Sunday August 23 from 8 to 10 pm, and repeated Friday morning Aug 28 at 4am, we salute Peggy Webber, who died last week at the age of 100. We will hear her tonight in THE DAMON RUNYUN THEATRE, DRAGNET, and THE WHISTLER. Of course we begin with our weekly episode of GUNSMOKE. It's all tonight t 8 pm THE GOLDEN AGE OF RADIO! Tune in to WBAI-NY 99.5 FM, or listen to the stream at wbai.org for THE GOLDEN AGE OF RADIO, produced by Max Schmid.


GUNSMOKE from CBS via the AFRTS on Aug 31, 1958 #334 “I Thee Wed." Hester Lackett is regularly beaten by her husband Sam. Even so, she refuses to sign a complaint against him, and even bails him out of jail! With William Conrad, Parley Baer, Howard McNear, Georgia Ellis, John Dehner, Virginia Christine, Harry Bartell, written by Les Crutchfield, produced and directed by Norman Macdonnell, SFX by Ray Kemper & Bill James, announcer George Walsh.

We salute Peggy Webber, dead at 100, who appeared in hundreds if not thousands of radio plays.

A nice obit can be found here:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/peggy-webber-dead-radio-actress-orson-welles-hitchcock-1236675526/

Here's how it starts:
Peggy Webber, the prolific radio actress who portrayed the mother of Jack Webb’s Joe Friday on the original version of Dragnet before appearing for Orson Welles in Macbeth and Alfred Hitchcock in The Wrong Man, has died. She was 100. Webber died Saturday (August 15) of natural causes.

Webber worked on thousands of episodes of radio shows, among them The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce; The Story of Dr. Kildare, starring Lionel Barrymore and Lew Ayres; The Man Called X, starring Herbert Marshall; and Escape, starring William Conrad.


Elizabeth Tankersley recommended this performance: “Damon Runyon Theater 'Dream Street Rose' is a goodern, she plays the same character as a young woman and an old woman.”

THE DAMON RUNYON THEATRE from Mayfair syndication on Sept 25, 1949 #52 "Dream Street Rose." The story of a lady with a past! The last show of the series. Starring John Brown as Broadway, Peggy Webber as Rose, written by Damon Runyon, adapted by Russell Hughes, directed by Richard Sanville, production supervisor Vern Carstensen, announcer Frank Gallop.

DRAGNET from NBC on April 19, 1951 #97 "The Big Speech" for Fatima. A young kid has pistol-whipped a doctor and stolen a large quantity of narcotics. Sergeant Friday's mother listens to a speech against the teen-age use of narcotics from her son Joseph. Starring Jack Webb, Barton Yarborough, Peggy Webber as Friday's mother.

THE WHISTLER from CBS Pacific net on Oct 14, 1946 #229 "The Weak Sister" for Signal Oil. Captain Ethan has been poisoned. The sheriff suspects two old maid sisters of poisoning his peaches. Starring Martha Wentworth, Peggy Webber, written by Jack Kelsey, produced by George W. Allen, music by Wilbur Hatch, announcer Marvin Miller.

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from the Dictaphone Collection

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70 2-Hour episodes from May 2018 to capacity