"Radio's Distinctive Laugh Novelty": The Way It Was, 1 March

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---starring 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.

Eventual cast members will include Ken Roberts as Cokie, the Aces' semi-adopted "son"; Ethel Blume as Betty, Jane Ace's beyond-her-years young niece; and, Alfred Ryder (known best as Sammy on The Goldbergs) as Betty's eventual young husband, Carl Neff.

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.

AIRWAVES . . .

1941: FREQUENCY MODULATION---W47NV in Nashville is the first FM 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.

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.

Announcer: George Fenneman.

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/arranger/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.