Box Thirteen
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CD 7B: “Diamond in the Sky” - Episode # 14 Supporting cast includes: Joan Banks, Luis van Rooten, Edmund McDonald, and Paul Frees. BOX THIRTEEN Program Guide by Karl Schadow CD 8A: “Double Right Cross” - Episode # 15 Supporting cast includes: John Beal, Marie Windsor (right), The wide variety of adventure programs on the air during radio’s Golden Age Peter Leeds, and William Johnstone. could be divided into numerous sub-genres, including romance (Dangerously Yours), western (Frontier Gentleman), seafaring (Voyage of the Scarlet Queen), CD 8B: “Look Pleasant, Please” - Episode # 16 Marie Windsor and aviation (I Fly Anything), among others. There was one memorable anthology Supporting cast includes: John Beal, Charles Seel, Tony series, Escape, which explored many of these themes during its run on CBS from Barrett, and Edmund McDonald. 1947 - 1954. Another undertaking commenced in 1947 that embodied the same venturesome spirit. It was a transcribed, syndicated series, and the initial effort of a newly founded radio production firm based in Hollywood, California. Its Acknowledgments: The author wishes to thank staff members of the Library moniker was one of the medium’s most unusual: Box Thirteen. of Congress (Washington, DC) and Thousand Oaks Library (Thousand Oaks, California) for their invaluable assistance. The latest addition to radio’s burgeoning platter business was announced in the trade (The Hollywood Reporter, June 16, 1947) as the Mayfair Transcription Company, established by film idol Alan Ladd and executive Bernie Joslin. The latter had been president of the Boston-based Jos-Lin Recording Company, and was a cousin-in-law to the former’s wife, Sue Carol. (It is worth noting that the If you enjoyed this CD set, we recommend missus had been her current husband’s agent for several years.) Having been Let George Do It: Full Details, available involved in radio since the mid-1930s, and aspiring to engage in new business now at www.RadioSpirits.com. enterprises, Ladd realized a great opportunity in entering the transcription field. The Hot Springs, Arkansas native found an initial entry into the medium at Southern California stations, including Hollywood’s KFWB. It was there that he was cast in several programs, includ- www.RadioSpirits.com ing Amateur Author. During PO Box 1315, Little Falls, NJ 07424 the late 1930s and early 1940s, he took on minor film roles, © 2019 RSPT LLC. All rights reserved. For home use only. which lead to his breakthrough Unauthorized duplication prohibited. performance as assassin Phil- lip Raven in This Gun for Hire Program Guide © 2019 Karl Schadow and RSPT LLC. All Rights Reserved. (Paramount Pictures, 1942). He continued his radio work as 48402 well, revisiting that character on Lux Radio Theatre. He also made appearances on such shows as The Lady CD 2B: “Actor’s Alibi” - Episode # 4 Esther Screen Guild Theatre and Cavalcade of America. Supporting cast includes: Betty Lou Gerson, Luis van Rooten, Leo Cleary, and Charles Seel. Although the Ladd-Joslin duo had announced the formation of their new firm, they had not yet decided upon a name for its initial venture. The program was CD 3A: “Extra! Extra!” - Episode # 5 promoted as Alan Ladd Show (tentative title) in the Annual Shows of Tomorrow Supporting cast includes: Jeffrey Silver, Ken Christy, issue (Radio Daily, July 30, 1947). In spite of the makeshift moniker, it was Gerald Mohr, and Betty Lou Gerson. imperative that this offering from the Mayfair firm be included in this publication, so that prospective advertising agencies and sponsors could learn of their new CD 3B: “Shanghaied” - Episode # 6 enterprise. Supporting cast includes: Jeanne Bates, Herb Alan Ladd Butterfield, Luis van Rooten, and Stacy Harris. In Box Thirteen, Alan Ladd was heard as Dan Holiday, a former Star-Times newspaper reporter turned freelance fiction writer. A gimmick for garnering CD 4A: “Short Assignment” - Episode # 7 potential subject matter for his novels was to place an ad in the newspaper: Supporting cast includes: Francis “Dink” Trout, Betty Lou Gerson, Charles Seel, “Adventure wanted . will go any place . do anything. Write Box 13.” and Tom Collins. Holiday’s fellow radio adventurer George Valentine (from Let George Do It) had previous success with just such a method of generating business. CD 4B: “Double Mothers” - Episode # 8 Supporting cast includes: Leone LeDoux, Betty Lou Gerson, Edmund McDonald, For the Mayfair firm, Ladd and Joslin assembled a team of experienced Luis van Rooten, and Mary Jane Croft. radio production personnel. Hired as script writer was Ted Hediger, who had commenced his career in the late 1920s as an announcer on WCCO (Minneapolis) CD 5A: “Book of Poems” - Episode # 9 before journeying to Chicago to join NBC’s production department. In the late Supporting cast includes: Anne Stone, Charles Seel, Martha Wentworth, Edmund 1930s, he moved to that network’s Hollywood facilities, where he wrote for such McDonald, and Betty Moran. shows as Spotlight on Youth. Immediately prior to his Box Thirteen activities, he was a scribe for I Deal in Crime. Leonard Reeg’s tenure as director of Mayfair’s CD 5B: “The Great Torino” - Episode # 10 first venture was short-lived. Health problems forced him to resign once the Supporting cast includes: Luis van Rooten, Edmund McDonald, Charles Seel, preliminary recording was produced in late July of 1947. Ted Hediger took over and David Ellis. as director, while also continuing as the writer for the program. The third key member of the initial staff was Vern Carstensen (below), who was employed CD 6A: “Suicide or Murder” - Episode # 11 as producer. His career in the business began at radio stations in Iowa and Supporting cast includes: Edmund McDonald, Tony Barrett, and Clayton Post. Illinois. During World War II, he oversaw the creation and implementation of the Fifth Mobile Army Radio Station in Italy. Following the war, he returned to Hollywood as a member of the Armed Forces Radio Service. In addition to his CD 6B: “Triple Cross” - Episode # 12 role as producer (for which he received on-air credit, starting with Episode # Supporting cast includes: Frank Lovejoy, Herb Vigran, Peter Leeds, and Lou 12 [“Triple Cross”]), he also handled the announcing Krugman. duties for Box Thirteen. On the administrative side, Florence Jordan served as Mayfair’s office manager. CD 7A: “Damsel in Distress” - Episode # 13 Supporting cast includes: Barbara Eiler and Edmund McDonald. Selected to compose and conduct the music for Vern Carstensen Box Thirteen was Rudy Schrager. He was known to 2 7 A trade article (Sponsor, July 16, 1951) touted Box Thirteen as one of ten top- Alan Ladd from his duties on Lux Radio Theatre, as assistant to that program’s notch transcriptions available for potential advertisers. However, during that composer/conductor Louis Silvers. Schrager is esteemed for his film efforts, summer, the Mayfair firm was experiencing severe financial difficulties and filed which included a stint as arranger and music director for Charlie Chaplin’s 1947 for bankruptcy (Broadcasting Telecasting, August, 13, 1951). The original cycle film Monsieur Verdoux. His radio credits included the daytime serial Those We of the program ended in 1953. Another popular and successful Mayfair series, Love and I Deal in Crime. Incidentally, the sound effects artists of this latter The Damon Runyon Theatre, suffered the same fate the following year (due to series, Wayne Kenworthy and Bud Tollefson, were also contracted for Box the unwarranted black listing of that program’s lead actor, John Brown). Thirteen. This duo had performed on many previous NBC and ABC programs. There were no recording studios of the Mayfair Transcription Company, so it was Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s there were periodic announcements of a necessary to negotiate with another firm for such services. The NBC Hollywood potential small screen version of Box Thirteen. One episode of the radio series, facilities would be used in this capacity. Additional NBC staff, including the “Daytime Nightmare,” was produced by Alan Ladd Enterprises, Inc. (founded studio engineer, who worked the Box Thirteen series have yet to be determined. in 1954). It was broadcast under the title “Committed” on The General Electric Theater (December 5, 1954). This starred Alan Ladd (right) and featured Frank Though Ted Hediger wrote many of the initial scripts for the series, he also Ferguson as Lt. Kling. (The Suzy character was written out of this particular sought contributions from other authors. Frank Hart Taussig wrote three of the adaptation.) In 1960, a press release stated that William Leslie had portrayed sixteen episodes included in this collection, with Larry Kraft supplying one Dan Holiday in a pilot episode of a proposed series. Three years later, in 1963, (“Short Assignment”). Taussig had been a writer on various programs in both there were indications that Robert Sterling had been cast as the lead in yet Chicago and Hollywood, including The Clyde Beatty Show. Larry Kraft was the another attempt to bring the venture to television. Also in 1963, Alan Ladd was radio director for Jere Bayard & Associates, the Los Angeles advertising agency contemplating a motion picture version of the property. Despite gallant efforts by handling much of Mayfair’s promotional activities. In addition to Alan Ladd, Alan Ladd and associated parties, none of these endeavors ultimately succeeded. during the closing credits of early Box Thirteen episodes, the writer, director, In 2010, however, new adventures of Dan Holiday were introduced via a Red 5 and music conductor were acknowledged. It was not until the fourth adventure Comics graphic novel by Tom Gallaher and Steve Ellis. (“Actor’s Alibi”) that another cast member would receive oral curtsies. This was actress Sylvia Picker (below), who portrayed Dan Holiday’s scatter-brained Episode Guide: secretary, Suzy. A native of New York City, she commenced her entertainment Note: Alan Ladd stars as Dan Holiday, with Sylvia Picker as Suzy.