The Man of Steel made his comic book debut in Action Comics on April 18, 1938, and less than a year later (in January of 1939), the costumed superhero creation of Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster wou ...
Happy Birthday, Fred MacMurray!(Post)With his first credited film appearance in 1935’s Grand Old Girl, it didn’t take long before Frederick Martin MacMurray—born in Kankakee, IL on this date in 1908—became one of the silver screen’s ...
Happy Birthday, Richard Denning!(Post)If I stated up front that the man who’s in our birthday spotlight today transcended his meager beginnings as a mere thespian and eventually became the governor of a state…well, you’d probably assu ...
Happy Birthday, Peg Lynch!(Post)The domestic comedy The Private Lives of Ethel and Albert had its official network radio premiere on May 29, 1944 over NBC Blue, but the idea for the program had been germinating in the mind of Pe ...
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 ...
Happy Birthday, Francis “Dink” Trout!(Post)In the Golden Age of Radio, actors were often called upon to play “meek” individuals—or whatever nickname you prefer: wimp, nebbish, milquetoast, etc. The gold standard for these portrayals might ...
Happy Birthday, Jeanette Nolan!(Post)Actress Jeanette Nolan—born in Los Angeles on this date in 1911—met future husband John McIntire while working on a West Coast radio program in the 1930s. John was the announcer for a show on whi ...
Happy Birthday, Chester Lauck!(Post)On April 26, 1936, the small Arkansas town of Waters officially changed its name to Pine Ridge. It wasn’t because they were on the lam from the law or ducking creditors, however—the inspiration c ...
Happy Birthday, Minerva Pious!(Post)The legendary Fred Allen had words of high praise in his book Treadmill to Oblivion for long-time Fred Allen Show regular Minerva Pious, who was born on this date in either 1903 (according to most ...
Radio’s home folks(Post)It’s difficult to describe the sublime joys of Vic and Sade—which premiered over NBC Blue on this date in 1932—to anyone unfamiliar with old-time radio. Come to think of it, it’s not easy with peo ...
Happy Birthday, Nelson Eddy!(Post)When asked one time why he refused to watch any of the nineteen motion pictures he appeared in between 1933 and 1947, the man born Nelson Ackerman Eddy on this date in 1901 was refreshingly honest: ...
“Better things for better living, through chemistry…”(Post)A dilemma faced E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, a Wilmington, Delaware firm founded in 1802 as a gunpowder mill. It was that whole gunpowder thing, of which DuPont manufactured plenty during ...