Golden Age of Radio

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...

Man & Moppet The rogue most beloved in the U. S. is a precocious, conceited, impertinent, fast-cracking ventriloquist’s dummy named Charlie McCarthy . On Sunday nights from eight till nine EST, when the U. S. radio audience reaches its peak for the week, almost a third of the nation tunes in on the Chase and Sanborn Hour to hear Charlie make rude and clever remarks to important people. < McCARTHY & BERGEN  A wood-carving barkeep was important> Last week the Chase and Sanborn troupe broadcast from Manhattan’s Radio City—the first time the program had originated from anywhere but Hollywood in nearly two years on the air. When the plan to do this was announced to the press, 60,000 Charlie McCarthy fans besieged NBC and the agency producing the show for admission to Radio City’s I , 3I8-seat Studio 8-H. A crowd of 5,000 was at the station when the troupe arrived, but Charlie was nowhere to be seen. Photographers grouped Master of Ceremonies Don Ameche...

Sunday, December 27, 1942       THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL—SCREEN and RADIO Building a Bob Hope Radio Show Comedy half hour is put together piece by piece, rough edges trimmed By Kate Holliday “THAT was a boff . Leave it in!” Such a cry might barrel through the NBC control room in Hollywood at a preview of Bob Hope’s radio show . A boff, for your information, is a joke so funny it brings a belly laugh. What is a radio show preview? Just that: A show before a show—to which the public is invited and at which Hope and company test the merit of gags they have concocted. It explains, to a large degree, Hope’s continued success. A comedian’s life is usually not a happy one, evidence to the contrary. A guy like Hope, say, doesn’t just amble toward a microphone come Tuesday night and be funny. Instead, he builds his show gag by gag . It all begins on the Thursday or Friday of the week preceding the program. At that point Hope and his seven wri...

The Milwaukee Journal – Jan 14, 1945   Wow! $10,000 Every Week HOLLYWOOD , Calif. (AP) Edgar Bergen his earning 10 grand a week for his radio show Sunday nights at 7. That is pretty nice moola for talking to one’s self for approximately 20 minutes. Pressed for confirmation of this amazing stipend, the shiny domed parent of Charlie McCarthy replied: “Yes, I guess it’s true although I never see the dough. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t seem any different than when I was earning $1,000 a week.” The NBC ventriloquist reflected that he was none too happy about his success, although he admitted a bit of the ham entered into this statement. “I have to be nice to so many people—sponsors, agents, producers, directors, and—”   he added with a grin—“newspapermen. In the old days when I was playing night clubs. I only had to be nice to the manager, and if I didn’t like, I could move on to another date.” “And back in those days, I could take a rest when...

The Miami News – Jan 23, 1938      From Edgar Bergen — Revealing Facts of Hollywood Life To Charlie McCarthy Now that Casanova McCarthy has become a film star and has met Mae West on his Sunday night NBC program, his long-suffering better half decides it is time to take him aside and tell him a thing or two. The lecture and the outcome are recorded here, along with a photographic record of what happened when they visited Dorothy Lamour at Paramount studios. MY DEAR CHARLIE: It has been a long time since my last opportunity to talk to you like a father. Remember the night in the rainbow room of Radio City over a year ago when you bet Rudy Vallee you’d take that blond chorus girl home after the show? I had to pay that bet for you, Charlie, and you promised never to look at a woman again after I took you aside in the cloak room and impressed on your tender young nature some of the facts of life. “Ah, please stop, Mr. Bergen,” you cried in shame,...