NEWSLETTER | VOL. 54, October 2025
Welcome to this month’s edition of The Hollywood 360 Newsletter, your place to get all the news on upcoming shows, schedule and interesting facts from your H360 team!
Carl’s Corner
by Carl Amari
ESCAPE
by Carl Amari and Martin Grams
Escape was radio’s leading anthology series of high-adventure, airing on CBS from July 7, 1947 to September 25, 1954. The series’ well-remembered opening combined Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain with this introduction, as intoned by Paul Frees and William Conrad: “Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you… Escape!” Following the opening theme, a second announcer (usually Roy Rowan) would add: “Escape! Designed to free you from the four walls of today for a half-hour of high adventure!” Many story premises, both originals and adaptations, involved a protagonist in dire life-or-death straits. Actors on the series included: Elvia Allman, Eleanor Audley, Parley Baer, Harry Bartell, William Conrad, Ted deCorsia, John Dehner, Sam Edwards, Virginia Gregg, Lou Merrill, Howard McNear, Jeanette Nolan, Alan Reed, Bill Johnstone, Marvin Miller, Frank Lovejoy, Berry Kroeger, Vic Perrin, Elliott Lewis, Jack Webb, Peggy Webber and Will Wright. Music was supplied by Del Castillo, organist Ivan Ditmars, Cy Feuer, Wilbur Hatch and Leith Stevens. The announcers were Paul Frees and Roy Rowan.
LEND ME YOUR EARS by Lisa Wolf
BLINDED BY THE LIGHT, by Manfred Mann
RELEASED: 1976
“Blinded by the Light” might be one of the most famous songs Bruce Springsteen didn’t make famous. When he wrote and recorded it in 1973 for his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., the song was clever, packed with wordplay, and unmistakably Springsteen—but it didn’t chart.
Three years later, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band took a swing at it, and the result was something entirely different. Their 1976 version, featured on The Roaring Silence, slowed things down and gave it a theatrical flair. It didn’t just do well—it went all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1977, giving Springsteen his first chart-topping song as a writer.
And then there’s that lyric. The original line, “revved up like a deuce,” referring to a 1932 Ford coupe, has been famously misheard by just about everyone. It’s become a running joke in pop culture and one of the most iconic misheard lyrics in rock history—something Manfred Mann himself has acknowledged with amusement.
Over the years, the song has popped up in films, commercials, and TV shows, and it even lent its title to the 2019 film Blinded by the Light, about a British teen who finds inspiration in Springsteen’s music.
Though most listeners associate the song with Manfred Mann, its heart is pure Springsteen. It’s a rare example of a cover version not just succeeding, but completely reimagining the original—while still keeping its spirit alive.
HOLLYWOOD 360 Broadcast Schedule for October 2025 (episodes subject to change):
10/4/25
THE JACK BENNY PROGRAM 11/2/47 Halloween Show w/ Jack and all his gang
THE GREEN HORNET 10/24/44 Halloween Adventure w/ Robert Hall
MURDER BY EXPERTS 7/25/49 The Big Money w/ John Dickson Carr
THE WIERD CIRCLE #15 The Great Plague w/ Arnold Moss
MURDER AT MIDNIGHT 12/2/46 The Man Who Died Yesterday w/ Mandel Kramer
10/11/25
THE CHARLIE McCARTHY SHOW 10/22/39 Halloween Show Pt. 1 w/ Edgar Bergan and his gang
THE CHARLIE McCARTHY SHOW 10/22/39 Halloween Show Pt. 2 w/ Edgar Bergan and his gang
CABIN B-13 12/12/48 The Bride Vanishes w/ Arnold Moss
SUSPENSE 4/11/46 The Name of the Beast w/ Vincent Price
THE BLACK MUSEUM 1951 The Tan Shoe w/ Orson Welles
10/18/25
INNER SANCTUM MYSTERY 3/26/46 Death is a Double-Crosser w/ Lawson Zerbe
THE LIFE OF RILEY 10/29/44 Halloween w/ William Bendix
ESCAPE 7/11/51 The Island w/ Harry Bartell
THEATER FIVE 9/29/64 The Wrong Arm of Justice w/ John Seymour
THE SEALED BOOK 4/8/45 Devil Island w/ Philip Clarke
10/25/25
A DATE WITH JUDY 11/6/45 The Haunted House w/ Louise Erickson
SUSPENSE 10/18/58 Three Skeleton key w/ Vincent Price
MYSTERY IN THE AIR 9/18/47 The Black Cat w/ Peter Lorre
LIGHTS OUT! 5/25/43 Little Old Lady w/ Arch Oboler
THE WITCH’S TALE 1941 All Hallow’s Eve w/ Alonzo Deen Cole
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