In May of 2017, the memoirs of character actor Jeff Corey—born Arthur Zwerling in Brooklyn on this date in 1914—were published to much critical acclaim. Written with his daughter Emily, Improvisi ...
Happy Birthday, Verna Felton!(Post)It’s a bit of a stretch but try to imagine Verna Felton—the actress who appeared on Jack Benny’s radio/TV show as Dennis Day’s mother and later as “Hilda Crocker” on December Bride—as “Baby Felton ...
Happy Birthday, Larry Thor!(Post)Arnleifur Lawrence Thorsteinson was born on this date in 1916…in an Icelandic village in Lundar, Manitoba, Canada. Fortunately for the radio stations and national networks that would eventually h ...
Happy Birthday, J. Scott Smart!(Post)While two of the radio programs based on characters created by author Dashiell Hammett—The Adventures of the Thin Man and The Adventures of Sam Spade—were adapted from his novels, The Fat Man was ...
Happy Birthday, David Friedkin!(Post)The birth of one of radio’s most prolific and celebrated writers occurred on this date one hundred and two years ago. David Friedkin, whose ambitions of being an actor-musician (he studied violin ...
“…enemy to those who make him an enemy…friend to those who have no friends…”(Post)The debate as to whether prisons can successfully reform those individuals who have strayed off the straight-and-narrow will rage on as long as those edifices are being built…but we’d like to pres ...
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, Georgia Ellis!(Post)Georgia Ellis, the actress who co-starred on what is fondly remembered by legions of old-time radio fans as the definitive Gunsmoke (namely, the radio version), would have celebrated her ninety-si ...
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, Basil Rathbone!(Post)Basil Rathbone was born on this date in 1892—and I’ll come clean right from the get-go: I am a tremendous fan of the actor’s work. Basil possessed a suavity and menace that made him one of the ci ...
Happy Birthday, Charlie Cantor!(Post)The actor best known for making his weekly entrance on Duffy’s Tavern with a cheery “Duhhh…hello, Arch!” was born on this date in Worchester, MA in 1898. Charles “Charlie” Cantor was radio’s most ...
Happy Birthday, Don Diamond!(Post)The actor born Donald Alan Diamond in Brooklyn, NY on this date in 1921 was in real life a rather nondescript individual…but that is precisely the quality you want when you’ve decided you want to ...