"The
Golden Age
of Radio"
(As originally broadcast on WTIC, Hartford, CT)
Click on the link below to hear
Program 67 - October, 1975 - Frances Chaney
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Program 67 - October, 1975 - Frances Chaney
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(As originally broadcast on WTIC, Hartford, CT)
Click on the link below to hear
Program 67 - October, 1975 - Frances Chaney
| Frances
Chaney, the radio actress who played the part of Burma on
“Terry and
the
Pirates” is interviewed by Dick and Ed. The show, based on
the Milton
Caniff comic strip included the characters Terry Lee, Pat Ryan, Flip
Corkin, Hotshot Charlie, Connie the coolie, Burma, (Ms. Chaney) Elita,
and the Dragon Lady. There were a total of 52 shows of about 14 minutes
each that were heard three times a week. Ms.
Chaney found herself
unemployed after years appearing on popular radio series such as
"Topper," "Gangbusters" and "Mr. District Attorney." At one point, she
spent her mornings playing an ingenue in "House in the Country" and her
afternoons in "Terry and the Pirates." She had parlayed her radio work into a few screen parts before the blacklist started costing her jobs, but she was able to win parts in off-Broadway and Broadway plays, including understudying for Maureen Stapleton, Kim Stanley and Claudette Colbert. By the time the blacklist's power faded, Ms. Chaney was entrenched as a stage actress. She worried that she was being typecast as a Jewish mother, a part she played in "Golda" on Broadway with Anne Bancroft, in James Lapine's Off Broadway "Table Settings," and in three separate productions of Clifford Odets' "Awake and Sing." Later she appeared in movies and television, including "Law and Order" and "The Edge of Night." Frances Chaney was the wife of Ring Lardner who was also blacklisted in the McCarthy era. She was previously married to his brother. She eventually died after a battle with Alzheimer's disease in New York City in 2004. |
You can save the file to your hard drive by placing your curser over the link,
pressing the right mouse button, and selecting "save target as . . ."
With a T1, cable modem, or DSL this might take 1-3 minutes.
Program 67 - October, 1975 - Frances Chaney
Return to Log of Programs