Even after taking home a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her breakout performance in 1949's All the King's Men, actress Mercedes McCambridge continued to work in the medium that she loved dearly ...
“Saints preserve us, Mr. Keen! He’s got a gun!”(Post)Back in the 1970s, when I first immersed myself in the wonderful world of old-time radio, my enthusiasm for “The Hobby” was such that I beseeched both my mother and father for stories about their ...
"Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear..."(Post)Nowhere in the pages of history can one find a greater champion for justice…and you only need to look back on this date in 1933 to find the debut of one of radio’s legendary heroes and a true pop ...
“Personal notice: danger’s my stock-in-trade…”(Post)While attempting to make a name for himself as an actor in motion pictures, Bob Bailey did a little freelancing in radio. Though under contract to 20th Century-Fox, he discovered that he enjoyed ...
Happy Centennial Birthday, John Dehner!(Post)For an actor who once set out purposely not to be typecast in Western roles, John Dehner—born John Forkum one hundred years ago in 1915 in Staten Island, NY—appeared in a lot of oaters across the ...
Happy Birthday, Tol Avery!(Post)Actors, when they’re very lucky, concentrate on their chief profession: acting. The less fortunate thesps, however, often have to have a sideline to ensure there are groceries in the pantry on a r ...
Happy Birthday, Leonore “Lee” Allman!(Post)The dirty little secret about show business is that it is a virtual petri dish for nepotism. As Fred Allen jokes in It’s in the Bag! (1945), after seeing a list of names in the film’s opening cred ...
“This case has more angles than a six-pointed star…”(Post)As the 1944-45 season of radio’s The Fitch Bandwagon came to its conclusion, star Dick Powell made an unusual request of the sponsor, shampoo magnate F.W. Fitch. Powell asked Fitch if he could t ...
“Good night, folks…”(Post)In his essential reference encyclopedia of old-time radio, On the Air, author John Dunning notes that actor William Gargan’s presence on the detective drama Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator ...
Happy Birthday, Leslie Charteris!(Post)Before becoming the creator of one of the literary world’s most famous sleuths, Leslie Charteris—born in Singapore (at the time, a British colony) on this date in 1907—jokingly “couldn’t hold down ...
“I get ten a day and expenses…they call me the Lyon’s Eye.”(Post)During his stint at San Francisco’s KGO in the mid-1940s, John Randolph “Jack” Webb earned his initial radio bona fides as the star of Pat Novak for Hire, a West Coast crime drama whose adherence ...
Happy Birthday, Robert Readick!(Post)Actor Frank Readick’s voice is a familiar one to those fans who remember old-time radio--he was one of the busiest thesps in the aural medium, starring on such programs as Smilin’ Jack and Meet Mr ...
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 ...
The blog post you’re about to read is true…(Post)Radio actor Jack Webb was fortunate in that he had just landed a small role as a lab technician in a 1948 Eagle-Lion film noir entitled He Walked by Night…and in between takes, he would find himself ...
“…that most famous of all manhunters…”(Post)Nick Carter received the first knock at his radio door on this date in 1943. I know this sounds like an odd statement, but I’m referring to the memorable opening that signaled the start of Nick C ...
“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 ...