Golden Age of Radio

Sunday, February 22, 1942       THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL—SCREEN and RADIO                   11 Now Here’s Inside of ‘Info’ By Franklin P. Adams ON A sunny afternoon in April, 1938, a solitary bus rider might have been seen wending his way northward. Our hero—for it was indeed i — debussed at 57th st. and proceeded to the office of Mr. John Moses, a radio agent. For about six months, off and on, in the order named, I had been writing pieces and making auditions for the Columbia Broadcasting System with conspicuous un-success. And one day my none too altruistic wife, having heard that Miss Dorothy Thompson had an agent who had got her engagements which it was reputed brought her income into the six figure or nonhay bracket, said, “I wish you’d meet this wonderful agent.” A domestic pacifist, I am wax in the hands of the Little Woman’s wish. So I went to Miss Thompson’s for luncheon to meet the fabulous Mr. Moses, who interrupted Dorothy just long enough to te

The Milwaukee Journal – May 18, 1941 Fred Allen —Pickle Puss With Nerves By Gladwin Hill NEW YORK, N. Y.—(AP)—If, walking down Broadway, you chanced to encounter a haggard, dejected man who looked as though he had lost his last friend, funds and scratch sheet pencil, the probabilities are the individual would be a happy, prosperous professional comedian. If, in addition to being haggard and dejected, the man looked as though he had recently been sentenced to the electric chair, but planned to beat the rap by hanging himself with his necktie, the chances are his brief case would disclose a partly consumed package of chewing tobacco and the tell tale gold lettering “F. Allen.” Fred Allen , who has been arousing mirth from coast to coast for 25 years in vaudeville, movies and radio, is probably the most morose looking person at large today. This is not a pose. Allen is just one of those people born to worry, fret, stew and suffer about their work, and the fact th

The Milwaukee Journal – Sep 27, 1942 Hope Gets No Help in Books By Larry Feathers HOLLYWOOD , Calif.—Thousands of town wits and barbershop cutups throughout the land aspire to the thrones of Jack Benny , Bob Hope , Fred Allen and other top comics of screen and radio—and all entertain the same idea how their goal can be achieved. What to do? Simple! Start off by buying a large filing cabinet and cluttering it with old joke books. Then go through the tomes and “modernize” the antique puns. Thus, where a reference is made to horse car in Joe Miller’s classic volume, the fledgling craftily substitutes “trolley,” repeats the gag to himself—and has visions of wowing ‘em. Nothing to it at all, according to youngsters who aspire to profitable laugh provoking careers. In fact, they firmly believe that Jack Benny and company get by today by pursuing exactly such methods. “Just a lotta silly bunk,” says a rather successful young fellow named Lester Townes Hope, co

CLAGHORN’S THE NAME BUT CALL HIM KENNY – DELMAR, THAT IS BY TWEED BROWN THAT grinning whirlwind whipping in and out of Radio City isn’t a refuge from the sound effects cabinet. On closer inspection it will prove to be a bushy-haired young gent out of Boston by name of Kenneth Frederick Fay Howard, attempting to keep up with his radio commitments. This bustling Bostonian has ample reason to rush, for under the professional name of “Kenny Delmar” his actor-announcer talents are in such demand as to require would be sponsors to queue up for considerable distances. Not only is Delmar sought for more announcing chores than he can shake a Social Security card at, but his brainchild, “Senator Claghorn” (That’s a joke, son!) is currently the “hottest” thing in radio. If you don’t immediately identify “the Senator” as the unreconstructed tenant of Allen’s Alley—on the Fred Allen program—then he is the person responsible for normally sane citizens from Wenatchee, Wash.,

VERSATILE ART, DIALECT EXPERT, CAN BE CHARACTER ACTOR OR MIMIC ONE OF A KIND ART CARNEY IS THE ONLY NETWORK STAFF ACTOR ART CARNEY is a young man with a job that many a free-lance actor would give his eyeteeth and ten years of his life to have. It is the only position of its kind existing in any of the four large networks. Art is the only actor who is a regular salaried staff member of the Columbia Broadcasting System . As anyone who has gone through the exhausting throes of becoming a radio artist can tell you, the hardest part of attaining prominence  is getting established with the network producers. It is a long tale of auditioning, getting interviews with producers and directors, and beating out a shoe leather symphony between advertising agencies and network offices. After some small encouragement, you spend all your time and ingenuity reminding the producers that you exist and are available for a little work. When you are in demand there is a vas

The Milwaukee Journal – Jul 1, 1941 Amos ‘n’ Andy Still Struggle for Script Ideas TWO gentlemen from the west were entertaining H. Allen Smith of the New York World Telegram in an elegant suite of the elegant Savoy Plaza. One of the two, wearing a tan bathrobe over his shorts, was on a chair next to a window and was squinting into a kaleidoscope—not one of your little cigar size Kaleidoscopes, but a kaleidoscope as big as a virgin bologna. As he turned the thing slowly in his hand he kept saying: “Lawd, lawd! Is that purty! Purtiest thing I ever saw in my life.” The other gentleman from the west—a handsome fellow in expensive togs- sat on the edge of his chair and occasionally reached out hesitantly for the kaleidoscope. “C’mon, now,” he said. “Lemmy look a while. It’s my turn gold urn it, and you had it long enough.” The names of these two are Amos ‘n’Andy . On the desk stood a portable typewriter and in it a script sandwich composed of two sheets of onion

The Milwaukee Journal – Apr 23, 1939 Darn Clever, These Sound Effects Men CLEVER, these sound effects men. They’re not merely content in inventing a gadget for a given sound; they make the same gadget do for many sounds. Knives and forks, for example, are used not only in eating sequences, but in exciting dueling scenes as well. A compressed air tank used for decompression hisses, can give the illusion of a tinkling bell buoy bobbling back and forth at sea. All you have to do is strike the side of the tank with a soft mallet. Squirting a seltzer water bottle sounds over the air just like turning on the water faucet. The seltzer bottle doubled in a comedy scene on a recent “ Town Hall Tonight ” broadcast when FredAllen used it to produce the sound of milk strumming into a pail.

The Milwaukee Journal-Nov 16, 1947 A Stroll Down Allen’s Alley                  By ROBERT FLEMING MEET THE CHARATERS WHO TICKLE  YOUR FUNNYBONE ON SUNDAY NIGHTS EACH Sunday night, in millions of American homes, a nasal voice suggests, “Now let’s be off to Allen’s Alley .” And during 15 seconds of music, bridge games are halted, children are hushed, papers are laid aside, and people all over the nation chuckle in anticipation. Fred Allen is off to another gay adventure in neighborliness. “Allen’s Alley” users about five minutes of each Fred Allen show. Since his program currently tops the listener surveys and has been near top for season after season, it’s almost unnecessary for him to say he’s about to visit Senator Claghorn, Titus Moody, Mrs. Nussbaum and Ajax Cassidy. Regular listeners know the four. But before the conversational Mr. Allen comes into the “alley” again, let’s visit the place, look around, and investigate the residents. The “alley” is o

Say Hello To- ANN THOMAS—a sweet-faced young miss of 23 who is radio’s expert in tough-gal roles. You hear her tonight as the thick-witted maid, Lily, in Meet Mr. Meek over CBS —and other days when you tune in a particularly tough feminine voice, the chances are that’s Ann too. She’s a veteran of same 35 productions on Broadway , and long since lost count of all her microphone characterizations. Her big-guest thrill recently came when Minerva Pious, Fred Allen ’s dependable comedy actress, had to go to Hollywood for two weeks and Ann was chosen to handle her roles on the Allen program. She’s blonde, New York born, and single.

The Milwaukee Journal – Feb 21, 1943   Browse this newspaper>> The Mighty Allen Art Players Two Russian one Englishman, a Yank and a star who impersonates Chinese detectives. That’s Fred Allen and his famed “Mighty Art Players.” TAKE Charlie Cantor, for instance. Charlie was born in Russia on Sept. 4, 1898. He was such a tiny tot when his parents brought him to America that he never knew the name of his birthplace. His parents never mentioned it, so he honestly wouldn’t know his home town if you showed it to him. Fred Allen  fans currently know Cantor’s voice as either Socrates Mulligan or Rensselaer Nussbaum, two residents of that mythical slum section called Allen’s Alley . Charlie doesn’t even have to clear his throat to change to a high voiced dope, a rasp throated taxi driver or a mincing vice-president. His voice agility makes him quite a favorite with radio directors . . . which should provide listeners with a lot of fun trying to identify him on as