Jan. 26, 1944
It’s Wednesday in 1944 and today we have:
— “The Adventures of Mr. and Mrs. North,” sponsored by Woodbury’s Facial Soap, for “the skin you love to touch.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
— Groucho Marx on the first program of “Orson Welles’ Almanac,” sponsored by Mobil Gas and Oil. Listen to Welles deliver the horoscope! Courtesy of Archive.org.
Jan. 26, 1944: A brief BBC excerpt, courtesy of Archive.org.
Jan. 25, 1944
It’s Tuesday in 1944 and today we have:
— “The Adventures of the Sea Hound” with Capt. Silver and Jerry. Seems that everybody knows the “secret death hold.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
— “Dining Out to Celebrate” on “Fibber McGee and Molly.” This show marks the appearance of Beulah. Be sure to use Johnson’s wax on your snow shovels! Courtesy of Archive.org.
— Deems Taylor (who was on “Information Please yesterday) is the guest on “Duffy’s Tavern.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
— “Elizabeth of Austria” on Romance, from WABC New York. Courtesy of Archive.org.
— “Vic and Sade,” brought to you by Crisco. Courtesy of Archive.org.
Jan. 24, 1944: Margaret Sullavan gets the cover photo this week. Inside is Margaret Bourke-White’s feature on the rehabilitation of Naples and the movie is “Destination Tokyo.” Courtesy of Google.
January 24, 1944
It’s Monday in 1944 and today we have:
—“Information Please,” hosted by Clifton Fadiman, with John Kieran, Franklin P. Adams, Elizabeth Janeway — author of the bestseller “The Walsh Girls” — and music critic Deems Taylor. I invite the Brain Trust to try these questions. They can be tough! Courtesy of Archive.org
—“Casablanca,” starring Alan Ladd as Rick and Hedy Lamarr, on “Lux Radio Theatre.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
—“Stolen Patrol Car” on “Hop Harrigan.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
These were the most popular words in the final comments of the reader survey.
OK, here are some final comments and responses:
I can’t be the only one who is frustrated that Musicmatch Jukebox won’t run on Windows 8. At least version 10 won’t run. But As you can see, Version 7.1 will install if you run the installation program in Windows 98 compatibility mode and run MMJB in Windows XP mode. Musicmatch launched just as Windows 8 was telling me that it wouldn’t run. Ha!
You may be asking yourself: “Gosh, Larry, where can I get Musicmatch Jukebox 7.1? It’s from 2002!!” I happened to have a copy because I’m a pack rat. But alas, Musicmatch Jukebox is long discontinued, so getting a copy now might be problematic. If you Google it, you may be able to find a version. Good luck!
And why would I want to run this ancient software? Because, among other things, it includes a first-rate digital recorder.
Next I’ll be hunting a CP/M emulator so I can run WordStar. (Just kidding).
Jan. 23, 1944
It’s Sunday in 1944 and today we have:
— Harold Peary stars in “Does Leroy Need a Mother?” another episode of “The Great Gildersleeve.” Courtesy of Archive.org
— Jack Benny performs at the Army airfield at Muroc, Calif., on the “Jack Benny Show.” “Shoo-Shoo, Baby” makes its third appearance, this time it’s sung by Rochester. Courtesy of Archive.org
And here’s where we try to get a handle on where to focus for 2014:
The top interest among Daily Mirror readers is film, followed by famous crimes (unsolved and solved), then preservation, architecture, television, LAPD/law enforcement, other, theater and fashion.
Jan. 22, 1944
It’s Saturday in 1944 and today we have:
— Bob Hope, Benny Goodman and Deanna Durbin appear in “Command Performance,” an Armed Forces Services Radio program. The program is dated January, but there are lots of jokes about Valentine’s Day. Hm. Courtesy of Archive.org.
In one segment of the survey, I asked readers what other websites they visited. Interestingly enough, the Los Angeles Times was the top website, followed by IMDB, the New York Times, Wikipedia (ahem), L.A. Observed, Curbed L.A., the Daily Beast, L.A. Weekly, L.A. Morgue Files, She Blogged by Night, LAist, Franklin Avenue, Dodger Thoughts, Nitrateville, Self-Styled Siren and the Fedora Lounge.
I neglected to ask about the SkyscraperCity blog, which sends some traffic my way.
Jan. 21, 1944
It’s Friday in 1944 and today we have:
—Charles Boyer is the guest star on “Amos ‘N’ Andy.” Courtesy of Archive.org
Last month, the Daily Mirror polled readers for the first time. The responses were gratifying (thank you) and interesting. Of course, this is an opt-in poll, so it’s not as reliable as one of the more formal, scientific polls, but it’s interesting even so.
WordPress is making it difficult to post today. Apparently my jetpack header is malformed.
I uploaded the mystery photo the old-fashioned Windows95 way, but posting will be light until WordPress gets it fixed.
Jan. 20, 1944
It’s Thursday in 1944 and today we have:
— “Macbeth’s Bloody Knife” on “Challenge of the Yukon” (later “Sgt. Preston of the Yukon”).
— “The Scarecrow and the Snowman” on “Ellery Queen” with guest Jeanne Cagney.
Courtesy of Archive.org.
Joseph Farnham in an undated photo, courtesy of Mary Mallory.
Title writers are the mostly forgotten men of the silent film era, the scribes who relayed important plot points and character arcs through witty or descriptive lines employed on cards throughout a silent film. These bon mots weren’t just witty throwaways, they were often the glue that held disparate skits or weak plots together and made them coherent to screen audiences. Their resuscitation work revived flat films, and invigorated well-made ones.
Large, friendly, talented Joseph White Farnham ranks as one of the top title writers of the 1920s, the only winner of the Academy Award for title writing issued by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Farnham possessed great experience and skill in all types of writing and film production, helping his beloved movie industry develop into a major economic powerhouse by the 1930s.
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
Jan. 19, 1944
It’s Wednesday in 1944 and today, we have one of the few “Superman” episodes I can find online.
— “The Green Death,” on “Superman.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
Jan. 18, 1944
It’s Tuesday in 1944 and today we have:
— “Molly Gets Flowers From a Man Named Ralph” on “Fibber McGee and Molly.”
—Esquire’s “All-American Jazz Band” from the Metropolitan Opera House. This is a terrific find. The audio quality is fairly decent for the 1940s and look at the personnel. The announced performers are singer Billie Holiday; drums, Sid Catlett; trombone: Jack Teagarden; clarinet: Barney Bigard, saxophone: Coleman Hawkins, trumpet: Roy Eldridge. Other online sources also list Louis Armstrong, Teddy Wilson, Art Tatum, Red Norvo, Lionel Hampton, Oscar Pettiford, Al Casey and Mildred Bailey.
Here’s the mp3 version in case your browser doesn’t have a plug-in for the ogg format.
Both recordings courtesy of Archive.org.
ladailymirror.com 