Show

Num of CDs

Num of Shows

Price

Abbott and Costello

1

105

$5.50

Amos & Andy

This 15 minute daily situation comedy was probably the most popular radio show of all time. The listening audience was estimated at 40 million, almost one-third of Americans living at that time. The story was of Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll playing Amos and Andy as black men from Harlem who owned the Fresh Air Taxi Company, so called because its only cab had no windshield. Amos and Andy were the commonest of common men: they symbolized the poor Joe with no money, no job and no future. It was the first significant serial utilizing the elements of sympathetic characters, comedy and suspense.

3

281

$10.00

Bob Hope

1

74

$5.50

Burns and Allen

George Burns and Gracie Allen were performers who successfully moved their stand-up comedy act to radio. There were, in total, over 120 episodes of the situation comedies featuring George and Gracie as a married couple, which they were in real life. The audiences loved Gracie, she was too dainty and ladylike for anyone to even conceive disliking her. As George soon learnt! He was quoted as saying “I learned that if I blew a puff of cigar smoke in Gracie’s direction the audience would hate me!”

2

216

$7.50

Charlie McCarthy & Howdy Doody

2

160

$7.50

Comic Strip All-Stars

1

65

$5.50

Fibber McGee & Molly

Jim and Marian Jordan played Fibber McGee and his wife Molly in this hilarious domestic comedy. It was written and created by Don Quinn who had also written Smackout. It was a very popular show with over 700 episodes being broadcast. The prop best remembered from the show was probably McGee’s junk-filled closet, which always crashed down on anyone that happened to open the door. It was a very patriotic show with a whole run of shows with home-front themes.

7

759

$21.00

Fred Allen

3

193

$10.00

Great Gildersleeve

In 1941 Throckmorton P Gildersleeve spun off into his own radio program, becoming the first radio character to do so. He had originally appeared on Fibber McGee and Molly in 1937 and left to become the Water Commissioner of Summerfield and to raise his niece and nephew. The series had the same appeal as today’s soaps because each episode was connected. Gildersleeve’s romances were often at the centre of it all. The best of the romances is the one with Leila Ransom.

5

510

$15.00

Groucho Marx, You Bet Your Life

This was the long-running comedy quiz show hosted by Groucho Marx. The show was the idea of a young producer, John Guedel; the idea based on an old parlor game. Three couples were brought onstage to be interviewed by Groucho. He would be, for once, quite serious. They were each given $20 and asked to bet as much as they dared on four questions from a category of their choice. If they won, their money would double. Therefore it was possible for couples to win either as much as $320, go broke on the first question or finish anywhere in between. The couple with the highest total went through to the jackpot question. It was said that the contestants did not care much for the money, they just wanted to see if they were shrewd enough to escape Groucho’s legendary verbal battering.

2

216

$7.50

Jack Benny

One of the longest running and most successful comedies in the history of radio, The Jack Benny Show was loosely organized as a situation comedy. Often beginning with an opening period of repartee among cast members, it continued with a comic skit featuring many of the supporting characters who became household names. The humor is as fresh as the day it was written, the timing of the crew a marvel of the medium. Jack Benny was a total delight and his legacy will always be remembered.

9

901

$27.00

Lum & Abner

This comedy, that spanned over 23 years on the air, was centered around Lum Edwards and Abner Peabody, played by Chester Lauck and Norris Goff, co-owners of the Jot'em Down Store in Pine Ridge, Arkansas. It was a "hillbilly" show and the Jot'em Down Store was based on a general store owned by Goff's father in Waters, Arkansas.

10

1,653

$30.00

Phil Harris and Alice Faye

Phil Harris was the egotistical bandleader on the Jack Benny Show and also the husband of Alice Faye, a movie queen who had given up a fabulous Hollywood career to be a wife and mother. At home with Alice, Phil was terrible. He hated Alice’s brother, Willie, who lived with them and heckled Phil all the time. The stories generally centered on Phil’s stormy relationships with his cast, and his hard drinking, sarcastic Benny bandleader image. He was impressed only with his own good looks and was loud and insulting but, above all, hilarious.

2

109

$7.50

Red Skelton

2

149

$7.50