The
following two programs predated "The Golden Age of Radio" but were
part of the inspiration for the series to come.
Echoes of Christmas Past - 1967
With
Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran - Christmas Day, 1967
Echoes of Christmas Past - 1968
With
Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran - Christmas Day, 1968
1.
April, 1970 - Stanley
Quinn, Writer and Producer for the radio department of the J. Walter
Thompson Advertising Agency
2. May, 1970 -
Charles
Harrell, Eastern Program Director for the NBC Blue and ABC Radio
Networks
3. June, 1970 - Jack Bishop,
Network Radio research writer and creator of Mr. District Attorney
4.
July, 1970 - Peg Lynch,
creator and star of “Ethel and Albert”
and
Margaret Hamilton, Aunt Effie on “Ethel and Albert”
and the Wicked
Witch of the West in “The Wizard of Oz”.
5. August, 1970 - Jan Miner,
Network Radio Soap Actress and heroine of "Hilltop House."
6. September, 1970 - John
Gibson, Network Radio actor who portrayed Ethelbert on
“Casey, Crime
Photographer”
7. October, 1970 - Rudy
Vallee, Band Leader and Radio Star and a pioneer in the new medium of
radio.
(Two hours)
8. November, 1970 - William
Spier, Director of “Suspense” and “Sam
Spade” and June Havoc, radio, stage, and motion picture
actress.
9. December, 1970 - Richard
Dana, free lance writer and broadcast program supervisor at
Young
and Rubicam.
10. January, 1971 - Goodman
Ace, Comedy writer and creator and star of “Easy
Aces.”
11. February, 1971 - Rosa
Rio,
radio organist for many of the major shows in radio.
12. March, 1971 - Carroll
Carroll, Comedy Writer and author of “None of
your Business or My Life with J. Walter Thompson –
Confessions of a
Renegade Radio Writer.”
13. April, 1971 - Jackie
Kelk,
Radio Actor who played the part of Homer on “The Aldrich
Family”.
14. May, 1971 - Jim Jordan -
who with his wife Marian, created “Fibber McGee and
Molly”
15. June, 1971 - Part 1.
Don McNeil, Host of the Breakfast Club and a pioneer in
Chicago
radio.
Part 2 – Radio
premiums,
treasures acquired with a boxtop and a thin dime.
16. July, 1971 - Mary Jane
Higby, Network Radio Soap Actress, star of “When a Girl
Marries” and
author of “Tune in Tomorrow.”
17. August, 1971 -
Hans Conried, Radio, TV
and
Film Actor
18. September, 1971 - Noel
Gerson, writer of over 10,000 radio shows
19. October, 1971
- Ed Rice -
Writer, Producer, Director of "The Shell Chateau,"
20. November, 1971 -
Parker
Fennelly, radio actor who portrayed Titus Moody on Fred
Allen’s famous
“Allen’s Alley.”
21. December, 1971 - Sal
Trapani and Jay Hickerson, co-hosts of the
First Annual Convention of the Golden Radio Buffs held in New Haven,
Connecticut
22. January, 1972 - Bret
Morrison, radio actor and the voice of “The
Shadow”
23. February, 1972
- Radio
Shows from 1947 – A retrospective look at radio programs from
a quarter
century ago.
24. March, 1972 - Shirley
Eggleston, Radio actress, appearing in
“Counterspy”, “Whispering
Streets” and countless other programs
25. April, 1972 -
Ruby
Keeler, radio and motion picture actress, who starred in many major
Hollywood musicals of the 1930s. (Not part of the original series)
26. May, 1972 - Fran
Allison, Radio actress, who appeared as Aunt Fanny on
“The
Breakfast Club”
27. June , 1972 - Donald
Buka,
Radio actor who had his start on “Let’s
Pretend”
28. July, 1972 - Alexander
Scourby, Radio Actor and narrator of
countless documentaries for radio, television and motion pictures
29. August, 1972 - Mary Jane
Higby and Guy Sorel, husband and wife who appeared in thousands of
radio dramas.
30. September, 1972 - Aldo
Gisalbert, NBC studio engineer discusses the
very early days of the NBC network, including the move to Radio
City.
31. October, 1972 -
Bill Owen,
author of “Radio’s Golden Age”, a
listing of all the major radio shows and the people who made them
happen.
32. November, 1972 -
Vincent
Price - The noted
motion picture actor ("Laura," "House of Wax") and host of PBS's
"Mystery" recalls his first love - radio.
33. December, 1972
-
Raymond
Edward Johnson, actor who portrayed Raymond, the host of
“Inner Sanctum
Mysteries”
34. January, 1973 -
Virginia
Payne, actress who portrayed “Ma Perkins” for over
a quarter of a
century.
35. February, 1973 - Don
Ameche,
Master of Ceremonies for the Chase and Sandborn Hour, and co-star of
“The Bickersons"
36. March, 1973 - Jackson
Beck, actor and announcer, who appeared in countless radio shows during
radio’s golden era.
37. April, 1973 -
Mason Adams,
actor, best known for his portrayal of Pepper in
“Pepper Young’s
Family”
38. May, 1973 - Hamilton
O’Hara, network sound effects man, whose work
was heard on “Grand Central Station” and
“Inner Sanctum”, among other
shows.
39. June, 1973 - Tony Marvin
-
CBS staff announcer, Arthur Godfrey sidekick, and in the early 1960's,
Mutual newscaster
40. July, 1973 - Gale
Storm
and Barbara Britton. Although they were
primarily known for their work in television, each was well grounded in
radio.
41.
August, 1973 - Roger
Bower
not only announced many of the network
radio shows but produced several major programs as well, including
“It
Pays
to be Ignorant”
42. September, 1973 -
Kenny
Delmar, best known for creating the
character “Senator Claghorn” on the Fred Allen Show.
43. October,
1973 -
Jack Pearl
(Baron Munchausen), Will Jordan (Ed
Sullivan Impersonator), and Peter Donal
44. November, 1973 -
Howard
Duff is probably best known on radio for his portrayal of private
detective “Sam Spade.”
45. December, 1973 - Himan
Brown, creator of countless radio shows, including
“Inner
Sanctum”, and the “CBS Mystery Theater”.
46. January, 1974
– Aldo
Gisalbert, NBC studio engineer continues his discussion of the very
early days of the NBC network.
47. February,
1974 - Larry
Haines, who appeared in almost all of the
major evening radio dramas, was often cast as a heavy.
48.
March, 1974 - E.G.
Marshall, noted stage, television and motion
picture actor, was the host of the CBS Mystery Theater.
49.
April, 1974 - Edgar
Bergen, and his sharp-tongued dummy, Charlie
McCarthy, brought joy to millions of radio listeners every Sunday night
for two decades.
50. May,
1974 - Arnold Moss,
noted actor and narrator, recalls his
colorful career on radio.
51. June, 1974 - Arnold Stang
began his career as a child actor and
became one of the most sought after comedic voices in radio.
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52.
July, 1974 - Robert
Cummings, motion picture actor, recalls his
early days as a radio actor.
53. August, 1974 - Mel Blanc,
who did the voices of Bugs Bunny, Elmer
Fudd, Porky Pig and many other cartoon characters, recalls his days on
the Jack Benny show.
54.
September, 1974 Mandel
Kramer starred as the man with the action packed expense account
“Yours
Truly, Johnny Dollar"
55. October, 1974 - Sid
Raymond, who got his start in radio on the
Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour, replaced Charlie Cantor as Finnegan
on Duffy’s Tavern
56.
November, 1974 - Virginia
Graham, under the pseudonym Virginia Gotham, wrote Stella
Dallas
and Backstage Wife
57. December, 1974 -
Christmas
Stories tended to be repeated year after year on radio and became a
memorable part of that era
58.
January, 1975 - Robert
Anderson, author of “Tea and Sympathy” and
other noted plays, recalls his days, immediately following World War
Two, as a struggling young radio writer in New York.
59. February, 1975 - David
Rounds, co-author of “The Soaps”, which
documents the development
of daytime radio soap operas
60.
March, 1975 - Les
Tremayne, Betty Lou Gerson, Bret Morrison, and
Vincent Pelletier, a group of performers now living in Los Angeles,
recall their early days in Chicago radio.
61. April, 1975 - Harry
Herman
- Writer for Mr. District Attorney and the Kraft Music Hall, among
others.
62. May,
1975 - Joan Fontaine - The Academy Award-winning
actress recalls her career in radio and films.
63. June, 1975 - Samm
Sinclair
Baker wrote many of the network radio programs of the late
1930’s and
early 1940’s, including “Famous Jury
Trials” and “Colonel Stoopnagle”
64.
July, 1975 - Mel Allen
began his career as a staff announcer with CBS and eventually became
the voice of the New York Yankees.
65. August, 1975 - Don
MacLaughlin, played the part of David Harding on the famous radio drama
“Counterspy”
66.
September, 1975 - Joseph
Julian, an actor who did more than 20,000 radio shows during his long
career.
67. October, 1975 - Frances
Chaney, radio actress, who played the part of Burma on “Terry
and the
Pirates”
68.
November, 1975 - Humphrey
Davis recalls his start on WTIC and his subsequent career as a network
actor in New York.
69. December, 1975 - Jean
Burnett was a child actress on many major network radio shows,
including “Coast to Coast on a Bus”, “The
Rudy Vallee Show” and “The
Telephone Hour.”
70.
January, 1976 - William
Robson directed many memorable network shows but is best remembered as
the director of “Suspense”.
71. February, 1976 - Robert
Metz is the author of “CBS – Reflections In a
Bloodshot Eye”, the story
of William S. Paley and the creation of the Columbia Broadcasting
System.
72. March, 1976 - Leon
Janney,
one of the busiest actors in radio,
recalls the “red scare” of the early
1950’s and the impact it had on
his career
and that of others as well. This was originally broadcast as the 25th
show in the series in April, 1972, and repeated in March, 1976.
73.
April, 1976 - Martha Raye,
a Hollywood star of the 1930s and 40s recalls her radio days with Bob
Burns, Rudy Vallee, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor and others.
74. May, 1976 - Robert
Montgomery, noted Hollywood actor and director, recalls his career in
radio.
75. June, 1976 - Jim Maloney
began his network acting career in the
late 1940s, appearing in such shows as “The Aldrich
Family”, and “Aunt
Jenny – Real
Life Stories”, among others.
76.
July, 1976 - Will Yolen
wrote many of the outstanding radio shows
of the 1930’s including “Gangbusters” and
“We the People”.
77. August, 1976 - Elliott
Lewis, one of the most popular radio actors
in Los Angeles, who portrayed Remley on the “Phil Harris
Alice Faye”
program
78. September, 1976 - A
history of the radio quiz shows
79.
October, 1976 A
discussion of the hobby of collecting old time
radio programs - with radio collecter Jay Hickerson
80. November, 1976 - Evie
Juster appeared in many radio programs, including “Amanda of
Honeymoon
Hill”, “Cavalcade of America”, and the
“CBS Mystery Theater”
81. December, 1976 - Robert
Campbell is the author of “The Golden Years of
Broadcasting”, the
first 50 years of NBC
82.
January, 1977 - Staats
Cotsworth began his acting career in 1932 and starred for many years as
“Casey, Crime
Photographer.” (From
a 1975 interview; not a part of the original series. This replaces the
repeat broadcast of Program 35,
February, 1973, with Don Ameche.)
83. February, 1977 - A
history
of the horror show genre on radio
84. March,
1977 - Ken Coleman
recalls his career as a sportscaster,
which eventually led to his selection as the voice of the Boston Red
Sox.
Additional
Programs
Not Broadcast
During the Original Series.
When we decided to make these programs available on the internet we
realized we were missing at least a half dozen shows with no prospects,
we thought, of ever finding them. In order to maintain a proper
chronological order to the series we decided to create additional shows
from interviews recorded for “The Golden Age of Radio” but
never used, or for other WTIC programs that had been recorded during
the same time period.
At the time Bob Scherago was living in Virginia, Ed Corcoran in
Connecticut and I was in Maryland. Bob and I were able to work
together but Ed was several hundred miles away. In an attempt to
include Ed on these additional shows, I scripted them and sent copies
to Ed. The idea, unfortunately, didn’t work, mostly for
technical reasons. Ed was using home equipment while I was in a
studio. We simply couldn’t match up our voices.
However, we were determined to include Ed in these faux shows as much
as possible. We, therefore, combed through the 70 original
programs we had on hand, looking for general comments that Ed had made
during the course of the interviews. We then isolated those comments,
and worked them into the additional shows. Believe me, it was a labor
of love. An expert can hear differences in room tone, I’m
sure, but the average listener is probably unable to detect these
inserts. (Of course, now that I’ve given away the secret
everybody will be looking for them, I’m sure).
After we were fortunate enough to find the missing shows in the series,
thanks to collectors who had recorded them off the air, we opted to
retain the additional shows we had created for those missing
slots We even placed two of them in the original rotation,
to cover for shows that had been repeated over the years.
We hope you enjoy listening to this additional material. We had
great fun putting it together.
Dick Bertel
85.
Glenn Miller
used radio to build the most popular band
in America, through late night band remotes and eventually
“Moonlight
Serenade” sponsored by Chesterfield. The story of those radio
broadcasts is told
through the voices of Rudy Vallee, Teddy Wilson, Gene Krupa, Duke
Ellington, Bob
Eberly, Ray
Eberle, Artie Shaw, Ray McKinley, and Paula Kelly. (Based on interviews
conducted by Dick Bertel from 1965 to 1971)
86. Glenn
Miller -
the War Years. Miller's military service
as the leader of the famous Air Force Band is recounted by Ray Eberle,
Paula Kelly and Ray McKinley and illustrated by his many radio
broadcasts of that period,
including "I
Sustain the Wings". (Based on interviews conducted by Dick
Bertel
in 1971)
87. Lowell Thomas, Jack
Benny, Ann Elstner (Based on interviews
conducted by Dick
Bertel and Ed Corcoran when they were appearing in Connecticut)
88. Henry
Hull, radio, stage and motion picture actor
who appeared in “The Pit and the
Pendulum” one of the very first
“Suspense” dramas. (From a 1964
interview)
89. John
Cromwell, movie director, recalls several of his
famous motion pictures, which were adapted for radio. (From a
1965 interview) |
