This is Mike Alexander welcoming you to the Unforgettable Radio Theater. It will be my pleasure to be your travel guide as we journey back to The Golden Age of Radio to listen to some classic radio program of that time. Climb aboard the Time Portal and take a seat. While you’re getting comfortable, I’ll tell where our journey will take us this week. Starting this week, and every week thereafter, for the rest 2023 the shows aired will be to celebrate the birthday of one radio actor. The only exceptions will be special shows, such as Friday the 13th and Halloween. This week we will travel back to 1943 to listen to a program that, in today’s vernacular, would be called a dramedy. Then it’s on to 1945 for a comedy variety show. These shows are to celebrate the birthday of Lionel Stander.
Now, before we start the journey, here is the answer to last week’s question about who was the first singer on the Jack Benny Program. The answer is Frank Parker. He left the show in 1935 for his own program, The Atlantic Family On Tour. As I expected, no who responded had the right answer.
The time portal is all set to go.
Our first stop to celebrate Lionel Stander is Friday, April 23, 1943 to listen to an episode of Mayor of The Town.
Born January 11, 1908, Lionel Stander was an actor in radio, film theater and television. He was born in the Bronx, NY to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, the eldest of three children. Stander began his acting career in 1928 in the play Him by E.E. Cumming in the Provincetown Playhouse.
Now with the time portal’s radio dial turned back to Friday, April 23, 1943 here is the Mayor of the Town episode entitled “mayor Recalls Scenes of Love in Springdale” featuring Lionel Stander and starring Lionel Barrymore as the Mayor.
Stander’s distinctive raspy voice, tough guy demeanor and talent for accents made him a popular radio actor. In 1932, Stander landed his first credited film role in the Warner-Vitaphone short feature In the Dough (1932), with Fatty Arbuckle and Shemp Howard. He made several other shorts. In 1935, he moved to Hollywood and signed a contract with Columbia Pictures. Stander was in a string of films over the next three years, appearing most notably in Frank Capra’s Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) with Gary Cooper, Meet Nero Wolfe (1936) playing Archie Goodwin, The League of Frightened Men (1937), and A Star Is Born (1937) with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March
