Episode 119 - Frees as a Bird (Green Lama)
Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)
Jack Mooney
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 28 June 2015
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One of radio's men of a thousand voices, Paul Frees was heard all over the dial during the Golden Age of Radio, as Boris Badenov on television, and as the ghostly host at Disney's Haunted Mansion. In honor of this versatile, talented actor's birthday, we'll hear him in two episodes as The Green Lama, the pulp hero who came to the airwaves in his own detective series. Frees stars as the Lama, aka Jethro Dumont, in "The Million Dollar Chopsticks" (originally aired on CBS on June 26, 1949) and "The Adventure of the Perfect Prisoner" (originally aired on CBS on August 21, 1949).
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The You may not know Paul Freee's name, but you probably know his voice. |
| 0:27.0 | Maybe you've heard him as Boris Badenoff on Rocky and Bullwinkle, or his Berger |
| 0:31.5 | Meister-Burger in Santa Claus is coming to town. You might have heard |
| 0:36.1 | him welcome you to Disney's Haunted Mansion as the ghostly host, or if you're an old-time |
| 0:41.1 | radio fan, you've probably heard him in hundreds of performances from the era. |
| 0:46.0 | Paul Fries, bored 95 years ago this month, was one of radio's men of a thousand voices and he voiced characters on the big |
| 0:55.7 | and small screens as well as radio for 40 years. Free show business career began in the 1930s where he did impressions on the vaudeville stage. |
| 1:06.0 | He broke into radio in the 1940s, but his on-air career took a detour from military service during World War II. |
| 1:14.8 | Fries fought at Normandy on D-Day, where he was wounded and shipped back home. |
| 1:20.2 | State side, he used the GI Bill to study art, but he returned to radio to support his ill |
| 1:26.0 | wife. |
| 1:27.8 | His radio heyday came in the late 1940s and 1950s, when Frees could be heard on nearly every network on comedies, mysteries, |
| 1:36.8 | and anthology shows. |
| 1:39.1 | Fries lent his powerful baritone to voice both the man in black on suspense and the voice of escape. |
| 1:46.0 | He could be heard in supporting roles on Philip Marlow, Richard Diamond, the Whistler, Crime |
| 1:51.6 | Classics, Broadway is my Beat, and more. |
| 1:55.0 | Outside of radio, Frese was a frequent collaborator with Disney, |
| 2:00.0 | where he voiced Professor Ludwig Van Drake and appeared on camera in the shaggy dog. |
| 2:05.6 | He also worked regularly with Jay Ward on the Bullwinkle, Dudley Dewwright, and George of the Jungle |
| 2:11.0 | cartoons, and with Rankin bass in holiday specials like Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph's |
| 2:17.1 | Shiny New Year and Santa Claus is coming to town. In addition to his on-camera and voice work, Frese was a screenwriter, a songwriter, and a director. He put all three talents to work in The Beatnix, a 1960 crime drama memorably aired on Mystery Science Theater 3,000. |
| 2:37.0 | Paul Freee's versatility with voices led to commercial work, |
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