Old Time Radio

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Doc Wildeson Leads the Band at Radio Station WLW

1948 magazine ad for traveling performers from WLW in Cincinnati Keith "Doc" Wildeson, WLW orchestra leader, began leading his Wildcats one year after joining the station. That was in 1932. Wildeson was born and grew up in Pitcairn, Pennsylvania, where he attended high school. It was while in high school that he began playing in an orchestra -- an avocation which developed into a full-time profession. As a young man, not yet out of high school, he entered radio by the back door. He traveled to ... (read more)

2025/07/10

My Mother Was Rosemary LaPlanche, Film Star and Beauty Queen

A lobby card for the 1946 movie Devil Bat's Daughter Many of you remember Rosemary LaPlanche by her title, Miss America 1941, representing the state of California. Others may know her as RKO star and cast member of the Lum and Abner movie Two Weeks to Live. However, I knew her best because Rosemary was my mother. Rosemary was born to Charles and Anna LaPlanche in Glendale, California, on October 11, 1923. She had a big sister, Louise, who was four years older. It was a family in every sense of ... (read more)

2025/07/09

Musicians Elsie Mae and Ralph Waldo Emerson Married on WLS

Elsie Mae Emerson on the cover of Stand By magazine in 1947 Falling asleep at night to the sweet strains of the popular Swiss instrument, the zither, played by her father and mother, is one of Elsie Mae Emerson's earliest memories as a little girl up in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. She loved it, for like the other seven members of her family, Elsie Mae Look was a born musician. Every member of the family plays the piano. The guitar, the mandolin, and the violin were also favored instruments in the ... (read more)

2025/01/01

Hazel Dopheide's Journey From Chautauqua to Radio

Hazel Dopheide on the cover of Stand By magazine in 1935 Both the training school and the practical school of experience made Hazel Dopheide the finished actress whom radio listeners know. After graduating from the dramatics department of McKendree College and the School of Speech at Northwestern University, Hazel entered Chautauqua and lyceum work. This was shortly before the rise of radio and Chautauqua was in its heyday. At 18, Dopheide was billed as the youngest dramatic reader of plays on ... (read more)

2024/04/07

The Biggest Boners from Radio's Golden Age

Cover of Nick Carter Magazine Ever feel like pushing yourself under the rug when your tongue tripped, slipped or balked and turned up with a neat little phrase you never should have uttered? Or hopelessly muffed an important introduction, or stuttered on the snappy comeback that should have panicked your dinner guests? Then you can readily sympathize with the poor announcer or actor who suddenly finds themself pulling what they are sure must be radio's prize "boner." Though they can be laughed ... (read more)

2024/04/03

How Two CBS Sound Technicians Created a Horde of Rats

Cliff Thorsness of CBS Radio in 1952 When the script for CBS' Escape called for the sound of a horde of rats attacking a lighthouse, squealing, clawing at the windows, gnawing through a trap door and boarding a ship, it would seem almost enough to stump even a veteran radio soundperson. Escape's two veteran radio technicians, Bill Gould and Cliff Thorsness, admit that creating this effect was certainly about their toughest challenge. Their work on it deserves a Distinguished Achievement Award. ... (read more)

2023/05/22

Bobby Benson Star Billy Halop Led the Dead End Kids

Bobby Benson was one of those rare network shows that had two distinct radio series, with over a decade separating both runs. The original show was aired on CBS from 1932 to 1936. Thirteen years after its demise, it was resurrected with a new cast on Mutual in 1949 and it continued on the air until 1955. Despite the fact that both versions were of relatively short tenure, and were aimed almost exclusively at a juvenile audience, the Bobby Benson show did accomplish at least two ... (read more)

2023/03/26

The Doctors Talk It Over Envigorates Medical Audience

The Doctor, a 1947 3 Cent U.S. Stamp They laughed when the after dinner speaker, talking about the shows and ratings, referred to Lederle Laboratories' The Doctors Talk It Over. When the snickers died down, an advertising agency executive remarked, "The program must have something. It's in its third year on the air and the American Cyanamid Company (Lederle's parent company) doesn't throw away a quarter of a million dollars a year for anything, not even a broadcast program." Lederle spends more ... (read more)

2023/03/25

The Old Maestro Ben Bernie Was a Lousy Violin Salesman

Ben Bernie, The Old Maestro, in 1932 It was really aversion to silence that resulted in the professional debut of Ben Bernie. Years ago, but not too many says the Old Maestro, in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge in a tiny blacksmith shop, a son with a rhythmic cry was born. The father, a master smithy, wanted him to become an engineer, but the mother, a gentle-voiced little person who was sometimes discovered gazing entranced into a violin store window, held out for their son to be a musician. ... (read more)

2023/03/22

Will Rudy Vallee Quit Music to Become Governor of Maine?

Rudy Vallee and his wife Fay Webb Will Rudy Vallee abdicate his throne as King of the Crooners? He will. But when Vallee steps away from the microphone for the last time, he will march into a high executive post in the radio world. Vallee may become the highly paid chieftain of the artists' bureau in a great network. Many believe it is more likely that he will be enshrined as the first Will Hays of radio -- the dictator of the air needed to pour oil on the so frequently troubled ether ... (read more)

2023/03/21

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