Old Radio

Not always mentioned among big stars like Clark Gable and Cary Grant ; not always among celebrated artists such as Laurence Olivier, Marlon Brando, or Al Pacino, James Mason certainly earned the right to be called one of the great film actors of all time. Mason was nominated for three Oscars and and three Golden Globes, and his resume reads like a who's who of classic movies: Lolita , North By Northwest , and Julius Caesar .  Also not too shabby were A Star is Born and Bigger Than Life . While radio was passing the baton of dominant media on to movies (with television a newbie), the British Mason appeared on a few of the big American shows: Suspense , Maxwell House Coffee Time , Studio One , and The Fred Allen Show . We say a happy birthday to actor James Mason!

Could Tyrone Power have been anything other than an actor? The branches of his family tree included Laurence Olivier and Tyrone Guthrie, who instituted the Stratford Festival, while his great-grandfather, Tyrone Power (1795-1841) was an actor, as was his father Tyrone Power, Sr. Thus, the man known for his parts in The Black Swan, The Mark of Zorro , and Blood and Sand couldn't have been better suited for a life on stage and in front of the camera. Today's birthday boy made many solid appearances on some of the biggest radio shows, such as Lux Radio Theatre , The Cavalcade of America , and The Gulf Screen Guild Theatre . On Jan. 7, 1940, he starred alongside Humphrey Bogart in an adaptation of Robert Sherwood's "The Petrified Forest." Power's radio travels also allowed him to work with Gale Gordon , Bob Hope , Bing Crosby , and Hans Conried . So take a moment and remember the times you heard Mr. Power on the radio, on this, the day of his 1914 birt...