Golden Age of Radio

“Truth or Consequences” debuted on radio today in 1940.   It would appear on radio or television for over three decades.

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

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.

Introducing KEN ROBERTS Wall, Street or radio? Ken made the lucky choice KEN ROBERTS enjoys his job as quizmaster on Quick as a Flash, heard Sundays at 5:30 PM, EST over the Mutual network. But the part of the program that really delights him more than anything else is the spot where he stops mc-ing long enough to say, “And now, announcer Cy Harris has a few words to say . . .” For to Ken, that moment is a complete switch in what has almost always been the Roberts routine. As the announcer on Take It or Leave It , Correction Please, Battle of the Sexes and some other shows, someone else was always saying, “And now Ken Roberts with a few words–” “And now ken Roberts with a few words –” Ken Roberts was born on Washington’s Birthday, 1910, in New York City. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School where, incidentally, one of his closest schoolmates was New Calmer, now one of CBS’s top newscasters. Early 1929 saw Ken in dire straits and badly in need of a job. He had heard th