Way Back When

 The oldest of the 5 blogs. The early ones, essays with photos were pretty good. Later ones not so great.

Nothing since 2019?

That can't be right.  The great ones since then must still be in the rear end of my head, waiting to bust out. I hope they don't all do it at the same time. 

DANGEROUS DEEJAY DAYS

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 I was a radio deejay for almost 50 years. Here I go again, talking about radio. Before I got into radio at age 20, I grew up listening to shows like “Mr. District Attorney.” It ran for 14 years, starting in 1939. The comic book didn’t come along until 1948. There were a couple of movie versions and it was also on TV. But it all began on radio.

 Walter Winchell invented the term Disc Jockey in 1935. You never heard of him? You are so young. Walter Winchell was a wildly popular and influential newspaper and radio news commentator and gossip columnist from the ‘30s into the ‘50s. His gossip about the stars got him punched by Al Jolson for something he wrote about Jolson’s wife, Ruby Keeler. Like lots of other radio stars, some later becoming famous in movies and TV, he had been a vaudeville performer. He knew how to give an audience what it wanted. If you are superannuated like me, you can still hear his unmistakable voice and shotgun delivery opening the show. “Good Evening Mr. and Mrs. North America and all the ships at sea. Let’s go to press!”

If you have the good fortune to own that issue of the Mr. District Attorney comic book, please tell me about the sinister gangland disc jockey. How sinister was he? How did they catch him? Any chance he got shot by a jealous husband? That happened at a station where I worked. Oh, the radio stories I could tell. But they must wait until my generation of record spinners has gone to that radio station in the sky._________________________________________________________________

BIG FAMOUS RADIO STARS

Formerly famous Muskegon Radio Stars. I will post the names soon. At my age, it takes a while to find things.

2007

132 posts in 2007. I must go back and find out what I was so fired up about.  I really like some of those  early posts. A labor of love.

New time old time.

Theater groups are producing live shows in old time radio style.  Interesting. It's OK if they want to update for today's audience but I especially like those who have really studied the old shows and produced an authentic re-creation. 

Classic Fibber McGee

Don Quinn, who wrote the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show, came up with some lines that have become classics.  "Don't open the hall closet,"  as everything tumbles out of it. And "Hello? Oh is that your Myrt " as Fibber asks the operator how's every little thing.  "Tain't funny, McGee" from Molly when fibber does a dumb joke.  "That an't the way I heeerd it" from the "Old timer" character, played by Bill Thompson.  He was also Wallace Wimple who spoke of "My big old wife, Sweety Face."

Paladin's gun. Did he have a horse?

Paladin (Have gun will travel) is one of the radio shows I never watched when it went on TV. Was he some kind of cowboy on TV?  No like that at all on radio.  I listened to an episode last night that had lots of Chinese dialect that wouldn't fly at all today.  Good radio though