What does “have your cake and eat it too” mean? Having your cake refers to keeping it with you. This means you want to preserve the cake for the future. But you also want to eat it. This is contradictory. The moment you eat your cake, you can’t have it because it is finished. Conversely, if you decide to have or keep your cake then you can’t eat it. This proverb highlights a very valuable lesson which is that you cannot have it both ways. When you are presented with two choices that are mutually exclusive, you have to choose one. You cannot choose both. Either you have to eat the cake or have it. If we examine the wording, we find that ‘eat your cake and have it’ sounds more logical.

With Lon Clark in the title role, the series commenced 11 April 1943, on Mutual, continuing in many different timeslots for well over a decade. Between October 1944 and April 1945, it was heard as a 30-minute program on Sunday afternoons at 3 pm, sponsored by Acme Paints and Lin-X, with a 15-minute serial airing four or five times a week in 1944 from April to September. In April 1945, the Sunday series moved to 6pm, continuing in that timeslot until June 1946, and it was also heard in 1946 on Tuesday from March to August. Sponsored by Cudahy Packing and Old Dutch Cleanser and later Acme Products (makers of such home-improvement chemicals as Kem-Tone paints and Lin-X floor-cleaning waxes, a near-rival to the more-popular Johnson's Wax products heard on numerous NBC Radio shows at the same time), the series finally settled in on Sundays at 6:30 pm for broadcasts from August 18, 1946 to September 21, 1952. Libby Packing was the sponsor when the drama aired on Sundays at 6pm (1952–53). In the last two years of the long run (1953–55), the show was heard Sundays at 4:30 pm. Jock MacGregor was the producer-director of scripts by Alfred Bester, Milton J. Kramer, David Kogan and others. Background music was supplied by organists Hank Sylvern, Lew White and George Wright. Walter B. Gibson, co-creator/writer of The Shadow pulp novels, was fired when he asked for a raise in 1946, and then became head writer for the Nick Carter radio series. Oddly enough, he never liked to write scripts for the radio version of The Shadow, though both characters were published by Street & Smith. Patsy Bowen, Nick's assistant, was portrayed by Helen Choate until mid-1945; then Charlotte Manson stepped into the role. Nick and Patsy's friend was reporter Scubby Wilson (John Kane). Sgt. Mathison (Ed Latimer) was Nick's contact at the police department. The supporting cast included Raymond Edward Johnson, Bill Johnstone and Bryna Raeburn. Michael Fitzmaurice was the program's announcer. The series ended on September 25, 1955.

At about 3 o’clock Johnny Modero started down Post Street when he spotted the new auction House. It was small with enough dough changing hands to buy back Manhattan Island. Inside it was packed and a bald headed guy on a wooden stand was selling everything but his suspenders so Modero sat at the back and noticed a girl standing up against the wall. She walked over to Modero and asked him to do her a favor. A black leather suitcase was to be auctioned off that belonged to her and she wanted it back at any price. She offered Modero $50 to bid for her as she didn’t want someone there to know she was there.

Duration: 28:32

Starring: Jack Webb

Broadcast Date: Not known

You learn the tragic wartime story of one man out of four who betray the location of thirty-seven refugees fleeing from fallen Singapore and if you are anything like George Valentine you’d like to meet the writer who wrote that story particularly when you see that his note book contains the words of that same telegram. The only trouble is, the writer’s dead. . . 

Duration: 29:47

 Starring: Bob Bailey, Frances Robinson, Wally Maher, Joe Forte, Robert Griffin, Mark Lawrence, Betty Moran, Martha Wentworth 

Broadcast Date: 19th September 1949

Includes a public notice by Bulldog Drummond on inflation (boy does that ring true today) and war bonds. 

Out of the fog. . . out of the night. . . and into his American adventures. . . comes. . . Bulldog Drummond! Champion of lost causes, amateur detective, the most celebrated soldier of fortune of the screen and radio Bulldog Drummond comes to you with more of his baffling and intriguing mysteries. 

The story began when two men known as Barnaby Mullans and Spike Saunders were arrested for hijacking trucks. 

Duration: 27:36 

Starring: Ned Wever, Luis Van Rooten 

Broadcast Date: 23rd April 1945

What starts out to be the first well-organized New Years Eve in the history of the Anderson family ends up becoming a mixed-up shambles. When Kathy’s plans fall through they have to get a sitter for her. When the sitter turns out to be a handsome young man Betty called off her date with Ralph and now Jim is upsetting Betty’s little scheme by letting the sitter go home.

 Duration: 29:03

 Starring: Robert Young

 Broadcast Date: 31st December 1953

rnes motive for killing Marvin Rice was quite commonplace, fear, hatred, envy but the part he found fascinating was the crime itself. It was so original and amazingly clever, there wasn’t the slightest chance in all the world that it would fail, it didn’t fail; yet downstairs in the prison courtyard they are testing a gallows built especially for Barnes. . . 

Duration: 23:05 

Starring: Elliott Lewis

 Broadcast Date: Not Known

It’s raining this morning in Spring Field one of those steady downpours that looks like it’s going to last all day. And out in the white-framed house on Maple Street the head of the Anderson family parts the curtains at the front window, surveys the weather and then makes a pronouncement, like this. . . 

Duration: 29:13 

Starring: Robert Young

 Broadcast Date: 25th March 1954

Written by Anthony Wain Something In The Air is a farce which promises a half hour of hilarious entertainment. Olan Soule and Barbara Luddy head the all-star cast. Mr Soule plays Ted Brisedale a man who’s sure of his girl but not sure of his mother’s blessing and Miss Luddy takes the part of Anne Brown Ted’s fiancee the ´ girl in question. Also in the cast Parley Baer as Homer and Luis Van Rooten as Mr Brown.

 Duration: 30:50 

Starring: Barbara Luddy, Olan Soule 

Broadcast Date: 11th March 1948

This classic stars Loretta Young and William Holden.

Merry Christmas.   I wish I could find a description for this holiday show.   But sadly I haven't found anything expect the above sentence.

The Salvation Army sponsored The Heartbeat Theatre old time radio show which gives dramatic accounts of regular people helping others through illness, tragedy, heartbreak, and more.  Each episode illustrates that with faith, optimism, and the help of good Samaritans (sometimes too good to believe), we can work through any problem together.

The show was sponsored by The Salvation Army to raise funds.  Many of the characters in the show either volunteer as Salvation Army Officers or live in a Salvation Army sponsored Home.  There are numerous examples of how the organization aids others in need in every facet of life.  The show quotes Bible verses and proclaims the power of prayer, but is neither pushy nor preachy.

Considered by many to be her best story. The discovery of a dismembered body in the churchyard of Fenchurch St. Paul, leads to many questions, who was he? who murdered him and why? and what significance do the Fenchurch bells themselves have? the Nine Tailors?

The elegant, intelligent amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey is one of detective literature's most popular creations, and Ian Carmichael is the personification of Dorothy L. Sayers' charming investigator in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation. Lord Peter Wimsey, man about town and amateur sleuth, and his man Bunter, are drawn into a series of intriguing incidents after being stranded in the remote village of Fenchurch St. Paul. What is the identity of the grotesquely disfigured corpse found in the churchyard? Who murdered him and why? Perhaps the Fenchurch bells hold their own answers to the mystery... Starring Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey, this Radio 4 dramatisation was first broadcast as a weekly serial in 1980.

Blarney Castle is an imposing 15th century ruin a few miles outside the town of Cork and this is where “The Blarney Stone ” is situated. The stone itself is considered to be a powerful talisman and whoever kisses it, is endowed with eloquence for life. Holmes and Watson are enjoying a drink in the local hostelry when a gentleman by the name of Geoffrey Hankin introduces himself and his partner Michael Corcoran. An argument ensues between the partners and a bet is made, that Hankin dare not kiss the blarney stone. Holmes feels there is something not quite right with the wager and agrees to act as referee to make certain things are done correctly, but dastardly deeds are on the cards. . .

 Duration: 28:59 

Starring: Basil Rathbone 

Broadcast Date: 18 March 1946

Cathy is being questioned about the death of poor old Billy. Earlier Billy had confided in Cathy that he was concerned about something he’d found and now he’s dead.

Duration: 29:12

Starring: Bill Lipton

Broadcast Date: 14th August 1952

December 27, 1942 Written by Richard Brooks
Cast: Norman Field, Pedro de Cordoba, John Tucker Battle, Hans Conried, Martin Stone, Orson Welles

January 17, 1943 Written by Milton Geiger Cast: Frank Readick  (narrator), Eddie Jerome (Gaucho), Orson Welles (Famine), Carl Swenson, Joseph Cheshire (Cotten), Jack Moss, Louis Solomon

--- Notes ---

I find these episodes especially fitting with what is going on in the world today.

Hello Americans - Wikipedia

Carl Justice was dead bushwhacked for the $10,000 he was carrying. But justice wasn’t dead, the posse from the cattleman’s association would see to that if they had to cover every section to the Mexican border and it looked like they might. At least the first men on the saddle didn’t find any trace of Justices killer or the gold. . . 

Duration: 24:20 

Starring: Sam Buffington 

Broadcast Date: 13th April 1958

John Tyler was the tenth president of the United States and was in the White House from 1841-1845

John Tyler had been elected vice president and became president when William Henry Harrison died after only a month in office. Throughout his term President Tyler fought for a treaty for the annexation of Texas to the United States and this was done during his term by joint resolution of congress. The mutiny on the USS Somers actually happened and Philip Spencer the son of secretary of war John Spencer was executed in a case that made naval history in 1843.

The events in this story took place during the last year of the administration of President John Tyler. The first Mrs Tyler passed away in 1842. The tragic explosion aboard the war ship Princeton occurred in February 1844 and on June 26th of that year President Tyler and Julia Gardiner were quietly married in New York City. The bride was just 24 years old and Tyler was some 30 years her elder. Never the less they lived very happily together until Tyler’s death in 1862. Their three sons grew up to serve their country well, one was a college president, one was a judge and the youngest a brilliant lawyer.

Starring: Edward Arnold

Broadcast Dates: 22nd 4th September 1947,  February 1948, 16th May 1948

Let's travel to Canada with Canadian Snapshots.

Tonight’s story is a triangle tale, concerning a man, a woman and a murderer. You’ve heard it said that those who laugh last, laugh best? Tonight’s story is to prove that it never pays to get into a laughing contest with a ghost. . . 

Duration: 25:31

 Starring: House Jameson 

Broadcast Date: 23rd September 1946

Let Me Do The Talking is based on the novel by Richard Mayland. It is a behind the scenes inside the agents portrait of the literary business and its main concern is the young man who came to be known as the agent Gabriel. Charles Gabriel Bachelor moves with the speed of light through publishing and promotional circles.

 Duration: 58:41 

Starring: John Garfield, Mercedes McCambridge

 Broadcast Date: 11th November 1947

Sanderson and Mary Taylor were driving home slowly one night in the dark misty fog when Mary commented on the beautiful playing of a clarinet coming from a house nearby. Just then the clarinet stopped and they heard a scream. Sandy stopped the car and Mary jumped out with Sandy following her but in the fog Mary disappeared.

 Duration: 28:05 

Starring: Gale Gordon 

Broadcast Date: 24th June 1946

n this story written by Anthony Ellis Cathy plays the part of a famous picture actress and Elliott plays the part of a soldier going on furlough who wants a date with her. The scene is an army post in California about midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. It’s a bright clear day and off to the side of the drill field in one of the few permanent buildings is an orderly room. The corporal at the typewriter is deeply intent on his composition. At the other side of the room another soldier is practicing being a conman into the telephone. . .

 Duration: 29:19 

Starring: Cathy Lewis, Elliott Lewis 

Broadcast Date: 29th January 1953

Post Cereals brings you The Roy Rogers Show starring the King of the Cowboys himself, Roy Rogers. The Double R Ranch, transcribed stories and songs of the real West with The Whipporwills, the wisest trail scout of the west Jonah Wilde played by Forrest Lewis and the Queen of the West Dale Evans. 

Duration: 30:37 

Starring: Roy Rogers, Dale Evans 

Broadcast Date: 21st March 1952

The Bulletin Murder Case began when Myrna Harkins, Bulletin reporter was found stabbed to death in a cab. Philo Vance visited the Bulletin office where he talked to Eddie Henderson, reporter, and Mike Abbot, Editor. Neither could throw any light on the murder but the police believe that a story Miss Harkins was writing, which was later published unfinished is a clue. It concerns a concert pianist named Lillian White and her secret and up until now missing husband. 

Duration: 29:16

 Starring: Jackson Beck, Joan Alexander, George Petrie 

Broadcast Date: 5th October 1948

When Liz Cooper discovers an error on her wedding license she begins to wonder whether she is legally married to her husband George H Cooper. On their wedding license the husband is named as George C Hooper!

Duration: 22:57

Starring: Lucille Ball

Broadcast Date: 21st January 1949

Diane and Russell, while having an elicit affair, get caught up in a meteor shower. A large meteor hits the earth. Russell finds part of it. It is covered with strange markings. He breaks it open. What does he find inside? Is it flesh? Is it a living thing? It starts to grow! Is it from outer space? What does it want? Could this be a threat to the human race?

 Duration: 23:16

 Starring: Bret Morrison 

Broadcast Date: 22nd December 1942

What kind of free lodging leaves everyone cold is when it’s yours - courtesy of the city morgue. Barrie Craig’s investigation takes him on a trip to an amusement park to visit the new wax exhibit. Barrie Craig’s investigation takes him on a trip to an amusement park to visit the new wax exhibit. Craig receives a circular inviting him to see the brutal murder of Vince Lorimer so real it will startle you. But how could a wax model be set up for the customers less than 24 hours after the murder of the human Vince Lorimer.

 Written by: John Robard

 Directed by: Himan Brown 

Duration: 31:16

 Starring: William Gargan, Ralph Bell, Joan Alexander 

Broadcast Date: 21st November 1951

There’s been plenty of activity in the Nelson garage for the past few days and it looks like the shipbuilding firm of Ozzie and Sons are in business! Of course their first effort is only a rowboat but who knows where they’ll go from there this rowboat may the first of a whole fleet bearing the name of Commodore Nelson! 

Duration: 26:57

 Starring: Ozzie Nelson, Harriet Hilliard Nelson, David, Ricky Nelson, John Brown, Arthur Q. Bryan 

Broadcast Date: 4th April 1952

For years an anonymous Cape Cod mural painter has been adorning the underpass to the Barnstable Village railroad bridge with images of scantily clad nudes in Clasical poses. An activity which, although many in the Village enjoy them and approve, is also illegal and a source of irritation particuarly to nearby neighbor, Otis Narwhal, who feels the paintings go too far. With night-vision binoculars he sits on his portch at night hoping to spy the Phantom Artist at work and report her to the local police.

When his spying succeeds he calls in the cops, (including Captain Underhill), thinking this will put an end to it, but, unfortunately, it is only the begininng: the beginning of the suspense and the beginning of the terror.

‘The Mermaid on Halloween Bridge’ is a real time suspense thriller perfect for the Jack-o-lantern season!

r Horn believed that we were all human corpses inhabited by ghosts an he had invented a machine that could separate the two without destroying them. Written by Frederick Pohl 

Duration: 20:15

 Starring: Edgar Stehli, Dean Olmquist, Walter Black, Lydia Bruce

 Broadcast Date: 12th December 1957

The World Adventurers Club bids you welcome. You are invited to join an informal gathering of this international organization whose members have explored all the strange lands of the earth from the Russia28 ts and international diplomats. It is the custom of the club members to hold a private meeting in which each member recounts the most thrilling of his experiences. The members of the club invite you to pull up a chair and listen to a tale of the thrilling road to adventure.

28 episodes = 15 minutes each.

A man is alone in a room 100,000 miles from earth. His body lies dead before him and yet he speaks, feels and lives. Behind him is a tortured world and in-front the moon and destiny. He feels the surge of power and had he been able to he would have smiled as his mission had been accomplished. However, nobody knew and nobody understood, if they had they would not believe. This was a project 3,000 years old but nobody had guessed.

 Duration: 30:00

 Broadcast Date: 1950

Tonight’s story is about a liar, somebody who doesn’t tell the truth, somebody who injures people by not giving them the true facts. But suppose you have someone who injures you by telling you the truth would he be a liar? Such is the latest model of robot named Herby who can read minds and will always tell you what you want to hear so as not to break the rule not to hurt a human. 

Duration: 20:08

 Starring: John Campbell Jr 

Broadcast Date: 195x

Can you predict the future? Can you tell what will come in 100 years or in five or in the next minute? Tonight we present two ventures in to the unknown two adventures of the future taken from the works of brilliant science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. First his 10 minute story entitled There Will Come Soft Rain and secondly Zero Hour. 

Duration: 28:48 

Starring: Norman Rose 

Broadcast Date: 17th June 1950

This story is the same as the one originally broadcast on 22nd of September 1950. 

What you will hear transcribed in the next half hour represents either a magnificent hoax or the true explanation of the famous Grimshaw sanatorium scandal, which made the headlines back in 1947. The manuscript upon which this account is based was removed by the New York State Police from a fountain pen cover found in the doorway to Dr Grimshaw’s study. We offer this manuscript as evidence only and whether it is authentic or not you must judge for your self. . . 

Duration: 23:18

 Starring: Fred Collins

 Broadcast Date: 14th July 1955

Killer At Large is a radio station whose sponsors pay $50,000 for the arrest and conviction of a killer at large. The twist is that they deal with real facts, real people and real crimes and real criminals. With a tape recorder they reconstruct one of San Francisco’s more sensational unsolved crimes the murder of Carol Stevens. The show is made up of the simple and honest spontaneous statements of witnesses themselves. The radio show is set on this case except for the statement of one man, Jimmy Biddle who had been top suspect until he came up with an alibi. The radio show had been unable to find him until now when he turned up claiming to know whom the murderer was and wanting to claim the $50,000. The radio program employs Private Detective Sam Spade to investigate.

Duration: 28:00

Starring: Lurene Tuttle, Steven Dunne

Broadcast Date: 5th January 1951

Gregory Destus a custom shoemaker has become strangely involved with the young daughter of the wealthy and unscrupulous Henry Bollett and though Destus has denied any knowledge of the affair to his wife he is forced at the point of a revolver to go off in the custody of Bollett’s so called bodyguard Macintyre who has been assigned to take care of Destus. . .

 Duration: 25:00 

Broadcast Date: 1946

A year ago six men were in a lift when it tragically went out of control plunging 64 floors. The operator was killed and one man in distress killed himself with a shot through his heart. Now, a year later the father of that man has invited the four survivors for dinner and something else. . . 

Duration: 28:26 

Starring: Otto Kruger 

Broadcast Date: 26th October 1943

t was in the year 1991 that man disappeared from the face of the earth. The third atomic war had ended leaving the land a mass of red radio active dust filling the air with gamma rays so deadly that life on the surface was no longer possible. There was only one way out. The few survivors went underground, burrowing their way deep into the earth like hunted moles, hiding from death in huge underground caverns. It was there that in the next two thousand years that they built the new civilization. A civilization in which the genetic survival of the race came first and every life and every law was shaped to serve that end. Stars Nancy Olson, the star of Sunset Boulevard. 

Duration: 27.50 

Starring: Norman Rose 

Broadcast Date: 15th September 1950

Marsha and Bert had been sent a pair of gold masks by her uncle Harold from his travels in Istanbul. He said that although they were gold he had bought them cheaply from a trader who seemed very keen to get rid of them. He said that there was a story behind them and once he discovered it he would let them know. Marsha felt uneasy about them, as if they had eyes that followed you. 

Duration: 23:27

 Starring: Harry Elders 

Broadcast Date: 9th March 1953

scape with us now, to a small fishing boat off the California coast and a night of terror and death at the hands of a brilliant madman. . .

 Duration: 28:46

 Starring: William Conrad

 Broadcast Date: 3rd November 1950

It was Saturday and the headline in the paper, the only thing on the first page, read This Is The Day The World Ends. . . Author: F.L. Wallace 

Duration: 21:31

 Starring: Jack Grimes 

Broadcast Date: 1st August 1957

The war had been going on for generations. Guided atomic missiles ruled the sea and air. Radiation and total destruction drove man under ground and there the war continued. 

Duration: 23:43 

Starring: Norman Rose 

Broadcast Date: 3rd June 1951

There was a rough desert wind blowing in to Los Angeles that evening, one of those hot dry Santa Ana winds that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair, make your nerves jump and your skin itch. Philip Marlowe closed up his office early and went out to get a beer. There is a drunk in the bar then a guy named Waldo enters looking for a tall good-looking girl in a silk dress and bolero jacket. He finds she isn’t there and as he leaves the drunken guy kills him with a shot from his gun. Philip Marlowe finds himself investigating who shot Waldo and why. 

This was the first episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe. 

The music was composed and conducted by Lyn Murray. 

Duration: 30:47 

Starring: Van Heflin, Lurene Tuttle 

Broadcast Date: 17th June 1947

In all these fantastic years fear was Matt Cvetic’s worst enemy. The average man in the normal course of events comes face to face with fear only a few times in his life but he faced the terror of fear almost constantly for nine years as a communist for the FBI. . . 

Duration: 26:25 

Starring: Dana Andrews 

Broadcast Date: 11th June 1952

Mathew Slade: Private Investigator was a featured, half-hour mystery presentation by The Pacifica Players of Pacifica Radio of Berkeley, California and the Pacifica Foundation of North Hollywood, California. It premiered as a Starlight Mystery Theater production on July 5, 1964 over Pacifica Radio affiliate stations. Initially announced for alternating Sundays, the program soon began airing in erratic installments from August through November of 1964. Starring William Wintersole as Mathew Slade, the program was billed as a radio mystery revival series from the outset, presented in recognition of the hundreds of popular detective mysteries that had aired throughout The Golden Age of Radio. Show Notes From The Digital Deli.

Go to the website for more details:

Mathew Slade – The Thrilling Detective Web Site

Starring Robert Young. In every family there are special days like the day Junior had his hair cut, the day father reversed into the garage door, the day mother didn’t. And today was going to be one of those days in the Anderson family. It will be remembered as the day father received the Christmas bills!

Duration: 30:00

Starring: Robert Young

Broadcast Date: 12th January 1950

The city was small and clean and comfortable. Seen from a train window it looked like many another American city but something new had been added to this one that could not be seen from a train window. It was Christopher Chance, young special prosecutor who’s been appointed by the governor to investigate corruption in the office of Anthony Pierce the district attorney.

 Duration: 28:55 

Starring: Sydney Smith, Charlotte Lawrence, Joseph Julian, Helen Shields, Larry Haines 

Broadcast Date: 19th June 1947

You get used to gunfire in Tombstone, usually you hear a single shot or at most two. One gunslinger goes back to the bar and the other goes to Boot hill but when you hear a whole fusillade of shots in the middle of the afternoon you think of the ok coral and head for cover. But the fury of gunshots that Luke and Wichita heard that afternoon were from a local cowhand Paige Webster and his shots were for happiness as he was going to be married to Selina Cordell. But his happiness didn’t last long when his cousin turned up in Tombstone. 

 Duration: 24:35

 Starring: Sam Buffington

 Broadcast Date: 16th March 1958

Four Went Home

Crossing Paris

A Bullet For Mr Smith

How Love Came to Prof. Guildea

Wild Oranges

Sundown

The Man from Tomorrow

Journey Into Fear

Ancient Sorceries

The Game

The Man Who Stole The Bible

Casting the Runes

A Tooth For Paul Revere

The Great Impersonation

Evening Primrose

Young Man with Cream Tarts

The Man Who Would Be King

Ambassador of Poker

Papa Benjamin

Funeral Fires

Command

Zero Hour

An Ordinary Man

Figure A Dame

Judgement Day At Crippled Deer

The Sure Thing