Golden Age of Radio

LIFE WITH LUIGI : Mr. Basco, Citizen This is a great day for Luigi—no longer an immigrant, but a working partner in these United States! “Dear Mama Mia: Tomorrow is gonna be one of the most important days of my life—I’m going to take the test for my first citizenship papers. Already I look more American . Is hard to explain exactly how I feel, Mama.” Cy Howard is the creator of Luigi, the Little Immigrant, and is also the producer and director of the Life With Luigi show. Life With Luigi is the story of the everyday experiences of Luigi Basco, an Italian immigrant who has come to—and loves— America , land of equal opportunity for all who are willing, as he is, to work for it. Luigi is a new kind of comedy-program character. You laugh with him, not at him, as you listen to his struggles to learn the new language, the customs so different from those of his native country. Cy Howard, responsible for MyFriend Irma , is “father” of Luigi, too. J. Carrol Nais...

  The Pittsburgh Press- Oct 18, 1943 Broadcasts Appeal And His Wife ‘Joins Up’ By SI STEINHAUSER Bennett Kilpack, Radio’s “ Mr. Keen ,” who traces lost persons, did too good a job for the WAC. He went on the air with a fervent appeal the every woman who felt herself able join the Army ’s girls in uniform. He was sincere in his heart and soul talk to his feminine audience, explaining that those who could and didn’t were “laggards, dullards and not very patriotic.” That evening when he went home Mrs. Bennett announced “I’m joining up with the WAC right away.” Bennett almost swooned, but he admired his wife’s determination, for she is a frail woman with more spirit than stamina. She kept her word, “joined up” but fell ill and was given a medical discharge after three months. And the unhappiest woman in America is radio’s “ Mrs. Keen ,” because she couldn’t go through with her plan to be one of America ’s girl soldiers . Her husband is still amazed at his own...

ON THE AIR TODAY: ZaSu Pitts , playing the role of Aunt Mamie in the CBS serial, Big Sister , at 11:30 A.M., E.S.T. (rebroadcast at 11:00 A.M., Pacific Time), sponsored by Rinso. That wistful little lady in Columbia’s Studio Four, eyeing the microphone so distrustfully, is ZaSu Pitts, who Eric Von Stroheim always insisted was the finest dramatic actress in America. She has been in the movies since 1917, and never has appeared on the screen, even in a small role, without bringing a delighted murmur from audiences. She is utterly without temperament or stuffiness, and has a heart as big as Radio City. She hasn’t given up movie work for radio , by any means. But she isn’t under contract to any one studio in Hollywood , and when the opportunity came along to spend a few months in New York and act in Big Sister it sort of appealed to her, she says. Asked if she has any movie plans for the future, ZaSu doesn’t commit herself. “I’m hoping,” she says. “I’ve been hoping for twent...