The Green Lama Radio Program
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Home >> D D Too Home >> Radio Logs >> The Green Lama |
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The Green Lama was one of a long series of superheros that greatly added to the existing comic fiction popularized during the World War II years. But The Green Lama first appeared in the popular pulp fiction magazines that spawned The Shadow, Doc Savage and others that made the jump from Pulp to The Comics. The Green Lama's debut in Pulp was in the April 1940 issue of Double Detective. The story was penned by editor Kendell Foster Crossen (under the pen name, "Richard Foster".) Richard Foster penned a total of fourteen novels for the pulps between 1941 and 1943, while concurrently licensing the character to Prize Comics in 1940. Prize Comics published The Green Lama for almost three years, with Foster writing the scripts and Emanuel "Mac" Raboy inking the art.
The Green Lama's elaborate back-story helps to inform the development of the Radio version of the character. While in college, millionaire Jethro Dumont develops an interest in Eastern religion, embarking on a quest to Tibet to learn more firsthand. After ten years of study, he had eventually attained the level of Tibetan priest. As a consequence of his study and training, Jethro Dumont acquires extraordinary powers. The Green Lama's most extraordinary ability was the power to fly, but the Radio rendition of Jethro Dumont's powers are limited to invisibility, the ability to generate electricity, and several other 'convenient' crime-fighting abilities as he faced the enemies of Justice. Dumont returns to America with his manservant Tulku [Tsarong in the Pulps and Comics], taking up residence on New York's Park Avenue. Dumont vows to fight evil and injustice wherever it takes him, and in the Radio version it takes him and Tulku all over the world.
Dumont's mantra, "Om-Mani-Padme-Hom", is a relatively common--and quite peaceful--mantra among practicing Buddhists, but uttered from the lips of Jethro Dumont, it unleashes his super powers. Taken literally, "Om-Mani-Padme-Hom" means, 'Hail, the Jewel in The Lotus Flower', which seems somewhat whimpy on the face of it, but uttered from the booming, cavernous throat of Paul Frees, takes on an appropriately sinister and foreboding air, striking a chill into any self-respecting evil-doer's heart.
Tulku is Dumont's valet, sidekick, private secretary, archivist, and in many cases, his conscience. Legendary Radio, Television, Stage and Screen actor, Ben Wright voices Tulku, having developed an extraordinary talent for portraying oriental dialogue throughout many Golden Age Radio dramas of the era. Wright is heard as an oriental in Have Gun, Will Travel as Hey Boy, and in Frontier Gentleman, among many others.
But there's no question that the dominant talent here is Paul Frees. One can only imagine how Richard Foster must have felt the first time he heard his Jethro Dumont character embodied by Frees, his booming, resonant bass creating a one-man echo chamber for Om-Mani-Padme-Hom. Frees couldn't have been more perfect in the role. Indeed it's difficult to imagine anyone else in Radio, with the possible exception of Orson Welles, Jackson Beck, or William Conrad in the role. But even their extraordinary voices couldn't reach the registers that Frees' could.
The eleven scripts for The Green Lama take Dumont and Tulku to four corners of the world, the better to enable The Green Lama to Strike!--for Justice. Frees and Wright are supported by a solid array of Golden Age Radio's finest, including Herb Vigran, Harry Bartell, Georgia Ellis, Larry Dobkin, Bill Conrad, Gloria Blondell, Edgar Barrier, and Charles Russell. The scripts are the quality one might expect from an award winning pulp fiction author, even though somewhat downsized owing to the Radio Green Lama's limited powers.
CBS Television considered producing a Television version of The Green Lama for the 1950 Television season. The proposal apparently never got the green light. |
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Series Derivatives:
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AFRS H-Series, Mystery Playhouse |
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Genre: |
Anthology of Golden Age Radio Mystery Dramas |
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Network(s): |
CBS [KNX] |
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Audition Date(s) and Title(s): |
49-05-17 Aud The Man Who Never Existed |
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Premiere Date(s) and Title(s): |
49-06-05 01 The Man Who Never Existed |
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Run Dates(s)/ Time(s): |
49-06-05 to 49-08-21; Eleven 25-Minute episodes; CBS, Sundays, 2:30 p.m. then 7:30 p.m. |
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Syndication: |
AFRS H- Series, Mystery Playhouse |
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Sponsors: |
Sustaining |
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Director(s): |
Norm MacDonnell; James Burton [Producer/Director] |
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Principal Actors: |
Paul Frees, Ben Wright, Herb Vigran, Harry Bartell, Georgia Ellis, Jack Kruschen, Paul McVey, Lillian Buyeff, Lawrence Dobkin, Charles Russell, William Conrad, Gloria Blondell, George Fisher, David Young, Frank Gerstle, Jerry Hausner, Yvonne Peattie, David Young, Edgar Barrier, Bud Widom, Clayton Post, Dave Young, Edwin Max |
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Recurring Character(s): |
Jethro Dumont [Paul Frees]; Tulku [Ben Wright]; Sgt Whelan [Herb Vigran] |
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Protagonist(s): |
Jethro Dumont |
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Author(s): |
Richard Foster [Kendell Foster Crossen] |
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Writer(s) |
Richard Foster [Kendell Foster Crossen], William Froug ; Gene Levin, Bob Mitchell [Adapters] |
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Music Direction: |
Richard Aurandt |
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Musical Theme(s): |
Richard Aurandt at the organ |
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Announcer(s): |
Larry Thor |
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Estimated Scripts or
Broadcasts: |
11 |
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Episodes in Circulation: |
5 |
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Total Episodes in Collection: |
5 |
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Provenances: |
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Billboard Magazine announces replacement of Broadway Is My Beat for Green Lama for the summer from May 28 1949
Green Lama Announcement
June 4, 1949
The Green Lama was one of several programs CBS-TV was contemplating for Televsion--Billboard Magazine October 29 1949
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RadioGOLDINdex, Hickerson Guide, 'The Directory of The Armed Forces Radio Service Series.
Notes on Provenances:
All above cited provenances agree for the most part. The most helpful provenances were the log of the radioGOLDINdex and Southern California newspapers.
The dating of The Green Lama Audition/Rehearsal remains unverified, but the timing would appear to be appropriate.
Contemporaneous newspaper listings invariably abbreviate the titles of most programs listed, but we have provenances for the titles of each program from Paul Frees' exposition at the end of each of the eleven episodes of the adventure to follow.
The OTRRPedia cites a page full of presently inaccurate references:
- The Vintage Radio Place Green Lama log
- The old-time.com Green Lama log
- The audio-classics.com Green Lama log
- The Martin Grams Radio Drama Green Lama log
- Episode No. 11 is titled, The Adventure of the Perfect Prisoner, not The Case of The Patient Prisoner.
Common to each of the above referenced, logs is an apocryphal assertion that CBS-KNX's The Green Lama was broadcast on Sundays, then inexplicably on Thursdays or Saturdays, depending on whose account you wish to believe. The Green Lama was never--ever--broadcast on Thursdays at origination. The Green Lama may very well have aired outside of Southern California on Thursdays, Saturdays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Fridays. But they were never--ever--broadcast from the originating studio, CBS's KNX, on any day but Sunday. We do find id statistically remarkable that each and every one of the above referenced logs cite the precise, same inaccurate dates.
The ongoing debate about the alleged audition would bear some observation:
- All of The Green Lama production episodes were either 25-minutes or 30 minutes or less in length, depending on the market.
- CBS employed the last five minutes for news in many markets.
- The alleged audition/rehearsal recording runs 30 minutes and 31 seconds, and includes a teaser for a following episode to be titled, The Man Who Stole A Pyramid.
- The longer recording of the two would seem to be more in the way of a rehearsal than an audition.
We're currently more inclined to cite the circulating 31-minute rendition as a rehearsal until we learn more.
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Green Lama Biographies
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Paul Frees [Solomon Hersh Frees]
(Jethro Dumont)
Stage, Screen, Television, and Radio Actor, Composer, Songwriter, Voiceover Artist, Director, and Author
(1920-1986)
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Education:
Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA
Radiography:
1945 Lux Radio Theatre
1945 Maxwell House coffee Time
1946 Rogue's Gallery
1946 The Whistler
1946 The Casebook Of Gregory Hood
1946 The Alan Young Show
1946 Suspense
1947 Escape
1947 The Voyage Of the Scarlet Queen
1947 Ellery Queen
1948 Studio X
1948 The Player
1948 Your Movietown Radio Theatre
1948 The First Nighter Program
1948 Family Theatre
1948 Let George Do It
1948 The Eternal Light
1948 Jeff Regan, Investigator
1948 NBC University Theatre
1948 The Railroad Hour
1949 The Adventures Of Philip Marlowe
1949 Prowl Car
1949 Screen Director's Playhouse
1949 The Prudential Family Hour Of Stars
1949 Rocky Jordan
1949 Pat Novak For Hire
1949 Special Care Program
1949 Box 13
1949 The Adventures Of Frank Race
1949 The Green Lama
1949 Richard Diamond, Private Detective
1949 Four Star Playhouse
1949 The Croupier
1949 California Caravan
1949 Crime Correspondent
1950 T-Man
1950 A Day In the Life Of Dennis Day
1950 Dangerous Assignment
1950 The Line-Up
1950 Tales Of the Texas Rangers
1950 Presenting Charles Boyer
1950 This Is Your F.B.I.
1950 The Story Of Dr Kildare
1950 The Adventures Of the Saint
1951 Short Story
1951 The Adventures Of Sam Spade
1951 Night Beat
1951 The Whisperer
1951 Romance
1951 Wild Bill Hickok
1951 Mr Aladdin
1951 Broadway Is My Beat
1951 This Is the story
1951 The Silent Men
1952 Hollywood Star Playhouse
1952 The Black Book
1952 The Pendleton Story
1952 I Confess
1953 Gunsmoke
1953 On Stage
1953 Confession
1953 Crime Classics
1953 Mr President
1954 That's Rich
1954 The Edgar Bergen Show
1954 Rocky Fortune
1954 Fibber McGee and Molly
1954 Hallmark Hall Of Fame
1956 NBC Radio Theatre
1956 You Were There
1956 Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
1956 Those Young Bryans
1957 CBS Radio Workshop
1957 Heartbeat Theatre
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Paul Frees, ca. 1952
Paul Frees, ca. 1949
Paul Frees with one of thousands of alter egos, Ludwig Von Drake, ca. 1953
Paul Frees as Etienne in The Adventures of Jim Bowie (1957)
Paul Frees, ca. 1975
Bust of Paul Frees ''The Man of A Thousand Voices'' circa 1978
Paul Frees in The Shaggy Dog (1978)
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Count the ways to measure Multimedia genius, then double it, and you have Paul Frees. Several famous voice artists have been tagged "The Man of A Thousand Voices." During his ambitious, but brief career, Frank Graham was dubbed the same before his suicide death in 1950. Mel Blanc held that moniker for years. The late, great Don La Fontaine was another worthy recipient. But with all due respect to those other great voice artists, I'm sure all would agree that Paul Frees remains rightful recipient of the tribute. Paul Frees is one of the top ten most memorable, often heard, and hardest working voice talents of the 20th Century.
Chicago-born Frees [birth name, Solomon Hersh Frees], was drafted into the Army during World War II, participating in the D-Day Invasion at Normandy. He was wounded in action and returned stateside for rest and recovery for just over a year. Upon obtaining his discharge, he began taking classes at The Chouinard Art Institute in downtown Los Angeles under his G.I. Bill. But his studies were curtailed when his first wife's failing health forced him to drop out and try his hand at Radio work.
He appeared frequently on the A-List Radio programs of the 1940s, including Lux Radio Theatre, Rogue's Gallery, The Whistler, Suspense, Escape radio series, including Escape, Ellery Queen, The First Nighter, Family Theatre, and NBC University Theatre. His first solo outing was as The Player (1948) with Frees both narrating and playing all of the parts. He alternated with William Conrad as the 'voice' of Suspense. His second solo outing was as Jethro Dumont in The Green Lama (1949), a summer replacement program. He followed that with a starring role in Crime Correspondent (1949). He also starred in The Croupier (1949).
Frees' contribution to radio noir was a perfect match for his range of voices. He appeared regularly in most of the detective genre dramas of the 1940s. Throughout the 1950s he was heard voicing regular or recurring roles in Gunsmoke (1953), Crime Classics (1953), This Is Your FBI (1950), and two prestigious network classics, Hallmark Hall of Fame (1954) and CBS Radio Workshop (1957). Frees' radiography in the RadioGOLDIndex is one of the longest in its database. But Radio was only the tip of the iceberg in Frees' storied career.
The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) cites over 370 entries for him, in Film, Television, and Animation. A college study once determined that so ubiquitous was Paul Frees voicework during the 1960s and 1970s, that there was literally not one day of Television or Radio during that period in which Paul Frees' voice was not heard.
Frees spent much of the second half of his career working with an unprecedented nine of the major animation production companies of the 20th century: Walt Disney Studios, Walter Lantz Studios, UPA, Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, MGM Studios, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, Jay Ward Productions and Rankin/Bass. His work with the Walt Disney Studios led to a long collaboration with them, from voicing animated characters to recordings that brought some of the most compelling attractions at both Disneyland and Disney World to life.
His long association with Jay Ward Productions is most remembered for his narration of the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, with William Conrad, and performing the voice of Boris Badenov, and multiple other characters. Accompanied by famous female voice talent, June Foray, their voices formed the very core of most of the Rocky and Bullwinkle episodes.
There is simply not enough space in this format to adequately recount Frees' body of work. Fortunately the vast majority of his work is still available through Golden Age Radio and Television recordings. Frees passed away unexpectedly in 1986, at his palacial Tiburon home overlooking San Francisco--from a massive heart failure. He requested that his ashes be scattered over the Pacific Ocean.
Anyone knowledgeable of 20th Century mass communications would unquestionably cite Paul Frees as one of the top ten voices over any medium from the era, perhaps even one of the top five. We'd certainly have to concur with either assessment. |
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Ben Wright
(Tulku)
Radio, Television, Film, Documentary, Animation and Stage Actor
(1915-1989)
Birthplace: London, England, UK
Radiography:
1939 Lux Radio Theatre
1945 The Adventures of Maisie 1946 Encore Theatre
1947 Holiday Wilde
1947 The Story Of Holiday Wilde
1947 The New Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes
1947 Mystery In the Air
1947 Voyage Of the Scarlet Queen
1947 Suspense
1947 The Whistler
1948 Escape
1948 Steve Canyon
1948 NBC University Theatre
1948 The Adventures Of Philip Marlowe
1949 Our American Heritage
1949 Chandu the Magician
1949 Tell It Again
1949 The Green Lama
1949 Family Theatre
1949 Rocky Jordan
1949 Screen Director's Playhouse
1949 Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
1949 The Adventures Of Maisie
1950 T-Man
1950 Let George Do It
1950 Hallmark Playhouse
1950 The Adventures Of Christopher London
1950 The Halls Of Ivy
1950 Night Beat
1950 Pursuit
1950 The Log Of the Black Parrot
1950 Dangerous Assignment
1950 Romance
1950 The Story Of Dr Kildare
1951 The Pendleton Story
1951 The Silent Men
1951 Stars Over Hollywood
1952 The Modern Adventures Of Casanova
1952 Screen Guild Theatre
1952 Short Story
1952 Broadway Is My Beat
1952 Crime Classics
1952 The Cisco Kid
1953 On Stage
1953 Hallmark Hall Of Fame
1953 Richard Diamond, Private Detective
1953 General Electric Theatre
1954 Inheritance
1954 I Love A Mystery
1954 The Six-Shooter
1955 The Adventures Of Captain Courage
1956 CBS Radio Workshop
1956 O'Hara
1957 Gunsmoke
1958 Frontier Gentleman
1958 Have Gun, Will Travel
1959 Heartbeat Theatre
1964 Arch Oboler's Plays
1973 Hollywood Radio Theatre
1979 Sears Radio Theatre
The Pendleton Story
Horizons West |
Ben Wright, ca. 1955
Ben Wright from the Jim Bowie Television series, ca. 1958
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Ben Wright was born May 15, 1915, to an English mother and an American father in London, England, UK. At 16, he entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts where classmates included such future stars as Ida Lupino.
Upon graduating, he acted in several West End stage productions. When WWII broke out, he enlisted and served in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1946 to attend a cousin's wedding, eventually settling in Hollywood. He embarked on his American acting career in Radio, quickly establishing himself as a master of dialects with such roles as Hey Boy, the Chinese servant, on "Have Gun, Will Travel" with John Dehner, and another John Dehner vehicle, 'Frontier Gentleman." Indeed, Wright was to be given the lead, but got edged out by John Dehner. The last minute change didn't make the deadline for the newspapers of the era, almost all of which announced Ben Wright in the lead role of J.B. Kendall, Field Reporter for the London Times. Oops!
His talent for dialects also kept him busy in the many WWII-related films and TV shows of the 1950s and '60s wherein he played innumerable Germans and Frenchmen as well as a variety of both low brow and high brow Englishmen--for which he always took pains to ensure the dialects were accurate depending on which part of England they were from.
After years of radio, TV, stage and film work, he entered semi-retirement in the late 1970s, accepting occasional voice work and small guest appearances on TV. On June 16, 1989, after completing his last role, providing the voice of Grimsby in Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989), he entered St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank for quadruple bypass surgery from which he never recovered. He died of heart failure July 2, 1989.
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![Click here to learn about our approach to Golden Age Radio Preservation [Under Development]](Images/images/preservation_base.png "Click here to learn about our approach to Golden Age Radio Preservation [Under Development]")
![Om-Mani-Padme-Hum [sic] translated in Green Lama Comics, ca. 1942](Images/Green-Lama-3-tb.png "Om-Mani-Padme-Hum [sic] translated in Green Lama Comics, ca. 1942")
![Jethro Dumont [The Green Lama] as inked by Mac Raboy, ca. 1943](Images/Jethro-Dumont.png "Jethro Dumont [The Green Lama] as inked by Mac Raboy, ca. 1943")