176
classic broadcasts of Take It From Here
120
classic broadcasts of Meet Me at Parky's
344 more
bonus classic Old Time Radio Shows
ALL KNOWN EPISODES TO EXIST.
Don't be fooled by other
collections that claim to contain more episodes. Many of these shows
were aired on multiple dates in reruns, so you have plenty of
sellers out there padding their collections with reruns!
We feature all known episodes in existence and do not add
"fluff" to our collections to increase our claimed episode count
like many others.
NOTICE:
This collection is all in MP3 format supplied on DVD. You
play this in your computer and then can copy all the MP3 files
to your MP3 player of choice. This DVD will NOT play in a
regular CD player in your car, or your TV's DVD player, it is
intended for your computer only which will allow you to transfer
the MP3 files to any device that can play MP3's. This
collection remains the largest most original collection.
Take It
From Here:
Take It From Here
(often referred to as TIFH, pronounced — and sometimes
humorously spelt — "TIFE") is a British radio comedy
programme broadcast by the BBC between 1948 and 1960. It
was written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden, and starred
Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley and Joy Nichols. When
Nichols moved to New York City in 1953, she was replaced
by June Whitfield and Alma Cogan. The show is perhaps
most famous for introducing The Glums. Through TIFH Muir
and Norden reinvented British post-war radio comedy —
amongst other influences, it was one of the first shows
with a significant segment consisting of parody of film
and book styles, later used extensively in programmes
such as Round the Horne and many television programmes.
Frank Muir had been writing material for Jimmy Edwards's
appearances at the Windmill Theatre, and later wrote
material for Edwards's radio character, a seedy public
school headmaster; Denis Norden had been staff comedy
sketch writer with the Kavanagh agency, and had written
material for the Australian comedian Dick Bentley. The
radio producer Charles Maxwell had contracted Edwards,
together with Joy Nichols and Dick Bentley, for the
final series in 1947 of the radio show Navy Mixture for
which Muir had provided some scripts, and after this
show ended Maxwell received a commission for a new
weekly comedy series to star Edwards, Nichols and
Bentley. He introduced Muir to Norden, and asked them if
they would collaborate to write the scripts.
The result was Take It From Here and the start of one of
the most enduring comedy writing partnerships. Muir and
Norden were to continue collaborating for nearly 50
years, writing such comic masterpieces as Peter Sellers'
sketch Balham, Gateway to the South, and appearing
together on radio panel games My Word! and My Music.
Meet Me At
Parky's:
Harry Einstein (born 1904) was just a kid from Boston
who loved to make people laugh. He got his big break on
the February 11, 1934, broadcast of The Chase and
Sanborn Hour. Einstein offering Eddie a job with the
Boston Symphony would have been funny enough, but when
he did it in the character of the English-mangling
Greek, Parkyakarkus, he brought down the house.
At the time, no one blinked an eye at the "political
correctness" of ethnic humor, and the Parkyakarkus (full
name, Takacharrin Parkyakarkus) character became Eddie's
regular second banana. Einstein appeared in 11 movies as
Parkyakarkus, and the character was popular enough that
he was given his own show on NBC.
The premise of Meet Me at Parky's revolves around the
restaurant which Parkyakarkus has owned for the last
eighteen years. As far as classiness goes, Parky's makes
Duffy's Tavern look like Sardi's. When it comes to
mastering the English language, Parkyakarkus makes
Chester Riley of The Life of Riley sound like Lionel
Barrymore!
Regular's at Parky's included singer Betty Jane Rhodes,
who was more of an assistant than a waitress, band
leader Opie Cates with his hillbilly drawl played second
banana, and announcer Bob Williams worked pitches for
Old Gold Cigarettes into the action.
The scripts were mostly written by Einstein. The show
opens with a couple of short sketches of people getting
angry and Williams advising them to "don't get
irritated, light up an Old Gold and Meet Me at Parky's".
Parkyakarkus has a short monologue which which has the
studio audience rolling in the aisles by the time singer
Betty shows up to help Parkyakarkus with this week's
problem. After the restaurateur begins to get upset and
is advised to "don't get irritated", Betty gives us a
song. Opie Cates is drawn into the plot and sets the
boss up for more laughs with his twisted logic before an
instrumental swing tune. By the time the show wraps, we
will have heard that there will be more Old Gold's
available, now that the War is ending and the military
needs less cigarettes.
Meet Me at Parky's ran from June, 1945, until November
of 1948. Harry Einstein had invested wisely in real
estate, and no longer had to perform to make a living,
but he did make a few appearances as Parkyakarkus,
especially at the famous Friar's Club Roasts. On
November 24, 1958, the guests of honor at the Roast
wereDesi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. Harry was to be the
second to last speaker, and everyone agreed that his
toast was the funniest of the night. After his speech,
he sat down and slumped over on Milton Berle. Berle
called out asking if there was a doctor in the house,
and it immediately became obvious that it was no joke.
There were five doctors in the audience, including the
chief of surgery at City of Hope. Parky was carried off
stage and the doctors attempted to revive him with
cardiac massage (operating with a pocket knife) and a
defibrillator improvised from an electrical cord. As the
doctors fought to save Parkyakarkus's life, Art
Linkletter, George Burns, Berle and Tony Martin tried to
distract the crowd. When Martin was told to sing, his
unfortunate selection was " There's No Tomorrow".
A Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1708 Vine Street
honors the contributions to Radio made by Parkyakarkus.
It is the character, not Harry Einstein's name which
appears on the Star.
And more
Bonus Radio Shows:
As a sampler of our old
time radio library, we are including these
classic old time radio shows on this DVD-ROM at no extra charge:
Hearthstone of the Death Squad |
Passport to Romance |
Radio Hall Fame |
History of Radio Comedy on the BBC |
Pop Chronicles |
Raffles |
Nightcap Yarns |
Prelude to Dusk |
The Reviewers |
On Stage |
Presenting Charles Boyer |
Riddle of the Sands |
Our Land Be Bright |
Radio Dot |
|
Paper Plates |
Radio Guild |
|