He’s acknowledged by many to have been one of the finest straight men in comedy—if not the finest. This, however, does George Burns a disservice. The man born on this date in 1896 immodestly att ...
Happy Anniversary, George & Gracie!(Post)By 1922, entertainer George Burns was a vaudeville “veteran.” He knew enough about show business to understand what would work in a stage act and what wouldn’t, although his own career was disting ...
Happy Birthday, George Fenneman!(Post)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 ...
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 ...
“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 ...
Let’s have another cup of coffee…(Post)No less an authority than TV Guide declared Father Knows Best to be “the quintessentially comforting 50s sitcom.” A generation of dedicated couch potatoes never missed a weekly visit with the Ande ...
Happy Birthday, Frances Robinson!(Post)“Danger’s my stock-in-trade,” observed George Valentine weekly on the popular Mutual crime drama Let George Do It. For actress Frances Robinson, who played George’s loyal gal Friday, Claire “Broo ...
“Laugh a while/Let a song/Be your style…”(Post)Though he had firmly established his persona as a flashy, hard-drinking playboy with an eye for exquisite female pulchritude on The Jack Benny Program, bandleader Phil Harris would find himself “d ...
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 ...
“And now, let’s see what’s going on down in Pine Ridge…”(Post)On this date in 1931, radio listeners paid their first visit to the sleepy little Arkansas hamlet of Pine Ridge to sit around the stove at the general mercantile known as “The Jot ‘Em Down Store.” ...
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, 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 ...