On the November 5, 2009 edition of TNA Impact, TNA owner and bigshot Dixie Carter decided to open the show with a video of a speech she gave in front of much of the TNA roster of wrestlers.  It was a strange presentation, as the clearly nervous Carter basically ordered them all to support her 100% and not dare question her leadership (even though her track record as head of TNA invites questioning).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn13PwaRQ6s

Well that was weird.  Who wants everybody in TV Land to see your boss threatening to fire you unless you fall in line behind her questionable business moves, like signing TNA into some kind of ‘partnership’ with Hulk Hogan?

So I had some thoughts about this strange segment and emailed them to Bryan Alvarez, host of Wrestling Observer Radio, and he decided to read my email on the air and address my comments.  I’m glad to report that we are overwhelmingly on the same page.  Enjoy this brief segment from his show.

Subject: Dixie Carter to TNA Roster:  Demands 100% Loyalty
Date: November 8, 2009, 3:18 PM PST

Bryan,

Well, at least most of the roster. I didn’t see Nash, Steiner, Sting, Foley, Angle, Tenay or Taz.

Did you guys get a weird vibe from that segment where she demands unwavering and unquestioning loyalty from the TNA wrestlers?

I laughed when she said if you are not prepared to give 100%, then you will be working somewhere else. I had heard that some wrestlers on her roster specifically WANT to leave TNA but can’t get releases from their contracts.

I’m thinking Dixie enjoys being on tv, which isn’t good. I also figure this is laying the groundwork for Dixie to play the heel owner/authority figure to confound Hulk Hogan when he finally shows up on tv more regularly. Unless it was real, in which case it just didn’t belong on tv.

In any event, it made TNA seem small time to me.

Vinnie Vegas
Las Vegas, NV

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Bo Snerdley, Rush Limbaugh’s Official Obama Criticizer (Certified Black Enough To Criticize Barack Obama), speaks to the black community about Rush’s recent problems with The NFL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxQZ0r51B-4

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDUI1a9yUL4

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Courtesy of The Savage Nation, June 23, 2009.

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Most people know of the great Rodney Dangerfield’s comedy career, but few know that he had a classically trained voice and was quite the crooner. Please enjoy the classic, Strangers in the Night, by Rodney Dangerfield.

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Back when I was a kid collecting Marvel Comic books, one of my favorite devices emplyed by the comics company was for two heroes from different comics to meet and team up to battle a foe.  Often, they would fight each other first before realizing that they should fight together against a common enemy.

Well, two of my real-life heroes met on the airwaves on The Michael Medved Show on May 27, 2009.  Radio host Dennis Prager visited radio host Michael Medved for a great hour of discussion.  No, they didn’t fight first, they got along nicely!

Enjoy!

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• Mark Levin Has Fun at a Caller’s Expense
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• Clarence Thomas: The Justice Nobody Knows
• Victor Davis Hanson on The Hugh Hewitt Show

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The great Thomas Sowell visits The Dennis Prager Show to discuss his new book, ‘The Housing Boom and Bust.’  More great insights from Dr. Sowell!  Enjoy!

• Dennis Prager interviews Dr Thomas Sowell
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• Dr. Thomas Sowell Discusses Welfare
• Dr. Thomas Sowell and a Conflict of Visions
• Dr. Thomas Sowell – The Vision of the Anointed
• Dr. Thomas Sowell discusses Public Education

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The Great One Mark Levin

He calls the resort where the AFL-CIO leaders are partying with the union worker’s money and dues. Can he get through to the expensive poolside cabanas?  Do the shi-shi restaurants at the resort have crabs?  Will the Democrats in Congress condemn these union bosses? Listen and find out!

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I was pleased this morning as I sat down at the desk of the Silver State Chronicles with my cup of morning java.  I tuned into my favorite morning radio show, The Dennis Prager Show, to learn that the guest in his first hour was the legendary Dr. Thomas Sowell, one of my favorite economists and thinkers!

Please enjoy the interview!

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• Dr. Thomas Sowell – The Vision of the Anointed

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A classic never goes out of style

One of my favorite slices of Americana is “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late),” a song written by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. (a.k.a. David Seville) in 1958.  Although it was written and sung by Bagdasarian (in the form of a chipmunk voice), the singing credits are given to The Chipmunks, a fictional singing group consisting of three chipmunks by the names of Alvin, Simon, and Theodore.

The song was very successful, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, becoming The Chipmunks’ first (and only), as well as David Seville’s second and final, #1 single. It has the distinction of being the only Christmas record to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart. The single sold 4.5 million copies, according to Ross Bagdasarian, Jr.

Between 1959–1962, the single managed to re-enter the Hot 100, peaking at #41 in 1959, #45 in 1960, and #39 in 1962. (Starting in 1963, Billboard would list re-current Christmas songs on a separate chart.)

“The Chipmunk Song” is the last Christmas song to make #1 on any US single record chart totaling performance of all available records, a record that may never be equaled.

I’m including the memorable animated video to the song from The Chipmunks 1960s animated series, as well as their live-action version from their 2007 film Alvin and The Chipmunks, as well as their popular 2007 remix of the song!  Enjoy!

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It’s no secret that my favorite series on this blog is Fridays for Friday, my continuing homage to one of my great heroes and role models, Mr. Jack Webb.

Well, I found this excellent verbal reprimand of some long haired liberal punks made soft by their instant orange juice very relevant today!  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZo2hhvvlpw

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Howard Stern took to the streets to see just what the voters in New York City had to think.  He found numerous Obama supporters uptown in Harlem, who evidently had no idea what they were talking about.  To be fair, he found one McCain supporter who was comparably clueless, too!

My personal favorite interview is the Harlem woman who insists that Obama had more facts & information and spoke well (not in so many words), but then proceeds to misstate several of Obama’s positions with conviction!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCcHzUmVP5c

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Well, those that know me know that I am a huge fan of classicist Victor Davis Hanson, one of the genuinely brightest minds of our time!  He visits The Hugh Hewitt Show now and thenand his insights are always appreciated!  Well, Hugh talked him into an expanded interview on Wednesday, October 8, 2008, and it was fascinating!

Hugh’s conversation with Mr. Hanson covers the state of the 2008 campaign, the state of the world, the state of the war against radical Islam, and the state of the culture war here in America.  It took up 2 hours of radio time but the commercials have been removed so each part runs about 35 minutes, for a toal of 70 minutes of Hanson wisdom!

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Well, Revoltin’ Joe Biden was up to his usual antics at the big vice Presedential Debate.

To help drive home the fact that he believes himself to be an average guy, he pointed out that he hangs out at his local Home Depot, talks to working class folks about how rough they have it at a restaurant called Katie’s, and stops his friend Joey Danko at a local gas station to ask him how much it costs to fill his gas tank.  Biden notes that the hapless Danko is evidently baffled by the very concept!

While watching the debate, I thought this working class jive that Biden was preaching just didn’t pass the smell test.  Well, I was listening to the Curtis Sliwa Show on WABC radio this morning (via the miracle of the internet) and was pleased to learn that Curtis had caught the same oddities in Biden’s rap and investigated the allegations.

Curtis found out that (Clip 1) the folks at the Home Depot in Wilmington, Delaware had never seen Joe Biden in the store, (Clip 2) that Katie’s restaurant has been closed for 15 years and Biden couldn’t have discussed the recent economy with the patrons, and (Clip 3) Joey Danko sticks to his story, but insists he would never lie ‘against’ Joe Biden, which avoids the possibility that he would consider lying ‘for’ Joe Biden, I suppose.

Stay classy, Joey Danko!Similar Posts:

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Newstalk Radio host and constitutional lawyer Mark Levin gets his share of nutty callers but I thought this particular brief clip from the June 11, 2008 show was laugh out loud funny. The author of the excellent Men in Black had a caller on his radio show break into a song, and The Great One reacted in top form!

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Well, it’s no secret that I think PBS sucks. There is very little on it that I find interesting, amd much of the original PBS mandate has been exceeded by the rise of private sector cable television channels that serve educational purposes.

That being said, The History Channel or The Discovery Channel haven’t come up with anything nearly as cool as one of my great heroes and role models, Easy Reader!

Back in the 1970s, PBS had quite a few shows for children – most of which left me pretty cold. I never cared much for Sesame Street (my physical resemblance to Ernie notwithstanding), and even as a young child I never connected with Fred Rogers. PBS did deliver one hip show, though – The Electric Company. Intended for slightly older kids, the show benefited from expecting a longer attention span from its viewer, as well as a very talented cast including Rita Moreno and Morgan Freeman.

Well, Morgan contributed one of the classic EC characters – Easy Reader. Easy was one cool cat who bopped around town, and he loved reading so much that he would stop to read any sign he would see. Along the way, he would interact with other EC characters. Indeed, I confess that my lifelong love affair with reading started with the strong example of Easy Reader.

So sit back and enjoy this great clip from the show, featuring Easy Reader singing his theme song, with an assist from the lovely and talented Rita Moreno. They just don’t make them like this anymore!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u8MY7PjSXU

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Newstalk radio host Laura Ingraham interviewed my favorite US Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia this morning. Sit back and enjoy!

• Laura Ingraham interviews Justice Thomas
• Clarence Thomas: The Justice Nobody Knows

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Leave it to the Golden Child, Barry Obama, to top himself! He can’t seem to distance himself fast enough from his 20+ year long pastor, Reverend Wright, just weeks after he vowed that he never could do such a thing!

Here’s a revealing snippet from Obama’s landmark (but quickly forgotten) speech on race a few weeks ago:

As imperfect as [Wright] may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions “the good and the bad“ of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother, a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

My, how things can change in just a few weeks

After Wright’s whirlwind weekend media tour, Obama had heard enough and disowned Wright after all! My main question is what changed in the last few weeks? I don’t think Reverend Wright said anything this past weekend that was notably different from what he had said in many of his sermons. So, what changed, Barry?

I suppose the black community and Senator Obama’s white grandmother are looking over their shoulders these days! They may be next to get disowned!

Enjoy this neat compilation of Obama and Wright commentary on the matter prepared by the folks at the excellent Mark Levin Show:

• “Obama on your shoulder”
• Obama Prejudges KSM Case
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• Obama mocks Joe The Plumber, Crowd Laughs…
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• Obama: “Hold on one second, Sweetie…”

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One of the greatest radio anthology series of the 1930s was The Mercury Theatre on the Air, featuring the talents of the New York drama company founded by Orson Welles and John Houseman.

The Mercury Theatre on the Air featured an impressive array of talent, including Agnes Moorehead, Bernard Herrmann, and George Coulouris. The show is most notable for its notorious War of the Worlds broadcast on October 30, 1938, but the troupe presented many other memorable programs.

And indeed, the premiere episode aired on July 11, 1938, presenting Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula. I’m presenting it here for your enjoyment!

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Our friends at Soulful Torino Records have released the full-length Italian Spiderman theme song! It is outstanding! I can’t wait for the film to be released, which should be any day now, or so I hear.

• Italian Spiderman
• Knock Three Times by Tony Orlando & Dawn
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• The New Star Trek Movie Trailer
• Talk to the Animals by Vanda King
• When Control Gives Way to KAOS…

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America’s singing cowboy, Gene Autry, recorded a wonderful tune way back in 1938 that is as relevant today as it was 70 years ago. So given many of the issues we face here in the USA in 2008, I thought I would dust off the old song and present it here for your enjoyment!

• Gene Autry sings ‘Uncle Noah’s Ark’
• William Shatner’s Rocket Man Special Edition
• Special Request for Our Favorite Client #9?
• Knock Three Times by Tony Orlando & Dawn
• Nichelle Nichols Sings ‘Star Trek’
• Day By Day from Godspell

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Back in the old days, radio networks would often broadcast adaptations of major motion pictures, refined for the radio format. In this case, CBS adapted the classic 1941 film, The Maltese Falcon.

And they did an outstanding job, bringing in the film’s primary cast of Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and the legendary Sidney Greenstreet to reprise their big-screen roles.

So sit back and enjoy the the exploits of detective Sam Spade in the radio adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s classic, The Maltese Falcon.

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• Rod Serling’s “The Time Element”

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Actione! Velocita! Terrore! Suspenso! Romanza!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhHhXukovMU

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Any way you cut it, The Lone Ranger is an American cultural icon. An unmistakable, compelling figure that brought justice to the old west. His exploits were brought to radio, television, and movies.

So sit back and enjoy this great radio drama, Gambler Draws A Blank, originally broadcast on May 5, 1941.

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Woke up this morning to the best news I have heard all year.

The AP reports from Pakistan…

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Wednesday that he had requested a team of investigators from Britain’s Scotland Yard to assist in the investigation into the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.”

We decided to request a team from Scotland Yard to come. I sent the request to (British) Prime Minister (Gordon) Brown, and he accepted the request,” Musharraf said, adding that the British team would assist local investigators.

“We would like to know what were the reasons that led to the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto. I would also like to look into it,” Musharraf said in a nationally televised address.

Opposition officials have rejected the government’s version of events surrounding Bhutto’s killing in a suicide attack after a rally Thursday and demanded an international investigation.

Musharraf’s nearly 30 minute speech was his first major address since Bhutto’s slaying.

“This is a time for reconciliation and not for confrontation,” he said.

Well, that’s genuinely reassuring. I’m a big fan of Scotland Yard, as well as the United Kingdom’s intelligence agency, MI5. I’m also a big fan of the many fictional British intelligence agencies from movies and tv over all the years!

Now this article doesn’t say if the UK has taken them up on the offer. I hope they do, as that part of the world needs a serious dose of maturity and civilization. And the UK brought it to the region once before. Maybe they can help do it again.

To be fair, I could see them wanting no part of this, and I couldn’t fault them for that reasoned conclusion.Similar Posts:

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As each new year comes to a close, I like to look back and get a little nostalgic.

The word ‘nostalgia’ comes from the ancient Greek language, a combination of two words: “nostos,” meaning ‘a return home, travel, journey’ and the word “algos,” meaning ‘pain, grief.’

This would roughly translate back in ancient times as ‘the pain from an old wound,’ but the colloquial modern use still captures at least some of that essence – “a bittersweet yearning for the things of the past.” The pain from looking back – a warm memory, but one you know you can’t ever really return to.

So all you have left is a memory that simultaneously feels good and hurts a bit.

Even in todays fast paced world, ware fads come and go in a matter of weeks, and movie, television, & recording stars just sail briefly through the public consciousness, people still respond to nostalgia. I know that I certainly do.

As to the power of modern nostalgia, I think it’s mostly because the things that trigger the memories are now more real than they have ever been in the past.

While past generations had to rely on old stories passed down as cornerstones of memory, the modern era has recorded video and audio – methods that appeal to two powerful senses, sight and sound.

So I believe our modern sense of nostalgia is therefore much more real, since we can literally go back to the sights and sounds of the past and experience ‘bittersweet yearning’ in ways prior generations simply could not.

And why is the feeling so potent? We can go back to that video or audio and suddenly a link to the past is formed. And in most cases, there is a strong perception that the time past was just better and more fulfilling.

Was it really all that much better? It doesn’t matter. The memory and perception is what’s important. Memory can be a funny thing, of course. We tend to exaggerate things, especially the extremes. The good seems a bit better, and the bad can seem worse if you’re not careful.

Indeed, the passing of time combined with wisdom does tend to minimize the bad, and that’s a good thing.

How’s this for a segue?

Which brings me to one of my all time favorite television commercials. The advertising whizzes who thought this one up sure caught lightning in a bottle – Coca Cola somehow associated with an infectious, folksy, feel good, hippy-dippy song, featuring smiling faces from around the world all getting along.

“I’d like to teach the world to sing” is indeed a classic commercial (and there are so few of those around). An unforgettable image and an unforgettably simple melody & lyrics.

Coca Cola seemed to run this commercial for most of the 1970s, and why not? It pushes all the right buttons and even a relatively young curmudgeon like me can’t resist its basic appeal.

Twenty years later, a different set of ad executives once again had a flash of genuine inspiration and tried to capture lightning in a bottle once again. The plan was uncomplicated – reunite the smiling faces from the 1970s commercial, and this time add their children – a new generation of Coca Cola drinkers, and recreate the song and imagery for a new era.

It’s just the type of thing that gets botched 98 times out of 100. But I think they really succeeded. If memory serves, they carted out the 20th Anniversary commercial at The Super Bowl that year, assuring that it would get maximum exposure and word of mouth the next day in homes, schools, and offices.

Note that while audio and video appeal to the senses in bringing forth powerful nostalgic feelings, this ad very cleverly incorporates the sense of taste to the experience. Just a few years earlier, Coke had introduced their infamous ‘New Coke,’ tinkering with a successful formula. That experiment was a failure.

Coke quickly re-introduced ‘Coca Cola Classic’ – a clever use of nostalgia in itself. So the 20th Anniversary commercial connects with people using another potent source of memory – taste!

Just a fantastic piece of work. They patterned the 20th Anniversary ad fairly closely to the original, which is clear when you watch them both. It’s very well crafted, and whoever worked on it really knew what they were doing.

I particularly like the 23 second mark as the original generation turns slightly to face their children as they skip into the frame, singing the updated ‘Coca Cola Classic’ jingle, woven masterfully into the original song. I confess I get some goosebumps and a bit choked up as the 20th Anniversary commercial ends with the text scrolling, much as the original commercial concluded.

Those few who know me well know I am a sucker for nostalgia and sentimentality (though I like to think I do a good job of camouflaging it). A pleasant melody from the past, warm friendly faces, happy young children singing. Love and family. It doesn’t get any better.

And while the imagery ostensibly speaks to a global theme, the truth is that this ad is quintessentially American. People from all over the world can gather on an hillside in Italy, but the message is unmistakable (if unintentional). It speaks to Americans, who have come from every corner of the globe to be part of the greatest nation on earth.

And truly, Coca Cola is about as American as Mom, Baseball, & Apple Pie.

Ultimately, with a slight tear in my eye, it’s nice to remember that though things may change, it’s our job to make things change for the better. But it’s a warn, wonderful feeling to know that the memories of the past are there to bring us a joyful feeling.

And in the end you just can’t beat the feeling. You can’t beat the real thing.

Happy New Year!Similar Posts:

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Well, three of my favorite things on God’s green earth are Christmas, O Henry stories, and Mr. Lorne Greene. Then again, who doesn’t rank those three things high on their own personal list?

It brings me great pleasure that these three things converge in a wonderful record album released around 1965. So for your listening holiday pleasure, kick back and enjoy Mr. Greene’s reading of this classic Christmas tale!

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• The New Star Trek Movie Trailer

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Television’s house of ideas, Glen A Larson, has created so many great, enduring television shows that it’s difficult to keep track of them all. But one show stands tall even among that tough field. BJ & The Bear

You could count on Mr. Larson to consistently rip off the flavor of the month. For example, when Star Wars became a monster hit in theaters, he followed with Battlestar Galactica on tv. So when audiences responded favorably to the 1977 big screen action/comedy Smokey & The Bandit, Larson took some elements from the film and quickly created his own show.

So in the tv version, we have a rascally truck driver (BJ, rather than ‘Bandit’) and his pet chimp named ‘Bear’ (instead of a pet orangutan as in Smokey) relentlessly pursued by Sheriff Lobo (rather than Sheriff Justice). The basic dynamic from Smokey & The Bandit was intact, though the tv version would have none of the star power of the film – no Burt Reynolds, Jackie Gleason, nor Sally Field.

A pilot movie was broadcast by NBC in 1978, and it proved popular enough for the network to green light a series. BJ & The Bear lasted three seasons on NBC, for an impressive 48 episodes. It even launched a spinoff based around Claude Akins’s character, Sheriff Lobo.

Each episode usually involved BJ and Bear discovering some criminal or immoral activity, and usually a pretty woman in some sort of distress. BJ would then bend the rules a bit to solve the problem, usually with some action and comedy to please fans of all ages.

In a later season, BJ started his own trucking company out of Los Angeles, and he hired 7 beautiful lady truckers – Samantha, Cindy, Angie, Callie, twins Geri & Teri, and my personal favorite Stacks, as portrayed by the lovely Judy Landers. They would find adventures together. Sometimes Andre the Giant would show up and hang out with them, too.

In other words, this is clearly one of the greatest tv shows of all time.

So sit back and enjoy the opening credits & theme song to one of the great television concepts of all time, BJ & The Bear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AsqKQptTdQ

While some folks may be so cynical as to decry the credibility of the basic concept of the show, I have always maintained that the most incredible thing in the show opening is not that an adult male trucker’s best friend is a chimpanzee, but rather that somewhere out on the highways of America there is at least one young, foxy lady truck driver.

The next season introduced seven more young, foxy lady truckers, propelling the show into science fiction.

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Well, it isn’t Halloween. Halloween was a couple of weeks ago. But way back in 1938 Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater broadcast an original presentation of HG Wells science fiction classic, War of the Worlds.

The broadcast was historic in that the dramatic nature of the broadcast had actually fooled many listeners into believing that aliens from Mars had actually launched an invasion of the earth.

So sit back and enjoy a broadcast that moved and shook listeners way back in October, 1938!

• The Mercury Theater Presents ‘Dracula’
• The Shadow: Dead Men Talk
• Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett’s Monster Mash
• The Maltese Falcon
• The Lone Ranger: Gambler Draws A Blank
• Orson Wells shills for Paul Masson Champagne

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The United States Marine Corps traces its institutional roots to the Continental Marines of the American Revolutionary War, formed at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, by a resolution of the Continental Congress on November 10, 1775, a date regarded and celebrated as the birthday of the Marine Corps.

Since then they have served the US with courage and distinction! Happy Birthday to the US Marines and thank you all for your service to our nation!

The US Marines’ Hymn

From the halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli,
We fight our country’s battles
In the air, on land, and sea.
First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean,
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marines.

Our flag’s unfurl’d to every breeze
From the dawn to setting sun;
We have fought in every clime and place
Where we could take a gun.
In the snow of far-off northern lands
And in sunny tropic scenes,
You will find us always on the job
The United States Marines.

Here’s health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve;
In many a strife we’ve fought for life
And have never lost our nerve.
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven’s scenes,
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.

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Two of my great passions are old pulp thrillers like Doc Savage, and old time radio like The Lone Ranger and Dragnet. Well, these two passions intersect with one of my favorite fictional characters of all time, The Shadow.

In 1930, magazine publisher Street and Smith sponsored a radio show promoting stories from their Detective Story Magazine. The radio program featured a fictional narrator known as The Shadow, and he became very popular with the listeners. Numerous requests from people for “that Shadow Detective Magazine” compelled Street and Smith to bring the character to the magazine world in his own adventures.

The first novel, The Living Shadow, hit newsstands in April of 1931. Its success meant that more stories were needed, and now The Shadow would be featured in his own monthly magazine, which was so popular that it became biweekly starting in 1932.

The Shadow continued hosting Detective Story Hour, but he became more prominent in the 1937 season of what had become The Shadow radio show, which featured a 22-year-old actor named Orson Welles.

The Shadow radio program and pulp magazines were very successful and soon the character would make it to the big screen: 1937′s The Shadow Strikes, and 1938′s International Crime, though The Shadow would find greater success in the 1940 movie serial simply titled The Shadow.

At around this time, The Shadow returned for a sixth season of his popular radio show, starring Bill Johnstone as The Shadow and his alter ego, Lamont Cranston, and Agnes Moorehead as his confidant, Margo Lane. The sixth season premiere was broadcast on Sunday, September 24, 1939 at 5:30pm, with the classic adventure “Dead Men Talk.”

So sit back this Sunday in 2007 and enjoy the classic radio drama, “The Shadow: Dead Men Talk.”

• The Mercury Theater Presents ‘Dracula’
• The Maltese Falcon
• Dragnet on Radio: The Big Drive
• RIP Charlton Heston
• The Lone Ranger: Gambler Draws A Blank
• Citizen Kane and Michael Jackson

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Just got word on the passing of the talented and gracious Robert Goulet.

Robert Goulet was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts as the only son of French Canadian parents, Joseph Georges Andre Goulet and Jeanette Gauthier. In Edmonton, he attended the famous voice schools founded by Herbert G. Turner and Jean Letourneau, and later became a radio announcer for radio station CKUA. Upon graduating from high school, Goulet received a scholarship to Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music.

In 1959, Goulet was introduced to librettist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe, who were having difficulty casting the role of Lancelot in their stage production Camelot. Lerner and Loewe, impressed by Goulet’s talent, signed the virtual newcomer to play the part, opposite Richard Burton’s King Arthur and Julie Andrews’ Queen Guenevere.

Camelot, of course, was a huge hit, and Mr. Goulet would remain in the public eye with many wonderful stage and screen performances, as well as many successful record albums.

So long, Mr. Goulet. Thank you for all you gave, and you shall be missed.

• Bob Grant Returns to WABC Radio in NYC
• RIP Charlton Heston
• Phil Rizzuto, RIP
• Kramer Freaks Out!
• Stan Laurel’s letters to housewife sell for £ 2900
• Dennis Miller interviews Stan Lee

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Here at the world headquarters for The Silver State Chronicles, things are always happening! I decided to dedicate the remaining Fridays of 2007 to one of my great heroes, Joe Friday and the series Dragnet!

We’ll start this week off with a Dragnet Doubleheader! While Jack Webb and Dragnet are often identified with great television, a lot of folks don’t know that Dragnet originated as a very successful, long running radio drama.

So how about a little dose of old time radio? Sit back and enjoy the August 14, 1952 episode of radio’s Dragnet, “The Big Drive.”

• Jack Webb on “What is a cop”
• The Perils of Blue Boy
• The Tonight Show: The Copper Clapper Caper
• Dragnet (1966) TV Movie Opening
• Jack Webb’s Dragnet Tells It Like It Is
• The Lone Ranger: Gambler Draws A Blank

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It’s no secret that I am a big fan of Jack Webb, having mentioned his classic album ‘You’re My Girl: Romantic Reflections by Jack Webb’ in an earlier post. Well, lots of folks just loved the Nichelle Nichols song a couple of days ago, so I decided to follow up with a memorable tune by Jack Webb.

One of the most memorable tracks on this classic album is Mr. Webb’s rendition of ‘Try A Little Tenderness.’ Well, I’ve surrendered to popular demand and am sharing this wonderful track with you all! Enjoy!

• Jack Webb on “What is a cop”
• Jack Webb Homage: Mr Bookman on Seinfeld
• The Perils of Blue Boy
• The Tonight Show: The Copper Clapper Caper
• Jack Webb Seat Belt PSA
• The Story of Old Glory, by Mr. Jack Webb