Sealtest Variety Theater


(4 stars; 4 reviews)

Dorothy Lamour hosted this 1948-49 variety show that obtained some of the best guests in radio including: Abbott and Costello; Jimmy Stewart, Jack Benny, Lum and Abern; Bob Hope; Martin and Lewis, and Boris Karloff. Includes the infamous Shamrock Hotel broadcast.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.

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Reviews

29


(4 stars)

There is a slight difference between Victor Moore and Victor Mature. The latter is the guest star on episode 29 (we also hear Frank Nelson, Elvia Allman and Elliott Lewis, uncredited). Something interesting on this show and episodes 30 and 31, after the fade out, it sounds like the old Deagan chimes used for network cues are cut off during the first note, the network announcer gives a promo, then plays the Rangertone chimes. It's a shame there are so many digital burps on these shows. John Laing makes a rare mistake in the extro to show 31. Episodes 34 through 40 have Hal Gibney giving the network ID at the end.

A Great Find


(5 stars)

These shows are another great find, especially the show from March 17, of 1948 not because it was a Saint Patricks day show but because it lets you hear what happened back in the days of a live radio remote, it's great to hear the engineers at NBC on the telephone trying to find out why the program wasn't reaching the network.

Botched


(2 stars)

The 1949-05-26 .mp3 file is very botched. "Error while decoding stream #0:0: Invalid data found when processing input [mp3 @ 00d528a0] Header missing" Also, there are some very loud "blurts" in the file.

Another side of Lamour


(5 stars)

Higher quality than the usual variety mix. I'd always thought of Lamour in her typical slinky sexy roles, but she shows real comedy skill in this series.