A surviving excerpt of radio’s The Fitch Bandwagon from April 23, 1944 features Broadway sensation Celeste Holm singing (complete with Brooklyn accent) the song written by Duffy’s Tavern’s Ed Gardner, “Leave Us Face It, We’re in Love.”  It’s one of the earliest on-the-air showcases for the actress who passed away Sunday, July 15, at the […]

In 1979, veteran radio producers Fletcher Markle and Elliott Lewis made an attempt to resurrect the lost art of radio drama with The Sears Radio Theater, a program that followed in the footsteps of such 70s offerings as Zero Hour, Earplay and The CBS Radio Mystery Theater.  Five nights a week, offerings of comedy, drama, […]

  Playwright George S. Kaufman once observed: “Satire is what closes on Saturday night.”  Perhaps this famous quote might be able to explain the dismal box-office take of So This is New York (1948), a motion picture that failed to win over audiences despite laudatory reviews.  The satirical comedy, based on Ring Lardner’s novel The […]

The recurring character of Caroline Appleby, rival/nemesis of housewife Lucy Ricardo on the classic television sitcom I Love Lucy, was first introduced in the episode “The Club Election”—though the character’s first name was “Lillian” in that inaugural installment.  Actress Doris Singleton, who would play Caroline in nine additional Lucy episodes, was told by the show’s […]

It was her recurring role in M-G-M’s series of Andy Hardy films that firmly cemented Ann Rutherford’s onscreen “girl next door” persona.  In many of the movies, typical teenager Andy Hardy (played by Mickey Rooney) would find himself tempted by a young lovely (portrayed by such starlets as Judy Garland, Lana Turner and Esther Williams) […]

Bucolic was the watchword for many TV sitcoms during the 1960s: a trend that had actually started earlier (back in 1957) with The Real McCoys, but was in full swing at the start of the decade with the popular Andy Griffith Show.  Then in 1962, Paul Henning, a former writer for George Burns & Gracie […]

The actor born ninety-eight years ago on this date in New York City had one of the most easily recognizable voices of all his radio brethren and sistern.  But were it not for a surprise bout of illness, Gerald Mohr would have become “Dr. Gerald Mohr”—he was a Columbia University medical student who found himself […]

The name “Mary Lansing” isn’t going to be instantly familiar to many people, but the actress who was born on this date back in 1911 has a voice that might be recognizable to Walt Disney fans.  For the 1942 animated feature Bambi, Lansing provided the voice for the “Aunt Ena” and “Mrs. Possum” characters; the […]