Golden Age of Radio

ATCHISON, TOPEKA & SANTA FE Johnny Mercer didn’t come to New York recently on the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe, but whatever he rode must have been going pretty fast because Johnny picked up some early speed that has spent him shooting to the celling of the entertainment world, his most immediate big splurge being on Your Hit Parade with Joan Edwards (Saturdays, CBS 9:00 P.M. EST). It was always in Johnny’s mind to be in the theater, but he was a wise young man and kept that to himself until it would do him some good. As a result, he submitted quietly to a formal education at the Woodbury Forest School in Virginia. His first acting was with an amateur group, the Savannah Players. In 1929, he landed a small part with the New York Theater Guild in its production of “The Hero.” His first song to capture the public’s fancy was “Out of Breath, Scared to Death of You,” which he wrote for the “Garrick Gaieties,” in collaboration with Everet Miller, who wrote the music....

Biography of Marvin Miller He Announces, Acts, Writes, Direct and Has Spare Time Announcer Marvin Miller, who began public appearances at the age of nine, had acquired such a repertoire by the time he applied for his first job that he was able to perform 42 parts in a single show which he wrote himself. That was back in 1931 in St. Louis. The following year he became a junior announcer and actor and, in 1919, he added continuity writing and dramatic directing to his assignments. Miller, now announcer-actor on NBC’s “ Father Knows Best .” “ TheRailroad Hour ” and “ Aunt Mary ,” moved to Chicago soon after and in 1944 to Hollywood, where he has been so busy that he has had only one two-weeks vacation . Featured roles in movies have been helped build that full schedule as well as many recordings in which Miller has been both narrator and actor for all the parts. He was born in St. Louis as Marvin Elliott Mueller and was graduated from Washington University there. ...

SAY HELLO TO . . . PAT MURPHY – Girl Alone’s Scoop Curtis on NBC. Pat is a genial, friendly Irishman who has been in radio since 1930, just after he left college. He’d been trained to be a concert pianist, but radio seemed to offer a better living. Since 1935, when he came to Chicago, he’s been in demand as a leading man on the air. Pat married Lucille Edwards, formerly of station KSTP, St. Paul, in 1936.

CHARLES O’CONNOR . . .  is the youngest of the young at NBC. Was born in Cambridge, Mass., only 23 years ago. Attended Boston College for a year, acted in stock companies and in a theatrical colony and started announcing over WBZ in Boston. He’s very much unmarried (girls, address him in care of RADIO STARS ), stands five feet eleven and is real good-looking.

Herbert Marshall - The Man Called X , who returns each summer to Columbia in a popularity leader among warm weather shows. This distinguished British actor came to America after he had recovered from a World War I wound and has long been popular for his work on stage, screen and radio. He has been seen recently in “Duel in the Sun” and “The Razor’s Edge” and brings the romantic and mysterious Mr. X to listeners on Thursday at 10:30 P.M., EDT.

Say Hello To- JAN PEERCE—tenor star of the CBS Golden Treasury of Song this afternoon. You’ve also heard him frequently singing on the Radio City Music Hall program, Sundays over NBC. Jan came up to fame the hard way. He was born on the lower East Side to a poor immigrant family, and began studying violin when he was nine years old, using an instrument that cost four dollars and was almost too expensive for his mother to buy, at that. He began singing when he was 15, and grew up to play and sing in a hotel orchestra. Roxy, the show man, hired him for the Radio City Music Hall —and he’s still there.

VITOR PERRIN—featured as Clay Brown on The Story of Holly Sloan, NBC, weekdays at 2:30, EST. Vick worked his way through the University of Wisconsin by being announcer, actor and producer on a local radio station; went to Hollywood, where his first job with NBC was attendant on their parking lot. He was soon made a staff announcer. In 1945 he freelanced as actor and announcer, lectured in radio at USC.

Say Hello To- BILL PERRY—the tenor star of CBS’ Saturday Night Serenade, who started his career in Vanderbilt University by singing and playing the trombone in a band to earn money for tuition fees. After singing on a local station in Tennessee, he came to New York and made his network debut in 1933. Now he’s in his sixth year as star of the Saturday Night Serenade, and has missed only one broadcast. Bill is athletic, nearly six feet tall. His list of favorite recreations includes almost every type of rugged sport, and he attends every prizefight he can. His ambition is to be a concert singer like JohnCharles Thomas , but he dreads the thought of singing a season or two in the Metropolitan Opera , which would be necessary to reach that goal. 

The Milwaukee Journal – Jun 10, 1938 BURNS AND ALLEN THEY SANG AND DANCED IN VAUDEVILLE BEFORE GRACIE BECAME “DIZZY.” THEY BOTH PLAY GOLD—BUT SEPARATELY. PEOPLE LAUGH AT GRACIE NO MATTER WHAT SHE SAYS, EVEN WHEN MAKING PURCHASES. IT TAKES four men to keep GracieAllen “dizzy” – George Burns and three gagmen . . .Burns did it alone till he began to talk that way himself . . .they teamed first as a song and dance act in vaudeville . . . were married after trouping together for four year . . . became famous on radio . . .Gracie isn’t funny on movie sets . . . but people laugh at her anyway . . .she refers all interviewers to George . . . won’t answer questions herself . . . George handles all business matters . . . she never reads a script . . . George teaches her the lines—believes she’ll be funnier if she doesn’t know what’s going on. . .George is an expert golfer. . . Gracie a rank amateur. . . he took her golfing one day . . . she made a hole-in-one . . . tha...

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, JULY 11, 1951              Times-Daily Hollywood News By JACK QUIGG (For Bob Thomas) HOLLYWOOD, (AP), -- Silence is golden, especially if you can keep mum as artfully as Gale Gordon . Mr. Gordon, a handsome, fortyish gentleman with a Clark Gable moustache and the trace of a British accent, earns as much as a lot of movie stars simply by keeping his mouth closed—at the right time. One of Hollywood ’s top radio actors he is known in the trade as “The Master Of The Eloquent Pause.” If you don’t quite place his name, you undoubtedly know him by voice if you’re any kind of radio fan—he appears regularly on seven big network programs. Gordon is: Mayor Latrivia on the “ FibberMcGee and Molly ” show: back president Rudolph Atterbury on “ My Favorite Husband ”; school principal Osgood Conklin on “ Our Miss Brooks ”; Mr. Scott, head of RCA, on the Phil Harris-Alice Faye show ; Mr. Merr...

It all began by a terrible freeze in the winter of 1921. An avocado, orange and lemon grower Sam Mosher had lost all his crops and was going broke. At this same time one of the largest oil fields ever found in CA. had just been discovered at Signal Hill near Long Beach. Sam Mosher along with many other curious people went to see what was going on. As Sam watched the wildcat wells being exposed he noticed all the fires at the tops and the natural gasoline that was going up into the atmosphere. He thought what if I could capture that stuff and sell it. It was all history after that. In this first week I will cover this part a little each day from 1922 to 1931. Most people think of Signal as the company with the stop light symbol. Sam Mosher had one problem with his idea to capture this natural gasoline he needed $4000 to get the idea running and one of the large companies let him tap into there well. So he borrowed towards his inheritance from his mother because his dad thought h...

Sullivan is Title Role Title role this semester is handled by Barry Sullivan , who took the Dick Powell characterization. The he lacked the suavity and éclat of Powell, Sullivan rend a tough line convincingly. He was sufficiently cocky (“ I had to work every angle and, believe me, I know them all”) to make the listener wish he’d get this head bashed in, and he did, in beat Rogue tradition, the inevitable lacing was followed by Rogue’s usual fanciful trip to Cloud where alter ego Euger, cackling thru the filter mike, exchanged badinage with the chastened detective. It’s an effective gimmick and a good trademark. Excellent pacing, fluid transitions and neat use of background music by Max Stelner and him small ensemble garnished the production. Directora Charles Vanda and Jack Lyman provided the touch most essential to whodunnits. They kept the action flowing rapidly. The lesser characterization were strictly out of the ditto machine, but were no worse than those in the usua...

Radio rights to Dorothy Dix have been acquired by Frank Cooper Associates, who have already done three experimental audition records. Miss Dix, who started advising the lovelorn in 1896, is correctly syndicated in 216 newspapers . . . Lester Gottliab, Young & Rublcam talent and programing exec, left New York Friday (16) for the Coast to help launch the agency’s top shows this fall, including Fannie Brice, Duffy’s Tavern, Joan Davis , Ginny Simms, Allan Young, etc . . . Dick Powell-Texace Show, Rogue’s Gallery, is about set with conirects to be okayed Monday or Tuesday { 18 or 20} . . . WNAZ, Sarange Lake, N, Y . . . affiliate of ABC, granted a construction permit by the FCC to operate with 230 watis time on 1450 AC. Now a 100 walter, station will make the switch about October 1.

Replacements Set For Eddie Cantor, ‘ Bandwagon ’ Shows NEW YORK, April 26 – Summer replacements were set this week for the Eddie Cantor program and Band wagen, both heard over National Broadcasting Company ( NBC ). Holding down the comic’s 10-30 Thursday slot will be Bisie Ribbon Music Time, featuring composer- conductor David Rose and warbiar Georgia Gibbs. Opus, sponsored by Pabst Beer via Warwick & Legier, will be aired from June 26 until Cantor’s return September 25. Charles Herbert will direct and Jimmy Wallington will announce. Rogue’s Gallery will be replacement for Bandwagon for the third straight your under auspices of F. W . Fitch Company. Agency is L. W. Ramsey. Title role, formerly played by Dick Powell , will be thesped by BarrySullivan . Series will begin June 8, with Bandwagon returning to its 7:30 Sunday spot October 5. Charles Vanda will produce, Max Steinert will direct music and Jim Doyle will announce.

“MURDER WITH ‘MURIEL’ RICHARD ROGUE MYSTERY “Murder with Muriel” gets Richard Rogue into plenty hot water when he becomes involved with a thing called Horse Larn in the recovery of 25,000 lovely places of moolah which were hidden by another gangster named Duke Dixon. This all causes murder, mayhem, and sudden death, as heard on the “ Rogue’s Gallery ” broadcast tonight from 8:30 to 9:00 p. m. over Mutual and WAYX, Rogue meets Muriel Scott, a girl with a past and gets the old double cross. He then encounters Shop Kline, a suave killer who also slips him the double X. Then to top things, off, he runs into Joe Black, a poetry writing detective who can get into more trouble than a bull in a china shop, with the result-that the adventure develops more angles than the Pentagon building in Washington before it comes to a successful conclusion.

MARCH 19, 1955               THE BILLBOARD                 TV FILM          5 THE WHISTLER Hits the right note every time! Overnight, the eerie note of The Whistler ’s signal has struck a responsive chord with viewers and sponsors alike. WITH VIEWERS: In Spokane, The Whistler hit a 30.5 rating the first month…27.8 in Salt Lake City. In Cincinnati it soared to 30.4 (up 39%) in two months. Audiences are big everywhere, and 4 out of 5 viewers are adults. ”So the show’s a natural… WITH SPONSORS: Signal Oil and Thomas J. Lipton, Inc. picked it up right from that start, regionally. Among others: Block Drug, Hamm’s Beer, Household Finance, Necchi Sewing Machines, Safeway Stores. Call us today for a private screening and details on this 39-week series: its big-name stars, an...

JACK    "Dennis, what you did to me tonight, scaring me the way you did -- oh Dennis, that gave me an eerie feeling." DENNIS  "Gee Mr. Benny, that's where I was born!" JACK:           "Oh, Erie Pennsylvania?" DENNIS  "No, Feeling, West Virginia." The zinger. This is a typical exchange between Jack Benny and his naive, young comic foils. Jack always enjoyed having this one-dimensional character to add to the mix of his radio `gang.' The tenor vocal range was the perfect match for the sweet, dumb kid type. The role was played by a handful of radio actors over the run of the Benny series among them Frank Parker, Michael Bartlett, and James Melton. The three that are most memorable in the role and most aptly portrayed the developing character were Kenny Baker, Larry Stevens, and Dennis Day . Longtime listeners and admirers of the Benny show will readily associated Dennis Day with the role. True, Dennis is mostly closely ...

CBS Program Splash Debs 7 Between July 1-6 NEW YORK, June 29— CBS starts its first big summer splurge of programming the first week in July, seven programs being set to debut between July 1 and 6. From now on as spots open, programing chief Dave Taylor threw in Sustainers from a numerous backlog built up in the past months, and indications are that New York and Hollywood won’t be the only origination points. Taylor has already stated his desire to develop the web programing on a national basis, and view of it is interesting to note that one of the newcomers is an opus titled Oklahoma Round-Up, a hillbilly piece of business set to bow Saturday (6) in the 10:15-45 slot. Origination for this program, which replaces the canceled Continental Celebrity Club , will be Oklahoma City, KNOX (Los Angeles) originates three of the newcomers. These are the revived Jack Kirkwood Show, set in a bow in the 9:30-10 p. m. slot Monday (1); Sweeney and March, comedy replacement for Kate Smi...

December 11, 1943 The Whistler for one, a number of big musical shows like Hollywood Showcase, a number of quizzes, amateur shows and dramas, and are always readying  new ones. Right now they have a Jane Plakens quarters -hour Ladies in Waiting, with Ellen Drew, Jane Pickens and Patay Moran coming up. WAPI, Birmingham, with Kimmy Willson, as program manager, is the latest addition to the radio sales type of program operation. This outlet is still building. It’s still too soon to look for results, but it is adhering to the modus operandi that has clicked in other towns. WBT, Charlotte, N. C., is perhaps the most interesting story of the lot. They had practically no professional talent in the community and a peculiar audience problem. The Carolinas are one place that people do not leave and do not move into. They are mentally, morally, socially and economically self-sufficient. Cotton, tobacco and furniture are their industries, and folk music—not hillbilly —is the prime f...

Household May Drop ‘ Whistler ’ NEW YORK, Aug. 7—Household Finance, which sponsors The Whistler over the Columbia Broadcasting System(CBS) , this week reportedly decided to drop the mystery airer when the current period runs out September 15. The program is on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. Sponsor is undecided about the future radio plans, but may take a flier on another show,  possibly on a different web, later in the fall. La Vally, Inc., is the agency.

Shaw-LeVally Combo Splits; Each To Form Own Chi Org CHICAGO, July 5 – Shaw-LeVally, Inc, agency formed here about a year ago by John W. Shaw and Norman W. LeVally , two account execs from the Leo Burnett Company, this week dissolved, with each principal forming his own agency. The new firms will be John W. Shaw, Inc., and LeVally, Inc. Shortly after the agency started, it had a fast growth that had the trade talking about it. One of its major surprises was taking the Household Finance account from BBD&O. Shaw bought out LeVally for an undisclosed sum. Each, Shaw stated, would take about a million dollars worth of billing to new agencies. LeVally takes the Household Finance account, which sponsors the net show. The Whistler , and according to LeVally other accounts that are planning to get into radio in the near future. Show stated that he will take such accounts as Grace Shoe Company, Dromeyer Company, Standard Milling, Victor Welding and Lumberman’s Mutual an...

WBBM is inciting free-lance script writers to submit material for a new half-hour mystery show which will replace The Whistler when Whistler moves to New York . . . Campus Cavalcade is a new series of weekly news round-ups about colleges in Ohio which will begin airing Saturdays, February 1 over WOSU, Ohio State University station.

Old Time Radio (OTR) programs are still listened to today by a dedicated group of fans and aficionados. OTR refers to audio dramas, comedies, and other entertainment programs that were produced from the 1920s to the 1960s and broadcast primarily on AM radio. Despite the advent of television and other forms of modern entertainment, many people continue to enjoy the nostalgia and charm of these classic radio shows .

“ Blondie ” Leads Coast Segs NEW YORK, Sept. 7— Blondie , with a rating of 18.8, lends the first 15 programs on the Pacific Network Hooperatings report, Whistler , with a rating of 13.4, and Michael Shayne , with 12.9, are second and third respectively. Others among the first 15, in order of their rating, are: Aldrich Family 11.4; Frank Morgan , 11.3 ; Crime Doctor , 11.0; Jervens Summer Edition, 10.8: Adventures of Ellery Queen , 10.8; Quiz Kids , 10.2; Big Town , 10.2; Mr. and Mrs. North , 10; Screen Guild Players, 9.7; Skippy Hollywood Theater , 9.7; This Is Your FBI , 9.1, and Bob Hawk Show, 9.1.

 "Fibber McGee and Molly" was a long-running American radio comedy series that aired from 1935 to 1959. The show was created by Don Quinn and featured Jim Jordan and Marian Jordan as the title characters, Fibber McGee and his wife Molly. The series was set in the fictional town of Wistful Vista and centered around the everyday lives and misadventures of the main characters. Fibber was portrayed as a fast-talking, boastful, and often clueless man who was always getting into trouble, while Molly was his level-headed and practical wife who often had to clean up after his messes. The show was known for its clever writing, talented voice actors, and memorable catchphrases. The show's popularity skyrocketed in the 1940s, and it became one of the most popular radio comedies of its time. It was estimated that more than 40 million people tuned in each week to listen to the antics of Fibber and Molly. The show was also known for its elaborate sound effects, which included the famo...

Judy Canova Refuses to Play Second Fiddle To Dummy, So She Breaks With Edgar Bergen ‘ Charlie McCarthy ’ Gets Blame for Ending Engagement, By The United Press HOLLYWOOD , Sept. 1— Judy Canova , film and radio comedienne, broke her engagement to Edgar Bergen today because, she said, she does not want to play second fiddle to dummy.” The other side of the “triangle” s “ Charlie McCarthy ,” the famous wooden dummy Bergen uses in his radio and screen acts. “We had a quarrel Sunday and now it’s all over,” she said. “I’ve heard nothing but Charlie this and Charlie that. The dummy has become an obsession with Eddie.” Bergen for years has worked with “ CharlieMcCarthy .” His fame spread nationally, however, only recently, when Rudy Vallee put Bergen and “Charlie” on a radio broadcast. Later, the dummy became a favorite in a radio feud with W. C. Fields . Miss Canova’s hill-billy roles won her radio fame and landed her in pictures. Though they had kept company for...