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) […]

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 […]

In his reference book The Great American Broadcast, author Leonard Maltin relates an anecdote of how future science-fiction/fantasy author Ray Bradbury talked himself into a “job” on George Burns & Gracie Allen’s radio show.  The brash youngster, fourteen at the time, coaxed straight man Burns into letting him and a friend attend the comedy duo’s […]

Sixty-nine years ago on this date, CBS premiered The Jack Carson Show: a half-hour situation comedy starring the comic actor famous at that time for such films as Love Crazy, The Male Animal and The Hard Way (with his frequent onscreen partner, Dennis Morgan).  A series with strong echoes of both the Jack Benny and […]

On this date in 1890, actor-comedian Frank Morgan came into this world…born Frances Phillip Wupperman in New York City.  The youngest of eleven children (six girls, five boys), the Wupperman family were quite well-to-do and were thus able to give Frances a fine education at Cornell University (where he also joined the renowned Phi Beta […]