Fun promo and podcast for the 1973 Zero Hour radio show!

Rare High Quality Stereo version of these hard to find Zero Hour episodes!

The Zero Hour (aka Hollywood Radio Theater) was a 1973-74 radio drama anthology series hosted by Rod Serling.^[1] With tales of mystery, adventure and suspense, the program aired in stereo for two seasons. Some of the scripts were written by Serling.^[2]

Originally placed into syndication on Septermber 3, 1973, the series was picked up by the Mutual Broadcasting System in December of that year. The original format featured five-part dramas broadcast Monday through Friday with the story coming to a conclusion on Friday. Including commercials, each part was approximately 30 minutes long. Mutual affiliates could broadcast the series in any time slot that they wished.

In 1974, still airing five days a week, the program changed to a full story in a single 30-minute installment with the same actor starring throughout the week in all five programs. That format was employed from late April 1974 to the end of the series on July 26, 1974.

Producer J.M. Kholos was a Los Angeles advertising man who acquired the rights to suspense novels, including Tony Hillerman's The Blessing Way, for radio adaptations. In some cases, the titles were changed. For example, the five-part "Desperate Witness" was an adaptation of The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing. To create a strong package, Kholos followed through by lining up top actors, including John Astin, Edgar Bergen, Joseph Campanella, Richard Crenna, John Dehner, Howard Duff, Patty Duke, Nina Foch, George Maharis, Susan Oliver, Brock Peters and Lurene Tuttle.

The opening theme music was by Ferrante & Teicher. Don Hill produced the series for StudioHouse, which also produced the Salvation Army's Heartbeat Theatre. Counting each five-part show as five episodes, there were a total of 130 episodes. It failed to find a large audience due to the initial weekly serial format and the lack of promotion. According to director Elliott Lewis, "They wanted as much name value as possible to help with sales. They forgot they had to sell it. Everybody sat in the office and waited for someone to call them up and buy the show.

60 years ago with Gildersleeve!

60 years ago today with Goucho!

Elliott Lewis was in high demand on radio, and he displayed a talent for everything from comedy to melodrama. He gave voice to Rex Stout's roguish private eye Archie Goodwin, playing opposite Francis X. Bushman in The Amazing Nero Wolfe (1946). He played adventurer Phillip Carney on the Mutual Broadcasting System's Voyage of the Scarlet Queen.

But perhaps Lewis' most famous role on radio was that of the hard-living, trouble-making left-handed guitar player Frankie Remley on NBC's The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. This character, based on a former band mate of Harris', served only one purpose: To get Phil into trouble. The trouble usually began when Frankie, in response to a request, complaint or musing from Harris, would speak the line that was to become his signature: "I know a guy..." . Later on in the series, the character went by the name Elliott Lewis. It seems use of the name "Frankie Remley" on radio belonged neither to the real Mr. Remley nor to Phil Harris, but to the Jack Benny radio show, on which Harris was a cast member.

When Benny moved his show from NBC to CBS in 1949, rights to use references to Remley went with him. So when the new season of the Harris show began, suddenly the character "Frankie Remley" became the character "Elliott Lewis." Since the two shows ran consecutively, Benny at 5 p.m. Pacific Time, 8 p.m. Eastern, and Harris at 5:30, and since Harris was on both shows, and both were aired live, once Benny switched networks Harris had to run or hop in a waiting car and fight traffic for the two blocks from CBS's studios on Sunset Boulevard at Gower Street in Hollywood to the NBC studios at Sunset and Vine.

Lewis's other most famous voicing was not on radio but on record. He is the narrator and male lead of Gordon Jenkins' musical narrative album "Manhattan Tower," both the original 10 inch lp and the later recorded, expanded 12 inch lp version of the musical story.

During the run of The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, Lewis took over as a director of the well-known radio series Suspense. On the May 10, 1951, broadcast, Lewis reversed roles with Harris in the play Death on My Hands. A band leader, played by Harris, is horrified when an autograph-seeking fan accidentally shoots herself and dies in his hotel room. A singer (played by Harris' wife and radio costar Alice Faye) comes to his aid as the townsfolk blame him for the girl's death and call for vigilante justice against him.

Lewis was also heard on episodes of The Clock, The Adventures of Maisie and literally hundreds of other shows. He claimed that acting came to him too easily, and that he preferred to write and to direct. As a producer, director and writer, Lewis also worked on such radio programs as Broadway Is My Beat, Crime Classics and numerous other shows. He was considered one of the top talents in the radio world. In all, Lewis was involved in over 900 radio productions.

In the 1970s, Lewis produced radio dramas during a brief reincarnation of the medium. In 1973-74, he directed Mutual's The Zero Hour, hosted by Rod Serling. In 1979, he produced the Sears Radio Theater with Sears as the sole sponsor. In 1980 the series moved from CBS to Mutual and was renamed The Mutual Radio Theater, sponsored by Sears and other sponsors.

The wonderful Ed Wynn guest stars on tonights episode!

Radio

Although many gag writers later provided material for Wynn's performances in radio, television and movies, it was his proud boast that every line he ever spoke during his early career as a stage performer was written by himself.

He hosted a popular radio show, The Fire Chief for most of the 1930s, heard in North America on Tuesday nights, sponsored by Texaco gasoline. Like many former vaudeville performers who turned to radio in the same decade, the stage-trained Wynn insisted on playing for a live studio audience, doing each program as an actual stage show, using visual bits to augment his written material, and in his case, wearing a colorful costume with a red fireman's helmet. He usually bounced his gags off announcer/straight man Graham McNamee; Wynn's customary opening, "Tonight, Graham, the show's gonna be different," became one of the most familiar tag-lines of its time. Sample joke: "Graham, my uncle just bought a new second-handed car... he calls it Baby! I don't know, it won't go anyplace without a rattle!"

Wynn was a radio superstar who reprised his radio character in two movies, Follow the Leader (1930) and The Chief (1933). Near the height of his radio fame he founded his own short-lived radio network, the Amalgamated Broadcasting System, which lasted only five weeks in 1933 and nearly destroyed the comedian, according to radio historian Elizabeth McLeod, who has written that the failed venture left Wynn deep in debt, divorced, and finally suffering a nervous breakdown.

Wynn was offered the title role in MGM's 1939 screen adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, but he turned down the role, as did his Ziegfeld contemporary W. C. Fields. The part finally went to Frank Morgan.

Television

In the late 1940s Ed Wynn hosted one of the first comedy-variety television shows, and won an Emmy Award in 1949. Buster Keaton made guest appearances with Wynn, establishing him in television as well. Wynn was also a rotating host of NBC's Four Star Revue from 1950 through 1952.

After the end of Wynn's third television series, The Ed Wynn Show (a short-lived situation comedy on NBC's 1958-59 schedule), his son, actor Keenan Wynn, encouraged him to make the career change rather than retire. The comedian reluctantly began a career as a dramatic actor in television and movies; father and son appeared in three productions, the first of which was the 1956 Playhouse 90 broadcast of Rod Serling's play Requiem for a Heavyweight. Ed was terrified of straight acting and kept goofing his lines in rehearsal. When the producers wanted to fire him, star Jack PalanceNed Glass was his secret understudy in case something didWestinghouse Desilu Playhouse episode, "The Man In the Funny Suit", starring both senior and junior Wynns, with key figures involved in the original production also portraying themselves. Ed and his son also worked together in the Jose Ferrer film "The Great Man", with Ed again proving his unexpected skills in drama. said he would quit if they fired Ed [however, unbeknownst to Wynn, supporting player happen before air time]. On live broadcast night, Wynn surprised everyone with his pitch-perfect performance, and his quick ad libs to cover his mistakes. A dramatization of what happened during the production was later staged as an April 1960

Requiem established Wynn as serious dramatic actor who could easily hold his own with the best. His role in The Diary of Anne Frank won him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor in 1959.

Also in 1959, Wynn appeared on Serling's TV series The Twilight Zone in "One for the Angels". Serling, a longtime admirer, had written that episode especially for him, and Wynn later starred in the episode "Ninety Years Without Slumbering". For the rest of his life, Ed skillfully moved between comic and dramatic roles. He appeared in feature films and anthology television, endearing himself to new generations of fans.

50 years ago today we were in Suspense. Today's podcast gives us an explanation of Suspense moving from LA to New York in 1959!

50 years ago today, with Marshall Dillon and a paid killer!

50 tears ago today with Johnny.

50 years ago out west with Paladin!

Join Jimmy Stewart and Myrna Loy in Single Crossing!

Myrna Loy was cast as Nora Charles in the 1934 film The Thin Man. Director W. S. Van Dyke chose Loy after he detected a wit and sense of humour that her previous films had not revealed. At a Hollywood party, he pushed her into a swimming pool to test her reaction, and felt that her aplomb in handling the situation was exactly what he envisioned for Nora.^[14] Louis B. Mayer at first refused to allow Loy to play the part because he felt she was a dramatic actress, but Van Dyke insisted. Mayer finally relented on the condition filming be completed within three weeks, as Loy was committed to start filming Stamboul Quest.^[15] The Thin Man became one of the year's biggest hits, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film. Loy received excellent reviews and was acclaimed for her comedic skills. She and her costar William Powell proved to be a popular screen couple and appeared in fourteen films together, the most prolific pairing in Hollywood history. Loy later referred to The Thin Man as the film "that finally made me... after more than 80 films".^[16]

Her successes in Manhattan Melodrama and The Thin Man marked a turning point in her career and she was cast in more important pictures. Such films as Wife vs. Secretary (1936) with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow and Petticoat Fever (1936) with Robert Montgomery gave her opportunity to develop comedic skills. She made four films in close succession with William Powell: Libeled Lady (1936), which also starred Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow, The Great Ziegfeld (1936), in which she played Billie Burke opposite Powell's Florenz Ziegfeld, the second "Thin Man" film, After the Thin Man, and the romantic comedy Double Wedding (1937). She also made three more films with Clark Gable. Parnell was an historical drama and one of the most poorly received films of either Loy's or Gable's career, but their other pairings in Test Pilot and Too Hot to Handle (both 1938) were successes.

During this period, Loy was one of Hollywood's busiest and highest paid actresses, and in 1937 and 1938 she was listed in the annual "Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money Making Stars", which was compiled from the votes of movie exhibitors throughout the U.S. for the stars that had generated the most revenue in their theaters over the previous year.^[17]

By this time Loy was highly regarded for her performances in romantic comedies and she was anxious to demonstrate her dramatic ability, and was cast in the lead female role in The Rains Came (1939) opposite Tyrone Power. She filmed Third Finger, Left Hand (1940) with Melvyn Douglas and appeared in I Love You Again (1940), Love Crazy (1941) and Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), all with William Powell.

With the outbreak of World War II, she all but abandoned her acting career to focus on the war effort and worked closely with the Red Cross. She was so fiercely outspoken against Adolf Hitler that her name appeared on his blacklist. She helped run a Naval Auxiliary Canteen and toured frequently to raise funds.

60 years ago, Dorothy McGuire was in the Playhouse!

Dorothy McGuire began her acting career on the stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse. Eventually, she succeeded on Broadway, first appearing as an understudy to Martha Scott in Our Town, and subsequently starring in the domestic comedy, Claudia.

Brought to Hollywood by producer David O. Selznick on the strength of her stage performance, McGuire starred in her first film, a movie adaptation of her Broadway success, Claudia, and portrayed the character of a child bride who almost destroys her marriage through her selfishness. Her inaugural screen performance was popular with both the public and critics alike and was the catalyst for not only a sequel, Claudia and David (both movies co-starring Robert Young), but also for numerous other film roles.

McGuire had a long Hollywood career. Her versatility served her well in taut melodramas, such as The Spiral Staircase and Make Haste to Live, as well as in light, frothy comedies, such as Mother Didn't Tell Me and Mister 880. By 1943, at the age of 27, she was already playing mother roles, in such movies as A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1947 for Gentleman's Agreement. Other notable films include Three Coins in the Fountain, Friendly Persuasion, Old Yeller, Swiss Family Robinson, and The Greatest Story Ever Told.

Married to Life Magazine photographer John Swope for more than 35 years, she had a son, photographer Mark Swope, and a daughter Topo (born 1948), who also became an actress. McGuire died of cardiac arrest following a brief illness at the age of 85 in 2001.

McGuire has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6933 Hollywood Blvd.

McGuire is an alumna of private liberal arts college, Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. McGuire often contributed her time and talent to the acting program.

Another episode that we missed. I love finding more shows!

70 years ago today with Fibber and Molly and the library system.

70 years ago today,our first thanksgiving show!

Escape with John Mcintire in Ultra High Quality sound!

John McIntire (June 27, 1907 – January 30, 1991) was an American character actor.

The craggy-faced film actor was born in Spokane in eastern Washington State but reared in Montana, growing up with ranchers and cowboys which would eventually inspire his performances in dozens of westerns later in life. The USC graduate began acting in radio and on stage.

McIntire began his long movie career at the age of forty in 1947, often playing roles as police chiefs, judges and sometimes crazy coots. His filmsfilm noir classic The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and his last film playing a crazy dog owner in Turner & Hooch (1989). He also played movie villains in westerns, some of which are considered the best films of the genre: Winchester '73 (1950), The Far Country (1955), both with James Stewart, and The Tin Star, with Henry Fonda (1957), in which he was not a villain but a country physician. include the

On television, he appeared in ABC's Naked City (TV series), but his character was killed off. In the summer of 1959, he co-starred with Joan Crawford in the episode "Silent Witness of NBC's anthology series, The Joseph Cotten Show.

McIntire played trailmaster Chris Hale on the NBC-ABC series, Wagon Train, having in 1961 replaced Ward Bond as Seth Adams, who died late in 1960. He subsequently replaced actor Lee J. Cobb and Charles Bickford on NBC's The Virginian in 1967. Prior to his Wagon Train role, he guest starred as William Palmer in the series finale, "The Most Dangerous Gentleman", of the short-lived 1960 NBC western Overland Trail, starring William Bendix and Doug McClure, his subsequent co-star on The Virginian.

McIntire married fellow actor Jeanette Nolan, in 1935, and they had two children together, one of whom was the actor Tim McIntire (1944-1986) who starred in the 1978 film American Hot Wax. He also played the brief but memorable role of Sheriff Al Chambers in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), in which Nolan read some of Mother's lines and also did some voice-over screaming. McIntire worked more closely with Jeanette Nolan in Disney's 1977 The Rescuers, where he had voiced the cat Rufus and she, the muskrat Ellie Mae. Four years later, the couple worked on another Disney film, The Fox and the Hound, with McIntire as the voice of Mr. Digger, a badger, and Nolan as the voice of Widow Tweed.

Lucille Ball and Mr. Kitzel, it just doesn't get any better than that!

Western Wednesday with Raymond Burr!

60 Years ago today Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz kept us in Susense!

Desilu Productions

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz founded Desilu Productions. At this time, most television programs were broadcast live, and as the largest markets were in New York, the rest of the country received only kinescope images. Karl Freund, Arnaz's cameraman, developed the multiple-camera setup production style using adjacent sets that became the standard for all subsequent situation comedies to this day. The use of film enabled every station around the country to broadcast high-quality images of the show. Arnaz was told that it would be impossible to allow an audience onto a sound stage, but he worked with Freund to design a set that would accommodate an audience, allow filming, and also adhere to fire and safety codes.

Network executives considered the use of film an unnecessary extravagance. Arnaz convinced them to allow Desilu to cover all additional costs associated with the filming process, under the stipulation that Desilu owned and controlled all rights to the film. Arnaz's unprecedented arrangement is widely considered to be one of the shrewdest deals in television history. As a result of his foresight, Desilu reaped the profits from all reruns of the series.

Arnaz also pushed the network to allow them to show Lucille Ball while she was pregnant. According to Arnaz, the CBS network told him, "You cannot show a pregnant woman on television". Arnaz consulted a priest, a rabbi, and a minister, all of whom told him that there would be nothing wrong with showing a pregnant Lucy or with using the word pregnant. The network finally relented and let Arnaz and Ball weave the pregnancy into the story line, but remained adamant about eschewing use of pregnant, so Arnaz substituted expecting, pronouncing it 'spectin' in his Cuban accent. Oddly, the official title of the episode announcing the pregnancy was "Lucy Is Enceinte," employing the French word for pregnant, although the episode titles never appeared on the show itself.

In addition to I Love Lucy, he produced December Bride, The Mothers-in-Law, The Lucy Show, Those Whiting Girls, Our Miss Brooks, The Danny Thomas Show, The Andy Griffith Show, The Untouchables, and Star Trek, all top shows in their time, and the 1956 feature film Forever, Darling, in which he and Ball starred. His foresight in filming and retaining post-broadcast ownership of shows had a huge impact on the future of television syndication (reruns).

Time to start the build up to Thanksgiving!

60 years ago today!

60 years ago today!

60 years ago with Martin and Lewis!

60 years ago with Phil and Remley working on Phil's electricity!

60 years ago this week with Jack Benny and the gang!

50 years ago today on Gunsmoke, with a chat with me about the various formats of Gunsmoke over it's 29 seasons in radio and television.

50 years ago today we were in Suspense!

50 years ago today with Johnny Dollar!

50 years ago today with one of two westerns on the radio that survived into the 1960s!

One of the very best episodes of this wonderful western series starring Jimmy Stewart!

When working on I Wanted Wings (1941), with Brian Donlevy and William Holden, Ray Milland went up with a pilot to test a plane for filming. While up in the air, Ray decided to do a parachute jump (being an avid amateur parachutist) but, just before he could disembark, the plane began to sputter, and the pilot told Milland not to jump as they were running low on gas and needed to land. Once on the ground and in the hangar, Ray began to tell his story of how he had wanted to jump. As he did so, the color ran out of the costume man's face. When asked why, he told Ray that the parachute he had worn up in the plane was "just a prop", and that there had been no parachute. During the filming of Reap the Wild Wind (1942), Milland's character was to have curly hair. Milland's hair was naturally straight, so the studio used hot curling irons on his hair to achieve the effect. Milland felt that it was this procedure that caused him to go prematurely bald, forcing him to go from leading man to supporting player earlier than he would have wished.

The pinnacle of Milland's career and acknowledgement of his serious dramatic abilities came in 1946 when he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of an alcoholic in Billy Wilder's film The Lost Weekend (1945). He was the first Welsh actor to ever win an Oscar. He was also given an award at the first Cannes Film Festival for his performance. In 1951 he gave a heart-breaking performance in Close to My Heart starring opposite Gene Tierney as a couple trying to adopt a child; the film was ahead of its time in dealing with the "nature vs. nurture" debate, it opened a conversation about the adoption process. In 1954 he starred opposite Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder.

He concentrated on directing for TV and film from the 1955 film A Man Alone and Lisbon for Republic Pictures that he also produced. From directing film he achieved much success directing for television. He returned as a movie character actor in the late 60s and the 70s, notably in the cult classic Daughter of The Mind (1969), in which he was reunited with Gene Tierney, and in Love Story (1970). He also made many television appearances. He starred from 1953-1955 with Phyllis Avery and Lloyd Corrigan in the CBS sitcom Meet Mr. McNutley in the role of a college English and later drama professor at fictitious Lynnhaven College. The program was renamed in its second season as The Ray Milland Show. From 1959-1960, Milland starred in the CBS detective series Markham, but the program failed to capture an audience even though it followed the hit western Gunsmoke, starring James Arness.

In the late 1960s, Milland hosted rebroadcasts of certain episodes of the syndicated western anthology series, Death Valley Days under the title Trails West. Toward the end of his life, Milland appeared twice as Jennifer Hart's father in ABC's Hart to Hart, with Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers.

Milland gave the shortest acceptance speech of any Oscar winner: he simply bowed and left the stage.

Found an episode we skipped!

70 years ago with Fibber!

Radio Spirits has released a set of Phil Harris and Alice Faye Shows that contain 19 uncirculated shows out of 20, that's 95% uncirculated!  I've never seen a set quite like it.

I think this is one of those situations where we can show a company that we appreciate this way of doing business!  I have a hard time buying say a Shadow set of 20 episodes that only contains two uncirculated shows for $40 bucks, but this set of Phil Harris shows with 19 uncirculated shows out of 20 is a no-brainer to support!  Those episodes are easily worth the $2 or so you are paying per episode!  So everyone please buy this set from Radio Spirits and send e-mails supporting this mostly uncirculated shows concept!

Here is the link to the set:

The set of 19 uncirculated Phil Harris Shows from Radio Spirits

Here is the link to submit feedback to Radio Spirits, please let them know that we want more uncirculated show sets like the Phil Harris set!

Time for another high quality sound Escape with Paul Frees and William Conrad! They are my two favorite actors on this series!

Veterans Day with Jack Benny and Judy Garland!

Veterans Day is an annual American holiday honoring military veterans. A federal holiday, it is usually observed on November 11. However, if it occurs on a Sunday then the following Monday is designated for holiday leave, and if it occurs Saturday then either Saturday or Friday may be so designated.^[1] It is also celebrated as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other parts of the world, falling on November 11, the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. (Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.)

A salute to the Veterans with Eddie "Rochester" Anderson!

Remembrance Day – also known as Poppy Day, Armistice Day (the event it commemorates) or Veteran's day – is a day to commemorate the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and of civilians in times of war, specifically since the First World War. It is observed on 11 November to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918 (major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice). The day was specifically dedicated by King George V, on 7 November 1919, to the observance of members of the armed forces who were killed during war; this was possibly done upon the suggestion of Edward George Honey to Wellesley Tudor Pole, who established two ceremonial periods of remembrance based on events in 1917.

Join Mr. Kitzel, Jack Haley, Lucille Ball, and Gale Gordon together again for another episode of the Wonder Show!

Western Wednesday with Raymond Burr!

60 years ago today Van Heflin Kept us in Suspense!

Van Heflin began his acting career on Broadway in the early 1930s before being signed to a contract by RKO Radio Pictures. He made his film debut in A Woman Rebels (1936). He was signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and was initially cast in supporting roles in films such as Santa Fe Trail (1940), and Johnny Eager (1942), winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the latter performance.

MGM began to groom him as a leading man in B movies, and provided him with supporting roles in more prestigious productions. Heflin continued to hone his acting skills throughout the early 1940s. He provided a compelling characterization of the embattled President Andrew Johnson in the movie entitled "Tennessee Johnson" (1942), playing opposite (and at odds with) Lionel Barrymore who, in the role of Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, failed to have Johnson convicted in an impeachment trial by the slimmest of margins. According to the IMDB (Internet Movie Database), Heflin served during WWII as a combat cameraman in the Ninth Air Force in Europe.

His best-known film became the 1953 classic western Shane, in which he co-starred with Alan Ladd. Among his other notable film credits are Presenting Lily Mars (1943), The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), Possessed (1947), Green Dolphin Street (1947), Act of Violence (1948), The Three MusketeersThe Prowler (1951) and 3:10 to Yuma (1957). (1948),

Heflin also performed on stage throughout his acting career. Credits include The Philadelphia Story on Broadway opposite Katharine Hepburn and Joseph Cotten, and the Arthur Miller plays A Memory of Two Mondays and A View From the Bridge.

Heflin's last major role was in Airport (1970). He played "D. O. Guerrero", a failure who attempts to blow himself up on an airliner so his wife (played by Maureen Stapleton) can collect on a life insurance policy.

He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for his contributions to motion pictures at 6309 Hollywood Boulevard, and for television at 6125 Hollywood Boulevard.

60 years ago Phil was in the Television Test! In this special podcast I talk about Phil and Television, and we hear about Phil's show from Phil himself and Elliot Lewis (Remley.)

60 years ago Jack rode in a Yacht, and on the podcast we talk about Jack and early television!

70 years ago this week, Jimmy Stewart and Loretta Young were Going My Way!

Loretta Young was billed as "Gretchen Young" in the 1917 film, Sirens of the Sea. It wasn't until 1928 that she was first billed as "Loretta Young", in The Whip Woman. That same year she co-starred with Lon Chaney in the MGM film Laugh, Clown, Laugh. The next year, she was anointed one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars.

In 1930, Young, then 17, eloped with 26-year-old actor Grant Withers and married him in Yuma, Arizona. The marriage was annulled the next year, just as their second movie together (appropriately titled Too Young to Marry) was released.

During the Second World War, Young made Ladies Courageous (1944; reissued as Fury in the Sky), the fictionalized story of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. It depicted a unit of female pilots during WW2 who primarily flew bombers from the factories to their final destinations.

Young made as many as seven or eight movies a year and won an Oscar in 1947 for her performance in The Farmer's Daughter. The same year she co-starred with Cary Grant and David Niven in The Bishop's Wife, a perennial favorite that still airs on television during the Christmas season and was later remade as The Preacher's Wife with Whitney Houston. In 1949, Young received another Academy Award nomination (for Come to the Stable) and in 1953 appeared in her last film, It Happens Every Thursday, a Universal comedy about a New York couple that moves to California to take over a struggling small weekly newspaper; her costar was John Forysthe.^[1]

60 years ago this week John Garfield and William Conrad were in the Playhouse!

John Garfield became a member of the Group Theater. The Group's play Golden Boy was written for him by Clifford Odets, but ultimately he was cast in a supporting role rather than the lead.^[2] Garfield decided to leave Broadway and try his luck in Hollywood. In 1938, he received wide critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Four Daughters.

At the onset of World War II, Garfield immediately attempted to enlist in the armed forces, but was turned down because of his heart condition.^[3]Bette Davis were the driving forces behind the opening of the Hollywood Canteen, a club offering food and entertainment for American servicemen. He later traveled to Yugoslavia to help entertain for the war effort. Frustrated, he turned his energies to supporting the war effort. He and actress

Garfield graduated to leading roles in films such as The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) with Lana Turner, Humoresque (1946) with Joan Crawford, and the Oscar-winning Best Picture Gentleman's Agreement (1947). (In the latter film, Garfield took a featured, but supporting part because he believed deeply in the project.) In 1948, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his starring role in Body and Soul (1947). That same year, Garfield returned to Broadway in the play Skipper Next to God. A strong-willed and often verbally combative individual, Garfield did not hesitate to venture out on his own when the opportunity arose. In 1946, when his contract with Warner Bros. expired, Garfield decided not to renew his studio contract and opted to start his own independent production company, one of the first Hollywood stars to take this step.

Long involved in liberal politics, Garfield was caught up in the Communist scare of the late 1940s and early 1950s. He supported the Committee for the First Amendment, which opposed governmental investigation of political beliefs. When called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which was empowered to investigate purported communist infiltration in America, Garfield refused to name communist party members or followers, testifying that, indeed, he knew none in the film industry. Garfield rejected Communism, and just prior to his death, in hopes of redeeming himself in the eyes of the blacklisters, wrote that he had been duped by Communist ideology, in an unpublished article "I Was a Sucker for a Left Hook", a reference to Garfield's movies about boxing.^[4] However, his forced testimony before the committee had severely damaged his reputation. He was blacklisted in Red Channels, and barred from future employment as an actor by Hollywood movie studio bosses for the remainder of his career.^[5]

With film work scarce because of the blacklist, Garfield returned to Broadway and starred in a 1952 revival of Golden Boy, finally being cast in the lead role denied him years before.

60 years ago today Phil was in the Television Test! In this special podcast I talk about Phil and Television, and we hear about Phil's show from Phil himself and Elliot Lewis (Remley.)

70 years ago today with Jack Benny and The Women!

The Women is a 1939 film directed by George Cukor. The film is based on Claire Boothe Luce's play of the same name, and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, who toned down the innuendo for a movie audience. One of the great successes of its day, the film starred Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Mary Boland, Marjorie Main (recreating her performance as "Lucy" from the Broadway production), Virginia Grey, Phyllis Povah, Florence Nash, Ruth Hussey, Virginia Weidler, Butterfly McQueenHedda Hopper. and

The film continued the play's all-female tradition - the entire cast of more than 130 speaking roles was female. Set in the glamorous ManhattanCedric Gibbons, and in Reno where they obtain their divorces, it presents an acidic commentary on the pampered lives and power struggles of various rich, bored wives and other women they come into contact with. Throughout the film, not a single male is seen — although the males are much talked about, and the central theme is the women's relationships with them. Lesbianism is intimated in the portrayal of only one character, Nancy Blake. The attention to detail was such that even in props such as portraits only female figures are represented, and several animals which appeared as pets were also female. The only exceptions are a poster-drawing clearly of a bull in the fashion show segment and an ad on the back of the magazine Peggy reads at Mary's house before lunch. apartments of high society evoked by

Filmed in black and white, it includes a ten-minute fashion parade filmed in Technicolor, featuring Adrian's most outré designs; often cut in modern screenings, it has been restored by Turner Classic Movies. On DVD, the original black and white fashion show, which is a different take, is available for the first time.

Escape from the mundane with Barton Yarborough.

William Barton Yarborough (October 2, 1900–December 19, 1951) was an American actor who worked extensively in radio drama.

As a youth, Yarborough ran away from home, attracted by the vaudeville stages, and he first worked in radio during the 1920s. In 1932 he began a long run as Clifford Barbour One Man's Family, continuing in the role throughout his life. While on this series in the late 1930s, he met and married the actress Barbara Jo Allen, famed during the 1940s as Vera Vague on The Bob Hope Show.

Yarborough was probably best known for his roles as Doc Long on Carlton E. Morse's I Love a Mystery and Sergeant Ben Romero on Dragnet.

Yarborough's other radio work includes the role of Skip Turner in Adventures by Morse, also by Carlton E. Morse. ^[1]

Yarborough appeared as Doc Long in three movies based on the radio series I Love a Mystery: the feature films I Love a Mystery, The Devil's Mask, and The Unknown. He started work on the Dragnet television series in 1951. However, the day after he filmed the second episode, he suffered a heart attack and died four days later at age 51.

On Dragnet, the character of Ben Romero was replaced by Officer Ed Jacobs (Barney Phillips), and on One Man's Family the character of Cliff Barbour, heard for 19 years, was dropped from the storyline.

Special iTunes reviews letter call podcast!

60 years ago today Red Skelton kept us in Suspense!

Don tells us in an interview from the early eighties, just how he became part of the Benny cast.

Don Wilson began his radio career as a singer over Denver radio station KFEL in 1923.^[1] By 1929, he was working at KFI in Los Angeles.

Though best known for his comedy work with Benny, Wilson had a background as a sportscaster, covering the opening of the 1932 Summer Olympics. Wilson first worked with Benny on the broadcast of April 6, 1934, concurrent with a short stint as announcer on George Gershwin's series, Music by Gershwin. At 6 feet (1.83 m) and over 200 pounds (91 kg), Wilson possessed a resonant voice, a deep belly laugh, and a plump figure, all of which would become important parts of his character with Benny. Though Wilson's primary function as announcer was to read the opening and the commercial pitches -- notably for Jell-O, Grape-Nuts, and Lucky Strikes -- his importance to the program was as both feed and foil to Jack and other cast members. A recurring goal was his effort to get the Sportsman's Quartet singing commercial approved by Benny.

On radio in particular, Wilson's girth could be exploited, both in jokes by Benny and in audio gags, such as the amount of time it took an attendant to brush Don, or measure charging him by the pound.

Wilson rarely flubbed his lines. His most famous incident occurred in the Jan. 8, 1950 broadcast. The script called for him to refer to columnist Drew Pearson, but Wilson read the name as "Dreer Pooson." Later on in the broadcast, during a murder-mystery skit, Frank Nelson took advantage of the situation. Benny asked Nelson, "Pardon me, are you the doorman?" and Nelson, in his customary sarcastic manner, came back with: "Well who do you think I am, Dreer Pooson?," to sustained laughter and applause.

Wilson also served stints as announcer for radio comedy or variety shows starring Alan Young, Bing Crosby, Ginny Simms, and Fanny Brice's comedy hit Baby Snooks. In 1946, Don Wilson was a regular on the daytime comedy Glamour Manor, opposite former Jack Benny Program regular Kenny Baker.

Wilson accompanied Benny into television in 1950, remaining with him through the series' end in 1965. On television, the fat jokes were toned down only slightly, mostly because the real Wilson was not as impossibly large as the radio Wilson was described. These appearances also often involved the fictional character of Don's equally hefty, aspiring announcer son, Harlow (played by Dale White). Wilson also co-starred with Benny in Buck Benny Rides Again (1940) and voicing a caricature of himself in The Mouse that Jack Built, a 1959 Warner Brothers spoof of The Jack Benny ProgramRobert McKimson. directed by

Other film roles included small appearances as announcers or commentators in several films, providing narration for Walt Disney's Academy AwardFerdinand the Bull, and a credited appearance as Mr. Kettering opposite Marilyn Monroe in Niagara. Wilson did frequent commercials and appeared on the Western Union Candygram commercial. His final on-camera appearance was in two episodes of the 1960s Batman as newscaster Walter Klondike (spoofing Walter Cronkite). nominated short

Wilson played football for the University of Colorado in the 20's. For his size he was an excellent sportsman, and was an excellent amateur golfer teaming up with fellow NBC announcer Bud Stevens to win many matches in Southern California. Wilson was married four times. His second wife was Peggy Ann Kent, daughter of 20th Century Fox President Sidney R. Kent. They were married November 19, 1940 and divorced in December, 1942.^[2] The same month the divorce was final, Wilson married Polish countess Marusia Radunska. This marriage ended in divorce in 1949.^[3]Lois Corbet (who occasionally appeared as "Mrs. Wilson" on Benny's later radio and TV shows). Together they hosted a local Palm Springs television show Town Talk from 1968 until the mid-1970s. Wilson finally found a lasting partnership with fourth wife, radio actress

This Podcast looks at the connections between Artie Auerbach's Mr Kitzel character and the Schlepperman character played by Sam Hearn.

Schlepperman (played by Sam Hearn) - A Jewish character who spoke with a Yiddish accent (his catch phrase- "Hullo, Stranger!"). He would return again as the "Hi, Rube!" guy, a hick farmer from the town of Calabasas who always insisted on referring to Jack as "rube."

Here is a link to the podcast of Schlep's first appearance on the Jack Benny show, Best of Jack Benny Spotlight Podcast! 1934-08-03 - Schlepperman's first show! The Stooge Murder Case

Artie Auerbach - Mr. Kitzel [who originally appeared on Jack Haley's and  Al Pearce's radio shows in the late 1930s, where his famous catch phrase was, "Hmmmm... eh, could be!", and several years later as a regular on The Abbott & Costello Show], who originally started out as a Yiddish hot dog vendor selling hot dogs during the Rose Bowl. In later episodes, he would go on to lose his hot dog stand, and move on to various other jobs. A big part of his schtick involved garbling names with his accent, such as referring to Nat King Cole as "Nat King Cohen," or mentioning his favorite baseball player, "Rabbi Maranville." He often complained about his wife, an unseen character who was described as a large, domineering woman who, on one occasion, Kitzel visualized as "...from the front, she looks like Don Wilson from the side!" He often sang various permutations of his jingle, "Pickle in the middle and the mustard on top!"

60 years ago this week!  This episodes podcast includes an interview done with Phil Harris!  If you want to read the full interview and dozens of others get, Speaking of Radio: Chuck Schaden's Conversations with the Stars of the Golden Age of Radio.

Phil Harris and Faye were invited to join a radio program, The Fitch Bandwagon. Originally a vehicle for big bands, including Harris's own, the show became something else entirely when Harris and Faye became its breakout stars. Coinciding with their desire to settle in southern California and raise their children without touring heavily, Bandwagon evolved into The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, a situation comedy with one music spot each for Harris and Faye.

Harris was the vain, language-challenged bandleading husband and Faye was his acid but loving wife on the air; off the air, as radio historian Gerald S. Nachman has recorded, Harris was actually a soft-spoken, modest man. Young actresses Jeanine Roos and Anne Whitfield played the Harris's two young daughters on the air; the series also featured Gale Gordon as Mr. Scott, their sponsor's harried representative, the versatile (actor-director-producer) Elliott Lewis as layabout guitarist Frank Remley, and Great Gildersleeve co-star Walter Tetley as obnoxious grocery boy Julius Abruzzio.

The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show debuted on NBC in 1948 and ran until 1954, by which time radio had all but succumbed to television. (Harris continued to appear on Jack Benny's show, along with his own, from 1948 to 1952.) Because the Harris show aired immediately after Benny's on a different network (Harris and Faye were still on NBC, whereas Benny jumped his show...including Phil Harris as his bandleader...over to CBS in 1949), Harris would only appear during the first half of Jack's show; he would then leave the CBS studio and walk approximately one block to his own studio down the street, arriving just in time for the start of his own program. He was succeeded as Benny's orchestra leader in the fall of 1952 by Bob Crosby (although the actual conductor was the show's musical arranger, Mahlon Merrick).

Saturday and time for more great Jimmy Stewart, this time out west with the Six Shooter!

We are missing this weeks episode, so here is Red' very first ever show! I hope you enjoy it!

Happy Halloween with Fibber McGee and Molly!

70 years ago today, Jack was on the air with Mary Livinstone, I presume...

Stanley and Livingstone is a 1939 movie about reporter Sir Henry M. Stanley's quest for Dr. David Livingstone, a missionary presumed lost in Africa. Spencer Tracy played Stanley, Cedric Hardwicke portrayed Livingstone, and other cast members included Nancy Kelly, Walter Brennan, Charles Coburn, Richard Greene, and Henry Hull. Based loosely upon a true story, the famous line of understatement, when Stanley finally reaches Livingstone, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume," an enduring catchphrase, was delivered very quietly on-screen by Tracy.

60 years ago today we had an Escape with great voice talent, Paul Frees!

Some of Paul Frees' most memorable voices were for various Disney projects. Frees voiced Disney's Professor Ludwig Von Drake in eighteen episodes of the Disney anthology television series,^[1] beginning with the first episode of the newly-renamed Walt Disney's Wonderful World of ColorSeptember 24, 1961. The character also appeared on many Disneyland Records. Von Drake's introductory cartoon, An Adventure in Color, featured The Spectrum Song, sung by Frees as Von Drake. A different Frees recording of this song appeared on a children's record, and was later reissued on CD.^[2] on

Frees narrated a number of Disney cartoons, including the Disney educational short film Donald in Mathmagic Land. This short originally aired in the same television episode as Von Drake's first appearance.

Frees also provided voices for numerous characters at Disney parks, including the unseen "Ghost Host" in the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and several audio-animatronic pirates, including the Auctioneer, in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Disney eventually issued limited edition compact discs commemorating the two rides, featuring outtakes and unused audio tracks by Frees and others. Frees also provided narration for the Tomorrowland attraction Adventure Thru Innerspace (1967-1985). Audio clips from the attractions in Frees' distinctive voice have even appeared in fireworks shows at Disneyland. A computer-animated singing bust in Frees' likeness appeared in the 2003 film The Haunted Mansion as an homage. Similarly, audio recordings of Frees from the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction can be heard in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End in a homage to the ride. Frees also had a small live action role for Disney in the 1959 film The Shaggy Dog, playing Dr. Galvin, a military psychiatrist who attempts to understand why Mr. Daniels believes a shaggy dog can uncover a spy ring.

His other Disney credits, most of them narration for segments of the Disney anthology television series, include the following:

• The "Man in Space" series of shows (TV, 1954)
• From Aesop to Hans Christian Andersen (TV, 1955)
• The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca (TV miniseries, 1958)
• Tales of Texas John Slaughter (TV miniseries, 1958)
• The Shaggy Dog (film, 1959)
• The Absent-Minded Professor (film, 1961)
• Moochie of Pop Warner Football (TV, 1960)
• The Monkey's Uncle (film, 1965)

For his contributions to the Disney legacy, Frees was honored posthumously as a Disney Legend on October 9, 2006.

Listen to Mr. Kitzel, Jack Haley (Wizard of Oz' Tinman), Lucille Ball, and Gale Gordon! For years, radio-TV historians and Lucyfans alike have dated Lucille Ball's long professional relationship with Gale Gordon back to 1948, when the two were teamed on CBS Radio's My Favorite Husband. Lucy and Richard Denning starred in that situation comedy, with Gale appearing as Denning's boss.

Now, it seems, the "scholars" were wrong -- by a whopping 10 years! Brian Allen, a collector of old radio programs, has recently unearthed 20 episodes of Jack Haley's 1938-39 radio program, The Wonder Show -- and not only was Lucy a regular on the series, but Gale was the announcer!

About the Series

The Wonder Show -- so named because its sponsor was Wonder Bread -- was broadcast over CBS Radio Network for 26 weeks, airing Friday evenings, 7:30-8PM. The program premiered October 14, 1938, and ran through April 7, 1939.

Actor-comedian Jack Haley starred in the show, and the regular cast included songstress Virginia Verrill, Lucy, comedian Artie Auerbach (later of The Jack Benny Program), and Ted FioRita & His Orchestra. Gale Gordon was the announcer. (Lucy and Virginia pose with Haley in the photo, top right.)

As the announcer, Gale both kibitzed with the cast, and did the commercials. Wonder Bread was a major sponsor of radio series in the 1930s, underwriting both children's and adult programs. Even then, brightly colored circles (originally balloons) were its logo -- you can see just a corner of a huge Wonder Bread blow-up hanging beside Lucy and Haley in the drum photo (top left).

Technically, this was the second year for Haley's series. An earlier version aired on NBC during the 1937-38 season, sponsored by Log Cabin syrup. Titled Log Cabin Jamboree, the cast included Ms. Verrill and Ted FioRita & His Orchestra, but Lucy and Gale were not involved. Actress Wendy Barrie was a regular, along with comedian Jack Oakie (one of Lucy's buddies at RKO). Warren Hull was the announcer.

As many Lucyfans know, Lucy spent much of 1937-38 radio season as a regular on Phil Baker's Gulf Headliner series on CBS. Working with Baker and Haley gave Lucy the opportunity to develop skills other than those she used in the movies. As she later recalled, "(Radio work) gave me a name in the trade as a good feminine foil. I could flip a comedy line, which a lot of actresses couldn't do. In radio I couldn't depend upon props or costumes or makeup; I had to rely on timing and tone of voice for comic effects, and this was invaluable training."

Lucy spent much of her "down time" at RKO studying the artists and craftsmen working around her, essentially learning her trade. "It was better than attending any college," she later admitted. If she carried that practice over to her radio career (and why would she not?), certainly one of the radio performers she studied was Gale Gordon.

Gordon, throughout most of the 1930s, was known as the "highest paid radio artist in Hollywood." "Big deal!" he later said somewhat disparagingly. "That meant I earned $15 a show, when everyone else was earning $2.50. We were still grossly underpaid, at least by motion picture standards." Gordon, who at the time of The Wonder Show was 32 years old, recently married and just starting to grow his moustache, was in such demand that he often did two or more radio shows a day. "Luckily," he recalled, "the studios were nestled along Sunset Boulevard or in a nearby theater, so we could shuttle rather quickly back and forth from one broadcast to another."

A special tribute to Mary Livingstone on tonight's podcast!  Here is a bonus video of tha last time Jack and Mary would ever "appear" together as their radio personalities, with alittle help from Lucille Ball.

Boris Karloff arrived in Hollywood and he made dozens of silent films, but work was sporadic, and he often had to take up manual labor, such as digging ditches and driving a cement truck, to pay the bills. His role as Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein (1931) made him a star. A year later, he played another iconic character, Imhotep, in The Mummy.

The five-foot, eleven-inch, brown-eyed Karloff played a wide variety of roles in other genres besides horror. He was memorably gunned down in a bowling alley in the 1932 film Scarface. He played a religious WWI soldier in the 1934 John Ford epic The Lost Patrol. Karloff gave a string of lauded performances in 1930s Universal horror movies, including several with his main rival as heir to the horror throne of Lon Chaney, Sr.: Béla Lugosi, whose refusal to play the monster in Frankenstein made Karloff's subsequent career possible. Karloff played Frankenstein's monster three times; the other films being Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939), which also featured Lugosi as the demented Igor, spelled "Ygor" in this movie. Karloff would revisit the Frankenstein mythos in film several times after leaving the role. The first would be as the villainous Dr. Niemann in House of Frankenstein (1944), where Karloff would be famously contrasted against the then more popularized Glenn Strange, who became the standardized interpretation of the Monster during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

Karloff returned to the role of the "mad scientist" in 1958's Frankenstein 1970, as Baron Victor von Frankenstein II, the grandson of the original inventor. The final twist reveals the crippled Baron has given his own face (i.e., "Karloff's") to the Monster. The actor appeared at a celebrity baseball game as the Monster in 1940, hitting a gag home run and making catcher Buster Keaton fall into an acrobatic dead faint as the Monster stomped into home plate. Norman Z. McLeod filmed a sequence in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Karloff in the Monster make-up, but it was deleted. Karloff donned the headpiece and neck bolts for the final time in 1962 for a Halloween episode of the TV series Route 66, but he was playing "Boris Karloff," who, within the story, was playing "the Monster."

While the long, creative partnership between Karloff and Lugosi never led to a close mutual friendship, it produced some of each actor's most revered and enduring productions, beginning with The Black Cat. Follow-ups included Gift of Gab (1934), The Raven (1935), The Invisible Ray (1936), Black Friday (1940), You'll Find Out (also 1940), and The Body Snatcher (1945). During this period he also starred with Basil Rathbone in Tower of London (1939).

During this period, Karloff was also a frequent guest on radio programs, whether it was starring in Arch Oboler's Chicago-based Lights OutFred Allen or Jack Benny. productions, most notably the episode "Cat Wife," or spoofing his horror image with

An enthusiastic performer, he returned to the Broadway stage in the original production of Arsenic and Old Lace in 1941, in which he played a homicidal gangster enraged to be frequently mistaken for Karloff. Although Frank Capra cast Raymond Massey in the 1944 film, (which was shot in 1941, while Karloff was still appearing in the role on Broadway), Karloff reprised the role on television with Tony Randall and Tom Bosley in a 1962 production on the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Somewhat less successful was his work in the J. B. Priestley play The Linden Tree. He also appeared as Captain Hook in the play Peter Pan with Jean Arthur. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his work opposite Julie Harris in The Lark, by the FrenchJean Anouilh about Joan of Arc, which was also reprised on Hallmark Hall of Fame. playwright

In later years, Karloff hosted and acted in a number of television series, most notably Thriller, Out of This World, and The Veil, the latter of which was never broadcast and only came to light in the 1990s. In the 1960s, Karloff appeared in several films for American International Pictures, including Comedy of Terrors, The Raven, and The Terror, the latter two directed by Roger Corman.

During the 1950s Karloff appeared on British TV in the series Colonel March of Scotland Yard, in which he portrayed John Dickson Carr's fictional detective Colonel March who was known for solving apparently impossible crimes.

As a guest on The Gisele MacKenzie Show, Karloff sings "Those Were the Good Old Days" from Damn Yankees, while Gisele MacKenzie performs the solo, "Give Me the Simple Life". On The Red Skelton Show, Karloff guest starred along with horror actor Vincent Price in a parody of Frankenstein, with Red Skelton as the monster "Klem Kadiddle Monster." In 1966 Karloff also appeared with Robert Vaughn and Stefanie Powers in the spy series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., in the episode "The Mother Muffin Affair." Karloff performed in drag as the titular Mother Muffin. That same year he also played an Indian Maharajah on the adventure series The Wild Wild West ("The Night of the Golden Cobra"). In 1967, he played an eccentric Spanish professor who thinks he's Don Quixote in a whimsical episode of I Spy ("Mainly on the Plains").

In the mid-1960s, Karloff gained a late-career surge of American popularity when he narrated the made-for-television animated film of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and provided "the sounds of the Grinch" (the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" was sung not by Karloff, but by American voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft). Karloff later won a Grammy in the spoken word category after the story was released as a record.

In 1968 he starred in Targets, a movie directed by Peter Bogdanovich about a young man who embarks on a spree of killings carried out with handguns and high powered rifles. The movie starred Karloff as "retired horror film actor" Byron Orlok (a lightly-disguised version of himself) facing an end of life crisis, resolved through a confrontation with the shooter.

Karloff ended his career appearing in a trio of low-budgeted Mexican horror films that were shot shortly before his death; all were released posthumously, with the last, The Incredible Invasion, not seeing release until 1971, two years after Karloff's death.

Hear the beginnings of Mr. Kitzel by Artie Auerbach. Also, hear Jack Haley and Lucille Ball teamed up with Gale Gordon for the first time! Artie Auerbach (May 17, 1903 - October 3, 1957), was an American comic actor and professional photographer who became famous as “Mr. Kitzel”, first on the Al Pearce radio show then as a regular on the Jack Benny radio show. Despite having a successful career as a photographer for the New York tabloid Daily Mirror Artie Auberach desired to get into show business. He began by telling Yiddish anecdotes for which he became very popular at private parties. The Jack Benny Show had previously had a Jewish-accented character, “Shlepperman”, played by Sam Hearn but it was discontinued in the late 1930s. In 1946 Auerbach was hired as a permanent, although only occasional, character, Mr. Kitzel (sometimes spelled “Kitzle”). In January he made his first appearance as a hot dog vendor at the Rose Bowl game Jack was attending where he became famous for the catch phrase "Pickle in the middle and the mustard on top!". His other catch phrase was the exclamation “ooh ooh, hooo!” usually delivered in response to a question from Jack. His character moved with the show when it made the transition from radio to television and he continued to appear until his death.[1] In 1957 Artie Auerbach died of a heart attack at 54 years of age in Van Nuys, California.

Here is Jimmy in his first appearance on Screen Guild Theater!

We conclude Dennis Day Day, with his first Jack Benny Show from exactly 70 years ago today! This episode includes a special interview segment with Dennis Day himself from 25 years ago!

Fantastic episode starring William Conrad with wonderful sound quality.

Welcome back Jack! 72 years ago this week, Jack, Mary, Don, Kenny, Phil, Rochester, and Andy returned for another great season, the 1937-1938 season to be exact!

60 years ago this week, first show of the 1949-1950 season!

Saturday, time for Jimmy Stewart in the Six Shooter!

George Washington Slept Here is a 1942 comedy film starring Jack Benny and Ann Sheridan as New Yorkers who purchase a dilapidated farmhouse where, according to rumors, George Washington spent the night. It was based on the 1940 play of the same name by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, adapted by Everett Freeman, and was directed by William Keighley.

Geroge Washington Slept Here Trailer - very funny and unique trailer with video discussion by Jack himself!

"Groucho" Marx (October 2, 1890^[1] – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit.

He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of which he was the third-born. He also had a successful solo career, most notably as the host of the radio and television game shows You Bet Your Life and Tell it to Groucho.^[2] His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included quirks such as glasses, cigars, and a thick greasepaint mustache and eyebrows.

Groucho's radio life hadn't been as successful as his life on stage and in film, though historians such as Gerald Nachman and Michael Barson suggest that, in the case of the single-season Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel (1932), the failure may have been a combination of a poor time slot and the Marx Brothers' returning to Hollywood to make another film.

In the mid-1940s, during a depressing lull in his career (his radio show Blue Ribbon Town had failed to hold on, and the Marx Brothers looked finished as film performers), Groucho was scheduled to appear on a radio show with Bob Hope. Annoyed that he was made to wait in the waiting room for 40 minutes, Groucho went on the air in a foul mood. Hope started by saying, "Why, it's Groucho Marx, ladies and gentlemen. (applause) Groucho, what brings you here from the hot desert?" Groucho retorted, "Hot desert my foot, I've been standing in the cold waiting room for 40 minutes." Groucho continued to ignore the script, and although Hope was a formidable ad-libber in his own right, he couldn't begin to keep up with Groucho, who lengthened the scene well beyond its allotted time slot with a veritable onslaught of improvised wisecracks.

Listening in on the show was producer John Guedel, who got a brainstorm. He approached Groucho about doing a quiz show. "A quiz show? Only actors who are completely washed up resort to a quiz show." Undeterred, Guedel explained that the quiz would be only a backdrop for Groucho's interviews of people, and the storm of ad-libbing that they would elicit. Groucho said, "Well, I've had no success in radio, and I can't hold on to a sponsor. At this point I'll try anything."

You Bet Your Life premiered in October 1947 on radio on ABC (which aired it from 1947-49), and then on CBS (1949-50), and finally NBC, continuing until May 1961 -- on radio only, 1947-1950; on both radio and television, 1950-1959; and on television only, 1959-1961. The show was an utter sensation, one of the most popular in the history of radio and television. With one of the best announcers and, as it turns out, straight men in the business, George Fenneman, as his faithful foil, Groucho slayed his audiences with extraordinary improvised conversation, usually with the most ordinary of guests.

The program's theme music was an instrumental version of "Hooray for Captain Spaulding", which became increasingly identified as Groucho's personal theme song. Groucho released a record of the song with the Ken Ham singers and orchestra in 1952. Another interesting recording made by Groucho during this period was "The Funniest Song in the World," released on the Young Peoples' Records label in 1949. It was a series of five original children's songs with a connecting narrative about a monkey and his fellow zoo creatures.

60 years ago today! Spend some time with Gildy and the gang! And hear me talk about how the CBS talent raids will effect this great show this year.

60 years ago this week, Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, and Red Skelton had some fun!

50 years ago today, out west with one of the few radio shows that survived into the 1960s!

50 years ago today, out west with John Dehner! Beautiful sound quality! One of the only shows that survived into the '60s!

Part 2 of Misty Mountain with Jimmy Stewart!

 

Join Red Skelton from 70 years ago today!

Wow found some ultra high quality versions of Have Gun Will Travel! This show will be moving to Sunday starting this Sunday the 27th.

Gunsmoke is moving to Sunday nights starting this Sunday the 27th! The podcast explains why.

Another great Command Performance line up!

60 years ago today was the 1949-1950 season opener for The Great Gildersleeve!

 

It's Saturday time for Jimmy Stewart in the Six Shooter.

60 years ago this week, Jack Benny's show returned from the summer hiatus! Here is the first episode from the 1949-1950 season of the a Jack Benny Show.

More great Jimmy Stewart!

I thought we would start out our new "season" of Fred Allen shows by sharing this rare uncirculated episode form our friends at Rand Esoteric!

 

Last episode of the Jack Paar Show, next week Jack's back with his 1949-1950 season premiere!

The Six Shooter was a weekly old-time radio program in the USA. It was created by Frank Burt, who also wrote many of the episodes, and lasted only one season of 39 episodes on NBC (Sept. 20, 1953-June 24, 1954). Through March 21, 1954 it was broadcast Sundays at 8 p.m. Beginning April 1, 1954 through the final episode it was on Thursday at 8 p.m.

James Stewart starred as Britt Ponsett, a drifting cowboy in the final years of the wild west. Episodes ranged from straight western drama to whimsical comedy. A trademark of the show was Stewart's use of whispered narration during tense scenes that created a heightened sense of drama and relief when the situation was resolved.

Some of the more prominent actors to perform on the program included Parley Baer, Virginia Gregg, Harry Bartell, Howard McNear, Jeanette Nolan, Dan O'Herlihy, Alan Reed, Marvin Miller and William Conrad. Some did multiple episodes playing different characters.

Each episode opened with the announcer stating: The man in the saddle is angular and long-legged. His skin is sun-dyed brown. The gun in his holster is gray steel and rainbow mother-of-pearl, its handle unmarked. People call them both "the Six Shooter".

The haunting theme music was "Highland Lament" by series composor Basil Adlam.

The final broadcast "Myra Barker" provided a satisfying (if melancholy) finale to the series: Ponsett falls in love with Myra, and proposes marriage. Myra, after thinking it over, appears to accept -- but then tells Britt she's heard that Sheriff Jennings of Eagle Falls has asked for his help, and Britt admits that he feels obligated to go. Myra tells Britt to go and not come back -- telling him some adventure will always call him, and he'll always go, or regret not going. Britt goes, resuming his wanderings, but not before revealing to the audience that he knows he was *not* needed in Eagle Falls -- and knows Myra knows that too. The moment comes across of a moment of supreme self-realization by Britt that he always will be a wanderer.

Gregory Peck plays Abraham Lincoln!

Gregory Peck's first film, Days of Glory, was released in 1944. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor five times, four of which came in his first five years of film acting: for The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), and Twelve O'Clock High (1949).

The Keys of the Kingdom emphasized his stately presence. As the farmer Penny Barker in The Yearling his good-humored warmth and affection toward the characters playing his son and wife confounded critics who had been insisting he was a lifeless performer. Duel in the Sun (1946) showed his range as an actor in his first "against type" role as a cruel, libidinous gunslinger. Gentleman's Agreement established his power in the "social conscience" genre in a film that took on the deep-seated but subtle anti-Semitism of mid-century corporate America.Twelve O'Clock High was the first of many successful war films in which Peck embodied the brave, effective, yet human fighting man.

Among his other films were Spellbound (1945), The Paradine Case (1947), The Gunfighter (1950), Moby Dick (1956), On the Beach (1959), which brought to life the terrors of global nuclear war, The Guns of Navarone (1961), and Roman Holiday (1953), with Audrey Hepburn in her Oscar-winning role. Peck and Hepburn were close friends until her death; Peck even introduced her to her first husband, Mel Ferrer. Peck once again teamed up with director William Wyler in the epic Western The Big Country (1958), which he co-produced.

Peck won the Academy award with his fifth nomination, playing Atticus Finch, a Depression-era lawyer and widowed father, in a film adaptation of the Harper Lee novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Released in 1962 during the height of the US civil rights movement in the South, this movie and his role were Peck's favorites. In 2003, Atticus Finch was named the top film hero of the past 100 years by the American Film Institute.

He served as the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1967, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Film Institute from 1967 to 1969, Chairman of the Motion Picture and Television Relief Fund in 1971, and National Chairman of the American Cancer Society in 1966. He was a member of the National Council on the Arts from 1964 to 1966.

A physically powerful man, he was known to do a majority of his own fight scenes, rarely using body or stunt doubles. In fact, Robert Mitchum, his on-screen opponent in Cape Fear, often said that Peck once accidentally punched him for real during their final fight scene in the movie.

Peck's rare attempts at unsympathetic roles usually failed. He played the renegade son in the Western Duel in the Sun and the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele in The Boys from Brazil co-starring Laurence Olivier. Critics could be unkind. Pauline Kael of the New Yorker once labeled Peck "competent but always a little boring." He famously did not get along with Marlon Brando, who described him as "a wooden actor and a pompous individual". Off-screen as well as on, Peck conveyed a quiet dignity. He had one amicable divorce, and scandal never touched him.

Season premiere 1939-1940!

Classic episode, the end of the Maxwell, for now!

One of the last Jack Paar shows, enjoy!

The War Years continues with Cary Grant on Command Performance!

Our last "Good News" featuring Jimmy Stewart, but of course each week we'll have more great Jimmy Stewart Programs for you!

Jack's back! Finally, we get to the new "War Years" season of the Jack Benny Show, the first show of the 1942-1943 season! Hope you enjoy it!

"Spike" Jones (December 14, 1911 – May 1, 1965) was a popular musician and bandleader specializing in performing satirical arrangements of popular songs. Ballads and classical works receiving the Jones treatment would be punctuated with gunshots, whistles, cowbells and ridiculous vocals. Through the 1940s and early 1950s, the band recorded under the title Spike Jones and his City Slickers and toured the USA and Canada under the title The Musical Depreciation Revue.

After appearing as the house band on The Bob Burns Show, Spike got his own radio show on NBC, The Chase and Sanborn Program, as Edgar Bergen's summer replacement in 1945. Frances Langford was co-host and Groucho Marx was among the guests. The guest list for Jones' 1947-49 CBS program for Coca-Cola (originally The Spotlight Revue, retitled The Spike Jones Show for its final season) included Frankie Laine, Mel Torme, Peter Lorre, Don Ameche and Burl Ives. Frank Sinatra appeared on the show in October 1948, and Lassie in May 1949.

One of the announcers on Jones's CBS show was the young Mike Wallace. Writers included Eddie Maxwell, Eddie Brandt and Jay Sommers. The final program in the series was broadcast in June 1949.

Wow Red Skelton from exactly 70 years ago today!

After a 1937 appearances on The Rudy Vallee Show, Skelton became a regular in 1939 on NBC's Avalon Time, sponsored by Avalon Cigarettes. On October 7, 1941, Skelton premiered his own radio show, The Raleigh Cigarette Program, developing routines involving a number of recurring characters, including punch-drunk boxer, "Cauliflower McPugg," inebriated "Willy Lump-Lump" and "'Mean Widdle Kid' Junior," whose favorite phrase ("I dood it!") became part of the American lexicon. That, along with, "He bwoke my widdle arm!," or other body part, and, "He don't know me vewy well, do he?," all found their way into various Warner Bros. cartoons. Skelton himself was referenced in a Popeye cartoon in which the title character enters a haunted house and encounters a "red skeleton." The Three Stooges also referenced Skelton in "Creeps" : "Shemp: Who are you? - Talking Skeleton: Me? -I’m Red. - Shemp: Oh, Red Skeleton". There was also, "Con Man San Fernando Red," with his pair of cross-eyed seagulls, "Gertrude and Heathcliffe" and singing cabdriver, "Clem Kadiddlehopper," a country bumpkin with a big heart and a slow wit. Clem had an unintentional knack for upstaging high society slickers, even if he couldn't manipulate his cynical father: "When the stork brought you, Clem, I shoulda' shot him on sight!" Skelton would later consider court action against the apparent usurpation of this character by Bill Scott, for the voice of Bullwinkle.

Skelton also helped sell World War II war bonds on the top-rated show, which featured Ozzie and Harriet Nelson in the supporting cast, plus the Ozzie Nelson Orchestra and announcer Truman Bradley. Harriet Nelson was the show's vocalist.

It was during this period that Red divorced his first wife, Edna, and married his second wife Georgia. Red and Georgia's only son, Richard, was born in 1945. Georgia continued in her role as Red's manager until the 1960s.

Skelton was drafted in March 1944, and the popular series was discontinued on June 6, 1944. Shipped overseas to serve with an Army entertainment unit as a private, Skelton led an exceptionally hectic military life. In addition to his own duties and responsibilities, he was always being summoned to entertain officers late at night. The perpetual motion and lack of rest resulted in a nervous breakdown in Italy. He spent three months in a hospital and was discharged in September 1945. He once joked about his military career, "I was the only celebrity who went in and came out a private."

On December 4, 1945, The Raleigh Cigarette Program resumed where it left off with Skelton introducing some new characters, including, "Bolivar Shagnasty," and, "J. Newton Numbskull." Lurene Tuttle and Verna Felton appeared as "Junior's" mother and grandmother. David Forrester and David Rose led the orchestra, featuring vocalist Anita Ellis. The announcers were Pat McGeehan and Rod O'Connor. The series ended May 20, 1949, and that fall, he moved to CBS, where the show ran until May 1953.^[2] Ironically, given that his peak of popularity came with his television show, in recent years, recordings of the Red Skelton radio show have become much easier to come by than the TV show.

His first performances were in vaudeville, at which point he legally changed his last name to the easier-to-pronounce "Bergen". He also worked in one-reel movie shorts, but his real success was on the radio. He and Charlie were seen at a New York party by Elsa Maxwell for Noël Coward, who recommended them for an engagement at the famous Rainbow Room. It was there that two producers saw Bergen and Charlie perform. They then recommended them for a guest appearance on Rudy Vallée's program. Their initial appearance, on December 17, 1936, was so successful that the following year they were given their own show, as part of The Chase and Sanborn Hour. Under various sponsors (and two different networks), they were on the air from May 9, 1937 to July 1, 1956. The popularity of a ventriloquist on radio, when one could see neither the dummies nor his skill, surprised and puzzled many critics, then and now. Even knowing that Bergen provided the voice, listeners perceived Charlie as a genuine person, but only through artwork, rather than photos, could the character be seen as truly lifelike. Thus, in 1947, Sam Berman caricatured Bergen and McCarthy for the network's glossy promotional book, NBC Parade of Stars: As Heard Over Your Favorite NBC Station.

It was Bergen's skill as an entertainer and vocal performer, and especially his characterization of Charlie, that carried the show. Many of the shows have survived and are available for audiences today to experience the phenomenon firsthand. Bergen's success on radio was paralleled in the United Kingdom by Peter Brough and his dummy Archie Andrews (Educating Archie).

For the radio program, Bergen developed other characters, notably the slow-witted Mortimer Snerd and the man-hungry Effie Klinker. The star remained Charlie, who was always presented as a highly precocious child (albeit in top hat, cape, and monocle) – a debonair, girl-crazy, child-about-town. As a child, and a wooden one at that, Charlie could get away with double entendre which were otherwise impossible under broadcast standards of the time.