November 2: Happy Birthday, Burt Lancaster

In the world of show biz bios, you can either be a lower-working class kid from Bumble Bluffs, Illinois who hopped on a tomato truck and rode out to L.A. hoping to make it big, or you can come from one of the big cities and be drawn to the entertainment world around you.

Burt Lancaster wasn't from Bumble Bluffs.  He was born in New York City and was very affected by Joan Crawford and Lon Chaney in the 1927 silent film The Unknown.  From there it was a stint working for the circus (OK, maybe he was a bumpkin from the corn belt), Hollywood, and eventually his huge roles in Elmer Gantry, Atlantic City, and The Birdman of Alcatraz.

If you were a radio listener at the time and you wanted to hear Burt's voice, you could tune in to The Bob Hope Show, Hedda Hopper's Hollywood, Lux Radio Theatre, and The Cavalcade of America.

April 3: Happy Birthday, Doris Day

On Mar. 28, 1952, CBS took the air with The Doris Day Show, a radio program featuring an established recording artist and actress. The show used the format that was by then a staple: soothing musical numbers and then performances by guests, most of them stars of stage, screen, and air. Guests included Kirk Douglas, Ronald Reagan, Danny Thomas, and Ray Bolger. Howard Keel was probably the most frequent guest, with Gordon MacRae not far behind.

As was the case with many of the big stars of the time period, Day also made plenty of appearances on the various big-name radio shows. The fetching singer-actress climbed the radio ladder with appearances on The Rudy Vallee Show, Command Performance, The Bob Hope Show, Kraft Music Hall and Stars For Defense.

The songstress who gave us "Till The End of Times," "My Dreams are Getting Better All the Time," and "I Got the Sun in the Mornin'" lives on in the memories of old time radio fans.