Episode 182: Blasphuphmus Radio Theater Presents!: The Adventures of Superman Part VIII!
(Featuring another exciting installment in the on-going adventures of Superman!)
After a full year plus in a state of “hiatus,” Blasphuphmus Radio Theater Presents! is proud to bring you the next installment in The Adventures of Superman! A strange visitor from a doomed planet has taken up residence on planet Earth. Content to merely work as mild mannered reporter Clark Kent, his job continuously puts him at odds with crooks, thieves, street thugs, gangsters, corrupt politicians, misguided corporate masterminds, and a host of down-to-earth criminals that conventional law cannot manage to deal with on their own. It’s up to Superman to settle the score!
This week’s installment finishes the story Donelli’s Protection Racket, which was started in Part II. As The Adventures of Superman is highly serialized (and, on top of that, incredibly fun to listen to), our recommendation is to subscribe to our newest iTunes subscription option, where you can receive all the back episodes (and all new forthcoming ones) delivered to your Borg Implant of choice. Just past the following link – http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/blasphuphmus-radio-adventures/id558120421 – into your aggregator, and watch the content accumulate!
The relationship between our program and these seventy year old adventures series goes back to 2008, when I began to really explore Old Time Radio recordings on the incredible archive.org website. When I began to come up with new ways to improve our program to coincide with the 2009 relaunch, I knew that I wanted to incorporate OTR into the modern radio landscape. When you listen to these programs, it really is like listening to a completely different time and place in American History. It fascinates me to think of a time period when these quaint and entertaining stories where a regular part of radio, and I am constantly lamenting the fact that radio has changed so dramatically that stories like this do not make it into daily programming. The world of podcasting has definitely helped in this department, and features like The Thrilling Adventure Hour offer a modern take on this kind of storytelling. However, modern radio is just not interested in anything but watered down music formats and an endless string of pointless commercials.
Regardless, I’ve been wanting to bring these stories to you – with period appropriate music and commercials in the mix – ever since. While there are many other characters that wound up being interpreted for radio, Superman was not only the most popular, but has the largest wealth of material to draw upon. (There are almost 1000 episodes in existence, spanning a few decades.) What is interesting about this version of Superman, though, is that he is slightly different than the one we meet in comics. In the late ’30’s and early ’40’s, ideas like “continuity” were not in place, and the people who were writing for the radio were not writing for the comics. The radio version of Superman arrives on Earth as an adult, and is not raised by Ma & Pa Kent. He’s got a little bit of a “street-wise” element to him, and is willing to beat a crook into submission, intimidate someone into doing the right thing, and has no qualms with lying to his friends and co-workers in an effort to protect his identity.
The kinds of crooks that Superman gets involved with in these stories aligns more with the earliest comics that were published, too. Unlike the Superman of today, who has powers that attract super-villains of the extreme variety, this is the populist interpretation of Superman, where bad businessmen and corrupt racketeers work against the poor and downtrodden, who are just out to survive in a post-depression America. Rather than use super-powers, a simple fist-fight is usually how most crooks are brought to justice, and where he has a host of abilities to help him in comics, only his strength and flight get any play on the radio. In a way, this is like looking at an adolescent Superman, who has a lot of growing up to do in order to get to the world of today.
These stories are also fascinating to me, in that they introduce elements to the Superman mythology that eventually become important in the comics. Perry White and Jimmy Olsen – two characters that play a huge role in Clark Kent’s job at The Daily Planet, were introduced to Radio Audiences before they ever appeared in the comics. In fact The Daily Planet was a radio invention. Superman, as a comic book, was only introduced in 1939, and before the year was out the radio show was in production. While Superman was being outsold by Captain Marvel on the newsstands, Superman was pulling an incredible share of listeners on the radio, and it was this version of the character that America fell in love with (and, eventually, drove readers to buy the comics). In what was to be a rare set of circumstances, the characters that were unique to the on-air program made their way into the comics. Donelli’s Protection Racket introduced America to Jimmy Olsen, who would soon become a permanent fixture in the series, and would cement the program in the hearts of youngsters across the country.
Unfortunately, information about this period of radio broadcasting is spotty at best. I’ve consulted a number of resources to get the details as accurate as possible, and have used sites like archive.org and the Old Time Radio Researchers Group to make sure these presentations are accurate. However, documentation about these programs were not kept at the time they were broadcast. In 1940, these programs were not seen as media to be saved for the future. Aside from big name voice talents, like Bud Collyer, very few voice actors, foley artists, or writers received much credit for their work, and WWII itself made the production and preservation of transcription discs a feat in and of itself. Superman’s popularity allowed for these shows to be saved when other, lesser-known shows do not exist in any format, and details of their production are nearly nonexistent. These kinds of shows put into perspective the transient nature of media and information as a whole, and helps us to reflect on the value of documentation, in whatever form it may be.
And now, patient reader, its time to travel with us to the past, over 70 years ago, as we bring you the incredible and action-packed story, Donelli’s Protection Racket, part of the continuing Adventures of Superman!
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The Adventures of Superman Part VIII: Donelli’s Protection Racket!
A thug, gangster, and racketeer by the name of Chip Donelli has created a protection racket on Spruce Street in Metropolis, where the recently-introduced new character, Jimmy Olsen and his mother happen to run a candy store. Clark Kent – both as a reporter, and as his alter ego of Superman, must catch Donelli, thwart his kidnapping plans, and bring him to justice!
Episode 30: Part 3 of 6 * 19 April 1940
Episode 31: Part 4 of 6 * 22 April 1940
Episode 32: Part 5 of 6 * 24 April 1940
Episode 33: Part 6 of 6 * 26 April 1940
Mid-Valley Mutations 