The first show consisted of "The Thin Man", "Fred Allen" and "The Shadow". A good time was had by all, including the theatre audience, as well as those who heard the live broadcast.
About a year later, another show was given. This included "Sargeant Preston", "Tarzan" and "Henry Aldrich". By Halloween,1991 there was a core group who wanted to do more shows on a more regular basis. This time, the group decided on "Catwife" from Arch Obler's "Lights Out" and the Orson Welles script of"Dracula". After being turned down by one church (on the basis of their feeling it smacked of Satanism), the auditorium of another church was rented. This venture was so well received that WRBH re-ran it the following year and played it ("Dracula") again at a later fund raiser. "Dracula" may well become an annual broadcast event.
A fund raiser was put together in 1993 for the singer John Gary, (who was a victim of cancer) by F.A.M.E. and John Barber was asked to help put it together, using his radio scripts. A number of local celebrities took part, as well as several people who had taken part in earlier shows. In two nights, six different half-hour programs were given: "Gunsmoke", "Mr. District Attorney", "Dick Tracy", "Boston Blackie", "The Shadow" and "The Lone Ranger".
Charlie Matkin (who had served as producer/director,announcer and actor in the previous shows) applied to theInternal Revenue Service and in April of 1993 was given official non-profit status for the New Orleans Radio Theatre, Inc. He became President and Executive Director of the organization, with John Barber as Vice-President and Artistic Director. Ralph Scheeler took on the duties of Secretary and Barbara Bollinger-Hower was Treasurer. The fifth board member was Reggie Hendry, whose title was Technical Director.
John Barber resigned for personal reasons in October and Peter Gabb joined the board as vice-president. At the first of January, Ann Meric took over as Secretary and Ed Ferguson became Treasurer.
In March, a program of excerpts from several comedy scripts was presented before a live audience for delayed broadcast.
"The Monkey's Paw""The Monkey's Paw" was adapted for radio and taped in Studio 4 at WWL-TV. It was broadcast a short time later on WRBH-FM, WRNO Worldwide shortwave and WTIX-AM.
The next studio production, also in Studio 4 at WWL-TV, was a re-creation of the Orson Welles script for "The Hitch Hiker" (sic). In 1996, several presentations of comedy excerpts were given for clubs and civic organizations.
I left out a production in 1995 at St. John's Lutheran Church on Canal Street. We did a "Suspense" script, Arch Obler's "Sub-Basement" and (using scripts from Lux Radio Theater and NBC Playhouse) we did a re-creation of "It's A Wonderful Life".
At our January, 1997 meeting of the Board of Directors, Paul Yacich was inducted as Artistic Director.
Charlie Matkin Peter Gabb President Vice President
Connie Quave Paul Yacich Secretary/Treasurer Artistic Director
STAY TUNED! <P>
FOR MORE INFORMTION CONTACT
CHARLIE MATKIN at:
Email address:matkin@mail.com
OR
New Orleans Radio Theatre, Inc.
6404 Beauregard Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70124
Visit the
BROADCAST ARTS MUSEUM
OF
GREATER NEW ORLEANS
Charlie Matkin
Paul Yacich
Always!
Design©1996: Yacich of New Orleans
