Category: Audio Drama

BSAP: OTR Swag Cast: John Steele, Adventurer

SFFaudio Online Audio

BrokenSea Audio Presents: OTR Swag CastOf the many podcasts I’m subscribed to the one that I take the most for granted, and mention the least, is BrokenSea Audio’s OTR Swag Cast. OTR, of course, stands for Old Time Radio. But there are at least a dozen old time radio podcasts and I don’t really like any of them except for the OTR Swag Cast. One of the reasons I love it so much is that the host, Bill Hollweg, has a passion for audio drama that’s truly infectious. Moreover, he picks interesting, obscure and excellent OTR. The latest show, which isn’t actually hosted by Hollweg, features the first episode of a 1949 Mutual Network series called “John Steele, Adventurer.” It’s a really terrific episode! Titled “Cargo Unknown”, it introduces the John Steele, a former WWII fighter pilot who runs a one man airline that carries cargo to all points around the world. And in this episode it puts him into a dangerous situation straight away. The cargo he carries is of course both deadly and beautiful and the show makes for really terrific listening. The only sadness here is some sort of digital compression artifacting that can drown out some of the quieter scenes. The OTR Swag Cast typically runs over an hour, and so after that first half hour of excellence there’s their regular welcome backup feature, The Avengers!

If you haven’t heard the OTR Swag Cast before, pick it up with this episode, you’ll love it! |MP3|

Podcast feed: http://brokensea.com/otr/?feed=podcast

Posted by Jesse Willis

Power Records adaptation of Conan The Barbarian (the 1982 Motion Picture directed by John Milius)

SFFaudio News

Conan The Barbarian - Movie Adaptation LPBack in 2007 Akim Bischoff wrote our review of the Power Records adaptation of Conan The Barbarian (the 1982 Motion Picture directed by John Milius) |READ OUR REVIEW|. Based on the character created by Robert E. Howard, it was the longest audio dramatization of a Conan story up to that point (it wasn’t surpassed until BrokenSea Audio’s Queen Of The Black Coast – currently available via torrent HERE). Akim concluded his review this way:

My only gripe with the record adaptation is I wish it featured the film’s original score. While the orchestration Power Records uses is vast and surprisingly well done, it’s hard to stand against the classic work of composer Basil Poledouris. Though, with their excellent cast and matching production values, this can be easily overlooked. Especially when listening to the “new” dialog and scenes ultimately left on the cutting room floor. As a fan of all things Conan and especially the films, it creates quite a thrill and leaves you slightly imagining… what might have been.

Now you can hear the entire recording, in five parts, as posted to YouTube:

Here is the same audio dramatization but with some of the Marvel comics adaptation added:

[Thank CROM!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrival: Provocative Dramas by Arch Oboler

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Audio Drama - Provocative Dramas by Arch ObolerTwo Provocative Dramas by Arch Obler
By the A.R.T. Players
1 CD – 1 Hour – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Abaton Radio Theater
Published: 2011

Featuring the captivating A.R.T. Players: Lauri Bortz, Amy Fulgham, Jordan Kaplan and Brady Ovson. With a musical score and artwork by Marianne Nowottny.

Arch Oboler was to radio what Rod Serling was to TV. Though he’s no longer a household name, due to lack of radio reruns, Oboler was a master of his medium, an innovative writer/director/producer who favored spine tingling, socially conscious science fiction and horror stories and politically charged, left-leaning dramas. Oboler began scripting radio shows as a teenager and rose to success with the 1930s thriller anthology Lights Out. He went on to create the largely anti-war themed series Arch Oboler’s Plays, which featured great stars such as Joan Crawford, James Cagney and Katharine Hepburn, to name but a few.

This is the first installment of Abaton Radio Theater, a series that will include original contemporary work, as well as vintage material.

This disc contains two plays:

Catwife: The gripping horror story of a once loving marriage gone wildly awry!

Baby: A psychological drama exploring a young wife’s confrontation with the possibility of motherhood and the certainty of World War.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

X-Minus One: Skulking Permit by Robert Sheckley

SFFaudio Online Audio

skulk (v.) /skəlk/ – Keep out of sight, typically with a sinister, evil or cowardly motive
Example: The thief skulked in the shadows.

Skulking Permit is a cute Robert Sheckley story. Frankly, it is not one of his best. His best stuff will send your brain into a week long head-shaking fugue state that’ll leaving you both laughing and crying at the pathetic beast called man. But, Skulking Permit definitely is cute and it definitely does deliver the anthropological satire that Sheckley is so very fond of.

In this case there’s a Earth colony, called New Delaware, which had been cut-off for more than two hundred years. Luckily, it has recently been informed that it’ll be receiving a visit from a representative from Earth. To prepare for the occasion they colonists have decided to make everything familiar to the coming representative – make it all homey, like back on Earth – and so they’ve assigned societal roles to every member of the colony’s community. Everyone is getting used to their characters: the mayor is telling everyone what to do (he’s got to write up some laws real quick) and the police chief has to make his own badge. The little red school house and the little white church are being built and painted and the “no aliens allowed within city limits” sign is being put up. But the plan to make New Delaware a little mirror of Earth aren’t going perfectly smoothly. For what exactly is a criminal? And who can possibly play such a demanding role?

“Wanted: one man to do a totally impossible job. Salary: the knowledge that a planet’s life depends upon his being able to do it!”

X-Minus OneX-Minus One – Skulking Permit
Based on a story by Robert Sheckley; Adapted by Earnest Kinoy; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 29 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: NBC Radio
Broadcast: February 15, 1956
Provider: Internet Archive
|SCRIPT|
A small colony, cut off from Earth for generations, must prove they are a model of Earth culture when a ship arrives to effect their ‘reclamation’. They strive to provide archetypes of Earth society, including a town criminal… First published in the December 1954 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction magazine.

Cast:
Dick Hamilton
Wendell Holmes
Joe DeSantis
Joseph Boland
Alan Hewitt
Bill Quinn
Mandel Kramer
Ruby Dee

Announcer …. Jack Costello

Directed by Daniel Sutter

Illustrations, by Mel Hunter, from the original Galaxy publication:

Skulking Permit by Robert Sheckley - illustration by Mel Hunter (Galaxy Magazine's December 1954 issue)
Skulking Permit by Robert Sheckley - illustration by Mel Hunter (Galaxy Magazine's December 1954 issue)
Skulking Permit by Robert Sheckley - illustration by Mel Hunter (Galaxy Magazine's December 1954 issue)
Skulking Permit by Robert Sheckley - illustration by Mel Hunter (Galaxy Magazine's December 1954 issue)

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBS Radio Workshop: The Space Merchants RADIO DRAMA

SFFaudio Online Audio

As mentioned on SFFaudio Podcast #116 there is no commercially available audiobook edition of The Space Merchants. What I failed to mention, however, is that there is a two-part radio dramatization from 1957:

CBS Radio WorkshopCBS Radio Workshop – The Space Merchants
Based on the novel by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 1 Hour [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBS
Broadcast: February 17th and 24th, 1957
Provider: archive.org
Mitch Courtenay, portrayed by Staats Cotsworth, is a rising star copywriter for the Fowler Schocken Advertising Agency. He’s just been given the company’s biggest campaign – he must promote the colonization of Venus. You’d think would be no problem at all given that Earth is an over-populated planet with polluted air and played-out resources. But there’s a wrinkle – somebody is working against Mitch, and an underground rebellion threatens the very foundations of Earth’s economy!

Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|

First serialized in the March through May 1952 issues of Galaxy Science Fiction under the title Gravy Planet, The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth was one of the most popular science fiction novels of the 20th century. Here’s the first ever depiction from it, by Ed Emshwiller, for the cover story from the March 1952 issue of Galaxy:

Galaxy June 1952 - GRAVY PLANET

Darrell Sweet’s cover for the 1976 Ballantine Books paperback edition took inspiration from the original magazine appearance:

Ballantine Paperback - The Space Merchants - detail

Whereas Steve Stone’s cover art for the Orion / Gollancz – SF MASTERWORKS (Volume 54) edition seems more inspired by Blade Runner:

Orion / Gollancz - SF MASTERWORKS (Volume 54) - The Space Merchants

[Thanks Bill]

Posted by Jesse Willis