March 27: Happy Birthday, Richard Denning!

Richard Denning, of My Favorite Husband fame,  was born on this day in 1914.

March 27: Happy Birthday, Richard Denning

If he were alive today, actor Richard Denning would be a 101! He was born on this day in 1914. In that year, the first airline flight cruised from St. Petersburg to Tampa; Ford Motor Co. began paying $5 for a 9-hour day; Charlie Chaplin played The Little Tramp, and George Washington Carver began experimenting with peanuts.

Radio was a technology rather than a broadcast medium, and silent films were sweeping the nation.

After he'd toiled for years in many small film roles, Denning became a movie star and then dived headlong into the shimmering pool of radio. He starred alongside Lucille Ball in My Favorite Husband from 1948-'51. This program allowed Denning to work with, in addition to Ball, character actors such as Hans Conried and Gale Gordon.

After that, he got "married" to Barbara Britton, starring as a husband in a much different spouse program, Mr. and Mrs. North. He became the third Jerry North on the long-running series, stepping into the lineage of Joseph Curtin and Carl Eastman.

We commemorate the birth of a popular actor and bigtime contributor to oldtime radio. Here's to Richard Denning.

August 6: Happy Birthday, Lucille Ball

Bios of Lucille Ball abound, and most people know at least a little bit about the famed comedienne. But on the occasion of her birthday, we get a chance to look at her contributions to oldtime radio.

Her first big break was the chance to star in the radio program My Favorite Husband along with Richard Denning. The two played a Minneapolis couple, with Lucille's character Liz, being a goofball housewife. She signed each time with a cordial "Jell-O, everybody," to plug the sponsor, General Foods' Jell-O. The show would later make the jump to television.

But what a lot of people may not realize is that she also made the rounds as a guest on just about any radio show you can name: The Kraft Music Hall, Screen Guild Theatre, Mail Call, The Campbell Playhouse, and The Gulf Screen Guild Theatre to name a few.

Many things to many people, Lucille Ball was a giant of old time radio. Happy birthday, Lucille!