Golden Age of Radio

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-M signed him for the role of tavern -keeper in “Woman of the Year.” He was on Broadway rehearsing for a new show at the time, and flew to Hollywood to make his picture bow. Recallin

The Milwaukee Journal – Apr 4, 1943 There’s Only One Genuine Schnozzle FROM the eminence of a barker’s booth, a frantic voice shouted out over the heads of the passing Coney Island crowd: “Ladies and gentlemen! Ladies and gentlemen, hear the gr-r-reat JimmyDurante . Yes, it’s on a record, madam. Hear him sing his own songs. Yessir, yessir! The great Jimmy Durante !” And the person who thus gloriously advanced the fame of Jimmy Durante was none other than the Schnozzle himself, now heard regularly over NBC -WTMJ on the Garry Moore show (9 P. M., Thursday) For it was his privilege in the pauses between the piano playing and gags to step up on the stand and stimulate the sale of his own records. At Diamond Tony’s of Coney Island fame, where he wore a black turtle neck sweater and played a frenzied “ Wild Cherries Rag,” the exhilarated patrons called for more. Jimmy got $25 a week here, though he couldn’t read music except casually. But who should know anything about that e

Jack Stanton Jack Stanton, the male half of the Songs for Sale dance team of Stanton and Luster, started dancing on doctor’s orders and hasn’t stopped since. As a child Jack developed pneumonia and the doctor advised his parents to send him to dancing school to build up his frail body. Jack spent most of his childhood in Maplewood, New Jersey, a few doors from the home of his future partner, Betty Luster. Although they even worked on the same show in school. Jack was unaware of her existence. Jack made his way to Broadway from the chorus line after having done a great deal of choreography. It was while playing in “DuBarry was Lady” that Jack started dating the pretty girl who was playing at the next-door theatre. The girl was Betty Luster; but it was not for many years after that that their partnership really started.  They are TV partners only, however, for Jack is married to Marion Richards, a lovely, former model. 

Former radio star dies OLNEY, III. (AP) –Bernardine Doherty, whose role as Sade in the Vic and Sade series endeared her to early radio listeners, had died at a hospital here. Mrs. Foherty, window of Dr. Chester Doherty, associate professor of medicine at North western University Medical School, died Thursday of an internal aliment. A native of Madison, Wis., Mrs. Doherty studied drama at the University of Wisconsin and later appeared in several Broadway hits, including Seven Year Love, Strictly Dishonorable and Strange Interlude. She worked for the NBC in Chicago, appearing in several pioneer radio shows. Vic and Sade ran from 1932 to 1945 and won fame for its humorous depiction of a small-town mid-western family. After the series ended, Mrs. Doherty toured in a road show with actor Walter Huston, starring in Apple of his Eye and September Song.

Monday Night COMES TO LIFE Fibber McGee takes a simple shortcut to change his Monday broadcasting period to 9 o’clock Eastern, 8 o’clock Central Standard Time, NBC . Thus, listeners get a more convenient hour, and he gets what he usually gets—the works. “I’ll tell you a show everybody’s listening to in Hollywood—it’s Fibber McGee and Molly .” Reporters caught this from Jack Benny , star of NBC ’s Sunday night Jell-O program, the other day in Chicago enroute from Hollywood to New York. One hundred weeks ago, sponsored by Johnson’s Wax, this new radio comedy team came strolling down the airlanes. Amazingly soon they became required hearing to millions of Monday night radio listeners. Without benefit of intensive Hollywood fanfare or Broadway ballyhoo, Fibber McGee and Molly have become firmly—and fondly—intrenched in America’s receptive heart. “We’ll have to tell you later” . . . this gay gaballero is, by his own admission, pretty hot stuff with smart quips and witty