Golden Age of Radio

The Milwaukee Journal – Feb 4, 11940 THE Hollywood hills give ArchOboler a lift! “It seems,” he says, “that all these Hollywood people live on top of cliffs and mountains. And when you go calling it’s no cinch. When Mrs. Walter Huston was on the program recently I took the supporting cast and drove all the way up to her home—6,000 feet above sea level on the ‘Rim of the World drive,’ one of the most breath taking, heart fluttering journeys you can imagine. “In half an hour you leave the orange groves and are up in the ice and snow. They’ve got a home like a feudal castle. Just imagine this tremendous redwood house, with a vast living room three stories high, and a stone fireplace large enough to roast an ox. Well, I toted my portable recording outfit all the way up there and we had a really good rehearsal because everyone was rested. “I’m getting so that I can’t produce a play unless I’m sitting on the edge of a cliff.” Several month ago, after a whirlwi

Washington Afro-American – Sep 18, 1951 With only a five-minute-break during a rehearsal for their Saturday night NBC-TV “ Your Hit Parade ” show (10:30), the program’s singing stars (left to right), Dorothy Collins, Snooky Lanson and Eileen Wilson have to tackle one ice cream soda between them. The radio edition of the program is now heard on Thursday nights, at 10. Jack Webb , heard twice weekly over the NBC radio network, has gained a reputation for being authentic as well as versatile in the dramatizations of “ Pete Kelly’s Blues ” and “ Dragnet .” When playing as Pete Kelly or Detective Sergeant Joe Friday on “ Dragnet ,” Webb has a manner and a voice that are not easily forgotten. A regular feature of this show is the straight role played by actress, Meredith Howard, who sings a blues number during each performance. She is not identified as to race nor is there any reference made forward the part she plays. This is in keeping with NBC policy of integration on th

The Milwaukee Journal – Aug 25, 1940 Radio Widow Loves Life Wife of Bill Stern Hears but Seldom Sees Her Wandering NBC Sports Announcer By Harriet Stern (Wife of Bill Stern ) I AM A stranger to the radio audience but my husband is probably better known to you than he is to me you see, he never comes home. When we were first married several years ago, I realized that it was like marrying traveling salesman who was always  traveling. But I never thought that my only look at my husband  would be either in the early morning or very late at night. Long ago I gave up inviting people over for dinner. You see, I soon ran out of excuses as to why Bill was late. But please do not misunderstand. I love it! It’s like being on merry-go-round and always trying for the brass ring. Bill is busy morning, noon and night, but I, at least, have one advantage over other wives. All I have to do is turn on the radio and I know at once where my wandering boy is tonight. Nor

The Milwaukee Journal – Feb 16, 1941 George Burns Loves Gag He Pulled 3,000 Times A STATISTICIAN with a flair for adventure made a pilgrimage recently to the home of George Burns and GracieAllen . He emerged a week later, weakly muttering facts and figures which summarized something like this: George and Gracie , in the 18 years of their career together, have used up approximately 40,000 jokes. One joke which makes George laugh has been used 3,000 times, and it’s still good for laughs from George. Burns and Allen , long before they became NBC stars, played seven years of vaudeville with only two routines, titled “Sixty Forty” and “Lamb Chops.” Each act ran 14 minutes, and changes in routine were events of such importance that George and Gracie , before inserting a new joke, went to some small town to break it in. “Now,” Gracie says, “the new joke is broken in, and is still going strong on our NBC programs.” When Burns and Allen, booked on the Gus Sonn circu

<Demure, lady like and looking far aloof from crime, Alice Frost plays Pam North in the NBC mystery series, “ Mr . and Mrs. North ”> Faithful Frost Fans Are Alice’s Pride THE Alice Frost Fan club will be five years old in June. In that time Alice, reversing the recipe for a well behaved child, has been heard but not seen in a variety of roles ranging from saint to sinner to siren. Currently she is whimsical Pam North of NBC ’s “ Mr . and Mrs. North ,” (WTMJ, Wednesdays, 7p. m.). Thorough it all the 150 in the limited membership of her fan club have remained unwaveringly loyal. Listeners have a way of associating actresses with the parts they play, but the Frost fans can take changes in their stride. The women who visualized Alice herself as the very personification of the sweet, high minded girl she played so long in “ Big Sister ,” now accept her with equal enthusiasm as that gay amateur sleuth, Pam North. And when she’s heard, as she often is, as the e

The Pittsburgh Press – Nov 24, 1953 Goldbergs Anything But Idle Molly Busy Doing ‘House of Glass’ By JACK GAVER United Press Staff Writer NEW YORK –“ The Goldbergs ” may be off the air for the present, but that doesn’t mean that the creator of this much-loved program is idle. Gertrude Berg. Who is the author and the Molly Goldberg of the series, celebrated her 24 th anniversary on network radio last Friday, busy with a new series called “The House of Glass.” NBC introduced this radio show a few weeks ago after “The Goldbergs” dropped out of the television picture – temporarily everyone hopes—because there was just no so called prime time available for it. TV sponsors who spent the sort of money “The Goldbergs” get hesitate to buy anything that doesn’t have a good time segment.

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

SAY HELLO TO . . . VIRGINIA SALE – who is Martha, the cook, on tonight’s serial, Those We Love, on NBC -Red at 8:30. She’s the youngest sister of the late Chic Sale, comedian, and is herself one of Hollywood ’s busiest character actresses. On stage she has appeared in her own one-woman show of sketches she wrote. The characters she plays are usually elderly, but Virginia is young, slender, and pretty. She was born in Urbana, Illinois, is Mrs. Sam Wren in private life, and has a son and a daughter, twins, who were born on Washington’s Birthday, 1936. Besides acting, she does solo dancing and has a lovely soprano voice

February 1945 Radio find of the year is Jack Benny ’s new singer, Larry Stevens. The baritone was completely unknown, and had never performed commercially, until he participated in a Freddy Martin bond rally at Los Angeles’ Cocoanut Grove . Spotted by a scout immediately, Larry soon tried out for Mary Livingstone —and was signed up for the place vacated by Dennis Day on the NBC show.

ROSEMARY RICE—who is Betty in NBC ’s Archie Andrews was studying at the Cape Cod Institute of Music one summer when she became interested in drama and joined a workshop. George F. Kaufman saw her in a workshop skit and cast her in a play. Later, Moss Hart gave her the lead for the road company of “ JuniorMiss ,” and before going into radio , she played the kid sister in “Dear Ruth.” 

Former radio star dies OLNEY, III. (AP) –Bernardine Doherty, whose role as Sade in the Vic and Sade series endeared her to early radio listeners, had died at a hospital here. Mrs. Foherty, window of Dr. Chester Doherty, associate professor of medicine at North western University Medical School, died Thursday of an internal aliment. A native of Madison, Wis., Mrs. Doherty studied drama at the University of Wisconsin and later appeared in several Broadway hits, including Seven Year Love, Strictly Dishonorable and Strange Interlude. She worked for the NBC in Chicago, appearing in several pioneer radio shows. Vic and Sade ran from 1932 to 1945 and won fame for its humorous depiction of a small-town mid-western family. After the series ended, Mrs. Doherty toured in a road show with actor Walter Huston, starring in Apple of his Eye and September Song.

FLORENCE WILLIAMS—a native of St. Louis, Mo., was a successful dress designer before turning actress; she still makes all her own clothes. Florence made her radio debut as Barbara Ware in Roses and Drums. Since then she has appeared regularly on the stage and radio at the same time. She plays the part of Sally in Front Page Farrell (M-F., 5:45 P.M. EDT, NBC). 

DOUBLY AIR-MINDED Playing the flying secret agent, Joyce Ryan, in Mutual’s Captain Midnight for the past five years has had a marked effect on Marilou Neumayer’s private life. The daily dialogue dealing with flying led to a real life interest in airplanes and what makes them run. Now Marilou, with sixty flying hours to her credit and her pilot’s license won, would rather fly than eat. Of course, her radio commitments keep her pretty busy. In addition to Captain Midnight , Marilou is also heard as the sultry siren, Stella Curtis—and here’s a piece of type casting, as far as looks as concerned—in the CBS and NBC Ma Perkins show. She’s featured on several other Chicago shows, like First Nighter, Freedom of Opportunity. Undecided as to whether it would be singing or acting as a career, Marilou went to Chicago in 1940 to try her luck in radio there. Her luck, it turned out, was exceptionally good. In two short months of knocking on doors, Marilou won the audition for the par

Say Hello To- GWEN WILLIAMS—songbird on The Song of Your Life, tonight on NBC . Gwen decided to be a professional singer when she was 13 years old and won an amateur contest conducted by a radio station in her home state, Florida. In the University of Miami she majored in music, and after getting her degree came to New York , where she sang in night club before Harry Salter, Song of Your Life orchestra leader, heard her and hired her for his show. He says she has a brilliant singing future ahead. Gwen is married to Norman Foley, an executive in music publishing firm, and insists that marriage can go with a career.

Say Hello To- MARY YOUNG—a former ZiegfeldFollies girl who is now bringing glamor to the role of Lily, the Creole, on Arnold Grimm’s Daughter, heard today on NBC . Mary began her theatrical career as a dancer in a Russian ballet, switch to the Follies, and then in 1935 successfully auditioned for a radio job in Detroit. Two years later she married radio writer Charles Gussman, and they moved to Chicago to live. Mary was born in Chestnut Mound, Tenn., 22 years ago, and was educated in Detroit. When she isn’t acting in the Chicago radio studios she’s very busy being the mother of a little daughter who arrived in the world just six months ago.

St. Joseph Gazette- Apr 27, 1982 Don Wilson, radio – TV figure, dies -AP Don Wilson dead PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP)—Don Wilson, the rotund foll of Jack Benny ’s comedy routines on radio and television for more than 30 years, has died at the age of 81. Wilson was found unconscious Sunday at his home in Cathedral City and was taken to Eisenhower Medical Center. Doctors at the hospital were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead at 6:51 p.m. The cause of death was listed as a cerebral vascular accident or stroke. He joined the Jack Benny radio show in 1933 after working as a sports announcer for NBC . He was initially only the program’s announcer, but Benny soon worked him into the show as a regular character. His wife, Lois Corbet, also eventually became a character on the radio and television shows, along with Eddie “Rochester” Anderson. Dennis Day , Phil Harris , Mary Livingston , Artie “Mr. Kitzel” Auerbach, Mel Blanc , Bea Benaderet , Verna Felton, Fran

Fitch Drops ‘ Rogue ’; Harris-Faye Seg To Fill Daley Spot HOLLYWOOD , July 27, -- Fitch Company this week revealed intentions to drop Rogue’s Gallery , mystery seg, at end of current summer fill-in on NBC . Hair tonic company is giving Dick Powell stanza the go-by to concentrate on new Phil Harris-Alice Faye show which takes over the former Cass Daley regular slot. Harris-Faye show is to be given top-drawer promotion and dough. Rogue , which s witches to NBC from a permanent MBS-Sponsored slot, meanwhile is being peddled by MCA with Texaco and other sponsors interested.

The Milwaukee Journal – Aug 3, 1941 “You’re hard man, McGee!” That line made famous the character of Gildersleeve , Fibber McGee ’s “little chum” next door, and now has given Gildersleeve ’s creator, Harold Peary (above), his own show on NBC, opening Aug. 24 McGee’s ‘Little Chum’ Leaves Wistful Vista THROCKMORTON P. GILDERsleeve, Fibber McGee and Molly ’s chum, who is known as Harold Peary to his intimates will be starred on his own program. “ The Great Gildersleeve ,” beginning Sunday, Aug 31, over NBC. In making this move, Perry, creator at the Gildersleeve character on the “ Fibber McGee and Molly ” show, will devote full time to his own program Gildersleeve will be replaced on the McGee’s program by Gale Gordon . It is believed that his marks the first time a character conceived on a radio program has been transplanted as the star of his own show. The tremendous fan following built up by the character of Gildersleeve is responsible for this new program.

The Milwaukee Journal – Jun 10, 1938 Erno Rapee Believes Radio Creates Music Lovers THE United States, claims Erno Rapee, director of the Radio City Music Hall symphony orchestra, is fast becoming a nation of highly discriminating music lovers, a country in many ways more hospitable to even the most revolutionary in modern music than any to be found in present day Europe. A few years ago in America, Rapee says, to the average man Tschaikowsky was merely an unpronounceable Russian name; Debussy, a radical French composer whom none but a few of the musically elect were supposed to be able to fathom, and Georges Enesco, modern Rumanian master, an artist in composition as well as in concert completely unknown. But now the tide has turned. The voice of a people, long frowned on by “friends of music” on the cultured continent, the accredited home of great art, is being culticated, Rapee believes. And more and more America calls for the masterpieces, both contemporary and cla