Old Radio

May 17, 1939: Both NBC and Mutual carried the event of a memorable dual-network radio broadcast  of Glenn Miller and his Orchestra. The scene of the event was the Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, NY. It was attended by 1,800 people and took place at the casino ballroom. This event, which lasted until August 18th of the same year, was a part of the orchestra's three-month summer season engagement at that casino. The recordings was broadcast by both NBC and Mutual which  greatly helped make the  Glenn Miller Orchestra   become even more popular.with record-breaking attendance.

Quick! Name a big country singer from the 40's 50's and 60's! A lot of people would answer Johnny Cash , Hank Snow--even Hank William's Jr .'s music was huge after his death. But Eddy Arnold topped them all in terms of number one hits. You may remember some of his smashes, "Bouquet of Roses," "Anytime," "Just a Little Lovin' (Will Go a Long Way)," "Please Help Me I'm Falling," and "Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain." He was thought of as an urban cowboy, a crooner more than a hillbilly, and he made big contributions to the world of radio. Before his 1946 string of number one hits, Arnold hosted Checkerboard Fun Fest , a hootenanny of a radio variety show featuring Rod Brasfield, Curle Fox, and The Cackle Sisters. On the other end of his halcyon days as a C&W star, in the 1960's, he hosted a series of public service announcements for Social Security, on which he strummed songs such as "

May 14, 1945: CBS radio first broadcast The Sparrow and the Hawk , a series for kids. The show centered around aviation, starring Young Barney Mallory and his uncle, Hawk Mallory. The show is so rare that only one episode is still in existence.

  May 11, 1946: Juvenile Jury was hosted by Jack Barry on WOR radio in New York City. It debuted on the Mutual Broadcasting System's 'Coast-to-Coast' after becoming a huge hit through only five weeks on air. This radio show was actually for children, featuring children trying to help others with their problems and was a big hit.

While Massachusetts was Mike Wallace 's 1918 birthplace, Michigan was the birthplace of his broadcasting career. Wallace was a writer and newscaster at WOOD in Grand Rapids, and then an announcer at Detroit's WXYZ. After his tour of duty in the Navy during the WWII , Wallace returned stateside and found employ as radio announcer in Chicago, doing the emcee duties for such shows as Sky King and Curtain Time . He got a higher-profile gig announcing for Groucho Marx 's You Bet Your Life. It was then on to broadcast journalism with an interview show called Night Beat.  Mike Wallace  radio life was concluding as he would go on to television super-stardom, with his claim to fame being 60 Minutes . Wallace died in 2012.

While standing out in the memories of most as being "the director of Citizen Kane ," Orson Welles was a polymath and a practitioner of all mass media. As a filmmaker, Welles had a very keen visual sense, but he is also well-known for his deep and booming voice. This made him a natural for radio. He entered the medium relatively early in a career that had been, at that point, one centered around drama. He'd established a theatre troupe called The Mercury Theatre , and before long he decided to expand this to an iteration for radio called Mercury Theatre on the Air . This 1938 series mostly adapted classic and contemporary dramatic works, but it was also the show on which the "War of the Worlds" blowup occurred. The attention from that got new sponsorship and a new iteration of the program, Campbell Playhouse . This series adapted such works as "Our Town," " The Count of Monte Cristo ," "The Magnificent Ambersons" an

  May 5, 1935: The first debut of the "Rhythm at Eight "  radio program. This program starred the 24 years old actress Ethel Merman . Unfortunately,  Merman's broadcast only lasted for 13 weeks before Miss Merman went back to Broadway. But in later years she would become a legend. Known as the musical comedy stage's first lady, Ethel Merman, born Ethel Agnes Zimmerman, was an American singer famous for her powerful voice. Compared to her contemporaries, Merman had a great advantage over them despite never taking singing lessons. In fact, she was told that she didn't need any at all. Due to her popularity, she was mentioned in many movies, Broadway plays, songs, etc.