Tell 'Em Groucho Sent You: The Way It Was, 1 March

1950: THE SECRET WORD IS "DOOR"---A bachelor and a spinster ("chosen by our studio audience," which tells you something about audiences as matchmakers), a butler and a housewife, and a French consulate mademoiselle and a sightseeing bus driver, take a whack at Groucho Marx, who whacks back in his customary fashion, one week after another earlier couple landed $3,500, on tonight's edition of You Bet Your Life.

Surely you didn't need me to remind you that at least three-quarters of the point of the game was to meet, greet, and get schpritzed by Groucho Marx, with the game itself (pretty simple, as quiz shows went, in terms of questioning and prize money) practically an afterthought. But it's still fun to hear Groucho's mostly affectionate roasting of his guests (and his announcer, George Fenneman), not to mention his announcement at the show's end regarding an honour the show had just won.

And, to ponder what might have been if it's true that Groucho himself once told Fred Allen (his only equal as a comic ad-libber in that time and place) what might have been if the latter had gotten to do You Bet Your Life on television, as Groucho did in due course . . .

AIRWAVES . . .

1932: "RADIO'S DISTINCTIVE LAUGH NOVELTY"---That serial comedy of manners and malaprops that lent this blog its name among other things, Easy Aces, goes network after two years as a Kansas City, Missouri offering: the show appears for the first time on CBS, based at first in Chicago and sponsored by Lavoris.

The mouthwash will sponsor the show---which stars creator/writer Goodman Ace as a harried realtor, Jane Ace as his wife and malaproprietress, Mary Hunter as live-in best friend (and human laugh track) Marge Hale, and Paul Stewart as ne'er-do-well brother-in-law Johnny---until October 1933, when the show will move to New York pick up a new sponsor, American Home Products---who make a new aspirin known as Anacin.

In due course, Goodman Ace will tell an interviewer Lavoris dropped the show when its radio representative complained about a broadcast starting late---the representative's own clock was a minute or two ahead of the time kept by the station clock.

1941: FREQUENCY MODULATION---W47NV in Nashville is the first radio station in the United States to receive a licence for commercial operation. It transmits at 44.7 MHz. The station will leave the air in 1951.

CHANNEL SURFING . . .

1942: NO OSCAR FOR JACK---He actually thought he'd win the Academy Award for Best Actor (for Charley's Aunt---in which he played a dual character/dual gender role), a source of mirth for Mary (Livingstone), Don (Wilson), and Dennis (Day)---until Jack (Benny) saunters back from a shopping jaunt in an unexpectedly great mood ("They didn't know whether to name me Best Actor or Best Actress"), on tonight's edition of The Jell-O Program Starring Jack Benny. (NBC.) Additional cast: Eddie Anderson, Phil Harris, Peter Lind Hayes. Writers: Milt Josefsberg, Sam Perrin.

1944: HANK GUTSTOP THROWS A PARTY---Vic (Art Van Harvey) comes home in an oddly cheerful mood before dining at a downtown hotel, Russell (David Whitehouse, standing in for Bill Idelson who'd been drafted into World War II) swaps cheerful back-fence barbs with nemesis Heinie Call and Vic, and Sade (Bernadine Flynn) finally pries the reason for Vic's good mood her jaunty husband, on today's edition of Vic & Sade. (NBC.) Writer/director: Paul Rhymer.

PREMIERING TODAY . . .

1885---Lionel Atwill (singer: The Eveready Hour, old-time radio's first known variety show), Croydon, U.K.
1904---Glenn Miller (as Alton Glenn Miller; trombonist/bandleader, The Chesterfield Show, USO Matinee), Clarinda, Iowa.
1910---David Niven (actor: NBC Radio Theatre, Lux Radio Theater), Kirriemuir, Scotland.
1915---Cy Harrice (announcer: The Big Story, Cavalcade America), Chicago.
1916---Dinah Shore (singer: The Eddie Cantor Show; singer/hostess: The Dinah Shore Show, Command Performance), Winchester, Tennessee.