Although Gale Storm had been appearing in motion pictures since 1940, the perky, bubbly thespian would not achieve true show business fame until June 16, 1952—the date that the situation comedy My ...
Happy Birthday, Everett Sloane!(Post)In the 1941 movie classic Citizen Kane, Kane’s business manager Mr. Bernstein makes an observation that remains in the memories of movie fans long after Kane’s final reel has unspooled: “One day, ...
Happy Birthday, Eve Arden!(Post)At the height of her fame as the tart-tongued schoolmarm of radio and TV’s Our Miss Brooks, Eve Arden—born in Mill Valley, CA on this date in 1908—got more than a few offers from school boards acr ...
Happy Birthday, Lloyd Bridges!(Post)The classic TV favorite Sea Hunt could facetiously–-but truthfully–-be described as “the one that got away.” Every one of the major television networks took a pass on the proposed series from prod ...
“C’mon folks, these are the jokes!”(Post)Mention “Milton Berle” to any baby boomer and chances are they’ll immediately think of the frenzied mirthmaker who entertained audiences Tuesday nights, in the newly inaugurated Golden Age of Tele ...
Happy Birthday, Ozzie Nelson!(Post)In 1930, Oswald George Nelson—born in Jersey City, New Jersey on this date in 1906—graduated with a law degree from Rutgers University and was ready to hang out his shingle for business. Sadly, t ...
The Power of the Whistler (1945): “…I know many things, for I walk by night…”(Post)The omnipresent narrator (Otto Forrest) known as The Whistler introduces us to a “strange man” (Richard Dix) identified as “William Everest” as the third film in Columbia’s Whistler series unspool ...
Everybody Loves Raymond(Post)The actor who would be celebrating his ninety-sixth birthday today is indisputably best remembered for two iconic television series—Perry Mason (1957-66) and Ironside (1967-75). But old-time radi ...
Happy Birthday, Norman Macdonnell!(Post)One of old-time radio’s most important—and inarguably, most creative—director-producers was born on this date in 1916. A native of Pasadena, CA, Norman Macdonnell would use his experiences during ...
Happy Birthday, Harold Peary!(Post)Fans of old-time radio might get a kick out of watching an old Perry Mason rerun, “The Case of the Lover’s Gamble,” which turns up on Me-TV every now and then. At the risk of spoiling the ending, t ...
“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 Birthday, Dan Duryea!(Post)“He was Dark City’s most enchanting villain,” writes author/Turner Classic Movies personality Eddie Muller in his essential reference Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir, “the man audiences lov ...
Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)(Post)In his reference book The Great American Broadcast, author Leonard Maltin relates an anecdote of how future science-fiction/fantasy author Ray Bradbury talked himself into a “job” on George Burns &am ...
“Visualize ace counterspy of them all as David Harding…”(Post)On this date in 1942, the man who brought Gang Busters and Mr. District Attorney to radio consoles “added one more jewel to his Triumvirate of Tension,” according to historian Jim Harmon in The Gre ...
Happy Birthday, Mandel Kramer!(Post)“I’m a product of radio,” actor Mandel Kramer confessed to an interviewer for a 1953 article in the March edition of Radio-TV Mirror. Mandel, who was born in Cleveland ninety-nine years ago on th ...
Happy Birthday, Doris Day!(Post)After a lengthy career that encompassed radio, motion pictures, and many, many million-selling records as one of the 20th century’s most popular vocalists, the woman born Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff ...