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 ...
“There’s something about the sound of my own voice that fascinates me…”(Post)On this date in 1943, CBS premiered The Jack Carson Show: a half-hour situation comedy starring the comic actor famous at that time for such films as Love Crazy, The Male Animal and The Hard Way (wit ...
Happy Anniversary, Ronald and Benita Colman!(Post)One of the more charming features of the radio sitcom The Halls of Ivy was college president William Todhunter Hall’s (Ronald Colman) occasional flashbacks to the time of his courtship with music ...
“Welcome to the mysterious circle of the Inner Sanctum…”(Post)Established in 1924 by Richard L. Simon (father of singer-songwriter Carly Simon) and M. Lincoln “Max” Schuster as a vehicle to sell crossword puzzle books, the company known as Simon & Schuster ( ...
“Extra, extra—get your Illustrated Press!”(Post)The Golden Age of Radio—and this may be a good or bad thing, depending upon your opinion of the Fourth Estate—was a regular breeding ground for newspaper folk. Superheroes like The Green Hornet a ...
Review – The Jack Benny Program: The Lost Episodes(Post)The media company known emphatically as Shout! Factory pre-released one of the most highly anticipated DVD sets for old-time radio fans on June 18th of this year—a three-disc collection entitled T ...
“More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of…”(Post)The man officially known as The Reverend Father Patrick Peyton, C.S.C. was chaplain of the Holy Cross Brothers of the Vincentian Institute in Albany, New York during World War II. Father Peyton es ...
Review: Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood (1942)(Post)Though the title of the fourth entry in Columbia’s Boston Blackie series—which stars Chester Morris as reformed safecracker/jewel thief Horatio Black, the hero created by pulp fiction author Jack ...
The Secret of the Whistler (1946) – “…who have stepped into the shadows…”(Post)In the sixth entry of Columbia’s popular Whistler film franchise—based on the CBS West Coast mystery program sponsored by Signal Oil—series star Richard Dix essays the role of Ralph Harrison, a ta ...
Review: Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion (1945)(Post)Businessman Arthur Manleder (Lloyd Corrigan) has just acquired a rare book store from owner Wilfred Kittredge (George M. Carleton)…but his investment is in jeopardy when Kittredge takes ill, and h ...
The Return of the Whistler (1948): “Yes, I know the nameless terrors…”(Post)On a night that’s raining felines and canines, Theodore “Ted” Nichols (Michael Duane) and his French fiancée Alice Dupres Barkley (Lenore Aubert) reach the home of the justice of the peace who’s g ...
“Herewith, an Englishman’s account of life and death in the West…”(Post)On this date in 1958, a western — that old-time radio historian John Dunning once described (in Tune in Yesterday) as “the only serious rival to Gunsmoke in the radio Hall of Fame” — premiered over ...
Doris Singleton (1919-2012)(Post)The recurring character of Caroline Appleby, rival/nemesis of housewife Lucy Ricardo on the classic television sitcom I Love Lucy, was first introduced in the episode “The Club Election”—though th ...
”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 ...
The Happy Anniversary Matter(Post)Who would have guessed that on this date in 1949, the premiere of a half-hour program about an independent investigator who specialized in following up on insurance claims would wind up as one of ...
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 ...