Golden Age of Radio

The Milwaukee Journal – May 19, 1940 Fibber and Molly Still Real Folks By Bill Porter JIM and Marian Jordan (better known to their fans as Fibber McGee and Molly ) are pretty disturbed about some untrue stories being printed about them. “Most of the stories lead you to believe that we were never successful until we became Fibber McGee and Molly ,” said Jim Jordan, “and you’d think that $10 a week was the most we made on radio before we hit the big dough. The truth is a much better story. If you’ll print it we’ll tell it to you.” I said, “Okay, I’ll print it, Mr. Jordan” And he said, “Mr. Jordan is my dad. I’m Jim.” The Jordans, prosperous now whatever  their financial condition before, live today in what you might call an estate, out Encino way. The place is surrounded by a rose-covered, brick wall. Within the walls are flower gardens, lawns, a swimming pool where Mrs. Jordan takes swimming lessons, a shop where Jim makes furniture, a small orange grove with a

Ready Eagle – May 3, 1954 ‘ Night Watch ,’ Radio Show, Real Thing in Police Work By NON THOMAS Hollywood , May 3 (AP) – The new “ Night Watch ” radio show tops “ Dragnet ” for realism in the cops-and-criminal department. It’s the genuine thing. Listeners to “ Night Watch ” on CBS Monday nights will hear the actual nabbing of a criminal. The recording was made during an arrest by Culver City, Calif., police. Columbia ’s answer to Jack Webb is an enterprising young man named Donn Reed. A radio veteran, he dreamed up “ Night Watch ” in an effort to find something new in radio. “I remember one day I came out of a radio conference feeling very depressed,” he told me. “I said to another fellow that I was tired of rehashing the same old things in radio. If only there was something new. “That day I went over to the place where I play handball. Another person who plays there is Ron Perkins who plays there is Ron Perkins, a sergeant with the Culver City police. H

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.