Pine Ridge Politics: The Way It Was, 6 February

FEATURED BROADCAST:
LUM AND ABNER:
ELECTION FOR PRESIDENT OF THE JOT 'EM DOWN STORE
(MUTUAL, 1935)

One of the most endearing storylines of one of the most enderaring old-time radio serial comedies launches today: After Lum (Chester Lauck) went along with Abner (Norris Goff) pretending an accident injury to get the latter back in his wife's good graces---but getting stuck doing just about all the duo's work in the store and with their matrimonial agency---the none-too-dynamic duo hits on an idea to resolve the open question of ruling the store.

Writers: Chester Lauck, Norris Goff.

AIRWAVES . . .

1924: PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE MICROPHONE---The first worship service ever heard on radio---from St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church (Anglican), Trafalgar Square, London---is broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Toward year's end, the first of the church's Vicar's Christmas Appeal annual broadcasts will air.

1943: YOUNG BLUE EYES---Freshly minted as a solo singing star on Columbia Records, following a less than amicable break from bandleader Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra makes his first old-time radio turn as a solo performer, on Your Hit Parade. It preludes the debut of The Voice's first radio program as a host, the fifteen-minute music offering The Frank Sinatra Show, later the same year.

CHANNEL SURFING . . .

LUX RADIO THEATER: THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (CBS, 1939)---Robert Montgomery and Josephine Hutchinson, have an aural tour-de-force in the Dumas classic of the imprisoned Napoleonic messenger (Montgomery) whose fiance (Hutchinson) is forced to marry a rival after being told he died in prison, two decades before he escapes to plot revenge on three co-conspirators (Lloyd Nolan, Sydney Blackmer, Paul Lukas). Additional cast: Lewis Stone. Host: Cecil B. DeMille. Music: Lewis Silvers. Adapted from the screenplay by Philip Dunne, from the novel by Alexander Dumas.

THE FRED ALLEN SHOW: PLANNING A TV SHOW (NBC, 1949)---That's what a slightly disbelieving, customarily caustic Fred (Allen) is doing, with Bert Lahr as a particular partner in crime for a new television revue "before [television] turns back into radio again," heaven help them. With Portland Hoffa. Claghorn: Kenny Delmar. Titus: Parker Fennelly. Mrs. Nussbaum: Minerva Pious. Ajax: Peter Donald. Music: Al Goodman Orchestra. Writers: Fred Allen, Bob Weiskopf.

OUR MISS BROOKS: THE STOCK ROOM; OR, THE MISSING ELECTRIC HEATER (CBS, 1949)---A nightmare about Conklin's (Gale Gordon) coming school discipline crackdown is nothing compared to the nightmare he has in store for Connie (Eve Arden), when his intended school crackdown gets burned by the missing appliance---which she set up in Boyton's (Jeff Chandler) chilly biology lab---and his inadvertent stock room imprisonment. Mrs. Davis: Jane Morgan. Walter: Richard Crenna. Harriet: Gloria McMillan. Writer: Al Lewis.

PREMIERING TODAY . . .

1888---Bennett Kilpack (actor: Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons), U.K.
1905---Bill Johnstone (actor: The Shadow; Pepper Young's Family), New York City.
1911---Ronald Reagan (actor/panelist: Hollywood Byline; actor: Lux Radio Theater; Suspense), Tampico, Illinois.
1913---John Lund (actor: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, Chaplain Jim); Rochester, New York.
1914---Thurl Ravenscroft (singer, with the Sportsmen Quartet: The Jack Benny Program; My Friend Irma), Norfolk, New Brunswick.