Cruisin': The Way It Is, 22-23 April

22 APRIL 1907---Elmer H. Wavering is born in Quincy, Illinois. Before you send forth a large chorale of BIG DEAL! you might wish to consider what he grows up to help create. If not for Mr. Wavering and a partner named William Lear, you might wait quite awhile longer before you could flip a switch and twist a knob on the dashboard to dial in your favourite old-time or otherwise radio shows on the road.

Wavering and Lear will spearhead the 1930 invention of possibly the first commercial car radio for the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation---the Motorola.

Wavering will take a big hand, too, in making sure you won't spend too many days suffocating behind the wheel in the long hot summertime, in due course. He will invent the alternator, without which you won't even be able to think about your car running an air conditioner or any of your other favourite high-tech, in-vehicle toys.

CHANNEL SURFING . . .

22 APRIL

1929: RUBY'S FATHER SEES AMOS TALKING TO ANOTHER GIRL---That's all Amos (Freeman Gosden) needs, enough to wake Andy (Charles Correll) out of a sound sleep to talk it over, though Andy tries to assure him it won't kill the old man to think his daughter isn't the only flower in the proverbial garden, on tonight's edition of Amos 'n' Andy. (NBC.)

Writers: Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll.

1945: AUCTION---In a program originally pre-empted for coverage of President Roosevelt's death a week earlier, Charlie and Edgar (Bergen) point Rita Hayworth (herself) toward an auction for some new furniture, at least while Charlie isn't looking to invest in a gold mine, on tonight's edition of The Charlie McCarthy Show. (NBC.)

With Ken Carpenter, Don Ameche. Music: Ray Noble and His Orchestra, Joan Merrill. Announcer: Frank Barton. Writers: Royal Foster, Roland McLane, Joe Connelly, Bob Mosher.

23 APRIL

1950: THE TAPE RECORDER---The tales of the tape don't necessarily ensure simple endings, as Connie (Eve Arden) hopes to convince penny-pinching Conklin (Gale Gordon) it's not a bad idea to buy a tape recorder for school use, on tonight's edition of Our Miss Brooks. (CBS.)

Mrs. Davis: Jane Morgan. Walter: Dick Crenna. Harriet: Gloria McMillan. Boynton: Jeff Chandler. Announcer: Bob Lamond. Writers: Al Lewis (who also directed), Lester White, Joe Quillan.

1955: BORN TO HANG---That would be a man lynched as a falsely-accused horse thief, cut down alive from a rope, and bent on revenge against his lynchers, on tonight's edition of Gunsmoke. (CBS.)

Dillon: William Conrad. Kitty: Georgia Wells. Chester: Parley Baer. Doc: Howard McNear. Additional cast: Joseph Kearns, John Dehner, Lawrence Dobkin, James Nasser. Writer: John Meston. Sound: Tom Hanley, Ray Kemper.

PREMIERING THESE DAYS . . .

22 APRIL

1887---James Norman Hall (writer: Words at War), Colfax, Iowa.
1900---Joan Blaine (actress: Tale of Today, The Story of Mary Marlin), Fort Dodge, Iowa.
1902---John W. Vandercook (commentator: Newsroom of the Air, News of the World), London.
1905---Ed Ludes (sound: Fibber McGee & Molly---it was Mr. Ludes who developed and created Fibber McGee's famous clattering closet), unknown.
1906---Eddie Albert (actor: The Eddie Albert Show), Rock Island, Illinois.
1907---Elmer H. Wavering (inventor, with William Lear, first commercial automobile radio: the Motorola), Quincy, Illinois.
1909---Ralph Byrd (singer/actor, numerous local and Hollywood radio programs), Dayton, Ohio.
1915---Dick Dudley (announcer: Archie Andrews, Believe It . . . or Not), Louisville.
1916---Yehudi Menuhin (violinist, New York Philharmonic: The Pause That Refreshes), New York City; Maurice Webster (announcer: Meet the Missus, Scattergood Baines, Surprise Party), Gibbon, Nebraska.
1920---Hal March (actor/comedian: December Bride, Too Many Cooks, Maxwell House Coffee Time with Burns & Allen), San Francisco.
1921---Vivian Dandridge (writer: Beulah), Cleveland; Charlotte Lawrence (actress: The Adventures of Christopher Wells, Just Plain Bill), California.
1922---Charles Mingus (jazz bassist/composer: Here's to Veterans), Nogales, Arizona.
1924---Bill Simmons (gospel musician: The Light Crust Doughboys), unknown.

23 APRIL
1879---Talbot Mundy (writer: Jack Armstrong, All-American Boy), London.
1884---Edwin C. Hill (commentator: The Human Side of the News, Your News Parade), Aurora, Indiana.
1893---Frank Borzage (director: Lux Radio Theater, Screen Guild Theater), Salt Lake City.
1898---Lee Vines (announcer: Columbia Workshop), Texas.
1910---Simone Simon* (actress: The Inner Sanctum Mysteries), Pas de Calais, France.
1915---James F. Fleming (announcer: Vic & Sade, John's Other Wife), Baraboo, Wisconsin.
1921---Janet Blair (actress: Lux Radio Theater, The Abbott & Costello Show, The Charlie McCarthy Show), Altoona, Pennsylvania.
1928---Shirley Temple (actress: Junior Miss), Santa Monica, California.

*---The homonymous Mme. Simon became a reference point in a memorable Easy Aces storyline: when a film director rented a home next door to the Aces, to run a local contest to discover a fresh new local talent for his next feature, one of the contest entrants was star-struck malaproprietess Jane Ace, who drew on Mme. Simon's monicker to adopt for herself the unlikely stage name Jane Jane.