On radio, one of the rare daytime dramas to stand out from its weepy brethren and sistren was Hilltop House—a series that took place in an orphanage located in the fictional town of Glendale and s ...
The Return of the Whistler (1948): “Yes, I know the nameless terrors…”(Post)On a night that’s raining felines and canines, Theodore “Ted” Nichols (Michael Duane) and his French fiancée Alice Dupres Barkley (Lenore Aubert) reach the home of the justice of the peace who’s g ...
Happy Birthday, Maurice Tarplin!(Post)A 1946 issue of Radio Mirror noted that “practically everyone connected with the Boston Blackie show is a former athlete.” Radio Mirror was not publishing “fake news”: the show’s star, Richard Ko ...
“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 ...
“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, Paul McGrath!(Post)On May 29, 1945, radio’s popular Inner Sanctum Mysteries welcomed inside “the creaking door” a new host to replace the departing Raymond Edward Johnson. The new master of ceremonies who welcomed ...
Happy Birthday, Lawrence Dobkin!(Post)There are eight million stories in the naked city…and today we’ll highlight one of them, by celebrating the 95th birthday of the actor who narrated those tales on one of television’s most memorabl ...
Voice of the Whistler (1945): “I know many strange tales…”(Post)Voice of the Whistler (1945), the fourth entry in Columbia’s popular B-movie series based on the CBS West Coast radio show, marked the return of future schlock director William Castle to the franc ...
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 ...
“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 ...
“...the happiest, merriest married couple in radio…”(Post)According to an anecdote in Leonard Maltin’s The Great American Broadcast, director-producer Himan Brown (who would later make his name frightening audiences with the successful radio program Inne ...
Review: The Chance of a Lifetime (1943)(Post)With the manpower shortage during World War II, reformed safecracker-jewel thief Horatio “Boston Blackie” Black (Chester Morris) apparently feels that Rosie the Riveter can’t do it alone in this n ...