Land Of The Lost

The Joe Hehn Memorial Collection

Land of the Lost was the creation of Isabel Manning Hewson. She wanted an imaginative fantasy that would appeal to children. She narrated the stories that she said were about her adventures as a child. The basic storyline is that siblings Billy (13 years old), and Isabel (11), were fishing from their rowboat one day and caught Red Lantern, a talking fish! The fish turned out to be the “ Guiding Light of the Land of the Lost.” But he could not be any longer if they did not let him go, which they did. In appreciation for his release, Red Lantern guided them to a kingdom under the sea where all lost things eventually arrive, hence, “the Land of the Lost.” (The story explained that Billy and Isabel could breathe because the underwater seaweed allowed them to… the show was a fantasy, not a science program, after all). While they were exploring, Isabel found her doll Henrietta that she lost overboard. Billy found his toy soldier Sergeant Pine, who had earned a promotion to captain since he last saw him. Of course, there are villains in the Land of the Lost, such as Kid Squid (a boxing octopus) and his band of cuttlefish. They nearly prevent Isabel and Billy's return to earth. Some of the places in the Land of the Lost: Hall of Lost Lamps Lead, Pencilvania (where lost pencils could be found) Lost Game Preserve (where lost board games were) Street of Lost Shoes Treasury of Lost Coins Some of the characters in the Land of the Lost: Great Horn Spoon Jack Knife Kid Squid King Find-All Lavinia Ladle Mike Pike (fish with short fins) Ralph Royster (singing oyster) Red Lantern Sir Keen Carver Hewson was the producer and writer of the series, with Cyril Armbrister as the director. He was involved in other popular serial adventures such as Chandu the Magician and Adventures of the Sea Hound . He was also involved in Strange as it Seems , a program devoted to curiosities of history and everyday life, similar to Ripley’s Believe it or Not! The cast included some of radio’s better performers, such as Junius Matthews, William Keene, and Art Carney, who all played Red Lantern at various times over the years. Betty Jane Tyler played Isabel and Ray Ives played Billy. Tyler was on many New York based programs such as Let’s Pretend , The Big Story , Columbia Workshop , and many others. Ives was in radio at 4 years old in Bunny Bus Choristers (a Madge Tucker production) and was in a short-lived 1941 series Reg’lar Fellers with other child actors Dick Van Patten, Skippy Homeier, and others. He also played Henry Aldrich for the 1944 to 1945 season while Ezra Stone was away in WW2 service. The Land of the Lost franchise became a lucrative enterprise with books and animated stories and sound recordings on 78s. A 3-record set was issued, and all six sides of the three records are available at the Internet Archive at.... Part 1 https://archive.org/details/78_the-land-of-the-lost-part-1_isabel-manning-hewson_gbia0210879a Part 2 https://archive.org/details/78_the-land-of-the-lost-part-2_isabel-manning-hewson_gbia0210878a Part 3 https://archive.org/details/78_the-land-of-the-lost_isabel-manning-hewson_gbia0181049a Part 4 https://archive.org/details/78_the-land-of-the-lost_isabel-manning-hewson_gbia0181049b Part 5 https://archive.org/details/78_we-discover-the-magic-sea-kingdom_isabel-manning-hewson_gbia0210878b Part 6 https://archive.org/details/78_the-land-of-the-lost-part-6_isabel-manning-hewson_gbia0210879b Land of the Lost re-used many scripts and plotlines which make it challenging to verify the dates of many of the programs. The series would change its regular time slot or get a new sponsor or change networks, and each time would be a new opportunity to tell the Land of the Lost story to a new audience. And... children would grow up and change their listening habits to more sophisticated fare like Lone Ranger or Jack Armstrong or other programs as they got older. But there would be a new audience of younger children who had not heard the Land of the Lost stories before. The broadcast dates have been verified with many internal clues in the recordings such as format, announcements, network, and other characteristics. NOTE: The program had no relation to the 1970s television series of the same name that was produced by puppeteers Sid and Marty Kroft. * * * These recordings are part of the Joe Hehn Memorial Collection. Mr. Hehn (1931-2020) was a pioneering collector of radio recordings when the hobby emerged in the 1960s. Digitizing his collection of reel tapes and discs is the effort of a wide range of North American volunteers, and includes assistance of some international collectors. The groups supporting this effort with their funds, time, technology and skills are the Old Time Radio Researchers and a small group of transcription disc preservationists who refer to themselves as the "The Knights of the Turning Table."

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.