The go-to actor for radio’s squeaky-voiced adolescents was born in Los Angeles, California on this date in 1926. Richard “Dick” Crenna established his bona fides in the aural medium with co-starri ...
“And now to Arch Oboler’s play…”(Post)It may have been the underrated Wyllis Cooper who was responsible for creating the classic radio horror Lights Out…but when Cooper left the program in 1936 for a writing career in Hollywood, Arch ...
“…that footloose and fancy-free young gentleman…”(Post)In hindsight, the low ebb that marked Frank Sinatra’s show business career in the early 1950s should have been interpreted as a mere blip for the entertainer affectionately known as The Chairman o ...
Happy Birthday, William Woodson!(Post)Old-time radio devotees can instantly recognize the unmistakable voice of William T. Woodson, born on this date in Glendale, California in 1917. For many years, Woodson was the individual who info ...
Happy Birthday, Bill Thompson!(Post)When he was five years old, actor Bill Thompson lost his voice campaigning around the country selling Liberty bonds (America had just entered World War I). Now, if you’ve ever listened to a broad ...
The Man Who Taught America How to Sing(Post)The small town of Tyrone, Pennsylvania added Fredrick Malcolm Waring to its population on this date in 1909—of course, Fredrick would shorten his name to the friendlier “Fred,” and during his teenage ...
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 ...
Happy Birthday, Morton Fine!(Post)Before embarking on a rewarding career as a radio, television and movie writer, Morton S. Fine—born a Christmas Eve baby in Baltimore, MD on this date in 1916—was a “jack-of-all-trades.” He worked ...
Happy Birthday, Eddie Green!(Post)If what I’m hearing are the familiar strains of “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”—then we’ve apparently stumbled into old-time radio’s most famous watering hole, Duffy’s Tavern:ARCHIE: Eddie, uh…get me ...
Happy Birthday, Ed Gardner!(Post)It was on a short-lived radio series entitled This is New York that comedian Ed Gardner found his creative muse…playing a pugnacious New Yorker who answered to “Archie.” Gardner was the show’s pr ...
“Two people who live together…and like it!”(Post)Old-time radio author-historian Jim Cox describes My Favorite Husband as “a dress rehearsal for the main event” in his indispensable reference book The Great Radio Sitcoms. “My Favorite Husband w ...
“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 ...