An item in the September 25, 1939 edition of The Van Nuys News trumpets the motion picture debut of actor Louis Merrill—born in Winnipeg, Canada on this date in 1912. The blurb is a little hyperb ...
Happy Birthday, Jeanette Nolan!(Post)Actress Jeanette Nolan—born in Los Angeles on this date in 1911—met future husband John McIntire while working on a West Coast radio program in the 1930s. John was the announcer for a show on whi ...
Happy Birthday, Arthur Q. Bryan!(Post)A doorbell rings at a residence in the Midwest, and the all-too-trusting couple that resides inside welcomes their visitor with an enthusiastic “Come in!” I’ll keep you in suspense no longer: the ...
Happy Birthday, Bert Lahr!(Post)In his indispensable reference book The Great Movie Shorts, film historian Leonard Maltin made this observation of Leon Errol: “There are comedians, comics, and a few clowns around, but funnymen a ...
Happy Birthday, Eleanor Audley!(Post)The epitaph on the headstone adorning the final resting place of actress Eleanor Audley reads: “A Kind Friend to All.” And while it’s undeniably true that Audley—born Eleanor Zellman on this date ...
“...and now…a tale well-calculated to keep you in…SUSPENSE!”(Post)When “the Golden Age of Radio” came to what many recognize as its official end on September 30, 1962—there were only two major network dramatic offerings left standing. One was Yours Truly, Johnny ...
Happy Birthday, Lillian Randolph!(Post)When actress-singer Lillian Randolph—born on this date in 1898—got word of auditions for The Great Gildersleeve, she was working on a film soundtrack with a vocal group at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. L ...
“From Times Square to Columbus Circle…the gaudiest, the most violent—the lonesomest mile in the world…”(Post)By the beginning of the 1950s, radio crime drama began to develop a new breed of program that, in the words of old-time radio historian Jim Cox, “witnessed a forbidding side of law enforcement in ...
Happy Birthday, Wally Maher!(Post)In the annals of movie animation, there was never a cartoon character quite like Screwball “Screwy” Squirrel. Described by author-historian Leonard Maltin in Of Mice and Magic as possessing “all ...
Happy Birthday, Jim Ameche!(Post)It couldn’t have been easy for Jim Ameche, pursuing a radio career in the same manner of his famous brother Don. The man born James Amici in Kenosha, Wisconsin on this date in 1915 had achieved suc ...
“Personal notice: danger’s my stock-in-trade…”(Post)While attempting to make a name for himself as an actor in motion pictures, Bob Bailey did a little freelancing in radio. Though under contract to 20th Century-Fox, he discovered that he enjoyed ...
Happy Birthday, Gloria Blondell!(Post)If Gloria Blondell—born in Manhattan, NY on this date in 1910—ever resented living in the shadow of older sister Joan, she rarely displayed any outside bitterness. This is not to say that occasion ...
Happy Birthday, Lurene Tuttle!(Post)“The First Lady of Radio.” That’s the fitting appellation given to actress Lurene Tuttle, born Lurene Susie Tuttle in Pleasant Lake, Indiana on this date in 1907. Lurene was, without question, a ...
Happy Birthday, Henry Fonda!(Post)For actor Henry Fonda, the old “third time’s the charm” idiom certainly rang true in 1982. He was recognized by his peers at the Academy Awards ceremony that year and awarded the Best Actor in a L ...
Happy Birthday, Gale Storm!(Post)Although Gale Storm had been appearing in motion pictures since 1940, the perky, bubbly thespian would not achieve true show business fame until June 16, 1952—the date that the situation comedy My ...
Happy Birthday, Frank Readick!(Post)The actor born Frank Winfield Russell Marion Derwent Readick, Jr. (that’s what he called himself in a 1932 issue of Radio Guide) on this date in Seattle, Washington in 1896 was already a performin ...