Rare Drama, Music, Comedy, Suspense, Mystery, Detective, Crime, Adventure and Science Fiction (1940s-1950s)

Boxers, big noses, feisty parrots, and famous architects work together to bring you another exciting collection of random rarities. Many shows in this collection are the only known existing episodes of these programs. You’ll enjoy comedy, adventure, historic news, music, drama, police stories, and more!

Not one, but two exciting shows in this collection start with the phrase, “You think you’re smart?” Meet Your Match, the 1949 quiz show wants to know just how smart you are. Contestants pick their opponents by their occupation. You have a choice of a shoe repairman, underwear salesman, cake decorator, and retail grocer. Tune in and see if the flutist is brighter than the cobbler! Another show, Bunco Squad, continues, “Nobody’s fool? Brother you can be taken!” This detective and adventure show takes bunco stories from the police record and dramatizes them for your pleasure.

If you can’t hold it any longer, bust loose with such comedies as Meet Me at Parky’s. Listen in and laugh on with Parky, the head cook and bottle washer at a Greek beanery. Parky was a character created by Harry Einstein and originally debuted on The Eddie Cantor Show. Then there’s the rare show, Slapsie Maxie, starring Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, the former Light Heavyweight Champion of the World turned comic.

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If adventure, drama, and detective shows are your bag, listen in on Missing Persons, a New York cop show. Or enjoy the Story of Mary Marlin, a globetrotting soap opera of a female US Senator. Or tune to Michael Piper, Private Detective. Sponsored by Spur soft drink, Michael presents a thrilling story where he attends an auction gone wild. During the bidding he spots a Portuguese sailor with one arm sporting a parrot and the other one knifing a Swede.

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If you’ve got stars in your eyes, your ears will match when you listen to Millions for Defense, a show put on by the US Treasury, starring Don Ameche, Betty Davis, Jack Benny, Mary Livingston, Tyrone Powers, and others. Then there’s the Comedy Caravan, hosted by Jimmy Durante and Gary Moore. Or perhaps you are in the mood for adventure with playboy Errol Flynn, starring in Modern Adventures of Cassanova.

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Other rarities include the Burl Ives Show, your wayfarin’ stranger and friendly troubadour, who sings old cowboy favorites like Jimmy Crack Corn and Get Along Little Doggies. And they’re right when they say “By Golly, it’s smart to mind your manners!” on Mind Your Manners, a teenage confession, question and answer show from 1948 where teens give teens advice on letters written in each week. Then there’s Michael Wallace’s show where he interviews Frank Lloyd Wright. On the serious side, there’s the Cold War News, a fascinating and historical news program from the early 1950s.

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So “you think you’re smart?” Well then, grab a copy of Random Rarities Five today, and enjoy more wise-cracking, gumshoeing, and old navy tunes than you could possibly shake a stick at!

Text on OTRCAT.com ©2007 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved-Reproduction is prohibited.

See also Random Rarities 1, Random Rarities 2, Random Rarities 3, and Random Rarities 4 .

(Please note that some of the rare recordings in this collection may be of inferior sound quality.)