GUY LOMBARDO, WHOSE "AULD LANG SYNE" BECAME THE THEME OF NEW YEAR'S EVE,
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THE NIGHT A THEME WAS BORN...
GUY LOMBARDO'S ROYAL CANADIANS ORCHESTRA had a hit show for General Cigar Corporation's Robert Burns Panatelas in the fall of 1929. In tribute to Burns, Lombardo adopted the Scottish poet's folk song, Auld Lang Syne, as his band's theme. The band also had entered its 30 year engagement with the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City for nightly remotes at 11:30 on CBS. The hotel also wanted the attention NBC could draw to its Roosevelt Grill so it signed a separate agreement with the senior network for a series of Lombardo remotes at midnight. See where this is headed? We tell the full story in GOld Time Radio's post, Guy Lombardo, then expand upon it with our post, New Year's Eve, when Auld Lang Syne became the most played song on Network Radio.
WHEN JAILBIRD WRITER Jack Boyle created Boston Blackie in 1914 he had no idea that his safecracker turned private detective in would outlive him in three media that hadn’t been fully developed yet - movies, radio and television. But that was the case when after 23 of Boyle’s pulp magazine adventures and eleven silent films based on his character, Boston Blackie seemed to die with his author in 1928.
Then, after a dozen years, an odd thing happened. Columbia Pictures released Meet Boston Blackie in 1941, smartly installed wise-cracking Chester Morris as its star and built a franchise of 14 low-budget, highly profitable mysteries. Midway along that run, radio producer and syndication executive Fred Ziv obtained broadcast rights to the character and created a successful summer series of Boston Blackie starring Morris for NBC in July, 1944. That led to an even greater success of when Ziv converted the series into his specialty - a transcribed and syndicated weekly series starring New York City radio personality Dick Kollmar that ran for over 200 episodes. It's a wild post that includes a sample of America's most successful "breakfast table chat show." It's Boston Blackie.
THIS YEAR IS THE 78th ANNIVERSARY of The Man Behind The Gun - not the 1953 Randolph Scott Western movie - but the Peabody Award winning documentary series that gathers dust on Network Radio‘s Golden Age shelf of nearly forgotten programs. It’s also an ill-advised name for a program that examined the roles of United Nations men and women in World War II - many of whom never carried a weapon! But the sounds, tensions and emotions of war were loud and clear in every episode.
The Man Behind The Gun ran over two, seven-month periods from October, 1942, to March, 1944. It was a collaborative creation of CBS, legendary producer William N. Robson and writer Ranald MacDougall who later became President of The Writers Guild of America from 1971 to 1973. The excellence of all three is apparent in posted examples of this outstanding series which are still as thrilling today as they were when first presented so long ago.
FOR OVER 16 YEARS, newspaper publisher Britt Reid, (also known to millions of young listeners as The Green Hornet), his faithful and resourceful Filipino valet, Kato, and the crusading staff of his Daily Sentinel worked all hours in Network Radio to bring law-breakers to justice. Or, as the show’s opening continually reminded his fans, “He hunts the biggest of all game! Public enemies who try to destroy our America!”
Gold Time Radio tracks The Green Hornet’s history from its beginning to end, 1936 to 1952, which closely parallels Network Radio’s Golden Age. Along the way you’ll find eleven complete adventures of the masked crusader in action. So, "Ride With Britt Reid in his new thrilling adventure! The Green Hornet strikes again!"
GOLD TIME RADIO'S RANKING OF THE TOP 100 programs and personalities of Network Radio's Golden Age is complete and the winner of the 21 year race is Jack Benny who made Sunday night at 7:00 his home beginning in 1934. As the comedian's brief profile from The All Time Top 100 points out, the comedian didn't do it alone. He had help from his cast of regular supporting players: Eddie (Rochester) Anderson, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Benny's wife Sadie, (Mary Livingston), Don Wilson and Mel Blanc.
We've finally answered the original question that led to our book, Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 , and to this website: "What were Network Radio's favorite shows and stars?"
But we're not done yet! After 200 posts, 900 audio clips and a half million visitors, we've discovered shortcomings in GOld Time Radio and plan to correct them with new posts and an expansion of the site's video contents. The All Time Top 100 begins this process as it is under continual updating. (If you've seen this post as recently as last week, look again. It's changed and we think for the better. Your comments are welcomed.)
FEW IN THE WILMINGTON, DELAWARE board room of E.I. DuPont de Nemours, Inc. in 1935 would have believed that the patriotic idea from the company's ad agency to counter charges that DuPont was a "war monger" would result in a Network Radio institution. But that was the case when Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn proposed the weekly Cavalcade of America and DuPont bought it with an open checkbook that allowed it to run for 781 episodes over 18 years and three networks - four on CBS, one on Blue and 13 on NBC.
Some of America's top writers and actors lent their talents to this historical series in what were excellent examples of half-hour radio drama. To prove it, GOld Time Radio has selected 20 episodes to accompany our 2,500 word history of the series which won all the major awards offered in broadcasting. These easily understood and entertaining history lessons are every bit as needed today as they were during the Depression or World War II when they were first broadcast. They're yours now at Cavalcade of America.
WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT DURING THE 1940'S that a CBS sitcom with a modest $6,500 a week budget and no sponsor could topple the iconic comedian whose NBC ratings placed him among the giants of Network Radio and who commanded a weekly budget of over $20,000 from major corporations. But it happened. Making it even stranger, the show that drove Bob Hope off Tuesday night radio, Life With Luigi, had as its lead an actor with very little experience in radio, J. Carrol Naish.
GOld Time Radio finds this comedy about an Italian immigrant making his way in America particularly timely because of its constant theme of patriotism. Luigi Bosco's observations of his new country, (told in his weekly letters to his mother in Italy and signed, The LIttle Immigrant), are refreshing. What's more, the story of his sitcom's success is remarkable. It's all seen in the text and heard in the sounds our post, Life With Luigi.
FOR THE BETTER PART of nine years listeners heard William Conrad's deep voice as the U.S. Marshal who moved to Dodge City, Kansas, to uphold the law after the Civil War. To CBS Radio, Conrad was Marshal Matt Dillon for over 600 episodes of Gunsmoke.
However, Bill Conrad, the World War II pilot who became a highy popular radio, television and film actor, narrator and director wasn't even considered for the lead role in the incredibly successful television adaptation of the series. Further, the three permanent supporting actors of its lengthy radio success, Harley Baer, (Chester), Howard McNear, (Doc), and Georgia Ellis, (Kitty), were also dismissed from consideration as mere radio actors who didn't look their parts for television.
GOld Time Radio salutes these four actors and the series' creators who established a new standard in radio drama in its post, Gunsmoke, which still today contains elements that move the listener. We're sure you'll agree.
FRED ALLEN SAID IT: “After leaving radio I was able to live on the money I saved on aspirins.” The comedian/writer was reputed to edit and worry over every routine and phrase his writers handed him each week for his highly rated shows since 1932. Allen’s constant obsession for perfection and his regular battles with network censors and sponsors, led to a nervous condition and hypertension that forced doctors to order to the 50 year old comedian to take the year off from Network Radio in 1944.
He did - only to co-write and star in a 1945 movie, It’s In The Bag. The Paramount film also included a group of his fellow stars from NBC Radio, including Jack Benny. In case you’ve ever wondered how cheap Jack Benny was, GOld Time Radio gives you some idea in a key scene from that film at Mr. Allen Meets Mr. Benny. - (aka The Feud - Round Three). In addition to this hilarious sequence on video, we’ve also posted new audio clips of the two great comedians trading barbs begun in our posts The Feud - Round One and The Feud - Round Two.
IF YOU'RE LOOKING for a program, a personality or anything related to broadcasting history during Network Radio's Golden Age, use the Search box found at the top of all of of GOld Time Radio's pages. It provides a quick scan of our 192 posts to locate the item that you want found.
MENTION THE NAME KAY KYSER to many broadcast historinans and the automatic, (and correct), response will be The College of Musical Knowledge and that will be that. But the story of the soft-spoken North Carolinian who completely changed character on stage or before NBC microphones on one of Wednesday night's highest rated programs goes much deeper. And his successes run much further than leading America's most popular orchestra during Network Radio's Golden Age. His remarkable story is told in text, audio and film clips in GOld Time Radio's post, Kay Kyser- The Ol Professor of Swing.
THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1938 was just another in a string of the annual revues produced by motion picture studios for the ever-growing Network Radio audience. The 1938 edition was designed to be W.C. Fields' comeback film in which he played tycoon brothers racing their massive cruise ships across the Atlantic. (See W.C. Fields.)
Tucked away in a small scene without fanfare, Bob Hope & Shirley Ross sang and spoke the tender, bittersweet, Thanks For The Memory. GOld Time Radio's post, About A Song, tells in text, audio and video how the song almost wasn't written or performed by Hope & Ross. Yet, Thanks For The Memory won an Academy Award and became Bob Hope's theme song for over half a century. About A Song is a great story about a great song.
GOLD TIME RADIO IS NOW IN ITS NINTH YEAR of researching and reporting some of the lesser known facts about the people and programs of Network Radio’s Golden Age. It began with the publication of my book, Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953, which defined the era in a time frame determined by ratings and revenue, and provided the first complete prime time audience ratings for all 21 years. The premise of the book and this site are summarized in my reading of the book's forward.
Copyright © 2020, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
THE NIGHT A THEME WAS BORN...
GUY LOMBARDO'S ROYAL CANADIANS ORCHESTRA had a hit show for General Cigar Corporation's Robert Burns Panatelas in the fall of 1929. In tribute to Burns, Lombardo adopted the Scottish poet's folk song, Auld Lang Syne, as his band's theme. The band also had entered its 30 year engagement with the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City for nightly remotes at 11:30 on CBS. The hotel also wanted the attention NBC could draw to its Roosevelt Grill so it signed a separate agreement with the senior network for a series of Lombardo remotes at midnight. See where this is headed? We tell the full story in GOld Time Radio's post, Guy Lombardo, then expand upon it with our post, New Year's Eve, when Auld Lang Syne became the most played song on Network Radio.
WHEN JAILBIRD WRITER Jack Boyle created Boston Blackie in 1914 he had no idea that his safecracker turned private detective in would outlive him in three media that hadn’t been fully developed yet - movies, radio and television. But that was the case when after 23 of Boyle’s pulp magazine adventures and eleven silent films based on his character, Boston Blackie seemed to die with his author in 1928.
Then, after a dozen years, an odd thing happened. Columbia Pictures released Meet Boston Blackie in 1941, smartly installed wise-cracking Chester Morris as its star and built a franchise of 14 low-budget, highly profitable mysteries. Midway along that run, radio producer and syndication executive Fred Ziv obtained broadcast rights to the character and created a successful summer series of Boston Blackie starring Morris for NBC in July, 1944. That led to an even greater success of when Ziv converted the series into his specialty - a transcribed and syndicated weekly series starring New York City radio personality Dick Kollmar that ran for over 200 episodes. It's a wild post that includes a sample of America's most successful "breakfast table chat show." It's Boston Blackie.
THIS YEAR IS THE 78th ANNIVERSARY of The Man Behind The Gun - not the 1953 Randolph Scott Western movie - but the Peabody Award winning documentary series that gathers dust on Network Radio‘s Golden Age shelf of nearly forgotten programs. It’s also an ill-advised name for a program that examined the roles of United Nations men and women in World War II - many of whom never carried a weapon! But the sounds, tensions and emotions of war were loud and clear in every episode.
The Man Behind The Gun ran over two, seven-month periods from October, 1942, to March, 1944. It was a collaborative creation of CBS, legendary producer William N. Robson and writer Ranald MacDougall who later became President of The Writers Guild of America from 1971 to 1973. The excellence of all three is apparent in posted examples of this outstanding series which are still as thrilling today as they were when first presented so long ago.
FOR OVER 16 YEARS, newspaper publisher Britt Reid, (also known to millions of young listeners as The Green Hornet), his faithful and resourceful Filipino valet, Kato, and the crusading staff of his Daily Sentinel worked all hours in Network Radio to bring law-breakers to justice. Or, as the show’s opening continually reminded his fans, “He hunts the biggest of all game! Public enemies who try to destroy our America!”
Gold Time Radio tracks The Green Hornet’s history from its beginning to end, 1936 to 1952, which closely parallels Network Radio’s Golden Age. Along the way you’ll find eleven complete adventures of the masked crusader in action. So, "Ride With Britt Reid in his new thrilling adventure! The Green Hornet strikes again!"
GOLD TIME RADIO'S RANKING OF THE TOP 100 programs and personalities of Network Radio's Golden Age is complete and the winner of the 21 year race is Jack Benny who made Sunday night at 7:00 his home beginning in 1934. As the comedian's brief profile from The All Time Top 100 points out, the comedian didn't do it alone. He had help from his cast of regular supporting players: Eddie (Rochester) Anderson, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Benny's wife Sadie, (Mary Livingston), Don Wilson and Mel Blanc.
We've finally answered the original question that led to our book, Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 , and to this website: "What were Network Radio's favorite shows and stars?"
But we're not done yet! After 200 posts, 900 audio clips and a half million visitors, we've discovered shortcomings in GOld Time Radio and plan to correct them with new posts and an expansion of the site's video contents. The All Time Top 100 begins this process as it is under continual updating. (If you've seen this post as recently as last week, look again. It's changed and we think for the better. Your comments are welcomed.)
FEW IN THE WILMINGTON, DELAWARE board room of E.I. DuPont de Nemours, Inc. in 1935 would have believed that the patriotic idea from the company's ad agency to counter charges that DuPont was a "war monger" would result in a Network Radio institution. But that was the case when Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn proposed the weekly Cavalcade of America and DuPont bought it with an open checkbook that allowed it to run for 781 episodes over 18 years and three networks - four on CBS, one on Blue and 13 on NBC.
Some of America's top writers and actors lent their talents to this historical series in what were excellent examples of half-hour radio drama. To prove it, GOld Time Radio has selected 20 episodes to accompany our 2,500 word history of the series which won all the major awards offered in broadcasting. These easily understood and entertaining history lessons are every bit as needed today as they were during the Depression or World War II when they were first broadcast. They're yours now at Cavalcade of America.
WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT DURING THE 1940'S that a CBS sitcom with a modest $6,500 a week budget and no sponsor could topple the iconic comedian whose NBC ratings placed him among the giants of Network Radio and who commanded a weekly budget of over $20,000 from major corporations. But it happened. Making it even stranger, the show that drove Bob Hope off Tuesday night radio, Life With Luigi, had as its lead an actor with very little experience in radio, J. Carrol Naish.
GOld Time Radio finds this comedy about an Italian immigrant making his way in America particularly timely because of its constant theme of patriotism. Luigi Bosco's observations of his new country, (told in his weekly letters to his mother in Italy and signed, The LIttle Immigrant), are refreshing. What's more, the story of his sitcom's success is remarkable. It's all seen in the text and heard in the sounds our post, Life With Luigi.
FOR THE BETTER PART of nine years listeners heard William Conrad's deep voice as the U.S. Marshal who moved to Dodge City, Kansas, to uphold the law after the Civil War. To CBS Radio, Conrad was Marshal Matt Dillon for over 600 episodes of Gunsmoke.
However, Bill Conrad, the World War II pilot who became a highy popular radio, television and film actor, narrator and director wasn't even considered for the lead role in the incredibly successful television adaptation of the series. Further, the three permanent supporting actors of its lengthy radio success, Harley Baer, (Chester), Howard McNear, (Doc), and Georgia Ellis, (Kitty), were also dismissed from consideration as mere radio actors who didn't look their parts for television.
GOld Time Radio salutes these four actors and the series' creators who established a new standard in radio drama in its post, Gunsmoke, which still today contains elements that move the listener. We're sure you'll agree.
FRED ALLEN SAID IT: “After leaving radio I was able to live on the money I saved on aspirins.” The comedian/writer was reputed to edit and worry over every routine and phrase his writers handed him each week for his highly rated shows since 1932. Allen’s constant obsession for perfection and his regular battles with network censors and sponsors, led to a nervous condition and hypertension that forced doctors to order to the 50 year old comedian to take the year off from Network Radio in 1944.
He did - only to co-write and star in a 1945 movie, It’s In The Bag. The Paramount film also included a group of his fellow stars from NBC Radio, including Jack Benny. In case you’ve ever wondered how cheap Jack Benny was, GOld Time Radio gives you some idea in a key scene from that film at Mr. Allen Meets Mr. Benny. - (aka The Feud - Round Three). In addition to this hilarious sequence on video, we’ve also posted new audio clips of the two great comedians trading barbs begun in our posts The Feud - Round One and The Feud - Round Two.
IF YOU'RE LOOKING for a program, a personality or anything related to broadcasting history during Network Radio's Golden Age, use the Search box found at the top of all of of GOld Time Radio's pages. It provides a quick scan of our 192 posts to locate the item that you want found.
MENTION THE NAME KAY KYSER to many broadcast historinans and the automatic, (and correct), response will be The College of Musical Knowledge and that will be that. But the story of the soft-spoken North Carolinian who completely changed character on stage or before NBC microphones on one of Wednesday night's highest rated programs goes much deeper. And his successes run much further than leading America's most popular orchestra during Network Radio's Golden Age. His remarkable story is told in text, audio and film clips in GOld Time Radio's post, Kay Kyser- The Ol Professor of Swing.
THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1938 was just another in a string of the annual revues produced by motion picture studios for the ever-growing Network Radio audience. The 1938 edition was designed to be W.C. Fields' comeback film in which he played tycoon brothers racing their massive cruise ships across the Atlantic. (See W.C. Fields.)
Tucked away in a small scene without fanfare, Bob Hope & Shirley Ross sang and spoke the tender, bittersweet, Thanks For The Memory. GOld Time Radio's post, About A Song, tells in text, audio and video how the song almost wasn't written or performed by Hope & Ross. Yet, Thanks For The Memory won an Academy Award and became Bob Hope's theme song for over half a century. About A Song is a great story about a great song.
GOLD TIME RADIO IS NOW IN ITS NINTH YEAR of researching and reporting some of the lesser known facts about the people and programs of Network Radio’s Golden Age. It began with the publication of my book, Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953, which defined the era in a time frame determined by ratings and revenue, and provided the first complete prime time audience ratings for all 21 years. The premise of the book and this site are summarized in my reading of the book's forward.
Copyright © 2020, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com
