Fore and Aft: The Way It Was, 18 April

FEATURED BROADCAST
ESCAPE:
DRUMS OF THE FORE AND AFT
(CBS; REBROADCAST, ARMED FORCES RADIO SERVICE, 1948)

A raw British regiment, sent to the front against a fanatical Muslim troop during the Afghan War, is shamed back to battle after a crushing retreat by a pair of young drummer boys (Gil Stratton, Jr., Jimmy Ogg).

Rudyard Kipling: Eric Walsh. Writer: Les Crutchfield, based on a story by Rudyard Kipling.

AIRWAVES . . .

1945: TURNABOUT'S FAIR PLAY; OR, AS THE WORM TURNS---Radio 1212---the so-called "black propaganda" operation based at Radio Luxembourg (who turned its facilities over to the U.S. Army after the Grand Duchy had been liberated) and operated by the U.S. Office of War Information's Psychological Warfare Division (supervised by CBS chief William S. Paley), whose mission it was to broadcast as though from Nazi Germany and gain an audience of loyal Nazis before using that influence against them---turns its worm and cranks up a broadcast effort that trapped 350,000 German troops: the 1212 effort's finale includes a farewell broadcast of a sort, giving the impression that the Allies have captured their fictitious station.

CHANNEL SURFING . . .

THE JELL-O PROGRAM STARRING JACK BENNY: LADY MILLICENT'S HUSBAND (NBC, 1937)---Jack (Benny) being announced and interviewed as a great romantic film star to open the show is only begging for problems of the usual kind. Cast: Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Don Wilson (announcer). Music: Phil Harris Orchestra. Writers: Al Boasberg, George Balzar, Milt Josefsberg.

THE GREEN HORNET: THE CORPSE THAT WASN'T THERE (NBC BLUE, 1943)---The problem is that he is there, when Britt (Al Hodge) and Kato (Rollon Parker) deliver a found letter to what proves the home of a war plant official . . . but he isn't there after Britt returns from phoning police to revive a knocked-out Kato. Miss Case: Lee Allman. Lowry: Jack Petruzzi. Writer: Fran Striker.

PREMIERING TODAY . . .

1880---Donald Crisp (actor: Jonathan Trimble, Esquire), Aberfeldy, Scotland.
1882---Leopold Stokowski (conductor: NBC Symphony of the Air), London.
1887---Bill Hay (announcer: Amos 'n' Andy), Dumfires, Scotland.
1889---Gene Carroll (comedian: Fibber McGee and Molly, Quaker Early Birds, Gene and Glenn), Chicago.
1902---Harry Owens (bandleader: Hawaii Calls), O'Neill, Nebraska.
1904---Pigmeat Markham (as Dewey Markham; comedian/singer: Jubilee), Durham, North Carolina.
1907---Miklos Rozsa (composer: Lux Radio Theater), Budapest.
1912---Wendy Barrie (as Marguerite Wendy Jenkins; actress/hostess: Detect and Collect, The Jack Haley Show, Star for a Night), Hong Kong.
1913---Al Hodge (actor: The Green Hornet, Columbia Workshop), Ravenna, Ohio.
1918---Page Gilman (actor: One Man's Family), San Francisco; Tony Mottola (jazz guitarist: The Gordon McRae Gulf Spray Show), Kearney, New Jersey.
1922---Barbara Hale (actress: Lux Radio Theater, Screen Guild Theater, This Is Hollywood), DeKalb, Illinois.
1925---Bob Hastings (actor: Archie Andrews, Sea Hound), Brooklyn.