Golden Age of Radio

ON THE AIR TONIGHT: The Ask-it-Basket, with Ed East as master of ceremonies, on CBS at 8:00, rebroadcast to the West at 8:30, P.S.T.—sponsored by Colgate Dental Cream. Although it suffers from one of the worst titles ever devised by man, the Ask-It-Basket is one of radio’s most entertaining quiz programs. Its new master of ceremonies and head quizzer, Ed East, helps make it so. He’s a fat man, Ed East is, and doesn’t mind admitting it. Standing six feet one, he weighs 265 pounds, living proof that a life time in show business doesn’t always impart a lean and hungry look. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Ed went to school with Hoagy Carmichael, who rose to fame later with his tune “Star Dust” and many other hits. Ed interrupted his own education when he was fifteen, by running away from home to join a carnival. He says he’s never regretted the act. In the carnival he started out as odd-jobs boy and finally worked his way up to being the barker for a high diver. Then the carn...

Ralph Edward __the Colorado farm boy who had got himself an education at the University of California and was on the air over NBC’s coast-to-coast network with his own Truth or Consequences program by the time he was twenty-six. He does not care what he does if it will make people laugh and plenty of people do. His listening audience is a laughing twenty-five million.

Clifton Fadiman __became m.r. of Information Please in 1927, while in the midst of his active career as editor, book reviewer and critic. He still crack, his verbal whip over the expert, on this program on Wednesday nights at 10:30 EST on the Columbia network, but says that If ever a question of cheese comes up he will switch to the receiving end; fine cheeses and wines are a hobby of his and he might “stump the experts”.

Say Hello To- FRANK FOREST—whose tenor voice is heard tonight at 6, E.S.T., on the Double or Nothing program over MBS. He’s a Minnesota boy who studied in Europe and later won acclaim singing in European opera, making his debut at La Scala in Milan. You’ve seen him in the movies, “Champagne Waltz” and “I’ll Take Romance.” He’s a bachelor, likes blondes, stands 5 feet 11 inches, and has dark hair. 

ARLENE FRANCIS –who is the emcee on What’s My Name?, Saturdays, ABC, and Blind Date, Thursdays, ABC-TV was born in Boston, Mass., educated at the Finch School and made her first stage success in “Street Scene.” She made her air debut in 1933 and since then has been heard on many programs. Her husband is well-known actor and novelist, Martin Gabel; they have a son, Peter.

JANE FROMAN . . . an alluring, blue-eyed brunette, started out to be a newspaper reporter at the University of Missouri School of Journalism located in her home town of Columbia where her father was mayor and her mother a music teacher in a college. She studied first from her mother; then at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music where Powell Crosley, Jr., president of WLW, heard her sing at a party and signed her up. Later NBC and then CBS got her. Despite the fact that she stutters, Jane now sing’s on more commercial programs than any other girl soprano. And she’s making movie-shorts, too. Husband Don Ross, baritone, sings over CBS.