This Isn't Exactly Classic Radio, But---The Way It Was, 3 August

FEATURED BROADCAST
THE KALLMANAC:
LAS VEGAS DRIVE-THRU WEDDINGS;
RACHAEL LASER'S FIFTEEN-MINUTE RECIPES;
THE CBS RADIO WORKSHOP: SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING (1956)
(KLAV, LAS VEGAS, 3 AUGUST 2009)

. . . It is the Monday night mirth mash as created and presented by your servant live at 9 PM PDT.

And, tonight, we threw a little of Uncle Ben's perverted rice into Las Vegas's notorious swift wedding chapels . . . sliced and diced Rachael Ray (affectionately, we hope) . . . and presented one of the best installments of one of old-time radio's best dramatic anthologies from the final years.

It's based on a staggering Harper's article by Edmund G. Love, written in the wake of a kind of scandal in which New York's subways and streets in the early but prosperous 1950s turned out to have a kind of class of homeless . . . and focusing on one such denizen, Henry Shelby (Byron Kane), who chooses to live by his wits (and, as it happens, his wit), working when he feels like it or his modest monies run out, and essentially soaking in a kind of active education he gives the impression of having to miss had he elected to remain in his former lifestyle.

Additional cast: Sarah Selby, Helaine Burke, Edwin Bruce, Frank Erstel, Cort Falkenburg, Tony Barrett, Ted Bliss, Alan Reed. Narrator: William Kanelly. Announcer: William Conrad. Director: William Robeson. Music: Fred Steiner. Writer: Fran Van Hardesvelt, adapted from the article by Edmund G. Love.

THE KALLMANAC---Additional cast: Patty Price (as the bride); Siri Morgan (announcer; as Rachael Laser). Writer/director: Jeff Kallman.

AIRWAVES . . .

1984: THE WILD I-TRALIAN COMES HOME---Radio Hall of Famer Dick Biondi---who moved to Chicago WLS in 1960 and brought rock and roll to millions over that station's powerful signal for three years until his move to Los Angeles KRLA---returns to Chicago for a third time, on WJMK-FM, an oldies station.

Biondi will stay until June 2005, when WJMK switches to the "jack" formula; he will move to another Chicago station, WZZN, in November 2006.

CHANNEL SURFING . . .

EARL (FATHA) HINES AND HIS ORCHESTRA: REMOTE FROM THE GRAND TERRACE, CHICAGO (NBC, 1938)---The master of the "trumpet style" of jazz piano leads a brisk big band through a vibrant half-hour set that includes "The Lionheart Zoo," "Teacher's Pet" (with a vocal by Roy Harris), "So Help Me," and other selections, a few of which feature the impeccable Hines piano and some brisk section playing. Announcer: Unknown.

THEATER FIVE: HIT AND RUN (ABC, 1964)---Leaving town for awhile and asking his attorney to oversee his shiftless younger brother in the meantime, a gangster meets a girl and causes a fatal accident while trying to impress her, on the series premiere of one of the post old-time radio era's periodic attempts to revive its spirit and aesthetic. Cast and writers: Unknown. Announcer: Fred Foy.

PREMIERING TODAY . . .

1885---Arthur Sinclair (actor: The Jumbo Fire Chief Program), Dublin.
1896---Wendell Hall (The Red-Headed Music Maker; singer: The Eveready Hour), St. George, Kansas.
1900---Ernie Pyle (journalist: Words at War; Cavalcade of America), Dana, Indiana.
1903---John S. Young (journalist: NBC News), Springfield, Massachussetts.
1905---Gaylord Carter (organist: Amos 'n' Andy; Breakfast in Hollywood), Wiesbaden, Germany; Dolores del Rio (actress: Hollywood On the Air), Durango, Mexico.
1907---Irene Tedrow (actress: Meet Corliss Archer; Chandu, the Magician), Denver.
1916---Horace Logan (creator: Louisiana Hayride, and the man who first told a hysterical audience that "Elvis has left the building"), unknown.
1917---Larry Haines (actor: Young Doctor Malone; This is Nora Drake), Mount Vernon, New York; Charlie Shavers (trumpeter: Jump Time; The Mildred Bailey Show; The Tommy Dorsey Show), New York City.
1918---Les Elgart (bandleader: Let's Go to Town; Manhattan Melodies), New Haven.
1920---Marilyn Maxwell (singer/actress: Kraft Music Hall; The Abbott & Costello Show; The Bob Hope Show), Clarinda, Iowa.
1923---Jean Hagen (actress: Lux Radio Theater; Stars in the Air), Chicago.
1925---Billy James Hargis (radio evangelist), Texarkana, Texas.
1926---Tony Bennett (as Anthony Dominick Benedetto; singer: The F.W. Woolworth Hour; Songs for Sale), Astoria, New York.