What else do you collect?

[akleinb611]

My "other" collection is one I haven't seen yet in this thread. I collect recordings of old time radio shows. It always surprises me that many people are unaware that before television, radio was like...television. Sitcoms, dramas, variety shows, it had everything. You had big stars like Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Eddie Cantor and others, and you had some great shows of every type - Suspense, Lights Out, Inner Sanctum (radio was REALLY good for horror stories, since you could get away with some astounding levels of violence when you're dealing with audio only).

Even shows that existed in both media show a difference. Gunsmoke started in radio a few years before it started on TV. William Conrad was the original Marshall Dillon. I'm not a fan of Westerns and couldn't care less about the TV Gunsmoke. But the radio version is one of the best continuing dramas I've ever heard. The radio version was also much more adult - Dodge City was violent and unjust (you wouldn't want to live there), and Miss Kitty was clearly meant to be a hooker (although they couldn't say so explicitly).

A large portion of radio was not preserved, but a good bit of it has survived and is avidly collected by a few enthusiasts. Recordings can be heard as full computer files or as mp3 recordings. I have a library of over 60,000 shows and could get my hands on more.

By the way, I do have a few sports-related recordings - lots of Bill Stern shows, which include interviews and also his very improbable sports tall tales. I also have a handful of complete game broadcasts, including the last game of the 1934 season between the Tigers and the Yankees.

As for photos, how about an exhibit card picturing the Lone Ranger and Tonto?

Alan