Description:
The advent of the VCR has made the movies of the 1930s and 1940s available to a contemporary audience, but radio shows from that era have remained elusive. This wonderful collection sets out to rectify that problem, offering 60 shows from that golden age of radio. The range of entertainment--the set contains 20 hours of material--is breathtaking, running the gamut from comedy routines (Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First") through mystery serials ("The Saint" with Vincent Prince) to variety shows (Jack Benny's "Money or Your Life") and radio plays (Orson Welles's infamous 1937 "panic broadcast" of the "War of the Worlds"). The table of contents reads like a "Who's Who" of entertainment legends--Jimmy Durante, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Groucho Marx--and classic characters--Sam Spade, the Shadow, the Lone Ranger. The collection also has tremendous historical cachet, providing an intriguing glimpse of the sensibilities of a bygone era. Retro buffs will be delighted by the vintage radio ads that accompany the broadcasts. These unbelievably enthusiastic pitches for cigarettes and hair tonics are fascinating, occasionally hilarious reminders that these were very different times: in one 1946 broadcast, Camel Cigarettes boasts of the cartons of smokes it donated to veterans' hospitals. As both a time capsule and a survey of first-rate entertainment, the collection is a treasure, whether you were raised on radio or are uncovering its charms for the first time. (Running time: 30 hours, 20 cassettes) --Andrew Neiland
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