Author Carl Rollyson’s 2012 biography of actor Dana Andrews—born Carver Dana Andrews on this date in 1909—is titled Hollywood Enigma. For many folks in the motion picture industry, including prod ...
“It’s round-up time/On the Double-R Bar…”(Post)“America’s favorite singing cowboy,” Gene Autry, began his long-running radio series Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch in January of 1940. It was fitting that the man who began his lengthy motion picture ...
Happy Birthday, George Fenneman!(Post)Despite his incredible career as a radio/TV announcer and emcee, George Watt Fenneman—born in Peking (now Beijing), China on this date in 1919—was never hesitant about crediting the job that secur ...
Happy Birthday, Robert Young!(Post)During his lengthy career in show business, Robert George Young—born on this date in 1907—cultivated a characteristic that’s best described in one word: dependable. He was a reliable leading man f ...
Happy Birthday, Irene Dunne!(Post)Irene Dunne is acknowledged by many classic movie fans to be the greatest actress who never won an Academy Award. It wasn’t for a lack of trying: she was nominated five times—for Cimarron (1931), ...
Happy Birthday, Bing Crosby!(Post)At one time in the 1940s, the man born Harry Lillis “Bing” Crosby, Jr. in Tacoma, Washington on this date in 1903 was the top-selling recording star…the number-one box office attraction…and the mo ...
Happy Birthday, Peg Lynch!(Post)The domestic comedy The Private Lives of Ethel and Albert had its official network radio premiere on May 29, 1944 over NBC Blue, but the idea for the program had been germinating in the mind of Pe ...
“You’re durn tootin’, Hoppy!”(Post)The August 11, 1941 broadcast of CBS’ Forecast marked the first time the character of Hopalong Cassidy was offered up to radio audiences as a potential series, much in the same manner as fellow B- ...
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 ...
“Atsa funny thing—when I’m-a say it, itsa come out different…”(Post)Describing himself at one time as “a reformed introvert,’ writer Cy Howard decided to get into radio after quitting a $70-a-week position as a salesman in Chicago. He had a taste of success in th ...
Happy Birthday, Bert Lahr!(Post)In his indispensable reference book The Great Movie Shorts, film historian Leonard Maltin made this observation of Leon Errol: “There are comedians, comics, and a few clowns around, but funnymen a ...
“…and that’s with a U.S. Marshal and the smell of…Gunsmoke!”(Post)“If I had known it would last this long, I would never have created the darn thing.” So observed John Meston, the writer who—along with director-producer Norman Macdonnell—can claim responsibilit ...