Old Radio

Born on this day in 1904, Ray Bolger may be best known as the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz .  But this is a radio blog!  Let's talk old time radio .  The curious Ray Bolger, who'd have parts in Little House on the Prairie, Rich Man, Poor Man, and Babes in Toyland (the 1961 re-make), also has a chapter in the history of classic radio. Remember those Summer replacement shows? Ray's was The Ray Bolger Show , a stand-in for Jimmy Durante and Gary Moore in 1945. Later, the quixotic song and dance man would record a children's record called Churkendoose, about a fowl that was a hybrid of--guess which--animals.  Add to this the fact that he was originally up for the part of the Tin Man role in Wizard but coveted the Scarecrow instead, and you have a very colorful, odd addition to the pantheon of character actors in radio 's grand history.

On Mar. 28, 1952, CBS took the air with The Doris Day Show, a radio program featuring an established recording artist and actress. The show used the format that was by then a staple: soothing musical numbers and then performances by guests, most of them stars of stage, screen, and air. Guests included Kirk Douglas , Ronald Reagan , Danny Thomas , and Ray Bolger . Howard Keel was probably the most frequent guest, with Gordon MacRae not far behind. As was the case with many of the big stars of the time period, Day also made plenty of appearances on the various big-name radio shows. The fetching singer-actress climbed the radio ladder with appearances on The Rudy Vallee Show, Command Performance , The Bob Hope Show, Kraft Music Hall and Stars For Defense. The songstress who gave us "Till The End of Times," "My Dreams are Getting Better All the Time," and "I Got the Sun in the Mornin'" lives on in the memories of old time radio fans.