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, 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 ...
“…the Texas plainsman who wandered through the western territories, leaving behind a trail of still-remembered legends…”(Post)In Leonard Maltin’s anecdotal old-time radio page-turner The Great American Broadcast, there’s a photograph of Parley Baer chatting with Academy Award-winning actor James Stewart—and in the captio ...
“Champion of the people! Defender of truth! Guardian of our fundamental rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!”(Post)During the Golden Age of Radio, it was standard practice for the comedians headlining the most popular programs to work 39 weeks out of the year (which is kind of fitting when you work Jack Benny ...
“I’ll clip ya, Bergen…so help me, I’ll mow you down!”(Post)On this date in 1937, a program that would soon become the number one radio show in the nation premiered over the Red network of NBC. The Chase and Sanborn Hour was big-time radio: it featured the ...
“...the happiest, merriest married couple in radio…”(Post)According to an anecdote in Leonard Maltin’s The Great American Broadcast, director-producer Himan Brown (who would later make his name frightening audiences with the successful radio program Inne ...
Yours Truly, Harold Dunlap: Inner Sanctum (1948)(Post)Some time back, a PR representative was nice enough to send me a promotional copy of a DVD box set entitled Dark Crimes: a collection of fifty films and television episodes centering on the subjec ...
The Punch and Benny Show: Love Thy Neighbor (1940)(Post)Four years after the celebrated radio “feud” between comedians Jack Benny and Fred Allen got underway, Paramount Pictures decided to cash in on the fun with a film starring Jack and Fred entitled ...
“From the far horizons of the unknown…”(Post)NBC Radio’s dramatic anthology Dimension X—which was inspired by a renewed interest in science-fiction following the release of Universal-International’s Destination Moon in 1950—was the most suc ...
“From the far horizons of the unknown…”(Post)NBC Radio’s dramatic anthology Dimension X—which was inspired by a renewed interest in science-fiction following the release of Universal-International’s Destination Moon in 1950—was the most suc ...
“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 ...
”Adventures in time and space…told in future tense!”(Post)The premiere of NBC Radio’s Dimension X on this date in 1950 was inspired by the phenomenal box office success of Universal-International’s Destination Moon, produced by the legendary George Pal ...
“...and now…a tale well-calculated to keep you in…SUSPENSE!”(Post)When “the Golden Age of Radio” came to what many recognize as its official end on September 30, 1962—there were only two major network dramatic offerings left standing. One was Yours Truly, Johnny ...
Ann Rutherford (1917-2012)(Post)It was her recurring role in M-G-M’s series of Andy Hardy films that firmly cemented Ann Rutherford’s onscreen “girl next door” persona. In many of the movies, typical teenager Andy Hardy (played by ...
“…I take this same train every week at this time…”(Post)On this date in 1943, one of the Mutual Broadcasting System’s longest-lasting and most popular programs premiered in the form of The Mysterious Traveler. It was created and written by the team o ...
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 ...