The 60 Greatest Old-Time Radio Shows of the 20th Century selected by Walter Cronkite
The advent of the VCR has made the movies of the 1930s and  1940s available to a contemporary audience, but radio shows from that  era have remained elusive. This wonderful collection sets out to  rectify that problem, offering 60 shows from that golden age of  radio. The range of entertainment--the set contains 20 hours of  material--is breathtaking, running the gamut from comedy routines  (Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First") through mystery serials ("The  Saint" with Vincent Prince) to variety shows (Jack Benny's "Money or  Your Life") and radio plays (Orson Welles's infamous 1937 "panic  broadcast" of the "War of the Worlds"). The table of contents reads  like a "Who's Who" of entertainment legends--Jimmy Durante, Bob Hope,  Dorothy Lamour, Groucho Marx--and classic characters--Sam Spade, the  Shadow, the Lone Ranger.The collection also has tremendous  historical cachet, providing an intriguing glimpse of the  sensibilities of a bygone era. Retro buffs will be delighted by the  vintage radio ads that accompany the broadcasts. These unbelievably  enthusiastic pitches for cigarettes and hair tonics are fascinating,  occasionally hilarious reminders that these were very different times:  in one 1946 broadcast, Camel Cigarettes boasts of the cartons of  smokes it donated to veterans' hospitals. As both a time capsule and a  survey of first-rate entertainment, the collection is a treasure,  whether you were raised on radio or are uncovering its charms for the  first time. (Running time: 30 hours, 20 cassettes)--Andrew  Neiland