Golden Age of Radio

  William Spier Director of CBS ’s Philip MorrisPlayhouse and Sam Spade . A bearded veteran of twenty years in radio, William Spier, director of the Philip Morris Playhouse , heard Fridays at 10 P.M. EDT over CBS , is generally rated radio’s top-notch creator of suspense-type dramas. Born in New York City, October 16, 1906, he began doing things upon graduation from Evander Childs Highs School . When nineteen, following a series of small jobs, Spier went to work for the Musical America magazine. Deems Taylor was then editor of the magazine and it was under his watchful eye that Spier rose to the position of chief critic during the five years he remained with the magazine. Spier’s next important assignment was that off producer-director for the Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn Agency in New York City. During his years with BBD & O, leaving there in 1941 to join CBS on the West Coast, Spier produced such radio programs as the Atwater Kent Radio Hour, Gener

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 – Jun 20, 1943   A Star Who Mows His Own Lawn! By J. D. Spiro IT IS plainly written in the established Hollywood tradition that an actor cannot be a genuine 19 carat star unless he can list among his assets—or perhaps it’s his liabilities—at least one swimming pool and a butler who answer to the name of Jeeves. By these standards it would appear that Jack Carson , who still calls Milwaukee home, is unable to qualify, for Jack is not only without the pool and Jeeves but he actually admits, even boasts, that he mows his own lawn and gets the baby’s breakfast. Nonetheless, in the heartbreak town of Hollywood , where hundreds fail for every one who succeeds, this former Milwaukee boy, whose parents, Mr. and Mrs. E. L. Carson, live at 2009 N. Prospect av., Milwaukee, has at last definitely arrived at stardom both on the air and on the screen. Almost at the same moment several weeks ago, when he got his biggest break in radio as the top attracti

The Milwaukee Journal – Nov 8, 1942      Radio Stock Troupe Does Well SEVEN actors, an actress and a director are today earning a place in dramatic history. They are radio’s first and only stock company, heard on the Cavalcade of America ” and known as the Cavalcade Players. Since that day in the dim past when men first entertained their fellows with ballads and play, actors have banded together to form “stock companies” that left their mark on theatrical history. From Euripides of Greece to America’s famous chautauquas, groups of actors have traveled together, worked together and suffered together. Today the Cavalcade Players form another noteworthy of radio. The hardships of travel, the tribulations of the road, the grease paint and footlights, the irregular work are replaced by an NBC microphone and a luxurious, air conditioned studio. Aside from somewhat unusual working hours, the players live normal lives—more like businessmen then the battered actors

THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL - SCREEN and RADIO Sunday, February 6, 1938 Exploding Those Popular Myths About Bing Crooner Crosby Is Pegged as a Lazy Chap Who Sings by Ear and Buys His Clothes on Impulse. This Chat With His Mother Shows What a Poor Characterization That Is for a Busy, Canny and Highly Energetic Person By Lucie Neville HOLLYWOOD says Bing Crosby is a lazy guy who gets all the breaks if you were to accuse Bing himself, he’d only grin and amiably agree. But there aren’t any four-leaf clovers in the Crosby shamrock patch, according to his mother. She says he hasn’t a lazy bone in his body and what people call hick is hard work. She would correct a number of other popular misconception about her son: That he doesn’t know anything about music, that he prefers noisy clothes, that he’s happy-go-lucky, how he got his nickname. It’s Bing’s business of course, if he wants to let people keep on thinking such things she lets you understand. Bing’s and Larry’s

Oh, Henry-y! ABOUT four years ago Clifford Goldsmith wrote and George Abbott produced a play about the doings of a harum-scarum high school lad with a penchant for getting into ludicrous trouble. The play was “What a Life,” but many people have since forgotten the original title in favor of the name of its hero, which was Henry Aldrich . Young Master Aldrich has become a bit of a national figure, whose doing on the screen and over the airwaves are followed by millions. He has ever been a “fat” part for the actors who have portrayed him. Above are pictured some of the principal Henry Aldriches of stage, films and radio. At the upper left is Ezra Stone, who had the original role in the play and for more than two years was Henry Aldrich in the tremendously successful “ Aldrich Family ” of radio. The bumptious young Stone crashed Broadway when he was only 20 years old, and now, at the ripe old age of 24, is through with the Aldrich setup for the duration of the war. He ente

The Milwaukee Journal – Nov 22, 1942    Meet Mama and Papa of Abie BEHIND the folksy characters of Mr. and Mrs. Cohen in “ Abie’s Irish Rose ” ( NBC -WTMJ, Saturdays, 7 p. m.) are two distinguished Yiddish actors of more than a generation of stand and motion picture experience. They are Menashua Skulnick, Polish born actor often called “a second Charlie Chaplin,” and Anna Appel, about whom Brooks Atkinson once wrote in the New York Times, “She could play a telephone book.” Miss Appel, born in Rumania, came to America 35 years ago with her parents and played her first part in a charity school play in Montreal. Now she has chalked up 28 years of successful performances. She was an active member of the Yiddish Art theater in New York for 17 years and has been a star character actress on Broadway and in motion pictures. Her first bid from Hollywood and thought was a prank. Late one night her telephone rang. It was long distance. A strange voice asked: “How would yo