Golden Age of Radio

The Milwaukee Journal – Jan 14, 1945 The Radio Parade – News and Gossip of Stars By George Lilley NEW YORK, N. Y.—Radio comedians (on the networks) average $2,000 to $5,000 a wekk, the fellows who write their stuff, $200 to $500. Youthful ( mid thirties) collegiate looking Don Prindle, who writes for Abbott and Costello, this year decided to do something about the financial disparity. Getting together with AnnouncerWendell Niles , who announces for Bob Hope , the two will become funnymen themselves with a soft drink sponsor beginning Jan. 24, 9 p. m., on the Blue network. Prindle has written wit into the mouths of the best, including Hope and Jack Benny . Niles, from Twin Valley, Minn., ex-band-leader and flier, was in 1934 one of the 80 government licensed ground school flying instructors in the United States. Out of military zones, he sometimes flies the planes taking the Bob Hope crew around the country. * * * Six foot one Art Linkletter was Southern Calif

The Milwaukee Journal – Feb 16, 1941 A Howling Success That’s Dolores Gillen, Who Fills Crying Need THERE are many kinds of crying. For example, there are those moans and laments which emanate from frustrated horse and poker player. And there are those from girls whose daddy-kins forget to bring new mink coats and wives whose husbands come home late. All these are unprofitable, except possibly the girl-daddykins combination. But for real, shining success in the field the award goes to Dolores Gillen, a kewpielike creature without the usual rotund frontal construction, who for a handsome sum, cries each day in the year. Miss Gillen recently told the New York World Telegram how she has filled a crying need in the radio world by having on tap everything from the low, chuckling, happy murmur of a baby to a raucous, heart howl. “The directors seem to like most the fact I can get sex into a baby’s cry,” she said triumphantly. “ Not real sex,” she added hastily. “I

ON THE AIR TODAY: Kate Smith Speaks, on CBS at noon, E.D.T, sponsored by Grape Nuts. It’s a semi-vacation that Kate Smith is having this summer. When the sponsors of her noonday talks decided they’d like to keep the show on the air through the hot weather. Kate countered with a request that she be allowed to go on the air from her summer home at Lake Placid—and that’s what was finally decided, to everybody’s satisfaction. You ought to see the comfortable set-up Kate and her manager, Ted Collins, have up there in the cool mountains. Kate’s home is on Buck Island, about a mile and half off shore from the town of Lake Placid. It’s almost like a small village in itself, because both Kate and Ted have their homes there, plus guest houses, boat houses, a tennis court and a big outdoor barbecue pit. Three speedboats are moored to the dock, so that nobody need be disappointed when the urge to go somewhere  comes. Kate herself is an expert at operating a speedboat, and usually insis