Golden Age of Radio

The Milwaukee Journal – Nov 22, 1942    Meet Mama and Papa of Abie BEHIND the folksy characters of Mr. and Mrs. Cohen in “ Abie’s Irish Rose ” ( NBC -WTMJ, Saturdays, 7 p. m.) are two distinguished Yiddish actors of more than a generation of stand and motion picture experience. They are Menashua Skulnick, Polish born actor often called “a second Charlie Chaplin,” and Anna Appel, about whom Brooks Atkinson once wrote in the New York Times, “She could play a telephone book.” Miss Appel, born in Rumania, came to America 35 years ago with her parents and played her first part in a charity school play in Montreal. Now she has chalked up 28 years of successful performances. She was an active member of the Yiddish Art theater in New York for 17 years and has been a star character actress on Broadway and in motion pictures. Her first bid from Hollywood and thought was a prank. Late one night her telephone rang. It was long distance. A strange voice asked:...

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...