It’s difficult to describe the sublime joys of Vic and Sade—which premiered over NBC Blue on this date in 1932—to anyone unfamiliar with old-time radio. Come to think of it, it’s not easy with peo ...
Happy birthday, Gale Gordon!(Post)If you were to go to a dictionary to look up the meaning of the term “foil” as it relates to comedy—dollars to donuts says it would be accompanied by a picture of Gale Gordon, born on this date in ...
Happy Birthday, Jay Jostyn!(Post)In 1975, actor Jay Jostyn related an amusing anecdote to author Chuck Schaden (Speaking of Radio) about an event held at New York’s famed Stork Club to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the popul ...
Happy Birthday, Fran Carlon!(Post)Actress Fran Carlon—born in Indianapolis, Indiana on this date in 1913—was married to actor-announcer Casey Allen for many years. The couple even occasionally worked together on radio programs lik ...
Happy Birthday, Van Johnson!(Post)During the 1940s, the man born Charles Van Dell Johnson in Newport, Rhode Island on this date in 1916 was known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “boy next door.” Van Johnson’s affable charm and golden-bo ...
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, George Fenneman!(Post)Despite his incredible career as a radio/TV announcer and emcee, George Watt Fenneman—born in Peking (now Beijing), China on this date in 1919—was never hesitant about crediting the job that secur ...
“Howdee, Straight Shooters! Howdee!”(Post)The man born Thomas Hezikiah Mix in Mix Run, Pennsylvania in 1880 became a Western legend during the 20th century…and he did it using the same good old fashioned skill as Buffalo Bill Cody: salesm ...
Happy Birthday, Rosa Rio!(Post)In Leonard Maltin’s old-time radio memoir The Great American Broadcast, veteran announcer Jackson Beck recalled a most amusing anecdote involving today’s birthday celebrant. “There was a time Ros ...
Happy Birthday, Sir Ralph Richardson!(Post)There’s a hilarious story (possibly apocryphal, so we make no claims as to its accuracy) concerning Sir Ralph Richardson, who was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England on this date in 1902.
Review: Partners in Time (1946)(Post)In 1937, Chester Lauck and Norris Goff began to express interest in bringing the characters from their popular radio show, Lum and Abner, to the big screen. Talent agent Jack William Votion, a Ho ...
The Mark of the Whistler (1944)/The Thirteenth Hour (1947): “…of which they dare not speak…”(Post)Two of the entries in Columbia’s Whistler franchise (based on the popular CBS Radio West Coast mystery program) rarely turn up in the rotation when the film series is shown on Turner Classic Movie ...
Review: Trapped by Boston Blackie (1948)(Post)The headline in the morning newspaper proves most distressing to reformed jewel thief Horatio “Boston Blackie” Black (Chester Morris) and his sidekick The Runt (George E. Stone). Their friend Joe ...
Happy Birthday, Cliff Arquette!(Post)From 1957 until his passing in 1974, Clifford Charles Arquette—born in Toledo, Ohio on this date in 1905—rarely appeared in public (though there was the occasional exception) while not playing a f ...
Happy Birthday, Conrad Binyon!(Post)“Why are you so extra nice to me?” asked sixteen-year-old Conrad Binyon of his mother in 1947. Ma Binyon wouldn’t admit it…but she was still trembling from her son’s recent experience involving a ...
“Murray Hill 4-0098…”(Post)On this date in 1943, “radio’s outstanding theatre of thrills,” Suspense, first presented the most popular episode in its nearly twenty-year broadcast history (1942-62). Written by Lucille Fletcher ( ...