I got an early Christmas present from Jerry Haendiges, of The Vintage Radio Place. He sent some programs, suggesting I “broadcast” some here…thing is, many of the programs he sent I’d never heard, and some I’ve never heard of, even as long as I’ve been in the hobby. So over the next several months I’m going to run some of the shows he sent in low-bandwidth MP3 format - even at 32kbps mono, these shows are some of the best-sounding shows you’ll hear. But remember for even better sound, these shows (and a few bazillion others) may be purchased from Jerry in either audio CD format, or ultra-high-quality MP3 format.

Here’s a show with almost as many names as there are surviving episodes - while generally referenced as Your Radio Almanac or Orson Welles’ Almanac, Welles himself calls it the Mercury Wonder Show. John Dunning, in his tome On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, reports that Welles was fascinated with the variety show concept throughout much of the early 1940’s. The show you will hear is from the second incarnation of the Almanac format, from May 31, 1944, sponsored by Mobil Gas and Mobil Oil, with guest star Marjorie Reynolds. This episode originates at the 6th Ferrying Group, Ferrying Division, of the Air Transport Command at Long Beach, California and features an almost painfully funny satire of the contemporarily-running episode of Suspense starring Mr. Welles, “Donovan’s Brain.”

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog with any podcasting client (Juice, iTunes, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

 Your Radio Almanac - May 31, 1944 [32:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download