Breaking Walls

On April 9th, 1948 actress Shirley Booth recorded an audition for a new show to be entitled, Our Miss Brooks. Booth turned the part down, feeling that the script wasn't funny enough.

When the part was later offered to Eve Arden, Arden agreed. The pilot script Arden later recorded is an edited version of this Booth audition.

On April 28th, 1971, Chuck Schaden interviewed radio legend and the original Great Gildersleeve, Hal Peary (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/peary-harold-actor/) about his life and career. During the course of the chat, Hal Peary spoke about why he left The Great Gildersleeve and his relationship with Willard Waterman.

In August of 1987, famed radio director Jack Johnstone was a guest of SPERDVAC (http://www.sperdvac.com) at the Thousand Oaks Library in California. During the course of the conversation on Johnstone's life and career, SPERDVAC's Larry Gassman asked Johnstone to tell a somewhat inappropriate, funny story involving Al Jolson. Mr. Johnstone was happy to oblige.

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls EP92: Radio and Coney Island (1906 - 1960)

___

Late in 1956, CBS was able to sell individual commercial breaks for Suspense at reduced prices. On November 4th, 1956, the show moved to Sunday afternoons at 4:30. Now directed by William N. Robson.

On June 9th, 1957 Suspense broadcast a play called “The Green and Gold String” starring Vincent Price as a Coney Island fortune teller. Although Price was a film star, he’d long had a clause in his contract for radio.

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 92: Radio And Coney Island (1906 - 1960)

_____

Broadway Is My Beat first took to the air from New York on February 27th, 1949, starring Anthony Ross and directed by John Dietz. Shortly thereafter, CBS executives decided the show sounded flat when compared with NBC's new police procedural Dragnet, which debuted on June 3rd. CBS moved production to Hollywood beginning on July 7th, and turned its direction over to Elliott Lewis.

Lewis cast Larry Thor as Danny Clover, with Charles Calvert as Tartaglia and Jack Kruschen as Muggavan. The show’s chief scriptwriting duo was Morton Fine and David Friedkin. They wrote poetic prose, fit into the gritty world of a sardonic, case-hardened detective.

This episode, “The Joey Croft Murder Case” was broadcast on Saturday June 23rd, 1952 at 9:30PM.

This is audio recorded at Coney Island in the summer of 1932 of fairground rides, carnival barkers, and general fun-time ambience.

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls EP92: Radio And Coney Island (1906 - 1960)

—————

On Friday, April 11th, 1947, CBS debuted a new situation comedy called My Friend Irma.

Marie Wilson starred as Irma Peterson, a kind-hearted, simple-minded, buxom blonde stenographer, while a tremendously versatile actress—Cathy Lewis—portrayed her completely opposite roommate Jane Stacy.

The show was created by Cy Howard during the time after World War II when head of CBS William Paley was championing new, experimental programming. Howard cast Cathy Lewis after hearing her read, and Marie Wilson after seeing her in Ken Murray’s Blackouts.

Gloria Gordon played Mrs. O’Reilly. Hans Conried was Professor Kropotkin. John Brown played Irma’s boyfriend Al, and Alan Reed played Mr. Clyde, Irma’s boss.

By the time this episode, “Irma and Jane Visit Coney Island” aired on Monday, June 7th, 1948 at 8:30PM, My Friend Irma was being sponsored by the Lever Brothers. That season, Irma was the 2nd highest rated show on Monday evenings behind The Lux Radio Theater.

On August 26th, 1975 Chuck Schaden sat down with radio legend Lurene Tuttle for a conversation about her life and career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/tuttle-lurene-actress/). During the course of the chat, Ms. Tuttle spoke of early radio and her first radio role.

This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 90: The Hollywood People Behind Radio’s Baby Boomer Boom (1945 - 1954).

Jeff Chandler was born Ira Grossel in Brooklyn, New York on December 15th, 1918. Raised by his mother, Ira went to Erasmus High School. There he acted in school plays with classmate Susan Hayward.He later took courses at the Feagin School of Dramatic Art in New York and was briefly in radio before getting a job with a troupe on Long Island as an actor and stage manager.

He worked for various stock companies over the next two years, including a performance in The Trojan Horse opposite Gordon and Sheila MacRae, to whom he became good friends.

Chandler served in the Pacific and finished World War II war as a Lieutenant. In December of 1945 after being discharged, he moved to Los Angeles.

Although he struggled to find work in film, by May of 1946 he was appearing on radio, becoming one of Hollywood's reliable character men. The next autumn he was cast as the lead in The New Adventures of Michael Shayne, a syndicated program written by Larry Marcus and produced by Bill Rousseau and Don W. Sharpe. It was the first program sold through the Broadcaster’s Guild. The series was ready for release at the beginning of March, 1948. Michael Shayne led Jeff Chandler to the radio role of a lifetime opposite Eve Arden.

Alan Reed, TV's Fred Flintstone, was also a prolific radio and film character actor. On February 17th, 1975, Mr. Reed sat down with Chuck Schaden for an interview about his life and career (full interview here - http://www.speakingofradio.com/interviews/reed-alan/).

During the course of the interview, Reed told a hysterical story about how he got an early gangster role on radio even though he looked too young for the part.