60 years ago a young Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns on The Simpsons TV show) played the character of Butch the Beaver!

Here is another great color special I've found.

Jack Benny's Twentieth Anniversary Special - 1970

with Don Wilson, Rochester, Dennis Day, Mary Livingstone, Mel Blanc, Benny Rubin, Frank Nelson, Dinah Shore, Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, and believe it or not it is not a clip show!!

65 years ago Ava Gardner kept us in Suspense.

Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress.

She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers (1946). She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in Mogambo (1953).

She appeared in several high-profile films from the 1950s to 1970s, including The Hucksters (1947), Show Boat (1951), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), The Barefoot Contessa (1954), Bhowani Junction (1956), On the Beach (1959), Seven Days in May (1964), The Night of the Iguana (1964), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), Earthquake (1974), and The Cassandra Crossing (1976). Gardner continued to act regularly until 1986, four years before her death from pneumonia, at age 67, in 1990.

She is listed 25th among the American Film Institute's Greatest female stars.

60 years ago this week, the first official episode of Gunsmoke!

Richard Beals as Ralph Phillips in From A to Z-Z-Z-Z! (1953)

Richard Beals as Ralph Phillips in Boyhood Daze! (1957)

In 1952, after performing in an episode of The Green Hornet, WXYZ station manager Jack McCarthy referred Beals to Forrest Owen of Wade Advertising. Owen showed Beals a rendering of a proposed product spokesman for their client, Alka-Seltzer and had him record a voice audition. Four months later, Beals was notified that he had been selected as the voice for Speedy Alka-Seltzer as well as the voice of Sticky, the Vaseline mascot.

Beals moved to Los Angeles where he continued making commercials as Speedy Alka-Seltzer and also provided voices for other commercials, such as Oscar Mayer, the Campbell Soup Kids, and Bob's Big Boy.^[2]

In 1953, Beals was hired to do the voice for his first cartoon character. This was Ralph Phillips, a Walter Mitty type boy in From A to Z-Z-Z-Z by Warner Brothers. The cartoon was nominated for an Academy Award.

Beals continued doing voices for Warner Brothers cartoons, often as un-credited secondary characters. When Hanna-Barbera started with the Flintstones, and then The Jetsons, Beals did many of the kid's voices on those shows,^[2] sometimes performing several different minor characters on the same show. One of his recurring roles was as Mr. Spacely's son Arthur on The Jetsons.

Beals voiced the famous claymation character Gumby when it was first televised on NBC in 1957. From 1960 to 1964, he played the voice of Davey Hansen, as well as other child voices, on Davey and Goliath.^[4]He did not do any voices for that series after 1965, when Norma MacMillan replaced him as Davey Hansen.

Beals provided voices for both the characters "Yank" and "Dan" of the "American Eagles" troupe in the mid-1960s cartoon series Roger Ramjet. In 1967, Beals was the singing voice of child actor Bobby Riha as Jack in the NBC-TV special Jack and the Beanstalk starring Gene Kelly. He was the voice of Buzz Conroy, the boy scientist on Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles, and Richie Rich's mischievous cousin, Reggie Van Dough on Richie Rich. Beals was also the voice of Birdboy on Birdman and the Galaxy Trio.

During the late 1980s, Beals provided the voices for various characters on Garfield and Friends his most major character being Jon's cruel nephew Rosco.

From 1989-1993 he played Nicholas Adamsworth on the Focus on the Family radio drama Adventures in Odyssey.

In 1996, Beals provided the voice of the Pinocchio puppet in the horror film Pinocchio's Revenge.

Beals continues doing occasional voice acting, appears as a guest at Old Time Radio conventions and works as a motivational speaker. He is active as an alumnus of Michigan State University and in his spare time he enjoys spending time on his yacht.

Beals wrote in his autobiography, Think Big. His high voice and boyish appearance are due to a glandular problem; he did not go through puberty (much like Walter Tetley, who had provided the voice for Sherman on The Bullwinkle Show). Beals is 4 foot 7 inches tall and just under 70 pounds. Despite his short stature, he has been able to fly planes using modified controls.

60 years ago Jack entertains more troops!

The complete "Jack Benny's Bag," color hour Special with guest Dick Clark from 1968!

Jack and Mary are joined by great character actor and voice talent Arthur Q Bryan (Elmer Fudd).

Arthur Q Bryan came to prominence in his late 1930s as the voice of Egghead and Elmer Fudd at Warner Brothers animation unit, headed by Leon Schlesinger.

Along with several characters, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, or Porky Pig, all voiced by Mel Blanc, one of Warner's early big stars was Bryan's Elmer Fudd. The slow-talking, slower-witted, enunciation-challenged Mr. Fudd is a game hunter whose Brooklynesque speech (courtesy of Bryan's own childhood upbringing in the borough) was exaggerated for memorable effect by his habitual substitution of W for the letters L and R, an effect further immortalized by the tongue-in-cheek screen credits of the 1941 Bugs Bunny short Wabbit Twouble.

When watching him perform, director Bob Clampett (or "Wobert Cwampett" in the screen credit) thought Bryan's girth added to the hilarity of his dialogue, and redesigned Fudd as a fat man patterned after Bryan's real-life appearance. After a few shorts, Clampett decided it was a mistake, and Fudd returned to his classical form. But fat or slimmed, Bryan's Fudd was so popular that the character's shorts were used to create and develop the character of Bugs Bunny, with the first official Bugs Bunny appearance coming in the Fudd cartoon, A Wild Hare.

Bryan's name does not appear in Looney Tunes credits because of Mel Blanc's contract with Warner Brothers, which stipulated that only Blanc would receive on-screen credit for voice work.

Bryan's work in animation did not go unnoticed by radio producers. Although his first forays into that medium were inevitably accompanied by instructions that he use the Fudd voice, Bryan soon came to the attention of Don Quinn and Phil Leslie, the production and writing team responsible for Fibber McGee and Molly and their supporting characters, two of whom spun off into their own radio hits, The Great Gildersleeveand Beulah.

The Gildersleeve character, played by Harold Peary, became series broadcasting's first successful spin-off hit; that plus the onset of World War II (which cost Fibber McGee & Molly their Mayor LaTrivia, when Gale Gordon went into the Coast Guard in early 1942, and "The Old Timer" Bill Thompson was drafted almost a year later) nabbed nearly every other remaining male voice.

Bryan was first hired for the new Great Gildersleeve series, to play the part of one of Gildersleeve's cronies, Floyd Munson, the barber. His work on the series (in Bryan's natural voice) so impressed the Quinn and Leslie, that Bryan was added to the cast of their main show, Fibber McGee and Molly, in 1943.

On Fibber, Bryan found himself in the unusual position of being smarter than, more educated than, and generally superior to his foil, titular braggart McGee. Playing Doc Gamble, Bryan was a polar opposite of the Fudd character—Gamble was well-spoken, even-tempered, and usually got the best of McGee, which Elmer could never do with Bugs.

70 years ago with Fred Allen with a podcast intro about Alan Reed.

Complete Chuck Schaden interview Alan Reed!

70 years ago Jack had this episode filmed, and here it is!

Jack at Camp Hahn Video part 1

Jack at Camp Hahn Video part 2

Virginia Mayo signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn and appeared in several of Goldwyn's movies. With Danny Kaye she played the dream-girl heroine in comedies including Wonder Man (1945), The Kid from Brooklyn (1946) and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947).

At the zenith of her career, Mayo was seen as the quintessential voluptuous Hollywood beauty. It was said that she "looked like a pinup painting come to life," and she played just such a role in the 1949 film comedy, The Girl from Jones Beach. According to widely published reports from the late 1940s, the Sultan of Morocco declared her beauty to be proof of the existence of God.

In 1949's White Heat she took on the unsympathetic role of the cold and treacherous "Verna Jarrett", opposite James Cagney. She was also cast against type as a shallow golddigger in The Best Years of Our Lives. Her career continued strong through the 50s, frequently in B-movie westerns and adventure films. By the start of the 60s, the pace of her work slowed, but she continued occasional film appearances in the following decades, her last role being in The Man Next Door (1997). While she also appeared in musicals, Mayo's singing voice was always dubbed.

Mayo and her husband, actor Michael O'Shea (of Jack London film fame) co-starred in such stage productions as Tunnel of Love, Fiorello, and George Washington Slept Here. She also starred in stage productions of Cactus Flower, How the Other Half Loves, and the musical comedy, Good News.

Mayo has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine. In 1996 she received a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.[

60 years ago Don Wilson announced the Phil Harris and Alice Faye show!

Radio Spirits is having a big sale on the five Phil Harris show sets.  Use the coupon word N04NC001 AT CHECK OUT AND SAVE AN ADDITIONAL 15%.

Nice variation starring Judy Garland on the original film that starred Kathrine Hepburn and Fred MacMurray.

Alice Adams is a 1935 romantic film made by RKO. It was directed by George Stevens and produced by Pandro S. Berman. The screenplay was by Dorothy Yost, Mortimer Offner, and Jane Murfin. The film was adapted from the novel Alice Adams, by Booth Tarkington. The music score was by Max Steiner and Roy Webb, and the cinematography by Robert De Grasse.

The film is about young woman in a medium-sized town in the United States in the early 1900s, and her pretentious attempts to appear upper-class and wed a wealthy man while concealing her poverty. It stars Katharine Hepburn, Fred MacMurray, Fred Stone, Evelyn Venable, Frank Albertson, Ann Shoemaker, Hedda Hopper, and Hattie McDaniel.

60 years ago Jack Benny talks about the Navy and Mel Blanc talks about the Maxwell in the podcast!

Mel Blanc Interview from 1988, 1 and a half years before his death.

60 years ago fun with Phil and Grogen (Sheldon Leonard)!

Complete interview with Sheldon Leonard!

60 years ago Deborah Kerr kept us in Suspense!

Deborah Kerr's role as a troubled nun in Black Narcissus in 1947 brought her to the attention of Hollywood producers. The film was a hit in the US as well as the UK, and Kerr won the New York Film Critics' Award as Actress of the Year. In Hollywood, her British accent and manners led to a succession of roles portraying a refined, reserved, and proper English lady. Nevertheless, Kerr frequently used any opportunity to discard her cool exterior. She starred in the 1950 adventure film, King Solomon's Mines, shot on location in Africa with Stewart Granger and Richard Carlson. This was immediately followed by her appearance in the religious epic Quo Vadis? (1951), shot at Cinecittà in Rome, in which she played the indomitable Lygia, a first century Christian.

Kerr also departed from typecasting with a performance that brought out her sensuality, as Karen Holmes, the embittered military wife in From Here to Eternity (1953), for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. The American Film Institute acknowledged the iconic status of the scene from that film in which she and Burt Lancaster make love on a Hawaii beach amidst the crashing waves. The organisation ranked it twentieth in its list of the 100 most romantic films of all time.

From then on, Kerr's career choices would make her known in Hollywood for her versatility as an actress,^[9][10] She portrayed a nun (Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison), a mama's girl (Separate Tables), and a governess (The Chalk Garden and The Innocents), but she also portrayed an earthy Australian sheep-herder's wife (The Sundowners) and lustful and beautiful screen enchantresses (Beloved Infidel, Bonjour Tristesse). She also starred in comedies (The Grass is Greener and Marriage on the Rocks).

Among her most famous roles were Anna Leonowens in the film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I (1956), and opposite Cary Grant in An Affair to Remember (1958). In 1966, the producers of Carry On Screaming! offered her a fee comparable to that paid to the rest of the cast combined, but she turned it down in favour of appearing in an aborted stage version of Flowers for Algernon. In 1967, at the age of 46, she starred in Casino Royale, achieving the distinction of being the oldest 'Bond Girl' in any James Bond film.

In 1969, pressure of competition from younger, upcoming actresses made her agree to appear nude in John Frankenheimer's The Gypsy Moths,^[11] the only nude scene in Kerr's career. Concern about the parts being offered to her, as well as the increasing amount of nudity in films in general, led her to abandon film work at the end of the 1960s in favour of television and theatre work.^[11]

Lizabeth Scott won the leading role of "Sabina", receiving a nod of approval from critics at the age of 20. The following night, George was out again and Scott went on in her place.

Soon afterward, Scott was at the Stork Club when film producer Hal Wallis asked who she was, unaware that an aide had already arranged an interview with her for the following day. When Scott returned home, however, she found a telegram offering her the lead for the Boston run of The Skin of Our Teeth. She could not turn it down. She sent Wallis her apologies and went on the road.

Though the Broadway production, in which she was credited as "Girl", christened her "Elizabeth", she dropped the "e" the day after the opening night in Boston, "just to be different".

A photograph of Scott in Harper's Bazaar magazine was seen by film agent Charles Feldman. He admired the fashion pose and took her on as a client. Scott made her first screen test at Warner Brothers, where she and Wallis finally met. Though the test was bad, the producer recognized her potential. As soon as Wallis set up shop at Paramount, she was signed to a contract. Her film debut was in You Came Along (1945) opposite Robert Cummings.

Paramount publicity dubbed Scott "The Threat," in order to create an onscreen persona for her similar to Lauren Bacall or Veronica Lake. Scott's smoky sensuality and husky voice lent itself to the film noir genre and, beginning with The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) starring Barbara Stanwyck and Van Heflin, the studio cast her in a series of noir thrillers. Film historian Eddie Muller has noted that no other actress has appeared in so many noir films, with more than three quarters of her 20 films qualifying.^[2]

Don DeFore and Lizabeth Scott in a promotional still from Too Late for Tears.

The dark blonde actress was initially compared to Bacall because of a slight resemblance and a similar voice, even more so after she starred with Bacall's husband, Humphrey Bogart, in the 1947 noir thriller Dead Reckoning. At the age of 25, Scott's billing and portrait were equal to Bogart's on the film's lobby posters and in advertisements. The film was the first of many femme fatale roles for Scott.

She also starred in Desert Fury (1947), a noir filmed in Technicolor, with John Hodiak, Burt Lancaster, Wendell Corey and Mary Astor. In it, she played Paula Haller, who, on her return from college, falls for gangster Eddie Bendix (Hodiak), and faces a great deal of opposition from the others. Scott was paired with Lancaster, Corey and Kirk Douglas in Wallis' I Walk Alone (1948), a noirish story of betrayal and vengeance. In 1949, she starred as a vicious femme fatale in Too Late for Tears. The film is unusual for featuring her as the main character, rather than the supporting role most women were relegated to in film noirs of the period.

Having being known professionally as Lizabeth Scott for 4½ years, she appeared at the courthouse in Los Angeles, on October 20, 1949 and had her name legally changed. Another courtroom appearance came several years later, in 1955, when she sued Confidential magazine for stating that she spent her off-work hours with "Hollywood's weird society of baritone babes" (a euphemism for a lesbian) in an article which claimed Scott's name was found on the clients' list belonging to a call-girl agency.^[3] The suit was dismissed on a technicality. After completing Loving You in 1957, Elvis Presley's second film, Scott retired from the screen. Later that year, she recorded her album, Lizabeth. The next few years saw Scott occasionally guest-star on television, including a 1963 episode of Burke's Law.

65 years ago the saga of the Sportsmen continues!  Podcast about Mel Blanc and the Maxwell.

Here is the intro to Speed Buggy in which Mel gives the Maxwell a voice!

The Andrews Sisters were a highly successful close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews (July 6, 1911 – May 8, 1967 Age 55), soprano Maxene Angelyn Andrews (January 3, 1916 – October 21, 1995 Age 79), and mezzo-soprano Patricia Marie "Patty" Andrews (born February 16, 1918 Age 94). Throughout their long career, the sisters sold well over 75 million records (the last official count released by MCA Records in the mid-1970s). Their 1941 hit "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" can be considered an early example of rhythm and blues or jump blues.

The Andrews Sisters' harmonies and songs are still influential today, and have been covered by entertainers such as Bette Midler, the Puppini Sisters and Christina Aguilera. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998.

65 years ago with Bing and Al!

60 years ago this week with Dean, Jerry, and Corinne.

Corinne Calvet studied criminal law at the Sorbonne and made her debut in French radio, stage plays and cinema in the 1940s before being brought to Hollywood in the 1940s by producer Hal B. Wallis. He cast her in Rope of Sand (1949) opposite Burt Lancaster and Paul Henreid.

In the 1950s, Calvet appeared in a string of films, usually playing French characters, opposite such leading men as Danny Kaye (On the Riviera), Joseph Cotten (Peking Express), James Cagney (What Price Glory?), James Stewart (The Far Country), Alan Ladd (Thunder in the East), Tony Curtis (So This Is Paris) and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis (Sailor Beware).

She made a rare television appearance on the Colgate Comedy Hour with Donald O'Connor on February 3, 1952, televised nationwide by NBC.

She continued to act in Italian and French productions as well as making appearances on American television series, with occasional roles in films. Her last film was in The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982)

65 years ago radio legend William Bendix kept us in Suspense!

William Bendix's appeared in The McGuerins of Brooklyn, playing a rugged blue-collar man, that led to his most famous role. Producer/creator Irving Brecher saw Bendix as the perfect personification of Chester A. Riley, giving a second chance to a show whose audition failed when the sponsor spurned Groucho Marx for the lead. With Bendix stumbling, bumbling, and skating almost perpetually on thin ice, stretching the patience of his otherwise loving wife and children, The Life of Riley was a radio hit from 1944 through 1951, and Bendix even brought an adaptation of the film version to Lux Radio Theater. He made Riley's frequent exclamation, "What a revoltin' development this is," into a national catchphrase.

Bendix as Riley with Sterling Holloway, 1957.

Bendix wasn't able to play the role on television at first---a contracted film commitment prevented it. The role went to Jackie Gleason and the show aired a single season beginning in October 1949. Despite winning an Emmy award, the show ended, in part because Gleason wasn't entirely acceptable as Riley when Bendix was so identified with it on radio. But Bendix was available for a new television version in 1953, and this time the show clicked. The second television version of The Life of Riley ran from 1953 to 1958---long enough for Riley to become a grandfather.

On the 1952 television program This Is Your Life, it was claimed that he was a descendant of the 19th century composer Felix Mendelssohn.

In 1958 Bendix played the lead in Rod Serling's The Time Element, a time-travel adventure about a man who travels back to 1941 Honolulu and tries to warn everyone about the impending attack on Pearl Harbor.

In 1958 Bendix appeared on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. He returned for a second appearance on October 1, 1959, the fourth season premiere of the series in which he and his friend, Tennessee Ernie Ford, perform a comedy skit about a safari.^[3]

In 1960 Bendix starred in seventeen episodes of the NBC western series Overland Trail in the role of Frederick Thomas "Fred" Kelly, the crusty superintendent of the Overland Stage Company. Doug McClure, later Trampass on NBC's The Virginian, co-starred as his young understudy, Frank "Flip" Flippen. The program was similar to another offering on ABC the following season, Stagecoach West.

After appearing in several small films, Darnell was cast in her first big-budget film in May 1940, appearing again opposite Tyrone Power in Brigham Young (1940), which was shot on location in mid-1940 and was regarded the most expensive film 20th Century Fox had yet produced.^[1]:55 Darnell and Power were cast together for the second time due to the box office success of Day-Time Wife, and they became a highly publicized onscreen couple, which prompted Darryl F. Zanuck to add 18 more romantic scenes to Brigham Young.^[13] The film's director, Henry Hathaway, in later life had only slight memories of Darnell and recalled that "a sweeter girl never lived."^[1]:55 By June 1940, shortly after completing Brigham Young, Darnell achieved stardom and earned "a weekly salary larger than most bank officials."^[14]

In the summer of 1940, Darnell began working on The Mark of Zorro (1940), in which she again co-starred as Power's sweetheart in a role for which Anne Baxter was previously considered.^[1]:58 A big budget adventure film that was raved over by the critics, The Mark of Zorro was a box office sensation and did much to enhance Darnell's star status.^[1]:58 Afterwards, she was paired with Henry Fonda for the first time in the western Chad Hanna (1940), her first Technicolor film. The film received only little attention, unlike Darnell's next film Blood and Sand (1941), was shot on location in Mexico and she was re-teamed with Power. It was the first film for which she was widely critically acclaimed.^[1]:63 Nevertheless, Darnell later claimed that her downfall began after Blood and Sand. In an interview she said:

"People got tired of seeing the sweet young things I was playing and I landed at the bottom of the roller coaster. The change and realization were very subtle. I'd had the fame and money every girl dreams about–and the romance. I'd crammed thirty years into ten, and while it was exciting and I would do it over again, I still know I missed out on my girlhood, the fun, little things that now seem important."^[1]:63–64

The studio was unable to find Darnell suitable roles. In late 1940, Fox chose her for the main role in Song of the Islands (1942), a Hawaiian musical film which eventually starred Betty Grable.^[15] After Blood and Sand, she was set to co-star with Claudette Colbert in Remember the Day (1941), but another actress was eventually cast.^[1]:65 Meanwhile, she was considered for the female lead in Swamp Water (1941), but Anne Baxter was later assigned the role. Darnell was disappointed and felt rejected; she later said: "Right under your very nose someone else is brought in for that prize part you wanted so terribly."^[1]:65 Months passed by without any work, and in August 1941 she was cast in a supporting role in the musical Rise and Shine (1941). The film was a setback in her career, and she was rejected for a later role because she refused to respond to Darryl F. Zanuck's advances.^[1]:67–68 Instead, she contributed to war effort, working for the Red Cross, selling war bonds, and she was a regular at the Hollywood Canteen.

65 years ago with Jack and guest vetran actor, Victor Moore!

Victor Moore made his film debut in 1915. He starred in three films that year, two of which were directed by Cecil B. DeMille - Chimmie Fadden and Chimmie Fadden Out West.

He appeared in over 50 films and 21 Broadway shows. His first appearance was on Broadway in Rosemary (1896). He also appeared in George M. Cohan's Forty-five Minutes from Broadway, which opened January 1, 1906, and its sequel, The Talk of New York (1907). He went on to star in shows such as Oh, Kay! (1926) as Shorty McGee, Hold Everything! (1928) as Nosey Bartlett, Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing (1931) with William Gaxton, Let 'Em Eat Cake (1933), Cole Porter's Anything Goes (1934) as Moonface Martin, and Irving Berlin's Louisiana Purchase (1940) as Oliver P. Loganberry.

Victor Moore worked in film twice with Bob Hope, first in Louisiana Purchase (1941) and again in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942).

He made a guest appearance as himself on The Martin and Lewis radio show on 8/16/49, and was a regular (as himself) on The Jimmy Durante Show.

He also appeared in such Hollywood films as Swing Time (1936) with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), The Heat's On with Mae West, Duffy's Tavern (1945), Ziegfeld Follies (1946), It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947), On Our Merry Way (1948), A Kiss in the Dark (1949), and We're Not Married (1952), working with Ginger Rogers for a second time. His last screen appearance was a cameo role as a plumber in The Seven Year Itch (1955).

His most unusual role came in the 1945 Daffy Duck cartoon Ain't That Ducky. Moore was so pleased with the caricature of him that he offered to add his voice free of charge on one condition: that the animators drew him with a little more hair.

60 years ago J. Carrol Naish kept us in Suspense!

J. Patrick Naish (January 21, 1896 – January 24, 1973) was an American character actor. He was twice nominated for an Academy Award for film roles, and he later found fame in the title role of CBS Radio's Life With Luigi (1948–1953), which was also on CBS Television (1952-1953).

Born Joseph Patrick Carroll Naish in New York City, he appeared on stage for several years before he began his film career. He began as a member of Gus Edwards's vaudeville troupe of child performers. In Paris after World War I, Naish formed his own song and dance act. He was traveling the globe from Europe to Egypt to Asia, when his China-bound ship developed engine problems, leaving him in California in 1926.

His uncredited bit role in What Price Glory? (1926) launched his career in more than two hundred films. He was twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the first for his role in the movie Sahara (1943), and for his performance in the movie A Medal for Benny (1945). For the latter film, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. He played Boris Karloff's assistant in House of Frankenstein (1944).

He was of Irish descent, but he never used his dialect skills to play Irishmen, explaining, "When the part of an Irishman comes along, nobody ever thinks of me." He did play other elasticities such as Italian, Native American, and Chinese, which earned him the moniker "Hollywood's one-man U.N.".^[1]

In 1954, Naish guest starred in an episode of Justice, an NBC legal drama about attorneys of the Legal Aid Society of New York. On February 2, 1959, Naish appeared on John Payne's NBC western series The Restless Gun in the role of Major Quint Langley in the episode "Blood of Courage."^[2]

In 1960-61, he played an American Indian in the ABC sitcom Guestward, Ho! with costars Joanne Dru and Mark Miller.

60 years ago with Dean, Jerry, and Rhonda!

Rhonda Fleming began working as a film actress while attending Beverly Hills High School,^[2] from which she was graduated in 1941. After appearing uncredited in a several films, she received her first substantial role in the thriller Spellbound (1945), produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. She followed this with supporting roles in another thriller, The Spiral Staircase (1946), directed by Robert Siodmak, the Randolph Scott western Abilene Town (1946), and the film noir classic Out of the Past (1947) with Robert Mitchum. Her first leading role came in Adventure Island (1947), a low-budget action film made in the two-color Cinecolor process and co-starring Rory Calhoun.^[3]

The actress then co-starred with Bing Crosby in her first Technicolor film,^[4] A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), a musical loosely based on the story by Mark Twain. Fleming exhibited her singing ability, dueting with Crosby on “Once and For Always” and soloing with “When Is Sometime.” She and Crosby recorded these songs for a 78 rpm Decca soundtrack album. She also sang on NBC's Colgate Comedy Hour during the same live telecast that featured Errol Flynn, on September 30, 1951, from the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood.^[5]

In 1953, Fleming portrayed Cleopatra in Serpent of the Nile. That same year she appeared in two films shot in 3-D, Inferno with Robert Ryan and the musical Those Redheads From Seattle with Gene Barry. The following year she starred with Fernando Lamas in Jivaro, her third 3-D release.

Among Fleming’s subsequent cinematic credits are Fritz Lang’s While the City Sleeps (1956), co-starring Dana Andrews; Allan Dwan’s Slightly Scarlet, co-starring John Payne and Arlene Dahl; John Sturges’s Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) co-starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas and the Irwin Allen / Joseph M. Newman production of The Big Circus (1959), co-starring Victor Mature and Vincent Price. Her most recent film was Waiting for the Wind (1990).^[6]

During the 1950s and into the 1960s, Fleming frequently appeared on television with guest-starring roles on The Red Skelton Show, The Best of Broadway, The Investigators, Shower of Stars, The Dick Powell Show, Death Valley Days, Wagon Train, Burke's Law, The Virginian, McMillan & Wife, Police Woman, Kung Fu, Ellery Queen, and The Love Boat. On March 4, 1962, Fleming appeared in one of the last segments of ABC's Follow the Sun in a role opposite Gary Lockwood, who was nearly 14 years her junior. She played a Marine in the episode "Marine of the Month".

In 1958, Fleming again displayed her singing talent when she recorded her only LP, entitled simply Rhonda. In this album, she blended then current songs like "Around The World" with standards such as "Love Me Or Leave Me" and "I've Got You Under My Skin".

65 years ago Frank Capra and Jack Benny celebrated a ",Wonderful Life."

Roddy McDowall made his first well-known motion picture appearance at the age of 12, playing "Huw Morgan" in How Green Was My Valley (1941). This role made him a household name. He starred in Lassie Come Home (1943), a film that introduced a girl who would become his lifelong friend — Elizabeth Taylor. He then appeared as Ken McLaughlin in the 1943 film My Friend Flicka. McDowall went on to appear in several other films, including The Keys of the Kingdom (1944) and The White Cliffs of Dover (1944).

Roddy McDowall in Lassie Come Home (1943)

McDowall continued his career successfully into adulthood, but it was usually in character roles, notably in heavy makeup as various "chimpanzee" characters in four of the Planet of the Apes movies (1968–1973) and in the 1974 TV series that followed. During one guest appearance on The Carol Burnett Show, he came out onto the stage in his Planet of the Apes makeup and the look of fright on Carol Burnett's face was reported to be genuine. Other film appearances included Cleopatra (1963), in which he played Octavian (the young Emperor Augustus) and was believed to be set to get nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor but was disqualified when accidentally submitted for Best Actor instead; It! (1966), in which he played a Norman Bates-like character reminiscent of Psycho; The Poseidon Adventure (1972), in which he played Acres, a dining room attendant; Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974); Evil Under the Sun (1982); Class of 1984 (1982); Fright Night (1985), in which he played Peter Vincent, a television host and moderator of telecast horror films; and Overboard (1987) in which he played a kind-hearted butler. He also appeared on stage and was frequently a guest star on television shows, appearing in such series as the original The Twilight Zone, The Eleventh Hour, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Night Gallery, The Invaders, The Carol Burnett Show, Fantasy Island, Columbo and Quantum Leap.

McDowall appeared frequently on Hollywood Squares, and occasionally came up with funny quips himself. For example:

Q. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, what does Queen Gertrude get that was meant for her famous son?
McDOWALL: A dozen roses and a box of candy.

McDowall played "The Bookworm" in the 1960s American TV series Batman, and he had an acclaimed recurring role as "The Mad Hatter" in Batman: The Animated Series as well as providing his adroit dramatic tones to the audio adaptation of the 1989 Batman film. He also played the rebel scientist Dr. Jonathan Willoway in the 1970s science fiction TV series, The Fantastic Journey, based on the Bermuda Triangle. McDowall's final acting role in animation (at least), was for an episode of Godzilla: The Series in the episode "Dreadloch". In A Bug's Life (1998), one of his final contributions to motion pictures, he provides the voice of the ant "Mr. Soil".

Gordon MacRae made his Broadway debut in the mid-1940s, acquiring his first recording contract soon afterwards. Many of his hit recordings were made with Jo Stafford. It was in 1948 that he appeared in his first film, The Big Punch, a drama about boxing. He soon began an on-screen partnership with Doris Day and appeared with her in several films.

In 1951, he starred with Doris Day in On Moonlight Bay, followed by the sequel By the Light of the Silvery Moon in 1953. That same year, he also starred opposite Kathryn Grayson in the third film version of The Desert Song. This was followed by leading roles in two major films of Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma! (1955) and Carousel (1956), both films opposite Shirley Jones.

On radio, he was the host and lead actor on The Railroad Hour, a half-hour anthology series made up of condensed versions of hit Broadway musicals.

MacRae appeared frequently on television, on such programs as The Martha Raye Show and The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, both on NBC. On Christmas 1958, MacRae and Ford performed the holiday hymn "O Holy Night".^[2] Earlier in 1958, MacRae guest starred on the short-lived NBC variety series, The Polly Bergen Show.

Thereafter, MacRae appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and The Bell Telephone Hour. He continued his musical stage career, often performing with his wife, as in a 1964 production of Bells Are Ringing, also performing as Sky Masterson in the popular musical Guys and Dolls, his wife playing the role of Miss Adeleide, reprising her Broadway role.^[3] In the late 1960s he co-hosted for a week on The Mike Douglas Show. He also toured in summer stock and appeared in nightclubs. In 1967, he replaced Robert Preston in the original Broadway run of the musical I Do! I Do!, starring opposite Carol Lawrence, who had taken over the role from Mary Martin.

In the 1970s, he portrayed a murderer on the popular TV series McCloud and played a supporting role in what turned out to be his last film, the 1979 motion picture The Pilot.

70 years ago Jack came back on the air.

Jack Benny Forum

Laura Leff's books on Jack and his radio and TV shows!

A very rare episode form 65 years ago with guests Jack Benny and Elliott Lewis!

Dennis Day TV Show

60 years ago with the boys and Alexis!

During the 1940s Alexis Smith appeared alongside some of the most popular male stars of the day, including Errol Flynn in Gentleman Jim (1942) and San Antonio (1945) (in which she sang a special version of the popular ballad "Some Sunday Morning"), Humphrey Bogart in Conflict (1945) and The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947), Cary Grant in a sanitized, fictionalized version of the life of Cole and Linda Porter in Night and Day (1946), and Bing Crosby in Here Comes the Groom (1951). Among Smith's other films are Rhapsody In Blue (1945), Of Human Bondage (1946), and The Young Philadelphians (1959). She also appeared on the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis Radio (NBC) broadcast on 25 January 1952^{[citation needed]}

She toured in several stage hits including the 1955 National company of Plain and Fancy co-starring her husband Craig Stevens, Jean Kerr's Mary, Mary and Cactus Flower also co-starring Stevens.

She appeared on the cover of the May 3, 1971 issue of Time as the result of the critical acclaim for her singing and dancing role in Hal Prince's Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies, which marked her long-awaited Broadway debut. In 1972, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance.

70 years ago we saluted the sad passing of Jack Benny's co-star in the film materpiece, "To Be or Not To Be," the wonderful Carole Lombard who died in a plane crash on January 16th 1942.

When the US entered World War II at the end of 1941, Carole Lombard traveled to her home state of Indiana for a war bond rally with her mother, Bess Peters, and Clark Gable's press agent, Otto Winkler. After raising over $2 million in defense bonds, Lombard addressed her fans, saying: "Before I say goodbye to you all, come on and join me in a big cheer! V for Victory!" On January 16, 1942, Lombard, her mother, and Winkler boarded a Transcontinental and Western Air DC-3 airplane to return to California. After refueling in Las Vegas, TWA Flight 3 took off and 23 minutes later, crashed into "Double Up Peak" near the 8,300 ft (2,500 m) level of Mount Potosi, 32 statute miles (51 km) southwest of Las Vegas. All 22 aboard, including 15 army servicemen, were killed instantly.

On January 18, 1942, Jack Benny did not perform his usual program, both out of respect for Lombard and grief at her death. Instead, he devoted his program to an all-music format.

Shortly after her death at the age of 33, Gable (who was inconsolable and devastated by her loss) joined the United States Army Air Forces. After officers training, Gable headed a six-man motion picture unit attached to a B-17 bomb group in England to film aerial gunners in combat, flying five missions himself. Gable attended the launch of the Liberty ship SS Carole Lombard, named in her honor, on January 15, 1944.

Lombard's final film, To Be or Not to Be (1942), directed by Ernst Lubitsch and co-starring Jack Benny, a satire about Nazism and World War II, was in post-production at the time of her death. The film's producers decided to cut part of the film in which Lombard's character asks, "What can happen on a plane?" as they felt it was in poor taste, given the circumstances of her death.

At the time of her death, Lombard had been scheduled to star in the film They All Kissed the Bride; when production started, her role was given to Joan Crawford. Crawford donated all of her pay for this film to the Red Cross.

65 Years ago Boris Karloff stopped by to have some fun with Jack and the gang.

From 1945 to 1946, Boris Karloff appeared in three films for RKO produced by Val Lewton: Isle of the Dead, The Body Snatcher, and Bedlam. In a 1946 interview with Louis Berg of the Los Angeles Times, Karloff discussed his three-picture deal with RKO, his reasons for leaving Universal Pictures and working with producer Lewton. Karloff left Universal because he thought the Frankenstein franchise had run its course. The latest installment was what he called a "'monster clambake,' with everything thrown in — Frankenstein, Dracula, a hunchback and a 'man-beast' that howled in the night. It was too much. Karloff thought it was ridiculous and said so." Berg continues, "Mr. Karloff has great love and respect for Mr. Lewton as the man who rescued him from the living dead and restored, so to speak, his soul."^[7]

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

60 years ago with Jack and the gang!

Here is a link to the color Jack Benny Special from 1966!

65 years ago Dan Duryea kept us in Suspense!

Dan Duryea moved to Hollywood in 1940 to appear in the film version of The Little Foxes. He continued to establish himself with supporting & secondary roles in films such as The Pride of the Yankees & None But the Lonely Heart. As the 1940s progressed, he found his niche as the "sniveling, deliberately taunting" antagonist in a number of films noir (Scarlet Street, The Woman in the Window, Criss Cross, Too Late for Tears), though he was sometimes cast in more objective roles (Black Angel, Ministry of Fear, One Way Street).^[3]

Television

Dan appeared on the Jack Benny TV show as a gangster holding up a lunch counter.  Duryea starred as the lead character China Smith in the China Smith from 1952 to 1956); and "The New Adventures of China Smith" from 1953 to 1954). In 1959, Duryea appeared as a alcoholic gunfighter in third episode of The Twilight Zone, "Mr. Denton on Doomsday". He guest starred on NBC's anthology series The Barbara Stanwyck Show, and, in 1963, portrayed Dr. Ben Lorrigan on the NBC's The Eleventh Hour. From 1967 to 1968, Duryea appeared as Eddie Jacks on the soap opera Peyton Place.^[4]

65 years ago Bing gets a visit from Mickey Rooney!

In 1937, Rooney was selected to portray Andy Hardy in A Family Affair (1937), which MGM had planned as a B-movie.^[2] Rooney provided comic relief as the son of Judge James K. Hardy, portrayed by Lionel Barrymore (although Lewis Stone would play the role of Judge Hardy in later films). The film was an unexpected success, and led to 13 more Andy Hardy films between 1937 and 1946, and a final film in 1958. Rooney also received top billing as "Shockey Carter" in Hoosier Schoolboy (1937).

Also in 1937, Mickey made his first film alongside Judy Garland with Thoroughbreds Don't Cry. Garland and Rooney became close friends and a successful song and dance team. Besides three of the Andy Hardy films, where she portrayed Betsy Booth, a younger girl with a crush on Andy, they appeared together in a string of successful musicals, including the Oscar-nominated Babes in Arms (1939). During an interview in the documentary film, When the Lion Roars, Rooney describes their friendship:

Judy and I were so close we could've come from the same womb. We weren't like brothers or sisters but there was no love affair there; there was more than a love affair. It's very, very difficult to explain the depths of our love for each other. It was so special. It was a forever love. Judy, as we speak, has not passed away. She's always with me in every heartbeat of my body.^[7]

Rooney's breakthrough role as a dramatic actor came in 1938's Boys Town opposite Spencer Tracy as Whitey Marsh, which opened shortly before his 18th birthday. Rooney was awarded a special Juvenile Academy Award in 1939^[8] and was named the biggest box-office draw in 1939, 1940 and 1941.^[9] Unquestionably a well-known entertainer by the early 1940s, Rooney, with Garland, was one of many celebrities caricatured in Tex Avery's 1941 Warner Bros. cartoon Hollywood Steps Out. As of 2011, Rooney is the only surviving entertainer depicted in the cartoon.

60 years ago talented voice actor Hans Conreid joined Jerry and Dean!

Conried appeared regularly on many radio shows during the 1940s and 1950s, notably the George Burns & Gracie Allen Show, on which he played a psychiatrist whom George regularly consulted for help in dealing with the dizzy Gracie.

Conried's most important single year was 1953, in which he made his Broadway debut in Can-Can and received screen credit in six films (among them The Twonky and The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T). His other Broadway productions include 70, Girls, 70 and Irene.

Hans Conried's inimitable growl and impeccable diction were perfectly suited to the roles he played, whether portraying the dim Professor Kopokin in the radio show My Friend Irma or portraying comic villains and other mock-sinister or cranky types, such as Captain Hook (and Mr. Darling) in Walt Disney's Peter Pan and The Grinch/Narrator from Dr. Seuss' Halloween is Grinch Night. According to the DVD commentary of Futurama, he was also the inspiration for the voice created for that series' "Robot Devil".

Conried also was a cast member of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, voicing the character of Snidely Whiplash in the Dudley Do-Right shorts, and also hosted Fractured Flickers, another creation of Jay Ward and Bill Scott, as well as Wally Walrus on The Woody Woodpecker Show, Uncle Waldo P. Wigglesworth on Hoppity Hooper, and Dr. Dred on Drak Pack. He was well known as the Williams family patriarch, Uncle Tonoose, on the sitcom Make Room for Daddy, a role he played for 13 years. He was also a regular performer on the Jack Paar Tonight Show from 1959 to 1962.

60 years ago this week with Dean, Jerry, and Mona!

Mona Freeman (born June 9, 1926) is an American film actress. ^[1]

The 5' 1" blonde was a model while in high school, and after becoming the first "Miss Subways" of the New York City transit system, eventually signed a movie contract with Howard Hughes. Her contract was later sold to Paramount Pictures. After 1944, she became a popular teenage movie star. As an adult, her career slowed and she appeared in mostly B-movies, though one exception was her role in the film noir Angel Face (1952). Freeman's appearances in films ended in the 1950s but she continued to work in television.

Ok, let's try this one last time! Here is the true last version that follows this track list! All three versions are substantially different from each other.

Track List

01 Bing and Lindsay Crosby - GI Silent Night Before Christmas 1951
02 Phil Harris and Alice Faye - Baby its cold outside 1949-05-08
03 Alice Faye - I saw mommy kissing Santa Clause 1952-12-21 (229)
04 Bing and Gary Crosby - Jingle Bell Jive (SamSong Mix) 1950-12
05 The Sportsmen - Christmas Elevator 1950-12-17 (ep 750)    
06 Bing Crosby and Judy Garland - Rudolph Jive  1950        
07 Dinah Shore - A Merry American Christmas  1941-12-21 (ep 08)
08 Bing Crosby and Trudy Erwin - Silver Bells 1951-12-19 (086)
09 Eddie Cantor-The Only Thing I Want For Christmas        
10 Bing Crosby and Jimmy Stewart -  Baby it's cold outside 1949
11 Dennis Day - Christmas in Kilarnay 1950-11-12             
12  Phil Harris - Jingle Bells 1951-12-23                   
13 Lindsay Crosby - What I want for Christmas 1951-12-19     
14 Sportsman - Winter Wonderland 1953-12-20 (865)           
15 Alice Faye - Santa Clause is Coming to Town 1950-12-24   
16 Bing Crosby - Rudolph 1949-12-14 (013)                    
17 Dennis Day - Frosty the Snowman 1951-11-25 (ep 784)      
18 Bing and Gary Crosby - That Christmas Feeling  1950-12-20 
19 Bing and Lindsay Crosby - I'd like to hitch a ride with Santa 
20 Twins - Dennis and Phil Crosby - The Snowman 1950-12-20   
21 Bing and Crosby Family- That Christmas Feeling Medley 1950-12
22 The Sportsmen - Yule Train 1949-12-25 (ep 713)           
24 Bing Crosby - The Christmas Song 1949-12-21 (ep 014)     
25 Doris Day - Here comes Santa Clause - Bob Hope Show - 1949-12
26 Bing Crosby - Jingle Bells (Skitch Mix) 1946-12-25        
27 judy garland - WhiteChristmas44radio_JudyGarland          
28 Kingsmen - Christmas Story 1944-12-19                    
29 Larry Stevens - Let It Snow, Let It Snow 1946-02-17 (ep 574)
30 Jack Bennys Three Tenors - Christmas Medly 1944-12-24