Comedy
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Lum and Abner Performed at 1935 Indiana State Fair
Chester Lauck and Norris Goff at the 1935 Indiana State Fair Saturday August 31, 1935, was the beginning of the Indiana State Fair, and was also quite a gala night for two boys from Mena, Arkansas. The Indianapolis Star and the State Board of Agriculture sponsored an amateur contest, to be held in the coliseum of the fairgrounds. And out of the world of headline radio stars, Lum and Abner were the unanimous choice to act as masters of ceremony. There they were, keeping the audience laughing and ... (read more)How Ed Wynn Spent His $5,000-a-Week Radio Salary
Radio comedian Ed Wynn, star of The Fire Chief It certainly looks easy. All you have to do is walk into a studio, tell a few jokes, or sing a few songs, and walk out with five thousand dollars. Think of it: $5,000 for a half hour's work. Pretty soft! But is it? Is this business of being a radio star as easy as it looks? Is that whopping big weekly fee just so much pure gravy -- or does it take a lot of time and money to get up to the table, and is a lot of the gravy spilled on the way back? ... (read more)Les Tremayne Got an Offer to Star in Movies 46 Years Too Late
Les Tremayne, star of The First Nighter radio show Although I had been playing various roles on Grand Hotel since 1933 and The First Nighter since 1934, my first audition to replace Don Ameche in both Grand Hotel and The First Nighter was on August 21, 1935. I was accepted as the lead on Grand Hotel and played it for a couple of years. This meant that I was already working for the same sponsor, the Campana Corp. But since The First Nighter was their bigger show of the two (and one of the ... (read more)'I Can't Stand Jack Benny' Contest Received 277,104 Entries
Jack Benny with judges in the I Can't Stand Jack Benny contest So you tore off a carton top? Visualizing thousand-dollar bank notes, shiny new automobiles and post-war electric refrigerators, you were a "goner"' before the announcer's pear-shaped vowels reached "in twenty-five words or less." On the back of the cart top you detailed in pulsating prose why you simply cannot exist without Fluffo Flakes. With fingers crossed, you dropped it in the corner mailbox and went home to wait for the ... (read more)The Audition That Changed the Lives of Chester Lauck and Norris Goff
A print ad for Lum and Abner A strange sight would have greeted the eyes of anyone entering the board of directors room of the Quaker Oats Company on a summer morning in 1931. On one side of the room you would have found all the staid and dignified directors of the company, seated with their faces to the wall. On the other side you would have seen two young men talking hillbilly dialect to a broom handle! That was the turning point in the careers of the two boys who have become famous in ... (read more)Fanny Brice Made Her Name on an Amateur Night
Fanny Brice performing as Baby Snooks on radio Every night this week, in movie theaters in small towns as well as in the big radio studios of New York, scared girls in homemade clothes -- amateurs -- are doing imitations and singing songs. Hoping! Thirty years ago, too, there were amateur nights. More brutal amateur nights than those today. They were held not in vast modern studios with an unctuous Major Bowes or a wise-cracking Fred Allen as master of ceremonies, but in variety halls, as they ... (read more)Texaco Star Theater Became Radio's Biggest Hit Show
Fred Allen, host of radio's Texaco Star Theater (sometimes called Texaco Star Theatre) How many persons throughout the United States wonder what has become of Theda Bara, most glamorous of the movie sirens of more than a decade ago? And how many others are intrigued by the idea of hearing the bewhiskered Santa Claus of Hollywood's famed Santa Claus Lane on the air; or George McManus, creator of the popular comic strip dealing with the doings of Jiggs and Maggie; or Tom Mix, hero of a thousand ... (read more)David Freedman: How to Make Visual Comedians Funny on Radio
A memoir about Beatrice and David Freedman by their daughter-in-law Nancy Freedman It has been my good fortune as a radio writer to be associated with such stars as Eddie Cantor, Lou Holtz, Fanny Brice and Al Jolson. In every case I strove to transplant the magic personality of these stars to the medium of the air by creating a sound substitute for those qualities that were purely visual. Cantor's electric personality with eyes popping, hands vibrating and every part of his being reaching out ... (read more)Jack Benny Tells on Wife Mary Livingstone
Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone in Radio and Television Mirror magazine I'm glad of this opportunity to write the lowdown on Mary Livingstone, because at home or on the air I never get the chance to say anything. There's a gal that always has to have the last word, and trouble is, it's usually funny. Yes, Mary and I have our differences, but about the only time we ever really clash is on Wednesday night. As far as I'm concerned the only good thing about that program is Kenny Baker, who, ... (read more)Edgar Bergen First Performed with Charlie McCarthy at his High School
Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy on NBC radio I can't remember how old I was when I found out that Charlie McCarthy wasn't a real little boy. I doubt I really believed he wasn't a kid until I saw a photograph of Edgar Bergen with Charlie sitting on his lap in one of those radio-TV magazines. No matter -- Charlie remained as real a person to me as all those other wonderful radio folks I had met in the theater of the imagination during my youth. Charlie McCarthy was, of course, the creation of ... (read more)Subscriptions
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