Speaker 1: Hello from Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam Graham. Well,
The Great Detectors of Old Time Radio is the biggest
podcast that I do. It's not the only old time
radio podcast, and of course we have been introducing you
to the Great Adventurers of Old Time Radio recently, but
today we're serving up a sample of the Old Time
Radio snack Wagon. The Old Time Radio snack Wagon is
a series that I launched in twenty twenty three and
it features a wide variety of different old time radio
programs across a variety of genres, and these focus on
shorter bits. They are things that you can listen to
while you're in the car, going to the gym or
taking a quick trip to the convenience store, with either short,
self contained programs or clips from longer shows. But what
exactly does that look like? In our second Old Time
Radio snack Wagon sampler, we serve up four episodes to
kind of give you a flavor of what we have
to offer, including the first episode of Abroad with the Lawharts,
which is the only series that we've done where we've
played every circulating episode of the series as it tells
one story and if you are interested in listening to
the rest.
Speaker 2: Of abroad with the Lockharts.
Speaker 1: Or find some of the episodes that we've brought to
appealing in this smorgasboard. Then please subscribe at snackwagon Dot
or search for the Old Time Radio snack Wagon wherever
you get your podcasts from. But now please enjoy the
special serving from the Old Time Radio snack Wagon Smorgasbord.
Speaker 3: Excuse me, are you Adam Grim?
Speaker 1: The very same? And this is my old time Radio
snack Wagon.
Speaker 4: Welcome to the Old Time Radio snack Wagon where we
serve up a bite sized portion of old time radio.
And now here's your snack wagon host, Adam Graham.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Old Time Radio snack Wagon. Today we're
serving up something extra special. Wings Over Jordan was one
of the highest rated sustaining programs that air during the
Golden Age of radio, with an original ten year run
of more than five hundred undred episodes. Since then it
slid into obscurity, but I think it's worth remembering. The
series began with the tireless efforts of Reverend Glenn Subtle,
pastor of the Gsemine Baptist Church, a Black congregation in
Cleveland that had predominantly migrated from the South. Cleveland is
and was a multi ethnic city at the time. On Sunday,
WGAOR Radio had programming blocks dedicated to all the city's
major ethnic groups, but nothing for the city's black population.
WGAR program director Worth Kramer launched the Negro Or, with
the Gosemine Choir providing the music, usually a selection of
hymns and Negro spirituals. CBS picked up the series and
took it national, and it was renamed Wings Over Jordan.
Wings Over Jordan featured beautiful choral music as well as
a guest speaker on a variety of topics, and some
of these guest speakers might be community and religious leaders,
and at least one episode, actress Hattie McDaniel appeared after
winning the Oscar for her performance in Gone with the Win.
But each speaker served to bring to a national audience
the stories and concerns of Black Americans. Some tell stories
of predominantly black neighborhoods where the radios would all be
tuned to Wings Over Jordan, with the radio on the
porch or the windows open so that others could hear.
Yet the audience crossed racial lines, with supporters including First
Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia of New York City.
The series recorded more than five hundred episodes. I am
only aware of the existence of one broadcast. This was
an Armed Forces Radio Service broadcast which included the music
and Reverend Subtle's narration, but not a guest speaker. I
can't give a specific date for the program, except that
it aired sometime between nineteen forty two and nineteen forty six.
Here now is Wings Over Jordan.
Speaker 5: Wings Over Jordan. Here is the originator and director of
Wings Over Jordan, the Reverend Plenty settled Wings.
Speaker 6: Over Jordan, enchanting and glorious From over Yon Mystic Divide
comes the assurance and hope that he is an ever
present help in trouble and a friend that never fails.
Pause for a moment and gain a replacement A do.
Then go on your way with a song in your
soul for another week. Careless living often results in years
of misery and regrettable sorrows. If it were only in
this life that we suffered, it wouldn't seem so terrible
after all. But the croops of the whole matter is,
you've got to give an account in the judgment. So
you'd better mind.
Speaker 7: Oh you votab.
Speaker 8: You give me anybody that judgment? You oh, you bet
you you got to give any judgment you you got
on home.
Speaker 9: You got to give anybody that judgment.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 8: You got mom ah you free.
Speaker 7: You got to give anybod judgment.
Speaker 10: You go.
Speaker 8: Oh you bet, you know you got you got to
give anybody that you Oh you you know you.
Speaker 11: Got to give anybod judgment.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 12: You Madamise, you got to give out of that.
Speaker 11: Vision of.
Speaker 12: You Medibi Metamile, you got to get out of that.
Speaker 10: Vision of See.
Speaker 6: So Dandy leaves the choir. In our next number today Alva.
Speaker 7: Give Indeed.
Speaker 13: Alba fun its school.
Speaker 10: O City song a b.
Speaker 14: Indie war.
Speaker 15: Show.
Speaker 16: Oh what I'm doing day.
Speaker 15: Or the day.
Speaker 7: About some great unclad.
Speaker 2: For oh.
Speaker 8: I have a dilo.
Speaker 14: Be thy fool to take my be with the blest.
Speaker 13: Day we all.
Speaker 6: The Babylonian prophet looked up to behold of stone leaping
out of the mountain to start its perilous journey through
the temptations and hidden snares of this wicked world. One
day I step into the path and made and now
I need your prayers to help me, for I too
am a rolling through an unfriendly world.
Speaker 9: Thank me, oh sister, what you were?
Speaker 5: A sister?
Speaker 17: What you have me to see?
Speaker 8: Oh sister, what you have?
Speaker 15: What you had been?
Speaker 7: The sadsall?
Speaker 11: I'm all, Oh brother, want you heard me?
Speaker 16: Oh brother?
Speaker 7: Won't you have me to pray?
Speaker 10: Oh brother?
Speaker 11: Want to hear me?
Speaker 3: Won't you have me?
Speaker 8: In the sadasi ball, I'm all, I'm.
Speaker 15: I'm all.
Speaker 9: Thank you, I'm.
Speaker 3: Oh preacher, want to hear me? Oh preacher?
Speaker 10: Won't you have me to pray? Oh preach?
Speaker 4: You want to hear of me?
Speaker 17: Mut you happy?
Speaker 3: In the sad sall?
Speaker 12: I'm all?
Speaker 6: And all the choir gives you the most consoling song.
When I have done the best I.
Speaker 2: Can, when.
Speaker 4: Uh this.
Speaker 8: A my fall and my Lord pay.
Speaker 10: Me?
Speaker 18: After have done.
Speaker 3: Fun, I will fa.
Speaker 2: When my.
Speaker 8: Pa level.
Speaker 18: We fast, when the.
Speaker 16: I've done by.
Speaker 10: On the.
Speaker 19: F not with.
Speaker 12: My day, It's happen antment. Oh yes, I'm I'm contentive.
Animator Aisement Moden went.
Speaker 7: Down in the Age of.
Speaker 13: Seven pool he hello people, Yes.
Speaker 12: I'm I'm not, contends Daniel of Lions.
Speaker 10: A little more Mondy Lion.
Speaker 20: Tool for the past quarter hour you have been listening
to the Wings Over Jordan Corel Ensemble, under the direction
of the Reverend Glenn t set a presentation of the
Armed Forces Radio.
Speaker 21: Service Welcome back.
Speaker 1: Wings Over Jordan will remain a presence in American music
and culture for decades. The group would have numerous tours
both before and after the war. Their talent would open
doors that were closed to other black performers of the era,
particularly in segregated areas of the country. During the war,
the choir was in great demand to come overseas and
were the largest single group of performers brought overseas, and
initially they were scheduled to do a six month tour
of Europe, which was later extended to ten months. There
was even more touring after the war. The group continued
to perform even after left radio, with new members, record deals,
satellite choirs, and eventually a celebration chorus that formed in
the nineteen eighties to celebrate the group's legacy. This is
one of the more intriguing series I've come across, with
so much to its stories, and while it's the only
episode in circulation, there are records, albums, and histories who
find themselves hungry for more after listening to this week's
Old Time Radio snack Welcome to the Old Time Radio
snack Wagon. We're this week we're serving out by diamond
Studied Delight. Diamonds have fascinated mankind for millennia. They've been
the basis of many fortunes and empires, and also the
cause of much bloodshed. They were a natural inspiration for
a radio drama series. In nineteen thirty four, The Diamond
Drama Series was broadcast over KYDL Radio in Salt Lake City.
The series was sponsored by Miracle Diamonds, not an actual
diamond company, but a company that sold diamond shaped laxative
salts derived from the Great Salt Lake, and it was
owned by Sidney Fox, who also owned KYDL. Fox took
the series national as a syndicated show under the sponsorship
of Davidson Leaked Jewelry Company and the Grew and Watch Company.
This is a series that we did feature in our
very first Amazing World of Radio mini series in twenty seventeen,
although today we're bringing you a different episode than I
played seven years ago. I don't have any logs for
the original Salt Lake City run, but we do have
a log for in. The series was broadcast in Oakland
in nineteen thirty five. Bays episode aired on October fourteenth,
nineteen thirty five, and the title is The Pitt Diamond.
Speaker 22: In the year seventeen hundred and one, Thomas Pitt, or
Diamond Pitt, as he was called, was governor of the
city of Madras in India. He was an interesting personality,
a soldier of fortune who had set up business in
opposition to the powerful East India Company at length. That
same company, realizing the brilliance of Pitt, took him into
the term where he became a powerful factor. One day,
as usual, he was seated in his office, busily at work.
Speaker 3: Yes, how would I have?
Speaker 10: Do you that?
Speaker 3: About some Hindu wanting to see me?
Speaker 23: Maybe by the name of Balkiva.
Speaker 12: Sir.
Speaker 3: He's in charge of a native unit at Bulcando Mine. Yes,
I believe he is connected in some way. Well, why
didn't you tell me?
Speaker 24: It slipped my mind?
Speaker 3: Mister could tell a Barkieva to come in immediately. Very good,
mister Pitt, I wonder come in bout Evan is well
quite well? Back, Gep, I.
Speaker 23: Bring something to the s I hear from the men
in blond That governor like the diamonds. I think perhaps
the governor Sai might like what I have here.
Speaker 25: Yeah, yeah, hell let me there, good heaven. Why it
is bigger than you do? You know much about diamond?
Speaker 3: It is not a diamond? Then, not a diamond? Why
it's the most wonderful one I've ever Well, where where
did you get I found it? Bound?
Speaker 23: Yes, I found it by the past.
Speaker 3: You did well to bring it here back ev.
Speaker 23: I was afraid to let anyone else see it. I
did not want to be cuts.
Speaker 3: Of course, the diamond is not cut and there might
be flaws. You know then you oh, I didn't say that. Well,
what do you ask for it?
Speaker 10: Sahib?
Speaker 23: Will tell me what you will say? Let me see.
Speaker 25: I'll pay you what do you say to one thousand
pounds one thousand pounds?
Speaker 23: I will tell it to the Sahib for one thousand pounds.
Speaker 3: Good badman by factory will give you the money you need.
Speaker 25: Buy it now, Sahib, Yes, but only on one condition
that you say nothing about it to anyone.
Speaker 3: Nothing.
Speaker 25: Yeah, take barkeeper with you, badmin paying one thousand pounds
of my own money, you I asked, Now, this is
a bargain barkeeper. What I said will not be necessary
for you to return to go Kanda. Then, yes, may
prosperity come to you, Sahib, you.
Speaker 3: Never pay that bad win in the barckapers well treated, goodbye,
back Evan, farewell.
Speaker 26: Now let me wear it more than two hundred three
hundred happy surely it's not Yeah, that's that's balanced four
one hundred and ten carriages.
Speaker 3: Why this stone is worth a king's ransom and it's
mine mine.
Speaker 27: I can buy the world with it and it only
costs me one thousand pounds.
Speaker 3: So much, mister, thank you.
Speaker 28: Oh, I watched your career with so much interest.
Speaker 3: You here the most amorous place.
Speaker 25: Well, frankly, lady, I found it very hot, muggy.
Speaker 3: The bogs of England are more to my liking.
Speaker 28: Tell me, did you really wait two years before selling
the diamond?
Speaker 3: And that is a subject I would rather not discuss.
Speaker 28: I was wondering if you forgot.
Speaker 3: Oh, by no means, Marian, excuse me, lady.
Speaker 4: Won't you certainly?
Speaker 25: Certainly, I'm Marian. Will it's part in here and it's
a beautiful night. Let's go out on the balcony. You
can watch the people in the garden.
Speaker 3: Yes, it is beautiful.
Speaker 28: I suppose I suppose you feel that this is your triumph, Tom,
with wonderful estate, all these people begging for your favor.
Speaker 3: Yes, it is my triumph. Marion.
Speaker 25: You may not have heard that I finally sold the
diamond for one hundred and thirty five thousand pounds.
Speaker 28: Yes, I heard of it. Who has not? I heard
you sold it to sons.
Speaker 25: Yes, yes, the Duke of Orleans bought it for Lewis.
I understand they would call it the Regent Diamond.
Speaker 28: Then it was a good investment. After all, you don't
seem very pleased about it, Marion, right, yes, I am Tom.
It's a great night for the towns I used to know.
Speaker 3: Don't say used you know, Marion? You know me now?
Speaker 28: Yes, but it's all so different. You're a great man now,
who have married into one of England's greatest houses. The
Court of Sance knows you that I'm only Marian Trent,
a poor man's wife.
Speaker 23: It is a bit different.
Speaker 28: You must admit.
Speaker 3: You know why we're out on this balcony alone. I
want to talk to you. I am an old friend.
Let me help you and your husband.
Speaker 28: Why Tom, how did you know that.
Speaker 3: We Let me help you. Please, I can do it easily.
Speaker 28: I don't know what you're talking about, Tom.
Speaker 25: Yes you do, Marion. I'm talking about those Indian bands
of your husband. I know that he's facing bankruptcy, and
I know that that would mean bitter poverty, and it's
great for you all of that. Let me give you
the money, Marian.
Speaker 28: Why do you wish to help me? We've been strangers
to each other for ten years.
Speaker 3: Marian, why did I let you go?
Speaker 28: Please? Remember you are married to someone else.
Speaker 3: Yes, I threw my happiness away, I gambled.
Speaker 28: I don't see why you were unhappy. Your diameters brought
you a tremendous fortune. You have a devoted wife whose
father gave her a huge dollies. Since you returned from
India sixteen years ago, you've had everything you wanted.
Speaker 25: I have everything I want except the one thing I
want the most.
Speaker 1: Please.
Speaker 25: You know as well as I'm Maryan that I love you.
From the first day I saw you ten years ago,
you were the woman for me. Say yes to me,
I'll do anything for you. I didn't give you anything
you want in the world, and you could give me
the happiness I lost.
Speaker 28: You say that to me now, when I am married
to another man, when I've borne his children, when you
know that I love him, but you won't love me.
Speaker 3: Mary, you can.
Speaker 28: Yes, I loved you, but I soon found out that
the thing you loved this in the world was not
me but your diamond. You're a big table that you
treasured above all things on earth. Mary, Yes, Tom, that
is why I gave you up. It would have had
to be me or the diamond. And I knew you
too well to expect you to give up the diamond.
Speaker 3: But Mary, and I don't understand the diamond yours too.
Speaker 12: Would it?
Speaker 28: I doubt that Tom, you were more jealous of that
huge rock stone than a man is ever of a
beautiful wife. When I first met you, you were in
the act of change in your lodging because you were
afraid someone was planning to rob you here. Six months
I knew you. You changed your room seven times. You
were disguised as whenever we went to the theater, whenever
we were together, I felt that you longed to be
back in your room, guarding that great glittering mass. Is
it any wonder that at last I realized we could
never have any happiness together. Don't deny it. You talk
to me of love now, because you have nothing else left.
You cannot buy. You made money and position your God,
and you serve them faithfully. You and I have nothing
to say to one another.
Speaker 3: We're being very hard on me.
Speaker 28: Can you expect anything else?
Speaker 3: I want your love.
Speaker 28: I'm afraid it's too late for that now. Town ten
years ago, it might have been very different.
Speaker 3: Then there's no chance for me.
Speaker 28: No, I cannot sell my love.
Speaker 25: I suppose I deserved it. Oh, we pay for everything
we have in this world. Sometimes I think I paid
too great a price. I paid for that diamond with
my very soul from the time of Hindu put it
into my hand. That diamond possessed every wakened moment of
my life. First time, I was confident I would find
an immediate buyer. As the years went by and nobody
would pay the price I asked, I grew half mad
with disappointment. There were times when I hated that diamond,
when I would have longed to throw it into the
sea and throw myself after it.
Speaker 3: Then there was a night when.
Speaker 25: I no, no, no, I can't tell you.
Speaker 3: Well you know me for what I am after.
Speaker 25: All, I may as well tell you there was one
night when I did throw it out of the window.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes I did.
Speaker 25: I was crazed with horror what I thought might be
done with it, and I rushed into the street. I
called on my hands and knee in the mud, calling
on God to help me. Lying in the fi figure.
That's what it did for me. And when at last
I sold it, all the money in the world couldn't
bring back myself.
Speaker 3: You humbled me enough, go on into the house. I
won't see please, I followed.
Speaker 28: In the moment, are you sure?
Speaker 3: Thanks to many showing me e oh oh to well?
Coime me a moment.
Speaker 23: I want to you.
Speaker 3: You've been with me a great many years, haven't you.
I can trust you. I hope that you can.
Speaker 25: Now Tomorrow I want you to range to the East
India Company to buy all the Indian bonds belonging to
James Train. Yes, I know, but do as I say.
And this, by the way, un there's no circumstances. Let
anyone know that I am the buyer. It's merely a little,
a little private death.
Speaker 10: In the.
Speaker 1: Welcome back. A fascinating story, if a bit embellished. Golden
Age radio programs did a great job highlighting real historical
events that had often become obscure, but often they couldn't
help but gild the lily in the name of telling
a more interesting story. That's certainly the case here. The
real story of the Pitt Diamond is a little different
than portrayed in this episode. For one thing, the romance
angle didn't happen, at least not as it was described
in the drama. Governor Pitt wasn't a free man, as
he'd been married for two decades at the time of
acquiring the diamond, and his wife would actually outlive him. Second,
the diamond wasn't quite the steal it was made out
to be. The seller of the diamond actually showed up
to Governor Pitt asking for one hundred thousand pounds, and
through negotiations, Pitt got the pross down to around twenty
thousand pounds, reasoning that he didn't like to spend that
much money on a single business transaction, and obviously he
was quite far away from sort of experts who could
help fully evaluate the diamond and facilitate the transaction. Now,
where the thousand pound figure could have come from is
that the man who showed up to sell pit. The
diamond had actually acquired it from a sea captain for
a thousand pounds after the sea captain had dolen it
from a slave and murdered him. But that didn't have
anything to do with Governor Pitt. Well, I think they
combined some details. For Pitt's part, he said the diamond
back to England hidden in the heel of one of
his son's boots. Was then sent to a diamond cutter
in London. We spent two years cutting the diamond at
the cost of five thousand pounds. Now, in addition to
the Regent's diamond, there was a smaller diamond cut from
the original stone that was sold to Peter the Great
of Russia for seven thousand pounds, and then, sixteen years
after Pitt acquired the original, the regent diamond was sold
to the Duke of Orleans for one hundred and thirty
five thousand pounds, which is the equivalent in today's money
of twenty one point eight million pounds sterling. It had
many uses over the years, including Marie Antoinette's decision to
wear it on one of her hats, which might have
been a mistake. As for the program's claim a pit
having trouble as a result of possessing the diamond, and
some of the events and obsessiveness. I couldn't find any
supporting documents, but I have to admit that I didn't
take a deep dive into obscure libraries. Fabulous diamonds, trouble,
and anxiety all run together, so I don't doubt some
version of those events happen. It's worth noting that the
log information for this series came from the website the
Digital Dela FTP. While it's defunct and no longer online,
you can find its cash pages on the internet archive.
The Digital Deli claimed that these episodes were recorded in
nineteen twenty six or nineteen twenty seven, which would make
them remarkably old. However, it doesn't cit any source for
this claim, and I can't find any record of them
airing before nineteen thirty four. It is also possible that
there was a separate run of Diamond dramas that were
aired live back in nineteen twenty six or twenty seven,
and that Fox opted to re record them for potential syndication. Regardless,
the series would make periodic comebacks into the nineteen forties.
One of the great benefits of syndicated series is that
they could always be resold for different stations years and
years after their first issue. While Fox didn't quite get
the same return on his investment as Governor Pitt did
on the purchase of the Regent Diamond, series did prove
a great friend to sponsors and syndicators alike for.
Speaker 21: Years to come.
Speaker 1: This week's Old time radio snacks going to be Australian style.
Australia had its own Golden Age of radio, with numerous
networks and syndicators producing a wide variety of programs. Some
of these were remakes of American radio scripts in Australia
and fans of a variety of American shows from The
Fat Man to The Shadow and Charlie Chan have likely
encountered these sort of programs. However, Australia produced many fine
programs of its own. Among these syndicators with the widest
rate was our transa originally known as the American Radio
Transcription Agencies, whose original goal was to sell American radio
shows to Australian stations. However, directly importing American radio dramas
was banned, and so many companies imported American radio scripts
and then had them reperformed by Australian actors. Are Transit
did some of this. They created the Australian version of
Gun Smoke, as well as a few other programs, but
mostly our Transit tended to make original radio dramas for
the Australian market, such as the crime and smuggling series
Forbidden Cargo. Today's episode is from a very obscure series
that is not actually listed by any of the online
resources that list all of the radio dramas are Transit produced. However,
I was able to confirm from newspaper logs that it
aired in nineteen thirty eight. The series is Famous Escapes,
which pretty much is exactly what it sounds like. So
here now is the twenty fourth episode, Escape from Robespierre.
Speaker 17: Famous Escapes.
Speaker 15: This is a story of the French Revolution.
Speaker 29: By the year seventeen ninety three, the revolutionaries and the
Robspire were in supreme power, but the violence of their
rule provoked a counter revolution in Brittany. One of the
most dreaded of the counter revolutionary leaders was the Count Maya,
and at his headquarters this story opens.
Speaker 30: The Storm wishes to see himself choke him in.
Speaker 10: The marquis of storm.
Speaker 17: Come in the storm.
Speaker 15: Thank you, demayo down what brings you to headquarters? I
desire leave of absence. You need a holiday.
Speaker 10: I wish to visit Paris.
Speaker 15: Perry, you want to commit suicide. My wife is in Paris.
I thought she was safe in Normandy. Her mother was
captured by the revolutionaries. There was no time to consult me.
She rode first haste for Paris.
Speaker 23: What did she hope to do?
Speaker 15: God knows whatever she hoped, she was too late. Her
mother had gone to the guillotine before she arrived.
Speaker 10: And your wife is Sheen's risen.
Speaker 15: No, so far she is safe. The Committee of Public
Safety does not even know of her arrival. But she
can't get out of the city. The new passport regulations
are too strict. And you propose to put your head
into the lion's mouth. I must get her out of
Paris to Maya. If she stays there, they'll find her
sooner or later. You don't read me here, you're the
backbone of our force.
Speaker 10: All right, the stock you may go. My grass can
take over your command. Thanks you, Dermaiah. And here's your brother.
Speaker 15: Come in Armore. I've come to report.
Speaker 10: What are you doing here of it.
Speaker 15: I'm leaving for Paris at once.
Speaker 17: Your foolish brother.
Speaker 15: Insists on putting his head into the lion's mouth.
Speaker 10: Arma, Oh Death is in Paris.
Speaker 15: She has not been captured. But if you go to Paris,
you'll be recognized. Now I won't. I'll go in disguise.
I will make my preparations. Now I'll see you before
I leave.
Speaker 10: Now, arm what is that report you were so anxious
to make?
Speaker 15: Sergeant Picard reports three cases of typus.
Speaker 23: That's serious.
Speaker 15: Yes, a far more dangerous foe than the Revolutionary Army is.
Speaker 10: Yes, we mist set the word to organize medicale. Oh Death,
are you there?
Speaker 15: Oh Death, my darling.
Speaker 11: I hardly knew you in your disky.
Speaker 15: That's what he was doing in Paris.
Speaker 31: I thought you were with the Maya's Army in Brittany, and.
Speaker 10: I thought you were safe in Normandy. Arrived too late, Robins.
Speaker 8: But it's over.
Speaker 15: How goes the Maya's Army? Well enough for a plague
of typhus, which broke out as before I left.
Speaker 10: But the business. We must think of a way of
getting you out of Paris.
Speaker 31: The passport regulations are so.
Speaker 10: Strict, pro there must be a way out.
Speaker 12: You didn't bother about passports.
Speaker 10: Citizens, it's a national god.
Speaker 17: You won't be needing passports either of you.
Speaker 10: You're under arrest.
Speaker 15: Guilty me if you will, but at least let my
wife go free. I will not go without your You needn't.
Speaker 10: Worry about that.
Speaker 15: Citizens, you will stay with your husband.
Speaker 17: All right?
Speaker 15: But what harm has my wife done? She is an
aristocrat and jai that's enough.
Speaker 10: So we are grateful to her.
Speaker 15: I must say grateful to me.
Speaker 29: You were the fait that lured your husband into the trap.
We've been watching this room for the last week. Citizens,
all right, sergeant.
Speaker 23: They didn't understand the star.
Speaker 25: You have been found guilty of conspiracy against the Republic.
Speaker 32: You are sentenced to die by the guilloteam.
Speaker 3: Long live the Republic.
Speaker 15: Thank you, Citizen Robespierre.
Speaker 10: You are armand' th farmer, Count de Storm.
Speaker 30: Yes, you are a brother of the former Marquis Robert
de Ston, who, with his wife, was last week condemned
to the guillot team. Yes, you have been serving with
the counter revolutionary army of the Mayeur in Lavonde.
Speaker 15: I have, but I came to Paris with a safe
conduct from the commander of the Republican army at La Mont.
Speaker 30: If I were not aware of that, you would before
this have been lodged in the conciergerie.
Speaker 15: Why were you granted this safe conduct? Because I have
matters to discuss with you which affect the safety of
the Republic. Well, and I heard last night that my
brother and his wife had been condemned to the guillotine.
I was at Laffish, one hundred and twenty miles away.
Speaker 10: You have ridden path and.
Speaker 15: Pa I have ridden to save my brother. How do
you propose to do that? My brother and his wife
do not constitute a real danger to your party, not.
Speaker 30: In themselves perhaps, but they.
Speaker 15: Are part of a class which is a menace to
the Republic. Every member of it must be destried. But
suppose that for this comparatively harmless pair I were able
to give you the most dangerous enemy of the Republic
in love on death.
Speaker 10: You don't mean the Maya.
Speaker 30: Yes, you mean that the Maya will offer himself in
exchange for them.
Speaker 15: He will not offer himself. It is I will make
the offer. You are a traitor to your own The
safety of my own brother is more precious to me
than your good opinion.
Speaker 30: But how can the Mayeur be delivered to us if
he is not willing?
Speaker 15: If you will meet me on the outskirts of La
Montz tomorrow evening, I will see that the Mayeur is there.
Suppose I cannot deliver him alive, that is your affair.
If the Maya is delivered to me tomorrow at nine o'clock,
dead or alive, I will release your brother and his wife.
And his wife. You must be accompanied by not more
than two men.
Speaker 10: You wish me to be there in person.
Speaker 15: Your word is known to be your bond, Citizen Robespierre.
But for your subordinate how do I know that this
is not a trap. If I am willing to trust
the word of a Robespiere, surely you will not kevin
at the word of a dusk store.
Speaker 10: Very well, Citizen the store with two.
Speaker 30: Men, I will have the prisoners at the sign post
one mile out of Laments on the road to them
at nine o'clock to Modrow night. At nine o'clock tomorrow night, you,
for your path, must be accompanied by only two men.
Speaker 23: Very well, Citizen Robespiere.
Speaker 10: Good day, Good.
Speaker 30: Day, Citizens Moutier. Tell them to give this citizen a
safe conduct to Lavonte.
Speaker 15: Give this citizen, a safe conduct to lavonte.
Speaker 10: H It is a good bargain, Citizen.
Speaker 23: A harmless pair for that tiger.
Speaker 29: The sign post is a quarter of a mile down
the road, Citizen, robes Pierre Moutier.
Speaker 30: You and Espalion will accompany me and the prisoners. The
rest of you will remain here. If you hear any
sound of a struggle, or have reason to affecting it treachery,
you will gallop forward immediately.
Speaker 10: Well why have we been brought here, robespear? You will
learn in due cars.
Speaker 15: Do not torture, Citizen Robespierre.
Speaker 31: If we've been brought here to be put to dead.
Speaker 15: You have not been brought here to be put to death.
Are the prisoners tied to their settles?
Speaker 10: Mutier?
Speaker 29: Yes, Citizen, they won't get away, good Mutier.
Speaker 30: I will ride first, you and the spalion will follow
with the prisoners.
Speaker 3: Very well, Citizen, forward.
Speaker 17: The sign post, Citizen, robs Pierre.
Speaker 10: Part is that you the storm? Yes?
Speaker 15: Yeah, Rob, it's.
Speaker 21: You, Rob.
Speaker 15: It will soon be feed.
Speaker 10: Where is the my years in this car? Is he
tied up? Yes?
Speaker 15: Show him to me. I'm another back of the cart.
See there he.
Speaker 30: Is hould up your lantern, Montierre yeah, it's the my year,
all right.
Speaker 10: He looks a queer color you had You must have had.
Speaker 30: Some difficulty in inducing citizens my year to accompany you.
Speaker 15: I need hardly tell you that my colleagues and the
army would have prevented me from bringing him had they known.
Speaker 10: What was I dare that? He looks as though he's drugged?
Did you drug him the storm?
Speaker 15: What does it matter to you whether he's drugged or not?
Speaker 10: There he is? That is very true.
Speaker 15: Now carry out your part of the bargain.
Speaker 10: Robs Pierre always keeps his word.
Speaker 15: Cut the prisoner's free.
Speaker 10: Multi yeah, yeah, yeah, e free.
Speaker 30: Now right on the star, you have half an hour's
grace before any attempt will be made to recapture you.
Speaker 15: Come, rabbit and your debt.
Speaker 12: Ride.
Speaker 15: What has happened? Have you exchanged us for the mayeur?
There's no time for talk. Rops Pierre might change his
mind right on ride like the wind. We have gone
hard enough. Now we can rest in his hut until morning.
But I do not understand even to save my life,
and that about debt. Surely you would not betray the
Mayers the Republicans as simple you remember that an epidemic
of Typhus had just begun when you left our camp. Yes,
I heard that your your debt had been sentenced to
the guillotine, and I.
Speaker 10: Was in despair.
Speaker 15: Then I had an idea. What I wrote to Paris
and offered to exchange them my year for a pair
of your That's what I don't understand.
Speaker 10: And my year was dead.
Speaker 15: He had died of the Titus no wonder of Spierre
thought he looked a queer color. I arranged that the
exchange should take place at night, so that they could
not examine him closely. But then you broke your word
to Robspear, I did not break my word. He agreed
to accept my year alive or dead. He has him dead,
so long as you feel comfortable about it.
Speaker 33: Where do we go now?
Speaker 15: Back to the camp, No, Robin. With the death of
them my year, our army has dispersed the resistance in Lavander.
Speaker 3: Is that an end? Then, he is?
Speaker 15: We make for England and safety. In England we will
be able to begin our lives a fresh and build up.
Speaker 10: But the revolution has destroyed for us.
Speaker 29: In France, armand Robert Odette reached the coast safely and
escaped to England.
Speaker 15: The Breton fishing boat.
Speaker 29: There they settled down to the happy and useful lives
which were impossible for them into France at that time.
Speaker 1: Welcome Back, a good story, a clever rose to escape, Robespear,
and overall a really nice dramatization of a historical band.
I love the power of these short, fifteen minute programs
to bring out these really interesting incidents and never overstay
their welcomes. And this is pretty much as good as
similar programs from the States. And even though I hadn't
heard of the show before stumbling onto it randomly, this
is a series I wouldn't mind escaping to again. When
I first started the old time radio snack Wagon, I
didn't plan on doing any series in its entirety or
the entirety of available episodes. However, we're going to make
an exception for one series due to its unique format.
Abroad with the Lockhearts is about a husband and wife
going on a trip to Europe played by a husband
and wife who had been to Europe. Starred the husband
and wife acting duo of Gene and Kathleen Lockhart, who
are the parents of June Lockhart, best known to many
of us as Missus Robinson from Lost in Space. The
characters have the last name Lockhart, although the husband is
named Will, and Missus Lockhart's first name is never used.
What makes the show noteworthy is when it aired. The
earliest air dates for the series were from August seventeenth,
nineteen thirty. This is one of the earliest radio series
we have in existence. One of the newspaper reports indicated
that the storyline was based on the Lockhart's own actual
experience of traveling to Europe. Of course, before you can
get to Europe, you have to decide to leave. I
doubt Jean Lockhart needed much prauding his character Will. On
the other hand, well, that's another s story. Let's find
out about it. Here is episode one of Abroad with
the Lockharts, planning a trip to Europe from August seventeenth,
nineteen thirty.
Speaker 33: Tonight we inaugurate a series of broadcast episodes over this
station entitled Abroad with the Lockhart. Mister and Missus Lockhart
are the typical American mister and missus who go abroad.
Mister Lockhart is a businessman, comfortable, blunt, knows his own mind,
enjoys his business and his community. A plain American businessman.
Missus Lockhart is the pleasant type of American wife, a
thorough housekeeper, belongs to the woman's club and the literary
club of her town, and still retains the spirit of romance.
Their complex situations, we are certain will delight the friends
of this station each week. The scene tonight is the
living room of the Lockharts.
Speaker 31: Real, are you busy?
Speaker 2: I'm reading.
Speaker 32: I see where Hoover was fishing again last weekend.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but he didn't catch any.
Speaker 32: I bet he thinks that fish are almost as stubborn senators.
Speaker 24: He can't be using the right bait. Now, when I
go fishing this.
Speaker 31: Summer, that's what I want to talk to you about.
Speaker 32: Fishing, my certainly, my dear, why didn't you say so?
Turn off the radio?
Speaker 34: No, dear, not fishing. Well, what then, I want to
talk to you about this summer?
Speaker 24: Well, this summer means fishing to me, dear.
Speaker 31: I want to show you something here. It is.
Speaker 3: What's this?
Speaker 34: It's a tecular circular about what a circular about Europe?
Speaker 24: Oh so that's it. I threw out about fifty of
those things last week. They were all over the house.
Speaker 31: I just want you to look at it.
Speaker 3: Well, leave it here.
Speaker 24: I'll look at it later on.
Speaker 31: I want you to look at it now, dear.
Speaker 24: Oh well, where my glasses on your forehead? You know
these circulars are a delusion. They only tell you what
they want you to know, not what you ought to know. Now,
let's see for Europe with us seven glorious countries, fifty
wonderful days.
Speaker 31: Oh isn't it thrilling?
Speaker 2: Dear?
Speaker 24: Maybe? But I don't want to go to Europe. I
want to go fishing.
Speaker 34: Do you know what year this is? I do well,
I don't think you do. This is our tenth anniversary year,
and you promised me that you give me just what
I wanted, did I? And I want a trip to Europe.
Speaker 31: Nearly every other.
Speaker 34: Woman at our club has been to Europe, And I'm
beginning to feel such a frump that isn't as if
we couldn't support it, And I want you to take me.
Speaker 24: Isn't this kind of sudden?
Speaker 34: Now? I've only mentioned it once a day for the
last six months.
Speaker 32: Oh but shucks, I just thought you were only talking read.
Speaker 31: The circular dear. See six days of calm seas and
sunny skies and b a storm.
Speaker 24: No, Harry, Harry.
Speaker 31: The French people call it p oh.
Speaker 24: So that's why you've been having this French teacher here
every week.
Speaker 31: Yes, dear, I want to be able to take you
around Perry myself. We'll visit the Tweelery.
Speaker 24: Who are they?
Speaker 31: Oh they're not people, dear, it's a sort of a
place for the garden. And then you'll see the invalid,
My dear.
Speaker 24: I don't want to go to Europe to visit Invalids.
Speaker 31: Oh they're not Invalids, that's just a name.
Speaker 35: What are they?
Speaker 30: Then?
Speaker 31: Now, that's just why I want you to go. I
hear the other women talking about Invalids and the goblins.
Speaker 34: Goblins or they must be those things on the top
of the Notre Dame cathedral.
Speaker 31: And then there's the mal Naison.
Speaker 24: What's that well in.
Speaker 31: English that means bad house, but it isn't. Then there's
the Versailles Palace with four hundred rooms.
Speaker 24: Stop right there. If you expect me to walk through
four hundred rooms, that trips off.
Speaker 31: No, dear, we don't have to. We don't have to
walk through any of them. And then then there's then
there's the museums. There's twenty four museums in terrace.
Speaker 24: Now listen, my dear, I was in one museum in
my life, the Eden Museum in New York, and that
was enough for me.
Speaker 31: Well, dear, we don't have to go into them.
Speaker 24: I'd rather go fishing. You can fish in the same yes,
and catch frogs.
Speaker 31: Then we can walk through the mating prt more walking
and see all those funny artists.
Speaker 24: And we don't have to go to Europe to see
funny artists. My dear. That fellow you had at your
club last week, he was.
Speaker 34: Oh, then we can go to Switzerland and see the
elks and hear the yodlers.
Speaker 24: But dear, we've heard the yodlers.
Speaker 31: And then and then to Italy and go through all
those marvelous cathedrals.
Speaker 24: No cathedrals for me.
Speaker 31: And in Rome we'll visit the catacombs.
Speaker 24: Are they damp?
Speaker 17: Well?
Speaker 31: I don't know.
Speaker 24: Well, no catacombs anyway, all right, dear.
Speaker 31: But in Florence we can see all the wonderful tombs
of the famous dead people.
Speaker 24: I'd much rather go fishing.
Speaker 31: And then we'll visit Vennis and ride in gondolas.
Speaker 36: What do you call them?
Speaker 31: Gondolas?
Speaker 3: I thought it was gondolas.
Speaker 31: Now that's just why a trip would be good for you.
There you'll know how to pronounce all those names.
Speaker 24: It's much easier to buy a dictionary.
Speaker 31: Oh, why will you be so obstinate? Can't you see
I've set my heart ongoing.
Speaker 34: I'm tired of hearing other women say when I was
in Paris and when I was in Rome. I tell you,
I've made up my mind, and I'm going to Europe
this summer, even if I have to.
Speaker 31: Go alone alone, Yes, if I have to.
Speaker 24: But what would I do? Who would look after me?
Speaker 31: That's your affair. I think after ten years, I deserve
the sort of holiday I want, and not the sort
of holiday you want.
Speaker 3: Are you in earnest?
Speaker 31: I was never more in earnest in my life.
Speaker 24: Well, dear, of course you know I always want you
to have what you want, so I noticed, And if
your mind is really made up it is, Well, well,
all right, of course I'll have to cancel my fishing
trip and see about our reservations on the steamer. Maybe
maybe we can't get any I've.
Speaker 34: Already made them what I've made reservations for sailing on
the same day you were to.
Speaker 31: Start a fishing trip.
Speaker 34: Well, I'll be and dear, we're going to be in
Venice on the night of our tenth anniversaries.
Speaker 24: Are we Now that that's sort of nice and poetic life.
I'm so thrilled we're now in just a minute. We've
got to have an agreement. If I go to Europe
with you, I don't want to walk eight miles a
day getting educated, and I don't want to see any
museums or cathedrals or catacombs or tombs of famous dead ones.
Speaker 31: No, dear, No, you can do just as you like.
You can sit in the car them.
Speaker 2: Well, that's all right.
Speaker 32: Of course there may be one or two of the
important places I might like to see.
Speaker 31: Certainly, be just as you lie.
Speaker 24: Well, all right, that's settled.
Speaker 31: Oh, you're a darling. Here's a kiss for you.
Speaker 36: Now I'll have to call up Charlie.
Speaker 24: Morris and tell them our fishing trip is off.
Speaker 21: Lord, he'll be sore.
Speaker 23: Hello, Operator Maine four three two one.
Speaker 3: What sort of clothes do we wear?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 31: I have it all planned. You will take your plus four,
your gray suit and.
Speaker 34: Your dinner jacket and your dark suit, and I've ordered
a tweet traveling suit and a summer driss.
Speaker 31: Oh you have yes, here and the rest, well, the rest,
I'll get him pasty.
Speaker 3: Uh huh, I begin to see.
Speaker 17: Hello.
Speaker 32: Hello, is that you, Charlie?
Speaker 35: This is Will speaking. Yes, say Charlie about that fishing trip.
I'm afraid you'll have to count me out, count me out. No,
I can't go.
Speaker 1: That's what I said.
Speaker 35: The wife and I are going to Europe. That's right.
Speaker 23: Europe crazy, not that I know of. Now.
Speaker 35: Now, wait a minute, Charlie. You see I've been thinking
about it for some time. Oh yes, I have, and
I've decided that the wife needs the trip. So I've
made up my mind and I have a wonderful little
tour plans and everything. Yeah, all right, Charlie, drop me
a car if you catch any big ones.
Speaker 21: Goodbye.
Speaker 24: There we are.
Speaker 31: Dear, you're the nicest husband of woman ever managed.
Speaker 24: Well, I guess every husband would be nice if we
had a wife like you. Now, let me study that
circular a bit and see what we're going to get,
and turn on the radio.
Speaker 36: Dear, toward Europe with US seven glorious countries, fifty wonderful days.
Speaker 2: Well we'll see.
Speaker 33: Tour Europe with US seven glorious countries. Well, you have
just started to go abroad.
Speaker 3: With the Lockharts.
Speaker 33: Next week is sailing day and this typical American mister
and missus again will delight us from on shipboard. Be
sure to tune in next week at the same hour
and enjoy a trip abroad with the Lockharts.
Speaker 21: Welcome back.
Speaker 1: A good first episode, and off to say, the recording
is in great shape for being ninety four years old.
The episode intersperses a few humorous moments with helping us
get to know our leads. Will is stubborn and said
in his way his wife is hungry for adventure in
romance and will be a bit pushy when she really
wants something. Yet they genuinely seem to care for another.
We'll I have to see on the course of this
adventure whether Will is going to get into any catacombs
or cathedrals. The timing of this series is intriguing because
it started airing less than ten months after the stock
market crash, so this was in the heart of the
Great Depression. The Great Depression really hit a lot of
people with mass unemployment, mass poverty, and a hard scrabble
existence for many. I know that in my family, I
remember the story of my grandfather having to quit school
at age twelve to go work carrying railroad ties. If
you were listening to radio in nineteen thirty, you were
probably doing better than many. You owned a radio, ends
you had electricity, though of course you could have been
listening at a friend's house, or it could have been
playing in a store somewhere. But obviously there was a
big atmosphere of gloom and uncertainty over everyone. And while
some Americans may have still been going on trips for
business or pleasure, doubtless for many this.
Speaker 23: Was no longer affordable or.
Speaker 1: Practical, where they just didn't feel secure enough in their
business to leave it to go abroad. Abroad with the
Lockharts is a sort of series that offered escape from
the grim present to some past, happy memories and allowed
the listeners to take a trip on an luxury line
to visit the great cities of Europe. And who knows,
maybe better days would come and they'd be able to
take that trip in person. But in nineteen thirty, most
people could just dream. There are nine episodes of Abroad
with the Lockharts that are in circulation. There are four
missing episodes, but given the format of the series, it's
not really.
Speaker 21: A big deal.
Speaker 1: We will break away from the series for one episode,
but other than that we will go straight through the series,
and we'll also take our summer break at the point
that there are lost episodes. So we've got a great
trip with the Lockharts, and I hope you enjoy the
journey ahead. It's time for me to close up the
Old Snackwagon, but don't worry. We'll be back with another
serving of old time radio goodness before.
Speaker 21: You know it.
Speaker 1: If you want to enjoy some of our longer form podcasts,
you can feast away at my website at Great Detectives
dot net. Your emails are also welcome at Adam at
snackwagon dot net.
Speaker 4: The Old Time Radio Snackwagon comes to you from Boise, Idaho.
Your host is Adam Graham. Production is by Rind's Media LLC.
You can listen to past episodes of the Old Time
Radio Snackwagon as well as connect on social media at
our website at snackwagon dot net. Email suggestions for episodes
to Adam at snackwagon dot net. This has been the
Old Time Radio Snackwagon.
Speaker 1: Until next time. Goodbye,