SUPER DOUBLE-SECRET AMAZING NEWS! 12/7 & 12/14

So begins “The Cinnamon Bear,” a delightful, one-of-a-kind children’s series produced in 1937 by TRANSCO, the Transcription Company of America. Intended to be heard between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the series features twenty-six fifteen-minute cliffhanger installments. The program immediately hooks children because suspenseful fun is always present as each episode concludes with yet another obstacle for Paddy and the twins to overcome. The dragon eventually joins up with the trio but remains unpredictable and mischievous. Named “Crazy Quilt,” he succumbs time and time again to his obsession with the shiny silver star.

“The Cinnamon Bear” is, arguably, the best holiday series ever developed for radio. Containing all of the elements of a classic children’s fantasy, combined with radio’s unique ability to create vivid mental images in the minds of its listeners, it continues to delight both young and old. And now, for the first time, you can hear and enjoy “The Complete Cinnamon Bear” — including all twenty-six original and unedited shows, the original 1937 promotional recording, and all of the songs from the series as transferred from an original set of 78 RPM recordings. Each of the programs has been digitally transferred directly from a set of original 16″ broadcast transcriptions and painstakingly restored for outstanding audio fidelity – truly the best-sounding version of the series that has ever been released. It’s yet another triumph for Paddy and his band of travelers as, after well over seventy years, they once again carry on their magical search for the silver star.

“I am the Whistler and I know many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes, I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak!”

Haunting stories of fate, dramas of crime, deception, and manipulation building to a sudden and shocking denouement…and, through it all, the sardonic, mocking laughter of — The Whistler!

One of radio’s most memorable thriller anthologies, The Whistler was a west-coast favorite for over a decade but, despite two attempts to go nationwide, never was able to achieve the same success as a coast to coast feature. But for listeners across the western states served by the Signal Oil Company, the program’s eerie theme music opened a weekly window into the very darkest corners of the human soul. It was so popular, in fact, that Columbia Pictures produced eight second-feature films based on the concept, all but one of which starred Richard Dix.

The Whistler himself was an omniscient narrator — the voice of Fate itself, one might suggest, or perhaps of conscience. And his stories revolved around ordinary people, pushed by the pressures of daily life into taking drastic actions. Or perhaps a sudden circumstance, an unexpected twist of life’s path, suddenly placed these protagonists on a road leading inexorably to their own destruction. Greed, lust, and perfidy of every kind figure in the plots — and when Fate inevitably catches up with these unfortunate, driven souls, The Whistler is always ready, at the very end, to see that the knife is properly twisted.

Produced by George W. Allen, with hauntingly evocative musical scores by Wilbur Hatch, The Whistler was a prime outlet for the cream of Hollywood’s top radio performers – actors such as Wally Maher, Cathy and Elliott Lewis, Gerald Mohr, Lurene Tuttle, and Betty Lou Gerson, who emphasized skill over star power – as well as announcer Bill Forman in the title role, with Marvin Miller voicing the commercials.

Hear some of The Whistler’s strangest stories in this unforgettable Radio Archives collection – twenty original CBS network broadcasts sponsored by Signal Oil, just as originally aired in 1947.