Golden Age of Radio

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 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 ...

The Evening Independent –Feb 2, 1948 Batter Bill Bendix , who will play Babe Ruth on the screen, is might happy over Bob Considine’s script. As a locker boy at Yankee Stadium, Bill used to go out and het hot dogs for Ruth. Later he graduated to bat boy. Bob wove their meetings into his script. In the picture, another actor will play Bendix, the licker boy. . . Bob also included the part Jimmy Walker tossed for New York sports writers when they had a mad on at the Babe. Jimmy made quite a speech asking the boys to forget their grudge and remember that Ruth was the idol of American youth. . . In 1921, at the age of 16, Bendix did his first acting at the Henry Street Settlement. He comes from a musical family. His uncle Max was a Metropolitan conductor, and Uncle Theodore had a quartet which toured America.

The Tuscaloosa News – Feb 8, 1952 Dennis Day Predicts Sex Out For TV By BOB THOMAS HOLLYWOOD —(AP)— Dennis, Day , whose television show makes its debut tonight, predicts home viewers will be getting less plunging necklines and racy stories in the future. “Sex has got to go, as far as TV in concerned,” he remarked as he paused between strenuous rehearsals. “Sex was exploited during the early days, when TV was trying to gain attention. You still see quite a bit of it; I hear some comedians telling stories that make me blush. “But I think the industry is growing up. It doesn’t need sex any more. Furthermore, if the shows aren’t cleaned up, TV will be inviting censorship from outside sources, which would be bad. “So far, the only censoring has been done by the individual performers and packagers of shows. I think they and the networks now realize that they will have to avoid any criticism about program material.” Day has stuck by these theories in his selecti...

The Milwaukee journal – Jan 25, 1945 Swell Sound Effect Anent the celebration today of The Milwaukee Journal’s first 20 years in radio (a story about the growth of broadcasting is on the Editorial Page), Gordon Thomas the “Top o’ the Morning” emcee ran into a funny one Thursday. Thomas was relating that about 20 years ago battery radio sets were just beginning to be superseded by the kind that plug-in types were sometimes infested with gremlins, Thomas recalled, to such a degree that the plugging in was likely to be followed by a more or less violent explosion and sometimes a fire, Facetiously Thomas said: “The explosion sounded like this,” and then, had Jimmy Robertson, his operator, play parts of a routine sound effect record, full of whams, bangs and fiery cracklings, that can serve in all cases where “explosion” is called for the script. A few minutes later came a phone call from a woman listener, who told Thomas quite seriously: “That was a wonderful drama...