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SAY HELLO TO . . . DICK TODD

SAY HELLO TO . . . DICK TODD—the baritone soloist in Home Town, Unincorporated. Dick comes from Montreal, and was already established as a popular singer in Canada before he headed south of the border, down U.S.A way. In this country a couple of guest appearances on the Magic Key of RCA show, and a season as soloist with Larry Clinton’s orchestra, brought him a large and lusty fan following. In physical makeup, Dick’s built like a football player: no wonder, because he was one, in McGill University. Boxing, swimming and wrestling are a few more things he was noted for in college , where he studied engineering.

Elliott Lewis

Elliott Lewis Among some actors—always the less successful ones—to regards directors as frustrated performers who, because they, themselves, have no talent, take delight in lousing up the performances of those more gifted. Not even the most disgruntled thespian in Hollywood , however, would think of muttering such a charge against Elliot Lewis, the new producer-direcer of Auto-Lite’s award-winning “ Suspense ” series, heard Thursday evening on CBS . Lewis can play the leading role, write the script or handle the direction with facility—and if an engineer or sound effects man were turn up missing, he could handle their jobs, too. The 34-year-old producer-actor-writer is unquestionably the most formidable triple-threat man to emerge in radio since Orson Welles —and he has the same zeal, imagination, and boundless energy. As an actor, his range is staggering. This is the Elliot Lewis who won a following of sophisticates throughout the nation with his smooth, romantic narrati

Spike Jones Obituary: May 1, 1965

The Deseret News – May 1, 1965 Spike Jones  Dies InBeverly Hills BEVERLY HILLS CALIF. (UPI)— Spike Jones , a madcap bandleader who made a fortune with his zany music, died Saturday at the age of 53 in his home here. Jones died shortly after midnight. A family spokesman said Jones died in his sleep. His wife, singer Helen Grayco, and a nurse were at his bedside. Miss Grayco said he complained of a headache Friday morning and his physician ordered him to take some medication. The nurse who lived at Jones’ residence summoned the doctor shortly before midnight when she noticed his pulse was irregular Jones died before the doctor arrived. TAKES RIDE Jones’ sister-in-law, Mrs. Teresa Digioia, said Jones was out for a car ride Friday afternoon and “was feeling fine at that time.” First reports indicated Jones died of a heard condition. He had been home from the Santa Monica Hospital three weeks. He was hospitalized March 30 with complication following an asthmatic att

LEAH RAY

LEAH RAY As She Appears Under the MIKErocscope By Lee Mortimer LEAH RAY is next Baby Rose Marie, one of the radio ’s young stars. She was born nineteen years ago in Norfolk, Virginia, and has a cute Southern accent to substantiate the fact. Ambition as a kid led her to be a literary critic. She was most enthused about Dickens and Thackeray. But now she’s glad she didn’t pursue the pen, because she makes as much on one radio broadcast as most literary critics make in a year. When seventeen years old she was taken by her mother to Los Angeles, where she was to finish school. She was all prepared to enroll in the Hollywood High School on a Monday, when in the previous Friday her uncle, who is in the music business, introduced her to Phil Harris . This was when Harris played at the Cocoanut Grove . Phil needed a girl singer. Lead used to sing in parties, so she asked for an audition. After hearing her voice Phil hired her. Her first salary was $ 50 a week. So it transpi

Frances Scott

Frances Scott Femcee of It Takes A Woman doesn’t know the word can’t. All anyone had to do to het Frances Scott going on a project or an idea is to tell her it can’t be done. Miss Scott is the well known “femcee” of a number of radio and television shows, most of which she not only appears on but helps to write, cast and direct. One of the most popular of her shows at the moment is a transcribed series presented locally, throughout the country at different times and on different networks. It’s called It Takes A Woman. Frances Scott was born in San Francisco. Her father was an advertising man. It was this fact that led in directly to Frances’ present career. Like all children, Frances had imagination, but hers took a very practical turn. Radio was then an infant industry and in Frances’s fertile mind the ides grew that someday radio would be a wonderful medium for advertising. So, when she was graduated from high school, she hied herself to New York . She wound up on

March 23: Truth of Consequence radio debut

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

Kate Smith

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