Old Time Radio Shows

 Who could be better at celebrating a holiday which is all about fun than Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, the Great Man Himself ? During the program's long run (1941-1957) we got to hear Gildy's “dirty laugh” at quite a few Halloween gatherings. One of our favorites was from 1943. The character of Throckmorton Gildersleeve first appeared on Fibber McGee and Molly October 3, 1939, as a collector who hires McGee to get “Killer” Canova's autograph. Harold Peary had been with Fibber McGee and Molly for many seasons, but the character of Gildy was such a good fit that he became a regular foil for Fibber. It was a pretty even match as to who would get the better of whom, but we were usually treated at least once with the catchphrase “You're a haaaard man McGee!” Fibber McGee and Molly When Kraft Foods began looking for a project to promote Parkay Margarine in 1941, a program centered around Peary's Gildersleeve was ready to go. Moving from Wistful Vista to Summerf...

 "The world's greatest living radio actress.” That is how none other than Orson Welles described radio legend Mercedes McCambridge . The renowned actress earned this high praise by starring in such popular radio shows as The Guiding Light , Pretty Kitty Kelly and Big Sister . Her cross-over success in film and television came from her roles in All the King’s Men , A Farewell to Arms, Bonanza, Bewitched, Charlie’s Angels and a voiceover in The Exorcist. Over the course of her career, she would share the screen with Joan Crawford , Orson Welles , and twice with Elizabeth Taylor . For her work in All the King’s Men, her very first feature film, Ms. McCambridge won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Acting seemed to be Ms. McCambridge ’s destiny from early on. Born Carlotta Mercedes McCambridge in Joliet, Illionis in 1916, she attended Mundelein College on a drama scholarship. Her sophomore year, Mercedes performed in the Verse Speaking Choir, a group of sixteen women who...

--> A counter part to the Smart-Aleck Kid, a staple character in Family Sit-coms, is the Big-Hearted Blue Collar Oaf. Both are interesting characters to build a show around. The SAK is typified by the long time comic page regular, Dennis the Menace, and immortalized on Radio by such favorites as Henry Aldrich , My Son Jeep, and Leroy from The Great Gildersleeve . The modern incarnation of the SAK is Bart Simpson. Fox TV's The Simpsons is unique in that it features the adventures and misadventures of both a SAK and a BHBCO. Fox made a minor splash on Sunday nights beginning in the late 1980s with a pair of BHBCOs, Both Homer Simpson and Al Bundy from Married With Children . Married pays backhanded homage the original BHBCO, Chester A. Riley from Radio's Life Of Riley . While Married With Children often pushed the boundaries of bad taste, Life of Riley was wholesome family fun. Riley was originally intended as a radio vehicle for Groucho Marx (the Riley ...