The Old Time Radio Club Established 1975 Number 338 March 2006 ARTHUR GODFREY The Illustrated Press Membership Information Club Officers and Librarians Club Membership: $18.00 per year from January 1 President to December 31. Members receive a tape library list­ Jerry Collins (716) 683-6199 ing, reference library listing and the monthly 56 Christen C1. newsletter. Memberships are as follows: If you join Lancaster, NY 14086 January-March, $18.00; April-June, $14; July­ [email protected] September, $10; October-December, $7. All renewals should be sent in as soon as possible to Vice President & Canadian Branch avoid missing newsletter issues. Please be sure to Richard Simpson (905) 892-4688 notify us if you have a change of address. The Old 960 16 Road R.R. 3 Time Radio Club meets on the first Monday of the Fenwick, Ontario month at 7:30 PM during the months of September Canada, LOS 1CO through June at S1. Aloysius School Hall, Cleveland Drive and Century Road, Cheektowaga, I\JY. There Treasurer, Videos & Records is no meeting during the month of July, and an Dominic Parisi (716) 884-2004 informal meeting is held in August at the same 38 Ardmore PI. address. Buffalo, NY 14213 Anyone interested in the Golden Age of Radio is Membership Renewals, Change of Address welcome. The Old Time Radio Club is affiliated with Peter Bellanca (716) 773-2485 the Old Time Radio Network. 1620 Ferry Road Grand Island, NY 14072 Club Mailing Address [email protected] Old Time Radio Club 56 Christen Ct. Membership Inquires and OTR Lancaster, NY 14086 Network Related Items E-Mail Address: Richard Olday (716) 684-1604 [email protected] 171 Parwood Trail Depew, NY 14043-1071 All Submissions are subject to approval [email protected] prior to actual publication. Libraries Deadline for The Illustrated Press is the 1st of each month prior to publlcatlon. Cassettes and Reference Libraries Frank Bork (716) 835-8362 The Illustrated Press is the newsletter of the Old 209 Cleveland Drive Time Radio Club, headquartered in Western New Cheektowaga, NY 14215 York State. It is published monthly except for the [email protected] months of July and August. Contents except where noted are copyright © 2006 by the OTRC. Video and Record Libraries Dominic Parisi (716) 884-2004 Send all articles, letters, exchange newsletters, 38 Ardmore PI. etc. to: The Illustrated Press Buffalo, NY 14213 c/o Ken Krug, Editor (716) 684-5290 49 Regal Street Library Rates: Audio cassettes are $1.95 each and Depew, New York 14043 are recorded on a club supplied cassette which is E-Mail address:[email protected] retained by the member; video cassettes are $1.85 per month; records are $.85 per month. Rates Web Page Address: include postage and handling and are payable in members.localnet.com/ .... robmcd U.S. funds. 'The Illustrated CPress ~jorie- 3. Abbott & Costello Christiansen 2<ing The funnymen starred on stage, in films and on TV for 7k Songs ~ Sings three decades. 4. Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis From Nightclubs to films, they slayed us for 10 years, Reviewed by "IERRY COLLINS until 1956. Marjorie Christiansen King studied music at Drake 5. George Burns & Gracie Allen University while at the same time holding down a job as Married 38 years, they conquered stage, radio and TV. a studio musician and soloist at WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa. Upon graduation she sang with the quar­ tet known as the "Songfellows." The group sang on a You also loved... daily basis on WHO and at the Iowa Barn Dance. King and three other women also formed the "Chevrolet The top write-in Chorus." votes went to: In 1944 Marjorie won the Phil Spitalny local contest. 1. Jackie Gleason She and the other twelve finalists performed on the & Art Carney Hour of Charm in New York City. 2. Doris Day & In 1952 King moved to Cedar Rapids where she per­ Rock Hudson formed on WMT radio until the mid 1950s when live studio broadcasts came to an end. Choice chuckles: Stan Laurel (r) and Oliver Hardy. James King, the son of Marjorie Christiansen King, spent years compiling the music performed by his moth­ er on WHO from 1945-1952. The two-CD set includes 31 songs and a very informative booklet that includes an excellent biography of Ms. King and two excellent pho­ Whatever tographs of the "Songfellows" and the "Chevrolet Chorus." Happened Copies of the two CD sets are available for $20.00 from to Randolph James King 3330 Principia Ave., St. Charles, Missouri 63301. Scott? by Tom Cherre Parade Readers Respond: In conclusion to my Who Is The Best three - part saga on All-Time Comedy Team? Westerns, I'd like to end it by touching on one of the finest cowboys of the glory years. This silver haired hero In their Oct. 23 issue Parade asked their readers to tell had a booming and hearty laugh. He avoided fisticuffs who they thought was the most dynamic comedy duo when apprehending the villains. He ranked just a little ever. Nearly 7,000 of you replied. Here are your below Gene Autry and Roy Rogers in popularity. Of favorites: course you know who I'm talking about. It's Hopalong Cassidy superbly played by William Boyd. 1. Laurel & Hardy The slapstick comedy team made films from the 1920s My first recollection of Hoppy came when I was just a until 1950. little shaver in the early 1950s. We didn't have a TV at the time and one of my rich friends, no, it wasn't Frank 2. Lucille Ball & Desi Arnez Bork, asked me if I wanted to watch his television. So for Married in real life their show I Love Lucy ruled TV in the very first time I feasted my eyes on Hopalong the 1950s. Cassidy. Clarence Mulford, the creator of the fictional- Illustrated (j>ress 3 The Illustrated Press ized Hopalong .---""""'=------------, Jimmy Ellison and Russ Hayden as Johnny Nelson and Cassidy character Lucky Jenkins who would get all the romancing. Gabby described him as a Hayes as Windy Hallidy and later Andy Clyde as red- headed musta­ California Carlson would provide the comic relief. chioed hard drinking varmint. Boyd Boyd all but retired from show business in 1953. changed that role Ironically Cecil B. DeMille who gave him his first movie into a grey haired role used him again for a cameo in his last role in the easy going fatherly movie "The Greatest Show On Earth". type of cowpoke. Boyd was born in In the late sixties Boyd endured poor health suffering 1895 and was at one from cancer and Parkinson's disease. He refused to do time a matinee idol interviews not wanting the public to see how he had in the 1920s making deteriorated. Before his death William Boyd said he tried many movies for to avoid the stupid type of cowhand and speak intelli­ Cecil B. DeMille and gently. I wanted to be the kids' uncle or the wife's broth­ other top producers. er. Hoppy was supposed to be part philosopher, part doc­ William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy tor and part minister. He was everything. And to that His luck turned sour in the early thirties, and was little kid over 50 years ago he was just about everything. revived to be a lot sweeter when he began starring in the Hopalong Cassidy aka William Boyd passed away at the Cassidy series. Although he was past Jack Benny's age age of 72 on September 12, 1972. when he made the first Hopalong movie in 1935 entitled "Hopa-Long Cassidy" he went on to make 66 of them up to 1948. Artllur Godfrey and Unlike Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, he could not sing.He couldn't ride a horse either. In his first movie he fell off Julius LaRosa, 1953 of Topper and broke his leg. He learned to ride well by Peter Bellanca enough to stay on his mount, but could never do jump­ offs or take on desperados falling over tables and chairs. In 1950 Time Magazine asked Arthur Godfrey his three He usually left the fighting to his younger sidekicks. most important attributes. He replied honesty, interest and humility. One of those words would come back to Like Autry and Rogers he was involved in movies, radio, haunt him for the rest of his life. and TV. His vast merchandising of over 2500 licensed Hopalong Cassidy items including cameras, mugs, Arthur Godfrey was a folksy, homespun talk variety clocks, shirts, hats, pens, waste baskets, etc. reaped mil­ show host and a CBS morning radio and television fix­ lions. On his Bar 20 radio show which ran on the Mutual ture for twenty-seven years. He began his radio career in Network for three years and 104 episodes he was a 1929 as "Red Godfrey, the Warbling Banjoist:"at Station spokesman for cereals, puddings, milk, and breads. A WFBR in Baltimore, Maryland at five dollars per show. shrewd businessman, he owned the rights for all his He performed on three fifteen minute shows per week. movies and made another fortune selling them to TV. In 1930 he moved to WRC, in Washington, D.C. a NBC Autry and Rogers might have surpassed him in wealth network station as a staff announcer. NBC fired him in eventually, but he was the first to be a multi-millionaire. 1934 for ad-libbing on the air and not sticking to the pre­ pared scripts. He then joined CBS as a staff announcer Not very fond of children he made a near fatal costly and host.