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If you remember, in the original film, Vera-Ellen and Rosemary Clooney join Bing Crosby and the ever-delightful Danny Kaye, trying to save the Vermont inn run by Crosby and Kaye’s old major general.

Well, seeing as sunset brings the beginning of Hannukah, the eight-day Jewish holiday, KUNM offered an original musical audio drama, “Happy ChallaDAY!” If the pun isn’t clear, challa or challah is a delicious egg bread that is braided and served on the Jewish Sabbath and on special holidays.

Creator Charles Moster, who has produced three other audio drama musicals, was tickled by the fact that Irving Berlin, who was Jewish, had written “White Christmas,” and other standards commemorating Christian holidays (such as “Easter Parade”).

Some casual listeners are surprised to find out that Irving Berlin was Jewish, but then so was Jack Benny, whose Christmas radio specials were beloved by millions. And there was something else about Irving Berlin – beyond being a superlative songwriter, who could easily empathize with all walks of life through song…

When the song was first written for the film “Holiday Inn,” Berlin had been in an interfaith marriage for over fifteen years, marrying writer Ellin MacKay in 1926. MacKay was more than a decade younger and Roman Catholic. They were widely ostracized by society, as well as by kin – MacKay was disinherited by her father. As far as I understand, they still practiced their individual faiths … and they stayed happily married for another 62 years, until her death in 1988.

So, even if you don’t celebrate Hannukah, I suggest you take a leaf from Berlin’s book, and download the podcast of “Happy ChallaDAY” from the KUNM website. With some excellent singing and songs, and a story that parodies the 1954 film (the General here is named Waverlystein, and he’s opened a B&B on the Red Sea) it’s a light, fun, way to pass a chilly evening.

His most famous moment was after the assassination of John F. Kennedy; as one of many reporters waiting in a Dallas Police department basement, he asked suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, “You have anything to say in your defense?” and then watched as Oswald was gunned down by Jack Ruby. The startling report can still be heard on the below video:

As a “witness to history,” this report would remain Pappas’ main legacy, but he continued to pass along important news stories to the public. Fortunately, you can hear another major piece from his career, his 1967 documentary “The Songs of Vietnam War,” online. (The website is owned by former ARVN – American Forces Vietnam Network – reporter Bob Morecock, now a psychologist teaching at Houston Community College.)

Meanwhile, two other prominent voices were silenced – “Smokey and the Bandit” actor-singer Jerry Reed and Don LaFontaine, the king of movie trailers. It’s hard to imagine a movie trailer not using LaFontaine’s characteristic starter, “In a world…”

Here’s the playbill:

Tit for Tat (dir. unknown, 1900)
A butterfly hunter gets his come-uppance in this titillatingly -titled silent film. There is some fascinating imagery, with certain frames hand-colored, frame by frame, providing some very special effects.

Symphonie Diagonal (dir. Viking Eggeling, 1921)
An abstract film made by the early collaborator of Hans Richter. A very musical filmic etude that requires very little music. The audience will conduct this film with glow-in-the-dark conducting batons (obviously not Mr. Eggeling’s original intention, but we know the audience will enjoy conducting that night).

During the 1970s and 80s, soap opera was not only at the height of its popularity, but also a quiet innovator for social issues and troubles of the day. There were great performers of all ages — some of whom crossed over into the mainstream, like Alec Baldwin, Demi Moore, and Meg Ryan. Even today, you’ll find some of the best performers anywhere working on soaps. You have to be good to work on a soap – you can’t last if you can’t get through a half hour or hour of script every day.

The question is, are the scripts, and storylines as fresh and as solid as they could be? If you really love soaps, today, the hottest place to find and enjoy them is online – through podcasts and internet radio… and soon, through indie film and perhaps web “TV”.

First, some background. Today, even though there’s a cable channel devoted to soaps and daily rebroadcasts, soaps in the United States have suffered from dwindling audience numbers — and, judging by the outcry over “missing kisses” on As the World Turns, the American soap genre is no longer innovating. Yet soaps from Great Britain and other countries, namely the vibrant telenovelas of South America, continue to find eager viewers. We can thank the telenovela, for example, for the massive US hit Ugly Betty.

British Audio Soaps

In the United Kingdom, “Corrie” and The Archers are also doing quite fine, thank you very much. After a head to head battle, the aged Corrie, in fact, hastened Doctor Who’s 1989 “nap” — which is saying something, considering the draw Who has on the British imagination.

It’s not hard for a new listener to get up to speed on The Archers, a rural soap that has been on the air since 1951. The BBC’s website includes a page just for FAQs and for updates on the latest storylines.

Westway was another innovating soap. Like Archers, it started as an educational soap, but developed into a slice of multicultural life in London. It was very popular with international listeners and expatriate Britons listening over BBC’s World Service. I’m told that some Britons didn’t care for it on the national BBC channels, perhaps expecting overseas listeners to tune into a simple ESL show like The Flatmates. Instead of a simple format that encouraged rote learning, foreign listeners heard a solid, continuing drama that covered both a medical practice and the adaptation of immigrants to a new country. Enough complaints were lodged over Westway’s premature death by budget cuts, that BBC continues to air it in reruns on BBC 7, three years after its end. If you like ER, St. Elsewhere, and were charmed by Bend it Like Beckham, which clarified some of the issues for first generation Britons – it’s worth checking out.

I’m hoping that there are other British audio soaps out there, especially those that are independently produced, just waiting to be dug up.

American Audio Soaps

Long time viewers in North America, posting on various websites and forums, are not happy with the state of soapdom. Their beef is not with the traditional soap format, where ordinary people shared extraordinary problems — but with bad writing, casting and lowered expectations by networks.

What’s an fan of American soaps to do, then, when things look unsteady for continuing favorites, and many of the innovative, well-written soaps are long off the air…? Start supporting independent soaps that bring back the classic style.

Eye of the Storm should appeal to fans of Dallas, Capitol, The Edge of Night and Santa Barbara. These were shows thriving in the 1980s, which were as much about villainous business strategy as they were about torrid love affairs. There are explanations of the Storm characters on the website, but I found it instructive to simply dive into the podcasts, centering on the lives and loves of oil-connected folks in Lafayette, Louisiana. It especially compares well with Texas, the spin-off of Another World that followed the popular anti-heroine Iris Cory (no relation!) to Houston — and it’s solidly plotted.

Amazing casting certainly plays a part in Rockland County, a continuing soap project created by Roger Newcomb of Loger, Inc. Each episode is recorded via telephone voice mail by the performers, a seeming limitation which actually enables many well-connected actors, as well as up-and-comers, to participate. Since Newcomb’s long-time favorite soap is the aforementioned Another World, it is a happy surprise to hear the solid soaper Kale Browne (ex-”Michael Hudson”, AW, and currently starring on Days of Our Lives) on several episodes of Rockland County.

Newcomb’s other project is Scripts and Scruples, which has continued for several years, most recently culminating in the connected indie film Manhattanites, a film which ended primary photography this past December. Judging by the trailer, it looks like a lot of fun for fans of soaps both past and present. I’d mention that the actors here have great chops, only it looks like someone will get chopped during the run-time of the film. Forbes March and David Fumero of One Life to Live, and Aiden Turner of All My Children are just some of the familiar faces here. Darnell Williams, ex-AMC, co-directs with Newcomb’s long-time collaborator Gregori J. Martin.

Frankly… The thrill here for me is spotting March’s castmate Ilene Kristen, who older viewers remember as the instigator of much devilry on Ryan’s Hope. You just know Kristen’s going to be fun to watch when you spot a still like this.

“Julius Caesar” has long been considered one of Shakespeare’s most accessible plays, and this adaptation lives up to that tradition. Listeners who are new to the rhythms of iambic pentameter will not need to struggle along with the written text. Nor will this shortened audio play upset regular visitors of Stratford. The audio setting manages to widen the claustrophobic chambers where Casca and the conspirators plot, and also convey the luxury and arrogance of Imperial Rome … without multi-million dollar sets or costumes.

The cast is uniformly strong, led by Craig Wichman as the conflicted Brutus. James Prendergast, as Caesar, is able to move seamlessly between a politician’s oily, careful charm and a dangerous megalomania. Yet we can also hear, and believe, his love for wife Calpurna, and more importantly, for Brutus.

After recently reading Elizabeth Schafer’s “Ms-Directing Shakespeare”, about women’s role in producing and staging the Bard — I appreciated all the more, the strong roles for women in this adaptation. Katie Nutt is both loving and wise as Portia, who, in traditional staging, is the only female role of consequence.

But in the rendering by director Jay Stern and producer Wichman, the soothsayer also gains a pivotal role, more in keeping with the ancient honor given to “sibyls”, women who foretold the future, like the oracle at Delphi who advised pilgrims of their fates.

As the wizened seer, Emma Palzere – who also doubles effectively as Calpurna – helps us move from scene to scene, and acts as the audience’s stand-in, sadly aware of the events which will transpire.

Unfortunately, those of us in North America, unless we live in a thriving theater community like New York or Toronto, don’t get a chance to see a great variety of performances, especially not the kind that once filled “black box” and “little” theaters.

Now, one of the more intriguing websites devoted to modern audio drama is the recent Wireless Theatre Company. The WTC’s work is available to listeners no matter how close or far they are from the West End or the Great White ‘Way. Based in the United Kingdom, its goal is to share new productions worldwide, featuring a variety of fresh new work. Think of it as a “Fringe Festival” of the Air – with all of its cutting edge performances available as free downloads.