Fanny Brice was one of the greatest singer/comics on Broadway.
She had to reinvent herself as Baby Snooks in order to find radio stardom.
This is that Journey.
Songs Include:
My Man
Second Hand Rose
I was a Flora Dora Baby
Judy Garland was born Frances Gumm in 1922, and soon revealed a talent for song and dance. Her first public performance was when she was just 2 and a half years old, singing jingle bells at a Christmas pageant.
Her father was a successful vaudevillian with Judy and her sisters following in his footsteps, touring a singing act “The Gumm Sisters” in the waning days of Vaudeville.
When sound came to movies, so did song and dance acts like the Gumm sisters. The act moved to the big screen in early Vitaphone musical revues with seven year old Judy sometimes billed as Baby Gumm.
Fast forward to 1938, now 16 years old and being groomed for film stardom recently starring with Mickey Rooney in the very popular “Love Finds Andy Hardy “.
Judy, as a rule, did not appear on radio. She was too busy and important for that.
Except for The Good News program, which was created by Judy’s film studio MGM to feature MGM stars, movies, songs, and to convince their listeners to see MGM films in the theater.
As one of MGM’s newest stars, Judy dutifully appeared on a handful of the Good News programs in 1938 as their musical guests.
This collection of songs is from those appearances, 16 year old Judy Garland and her magnificent voice performing live 1n 1938. You are in for a treat.
“College Swing”
“Crying for the Caroline”
“Could you Pass on Love” with the cast
“You’re in God’s Country”
“How Deep is the Ocean”
“Why! Because!” with Fanny Brice as Snooks
“Heal thy Heart to me”
“Zing went the Strings of my Heart”
“The Bumpy Road to Love” with the cast
Its time again to celebrate the holiday season and all it stands for with a Christmas stocking full old time radio yuletide magic.
This very special episode stars Phil Harris, Bing Crosby, Alice Faye, Jack Benny, Mary Livingston, Don Wilson, Kenny Baker, Joan Bennett, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Rudy Vallee, Andy Devine, and many other makers of Christmas magic
And magic it is. The magic of celebrating Christmas with old friends from 1938. The magic of our imagination. The magic of the golden age of radio. The magic of Santa Claus. The magic of the Jesus story. The magic of the subtle changes within ourselves, all of a sudden thinking and acting more like santa than scrooge. At least for a little while.
Bie Mir Bist du Shön – The Andrew Sisters created a Craze for this Catchy Song
This song shot up the charts, appearing in the top ten on January 8 1938, going to number one two weeks later and staying in the top spot from 5 to 10 weeks, depending on your source.
And it went international before that was really a thing, becoming a massive hit in Germany and Poland as well as the United States.
Dozens of established recording artists, Like Kate Smith and Benny Goodman, rushed to record their own version of the song.
This incredible popularity made singers on the Radio of every style cover the song , and that is what you are going to hear, Radio greats interpreting this song each in their own style and bringing something new to it each time.
You are about to hear “Bie Mir Bist du Shön” performed by The Andrew Sisters, Pinky Tomlin, Phil Harris, Georgie Jessel, Eddie Cantor, Little Dorothy Wade, Kenny Baker, and child star Bobby Breen.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast December 14 to December 30, 1937.
Halloween approaches – the night when the boundaries between the living and the dead, reality and imagination dissolve. Evil witches mount flying brooms. Brain starved Zombies, restless spirits, supernatural spooks, savage monsters and all forms of malevolent miscreants shamble across the earth creating terror among the hapless and tasty human populace.
Above all, Halloween is the best time for scary stories. In that tradition welcome to When Radio Ruled episode 56, Spooky Halloween Special 2022.
The show is going to give you a couple of spine tinglers to get you in the spooky Halloween frame of mind. The first one is entitled “Til Dead” and was originally broadcast February 2, 1943. It is a great example of the Suspense Genre that was so successful throughout the era of old time radio.
The second story is called “The Hitchhiker” and stars Orson Welles. It’s a classic supernatural tale, full of tension and mystery. It was performed by Welles multiple times over the years by popular demand, this performance was broadcast September 2, 1942.
So hang the garlic in the door to keep away the vampires, put a crucifix in your pocket just in case, lock the doors and windows, shut out the lights and brace yourself for When Radio Ruled Spooky Halloween Special 2022.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast November 29 to December 12, 1937.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast November 8 to November 28, 1938.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast October 18 to November 7, 1937.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast October 11 to October 18, 1937.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast September 5 to October 10, 1937.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast August 29 to September 5, 1937.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast August 22 to August 27, 1937.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast August 8 to August 15, 1937.
Featured Songs include Pinky Tomlin “Cowboy Medley” and “Seven Stages of Man”, Benny Goodman “Remember”, Eve Sully “Swing, Benny, Swing”.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast July 11 to August 8, 1937.
Click Here to Listen to Soundscape 1937 #13
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast June 21 to July 11, 1937.
Starring Cecil B. DeMille, Don Wilson, Phil Harris, Jack Benny, Mary Livingston, Jimmy Wallington, Pinky Tomlin, Don Ameche, Charlie McCarthy, Edgar Bergen, Sonya Hennie, W.C. Fields, Dorothy Lamour, Robert Armbruster, Zasu Pitts, Hoagy Carmichael, and more.
Featured Songs include Mary Livingston with the cast of the Jack Benny Show “The Love Bug”, Pinky Tomlin “As Far As Your Concerned”, The cast of the Charlie McCarthy Show with Hoagy Carmichael, “I love you like my old felt hat”
Eddie was a multi-talented entertainer who was a huge star in vaudeville, and on broadway, and in silent film, and in radio, and in talking pictures, and in television.
Eddie Cantor is a true show biz Legend with a vast body of work spanning decades.
But this podcast is going to focus on Eddie Cantor the singer of songs old and new as recorded live on the Eddie Cantor radio show in 1937.
Eddie’s musical recording career began in 1917 and he had several hit songs throughout the 1920’s.
When these songs were recorded live on his radio show in 1937, Eddie Cantor was still a very popular singer, selling out concerts and charting records in addition to being at the very top of the radio ratings.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast June 13 to June 20, 1937.
Starring Pinky Tomlin, Don Ameche, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Dorothy Lamour, W.C. Fields, Joan Blondell, Rogers & Hart, Jack Benny, Don Wilson, Kenny Baker, Phil Harris, Cecil B. DeMille, Helen Wills Moody, Fibber McGee and Molly, Rudy Vallee, Fanny Brice, Charles Winninger, May Robson, and more.
Featured Songs include Pinky Tomlin “Ragtime Cowboy Joe Medley”, Don Ameche “A little of you on toast:” Rudy Vallee “We danced the night away”
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast May 31 to June 11, 1937.
Starring Fibber McGee and Molly, the Cast of Texaco Town, Pinky Tomlin, Don Wilson, Jack Benny, Rochester, Kenny Baker, Mary Livingston, Phil Harris, Don Ameche, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Dorothy Lamour, W.C. Fields, Constance Bennett, Ray Middleton, Natalie Bucknell, Cecil B. Demille, Errol Flynn, Frances Farmer, Chico Marx, Groucho Marx, and more.
Featured Songs include Pinky Tomlin “Tetched in the Head”, and Dorothy Lamour, Charlie McCarthy and Don Ameche with a Gilbert and Sullivan Medley.
Click Here to Listen to Soundscape 1937 part 11 from When Radio Ruled
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast May 23 to May 30, 1937.
Starring Don Ameche, Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Dorothy Lamour, Mary Boland, W. C. Fields, Fibber McGee and Molly, Cecil B. DeMille, Louis Vandenecker, Bing Crosy, Zasu Pitts, Bob Burns, Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Wallington, Jack Benny, Kenny Baker, Mary Livingston, The Phil Harris Orchestra, Don Wilson, Josephine Hutchinson, Jose Iturbi, and more.
Featured Songs include Dorothy Lamour and Charlie McCarthy “Let’s call the whole thing off”, Bing Crosby “How Could You?” and “Time on my hands”
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast May 9 to May 23, 1937.
Starring Don Ameche, Warner Janssen, Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Dorothy Lamour, W.C. Fields, Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Wallington, Fibber McGee and Molly, Cecil B. DeMille, Rudy Vallee, J.B. Priestly, Kenny Baker, Jack Benny, Andy Devine, Don Wilson, Carole Lombard, Mrs. James Roosevelt (FDR’s Mother), Maurice Evans, Kate Smith, Phil Harris, and more.
Featured Songs include Eddie Cantor “How You Gonna Keep ‘em Down on the Farm after they’ve seen Paree?” , “Margee”, “Wake up and Live”. Kenny Baker and Jack Benny “Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter.” Rudy Vallee “My Little Buckaroo”, Kate Smith “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”, Phil Harris “Nobody”,
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast April 30 to May 6, 1937.
Starring Fred MacMurray, Gracie Fields, Louella Parsons, Don Wilson, Jack Benny, Phil Harris, Mary Livingston, Andy Devine, The Hindenburg Disaster, Herbert Morrison, The Lord Mayor of London, Rudy Vallee, and more.
Featured Songs include Gracie Fields “I Never Cried so Much in Me Life”. And Mary Livingston with Andy Devine “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast April 11 to April 29, 1937.
Starring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Eddie Cantor, Ella Logan, Ted Weems and his Orchestra, Harlow Wilcox, Fibber McGee and Molly, Rudy Vallee, Pinky Tomlin, Judy Starr, Alice Marble, Johnny Burke and Russ Brown, and more.
Featured Songs include Ella Logan “You take the high road”, Rudy Vallee “Good bye boys”, Pinky Tomlin “The Love Bug”, Judy Starr “I’ve got my love to keep you warm”.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast March 11 to March 28, 1937.
Starring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Wallington, Ben Bernie, Fibber McGee and Molly, Duke Ellington, Harlow Wilcox, Albert Sullivan, Rudy Vallee, and more.
Featured Songs include Eddie Cantor “There is anything that love can’t do” and “I’m on a sit down strike for love”, Some Great Duke Ellington tune with Ivey Anderson on vocals.
Judy Starr “Swing Swing your mother in law”. Rudy Vallee “This Year’s income taxes medley” and “Mr. Paganini”.
Click Here to Listen to When Radio Ruled – Soundscapes 1937 part 6
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast February 21 to March 8, 1937.
Starring Father Coughlin, Douglas Fairbanks, Erroll Flynn, Rudy Vallee, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Wallington, Bobby Breen, and more.
Featured Songs include Rudy Vallee “Let’s Go Slumming” and “Here in the Moonlight”. And Bobby Breen “Trust in Me”.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast February 1 to February 21, 1937.
Starring Gary Cooper, The Cast of the Lux Radio Theater, Cecille B. Demille , Faye Gillis, Kay Kyser Orchestra, Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Wallington, Rufus Le Maire, Gene Raymond, Anna Sten, Father Coughlin, Leslie Howard, Rudy Vallee, and more.
Featured Songs include Kay Kyser “Hey Hey Your Cares Away” and “I don’t want to get well”. Eddie Cantor “Gee but you’re swell”, “That’s the Baby for me” and “My dream of the Radio”. Rudy Vallee, “Social Security Song” and “You’ll love me someday”
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast January 17 to January 31, 1937.
Starring Don Wilson, Jack Benny, Andy Devine, Mary Livinston, Buck Jones, The Cast of The March of Time, Cecile B DeMille, Rudy Vallee, Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, The Charioteers, Phil Harris, Eddie Cantor, Basil O’Connor, Jimmy Wallington, Charlie Butterfield, Irving Berlin, and more.
This one is a short subject, about 15 minutes long, starring Jim Jordan as Fibber McGee as in Fibber McGee and Molly.
Classic Fibber and Molly episodes featured jokes, gags, and situations that often repeated from episode to episode and became running gags that listeners looked forward to each week.
One of my favorite running gag is because Fibber can ever admit ignorance on any subject, When invariably asked if he knows anything about this or that occupation, Fibber not only knows all about it, he used to do it professionally and was the best ever at it.
And he bragged about his professional success using alliteration to great comic effect.
You’ll see what I mean.
Here, just because why not, is Fibber’s resume, 1937
1937 part 2 of The Soundscape Series, episode 31 of “When Radio Ruled. “
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows performed live and broadcast January 10 to January 17, 1937.
Starring Eddie Cantor, Jack Benny, Don Wilson, Phil Harris, Mary Livinston, Andy Devine, David Niven, Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray,
Cecile B. DeMille, Rudy Vallee, Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Pat O’Brien, Pinky Tomlin, and more.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows broadcast January 1 to January 6, 1937.
Starring Eddie Cantor, Cecil B. DeMille, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Jack Benny, Phil Harris, Mary Livinston, Kenny Baker, Don Wilson, Al Jolson, Harry Von Zell, Jimmy Wallington, Edith Head, opening day of the 75th Congress of the United states, Tony Martin, Dinah Shore,
Click Here to Listen to the Podcast!
and more.
Our Annual Christmas Old Time Radio Special!
Featuring:
Charlie McCarthy
Edgar Bergen
Bob Hope
Bing Crosby
Jack Benny
Dinah Shore
Frances Langford
And More!
Guest Starring, all the way from 1937 Are:
Janet Gaynor
George Burns and Gracie Allen
President Franklin Roosevelt
Fibber McGee and Molly
Eddie Cantor
Jimmy Wallington
Cecil B DeMille
Fay Gillis
Rudy Vallee
Sully and Block
Benny Goodman
Irving Berlin
Helen Wills Moody
Ronald Coleman
Douglas Fairbanks
Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy
The Cast of Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”
Glenda Ferrell
Bette Davis
Don Ameche
Mae West
Fred Allen
Jack Benny
Don Wilson
Mary Livingston
Phil Harris
Kenny Baker
Portland Hoffa
Duke Ellington
Featured Songs from 1937 Included:
Gracie Allen “I Love You from Coast to Coast” performed live December 23, 1937
“Swing, Benny, Swing” Sully and Block Live August 10, 1937
“I’m on a Sit Down Strike” Eddie Cantor March 28, 1937
“Let’s Go Slumming” Eddie Cantor Live October 13, 1937
“The Trouble with Me is You” Eddie Cantor Live January 1, 1937
“Down with Love” Rudy Vallee Live December 23, 1937
“Getting Some Fun Out of Life” Eddie Cantor live November 10 1937
“The Lady Who Couldn’t be Kissed” Pinky Tomlin Live November 24, 1937.
Peace at all Costs
Those Germans and Russians and Japanese and Italians and Spanish keep killing people.
Featuring:
Jack Benny and The Cast of “The Jack Benny Jello Show”
The Phil Harris Orchestra
The Cast of Lux Radio Theater Production of “The Gilded Lily”
The Cast of the March of Time
President Franklin Roosevelt
Eddie Cantor and the cast of Texaco Town
The Cast of Fibber McGee and Molly
Father Coughlin
Pinky Tomlin
Winston Churchill
Refugees from the Sino-Japanese War
Rudy Vallee
Dinah Shore
Marlena Dietrich
Orson Welles, Agnes Morehead and the cast of THE SHADOW
Featured Songs from 1937 Include:
Eddie Cantor “Things Look Rosy Now” performed live January 10, 1937
“The Social Security Song” Rudy Vallee live February 18, 1937
“You Can’t Take It With You” Eddie Cantor Live January 31, 1937
“Down By The River” Dinah Shore Live January 3, 1937
“Keep it Over There” Eddie Cantor Live October 13, 1937
“The Trouble with Me is You” Eddie Cantor Live January 17, 1937
“The Object of My Affection” Pinky Tomlin Live January 17, 1937
Marlena Dietrich singing “Lilli Marlene” Recorded, 1937
Kay Kaiser’s Orchestra doing “I don’t want to get well” live from Chicago, February 1937
It sure has been a strange year – we could all use a dose of Traditional Christmas. And here it is!
Two Great Episodes from 1939!
Jack Benny’s Christmas Open House
A Christmas Carol (starring Lionel Barrymore)
Featuring: Jack Benny, Rochester, Dennis Day, Mary Livingston, Phil Harris and his Orchestra, Orson Welles, Lionel Barrymore, Benny Goodman, Bing Crosby, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Pat Brady, and more!
All about the very first play performed in Britain’s American Colonies, 1665. America was never the same afterwards.
SONG LIST:
The year that Edgar Bergen broke it big, and Charlie McCarthy became his own man.
Featuring W.C. Fields, Don Ameche, Bette Davis, Dorothy Lamour and more!
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE – AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM US TO YOU
Excerpts from Old Time Radio originally broadcast October 4 to November 11, 1936.
Lots of Eddie Cantor, if you like that sort of thing. Who doesn’t?
Also featuring James Wallington, Cecile B. Demille, Carl Hubbell, Lou Gerhig, Joe E. Brown, Fred Allen, Harry Ranzel, Jack Renard, George Burns, Gracie Allen, and more.
These Soundscapes are a result of the research phase of the When Radio Ruled Historical Documentary series.
A Montage of Old Time Radio Excerpts originally broadcast from August 24 to October 3, 1936.
Starring Cecil B. DeMille, The cast of the Major Bowes Amateur Hour, The cast of the Jello Summer Show, Eddie Cantor, Irene Ryan, Walt Disney, The 1936 New York Giants, Mickey Mouse, The 1936 New York Yankees, Donald Duck, the 1936 Chicago Cubs, Stoopnagle and Budd, the 1936 Chicago White Sox, President Roosevelt, and more.
Old Time Radio at its funniest, and most sentimental.
Franklin Roosevelt
Rudy Vallee
Bob Hope
Amos ‘n Andy
Nick Carter, Master Detective
Duffy’s Tavern
Bing Crosby
Merry Christmas to you and the people you love, from me and from this group of great entertainers.
Merry Christmas from When Radio Ruled – Christmas Special 2018
This Podcast is a montage of excerpts from Old Time Radio originally broadcast May 27 to August 19, 1936.Featuring: Your Hit Parade, Fred Allen, Dick Powell, Myrna Loy, Al Jolson, Stoopnagle and Budd, the 1936 Democratic Convention, Cecil B. DeMille, D.W Griffith, The Joe Louis/Jack Sharkey Fight, Lionel Barrymore, Jessie Owens, Amos ‘n Andy, Walter Houston, and more.
This episode spans March 4 to May 27 1936.
We are lucky that Soundscape #5 is featuring Fred Allen.
Fred was a legendary wit, his improvisational style and warmth made him a favorite in Vaudeville, on the radio and later on television.
His partner in show biz and real life, Portland Hoffa, was one of the most popular Dumb Dora character actors of her era, second only to the great Gracie Allen.
The depression continues but America makes the best of it! FDR, Fred Allen, Gracie Allen, Rudy Vallee, FDR, Helen Keller.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows broadcast from August 28 to December 31 1935. Featuring stars like Al Jolson, Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Little Orphan Annie, Jack Benny, Porky Pig and dozens more.
This Soundscape Montage was developed as part of The When Radio Ruled Documentary about the year 1935. These excerpts are offered without commentary for your entertainment and education.
So here are the voices of 1935 – Voices sadly now silenced – Great performers alive again because you’re listening now.
This podcast is a montage of excerpts from old time radio shows broadcast in 1935, Spanning from January 1 to August 27 1935. Featuring stars like Jack Benny, Lum ‘n Abner, Benny Goodman and his Orchestra, Ed Wynn, Bing Crosby, Will Rogers, Al Jolson, Franklin Roosevelt, Senator Huey P. Long and dozens more.
This Soundscape Montage was developed as part of The When Radio Ruled Documentary about the year 1935. These excerpts are offered without commentary for your entertainment and education.
So here are the voices of 1935 – Voices now silenced – Great performers alive again because you’re listening now.
Excerpts from Radio Shows Broadcast in 1934, music recorded in 1934, newsreel soundtracks of 1934. Presented without commentary
The Fleischmann’s Yeast Hour – Rudy Vallee – Franklin Roosevelt – The March of Time -The Hour of Smiles – Fred Allen – The Jack Benny Program – Milton Berle – George Burns – Gracie Allen – Portland Hoffa – Mary Livingston – And More!
Episode 2 features the years 1930 and 1931 when Radio began to be a part of the everyday lives of Americans, and brought some comfort into homes dealing with a great economic crisis.
When Radio Ruled episode #2 – 1930&1931
Episode #1 – Beginnings to 1929
Old Time Radio came into millions of homes bringing entertainment, news, music, and comedy. Old Time Radio also brought the United States together during two of the greatest threats it ever faced; the depression and World War 2.
This podcast examines how entertainment, radio and America grew and changed during those pivotal years.
Before TV 