From Those Were the Days:

1921 - The first opera presented in its entirety over the radio was broadcast by 9ZAF in Denver, CO. The opera, Martha, aired from the Denver Auditorium.
10:59:48 PM    comment []  trackback []  

"Who's the little chatterbox? The one with pretty auburn locks...?"

WBBM, Channel 2 in Chicago, has an interesting feature on their website about Shirley Bell, a child actress who portrayed the title character in the radio serial Little Orphan Annie during the 1930s.
10:59:28 PM    comment []  trackback []  

"A round of kudos for everybody at this bar...I'm buyin!"

For those of you not familiar with the wonderblog that is World O'Crap, I'd like to give a shout out to a couple of its regular comment-makers, who have taken the plunge into blogdom and started their own web logs. (If Andy Warhol was still breathing, he'd probably say something profound and witty like "In the future, everyone will have a weblog for 15 minutes.")

Mary (no, not that Mary, the other one) has kicked things off with Hollywood Happens, which is one of the funniest blog titles I've heard in a while. She's written a nice piece on The Dick Van Dyke Show that not only echoes my sentiments perzactly but is far-and-away better written, too. Plus, she's provided a link to this humble blog--so you know she's a good kid. Good luck, Mare.

I'd also like to direct your attention to The Dark Window, which is also a kick-butt name for a blog. (In fact, I think I may have seen that noir classic sometime in college.) Pete M., a frequent World O'Crap participant, shares a love and respect for both film noir and Buster Keaton that has earned my undying admiration, and he's a right guy to boot. (Check out the mug shot...)

Finally, a blog named Pisces Peach mentioned Thrilling Days of Yesteryear in passing, but only to point out that my first name is coincidentally linked with one of the hurricane names chosen for the 2004 season. To this I can only say...well, I'm kind of speechless, to be honest. But I thank her for the nod anyway.
10:55:20 PM    comment []  trackback []  

DVD Late Night Theater

I had the night off last night, and so I put the old-time radio on hold for a bit and fired up the trusty DVD player to catch a few classic flicks. You see, I got my copy of Force of Evil (1948) in the mail yesterday, and it’s been so long since I’ve seen it that I just had to sit down and watch it. The print used for the DVD is immaculate, by the way—and though there aren’t any extras with it, you can pick it up for a song for around seven bucks at Deep Discount DVD. (I am not, by the way, affiliated with Deep Discount DVD—although I’m sure judging by the amount of DVDs that I have purchased from them since 2000, I’ve put one or two of their kids through college.)

After that, I got around to watching one of the Rathbone-Bruce Sherlock Holmes movies that I’ve been a little remiss in seeing; MPI has finally released the first two films—both produced in 1939 by 20th Century-Fox—and I chose the sequel to The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. This movie is one of my favorites of the Rathbone series: it’s got a great plot and wonderful support from Ida Lupino (the poor man's Bette Davis) and George Zucco as Moriarty. Holmes fans often debate who was the best of the movie Moriarties—I think Henry Daniell in The Woman in Green (1945) is considered by many to be the best; but although Zucco has the meatier part in Adventures I’ve always thought Lionel Atwill in Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942) was the person who physically looked the most like Moriarty—to my mind, anyway.

Finally, I broke open the Marx Brothers box set and put on A Night at the Opera (1935)—and I had a rather unpleasant revelation. You know how sometimes you’ll watch a movie, proclaim it to be your favorite, and then a few years down the road discover that’s it not quite all it’s cracked up to be? (I had this happen one time with Topper Returns [1941], which I had told everyone was the best of the three Topper movies—and then I viewed it again about a year ago and found out I didn’t know what the hell I was talking about. The only good thing in the movie is Eddie “Rochester” Anderson.) Well, after seeing Night at the Opera I’m beginning to question why I consider it to be the best of the Marx Brothers films. Don’t get me wrong—I love the movie, there are some classic, hilarious bits in it, but Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones’ operatic warbling started to get a little tiring after a while. (Plus, Kitty made off with a pen that belonged to a friend of mine one time, so she’s kind of persona non grata with me.) So, after I finished watching that, I was curious enough to conduct an experiment and I dusted off my copy of Duck Soup (I’ve heard rumors that they’re planning to reissue this and the other Paramount Marx’s since they’ve been out-of-print for a while) and watched that. Duck Soup is definitely better.
12:28:07 PM    comment []  trackback []  

“Oscar, Oscar, Oscar…”

I know I’m a little late with this, but I was definitely saddened by the news that Tony Randall has shuffled off this mortal coil, passing away Monday, May 17, 2004 at the age of 84.

Randall worked a great deal during Radio’s Golden Age, but strangely enough, he was one of the few performers who didn’t look back on his OTR experiences with any particular fondness. He was interviewed by Chuck Schaden in 1970, an exchange which appears in Chuck’s book, Speaking of Radio:

Didn’t think much of radio, no. All the old radio fans who hear me talk about it occasionally—I’m frequently asked about it and I have a good memory and remember it all—think I’m a fan of it, and I despised it. I used to pray I’d get out of it.

Among the shows that Randall appeared on: When a Girl Marries, Portia Faces Life, Perry Mason, Lorenzo Jones and My True Story (a lot of soap-opera work, which Randall describes as “unbelievable writing…really, really beneath contempt”). His best-known radio role is probably that of Britisher Reggie Yorke on Carlton E. Morse’s I Love a Mystery—not the original version from 1939-44, but the revised series broadcast over Mutual Radio from October 3, 1949-December 26, 1952.

Randall, of course, had a phenomenally successful career in movies, particularly in many of the Doris Day-Rock Hudson romps, which are not particularly my cup of tea with the exception of Send Me No Flowers (1964). He also enjoyed great television success, with a starring role alongside Jack Klugman in The Odd Couple (1970-75), a true sitcom classic, and his other television series included Mr. Peepers (1952-55), The Tony Randall Show (1976-78, a very underrated show) and Love, Sidney (1981-83). Dr. Michael Biel had an interesting comment on the Old-Time Radio Digest about this last series; in the TV-movie pilot Sidney Shorr: A Girl’s Best Friend, Randall’s character was unabashedly and openly gay, but when the sitcom was created NBC made a tactical retreat from that position. (Though it should be pointed out that ABC never had that problem; the character of Jodie Dallas—played by Billy Crystal—on Soap was gay.)

R.I.P. Mr. Randall. You will be missed.
1:05:54 AM    comment []  trackback []