Monthly Archives: December 2022

When Henry E. Picard took over as general manager of San Francisco Brewing in 1944, sales were dropping on all 14 of the company’s beers. Picard suspended production of all the beers except Burgermeister and hit the radio with $50,000 … Continue reading →

There’s a new post up on Tralfaz that explains the enduring appeal of Jack Benny’s butler Rochester, who was played by the comedian Eddie Anderson: Eddie Anderson’s character worked so well because he was supposedly put upon, but he always … Continue reading →

The actor Mandel Kramer portrayed the police chief Bill Marceau on the TV soap Edge of Night for 20 years, receiving a Daytime Emmy nomination for best supporting actor in 1979. His run was the second longest for an actor … Continue reading →

This weekend’s Big Broadcast on WAMU continues the holiday theme with these episodes about Christmas: My Favorite Husband: Lucille Ball as Liz Cooper – Original air date December 16, 1949. CBS network. The show explores what George is planning to give … Continue reading →

As the master of ceremonies, Eddie Cantor gave a tribute to Glenn Miller at his band’s final concert in November 1945, held almost a year after Miller’s plane went missing during a flight over the English Channel while he was serving … Continue reading →

One Man’s Family was the longest-running radio soap in American history, broadcast from 1932 to 1959. It depicted the lives of San Francisco stockbroker Henry Barbour, his wife Fanny and their children Paul, Haze, Clifford, Claudia and Jack. Creator Carlton … Continue reading →

The old time radio historian Martin Grams visited the Lone Ranger Museum in Mount Carmel, Illinois, earlier this year and spent two hours seeing all the exhibits: The display is located in the Wabash County Museum at 320 Market Street. A … Continue reading →

Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa met on the vaudeville circuit in 1922 and hit it off so well they were married five years later, a union that lasted until his death in 1956. Back in the 1920s, she was performing … Continue reading →

In the 1942 film To Be or Not to Be, Jack Benny and Carole Lombard play a husband and wife who are stars of a Warsaw theater company right before Germany’s invasion of Poland. They hide as Warsaw is bombed, … Continue reading →

The state of New York built Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York in 1826 and it has been in operation ever since. Today it is a maximum-security prison housing 1,700 inmates. The prison’s location up the Hudson River from … Continue reading →