"The City I Knew Was Gone": The Way It Was, 9 May

1945: "TODAY, FOR THE FIRST TIME, THEY SAW THE RESULTS FROM THE GROUND"---Returning to Berlin after three years' absence (on the order of Hitler's government), CBS News correspondent Howard K. Smith---one of the legendary "Murrow's Boys"---accompanies top Allied air commanders (including Army Air Force legend Carl Spaatz) and delivers a jarring report, for the Combined American Networks, on the manner in which Hitler's war finally invited the devastation of Berlin itself.

And, perhaps not to be outdone, Thomas Cadett of the BBC describes what remains of Hitler's Berlin bunker---not to mention what remains of, at least, Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's longtime propaganda minister who actually served as chancellor of Germany . . . for a single day.

CHANNEL SURFING . . .

1944: MEN'S FASHION LECTURE---"You remember Theda Bara? Well, uh, Menjou was a fashion plate when she was still a dish." Also sprach Archieda Manageh to Duffy on the blower, before guest Adolphe Menjou makes a valiant attempt to deliver a men's fashion lecture to the local gendarmerie . . . written by Archie, of all people ("Da well dressed man must watch out how he garbs himself, 'cause he is always judges by his garbiage"), on tonight's edition of Duffy's Tavern. (CBS.)

Finnegan: Charles Cantor. Eddie: Eddie Green. Miss Duffy: Possibly Florence Halop. Writers: Ed Gardner, Abe Burrows.

1948: BREAK THE CONTESTANT---After lamenting a week for the apple and a mere day for the mother, suggesting reasons there should be a Be Kind to Humans Week, and gauging the Alley's satisfaction with the year's Pulitzer Prizes, here comes another gleeful barb in the craw of the metastasising meatheaded quiz show presence, on tonight's edition of The Fred Allen Show. (NBC.)

Guest star: Don McNeil (host of The Breakfast Club). Sen. Claghorn: Kenny Delmar. Titus Moody: Parker Fennelly. Mrs. Nussbaum: Minerva Pious. Ajax Cassidy: Peter Donald. Writers: Fred Allen, Harry Bailey, possibly Nat Hiken, Bob Weiskopf.

1960: THE MURDER OF THE MISSING EAVESDROPPER---Such is the case to be solved by "Mr. Trace, Keener Than Most Persons," among other cheerful insanities on today's edition of Bob & Ray Present the CBS Radio Network. (Three guesses.)

Writers: Bob Elliott, Ray Goulding.

PREMIERING TODAY . . .

1887---William P. adams (actor: Collier's Hour; Let's Pretend), Tiffin, Ohio.
1895---Richard Barthelmass (actor: Lux Radio Theater), New York City.
1901---Fuzzy Knight (as John Forrest Knight; actor: Screen Guild Theater), Fairmont, West Virginia.
1911---Harry Simeone* (arranger/chorale leader: The Fred Waring Show; Columbia Presents Corwin), Newark, New Jersey.
1914---Hank Snow (singer: Grand Ole Opry), Liverpool, Nova Scotia.
1918---Mike Wallace (as Myron Leon Wallace; announcer: The Crime Files of Lamond; The Green Hornet; The Spike Jones Show), Brookline, Massachussetts.
1919---Eddie Manson (harmonica player: They Shall Be Heard), unknown.
1923---Byron Kane (as Byron Kaplan; actor: Gunsmoke; Broadway Is My Beat; Escape), Vermont.
1930---Joan Sims (as Irene Joan Marion Sims; actress: 'Round the Horne; Stop Messing About), Laindon, Essex, U.K.
1936---Glenda Jackson (actress: Stevie; panelist: Quote . . . Unquote), Cheshire, U.K.