read the stories and correct any errors.
 
If you have a love for classic Pulp tales as well as a good grasp of spelling and punctuation, then you may be just the person we’re looking for! Send an email inquiry to Service@RadioArchives.com for more details!

 

 

 

The pulp era’s greatest superman returns in classic pulp thrillers by Lester Dent and William Bogart writing as “Kenneth Robeson.” First, the Man of Bronze is summoned to the Oklahoma oil fields to confront the horrific rampage of “The Derrick Devil.” Then, Doc and his aides journey to Lake Erie where a mysterious malady is turning steel workers into “The Spotted Men.” This double-novel collector’s edition features the classic color pulp covers by Robert G. Harris and Emery Clarke, Paul Orban’s classic interior illustrations and historical commentary by Will Murray, writer of nine Doc Savage novels. Priced at only $14.95.
 

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows! Triple Novel Special! The Knight of Darkness combats supercrime in an extra-length volume showcasing tales by each of the pulp wordsmiths who wrote as “Maxwell Grant.” First, in a violent thriller by Theodore Tinsley, The Shadow investigates the murderous machinations of “The Prince of Evil,” a sadistic fiend who delights in torture and human misery. Then, The Shadow enters a series of diabolical deathtraps disguised as a “Messenger of Death” to retrieve a secret formula in a classic mystery by Walter Gibson. Finally, Lamont Cranston tracks down a hidden serial killer in Bruce Elliott’s “Room 1313.” This extra-length collector’s special showcases the original color covers by Graves Gladney and Modest Stein and the original interior illustrations by Edd Cartier and Paul Orban, with historical articles by Will Murray and Rick Lai. Buy it today for $14.95.

 

One of the top crime-fighters from the golden age of pulp fiction, The Spider returns in two thrill-packed adventures written by Norvell Page under the pseudonym of Grant Stockbridge. First, in “The Spider and the Scarlet Surgeon” (1941), With unheard of skill, the Red Surgeon can change a patient into an imbecile… or a genius of crime! Not only can he alter the physical shell, but this mad doctor can even amputate parts of a victim’s personality, even their conscience. And his greatest ambition is to operate on none other than Stanley Kirkpatrick, Nita van Sloan… and the Spider! Then, in “The Spider and the Death Piper” (1942), Weird compelling music lures the inhabitants of Martinsville to suicide! By ones and twos at first, then in a stampede of maddened self-destruction. Even Richard Wentworth, with the iron will of the Spider, felt the irresistible calling of that Devil-tune! Can even the Master of Men prevail against an unearthly power that goads the listener to suicide? 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. Available now for $14.95!
 
 
 
 
 

By John Olsen

 
A new and deadly poison gas has been invented for the United States chemical warfare service. And the ex-partners in the company producing the gas have now become “Partners of Peril.” One by one, they are being murdered. And it’s The Shadow’s job to reveal the source of the peril to those remaining alive!
 
What’s behind it all? Why, a deadly new poison gas, that’s what! The nation that owns this secret will be impregnable in the next war. It will take all the cunning of The Shadow to discover the evil power behind the conspiracy of murder.
The Shadow gets to don a few disguises in this story. He appears as Lamont Cranston, of course. And he glides invisibly through the night in his outfit of black. But he also appears at the chemical plant in two other disguises.
 
Assisting The Shadow here is his trusty contact man Burbank, reporter Clyde Burke and long-time agent Harry Vincent. Other familiar characters in this Shadow novel are Commissioner Ralph Weston and Detective Joe Cardona.
 
This Shadow pulp novel wasn’t written by Walter Gibson. It was written by Theodore Tinsley, who was brought in by the publishers to help assist in the writing chores. The reading public would be none the wiser, since the pen name of Maxwell Grant was still used on all the stories, regardless of the actual author. Tinsley would go on to pen a total of twenty seven Shadow novels until his final one “The Golden Doom” in 1943.  Theodore Tinsley’s stories of The Shadow thrilled readers, who were not even aware that they were reading stories by a different author. All they knew was that they were reading a rip-roaring pulp adventure of their favorite hero. It was a bit edgier and more lurid than the usual Shadow fare, but the action carried readers along and they would rarely stop to examine the writing style.
 
At the end of the story, the master villain lives. Usually, in both Tinsley’s and Gibson’s stories, the bad guy is killed in the final act. This time, he lives and is in police custody. Not a really rare occurrence, but one worthy of note.  One final point of interest. This is the Shadow story that inspired the very first Batman story. You can read all about it in Anthony Tollin’s article “Foreshadowing The Batman” which appears in The Shadow #9 pulp reprint. As Anthony explains in his article, the Batman story was lifted intact from Tinsley’s Shadow story being reviewed here. Interesting reading! This is a fun and pulpy story that I recommend you read. Plenty of death traps, from vats of acid to exploding munitions stores. Plenty of fast and furious action and thrills aplenty in this special Shadow pulp treat. And available now in The Shadow volume 9 for $12.95 from Radio Archives!
 

Comments From Our Customers!
 

David Dymond writes:
The  CD’s  I recently received were very enjoyable–those with Archie and Jughead, Maisie, and Great Gildersleeve delighted me many times over!   Would be nice if you  had more comedies, soaps, dramas, etc. I hope to place another order soon!
 
John Tefteller writes:
There are certain Suspense shows that I just have to have and the Orson Welles “Hitch hiker” is one of those…….I have always considered that to be one of the Top Five BEST of it’s kind. The other two must haves from Suspense for me are “Donovan’s Brain” with Welles and “House In Cypress Canyon” There are a dozen or so others that really stand out. When I saw you had “The Hitch Hiker” I guess I just went nuts, because I ALWAYS wanted a top quality dub of that one. I had one years ago that was about four generations down, but I could never get closer to the original discs. I am going to promote your business to whomever I can and encourage them to buy your products.
 

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.
 
If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, or if this newsletter has been sent to you in error, please reply to this e-mail with the subject line UNSUBSCRIBE and your name will immediately be removed from our mailing list.
 

CLAUDIA, DR. DEATH, DAN FOWLER, AND MORE! A CAST OF GREATS FROM RADIO ARCHIVES!

  • News
  • April 6, 2012

RadioArchives.com Newsletter

 
April 6, 2012
 
 

 
Soap operas popped up early as radio dramas initially became popular. Sponsored largely by soap companies, these shows aimed at a primary audience listening every day, scores of housewives across the country, ready to tune in every day just to see what happened next.
 
In 1947, Claudia debuted and was far more quiet and gentle and down-to-earth than its strife-ridden forbears. Claudia was the tale of Claudia and David Naughton, newlyweds, just beginning their married life. Young, enthusiastic, and very much in love, they weren’t suffering from any medical maladies or suspicions of infidelity. Instead, they were simply facing the many challenges of any new marriage – finding an apartment, getting used to each other’s quirks, and learning to live together on a daily basis.
 
With very few of the “tune in tomorrow” hooks that most soaps used to lure listeners back the next day, people returning to Claudia instead came back for the interesting, fully developed characters, the light-hearted banter between them, and the familiarity of their day-to-day situations. Rather than suffering with or feeling superior to them, the characters were, instead, simply the sort of people you enjoyed spending time with.
 
Radio Archives has restored the entire eighteen-month run of Claudia allowing you to enjoy the complete series on a day-by-day basis. Claudia, Volume 11 is one more piece of a program that will be collected in its entirety that will be a real treasure for radio enthusiasts to enjoy for many years to come. Get Claudia, Volume 11 on Audio CDs for $17.98 from Radio Archives!
 

 
Many shows from the classic age of Radio drama survive only as a handful of episodes or in some cases as pieces of episodes. Claudia, however, exists today in its entirety and is now being presented at the highest restored audio quality possible in multiple volumes by Radio Archives. This show stands out for other reasons, including being a rather unique soap opera.
 
Claudia was based on the literary works of Rose Franken, a writer, novelist, playwright, and theatrical director who had first written about the Naughton’s in the mid-1930s. After becoming a Broadway Play and two successful movies, the radio version tells the tale of Claudia and David Naughton, newlyweds, just beginning their married life. Young, enthusiastic, and very much in love, they weren’t suffering from any medical maladies or suspicions of infidelity. Instead, they were simply facing the many challenges of any new marriage – finding an apartment, getting used to each other’s quirks, and learning to live together every day.
 
Heard today, Claudia remains wonderful entertainment, notable for both its light-hearted tone and the believable interplay between its characters. As seen in this twelfth volume, Claudia matured over the run of the program into a unique mixture of enthusiasm, incompetence and over-confidence — deeply in love with her somewhat older husband David but frequently naive and too likely to trust her insecurities rather than her instincts. Truly a historic program for several reasons, radio enthusiasts will find much to enjoy in Claudia, Volume 12 from Radio Archives for only $17.98 on Audio CDs!
 

by Tommy Hancock

 

Following World War Two, The United States was seen as a protector of the world and a bringer of peace. Even though that proved to be true on the surface, there was still an underlying worry that spies and villains were out to threaten the prosperity that typified the late 1940s and early 1950s. This concern bordering on paranoia proved a fertile field for radio shows. New heroes arose almost daily it seemed, to combat the encroaching threat of evil forces on America. One such hero was Frank Race!
 
The Adventures of Frank Race, Volume 1 spotlights the escapades of Race, a former attorney turned action-seeking investigator after a stint in the O.S.S. during the Second World War. Hungry for excitement beyond the courtroom, Race week after week threw himself into new mysteries, usually focused on some sort of insurance fraud turned dangerous, and sleuthed his way to the solution. Accompanying Race on the cases was Mark Donovan, who began as a raucous New York City cab driver before eventually graduating to more or less be Race’s partner.
 
All of the aspects of a good pulpy tale are in each episode of The Adventures of Frank Race, Volume 1, but this show goes a bit farther than what’s typical. Race is most definitely two fisted and hard boiled when necessary, but he also brings with him a sophistication that few of his radio peers had. Edgy and dark when he had to be, Race also had the ability to blend in with higher society and be diplomatic and even suave when called for. His background in the O.S.S. was also more than just an interesting background piece. That aspect of the character made each tale feel as if it walked that fine line between detective mystery and spy story, adding tremendously to the level of excitement in each episode.
 
Excellent voice talent, interesting stories with at least one fistfight and twist in the plot somewhere along the way, and quirky music to set the mood makes The Adventures of Frank Race a blast to listen to. The blend of classic private detective with the rising fear of Evil threatening Good and a hint of James Bond that definitely shows up in Frank Race makes this an overall hoot for both collectors and casual fans to enjoy. And you can get The Adventures of Frank Race, Volume 1 today for $29.98 from Radio Archives!
 

 
Doctor Death is back for second clash with supernatural detective, Jimmy Holm, and his team. When a Zombi strangles a wealthy and influencial Egyptian in his New York apartment, Holm and Police Inspector Ricks knows it signals that Doctor Death is opening up a strange new front on his sworn war against modern man. Master of many forbidden sciences, servant of Satan, Death—in reality disgraced Yale psychologist Rance Mandarin—has assembled a legion of living dead and unclean elementals to do this wicked bidding. But Death wants more. Much more.
 
The trail of dead and undead alike leads to Egypt, land of a million mystical mysteries. There, lies the tomb of Anubis, the jackal-headed Lord of the Underworld. Thought to have been a god, in reality he was once a wizard. And in his sarcophagus rests the long-lost secret of reanimating an unstoppable new army to do Death’s bidding. For Doctor Death will not rest until he has resurrected all of Egypt’s entombed mummies!
 

Only Jimmy Holm and the strange alliance of power political leaders and Underworld kingpins known collectively as the Secret Twelve possess the will to stand against Death and his Undead things. But to win, Holm must ally himself with the mysterious Egyptian ruler known as Queen Charmion. Can she be trusted? More importantly, how do you defeat a human monster who can implant his soul in the body of any living person at will? Can anyone be trusted if they might be in reality…Doctor Death? Buy the second audiobook of one of our most popular titles for only $17.98 on Audio CDs from Radio Archives.

 

Much as I love Doc Savage, the Shadow, the Spider and the rest of their near-superhuman brethren, I have a special place reserved for Dan Fowler: G-Man. Maybe it’s because I grew up on those great black-and-white gangster movies from the 30’s and 40’s that studios like Warner Brothers, Monogram and Republic Pictures cranked out by the truckloads. One of the things that made these great gangster movies so much fun was that the cops could play as dirty as the crooks since there was no such thing as Miranda or firing warning shots or getting a warrant before kicking down a door. Back in those days, law enforcement was akin to open warfare. Being a big fan of those movies and of the old “The Untouchables” TV show with Robert Stack, listening to “Snatch!” was like revisiting an old friend.
 
Dan Fowler is given the job of combatting The Gray Gang, as vicious a bunch of mugs you never want to run across who have been terrorizing The Midwest. The gang’s latest activities have taken them near the part of that region where Dan was born and raised and where his father is still sheriff. With his partner, the resourceful Larry Kendall by his side, Dan sets out to smash The Gray Gang. His job is made more difficult due to The Gray Gang just having pulled off a kidnapping involving a child. It’s up to Dan to accomplish his task and get the child back safely.
 
Dan Fowler, G-Man In Snatch! Is a good change of pace if you’ve been listening to Radio Archives’ excellent series of audiobooks featuring masked crimefighters and want to switch up. Dan Fowler is a down-to-earth guy doing a down-to-earth job. There’s no bombastic, speech-making super villains here with doomsday devices trying to take over or destroy the world. But that doesn’t mean the story lacks any in suspense or excitement. The excellent voice work by Richard Epcar is just as hard-boiled, gritty and no-nonsense as the story he’s narrating. Another winner from Radio Archives that’s perfect for listening to on a slow Sunday afternoon. After listening to this one, I sincerely hope there’s more Dan Fowler on the way. Buy it today on Audio CDs for only $14.98.
 

 
1 cent Spider eBook!

 
For a limited time you can now download an exciting original Spider adventure for just one thin penny! 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. Their motto? Why “KILL THE SPIDER!” of course.
 
For those who have been unsure about digging into the wonderful world of pulps this is a perfect opportunity 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 download this bargain.
 
All eBooks produced by Radio Archives are available in ePub, Mobi, and PDF formats for the ultimate in compatibility. When you purchase this eBook from RadioArchives.com you receive all three formats in one ZIP file. When you upgrade to a new eReader, you can transfer your Spider novels to your new device without the need to purchase anything new. Use the PDF version when reading on your PC or Mac computer. If you have a Kindle, the Mobi version is what you want. If you have an iPad/iPhone, Android, Sony eReader or Nook, then the ePub version is what you want.

 

 

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 E-Reader! Presenting Pulp Icons such as the Spider and Operator 5 as well as wonderfully obscure characters like Doctor Death and more, Will Murray’s Pulp Classics brings you the best of yesterday’s Pulp today!
 
Five new golden age Pulp tales exquisitely reformatted into visually stunning E-books!

 

Over New York’s Finest — the police organization without equal in the world — fell the blight of lunacy, sweeping on like wildfire until it had turned Manhattan into a chill, whimpering madhouse and released the helpless city’s wealth to a wild carnival of crooks and vandals! What was that incredible, unseen force which, in a split-second, could transform sane men into drooling maniacs? No human being could stand against that Mask of Madness, and yet Richard Wentworth, in the Spider’s strange vestments, took up the fight — to strike blow for blow against the merciless emperor of idiocy who had captured a metropolis by addling its brains! Another epic exploit of America’s best-loved pulp-fiction character of the 1930s and 1940s: The Spider — Master of Men! As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction: “Meet the Spider” especially for this series of eBooks.
 
In the name of Humanity, young Doctor Gilmuir bravely faced execution for a ghastly murder he didn’t commit! And Richard Wentworth, the only man who could save him, must first crush the slaves of the Man in the Red Mask — the master-killer whose nation-wide terror plague was calculated to monopolize all life-giving drugs! The Spider walks through thirty-six breathless, death-strewn hours! Another epic exploit of America’s best-loved pulp-fiction character of the 1930s and 1940s: The Spider — Master of Men! As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction: “Meet the Spider” especially for this series of eBooks.
 

Out of the blue it struck – that dread, mysterious force, dealing death, destruction and misery to millions. America found herself stripped of her strongest defenses as battleships, huge guns, skyscrapers, factories and transportation systems crumbled to dust before the voracious flame. No one could tell where it came from; where it would next strike; no one was safe from its hot, devouring maw. An entire nation stood crippled, paralyzed by panic as Operator 5, alone, fought to save America from the red ruin loosed upon it. As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction especially for this series of Operator #5 eBooks.

 
Follow the quest of Curtis Newton, wizardman of science, as he scours the worlds of tomorrow in the hunt for the greatest interplanetary outlaw of all time! A creeping menace invades the galaxy in a sweep of interplanetary conquest— and Captain Future meets his most powerful enemy… the Space Emperor!
 
Captain Future… the Ace of Space! Born and raised on the moon, Curt Newton survived the murder of his scientist parents to become the protector of the galaxy known as Captain Future. With his Futuremen, Grag the giant robot, Otho, the shape-shifting android and Simon Wright, the Living Brain, he patrols the solar system in the fastest space ship ever constructed, the Comet, pursuing human monsters and alien threats to Earth and her neighbor planets.
 

Curtis Newton, wizard of science, and his trio of Futuremen blaze a trail across the stars to forestall the coup of Dr. Zarro — leader of a legion of peril!
 
Captain Future… the Ace of Space! Born and raised on the moon, Curt Newton survived the murder of his scientist parents to become the protector of the galaxy known as Captain Future. With his Futuremen, Grag the giant robot, Otho, the shape-shifting android and Simon Wright, the Living Brain, he patrols the solar system in the fastest space ship ever constructed, the Comet, pursuing human monsters and alien threats to Earth and her neighbor planets.
 

When you purchase these beautifully reformatted eBooks from RadioArchives.com you receive all three formats in one ZIP file: PDF for PC or Mac computer; Mobi for Kindle and ePub for iPad/IPhone, Android, Sony eReader, and Nook. When you upgrade to a new eReader, you can transfer your eBook novels 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 and the Barnes and Noble Nook store! The best Pulp eBooks now available for only $2.99 each from Radio Archives!
 
Join the eBook Team!
 
Radio Archives is seeking motivated, excited people to add to our eBook staff! Will Murray’s Pulp Classics line of eBooks continues to rapidly grow and we are looking to add two people to read the stories and correct any errors before the eBooks are published.
 
If you have a love for classic Pulp tales as well as a good grasp of spelling, punctuation, capitalization and basic formatting, then you may be just the person we’re looking for! Send an email inquiry to Service@RadioArchives.com for more details! 
 

 

 

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows! The Shadow’s underworld agents Hawkeye and Cliff Marsland take center stage in two thrilling pulp novels by Walter Gibson writing as “Maxwell Grant.” First, what is the strange secret of “The Green Box” that is worth human life? The Shadow seeks the deadly secret in a masterpiece of misdirection that introduced aides Hawkeye and Tapper. Then, the Master of Darkness and his underworld operatives investigate “The Getaway Ring,” a racket that helps mobsters evade capture via a modern-day “underground railway.” BONUS: “The Crawling Death,” a lost thriller scripted by radio Shadow Bret Morrison! This instant collector’s item reprints the classic color cover paintings by George Rozen and Graves Gladney and the original interior illustrations by Tom Lovell and Edd Cartier, with historical articles by Anthony Tollin and Will Murray. Buy it today for $14.95.
 

TRIPLE NOVEL SPECIAL Tarzan’s influence on the Man of Bronze is examined in three action-packed adventures by Lester Dent writing as “Kenneth Robeson.” First, a giant “Dagger in the Sky” materializes from thin air and disappears after bizarre murders, leading Doc Savage to a South American war started by Earth’s wealthiest men. Then, the Man of Bronze is asked to locate an heiress who disappeared into the Brazilian jungles years earlier. Finally, while attempting to license one of Monk’s chemical inventions, Henry Jones comes into possession of “The Monkey Suit” that leads into a strange adventure, narrated in the first person. This triple-novel collector’s edition showcases the original color pulp covers by Emery Clarke and Walter Swenson, the classic interior illustrations by Paul Orban and Edd Cartier and historical commentary by Will Murray, writer of nine Doc Savage novels. Priced at only $14.95.
 

Pulp fiction’s legendary Master of Men returns in two classic novels from the Golden Age of Pulp Fiction, written by Norvell Page under the pseudonym of Grant Stockbridge. First, in “Overlord of the Damned” (October 1935), the Boss unleashes horrible death with his demonic acid guns… with a vat of the same deadly corrosive reserved for those who talk too much! With his beloved Nita van Sloan a hostage to a terrible doom, the Spider faces the soul-tearing prospect of planting the Spider seal on his friend Stanley Kirkpatrick, Commissioner of Police! Then, in “Dictator’s Death Merchants!” (July 1940), The jaws of death gape open when El Crocodilo feasts! With uncanny skill, he forestalls even the Spider’s best attempts to trap him. Striking without mercy, this menace from the past rises anew by demolishing a banking institution each night, in a mad scheme to take control of nothing less than all of America’s finances! This volume is available in two editions and features the original artwork from the October 1935 or the July 1940 edition of “The Spider” magazine. Both versions feature reformatted text and original interior illustrations to accompany each story. Available now for $14.95!
 
 
 
 

By John Olsen

 
Who is The Black Falcon? That’s what the underworld wonders, as it admires the audacity of this master criminal. That’s what the wealthy social class wonders, as it barricades itself seeking safety from the brutal kidnapper. And that’s what the New York police department wonders as it attempts to unmask the strange mastermind behind the high-profile kidnappings.
 
Even his evil minions don’t know his identity. Yet they readily accept his payments, packets of money banded along with a single black feather. The law receives taunting letters from the crime master, affixed with another of those black feathers.
 
The Black Falcon boasts of his ability of kidnap wealthy society members and return them at will. And he makes good upon his boasts! Who will be next? None other than Lamont Cranston! Yes, The Black Falcon has confirmed that Cranston is The Shadow, and determines to kidnap him. The Black Falcon means to eliminate the threat from the black-cloaked avenger!
 
Featured in this classic early story are underworld-agent Cliff Marsland, reporter Clyde Burke and long-time agent Harry Vincent, with Burbank and Rutledge Mann in brief appearances. And representing law and order are Commissioner Weston and Joe Cardona.
 
This story features the appearance of those unique rubber discs. The Shadow uses the concave suction cups to scale the sheer outside wall of a tall apartment house. These strange cups were a popular feature in the early Shadow novels.
 
In these early stories, The Shadow was apparently a bit of an inventor. In this one, Harry Vincent uses a wireless sending set, secreted in the rumble seat of his coupe. The equipment, it is mentioned, was The Shadow’s own invention.
 
Another feature of the early Shadow novels that disappeared after time was The Shadow’s “horror face.” It was suggested that the true face of The Shadow was so horribly disfigured that he always kept it hidden beneath the collar of his cloak and beneath his slouch hat. In later years, the horror face was discarded, but in this novel, however, The Shadow has his horror face, and reveals it to The Black Falcon in the exciting climax of the story.
 
Yes, this is The Shadow at his finest. It’s a thrilling early pulp novel and you can get it and another classic Shadow novel for $12.95 in The Shadow Volume 5 from Radio Archives!

 

Comments From Our Customers!
 

Bob Anderson:
I received your latest newsletter today. Over the years I have sent you many orders for audio productions. I have never been disappointed with the quality of your offerings or the speed with which they reached my mailbox. I’m thankful for what you’ve resurrected. I wish you could find more NIGHTBEAT. Keep up the good work; keep digging!
 
Barney McCasland:
I finished The Green Lama and really enjoyed both stories. As always, Michael McConnohie was great! He really is one of the best
narrators I’ve ever heard. Looking forward to many more audio pulp treats this year.
 
Guy Montgomery:
I’ve enjoyed all your pulp audio books, How about some more Doc Savage audiobooks.

 

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.
 
If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, or if this newsletter has been sent to you in error, please reply to this e-mail with the subject line UNSUBSCRIBE and your name will immediately be removed from our mailing list.
 

COMEDY, DRAMA, AND PULP, PULP, PULP! ALL FROM RADIO ARCHIVES!

  • News
  • March 10, 2012

March 9, 2012
NEW Radio Set: Fibber McGee and Molly – The Lost Episodes, Volume 14

What makes classic radio comedy? The best comedy writing perhaps for any radio program in history. Memorable, lovable characters. The banter and jokes that people all across the country tuned in for every week. And the best possible leads for a show about an endearing, quirky couple living in small town America. That is why listeners still become fans today of ‘Fibber McGee and Molly.”

It’s not surprising, then, that “Fibber McGee and Molly” enjoyed one of the most successful runs in radio history, being heard on the air in one form or another for nearly twenty-five years. It’s also not surprising that today, over fifty years after they made their last appearance as a team, Jim and Marion Jordan remain a part of our culture; people of a certain age still say “Tain’t funny, McGee” when someone’s joke falls flat and many of the character types used so well on this show still populate Comedy shows today.

For many years, radio enthusiasts and the general public have been enjoying the antics of Fibber and Molly thanks to the generous recording library left by the Johnson’s Wax Company, the long-time sponsor of the series. To add to these programs, RadioArchives.com has acquired many classic episodes of their later fifteen-minute daily series for NBC and has been releasing them in a series of popular compact disc collections – hilarious adventures that literally haven’t been heard since they were first aired in the mid-1950s. Featuring the Jordans, along with neighbors like Wallace Wimple, the Old Timer, and Doc Gamble, played by Bill Thompson and Arthur Q. Bryan, the newly-discovered shows in these collections are just as warm and entertaining today as they were more than fifty years ago.

Providing great laughs and stories until the end, Fibber McGee and Molly – The Lost Episodes, Volume 14 is the final volume in this fantastic series. Transferred from the original NBC master recordings and fully restored for sparkling audio fidelity, enjoy twenty one full length broadcasts, a total of five hours, of hilarity and hijinks for only $14.98 for Audio CDs.

Special note about this fantastic collection. The last show in this set is the very last Fibber McGee and Molly show ever broadcast. Although short pieces would be done for a few more years on Monitor, the final episode in this collection was the last time Fibber McGee and Molly had their own stage to share their magic with the world.


The Soap Opera as we know it today is not much different than when it began back in the golden age of Radio. The only real difference between then and now is that shows are no longer sponsored by soap companies, hence the name originally attached to these episodic programs full of villains, passion, twists and turns, scandal and rumor and murderous melodrama. In 1947, however, a show that broke the mold and still stands out as a unique example of the soap opera hit the airwaves thanks to the sponsorship of Coca Cola. And this new take on soap operas had a name. Claudia.
The very elements that made Claudia different from other soap operas quickly became its strengths. People came back to “Claudia” for the interesting, fully developed characters, the lighthearted banter, and the familiarity of their day-to-day situations. Given this, most modern listeners view “Claudia” as a continuing daytime situation comedy, rather than as a soap opera — and enjoy it immensely.

The title character and her husband are the best part of the show. Claudia, a bit younger than her years, is often impulsive, sometimes irresponsible, usually perky, and just a bit flighty. Her father had died when she was still a young girl and, as an only child, had been raised by her widowed mother. As she matures, she becomes a unique mixture of enthusiasm, incompetence and over-confidence — deeply in love with her somewhat older husband David, but frequently naive and too likely to trust in her insecurities rather than her instincts. Claudia’s loving and patient husband David came from a substantial family and he had trained to be an architect until World War II interrupted his plans. Like many a returning veteran, he’s working to get ahead in his field, but he sometimes questions whether he’s chosen the right career path.
Claudia, Volume 10 continues the story of Claudia and David restored to the highest audio quality possible, showing not only the success of the program, but also the level of writing involved. Clearly the characters, especially the two leads, grow and mature over the course of the series, as clearly heard in this latest volume now available from Radio Archives on Audio CDs for $17.98.

An exotic locale, an ancient city thrust into modern times surrounded by a mysterious desert. People of all types and nationalities, as mysterious as their surroundings and usually running to or away from something. A bar, its smoke filled liquor heavy air stirred by patrons crowding in to drown sorrows or make mischief. And at his own private table in the establishment, the bar’s owner, a man of intrigue himself who always ends up knee deep in danger.
For many Classic Movie fans, that description fits the legendary film “Casablanca” like Dooley Wilson fits a piano. It also applies to a wonderfully exciting radio show that has proven to be popular among collectors today, in part because so many episodes have survived. Rocky Jordan, Volume 1 definitely bears resemblance to the better known classic film on the surface, but really it stands on its own merits, owing more to the Pulp Detective shows and tales of the time than to a film making a not so veiled political statement.
Rocky Jordan, Volume 1 features well known radio character actor Jack Moyles in the title role. Having left the States for reasons never fully revealed, Jordan now owns the Café Tambourine, a nightclub in Cairo that everyone seems to want to buy, hide in, steal from, or die within its walls. And each time, Jordan ends up involved, accused, pursued, or otherwise with his neck in a proverbial noose. Helped or sometimes chased by Captain Sam Sabaaya of the Police, Jordan ends up hard boiling his way through the mystery and mayhem just as each episode comes to a close.
General similarities aside, “Rocky Jordan” is much more Philip Marlowe or Michael Shayne if they happened to own a bar in Egypt that it is ‘Casablanca’. Tough as nails and twice as sharp, Jordan takes no guff off anyone, but Moyles brings a necessary duality to his portrayal of Rocky, making him a guy who can throw his fists like wildfire, yet still give a plug nickel about the common joe. The stories are strong, well paced and tightly plotted tales, guaranteed to excite and wow in the short time given.

In the flood of pulp magazines featuring the hard-hitting exploits of a single hero, only one magazine read as if its stories had been torn out of the headlines. That was G-Men, starring the closest equivalent to Eliot Ness and his Untouchables the pulps dared offer up.
The origins of this exemplary series are obscure. Leo Margulies, editor-in-chief of the Thrilling chain, may have been eyeing rival titles such as Secret Service Operator #5 and Secret Agent X, thinking there’s gold in fictionalizing the exploits of undercover men. Early in 1935, Margulies let it be known in the trade that he was planning to issue Secret Service Detective Stories—a bland and uninspiring title if one was ever floated.
But Secret Service Detective Stories never materialized. In April, James Cagney starred in a blockbuster film, G Men.  That July, a radio program by that same name debuted to strong ratings. It later became even more famous as Gang Busters. Pulp editors always looked to Hollywood and the headlines for inspiration. Margulies didn’t need to be hit over the head.  He scrapped the Secret Service concept and appropriated the popular title, which had been coined by gangster George “Machine Gun” Kelly when, after being surrounded by armed F.B.I. agents in 1933, threw up his hands and cried, “Don’t shoot, G-Men! Don’t shoot, G-Men!” Or so the legend goes. G-Man stood for Government Men, specifically F.B.I. agents.
These were the days of iron-fisted Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover battling back the gangster tide that was overrunning major cities all across America. Seeing the local law-enforcement was outnumbered and outgunned—if not compromised—by organized crime he reorganized the old Bureau of Investigation into America’s first national police force—sanctioned to cross state lines in the pursuit of justice. In the pulps, the urban menace of mobster crime had given rise to The Shadow and all the superhuman crime-fighters who followed.
Five years into this ever-shifting reality, Margulies and his editors must have decided the reading public was ready for a crime-crusher who didn’t wear a black cape or a weird mask, and who operated within the law. They were ready for the real deal.
So they created Special Agent Daniel Fowler. Young but hardened, the product of the FBI’s new scientific investigation methods, Fowler and his aides, Larry Kendal and Sally Vane, formed a special roving unit of the Bureau, willing and able to rush to any state in the Union to combat counterfeiters, extortionists and sundry foreign spies.
To write the exploits of such a non-nonsense hero, they understood that they needed a writer of a different cut than the boys who were grinding out The Phantom Detective every month. Maybe they tried a few of their Phantom authors and they flopped. In any case, they called in George Fielding Eliot, a former major in U. S. intelligence.
Titled after an underworld slang term for kidnapping, with the Lindbergh baby kidnapping fresh in the public consciousness, and inspired by the notorious Purple Gang, the premier exploit of Dan Fowler and his team was called Snatch! It was an instant success among readers who had been reading daily newspaper accounts of the F. B. I.’s successful crusade against John Dillinger and “Baby Face” Nelson, and other otherwise-unstoppable Public Enemies. Their bodies were fast piling up—filled with government lead, with no sign of The Shadow or the Spider anywhere in real life.
Seared by crime, trained by Hoover, and motivated by a stern sense of justice, Special Agent Fowler went on to a long and successful career spanning nearly two decades, and a single 1937 film, Federal Bullets. Only the death of the pulp magazine industry put an end to his fame.
In order to do justice to this riveting hero, we’ve recruited the impeccable-voiced Richard Epcar to narrate Snatch! If you like Richard’s hard-hitting performance as much as we do, expect to hear a big announcement regarding Richard Epcar and Radio Archives next month. We can’t wait!
Available for only $14.98 on Audio CDs, 5 Hours of G-Man Action from Will Murray’s Pulp Classics and Radio Archives!

Part of my love of Classic Pulp heroes stems from their method of operating.  Unlike most modern heroes of today who are content with simply picking up a gun and blasting away at the bad guys until there’s nobody left alive to blast, those Classic Pulp heroes were on a whole other level.  There’s more thought and planning going into their war on evildoers and indeed, for being good guys they had to be far more devious than the bad guys in order to succeed.  Many of the Classic Pulp guys could have become quite formidable supercriminals in their own right if they had decided to go over to the Dark Side.  Take Secret Agent “X” for instance.
Here’s a guy who’s true identity isn’t known to anybody.  Not even his operatives.  There’s a great moment in The Torture Trust where X identifies himself to his main girl Betty Dale by writing the letter ‘X’ on one of her apartment walls in glow-in-the-dark ink.  That’s because every time he shows up to bring Betty into a new case, he looks like a different man.  Secret Agent “X” gets his money from a consortium of millionaires who just dump money into a secret bank account and trust him to do the right thing with it.  Lotta people take this guy X on a lotta faith, if you ask me.
But my paranoia has nothing to do with the sheer exuberant fun of listening to The Torture Trust and a large part of that is the exuberant fun of X himself.  He truly delights in his outwitting his enemies at every turn and escaping the police by just thatmuch.  Before this, I didn’t know that much about Secret Agent X and listening to The Torture Trust is a wonderful introduction to the character and his world. 
As usual, the voice work is excellent.  Radio Archives obviously doesn’t pinch pennies when it comes to acquiring vocal talent for their audiobooks.  I usually go to bed at night intending to listen to just two or three chapters of an audiobook before going to sleep but usually end up listening to the whole thing, so compelling is the voice I’m listening to and so well communicates the energy and excitement of the story.  By all means, give Secret Agent “X” – The Torture Trust a listen. Five hours on Audio CDs for only $14.98 from Radio Archives!

The Best Pulp From Yesterday for Your Digital Reader Today! Radio Archives guarantees that is what you will get with Will Murray’s Pulp Classics line of eBooks!
Find the greatest heroes and best action in these five new exquisitely reformatted classic tales!

Never before had any criminal dared give open challenge to the Spider! Until now. And while they fought — the Spider and the Fly — a new and fearless criminal army was flocking to the dark banner of that gentlemanly killer whose battle cry was “Kill the Spider — and the world is ours!” As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction: “Meet the Spider” especially for this series of eBooks.
“When your people need you most… When Death walks the earth like a man…” spoke Mar-lar-delan, Richard Wentworth’s counsellor in the ancient mysticism of the East, “… in that hour, my son — you will die!” That black hour had come. In such a crisis, the Spider undertakes what may be his last foray! As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction: “Meet the Spider” especially for this series of eBooks.

Doomed to darkness by a murder monger, the Black Bat makes darkness his weapon — and a Mysterious Avenger is born! The foul, ruthless rule of a Lord of Crime, striking terror to a city, calls for the daring and swift justice of Tony Quinn. The Black Bat was the featured story in Black Book Detective magazine beginning in July of 1939, and running through 1953. Blinded former District Attorney Anthony Quinn was the costumed crusader who regained his sight to an amazing extent: he could now see in the dark. With super hearing, an enanced sense of touch and smell, he battled the dark underbelly of crimedom. Around him he gathered a small band of aides, Carol Baldwin, daughter of a small-town policeman, Butch O’Leary, none too bright, but a staunch battler, and Silk Kirby, an ex-crook, now Quinn’s valet.


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! As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction especially for this series of Operator #5 eBooks.

Men with skulls for faces — these were the victims of that terrible trio who met in a hidden room. And Secret Agent “X” went against them, daring the bottled torment of their deaf-mute slaves, in a desperate battle of wits at the gateway of destruction! From 1934 to 1939 America thrilled to the adventures of Secret Agent “X” — the “man of a thousand faces” — as he battled futuristic weapons and mad scientists. The true identity of Secret Agent “X” was never revealed. He used his mastery of disguise to work undercover for the U.S. government. With his aide, newspaper reporter Betty Dale, and his secretive government handler K-9, he battled weird and fantastical threats to America for forty-one amazing issues.
When you purchase these beautifully reformatted eBooks from RadioArchives.com you receive all three formats in one ZIP file: PDF for PC or Mac computer; Mobi for Kindle and ePub for iPad/IPhone, Android, Sony eReader, and Nook. When you upgrade to a new eReader, you can transfer your eBook novels to your new device without the need to purchase anything new.
All Radio Archives eBooks are in the Kindle Store and coming very soon to the iBook Store!

Will Murray’s Pulp Classics eBooks are $2.99 each from Radio Archives!

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows! The pulp era’s greatest crimebuster journeys to Maine on golden quests in two thrilling pulp novels by Walter Gibson writing as “Maxwell Grant.” First, The Shadow and G-man Vic Marquette hunt enemy agents sabotaging maritime shipping from a mysterious Castle of Crime. Then, a sea captain’s dying words lead to serial slayings along the long-buried trail to a Dead Man’s Chest and Cuban gold! This instant collector’s item reprints the classic color cover paintings by George Rozen and Graves Gladney and the original interior illustrations by Edd Cartier and Paul Orban, with historical commentary by Will Murray. Yours for only $14.95!
The pulp era’s greatest superman returns in classic pulp thrillers by Laurence Donovan and Lester Dent writing as “Kenneth Robeson.” First, Doc and Patricia Savage attempt to discover the secret behind the baffling series of “black spot murders” that confounds the law. Then, an auction gallery bidding war leads to the abduction of Monk Mayfair. Can the Man of Bronze uncover the sinister secret of The Terrible Stork in time to save his right-hand aide? This special collectors edition showcases the original color pulp covers by Walter M. Baumhofer and Modest Stein, Paul Orban’s classic interior illustrations and a behind-the-scenes article by Will Murray, writer of nine Doc Savage novels. Yours for only $14.95!
The double life of Police Commissioner James Gordon is explored in a pair of two-fisted thrillers that inspired classic Batman stories! First, The Whisperer goes undercover to close down a “School for Murder” that prepares teenagers for criminal careers! Then, Wildcat Gordon investigates corruption in the trucking industry in “Murder on the Line.” BONUS: an adventure of Norgil the Magician by The Shadow’s Maxwell Grant! This historic collector’s item showcases both original color pulp covers by Spider artist John Newton Howitt, classic interior illustrations by Paul Orban and golden-age great Creig Flessel, and historical commentary by Will Murray and Anthony Tollin. Now at Radio Archives for $14.95!
Pulp fiction’s legendary Master of Men returns in two classic novels from the Golden Age of Pulp Fiction, written by Norvell Page under the pseudonym of Grant Stockbridge. First, in “Overlord of the Damned” (October 1935), the Boss unleashes horrible death with his demonic acid guns… with a vat of the same deadly corrosive reserved for those who talk too much! With his beloved Nita van Sloan a hostage to a terrible doom, the Spider faces the soul-tearing prospect of planting the Spider seal on his friend Stanley Kirkpatrick, Commissioner of Police! Then, in “Dictator’s Death Merchants!” (July 1940), The jaws of death gape open when El Crocodilo feasts! With uncanny skill, he forestalls even the Spider’s best attempts to trap him. Striking without mercy, this menace from the past rises anew by demolishing a banking institution each night, in a mad scheme to take control of nothing less than all of America’s finances! This volume is available in two editions and features the original artwork from the October 1935 or the July 1940 edition of “The Spider” magazine. Both versions feature reformatted text and original interior illustrations to accompany each story. Available now for $14.95!

By John Olsen

Castle of Doom was originally published in the January 15, 1936 issue of The Shadow Magazine. Now we’re talking! To me, this is what The Shadow is all about. Stealthily stalking through the night, he uncovers strange plottings in an old English castle. Secret passages, ghostly visitations, hidden treasure. Only The Shadow can unravel the secrets of the Castle of Doom!
The Shadow travels to London, England. Tales of crime have crossed the seas to Manhattan, where The Shadow hears of the swift, mysterious crime wave. The theft of gold, jewels, jade, tapestries and much more. Valuables worth a million and a half dollars. Along with the thefts, also murder; two and counting. So, disguised as Lamont Cranston, The Shadow makes a prompt trip to the British capital.
The strange tale gradually unwinds set against a backdrop of a three-hundred-year-old castle sitting high on a cliff overlooking the raging ocean on the rural English coast.  It’s an amazingly intricate story that’s a real joy to read.
This is The Shadow as he is meant to be read about. He is at his full power, with stealth abilities bordering on invisibility. He spends nearly the entire story in the background, skulking about in the dark of night. He appears only occasionally in disguise; he prefers his black cloak and slouch hat. He only rarely needs the assistance of his agent, Harry Vincent. And his mastery of languages now includes the Afghan language, as well as so many others.
We see The Shadow with his portable make-up kit, that small flat box which he uses to manipulate his waxlike features. He only appears briefly as Lamont Cranston. And similarly makes brief appearances as a rustic farmer in one scene, and as Professor Roderick Danglar, of Cambridge, in two others. No one sees any similarity between the three characters, so effective is his skill at disguise.
But it’s as his black-garbed true self that he spends most of his time, here. As he slides across the wide green lawns at midnight, he appears as a flickering shadow cast by the fringe of trees surrounding the estate.
This is one Shadow pulp mystery that I can recommend unconditionally. Mystery and intrigue abound in this atmospheric adventure. Set among ancient underground passages, hidden rooms, secret chambers, spiral staircases, spy rooms and mysterious vaults filled with flapping bats, this story weaves a tale of strange murder! It all makes for a story not to be missed! And You can enjoy “Castle of Doom” and another great Shadow tale in The Shadow, Volume 8 for only $12.95 from Radio Archives!
Comments From Our Customers!
Shaun Pettit:
I ordered “The Whistler – Volume 1” and it is great…The sound quality is superb! I hope to order “The Whistler Vol. 2” real soon!! Thanks to everyone at Radio Archives for the excellent products and customer service.
Ernest Spellmeyer:
Thank you for your prompt response and the quality of your products. I look forward to doing business with you in the future.
Michael Johnson:
Love these pulp reprint books. Thanks!
Clay Carter:
A great story on Jack Benny.  My dad got us interested in Jack’s show when we first listened to him on radio and of course followed by TV.
Dennis Roy:
I’ve recently become interested in your “Will Murray’s Pulp Classics” Audiobooks, after getting the first couple of Doc Savage CD sets. Let me commend you on the selection of pulp stories you have produced thus far.
Allen Hickerson:
LOVED the Spider audiobook! Is there a new one coming out soon?
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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What makes classic radio comedy? The best comedy writing perhaps for any radio program in history. Memorable, lovable characters. The banter and jokes that people all across the country tuned in for every week. And the best possible leads for a show about an endearing, quirky couple living in small town America. That is why listeners still become fans today of ‘Fibber McGee and Molly.”

It’s not surprising, then, that “Fibber McGee and Molly” enjoyed one of the most successful runs in radio history, being heard on the air in one form or another for nearly twenty-five years. It’s also not surprising that today, over fifty years after they made their last appearance as a team, Jim and Marion Jordan remain a part of our culture; people of a certain age still say “Tain’t funny, McGee” when someone’s joke falls flat and many of the character types used so well on this show still populate Comedy shows today.

For many years, radio enthusiasts and the general public have been enjoying the antics of Fibber and Molly thanks to the generous recording library left by the Johnson’s Wax Company, the long-time sponsor of the series. To add to these programs, RadioArchives.com has acquired many classic episodes of their later fifteen-minute daily series for NBC and has been releasing them in a series of popular compact disc collections – hilarious adventures that literally haven’t been heard since they were first aired in the mid-1950s. Featuring the Jordans, along with neighbors like Wallace Wimple, the Old Timer, and Doc Gamble, played by Bill Thompson and Arthur Q. Bryan, the newly-discovered shows in these collections are just as warm and entertaining today as they were more than fifty years ago.

Providing great laughs and stories until the end, Fibber McGee and Molly – The Lost Episodes, Volume 14 is the final volume in this fantastic series. Transferred from the original NBC master recordings and fully restored for sparkling audio fidelity, enjoy twenty one full length broadcasts, a total of five hours, of hilarity and hijinks for only $14.98 for Audio CDs.

Special note about this fantastic collection. The last show in this set is the very last Fibber McGee and Molly show ever broadcast. Although short pieces would be done for a few more years on Monitor, the final episode in this collection was the last time Fibber McGee and Molly had their own stage to share their magic with the world.


The Soap Opera as we know it today is not much different than when it began back in the golden age of Radio. The only real difference between then and now is that shows are no longer sponsored by soap companies, hence the name originally attached to these episodic programs full of villains, passion, twists and turns, scandal and rumor and murderous melodrama. In 1947, however, a show that broke the mold and still stands out as a unique example of the soap opera hit the airwaves thanks to the sponsorship of Coca Cola. And this new take on soap operas had a name. Claudia.
The very elements that made Claudia different from other soap operas quickly became its strengths. People came back to “Claudia” for the interesting, fully developed characters, the lighthearted banter, and the familiarity of their day-to-day situations. Given this, most modern listeners view “Claudia” as a continuing daytime situation comedy, rather than as a soap opera — and enjoy it immensely.

The title character and her husband are the best part of the show. Claudia, a bit younger than her years, is often impulsive, sometimes irresponsible, usually perky, and just a bit flighty. Her father had died when she was still a young girl and, as an only child, had been raised by her widowed mother. As she matures, she becomes a unique mixture of enthusiasm, incompetence and over-confidence — deeply in love with her somewhat older husband David, but frequently naive and too likely to trust in her insecurities rather than her instincts. Claudia’s loving and patient husband David came from a substantial family and he had trained to be an architect until World War II interrupted his plans. Like many a returning veteran, he’s working to get ahead in his field, but he sometimes questions whether he’s chosen the right career path.
Claudia, Volume 10 continues the story of Claudia and David restored to the highest audio quality possible, showing not only the success of the program, but also the level of writing involved. Clearly the characters, especially the two leads, grow and mature over the course of the series, as clearly heard in this latest volume now available from Radio Archives on Audio CDs for $17.98.

An exotic locale, an ancient city thrust into modern times surrounded by a mysterious desert. People of all types and nationalities, as mysterious as their surroundings and usually running to or away from something. A bar, its smoke filled liquor heavy air stirred by patrons crowding in to drown sorrows or make mischief. And at his own private table in the establishment, the bar’s owner, a man of intrigue himself who always ends up knee deep in danger.
For many Classic Movie fans, that description fits the legendary film “Casablanca” like Dooley Wilson fits a piano. It also applies to a wonderfully exciting radio show that has proven to be popular among collectors today, in part because so many episodes have survived. Rocky Jordan, Volume 1 definitely bears resemblance to the better known classic film on the surface, but really it stands on its own merits, owing more to the Pulp Detective shows and tales of the time than to a film making a not so veiled political statement.
Rocky Jordan, Volume 1 features well known radio character actor Jack Moyles in the title role. Having left the States for reasons never fully revealed, Jordan now owns the Café Tambourine, a nightclub in Cairo that everyone seems to want to buy, hide in, steal from, or die within its walls. And each time, Jordan ends up involved, accused, pursued, or otherwise with his neck in a proverbial noose. Helped or sometimes chased by Captain Sam Sabaaya of the Police, Jordan ends up hard boiling his way through the mystery and mayhem just as each episode comes to a close.
General similarities aside, “Rocky Jordan” is much more Philip Marlowe or Michael Shayne if they happened to own a bar in Egypt that it is ‘Casablanca’. Tough as nails and twice as sharp, Jordan takes no guff off anyone, but Moyles brings a necessary duality to his portrayal of Rocky, making him a guy who can throw his fists like wildfire, yet still give a plug nickel about the common joe. The stories are strong, well paced and tightly plotted tales, guaranteed to excite and wow in the short time given.

In the flood of pulp magazines featuring the hard-hitting exploits of a single hero, only one magazine read as if its stories had been torn out of the headlines. That was G-Men, starring the closest equivalent to Eliot Ness and his Untouchables the pulps dared offer up.
The origins of this exemplary series are obscure. Leo Margulies, editor-in-chief of the Thrilling chain, may have been eyeing rival titles such as Secret Service Operator #5 and Secret Agent X, thinking there’s gold in fictionalizing the exploits of undercover men. Early in 1935, Margulies let it be known in the trade that he was planning to issue Secret Service Detective Stories—a bland and uninspiring title if one was ever floated.
But Secret Service Detective Stories never materialized. In April, James Cagney starred in a blockbuster film, G Men.  That July, a radio program by that same name debuted to strong ratings. It later became even more famous as Gang Busters. Pulp editors always looked to Hollywood and the headlines for inspiration. Margulies didn’t need to be hit over the head.  He scrapped the Secret Service concept and appropriated the popular title, which had been coined by gangster George “Machine Gun” Kelly when, after being surrounded by armed F.B.I. agents in 1933, threw up his hands and cried, “Don’t shoot, G-Men! Don’t shoot, G-Men!” Or so the legend goes. G-Man stood for Government Men, specifically F.B.I. agents.
These were the days of iron-fisted Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover battling back the gangster tide that was overrunning major cities all across America. Seeing the local law-enforcement was outnumbered and outgunned—if not compromised—by organized crime he reorganized the old Bureau of Investigation into America’s first national police force—sanctioned to cross state lines in the pursuit of justice. In the pulps, the urban menace of mobster crime had given rise to The Shadow and all the superhuman crime-fighters who followed.
Five years into this ever-shifting reality, Margulies and his editors must have decided the reading public was ready for a crime-crusher who didn’t wear a black cape or a weird mask, and who operated within the law. They were ready for the real deal.
So they created Special Agent Daniel Fowler. Young but hardened, the product of the FBI’s new scientific investigation methods, Fowler and his aides, Larry Kendal and Sally Vane, formed a special roving unit of the Bureau, willing and able to rush to any state in the Union to combat counterfeiters, extortionists and sundry foreign spies.
To write the exploits of such a non-nonsense hero, they understood that they needed a writer of a different cut than the boys who were grinding out The Phantom Detective every month. Maybe they tried a few of their Phantom authors and they flopped. In any case, they called in George Fielding Eliot, a former major in U. S. intelligence.
Titled after an underworld slang term for kidnapping, with the Lindbergh baby kidnapping fresh in the public consciousness, and inspired by the notorious Purple Gang, the premier exploit of Dan Fowler and his team was called Snatch! It was an instant success among readers who had been reading daily newspaper accounts of the F. B. I.’s successful crusade against John Dillinger and “Baby Face” Nelson, and other otherwise-unstoppable Public Enemies. Their bodies were fast piling up—filled with government lead, with no sign of The Shadow or the Spider anywhere in real life.
Seared by crime, trained by Hoover, and motivated by a stern sense of justice, Special Agent Fowler went on to a long and successful career spanning nearly two decades, and a single 1937 film, Federal Bullets. Only the death of the pulp magazine industry put an end to his fame.
In order to do justice to this riveting hero, we’ve recruited the impeccable-voiced Richard Epcar to narrate Snatch! If you like Richard’s hard-hitting performance as much as we do, expect to hear a big announcement regarding Richard Epcar and Radio Archives next month. We can’t wait!
Available for only $14.98 on Audio CDs, 5 Hours of G-Man Action from Will Murray’s Pulp Classics and Radio Archives!

Part of my love of Classic Pulp heroes stems from their method of operating.  Unlike most modern heroes of today who are content with simply picking up a gun and blasting away at the bad guys until there’s nobody left alive to blast, those Classic Pulp heroes were on a whole other level.  There’s more thought and planning going into their war on evildoers and indeed, for being good guys they had to be far more devious than the bad guys in order to succeed.  Many of the Classic Pulp guys could have become quite formidable supercriminals in their own right if they had decided to go over to the Dark Side.  Take Secret Agent “X” for instance.
Here’s a guy who’s true identity isn’t known to anybody.  Not even his operatives.  There’s a great moment in The Torture Trust where X identifies himself to his main girl Betty Dale by writing the letter ‘X’ on one of her apartment walls in glow-in-the-dark ink.  That’s because every time he shows up to bring Betty into a new case, he looks like a different man.  Secret Agent “X” gets his money from a consortium of millionaires who just dump money into a secret bank account and trust him to do the right thing with it.  Lotta people take this guy X on a lotta faith, if you ask me.
But my paranoia has nothing to do with the sheer exuberant fun of listening to The Torture Trust and a large part of that is the exuberant fun of X himself.  He truly delights in his outwitting his enemies at every turn and escaping the police by just thatmuch.  Before this, I didn’t know that much about Secret Agent X and listening to The Torture Trust is a wonderful introduction to the character and his world. 
As usual, the voice work is excellent.  Radio Archives obviously doesn’t pinch pennies when it comes to acquiring vocal talent for their audiobooks.  I usually go to bed at night intending to listen to just two or three chapters of an audiobook before going to sleep but usually end up listening to the whole thing, so compelling is the voice I’m listening to and so well communicates the energy and excitement of the story.  By all means, give Secret Agent “X” – The Torture Trust a listen. Five hours on Audio CDs for only $14.98 from Radio Archives!

The Best Pulp From Yesterday for Your Digital Reader Today! Radio Archives guarantees that is what you will get with Will Murray’s Pulp Classics line of eBooks!
Find the greatest heroes and best action in these five new exquisitely reformatted classic tales!

Never before had any criminal dared give open challenge to the Spider! Until now. And while they fought — the Spider and the Fly — a new and fearless criminal army was flocking to the dark banner of that gentlemanly killer whose battle cry was “Kill the Spider — and the world is ours!” As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction: “Meet the Spider” especially for this series of eBooks.
“When your people need you most… When Death walks the earth like a man…” spoke Mar-lar-delan, Richard Wentworth’s counsellor in the ancient mysticism of the East, “… in that hour, my son — you will die!” That black hour had come. In such a crisis, the Spider undertakes what may be his last foray! As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction: “Meet the Spider” especially for this series of eBooks.

Doomed to darkness by a murder monger, the Black Bat makes darkness his weapon — and a Mysterious Avenger is born! The foul, ruthless rule of a Lord of Crime, striking terror to a city, calls for the daring and swift justice of Tony Quinn. The Black Bat was the featured story in Black Book Detective magazine beginning in July of 1939, and running through 1953. Blinded former District Attorney Anthony Quinn was the costumed crusader who regained his sight to an amazing extent: he could now see in the dark. With super hearing, an enanced sense of touch and smell, he battled the dark underbelly of crimedom. Around him he gathered a small band of aides, Carol Baldwin, daughter of a small-town policeman, Butch O’Leary, none too bright, but a staunch battler, and Silk Kirby, an ex-crook, now Quinn’s valet.


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! As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction especially for this series of Operator #5 eBooks.

Men with skulls for faces — these were the victims of that terrible trio who met in a hidden room. And Secret Agent “X” went against them, daring the bottled torment of their deaf-mute slaves, in a desperate battle of wits at the gateway of destruction! From 1934 to 1939 America thrilled to the adventures of Secret Agent “X” — the “man of a thousand faces” — as he battled futuristic weapons and mad scientists. The true identity of Secret Agent “X” was never revealed. He used his mastery of disguise to work undercover for the U.S. government. With his aide, newspaper reporter Betty Dale, and his secretive government handler K-9, he battled weird and fantastical threats to America for forty-one amazing issues.
When you purchase these beautifully reformatted eBooks from RadioArchives.com you receive all three formats in one ZIP file: PDF for PC or Mac computer; Mobi for Kindle and ePub for iPad/IPhone, Android, Sony eReader, and Nook. When you upgrade to a new eReader, you can transfer your eBook novels to your new device without the need to purchase anything new.
All Radio Archives eBooks are in the Kindle Store and coming very soon to the iBook Store!

Will Murray’s Pulp Classics eBooks are $2.99 each from Radio Archives!

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows! The pulp era’s greatest crimebuster journeys to Maine on golden quests in two thrilling pulp novels by Walter Gibson writing as “Maxwell Grant.” First, The Shadow and G-man Vic Marquette hunt enemy agents sabotaging maritime shipping from a mysterious Castle of Crime. Then, a sea captain’s dying words lead to serial slayings along the long-buried trail to a Dead Man’s Chest and Cuban gold! This instant collector’s item reprints the classic color cover paintings by George Rozen and Graves Gladney and the original interior illustrations by Edd Cartier and Paul Orban, with historical commentary by Will Murray. Yours for only $14.95!
The pulp era’s greatest superman returns in classic pulp thrillers by Laurence Donovan and Lester Dent writing as “Kenneth Robeson.” First, Doc and Patricia Savage attempt to discover the secret behind the baffling series of “black spot murders” that confounds the law. Then, an auction gallery bidding war leads to the abduction of Monk Mayfair. Can the Man of Bronze uncover the sinister secret of The Terrible Stork in time to save his right-hand aide? This special collectors edition showcases the original color pulp covers by Walter M. Baumhofer and Modest Stein, Paul Orban’s classic interior illustrations and a behind-the-scenes article by Will Murray, writer of nine Doc Savage novels. Yours for only $14.95!
The double life of Police Commissioner James Gordon is explored in a pair of two-fisted thrillers that inspired classic Batman stories! First, The Whisperer goes undercover to close down a “School for Murder” that prepares teenagers for criminal careers! Then, Wildcat Gordon investigates corruption in the trucking industry in “Murder on the Line.” BONUS: an adventure of Norgil the Magician by The Shadow’s Maxwell Grant! This historic collector’s item showcases both original color pulp covers by Spider artist John Newton Howitt, classic interior illustrations by Paul Orban and golden-age great Creig Flessel, and historical commentary by Will Murray and Anthony Tollin. Now at Radio Archives for $14.95!
Pulp fiction’s legendary Master of Men returns in two classic novels from the Golden Age of Pulp Fiction, written by Norvell Page under the pseudonym of Grant Stockbridge. First, in “Overlord of the Damned” (October 1935), the Boss unleashes horrible death with his demonic acid guns… with a vat of the same deadly corrosive reserved for those who talk too much! With his beloved Nita van Sloan a hostage to a terrible doom, the Spider faces the soul-tearing prospect of planting the Spider seal on his friend Stanley Kirkpatrick, Commissioner of Police! Then, in “Dictator’s Death Merchants!” (July 1940), The jaws of death gape open when El Crocodilo feasts! With uncanny skill, he forestalls even the Spider’s best attempts to trap him. Striking without mercy, this menace from the past rises anew by demolishing a banking institution each night, in a mad scheme to take control of nothing less than all of America’s finances! This volume is available in two editions and features the original artwork from the October 1935 or the July 1940 edition of “The Spider” magazine. Both versions feature reformatted text and original interior illustrations to accompany each story. Available now for $14.95!

By John Olsen

Castle of Doom was originally published in the January 15, 1936 issue of The Shadow Magazine. Now we’re talking! To me, this is what The Shadow is all about. Stealthily stalking through the night, he uncovers strange plottings in an old English castle. Secret passages, ghostly visitations, hidden treasure. Only The Shadow can unravel the secrets of the Castle of Doom!
The Shadow travels to London, England. Tales of crime have crossed the seas to Manhattan, where The Shadow hears of the swift, mysterious crime wave. The theft of gold, jewels, jade, tapestries and much more. Valuables worth a million and a half dollars. Along with the thefts, also murder; two and counting. So, disguised as Lamont Cranston, The Shadow makes a prompt trip to the British capital.
The strange tale gradually unwinds set against a backdrop of a three-hundred-year-old castle sitting high on a cliff overlooking the raging ocean on the rural English coast.  It’s an amazingly intricate story that’s a real joy to read.
This is The Shadow as he is meant to be read about. He is at his full power, with stealth abilities bordering on invisibility. He spends nearly the entire story in the background, skulking about in the dark of night. He appears only occasionally in disguise; he prefers his black cloak and slouch hat. He only rarely needs the assistance of his agent, Harry Vincent. And his mastery of languages now includes the Afghan language, as well as so many others.
We see The Shadow with his portable make-up kit, that small flat box which he uses to manipulate his waxlike features. He only appears briefly as Lamont Cranston. And similarly makes brief appearances as a rustic farmer in one scene, and as Professor Roderick Danglar, of Cambridge, in two others. No one sees any similarity between the three characters, so effective is his skill at disguise.
But it’s as his black-garbed true self that he spends most of his time, here. As he slides across the wide green lawns at midnight, he appears as a flickering shadow cast by the fringe of trees surrounding the estate.
This is one Shadow pulp mystery that I can recommend unconditionally. Mystery and intrigue abound in this atmospheric adventure. Set among ancient underground passages, hidden rooms, secret chambers, spiral staircases, spy rooms and mysterious vaults filled with flapping bats, this story weaves a tale of strange murder! It all makes for a story not to be missed! And You can enjoy “Castle of Doom” and another great Shadow tale in The Shadow, Volume 8 for only $12.95 from Radio Archives!
Comments From Our Customers!
Shaun Pettit:
I ordered “The Whistler – Volume 1” and it is great…The sound quality is superb! I hope to order “The Whistler Vol. 2” real soon!! Thanks to everyone at Radio Archives for the excellent products and customer service.
Ernest Spellmeyer:
Thank you for your prompt response and the quality of your products. I look forward to doing business with you in the future.
Michael Johnson:
Love these pulp reprint books. Thanks!
Clay Carter:
A great story on Jack Benny.  My dad got us interested in Jack’s show when we first listened to him on radio and of course followed by TV.
Dennis Roy:
I’ve recently become interested in your “Will Murray’s Pulp Classics” Audiobooks, after getting the first couple of Doc Savage CD sets. Let me commend you on the selection of pulp stories you have produced thus far.
Allen Hickerson:
LOVED the Spider audiobook! Is there a new one coming out soon?
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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  • News
  • March 4, 2012

ARDDEN ENTERTAINMENT TEAMS WITH SERIEPLANETEN TO BRING
SWEDEN’S FIRST SUPERHERO, AGENT MARC SAUNDERS, TO AMERICA!

It was inevitable.   Sweden’s very first superhero, Agent Marc Saunders, the story of an American agent fighting the forces of evil worldwide, has finally reached the United States!
Teaming up with Serieplaneten, the original Swedish publisher of the hit comic book series, Ardden Entertainment, the publisher of Flash Gordon and Casper and the Spectrals, among others, is proud to bring this amazing new character to American shores.

Before Marc Saunders, Sweden never had a seriously meant superhero title of its own. There was “Dotty Whirlwind” back in 1945 – 1946, but she never carried her own book.

Until 2011, when writer/artist Mikael Bergkvist created Agent Marc Saunders.  A cross between James Bond and Doc Savage, Saunders is a super-powered agent working for the American government, facing a series of increasingly brutal enemies with bigger and bigger plans for destruction and mayhem.   Saunders is aided by his trusted team of allies, including the beautiful media tycoon Marion Gold. This series has been embraced by Sweden, largely due to its classic pulp type of adventure, like “The Shadow” or “Doc Savage”, but set in in modern times.

Issue #1 of the American version of Agent Marc Saunders comes out in April and is currently available for order through Diamond Comics.  It features a cover by none other than the legendary Neal Adams!

Mikael Bergkvist has been writing comics for 25 years but Agent Marc Saunders is his first original creation.

Serieplaneten, an up and coming comic publisher in Sweden, publishes the Swedish version of “The Simpsons vs Futurama,” among other titles, and in 2011 they began publishing Marc Saunders, making Swedish comic book history in the process.

Founded in 2008, Ardden Entertainment LLC is the proud publisher of FLASH GORDON, CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST, and the ATLAS COMICS resurrection, among others. Ardden is run by former Miramax Films executive Brendan Deneen and comic book store owner Richard Emms, with industry legend Mike Grell acting as the company’s Editor-in-Chief.
Ardden’s mission statement is to produce high quality licensed comic books as well as original concepts that work both as comic books and larger, multi-media properties. For more information about Arddenn Entertainment, please visit http://limited-edition-comix.com/atlas/index.htm

Philip Marlowe, The Green Lama, The Spider, Jack Benny, Doug Klauba and More! From Radio Archives

  • News
  • February 10, 2012
 
February 10, 2012
 
NEW Radio Set: The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, Volume 4

“Get this and get it straight: crime is a sucker’s road, and those who travel it end up in the gutter, the prison, or the grave…”
 
Those words opened each episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe starring Gerald Mohr in the title role. Although Marlowe had pounded the airwaves prior to this show’s debut in 1948, no one had yet to bring the right power, the right strength, and the right mood to the character. Not until Gerald Mohr lent his voice to author Raymond Chandler’s best known creation, a voice that Chandler, not too happy with other interpretations of his now classic Private Eye, admitted “packed personality.”
 
Marlowe, clearly cast in the hard-boiled mold of gumshoes and flatfoots originally created in the Pulps by Dashiell Hammett, brought a whole new dimension to the archetype. Tough as nails and hard to kill, Philip Marlowe was also in many ways a modern day knight. This identification of Marlowe as an updated errant hero wandering a dark world saving the lost and fighting off dragons not only continued throughout Chandler’s works, but remains today to be the primary way the character is described by reviewers, fans, and critics.
 
Even in the face of goons with guns, molls with malice and murder, and a city convoluted with corruption, Marlowe had standards he would follow. This added a great amount of depth to the character and would require an actor with the skills to convey that depth, to show the complexities of a man like Marlowe fighting the evils he’d find on Los Angeles’ mean streets with just his voice. In 1948, Gerald Mohr became that man.
 
Truly one of the most distinctive voices of old time radio, Mohr’s resonant baritone lent itself well to parts that evoked mood and energy. This nuance is clearly evident in “The Adventures of Philip Marlowe.” Mohr plays Marlowe with all the edge and grit detective fans expect to hear from their heroes. But Mohr also brings a palpable sense of danger smoking just under the surface. Every time Marlowe opens his mouth, Mohr’s delivery is such that listeners have no idea if Marlowe is going to talk or shoot his way out of whatever corner he’s willingly walking into.
 
This already fantastic collection of Classic Detective shows also comes with incredible new artwork! Pulp Artists extraordinaire Doug Klauba brings Marlowe to visual life with a thrilling scene showing Chandler’s modern day knight in gun blazing action! A print of this great piece can be yours in one of the newest additions to the Pulp Book Store, The Art of Doug Klauba! Get this artwork as a poster in the new store featuring the varied and awesome work of Douglas C Klauba!
 
Enjoy the energy and danger that Gerald Mohr brings to “The Adventures of Philip Marlowe” in this fourth volume from Radio Archives! Five Hours on Audio CD for only $14.98.
 

In 1947, a new soap opera debuted in syndication – a drama that was far different than the storm-and-strife ridden weepers that occupied most of the daytime radio schedule. “Claudia” told the tale of Claudia and David Naughton, newlyweds, just beginning their married life. Young, enthusiastic, and very much in love, they weren’t suffering from any medical maladies, suspicions of infidelity, or dealing with ungrateful children. Instead, they were simply facing the many challenges of any new marriage – finding an apartment, getting used to each other’s quirks, and learning to live together as husband and wife.

 
Heard today, “Claudia” remains wonderful entertainment, notable for both its light-hearted tone and the believable interplay between its characters. Claudia, a bit younger than her years, is often impulsive, sometimes irresponsible, usually perky, and just a bit flighty. Her father had died when she was still a young girl and, as an only child, had been raised by her widowed mother. As a newlywed who married when she was just eighteen, she occasionally ponders whether she is still a “mama-baby,” tied to her mother’s apron strings and relying too much on Mama’s continuing support and advice. As she matures, she becomes a unique mixture of enthusiasm, incompetence and over-confidence — deeply in love with her somewhat older husband David, but frequently naive and too likely to trust in her insecurities rather than her instincts.
 
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. This is particularly the case when it comes to soap operas, where it is difficult to get into a storyline when often so few consecutive episodes exist. Happily, that is not the case with “Claudia”; Radio Archives has been able to locate and preserve the entire eighteen-month run of the series – 390 episodes in all – with no missing shows, allowing you to enjoy the complete series on a day-by-day basis. This eighth collection continues the joys and trials of Claudia and David as they adapt to married life together dealing with many of the same ups and downs their listeners both then and now encounter. And “Claudia Volume 8” can be yours from Radio Archives for $17.98 on Audio CDs!
 
by Tommy Hancock
 

Every time I pick something from Radio Archive’s extensive catalog of old time radio offerings to review, I feel like I’m choosing a little piece of history, an artifact from a past that simultaneously seems simpler and more glamorous than our present. This time around, though, I selected a whole day’s worth of history, a slice of life from the day when everyone waited to hear the latest adventures of Amos n’ Andy, sat on the edge of their seats to learn what had become of Pretty Kitty Kelly or the latest on the Affairs of Helen Trent, or to hum along to the music of Louis Prima and his Orchestra. And I do mean from the day. September 21, 1939 to be exact.
 
WJSV- A Day in Radio History is just what the title says. This true piece of radio history resulted from discussions between staff at WJSV and the National Archives about the importance of preservation of radio programming being presented live at the time. In pursuit of saving at least a hint of what a radio broadcast day was like in that era, recordings were made of a broadcast day at Washington station WJSV and then later put in the annals of the Archives.
 
It is almost impossible to put into words the experience that is this collection. This 20 CD set literally contains the entire day of September 21, 1939 as broadcast over WJSV. From sign on at 5:58 AM to sign off at 1 AM, every minute of WJSV’s broadcast day is presented at the highest quality in the order that listeners originally heard it 73 years ago.
 
The breadth of programming is one of the stunning aspects of this. Much like local television stations today, WJSV’s schedule was extremely varied, from serials to news programs to human interest shows to popular comedies and dramas and so on. Similarities in programming also are interesting. We have talent shows ad nauseum today, but listeners of the past were not without them as well. Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour presented acts interested in making the big time, much like contestants on “American Idol” and other shows of its kind. Soap operas, waning in today’s hurry up and wait television market, were the cream of the crop in 1939, with several examples offered in this collection.
 
History is contained in this set, too. A transcript of a speech by President Franklin Roosevelt, news from all over the world delivered throughout the day, and a sampling of the music of the era, live remotes of big bands from all over the United States. Not to mention rare radio shows that pepper the roster of programs presented by WJSV in the course of its day.
 
WJSV- A Day in Radio History is a 19-hour set. This may seem daunting to some listeners, but know that it is set up in a way that you can skip to the tracks you’re interested in hearing. This collection is a true gem for people interested in the 1930s, in history, or for creators who need a taste of that period for their work. It’s also an undeniable fantastic tool for researchers interested in not only what a radio station of the era might have played, but also a peek into the technical aspect of how broadcasting was done. All in all, this marvelous collection is well worth having.
 
The price has been reduced to $39.98 from the previous price of $56.98 and featuring new stunning artwork, WJSV-A Day in History is now presented in a new 20 CD storage case and will make a perfect addition to any collection. Restored to the best audio quality possible, this set is both a significant slice of history and a package that has something for every type of Old Time Radio fan, be they casual or avid.
 
 

A more unlikely multi-media success than the jade-robed Buddhist monk who fought crime under the nom de guerre ofThe Green Lama would be hard to imagine.
 
Conceived in 1939 at the behest of the editors of Munsey Publications to compete with the juggernaut that The Shadow had become in print, on radio and in film, The Green Lama was the creation of writer Kendall Foster Crossen, who was asked to think up a hero who could lure mystery-minded readers away from The Shadow’s loyal legion of followers. Inspired by a Columbia University student named Theos Casimir Barnard, who had journeyed to far-off Tibet to plumb the occult mysteries of Lamaism, Crossen concocted millionaire Jethro Dumont, who did the same.
 
It was an outlandish concept. While The Shadow possessed the power to cloud men’s minds after his time in the East, The Green Lama relied on other, even weirder, powers—including the ability to become radioactive and electrically shock opponents into submission! He carried a traditional scarf, which he employed to bind and befuddle opponents and possessed a knowledge of vulnerable nerve centers which he put to good use in hand-and-hand combat. Being a practicing Buddhist, it would not do to pack a pair of .45 automatics a la The Shadow!
 
Writing as Richard Foster, Crossen produced The Case of the Crimson Hand, which was published in the April, 1940 Double Detective under the equally colorful title, The Green Lama. That first installment raised the magazine’s circulation several notches. Amazingly, the Lama was a hit. Thirteen additional stories followed over the next four years, with provocative titles like The Case of the Hollywood Ghost and Babies for Sale. Assistants ranging from ordinary Manhattanites to a professional magician came and went with every adventure, which often involved emerging super-criminals and Fifth Column menaces.
 
RadioArchives.com has selected The Green Lama to be the first 2012 release in its acclaimed Will Murray Pulp Classics line of audiobooks. His first case and its sequel, Croesus of Murder, are presented in one set, voiced by the talented Michael McConnohie. Thus, the hero of a dozen different incarnations has found a new world to conquer! You’ll never encounter another hero anything like him. Om Mani Padme Hum! The Green Lama knows! Will Murray’s Audio Pulp Classics #5 The Green Lama is available now!
 
The Green Lama, by Kendell Foster Crossen, first appeared in the April 1940 issue of Double-Detective magazine. Copyright © 1940 by The Red Star News Company. Copyright renewed © 1968 and assigned to Argosy Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. “The Green Lama” is a trademark controlled by Argosy Communications, Inc. Produced by arrangement with Argosy Communications, Inc.
 

One of the most interesting experiences a fan of any character from the printed medium can have is that first time he or she sees or hears someone portraying their favorite character. We all have in our heads how our treasured heroes will look if we ever see them on the screen, who should play them, and also how they’ll sound. The more we read a particular canon of stories, the more those voices start coming to life in our heads, right down to the way the villain will snarl his words or the leading lady will coo in the ear of our masked avenger. I am no different. As a matter of fact, I’m probably the hardest judge on movies and audio performances of characters I absolutely loved to read about. I go into new projects that add voices to stories I have thrilled to in the past with at the least trepidation, if not downright cynicism.
 
Boy, I love it when someone puts together a package that proves me wrong.
 
The Spider: Prince of the Red Looters, a Will Murray’s Pulp Classic Audiobook produced by Roger Rittner Productions takes one of the most intriguing, over the top protagonists from classic Pulp fiction and brings him and the carnage and chaos around him to full bloody, violent, justice seeking life.
 
Pulp Fans are of course familiar with the Spider, Norvell Page’s Master of Men. Secretly millionaire criminologist Richard Wentworth, The Spider was perhaps the most violent pursuer of Right the Pulps ever had. He performed his duty of seeking justice and punishing the guilty with the veracity of a rabid dog. And his enemies matched him step for step, often littering the streets of New York with body after body in story after story. Capturing the frenetic pacing of these stories and especially the wildly mad, nearly insane personality of The Spider, teetering often it seemed at the very edge of his own abyss, would be no easy chore for any Production company or crew of actors. I’m glad to say that Producer/Director Roger Rittner and company took on Prince of Red Looters and the result is simply amazing.
 
Featuring the first appearance of The Spider’s nemesis The Fly, this enhanced audiobook explodes into stunning dialogue, fantastic sound effects, and a rousing musical score almost instantly. The voice talents of Nick Santa Maria as narrator and all the male parts and Robin Riker as Nita Van Sloan nailed the characters in both tone and delivery. Regardless if Santa Maria is firing off silky missives as The Fly, delivering staccato threats of death to the evil as The Spider, or playing one of many mooks, thugs, and passers by, his turns of voice give this the semblance of a full cast production. Add the sultry dulcet voice of Robin Riker as Nita, a great compliment to Santa Maria’s take on the Spider, and you have the best voices to bring Page’s fevered adventures to audio.
 
As far as other aspects of this audiobook, Roger Rittner does a wonderful job, top notch throughout the book, of maintaining the pacing of the original Pulp tale. And the ways he does this are myriad, including the use of great music, the inclusion of sound effects, and the speed and clip and which the narration and dialogue are delivered. All of this blends together into a sort of perfect storm for an audiobook and makes The Spider: Prince of the Red Looters a definite shining light in the already awesome line of Will Murray’s Pulp Classics! And you too can swing along with The Spider today by buying The Spider: Prince of the Red Looters for only $19.98 on Audio CDs.
 
 

Bringing the best of Classic Pulp to Fans today, Radio Archives presents Will Murray’s Pulp Classic’s line of top notch Pulp Fiction eBooks!  And you will now be able to find eBooks on RadioArchives.com as one of the buttons on the left!  Looking for the best in eBooks!  Click the button and you’ll go right to Will Murray’s Pulp Classics!
 
New to Will Murray’s Pulp Classics, two new eBooks featuring the epic exploits 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.
 
These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and feature the original full color cover. Will Murray’s Pulp Classics line of eBooks are of the highest quality and feature the great Pulp Fiction stories of the 1930s-1950s.
 

Three times that night death struck at Richard Wentworth before he learned his foeman’s name — the yellow-skinned Wang Ba! Wentworth — who, as the relentless Spider, is the scourge of the Underworld — wagers his skill and bravery against the sly treachery of the Orient, with the lives of a hundred thousand Americans depending on the evil coquetry of a dangerously beautiful woman!
 
Never had Richard Wentworth — he who is the scourge of the Underworld in his guise of the Spider — faced such tremendous odds or been so alone in the strife! And the Master of Madness, chief of a powerful, fiendish syndicate, was spreading his germs of mania unchecked. Who could rescue America from screaming, murderous frenzy when the Spider, harried by Law and lawless, himself half-doubted his own skill and bravery?
 
As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written “Meet the Spider” especially for this series of eBooks.
 
All eBooks produced by Radio Archives are available in ePub, Mobi, and PDF formats for the ultimate in compatibility. When you purchase this eBook from RadioArchives.com you receive all three formats in one ZIP file: PDF for PC or Mac computer; Mobi for Kindle; and ePub for iPad/IPhone, Android, Sony eReader, and Nook. When you upgrade to a new eReader, you can transfer your eBook novels to your new device without the need to purchase anything new.
 
Fight alongside the Master of Men as the Spider takes on Evil in these two latest Ebooks from Will Murray’s Pulp Classics, only $2.99 each!  And remember, click the eBooks button on the left of the homepage for the best digital offerings anywhere from Radio Archives!
 
Special eBook Announcement! As of today, all Radio Archives eBooks are available at the Kindle Store.
 
 
 
 
The Pulp Book Store now features the work of an artist considered to be one of the modern masters of Pulp and Classic Action Adventure Art. Doug Klauba, known for his work on covers for companies such as Moonstone, Radio Archives, and more, has brought fan favorite characters, such as Johnny Dollar, Philip Marlowe, and others to life with his fantastic paintings! And now you can own prints of some of Doug’s best work and even purchase original art from this modern Pulp Artist!
 
The Art of Doug Klauba will first feature posters of paintings of three of Classic Radio’s best known, greatest detective heroes! 12 X 18” posters of Johnny Dollar from “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar,” Dan Holiday from “Box Thirteen”, and Philip Marlowe from “The Adventures of Philip Marlowe” are available for $19.98 each! Done in a style reminiscent of classic Pulp Magazine covers and painted movie posters, these prints will make a perfect addition to any Radio, Pulp, or Detective Fan’s wall and collection! Thrill to the visual excitement that is The Art of Doug Klauba! Now available in the Pulp Book Store!
 
Dedicated to keeping the memory and work of one of History’s greatest comedic talents alive, The International Jack Benny Fan Club (IJBFC) joins the Pulp Book Store! The IJBFC offers 39 Forever Volume 3, a book written by Laura Leff and Martin Gostonian! Just released, this third volume covers Jack Benny’s television career from his debut in 1950 until his self-titled series ended in 1965! Each show is written up with full indexes of cast members, cities, musical artists, skits, and songs included.
 
This 826 page volume is a wonderful resource for Benny fans, but also anyone interested in the Golden Age of Television. It outlines how the show went from being Benny’s transition from radio to the top of the ratings and shows why Benny’s legacy has endured! The IJBFC brings a definite classic performer and this definitive work on his awesome career to the right place by becoming a part of The Pulp Book Store!
 
Well known for the quality Pulp Replicas, authentic reproductions of original Pulp Magazines, Girasol Collectables adds three new Replicas to the Pulp Book Store!
 
Thrill to the gun blazing justice seeking adventures of the Master of men in The Spider #77 featuring ‘Hell’s Sale Manager!’ Originally printed in February 1940, this replica is now available for $35.00!
 
Also, discover exotic locales, femme fatales, and more in the Replica of Spicy Adventures #11, originally published in August 1935, for $25.00!
 
Finally encounter strange events, terrifying creatures, and the unknown in Weird Tales #18. First printed in March 1925, this wonderful Replica is only $35.00!
 
Girasol Collectables produces the finest in Pulp Reproductions! And you can find their Replicas as well as other products in the Pulp Book Store!
 

The Knight of Darkness battles evil supercriminals in two action-packed pulp novels by Walter Gibson writing as “Maxwell Grant.” First, in a never-reprinted 1932 epic, The Shadow seeks to unmask The Five Chameleons, master villains whose uncanny ability to blend with their surroundings rivals his own. Then, the Dark Avenger feels the savage sting of The Wasp in his first confrontation with one of his deadliest foes. This double-novel reprints the classic cover paintings by George Rozen and Graves Gladney and the original interior illustrations by Tom Lovell and Earl Mayan, with historical articles by Will Murray. Get it now for $14.95!
 
The pulp era’s greatest superman returns in two classic pulp thrillers by Lester Dent writing as “Kenneth Robeson.” First, Doc and Patricia Savage enter an Arctic abyss where dinosaurs and prehistoric humans survive, and race against Japanese agents to uncover the secret of The Time Terror that could change the outcome of the war. Then, a series of crimes committed by “graduates” of the Man of Bronze’s Crime College threaten to destroy Doc’s reputation. What is the sinister secret of The Talking Devil? This special collectors edition showcases both color pulp covers by Emery Clarke, Paul Orban’s classic interior illustrations and historical commentary by Will Murray, writer of eight Doc Savage novels. Yours for only $14.95!
 
The double life of Police Commissioner James Gordon is explored in a pair of two-fisted thrillers that inspired classic Batman stories! First, The Whisperer goes undercover to close down a “School for Murder” that prepares teenagers for criminal careers! Then, Wildcat Gordon investigates corruption in the trucking industry in “Murder on the Line.” BONUS: an adventure of Norgil the Magician by The Shadow’s Maxwell Grant! This historic collector’s item showcases both original color pulp covers by Spider artist John Newton Howitt, classic interior illustrations by Paul Orban and golden-age great Creig Flessel, and historical commentary by Will Murray and Anthony Tollin. Now at Radio Archives for $14.95!

Pulp fiction’s legendary Master of Men returns in two classic novels from the Golden Age of Pulp Fiction, written by Norvell Page under the pseudonym of Grant Stockbridge. First, in “Overlord of the Damned” (October 1935), the Boss unleashes horrible death with his demonic acid guns… with a vat of the same deadly corrosive reserved for those who talk too much! With his beloved Nita van Sloan a hostage to a terrible doom, the Spider faces the soul-tearing prospect of planting the Spider seal on his friend Stanley Kirkpatrick, Commissioner of Police! Then, in “Dictator’s Death Merchants!” (July 1940), The jaws of death gape open when El Crocodilo feasts! With uncanny skill, he forestalls even the Spider’s best attempts to trap him. Striking without mercy, this menace from the past rises anew by demolishing a banking institution each night, in a mad scheme to take control of nothing less than all of America’s finances! This volume is available in two editions and features the original artwork from the October 1935 or the July 1940 edition of “The Spider” magazine. Both versions feature reformatted text and original interior illustrations to accompany each story. Available now for $14.95!
 

 
Looking for more than Love this February? How about the best deals in the Pulp Book Store! Check out the specials being offered by these companies!
 
The greatest Minds of the 19th Century go to battle with the most evil forces known to man! Buy Modern Marvels: Viktoriana by Wayne Reinagel and get 5% off the regular price for the entire month of February!
 
The Lord of the Vampires Returns and you can get him for 20% off original price. Dracula Lives by Joshua Reynolds is a page turning chill ride and can be yours at a steal!
 
Puttin’ The Monthly Back into Pulp, Pro Se Productions offers the finest in modern Pulp Magazines! For the month of February, pick up any or all of the first three issues of Pro Se Presents at an amazing 25% off each copy!
 
Just click on the Treasure Chest on the Pulp Book Store Page for these great offers! From everyone from the avid Pulp Fan to the casual reader, the Treasure Chest offers great deals on wonderful products from The Pulp Book Store!
 

By John Olsen

 
Shadow Over Alcatraz was published in the December 1, 1938 issue of The Shadow Magazine. Yes, Alcatraz – The Rock! This is the repository of America’s most dangerous criminals, a concentrated population of the world’s most sinister masterminds. Where better to find lieutenants for the most devious mastermind of all time! Alcatraz, where America’s most hidden mastercriminal will recruit his evil henchmen for a plot to create a world-wide crime spree.
 
It all starts in Denver, Colorado, where eccentric old inventor Harvey Lanyon is demonstrating his latest invention. He calls himself “The Rainmaker” because he’s created a machine that will end droughts. Or so he thinks. But the invention is a failure; all it does is create a fog. And what good is fog? None, except to that hidden mastermind known as Zanigew. Zanigew has sinister plans for the fog machine. So he sets out to capture Harvey Lanyon and appropriate Lanyon’s invention.
 
So exactly who is Zanigew and what is he up to? Can even The Shadow stop this cunning genius of crime? Zanigew plans crime such as has never before been known; an empire of evil that will stretch throughout the world! It will take the power of The Shadow to stop him. And it will make an adventure that ranks among the very best among the 325 Shadow magazine stories published. It’s one you won’t want to miss.
 
Assisting The Shadow in this story are Harry Vincent and F.B.I. agent Vic Marquette. Also appearing in smaller roles are Burbank and pilot Miles Crofton. The Shadow appears only as himself, Kent Allard. There’s no sign of his famous disguises here.
 
The Shadow does appear in disguise, once, as an unnamed adventurous Easterner who bears little resemblance to Kent Allard. We are told that when he removes the putty-like makeup on his face, the gaunt countenance of Kent Allard emerges. No mention of the “horror face” beneath the makeup that was mentioned in early Shadow novels. Perhaps there was a little judicious plastic surgery performed in the intervening years?
 
It’s good to see The Shadow’s autogiro make an appearance in this story. It plays a pivotal part in the climax to the story. This is the “new, improved” autogiro that is completely wingless, capable of making a speed of one hundred and twenty miles an hour. Generally, autogiros were considered to have wings, so this must have been closer to the modern helicopter than an autogiro.
 
And one final note. Did you know that The Shadow can squeeze through steel bars only seven inches apart? It’s not easy, but he accomplishes it in this story. Maybe he can dislocate some joints, somewhat like escape-artist Harry Houdidi was reputed to do. Get out a ruler and look at seven inches. That’s not much space. I’m surprised he could get his head through! Unless… (no, let’s not go there.)
 
This is one of the classic Shadow stories. It’s one of the top rated stories. 

And it along with another Shadow tale is in The Shadow Volume 16 for $12.95 from Radio Archives!
 
 
Comments From Our Customers!
 
Lon Levy:
Thank you! Please continue until the entire run of THE SPIDER has been released as eBooks. (I don’t have room for any more of the paper editions!)
 
Allan Smith from England:
Well Tom, I for one am with you all the way, as your products are A1 CLASS items as far as I am concerned. Items, as usual, are a delight. i look forward to sitting, reading and listening for a couple of weeks ahead with great pleasure. thank you once again from windy, wet and cold England.
 
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!
 
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DENNIS O’NEIL: Patron Superheroes?

Got a concept for you. Ready?

Patron superheroes.

You’re lovin’ it already, aren’t you?

For those of you who have never been Catholic, here’s a quick definition of patron saint, via the invaluable Wikipedia: “A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person…(They) are believed to be able to intercede for the needs of heir special charges.”

I mean, when you think about it superheroes and patron saints have a lot in common. Both are dedicated to helping the good guys (though the definition of “good guys” is liable to change) and both have powers that help the aforementioned good guys. You’re Lois Lane falling from a window, you yell and here comes Superman to prevent you from splatting. You’re a Giants fan, you want your team too win the Super Bowl, you pray to the appropriate saint and – yay Giants.

Okay, maybe your saint didn’t affect the game directly – though who knows? – but he or she obviously had some influence on the final score. I mean, saints obviously have a lot of clout. And these things are, by their very nature, mysterious.

Now, I don’t know if there is actually a patron saint of football, or a patron saint of the Giants, or of the New England Patriots, but if not, these surely are blanks easily filed in. If we can put a man on the moon, we can give he Patriots a patron! And by the way, there is a patron saint of athletes: St. Sebastian. So what if a Giants fan and a Patriots fan both prayed to Sebastian? Gee, another darn mystery…Maybe whoever prayed loudest?

We’re going to ignore “pagan” deities, who had a lot in common with both saints and superheroes because…well, this is a Christian country! (I believe I heard a guy wearing a suit on television say that, so I know it has to be straight.)

And that brings us to patron superheroes, though there really isn’t much to say about them, once you acknowledge the similarities between saints and superdoers. It’s just a matter of dotting the I’s and crossing the t’s, and you can manage that on your own.

But to help you get started, here’s a brief, off-the-top-of-my-head list of heroes and what they might be patron of.

Superman – immigrants.

Plastic Man – politicians.

Spider-Man – entomologists.

Green Arrow – acupuncturists.

The Human Torch – arsonists.

Invisible Scarlett O’Neil – wallflowers. (No relation, in case you’re wondering.)

The Flash – athletic shoe manufacturers

Captain Marvel – electricians.

Captain Marvel Junior – electricians’ assistants.

Hoppy the Marvel Bunny – fertility.

The Shadow – sundials.

And to make it an even dozen –

Blue Beetle – unhappy rock stars.

FRIDAY: Martha Thomases

Ailing Colorist Tom Ziuko Needs Some Help

  • News
  • January 18, 2012

tz-300x299-4227937Long-time DC Comics and Marvel colorist Tom Ziuko (The History of the DC Universe, Superman, Batman, The Shadow, Hellblazer, Looney Tunes, Spider-Man, Captain America, Tomb of Dracula, etc.) has been facing some difficult medical issues over the last two years, including kidney failure, neuropathy, and, most recently, emergency surgery to repair a strangulated colon.

According to the Facebook page started by Gary Mann for Tom, “Tom is a freelance artist, unable to afford health insurance, and the last year has been brutal for him…. Tom is currently recuperating at home, although still unable to return to work full-time. Early last year, Tom’s friend and fellow freelance artist Alan Kupperberg mounted an effort to help raise some funds for him; and a great non-profit organization, The Hero Initiative, has played a major role in helping Tom to survive during this last year, keeping him afloat and literally saving him from becoming homeless. But Tom continues to face a mountain of medical bills, personal expenses and debt.

“And so I appeal to those of you who may have been touched by Tom’s work over the last three decades; in that you might be able to contribute to assisting him financially while he continues his recovery. I know that times are tight right now for everyone, but any contribution you might be able to make, no matter how small, would be both beneficial and greatly appreciated by Tom.

“If you want to contribute directly to Tom’s assistance fund, you can do so at Paypal — the account name is — chroma999@aol.com.

“And whether you’re able to contribute funds or not, you can write to Tom directly on Facebook, or at his email address (atomica999@aol.com) in order to send him get-well wishes, to say hello and wish him a speedy recovery, or just to let him know if you’ve enjoyed his work over the years.”

 

 

ENNIS AND AARON TAKE TO THE SHADOWS IN APRIL!

  • Uncategorized
  • January 16, 2012
Cover: Alex Ross
Cover: Jae Lee

In the first issue of the new ongoing The Shadow series, it’s 1938 and The Shadow returns in a tale of blazing action and deadly intrigue, as a night of carnage on the New York waterfront plunges the mysterious vigilante into a conspiracy involving the fate of the world itself. As storm clouds gather across the globe, American Military Intelligence meets with a certain Lamont Cranston, determined to beat a host of spies and assassins to the greatest prize of all… but what that might be, only the Shadow knows. Be sure to get The Shadow #1 in April 2012!

Written by Garth Ennis with art by Aaron Campbell. Cover art provided by Alex Ross, Howard Chaykin, Jae Lee and John Cassaday.

Learn more about Dynamite Entertainment at http://www.dynamite.net/.

Click on images for a larger view.

Cover: John Cassiday

Cover: Howard Chaykin

NEW PULP WRITER, EDITOR, SUPPORTER AND FRIEND HOWARD HOPKINS-REST IN PEACE

  • News
  • January 16, 2012

Howard Hopkins, prolific writer as well as Historian, Editor, and Friend of Pulp writers, publishers, and fandom, passed away on Thursday, January 12, 2012.   This is a tremendous loss for the Pulp Community specifically and the world as a whole.  All Pulp will be honoring Howard’s memory with a retrospective as well as other articles possibly and other sites, such as New Pulp Fiction, also intend to do so this week.

At the request of Dominique, Howard’s wife, we are sharing the following notice with all those affected by Howard’s living and passing.

http://www.cotefuneralhome.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=323:unnamed&catid=7:obituaries&Itemid=4

Continue to follow All Pulp for any further news concerning Howard as well as plans by his wife to continue Howard’s work and dreams.

Howard Lance Hopkins PDF Print E-mail
Monday, 16 January 2012 03:30
hhopkins1.jpg
Howard Lance Hopkins
January 14, 2012
Old Orchard Beach
Howard Lance Hopkins, 50, of Old Orchard Beach, passed away unexpectedly on Thursday, January 12, 2012, inBiddeford.
He was born in Biddeford on December 12, 1961, son of Frank and Lynne Dion Hopkins. He was a graduate ofScarborough High School.
The superheroes of Howard’s youth, Doc Savage, The Avenger and The Shadow, influenced his decision to become a professional writer. For the past 24 years, Howard has written numerous books including Westerns for Hale Publications, graphic novels such as a Sherlock Holmes series and a widely known children’s series called the Nightmare Club. Most recently, he focused his energy on writing the Chloe Files, a character derived from his novel Grimm.
Howard was an avid reader of superhero comic books, including Wonder Woman, Superman and The Hulk, to name a few.
He will be remembered as a devoted, loving and very supportive husband. He will be greatly missed not only by his loving and caring wife of 22 years, Dominique Morency Hopkins, but by many, especially his nephew Steap and niece Sam, who he loved, mentored and guided as his own.
Mr. Hopkins was a member of the United Methodist Church.
He is survived by his wife, Dominique of Old Orchard Beach
                        His parents – Lynne and Frank Hopkins
                        His sister – Robyn Hopkins
                        His in laws – Madeleine and Victor Morency and Marianne and Michael Fleischmann
                        His goddaughter – Renee Whitehouse
                        Several Aunts, Uncles, Nieces, Nephews and Cousins
A Visiting Hour will be from 10:30-11:30AM Wednesday at Cote Funeral Home, corner of Beach and James Streets, Saco. A Funeral Service will be held at 11:30AM Wednesday at Cote Funeral Home. Burial will follow in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Saco. Arrangements are by Cote Funeral Home, Saco. You may wish to send flowers to the Cote Funeral Home or a donation to your local animal shelter in Howard’s name.  To send private condolences to the family go towww.cotefuneralhome.com

DETECTIVES, DOCTORS, EPIC AUTHORS, NEW REVIEWS AND MORE THIS WEEK FROM RADIO ARCHIVES!

  • News
  • January 13, 2012
January 13, 2012
NEW Radio Set: The Adventures of Frank Race, Volume 3

The world was a very different place in the immediate years following World War Two. Even though on the surface, the late 1940s and 1950s seemed to be an idyllic time of peace for the United States, there was an undercurrent of worry and paranoia, that whatever success and contentment Americans had at that time might be short-lived. This feeling was of course a prime breeding ground for movies, books, and other forms of entertainment to produce heroes that represented everything that was good, true, and tough about America, men who had fought for their country abroad in the War and were now home to fight to keep all that was America safe. And radio was no different, giving birth to several heroes of this type. Such as Frank Race.

First heard in the spring of 1949, “The Adventures of Frank Race” starred Tom Collins and, later, Paul Dubov as an attorney turned O. S. S. agent turned worldwide investigator. Race had spent most of the war years in Foreign Service and was frequently decorated for valor but, after he was discharged, he found the courtroom atmosphere of a practicing lawyer to be dull, stuffy, and unchallenging. Clearly, adventure was calling him and so, after finding a strong ally and sidekick in Mark Donovan, a rough but enthusiastic New York City cab driver, Race began a new career as a far-flung investigator.
Even though most of Race’s cases dealt more with insurance issues and less with international intrigue and espionage, he still fit the mold of the sort of hero people sought in the late 1940s and 1950s. Being former O.S.S., he had that connection to a time when men stood up for their nation and became heroes and therefore reflected the skills that the public thought their heroes needed even when the war was over to protect them from all who might threaten their standard of living.

The Adventures of Frank Race still rings with a good old-fashioned two fisted pulpy feel. Mysteries wrapped in suspense and adventure, as the title of each show indicates, and with even hints of romance thrown in make this classic show a definite must have for fans of Action and Adventure today! And the final eleven timeless adventures in this third collection can be yours for $17.98 on CD and $11.98 by Digital Download from Radio Archives!

by Tommy Hancock

In a world where medical dramas are almost a dime a dozen, it might surprise some that this type of entertainment has a much longer history than ER, St. Elsewhere, or even Marcus Welby, MD. One of the best known figures to ply his medical trade in movies, television, and radio was a young doctor by the name of James Kildare, the central character in The Story Of Dr. Kildare, Volume 1.
This series is quite simply a joy and pleasure to listen to on several levels. Set in Blair Memorial Hospital in New York City, the episodes follow Dr. Kildare played by Lew Ayres as he addresses the needs of his patients at the hospital, often more than just whatever may be physically ailing them. Kildare is not alone in his endeavors and that’s one of the charming aspects of this show, its supporting cast. The phenomenal actor Lionel Barrymore played Dr. Gillespie, Kildare’s crusty, crotchety mentor and a role Barrymore had played in the movies that inspired the radio series. Throw in Virginia Gregg as Nurse “Nosy” Parker and you have a stellar cast supporting the work of Ayres, also continuing his role as Kildare from the films. Gregg and Barrymore keep listeners in stitches as Gillespie and “Nosy” verbally spar with one another, all amidst the medical drama swirling around them.
This show is not carried simply by its cast, however. Each and every story is engaging and captures the attention of its audience. Although I’m no doctor, research indicates that the medical procedures reflected in The Story of Dr. Kildare were based on the cutting edge methods of the period and that seems apparent to an untrained ear. The pacing of each episode is usually dead on as well, building the tension of the particular illness or issue while intermingling character bits and the traditional trademarks of the show, like the Gillespie-Parker bouts or Kildare conferring with Gillespie. Although some might say the episodes are overall melodramatic, I am of the opinion that medical drama at its finest has a bit of melodrama poured over the top of it. The Story of Dr. Kildare is a series of equal parts medical practice, character building, and satisfying dramatic peeks into the lives of the staff and patients at a hospital.
Want to hear the Doctor that paved the way for those you love today? You can by picking up The Story of Dr. Kildare, Volume 1 for $29.98 on CD and $19.98 by Digital Download from Radio Archives!
Very few heroes in the Pulp Pantheon compare to The Spider. Although reminiscent of The Shadow in many ways, this passionate, sometimes psychotic avenger brings his own style, code, and level of action to his tales like few other of his fictional peers can. The level of pure adventure, tension, and absolute fun screams to spring off the page. And now it has.

The Spider stars in the first of Will Murray’s Pulp Classics, an audiobook line from Radio Archives. The Prince of the Red Looters, produced by Roger Rittner and featuring the excellent voice talents of Nick Santa Maria and Robin Riker, showcases all of the reasons The Spider is still one of the most popular, sought after, and discussed Pulp Heroes today.
Although quite literally initially a thought born due to the success of another Pulp hero, The Spider took bold steps in his own directions, thanks largely to the pen and imagination of Norvell Page. The Shadow, first a voice on the radio and then a character in Street and Smith’s magazine, erupted in popularity not soon after the first stories appeared, so much so that it became a magazine that printed twice monthly! Harry Steeger, Publisher of Popular Publications, noticed the attention Street and Smith’s latest creation was getting and promptly determined that Popular could create a similar hero and share in the spotlight and wealth that Street and Smith seemed to have tapped into.
Initially written by RTM Scott and named, according to legend, because Steeger saw an arachnid crossing a tennis court, The Spider really came into his own in the capable hands of crime reporter and Pulp writer Norvell Page. As Page wrote upwards of 100 Spider tales, this dark seeker of Justice did not simply drift away from the character which inspired his creation, he became something apart, something all his own.
His secret identity is millionaire Richard Wentworth, a criminologist. His supporting cast of characters is in many ways as colorful and lively as he is, especially the exquisite Nita Van Sloan, Wentworth’s love interest and The Spider’s partner in many of his adventures. The Spider doggedly pursued those who committed Evil and gave all he had to ending their criminal enterprises and their careers altogether. Permanently.
The bloodthirsty way in which Page portrayed The Spider carrying out his self appointed mission is one of the key factors giving Wentworth’s alter ego his own identity in the Pulp community. If The Spider had truly existed in the real world and been allowed to deal final sentence via his flaming .45s, then the population of New York City would have been wiped out several times over and the city streets would be forever stained red.
Quite a bit has also been made of The Spider’s possible mental stability. Page clearly writes a man that is troubled greatly, not just by the evil around him, but something eating at him from within. Be he paranoid schizophrenic or manic depressive, or any other possible diagnoses, it is clear that The Spider is not simply a bored rich boy fighting crime because he has nothing better to do. He is a force of nature hell bent on insuring that all who are innocent are protected and all who are guilty are afraid for their lives.
The Prince of the Red Looters is an excellent tale to not only spotlight what makes The Spider special, but it was also a great choice for kicking off Will Murray’s Pulp Classics. Through the voices of Santa Maria and Riker, The Spider’s desire to see Justice done and his struggle to hold onto his own sanity as well as Nita’s undying support and love for him shine through in two fantastic audio performances. This audiobook also features the debut of The Spider’s arch enemy, the sword wielding Fly! Before this tale, no villain had been audacious enough to take on The Master of Men one on one. The Fly not only calls out The Spider in this wonderful story, but also lives to return again, a rarity often for villains in the Pulps.
Hero. Madman. One or both, The Spider has left his brand on Pulp forever and Radio Archives now takes this classic character to a whole new level with The Prince of the Red Looters produced by Roger Rittner. Get your six hours of The Spider today for $19.98 on CD and $13.98 via Digital Download! All from Radio Archives!

I love mad scientists. Why? That’s simple. They’re mad. They never ever contemplate that their plans and schemes won’t work no matter how bizarre and off-the-wall they may be. Even in the face of overwhelming common sense they persist in going ahead with whatever it is that strikes their fancy. Whether it be reanimating the dead or creating portals to other universes or genetic manipulation or astral projection. Mad scientists blithely go about their business, solidly convinced that they’re the only one in the whole wide world who knows what they’re doing. I could be a little nuts myself but I find such insane behavior entertaining.
Take Doctor Death for instance as heard in Doctor Death – 12 Must Die, an audiobook from Will Murray’s Pulp Classics. Now you want to talk about mad scientists…they don’t get much madder than Doctor Death. Claiming to be the greatest scientist the world has ever seen (there’s a certain Swiss Baron who might challenge that claim) Doctor Death intends to wipe out all the technological progress man has made and return the world to a pre-industrial period. Even though he’s a scientist of considerable ability, Doctor Death has apparently made a pact with the very forces of Hell itself as he uses zombies and demons as his army. He also displays an amazing range of personal abilities such as telepathy to further his goals.
To combat such an overwhelming enemy is Jimmy Holm, Occult Detective extraordinaire who is appointed the leader of The Secret Twelve. This is an organization made up of scientists, law enforcement officials, industrialists, business magnates, The President of The United States and the head of organized crime in the United States himself, Tony Caminetti. It gives you some idea of how frightening the threat of Doctor Death is when Tony Caminetti gives his word that all organized crime in The U.S. will cease until Doctor Death is captured or destroyed.
From start to finish, Doctor – Twelve Must Die is nothing but solid fun. For me, the main thing about listening to an audiobook is the voice doing the reading. If it’s not an interesting voice full of energy and the ability to convey whatever emotion needed to tell the story, well, I’m just not gonna listen to it.
I’m happy to say that Joey D’Auria is a very interesting and exciting voice to listen to, especially during the sequences where Doctor Death goes off into one of his world conquering speeches which are simply a hoot to listen to. Doctor Death waxes wroth indeed as he outlines what malignant mischief he’s going to unleash next.
I’d never heard of Doctor Death before listening to this audiobook and it’s a great introduction to the character. If you’re a fan of supervillains as the star then you’ll enjoy this one. And it’s available today, five hours of fantastic Pulp goodness for $14.98 on CD and $9.98 as a digital download!
When asked what Pulp Fiction is, regardless if its classic tales from the medium’s greatest era in the early 20th Century or new stories written in the same vein and style by today’s writers, there are a few common traits usually mentioned by enthusiasts and fans. Pulp Fiction is usually described as being fast paced and plot driven. For the most part, this results in action packed short stories, packing all the wow possible into an economy of words. Even most Pulp novels fall into the realm of 60,000 words, definitely short by today’s standards for books. To every rule, even if it’s just more of a guideline, there must always be an exception. For New Pulp, that exception is the work of Wayne Reinagel, the one-man creative powerhouse behind Knightraven Studios.
Publisher, writer, artist, researcher, and formatter, Reinagel took the opportunity to dedicate his time to fulfilling a dream he’d had since childhood. “Being a passionate reader of comic books and novels since I was about knee-high,” said Reinagel, “I have always had a deep-seated desire to write and illustrate my own series of stories. About five years ago I started working on an epic-length ‘Steampulp’ story involving dozens of Victorian era characters of the late 1800’s combined with a group of four heroes of the 1930’s pulp era in a universe known as Infinite Horizons. The main title is Pulp Heroes and the individual novels are subtitled More Than Mortal, Khan Dynasty, and the upcoming Sanctuary Falls. The Hunter Island Adventure is the first of a long series of short stories, and it takes place between Khan Dynasty and More Than Mortal. The next series of novels take place in the 1800’s, and are described as Gothic Horror Steampunk. These are Modern Marvels – Viktoriana and the upcoming Modern Marvels – Gothika.”
The mix of historical and literary characters, as well as Reinagel’s own homages to known Pulp characters, makes his work stand out from most. Although many writers have tinkered with guest starring a literary character or tying their stories into historical events, very few, save possibly those involved in the writing of Wold Newton stories, have endeavored to weave such massive tales around known personages, both fictional and real. Reinagel’s decision to do this again goes back to his youth.
“At a very early age I began reading novels written during the mid-to-late 1800’s, such as Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, Dracula, and so on. During my teen years, I discovered reprints of the pulp era, specifically, Doc Savage and the Shadow. Even after all these years, these are still the stories I prefer to read for recreation.”

Reinagel recognizes that although he feels quite at home in the New Pulp world, some may not consider his books to be traditionally Pulp in the strictest sense. “My stories are a bit unique and often described as ‘epics.’ They are not a light snack, but rather an eight course dinner including a dessert and appetizer, and as such, not intended to be consumed at one sitting. They take the readers around the world and sometimes back through decades of time. The characters are more realistic – living, growing and sometimes even dying. The stories are vastly more complex than your average short pulp story, but I have had nothing but positive feedback from all my readers, so I must be doing something right.
“And,” continued Wayne, “I believe readers enjoy the addition depth added to existing stories and characters. For instance, in Khan Dynasty we explore a deeper storyline involving Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde. I actually wrote more pages regarding these two characters than the original author, Robert Louis Stevenson.”
As far as why people read Pulp and how his work clearly fits into that niche, Reinagel stated, “Pulp is fun, fast-paced, entertaining, and the best bang for the buck. Personally, I enjoy reading action/adventure stories that take me on a wild roller-coaster ride and still leave me wanting more. And that’s what I try to offer in each of my stories. A reader recently emailed me and stated that after he finished Khan Dynasty, which is nearly 600 pages long, he couldn’t wait to start reading the next novel. That’s a high compliment, indeed.”

As previously mentioned, Wayne Reinagel is currently the sole employee and only staff member of Knightraven Studios. This was not so much a part of his initial plan, according to Reinagel, as it was just a circumstance of the moment. “Honestly, I didn’t know any professional writers or artists when I began writing More Than Mortal. And I wanted to explore this opportunity in both writing and illustrating a full-length story. It’s also very gratifying to know that I accomplished so much in my little one-man studio.
There are positives and negatives for Wayne being the only driving force and labor pool for his studio. “The upside is I control every aspect of the story and art. I drive myself very hard, working on improving my craft. And it’s something I really enjoy. The downside? Sometimes progress is very slow, doing everything myself. Occasionally, I feel the need to step back, take a deep breath, and realize everything that I’ve accomplished.”
Regardless of the length of his works or the complexity he applies to plot and character, Wayne Reinagel clearly sees his work as Pulp. And his fans do as well. “One of my readers described my books as, “Lightning in a bottle.” I don’t think I can come up with a better description than that.”
Find out just how epic Wayne Reinagel’s work is by checking out the Knightraven Studios page in the Pulp Book Store!
Check out the new graphics in the Pulp Book Store! Each publisher has its own unique identity and the Pulp Book Store displays that with eye catching distinct artwork, tailor made for each storefront!

Pulp fiction’s legendary Master of Men returns in two classic novels from the Golden Age of Pulp Fiction, written by Norvell Page under the pseudonym of Grant Stockbridge. First, in “Overlord of the Damned” (October 1935), the Boss unleashes horrible death with his demonic acid guns… with a vat of the same deadly corrosive reserved for those who talk too much! With his beloved Nita van Sloan a hostage to a terrible doom, the Spider faces the soul-tearing prospect of planting the Spider seal on his friend Stanley Kirkpatrick, Commissioner of Police! Then, in “Dictator’s Death Merchants!” (July 1940), The jaws of death gape open when El Crocodilo feasts! With uncanny skill, he forestalls even the Spider’s best attempts to trap him. Striking without mercy, this menace from the past rises anew by demolishing a banking institution each night, in a mad scheme to take control of nothing less than all of America’s finances! This volume is available in two editions and features the original artwork from the October 1935 or the July 1940 edition of “The Spider” magazine. Both versions feature reformatted text and original interior illustrations to accompany each story. Available now for $14.95!

The Pulp Era’s strangest mystery man returns in two more epic adventures by Paul Ernst writing as “Kenneth Robeson.” First, can Justice, Inc. prevent secrets of an ancient civilization buried for centuries in The River of Ice from destroying the modern world? Then, scientists in Paris, Berlin and Montreal exhale fire as they die, setting The Avenger on the trail of The Flame Breathers and a deadly secret that threatens to plunge the world into a fiery infernal! BONUS: a thrilling adventure of Police Commissioner James Gordon, a.k.a. The Whisperer! This classic pulp reprint showcases H. W. Scott’s classic pulp covers, all the original interior illustrations by Paul Orban, and historical commentary by Will Murray. This fantastic reprint is only $14.95 in the Pulp Book Store!

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows! The Master of Darkness, agent Clyde Burke and Secret Service agent Vic Marquette investigate deadly plots in two thrilling pulp novels by Walter Gibson as “Maxwell Grant.” First, The Shadow’s investigation of The Embassy Murders unearths a sinister plot that threatens world peace. Then, the kidnapping of Clyde Burke leads The Shadow and his agents on a winding murder trail through New Jersey’s Hills of Death. BONUS: a two-fisted adventure of Police Commissioner James Gordon, a.k.a. The Whisperer! This instant collectors’ item features both classic cover paintings by George Rozen, the original interior pulp illustrations by Tom Lovell and Edd Cartier and historical commentary by popular culture historians Anthony Tollin and Will Murray. And it can be yours for $14.95!
Doc Savage and his beautiful cousin Patricia battle threats to national security in pulp classics by Evelyn Coulson and Lester Dent writing as “Kenneth Robeson.” First, while testing an experimental plane for the Army, Renny disappears after his airship is engulfed by The Yellow Cloud. Then, what has transformed Monk, Ham and Johnny into cowardly Men of Fear? The incredible secret could end the war, unless Nazi agents seize it first. This special collectors edition showcases the original color pulp covers by Emery Clarke, Paul Orban’s classic interior illustrations and historical commentary by Will Murray, author of eight Doc Savage novels. Available now for $14.95!
Follow the adventures of Mary Backstayge, Handsome Harry Backstayge, the idol of a million other women, their next door neighbor Calvin Hoogavin, stage door man, Pop Beloved and Broadway producer Greg Marlowe, who is secretly in love with Mary, as they leave Skunkhaven, Long Island to board a train for Seattle where they will open at a theater atop the Space Needle. Fielding Backstayge, Harry’s long-lost blacksheep brother, does his worst to disrupt the play, while the play’s backer, Wealthy Jacobus Pike, keeps a worried eye on things. A mysterious ululating Train Buff mysteriously appears, followed by many sprained ankles. Webley Webster, Artie Schermerhorn, The McBeeBee Twins, Chester Hasbrouck Frisbee, Ralph Flinger, Mr. I-Know-Where-They-Are, Dr. Elmer Stapley, The Word Wizard and the incomprehensible Dean Archer Armstead show up from time to time. Plus The Gathering Dusk. All in Volume 5 of Bob & Ray: The Soap Operas for $29.95 in the Pulp Book Store!

Already the best place to find Classic and New Pulp tales and Pulp related products from the best companies in the business, The Pulp Book Store goes itself one better! The Treasure Chest, the place to find great deals, now exclusively features products for the Pulp Book Store! Just click on the Treasure Chest on the Pulp Book Store Page and you’ll find fantastic monthly discounts on an ever changing variety of items from our various stores! Check the Treasure Chest now to see what great discounts await everyone from the avid Pulp Fan to the casual reader! The Treasure Chest is Open now in the Pulp Book Store!
Review of “Six Men of Evil” from The Shadow, Volume 13

By John Olsen

“Six Men of Evil” was originally published in the February 15, 1933 issue of The Shadow Magazine. Six men with a bizarre secret, exploit that secret in order to begin a crime wave that covers the entire United States. The Shadow will travel from New York to Mexico to San Francisco’s Chinatown before he will be able to conquer the evil of those six men. As our story opens, six men are on horseback, crossing the border from Mexico into Texas. They have only recently been released by ancestors of the ancient Aztecs, where they had been held captive as punishment for crimes against the lost tribe. Each man will adopt a new name and enter a new community as a respectable citizen. They will plan crime. Regardless of whether they murder or steal, they will do it openly and allow witnesses to see them. Because, they will have an iron-clad alibi. The perfect crime!
But before The Shadow can begin to combat this crime, he must take a trip to Mexico and find the lost city of Zeltapec. And this is where the story, which is already a corker, gets even better. And then, as if a trip to a lost civilization isn’t enough, we get a rousing climax when The Shadow visits San Francisco and it’s famed Chinatown. There we learn another secret about The Shadow’s girasol ring.
The Shadow appears as Lamont Cranston in this story. He is accompanied by his agents Burbank, Harry Vincent, investment-broker Rutledge Mann and reporter Clyde Burke. There is no mention of Kent Allard; author Gibson hadn’t invented him yet.
This is definitely an early version of The Shadow. He is nearly all-powerful. He wields a hypnotic presence; his eyes contain a mesmeric glint that brooks no refusal. He shoots to kill, not to wound; and he shoots straight the first time. His mastery of even the esoteric languages of the ancient Zeltapec chief is demonstrated here.
The early years of The Shadow Magazine are universally recognized to contain the best of The Shadow’s pulp adventures. And this story is definitely one of the best. Plenty of action. Plenty of mystery. Visits to far-flung places. And the exciting power of The Shadow at its most concentrated. It all goes to make this story a must-read. Treat yourself to one of the best of the best today for $12.95 at Radio Archives in the Pulp Book Store!
Comments From Our Customers!
Carole writes:
And Doc! Oh I do love being read to! I left off start of disc 4 of Python Isle–Doc is on the scene! Tear-gassed, surrounded by dead canaries and yowling cats, but he’ll find a way! (I’m quite partial to Ham, case you’re interested.) This is beyond rich, and the Book List lady’s comments re McConnohie made me smile. O my, isn’t he a wonder! I had to back track when he did the female holler for help. Murray’s jargon is even more fun on audio than in printed form. I tell you listening in the stillness of the night, lights on low, is just magic. I’m hooked. If I sound obsessed it’s because I am. Eager to rescue Renny, wonder what’s happened to Habeas. And never ever will “here kitty kitty” sound the same.
E. Tomlinson Fort:
The audio production of The Jade Ogre is absolutely terrific. Michael McConnohie has a good narrative voice and the production has nice little music cues throughout. As a novel, the books has its high and low points. There is good character development and the slower’ opening gives Murray plenty of time to set up his narrative. Likewise, I enjoyed the heavy involvement of Pat in this adventure, It is also a nice change to feature Ham without Monk for a good portion of the story. While I enjoy both characters immensely, their constant interaction occasionally needs a break. Having Ham playing a more prominent role is again a clever move by the author.
Brad Bennett:
I just wanted to write you and thank you for your quick service in sending me my order and also a great big thanks for putting out these wonderful operetta/musical comedy radio recordings. I certainly hope they sell and you are able to keep putting more and more out for the public to purchase. So thanks again for your terrific efforts in getting these Railroad Hour’s out for us to buy.
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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