Voyage of the Scarlet Queen - Beyond Tiki

T Thomas Member Lake Mojave Joined: Mar 15, 2005 Posts: 372	T Thomas Posted posted on Sun, Nov 1, 2009 4:13 PM Here's a fine tiki-adjacent (historically, pre-tiki I suppose) bit of pop culture and history that can be brought to life on-demand as a soundtrack to one's tiki endeavors when it's time to give the Exotica music a rest: VOYAGE OF THE SCARLET QUEEN. From the wikipedia entry ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_Scarlet_Queen ): Voyage of the Scarlet Queen was a radio adventure on the high seas, airing on Mutual from 3 July 1947 to 14 February 1948. James Burton produced the scripts by Gil Doud and Robert Tallman. Elliott Lewis starred as Philip Carney, master of the 78-foot ketch Scarlet Queen, with Ed Max as first mate Red Gallagher. The show seems to foreshadow Star Trek in a number of ways. Each episode opens with an entry from the ship's log: "Log entry, the ketch Scarlet Queen, Philip Carney, master. Position -- three degrees, seven minutes north, 104 degrees, two minutes east. Wind, fresh to moderate; sky, fair..." with a similar closing: "Ship secured for the night. Signed, Philip Carney, master." Arriving at an exotic port of call, the captain and first mate would go ashore and immediately run into trouble with local authorities, agents of rival merchants, or desperate women in need of rescue. After some investigation and at least one good fight they would solve the problem, get back on the ship and sail away, Carney and Gallagher sharing a laugh and a drink at the wheel before the captain's closing log entry. Technically the show was among the better radio productions of the time, employing realistic sound effects and sailing terminology, well paced stories and colorfully detailed settings. Most places visited by the Queen are real. Even the map coordinates given by the captain are mostly accurate, following a zigzag course around the South Pacific. It's exotic, it's retro, and I think it's pretty awesome. In the first episode the hero sails out of San Fransisco, headed for Honolulu, toasting the occasion with a drink with his first mate, and the exotic explorations are underway. Two sources of free listening; at the time of this writing, the first link appears more comprehensive: Old time radio: http://www.otr.net/?p=vosq Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/voyageofthescarletqueenotr

Here's a fine tiki-adjacent (historically, pre-tiki I suppose) bit of pop culture and history that can be brought to life on-demand as a soundtrack to one's tiki endeavors when it's time to give the Exotica music a rest: VOYAGE OF THE SCARLET QUEEN. From the wikipedia entry
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_Scarlet_Queen ):
**
Voyage of the Scarlet Queen was a radio adventure on the high seas, airing on Mutual from 3 July 1947 to 14 February 1948. James Burton produced the scripts by Gil Doud and Robert Tallman. Elliott Lewis starred as Philip Carney, master of the 78-foot ketch Scarlet Queen, with Ed Max as first mate Red Gallagher.
The show seems to foreshadow Star Trek in a number of ways. Each episode opens with an entry from the ship's log: "Log entry, the ketch Scarlet Queen, Philip Carney, master. Position -- three degrees, seven minutes north, 104 degrees, two minutes east. Wind, fresh to moderate; sky, fair..." with a similar closing: "Ship secured for the night. Signed, Philip Carney, master." Arriving at an exotic port of call, the captain and first mate would go ashore and immediately run into trouble with local authorities, agents of rival merchants, or desperate women in need of rescue. After some investigation and at least one good fight they would solve the problem, get back on the ship and sail away, Carney and Gallagher sharing a laugh and a drink at the wheel before the captain's closing log entry.
Technically the show was among the better radio productions of the time, employing realistic sound effects and sailing terminology, well paced stories and colorfully detailed settings. Most places visited by the Queen are real. Even the map coordinates given by the captain are mostly accurate, following a zigzag course around the South Pacific.
**
It's exotic, it's retro, and I think it's pretty awesome. In the first episode the hero sails out of San Fransisco, headed for Honolulu, toasting the occasion with a drink with his first mate, and the exotic explorations are underway. Two sources of free listening; at the time of this writing, the first link appears more comprehensive:
Old time radio: http://www.otr.net/?p=vosq
Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/voyageofthescarletqueenotr