December 6, 2013
has a wide selection of Pulps - Books - Old Time Radio - Audiobooks - Cassettes and lots more at great prices. More than 50 discounted items, supplies limited.
Very rarely does a technical part of any program become almost as well known as the show itself. That happened, though, with one particular sound effect that can be heard on Fibber McGee and Molly. Well known still today for lovable, hilarious characters and witty, well written scripts, Fibber McGee and Molly is also fondly remembered because of the Hall Closet. Fibber would find himself in need of something that he had misplaced or stored away. Deciding it was in a closet, Fibber would open the door and be buried under a cascade of thumps, crashes, bangs, and dings. This cacophony was well planned, perched precariously on a constructed set of stairs. As the sound effects crew waited for the effect to actually be called for in the script, however, they were constantly afraid it would collapse before its time.
Just one aspect of the program that entered into the public consciousness, the Hall Closet did so and quickly. People of course talked about the gag so much so that it entered into common language. It’s not unheard of still today to hear someone say or have a writer refer to ‘McGee’s closet’ or ‘Opening Fibber’s door’ to mean getting more than you bargained for.
Enjoy an entire season restored to sparkling audio quality in The Fibber McGee & Molly Show, The 1947/1948 Season. Enjoy all the characters, repartee between Molly and Fibber, and yes, the closet that makes this show a standout still today!
Fibber McGee and Molly expert, Karl Pearson, is the Series Contributor for this set. 18 hours. $53.98 Audio CDs / $26.99 Download.
Twins Judy and Jimmy Barton crawled into their attic one December day and found a passageway to a place called Maybeland. They looked in all the dusty corners for any sign of the silver star that always sat atop their Christmas tree. Their search crossed the path of little Paddy O'Cinnamon, "The Cinnamon Bear," who had shoe-button eyes and a ferocious growl. He showed them a small hole through which the Crazy Quilt dragon had absconded with their star and invited Judy and Jimmy to pursue the rascal. Paddy would function as a guide and they'd chase the dragon throughout Maybeland. Paddy magically "de-grew" the twins so they'd fit through the attic tunnel, fired up a miniature airplane powered by soda pop, and flew the Barton kids into a startling and wondrous adventure.
So begins "The Cinnamon Bear," a delightful, one-of-a-kind children's series produced in 1937 by TRANSCO, the Transcription Company of America. Intended to be heard between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the series features twenty-six fifteen-minute cliffhanger installments. The program immediately hooks children because suspenseful fun is always present as each episode concludes with yet another obstacle for Paddy and the twins to overcome. The dragon eventually joins up with the trio but remains unpredictable and mischievous. Named "Crazy Quilt," he succumbs time and time again to his obsession with the shiny silver star.
So begins "The Cinnamon Bear," a delightful, one-of-a-kind children's series produced in 1937 by TRANSCO, the Transcription Company of America. Intended to be heard between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the series features twenty-six fifteen-minute cliffhanger installments. The program immediately hooks children because suspenseful fun is always present as each episode concludes with yet another obstacle for Paddy and the twins to overcome. The dragon eventually joins up with the trio but remains unpredictable and mischievous. Named "Crazy Quilt," he succumbs time and time again to his obsession with the shiny silver star.
"The Cinnamon Bear" is, arguably, the best holiday series ever developed for radio. Containing all of the elements of a classic children's fantasy, combined with radio's unique ability to create vivid mental images in the minds of its listeners, it continues to delight both young and old. And now, for the first time, you can hear and enjoy "The Complete Cinnamon Bear" -- including all twenty-six original and unedited shows, the original 1937 promotional recording, and all of the songs from the series as transferred from an original set of 78 RPM recordings. Each of the programs has been digitally transferred directly from a set of original 16" broadcast transcriptions and painstakingly restored for outstanding audio fidelity - truly the best-sounding version of the series that has ever been released. It's yet another triumph for Paddy and his band of travelers as, after well over seventy years, they once again carry on their magical search for the silver star. 7 hours $20.98 Audio CDs / $10.49 Download.
Special 50% discount Offer
A good story is a good story, whether it was written two weeks ago, two decades ago, or even two centuries ago. And nowhere is that truer than in "The Weird Circle", a half-hour anthology series that was first aired back in 1943.
The stories offered by "The Weird Circle" were generally adapted from popular fiction - popular fiction of the 19th century, that is. And since the focus was on horror and suspense, the macabre, atmospheric, and often ironic tales of such writers as Edgar Allan Poe and Honore de Balzac were a staple of its success. Also included were such familiar chestnuts as "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens' "The Queer Client", Charlotte Bronte's novel "Jane Eyre" (also a particular favorite of Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater company), and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson. Stories of this vintage, rooted in the Victorian attitudes and morality of the 1800s, generally made for good radio drama; they were, after all, classics.
In this Radio Archives collection, you'll hear twenty consecutive broadcasts from "The Weird Circle", just as originally aired in 1943 and 1944. As an extra bonus, we've uncovered the transcription disc containing the original openings and closings of the shows, allowing you to hear these programs in their original as-broadcast format for the first time in decades. If you're familiar with some or all of the stories offered in this series, Radio Archives is sure you'll enjoy revisiting your favorites in a different form. If you've read only a few of these stories - or, better still, if you've never read any of them - we promise that you're in for a real treat.
So, bell keeper! Toll the bell, so that all may know that we are gathered again in...the Weird Circle! Regular Price $29.98 - Specially priced until December 12 for $14.99 Audio CDs / $7.49 Download.
Special 50% discount Offer
"You're about to be entertained by some of the biggest names in show business..."
November 5, 1950 saw the debut of what many observers at that time considered radio's "last gasp": "The Big Show" - "ninety minutes with the most scintillating personalities in the entertainment world." The National Broadcasting Company mounted the expensive, star-studded extravaganza in an effort to reclaim its former dominance on Sunday nights.
With a price tag of nearly $100,000 (that's $885,000 in today's dollars) per broadcast, "The Big Show" presented a weekly mixture of comedy, drama and music from such guest stars as Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman, Danny Thomas, Groucho Marx, Fanny Brice, Bob Hope, Eddie Cantor, Rudy Vallee, Judy Garland and Fred Allen - the latter graduating to semi-regular/contributing writer status.
The music for "The Big Show" was supervised by maestro Meredith Willson, who not only oversaw the program's 44-piece orchestra and 16-voice chorus. "The jewel in the crown of "The Big Show" was indisputably the fine, polished writing - supervised by "ace" comedy scribe Goodman Ace (of "Easy Aces" fame) and staffed with the likes of George Foster, Morton Green, Frank Wilson and Selma Diamond.
"The Big Show" has long been considered one of radio's biggest financial failures but, listening to the program through 21st Century ears, the show will surprise many a radio fan; the program's writing remains top-notch, the performers are at the peak of their craft, and the music remains sprightly and entertaining as ever. Radio Archives invites you to listen to the first five shows of the series that has been expertly transferred and completely restored. Regular Price $29.98 - Specially priced until December 12 for $14.99 Audio CDs / $7.49 Download.
Will Murray's Pulp Classics #39
by George F. Worts writing as Loring Brent
Read by Milton Bagby. Liner Notes by Will Murray
Beginning in 1882, Frank A. Munsey’s Argosy magazine was the first and most influential pulp magazine of the 20th century.
At its height, it was published each and every week, and contained a veritable cornucopia of fabulous fiction in all genres. Detective and mystery stories. Westerns. Love stories. Sports. Even science-fiction and fantasy filled its pages. Esteemed writers ranging from Edgar Rice Burroughs to Erle Stanley Gardner graced its beloved pages.
When Argosy finally folded in 1978, it was no longer a fiction magazine, but it was, and remains to this day, a powerhouse pulp periodical.
Now Radio Archives is delving into the back pages of this celebrated magazine in an effort to present some of the best feature fiction Argosy presented during its near-century of publication. Overseeing this production is one of the great scholars of the pulp era, novelist Robert Weinberg, who we are proud to have join the Radio Archives team.
“Radio Archives is issuing the best of the pulps in audio and eBook format,” he says. “It’s a pleasure to work with them, bringing back some of the greatest action fiction ever published for modern fans!”
Bob’s first selection spotlights one of the most popular Argosy authors of the 1930s. Georg F. Worts, whether under his own name or the pseudonym of Loring Brent, was a Munsey mainstay going back to World War I.
Arguably his most popular creation was Peter Moore, the American adventurer known in the Orient as Peter the Brazen, otherwise famed as the Man of Bronze. Doc Savage writer Lester Dent was a huge fan of Argosy, and read it every week without fail. No doubt he was influenced by Peter the Brazen when he created his own Man of Bronze in 1933.
Undoubtedly the most diabolical foe Peter the Brazen encountered during his exciting sojourn in Asia was the Man with the Jade Brain, otherwise known as the enigmatic Blue Scorpion.
For our inaugural Argosy audiobook, we present the first thrilling encounter between these two implacable antagonists, “Cave of the Blue Scorpion,” and its novel-length sequel, Sting of the Blue Scorpion. This is a clash of pulp titans set against an exotic locale. You will never forget George F. Worts compelling stories, nor his clashing antagonists. Read by Milton Bagby. 7 hours $27.98 Audio CDs / $13.99 Download.
by Jeff Deischer
Read by Nick Santa Maria
Created by Robert Hardy Andrews, Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy was one of the first and most memorable of the adventure radio serials. Running from 1933 to 1951, it featured the resourceful high school student on a dizzying collection of adventures that spanned the globe. He often accompanied Colonel Jim Fairfield, an aviation industrialist, and Fairfield's brave niece and nephew Betty and Billy on their travels. Backing them up was two-fisted Vic Hardy, a brilliant scientist and sleuth.
Now, for the first time, one of the Jack Armstrong serials has been novelized and is now available from Radio Archives as a 12 hour audiobook. Noted author Jeff Deischer adapts Jack Armstrong and the Secret of U-77 from the 1946 James Jewell production — a serial for which none of the original recordings exist. Jeff is known for his strong narrative, which gives this story an authentic flavor.
In the post-war world, danger is not always so easy to see. But Jack Armstrong identifies it in the form of Dr. Romago, a unscrupulous scientist who abandoned his native United States before the war. After being mysteriously missing for several years, Romago has returned — and he is after the secret of U-77.
What is U-77, and why does Dr. Romago seek it? Jack can only guess. But he does know that if Romago wants it, he can’t be permitted to have it. Accompanied by his loyal friends, Uncle Jim, Betty and Billy Fairfield, Jack and Vic Hardy head down to the Sea Islands off the Southern Atlantic coast, where Romago has been driving away the local fishermen through his underling, Pachino the Eel, a gangster who has crossed paths with scientist Vic Hardy before.
Aboard his schooner, The Gray Ghost, Romago squats, a fat spider pulling on the strands of his web like the strings of a puppet, manipulating the fishermen of Thunderbolt, Georgia, his own henchmen — and even Jack Armstrong!
Jack Armstrong and the Secret of U-77 takes Jack and his friends from New York City to the coast of Georgia down to the bottom of the ocean in this exciting 12 hour long saga.
Douglas Klauba has painted a gorgeous wraparound cover for this special audiobook. 11 hours. Regular Price $47.98 - Specially priced until December 12 for $23.99 Audio CDs / $11.99 Download.
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!
Into a great auditorium flocked New York’s City Council, its Borough Presidents and its Police executives, to vote NO to a new crime king’s ultimatum demanding that New York surrender! Yet they changed their minds — because Asmodeus, King of Darkness, televised before their eyes a picture of their loved ones dying horribly! After that, all hopes were pinned on just one man... the Spider! 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.
Torn from the pages of the first and foremost pulp magazine, the fabled Argosy, and chosen from among thousands of stories by premier pulp authority, Robert Weinberg! Argosy magazine was the first and most influential pulp magazine of the 20th century. At its height, it was published each and every week, and contained a veritable cornucopia of fabulous fiction in all genres. Detective and mystery stories. Westerns. Love stories. Sports. Even science-fiction and fantasy filled its pages. Esteemed writers ranging from Edgar Rice Burroughs to Erle Stanley Gardner graced its beloved pages. Now Radio Archives is delving into the pages of this celebrated magazine in an effort to present some of the best feature fiction Argosy presented during its near-century of publication. Overseeing this production is one of the great scholars of the pulp era, novelist Robert Weinberg. “Radio Archives is issuing the best of the pulps in audio and eBook format,” he says. “It’s a pleasure to work with them, bringing back some of the greatest action fiction ever published for modern fans!” 2.99.
A mist of madness swept the skies, and G-8 knew that the answer must be found! Allied pilots lost, and then returned as gibbering idiots! Germany’s forces swept the air, and the end was now in sight, if the Master Spy and his Aces could not combat this terrible menace! G-8 opposes himself to the genius of a madman! 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.
The Green Lama untangles the threads of a complicated murder and spy plot with the help of his faithful followers and the assistance of that remarkable woman of mystery — the inscrutable Magga. 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.
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.
In the early 1930s, with the growing success of The Shadow on radio, it was only natural that Doc Savage would be considered a prime candidate for the broadcast medium. Lester Dent certainly thought so - and, in fact, when he signed his first long-term contract with Street and Smith to write Doc's pulp adventures, he made certain to assign himself the ancillary rights to alternate versions of the character, including both radio and motion pictures. In 1934, Dent contracted to write a weekly fifteen-minute Doc Savage radio series to be sponsored by Cystex, "that remarkable doctor's prescription for the relief of kidney disorders", or so the sponsor advertised on the broadcasts. Aired on a weekly basis between February and August of that year, the series proved somewhat popular - but, unfortunately, not popular enough to warrant producing more than the initial twenty-four episode run. Part of the problem, it was felt, was that Doc's pulp adventures were too detailed, too intense, and too heavily populated to be captured in a quarter-hour format - particularly one that wasn't a serial but, instead, featured a complete story each week. What's more, the limited budgets of early 1930s radio didn't allow many actors to appear in each script, reducing Doc's Fabulous Five down to one, Monk Mayfair, who became the Man of Bronze's burly sidekick on the air.
Twenty-four weeks after it began, the Doc Savage radio series ended and was soon forgotten, relegated to the annals of misbegotten opportunities. No recordings were known to survive and, until the early 1980s, it was assumed that the scripts, too - all new and original stories, written especially for radio - were lost to the ages. Then, by chance, writer Will Murray happened to be going through Lester Dent's files and discovered that Dent had indeed kept carbon copies of his scripts for the radio version of "Doc Savage" and, what's more, that he had also retained copies of scripts for a few shows that were never broadcast - a total of twenty-nine original Doc Savage adventures that no one had seen, heard, or read in over forty years! Now, Moonstone Books is proud to announce the first complete compilation of all of these exciting and largely unknown radio adventures, bringing together the long-lost tales of The Man of Bronze in one single volume! Written by Lester Dent and edited by and including a fascinating introduction by Will Murray, this 352 page volume also contains beautiful interior illustrations by artist Tom Roberts created especially for this release and an iconic cover painting by Bantam artist Bob Larkin. It's truly an item that's a "must have" for the personal library of any Doc Savage enthusiast - and what a great gift to give the pulp fiction lover in your family!. Regular Price $22.95 - Specially priced until December 12 for $11.47
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.
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.
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.
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