"To All The Husbands Who Will Someday Marry Jane": The Way It Was, 21 February

FEATURED BROADCAST
mr. ace and JANE:
YOU DON'T BRING ME FLOWERS
(CBS, 1948)

"First," drawls (Goodman) Ace, "I want to say I'd like to dedicate this story to all the husbands who will some day marry Jane."

What a surprise, after her usual complications set in, between Jane (Ace)'s indignation over Ace forgetting their fifteenth-and-a-half wedding anniversary (if you don't ask, we won't tell) . . . and, over the comely candy manufacturer (Gertrude Warner) who is his new advertising client.

Paul: Leon Janney. Norris: Eric Dressler. Sally: Florence Robinson. Himself: Ken Roberts (announcer). Additional cast: Michael Abbott. Writer: Goodman Ace.

AIRWAVES . . .

1943: FATE OF THE FREE WORLD---What should have been a steady success, to gather by its mastermind and the performers attracted to its productions, is born today---Free World Theatre, on NBC's Blue Network.

It's the creation of Arch Oboler, who took Lights Out from Wyllis Cooper and fortified it even further as a master thriller, and who will produce and direct Free World Theatre as well as adapt all its material from their sources.

In spite of that, and in spite of such film and radio titans joining in as Edward Arnold, Kenny Baker, Lee J. Cobb, Ronald Colman, Joseph Cotten, Judy Garland, Paul Henreid, Lena Horne, Charles Ruggles, and Orson Welles, Free World Theatre will run for nineteen installments only.

Among its more distinctive productions: the all-black adaptation of "Something About Joe," featuring Lena Horne, Rex Ingram, Hazel Scott, the Charioteers, and the Hall Johnson Choir, on 23 May 1943.

CHANNEL SURFING . . .

THE CHASE & SANBORN SHOW WITH EDGAR BERGEN & CHARLIE McCARTHY: DESERT HEAT (NBC, 1943)---The 21st Ferrying Group of the Ferrying Division, Air Transport Command in Palm Springs gets some additional live heat from Carmen Miranda in the middle of the usual wisenheimer mayhem. Additional cast: Don Ameche, Bill Forman, Joan Merrill, Mortimer Snerd. Music: Ray Noble. Writers: Possibly Joe Bigelow, Joe Connelly, Dick Mack, Bob Mosher.

ESCAPE: THE RED MARK (CBS, 1950)---In a rather jolting casting against types (for future audiences become accustomed to portly, brainy detective Cannon and sage, kindly Grandpa Walton, that is), the prison island of New Caledonia hosts a grisly clash between an inmate (William Conrad) and the island's grotesque official executioner (Will Geer). Additional cast: Harry Bartel, Paul Frees, Julius Mathews, Barbara Whiting. Adaptation (from a story by John Russell): Les Crutchfield, John Dunkel.

PREMIERING TODAY . . .

1880---Frank Orth (actor: Boston Blackie), Philadelphia.
1893---Ernest Whitman (actor: Beulah, Circus Days), Fort Smith, Arkansas.
1907---W.H. Auden (poet/writer: Columbia Workshop), York, U.K.
1915---Ann Sheridan (The Oomph Girl; actress: The Smiths of Hollywood, Stars in the Air), Dallas.
1916---Norman Jolley (actor: Space Patrol), Adel, Iowa.
1921---Shirley Bell (actress: the title role of Little Orphan Annie; Captain Midnight), Chicago.
1929---James Beck (actor: Dad's Army), Islington, North London, U.K.