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 ...
Oh, my Papa…(Post)Every third Sunday in June, we celebrate Father’s Day—a national holiday recognizing the importance of fatherhood, paternal bonds and really, the societal influence of fathers in general. Here at ...
Happy Birthday, Joan Banks!(Post)In 1949, at the height of the success of radio’s My Friend Irma, actress Cathy Lewis—who originated the character of roommate Jane Stacy on the popular sitcom—was forced to briefly hand over the r ...
Happy Birthday, Shirley Mitchell!(Post)With the celebration of her ninety-fourth birthday today (she was born in 1919), actress Shirley Mitchell is the last surviving recurring cast member of I Love Lucy. Couch potatoes remember Shirl ...
Happy Birthday, Tommy Cook!(Post)One night in 1941, child actor Tommy Cook was determined to see the Republic cliffhanger serial Jungle Girl. You see, he had a part in that motion picture as a native boy, Kimbu, so he stealthily ...
Happy Birthday, Groucho Marx!(Post)If comedian Groucho Marx—born Julius Henry Marx in New York City on this date in 1890—had achieved his childhood ambition of becoming a doctor…well, the world would know a little less laughter. F ...
Happy Birthday, Joseph Julian!(Post)At the time I borrowed Joseph Julian’s This Was Radio from my hometown public library as a kid, I wasn’t all that familiar with the distinguished actor born Joseph Shapiro in St. Marys, Pennsylvan ...
Happy Birthday, John Larkin!(Post)“If you think you want to be a radio actor, go to a small station.” That’s the advice that John William Larkin, born in Oakland, California on this date in 1912, gave in a 1952 article of Radio-TV ...
Happy Birthday, Benita Hume!(Post)When Jack Benny and his writers concocted the script that would introduce actor Ronald Colman as Jack’s “next door neighbor” on The Jack Benny Program, the writers’ first inclination was to hire a ...
Happy Birthday, Barbara Eiler!(Post)You’re familiar with the old cliché: a young girl leaves her hometown and heads for Hollywood, determined to become an actress…nay, not just an actress—a star! All that needs to be done is to han ...
Review: Boston Blackie’s Chinese Venture (1949)(Post)No sooner has Horatio “Boston Blackie” Black (Chester Morris) dropped off a bundle of dirty clothes to his laundryman, Charley Wu, when frenemy Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) wants a few answer ...
Happy Birthday, Anne Whitfield!(Post)At the height of The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show’s popularity, radio audiences were often curious to know whether the children on the program—based on the couple’s real-life offspring, Alice Faye ...