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I recently wrote a hard-boiled ebook. Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth. It is the story of a worn out detective named Benny Cahill who is hired to help out a jockey. When the jockey is found dead, Cahill's problem are just starting. If you enjoy OTR show like Sam Spade, Jeff Reagan, Dick Powell and other, than you will enjoy this book. You can find the book on Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and iTunes. If you enjoy, please review it and tell your friends.

CyberGhost. 

Sometimes you might want to access some content that is blocked by your location. Say you want to watch HULU from outside the U.S. or if in the U.S. there might be some content on BBC iPlayer restricted from U.S. you would like to view. That is where a VPN comes in. 

I have been using the free version of CyberGhost and it works great for that purpose. It is simple to use and it protects your online privacy, you can surf anonymously and access  locked or censored content. Also it does not slow down your internet connection. The free version sometimes has a few seconds wait to find a slot, but that is not bad for free. It is usually less than 30 seconds. 

Link: http://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_us

Arcadia is a 1993 play by Tom Stoppard concerning the relationship between past and present and between order and disorder and the certainty of knowledge. It has been cited by many critics as the finest play from one of the most significant contemporary playwrights in the English language. wikipedia

Arcadia (1-5) Tom Stoppard.mp3
Arcadia (2-5) Tom Stoppard.mp3
Arcadia (3-5) Tom Stoppard.mp3
Arcadia (4-5) Tom Stoppard.mp3
Arcadia (5-5) Tom Stoppard.mp3

click on image

Who Goes There? is a science fiction novella by John W. Campbell, Jr., written under the pen name Don A. Stuart. It was first published in the August 1938 Astounding Science-Fiction.

In 1973 the story was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the finest science fiction novellas ever written. It was published with the other top vote-getters in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two.
The novella has been adapted three times as a motion picture: the first in 1951 as The Thing from Another World; the second in 1982 as The Thing directed by John Carpenter; and most recently as a prequel to the Carpenter version, also titled The Thing, released in 2011.

The story concerns an Antarctic expedition undertaken by 37 men who now reside in a camp that affords little privacy. It opens with the men of the team gathered to discuss an unusual find: a 3-eyed alien creature encased in a block of ice that was retrieved nearby where a space ship was also discovered beneath the ice. Despite some initial misgivings, the camp’s doctor, Blair, proceeds to thaw out the creature so that he may examine it.

Who Goes There? by John W Campbell.mp3

https://archive.org/details/1992--poetryByDouglasBowman

Recordings narrated by Jack Benny and Frank Knight.

JBGM Side 01 - Remember The Golden Days Of Radio.mp3

You can find the set in OTR Collections Group

BBC R4 [1996] Cinema 100 -- Val Gielgud & Holt Marvell - Death at Broadcasting House

A murder, done live and broadcast over the air?  Unthinkable! The play is "Death at Broadcasting House", recreated from the 1934 film by Val Gielgud & Holt Marvell.  This radio production, dramatized by Sue Rodwell, was first broadcast in 1996 and is part of Radio 4's Cinema 100 series.   

This is radio-about-radio, with a wealth of detail and period atmosphere that recreates the live-radio world of the 1930s, from the low-tech special effects to the high-maintenance "stars" who read their roles on the air -- once.  The concept of recording was new, and the very idea itself challenged both the technicians who made radio and the law.  

Produced exactly where the play is set, at Broadcasting House in London, studio 6A.

Cast:
Julian: John Moffat
Rodney Fleming: Jeremy Clyde
Detective Inspector Spears: Peter Sallis
The General: Graham Crowden
Guy Bannister: Roger May
Leopold Dryden: William Nighy
Isabel Dryden: Diana Quick
Stewart Evans: Julian Glover
Detective Sergeant Ring: Nicky Henson
Topsy: Becky Hindley
Pat: Caroline Strong
Higgins: Gavin Muir
McDonald: David Holt
Police Surgeon: John Hartley

Produced by Glyn Dearman
Directed by Enid Williants

Kind: MPEG Audio File
Size: 45.3 MB
Bit Rate: 160 kbps
Sample Rate: 44.100kHz
Type : mp3
Channels: Stereo

Death At Broadcasting House pt 1 by Val Gielgud & Holt Marvel.mp3

Death At Broadcasting House pt 2 by Val Gielgud & Holt Marvel.mp3

"Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid" (Universal-International, 1948) this was another opportunity to work with one of my favourite screen stars of all time and a true movie legend Ann Blyth. William Powell. Unfortunately, Mr. Powell was very ill during the production, but "you would never have known it." He was a consummate actor and professional at all times. Filming was to start the summer of 1947, but ended up being delayed until February of '48. The cast and crew endured rainy weather, unusually cold temperatures and even pneumonia from some of its principal cast while they managed to "pretend" to be happily secluded on a South Sea island.

The plot revolves around Mr. Peabody (Powell), a "mature" gentleman on the eve of his fiftieth birthday. When he and his beautiful wife (Irene Hervey) escape to a Caribbean seaside retreat for the occasion, the magical "fish story" begins. Powell encounters a mermaid named Lenore (Ann Blyth), and everyone including his wife believes her to be nothing more than a figment of his imagination -- A fantasy manifested out of anxiety over his lost youth.

Andrea King’s scenes had to be filmed inside a giant heated water tank, still located on the Universal back lot. Andrea and Ann Blyth were both accomplished swimmers, so they rose to the challenge of doing their own underwater stunts, including a complicated sequence where Andrea catfights with the jealous mermaid. She recalls that particular day with a laugh. They attempted to film without heat in the middle of winter. "The tank's water heater was malfunctioning, they told us. So we tried anyway for about half hour, but Annie and Andrea King just went numb! I think Annie got terribly sick after that."

In the spring of 1947 Annie had got her driving license, and she what’d to drive  down scenic route down CA-243 abounds with mountain vistas and fire-following spring flowers. From Redlands, the CA-38 meanders northeast through an impressive rocky landscape that modulates into conifer territory as one climbs toward Big Bear Dubbed “Southern California’s only four-season resort,” Big Bear Lake nevertheless has an off-season in spring. After the skiers have departed and before the summer crowd has arrived, accommodations are plentiful and cheaper than at other times, although both weather and sightseeing are at their best in spring.

Gunsmoke was an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West.

The radio version ran from 1952 to 1961 and is commonly regarded as one of the finest radio dramas of all time. The television version ran from 1955 to 1975 and is the longest running prime time drama and the second-longest running prime time fictional program in U.S. television history, its record surpassed only by the Disney anthology television series and Hallmark Hall of Fame.

Here is two interviews about the old time radio series.

Does anyone out there recall a mystery/detective radio program that would have aired in northern England in the late 1930's  or 1940's?  I have a friend that recall such a program, but I couldn't find any reference to it on line.

It may have been Spot My Particular or Deliberate Mistake.   Thanks, Lynn

December 23, 1928: On this day the National Broadcasting Company was established its coast to coast network which lead to the golden age of radio.

The NBC has several networks, one of them is The NBC Orange Network or also known as the NBC Pacific Coast network. NBC Pacific Coast network was a National Broadcasting Company radio network that operated in the western United States from 1927 to 1936,that was before two-way broadcast-quality communications circuits reached the West to relay the larger NBC Red Network and NBC Blue Network.

The Orange Network created their own program for the West Coast listeners. December 23 1928 was the first time when The Orange network directly relay the eastern program, that was ran until 1936, Orange Network also fed some programs from Red and some from Blue.

OTRR certified Recollections at 30 v1.0 (1 CD) is available for download from Dropbox or OneDrive. Thanks to all those who made this collection possible.

These links will be available for 30 days.

Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/i2p4910z4icmevz/AAAOwnPLO0PZt_ZhV8eeECawa?dl=0
OneDrive: https://1drv.ms/f/s!Al5Sbh6lIkj5jL0TkUY-CtX6tp6E2g

Series synopsis:

A radio manufacturer named the Radio Corporation of America, which we know as RCA, began to broadcast its own programs on stations it had either started or purchased. In late 1926, RCA created a division of the company known as the National Broadcasting Company, or NBC. NBC officially started broadcasting on November 15, 1926.
To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the company, NBC created a series of shows called Recollection at 30. Using a vast number of archival recordings, Recollections at 30 would assemble some of these transcriptions into a 25-minute show. Som of these shows followed a theme, such as the shows The Crash of the Hindenburg, The Big Bands, and Abraham Lincoln. Others concentrated on popular radio programs, such as Truth or Consequences, and Lights Out. People were honored, like Judy Garland, H. V. Kaltenborn, and Irving Berlin.
Some of the ideas for the shows were solicited from listeners. The requests often included hearing some of the earliest recordings. To honor this, an entire broadcast was dedicated to June 11th, 1927, the day of the earliest recording NBC owned. This show included the return of Charles Lindberg, and had President Calvin Coolidge’s presentation of the Distinguished Flying Cross award to Lindberg. NBC had transmitted this event live to 50 stations simultaneously – the largest simultaneous transmission accomplished to that point.
A one-hour audition show created May 15, 1956 was titled A Salute to Radio, and hosted by H. V. Kaltenborn. When the show was produced starting June 20, 1956, the announcer for most of the shows was Ed Herlihy. The show would run for a total of 45 episodes, with the final broadcast on May 1, 1957.
Information for this synopsis was taken from Jay Hickerson’s The Ultimate History of Network Radio Programming, and from Wikipedia.

It was also on a back lot at Universal Studios, we were shooting a scene from "Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid". Also on the next lot at Universal Studios there were shutting "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" was filming. Tourists were shocked to see Glenn Strange's Frankenstein Monster having lunch with Annie in her fishtail costume. Both Strange and Lon Chaney in his Wolfman make-up were invited to the Mr. Peabody wrap party, where they hammed it up in make-up.

In the fall 1946 a film crew had been sent down to see an underwater theatre north of Tampa on U.S. Highway 19. Perry had started out in north Florida, working with the strong-lunged young swimmers of Florida State University's Tarpon Club. He developed air hoses that let them stay submerged for extraordinary lengths of time and techniques for performing dry-land activities -- making coffee, dancing, playing the trombone -- on the spring pool floor. Florida girls who'd grown up in the water learned to do "ballet" (as Perry liked to call it) while wearing a constricting lame tail that zipped up the side. By 1948, Weeki Wachee was one of Florida's premier roadside attractions, drawing tourists from all over the US.

"Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid" (Universal-International, 1948) this was another opportunity to work with one of my favourite screen stars of all time and a true movie legend Ann Blyth. William Powell. Unfortunately, Mr. Powell was very ill during the production, but "you would never have known it." He was a consummate actor and professional at all times. Filming was to start the summer of 1947, but ended up being delayed until February of '48. The cast and crew endured rainy weather, unusually cold temperatures and even pneumonia from some of its principal cast while they managed to "pretend" to be happily secluded on a South Sea island.

The plot revolves around Mr. Peabody (Powell), a "mature" gentleman on the eve of his fiftieth birthday. When he and his beautiful wife (Irene Hervey) escape to a Caribbean seaside retreat for the occasion, the magical "fish story" begins. Powell encounters a mermaid named Lenore (Ann Blyth), and everyone including his wife believes her to be nothing more than a figment of his imagination -- A fantasy manifested out of anxiety over his lost youth.

Andrea King’s scenes had to be filmed inside a giant heated water tank, still located on the Universal back lot. Andrea and Ann Blyth were both accomplished swimmers, so they rose to the challenge of doing their own underwater stunts, including a complicated sequence where Andrea catfights with the jealous mermaid. She recalls that particular day with a laugh. They attempted to film without heat in the middle of winter. "The tank's water heater was malfunctioning, they told us. So we tried anyway for about half hour, but Annie and Andrea King just went numb! I think Annie got terribly sick after that."

Last year, I published a short story mystery inspired by OTR shows. This years I'm publishing a collection of four new stories. Look forward it's release in the next couple of days. For now, here is the cover. Enjoy.

I have not done electronic books due to difficulty finding and loading them.

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

Adapted for radio by M.J. Reid from Dale Wasserman's stage version of Ken Kesey's novel.

In the late 1950's Kesey volunteered to be a subject in experiments with hallucinogenic drugs, and at the end of those experiments he began working the night shift in a psychiatric unit. As a result he wrote what's now regarded as one of the great postwar American novels, following the fortunes of the rebellious and psychopathic Randall Patrick McMurphy in his feud with the disciplinarian Nurse Ratched.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 18th December 1995. Recorded from BBC7 in November 2008.

R.P. Mc Murphy : Bob Sherman
Nurse Ratched : Margaret Robertson
Harding : William Roberts
Billy : Kerry Shale
Cheswick : Matt Zimmerman
Martini : John Cassidy
Chief Bronden : William Hootkins
Doctor Spivey : Stuart Milligan

download

In the 1930s, thousands of American farmers fled their drought-ridden and Depression-ravaged homelands of Oklahoma and Arkansas for California, where they hoped to find a better life. What they did find was exploitation and more misery, as memorably chronicled by John Steinbeck in his novel The Grapes of Wrath. Two young academics recorded the stories and music of these all-American refugees, and it is their first-hand accounts of events that can be heard in this program. Producer Jolyon Jenkins

The Archive Hour 051008 America's Barefoot Refugees.mp3

128kbps 57m

OTRR certified "The Adventures of Horatio Hornblower" v1.0 (1 CD) is available for download from Dropbox or OneDrive. Thanks to all those who made this collection possible.

These links will be available for 30 days.

Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/87lt7rr9cz17kyn/AAA6lbB8hb_t-gDdARMekNU7a?dl=0
OneDrive: https://1drv.ms/f/s!Al5Sbh6lIkj5jKZYi8OWrTtoGH6V4g

Series summary:

The Horatio Hornblower series is based upon the novels by C. S. Forester. They were admired by many fans, including Winston Churchill and Ernest Hemmingway who is quoted as saying, “I recommend Forester to everyone literate I know.”

The adventures follow the rising career from a young, unpromising, and seasick midshipman who eventually becomes Admiral of The Fleet of the Britain's Royal Navy. The storyline occurs during the Napoleonic era. Although many great naval leaders inspired Hornblower, Forester was careful to place the plots far enough away from actual battles so as not to interfere with history.

The 30-minute radio episodes first aired July 7, 1952. Michael Redgrave portrayed Horatio Hornblower. Harry Towers produced the series through his Towers of London syndicate. Although produced in England, BBC was not interested in the series, so it was sent off to the United States. CBS originally broadcast the 52 episodes, until July 17, 1953. It later was rebroadcast by ABC in 1954, and the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1957.