Golden Age of Radio

“If we had it to do OVER AGAIN” A Great Radio Pair Look Back Over Their Career on Their Fourteenth Anniversary By Amos ‘n’ Andy WHEN the nation turned the hands of its timepieces to adjust them to the new war time , we started wondering what we would do if some magic power could enable us to turn back over the years of Amos ‘n’ Andy ’s existence. We wondered if, perhaps, we would be guided differently. We talked about what might have been done with the characters Madam Queen, Brother Crawford, the Kingfish and all the others. Would we have made them mean what they do today? Would we have changed any of the patterns we have followed steadily all these years? Of course, in the first place we don’t want to turn back the clock. Even though we realize there were things we could have improved, we’re content to carry on from here. But it’s always interesting to go back over the past and perhaps remodel it in imagination. It’s interesting to us to do so, because we have

Jean King was the lonesome gal , who went from rags to riches with the show. King had a sexy voice that was perfect for the role, and especially for its male audience. She begins the show with a sultry solo, "Sweetie, no matter what anybody says, I love you better than anybody in the whooooole world". Then, she sang and told her listeners to shake off their shoes and get ready to relax. The musical interludes of The Lonesome Gal radio show were interspersed with her own brand of chatter, sexy and intimate. The audience loved it and wanted to know more about her. But, her identity was kept a secret until 1953, before that King wore a mask to all events, which only served to heighten the anticipation of her identity.

In this great photo taken 75 years ago today: February 1, 1942: Urban Johnson, sound chief at WBBM-CBS in Chicago, has more than 60 gongs and bells at his elbow. Each serves a different sound purpose sharply defined in the scripts in  old time radio shows .