Old Radio

June 12: Happy Birthday, Vic Damone Today marks the day on which, in 1928, the crooner of "You're Breaking My Heart," "You Do," and "My Truly Truly Fair" came into the world. Vic Damone was a singer, an armed services veteran, and an all-around charming personage. When not cranking out the big hits, he had time to deliver them live on such big radio programs as Hedda Hopper's Hollywood and Guest Star . Guard Session featured Damone's recordings, interspersed with short interview slots in which he promoted the National Guard and talked about his experiences with them. Damone was a prototypical Italian crooner, classy, debonair, well-tailored. It all went with his silky-smooth voice. We're pleased to pay tribute to him, and we thank him for the old time radio memories !

In the world of show biz bios, you can either be a lower-working class kid from Bumble Bluffs, Illinois who hopped on a tomato truck and rode out to L.A. hoping to make it big, or you can come from one of the big cities and be drawn to the entertainment world around you. Burt Lancaster wasn't from Bumble Bluffs.  He was born in New York City and was very affected by Joan Crawford and Lon Chaney in the 1927 silent film The Unknown.  From there it was a stint working for the circus (OK, maybe he was a bumpkin from the corn belt), Hollywood, and eventually his huge roles in Elmer Gantry, Atlantic City, and The Birdman of Alcatraz. If you were a radio listener at the time and you wanted to hear Burt's voice, you could tune in to The Bob Hope Show , Hedda Hopper 's Hollywood , Lux Radio Theatre , and The Cavalcade of America .

If Hedda Hopper looks like someone who should host a gossip show on the radio , chalk that up to one instance of order in the universe.  From 1939-'47 she did that very thing on a couple of networks with a few different sponsors.  The former actress and gossip columnist was nimble-tongued and clever, a good fit for the airwaves. Later, she would turn her show into Hedda Hopper 's Hollywood, a variety show with guests such as Bob Hope , Audey Murphy, and Humphrey Bogart . Hopper's radio gossip began as a series of segments on Rudy Vallee 's show.