NBC Eyewitness: The Story of Television - from1948, when there were abou...

Notes by Bill Russo From February 26, 1948. Ben Grauer hosts a show explaining the 'miracle' of television. It's live TV and it was a learn-as-you-go experience for the TV staff as well as the few thousand viewers who had a tiny 8 or10 inch receiver. Grauer, a longtime radio man, looks uncomfortable and flubs a few lines in his introduction and that's something he rarely did in his radio work. The sound goes off at one point. There's some great history in the broadcast though and also a few 'live' sketches including one with a character who sounds like Regis Philbin and another with a German scientist who has trouble with his lines. There were no cue cards or teleprompters back then.

Suddenly - Frank Sinatra's award-winning follow-up performance to From H...

Crooner and Bobby-sox singer from the 1940s Frank Sinatra, grew up in the 1950s, and became the talk of Hollywood for his Academy Award portrayal of a doomed WW-2 G.I. named Maggio, in From Here to Eternity. Many insiders considered him a one-hit-wonder, but his brilliant portrayal of a maniacal presidential assassin in "Suddenly" won high praise from the critics and from audiences around the world.

Also appearing in the film is Paul Frees in a rare screen appearance. Owner of a four-octave vocal range, Frees was better known for voicing hundreds of cartoon characters including Boris Badenov in Rocky and Bullwinkle, and dozens more for Walt Disney and several other major studios.

He Walked by Night, as shown on TCM, Noir Alley with Eddie Muller - it's...

He Walked by Night, as shown on TCM, Noir Alley with Eddie Muller - it's a Cop 'n Caper, Film Noir.

Notes by Bill Russo Starring Richard Basehart and Scott Brady, with an appearance by Jack Webb, you could say that this 1948 Noir film is the "Daddy" of the long running Radio and TV program, Dragnet. While the film was in production, Jack Webb became pals with the police technical advisor, Sgt. Marty Wynn. Based on his talks with the Detective Sergeant, Webb developed "Dragnet" and brought it to network radio in 1949. It ran on NBC radio until the end of dramatic radio in 1957. Two years after its radio debut, Webb took the show to TV where it lasted in one form or another until 1970. The plot of 'He Walked by Night" unfolds as a semi-documentary based on newspaper accounts of the real-life Ervin 'Machine-Gun' Walker. He was a one-time police department employee and W. W. Two vet who ran amuck while blasting through a string of stick-ups, burglaries, heists and shootouts in L A between 1945 and 1946.

by Bill Russo

From W S J R, at the top of the United States, I played the hits of the day back in the very early 1960s. One day, a rumpled man showed up and said he was the new General Manager, though in truth he looked like he had just walked unsteadily out of The Downtown Tap on Main Street in Hyannis. Long story short - he did not last more than two or three months at WSJR - but somehow he ended up going to England and becoming a close friend of all of the Beatles while being the top Dee-Jay on Radio London, one of the legendary pirate radio stations broadcasting from the ocean just offshore. He changed his name to Chuck Blair. When a group of English music fans tried to find his real identity, I provided the information. You can read the story by clicking.. http://radiolondon.co.uk/jocks/chuck/wsjr.html

1 Comment

Like

Comment

Share

 

 Who's That Lady?

Long forgotten, she is Betty Field. Born in Boston in 1916, she appeared on the Broadway stage in many productions from the 1930s to the 1970s. 

In film, she was the only female in the cast of 1939's Of Mice and Men.  Betty starred in dozens of films including The Great Gatsby and Butterfield 8.  

On TV she was seen in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Doctor Kildare, and many others.  

On Network Radio during the golden age, she played the part of Mary Aldrich on The Aldrich Family, a sit-com, which ran on CBS and later on NBC from 1939 right up until the end of dramatic radio in 1952.

She passed away in Hyannis on Cape Cod in 1973.

 

Momentum is building for the EWES movement which aims to change the number of days in the week to six, spread over 61 weeks. Gable Stone of Leftover Main Street in Hyannis, in the State of Cape Cod, President of the National Chapter of EWES, announced that a petition drive will soon launch directing all calendar makers to name the new days of the week Tuesday thru Sunday. Mondays will be gone forever. We will have 60 weeks of six days and one week of five days. Every fourth year, we will have 61 equal weeks of six days! Further info coming. 

Welcome to the World of the Paranormal - A Quick Trip Through Some Stran...

Welcome to the World of the Paranormal

Notes by Bill Russo I believe that there are two levels of the Paranormal. The major events are rare and observed by a small segment of the population. I'm speaking about UFO sightings, ghostly encounters and such. I also believe that the second type of Paranormal events, the minor ones, are fairly common - but not always recognized. Sometimes those odd noises you hear at night are not rusty pipes, or clanky heating units. Sometimes when we wake up at the midpoint between dark and dawn, we may be inclined to think we have heard something extraordinary, but in the light of morning we rationalize it and consider it no more than the creakings of old wood, or a knock in the water pipes. Sometimes that is what it is...... but sometimes it is not! Welcome to the World of the Paranormal my friend!