RADIO - Memories From The Days Before TV
RADIO - Memories From The Days Before TV
Before TV, there was radio. When I was a kid, before we got our first TV set, I listened to radio a lot. There were favourite programs, like The Bob Hope Show, Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Mollie, Burns and Allen, Lux Radio Theatre, L for Lanky, and of course Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday night.
Always fun and entertaining were the comedy hours, for example: Bob Hope (Old Ski-nose) whose comic timing was second to none (never a better host for the Oscars). He did yeoman service entertaining the troops. In 1991 I got into an elevator in the Waldorf Towers and there was Bob Hope. At that time he was a dead ringer for a Madame Tussauds wax model, in fact, maybe it WAS the wax model. Anyway, thanks for the memories, Bob. Listen to some of his programs:
http://www.oldradioworld.com/shows/Bob_Hope.php
Jack Benny and his characters, like Dennis Day, Eddie Rochester Anderson, Mel Blanc, Don Wilson, Mary Livingstone and more listen to his programs from 1932 to 1955 here for you to open and hear:
http://www.dumb.com/oldtimeradio/radio/40/Comedy/Jack_Benny.html
It was always a laugh when Fibber McGee opened the closet door, and Burns and Allen were icons at the time.
Lux Radio Theatre is best described as: The Lux Radio Theatre was a one-of-a-kind OTR show. Imagine the greatest Hollywood stars doing one-hour versions of their biggest motion pictures, complete with full orchestra, live on stage with a studio audience. For a great description of this show click this link:
http://www.otrcat.com/lux-radio-p-1558.html
He shoots he scores . Hockey Night in Canada was Canadas favourite program. On Saturday night nobody was on the streets, they were listening to their radios. Foster Hewitt would broadcast the games. It was said that TV devastated him because he couldnt "make up" the plays as if they were actually happening. However, his voice was the most familiar one in the whole country. Heres Foster:
https://www.historica-dominion.ca/content/heritage-minutes/foster-hewitt
But what I miss the most is a program that was broadcast during WW2. It was called L for Lanky, simulating a crew aboard a Lancaster bomber flying missions over Europe. It may only have been broadcast in Canada. In those days my older brother and I shared a bedroom with a bunk bed, and I was on the upper bunk. It was broadcast at night, and as we listened my brother would be the pilot and I would be the gunner at the top of the plane. We lived out the missions as if we were the crew every Sunday night. I cant find a sound bite for it.
If you were born before TV became common, did you have a favourite radio program? If so, tell us about it, and what you thought of radio as compared to TV.
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There are theories that when a child listens to the radio or reads a book instead of watching TV or movies, that he/she develops a very vivid imagination. It makes sense to me, because little is left for the imagination when one sees actual images.
I would like to call on those of you who are more than 3 score (6 decades, that is) of age to think back and tell us about what was your favourite pre-TV radio program from those days, and why it was your favourite.
Sargent Preston of the Yukon and his dog King. Really had to pull that one from the recesses of my mind.
We would gather around the radio and be spellbound by his and Kings adventures. It helped that we lived in an area that was much like the Yukon. Cold, lightly populated,and we were very familiar with snowshoes, travois and dog sleds.
Actually I liked it better than tv, there is no limit to your imagination, and with radio my imagination would run wild. I don't know how many damsels that King and I saved from the icey water of the Red River.
Thanks for the memories....Oh, here is another one, ''Inner Sanctum''...the creaking door always got me.
Fibber-McGee, Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, remember them all. Also one of the favorites around my house was Amos and Andy. May not be politically correct today, even though we've had Cosby Show, the Jeffersons, and Tyler Perry.
Since I own a radio like that, I figured I would drop by and say nice article even if all I know is "The Shadow"
Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of men...The Shadow knows...
I forgot about The Shadow - absolutely.
Kavika, you left out the end of the quotation:
".......heh heh heh heh heh."
I know that I did Buzz...hehehe, hey where is the poster of Sargent Preston, King and me saving damels????
Hey Buzz, nice to see ya! The old man is just2 weeks short of the dreaded 4 score and 8. Bummer! The first radio that I remember was a Stromberg Carlson crystal radio with 4 headphone. No speaker. KDKA was a pioneer radio station of the day, 1931, and you have to know that there was war in our house with 5 boys and 4 headphones. Back in those days Jack Armstrong the All American Boy was a good one. Jack Benny was doing well too. Rudy Vallee as the Vagabond Lover was big time with the ladies.
Man has this cranked up the old rusty memory cells, thanks.
Don't forget about Bob Hope!
Does anyone remember Ed Wynn, Keenan's Father. Heck of a funny guy. The one andonly Red Skelton?
I loved Red Skelton tsula...and all the great characters that he had...LOL..
Yep and others that I haven't seen mentioned were Fibber Magee and Molly. I pattern my closet today after his infamous one that he never got around to cleaning out!Those were the days when your "mind's eye" had to do all of the work for you. Today it's all blood and guts and the gorier it is the better folks seem to like it. Haven't been to a movie in a long long time. My favorites were the Broadway style musicals. The Road shows with Bing Crosby & Bob Hope were great fun with nary a drop of blood spilled. We have lost an awful lot over the years! One of my all time favorite musicals was Brigadoon.
Come on, tsula - this is from the article above:
You just proved how we old geezers can remember something from 70 or 80 years ago but we can't remember what we ate for breakfast this morning.
Just goes to show ya that speed reading ain't always the way to go too, eh? My short term synapsesare all rusted out because I haven't had the chance to pickle them in alcohol as I did with my long term memory!
If I ever get this system to running right we will really get down and party!!
I'll bring the pickles (if I remember). LOL