Beowulf Alley’s Old Time Radio Theatre Company Announces Nov. & Dec. 2010 Events

(Tucson, AZ) Beowulf Alley Theatre's Old Time Radio Theatre Company announces their November
stories to be presented at the theatre, 11 South 6th Avenue (Downtown between Broadway and
Congress) on November 2 and 16, 2010. Performances are at 7:00 p.m. Admission is $8 for ages 13 to adult and $5 for the first two children ages 6-12, cash at the door, first come-first serve seating. The  box office phone number is (520) 882-0555.

November 2:

To honor Halloween and Dia de los Meurtos, we offer two suspenseful dramas:

QUIET, PLEASE: Don't Tell Me About Halloween (Oct. 27, 1947) tells the story of a man married to
a witch. He has to see her once a year: Halloween. Each year he dreads the day, because he knows  she'll find out about what he's been doing the rest of the year. When he's unfaithful, she uses her  powers to punish him and his lovers. One of the benefits he receives is immortality. Yet, is it worth it,  even when he only has to spend one day a year with her?

QUIET, PLEASE aired from June 8th of 1947 through June 20th of 1949. It is considered by many to be among the most uniquely creative series in history. The series sought to chill the listener through  a completely immersed personal experience. The titles and introductory sequences of each series  indicated the desired immersion -- the listener was expected to shut off distracting outside stimuli,  such as light and sound, in order to fully concentrate on the unfolding story.

ESCAPE: The Fall of the House of Usher was first performed on October 22, 1947. The famous
opening of the show, often worded to suit the events of the moment or season, warns the intrepid
radio listener of adventure that is anything but... everyday. Like its sister show on the radio,
SUSPENCE, it is considered one of the top shows ever performed on radio. ESCAPE takes you on
a ride into a world where danger comes in many forms, and you are on the edge of life and death,
perhaps being pushed! When ESCAPE says "romantic," we're not talking kissing. Perhaps those
kisses might be from teeming piranha! ESCAPE is more Devil's Island than Fantasy Island. And
it is wonderful adventure radio for the whole family, especially Dad. Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of
the House of Usher revolves around this realm of fear, and reveals the importance of facing and
overcoming our fears. "Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of ... romantic adventure?
Want to get away from it all? We offer you ... ESCAPE!"

November 16:

Join us for two rousing radio pieces - the November 29, 1947 story THE LIFE OF RILEY:
Thanksgiving With the Gillises and one of radio's great mystery series, SUSPENSE and the
episode, On a Country Road, first presented November 16, 1950.

In this episode, THE LIFE OF RILEY: Thanksgiving With the Gillises (Nov. 29, 1947), Chester
invites the Boss to Thanksgiving dinner, and then is forced into inviting the Gillises as well. "What
a revoltin' development this turns out to be!" THE LIFE OF RILEY radio program, starring William
Bendix, initially aired on the Blue Network, later known as ABC, from January 16, 1944 to June 8,
1945. Then it moved to NBC, where it was broadcast from September 8, 1945, 1945 to June 29, 1951.  The supporting cast featured John Brown, who portrayed not only undertaker Digger O'Dell but also  Riley's co-worker Jim Gillis. Whereas Gillis gave Riley bad information that got him into trouble, Digger  gave him good information that "helped him out of a hole," as he might have put it. Brown's lines as  the undertaker were often repetitive, including puns based on his profession ("Cheerio, I'd better be...  shoveling off"; "Business is a little dead tonight"); but, thanks to Brown's delivery, the audience loved  him.

SUSPENSE, the radio series, can be summed up in one episode, On a Country Road. It was a
mixture of urban legend and cautionary tale like no other. In this episode, the audience is pulled into a  dangerous situation and then is kept trapped, while the suspense mounts and the characters become  increasingly hysterical. It was the kind of nightmare "that could happen to anyone." On a Country Road (Nov. 16, 1950) is regarded as one of the classic tales of SUSPENSE because it embodies all  of the things at which the radio program excelled. So now, ignore the traffic, the rain, the nearly empty  gas tank, as well as those news bulletins about the escaped crazy woman on the loose, and come  take a drive down a lonely side road.

December 7

MY FRIEND IRMA: Irma Wants Money For Christmas (December 16, 1952), followed by
ACADEMY AWARD THEATRE: Brief Encounter (November 20, 1946).

My Friend Irma continues to be our most requested show. One of radio's funniest comedies, it starred  Marie Wilson, Diana Lynn, John Lund and a host of radio and TV greats. Most notably, it was the kick  off for two of comedy's greats, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. My Friend Irma, and it's popularity and  wacky ensemble of misfits, allowed it to go on to two movies, comic books and a huge TV success.  There is a laugh every 4.5 seconds.

Academy Award Theatre was a CBS radio anthology series which presented 30-minute adaptations
of plays, novels or films, from March 30, 1946 through December 18, 1946. Rather than adaptations of Oscar-winning films, as the title implied, the series offered "Hollywood's finest, the great picture
plays, the great actors and actresses, techniques and skills, chosen from the honor roll of those who  have won or been nominated for the famous golden Oscar of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and  Sciences." Based on Noel Coward's play Still Life, Brief Encounter is a romantic, bittersweet drama about two  married people who meet by chance in a London railway station and carry on an intense love affair.

Sentimental yet down-to-earth and set in pre-World War II England, the film follows British housewife  Laura Jesson, who is on her way home, but catches a cinder in her eye. By chance, she meets Dr.  Alec Harvey, who removes it for her. The two talk for a few minutes and strike immediate sparks, but  they end up catching different trains. However, both return to the station once a week to meet and  they grow closer, sharing stories, hopes, and fears about their lives, marriages, and children. Brief Encounter was adapted as a radio play on the November 20, 1946 episode of Academy Award  Theatre, starring Greer Garson.

December 21

Two wonderful holiday stories, The Great Gildersleeve Christmas Show (December 22, 1948) and A
Christmas Carol (December 24, 1934), will be presented for a family holiday treat.

The Great Gildersleeve ran on radio from 1941-1957 and was one of broadcast history's earliest
spin-off programs. Built around Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, a character who had been a staple on  the classic radio situation comedy Fibber McGee and Molly, The Great Gildersleeve enjoyed its
greatest success in the 1940s. Actor Harold Perry played the character during its transition from the  parent show into the spin-off and later in a quartet of feature films released at the height of the show's  popularity.

On Fibber McGee and Molly, Peary's Gildersleeve was a pompous windbag who became a
consistent McGee nemesis. "You're a haa-aa-aa-aard man, McGee!" became a Gildersleeve
catch phrase. The character was given several conflicting first names on Fibber McGee and Molly,
and on one episode his middle name was originally revealed. Gildy admits as much at the end
of "Gildersleeve's Diary" on the Fibber McGee and Molly series. In this episode, Gildy invites the
Judge to Christmas dinner, and a simple dinner turns into the party of the year.

Back before television, a holiday season tradition in America was listening to A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens as performed on radio by Lionel Barrymore and narrated by Orson Welles with
the Mercury Theatre group. The music was composed and conducted by the legendary Bernard
Herrmann. Few actors ever gave more meaning to the character of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge than
Lionel Barrymore who first took on the radio role in 1934.

Originally aired live on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1934, this radio broadcast will live in the
memories of those that heard it for a lifetime. If you remember listening, and want to recapture those  magical days of your childhood Christmas, or have never heard it, but want to experience the magic  of live radio theatre and create new memories for you and your family, Beowulf Alley Theatre presents  this special holiday treat and allows you and your family to use your imagination in recreating one of  classic literature's most read pieces. "God bless us, everyone."

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