Martin Grams, Jr.

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Martin Grams, Jr. (b. April 19, 1977, Baltimore, Maryland) is an old time radio historian who has written authoritative articles and books on radio, television and films. The son of magician Martin Grams, Sr. and librarian Mary Pat Grams, he was educated at South Eastern School District in York County, Pennsylvania and graduated from Kennard Dale High School in Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania in 1995. He worked a variety of jobs from factory labor to banking before settling on a writing career.

Since 1998 Grams has documented broadcasting in the 20th century. Suspense: Twenty Years of Thrills and Chills (Morris, 1998) was followed by The History of the Cavalcade of America (Morris, 1999) about the Dupont-sponsored radio and television program of the same name. After The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, co-authored with Gordon Payton for McFarland Publishers, Grams followed with Radio Drama (McFarland), The Have Gun – Will Travel Companion, co-authored with Les Rayburn, and The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion (OTR Publishing, 2000), a 660-page survey of Alfred Hitchcock Presents with a complete episode guide.

Francis M. Nevins and Grams teamed for The Sound of Detection: Ellery Queen's Adventures in Radio, a revision of the 1981 study by Nevins and Ray Stanich. Inner Sanctum Mysteries: Behind the Creaking Door covered both the radio and TV series with an appendix on all of Simon & Schuster's mystery novels, three short stories based on uncirculating radio programs, plus a chapter about the Inner Sanctum movies penned by Gregory William Mank.

After the limited edition Invitation to Learning (OTR Publishing), Grams wrote The I Love A Mystery Companion, unearthing never-before-published material by Carlton E. Morse. The book covers I Love A Mystery, I Love Adventure, Adventures by Morse, Captain Post, The Return of Captain Post, The Cobra King Strikes Back, The Witch of Endor, The House of Myths and others.

Information Please (Bear Manor Media, 2005) includes a chapter on the Information Please Almanac. Gang Busters: Crime Fighters of American Broadcasting (2005) weighs in at 700 pages. In addition to magazine articles (Filmfax, Scarlet Street and Radiogram), Grams has contributed short stories, chapters and appendixes for other books, including The Alfred Hitchcock Story (Titan) and It's That Time Again (Bear Manor).

Bear Manor's 2007 list includes two by Grams: The Railroad Hour, co-authored with Gerald Wilson, covers the 1948-54 radio program. I Led Three Lives covers the history of the TV series which starred Richard Carlson as Herbert A. Philbrick.

Grams' endeavors include convention organizer for the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, held annually in Aberdeen, Maryland.

A resident of Delta, Pennsylvania, Martin Grams Jr. married in September 2005. Martin and his wife are both active in environmental protection programs and help support the funding and physical labor that goes into planting new trees, recycling and alternative resources for electricity, including solar power and wind power.

Contents

[edit] References

  • "Suspense: Twenty Years of Thrills and Chills" Morris Publishing, 1998 ISBN 1-57502-675-9
  • "The History of the Cavalcade of America" Morris Publishing, 1999. ISBN 0-7392-0138-7
  • "The CBS Radio Mystery Theater: An Episode Guide and Handbook to Nine Years of Broadcasting, 1974-1982" McFarland Publishing, 1999.
  • "Radio Drama: American Programs, 1932-1962" McFarland Publishing, 2000.
  • "The Have Gun – Will Travel Companion" OTR Publishing, 2000. ISBN 0-9703310-0-2
  • "The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion" OTR Publishing, 2001. ISBN 0-9703310-1-0
  • "Invitation to Learning" OTR Publishing, 2002. ISBN 0-9703310-4-5
  • "The Sound of Detection: Ellery Queen's Adventures in Radio" OTR Publishing, 2002. ISBN 0-9703310-2-9
  • "The I Love A Mystery Companion" OTR Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-9703310-5-3
  • "Inner Sanctum Mysteries: Behind the Creaking Door" OTR Publishing, 2002. ISBN 0-9703310-3-7
  • "Information Please" BearManor Media, 2003. ISBN 0-9714570-7-7
  • "Gang Busters: The Crime Fighters of American Broadcasting" OTR Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0-9703310-6-1
  • "The Railroad Hour" BearManor Media, 2007.
  • "I Led Three Lives: The Television Series" BearManor Media, 2007. ISBN 1-59393-092-5
  • "The Radio Adventures of Sam Spade" OTR Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9703310-7-6

[edit] Literary references

  • UNITED STATES HISTORY: A MULTICULTURAL, INTERDISCIPLICARY GUIDE TO INFORMATION SOURCES by Anna H. Perrault and Ron Blazek. Libraries Unlimited, 2002
  • FRANK AND ANNE HUMMERT'S RADIO FACTORY: THE PROGRAMS AND PERSONALITIES OF BROADCASTING by Jim Cox. McFarland Publishers, 2004 (page viii)
  • MERCEDES McCAMBRIDGE: A BIOGRAPHY AND CAREER RECORD by Ron Lackmann. McFarland Publishers, 2005 (page 34)
  • FILMFAX MAGAZINE, Issue #86, "Have Gun - Will Travel"
  • FILMFAX MAGAZINE, Issue #93-94, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"
  • IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN: THE NEW STORIES OF OLD-TIME RADIO Edited by Ben Ohmart, "Quiet Please, The Cradle of Peace" (pages 83 - 90)
  • IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN 2: MORE NEW STORIES OF OLD-TIME RADIO Edited by Jim Harmon, "Columbia Workshop, A Drink for the Damned" (pages 73 - 82)
  • IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN 3: EVEN MORE NEW STORIES OF OLD-TIME RADIO Edited by Jim Harmon, "Hold the Press: Paladin vs. Dillon" (pages 123 - 132)
  • MR. KEEN, TRACER OF LOST PERSONS: A COMPLETE HISTORY AND EPISODE LOG OF RADIO'S MOST DURABLE DETECTIVE by Jim Cox, McFarland Publishing (page vii)
  • HANS CONRIED: A BIOGRAPHY; WITH A FILMOGRAPHY AND A LISTING OF RADIO, TELEVISION, STAGE AND VOICE WORK by Suzanne Gargiulo (page v)
  • RADIO SPEAKERS: NARRATORS, NEWS JUNKIES, SPORTS JOCKEYS, TATTLETALES, TIPSTERS, TOASTMASTERS AND COFFEE FLATCH by Jim Cox, McFarland Publishing (page viii, 258 and 331)
  • BORIS KARLOFF: A GENTLEMAN'S LIFE by Scott Allen Nollen (page 14)
  • MIDNIGHT MARQUEE ACTORS SERIES: VINCENT PRICE Edite dby Gary J. Svehla and Susan Svehla (pages 304 - 311)
  • RADIO CRIME FIGHTERS by Jim Cox (pages vii and 291)
  • LET'S PRETEND AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF RADIO by Arthur Anderson (broadcast log by Grams and Derek Tague, pages 217 - 248)
  • ON THE AIR: THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OLD-TIME RADIO by John Dunning (page ix)
  • THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK STORY by Ken Mogg (pages 92 - 105, 174 - 181 and 187 - 191)
  • TALES WELL CALCULATED TO KEEP YOU IN SUSPENSE by Darryl Shelton (ackn. and introduction)
  • WELCOME, FOOLISH MORTALS: THE LIFE AND VOICES OF PAUL FREES by Ben Ohmart, with foreword by June Foray (page v)
  • PRIVATE EYELASHES: RADIO'S LADY DETECTIVES by Jack French (page viii and dedication page)
  • MAMM BK BEST NEW HORROR 14 by Stephen Jones. 2003 (page 57)
  • THE WORLD'S FINEST MYSTERY AND CRIME STORIES: FOURTH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION by Martin Harry Greenberg and Edward Gorman (page 20)
  • RADIO READER: ESSAYS IN THE CULTURAL HISTORY OF RADIO edited by Michele Hilmes and Jason Loviglio. (page 185)

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