This was one of my favourite radio shows as a little boy. Born in 1946. We had a TV in 1948 but there was not much back then. We moved to Florida for a couple of years in '49 and there was NO TV there so it was only Radio. Was I thrilled to listen to the Shadow.....just loved that opening. Radio stimulated people's imaginations, forced one's mind to work. This is so great after a lifetime to hear this again. Thank you.
Im 32 years old, and love these old radio programs. I have tons of them on tapes and cd's. My fav is The Shadow. Using your mind to picture the story is a lost art in the modern technology age. Bless this old form of entertainment.
My old man used to listen to this when he was a kid. I have his cassette tapes. he had his own show on AM 1140 here in richmond, Va called turn back the clock and return engagement until the day he died. RIP and thanks for all the great times.
OMG! excited to find this kind of thing on youtube. There used to be a radio station in the LA area that would play old time radio shows on certain nights, my mother used to tape them so I'd listen all the time. The first time I ever recall being scared of anything fictional was due to an episode of The Shadow. Nothing beats old time radio. Thank God so many have been preserved! I just hope that young people continue to discover the magic.
I can remember when my parents and my brother and I would be traveling on vacation and my dad would play this in the car. My brother and I would be so scared as we were relaxing in the dark in the back seat. This is one of the coolest memories for me because it was a time when families enjoyed each other and it was a time when I remember wonderful moments with my dad. May he rest in peace. I love you dad and thank you for introducing me to wonderful old time radio!
Wow thanks When I was in junior high I stayed up late at night just to hear the shadows radio show. I was soo happy that they still had those kinds of things on air but sadly a few years ago they stopped playing it I love these they should still have them on air :)
I'm 35 now and still love old time radio. Started listening to these old shows when KNX still carried the "drama hour" back in the 1990s. I really miss it on the air. And yes, I own a collection of antique receivers from the 20s to the 40s. :)
Thanks for posting this. My dad and I used to listen to these old shows. He died exactly one year ago, so this is a nice way for me to honor him, by listening to this. :)
I listen to The Shadow (and other old time radio shows) every night. I get it through Internet Radio on my PSP, but I think it's available online through "Shoutcast". It's a station called Old Time Radio and it's on 24/7, it's commercial free (Except for the odd cool old school ad), and it's free of charge. I've never tried to get it on my computer but I'm sure it's available. I love it!
what great memories these shows evoke! I have been a long time member of SPERDVAC that preserves these old shows. The 'Theatre of Mind'...the kids today missed a lot!
I built an AM transmitter from a kit, which uses tubes just like the radio, and it's actually based on a Zenith wireless record player design from the same period. I just have it connected to my CD player, and it plays through the radio like any other station. Thanks for watching!
I am lucky, there are two radio stations in my area that play these radio shows and I listen to them frequently through my tube radios and it is marvelous! I would however like to build an AM transmitter that is tube based .There are so many old songs that are not played ,or not plyed very often on the radio. It is great to sit back and dim the lights and listen to these shows and there are so many of them!
I have a long commute to work each morning and I often enjoy listening to OTR shows via my ipod through the car stereo. Some of favourites include: Adventures of Superman, Gunsmoke, and Fibber McGee & Molly.
I remember listening to old recordings of this on sunday afternoons. I was always confused because I could never find what they advertised at the store.
I Wish someone would make a on Pandora or I -3 Radio, resurrecting those old time radio shows shows for the new generations. I would listen to it all the time.
AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THAT ROCKED!!!!!!! Seriously, no wonder American's were glued to their radio with amazing shit like this! And Welles was amazing! No wonder he freaked the country out!
I have a small AM transmitter I built from a kit. The kit was actually based on a 1939 wireless record player design, so it has tubes like the radio. The radio needed a lot of cleaning, a new drive belt for the tuner, new filter capacitors in the power supply, and I re-aligned the receiver. Thanks for visiting!
I use to listen The Shadow, Inner sanctum, The Lone Ranger, Buster Brown, Fibber Magee and Molly, Amos and Andy, Jack Benny, and Let's Pretend every Saturday am...
I took a cable that had a stereo headphone plug at one end, and I split the wires into the two signals and the shield. The shield goes to ground, and the two signals each go through a 1000 ohm resistor to the input (Radio Shack has them). That way, if you have a stereo program both signals will be combined without overloading anything.
The radio in the video is a Zenith model 10S153. I used own one that I restored but eventually sold.. These are 10 tube sets and are very good radios and very collectible.
sweet I seen these things at Sears once :D and the best thing to play through it The Shadow lol those old coal commercials make me laugh my mom said they used to heat the house like that just put coal in the burner unlike now with gas heaters. I am too young to know too many radio shows but I found out about this one it would have been one I would of listened too a lot of :D
@Tomie694U I used to listen to The Shadow, Escape and other radio plays back in the early 80's in Southwestern Ontario and BC when I was just in my 20's and wish too that I could find them to add to my entertainment library. I know some young people that might enjoy to this form of entertainment when we're all together playing board games. That's what was so great about it. You could be doing other things and still not lose the plot.
The season Orson Welles appeared as "The Shadow" (1937-'38) was the one where Frank Readick's earlier transcribed introduction was used, because Orson couldn't quite master the sinister laugh [and the ONLY one of all those who portrayed "The Shadow"]. The series was heard Sunday afternoons at 5:30pm(et) on Mutual, for the Glenolden Coal Co. {Blue Coal}, in those areas where "Blue Coal" was available...
You said it! That's why I prefer listening to a baseball game on one of my old radios than watching it. Leaves it up to the mind to imagine what the game is like. Thanks for watching!
i love old time radio. ive listened to war of teh worlds so many times. some of my favorties are Fibber Mcgee and Father knows best, some other good ones are the Line up, nightwatch, and ozzie and harriet. Ive listedn to the first 2 so much i already have a mental image of their homes and town. Im also a horror buff, what are some good shows from the radio days?
The subject of that "Shadow" story seems very fitting given the news we hear of in these times in which we live. Mad bombers aren't exactly a new phenomenon it seems.
@Tomie694U This might be a little late. While I don't know where you can buy cds of this, almost the whole Shadow collection of Radio dramas are available on itunes. If you choose to buy one, you could then burn it onto a blank cd through itunes. Other radio dramas can be downloaded for free on any number of OTR podcasts, also found on itunes.
I agree. The only time I listen to the radio now is during the Christmas season for the music and that's it. There used to be an hour every sunday of an old radio program. I remember listening to a Sindbad story, a Mystery and a 1960's boxing match. It stopped broadcasting for some reason though. I also don't understand why there no station that plays non-stop '20s, '30s and '40s music. Music just isn't the same anymore. Even the dull '80s and '90s had better music than now.
The opening of "The Shadow" is not Orson Welles. It is Frank Readick who was the narrator of the program when it was an anthology series, and The Shadow was not part of the stories. Welles does play The Shadow when the story begins. Welles could not perform the sinister laugh despite his best efforts so an actor was in the studio strictly to do the laugh.
I just wanna agree w/shadow5 above. Theatre of the mind! No Harry Potter and the Deathly Piss Holes or even the first 1977 Star Wars movie. Not even the movie version of 2001: A Space Odessy. Nothing paints a more realistic picture and reality than one's own mind! This is up there with the heydey of comic books or with reading a good novel. Do they make stories for blind people that aren't just the audio version of a book? If I went blind, that might keep me sane.
This was perfect, my wife grew up in Japan and didn't know what I meant when I said, the shadow knows! And this was there to show her. Man I love the internet, and I'm quite fond of you for upliading this video too. :-)
@Jeffzkrazie well i am 42 and listen to the Shadow every night to go to sleep to. i have done this for the last 15 years i loooooove the shadow it is my favorite, although i also enjoy charlie chan too
@shdow5 How true! I have been saying the same thing myself for years. I guess this is the end they wish to achieve, don't think for yourself, LET US DO THAT FOR YOU. No individual interpetation. Group think rules supreme. Nowhere else today is this dynamic more easily seem than in our school system, especially in college. Sad is an understatement.
@TheClassicalLiberal There was a Shadow movie made, it star's Alec Baldwin. Check it out, even if you hadn't known about The Shadow, or it's origins, it's still a good film. Still can't compare to the original radio serials!!!! Hope you and your grandfather get a chance to see it!
@shdow5 Not really. I'm sixteen and I love these old radio dramas. I agree with you on the "Theater of the mind" comment. I disagree however that we have lost as much as you say though. There are plenty of popular podcasts today, which do almost exactly what the classic radio did. Classic radio is still great though. No offense intended, I just felt like saying that.
Wow, if only terrorist bombers could be vanquished by oriental mesmerism! We could use L. Cranston and his constant aid and paramour Margot Lane right now. I N C R E D I B L E radio, too.
This was one of my favourite radio shows as a little boy. Born in 1946. We had a TV in 1948 but there was not much back then. We moved to Florida for a couple of years in '49 and there was NO TV there so it was only Radio. Was I thrilled to listen to the Shadow.....just loved that opening. Radio stimulated people's imaginations, forced one's mind to work. This is so great after a lifetime to hear this again. Thank you.
Im 32 years old, and love these old radio programs. I have tons of them on tapes and cd's. My fav is The Shadow. Using your mind to picture the story is a lost art in the modern technology age. Bless this old form of entertainment.
My old man used to listen to this when he was a kid. I have his cassette tapes. he had his own show on AM 1140 here in richmond, Va called turn back the clock and return engagement until the day he died. RIP and thanks for all the great times.
OMG! excited to find this kind of thing on youtube. There used to be a radio station in the LA area that would play old time radio shows on certain nights, my mother used to tape them so I'd listen all the time. The first time I ever recall being scared of anything fictional was due to an episode of The Shadow. Nothing beats old time radio. Thank God so many have been preserved! I just hope that young people continue to discover the magic.
I can remember when my parents and my brother and I would be traveling on vacation and my dad would play this in the car. My brother and I would be so scared as we were relaxing in the dark in the back seat. This is one of the coolest memories for me because it was a time when families enjoyed each other and it was a time when I remember wonderful moments with my dad. May he rest in peace. I love you dad and thank you for introducing me to wonderful old time radio!
Yeah, Jesa. That's cool stuff. I have the lp 33 version.
Wow thanks When I was in junior high I stayed up late at night just to hear the shadows radio show. I was soo happy that they still had those kinds of things on air but sadly a few years ago they stopped playing it I love these they should still have them on air :)
We had this giant of a floor radio with air-plane dial too spent many happy hours in front of it after school........Thanks for posting.......
I'm 35 now and still love old time radio. Started listening to these old shows when KNX still carried the "drama hour" back in the 1990s. I really miss it on the air. And yes, I own a collection of antique receivers from the 20s to the 40s. :)
Thanks for posting this. My dad and I used to listen to these old shows. He died exactly one year ago, so this is a nice way for me to honor him, by listening to this. :)
I listen to The Shadow (and other old time radio shows) every night. I get it through Internet Radio on my PSP, but I think it's available online through "Shoutcast". It's a station called Old Time Radio and it's on 24/7, it's commercial free (Except for the odd cool old school ad), and it's free of charge. I've never tried to get it on my computer but I'm sure it's available. I love it!
I wish stations played things like this. I'm 37 & so I never got to hear them, back in the day. Shows like these just cant be beat.
thank you for posting this... playing it now for my just about to turn 90 year old grandfather...priceless :-)
what great memories these shows evoke! I have been a long time member of SPERDVAC that preserves these old shows. The 'Theatre of Mind'...the kids today missed a lot!
I built an AM transmitter from a kit, which uses tubes just like the radio, and it's actually based on a Zenith wireless record player design from the same period. I just have it connected to my CD player, and it plays through the radio like any other station. Thanks for watching!
I am lucky, there are two radio stations in my area that play these radio shows and I listen to them frequently through my tube radios and it is marvelous! I would however like to build an AM transmitter that is tube based .There are so many old songs that are not played ,or not plyed very often on the radio. It is great to sit back and dim the lights and listen to these shows and there are so many of them!
blast from the past
I have a long commute to work each morning and I often enjoy listening to OTR shows via my ipod through the car stereo. Some of favourites include: Adventures of Superman, Gunsmoke, and Fibber McGee & Molly.
I remember listening to old recordings of this on sunday afternoons. I was always confused because I could never find what they advertised at the store.
Love those old radio shows!!
17 yo..ham radio, repairing otr, collecting otr, making tube radios, LOVE OTR!
I love those old radio shows & I love THE SHADOW! Hahahahahaha!
I have a 9S263 my dad restored. He was a radio engineer at RCA from 1954-83.
why cant they make cool looking radios like this today
I saw the SHADOW at 7:51.
What a great show. thanks for doing this.
I wish I had grown up durin his era. I was born in '71. We just don't have classic stuff like this.
My grandmother had given them to me, I dont know where she got them but they are awesome to listen to
I Wish someone would make a on Pandora or I -3 Radio, resurrecting those old time radio shows shows for the new generations. I would listen to it all the time.
AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THAT ROCKED!!!!!!! Seriously, no wonder American's were glued to their radio with amazing shit like this! And Welles was amazing! No wonder he freaked the country out!
I have a small AM transmitter I built from a kit. The kit was actually based on a 1939 wireless record player design, so it has tubes like the radio. The radio needed a lot of cleaning, a new drive belt for the tuner, new filter capacitors in the power supply, and I re-aligned the receiver. Thanks for visiting!
I use to listen The Shadow, Inner sanctum, The Lone Ranger, Buster Brown, Fibber Magee and Molly, Amos and Andy, Jack Benny, and Let's Pretend every Saturday am...
yes, I am 16 and enjoy listening to radio shows.
lol I'll be 30 this year. I've been a fan of OTR since I was 11 (the Shadow movie came out in '94 and that's what turned me onto it).
Very cool man, I grew up on these and they scaried the crap out of me. My fav it Doom and the Limping Man. My Grandpa has a radio just like thata too.
I took a cable that had a stereo headphone plug at one end, and I split the wires into the two signals and the shield. The shield goes to ground, and the two signals each go through a 1000 ohm resistor to the input (Radio Shack has them). That way, if you have a stereo program both signals will be combined without overloading anything.
The radio in the video is a Zenith model 10S153. I used own one that I restored but eventually sold.. These are 10 tube sets and are very good radios and very collectible.
You, my friend, are a resurrector of vintage radio!
Beautiful!
Thanks for posting!
Well I am 43 and love old time radio .
you can get it through Antique electronics supply, that's where I get my tubes
sweet I seen these things at Sears once :D and the best thing to play through it The Shadow lol those old coal commercials make me laugh my mom said they used to heat the house like that just put coal in the burner unlike now with gas heaters. I am too young to know too many radio shows but I found out about this one it would have been one I would of listened too a lot of :D
@Tomie694U I used to listen to The Shadow, Escape and other radio plays back in the early 80's in Southwestern Ontario and BC when I was just in my 20's and wish too that I could find them to add to my entertainment library. I know some young people that might enjoy to this form of entertainment when we're all together playing board games. That's what was so great about it. You could be doing other things and still not lose the plot.
The season Orson Welles appeared as "The Shadow" (1937-'38) was the one where Frank Readick's earlier transcribed introduction was used, because Orson couldn't quite master the sinister laugh [and the ONLY one of all those who portrayed "The Shadow"]. The series was heard Sunday afternoons at 5:30pm(et) on Mutual, for the Glenolden Coal Co. {Blue Coal}, in those areas where "Blue Coal" was available...
I think that radio is a Zenith, as I have one, model 1005 and it has the "cathode-ray tube" indicator light in the upper middle too.
absolutely bone-chilling..
You said it! That's why I prefer listening to a baseball game on one of my old radios than watching it. Leaves it up to the mind to imagine what the game is like. Thanks for watching!
@shdow5 Agreed. GET RID OF THE JUNK ON TELEVISION, AND PUT IT ON THE RADIO! :D
The kit is sold by Antique Electronic Supply. Thanks for the comment!
i love old time radio. ive listened to war of teh worlds so many times. some of my favorties are Fibber Mcgee and Father knows best, some other good ones are the Line up, nightwatch, and ozzie and harriet.
Ive listedn to the first 2 so much i already have a mental image of their homes and town.
Im also a horror buff, what are some good shows from the radio days?
The subject of that "Shadow" story seems very fitting given the news we hear of in these times in which we live. Mad bombers aren't exactly a new phenomenon it seems.
@Tomie694U This might be a little late. While I don't know where you can buy cds of this, almost the whole Shadow collection of Radio dramas are available on itunes. If you choose to buy one, you could then burn it onto a blank cd through itunes. Other radio dramas can be downloaded for free on any number of OTR podcasts, also found on itunes.
My original love of the anti-hero started with The Shadow.. thanks for this :D
i love the shadow it has a bit of static in it i love it
I agree. The only time I listen to the radio now is during the Christmas season for the music and that's it. There used to be an hour every sunday of an old radio program. I remember listening to a Sindbad story, a Mystery and a 1960's boxing match. It stopped broadcasting for some reason though. I also don't understand why there no station that plays non-stop '20s, '30s and '40s music. Music just isn't the same anymore. Even the dull '80s and '90s had better music than now.
The opening of "The Shadow" is not Orson Welles.
It is Frank Readick who was the narrator of the program when it was an anthology series, and The Shadow was not part of the stories. Welles does play The Shadow when the story begins.
Welles could not perform the sinister laugh despite his best efforts so an actor was in the studio strictly to do the laugh.
I just wanna agree w/shadow5 above. Theatre of the mind! No Harry Potter and the Deathly Piss Holes or even the first 1977 Star Wars movie. Not even the movie version of 2001: A Space Odessy. Nothing paints a more realistic picture and reality than one's own mind! This is up there with the heydey of comic books or with reading a good novel. Do they make stories for blind people that aren't just the audio version of a book? If I went blind, that might keep me sane.
Love it!
This was perfect, my wife grew up in Japan and didn't know what I meant when I said, the shadow knows! And this was there to show her. Man I love the internet, and I'm quite fond of you for upliading this video too. :-)
Wow! You sure are swell letting us hear an original recording of The Shadow on a Zenith console radio. LOL. Great stuff. Nothing like it today.
Me too. "The Men from the Ministry" is my favourite.
Go Orson Welles Go!!
I like them too
@Jeffzkrazie well i am 42 and listen to the Shadow every night to go to sleep to. i have done this for the last 15 years
i loooooove the shadow
it is my favorite, although i also enjoy charlie chan too
awesome
@shdow5 Reading a book would not hurt the kids either. I much prefer reading a great novel to some garbage on TV or at the movies.
@shdow5 How true! I have been saying the same thing myself for years. I guess this is the end they wish to achieve, don't think for yourself, LET US DO THAT FOR YOU. No individual interpetation. Group think rules supreme. Nowhere else today is this dynamic more easily seem than in our school system, especially in college. Sad is an understatement.
Thanks for the nice listening... DesertFalcon
The Shadow Rules!!!!
"The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. The Shadow knows."
@TheMugsyboy It's a little ironic that I just started watching that movie last night on Netflix.
ahhh The Shadow. One of the most underrated super heroes of all time. You know I think i'd like to make a radio play...TO MY FRIRNDS EMAIL!!!
@TheClassicalLiberal There was a Shadow movie made, it star's Alec Baldwin. Check it out, even if you hadn't known about The Shadow, or it's origins, it's still a good film. Still can't compare to the original radio
serials!!!! Hope you and your grandfather get a chance to see it!
Yes, anything that has a headphone output will work.
@TheClassicalLiberal The was a movie in 1994, it's a bit of a mess but not all that bad actually.
XD I got all the tapes on the Shadow
18. can't get enough OTR
The voice on the opening is not Orson Welles. It is Frank Readick.
can you play an ipod thru it, I know its fitting to play old time broadcasts on it but id like to hear todays music on an old radio
My favorite is "Ghost Town"
oh forgot to say um look up tuned to yesterday on wrvo. not a bad show.
7:55, you can see the shadow!
@shdow5 Not really. I'm sixteen and I love these old radio dramas. I agree with you on the "Theater of the mind" comment. I disagree however that we have lost as much as you say though. There are plenty of popular podcasts today, which do almost exactly what the classic radio did. Classic radio is still great though. No offense intended, I just felt like saying that.
@TheClassicalLiberal Wasn't there another Shadow movie in the early 90's?
cool. what do you use to play the show on the radio? how much restoration was done to the radio?
@shdow5 hmmm... they probably said the same thing when kids started listening to radio programs and stopped reading books.
I'm 22. :)
I suddenly feel like going out and getting me some blue coal!
@TheClassicalLiberal They already made The Shadow into a movie. It starred Alec Baldwin.
@TheClassicalLiberal there's the 1994 Alec Baldwin movie which I liked when I was a kid
I am an avid OTR fan and am 21 hows that
Sounds like it was a 2 part episode, do you have the 2nd part ?
The shadow knose
How'd you get the show to work on that radio?
no brah your not the only one
Hi Would You Know The Brand Name Of The Radio In The youtube Video Of The Shadow.....Johnny
Kordis john zenith. The quality goes in, before the name goes on.
Wow, if only terrorist bombers could be vanquished by oriental mesmerism! We could use L. Cranston and his constant aid and paramour Margot Lane right now. I N C R E D I B L E radio, too.
@Jeffzkrazie yes
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men Bwahahahaha..... the shadow do
if only technology was like it was then and the government would be a bit better
oh
forgot Superman
@TheClassicalLiberal There was a movie made in 2004 with Alec Baldwin.