Old Radio

The lovely Joan Fontaine led a colorful and unusual childhood, alternately living in California and Japan. As soon as she struck adulthood she began auditioning for Hollywood film roles, racking up a spree of parts in B-movies.  A breakthrough role was in Hitchcock 's Rebecca, in which she co-starred with Laurence Olivier. The radio producers new she even sounded pretty, and snapped her up for parts in adaptations of contemporary dramas.  In this capacity, she appeared on Lux Radio Theater , Screen Guild Theater , and Theater Guild on the Air . Born in 1917, Fontaine is now an American treasure.

From being referenced in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye to being pictured on a postage stamp, Alfred Lunt has pretty much lived the life. He and his wife Lynne Fontanne made up one of the biggest theatre couples in American history . If you tuned in to Theater Guild on the Air in the 1940s , you would've heard the Lunts spinning wonderful renditions of Elizabeth the Queen, The Guardsman, O Mistress Mine, and several other great dramatic works. The couple also strutted their stuff on a couple of episodes of The Cavalcade of America . All of this came some decades after Lunt had conquered the Broadway world with his acclaimed work in Elizabeth the Queen and The Magnificent Yankee. He snagged an Oscar nomination for his work in The Guardsman. The cherished actor was born on this day in 1892 in Milwaukee. We celebrate  Alfred Lunt 's birthday!

Aug 30: Happy Birthday, Shirley Booth! Shirley Booth played the role of "Mrs Duffy" in the old time radio comedy, Duffy's Tavern and appeared in classic old time radio shows including  Cavalcade of America , Fred Allen Show , Royal Gelatin Hour , Our Miss Brooks , Kate Smith , Theater Guild of the Air , and UN Story .