Golden Age of Radio

  The True Story of— GOSSIPS LINK PHIL HARRIS WITH DOZENS OF HOLLYWOOD GLAMOR GIRLS. BUT JUST ONE GIRL REALLY COUNTS! HE TAKES the romantic “rap” from Master Kidder Jack Benny on his fictitious “dates” with tawny-haired GingerRogers and wisecracking Carole Lombard , when a Hollywood blonde with a husky voice is the one who really makes his heart turn somersaults. And he’s never met her! That’s the “true story” of curly-haired Phil Harris ’ big “dates” . . . that is, it’s almost the story. The other half has to do with a five-foot, four-inch brunet. A gal who swims and dances and sings and handles the piano ivories in a way that should put her in her husband’s band. You’re right. She’s Mrs. Phil Harris . And has been for nine years. It takes the romantic starch out of the Sunday night kidding that Swingmaster Harris, with the broad, beaming smile, is subjected to. But there’s more to this romance-and-rhythm story than that. when I saw her.” Good sport ...

  HOW BING CROSBY WILL LIVE ON $ 25,000 A YEAR WHEN the President urged a wartime $25,000 limit on incomes, he sent shudders along many famous Hollywood spines. Pencils squeaked far into the night as name stars tried to squeeze six-figure budgets under the $25,000 ceiling. But Bing Crosby can take the cut without a whimper. His huge income has never turned his head. He’s a regular fellow with a sincere love of things. Bing’s non-working life centers around his family, his home, his horses and his wide range of sports interests. He lives well and owns two comfortable houses. Wife Dixie Lee manages them with very few servants, for home to the Crosbys is not a cross between Grand Hotel and Buckingham Palace. Bing and Dixie are home bodies , and the bright spots see them seldom. Bing wants his four boys to be real kids. He may splurge in such matters as playground equipment for them, but he keeps them in public school. Bing’s strictly an “old hat and slack...

The Milwaukee Journal – May 21, 1942 Riding the Airwaves With BCL Yes, People Really ARE Funny BEFORE “ People Are Funny ” became a national network feature Friday nights ( NBC -WTMJ, 9 p. m.), it was a west coast feature for four years and in that time turned up some pretty funny answers. On one aircast, Art Baker , who shares emcee duties with Art Linkletter , asked a contestant: “In what sport is ‘squeeze play’ used?” Art was referring to baseball. The contestant’s answer, however, was “post office.” Another time Baker queried, “What would you call your wide who has stood by your side all these years faithfully? Old what . . .?” Instead of “Old Faithfull,” the answer was “Old Ironsides.” Again a woman was asked, “What fish would you be reminded of if your husband came home with a saber in one hand and a daggar in the other?” Her answer, instead of swordfish, was “pickled herring.” “ People Are Funny ” introduced a psychology section in whi...

<TWO DAYS’ leave from active duty at Luke Field, Arizona, and Mr. and Mrs. Autry head for their Melody Ranch home. Above: In ranch-house yard> <REUNION: “Don’t be snooty, I love him, too,” says Robin Hood, the great golden Palomino, to Champion, Gene’s famous movie horse, left, as they pose above> <EVEN on leave, Gene spends time boning up for service in Ferry or Transport Command. Den chair in ranch house is decorated with Texas longhorns> Three Hundred Solo Flying Hours Has Earned Gene Autry a Pilot’s License in America’s Air Forces. Now He’s Rarin’ to Go Overseas JOYOUS nickers echoed briefly over Melody Ranch recently when Gene Autry ’s famous horse Champion and his great golden Palomino, Robin Hood, welcomed their master home on a flying two-day leave, crowded in at the end of Gene’s eleven-week tour of Army camps. In those short forty-eight hours, Sergeant Gene Autry , brown as a nut and looking right as rain, revisited all his old ...

THE SQUEAKING DOOR INNER SANCTUM MYSTERY, WORKSHOP OF BLOOD AND HORROR, SPECIALIZES IN WHOLESALE MURDER TUNE IN SUN. 8:30 P.M. E.W.T. (BLUE) When Inner Sanctum Mystery was only a few weeks old, a woman listener sent a can of oil to the producer, Himan Brown . Said she did not mind the blood and ghoulishness of the program, but that darned door sent shivers down her spine. That was intentional, of course, and it is unnecessary to add that nothing has been done about oiling the ghostly hinges since the program was born, January 7, 1941. It is estimated that fifteen million spines are chilled by the blood-curdling slaughter that takes place weekly on this terror-show. It began with an accidental thought that occurred to Producer Himan Brown while he was browsing around the sound effects shop for unusual backgrounds to incorporate in another of his programs. He happened upon a terrifyingly squeaking door, made a mental note to use it some day, and did when asked b...

 From Variety magazine October 6, 1937: 'COMEDY STARS OF BROADWAY' With Frank Crumit Transcriptions ALKA SELTZER Tues.-Thurs., 6:15 p.m. WGY, Schenectady Pleasant and diversified entertain-ment is offered on this series of quarter-hour platters spotted over a string of stations to supplement sponsor's “Uncle Ezra” program on NBC red rim three other nights of the week. Waxed show is more in the sophisticated, zippy vein. The probability is therefore that it will have greater appeal for younger and urbanized listeners than does the mellow small-town sketch. Frank Crumit is the biggest radio name on the platters, although the guest acts are not unknown to dial-ers. Johnny Burke led off the spec-ialty group, others including Hilde-garde Halliday, Bert Swor and part-ner, Fields and Hall and Mr. Thing-elbob. Each made two records

    Steve Allen , himself Radio TV Mirror Headliner “I’M THE happy victim of a series of lucky circumstances.” That’s Steve Allen talking, explaining how he happened to get where he is. “Nothing I ever did was the result of any special planning ahead, but each thing led to something better. Even the jobs I was fired from, the shows I wanted but didn’t get, the zany stunts I took a chance on doing. I’ve seemed to stumble onto my successes, and luck has had a lot to do with it.” It started when Steve quit Arizona State Teachers’ College to take a job as a radio announcer for KOY in Phoenix. He hadn’t any idea that he was picking up so much all-round knowledge of show business, including those little trick things that keep an audience interested. Practically everything he does now he began to learn then . When, some years ago, he got a six-night-a-week midnight show over radio station KNX in Hollywood , that was another piece of luck. Steve’s was the o...

PUTTING THEIR HEARTS INTO IT How realistic performances have won laurels for The Goldbergs THE GOLDBERGS serial has become an epic of the airwaves, and as such is still enjoying one of the longest and most successful consecutive runs in radio history. In 1928, Gertrude Berg, a Manhattan housewife, conceived the idea for a radio serial about a Jewish family. Without any previous entertainment experience, she finally succeeded in selling the idea and building a hit program from it. Mrs. Berg not only continues to write the scripts herself, but she has endeared herself to listeners as Molly, the loving wife and mother of the Goldberg family. She has thought and lived this character for so long that, when she’s before the mike, she can actually sense and experience all the emotions which Molly is supposed to be feeling. Jake, the irascible but kindly Mr. Goldberg, has been played since the program’s debut by James R. Waters, veteran stage actor. He’s so completely...

New Faces WILLIAM BENDIX has a special talent for looking dumb and “acting” smart. Took his movie initiation in 1941, and did his first leading part in “Wake Island” last year. Left: In role for Paramount’s “China.” Below:  “Records can be broken,” says Bill <BENDIX in a scene from “China,” with Loretta Young , star of film > —Paramount  Photo by Hai A. McAlpin                                                                    —Bruce Bailey Photo WILLIAM BENDIX First Job Was That of Batboy for New York Giant AS “SMACKSIE” from Brooklyn to his Leatherneck pals in “Wake Island,” Bill Bendix more than justified Paramount officials officials’ confidence in his ability as an actor. But first time Bendix faced a movie camera, he admits has was “panic stricken.” That was when M-G...

C. B. Pills the Strings— Here’s How Lux Radio Theater Maintains Top Rating Year After Year LUCK and long shots play no part in the year-after-year success of “ Lux Radio Theater .” The consistently high quality of its productions is due in great measure to C . B. DeMille, wizard producer, with his million-dollar-star contacts in Hollywood and his uncanny ability to choose plays that are adaptable to the medium of radio entertainment. Furthermore, C. B. knows how to pick assistants—men like Charlie Forsyth, who handles all the sound-effects  heard on the show; George Wells, radio playwriter who does  the scripts. For every play from stage and screen must be “tailored” to fit radio technique. And Wells has been doing the job ever since the first airing nine years ago. Typical of the all-star casts Mr. DeMille picks for the show is the trio shown on these pages. Flawless performances given mean not only vision on the part of the producer and his helper...

  PINT SIZE—BUT POWERFUL . . . Unique is the word for Johnny. Johnny is radio’s only vocal trademark. Johnny is the only holder of a life-time contract in the history of radio. Johnny is only 47 inches high and weighs only 59 pounds. Johnny is the only name he goes by—and to millions of Americans. That’s right—Johnny is the lad who three times a week gives his famous call over two of our major networks. For little man, Johnny isn’t doing badly. His job pays him $20,000 a year, plus a good deal of fame. The audition which netted him all this was just unique as his career. Johnny was a bellhop in New York hotel. Eleven years ago, a certain Milton Biow —advertising man and genius of a sort—passed through the hotel and got an idea. He had Johnny page a non-existent Mr. Philip Morris . Of course, Johnny paged Mr. Morris without results, but when he reported his failure to Mr. Biow —he found it turned into phenomenal success . He got the contract for the cigarette account,...

Featured vocal group on the FibberMcGee and Molly program, the King’s Men —Bud Linn, Jon Dodson, Rad Robinson, Ken Darby—star as the show’s summer replacement (Tues., 9:30, NBC).