➦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 |
➦In 1902...Mandolin maker Orville Gibson founded the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co, Ltd. in Kalamazoo, MI. In 1936 it would create the first commercially successful electric guitar.
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...Leo "Zeke" Manners was born (Died - October 14, 2000). He was a country musician and radio performed. 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.
➦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...Ken Brown decided to leave the Quarrymen, which also consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. The decision came after the group played at the popular Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool, and 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. So Brown quit the group.
➦In 1962...the BBC radio service banned the Halloween novelty song “Monster Mash”by Bobby “Boris” Pickett. Like many other songs, it was banned under a catch-all regulation prohibiting the broadcast of anything deemed “offensive.”
➦In 1985...Orson Welles suffered a fatal heart attack at age 70. Welles was a star of early radio; his Mercury Players produced The War of the Worlds in 1938, and dozens of other hour-long dramas.
➦In 2003...Syndicated radio talk host Rush Limbaugh, told his audience that he was addicted to painkillers and would be entering rehab for 30 days.
