Old Radio

April 16: Happy Birthday, Marian Jordan As a title for a program, Smackout has a distinctly current sound. It could be a particularly obnoxious reality show about to premier on MTV. Yet it was an early radio show from 1931 starring Marian and Jim Jordan, who we'd later know as Fibber McGee and Molly . And get this: the title came from a catch phrase "we're smack out of that" used by a character named Uncle Luke at his country store. The show ran four years, first on Chi-town's WMAQ and then on NBC. One fan was Ms. Henrietta Johnson Lewis, which trivia savants might know as a member of the family that owned the Johnson Wax Company, which would go on to sponsor Fibber. ("Look, Molly, there's no dull season for wax polish sales!") Since we're celebrating the day of Marian's birth:. She was born in Peoria, IL in 1898 and sang in a Catholic choir. Doing so is, of course, a good way to meet men, with one example being Jim Jordan. Legend

April 12, 1932: This date marked the premier of Joe Palooka , an action-comedy broadcast on CBS. The program eventually became a popular comic strip. Joe Palooka was a comic strip created by Ham Fisher in 1921. The comics was published  in the papers in 1930. Joe Palooka comics quickly became popular. They adapt the comics into television shows and movies. In 1932, it was network radio's turn to adapt Joe Palooka. The popular comic came to the radio in a short-lived series that was aired from April to August 1932. The comic strip featured Joe, Joe's manager Knobby Walsh, his girlfriend Anne Howe, blacksmith Humphrey Pennyworth, and mute kid sidekick Little Max. The radio show featured Knobby Walsh and Anne Howe.  Joe Palooka was broadcast for 15 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the program was sponsored by Heinz Rice Flakes.

  April 11, 1943: Nick Carter , who first came to radio as  The Return of Nick Carter   debuted on Mutual. "The Return of Nick Carter" was the first title of the radio crime series that featured the famous detective Nick Carter. The title was changed later to  "The Return of Nick Carter. "  Lon Clark played the title character until the series' final episode on September 5, 1955.

On this day in 1943, the old time radio detective series The Falcon made its radio debut. The Falcon radio detective was "always ready with a hand for oppressed men, and an eye for repressed women!"

If you are a football-playing Civil Rights activist and actor, you can relate to Paul Robeson . He was a pioneering African-American actor with stage roles in Othello, and Show Boat and film roles in Show Boat and Sanders of the River. In 1936, Robeson appeared on the variety show The Magic Key . An excerpt from a 1959 performance of Othello is also available. Robeson's groundreaking roles in various productions of Othello are the subject of Lindsey R. Swindall's book The Politics of Paul Robeson's Othello , published by the University Press of Mississippi.

Brace Beemer, the previous radio show announcer of ' The Lone Ranger ' took over the title role of Earle Graser, the eight year voice of the show after he died in an auto accident. With his popular mask and sidekick Tonto, the native American, Reid (" The Lone Ranger ") was a Texas Ranger who fights injustices in the West. Undoubtedly, this program became a part of the American culture and still has an impact in today’s world. Along with penetrating the culture, the program also reached the big screen as complete hit both in the TV series and film. Though he was introduced as Reid, the Lone Rangers’ name was never explained or announced in the public.

April 6, 1931: Harold Gray's comic strip character  Little Orphan Annie , had her radio debut over the NBC Blue network. Little Orphan Annie  was created from a rough sketches to be a story with fragile atmosphere and novelistic plot story . The dialog describes Grays's conservative political philosophy. In his write, Gray made no attempt his critical political views of President F.J Roosevelt .  

Rumored to have intimidated--and insulted--Marilyn Monroe on the set of All about Eve, Bette Davis is one of the icons of the 40's and 50's. Known as a diva among divas, feuding with Joan Crawford and Humphrey Bogart and flicking her acerbic opinions into the air like so many ashes from her ever-present cigarettes, she was much more than a doe-eyed princess. She first hit the airwaves in 1935 on an episode of Shell Chateau . From there,  Bette Davis  appeared in  Command Performance , Calvalcade of America , and many episodes of Lux Radio Theater . Her most regular gig was on Whispering Streets , in 1958.

With episode titles like "Family Picnic," "College Days," "Cleaning the House," and "Performing MacBeth," The Frances Langford Show sounds like Ozzie and Harriet with just a splash of Orson Welles ' Mercury Theatre on the Air tossed in just to keep things interesting. The gorgeous singer hosted the show only through the crazy Summer of 1947--it was a Summer replacement for The Burns and Allen Show . The half-hour show featured Langford crooning such numbers as "I'm Always Blowing Bubbles," "Almost Like Being In Love," and "When You're Cryin'." Langford grew up in Lakeland, FL, which probably makes it a bit unlikely that she was trained as an opera singer. She changed her style to Big Band after a tonsillectomy, and her radio and stage careers began to develop in parallel. She was a regular on The Rudy Vallee Show . She was born on this day in 1913, and lived until 2005.

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.

April 1, 1941: Station W71NY of New York City signed the first contract for advertising on a commercial FM station. In the 1940’s, due to the effect of the changes of FM’s frequency, the radio industry experienced a sharp decline. However, on April 1, 1941, Joseph Creamer, the owner and operator of an FM radio station in New York (W71NY), was able to convince companies that the FM subscribers were a valuable audience. As a result of his perseverance, he won an advertising contract for the commercial FM radio station, the first of its kind.

March 31, 1937: Phil Harris 's best song, "That's What I Like About the South" was recorded for the first time on this day. Phil Harris  was an American singer and jazz musician. Although he was a talented and successful orchestra leader, he was very well-remembered as a voice talent for different Disney movies like "Robin Hood" and " The Jungle Book ," and also as a radio sitcom personality. His first sitcom was with Jack Benny . He also starred on a series where he met Alice Faye, who later became his wife.