When people discover that I have a weblog…and after they’ve been revived with a glass of water and a quick fanning with the nearest newspaper or magazine…they usually ask me what Thrilling Days of Yesteryear is all about. I describe TDOY as “a blog that revels in the good old days—when black-and-white movies weren't necessarily bad things, when people listened to a RADIO for entertainment...and when unreality shows (talking horses, witches, genies, monsters and martians) ruled the television airwaves.”
Thrilling Days of Yesteryear is a labor of love for me…and it keeps me out of the pool halls. Originally, I developed TDOY as a weblog dedicated to my hobby of collecting old-time radio, which I wrote about in my first post (when the blog was located at Salon Blogs) on November 4, 2003:
Let us begin...
I've always been convinced that I grew up in the wrong decade.
I was born in 1963, but throughout my lifetime, my tastes in entertainment have always been drawn to product made ten, twenty and even thirty years before that date.
I love old, classic movies. My all-time favorite film is Casablanca
I was very fortunate to be a child during the 70s nostalgia boom; a period where "everything old is new again" was the dominating theme in pop culture. While listening to a Charleston , WV
I've heard many an anecdote about how people, when they were children, were mystified by radio--some were convinced that there were actually "little people" inside. I was never that naive, but I will reluctantly concede that I pictured radio as a giant stage where people would get up and perform live. (My visit to my hometown's radio station soon dispelled that notion when I saw stacks and stacks of vinyl records, the bulk of which supplied the entertainment coming out of my little radio set.) When I first heard Lum and Abner, I marveled at the concept of two guys just talking on radio--with no music being played in between.
This was my first exposure to OTR, but it would not be my last. Later on in the mid 70s, I stumbled onto rebroadcasts of the classic BBC radio series The Goon Show, which were being showcased on a local public radio station (WOUB-FM in Athens , Ohio
It was here that I first learned that Lamont Cranston, wealthy young man-about-town, had learned a strange and mysterious secret while in the Orient: the hypnotic power to cloud men's minds so that they cannot see him. Now, a pre-pubescent type like myself would probably have used that to infiltrate the girls' locker room; Cranston
Margo Lane--she was "the only person to know to whom the voice of the invisible Shadow belongs." (Talk about a heavy responsibility.) I should also point out here that, as a rule, my parents frowned on my staying up until 11pm to listen to The Shadow, so oftentimes I would have to "sneak" listening to it, trying to turn the radio volume to such a level where I would be able to hear it but at the same time not alert my father to what was going on. (I would later discover that many young folk like myself would do the very same thing during the original Golden Age of Radio.)
Margo Lane--she was "the only person to know to whom the voice of the invisible Shadow belongs." (Talk about a heavy responsibility.) I should also point out here that, as a rule, my parents frowned on my staying up until 11pm to listen to The Shadow, so oftentimes I would have to "sneak" listening to it, trying to turn the radio volume to such a level where I would be able to hear it but at the same time not alert my father to what was going on. (I would later discover that many young folk like myself would do the very same thing during the original Golden Age of Radio.)
After The Shadow continued its run, WOUB replaced it with programs like The Lone Ranger and Nightbeat--a short-lived but excellent series starring Frank Lovejoy as a newspaper reporter/columnist for a Chicago
So, that, in a nutshell, is the purpose of this blog. I've been seeking an outlet to write about my passion for old-time radio and this looks like as good a place to start as any. (On occasion, I might veer a little off-topic and allow my thoughts to spill forth on related topics, like classic movies or classic TV--so I hope you'll indulge my occasional flights of fancy.) The nature of my job allows me to listen to a lot of OTR programs, and I will try on a fairly regular basis to share my thoughts on shows that I've listened to. Comments are both welcomed and encouraged. So return with me now to "those thrilling days of yesteryear."
Things have changed quite a bit since that post in 2003; I wanted TDOY to be more of a nostalgia-oriented blog, so I started writing more about classic movies and television…and I still “keep my hand in” writing about old-time radio, though I’ll freely admit I don’t write about it as much as I once did. Of course, I continue to take the off-topic exit ramp on occasion and comment on politics or just something that’s put a burr under my saddle. I’m in the process of setting up link pages to some of my older Salon Blog posts to make some of the movies, TV shows and OTR programs I’ve written about in the past easier to find—and I hope that that material will make you a regular reader as I continue to jump into my WABAC machine and return to “those thrilling days of yesteryear.”
