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Besides posting book reviews, once in a while I will be posting articles on the subject of pulps. I hope we can generate more interest for the Blog. If you would like to share an article on the pulps, you can send me a message in the Comments of a post.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Radio Archives


 
November 22, 2013
 
 
 
Jungle Jim! The very name conjures up images of exotic locales, wild beasts and hostile natives. Jungle Jim braved these with the aid of his faithful Hindu companion Kolu as he traveled the wilds of southeastern Asia in search of adventure.
 
Jungle Jim is best remembered as the star of sixteen Columbia B-movies starring Johnny Weissmuller, fresh off his twelve-year stint as Tarzan, beginning in 1948. But Jungle Jim’s history goes back more than a decade.
 
Produced by Jay Clark and often written by Gene Stafford, The Adventures of Jungle Jim was on the air weekly from 1935 to 1954. A combination of jungle danger and colonial politics, the show brought listeners tales of slave traders, pirates, foreign spies, wild beasts, poachers, hostile tribes, and, during World War II, the Japanese, as Jim often served as an Allied operative. Armed with his trusty .45 automatic, the adventurer searched for lost treasure and investigated such mysteries as ghosts and unknown islands. Throughout it all, Jungle Jim maintained a cool head.
 
Beginning with Tarzan, the pulp era was full of jungle characters. Jungle Jim is one of the unique ones, in that he wasn’t a barely-literate loincloth-clad tree-dwelling wild man, but rather Jim Bradley, a hunter – a “great white hunter” in the mold of heroes of earlier popular fiction such as H. Rider Haggard’s Allan Quatermain and Lord John Roxton from Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World.
 
Jungle Jim was the archetypal Great White Hunter that one thinks of at the mention of “lost worlds”, which filled the pages of pulp magazines, and later, movie serials. He was everything one could ask for in a pulp protagonist – handsome, brave, resourceful.
 
Following a number of successful B-motion pictures for Columbia, Johnny Weissmuller continued the role in a 1955-56 Screen Gems television series consisting of 26 episodes. Jungle Jim also appeared in comic books by Standard (1949-1951), Dell (1953-1959) and Charlton (1969-1970).
 
This volume contains forty fifteen-minute episodes from 1937 and 1938, including the conclusion of “The Tiger’s Claw” (#81-96) and the beginning of “The Afghan Hills” (#97-120), for ten hours of exciting and intelligent adventure. $29.98 Audio CDs / $14.99 Download.
 
 
Special 50% discount Offer
Family life in the post-war years changed considerably from that which was common in the depression-ridden 1930s. For the first time, thanks to the G. I. Bill of Rights, everyday people could afford to get an education and a decent job or career - with returning veterans by the thousands taking advantage of the opportunity to establish themselves a far more solid foundation than they had known in the previous decade. Thus, gradually, America developed a new economic base with a new and ever-increasing standard of living. This new middle-class lifestyle, coupled with the baby boom that ran throughout the 1950s, changed the country from a rural/urban mix into a rural/urban/suburban culture — with housing developments, highways, shopping centers, and all of the other hallmarks of this new society becoming the norm.
 
As portrayed by Robert Young, the title character of Jim Anderson is a successful insurance salesman living in Springfield with his wife Margaret (June Whitley, Jean Vanderpyl) and their three children: Betty (Rhoda Williams), Bud (Ted Donaldson), and Kathy (Norma Jean Nilsson). Jim is ambitious, likable, and a good provider for his family — though he often grows exasperated by the turmoil that is a part of his everyday home life. The plots generally begin quite simply - Jim surprises Margaret with tickets to a show, for instance - then quickly become complicated as the plans, schemes, commitments, and miscommunications of their children and their friends and neighbors get in the way. As with all sit-coms, the complications are never all that serious and are, of course, all resolved by the end of the show — but, thanks to excellent writing and the outstanding acting talents of the principals, these hilarious slices of everyday life rise above the norm to make "Father Knows Best" one of the highlight series of late-era network radio entertainment.
 
Heard today, "Father Knows Best" still retains its ability to hilariously reflect the interpersonal relationships of a typical American family. Though life is certainly more complicated and diverse today than it was in the 1940s and 1950s, listeners can still easily recognize a bit of themselves and their children in the characters, their quirks, and their foibles. After all, though times change, people don't; raising good kids today is no easier or less complicated than it was in 1950, as you'll discover when you listen to these delightful episodes. Regular Price $29.98 - Specially priced until November 28 for $14.99 Audio CDs / $7.49 Download.
 
 
 
RadioArchives.com is giving away the downloadable version of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, Volume 3 for FREE.
 
“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...”
 
Author Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled gumshoe, Philip Marlowe was one of the most popular sleuths in the history of the crime fiction genre. Thrill to 12 half hour fully restored radio adventures in sparkling sound quality from Radio Archives.
 
If you prefer the Audio CDs to play in your car or home CD player, the coupon code will subtract the $8.99 price of the download version from the Audio CDs. That makes the Audio CDs half price.
 
Add The Adventures of Philip Marlowe Volume 3 to the shopping cart and use the Coupon Code RADIO.
 
 
Will Murray's Pulp Classics #38
by Edwin Truett
Read by Michael C. Gwynne. Liner Notes by Will Murray
 
 
As the grim 1930s turned into the dangerous 1940s, pulp magazine publishers began searching for new titles and concepts. One of the oldest, the Munsey Company, looked over the field with its Doc Savages, Shadows and Spiders and decided that the time for cloaked superheroic avengers had peaked. So they brainstormed a new breed of heroes that broke the mold.
 
The mystic Green Lama was the first. An American Buddhist lama who fought crime, he has never been duplicated.
 
Munsey followed up with an equally original crime-buster, Dr. Thaddeus Clay Harker. An aging but spry Kentucky colonel, Dr. Harker was a criminologist operating under the cover of an itinerant peddler of patent medicines, his Chickasha Remedies.
 
Doc Harker specialized in small-town trouble far from the big cities. His M. O. was to send his advance agent, the lovely master of disguise, Brenda Sloan, to lay the groundwork for his arrival. Then he and his strong right arm, ex-heavyweight wrestler Hercules Jones, would blow into a trouble spot and begin their quiet investigations, operating out of his mobile trailer crammed with patent medicines and sophisticated scientific apparatus designed to combat crime. No one suspected that the genteel Southerner with the courtly charm concealed a steel-trap intellect burning with a single-minded determination to stamp out evil. Yet once Doc Harker got started, invariably all hell would break loose!
 
The creation of Texas writer Edwin Truett “Bud” Long, Doc Harker debuted in Detective Dime Novels in April, 1940, and continued in Red Star Detective. In his first thrilling case, Doc and Herk come to Abbottville, Texas–-an outwardly ordinary place that the Underworld is planning to turn into a secret Crime Nest.
 
Every issue of Red Star Detective also included a backup novelette by the notorious Robert Leslie Bellem, starring Nick Ransom, ex-Hollywood stunt man turned private eye, the proprietor of Risks, Incorporated. “Peril for Sale” marks his debut.
 
Also included are three swift-moving short stories, Murray W. Mosser’s “Trouble For Three,” L. K. Frank’s “Trooper’s Vacation” and C. S. Montanye’s “A Gal Named Sal.”
 
Michael C. Gwynne turns on the charm in our most unusual audiobook. If you cotton to Doc Harker and his little band of troublebusters, we have lined up several sequels. 6 hours $23.98 Audio CDs / $11.99 Download.
 
 
 
RadioArchives.com and Will Murray are giving away the downloadable version of the newly released Strange Detective Mysteries audiobook for FREE.
 
If you prefer the Audio CDs to play in your car or home CD player, the coupon code will subtract the $11.99 price of the download version from the Audio CDs. That makes the Audio CDs half price.
 
Add Strange Detective Mysteries to the shopping cart and use the Coupon Code AUDIOBOOK.
 
“Strange Detective Mysteries #1 is one of my favorite pulps and I am excited to produce it as an audiobook with my good friends at Radio Archives. It leads off with Norvell W. Page’s bizarre novelette, “When the Death-Bat Flies,” and includes thrilling stories by Norbert Davis, Paul Ernst, Arthur Leo Zagat, Wayne Rogers and others. Popular Publications went all-out to make this 1937 debut issue a winner. And they succeeded!”
 
Happy listening,
Will Murray
 
 
New Will Murray's Pulp Classics eBooks
 
The best of timeless Pulp now available as cutting edge eBooks! Will Murray's Pulp Classics brings the greatest heroes, awesome action, and two fisted thrills to your eReader! Presenting Pulp Icons such as the Spider and G-8 and His Battle Aces as well as wonderfully obscure characters like the Octopus and Captain Satan. Will Murray's Pulp Classics brings you the best of yesterday's Pulp today!
 
Could the nation’s keenest lawmen stem the tide of murder and demolition created by El Crocodilo, when that brutal mystery-king of a bygone Underworld seemed able to forestall every brilliant, daring thrust of the Spider himself?... Read this stirring account of Richard Went-worth’s indomitable sally into the very jaws of the most sinister trap ever set to destroy the Master of Men! Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine. $2.99.

 
Their insignia were signs of the Zodiac... they fought only when ordered by the Stars! Yet G-8 had a hunch that this apparently superstitious staffel was important, that somehow it was playing death stakes in one of the most deadly war schemes ever laid — and he followed his hunch on a lone daring patrol! G-8 and his Battle Aces rode the nostalgia boom ten years after World War I ended. These high-flying exploits were tall tales of a World War that might have been, featuring monster bats, German zombies, wolf-men, harpies, Martians, and even tentacled floating monsters. Most of these monstrosities were the work of Germany’s seemingly endless supply of mad scientists, chief of whom was G-8’s recurring Nemesis, Herr Doktor Krueger. G-8 battled Germany’s Halloween shock troops for over a decade, not ceasing until the magazine folded in the middle of World War II. G-8 and his Battle Aces return in vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format. $2.99.
 
Only the Green Lama stood between this mysterious, sinister, master criminal, and the domination of the world. Only the Green Lama had the knowledge, out of the ages, and the fortitude, out of a life of strict adherence to Truth and belief in Justice, to combat this menace which threatened the very life of the nation. The jade-robed Buddhist priest who battled crime as The Green Lama is back! Conceived in 1939 at the behest of the editors of Munsey Publications to compete with The Shadow, 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 Tibetan 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. Om Mani Padme Hum! The Green Lama knows! The Green Lama returns in vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format. $2.99.
 
Introducing Dr. Thaddeus Clay Harker who has his own peculiar remedy for rat-infested towns. A new Dime Novels’ feature character. Detective Dime Novels featured the adventures of Dr. Thaddeus Harker, a sawbones with a penchant for crime. The first issue was dated April 1940. Doc Harker was an old-fashioned Southern gentleman, a retired chemist who now devotes his life to criminology. He travels around in a run-down medicine show with his two aides "Herk" Jones and Brenda Sloan. With this as his cover, he delivers his own brand of justice when crime sprouts. The second issue of the magazine series was renamed Red Star Detective and the series closed down after a total of four issues. The final issue did not feature Dr. Harker. Detective Dime Novels returns, reissued for today's readers in electronic format. $2.99.
 
99 cent eBook Singles
Each 99 cent eBook Single contains a single short story, one of the many amazing tales selected from the pages of Terror Tales and Rangeland Romances. These short stories are not included in any of our other eBooks.
 
Dr. Corvin saved my life — or did he? For he transferred my healthy brain into the body of a killer-maniac, a man who had spent his days spilling the blood he needed to appease the beautiful, sylph-like Prani. Now, I too craved Prani, and for her, I was willing to offer the blood of my wife! In 1934 a new type of magazine was born. Known by various names — the shudder pulps, mystery-terror magazines, horror-terror magazines — weird me most popular. It came from Popular Publications, whose publisher Harry Steeger was inspired by the Grand Guignol theater of Paris. This breed of pulp story survived less than ten years, but in that time, they became infamous, even to this day. This ebook contains a classic story from the pages of Terror Tales magazine, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format. $0.99.
 
To Raoul Barr the voice of his own dead had spoken — yet no voice was so fearful as that half-mad music which followed it, bringing the dancing death in its wake... In 1934 a new type of magazine was born. Known by various names — the shudder pulps, mystery-terror magazines, horror-terror magazines — weird menace is the sub-genre term that has survived today. Dime Mystery Magazine was one of the most popular. It came from Popular Publications, whose publisher Harry Steeger was inspired by the Grand Guignol theater of Paris. This breed of pulp story survived less than ten years, but in that time, they became infamous, even to this day. This ebook contains a classic story the pages of Dime Mystery Magazine, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format$0.99.
 
Lovely Lucky made a reckless bet with conniving Caleb — hoping to find a way to handsome Sid’s arms. Her betting folly won her a kiss — and an unwelcome sweetheart. One of the most popular settings for romance stories was the old west, where men were men and women were women. As many a swooning damsel could attest, "There's something about a cowboy." The western romance became one of the most popular types of magazines sold during the early and mid-twentieth century. $0.99.
 
All eBooks produced by Radio Archives are available in ePub, Mobi, and PDF formats for the ultimate in compatibility. When you upgrade to a new eReader, you can transfer your eBook to your new device without the need to purchase anything new.
 
Find these legendary Pulp tales and more in Will Murray's Pulp Classics, now available at:
 
 
Search for RadioArchives.com in iTunes.
 
 
 
 
Receive an exciting original Spider adventure FREE! Part of the Will Murray Pulp Classics line, The Spider #11, Prince of the Red Looters first saw print in 1934 and features his momentous battle with The Fly and his armies of crazed criminal killers.
 
For those who have been unsure about digging into the wonderful world of pulps, this is a perfect chance to give one of these fantastic yarns a real test run. With a full introduction to the Spider written by famed pulp historian and author Will Murray, The Spider #11 was written by one of pulp's most respected authors, Norvell W. Page. Writing as Grant Stockbridge, Page's stories included some of the most bizarre and fun takes on heroes and crime fighting in the history of escapist fiction.
 
Even today Page's scenarios and his edge-of-the-seat writing style are still thrilling both new and old fans everywhere. For those who have never read one of these rollercoaster adventures, you are in for a thrill. If you already know how much fun a classic pulp is, make sure you get a copy of this classic.
 
See what the Total Pulp Experience is for yourself. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
 
Send an eMail to eBooks@RadioArchives.com and start reading your FREE copy of the Spider #11 within seconds! Experience The Best Pulps the Past has to offer in the most modern way possible!
 
 
 
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 Jewels Of Hell" (1940), Tough, dauntless miners, accustomed to hardship and danger, paled in helpless terror as their homes were destroyed, their loved ones slaughtered! No one was safe, above ground or below, when The Killer walked among them. Only the Spider dared challenge the strangle-hold of fear that held an entire town in its deadly grip! Then, in "Recruit For the Spider Legion" (1943), Staunch supporter of justice and champion of the law Stanley Kirkpatrick, finds himself about to gain unexpected insights into the workings of the system when he himself is faced with the electric chair! Can the very man who has forever branded the Spider a criminal for his vigilante efforts join with his old enemy to battle the forces of Kali? 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. On sale for $12.95, save $2.00
 
 
The Master of Darkness crushes murderous evil in two classic pulp thrillers by Walter B. Gibson writing as “Maxwell Grant.” First, The Shadow enters “The Circle of Death” to uncover the strange secret behind a bizarre series of Time Square killings! Then, the murder of a museum curator by an ancient Mayan stone hammer is only the first of an inexplicable series of robberies. Can The Shadow unmask the hidden mastermind behind “The Sledge-Hammer Crimes” and end the deadly crime wave? This instant collector’s item features both original color pulp covers by George Rozen, the classic interior illustrations by legendary illustrator Tom Lovell and commentary by popular culture historian Will Murray. $14.95.
 
The pulp era’s greatest superman returns in two fantastic novels by Lester Dent writing as “Kenneth Robeson.” A bizarre white ogre’s blinding light brings severe illness to Monk, Ham and all exposed to it in "The All-White Elf"! Then, bizarre reports of a strange miniaturized woman set Doc Savage on the trail of the mystery of “The Wee Ones.” BONUS: a classic Doc Savage script from the Golden Age of Radio! This deluxe pulp reprint features the original color covers by Emery Clarke and Modest Stein and all the original interior illustrations by Paul Orban, plus new historical commentary by Will Murray and Anthony Tollin. $14.95.

Pulp fiction’s legendary Man of Bronze returns in two of his most engrossing adventures. Doc Savage battles genetically-engineered giants in “The Monsters,” the classic pulp thriller that inspired the Hugo Strange story in “Batman” #1. Then, the Man of Bronze and his Iron Crew discover that a metabolism-accelerating elixir is creating an army of superpowered criminals in “The Whisker of Hercules.” This classic pulp reprint also features the original color pulp covers by Walter Baumhofer and Modest Stein, interior illustrations by Paul Orban, and historical articles by Will Murray. Plus a NEW expanded variant edition with additional historical commentary by Brian M. Kane and a 15 page interview with James Bama, the artist who defined Doc Savage for modern fans.144 pages. $14.95.
 
The pulps’ legendary “Man of Steel” returns in three action-packed pulp thrillers by Paul Ernst and Emile Tepperman writing as “Kenneth Robeson.” First, a stolen formula provides crime with a pill that transforms subjects into superhuman murder machines in “The Happy Killers.” Then, targeted with“The Black Death,” The Avenger must unmask the satanic mastermind behind the Black Wings Cult before his own life is forfeit! PLUS “Cargo of Doom,” a bonus Avenger thriller by Spider-scribe Emile Tepperman! This classic pulp reprint showcases the classic color pulp covers, Paul Orban’s interior illustrations and commentary by pulp historian Will Murray. $14.95.
 
This is an authentic replica of an original pulp magazine published by Girasol Collectables. This edition is designed to give the reader an authentic taste of what a typical pulp magazine was like when it was first issued - but without the frailty or expense of trying to find a decades-old collectable to enjoy. The outer covers, the interior pages, and the advertisements are reprinted just as they appeared in the original magazine, left intact to give the reader the true feel of the original as well as an appreciation for the way in which these publications were first offered to their avid readers. To further enhance the “pulp experience”, this edition is printed on off-white bond paper intended to simulate the original look while, at the same time, assuring that this edition will last far longer than the original upon which it is based. The overall construction and appearance of this reprint is designed to be as faithful to the original magazine as is reasonably possible, given the unavoidable changes in production methods and materials. $35.00.
 
by Will Murray and Lester Dent, writing as Kenneth Robeson
 
When out of work magician Gulliver Greene stumbles upon a man who claims to be Christopher Columbus, still alive in 1937, it’s only the start of the most complex plot ever to involve the incredible Doc Savage.
Called to the sleepy farm town of La Plata, Missouri, the Man of Bronze plunges into the enigma of the vanishing Victorian house. Is it haunted? Is it even real? Can Doc solve the mystery—or will he be sucked into the unknown vortex into which it disappears?
From his supersecret Crime College to a sinister island in the Great Lakes, Doc Savage and his brilliant team race to untangle the most baffling webwork of Halloween horrors ever encountered. For many weird mysteries beyond human ken converge in the Missouri wilderness in this, the wildest Doc Savage adventure yet! $24.95.
 
by Will Murray
 
The Writers of the Purple Wage have long since taken the last trail into dusty memory. But, now, they live again––to retell tall tales of those distant days when they helped forge the fabled West of American Imagination.
 
They’re all here!
*The Popular hacks!
*The Spicy bestsellers!
*The Thrilling myths!
 
Those amazing million-words-a-year men!
True Westerners born on the Range!
Broadway cowboys never West of Hoboken!
 
Join Max Brand, Luke Short, Johnston McCulley, Ernest Haycox, Walt Coburn, Frank Gruber, Ryerson Johnson, & a hard-working, fast-drawing posse of freelance fictioneers!
 
And those two-fisted foremen of New York’s fiction factories–magazine editors Frank Blackwell, Rogers Terrill, Leo Margulies, Robert Lowndes & Fanny Ellsworth!
 
Together, in their own words, these veteran pulpsters & others offer startling inside stories of how they created the mythology of the Golden West!
 
*Blazing action! Savage characterization! Real emotion!
 
Ride with the Old West’s top gunhands, greatest pulpsmiths & legendary brands. From Buffalo Bill, Deadwood Dick & Hopalong Cassidy to Gunsmoke & Louis L’Amour, this is their saga.
 
Armed with forgotten interviews, controversial essays & candid letters first not seen in generations, acclaimed pulp historian Will Murray, author of The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage, reveals the epic life & frequent deaths of the Pulp West!469 pages, approx. 6"x9" $29.98


By Dr. Art Sippo
 
In the South Pacific, Doc Savage and his men are awaiting a momentous natural event. A mysterious substance will be spewed forth from a volcano that will revolutionize science. But there is danger afoot. Master criminal Cadwiller Olden is stalking the expedition and intends to steal the prize from Doc Savage himself.

Olden is a strange man. He is wealthy and has his own personal yacht. He is a little person barely 4 feet tall. He likes to surround himself with large strapping men whom he insists remain shirtless. He has a Polynesian body guard, Nero, who is seven feet tall, massively muscled, and has an ugly knife scar on his face which gives him a perpetual sneer. It is rumored that Nero is a cannibal who eats the men he kills!

Once again Doc and his crew are thrown into battle with the nefarious forces of evil. This time the prize is one of the secrets of nature itself! And the enemy is a resourceful adversary with few, if any scruples. He intends to have Nero grapple with the Bronze Man and defeat him in one-on-one combat.

Can Doc defeat the machinations of Cadwiller Olden? Will he succumb to the brutal Nero and be placed at the monster’s mercy? Will the world be brought under the thumb of this diminutive monster?

This story was reprinted by Bantam in the 1960s as “The Deadly Dwarf” and has been a perpetual fan favorite. Cadwiller Olden is one of the great Doc Savage villains whose fate at the end of the story remains unknown. Could there be a rematch?

Don’t miss “Repel,” one of the greatest Doc Savage Supersagas! Double Novel reprint $12.95
 
Comments From Our Customers!
 
Loree Byers writes:
Hi Archives! Like many other Americans today, I have to work 2 jobs to keep our heads above the tide. I am 55, and it wears me out. For that reason, much of what I hear on the radio-news and politics- infuriates me. So I check out "Dragnet 3 & 4 from our local library, and suddenly, my commute from job to job is better than bearable.I love this so much, I'm going to buy my brother "Escape 2" for Christmas because he has to drive a lot, and I know the news drives him nuts, too. Please don't stop making CDs!
 
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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