| July 7 |
| 1897 -- comedienne and actress Arlene Harris is born in Toronto. The radio voice of Baby Snooks's mother on radio, Arlene also gains fame for her character 'The Chatterbox,' a pre-cursor to Bob Newhart's comedy in that we hear only the actor's side of an imaginary telephone conversation. It was this character that Arlene reprised during the hilarious 1964 episode 'The Return of Edwin Carp' on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show.' The plot has Dick trying to get former radio stars for 'The Alan Brady Show,' including the elusive Carp. Along with Arlene, wild-haired Bert Gordon ('The Mad Russian') and Richard Haydn. (NOTE: I had always been under the impression that there was no 'real' Edwin Carp but, according to The New York Times, Haydn did, indeed, create the character of fish expert Edwin Carp.) If you've never seen this episode, give yourself a real treat! Arlene died June 12, 1976, in Los Angeles of natural causes. She was 78 years old. In 1911, actor Eddie Mayehoff was born in Baltimore. A jack of all trades, he was a bandleader (he attended the Yale School of Music), a radio comedy writer and a television emcee at various stages of his career. As an actor, the husky-voiced entertainer with the elastic face is best remembered as Dad in the movie That's My Boy opposite Jerry Lewis. In 1954 he was able to transfer the role of "Jarring" Jack Jackson to a short-lived That's My Boy TV series. Gil Stratton played Junior this time, the miserable egghead whose young life was turned hellish by his pushy, obstinate dad. Mayehoff died Nov. 12 1992 at age 81. In 1920, a device known as the radio compass was used for the first time on a U.S. Navy airplane near Norfolk, Virginia. 1943, for the first time, Flashgun Casey was heard on radio. Not much later, the name of the program was altered to Casey, Crime Reporter, and became much more popular & enduring. 1949 -- Credited as the first police drama to be based on actual case files, 'Dragnet' debuts on radio. According to Wikipedia, (I know Wiki gets knocked by the media, but now that they've tightened up on source accreditation, they're a top-notch source for television background and this Dragnet entry is excellent), long-time radio actor Barton Yarborough played Joe Friday's first partner, Sergeant Ben Romero, with Raymond Burr portraying Captain Ed Backstrand. (Wouldn't it be nice if, just once, Sergeant Joe Friday would've said, 'Just the facts, ma'am, but first -- a word from our sponsor!') The series debuted television in 1952 but didn't end its radio run until 1956. In 1956, Johnny Cash made his first appearance on ``Grand Ole Opry.'' He later became a regular member of the cast. 1962 -- orchestra leader David Rose hits #1 on the charts with his instrumental 'The Stripper' and stays there for a week. The song has renewed life when Noxzema Medicated Instant Shaving Cream begins using the music as part of a popular series of commercials in which a seductive blond urges men to 'Take it off. Take it all off.' (By the way, it's often incorrectly stated that a then-unknown Farrah Fawcett was the beautiful blonde. While Farrah did indeed do a commercial with Joe Namath, the music was not 'The Stripper,' and Joe Namath didn't take it off -- he 'got creamed.' That beautiful blond was actually former Miss Sweden Gunilla Knutsen.) 1967 -- Hey, hey, they were the Monkees, and they opened a national tour this day -- with Jimi Hendrix. That sound strange? Then brace yourself for this: Hendrix wasthe opening act and The Monkees were the headliners. Try wrapping your mind around that for awhile! ('Scuse me while I kiss the history books . . . ) Also in 1971, Karen and Richard Carpenter hosted "Make Your Own Kind of Music" on NBC-TV. The show was a summer series. Also in 1975, the TV soap opera "Ryan's Hope" had its premiere. In 1978, Morris the Cat of the "Nine Lives" cat food commercials was rescued by trainer Bob Martwick from the pound just a few minutes before he was to be put to sleep. 1979 -- sad and practically forgotten footnote from this date: producer/songwriter Van McCoy, who worked with some of the top acts in music but will always be best-remembered for his still-fresh instrumental 'The Hustle,' dies of a massive heart attack in Englewood, New Jersey. Not only did 'The Hustle' win the Grammy for in 1975 for 'Best Pop Instrumental,' it also sold nearly 10 million copies which is why, according to imdb.com, 'The Hustle' is considered the top-selling disco song of all-time. And to answer the question of which came first, the song or the dance, imdb.com quotes Van as saying this: "When I wrote 'The Hustle' I'd never even been to a disco to see the dance. What happened was that David Todd, who's one of the top DJs in the New York Discos, came to me and told me about this new dance. I got a couple of girls to do the Hustle for me in the office so I could get the rhythm right, and I wrote the tune." Van Allen Clinton McCoy was just 39 years old when he died. 1990, radio/TV game show host & panellist Bill Cullen, who hosted the first TV Price is Right, and was a longtime panel member on I've Got a Secret & then To Tell the Truth, died of cancer at age 70. He'd begun in radio as host of Quick as a Flash and Hit the Jackpot. Bandleader Doc Severinsen (Tonight Show) is 81. Drummer Ringo Starr is 68. Actor Joe Spano (Hill St. Blues, NYPD Blue, Navy NCIS) is 62. |
| From Pittsburgh, PA, gameshow host Bill Cullen was one of the best -- even when adjusting his glasses |