Golden Age of Radio

The Miami News – Feb 4, 1947 On The Wing With GRACE WING ARCHIE: It was a far cry from Duffy’s Tavern to the palatial yachts over which I climbed to find Ed (Archie) Gardner yesterday afternoon. But Archie himself turned out to be the dyed-in-the-wool image of just what you hear on the radio. Reason is that Gardner doesn’t tailor his personality to fit the role of Archie the Malaprop. The part was written for him in the first place. His good-natured, slightly bewildered drawl sounds just the same whether he’s stewing over a telephone call from Duffy or regaling luncheon guests with spicy stories as he was doing yesterday. “How’d you get to be Archie?” I asked him. He told me he used to be a radio producer and writer, and that he dreamed up a serial about New York as seen through the eyes of a rich man and a bum. “Respective eyes, I mean—there were two characters,” he chuckled. “We auditioned a lot of guys for the part of the rich man and I always read the ...

St. Petersburg Times – Jul 15, 1945 Loyal Judy Canova Is Wild About Florida Hurricanes Earl Wilson, New York columnist who writes under the heading “It Happened Last Night,” wrote the following interview with Wilson and the New York Post: By EARL WILSON I come from God’s country, meaning the great state of Ohio, the modern Eden, and while gabbing with Judy Canova , who calls herself a Florida Cracker, I found she’s even more loyal to her state than I claim to be. She’s even wild about Florida’s hurricanes. The bums in California wanted her to kid the Florida oranges on her radio program—and she wouldn’t. Personally, I think President Truman’s return to his home state recently may have caused state pride to perk up everywhere. Postmaster General Hannegan of Missouri has a lot of state pride, too, and according to the Republicans here, he’s going to give jobs to all Missouri Democrats not busy reporting to their parole officers. *  *  * “CALIFORNIA...

The Milwaukee Journal – Jul 1, 1941 Amos ‘n’ Andy Still Struggle for Script Ideas TWO gentlemen from the west were entertaining H. Allen Smith of the New York World Telegram in an elegant suite of the elegant Savoy Plaza. One of the two, wearing a tan bathrobe over his shorts, was on a chair next to a window and was squinting into a kaleidoscope—not one of your little cigar size Kaleidoscopes, but a kaleidoscope as big as a virgin bologna. As he turned the thing slowly in his hand he kept saying: “Lawd, lawd! Is that purty! Purtiest thing I ever saw in my life.” The other gentleman from the west—a handsome fellow in expensive togs- sat on the edge of his chair and occasionally reached out hesitantly for the kaleidoscope. “C’mon, now,” he said. “Lemmy look a while. It’s my turn gold urn it, and you had it long enough.” The names of these two are Amos ‘n’Andy . On the desk stood a portable typewriter and in it a script sandwich composed of two sheets of onion...