Old Time Radio

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The Good and Bad of Sears Radio Theater

Sears Radio Theater producer Elliott Lewis I never liked making generalizations, but I just have to in the case of Sears Radio Theater. I'll try to keep them short, and I'll start with the bad ones and build up in a fantastic crescendo to the good ones. Here goes. There are a lot of bad scripts out there. And not even an old pro like Elliott Lewis can save the bad ones. The best way is to not put them on. Even CBS admits that their comedy scripts have not been up to par. Shirley ... (read more)

2020/06/11

Judy Canova: The Queen of Hillbilly Hokum

Judy Canova during her radio years When she was a kid, Judy Canova once wrote that she wasn't a happy child. The only thing that could take her mind off herself and her personal unhappiness was music. Born Julietta, she started singing popular songs on a Jacksonville, Florida, radio station together with her brother Zeke and her sister Anne when she was just 12. When she sang she would forget her troubles. Although her mother took her three children to the Carolina hills for the summer, ... (read more)

2020/06/10

Feet First Into Fame: Red Skelton

Red Skelton mural at 12 S. 3rd St. in Vincennes, Indiana Some people think J. Edgar Hoover ought to nab Red Skelton before he completely sabotages the FBI's crime-doesn't-pay drive. When the average fellow "puts his foot in it," that's his misfortune. But when this human electron puts his foot in it, fame and fortune come his way. Even Lady Luck has to smile. Skelton gets a fourfold chance at blundering around in his current radio program. He's not only the headliner in Red Skelton and ... (read more)

2020/06/09

The Night Orson Welles Thought He Wrecked His Career

Scene from the 2020 graphic novel Orson Welles: Warrior of the Worlds While Orson Welles was broadcasting the Mercury Theater production of The War of the Worlds, he didn't have the slightest notion that he was frightening hundreds of people into conniption fits. It was only when he emerged from the studio, to find the building surrounded by police cars, blue-coats swarming through the corridors and brandishing their nightsticks, and irate CBS officials on the verge of apoplexy, that he ... (read more)

2020/06/08

Was Nathan B. Stubblefield the Father of Broadcasting?

Nathan B. Stubblefield demonstrates his invention in 1908 Patriotic Kentuckians have sent us a state magazine with an interesting account of the scarcely recognized work of Nathan B. Stubblefield, who, it is claimed, is the real father of broadcasting. Stubblefield died a lonely hermit in a desolate hut near Murray, Kentucky, two years ago. A memorial was recently dedicated to him there with the inscription, "the first man in history to transmit and receive the human voice without the ... (read more)

2020/06/07

Sheldon Keck the Art Detective

Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett in the movie Monuments Men (2014) Several hundred years ago, a French painter, who was unsuccessful in selling his own works, hit upon the idea of imitating one of the masters, forging his name, and disposing it as an original. Since then, countless copyists have produced works of art ostensibly by Gainesborough, Van Dyck, da Vinci, Titian, Corot, Rubens, and Rembrandt, to name a few of the greatest. Private collectors and museums, for years, fell prey to ... (read more)

2020/06/06

Escape With Us Now -- To the Bookstore

In the seven years that Escape was on the air, over 200 broadcasts were made. If, in retrospect, the years 1947 through 1954 were some of radio's best years, this body of Escape programs is one very good reason why. I think that one of Escape's strengths was in the careful selection of material on which writers based their scripts. Many of the shows, especially in the '40s, were adapted from outstanding works by American and British authors. Great stories, put into radio play form by ... (read more)

2020/06/05

Rudy Vallee's NBC Questionnaire

Rudy Vallee and Fay Webb The document rests in the files of the press department of the National Broadcasting Company. It is a questionnaire, duplicates of which are submitted to all NBC stars of prominence. The questionnaire was answered by Vallee himself, painstakingly and neatly typed by his own musical fingers. The questions were answered in 1932, after the crooner's marriage. Name (professional): Rudy Vallee Nickname (in the studios): Rudy Addresses: Office 111 West 57th St., ... (read more)

2020/06/04

Richard Diamond, a Girl's Best Friend

Dick Powell and Evelyn Keyes in the movie Johnny O'Clock (1947) The Richard Diamonds now in circulation are a must for the detective show freaks in the OTR audience. Dick Powell, the flip lady-killer crooner, is perfect as the flip lady-killer crooner detective. With more humor than Howard Duff's Sam Spade, with more unbelievable scripts than I Love a Mystery, with more dazzling chicks than Mike Shayne, the Richard Diamond series must be rated No. 1. On most shows, Powell answers the ... (read more)

2020/06/03

Wendell Niles and the War of the Worlds

Wendell Niles and Marilyn Monroe on NBC Radio in 1952 Wendell Niles was part of that elite period when radio announcers were indeed as well-known as the programs on which they worked. Involved with virtually every aspect of show business for over 65 years, he certainly has had a career to look back upon. Born in Montana on Dec. 29, 1904, Wendell Niles' first professional experience came in 1923 when he organized an orchestra. This proved to be quite a successful venture as Niles and His ... (read more)

2020/06/02

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