Old Radio

  September 30, 1939: A popular show Captain Midnight was heard on radio for the first time on Mutual. The Captain flew his single-engine plane all over the place fighting crime. Captain Midnight was sponsored by Skelly Oil and by Ovaltine, which dropped its sponsorship of Little Orphan Annie to climb on board with this show. Captain Midnight , an adventure franchise, was a radio aviation serial that debuted in 1938 as a syndicated show. Sponsored by the Skelly Oil Company, it was initially aired on a few radio stations in the Midwest area. When Ovaltine took over sponsorship in 1940, it became a national hit. The show was broadcast on the Mutual Radio Network. Captain Jim ""Red"" Albright, a World War I U.S. Army pilot, was the title character. The show moved to another network from 1942 until 1945 when it was aired back on Mutual and remained there until its final run in 1949.

Today marks the birthday, in 1907, of Gene Autry , song-writer, singer, cowboy, singing cowboy , actor, radio star, and baseball team owner. A teenage Autry took a job operating a telegraph wire, sending people's messages for them.  One day, in walked the comedian Will Rogers .  Autry, a good worker though he may have been, happened to have been playing a guitar between customers.  Rogers was impressed with what he heard and encouraged Autry to go into show biz. To Autry this meant landing a spot of Tulsa's KVOO, billed as "Oklahoma's Yodeling Cowboy." From there it was a successful radio career that would then propel Autry into the role of radio host, taking the helm of a show sponsored by Wrigley's.  The CBS show put on a spread, not just of music and comedy, but even drama.  It lasted a lot longer than a stick of gum: 16 years in all. In the spirit of honoring that kind of longevity, we take off our hats and offer a cowboy salute to Gene Autry .

  September 28, 1939: After a decade of entertaining radio, the final broadcast of The Fleischmann Hour was heard. Rudy Valle , the star of the show, wrapped things up. The top-rated musical variety radio show The Fleischmann Hour was a pioneering radio program aired on NBC. The broadcast showcased the hosting skill of Rudy Vallee, who was both a singer and an actor.  The show became the staging platform of many future stars of America, such as Milton Merle, The Mills Brothers, and Burns and Allen , to name a few. Rudy Vallee concluded the show's final broadcast after a decade of great radio entertainment.

  September 27, 1938: The NBC Red Network aired "Thanks for the Memory" on The Bob Hope Show  for the first time on this day. "Thanks for the Memory" was a song written by Ralph Ringer and Leo Robin. It was performed by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross, and was used in the film The Big Broadcast of 1938, where it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The song has also become Bob Hope's signature piece. Due to its extreme popularity, other well-known singers such as  Bing Crosby , Ella Fitzgerald , Harry Nilsson , and Frank Sinatra made their own versions of the song.

September 15: Happy Birthday, Agatha Christie ! Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple could solve the most amazing crimes and mysteries. However, these fictional characters would not have been known by anyone if not for the pen of Miss Agatha Christie . Born in 1890, Miss Christie would use the name of her first husband (Colonel Archibald Christie)as her authorship name to perplex the world with her imaginative characters and beloved tales. Eventually mantled with the name, “Queen of Crime”, Agatha Christie would write more than 70 mystery novels based upon her Belgian champion or English matriarch as crime solvers.  Various mystery radio programs would carried some of Agatha Christie's more intriguing forays into the realm of her literary works. After her divorce from the Colonel, Miss Christie married a notable archaeology professor and would travel with him extensively. It was these journeys that impacted many of her books.  In 1952, her work, The Mousetrap, made it

In 1898,three years before her brother, Fred Astaire , was born, Adele Astaire entered the world on Sept 10. A child raised in a New York boardinghouse and educated at the Alviene Master School of the Theatre and Academy of Cultural Arts, Adele began performing on the Vaudeville circuit with her sibling at the tender age of seven. Astaire appeared on the sustaining program Magic Key on Jan. 12, 1936. The episode also showcased the Pickens Sisters .

Dick York , the tall, willowy actor who played Darrin on "Bewitched," was born today in 1928.  To look at the extensive, prolific TV career of York, take this quiz. Which of these TV series did York not appear in: "The Twilight Zone," " Dr. Kildare ," "The Virginian," "Wagon Train." You're absolutely correct if you said he appeared in all of them. He also played occasional roles in "Rawhide," "The Flintstones (himself)," and "Simon & Simon." Dick York was born at the right time to catch the tail end of radio's comet, and appeared in series such as The Cavalcade of America , Tales of Tomorrow , and Meet the Meeks . York is widely quoted as saying that Lux Radio Theater inspired him to puke, but it's unclear what he meant by this.

Perhaps once when you were enjoying the swinging dance music of Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys, you wondered "how did one get to be a Playboy?" Well, being Bob's brother was the way Johnnie Lee Wills chose. The banjoist joined his brother on the road and in the studio, where the band hosted a show on Tulsa's KVOO.  Brother Bob set his compass for Hollywood, the band became " Johnnie Lee Wills and His Boys " and the show went on. Were they no longer playboys? Had they turned a new leaf and started practicing temperance? Probably not. In any event, the show ran exactly a quarter of a decade on KVOO, and did syndicated broadcasts after that. He also took the boys on the road. He and his family also ran a store that sold Western clothing. So let's salute a great musician and long-time radio host, born on this day in 1912.

They just don't make ' em like Gene Kelly anymore, do they?  George Clooney, Tom Cruise, you name any of today's big leading men and whatever their virtues, they fall short of the charm and all-around talent of Gene Kelly. He could act, he could sing, he could dance!  He could even choreograph. Today we celebrate the 1912 birth of Eugene Kelly, the man who gave us Singin ' in the Rain, An American in Paris and so much more. While dancing works only so well on the radio, Kelly did lend his talents to the medium that concerns us here.  He appeared on some of the cream of old-time radio, such as Suspense and The Lux Radio Theatre (I'll bet his appearances sold a lot of soap!).    He also appeared on episodes of The Hotpoint Holiday Hour, Opportunity USA, and The Best of Groucho .  His first known appearance on the airwaves was in 1942 (Your Hollywood Radio Reporter) and his last in 1978 (The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast).  What a lot of great memories in betw

August 13, 1912: U.S. Department of Commerce gave the first radio license for an experiment, conducted by St Joseph's College, Philadelphia,PA. The Department of Commerce issued an EXPERIMENTAL RADIO LICENSE after the International Radio Convention and Radio Act of 1912 at Philadelphia, Pa. The experiment used a 2 kilowatt transmitter.

Legend has it that exactly a dozen (not even a baker's dozen, but a true dozen) people tuned in to the inaugural broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion in 1974.  It is now an NPR staple, playing to millions. The show includes skits and songs, Keillor's character Guy Noir, and his famed Tales From Lake Wobegon, the fictional Minnesota hamlet that exemplifies the Midwestern folksiness for which Keillor is renowned. Much lampooned, often for his breathy voice that hazards the line between radio host and obscene phone caller, Keillor is also an heir to Will Rogers , a beloved awe-shucksy quasi-humorist.

John Dunning, author of On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio , called Jack Kirkwood a "comic's comic." This was due to Kirkwood's passion and dedication to the craft, his great work ethic, and his background banging out jokes for years on the vaudeville circuit. The host of The Jack Kirkwood Show was born on this day in 1894. His show ran from '43-'53 under various named, and treated audiences to sketch comedy, including spoofs of Westerns and other genres of radio programs (this also according to Dunning). The veteran comic made appearances all over the dial, trading wits with Bob Hope and Edgar Bergen , and also guesting on Ozzie and Harriet , Hallmark Playhouse , and Fibber McGee and Molly . A happy birthday to Mr. Kirkwood!

August 5, 1921: On this day, the first baseball game radio broadcast reached the airwaves.  A baseball game for the first time was aired by KDKA in Pittsburgh. Harold Arlin reported, on that match Philadelphia was beaten by Pirates with score 8-5 for Pirates Harold Arlin also described the action of the Pirates' at Forbes Field, would on to fall just short of the National League Pennant that year with a solid record