The initial shows were put together from verbal requests, but soon the mail poured in. For producers Wheaton and Knight, every mailbag was an adventure. One soldier wanted only to hear actress Carole...
The Man Behind the Gun was a major series, highly respected within the industry and by the modest but enthusiastic audience that heard it. It was a three-time winner of Billboard’s top documentary pro...
The Hermit’s Cave became nationally known, spreading from its local origin through the syndication of its Detroit version to many large markets. The Mummers co-titled their show The Little Theater of...
Newspapers ran the wrong mugshots, and it was the self-fulfilling prophecy: the studios, believing his name had been damaged, canceled his contracts. Only four years later did Hopalong Cassidy ride up...
Man has always looked to the heavens for help and inspiration, and from the skies too will come his victory and his future.
MAGIC ISLAND, fantasy juvenile serial. BROADCAST HISTORY: 1936, transcribed syndication, 15m continuation: the fictionalized search by Mrs. Patricia Gregory for her young daughter Joan, shipwrecked in...
Jackson Beck as the Cisco Kid, O. Henry’s beloved badman who rides the romantic trail that leads sometimes to adventure, often to danger, but always to beautiful señoritas. Louis Sorin as Pancho, his...
In 1940, it wasn’t surprising when an elderly couple was arrested for speeding through the Broadway tunnel in San Francisco and used this as their defense: it was time for The Lone Ranger, and they co...
His first New Year’s broadcast aired on WBBM, Chicago, in 1927. His theme song, Auld Lang Syne, was already a traditional year-ender, and soon Lombardo became known as the man who invented New Year’s...
His book has an index of closet jokes: how many were done, who opened the closet door (Fibber did, 83 of 128 times), and what he was seeking there (everything from Mayor LaTrivia’s hat on the show of...
He was hired at WOR in March 1925 and a few months later was asked to fill in for Bernarr MacFadden, who had a calisthentics program. Gambling’s smooth baritone voice contrasted well with MacFadden’s...
He fretted over a cigarette case he had bought his brother-in-law for Christmas, then exchanged it, and learned that his brother-in-law had quit smoking.
Harry Tugend had abandoned radio to write films; Allen’s writers were now Arnold Auerbach and Herman Wouk (later famous as the author of The Caine Mutiny and other bestselling novels). Wouk and Auerba...
Fred Allen was perhaps the most admired of radio comics. His fans included the president of the United States, critically acclaimed writers, and the intelligentsia of his peers. William Faulkner was s...
Casey, Crime Photographer had more history than substance. It was a B-grade radio detective show, on a par perhaps with The Falcon, better than Mr. Keen, but lacking the polish and style of Sam Spade....
CRIME CLUB, murder-mystery anthology, based on and featuring some of the stories in the Doubleday Crime Club novel imprint.
But soon the characters underwent a strange metamorphosis, a process that always happens as props become flesh and blood. Chester became more humorous, Dillon more understanding, Doc less bloodthirsty...
Benny’s most famous gag, when a robber demanded, Your money or your life! and the hilarity kept building while Benny thought it over.
A far more serious loss that year was Oscar Levant, who left as Maurice Zolotow reported, when a series of arguments with Golenpaul culminated in a fistfight.
Automaker’s admen to persuade J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Division of Investigation (soon to be FBI), to cooperate. Hoover was less than thrilled, but his reluctance was countered by the approval...