Old Radio

  December 4, 1933: Ma Perkins shifted its broadcast from WLW to the NBC Red radio network. Later on, the show’s fame led it to be transmitted on both NBC and CBS. Ma Perkins    was a 15-minute radio soap opera that aired on bothNBC (1933-1949) and CBS (1942-1960) during its 27-year run, during  which it had more than 7,000 episodes. The lead character was portrayed by actress Virginia Payne.  In the show,  Ma Perkins  was a widow who lived in the town of Rushville.  She had three children named John, Fay, and Evay, who were played by Gilbert Faust, Isabel Krehbiel (and later Rita Ascot), and Dora Johnson (and later Kay Campbell and Laurette Fillbrandt), respectively. The story focused on Ma Perkins' interaction with her children and townmates.

If anyone had the acting prowess to change characterizations over the years, that was embodied in Richard Crenna . Born November 30, 1926, Crenna started his early years as a character actor for radio, eventually moving on to film and television . He grew up in Los Angeles and served his tour of duty as a radio operator in WWII . Upon his return after the conflict, Crenna attended college and took up acting. Richard Crenna began his radio legacy on The Great Gildersleeve as Walter “Bronco” Thompson. He played that role for 9 years, 1948-1957. His stimulus as a comic actor carried him over to do a duel run on another radio program from 1948 to 1952, as Walter Denton on Our Miss Brooks . His portrayal as the affable and naive Mr Denton played well in attracting him handle television roles in similar character positions. He performed on the I Love Lucy program and   George and Gracie . In both guest star roles Crenna hit his mark as a “lacking worldly wisdom, but sure willing to learn

November 29, 1950: Vocalist Dick Haymes played the role of freight pilot Dockery Crane in the ABC program I Fly Anything . The program survived for only a short period, which forced Haymes to get back to singing, where he earned his good name. Dick Haymes was an Argentine singer who made a name for himself in the states. His work as a vocalist allowed him to join a number of big bands, and he was popular on old time tadio and television.

 November 25, 1945: A parody of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic, The Lass That Loved a Sailor, went on air on The Fred Allen Show . The parody was named ‘The Brooklyn Pinafore’ and was performed by American baseball infielder Leo Ernest Durocher and actress Shirley Booth.

  November 24, 1944: The FBI in Peace and War went on air on CBS for the first time. Its fourteen year broadcast made it one of radio’s longest-running crime shows. The FBI in Peace and War   was the 8th most popular show on radio at the time, following Dragnet . The show was adapted from the Frederick Collins' book of the same name.

November 23: Happy Birthday, Boris Karloff Unlike a lot of radio stars who would go on to careers in television or film, Boris Karloff was a star of the silver screen before embarking on a radio career. He is best known for starring as Frankenstein 's monster in the 1931 opus Frankenstein (as well as in some sequels). He would later cross over and appear in many radio shows. He hosted The Boris Karloff Show in 1957, with episodes such as "The Vampire's Grave," " Shakespeare 's Hometown," and "The White House." Shows on which he appeared as a guest include " Bergen & McCarthy ," " Inner Sanctum ," " Lights Out ," " Martin and Lewis ," " Jack Benny Program" and more. To these shows he lent his distinctive, deep, slow, spooky drawl. Later in his life he would play many voice roles, including that of the narrator of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas ." Karloff's birth

The Beach Boys rarely surfed; Creedence Clearwater Revival, for all their Bayou songs, weren't from that region; and Judy Canova , sometimes called The Ozark Nightingale, did not hail from the Ozarks.  She wasn't even from Georgia, which means that the act Three Georgia Crackers, which she had with her brother Zeke and sister Annie was another marketing ploy. Judy played the role of the country innocent to the hilt, and found success at a young age.  Before long, the hoky act--with Judy yodeling, singing, and picking a gee-tar--had ironically made Broadway . She then became a big radio star.  She started on Rudy Vallee 's The Fleischmann Hour and then landed her own show, appropriately called The Judy Canova Show. This included music and skits and stories about pigs.  Some advertisements featured a pencil sketch of Judy in a straw hat and pigtails, looking not unlike the mascot for the Little Debbies snacks that would fatten a nation a little later. Today marks t