In 1900...actress Helen Hayes was born Helen Brown in Washington DC. After honing her craft on the stage Ms. Hayes began a 55 year big screen career in 1931. She had her own popular radio anthology series in the 1940′s; on TV she played one of the Snoop Sisters in the 70′s, and Miss Jane Marple in the 80′s.
The First Lady of the American Theater died Mar 17, 1993 at age 92
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| Orville Gibson, Undated |
Gibson began in 1894 in his home workshop in Kalamazoo, Michigan. With no formal training, Gibson created an entirely new style of mandolin and guitar, with tops carved and arched like the top of a violin. His creations were so different that he was granted a patent on his design. More importantly, they were louder and more durable than contemporary fretted instruments, and musicians soon demanded more than he was able to build in his one-man shop.
On the strength of Gibson's ideas, five Kalamazoo businessmen formed the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co., Ltd., in 1902. Within a short period after the company was started, the board passed a motion that "Orville H. Gibson be paid only for the actual time he works for the Company." After that time, there is no clear indication whether he worked there full-time, or as a consultant. Julius Bellson states in his 1973 publication, The Gibson Story, that "Orville Gibson had visions and dreams that were considered eccentric."
Starting in 1908, Gibson was paid a salary of $500 by Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Limited (equivalent to $20,000 a year in modern terms). He had a number of stays in hospitals between 1907 and 1911. In 1916, he was again hospitalized, and died on August 19, 1918, at 62 years of age, in St. Lawrence State Hospital in Ogdensburg, New York. Gibson is buried at Morningside Cemetery in Malone, New York
In 1911...radio performer Zeke Manners was born in San Francisco. While most of his radio work was at local stations in LA & New York, for a time he had a 15-minute network show that allowed him to integrate ‘hillbilly’ recordings with his live accordion, piano & banjo playing…”The One-Man Variety Show.”
He died Oct 14 2000, four days after his 89th birthday.
Betty and Bob was the first widely popular daytime serial soap opera created by the powerhouse producer-couple Anne and Frank Hummert in 1932. The show was similar to their future soap opera creations featuring a poor simple girl who marries a rich distinguished man. Betty is Bob's secretary and the two fall in love despite the disapproval of Bob's family.
Betty and Bob love created drama all around them including family problems, loss of money, murder, death of the young Bob jr., and bouts of amnesia and insanity. Poor Bob was sent to a mental institution on more than one episode. Originally starring Elizabeth Reller and Don Ameche as Betty and Bob, the cast underwent a number of changes.
In 1932...a syndicated adventure series for juveniles, Chandu the Magician was heard for the first time on KHJ radio Los Angeles. It would continue with varying casts in various formats and networks until 1950.
In 1937...the Mutual Broadcasting System debuted Thirty Minutes in Hollywood. 48 sponsors shared the cost of the program that aired in 72 cities across the US. It was the first Mutual co-op radio show. George Jessel and Norma Talmadge starred, with music by the Tommy Tucker Orchestra.
In 1959...We all have career choices to make. On this date, Ken Brown decided to leave the Quarrymen, leaving John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison to fend for themselves. (Don't worry about them; they were going to be fine...) The group had played at the popular Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool, England in a show that Brown was unable to perform due to a heavy cold. McCartney felt that Brown should not get a share of the performance fee since he did not perform. Lennon and Harrison sided with McCartney and so Brown quit the group.
In 1962...the BBC radio service banned the Halloween novelty song “Monster Mash”by Bobby “Boris” Pickett. Neither obscene nor controversial, “Monster Mash,” like many other songs, was banned under a catch-all regulation prohibiting the broadcast of anything deemed “offensive.”
The rest of the Top 10: Tommy from the Who, Chicago II, Abraxas debuted at #8 for Santana, After the Gold Rush by Neil Young and James Taylor first hit it big with the album Sweet Baby James.
In 1985...actor & director Orson Welles suffered a fatal heart attack at age 70. Besides his movie work, Welles was a star of bigtime radio; his Mercury Players produced The War of the Worlds in 1938, and dozens of other hour-long dramas. His other hit radio series included The Shadow, Campbell Playhouse, The Lives of Harry Lime, and The Black Museum.
In 1998…Announcer (WNYC-New York starting in 1937, Arthur Godfrey's radio and TV shows for nearly 14 years starting in 1945)/commercial spokesman (Chesterfield cigarettes, the original Kellogg's Tony the Tiger)/radio newsman (Mutual Broadcasting System in the 1960s) Tony Marvin died at age 86.
In 2003...conservative talk-show host, Rush Limbaugh, admitted to his audience of 20 million listeners that he was addicted to painkillers and would be entering rehab for 30 days.
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