Bold Venture

 

 

GOOD NEWS & BAD NEWS

The Bad News First É provision of this title is temporarily suspended

Why?

Now the Good News: It appears that the entire collection of this wonderful series has been unearthed É a total (purported) of 72 episodes

They are being played by a radio station at the rate of one episode per week

I am collecting, editing and restoring each of these episodes as they come through

When I have then all, then this title will again become available

Sorry for this É but  in the long run it will be for the best

Please be patient (and perhaps select another title)

 

Bold Venture: Adventure, intrigue, mystery, romance starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, together in the sultry setting of tropical Havana and the mysterious islands of the Caribbean! Bold Venture!

 

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall were open to a venture, and that was radio syndication, thanks to that new wonder: tape recording. Over a few months and from an informal recording studio, Bogie & Bacall did a radio series supported by a quality cast of Hollywood radio talent. Music was added later by the stalwart David Rose and the finished production was titled Bold Venture and syndicated from 1951 by the Frederic W. Ziv Co. Interestingly by the time of the initial launch of the series, Bogie was in Africa working with another beauty on another boat called "The African Queen."

 

In "Bold Venture", Bogie plays Slate Shannon, the owner and proprietor of a dubious Havana hotel, and Bacall is Sailor Duval, his sultry, wisecracking sidekick, whose exact status is questionable. Jester Hairston plays the calypso-singing aide-de-camp King Moses, whose witty rhymes comment on the plot as it whips along. Shannon's hotel attracts cutthroats, gamblers, and other denizens of the deep to its nautical watering hole, so Shannon is ready to do what it takes to keep the peace, or get a piece of the action. In addition to owning the hotel, Slate Shannon also owns a boat, the Bold Venture, "ever ready to roar to the rescue of a friend or search for an enemy".

 

This show is like a fun-house mirror of real life (and reel life), with the requisite toughs, quips and plots as knotted as ropes on a well-used dock. The set-up is not unlike Bogie and Bacall's "To Have and Have Not" film of 1944.

In all 78 thirty minute episodes were produced - of these, unfortunately only 31 have survived.

 

Want to check out an episode? - why not "taste & try"?

 

This episode can be freely downloaded to your computer - just right button click on any link below and chose "Download Linked File" (or words to that effect). The file is on an average about 23Mb - download time will depend on your (broadband) speed

 

BV_1951-03-26 Deadly Merchandise.mp3

 

This MP3 CD contains all of the surviving 31 episodes of "Bold Venture" as well a 60 minute Lux Theatre dramatization of "To Have and Have Not" in which Bogie and Bacall recreate their screen roles - fabulous

 

Bold Venture Radio Log

 

1.      BV_1951-03-26 Deadly Merchandise

2.      BV_1951-04-02 The Kwan Yen Statue

3.      BV_1951-04-09 Opium Smugglers and the Young Girl

4.      BV_1951-04-16 The Johnny Rice Story

5.      BV_1951-04-23 Treasure on Flamingo Cay

6.      BV_1951-04-30 He Who Laughs Last

7.      BV_1951-06-04 Blue Moon

8.      BV_1951-06-11 Tears of Siva

9.      BV_1951-07-30 The Search for Tommy Reed

10.     BV_1951-09-10 Out of Control

11.     BV_1951-09-17 The Black Tie Affair

12.     BV_1951-11-19 The Twelve Year Promise

13.     BV_1951-12-03 Cruise to Batabano

14.     BV_1951-12-10 Voodoo Vendetta

15.     BV_1951-12-17 The Tabard of Pizarro

16.     BV_1951-12-24 Escape from Guantanamo

17.     BV_1951-12-31 Crazy Old Carlos

18.     BV_1952-02-11 I'm Going to Die

19.     BV_1952-02-18 The One That Got Away

20.     BV_1952-02-25 The Man from Sumatra

21.     BV_1952-03-03 The Big KO

22.     BV_1952-03-10 Revenge is Sweet

23.     BV_1952-03-17 Haven's Venezuelan Isle

24.     BV_1952-04-07 With Friends Like These

25.     BV_1952-04-14 Marriage and Murder

26.     BV_1952-04-21 The Mystery of the Mary K

27.     BV_1952-07-14 Slate's Stolen Identity

28.     BV_1952-xx-xx Death at the Wedding

29.     BV_1952-xx-xx El Indio

30.     BV_1952-xx-xx Ghost Ship

31.     BV_1952-xx-xx Russian Roulette

 

Plus the Lux Theatre dramatization of To Have and Have Not:

 

LT_1946-10-14 To Have and Have Not (stars Bogie & Bacall!)

 

 

 

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