NE OF THE GREATEST “FEUDS” OF OLD TIME RADIO was that between Jack Benny and Fred Allen, resulting in constant comedic jabs at each other on their respective shows for nearly a decade. Fans of the shows were often completely convinced that the two harboured deep resentment for each other, but the truth was far less interesting: they were the best of friends, and played up on the feud to get laughs, and –when one was guesting on the other’s show– would even pass along the best gags of the night to the “rival.”

Allen himself was quite a sharp wit, and was frequently embattled by the censors because of his political and social commentary, often ad-libbed to cover flubs in the program. (Most shows had to be carefully scripted before being approved by the overly nit-picky network censors.) Although his shows don’t today carry the timelessness of Benny’s, it’s usually because his references to American and world events were more frequent, and barely covered by a thin veneer of satire, unfortunately lost on most modern audiences.

Since we profiled a show of Benny as Sherlock, it seems only fitting that we offer his rival as yet another incarnation of the sleuth, this one named Fetlock Bones. This episode of the Texaco Star Theater certainly falls under the zany madcap category. (Those wanting to skip ahead to the parody can find it around the 18 minute mark, but will miss part of the set-up.)

Download: Texaco Star Theater - Fetlock Bones with Fred Allen, originally aired April 9th, 1944 (6.4 MB)

NE OF THE MOST BELOVED and long-lived of Old Time Radio performers was the incomparable Jack Benny. Among the thousands of other, often dismally-written, shows polluting the airwaves, audiences always knew that they could tune into Benny and lose themselves in the comedian’s sharp wit, his knack with timing, his many foibles (especially his propensity for clinging to his pennies), the memorable plots, and the more outré gags that slipped under the radar of the censors and his sponsors. (After all, words on paper often take on a whole new meaning when performed.)

Benny was also known for his trenchant parodies, often far more entertaining than the pieces he spoofed, and so, when the much-lauded Rathbone/Bruce film The Hound of the Baskervilles was filling the theatres in 1939, an obvious target was the master detective himself.

While I wouldn’t consider this a rare recording among OTR fans, it’s one that several Sherlockians of my Internet acquaintance haven’t yet heard. And, as always, Benny delivers where lesser comedic characters like Miss Sherlock fall flat on their deerstalkers.

Download: Jack Benny - The Hound of the Baskervilles, originally aired June 11, 1939 (6.6 MB)

ERE’S A RECORDING that I’ve seen on several (supposedly) public domain archives, as well as some DVDs of public domain Holmes films, so I’m assuming that this file may be freely shared. I consider it one of the treasures of my collection: seven and a half minutes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle speaking about the origins of Sherlock Holmes and his dedication to Spiritualism. The date ascribed to this file is 1930, which is the year of his death. Although I’m told second-hand that this recording may be found in the British Museum archives (along with a couple more), it is the only recording I think I have of his voice.

Download: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle speaking, 1930 (2.7 MB)

If anybody has any more information on this file, or any more recordings of ACD that you wouldn’t mind sharing, I’d love to hear from you.

HESE PAST FEW WEEKS, I’ve been wrestling with the age-old question, “How does one fit 20 boxes of books, three bookshelves, an audio/video suite, a large air exchanger, a men’s mountain bike, and a medieval arsenal into an office measuring 8 ft by 8 ft?” The teeter piles threatening to engulf me (and possibly impale me) any moment require my next posts to possess a certain urgency….

This next week, I’m doing something a little different on this blog. While my dead-tree Sherlockian library pales by most (just two of the aforementioned bookshelves), I do have quite a hefty audio library, mostly digital nowadays. I have to re-catalogue my collection fairly soon, but my recordings –including radio plays, audio books, interviews, and the like– number well over a thousand. For the next few days, I’m going to provide downloads of some of the more rare and unusual files, along with short introductions and source notes, whenever possible.

First, a note about copyrights. Most collectors of Old Time Radio shows (known simply as OTR) follow a general rule of thumb: shows publicly aired before 1978 are generally considered to be in the public domain, especially in the United States, as there was no copyright protection issued for such broadcasts under the then-extant copyright laws of 1909. The Berne Convention, which took effect January 1, 1978, officially accorded these rights to radio broadcasts, and retroactively accorded certain limited rights to recordings made within the five years previous, but only if official application was made, which was very rare. (It was not possible to make works in the public domain copyrighted ex-post-facto.) Now, I’m not a lawyer, nor do I play one on television, so I’m walking this well-worn path, which is allegedly in accord with the staff of the U.S. Library of Congress. (For more information about OTR copyrights, please see the information on the RadioLovers.com copyright page.) Many other recordings (that weren’t publicly broadcast) have fallen into the public domain because there was never an application for copyright, the copyright has expired, or the copyright was never renewed. If you or your organisation have any copyright claim to the materials I present here, please contact me and I’ll rectify the situation and give due notice.

Whew.

Today, we have a true rarity, and what’s more, a blazing example of terrible OTR. It took me a few years to find the two episodes I know to exist, and once I finally found them, I chalked the effort up to completionist obsession. Wrote the radio expert Jack French, in an essay on Lady Crimefighters:

During World War II no more women sleuths arrived on the scene but 1946 was a banner year when three new ones debuted on network radio. One was as much comedienne as crime solver, Meet Miss Sherlock. This was a CBS summer sustainer that recounted the adventures of Jane Sherlock, a scatterbrained amateur detective, and her boyfriend, Peter Blossom, a civil attorney who occasionally fainted.

There were two separate versions of this show; the first ran from July 3, 1946 to September 26, 1946 while the second one ran from Sept 28, 1947 to Oct 26, 1947. Both series were produced and directed by David Vaile, with scripts by E. Jack Neuman and Don Thompson. The announcer was Murray Wagner and the live orchestra was headed by Milton Charles. Sondra Gair had the title lead in the 1946 version, Captain Dingle of the NYPD was a youthful Bill Conrad and Joe Petruzzi played Peter Blossom.

When the series resumed in the fall of 1947, Betty Moran did the first epiosde but her voice was not “dithery” enough so Monty Margetts was brought in and she played the lead until it went off the air two months later. Barney Phillips was the voice of Captain Dingle. This series was more comedy than adventure, although crimes were eventually solved. Only two episodes have survived; both feature Gair in the 1946 version.

The scripts are insipid, the acting mundane, the jokes lousy, and the political incorrectness worthy of a good burning in effigy. Still, I did promise you some unusual recordings. I promise that tomorrow’s entry will be less likely to affront your sensibilities. (It shouldn’t be that difficult.)

Download: Meet Miss Sherlock - Case of the Deadman’s Chest (MP3, 6.9 MB), originally aired July 7th, 1946