Episode 004: Blasphuphmus Radio Theater Presents! The Adventures of Superman, Part I
(Featuring the first four episodes of the 1940 classic radio serial: “Baby From Krypton,” “Clark Kent, Mild Mannered Reporter,” “Keno’s Landslide,” & “Clark Kent – Captured By The Wolfe.”)

In a new feature on Blasphuphmus Radio, we present the first four episodes of the 1940 radio classic, The Adventures of Superman! I’m an Old Time Radio fan, and have long lamented the fact that there are no stations (that I know of) that play any kind of Radio Theater anymore. (Outside of occasional NPR features.) To remedy this situation, once a month I’ll broadcast various Old Time Radio features, starting with one of my favorites.

Radio in the 1940’s was a very different medium than it is now. On WOR Radio (in New York), the popular shows included scripted features of various types and varieties, vaudevillian variety shows, news programs, and live Big Band music in the evenings. (These performances were then used as recorded music for the early morning broadcasts.) Since a lot of shows didn’t last long, writers and producers were constantly looking for new ideas to try out on the air. Eventually, Producer Frank Chase and Writer George Ludlum hit upon the idea to adapt the then-new Comic Book Character, Superman. Once they found Clayton “Bud” Collyer – who became the voice of Superman – they immediately began producing episodes.

On February 12th, 1940 a few voice actors and foley artists stood around a microphone and recorded the first episode of The Adventures of Superman. Humorously, this first episode lacks the primary characters and voices that would appear in all the future episodes, but by Valentine’s Day – with Bud Collyer voicing Clark Kent – the show became a hit.

The Adventures of Superman aired during the 5 PM hour on most of the stations that carried the show. (Depending on their schedules, it might be heard locally at 5, 5:15, 5:30, or 5:45.)

Most of the information here was pieced together from various different web resources, and I retrieved the episodes I broadcast today from archive.org, which hosts a lot of Old Time Radio using a Creative Commons License. Everything is available for download, free to all. The drawback of Old Time Radio Recordings online, however, is an issue of quality: the limitations of the technology of 1940, combined with the limitations in recording preservation over the years, combined with the limitations of primitive .mp3 encoding from whenever these files were created, have all conspired to create sub-par sounding audio. Of course, in many cases, we’re lucky to have these recordings at all, and as we’ll find out as this series progresses, there are many episodes from the WWII era that do not exist, in any form. (Shades of Dr. Who to come…)

As a Comic Book fan from way back, this show holds a special place in my heart. (Mostly because there was never a Green Lantern show, and this was the next best thing.) I used to have a series of four cassettes that contained at least 20 of the first episodes of the show, and I used to wonder how people could really love something that hokey. Now that I’ve had a few years to percolate on the subject, I’m wondering what I found hokey about them, then.

Throughout the show I inserted some Old Time Radio Commercials to add to the feel of the broadcast. The only commercial I know for a fact was actually broadcast during The Adventures of Superman was the Kellog’s Pep ad at the beginning. (They originally sponsored the show.) The others, unfortunately, could be from any time period (and region of the US – radio was extremely regional in those days), and therefore, may be anachronistic. (The Pepsi commercial, I realize after having done further research, may be from the early 1950s. My bad.) I hope no one calls me on it, and if they do, I hope they don’t feel too cheated. Really, I tried.

Unfortunately, I found two different ways to record my Old Time Voice Overs, and due to a crunch in production time, I had to leave them both in. I think second batch of recordings sound more Old Time-y, but then again, it might be completely unnoticeable with broadcast radio compression and podcasting .mp3 compression. We’ll see.

If there are any Old Time Radio aficionados that can help out a relatively newish fan, please, contact me! I would be most appreciative of a brain to pick about this fascinating time in Radio History.

This one was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait for Part II of the story, which will air on February 17th. Twice the excitement! Tune In, patient listeners!

The Adventures of Superman Part I!

Episode 1: The Baby from Krypton * 12 February 1940
Kal-El is sent to Earth by his parents from their home planet of Krypton.

Episode 2: Clark Kent, Reporter * 14 February 1940
Kal-El adopts the name Clark Kent, secures a job at The Daily Planet, and discovers that someone named The Wolfe is sabotaging a train called The Silver Clipper.

Episode 3: Keno’s Landslide * 16 February 1940
Keno, working for The Wolfe, uses a landslide to take out a train headed for Denver.

Episode 4: Clark Kent – Captured by the Wolfe * 19 February 1940
Keno and The Wolfe kidnap Clark Kent.