Saturday, December 26, 2009

Leonard Smith ( Star of Our Miss Brooks ) located.

Last spring I was interested in contacting Leonard Smith and just could not seem to locate him. I had a few tips but each ended up at a solid dead end. Leonard played Stretch Snodgrass on Our Miss Brooks so I called Gloria McMillan ( who was also a regular on the series ) to see if she had current contact information for Leonard. Unfortunately, she did not. She had been in contact with him in recent years but telephone numbers had been disconnected and she didn't have the new contact information. I figured I would have to accept defeat and call this mission a failure. But as 2009 came to a close and in the spirit of the season, I receive a call from Gloria McMillan on Christmas Eve. Leonard had just called her! It had been many years since they had talked and they had a lot of things to catch up on.
Gloria, informed him that I had been looking for him and also told him about the many radio fans that were still out there and how much fun the old time radio conventions are. I am hoping we can get him to come up to Seattle next June. Gloria has so much enthusiasm that I'm sure Leonard has to be interested. I would love to meet Leonard Smith.


Walden Hughes
Your Esso Reporter

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Stuart Canin the man who started the Benny/ Allen feud

Saturday February 6th at the REPS meeting ( 2-4pm )we will have the pleasure of interviewing Stuart Canin by telephone. Today Stuart is a world class violinist but back in 1936 his appearance on the Fred Allen radio program inspired the long running Benny/ Allen feud. It was during an unscripted 15-minute segment of
Fred Allen's Town Hall Tonight called "The Town Hall Varieties" on December 30, 1936 that a 10 year old Stuart Canin appeared. On his violin he played Shubert's "The Bee" masterfully. Fred Allen commented, "A little fella in the fifth grade at school and already he plays better than Jack Benny." It was enough to inspire Jack to spend much of the first half of January 10, 1937 show panning Fred Allen.
This started a heated comedic feud that would last, more or less, until Allen's death 20 years later. The feud was of course a gag. In reality Jack and Fred always remained each other's friend and admirer. The interview is February 6th. We'll get the audio on the REPS web site shortly thereafter for all to enjoy at The Web Site of the Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound

Walden Hughes

Lost Radio Treasures coming out of the woodwork

Hi folks,
More lost radio treasures coming out of the woodwork....and wonderful High Quality audio MP3s at that!
I'm listening to the Bing Crosby Christmas show from 1952 and it's absolutely delicious! There's also the Philco Radio Christmas show from 1946, a rare episode of Hour of Charm from Christmas Eve 1945 and also two episodes of the Hardy Family from 1952.

There's also a program most of us probably already have, the Lux Radio Theater adaptation of Miracle on 34th Street, which sounds great too.

I'll send more links to more shows in a few days, including a WWII era Fibber McGee and Molly show that was considered lost until a few months ago. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy Listening :-)
Bryan Hendrickson

http://www.mediafire.com/?ph6ukqoslkwjn#myfiles