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 ...
Happy Birthday, Shirley Temple!(Post)There’s a classic Jack Benny Show telecast from the 1960s (but really…aren’t they all classics?) where Jack, having ordered a “Shirley Temple” (a non-alcoholic drink made with ginger ale and grena ...
Happy Birthday, Gerald Mohr!(Post)Actor Gerald Mohr—born in New York City on this date in 1914—might have gone through life more formally addressed as “Dr. Gerald Mohr” had it not been for a bout of appendicitis. You see, having gr ...
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 ...
Happy Birthday, Red Skelton!(Post)The town of Vincennes, Indiana welcomed Richard Bernard “Red” Skelton into their midst on this date in 1913…and got the best of the bargain, because their favorite son spent most of his show busin ...
“San Francisco, 1875…the Carlton Hotel…headquarters of the man called…Paladin!”(Post)By the beginning of the 1950s, television had started to make major inroads as the preferred home entertainment source for household families…leaving radio to play the unenviable role of middle ch ...
“The story of your police force in action.”(Post)Joe Friday: Room 5. That was the title of the script for a proposed TV pilot, written by Herb Ellis and Jack Webb, as 1948 was marching to a close. If this treatment about a “private eye” had bee ...
That whistle is your signal for the anniversary…of The Whistler…(Post)On this date in 1942, radio’s best-known omniscient narrator took the first of what would be many strolls by night…and by the time that final curtain was brought down on The Whistler on September ...
Happy Birthday, James Stewart!(Post)James Maitland Stewart, the Academy Award-winning actor beloved by theatergoers as “the boy next door” was born on this date in Indiana, Pennsylvania in 1908. Jimmy took home Oscar gold for his un ...
Review: Boston Blackie’s Rendezvous (1945)(Post)As he and his sidekick The Runt (George E. Stone) settle in for the night, Horatio “Boston Blackie” Black (Chester Morris) gets an unexpected visit from his wealthy friend Arthur Manleder (Harry H ...
Happy Birthday, Sydney Greenstreet!(Post)Despite appearances in only two dozen films in an eight-year time span, Sydney Hughes Greenstreet—born on this date in 1879—remains one of the motion picture industry’s best-remembered character a ...
Happy Birthday, Alan Ladd!(Post)Old-time radio legend Frank Nelson (The Jack Benny Program) shared the following anecdote in Leonard Maltin’s The Great American Broadcast: “I had a friend who did just bits with me in radio shows ...
Happy Birthday, Herbert Marshall!(Post)The man born Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall on this date in 1890 is revered by classic movie mavens as one of the premiere leading men in motion pictures in the 1930s and 1940s. Marshall graced s ...
Review: Radio Stars on Parade (1945)(Post)Effervescent chanteuse Sally Baker (Frances Langford) is a success at a nightclub owned by racketeer Lucky Maddox (Sheldon Leonard)—but when Maddox’s attentions start to drift towards a more amoro ...
“Dad-rat the dad-ratted…”(Post)On this date in 1940, one of radio’s best-remembered running gags was introduced…and it was as simple as opening up a closet door. The March 5, 1940 broadcast of The Johnson Wax Program with Fibbe ...
Happy Birthday, Bernard Lenrow!(Post)When the popular radio crime anthology known as The Mollé Mystery Theatre premiered over NBC in the fall of 1943, the host of that series—”annotator” Geoffrey Barnes—was portrayed by an actor name ...