“Philo Vance/Needs a kick in the pance” Ogden Nash once rhymed in a memorable couplet. Nash’s editorial comment was addressing the one-time popularity of author S.S. Van Dine’s famed sleuth. Afte ...
Review: After Midnight with Boston Blackie (1943)(Post)Jewel thief “Diamond” Ed Barnaby (Walter Baldwin) has just been paroled from prison, and his loving daughter Betty (Ann Savage) is anxious to make a new life with him…but “Diamond” Ed has a few lo ...
Review: One Mysterious Night (1944)(Post)It costs only a dollar—1/100th of a C-note—to gaze at a display of precious gems at the Carleton Plaza Hotel, an event that’s fundraising for the war effort…and that features the Blue Star of the ...
Happy Birthday, Ed Max!(Post)Though its radio run was brief (from July 3, 1947 to February 14, 1948), The Voyage of the Scarlet Queen has rightfully earned its reputation among old-time radio fans as a series that showcased h ...
Happy Birthday, Bea Benaderet!(Post)On this date in New York City in 1906, Samuel and Margaret Benaderet welcomed one of radio and TV’s finest supporting comedic talents into the world. Their daughter Beatrice—or Bea, as she was bet ...
Happy Centennial Birthday, Parley Baer!(Post)Simply put, the actor born in 1914 on this date in Salt Lake City, Utah possessed one of the most distinctive voices in the multiple mediums of radio, TV, and movies. Let me illustrate with a pers ...
Happy Birthday, Ed Gardner!(Post)It was on a short-lived radio series entitled This is New York that comedian Ed Gardner found his creative muse…playing a pugnacious New Yorker who answered to “Archie.” Gardner was the show’s pr ...
Happy Birthday, Eleanor Audley!(Post)The epitaph on the headstone adorning the final resting place of actress Eleanor Audley reads: “A Kind Friend to All.” And while it’s undeniably true that Audley—born Eleanor Zellman on this date ...
Happy Birthday, Edward G. Robinson!(Post)To start off our birthday tribute today…a bit of trivia: the “G” in actor Edward G. Robinson’s name stands for “Goldenberg”—for Eddie G. was born Emanuel Goldenberg in Bucharest, Romania one hundr ...
“The world doesn’t make any heroes outside of your stories.”(Post)A collaboration between author Graham Greene (his only original screenplay), producer David O. Selznick, and movie director Carol Reed resulted in a true cinematic masterpiece: 1949’s The Third Ma ...
“...the whole drama of life is written in the sands of time…”(Post)From the late 1930s to the late 1950s, Lawrence Klee was one of the busiest scribes working in radio—largely owing to his employment with the Hummert daytime drama factory, which churned out “soap ...
Happy Birthday, Herb Vigran!(Post)The man born Herbert (some sources spell it “Herburt”) Vigran in Cincinnati, Ohio on this date in 1910 would become one of show business’ most distinctive character actors. His easily recognize ...