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 ...
Happy Birthday, Paul Dubov!(Post)The 1968 feature film comedy With Six You Get Eggroll served as actress-singer Doris Day’s cinematic swan song. Dodo would turn her attention to television after Eggroll’s release, with a success ...
Happy Birthday, Jack Webb!(Post)The infamous poaching of radio stars from NBC—known to old-time radio fans as the “talent raids”—was perpetrated by rival CBS. They seduced big names like Jack Benny, Red Skelton, and Amos & An ...
“Personal notice: danger’s my stock-in-trade…”(Post)While attempting to make a name for himself as an actor in motion pictures, Bob Bailey did a little freelancing in radio. Though under contract to 20th Century-Fox, he discovered that he enjoyed ...
Happy Birthday, Herb Ellis!(Post)It’s not often that we here at the Radio Spirits blog get an opportunity to blow a noisemaker and celebrate the natal anniversary of an old-time radio performer who’s still with us—but that’s what ...
Happy Birthday, Jeff Corey!(Post)In May of 2017, the memoirs of character actor Jeff Corey—born Arthur Zwerling in Brooklyn on this date in 1914—were published to much critical acclaim. Written with his daughter Emily, Improvisi ...
Happy Birthday, Barry Sullivan!(Post)When actor Barry Sullivan—born Patrick Barry Sullivan in 1912 on this date in New York City—was approached to star in Harbourmaster, a television series from the prolific Ziv studios, he had one q ...
Happy Birthday, Barton Yarborough!(Post)Despite the fact that radio’s I Love a Mystery had closed up shop over CBS Radio on December 29, 1944, Columbia Pictures wanted to adapt the popular “blood-and-thunder” melodrama for the silver sc ...
Happy Birthday, Wally Maher!(Post)In the annals of movie animation, there was never a cartoon character quite like Screwball “Screwy” Squirrel. Described by author-historian Leonard Maltin in Of Mice and Magic as possessing “all ...
Happy Birthday, Lou Krugman!(Post)It seems odd that an actor who claimed to have emoted on over 10,000 radio broadcasts and provided voiceovers for 700 commercials doesn’t even rate an entry at Wikipedia…it’s a crime against the a ...
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, 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 ...
Happy Birthday, William Johnstone!(Post)Old-time radio fans know that when Orson Welles made the decision to abandon his role as Lamont Cranston (aka The Shadow) and go on to better things (scaring the daylights out of listeners on Hall ...
Happy Birthday, William Johnstone!(Post)Old-time radio fans know that when Orson Welles made the decision to abandon his role as Lamont Cranston (aka The Shadow) and go on to better things (scaring the daylights out of listeners on Hall ...
Happy Birthday, Joan Alexander!(Post)In 1938, aspiring actress Joan Alexander found herself in Vienna after a lengthy tour of major cities in North America, Latin America, and Europe while studying her craft. The former model was und ...
Happy Birthday, Hanley Stafford!(Post)The actor who achieved his greatest fame on radio as the best foil Fanny Brice’s Baby Snooks could ever wish for was born on this date in 1899 as Alfred John Austin. His birthplace of Hanley in St ...