An Inauspicious Debut: The Way It Was, 2 May

1932---Two months after he makes his first known old-time radio appearance, on an interview program conducted by then-Broadway columnist Ed Sullivan, Jack Benny hosts his own program for the first time, sponsored by Canada Dry soft drinks, and broadcast over NBC's Blue Network.

Benny had been flat, tentative, and awkward, delivering an unfunny monologue without benefit of an audience, and the jokes deservedly landed with a thud, a far cry from the suave, polished Jack Benny of only a few years hence.

---Gerald Nachman, in "The Anticomedian," from Raised on Radio. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1998.)

AIRWAVES . . .

1945: "SPLENDID NEWS FROM MOSCOW"---Barely has the world time to absorb the impact of Hitler's death when Stuart Hibberd of the BBC reports the announcement that Berlin has fallen.

CHANNEL SURFING . . .

1944: FINDING A GIRL FOR DENNIS DAY---The boy tenor who's always "tryin' to get Jack out of Benny" is about to go into the Navy ("What would you do if you had the chance ta make more dough?"), and Archie (Ed Gardner) wants to blow him to one last night on the town. The problem: Getting Dennis a date, on tonight's edition of Duffy's Tavern. (Original broadcast: CBS; rebroadcast: AFRS.)

Eddie the Waiter: Eddie Green. Finnegan: Charles Cantor. Miss Duffy: Florence Halop. Writers: Ed Gardner, Abe Burrows, Larry Marks.

1946: CRIME WITHOUT PASSION---Adapted from the Ben Hecht/Charles MacArthur play and film, a criminal attorney (Joseph Cotten) with a superior attitude, disillusioned with his faithless showgirl fiancee, needs an alibi fast enough for himself, when he strikes her dead in self-defence during a bitter, violent argument, on tonight's edition of Suspense. (CBS.)

Additional cast: Unknown. Adaptation: William Spear.

1950: S.O.S.---Stranded and sending a mysteriously futile radio address signal seems the fate of three racketeers, after one (Ralph Bell) talks them into hijacking a ship carrying rare uncut diamonds, on tonight's edition of The Mysterious Traveler. (Mutual.)

Additional cast: Roger DeKoeven, Louis van Rooten. The Traveler: Maurice Tarplin. Writers: Robert A. Arthur, David Kogan.

PREMIERING TODAY . . .

1885---Hedda Hopper (as Elda Furry; actress: Brenthouse; host, The Hedda Hopper Show), Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.
1892---Bruno Wick (actor: Flash Gordon; The Goldbergs), Krefeld, Germany.
1895---Lorenz Hart (lyricist: The Jumbo Fire Chief Program, The Chase and Sanborn Hour, The Railroad Hour), New York City.
1902---Brian Aherne (actor: The Saint), King's Norton, U.K.; Erin O'Brien-Moore (actress: Big Sister), Los Angeles.
1903---Sylvan Levin (conductor: Brownstone Theater; Let's Go To The Opera), Baltimore.
1904---J. Anthony Hughes (actor: Betty and Bob), New York City.
1905---Sidney Skolsky (columnist/host: Songs By Arlen, Stories By Skolsky; The Bromo Seltzer Program), New York City.
1907---Pinky Lee (as Pincus Leff; comedian: The Hoagy Carmichael Show; Carefree Carnival), St. Paul, Minnesota.
1916---Robert Grapperhaus (sound: One Man's Family, Fitch Bandwagon, Duffy's Tavern), unknown.
1918---Frank Milano (sound: Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders), unknown.