All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by...
For the last several weeks, I have had the immense pleasure of enjoying the Old-Time Radio adventure series, The Voyage of the Scarlet Queen. It is a series about Philip Carney, the master of the 78-foot ketch Scarlet Queen and his first mate, Red Gallagher, and the adventures they have sailing the pacific [edit: Pacific].
When we first meet this unusual threesome (Carney, Gallagher and the Queen), they are putting out from San Francisco on a voyage to the orient in the employ of a mysterious Asian merchant, named Kuji Kang. He has hired Carney and built the Queen in order to search for a prize worth $10 million lost somewhere in the eastern [edit: western] Pacific. They are opposed by the equally-mysterious (and ruthless) Portuguese merchant Constantino, who is searching for the prize himself and will stop at nothing to get it. I loved the way this story arc was introduced and the way it was played out, with no hint of stringing the listeners along. I felt as if I was actually making progress, and finding the treasure was no guarantee that the adventure was over. No, they still have to get it to Kang....
Its a formulaic series, sure (it sort of has to be in order to keep it to a 30 minute block), but at the same time it doesn't feel predictable. There are many twists and turns throughout each weekly episode.
Highlights for me:
1. The intro, featuring Gallagher bellowing to the crew "Stand by to make sail!" (which would also be echoed at the end of the episode)
2. The writing at the end to describe the way the crew raises the sails is pure poetry.
3. At the end, when Carney is signing off the log entry, the way he says "...signed, Philip Kearney [edit: Carney]...Master."
Each episode was written by the team of Gil Doud and Bob Tallman who had just written for The Adventures of Sam Spade. (Doud would later write for another OTR classic Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar) It starred Elliott ("Mr. Radio") Lewis as Carney and Ed Max as Gallagher.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of listening to episode #33 "Rocky III and the Dead Man's Chest." What made this one episode especially enjoyable was the guest stars: A young (19-year-old) Roddy McDowell and William Conrad. Fun stuff.
There is even a pretty decent (if short) Wikipedia article about the series.
When we first meet this unusual threesome (Carney, Gallagher and the Queen), they are putting out from San Francisco on a voyage to the orient in the employ of a mysterious Asian merchant, named Kuji Kang. He has hired Carney and built the Queen in order to search for a prize worth $10 million lost somewhere in the eastern [edit: western] Pacific. They are opposed by the equally-mysterious (and ruthless) Portuguese merchant Constantino, who is searching for the prize himself and will stop at nothing to get it. I loved the way this story arc was introduced and the way it was played out, with no hint of stringing the listeners along. I felt as if I was actually making progress, and finding the treasure was no guarantee that the adventure was over. No, they still have to get it to Kang....
Its a formulaic series, sure (it sort of has to be in order to keep it to a 30 minute block), but at the same time it doesn't feel predictable. There are many twists and turns throughout each weekly episode.
Highlights for me:
1. The intro, featuring Gallagher bellowing to the crew "Stand by to make sail!" (which would also be echoed at the end of the episode)
2. The writing at the end to describe the way the crew raises the sails is pure poetry.
3. At the end, when Carney is signing off the log entry, the way he says "...signed, Philip Kearney [edit: Carney]...Master."
Each episode was written by the team of Gil Doud and Bob Tallman who had just written for The Adventures of Sam Spade. (Doud would later write for another OTR classic Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar) It starred Elliott ("Mr. Radio") Lewis as Carney and Ed Max as Gallagher.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of listening to episode #33 "Rocky III and the Dead Man's Chest." What made this one episode especially enjoyable was the guest stars: A young (19-year-old) Roddy McDowell and William Conrad. Fun stuff.
There is even a pretty decent (if short) Wikipedia article about the series.