Old Radio

December 27: Happy Birthday, Cathy Lewis Cathy Lewis (December 27th, 1916-November 20, 1968) was best known for her numerous radio appearances. Lewis moved from her hometown of Spokane, Washington to Chicago and found work on The First Nighter Program. Eventually, Lewis moved back across the country to Hollywood , where she had starring roles in the Pasadena Playhouse productions of Stage Door, Winterset, and To Quito and Back. In 1943, Cathy met and married Elliot Lewis, a radio actor and writer. They both became staples of the vintage radio scene, regulars among the group known as Hollywood ’s Radio Row. The pair appeared both together and separately on programs such as The Whistler . Together they co-created the respected anthology series On Stage and helped to steward the popular mystery's program Suspense . Cathy and Elliot began to be billed as “Mr. and Mrs. Radio.” Cathy is most remembered for her role as Jane Stacy, a sensibly droll woman that roomed with Irma Pe...

William Shakespeare 's biggest claim to fame was...being William Shakespeare . He was born on this day in 1564, so let's take a moment to celebrate performances of Shakespeare works on old time radio . Orson Welles was a lover of the classics who cut his teeth as a stage actor acting in several Shakespeare classics. He produced and directed several, including some for the Federal Theatre Project in the early 1930's. On the air, he brought Shakespeare to life on his program Columbia Workshop , with adaptations of Hamlet and As You Like It. Shakespeare's plays were adapted on such programs as I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, Suspense, and Theatre Guild . References to Shakespeare characters and phrases inspired titles of episodes of Gunsmoke , First Nighter , and Favorite Story . He is too big a figure in arts and literature not to have made his imprint on old time radio. Happy Birthday, Bard.