At the height of her popularity in the 1940s, Judy Canova—born in Starke, Florida on this date in 1913—started a pigtails-and-calico fad among female students on college campuses. Juliette Canova, ...
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 ...
“…ace cameraman who covers the crime news of the great city…”(Post)Turner Classic Movies occasionally schedules a 1956 film noir directed by Fritz Lang entitled While the City Sleeps. In the film, a troubled young man (John Drew Barrymore) has embarked on a killi ...
Happy Birthday, Berry Kroeger!(Post)Berry Kroeger’s initial show business ambition was to become a concert pianist. Kroeger didn’t lack for talent, you understand—but being painfully shy and terrified of performing threatened to si ...
Review: Boston Blackie and the Law (1946)(Post)Previously on the Radio Spirits blog, I discussed Alias Boston Blackie (1942), the third entry in the popular Columbia Pictures movie franchise—it’s a holiday-themed picture, with the events takin ...
Happy Birthday, Willard Waterman!(Post)This Saturday, August 31, will mark the 72nd anniversary of one of radio’s most popular and successful sitcoms, The Great Gildersleeve—a program that any old time radio fan worth their salt will t ...
Happy Birthday, Olan Soule!(Post)In 1947, when the dramatic anthology The First Nighter Program moved from its long-time Chicago home to Hollywood, leading man Olan Soule—born in La Harpe, Illinois on this date in 1909—relocated ...
A birthday valentine to Jack Benny(Post)Today is Valentine’s Day. You’ve been seeing TV commercials for weeks now, and I’ll bet dollars to donuts most of the stores had their Valentine’s Day displays up the day after New Year’s. Every ...
Happy Birthday, Portland Hoffa!(Post)It pains me to have to say this…but I have heard from many an old-time radio devotee that Portland Hoffa—born on this date in 1905—is an acquired taste. Her trademark high-pitched voice as husban ...
Happy Birthday, Dick Haymes!(Post)The man born Richard Benjamin Haymes in Buenos Aires, Argentina on this date in 1918 was at one time a serious rival to Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra in the pop music arena of the 1940s. Ironicall ...
So This is New York (1948): “Shucks and Friday!”(Post)Playwright George S. Kaufman once observed: “Satire is what closes on Saturday night.” Perhaps this famous quote might be able to explain the dismal box-office take of So This is New York (1948), ...
Happy Birthday, Florence Halop!(Post)A September 1935 edition of Radio Mirror spotlights child stars on the radio in one of its articles, mentioning such talents as Walter Tetley and Billy Halop. Billy wasn’t the only member of the Ha ...