"Boston Blackie" Old Time Radio Shows Make Summer Travels A Little Sweeter!

July 18, 2008 - PRLog -- Taking a Trip this Summer?  Well don't leave home with out this great collection of Old Time Radio Shows!

You haven’t heard radio until you’ve listened to Boston Blackie -  a long-running favorite with fans of straight-ahead detective fiction in a wide range of media. Beginning inauspiciously in a 1919 short story by author Jack Boyle, Blackie progressed from the printed page into silent films, then into talkies -- and finally, in the 1940s, into radio.

The first radio Blackie was Chester Morris, who played the role in a long series of B movies during the 1940s. Beginning in 1944 as a summer replacement series for "Amos 'n' Andy," Morris brought a certain wrong-side-of-the-tracks charm to his portrayal and gave the character a well-crafted introduction to the broadcast medium.

But the longest-running radio Blackie was an odd casting choice: Broadway and sometime soap opera actor Richard Kollmar, best known to radio fans along the Eastern seaboard as the urbane Dick of WOR's "Breakfast with Dorothy and Dick," a morning show which also featured his wife, newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen. Beginning in 1945, Kollmar starred in a series of 220 syndicated episodes of "Boston Blackie," produced at WOR and distributed by the Frederic W. Ziv Company of Cincinnati. The programs were solid, workmanlike products of the WOR dramatic staff and remained in distribution well into the 1950s -- becoming a reliable feature for small-town stations across the US. Kollmar is joined in these syndicated episodes by two other familiar WOR voices: Maurice Tarplin -- the "Mysterious Traveler" himself -- as Inspector Faraday, and Jan Minor as girlfriend/inconvenience Mary Wesley.

There's no tormented noir drama here, no deep layers of introspection -- just good old-fashioned crime solving fun. And you can enjoy the clean, crisp sound of these newly restored episodes in this latest Premier Collection from the First Generation Radio Archives - ten full hours of light-hearted detective action and adventure, transferred directly from original 16" transcription discs. (Summary written by Elizabeth McLeod)

Nostalgia Ventures has re-released this OTR favorite just in time for Summer traveling.  

20 Exciting Episodes fully restored on 10 CDs with newly commission cover art!  

You can find this magnificent collection at your local Borders and Barnes & Noble retailers, or online at http://www.NostalgiaTown.com  Makes a great gift for all ages!

Order Online Today at  http://www.NostalgiaTown.com and you'll receive a FREE Dragnet DVD with 3 Original TV Shows!

# # #

We specialize in restored original broadcasts of Old Time Radio shows in various collector sets: Comedy, Variety, Mystery, Detectives, and Westerns from the 1930's, 40's and 50's.

We are also the Co-publishers of the popular Pulp Fiction Novel reprints "The Shadow" and "Doc Savage", we are committed to bringing the best Nostalgia products back for all generations to enjoy.