Cavalcade productions. The writing was from the best hands in the business, young playwright Arthur Miller becoming (as Barnouw remembers it) a kind of utility man who could be tapped for spur-of-the-...
CAB CALLOWAY, a showman who popularized the ballad Minnie the Moocher and took for his trademark the catchphrase Heigh-de-ho.
By May 16, the role had been filled by Earle Graser, a slender young man who had joined the station in the summer of 1931. Graser’s voice soon became as well known as the president’s, though his name...
But momentum picked up in Oakland. The fans had been primed—Goodman records were getting good West Coast air play, and the Oakland date was a boost for everyone. They drove into Los Angeles for the Au...
BROADCAST HISTORY: 1935–36, WMCA, New York (premiere date March 31, 1935). Sept. 20–Dec. 20, 1936, NBC. 60m, Sundays at 8. Chase and Sanborn. HOST: A. L. Alexander. Goodwill Court offered legal help t...
As many as three characters were murdered in a single quarter-hour ILAM episode. People were killed in ghoulish, imaginative, and sometimes mystifying ways. Throats were ripped out by wolves; there we...
And the closings were also done to formula. There was always a señorita, and Cisco always collected his kiss. Said Radio Life: For each dark-eyed conquest he has a string of pearls (’they belonged to...
An example of such was the story of three travelers who crash their car and are thrown back into prehistoric times. They encounter a Neanderthal man who doesn’t respond to reason and must be shot. Thi...
After his discharge, he rented an office and opened for business. There were no portable recorders then: the smallest was a bulky wire recorder whose two parts weighed more than 100 pounds. He would h...
After a short trial as a weekly show, the serial leaped to a 1932 rating of 25 points, becoming one of the all-time favorites of the air. Berg journeyed into the Lower East Side for her research, brow...
Ace was an original: a fiercely independent writer who seemed proud to have made it in radio without pandering to lowest common denominators or playing for belly laughs. Every year he placed an ad in...
A rumor persists that Kato was Japanese until the events of Dec. 7, 1941, when abruptly he became Filipino. This seems to be false, as Kato was described as a Filipino of Japanese descent at least two...
A banker’s wife with two children, Woodman undertook the story-gathering pilgrimage and was soon writing one of the most respected dramas of early radio. One of the sponsor’s employees in California,...
The initial guiding principle was simple: Buy the rights to a fine play, hire the biggest names available, and hope the public will listen. But competition for big names was fierce in New York. When f...
McGARRY AND HIS MOUSE, comedy detective drama. BROADCAST HISTORY: June 26–Sept. 25, 1946, NBC. 30m, Wednesdays at 9. Summer substitute for Eddie Cantor. Jan. 6–March 31, 1947, Mutual. 30m, Mondays at...
And though there were far fewer radio opportunities for black bands than for their white counterparts, it was through remote broadcasts from the Cotton Club that the general public first heard of Duke...
As early as 1953 there was talk of television. Perhaps Macdonnell saw the writing on the wall when he told the press that our show is perfect for radio, that Gunsmoke confined by a picture couldn’t po...