audio cartoons and more

[kip_w]

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I just happened to wander by the Internet Archive, looking for something else, and thought to look into their holdings of old radio shows. I'm pleased to report they have a load of them, including "Gunsmoke" (and two of those are rehearsals, in which the very able cast members wander from the script to break each other up), "Lum & Abner," "Jack Benny," "Bob and Ray," "Academy Award Theatre," and "Lux Radio Theatre."

I was a little disappointed to check out Academy Award's version of Pinocchio, only to find a different voice for Jiminy Cricket. Change the rest of the cast if you like, but he's the soul of the show. Then I poked through the years of Lux, and found that their version of Pinocchio has Cliff Edwards himself. Good show! I'll be listening to it in the car later. I also downloaded The Wizard of Oz (from 1950), and before I step out, I might as well start it going on Snow White too.

The Archive is very misleading in one way. It says it has 361 entries in Old-Time Radio. What this works out to is that an entry might have one show on it, or it might have a whole season of shows on it. Their way of indexing them seems almost random, so it's best to just go look through all 8 pages of entries. Tabbed browsing helps me, otherwise I get lost in a maze of nesting parentheses.

Lux Radio Theatre is a good place to start. Lots of good movies with original cast members recreating their roles.
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Comments

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I've never understood how copyrights and licenses are done for old radio shows. Are all of these tapes totally out of copyright? They're younger than 1923, but maybe the rules are different for such material.

I listen to a good four-hour weekly show hereabouts that broadcasts lots of old-time radio. Just wondering how permissions are handled.

[geckoman.livejournal.com]

You may want to subscribe to the 'thrilling days' LJ community...they have lots of reports on old radio and TV.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

I looked at the music areas and am very, very sad to see a certain genre is not represented at all.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Contribute some.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

I'm inclined to do so. But for one thing, my upload speed is not terribly fast, and for another I'm afraid that such an attempt will be essentially lost in the signal-to-(other kinds of signal) ratio.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

I expect that's because disco polka is recent enough that it's still covered by copyright.