Golden Age of Radio

    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...