The Radio Planet · the rarities room
The Rarities Room
Enormous stars, tiny runs. Seven vehicles that lasted a season or less — and every episode of them the archive holds.
Admission is deliberately narrow: a name of the first rank, a run that folded inside a year, and a surviving count small enough to hear in an evening. Long runs with famous casts are not rarities and stay on the ordinary shelves. Everything here is counted from the archive as it stands, so if a run is down to four transfers, the page says four.
8
Runs in the room
184
Surviving transfers
1948–1954
Span
No. 1 · CBS, March–June 1948
Shorty Bell
Mickey Rooney
The biggest box-office draw in America three years running, and at this point an MGM veteran of two decades.
Rooney's only radio series. It was built for him as a cub-reporter vehicle, ran a single spring, and was gone by summer — which is why almost nothing of it exists.
4 surviving transfers on the shelf
Audition, with Mickey Rooney
1948 · 29 min
Crooked Hero
1948 · 27 min
Movie Script
1948 · 29 min
Shorty Scoops the Photographer
1948 · 27 min
No. 2 · NBC, January–May 1938
The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air
Walt Disney
The most famous producer in animation, fresh from Snow White, performing on air himself as the voice of Mickey.
A single half-season, and Disney's only continuing radio series. He speaks Mickey's lines in it — a role he almost never played after the early shorts — and only a handful of transfers survive.
7 surviving transfers on the shelf
Snow White
1938 · 29 min
Mother Goose Land
1938 · 28 min
Cinderella
1938 · 28 min
King Neptune
1938 · 29 min
The Pied Piper
1938 · 29 min
The Old Woman in the Shoe
1938 · 29 min
Old Macdonald
1938 · 29 min
No. 3 · NBC, 1951
Mr. and Mrs. Blandings
Cary Grant and Betsy Drake
Grant was mid-career and untouchable on screen; he almost never took a continuing radio role.
One season, playing opposite his own wife in a spin-off of his 1948 picture. The single most surprising card on the shelf: Cary Grant, week after week, on the radio.
11 surviving transfers on the shelf
Mr&Mrs B 1950-11-08 Audition The New State Highway (aka The New Home) (aka The New Freeway)
undated · 28 min
Mr&Mrs B 1951-01-28 #002 (Pr Snd) Susan & Joan Have the Measles (aka Measles)
undated · 22 min
Mr&Mrs B 1951-02-25 #006 Jim & Television - Friends or Foes (aka 1951-11-25) (aka Jim is on TV)
undated · 27 min
Mr&Mrs B 1951-03-18 #009 Jim Puts 'Dream House' up for Sale (aka Selling the House)
undated · 27 min
Mr&Mrs B 1951-04-01 #011 (Pr Snd til 45 secs into) Jim is Landsdale Justice of the Peace (aka Old Boyfriend)
undated · 29 min
Mr&Mrs B 1951-04-08 #012 Twin Oaks Lodge Getaway (aka Twin Lakes Lodge)
undated · 30 min
Mr&Mrs B 1951-04-29 #015 Hiking with the Youth Group (aka Hiking with the Kids)
undated · 24 min
Mr&Mrs B 1951-05-06 #016 Rebuilding The Old Barn
undated · 28 min
Mr&Mrs B 1951-05-13 #017 (Pr Snd) The Blandings' Tenth Anniversary
undated · 29 min
Mr&Mrs B 1951-06-10 (AFRTS) The Firehouse Benefit Play (aka Amateur Play)
undated · 24 min
Mr&Mrs B 1951-08-25 (Cummings-Wyatt Audition) First Anniversary of Moving In
undated · 29 min
No. 4 · NBC, October 1951–May 1952
The Silent Men
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
A screen star and decorated naval officer, in his only continuing radio lead.
Federal-agent anthology, one season, and the scarcest of the late-network star vehicles — barely more than two dozen transfers are known to survive anywhere.
27 surviving transfers on the shelf
The Big Sneak
1951 · 28 min
Empire of Pip the Blind
1951 · 27 min
Case of the Rubber Gloves
1951 · 28 min
Death In The Mail
1951 · 29 min
The Trans-Atlantic Push
1951 · 29 min
Heroin Source X
1951 · 29 min
The Roping of Joe Landis
1951 · 29 min
Death and Taxes
1951 · 29 min
Pirates, 20th Century Brand
1951 · 29 min
The Bogus G I
1951 · 29 min
Souvenirs of War
1951 · 29 min
Visas for Sale
1952 · 29 min
Little White Lies
1952 · 29 min
The Gigantic Hoax
1952 · 29 min
The Big Kill
1952 · 29 min
Blood Money
1952 · 29 min
Stolen Arsenal
1952 · 29 min
Confess Or Die
1952 · 29 min
Murder In Vienna
1952 · 29 min
Trouble at Suez
1952 · 29 min
The University Fix
1952 · 29 min
The Torch
1952 · 29 min
Food and War
1952 · 29 min
Missing Masterpiece
1952 · 29 min
The Miracle Cure
1952 · 29 min
Sabotage
1952 · 29 min
The Green Sedan
1952 · 29 min
No. 5 · NBC, October 1953–March 1954
Rocky Fortune
Frank Sinatra
Recorded while From Here to Eternity was in cinemas — the comeback that won him an Academy Award.
Sinatra as a Brooklyn drifter taking whatever temporary job the plot needed, sustaining nothing, cancelled inside six months. A superstar working a jobbing actor's shift.
28 surviving transfers on the shelf
e (001)
1953 · 25 min
e (002)
1953 · 24 min
Shipboard Jewel Robbery
1953 · 24 min
e (003)
1953 · 24 min
e (004)
1953 · 24 min
e (005)
1953 · 24 min
e (006)
1953 · 24 min
e (007)
1953 · 24 min
e (008)
1953 · 24 min
e (009)
1953 · 24 min
e (010)
1953 · 24 min
e (011)
1953 · 24 min
e (012)
1953 · 30 min
e (013)
1954 · 24 min
e (014)
1954 · 24 min
The Museum Murder
1954 · 24 min
e (015)
1954 · 24 min
e (016)
1954 · 24 min
e (017)
1954 · 25 min
e (018)
1954 · 24 min
e (019)
1954 · 24 min
e (020)
1954 · 24 min
e (021)
1954 · 24 min
e (022)
1954 · 24 min
e (023)
1954 · 24 min
e (024)
1954 · 24 min
e (025)
1954 · 24 min
08: SUDDENLY presents Rocky Fortune in 'A Hepcat Kills the Canary'
1954 · 27 min
No. 6 · NBC, November 1950–April 1952
The Big Show
Tallulah Bankhead
A Broadway legend hired as mistress of ceremonies over the biggest names NBC could book.
Radio's last grand gesture: ninety minutes, an orchestra, and a different set of headliners every week, made to hold television back. It could not, and it ended after two seasons.
30 surviving transfers on the shelf
ep01 Fred Allen, Jimmy Durante
1950 · 1h 28m
ep02 Groucho Marx, Fanny Brice
1950 · 1h 29m
ep03 Eddie Cantor, Mindy Carson
1950 · 1h 26m
ep04 Fred Allen, Ed Wynn, Jack Carson
1950 · 1h 28m
ep05 Fred Allen, Phil Silvers
1950 · 1h 29m
ep06 Clifton Webb, Jimmy Durante
1950 · 1h 28m
ep07 Bob Hope, Phil Harris
1950 · 1h 28m
ep08 Jimmy Durante, Robert Merrill
1950 · 1h 27m
ep09 Vivian Blaine, Jose Ferrer
1950 · 1h 27m
ep10 Fred Allen, Danny Thomas
1951 · 1h 28m
ep11 Louis Calhern, Jack Carter
1951 · 1h 25m
ep12 Fred Allen, Eddie Cantor
1951 · 1h 26m
ep13 Ray Bolger, Gary Cooper
1951 · 1h 26m
ep14 Fred Allen, Robert Cummings
1951 · 1h 25m
ep15 Groucho Marx, Judy Garland
1951 · 1h 28m
ep16 Fred Allen, Jack Carson
1951 · 1h 26m
ep17 Jack Haley, Paul Kelly
1951 · 1h 27m
ep18 Fred Allen, Clive Brook
1951 · 1h 28m
ep19 Bob Burns, Jimmy Durante
1951 · 1h 26m
ep20 Fred Allen, Phil Baker
1951 · 1h 29m
ep21 Judy Holliday, Carmen Miranda
1951 · 1h 27m
ep22 Groucho Marx, Bob Hope
1951 · 1h 29m
ep23 Fred Allen, Vivian Blaine
1951 · 1h 22m
ep24 Eddie Cantor, Jack Carson
1951 · 1h 26m
ep25 Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa
1951 · 1h 27m
ep26 Jimmy Durante, Milton Berle
1951 · 1h 27m
ep27 Fred Allen, Georgie Jessell
1951 · 1h 27m
ep28 George Sanders, Bea Lillie
1951 · 57 min
ep32 Jimmy Durante, Jack Carson
1951 · 30 min
ep51 Richard Eatham, Joe Frisco
1952 · 1h 26m
No. 7 · Syndicated, 1952
Bright Star
Irene Dunne and Fred MacMurray
Two headline stars of the studio era, both with five-figure picture salaries.
A syndicated one-season newspaper comedy with a cast that size — the last radio work either of them did, made as the medium was emptying out.
31 surviving transfers on the shelf
r (01) The Oil Swindle
1952 · 26 min
r (02) Susan Runs For Mayor
1952 · 26 min
r (03) Hillsdale Becomes Mumdad
1952 · 26 min
r (04) Miss America Visits
1952 · 26 min
r (05) George The Informer
1952 · 26 min
r (06) The Crooked Carnival
1952 · 26 min
r (10) The Boxer
1952 · 27 min
r (11) Dramatic Lessons
1952 · 26 min
r (12) French Dress Designer
1952 · 26 min
r (17) George Covers Hillsdale Fire
1952 · 27 min
r (18) George Coaches Hillsdale High
1952 · 27 min
r (19) The Haunted House
1952 · 26 min
r (20) Rodeo Star
1952 · 26 min
r (21) Scientific Living
1952 · 26 min
r (22) New Homemaker Page Editor
1952 · 26 min
r (23) George's Old Flame
1952 · 26 min
r (24) Aunt Sophia Plays Matchmaker
1952 · 26 min
r (25) The Talking Parrot
1952 · 26 min
r (26) Patience's Romance
1952 · 26 min
r (27) Sammy And Shirley
1952 · 26 min
r (28) Fight For Beaver Park
1952 · 26 min
r (29) Susan's Cousin Emily
1952 · 26 min
r (30) Susan's Poetry
1952 · 27 min
r (31) A Flower For Susan
1952 · 30 min
r (32) Box Supper
1952 · 27 min
r (33) The Chorus Girl
1952 · 26 min
r (34) The Society Burglar
1952 · 26 min
r (35) One Word Cablegram
1952 · 30 min
r (36) Missing Childhood Sweetheart
1952 · 30 min
r (51) George's Old Girlfriend
1952 · 27 min
r (52) Susan's Cousin, Emily (Last Show)
1952 · 27 min
No. 8 · NBC, September 1953–June 1954
The Six Shooter
James Stewart
An Oscar winner and one of the few genuine A-list leads to carry a radio western.
Stewart's only starring radio series, one season long, and he plays it almost gently — a drifting gunfighter written closer to Harvey than to Winchester '73.
46 surviving transfers on the shelf
Audition Program
1953 · 23 min
Jenny
1953 · 28 min
The Coward
1953 · 29 min
The Stampede
1953 · 28 min
Silver Annie
1953 · 28 min
Rink Larkin
1953 · 28 min
Red Lawson's Revenge
1953 · 28 min
Ben Scofield
1953 · 29 min
The Capture Of Stacy Gault
1953 · 28 min
Escape From Smoke Falls
1953 · 29 min
Gabriel Starbuck
1953 · 29 min
Sheriff Billy
1953 · 28 min
A Pressing Engagement
1953 · 28 min
More Than Kin
1953 · 28 min
Britt Poncett's Christmas Carol
1953 · 28 min
Britt Poncett's Christmas Caro
1953 · 28 min
Cora Plummer Quincy
1953 · 28 min
A Friend In Need
1954 · 28 min
Hiram's Goldstrike
1954 · 29 min
The Silver Buckle
1954 · 28 min
Helen Bricker
1954 · 28 min
Trail To Sunset
1954 · 28 min
Apron Faced Sorrel
1954 · 28 min
Quiet City
1954 · 28 min
Battle At Tower Rock
1954 · 26 min
Cheyenne Express
1954 · 28 min
Thicker Than Water
1954 · 29 min
Duel At Lockwood
1954 · 29 min
Aunt Emma
1954 · 29 min
General Guilford's Widow
1954 · 29 min
Crisis At Easter Creek
1954 · 29 min
Johnny Springer
1954 · 29 min
Johnny Stringer
1954 · 29 min
Revenge at Harness Creek
1954 · 30 min
Anna Norquist
1954 · 29 min
The Double Seven
1954 · 29 min
The Shooting Of Wyatt King
1954 · 29 min
Blood Relations
1954 · 29 min
Silver Threads
1954 · 29 min
The New Sheriff
1954 · 28 min
When The Shoe Doesn't Fit
1954 · 28 min
Myra Barker
1954 · 28 min
Old Time Radio Researchers Introduction
1954 · 3 min
01 The Six Shooter Intro
1954 · 2 min
02 Jimmy Stewart Biography
1954 · 4 min
03 The Six Shooter on Hollywood Star Playhouse
1954 · 2 min
Why some famous names are missing
Bold Venture and The Halls of Ivy are not here. Both are star-led, but both ran to hundreds of episodes, and a run that size is a series, not a rarity. Where a star's only radio work survives as scattered guest appearances rather than a run of their own, it is filed under Follow a Star and the Cast Credit Index instead.