
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
April 28: Happy Birthday, Lionel Barrymore
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Lionel Barrymore's 61st birthday celebrated at MGM with a few of his friends! Norma Sheaerer on his right and Rosalind Russell on his left. In back of him he has Mickey Rooney, Robert Montgomery, Clark Gable, Louis B. Mayer, William Powell and Robert Taylor.
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He was the mayor of the town Mayor of the Town, a 1940s radio series, and made many appearances on Lux Radio Theatre, Command Performance, and Kraft Music Hall.
He would go on to shine as a screen actor in such movies as It's a Wonderful Life and A Free Soul, winning an Oscar for the latter. Ask your friends if they know who was born today in 1878. Tell 'em Lionel Barrymore -- that's who!
Monday, April 27, 2015
April 27, 1931: Debute of Lum and Abner on NBC
Lum and Abner was created by Chester Lauck and Norris Goff. The program was a American radio network comedy program and was aired from 1931 to 1954. Lauck and Goff grew up in the small town of Waters, Arkansas. They made a fiction story base on their life experience since they were in their home town. The show attracted most of audience and became one of popular program at that time.
Lauck and Goff had known one another since childhood and attended the University of Arkansas together where they both joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity. They performed locally and established a blackface act which led to an audition at radio station KTHS in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Before the audition, the two men decided to change their act and portray two hillbillies, due to the large number of blackface acts already in existence. After only a few show in Hot Springs, they were picked up nationally by NBC. Lum and Abner was sponsored by Quaker Oats and ran until 1932. Lauck and Goff performed several different characters, modeling many of them on the real-life residents of Waters, Arkansas.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
April 25, 1955 Debut of X Minus One
With adapted short stories by sci fi authors including Philip K. Dick, Fritz Leiber, J.T. McIntosh, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon,
X-Minus One was arguably the best sci-fi old time radio show from the golden age of radio.