Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Anyone for a Superman Old Time Radio Listen Along?

I know most of us have our reading time booked with more stuff than we can get to, but I thought this might be something different and fun that would only take 10-15 minutes a day and could be done while driving/during morning ablutions/in bed before sleep/etc.

I've been a big fan of the Superman Old Time Radio series since I discovered it in high school back in the 80s.About 10 years ago I listened to the whole thing (well, as close to the whole thing as exists. Many are missing.) I had a blast and it has become one of my all-time favorite takes on Superman. And the original Perry White is still "my" Perry White. I was thinking it was time to revisit it, and thought I'd see if anyone else was interested in joining in.

I was going to put a purchase link to the first batch of episodes on Amazon, but it looks like it is out of print. From what I understand, the wording in the contracts of the actors in these pre-rerun days were such that the rights to such shows are in a weird legal quagmire that no one has the rights to. As such, they tend to be treated as public domain and no copyright holder has challenged that. In that spirit, here's a link toa website that catalogs nearly a thousand episodes.

I've just started to listen to a few podcasts again. I think it's the "nearly a thousand" that's scaring me off! How many Superman radio shows were there?

I think there were over 1200, not all of which exist today. The show ran from 1940 into the early 1950s, giving out right about the time George Reeves took off on the small screen. The show originally lasted only 10-15 minutes, and was serialized. During the last year or so they replaced the irreplaceable Bud Collyer and switched to 30 minute standalones.

If anyone was interested but too imtimidated by the scale, we could be more selective. We could start from the beginning, and then when we get bored of those, jump ahead a few years to what is considered the high point of the run. Sadly the first appearances of kryponite and the first radio appearances of Batman and Robin are in the missing gap, but there are some good stories with them from later, as well as the "Atom Man" sequence and the famous story about the KKK that is probably the most talked about story from the radio show.

I'm totally onboard, and highly recommend Adam Graham's podcast linked above as the best way to listen to it. I've listened to about 700 or so episodes myself, and his Great Detectives of Old Time Radio podcast is part of my daily routine.

I'm not sure how many total episodes of Superman there are that survive (almost all of the WW2 era episodes are missing, for example), but I know Adam is thinking about what to replace Superman with when it ends, so I assume he must be getting close to finishing the whole series.

It's a pretty huge commitment to go through the whole thing, but the episodes are short (fifteen minutes even with Adam's commentary). The story arcs vary wildly in length, from just a few episodes to a couple longer stories in the thirty episode range, but generally speaking listening to about one storyline a week seems pretty manageable.

Oh, and generally, there's *no reason* to purchase old time radio. Pretty much everything before 1970 or so is in the public domain, and the vast majority of stuff that still exists is available for free online.

The longest story, which was actually a series of interlocking serials, was what's generally called the atom man saga, stretching an amazing 76 episodes.

I don't remember where I read this, but apparently the loss of the ww2 episodes is down to rationing, as the episodes were recorded on fragile and inferior material.

I believe in striking while the iron is hot, so why not start Monday from episode 1, one per day? I expect us to have stuff to say about each of the first few episodes, but as we go along it will probably evolve into an occasional comment with more discussion after each story. The episodes are so short that there will probably be many episodes with literally nothing new of interest to say. But we can see how it evolves.

I'm hoping to get a chance to re-listen to the first few episodes tomorrow, so I whenever you want to begin is cool.

I was going to start Monday, but my sleep schedule got turned upside-down. Tomorrow sounds good.

I listened to the first two episodes. This was, of course, the first dramatization of the destruction of Krypton, although the story was first told the year before in the Superman Newspaper strip. There isn't a whole lot to say about it, since it is the traditional version in virtually every detail. Subsequent versions will elaborate, but surprisingly little of this story falls out of use. Nothing in it feels unfamiliar, as often happens with golden age versions of well-known stories. Actual Superman stories from the GA have a very different feel, but this tragedy is strangely preserved in amber. I was surprised that commentator Adam didn't like it. The heightened drama is typical of OTR, and we will certainly see people become as overwrought over much lesser things than the destruction of your world as the show goes along.

Favorite line, after Lara asks about the council's reaction: "I... didn't mention it." Like he forgot to ask Mark where they bought their sofa because they wanted one like it. And Lara just lets that go.

By contrast, there is a LOT to say about the second episode. It's one of the stranger stories of how the baby from Krypton became Clark Kent, secretly Superman. To be fair, this was the first attempt to depict that transition as a story, and they had no source material to go on. Up to this point, the most we've seen is a panel of an orphanage or an adoptive couple before zipping ahead. If my memory serves correctly, contrary to what Adam says in his commentary the Kents (as more than unnamed one panel walkons) didn't exist at this point. In fact, the first depiction of the traditional Kent family story will be in the novel written by radio show writer George Lowther. Later episodes will go with the Kent farm version, and this strange little curiosity will not really be thought about again.

Superman arrives on Earth as an adult, already full of knowledge of both where he came from and where he is. After saving a man and boy, they help him come up with a civilian name and identity, and give him the idea of getting a newspaper job to be able to find trouble quickly to help. This is the most extreme case of Clark Kent being just a cover identity that I can recall.

To add to what Adam said in his podcast about differing voices for Superman and Clark Kent, my understanding is that Bud Collyer accomplished it with his musical training by serparating them by an octave, creating two natural sounding voices that are very distinct yet could believably come from one person. To a non-musical person such as myself, this appears to be some sort of amazing sorcery.

Then the most significant from this episode, and one of the most significant in the entire history of Superman: the first appearance of Perry White in any form. Perry, and soon Jimmy, are probably the most important characters to ever be created in another medium and brought back to the comics. Harley Quinn is bigger in certain ways, but she is still not as essential to the Batman mythos as Perry White is to the Superman. When I say he is the quintessential Perry White, it is because his performance is literally what all subsequent iterations follow from. I have liked a lot of Perry Whites in my time, but this is the voice I hear to this day when I am running Superman dialog in my head. I love him to bits.

The rest of the story is just setting up Superman's first proper adventure, and establishing how he will get in at the Daily Planet. Since it doesn't really begin until the next episode, I don't have much to say here. The one thing I will add is to point out something that I really like about early golden age Superman stories, but other people consider a drawback: they favor Clark Kent over Superman. Many of these early tales (and probably the bulk of the radio show, for that matter) tend to be stories about Clark and company investigating stories, with Superman being brought out only when the problems get too big for mere mortals to deal with. I've always liked this approach to superheroics, keeping one foot firmly in the traditional adventure story instead of what the superhero genre will become.

Can't wait to listen to more.

It's always kind of fascinated me that they actually spend a full episode on the destruction of Krypton. It seems to me a weird choice to have your premiere episode *not* feature your main character. Interestingly, this is duplicated in the Adventures of Superman tv show (in which the adult Clark Kent/Superman appears only near the end of the first episode), and sort of foreshadows just how much of Superman: The Movie will be spent on the origin before Christopher Reeve actually shows up. It's definitely a little over the top on the melodrama ("Krypton is doomed!"), but I love the bit where they all just laugh at him. I too noted the weird lie that Jor-El told Lara about not bringing up the eminent destruction of the planet to the Science Council.

And you mentioned pretty much all of the oddities of the second episode. It's interesting that the boy who provides the "Clark Kent" name is named "Jimmy". Apparently that must be a favorite name for a kid among the writers. Then there's the interesting bit where he wants to keep the existence of Superman a secret, which will be a theme for quite awhile in the radio series. You also have the weird appearance of "Miss Smith", who never shows up again. Apparently this was actually supposed to be Lois Lane, but for some reason she couldn't appear (the actress cast wasn't yet available or something?), so they wrote in this substitute, who has some of the sass of Lois but not quite (the real Lois would be trying to find a way to get the story herself!). It's actually awhile before we get Joan Alexander as the iconic Lois Lane, as we go through short tenures by Rolle Bester (Alfred Bester's wife!) and Helen Choate first.

Anyway, these episodes are pretty much set up for the first major story arc. As a kid, we had about the first twenty or so episodes on record, so I've probably listened to these early episodes 100s of times, but they never grow old for me. Somewhere deep in my mind The Wolf and the Yellow Mask are Superman villains on a par with Lex Luthor or Brainiac, so I look forward to hearing their stories once again.

I clicked the link but troglodyte that I am, I couldn't figure out how to get it to play.

I think you may have to create a free account to stream it through the site. But you can click the download link to download an mp3 you can play through whatever method you use for such things, no account necessary.