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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 ...
Happy Birthday, Benita Hume!(Post)When Jack Benny and his writers concocted the script that would introduce actor Ronald Colman as Jack’s “next door neighbor” on The Jack Benny Program, the writers’ first inclination was to hire a ...
Happy Birthday, Frank Nelson!(Post)It never fails…every time I tune into an episode of The Jack Benny Program (be it on radio or TV) and Jack needs help from someone in customer service, the clerk is played by the same actor—who g ...
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 ...
Happy Birthday, Phil Harris!(Post)The man who let audiences know what he liked about the South was born in Linton, Indiana on this date in 1904. Whenever wife Alice Faye would jokingly refer to him as “Wonga” on their popular radi ...
Happy Birthday, Kenny Baker!(Post)From 1935 to 1939, Kenneth Laurence Baker—born in Monrovia, California on this date in 1912—was welcomed into millions of homes as the popular tenor vocalist on radio’s The Jack Benny Program. Ke ...
“Atsa funny thing—when I’m-a say it, itsa come out different…”(Post)Describing himself at one time as “a reformed introvert,’ writer Cy Howard decided to get into radio after quitting a $70-a-week position as a salesman in Chicago. He had a taste of success in th ...
Happy Birthday, Mel Blanc!(Post)In the 1949 Looney Tunes short Curtain Razor, cartoon star Porky Pig channels his inner Major Bowes by auditioning acts at a talent agency. One client, a turtle, brags that he is “the man of a th ...
“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: Radio City Revels (1938)(Post)Aspiring songwriter Harry Miller (Jack Oakie) is long on ambition…and short on talent. With his piano-playing partner Teddy Jordan (Milton Berle), Harry is barely making the rent on the apartment ...
“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, Ronald Colman!(Post)In February of 2012, an auction by Nate D. Sanders Memorabilia successfully sold fifteen Academy Awards Oscars for a total of slightly over $3 million (a record-breaking amount at that time). The ...
Happy Birthday, Andy Devine!(Post)Actors Andy Devine and Broderick Crawford enthusiastically participated in their own stunts during the filming the 1940 Western When the Daltons Rode. One particular stunt almost sent Crawford to ...
Happy Birthday, Jackie Gleason!(Post)According to legend, it was no less a personage than the legendary Orson Welles who nicknamed the man born Herbert Walton Gleason Jr. in New York City on this date in 1916 “The Great One.” Jackie G ...
Happy Birthday, Sheldon Leonard!(Post)Nowadays, the concept of the “hyphenate” is fairly common in Hollywood—the word is used to describe anyone in show business who wears various hats: actor, writer, producer, director, etc. The most ...
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 ...