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Happy Birthday, Sammy Kaye!(Post)
It was at a Cleveland, Ohio venue known as The Cabin Club where Sammy Kaye—born Samuel Zamocay, Jr on this date in 1910—would acquire the slogan that would make him and his orchestra famous. The ...
Happy Birthday, William Spier!(Post)The man who brought listeners “radio’s outstanding theatre of thrills” (Suspense!) and “the greatest private detective of them all” (The Adventures of Sam Spade) was born in New York City on this ...
Inner Sanctum at the movies(Post)In 1943, Universal Pictures was reaping the rewards from a revived horror movie cycle, so the studio decided in June of that year to ink a deal with Simon and Schuster to institute a film series b ...
“…ace cameraman who covers the crime news of the great city…”(Post)Turner Classic Movies occasionally schedules a 1956 film noir directed by Fritz Lang entitled While the City Sleeps. In the film, a troubled young man (John Drew Barrymore) has embarked on a killi ...
“Good night, folks…”(Post)In his essential reference encyclopedia of old-time radio, On the Air, author John Dunning notes that actor William Gargan’s presence on the detective drama Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator ...
So This is New York (1948): “Shucks and Friday!”(Post)Playwright George S. Kaufman once observed: “Satire is what closes on Saturday night.” Perhaps this famous quote might be able to explain the dismal box-office take of So This is New York (1948), ...
“Friendship, friendship…just a perfect blendship…”(Post)The Golden Age of Radio was always welcoming to dizzy women who marched to the beat of a different drummer—Gracie Allen (with her “illogical logic”) and Jane Ace being two primary examples. But b ...
Happy Birthday, Ben Wright!(Post)“Ben was one of the last of the true English gentlemen in the Edwardian sense of the word, with an accent on the gentle,” remarked Joe Bandille in 1989 on the passing of his good friend, actor Ben ...
Happy Birthday, Helen Mack!(Post)In 1949, RKO re-released She (1935)—a motion picture based on the series of H. Rider Haggard novels and starring Randolph Scott and Helen Gahagan (as the title character). She, a science fiction-t ...
Happy Birthday, Lamont Johnson!(Post)I’m certainly not the first person to observe that the best directors—whether they work in film, television, theater, or elsewhere—are often those with an extensive background in acting…and today’ ...
Happy Birthday, Cary Grant!(Post)For those of you disappointed in the Academy Award nominations announced this past Thursday, here’s a little something to chew on: one of the most beloved motion picture stars of all time (he was ...
Happy Birthday, Jan Miner!(Post)On radio, one of the rare daytime dramas to stand out from its weepy brethren and sistren was Hilltop House—a series that took place in an orphanage located in the fictional town of Glendale and s ...
Happy Birthday, Frances Langford!(Post)“Just play it like a nagging wife” was comedy writer Philip Rapp’s suggestion to actress-singer Frances Langford, who was about to take on a facet of radio performing with which she had only a pas ...
Happy Birthday, Earle Ross!(Post)As a boy, actor Earle Ross had been gifted with a beautiful soprano voice—one that he put to good use singing in the boys’ choir at his local church. (His parents wanted him to become a minister.) ...
Happy Birthday, Mandel Kramer!(Post)“I’m a product of radio,” actor Mandel Kramer confessed to an interviewer for a 1953 article in the March edition of Radio-TV Mirror. Mandel, who was born in Cleveland ninety-nine years ago on th ...
Happy Birthday, Howard Duff!(Post)Have you ever wondered why a lot of the announcers from the AFRS versions of your radio favorites sound like Howard Duff? The answer to this is devastatingly simple: it is Howard Duff! The actor ...