Although there was certainly a note of melancholy involved, replacing the departed Barton Yarborough as Jack Webb’s new partner on Dragnet (as Sgt. Ed Jacobs) must have been a dream assignment for ...
Happy Birthday, Gerald Mohr!(Post)Actor Gerald Mohr—born in New York City on this date in 1914—might have gone through life more formally addressed as “Dr. Gerald Mohr” had it not been for a bout of appendicitis. You see, having gr ...
Happy Birthday, Marvin Miller!(Post)Though his show business career of nearly half-a-century extended to radio, TV, and motion pictures, the actor-announcer born Marvin Elliott Mueller in St. Louis, Missouri on this date in 1913 is ...
Happy Birthday, anybody—here’s Morgan…(Post)Henry Lerner Van Ost, Jr. brashly entered this world in New York City on this date in 1915. We know him better as Henry Morgan…and it’s a good thing he was persuaded to change his name once he dec ...
Happy Birthday, Alice Faye!(Post)During the 1930s and early 1940s, actress-singer Alice Faye—born in New York City on this date in 1915—was one of 20th Century-Fox’s most bankable attractions, starring in such box office vehicles ...
Happy Birthday, Jimmy Durante!(Post)From the 1920s and onward, James Francis Durante—born in Manhattan on this date in 1893—was the entertainer who advised audiences that they have to start off each day with a song. Durante’s large ...
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 ...
“Who knows…what evil…lurks in the hearts of men…”(Post)My introduction to old-time radio came about in the 1970s, when the “nostalgia boom” was well underway. WOUB, Ohio University’s FM radio station, had a feature that aired every Monday night entitled ...
“More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of…”(Post)The man officially known as The Reverend Father Patrick Peyton, C.S.C. was chaplain of the Holy Cross Brothers of the Vincentian Institute in Albany, New York during World War II. Father Peyton es ...
Happy Birthday, Berry Kroeger!(Post)Berry Kroeger’s initial show business ambition was to become a concert pianist. Kroeger didn’t lack for talent, you understand—but being painfully shy and terrified of performing threatened to si ...
Happy birthday, Gene Kelly!(Post)Eugene Curran “Gene” Kelly was born 100 years ago on this date—a Pittsburgh, PA native from the Highland Hills section of that American city. The man who would later establish himself as one of t ...
Happy Birthday, Bing Crosby!(Post)At one time in the 1940s, the man born Harry Lillis “Bing” Crosby, Jr. in Tacoma, Washington on this date in 1903 was the top-selling recording star…the number-one box office attraction…and the mo ...