The Farmer's Son: The Way It Was, 7 June

FEATURED BROADCAST
THE HALLS OF IVY:
PHILIP WEATHERBEE
(NBC, 1950)

Victoria (Benita Hume Colman) awakens Hall (Ronald Colman) from a pleasant Saturday morning dream to face a law student's father---a farmer (Bill Scott) whose disillusion about his life's work doesn't square with his son's (Conrad Binyon) apparent agricultural passion.

Announcer: Ken Carpenter. Writer: Carmine Blake, Don Quinn.

AIRWAVES I: THE GREAT CRUSADE, CONTINUING . . .

And, in one case, completely pre-empting a popular soap opera, as The CBS News Roundup pre-empts Young Doctor Malone. However, four other popular CBS soaps broadcast as usual, with the periodic reference to or quick word from the fighting: Big Sister, The Romance of Helen Trent, Portia Faces Life, and Joyce Jordan, M.D. (formerly Joyce Jordan, Girl Intern), not to mention the semi-serial mystery, The New Adventures of Perry Mason.

GEORGE HICKS: ABOARD THE USS ANCON (BLUE NETWORK)---The veteran reporter delivers a magnificent report in the wake of the initial landings success for ABC-to-be.

AIRWAVES II . . .

1917: AIN'T THAT A KICK IN THE HEAD---He does not ask for another belt when getting that first slap; neither does his obstetrician start him crying with a certain foot movement that would provoke him to croon, "Ain't that a kick in the head" . . . but a Steubenville, Ohio baby born today will grow up to play the crooning straight man to a certain madcap partner in nightclubs, films, and old-time radio (1949-1953), before graduating to fame as a more polished singer, actor, and the all but official kapellmeister of the second and best-known edition of the Hollywood Rat Pack.

He will grow up as a high-school dropout, a bootleg booze deliverer, an amateur boxer, and a speakeasy and underground casino dealer, before getting his first singing break with the Ernie McKay Orchestra, using a style derived from Bing Crosby and the Mills Brothers, and in due course joining Sammy Watkins---who encourages him to adopt the name under which he becomes famous, especially when he meets a young comedian named Jerry Lewis at New York's Glass Hat: Dean Martin.

CHANNEL SURFING . . .

THE MOLLE MYSTERY THEATER: FEMALE OF THE SPECIES (NBC; REBROADCAST: ARMED FORCES RADIO SERVICE, 1946)---A beautician (Lizbeth Scott) tries explaining to her prospective attorney a murder she only contemplated but didn't commit. Additional cast: Unknown. Writer: Irene Winslow.

THE LIFE OF RILEY: COURTING AT SUMMER CAMP (NBC, 1947)---Junior's (Scotty Beckett) vacation plans, possibly interrupted when Riley (William Bendix) needs to borrow a fin from him, provoke Peg (Paula Winslowe) to remember the summer he courted her while working at a camp. Digger: John Brown. Writers: Reuben Ship, Alan Lipscott.

GUNSMOKE: BUFFALO KILLERS (often mislabled BUFFALO HUNTERS; CBS, 1952)---Chester (Parley Baer) and Matt (William Conrad) fear Arapaho tribesmen have stirred uncharacteristic trouble, after Chester finds two dead from among one man's buffalo hunting crew . . . but their horses and guns are left behind, and a prize albino buffalo is missing, leading Matt to suspect the killers weren't Indians. Mr. Biggs: Stan Waxman. Additional cast: John Dehner, Larry Dopkin, Sam Edwards, Julian Byatt, Tom Holland, Mary Lansing. Announcer: Roy Royan. Writer: Joel Murcott.

PREMIERING TODAY

1891---Alois Havrilla (annoucner: The Campbell Soup Orchestra), Pressov, Hungary.
1896---Hope Summer (actress: Girl Alone), Mattoon, Illinois.
1897---George Szell (conductor: NBC Symphony Orchestra; New York Philharmonic), Budapest.
1903---Glen Gray (bandleader, with the Casa Loma Orchestra: Camel Caravan), Metamora, Illinois; Joseph Kahn (pianist: The Voice of Firestone; The Story of Mary Marlin), New York City.
1908---Boris Goldovsky (commentator: Metropolitan Opera), Moscow; Clarence Straight (actor: Those We Love), unknown.
1909---Jessica Tandy (as Jessie Alice Tandy; actress: The Marriage), London.
1911---Stanley Unwin (actor/sound/commentator: Beyond Our Ken), Pretoria.
1913---Tom Collins (actor: Chandu the Magician; One Man's Family), Chicago.
1919---Ray Scherer (NBC News: News of the World), Fort Wayne, Indiana.
1924---Dolores Gray (singer/actress: The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street; The Jack Smith Show), Chicago.
1926---Dick Williams (singer, with the Williams Brothers: The Bing Crosby Show), Wall Lake, Iowa.