Theater Five presentation by Dr Joe Webb 02-11-2022

Theater Five
It’s Not What You Think!
Dr. Joe Webb, MWOTRC, February 11, 2022
© 2021, Joseph W. Webb, Ph.D.

Thank you, Ed Blainey 1914-1979
Pictures published in 1965-07-26 Millville NJ Daily
from 1965-04-14 photo shoot at the recording of episode 200, “The Ten Year Old Car”

Joan Lorring
First of 12 appearances
Cliff Carpenter
First of 16 appearances
Ted Bell
Tuesday, June 16, 1964: recording the inaugural T5 program “Hit and Run”
Marty
Foglia

After the letters T-H-E-A-T, no one really
knew the right way to spell the series name!

ALL of the spelling combinations were used…
but one was “more official” than the others
But we’ll
just call it
T5

Myth #1: It was named Theater Five because
it was designed to air in drive time at 5pm
• Five referred to the five different dramas
in multiple genres every week
• The name was intended to emphasize
its anthology format, without continuing
characters or connected storylines
• The original recommended time
was weekdays at 10pm, an “adult”
time of the broadcasting day suitable
for T5’s contemporary content

Myth #2: T5 was 245 science fiction dramas
• 1976’s Tune in Yesterday did not
describe the series correctly
• Pioneer collectors considered T5
to be outside the true radio era
• Many of those collectors considered
the NY versions of Suspense and YTJD
as just stubs of radio’s dramatic age
• Because T5 did not have synchronized national adoption,
many early collectors never had an opportunity to hear it
• Dunning’s 1998 book, On the Air, changed T5’s description
to “suspense drama, often science fiction,” also incorrect

Myth #3: ABC’s very own
NYC station, 77WABC,
didn’t pick it up…
so it must have been bad!
• 77WABC was a tremendous and influential Top 40
cash cow that AM stations around the US strived to
emulate
• ABC Radio Network had 400+ affiliates – with most
picking up news feeds only; about 100 took T5
• Broadcast industry strategy in big cites was
changing to specialization: all of the major NY
metro stations had formats they did not want to
disrupt. Stations were evolving into 24-hour
formats of news, talk, or music specialties.
• Broadcasters not allowed to own more than one
station in a market in that antitrust environment
• Fee structure for T5 was not innovative or creative;
lack of a national sponsor made T5 expensive
• T5 eventually signed low-power AM station WJRZ
of New Jersey to air the show… which they did… on
weekends!... at the same time T5 was in process of
being cancelled!
• Not even CBS Radio Mystery Theater would find a
spot on its station in New York City… CBS’ own
Newsradio88 was too lucrative to interrupt...
WOR-AM eventually signed on…
• Today, T5 would likely be a big streaming audio hit!

Myth #4: ABC Radio did not have experienced
personnel in charge of the T5 initiative
• Ed Byron, developer of the Mr. District Attorney
franchise on radio and television and other series,
and other key broadcasting executive positions
• Ted Bell and Warren Somerville,
veteran radio directors and producers
• Jack C. Wilson, NBC writer and editor, 1943-1958
• Ed Blainey, sound effects creator and artist
• Original T5 music composed by ABC staff
noted jazz arranger Alexander Vlas Datzenko
(a/k/a “Al Datz”) and conductor Glenn Osser;
both were mentored by Paul Whiteman in
the 1940s and 1950s

Myth #5: T5 was just a doomed attempt
to resuscitate “old time radio”
• T5 had to be different and tactical
• The profile of the 1964 listener: a multi-tasking
individual who did not deliberately seek to listen
to a radio drama but would find it worth staying
tuned in once the program started
• “Old style” program formats would not connect
with a 1964 audience, nor would the “old style”
engage or retain that audience

Myth #6: T5 lasted just one year
and was never heard from again
• T5 was part of an initiative
to begin an ABC syndication
division that offered a
diverse range of programs
to affiliates and others
• T5 could be heard in many
North American cities for
various periods through
1969, often as weekend
blocks of programming

The T5 story begins in 1963: ABC Radio detects
a general opportunity in content syndication
• Menu for Murder
(announced July 1963)
• Planned for Fall 1963
• Mystery anthology in 50 minute
format at 10pm
• Syndicated to affiliates on tape,
no network feeds
• Mind’s Eye
(announced August 1963)
• Mysteries broadened to different
genres in 50 minute format at 10pm
• No target date announced
• “Theater 5” starts to take form
(announced April 1964)
• Ed Byron hired
• 25 minute format, tight scripting
• Anthology format, contemporary
• Expected “not earlier than July”
• Recruited script editor Jack C. Wilson
• Heavy newspaper publicity about scripts
and Wilson worked contacts
• Bell, Somerville, and Blainey
were already at ABC
• Episodes recording starting June 1964
• Two network feeds every afternoon

Executive Producer
Edward Armour Byron
• Law student whose interest in broadcasting led
to his work at WLW in Cincinnati and writing the
Moon River program
• Attorney for UPI in the late 1930s
• Wrote for the early Mr. District Attorney series and
led the Mr. DA radio franchise for Phillips H. Lord
• Developed early radio game shows
Pot of Gold and What’s My Name
• In WW2, Major Byron was General MacArthur’s
radio officer; he worked on programming for
the Armed Forces Radio Service after the war
• Independent and corporate radio, TV, and news
executive until the T5 opportunity developed

Jack C. Wilson was hired for his Rolodex…
and issues invitations to new talent, too
• Wilson was in NBC’s radio division as a scripter
and editor through the golden and silver ages
• His Rolodex was packed with contact details
of fellow experienced TV & radio writers
• Byron’s goal of all new scripts and a staff
of new writers was a dream (and he knew it)
• Aggressive publicity effort to attract
scripts and new-to-radio writers
• Wilson was under time pressure:
only 4 of the first 100 scripts were from writers
new to radio or TV scripting, and only 10 truly
new writers for the whole series
• The grander vision of ABC corporate:
Create a fresh pool of scripting talent for
ABC television productions with writers
developed from T5 training and experience

Byron and Wilson set a high bar
• T5 needs 130 scripts for its initial six-month commitment,
and another 130 for its presumed renewal
• Union scale was $285 per script; T5 paid $400, 40% more!
• $325 for the script, $75 for prepaid rights for future use
• In 2022 US$ terms, union scale is $2570 and T5 is $3600
• Byron tells TV/radio critic Harvey Pack:
“I’m not running a writing school…
there is no place on our show for scripts
by established writers which were rejected
20 years ago and they now think
they can sell to me.
Radio writing is easier than TV because once your script is accepted
you can go home and start writing another. In television the writer
is on call for rewrites the same as a Broadway playwright.”

Writers advised…
18 minutes of drama… don’t waste it!
18

Instructions to writers explain the T5 strategy:
crafted for the mind-set of the 1964 audience

Byron and Wilson emphasize that T5 is written
for the day’s topics, attitudes, and expression

62 different writers for 260 scripts, but…
13 authored more than half of them
57%!

Who were “the T5 thirteen” ?
• Robert Cenedella (23)
• Cenedella was a radio and early TV writer, had some Red Channels issues in the early 1950s;
resumed his radio work in 1960s NY Suspense productions and 1960s and 1970s TV soap operas
• Richard McCracken (19)
• Prolific 1950s TV writer, including TV’s Lights Out
• George Bamber (16)
• Young writer’s work was on Suspense starting in 1959; director Warren Somerville liked him
and his work so much that he continued to hire him for non-T5 projects after it left the air
• Raphael David Blau (13)
• Studied psychology and collaborated on screenplays with psychological themes like Bedtime
for Bonzo and Fear Strikes Out, bio of baseball player Jimmy Piersall's struggle with depression
• Romeo Muller (12)
• Prodigy for writing and acting who wrote for Jack Benny in the 1950s, TV’s Studio One and Philco
Theater; successes with Rankin-Bass TV holiday specials, especially Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer
• Ian Martin (11)
• Radio actor from its earliest days but also a radio writer; one of the few actors to be in both the
initial and closing year of Suspense; regular actor and writer for CBS Radio Mystery Theater

Who were “the T5 thirteen” ?
• Albert G. Miller (10)
• Gag writer for Fred Allen, Ben Bernie, and George Jessel; wrote for Buck Rogers, CBS Radio
Workshop, successful author of children's books, especially for the Sesame Street franchise
• Fielden Farrington (8)
• Announcer on Green Hornet, Romance of Helen Trent, and Just Plain Bill; novels and
short stories; T5 was likely first radio scripting; he wrote 21 CBSRMT scripts and wrote
for TV's General Hospital
• Frank Thomas (8)
• "Frankie Thomas" was a child actor in theater and movies, most remembered for his role
in TV’s Tom Corbett, Space Cadet; TV scriptwriter in the 1950s; acted in seven T5 episodes
• Max Berton (7)
• Radio and TV writer (Captain Video, Mr. I-Magination) and a theatrical playwright
• Murray Burnett (7)
• Wrote ''Everybody Comes to Rick’s," rejected by Broadway, sold to Warner Brothers,
and it would become the foundation story for Casablanca
• Jim McGinn (7)
• 1960s TV scriptwriter, later for Julia and Nunsense, religious drama, especially Insight
• Robert Newman (7)
• Inner Sanctum, Murder at Midnight; FDR's radio strategist; a founder of Radio Writers Guild

The writers
• Lawrence Weinberg Episode #22 Outside Time
• Weinberg was a young lawyer in New York City who was attempting to start
his career as a playwright; he did have some plays off-Broadway in the 1960s
• Mordecai Siegal Episode #36 The Kiss Off
• Years later, Siegel would write 34 successful books about cats, dogs and horses
• Shane Stevens Episode #38 We Are All Alone
• Stevens was a young writer whose first novel was published in 1966. He became
a well known crime novelist and was brought to the attention of a wider audience
by Stephen King in a 1989 novel; also wrote two novels under the name “JW Rider”
• John Nicholas Iannuzzi Episode #72 World Enough and Time
• Iannuzzi was a novelist, but his law career was developing to become
a noted New York City criminal attorney, especially for homicide cases,
and became an respected author of law books
• Marjorie Truitt Episode #101 Six Foot Flower Box
• No information can be found about Ms. Truitt, but we believe she was in SC

The writers
• Leonard Sand
Episodes #140 The Chain and #156 Last Ride on the Merry Go Round
• No information can be found about Mr. Sand
• Don Lamb
Episodes #162 Any Port in a Storm and #228 Incident at Simbarundi
• Lamb was active in Off-Broadway and regional theater as a stage and production
manager, and a supporting actor; he was also an aspiring playwright in those venues.
He was a stage manager for the 1970-1971 Broadway productions of Frank Merriwell
and Harvey, the latter starring Jimmy Stewart and Helen Hayes
• Michael A. Hanu Episode #168 Point of Impact
• Hanu was a writer for Voice of America at the same time that William N. Robson
led production there, and was likely encouraged by Robson
• Stanley Rubens Episode #213 Incident at Phong Trang
• Rubens was a writer but found most of his success as a business executive and
real estate developer; his last local stage play was produced when he was 91 in 2005
• Lenore Woolf Episode #253 In Time of Trouble
• Woolf was an aspiring writer and playwright, deeply involved in local theater,
and eventually became an owner of a beloved Milwaukee bookstore

The veteran writers
• Robert A. Arthur (6), Mysterious Traveler, Strange Dr. Weird, Sealed Book
• Albert Barker (1), Terry and the Pirates
• Joseph Cochran (2), numerous series
• Virginia Marie Cooke (4), Family Theater, book author
• Sherman H. Dryer (1)
• producer-director Human Adventure, created Exploring the Unknown, 2000 Plus
• Elspeth Eric (1), radio actress and writer
• Hal Hackady (6)
• TV writer, songwriter for Eddie Fisher and Lennon Sisters, Snoopy! Come Home!
• Don Haring (4)
• US detective story writer who moved to Australia after WW2 and found
great success in the pulps there; in Variety op-ed, claimed to have written
3,000+ radio scripts, mainly in Australia, directing ~1,500 radio productions
• George Lowther (3), Superman, Terry and the Pirates

The veteran writers
• Burr McCloskey (3)
• Writer, poet, union activist, ad executive, campaign manager,
third party candidate for Vice President in the 1956 election
• Nancy Moore (3), 1950s TV writer, main writer for Davey and Goliath
• Virginia Radcliffe (2), Cavalcade of America
• Addy Richton (1), Hilltop House, Valiant Lady, Cavalcade of America
• Frances Rickett (2), TV soap opera writer and mystery novelist
• William N. Robson (1), legendary radio writer, producer, and director
• Bryce Walton (1)
• Prolific pulp detective and sci-fi fiction writer, and had three
stories produced on Alfred Hitchcock Presents
• Winifred Wolfe (3), Murder at Midnight, books and movies

Shhhh!! Don’t tell Jack C. Wilson about
the re-used golden and silver age scripts!
• #3 1964-08-05 Terror from Beyond
by Robert Newman
• Murder at Midnight as Terror Out of Space
• #6 1964-08-10 Rebellion Next Week
by Robert Cenedella
• Suspense 1961-09-03 as The Juvenile Rebellion
• #15 1964-08-21 Molecule Masquerade
by Sherman H. Dryer
• Two Thousand Plus 1950-06-07 as The Other Man
• #124 1965-01-21 The Imposters
by Peter Fernandez
• Suspense 1961-11-12 as The Imposters
• #132 1965-02-02 Time, the Place, and the Death
by Peter Fernandez
• Suspense 1960-01-17 as The Time, the Place, the Death
• #203 1965-05-12 Around the Corner from Nowhere
by Winifred Wolfe
• Murder at Midnight Episode #43 as City Morgue
• #208 1965-05-19 Blind Man's Bluff
by George Bamber
• Suspense 1959-04-19 as See How He Runs
• #209 1965-05-20 Death of an Old Flame
by George Bamber
• Suspense 1961-10-29 as Death of an Old Flame
• #221 1965-06-07 Two Came Back by Jules Archer
• Both Escape 1950-08-04 and
Suspense 1960-06-05 as Two Came Back
• #234 1965-06-24 A Cup of Snow for Lt. Vogel
by George Bamber
• Suspense 1960-02-28 Lt. Langer's Last Collection

• Byron and Cooper worked together while in the
service on AFRS’ The Army Hour in 1943
• They maintained their industry acquaintance
through the years; Cooper dies in 1955
• Cooper was involved in experimental television
and had a Summer 1949 series “Volume One”;
he later produced and directed the TV version of Escape
in 1950 and a dramatic series Stage 13
• T5’s episode #80 of 1964-11-20 A Nothing Place was
written by Frankie Thomas; the story was based on
Cooper’s Volume One script “The Bell Hop’s Story”!
This trade magazine clipping
piqued our interest
1964-04-08 Radio-Television Daily
• Thomas performed this script in the premiere episode of Volume One on 1949-06-16
and did it again with the same cast on Escape's fourth episode on 1950-01-26
• Byron, and perhaps Wilson, may have encouraged the homage to Cooper as a resource
and springboard for story ideas, and especially for Thomas who had performed in it
• Other T5 scripts are being assessed for similar Cooper inspiration… we may never know
A T5 Mystery! Ed Byron and Wyllis Cooper

Ian Martin and Nancy Moore reworked
some of their T5 scripts for CBSRMT
Ian Martin
• Episode #26 1964-09-07 Sorry to Let You Go
• 1977-10-21 (same title)
• Episode # 151 1965-03-01 You Bet Your Life
• 1977-04-10 (same title)
• Episode # 181 1965-04-12 A Matter of Pride
• 1974-09-25 The Deadly Blind Man’s Bluff
• Episode # 183 1965-04-14
Come Home Daughter, All is Forbidden
• 1974-10-23, See Naples and Die
• Episode # 224 1965-06-10 The Wishing Stone
• 1974-10-23 (same title)
Nancy Moore
• Episode #117 of 1965-01-12 Bravo, Bravo
• 1974-12-23 Give the Devil His Due
• Episode # 186 1965-04-19 Incident in Ceylon
• 1977-07-05 Hexed
• Episode # 201 1965-05-10 Lift to Beyond
• 1979-09-03 Tomorrow Will Never Come
… and so did Bryce Walton
• Episode #242 1965-07-06 Jailbreak
• 1982-04-26 The Hanging Sheriff
• Also on South Africa’s Beyond Midnight
as The Sheriff's Wife

ABC was serious about radio drama long term:
training children for upcoming T5 productions
• An article in Broadcasting Magazine
1964-11-30 highlighted ABC Radio’s
“Children’s Acting Workshop”
• One 90 minute class each week for
four weeks with producer Ted Bell
• Doree Sitterly is the only student
to have an entertainment career
well into adulthood… as a highly
regarded Hollywood movie and
television animal trainer!
• None of the workshop’s students
were ever cast in a T5 production
Doree
Sitterly

T5 calling…
• Ed Byron knows that the T5
audience, affiliate base, and
ad revenues need to grow
• Adding Hollywood talent
is important to achieve
broader public recognition
• Warren Somerville is
sent to Los Angeles in
early November 1964
to pitch high profile
actors including Hollywood’s
most successful radio voices
• Bias against NYC talent as
“competent performers”
but not as “stars” who attract
audiences and publicity
• When Byron dies just weeks later,
ABC needs to replace him
• In January 1965, Lee Bowman
is appointed as Executive Producer,
and his selection is part of T5’s
Hollywood strategy
• Highly regarded and well-connected
Hollywood actor, known by the town’s
big players of the 1960s and still had
ties to golden and silver age radio pros
• Diverse investments in California
real estate and other ventures…
had a mind for business dealings
• Had residences in both NY metro area
and California, convenient for the
T5 Executive Producer mission

The post-Byron strategy
• Change in marketing focus to emphasize the
profit goals of affiliates, and perhaps lure a
sponsor or two; it’s plainly obvious in the
February 8, 1965 Broadcasting Magazine ad
• Bigger budgets to attract bigger name talent
• March 1965: new writer guidelines reflect
“likes and dislikes” feedback from listeners
• No indeterminate endings
• More strong roles, especially for younger actors
• Foreign locales and accents okay
• More action and adventure, westerns,
but less sci-fi/fantasy
• No narration or stream-of-consciousness
• Create an independent attention-getting
opening that is not always an excerpt
• Is this a recipe for blander storytelling?

On April 23, 1965, Sammy Davis, Jr. recorded
Death of an Old Flame by George Bamber
• He was headlining Golden Boy on Broadway and recording a TV
special produced by ABC-NY, The Swinging World of Sammy Davis, Jr.
• Bamber’s 1961 Suspense script was reworked to fit
T5’s format and Sammy’s natural acting style
• Broadcast on May 20, 1965; it was T5 episode #209
Sammy
Davis, Jr.
George
Bamber
• Sammy’s career was very, very hot
• ABC Radio tried to leverage his T5
appearance in show publicity, but
his numerous TV and stage appearances
and civil rights efforts in May 1965
pushed his T5 role out of the news
and off the TV/Radio pages!
• His performance received positive reviews
Bamber reported that
Sammy sent “a gofer to
a local bar for a highball
at 10am in true Rat
Pack tradition”

Variety reports
optimism that
T5’s renewal
is likely
The notable change in
T5 casting is especially
evident starting in April
1965 as the number
of better-known actors
and voices increased
recorded 1965-02-08,
broadcast 1965-03-04

Mid-June 1965: ABC decides that T5 is finished
The end is now
• ABC puts T5 on hold to re-assess
its dramatic radio strategy
• Everyone knows it’s over
• T5 production ends on July 8
with its 260th production
• The final broadcast is Episode #260,
Joey, written by Robert Cenedella,
on July 30, 1965
• T5’s debut broadcast was Hit and Run,
also written by Robert Cenedella!
The end is slow
• WJRZ-AM in New Jersey signs for
T5 at the same time the hiatus
decision is finalized by ABC executives
• T5 can finally be heard in NYC!
• T5 is provided free to Boston University
and Long Island’s Hofstra U stations
• T5 remains in ABC’s syndication package
• KGO San Francisco, WLS Chicago, and
other stations broadcast the series for
years later, usually in weekend blocks
• By early 1969, T5 is completely done

Post mortem:
Was there a turning point?
Variety, October 13, 1965
“[The] series suffered its first blow
when vet producer Ed Byron died.
“Critics thought his episodes
were more sophisticated and
stretched farther into the realm
of the imagination than the later
ones produced by Lee Bowman,
Byron’s successor.”

What happened next? Well… mostly crickets…
• T5 recordings were around almost since the hobby’s beginnings,
but never organized, usually scattered through reels here and there
• The series was not highly regarded; it was something collectors traded
when they really couldn’t find anything else in someone’s catalog
• Verified information about dates, casts, titles and other characteristics was lacking,
and there were few reliable sources to retrieve and assemble those details
• Most all recordings were airchecks on 1950s & 1960s home reel equipment with
limitations of AM station signals and general broadcast noise (very few FM recordings)
• T5 recordings often had combinations of hum, hiss, speed problems, clipped opens or closes;
these problems were compounded by copying of reels between collectors over the years
that added tape noise, hiss, and suffered from collectors recording technique variabilities
• Four episodes are still missing
• Late collector Ken Piletic told a friend at FOTR “my timer didn’t work those days”
• Collector Dick Judge published a good quality online log in 2002
• OTRR compiled a set of recordings in 2005 – it was difficult to find good recordings that
were not low-encode MP3 format files mired with encoding defects and digital artifacts

Commercial releases of T5 have been rare
• Metacom released a cassette set of
12 episodes in the 1980s or 1990s
• In 2019, Radio Spirits released 24 episodes on CD
• Liner notes by Karl Schadow
• Selected Bowman era episodes, the earliest is episode #217
• 17 of the 24 episodes are from the last five weeks
• Includes 4 Farrington, 2 Muller, 2 Cenedella, 2 Hackady
scripts, and single scripts by Bamber, McCloskey, and Walton
• Currently on sale at radiospirits.com
for $20.77 (35% off!) + shipping & tax
• Worthwhile, some of the best sounding episodes of the series
• Coupon code d02nc002 gets free shipping for orders
>$35 until February 15.
• Also available at radiospiritsdownloads.com for $22.37
(no shipping cost) as mp3 files

The T5 Project
Recover and Repair T5’s Recordings and Reputation
• Website https://sites.google.com/view/t5-project OR bit.ly/T5project
• More than 100 recordings of the 256 surviving episodes have been
replaced with very good and excellent recordings
• OTRR is funding purchases of early hobby tape collections
• Volunteers are transferring and sound processing episodes
• Surviving episodes that can’t be replaced are being processed
• Final collection will be at archive.org in FLAC format
• A detailed log of the series is in process
• T5 series history and behind-the-scenes decisions
and actions are being documented there
• Project blog https://theaterfive.blogspot.com/
• Daily posts with a T5 episode and background every day; starts February 14, 2022

Nick Palmer’s suggested listening
• House of Cards by George Bamber
• Episode #2 broadcast on 1964-08-04
• Months after a nuclear bomb left the outside world
a radioactive wasteland, time, food, and oxygen begin
to run out on a young couple and two children who
stayed safe in a fallout shelter. Despite the severe
radiation and temperatures too high for humans to
exist outside, the family hears a persistent scratching
sound at the shelter door...
• The Late Matthew Dillard by Robert Cenedella
• A handful of elite literary types have gathered to
celebrate the life and work of Nobel Prize winning
novelist Matthew Dillard. But when Dillard’s mentally
ill old friend shows up and it becomes clear he’s really
the one behind the author’s celebrated work, it puts
the legitimacy of their entire community into question.
• The Trouble with Alfie by George Bamber
• Alfie loves shocking his family with tall tales of mass
murder and dismembered corpses. But when bodies
actually start piling up in the neighborhood and the
police begin poking around, his mom can’t help but
wonder if there might be some truth to Alfie’s sick
jokes.
• Deedle Deedle Dumply, My Son X1
by George Bamber
• Paul is convinced his son John has been replaced by
a complex machine, created by aliens plotting to
infiltrate the human race. The more his wife tries to
convince him he’s wrong, the more certain Paul
becomes — with tragic consequences.
• Bamber was an X Minus One fan, hence the insider nod
• The Talkers by Burr McCloskey
• Years after a nuclear holocaust, two survivors live
deep in the ground, hiding from radiation and the
giant insects that have taken over the Earth. Their
only relief comes from occasionally crawling out of
their underground tunnels to reminisce about the
good old days. Little do they know, but bad as things
are, they’re about to get a lot worse.
• Now Listen to the Tiger by Burr McCloskey
• After a firefight in the jungles of Vietnam, an American
soldier and Vietnamese sniper are forced to see each
other’s humanity as they both lay dying. Too bad the
tiger circling them just sees lunch.

Nick Palmer’s suggested listening
• Nuptial Flight by William Mourne
• An escalating game of Chicken between a pair
of newlyweds and a car of faceless strangers
has deadly consequences.
• Across the River from Grandma’s House
by Leonard Stadd
• An escaped convict takes refuge with a teenage girl
and her sweet grandmother, only to discover they
are the real danger.
• The Elevator by Jim McGinn
• Trapped in an elevator with a psychopath,
a woman fights for survival as her boyfriend
and roommate race to find her.
• Little Girl, Little Girl by Romeo Muller
• The owner of a candy store keeps to himself,
convinced if he never gets close to anyone, he’ll
never get hurt. But his world turns upside down
when a little girl arrives at his shop and terrorizes
him for her own cruel amusement.
• The Janitor by Fielden Farrington
• When a kindly school custodian brings a little girl
into the boiler room to fix her backpack, he sets
off a wave of hysteria that soon takes over the
entire school.
• Nightmare at 26,000 Feet by Romeo Muller
• A stewardess desperately tries to save a plane-load
of passengers on a cross country flight when a
deranged airline executive murders the pilots
and hijacks the plane.
• Jailbreak by Bryce Walton
• When an out-of-towner is sentenced to death for
a murder he didn’t commit, the small town sheriff
reaches his limit, plotting an elaborate jailbreak
for the man he’s due to hang.
• From a 1956 short story in Trapped Detective Magazine
Also note that TWO T5 scripts were nominated
for Writers Guild of America awards
1965 nominee The Scream by Virginia Radcliffe
Episode #21 broadcast on 1964-08-31
1966 nominee Country Boy by Romeo Muller
Episode #229 broadcast on 1965-06-17

Nick Palmer’s pooper scooper:
The Dogs of T5
• The Stranger by Robert Cenedella
• A couple discovers a stranger living in their guest room who swears
one of them invited him to stay for a week — he just won’t say
which one. When he refuses to leave, it sets off an escalating battle
of wills that threatens to change the marriage forever
• Nick thought it strained credulity. Dr. Joe disagreed and found it to
be an amusing dark comedy about how easily a married couple,
each with secrets and always lying to each other, can be masterfully
manipulated. The burglar ends up with a week of free room and
board… and some of their possessions… and they don’t realize it
until after he’s disappeared… but they still have their lies.
• June 17th, Where Are You? by George Lowther
• A stubborn school marm returns from a cruise trip furious to
discover she lost a day when her ship crossed the International
Dateline and sets out to sue the steamship company for her loss.
• This might have been an interesting story in the years when so few
people traveled internationally and did not have access to high
speed jet travel that crosses time zones so quickly. More of the
general public is aware of time zones and such than when this was
broadcast. This gimmick could have been funny as an old Bob
Newhart stand-up routine. The first half of the episode belabors the
date line issue (likely filling time to the commercial break), and the
in the second half the story turns into a romance! The story just
doesn’t work as a whole. The second half is functional but not
endearing or amusing enough to redeem the episode.
• The Underdeveloped Nation by Romeo Muller
• A fighter pilot crash-lands on a mysterious island, encountering
pygmy-like creatures, a talking scarecrow and a yellow-brick road
that leads to an emerald city… Why does it all feel so familiar?
• This is a Cold War episode that mixes the Wizard of Oz story with
the political preconceptions of foreign aid recipients. It then falls
flat, abandoning those elements to tell us that the Wizard, himself,
is real and living in our time. He’s posing as the psychologist to the
story’s narrator, and he longs to return to the Emerald City.
Creative, occasionally funny, but it’s not effective and lets us down.
• Make My Name Clean by Romeo Muller
• A mysterious woman lures a high-powered press agent to her
apartment where he’s surprised with an offer: her father, one of
the city’s most infamous gangsters, is dying and would like to hire
him to clean up his public image.
• The underlying story theme may be fine, but the dialogue is stilted
and so is Santos Ortega’s delivery of it. The script’s potentially
good premise is executed in a forgettable way. Brando’s portrayal
of an aging crime boss trying to transition to legitimate business
in The Godfather would come seven years later. After seeing that,
this performance seems worse than it probably sounded in 1965.
It’s downright silly... and tiresome… with little foundation to make
its supposedly surprise ending work. A big disappointment.

• Download shows: 20 award
nominated, recommended, and
other important T5 episodes as
128kps mp3s in a .zip file
https://we.tl/t-bMCtSWgXYv
ALL DOWNLOAD LINKS EXPIRE ON
FEBRUARY 18, 2022
• Download tonight’s slides:
PDF of the slides
sites.google.com/view/t5-project
• Download the draft T5 log:
PDF of the latest log snapshot
https://we.tl/t-9mUcS7JhWO

• MWOTRC for hosting this special event and your loyal support of classic radio research
• OTRR for funding collection acquisitions and volunteers who are transferring reels of early
collectors, especially “Knights of the Turning Table,” the Joe Hehn Memorial Collection Project,
and all those anonymous collectors of decades past who recorded and saved T5
• Karl Schadow for general research, actor identification and verification, archive visits
• Nick Palmer who is in process of creating plotline descriptions for all 260 broadcasts
• Larry Groebe (Generic Radio Workshop) who provided the writer guidelines documents
that offered a peek into the behind-the-scenes thinking of T5’s producers
SPECIAL THANKS TO….

Theater Five presentation by Dr Joe Webb 02-11-2022

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