History Still Slumbers: The Way It Was, 16 July

Unfortunately, nothing of even mildly earthshattering import in old-time radio history occurred on this date. So there's fault in merely leaning back, lighting up, relaxing, and surfing the channels?

CHANNEL SURFING . . .

1942: A GROSS OF GRAVELS---After dinner, on the porch, the "important situation" to be coped with, the one Sade (Bernadine Flynn) raised earlier at dinner, proves just a little bit more on the absurd side than Vic (Art Van Harvey) and Rush (Bill Idelson) imagined, on today's edition of Vic & Sade. (NBC.)

Announcer: Ken Roberts. Writer: Paul Rhymer.

1949: BUTCHER KILLED---After police can do little beyond posting an officer near her building, a panicked woman (Joan Banks) hires Rick (Dick Powell) for protection after she claims several attempts on her life in recent days, including a man following her home and trying to kidnap her, on tonight's edition of Richard Diamond, Private Detective. (NBC.)

Helen: Virginia Gregg. Levinson: Ed Begley. Otis: Wilms Herbert. Additional cast: Paul Debarg, Herbert Ellis, Sidney Miller. Writer (you're not seeing things!): Blake Edwards. (Note: The sound file is mistitled as "The Man Who Hated Women.")

1959: SMELLY DAVE ON TOUR---The ticklish twosome review a few of their show ground rules, Ward Stuffer eschews his usual theatrical review for a television commercial, Wally Ballou reports live at sea, and Arthur Shrank is in Quincy, Illinois covering Smelly Dave's summer tour stop arrival, on today's edition of Bob & Ray Present the CBS Radio Network. (If you have to ask, they're not doing it right.)

Writers: Bob Elliott, Ray Goulding.

PREMIERING TODAY . . .

1882---Charles Egleston (actor: Ma Perkins; Just Plain Bill), Covington, Kentucky.
1887---Floyd Gibbons (news commentator), Washington, D.C.
1888---Percy Kilbride (actor/host: Paul Whiteman Presents; Melody Roundup; Stars in the Air), San Francisco.
1902---Andrew Stone (writer: Lux Radio Theater), Oakland.
1903---Carmen Lombardo (saxophonist, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadiens: Guy Lombardo and His Orchestra; The Esso Marketer; New Year's Radio Dance Party 1945-1946), London, Ontario.
1907---Ned Calmer (news analyst: The CBS World News Roundup), Chicago; Barbara Stanwyck (as Ruby Catherine Stevens; actress: Prudential Family Hour of Stars; This Is My Story; Lux Radio Theater), Brooklyn.
1908---Frank Singiser (newscaster: Mutual News), Montevideo, Minnesota.
1911---Ginger Rogers (as Virginia Katherine McMath; actress: The Star and the Story; The Packard Hour; Lux Radio Theater; The Big Show), Independence, Missouri; Sonny Tufts (actor: Old Gold Comedy Theater; Screen Guild Theater), Boston.
1917---William Woodson (actor: Just Plain Bill; narrator: This Is Your FBI), unknown.
1925---Cal Tjader (vibraphonist: Music for Moderns; All-Star Parade of Bands), St. Louis.
1926---Stanley Clements (actor: Family Theater; Lux Radio Theater), Long Island City, New York.