The Belmont Tunnel

The tunnel in its early years in western Colorado, before being removed and shipped by train across the continent to Belmont. Conservationists were worried that its removal might leave an unsightly hole in the side of the mountain. And so it did

Sound Vault| The Belmont Tunnel

Bandstand

As Bill Curry describes the rotating bandstand set up on the grounds of the Glick mansion, we hear, alternately and in small doses, the musical stylings of the Lester Lehman Orchestra, the Sons of the Pioneers and the German Measles.

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Tab Collar

Walker Gregory interviews guest celeb Tab Collar, just in from the Coast to film location shots for his new movie at the Belmont Tunnel. Bill Curry steps out of his Rex Mundane role to play Collar.

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Inside the Arch

Just inside the proscenium arch of the Belmont Tunnel, acclaimed organist Reno Bailey adjusts his formal wear, renders an original composition, then lurches into a medley of "old favorites."

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Serenade to Spring

For a change of pace, Reno Bailey plays even more songs, some identifiable, some not, including that Broadway showstopper, "Hey, Look Me Over." Demonstrating his boundless versatility, he runs the gamut from jazz to classical. True music lovers and descendents of Irving Berlin will weep before Bailey finishes "April Showers."

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The Straight Scoop

It was all made up. There was no tunnel. But the legend lives on. The characters were: Irving Glick, a money-grubbing entrepreneur who lived in his mansion in Belmont; his wife Gertrude; and a nearly-grown daughter Consuela, named after her great grandmother, who was a camp follower during the Spanish-American War. Etcetera.

Their antics and exploits continued on Bill's afternoon drive-time show for about a year, in four or five minute bits, a couple of times a week.

In one, Irving presented a slide show (on radio!) of suggested Christmas gifts. In another he meant to deliver a traffic report from a Boing 707 taking off from a "clandestine airdrome" near Salisbury. But by the time Curry could switch to him, the "weather plane" was over Atlanta. You get the idea.

Reno Bailey played Glick on the air, and also, under his own name, held organ recitals "just under the proscenium arch" of the tunnel. The organ music was actually played, intentionally very badly, it must be noted, by the highly-regarded musician and composer, Loonis McGlohan.

If there ever had been a tunnel, its history might have been recorded in an "Untold Story," like the one described here.