Robert Taylor made his film debut in the 1934 comedy, Handy Andy, opposite Will Rogers (on a loan-out to 20th Century Fox). After appearing in a few small roles, he appeared in one of his first leading roles in Magnificent Obsession, with Irene Dunne. This was followed by Camille, opposite Greta Garbo.^[6]

Throughout the late 1930s, Taylor appeared in films of varying genres including the musicals Broadway Melody of 1936 and Broadway Melody of 1938, and the British comedy A Yank at Oxford with Vivien Leigh. In 1940, he reteamed with his A Yank at Oxford co-star Vivien Leigh in Mervyn LeRoy's drama Waterloo Bridge.

After being given the nickname "The Man with the Perfect Profile", Taylor began breaking away from his perfect leading man image and began appearing in darker roles beginning in 1941. That year he portrayed Billy Bonney (better known as Billy the Kid) in Billy the Kid. The next year, he played the title role in the film noir Johnny Eager opposite Lana Turner. After playing a tough sergeant in Bataan in 1943, Taylor contributed to the war effort by becoming a flying instructor in U.S. Naval Air Corps. During this time, he also starred in instructional films and narrated the 1944 documentary The Fighting Lady.^[4] Robert Taylor first appeared with actress Elizabeth Taylor in the 1949 movie Conspirator. 38 year old Taylor was somewhat uncomfortable with Elizabeth Taylor being 16 years old and his love interest. The age difference was mentioned in the film, when they made Elizabeth state her age as 18 years old to Robert's age of 31 years of age.^[8]

In 1950, Taylor landed the role of General Marcus Vinicius in Quo Vadis, opposite Deborah Kerr. The film was a hit, grossing USD$11 million.^[6] The following year, he starred opposite Elizabeth Taylor in the film version of Walter Scott’s classic Ivanhoe, followed by 1953's Knights of the Round TableThe Adventures of Quentin Durward, all filmed in England. and

By the mid-1950s, Taylor's career began to wane. He starred in a comedy western in 1955 co-starring Eleanor Parker called Many Rivers To Cross.In 1958 he shared lead with Richard Widmark in the edgy John Sturges western, The Law and Jake Wade. In 1958, he formed his own production company, Robert Taylor Productions, and the following year, he starred in the ABC hit television series The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor^[3] Following the end of the series in 1962, Taylor continued to appear in films and television including A House Is Not a Home and two episodes of Hondo. In 1965, after filming Johnny Tiger in Florida, Taylor took over the role of narrator in the television series Death Valley Days, when Ronald Reagan left to pursue a career in politics.^[9] Taylor would remain with the series until 1969 when he became too ill to continue working. (1959–1962).

60 years ago today, Kirk Douglas kept us in Suspense! Kirk Douglas (born December 9, 1916) is an American actor and film producer recognized for his prominent cleft chin, his gravelly voice and his recurring roles as the kinds of characters Douglas himself once described as "sons of bitches". He is the father of Hollywood actor and producer Michael Douglas. He was #17 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time.

Hope you have all been enjoying this wonderful show!

Wherever Jack goes, Phil can't be far behind!

Keep your heart healthy with Jack!

Another great adventure out west with Jimmy Stewart!

Hilarious parody of Oklahoma!

Happy Birthday Fibber!

70 years ago today, one of the best shows ever!

Yosemite National Park is a national park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of 761,266 acres (308,073 ha) and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain.^[1] Yosemite is visited by over 3.5 million people each year, many of whom only spend time in the seven square miles (18 km²) of Yosemite Valley.^[2] Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its spectacular granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, Giant Sequoia groves, and biological diversity.^[2] Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness.^[3] Although not the first designated national park, Yosemite was central to the development of the national park idea, largely owing to the work of people like and Galen Clark and John Muir.^[4]

Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals. The park has an elevation range from 2,000 to 13,114 feet (610 to 4,000 m) and contains five major vegetation zones: chaparral/oak woodland, lower montane, upper montane, subalpine, and alpine. Of California's 7,000 plant species, about 50% occur in the Sierra Nevada and more than 20% within Yosemite. There is suitable habitat or documentation for more than 160 rare plants in the park, with rare local geologic formations and unique soils characterizing the restricted ranges many of these plants occupy.^[2]

The geology of the Yosemite area is characterized by granitic rocks and remnants of older rock. About 10 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada was uplifted and then tilted to form its relatively gentle western slopes and the more dramatic eastern slopes. The uplift increased the steepness of stream and river beds, resulting in formation of deep, narrow canyons. About 1 million years ago, snow and ice accumulated, forming glaciers at the higher alpine meadows that moved down the river valleys. Ice thickness in Yosemite Valley may have reached 4,000 feet (1,200 m) during the early glacial episode. The downslope movement of the ice masses cut and sculpted the U-shaped valley that attracts so many visitors to its scenic vistas today.

Many of the roads in the park close because of heavy snow in winter; however, Yosemite Valley is open all year long. Downhill skiing is available at the Badger Pass Ski Area—the oldest downhill skiing area in California, offering downhill skiing from mid-December through early April.^[52] Much of the park is open to cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, with several backcountry ski huts open for use.^[53][54] Wilderness permits are required for backcountry overnight ski trips.^[46]

The Bracebridge dinner is an annual holiday event, held since 1927 at the Ahwahnee Hotel, inspired by Washington Irving's descriptions of Squire Bracebridge and English Christmas traditions of the 1700s in his Sketch Book. Between 1929 and 1973, the show was organized by Ansel Adams

More Mr. Kitzel.

Pat Novak for Hire was an old-time radio detective show which aired from 1946-1947 as a West Coast regional program and in 1949 as a nationwide program for ABC. The regional version originally starred Jack Webb in the title role, with scripts by his roommate Richard L. Breen. When Webb and Breen moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles to work on an extremely similar nationwide series, Johnny Modero, for the MutualBen Morris and Breen by other writers. In the later network version, Jack Webb resumed the Novak role, and Breen his duties as scriptwriter. The series is popular among fans for its fast-paced, hard-boiled dialogue and action and witty one-liners. network, Webb was replaced by

Synopsis

Pat Novak for Hire is set on the San Francisco, California waterfront and depicts the city as a dark, rough place where the main goal is survival. Pat Novak is not a detective by trade. He owns a boat shop on Pier 19 where he rents out boats and does odd jobs to make money.

Each episode of the program, particularly the Jack Webb episodes, follows the same basic formula. A foghorn sounds and Novak's footsteps are heard walking down the pier. He pauses and begins with the line "Sure, I'm Pat Novak . . . for hire". The foghorn repeats and leads to the intro theme, during which Pat gives a monologue about the waterfront and his job renting boats. Pat narrates the story as well as acting in it. Cynical, he throws off lines such as "about as smart as teaching a cooking class to a group of cannibals". He then introduces the trouble in which he finds himself this week. Typically, a person unknown to Pat asks him to do an unusual or risky job. Pat reluctantly accepts and finds himself in hot water in the form of an unexplained dead body. Police Inspector Hellman (played by Raymond Burr) arrives on the scene and pins the murder on Novak. With only circumstantial evidence to go on, Hellman promises to haul Novak in the next day for the crime. The rapid, staccato dialogue between Webb & Burr is classic. Pat uses the time to try to solve the case. He looks up his friend Jocko Madigan (played by Tudor Owen), a drunken ex-doctor typically found at some local watering hole, to help him solve the case. As Pat asks Jocko for his help, Jocko launches a winded, often hilarious, brilliantly witty philosophical diatribe until Novak blankly asks "Are you done?", to which Jocko dejectedly replies " Yes". Jocko and Pat unravel the case and Hellman makes the arrest. Finally, we hear the foghorn and Novak's footsteps on the pier again before Novak spells out the details of the case for us. At the end, Novak informs us that "Hellman asked only one question", which Pat answers with a clever retort. The dialogue is rife with similes found in pulp fiction. Example: 'The neighborhood was run down - the kind of place where the For Rent signs look like ransom notes.'

Jack Benny is late again in 1938!

60 years ago, Rosalind Russell kept us in Suspense!

Rosalind Russell (June 4, 1907 – November 28, 1976) was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame. She won all 5 Golden Globes for which she was nominated, and was tied with Meryl Streep for wins until 2007 when Streep was awarded a sixth. Russell won a Tony Award in 1953 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Ruth in the Broadway show Wonderful Town.

W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer. Fields created one of the great American comic personas of the first half of the 20th century: a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist who remained a sympathetic character despite his snarling contempt for dogs, children, and women.

The characterization he portrayed in films and on radio was so strong it became generally identified with Fields himself. It was maintained by the movie-studio publicity departments at Fields's studios (Paramount and Universal) and further established by Robert Lewis Taylor's 1949 biography W.C. Fields, His Follies and Fortunes. Beginning in 1973, with the publication of Fields's letters, photos, and personal notes in grandson Ronald Fields's book W.C. Fields by Himself, it has been shown that Fields was married (and subsequently estranged from his wife), and he financially supported their son and loved his grandchildren.

There was some truth to the misanthropic persona, however. Madge Evans, a friend and actress, told a visitor in 1972 that Fields so deeply resented intrusions on his privacy by curious tourists walking up the driveway to his Los Angeles home that he would hide in the shrubs by his house and fire BB pellets at the trespassers' legs. Groucho Marx told a similar story, in his live album An Evening with Groucho.

60 years ago today with Gildy!

60 years ago with Phil!

60 years ago with Jack and the gang!

Bonus Jack Benny video!

Jack Benny Television Show 1956-12-02 Locked in the Tower of London.avi

The Shop Around the Corner is a 1940 American romantic comedy film directed by Ernst Lubitsch, and starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.^[1]Samson Raphaelson based on a 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie^[2], written by Miklós László.^[3] This film was ranked #28 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions. In 1999, The Shop Around the Corner was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". is a 1940 American romantic comedy film directed by Ernst Lubitsch, and starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.^[1] The screenplay was written by Samson Raphaelson based on a 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie^[2], written by Miklós László.^[3] This film was ranked #28 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions. In 1999, The Shop Around the Corner was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Mr. Lucky is a 1943 film directed by H.C. Potter, starring Cary Grant and Laraine Day. It tells the story of a romance between a shady gambler and a wealthy socialite in the early days of World War II.

A 1959 TV series of the same name was loosely based on this film. It lasted only one season and starred John Vivyan in the title role.

Mr. Lucky was adapted as a radio play on the October 18, 1943 broadcast of Lux Radio Theater with Cary Grant and Laraine Day reprising their film roles. It was also presented on the January 20, 1950 broadcast of Screen Director's Playhouse with Cary Grant again reprising his film role.

70 years ago! How can it be a Friday without Fibber, Molly, and Gildy!

70 years ago today!

70 years ago this week with Al Pearce and Mr. Kitzel.

Because you demanded it, this podcast has a quick overview of all the Jack Benny biographies!

In the early 1930s, a booking at the Glen Island Casino landed Ozzie Nelson's orchestra national network radio exposure. After three years together with the orchestra, Ozzie and Harriet signed to appear regularly on The Baker's Broadcast (1933-1938), hosted first by Joe Penner, then by Robert L. Ripley, and finally by cartoonist Feg Murray. The couple married on October 8, 1935 during this series run, and realized working together in radio would keep them together more than continuing their musical careers separately. In 1941, the Nelsons joined the cast of The Red Skelton Show, also providing much of the show's music. The couple stayed with the series for three years. They also built their radio experience by guest appearances, together and individually, on many top radio shows, from comedies such as The Fred Allen Show, to the mystery titan Suspense, in a 1947 episode called "Too Little to Live On".

When Red Skelton was drafted in March 1944, Ozzie Nelson was prompted to create his own family situation comedy. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet launched on CBS on October 8, 1944, moving to NBC in October 1948, and making a late-season switch back to CBS in April 1949. The final years of the radio series were on ABC (the former NBC Blue Network) from October 14, 1949 to June 18, 1954. In total 402 radio episodes were produced. In an arrangement that amplified the growing pains of American broadcasting, as radio "grew up" into television, the Nelsons' deal with ABC gave the network the option to move their program to television. The struggling network needed proven talent that was not about to defect to the more established and wealthier networks like CBS or NBC.^[1]

The Nelsons' sons, David and Ricky, did not join the cast until the radio show's fifth year. The two boys were played by professional actors prior to their joining because both were too young to perform.^[1] The role of David was played by Joel Davis from 1944 until 1945. Tommy Bernard and Henry Blair appeared as Ricky. Other cast members included John Brown as Syd "Thorny" Thornberry, Lurene Tuttle as Harriet's mother, Bea Benaderet as Gloria, Janet Waldo as Emmy Lou, and Francis "Dink" Trout as Roger. Vocalists included Harriet Nelson, The King Sisters, and Ozzie Nelson. The announcers were Jack Bailey and Verne Smith. The music was by Billy May and Ozzie Nelson. The producers were Dave Elton and Ozzie Nelson.

This is the first episode of the Chase and Sanborn Hour to feature Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy!

Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy's 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.

Now each Sunday we present the Sunday Night Video with Jack!

Jack Benny TV Show 1955-12-04 Camping trip.avi

Saturday, Tme for more Jimmy Stewart! This week out west as Britt Ponsit.

Special podcast with actual breaking news!

Fun with Jack, Kenny, Andy and the gang!

William Powell began his Hollywood career in 1922 playing a small role in a production of Sherlock Holmes that starred John Barrymore as the great detective. His most memorable role in silent movies was as a bitter film director opposite Emil Jannings' Academy Award-winning performance as a fallen general in The Last Command (1928), which led to Powell's first starring role as amateur detective Philo Vance in The Canary Murder Case (1929).

Powell's most famous role was that of Nick Charles in six Thin Man films, beginning with The Thin Man in 1934. The role provided a perfect opportunity for Powell to showcase his sophisticated charm and his witty sense of humor, and he received his first Academy Award nomination for The Thin Man. Myrna Loy played his wife, Nora, in each of the Thin Man films. Their partnership was one of Hollywood's most prolific on-screen pairings, with the couple appearing in 14 films together.

He and Loy also starred in the Best Picture of 1936, The Great Ziegfeld, with Powell in the title role and Loy as Ziegfeld's wife Billie Burke. That same year, he also received his second Academy Award nomination, for the comedy My Man Godfrey.

In 1935, he starred with Jean Harlow in Reckless. Soon it developed into a serious romance, though she died in 1937 before they could marry. His distress over her death, as well as his own battle with colon cancer around the same time, caused him to accept fewer acting roles.

His career slowed considerably in the 1940s, although in 1947 he received his third Academy Award nomination for his work in Life with Father. His last film was Mister Roberts in 1955, with Henry Fonda, James Cagney, and Jack Lemmon. Despite numerous entreaties to return to the screen, Powell refused all offers, happy in his retirement.

70 years ago today with Jack and the gang. Sorry about the poor sound quality, but this was the best I could find!  This podcast has a review of the book "The Jack Benny Show," by Milt Josefsberg!

 

Here is a link to the book I review.

 

One of the better known episodes. A real treat! How can you go wrong with William Conrad?

Magic Town (1947) is a comedy film directed by William A. Wellman, starring James Stewart and Jane Wyman. It is one of the first films about then-new science of public opinion polling. The movie was inspired by the Middletown studies.

50 years ago today, out west with Gunsmoke in 1960! Special podcast about Gunsmoke on televison!

Special podcast covering Jimmy Stewart and the Six Shooter's move to television as, The Restless Gun!

The Restless Gun is a western television series that appeared on NBC. The series starred John Payne as a gregarious, intelligent, wandering cowhand–gunslinger. The half-hour black and white 1957–59 program ran for 78 episodes. The pilot was broadcast as an installment of the anthology series The Schlitz Playhouse of Stars on March 29, 1957; it was based on the old radio series The Six Shooter and Payne's character had the same name: Britt Ponset. This was changed to Vint Bonner when the actual series began. Some episodes of the series were based on the radio programs.

Guest actors appearing on the series included Henry Hull, Edgar Buchanan, Jack Elam, Dan Blocker, James Coburn, John Dehner, Claude Akins, Roscoe Ates, Denver Pyle, Olive Carey, Robert Fuller, Ellen Corby, Don Grady, Patrick McVey, Tyler McVey, Joyce Meadows, John Mitchum (Robert Mitchum's brother), Gregg Palmer, Mala Powers, Fay Spain, and Ray Teal. Blocker and Coburn each had their first substantive screen roles on the program. One of the show's producers, David Dortort, would go on to produce the more successful Bonanza TV series, which debuted right after The Restless Gun was cancelled.

In its first season, The Restless Gun was aired opposite The Burns and Allen Show on CBS and the short-live variety program, The Guy Mitchell Show, on ABC. In the second season, CBS aired a western, Rory Calhoun's The Texan, opposite The Restless Gun.

Here is a fun one for you with Fred and Jack together from this time of year, one year into the feud!

60 years ago Ida Lupino and Elliot Lewis kept us in Suspense!

Ida Lupino was born into a family of performers.^[3] Her father, Stanley Lupino, was a music-hall comedian, and her mother, Connie Emerald, was an actress.^[4] As a girl, she was encouraged to enter show business by both her parents and her uncle, Lupino Lane, and made her first movie appearance in 1931, in The Love Race. She would spend the next several years playing minor roles.

It was after her appearance in The Light That Failed in 1939 that Lupino began to be taken seriously as a dramatic actress. As a result, her parts improved during the 1940s and she began to describe herself as "the poor man's Bette Davis."^[5]

During this period, Lupino became known for her hard-boiled roles,^[6] and appeared in such films as They Drive by Night (1940) and High Sierra (1941), both opposite Humphrey Bogart. For her performance in The Hard Way (1943), Lupino won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. She acted regularly, and was in demand throughout the 1940s without becoming a major star until later. In 1947, Lupino left the Warner Brothers company to become a freelance actress. Notable films she appeared in around that time include Road House and On Dangerous Ground.

50 years ago today out west with Matt Dillon and Chester!

My favorite version! With an introduction by Frank Capra himself! Also, Elmer Fudd plays the part of Clarence!

60 years ago Christmas day!

Exactly 60 years ago this Christmas day!

Christmas Eve Open House at Jack's, 70 years ago this Christmas Eve!

From Christmas eve over 60 years ago!

It's a Kitzel Kristmas!

Another Christmas episode with Phil Harris and Alice Faye! Found a new cool picture of them too!

60 years ago, Christmas shopping with Jack and Mary!

Christmas with Bing Crosby!

50 years ago today!

The only problem I have with this episode, is that I would have loved to hear Jimmy Stewart as the Scrooge character, but I'll take Howard McNear!

60 years ago Edmund Gwenn and Natalie Wood were on the Playhouse!

As a seven year old, natalie Wood played a German orphan opposite Orson Welles and Claudette Colbert in Tomorrow Is Forever. Welles later said that Wood was a born professional, "so good, she was terrifying".^[5] Her performance in the 1947 Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street made Wood one of the top child stars in Hollywood. She would appear in over 20 films as a child, appearing opposite such stars as Gene Tierney, James Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, Bette Davis and Bing Crosby.

70 years ago, shopping with Jack on the east coast!

Another Christmas show with Gildy!

Merry Christmas from Martin and Lewis!

A christmas show from 60 years ago.

The original story "The Greatest Gift" was written by Philip Van Doren Stern in November 1939. After being unsuccessful in getting the story published, he decided to make it into a Christmas card, and mailed 200 copies to family and friends in December 1943.^[7][8] The story came to the attention of RKO producer David Hempstead, who showed it to Cary Grant's Hollywood agent and, in April 1944, RKO Pictures bought the rights to the story for $10,000 hoping to turn the story into a vehicle for Grant.^[9] RKO created three unsatisfactory scripts before shelving the planned movie with Grant going on to make another Christmas picture, The Bishop's Wife.^[10][11]

At the suggestion of RKO studio chief Charles Koerner, Frank Capra read "The Greatest Gift" and immediately saw its potential. RKO, anxious to unload the project, sold the rights in 1945 to Capra's production company, Liberty Films, which had a nine-film distribution agreement with RKO, for $10,000,^[12] and threw in the three scripts for free.^[7] Capra, along with writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett—with Jo Swerling, Michael Wilson, and Dorothy Parker brought in to "polish" the script^[13]—turned the story and what was worth using from the three scripts into a screenplay that Capra would rename It's a Wonderful Life.^[7] The script underwent many revisions throughout pre-production and during filming.^[14]

Seneca Falls, New York claims that when Frank Capra visited their town in 1945, he was inspired to model Bedford Falls after it. The town has an annual It's a Wonderful Life festival in December.^[15] In mid-2009, The Hotel Clarence opened in Seneca Falls, named for George Bailey's guardian angel who saves him from leaping to his death.

More great Cinnamon Bear!

Jack's very first Christmas Shopping episode!

Wow!  This week our two Satuday shows combine with an episode of Screen Directors Playhouse from 60 years ago starring Jimmy Stewart!

Part three with Joseph Kearns, Ed from Benny's vault, as the Crazy Quilt Dragon!

Joseph Kearns (February 12, 1907 – February 17, 1962) was an American actor, who is best remembered for his role as Mr. George Wilson in the CBS television series Dennis the Menace from 1959 until his death.

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Kearns's family moved to California when he was very young. He went to college at the University of Utah, where he earned his tuition by teaching a course in theatrical makeup. Kearns started out in radio and theatre as a pipe organist; years later, he even built his Hollywood home around a Wurlitzer theater pipe organ.

He began his acting career in radio in the 1930s (playing the Crazyquilt Dragon in the serial "The Cinnamon Bear"), becoming especially active during the 1940s, with appearances on the shows The Adventures of Sam Spade, Burns and Allen, and Silver Theater, among many others. On Suspense, he was almost a mainstay, heard regularly as the host "The Man in Black" in the early years, announcing many episodes in the later run, and playing supporting and occasional lead roles in hundreds of shows throughout the series' tenure in Hollywood, from judges to kindly old-timers to cowards.

His best-remembered radio role was that of Ed, the security guard for Jack Benny's underground money vault, on The Jack Benny Program. The 'running gag' was that Benny had kept Ed on duty at the vault's door so long that the guard was not up to speed on current events; when Benny informed him that "The War (World War II) had ended," Ed asked whether the "North" or the "South" had won, assuming that the American Civil War was the one Benny was referring to. He was also the first actor to play the part of Matt Grebb, one of a pair of police detectives in the radio version of the procedural cop series The Lineup, relinquishing the role to Wally Maher in 1951. He also appeared in regular roles on The Mel Blanc Show and The Harold Peary Show.

Joseph Kearns made his onscreen film debut in Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951). He was the voice of the Doorknob in Disney's animated Alice in Wonderland (1951). Kearns appeared in several other movies, making his final film appearance as the crime photographer in Anatomy of a Murder (1959).

On television, Kearns reprised his radio roles on The Jack Benny Program and also appeared with Eve Arden and Richard Crenna in Our Miss Brooks (1953-1955) as Superintendent Stone (a role he had also played on radio).

Kearns played Fred, a neighbor of the fictitious child psychologist Dr. Tom Wilson, portrayed by Stephen Dunne (1918-1977), in the short-lived 1955 CBS sitcom, Professional Father. Phyllis Coates, later the first Lois Lane in The Adventures of Superman, played Fred's wife, Madge. Barbara Billingsley, later of Leave It to Beaver, and Beverly Washburn, a prominent child actress, also starred in this series.

From 1957-1959, Kearnes appeared as Augustus P. Tobey in eight episodes of the syndicated television series How to Marry a Millionaire, based on the 1953 Marilyn Monroe film of the same name. His co-stars were Barbara Eden and Merry Anders as Loco Jones and Michelle "Mike" Page, respectively, who portrayed young women in New York City seeking to land millionaire husbands.

The role for which Kearns is most remembered is that of the long-suffering neighbor, rather cranky Mr. George Wilson in CBS's Dennis the Menace based on the popular comic strip by Hank Ketcham.

In this the second episode Gale Gordon plays Weary Willie the stork!

60 years ago today, Jimmy Stewart kept us in Suspense!  Yep, my all time favorite actor in Suspense this week.  If you like this show, tune in every Saturday for "Jimmy Stewart Saturday!"  One of my most popular podcasts!

The Cinnamon Bear is an old time radio program produced by Transco (Transcription Company of America), based in Hollywood, California. The series was specifically designed to be listened to six days a week between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

It was first broadcast between Friday, November 26 and Saturday December 25, 1937. Some markets like Portland, Oregon jumped the gun, debuting the program on November 25, Thanksgiving Day. In the first season, Portland broadcast the program on two stations, KALE at 6:00pm and KXL at 7:00pm.

When syndication problems arose at Transco, the program was not officially broadcast in 1940, although some stations might have aired previous transcriptions. No program aired in Portland that year. In 1941, Transco programming was sold to Broadcasters Program Syndicate, and The Cinnamon Bear was on the air nationally once again. In the 1950s, syndication was taken over by Lou R. Winston, also based in Hollywood.

An original Lipman-Wolfe & Company newspaper ad from the Portland Oregon Journal, November 25, 1937 read:

Introducing Paddy O'Cinnamon, Santa Claus's right-hand man! Meet him with Santa in Toyland at Lipman's... and don't miss his exciting adventures with Judy and Jimmy (two of the nicest playmates you could want!) over the air every night but Saturday! Early-to-bedders can listen at 6 and stay-up-laters at 7... and some nights you'll be so anxious to hear how they got the Silver Star back from the wicked Crazyquilt Dragon that you'll listen twice! And here's a secret... the Cinnamon Bear is just as excited about meeting you as he can be.

Out west with Jimmy Stewart as the legendary Britt Ponset

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

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!

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 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).

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.

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

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!

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!

Saturday, time for Jimmy Stewart in the Six Shooter!