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 ...
The Secret of the Whistler (1946) – “…who have stepped into the shadows…”(Post)In the sixth entry of Columbia’s popular Whistler film franchise—based on the CBS West Coast mystery program sponsored by Signal Oil—series star Richard Dix essays the role of Ralph Harrison, a ta ...
The Punch and Benny Show: Love Thy Neighbor (1940)(Post)Four years after the celebrated radio “feud” between comedians Jack Benny and Fred Allen got underway, Paramount Pictures decided to cash in on the fun with a film starring Jack and Fred entitled ...
“Herewith, an Englishman’s account of life and death in the West…”(Post)On this date in 1958, a western — that old-time radio historian John Dunning once described (in Tune in Yesterday) as “the only serious rival to Gunsmoke in the radio Hall of Fame” — premiered over ...
“From Times Square to Columbus Circle…the gaudiest, the most violent—the lonesomest mile in the world…”(Post)By the beginning of the 1950s, radio crime drama began to develop a new breed of program that, in the words of old-time radio historian Jim Cox, “witnessed a forbidding side of law enforcement in ...
Yours Truly, Harold Dunlap: Inner Sanctum (1948)(Post)Some time back, a PR representative was nice enough to send me a promotional copy of a DVD box set entitled Dark Crimes: a collection of fifty films and television episodes centering on the subjec ...
Happy Birthday, J. Carrol Naish!(Post)At the beginning of each weekly broadcast of the radio sitcom Life with Luigi, the program’s announcer would introduce Luigi star J. Carrol Naish as “that celebrated actor.” Truer words were neve ...
Happy Birthday, Dorothy Lamour!(Post)The woman born on this date in 1914 is best remembered by moviegoers as someone who made something as simple as a sarong look mighty good…while traipsing down various roads alongside crooner Bing ...
So This is New York (1948): “Shucks and Friday!”(Post)Playwright George S. Kaufman once observed: “Satire is what closes on Saturday night.” Perhaps this famous quote might be able to explain the dismal box-office take of So This is New York (1948), ...
Happy Birthday, Irene Tedrow!(Post)I’d never be able to prove it in a court of law…but I’d be willing to gamble that when the need arose for an actress to play the part of a spinster or neighborhood busybody, Irene Tedrow was on ev ...
Happy Birthday, George W. Trendle!(Post)“There were many tight-fisted broadcasting officials in the Golden Age of Radio, but probably none more pernicious the George W. Trendle, the owner of WXYZ in Detroit.” So wrote author/Radio Spir ...
Happy Birthday, Mel Blanc!(Post)In the 1949 Looney Tunes short Curtain Razor, cartoon star Porky Pig channels his inner Major Bowes by auditioning acts at a talent agency. One client, a turtle, brags that he is “the man of a th ...
Happy Birthday, Barbara Britton!(Post)The actress fondly remembered by classic television and old-time radio fans for portraying the female half of the sleuthing couple known as Mr. and Mrs. North was born in 1919 on this date in Long ...
Happy Birthday, Joseph Kearns!(Post)In the 1950s, with technological strides being embraced by the dying medium of radio, the Columbia Broadcasting System started using Hammond electric organs for “fill music” on their broadcast pro ...
Happy Birthday, Henry Fonda!(Post)For actor Henry Fonda, the old “third time’s the charm” idiom certainly rang true in 1982. He was recognized by his peers at the Academy Awards ceremony that year and awarded the Best Actor in a L ...
Happy Birthday, Walter O’Keefe!(Post)If the man born Walter Michael O’Keefe in Hartford, Connecticut on this date in 1900 had pursued his ambition to join the priesthood…well, the Church’s gain would surely have been our loss. We wou ...