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A ventriloquist…on the radio?(Post)
On this date in 1936, The Royal Gelatin Hour’s Rudy Vallee introduced a very unusual guest:Why—people have been asking me for the last two days—why put a ventriloquist on the air? The answer is, ...
Happy Birthday, George W. Trendle!(Post)“There were many tight-fisted broadcasting officials in the Golden Age of Radio, but probably none more pernicious the George W. Trendle, the owner of WXYZ in Detroit.” So wrote author/Radio Spir ...
Happy Birthday, Amzie Strickland!(Post)One of radio’s most prolific character actresses was born in Oklahoma City on this date in 1919: Amzie Strickland. That first name is pronounced AIM-zee, by the way, and during her lengthy show b ...
Happy Birthday, Herb Vigran!(Post)The man born Herbert (some sources spell it “Herburt”) Vigran in Cincinnati, Ohio on this date in 1910 would become one of show business’ most distinctive character actors. His easily recognize ...
Review: The Lineup (1958)(Post)As San Francisco antiquities dealer Philip Dressler (Raymond Bailey) disembarks from a cruise ship, a porter snatches one of his valises and tosses it into a waiting cab. The driver speeds off…dire ...
“Lights out…everybody!”(Post)In the early years of Radio’s Golden Age, those individuals who worked in radio discovered fairly quickly that the medium was ideal for presenting horror tales—listeners reveled in stories guarant ...
Happy Birthday, Jean Vander Pyl!(Post)Universal Pictures brought a live-action version of the classic TV cartoon series The Flintstones to the big screen in 1994 and had the novel idea of casting Jean Vander Pyl (the actress who voice ...
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, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson!(Post)On this date in 1905, one of radio and television’s most prized sidekicks was born in Oakland, CA to a family of show business performers. His father, “Big Ed” Anderson, performed in minstrel show ...
“Laugh a while/Let a song/Be your style…”(Post)Though he had firmly established his persona as a flashy, hard-drinking playboy with an eye for exquisite female pulchritude on The Jack Benny Program, bandleader Phil Harris would find himself “d ...
Review: Gildersleeve’s Ghost (1944)(Post)One thing you can say about Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve (Harold Peary): his political ambitions are boundless, and in the 1944 film comedy Gildersleeve’s Ghost he’s determined to advance from his ...
Happy Birthday, William Johnstone!(Post)Old-time radio fans know that when Orson Welles made the decision to abandon his role as Lamont Cranston (aka The Shadow) and go on to better things (scaring the daylights out of listeners on Hall ...
Happy Birthday, Alonzo Deen Cole!(Post)Before radio audiences eagerly anticipated each week the memorably unsettling sound of a creaking door (on Inner Sanctum Mysteries) or an ominous gong signaling that they should dim the lights (Li ...
Happy Birthday, William Johnstone!(Post)Old-time radio fans know that when Orson Welles made the decision to abandon his role as Lamont Cranston (aka The Shadow) and go on to better things (scaring the daylights out of listeners on Hall ...
Happy Birthday, Phillips H. Lord!(Post)Triskaidekaphobia. I didn’t make this word up; it’s the technical term for fear of the number “13.” The man born Phillips Haynes Lord in Hartford, Vermont on this date in 1902, however, pooh-poohe ...
Happy Birthday, Tony Barrett!(Post)An item in a November 1945 edition of Radio Mirror will give you an idea of just how busy the actor born Martin Lefkowitz on this date in New York City in 1916 was in the aural medium. As Tony Bar ...