One Too Many Cooks Spoil the Mother's Day: The Way It Was, 14 May

FEATURED BROADCAST
THE PHIL HARRIS-ALICE FAYE SHOW:
MOTHER'S DAY; OR, COOKING DINNER FOR ALICE
(NBC, 1950)

There's only one thing that could possibly be worse than Phil (Harris) and the girls (Jeanine Roos, Anne Whitfield) serving Alice (Faye) breakfast---Southern or other style---in bed: Phil's determination to let Alice spend Mother's Day at complete leisure while he, of all people, does the housework and cooks dinner . . . especially with Remley (Elliott Lewis), of all people, pitching in, albeit reluctantly.

Julius: Walter Tetley. Willie: Robert North. Music: Walter Sharp, Phil Harris Orchestra. Writers: Ray Singer, Dick Chevillat.

AIRWAVES . . .

1976---Lowell Thomas and the News, a mainstay since the old-time radio era, featuring the world-girdling broadcaster and analyst for forty-six years, is delivered for the final time, fifteen months after the death of Thomas's first wife.

Perhaps characteristically, Thomas alters his trademark sign-off by removing just two words and saying, simply, "Here's to you---so long."

His memoir, Good Evening, Everybody, is also published in 1976. He will also have an impact on radio beyond his lifetime, when his 1954 investment (with business manager Frank Smith) in Albany, New York UHF television stations and radio stations grows into the giant that will buy ABC in 1986: Capital Cities.

Thomas will marry a second time in 1977 and die in 1981, the author of thousands of classic radio news reports and analyses and numerous books, including a second memoir, So Long Until Tomorrow, a year after he signs off for the final time.

2006: FAREWELL, HONEY DREAMER---One-time old-time radio singer (with the Honey Dreamers), but known best as the third and final Clarabell on television's Howdy Doody, Lew Anderson dies at age 86 of complications from prostate cancer at his Hawthorne, New York home.

CHANNEL SURFING

THE JELL-O PROGRAM STARRING JACK BENNY: GUNGA DIN (NBC, 1939)---He's not a better man than we after Jack (Benny) and company get through with domesticating him. Cast: Mary Livingstone, Eddie Anderson, Kenny Baker, Phil Harris. Music: Phil Harris Orchestra, Kenny Baker. Writers: George Balzer, Milt Josefsberg, John Tackaberry, Sam Perrin.

THE GOLDBERGS: SAMMY FACES SYLVIA (CBS, 1941)---And everyone's just a little bit apprehensive when the would-have been couple square off, after Sammy's (Alfred Ryder) return upon discovering Sylvia's (Zena Provendie) lies. Molly: Gertrude Berg. Jake: John R. Waters. Rosalie: Roslyn Siber. Announcer: Clayton (Bud) Collyer. Writer/director: Gertrude Berg.

THE GREEN HORNET: CHECK AND DOUBLE CHECK (ABC, 1946)---It isn't Amos 'n' Andy, kiddies---it's an apparent check-kiting scheme hitting the Daily Sentinel itself, after Reid (Bob Hall) discovers forged checks written on the Sentinel payroll accounts. Miss Case: Lee Allman. Axford: Gil Shea. Kato: Rollon Parker. Writer: Fran Striker.

PREMIERING TODAY . . .

1885---Otto Klemperer (conductor: The George Gershwin Memorial Program), Breslau, Germany.
1890---Carlton Brickert (actor: The Story of Mary Marlin; Thurston the Magician; announcer: Lum & Abner), Martinsville, Indiana.
1898---Zutty Singleton (drummer: Radio Almanac; Just Jazz; BBC Jazz Session), Bunkie, Louisiana.
1905---Herb Morrison (news reporter, and the man whose spot report of the Hindenburg disaster remains internationally famous; also: Call to Arms; The Good Ole Days of Radio), unknown.
1910---B.S. Pully (comedian: Command Performance; Mail Call), Newark, New Jersey; Paul Sutton (actor: Challenge of the Yukon), Albuquerque, New Mexico.
1919---Liberace (as Wladziu Valentino Liberace; pianist/vocalist: Stars for Defence), West Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1925---Patrice Munsel (singer: Prudential Family Hour; The Voice of Firestone; The Big Show), Spokane, Washington.
1926---Eric Morecambe (comedian, longtime partner of Ernie Wise: The Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise Radio Show), Lancashire, U.K.