One hundred and eight years ago on this date, one of radio and television’s most prized sidekicks was born in Oakland, CA to a family of show business performers.  His father, “Big Ed” Anderson, performed in minstrel shows, while his mother Ella Mae was a tightrope walker (until a fall put an end to her […]

Thomas Charles Sanders was born on this date in 1904 to English parents in St. Petersburg, Russia.  Old-time radio fans, of course, know him as Tom Conway, and know that he played two famous detectives on the airwaves.  He was Arthur Conan Doyle’s titular sleuth in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes from 1946 to […]

For a show that had a relatively short life on radio and television, The Bickersons has maintained a dominating presence in American pop culture.  We use the term “Ozzie & Harriet” to describe a wholesome, too-good-to-be-true husband-and-wife coupling; and, a constantly quarreling twosome receives the designation “Bickersons.”  The famed husband-and-wife battlers, who made their radio […]

This Saturday, August 31, will mark the 72nd anniversary of one of radio’s most popular and successful sitcoms, The Great Gildersleeve—a program that any old time radio fan worth their salt will tell you was spun-off from Fibber McGee & Molly, allowing show regular Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve to put down stakes in a town far […]

Arnleifur Lawrence Thorsteinson was born ninety-seven years ago on this date…in an Icelandic village in Lundar, Manitoba, Canada.  Fortunately for the radio stations and national networks that would eventually hire him as an announcer and actor, he decided to shorten that handle to “Larry Thor.”  Old-time radio fans know his rich, resonant tones well; married […]

Whether you know him as Teddy Bergman (his birth name) or Alan Reed—an identity he adopted to separate his comedic roles from the dramatic ones (as well as downplay his Jewish heritage)—you certainly know his voice as the head of television’s first prime-time animated sitcom: Fred Flintstone of The Flintstones.  The career of this remarkable […]

One hundred and fourteen years ago today, Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone—part of Essex at the time of his birth, now part of London.  The youngest of three children of greengrocer William Hitchcock and his wife Emma Jane, Alfred would grow up to become one of the most successful filmmakers in the […]

The town of Vincennes, Indiana welcomed Richard Bernard “Red” Skelton into their midst one hundred years ago on this date…and got the best of the bargain, because their favorite son spent most of his show business career dedicated to making audiences laugh in radio, movies, television and on stage.  Not only was Red Skelton able […]