Golden Age of Radio

The Milwaukee Journal – Jun 5, 1938 Bob Hope is scheduled to be radio’s next topline comedian. Following successes on “Your Hollywood Parade,” Bob is set to take the place of the “Mickey Mouse” show next fall. He will get one of NBC ’s top Sunday night periods. The Milwaukee Journal – Jun 5, 1938 Bob Hope Is Radio’s Newest Comedy Star BOB HOPE , comedian heard last on Dick Powell ’s “Your Hollywood Parade,” will be back in the fall—with a program of his own, according to west coast reports. Arrangements now are being made for Bob to replace the “Mickey Mouse” program on NBC next October. So—radio gets another new topline comedian. Actually, Bob Hope is no beginner. He is just about the last of the top row vaudeville and musical comedy stars to come over to radio. He has played in shows with Bea Lillie, Jimmie Durante , Ethel Merman, George Murphy, Fannie Brice, Bing Crosby and Eddie Cantor, all of whom preceded him to Hollywood and most of whom ...

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SAY HELLO TO . . . PAT O’MALLEY— who will convulse you tonight on the Alec Templeton program with his dialect monologue. Pat is an Irishman, went to college in London, and organized a band in his undergraduate days. After college, the band held together for a while, then Pat became a night club singer until Jack Hylton discovered him and brought him to America. It was over here that he first began his monologues.

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...

ARNOLD STANG —goggle-eyed, 5’4’’, 120-pounder has been playing comedy parts for fourteen of his twenty-five years. A native of Chelsea, Mass., he acquired his radio experience in Let’sPretend , The Children’s Hour, and The Goldbergs in which he created the role of Seymour which later emerged as the hapless Gerard, mirth-provoking addition to The Henry Morgan Show.

VERSATILE ART, DIALECT EXPERT, CAN BE CHARACTER ACTOR OR MIMIC ONE OF A KIND ART CARNEY IS THE ONLY NETWORK STAFF ACTOR ART CARNEY is a young man with a job that many a free-lance actor would give his eyeteeth and ten years of his life to have. It is the only position of its kind existing in any of the four large networks. Art is the only actor who is a regular salaried staff member of the Columbia Broadcasting System . As anyone who has gone through the exhausting throes of becoming a radio artist can tell you, the hardest part of attaining prominence  is getting established with the network producers. It is a long tale of auditioning, getting interviews with producers and directors, and beating out a shoe leather symphony between advertising agencies and network offices. After some small encouragement, you spend all your time and ingenuity reminding the producers that you exist and are available for a little work. When you are in demand there is a...

St. Petersburg Times – Jul 15, 1945 ‘ Plantation Party ’ Opened Doors to Radio Success A few year ago, a series called “ PlantationParty ” ended a four-year run over NBC , out of Chicago. Throughout its run, the show enjoyed a good rating . . . and subsequent developments have proved that there was a good reason for it. Two of the latest proofs are offered by Curt Massey and Marlin Hurt, both of whom are starring in new shows of their own. Curt Massey, with Carol Bruce and Harry Sosnik’s orchestra, has the spotlight on the new “Sunday on the N-K Ranch” series. Massey, following a few guest appearances on the Andrews Sisters show, was so widely hailed as the next male singing, sensation, that he was signed as headliner on the replacement series while famous Andrews threesome entertains overseas. On “ Plantation Party ,” Curt sang, played trumpet and violin, with his sister, Louise Massey, and her Westerners. Hurt, multiple-voiced comic who is Beulah , the colored maid,...