The Joe Hehn Memorial Collection
Hercule Poirot
The Adventures of Hercule Poirot was a short-lived series on the Mutual radio network. It lasted one year and few episodes have survived. Th…
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Richard Diamond starred singer and actor Dick Powell in a marvelously scripted program that played to Powell's talent and wit, and took the …
X Minus One
X Minus One was a half-hour science fiction anthology series that ran on NBC from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958. The program was a reviv…
Inner Sanctum
Inner Sanctum is one of radio's most famous programs, broadcast from 1941 to 1952. It is best remembered for the sound effect of a heavy loc…
Casey, Crime Photographer
Casey, Crime Photographer was adapted from the pulp novels of George Harmon Coxe. The series began in July 1943 with the name Flashgun Casey…
MGM Theater Of The Air
The MGM Theater of the Air was MGM's prestigious effort to use the airwaves to promote their classic lineup of films and upcoming films. The…
Adventures of Billy Swift, Boy Detective
The Adventures of Billy Swift, Boy Detective was a short-lived Saturday morning kids serial heard mainly on the West coast and in the Southw…
Incomparable Charlie Chan
The detective Charlie Chan has been viewed in many different ways over the decades. Earl Derr Biggers, who created the character in novels, …
Planet Man
Planet Man was an early 1950s syndicated juvenile science fiction serial. Its hero, Dantro, was an agent of the League of Planets. He is fro…
Mr. & Mrs. North
Mr. and Mrs. North are a fictional married couple who are amateur detectives. The Norths were a highly successful multimedia franchise that …
FBI in Peace and War
The FBI in Peace and War was a radio crime drama, but despite its name, did not have the official cooperation of the Federal Bureau of Inves…
Suspense 3: the "after Roma" years, December 1947 to July 1950
Suspense was a long-running dramatic anthology on CBS from Summer of 1942 to what many consider final day of radio's golden age on September…
Suspense 2: the Roma Wines years, December 1943 to November 1947
Suspense was a long-running dramatic anthology on CBS from Summer of 1942 to what many consider final day of radio's golden age on September…
Shadow Of Fu Manchu
Fu Manchu was a fictional character created by author Sax Rohmer. The evil criminal genius character started in novels and then spanned comi…
Counterspy
Counterspy (sometimes known as David Harding, Counterspy ) was on radio from 1942 to 1957. David Harding was the chief of the "United S…
Murder Clinic
Murder Clinic was a crime program broadcast on Mutual from August 1942 to November 1943. Each week, a detective story from a well-known myst…
Escape
Escape was one of the finest drama programs in the "golden age of radio." It dramatized classic stories and new performances in th…
The Big Story
The Big Story radio series chronicled the heroic quests that newspaper reporters made for truth and justice in their communities. The very s…
Molle Mystery Theater
Mollé Mystery Theatre was a half-hour anthology series that ran from 1943 to 1948. The show was produced in New York, and with high p…
Mr Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons (half hour series)
Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons ran from 1937 to 1955 in serial and half-hour format at various times of its history. It was produced by Fr…
Man Called X
The Man Called X was an espionage radio drama that aired from 1944 to 1952. Herbert Marshall played US spy Ken Thurston ("Mr. X") …
Ethel and Albert
The Ethel and Albert radio series was by the incredibly prolific Peg Lynch, who wrote and acted in the series. The series started in the ear…
Secret Missions
Secret Missions was a Mutual series that ran from 1948 to 1949. It told true-life stories of wartime espionage under the office of Naval Int…
Land Of The Lost
Land of the Lost was the creation of Isabel Manning Hewson. She wanted an imaginative fantasy that would appeal to children. She narrated th…
I Love a Mystery
I Love a Mystery was an adventure serial that was broadcast from 1939 to 1944. It was revived twice, first as a 13-week series I Love Advent…
High Adventure
High Adventure was a dramatic anthology series broadcast by Mutual. The executive in charge for much of its 1947-1954 run was Bob Monroe, wh…
Whistler (Pacific Network)
The Whistler was one of radio's most successful franchises, but it was rarely a true national program. It began on the CBS Pacific Network i…
Secret Mission
Secret Mission was a Cold War program that detailed an exciting undercover story that included a message that Communism was a serious proble…
Battle Of The Warsaw Ghetto (NBC Special)
In October 1943, NBC broadcast The Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto starring Raymond Massey as narrator. The program was produced in cooperation …
My Favorite Husband
My Favorite Husband was a married couple situation comedy that starred Lucille Ball. The program brought her abilities as a comedic actress …
Suspense 1: The Early Years (June 1942 - November 1943)
Suspense was a long-running dramatic anthology on CBS from Summer of 1942 to what many consider final day of radio's golden age on September…
Road Of Life
Road of Life was a popular radio soap opera, produced by Procter and Gamble, featuring the story of Dr. Jim Brent. While on rounds, the inte…
John Steele, Adventurer
John Steele, Adventurer was a Mutual network program broadcast from 1949-1955. Steele would introduce grand stories of danger and adventure …
Voyage Of The Scarlet Queen
The Voyage of the Scarlet Queen was a very creative, well-written and produced series on Mutual from 1947 to 1948. It starred Elliott Lewis,…
Broadway Is My Beat
NOTE : Broadway is My Beat is also known as "Broadway's My Beat." The main scriptwriters for the series, Morton Fine and David Fri…
Tennessee Jed
Tennessee Jed was a juvenile western serial about Tennessee Jed Sloan. With his horse, Smoky, Jed was the "deadliest man with a rifle e…
Crime Fighters
Crime Fighters was a police procedural that focused on some of the new technologies, especially in police labs, to capture criminals and sol…
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (5-part AFRS series)
Yours Truly Johnny Dollar related the adventures of "the man with the action-packed expense account." This has become a much-belov…
The Lineup
The Lineup was a police procedural on CBS radio from 1950 to 1953. The program did not have a true star, but used some of CBS' best actors o…
NBC Radio Theater
NBC Radio Theater was an anthology series in hour-long format that was broadcast Monday through Friday starting at the end of April 1959. Th…
My Friend Irma
My Friend Irma was a situation comedy that was so popular that it inspired movies, comic books, and a television program. Marie Wilson was t…
Boxing
This is an aircheck of the Joe Louis - Jack Sharkey boxing match of August 18, 1936. It was recorded from station KHJ. This was the first fi…
A Date With Judy
A Date with Judy was a popular teenage comedy series that was on the air from 1941 to 1950. The show began as a 1941 summer replacement for …
Cabin B-13
Cabin B-13 was a 25-week series of dramas by mystery writer John Dickson Carr. They featured his character, Dr. Fabian, a ship’s doctor on t…
Mystery House (audition with Bela Lugosi)
Mystery House was an audition program for a planned radio series starring horror film legend Bela Lugosi. The program also included stage an…
Mr Chameleon
Mr. Chameleon was produced by Frank and Anne Hummert, the highly successful pair who were responsible for the kids serial Jack Armstrong, th…
Hopalong Cassidy
Hopalong Cassidy was a cowboy hero created in 1904 by the author Clarence E. Mulford. The original short stories and novels grew into a majo…
Duffy's Tavern
Duffy's Tavern was one of radio's most successful comedies, known for its telephone ringing opening and the line "Hello, Duffy's Tavern…
The Chase
The Chase aired on NBC from 1952 to 1953. Veteran radio writer Lawrence Klee ( Mr. Keen Tracer of Lost Persons and other Hummert productions…
The Clock (US)
The Clock is a drama anthology series that ran on ABC from 1946 to 1948. The program was narrated by "Father Time". The creator an…
Whistler USAFE aircheck recordings
These are 1960s airchecks from Armed Forces Radio, likely recorded on home equipment by a service person stationed in Europe or a member of …
Romance
Romance was a CBS series that evolved from an early 1940s series Theater of Romance that was on CBS at various times through the years. In M…
Aldrich Family
The Aldrich Family was one of radio's longest running and popular family situation comedies, debuting in 1939 and leaving the air in 1953. T…
March Of Time
March of Time was one of the pivotal programs that created radio's golden age. They could not know it at the time, but the program would hav…
Screen Guild Theater
Screen Guild Theater was one of the most successful collaborations of radio broadcasting and the movie business, and especially the performe…
It Pays To Be Ignorant
It Pays to Be Ignorant is a comedy that ran from 1942 to 1951 as a quiz show. That format itself was a gag, as it was really a pretense for …
Intrigue
Intrigue was a summer 1946 series on CBS. It was produced and directed by Charles Vanda, the creator of Suspense . The star was Joseph Schil…
Indictment
Indictment was fictionalized account of real-life events as gathered and experienced by a former New York City (Manhattan) assistant distric…
Let George Do It
Let George Do It was a west coast program broadcast over the Mutual-Don Lee Network starting in 1946 and ending in 1954. It started as a com…
The Falcon
The Falcon was a detective character that was successful in novels, short stories, movies, television, and radio. The character’s origin is …
Lux Radio Theatre
Lux Radio Theatre was one of radio’s biggest hits, with consistently high ratings, and a magnet for Hollywood’s stars and studios to promote…
Suspense 4: the Elliott Lewis years, August 1950 to July 1954
Suspense was a long-running dramatic anthology on CBS from Summer of 1942 to what many consider final day of radio's golden age on September…
Suspense 5: the final years, June 1954 to September 1962
Suspense was a long-running dramatic anthology on CBS from Summer of 1942 to what many consider final day of radio's golden age on September…
Chandu the Magician (half hour series)
Chandu the Magician was a serialized radio drama that dealt with the supernatural. It began in 1931 in Los Angeles and was gradually picked …
Night Beat
Night Beat was one of radio's finest series for its writing, creativity, production, and its performances. The series starred Frank Lovejoy,…
Danger Dr Danfield
Danger, Dr. Danfield was broadcast on ABC from August 18, 1946, to April 13, 1947, and was later syndicated; these recordings are from the s…
1939 NY World's Fair Opening
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was held in Queens, New York, at a site near today’s LaGuardia Airport and the CitiField baseball stadium …
Crime Club
Crime Club was a 1946-1947 radio series based on the successful imprint for mystery novel series published by Doubleday. Each episode was in…
Gang Busters
Gang Busters (or “Gangbusters” as it gradually became one word when the term became accepted into the US English vernacular) was a very succ…
Dunninger, the Mentalist
Dunninger was a "mentalist," a magician whose performances specialized in hypnosis, clairvoyance, telepathy, and other mind contro…
Let's Pretend
Let's Pretend was a happy and wholesome radio program for children. It evolved from a few different series, starting in the late 1920s, with…
Doc Seller's True Stories
Doc Seller’s True Stories was a syndicated program that started in 1938. It dramatized stories that were found in True Story Magazine . Doc …
Passing Parade
The Passing Parade was created, written, and narrated by John Nesbitt. Each episode had a strange and curious story about a true historical …
Grand Central Station
Grand Central Station was an anthology series that ran from 1937 to 1954. It had one of the greatest show openings in radio. The sound of a …
Three Sheets To The Wind
This recording is a 1941 or 1942 radio special by movie producer Tay Garnett. The program had the first act of a proposed movie, Three Sheet…
21st Precinct
21st Precinct was a mid-1950s highly respected serious police drama on CBS that critics and listeners (who found it) enjoyed it. The problem…
Douglas Of The World
Douglas of The World was a 1953 Armed Forces Radio exclusive starring Jack Moyles, best known for his lead role in the CBS series Rocky Jord…
Encore Theater
Encore Theater was a 13-week series sponsored by Schenley Laboratories, a pharmaceutical manufacturer. The big-budget, well-produced series …
Joe Penner Show
Joe Penner was an early radio comedian who found his success in the mid-1930s. He developed his routines and catch phrases ("Wanna buy …
NBC Story Shop
NBC Story Shop was an anthology series that ran from 1947 to 1948. It dramatized classic and new children's stories. * * * These recordings …
Books Bring Adventure
Books Bring Adventure was a mid-1940s syndicated series of 15 minute episodes that dramatized children's books as selected by the women's ch…
Stroke Of Fate
From October to December 1953, NBC aired a curious historical series, Stroke of Fate . The premise was that if an historical figure had othe…
Diary of Fate
Fate plays no favorites… it could happen to YOU! That tagline from the 1947-1948 syndicated series Diary of Fate is well-known by radio coll…
Mail Call
Mail Call was a production of the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) created to raise the spirits of World War 2 service personnel and their …
Wormwood Forest
Wormwood Forest was a local children’s program developed by Tom Tichenor, a Nashville puppeteer, who wrote and performed on the show. The pr…
The Adventures Of Champion
Gene Autry was such a popular star of Western movies and as a radio and music entertainer, that even his horse had a radio program: The Adve…
Interviews of Joe Hehn
Joe Hehn was fascinated by radio from his childhood throughout his adult life. He loved the juvenile serials, especially, and planned a rese…
Hermit's Cave
Hermit's Cave was a series meant to give a good scare to the audience, especially kids. The "Hermit" told the audience he would te…
Lone Ranger 1951-10-29 The Great Bend Settlement
This is a long-missing episode of Lone Ranger that was found in the reels of the Joe Hehn Memorial Collection. This is the file name with th…
Fighting Irish Football
Fighting Irish Football was a program that featured former football coach Joe Boland. He was a Notre Dame graduate and played under the lege…
Clyde Beatty Show
Th e Clyde Beatty Show dramatized the exploits of the famous animal trainer, zoo owner, and circus entrepreneur . He eventually owned his ow…
Hawk Larabee
Hawk Larabee was one of CBS’ early attempts to bring western radio drama to an adult audience. Its first incarnation was under the name Hawk…
Newsstand Theater
Newsstand Theater was a production of ABC and featured dramatizations of short stories that originally appeared in Collier’s , Woman’s Home …
Jolly Bill and Jane
Bill Steinke was a cartoonist and vaudevillian who started the kid's show Jolly Bill and Jane in 1928. It was on and off the air at various …
Charles Frederick Lindsley
In the early 1930s, Charles Frederick Lindsley was a Southern California radio personality known for his professional speaking and acting ta…
Listen and Live
Listen and Live was a public service program produced by the National Committee for the Conservation of Manpower in War Industries. There we…
Garden Gate
The Garden Gate was broadcast from Nashville and hosted by “The Old Dirt Dobber,” Tom Williams. He dispensed gardening advice in response to…
Magic Key Of Radio
RCA Magic Key was a successful offering to demonstrate radio’s wide capabilities in delivering entertainment and culture to the American hom…
Hollywood Star Time
Hollywood movie studios and radio broadcasters had a profitable relationship: the studios had stars and stories, and radio had broadcasts pr…
Joyce Jordan, MD
Joyce Jordan, MD was a soap opera that began in 1938 and ran to 1952, and had a brief return in the first half of 1955. The program began as…
Fifth War Loan Drive June 12, 1944
The Fifth War Loan Drive was initiated to raise money for the US effort in World War II. It was conducted from June 12 through July 8, 1944.…
John J. Anthony (The Good Will Hour)
John J. Anthony was a marriage counselor who offered advice to couples over the air. He would real letters that started with “Mr. Anthony, I…
Irene & Allan Jones
Irene Hervey and Allan Jones were movie stars, not the most famous of movie stars, but certainly familiar to most movie-goers from the 1930s…
Whispering Streets
Whispering Streets began as a 25-minute 5-day-a-week daytime program on ABC Radio. The host was writer "Hope Winslow" played by Ge…
Crossroads
Crossroads (sometimes referred to as At the Crossroads ) was a 1956 public service program to educate people about the Social Security progr…
Family Skeleton
Family Skeleton , starring Mercedes McCambridge, was CBS' attempt at a daily evening soap opera. The series aired from June 1953 to January …
Firefighters
Firefighters was a syndicated series that aired in more than 200 markets from the late 1940s to the early 1950s. It followed the adventures …
Fred Waring Show
Fred Waring was one of the most famous bandleaders and proponents of choral singing of the Twentieth Century. Fred and his “Pennsylvanians” …
Herb Shriner Time
Herb Shriner Time featured the Midwestern humorist as host of the program. He opened with a “ homespun monologue,” that often referred to hi…
Ladies Be Seated
Ladies Be Seated wa s a daytime game show. The recordings in the Hehn collection are from 1945 when the series was on ABC and sponsored by A…
Walter Winchell (Jergen's Journal)
Walter Winchell was the famous news reporter and gossip columnist whose famous radio program was sponsored by Jergens. He opened the broadca…
Scrapbook Of Champions
Scrapbook of Champions was produced by WFUV, a station owned by Fordham University in the Bronx borough of New York City. The program was st…
Career of Alice Blair
The Career of Alice Blair soap opera ran began on January 30, 1939, and lasted for a year. The opening plotline, according to newspaper clip…
Ben Bernie
Ben Bernie was a popular bandleader of the 1920s and 1930s. He is known for his composition of "Sweet Georgia Brown" which was pop…
First Nighter
First Nighter was one of the earliest radio anthology series, with a new presentation each week, usually of the comedy-drama genre. It was d…
Adventures Of Ace Williams
The Adventures of Ace Williams was a juvenile serial about the experiences of the famous newsreel cameraman and his assistant, teenager Dick…
Al Pearce and His Gang
Al Pearce was a radio comedian and entertainer who was on the air from 1928 to 1947. His catch phrase "Nobody home, I hope, I hope, I h…
ABC Closed Set
This is one of the more curious recordings in the Hehn collection. It is a special information broadcast for ABC affiliates on May 27, 1946 …
According to the Record
According to the Record was a five-minute syndicated feature that was available to local stations and local advertisers from 1943 to 1957. T…
Alias Romeo
Alias Romeo was a brief syndicated series sponsored by the Multi-Facet Diamond Corporation and its dealers. Publicity for the program stated…
Bert Andrews (news commentary)
Bert Andrews was a Washington, DC reporter for the New York Herald Tribune. Andrews reported from both European and Pacific fronts in WW2. H…
Don't Touch That Dial (nostalgia interview program)
Don’t Touch That Dial aired on KCSN-FM in Los Angeles, CA for almost 30 years. This episode is from February 9, 1978 and has Harvey Tow, Jim…
Fred Allen
Fred Allen was one of radio’s most famous comedian s . He had several series over the years from 1932 to 1949, all contained witty and insig…
Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman was composer and bandleader who became known as the “King of Jazz.” His orchestra was one of the most popular dance bands in t…
Henry Morgan Show
Late in his career, humorist Henry Morgan would be known for appearances on television quiz programs such as I’ve Got a Secret, What’s My Li…
Jack Berch Show
Jack Berch was a singer and raconteur whose daytime program was an alternative to the often dreary plotlines of soap operas. His goal was to…
Clara, Lu, and Em
C l ara, Lu, and Em (sometimes Clara, Lu, 'n Em ) is considered to be the first daytime serial (soap opera) broadcast over a radio network. …
Bride and Groom
Bride and Groom started its run in November 1945 and ended in September 1950. Each program focused on an engaged couple. The host, John Nels…