True Crime On The Radio

I can't recall on which old-time radio show I first heard an episode of the true-crime series, Somebody Knows. It was either Hollywood 360 (nationally syndicated) or The Golden Age of Radio (on New York's WBAI-FM).

Somebody Knows, which ran on CBS, was the forerunner to such shows as Unsolved Mysteries. Per my sketchy notes, the episode I heard concerned a 39-year-old  Boston cab driver named Samuel I. Paris, who was robbed and killed in April 1948.The episode aired on August 10, 1950. "Through narration and dramatizations," reports the CD/DVD website Amoeba.com, "the known facts of unsolved crimes were presented and listeners who provided information leading to the conviction of a criminal" would be given a cash reward.

According to the website, only two of the eight episodes are available on recordings. As an old-time radio fan, especially of detective and mystery shows, I would love to hear not only those two episodes but those of another show Wanted, the rival of Somebody Knows, that ran on NBC. Wanted, according to Amoeba.com, "avoided dramatizations all together [sic]" but instead used the recorded "voices of DAs, newspapermen, police, prison officials, witnesses, etc."

What I would like to know is how many of these cases were ever solved.

HED TK

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HED TK

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Note: Yesterday was Earth Day. Let's be kind and considerate to the only home we have.

HED TK

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Record Store Day

Today is Record Store Day. Long live vinyl!

HED TK

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An Overlooked Christmas Song

During the Christmas season, the same Christmas tunes are heard everywhere over and over: on the radio, over supermarket public address systems, etc. We hear tunes like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "White Christmas," "Santa Baby," "Winter Wonderland," to name a few.

One tune missing from that playlist is one that was featured in the 1974 thriller The Odessa File, which starred Jon Voight as a young German journalist. At the beginning of the film, he is seen driving on a German city street with his car radio playing Perry Como singing a song called "Christmas Dream." The song, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and English lyrics by Tim Rice, is, to my ears, very beautiful and deserves airplay.

The movie, set in 1963 and based on a novel by Frederick Forsyth, is about the search for an escaped Nazi war criminal who ran a concentration camp. Does being on such a movie's soundtrack taint the song? I hope not.

I've read the lyrics and I could find nothing offensive or off-putting about it. The fact that Perry Como sang it should be reason enough to consider putting it on a station's Christmas playlist.

HED TK

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HED TK

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