April 24: X Minus One Debuts

The 1990s industrial rock band Rage Against the Machine might not have meant their name to be an homage to the classic radio gem X Minus One, but the phrase does do a good job of summing up the show's common story lines. On this revival of Dimension X, men fight computers and robots and are attacked by alien star fleets.


Today, 1955, marks the first time radio listeners got to hear the famous lines, "Countdown for blast off...three, two, X Minus One!" NBC launched (get the pun?) the series, with Don Pardo announcing as only he can.


Wendell Holmes, Ken Williams, and Luis Van Wooten starred in "No Contact" in which a space ship made a voyage toward a planet called Volta in a future time known as 1987.


Sources

radiogoldindex.com

otrcat.com

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.

April 12: Happy Birthday, Ann Miller

Today we commemorate the birth on this day in 1920 of charming and lovely screen actress Ann Miller. No flash in the pan or overnight success, Miller paid her dues and toiled for years before becoming a major film star.

She is reputed to have been discovered by Lucille Ball during a nightclub song and dance act, and went on to spectacular musical roles in such films as "Small Town Girl," "On The Town," and "Kiss Me Kate."

The versatile performer made a few, memorable radio appearances. Many of these were on the shows devoted to entertaining the WWII troops, including G.I. Journal and Command Performance. In 1940, she appeared in Forecast a series highlighting notable people from a particular state. Her episode took a look at Texas's Sam Houston.

Happy birthday, Ann Miller!