Category Archives: 1950s

Jimmy Olsen, ‘absolutely fearless’ newspaperman

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Bob Stepno

From its first scene, the 1949 Superman adventure  The Mystery of the Flying Monster demonstrates how radio reminded its audience of the culture of 20th century American newspapers. The story doesn’t start with the clack of typewriters, the clatter of … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, 1950s, Clark Kent, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, newspapers, Perry White, Superman | Leave a comment

Lime with a twist: Violets, Violence and Recycled Radio

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Bob Stepno

Here’s a special case of radio recycling, another Orson Welles’ script from “The Lives of Harry Lime,” turned into a “Europe Confidential” journalist-hero script a few years later, part of a pattern I began writing about some months ago. This … Continue reading →

Posted in 1950s, adaptations, Drama, ethics, Europe, foreign correspondents, Orson Welles | Leave a comment

Cheesecake and pickles at State Fair

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Bob Stepno

Did you hear the one about the big-city reporter and the farmer’s daughter? It was called “State Fair,” as a novel, a Broadway hit, a movie, a stage musical and two more movies. On the radio, the whole theatrical Lockhart … Continue reading →

Posted in 1950s, adaptations, movies, romance | Leave a comment

Add a reporter, shift hemispheres; seeking the truth in rewrite

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Bob Stepno

I dropped a few of the Internet Archive’s “The Lives of Harry Lime” episodes onto my MP3 player to listen to on drives or walks in the park… and stumbled on another case of script-recycling, presumably by Harry Alan Towers, … Continue reading →

Posted in 1950s, adaptations, detectives, foreign correspondents | Leave a comment

Covering the Waterfront

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Bob Stepno

Two of my former Emerson College students have wound up with new jobs back in Massachusetts at the New Bedford Standard-Times on Buzzard’s Bay, which is a fine excuse to post this item about the radio and film stories titled … Continue reading →

Posted in 1930s, 1950s, Drama, reporters | Leave a comment

A journalist romance for Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Bob Stepno

The Old Itch (Kit Gaynor) Who better to tell a tale of romance and deadlines than an actor named Frank Lovejoy? (I think he was much more convincing as dusk-to-dawn columnist Randy Stone than he had been as the Blue … Continue reading →

Posted in 1950s, Drama, foreign correspondents, romance | Leave a comment

Reporter’s manhunt in London & Tangier

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Bob Stepno

Old-fashioned shoeleather reporting gets a good demonstration in the Europe Confidential episode called The Raymond Shortly Affair, which takes reporter Mike Connoy from his Paris office to London and from there to a Tangier nightclub and some intrigue involving a … Continue reading →

Posted in 1950s, Europe, foreign correspondents, journalism, reporting | Leave a comment

An as-told-to tale of blackmail

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Bob Stepno

The best rewrite of a “Lives of Harry Lime” episode that I’ve heard so far, transformed into a “Europe Confidential” episode with the addition of a journalist narrator, is this tale of political blackmail in which a racketeer anti-hero comes … Continue reading →

Posted in 1950s, adaptations, Drama, Europe, foreign correspondents, Orson Welles | Leave a comment

Journalist frames art-theft story

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Bob Stepno

Listening to 1951’s Orson Welles “The Lives of Harry Lime” in parallel with the 1957 radio series “Europe Confidential” can be a surreal experience — and never more than in this episode about a stolen painting that changes from Rubens … Continue reading →

Posted in 1950s, adaptations, Europe, foreign correspondents, Orson Welles, reporters | Leave a comment

Orson Welles Impersonates a Journalist

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Bob Stepno

No this isn’t about “Citizen Kane.” It’s about one of the famous actor’s returns to radio in the 1950s. (Before his first film, he was famous on radio — for everything from “The Shadow” to that Mercury Theater “War of … Continue reading →

Posted in 1950s, adventure, crime, Drama, reporters | Leave a comment