William Gargan

William Gargan was born on July 17, 1905, he was an American radio, film, and television actor.

His full name was William Dennis Gargan, and he was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. His older brother was actor Edward Gargan.

After completing his studies, Gargan worked as a salesman of bootleg whiskey to speakeasies in New York, later joining a detective agency. While visiting his brother at a musical theatre, he was offered a stage job, which he accepted, beginning his stage career by performing in the play Aloma of the South Seas.

Gargan played character roles in many Hollywood productions, playing policemen, priests, reporters, adventurers and stereotypical Irishmen. His roles included Detective Ellery Queen, whom he played twice, although he became best known as Detective Martin Kane in the 1949-51 radio-television series Martin Kane, Private Eye. He also played a private detective on Barrie Craig's NBC radio show Confidential Investigator, which aired from 1951 to 1955.

Gargan's first regular radio role was Captain Flagg on Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt, beginning in February 1942. He also portrayed Ross Dolan in I Deal in Crime, and Inspector Burke in Murder Will Out, and was host of G. I. Laffs.

In 1949 Gargan was in New York City when he phoned acquaintance Frank Folsom of RCA. Folsom invited Gargan for lunch. He went to the fifty-third floor of 30 Rockefeller Center. Inside were executives from BBD&O, The New York Stock Exchange, and others. During lunch Gargan mentioned that he was looking for a job in TV.

Folsom phoned Norm Blackburn, VP of TV and Radio at NBC and a good friend of Gargan’s. Gargan was asked if he’d be interested in playing a pipe-smoking detective, sponsored by the U.S. Tobacco Company. The show became Martin Kane, Private Eye. It would be shot for TV and separately done for radio as well. Mutual Broadcasting carried the radio series. It debuted on Sunday August 7, 1949 at 4:30PM eastern time. Meanwhile, the TV version aired on NBC Thursdays at 10PM.

Gargan's career ended in 1958 when he became ill with laryngeal cancer, necessitating the removal of his larynx. Speaking in an artificial voice, Gargan became an activist and spokesman for the American Cancer Society, warning on many occasions about the dangers of smoking.

Gargan and his wife, Mary were married in Baltimore on January 19, 1928. They had two sons. Bill (nicknamed Barrie) was born on February 25, 1929. Leslie was born on June 28, 1933.

William Gargan died of a heart attack in 1979 while on a plane from New York to San Diego, California. He was 73 years old. He was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in San Diego.

Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator

Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator was a detective drama aired on NBC Radio from October 3, 1951 to June 30, 1955.

William Gargan, who also played the better known television and radio detective Martin Kane, was the voice of New York eye Barrie Craig while Ralph Bell portrayed his associate, Lt. Travis Rogers. Craig's office was on Madison Avenue and his adventures were fairly standard PI fare. He worked alone, solved cases efficiently, and feared no man. As the promos went, he was "your man when you can't go to the cops. Confidentiality a specialty." A few years earlier Gargan had played a similar character in Martin Kane, Private Eye. Gargan also starred in the role in an unsuccessful 1952 TV pilot written and directed by Blake Edwards. It was presented on ABC's Pepsi-Cola Playhouse as "Death the Hard Way" (October 17, 1954).

This series has been produced with various spellings of the primary character name. Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator is one of the few detective radio series that had separate versions of it broadcast from both coasts. Even the spelling changed over the years. It was first "Barry Crane" and then "Barrie Craig". NBC produced it in New York from 1951 to 1954 and then moved it to Hollywood where it aired from 1954 to 1955.

Detective Barrie Craig (William Gargan) worked alone from his Madison Avenue office. Unlike his contemporaries Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, Craig had a laid-back personality, somewhat cutting against the popular hard-boiled detective stereotype. Others in the cast included Ralph Bell, Elspeth Eric, Parker Fennelly, Santos Ortega, Arnold Moss, Parley Baer, Virginia Gregg and Betty Lou Gerson.

Ed Wynn The Fire Chief

The shows star Ed Wynn as one of his most memorable characters, "The Firechief." Best known as a fantastic character actor and vaudevillian style clown, Ed Wynn's babbling voice and trademark giggle are unforgettable.

Isaiah Edwin Leopold was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 9, 1886, known by the stage name Ed Wynn, was a popular American actor and comedian, who had a formidable career of almost 65 years where he participated in vaudeville and theaters, in television shows, on radio and in film. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for his activity in film and television, respectively. Ed Wynn inspired the English voice recording of the animated cartoon Wally Gator.

As a teenager he ran away from home. In his youth he worked as an assistant to W. C. Fields. He then appeared in various vaudevilles in the 1910s and, from 1914, in the Ziegfeld Follies, a series of Broadway stage productions based on the Parisian Folies Bergère. Ed Wynn's first Broadway success came a few years later with The Perfect Fool (1921).

He subsequently hosted a radio show called Texaco's Fire Chief from 1932 to 1939 before making his small-screen debut in 1950. That same year he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Living Personality.

He featured Ed Wynn as the Firechief. Sponsored by Texaco, the show aired its last episode in 1935, producing 12 episodes.

Outside of his radio career, Ed Wynn starred in 1920's silent films and continued to star on the big screen until his death in the 1960's. He also starred in his own TV show, "The Ed Wynn Show." His bumbling voice is instantly recognizable in the animated feature film, "Alice in Wonderland" and many others.

He also appeared in film and was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959).​ He voiced the character of the Mad Hatter in Disney's version of Alice in Wonderland (1951). He also acted in Mary Poppins (1964) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). He also appeared in Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone, playing a traveling salesman facing death.

Ed Wynn was a Freemason and belonged to Lodge No. 9 in Philadelphia. He died of esophageal cancer on June 19, 1966, in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 79.

A Canticle for Leibowitz

A Canticle for Leibowitz is a post-apocalyptic social science fiction novel by American writer Walter M. Miller Jr., first published in 1959. Set in a Catholic monastery in the desert of the southwestern United States after a devastating nuclear war, the book spans thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself. The monks of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz preserve the surviving remnants of man's scientific knowledge until the world is again ready for it.

The novel is an amalgamation of three short stories Miller had originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, inspired by the author's participation in the bombing of a monastery at the Battle of Monte Cassino during World War II. The book is considered one of the classics of science fiction and has never been out of print. Appealing to mainstream and genre critics and readers alike, it won the 1961 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel, and often appears on "best of" lists.  It has been recognized three times with Locus Poll Awards for best all-time science fiction novel.  Its themes of religion, recurrence, and church versus state have generated a significant body of scholarly research.

The story starts approximately 500 after a global nuclear war has reduced mankind to barbarism. It centres around an order of monks living in an abbey in the former US Southwest.

The story had previously been published as a series of novels in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science.

It was adapted for radio by John Reed, and aired in 15 episodes in 1981 on National Public Radio stations. Directed by Karl Schmidt, the series starred Fred Coffin, Russell Horton, Bart Hayman and Herb Hartig with narration by Carol Collins. Music for the series was by Greg Fish and Bob Budney and the Edgewood College Chant Group.

Lee Tracy

Born in Atlanta , Georgia, April 14, 1898, he studied electrical engineering at Union College, and later served as an ensign in World War I. In the early 1920s he decided to work as an actor, becoming a star on Broadway with his leading role in George Kelly's 1924 play The Show-Off.

In 1929 he came to Hollywood, where he played a number of films as a journalist. On stage he had been the reporter Hildy Johnson in the original 1928 version of The Front Page, and was a columnist in the likeness of Walter Winchell in the 1932 film Blessed Event. Tracy was also a journalist in Advice to the Lovelorn (1933), loosely based on the novel Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West.

He played Buzzard, the criminal who leads Liliom (Charles Farrell) into a fatal robbery, in the 1930 version of Liliom. He also played Lupe Velez's frenetic manager in Gregory La Cava's The Half-Naked Truth (1932), and the following year he played John Barrymore's agent in George Cukor's Dinner at Eight.

His burgeoning career was temporarily interrupted in 1934 while he was filming Viva Villa! in Mexico City, in which Wallace Beery played Pancho Villa. Tracy urinated from a balcony in Mexico City as a military parade passed by. He was immediately fired from the production and replaced by Stuart Erwin.

During World War II Tracy returned to uniform, and in the 1950s he continued to work in film and television series, even taking on leading roles in some of them, such as New York Confidential, being one of the actors who played the role of detective Martin Kane on television. He also played the President of the United States in the stage and film versions of The Best Man (1964), written by Gore Vidal. For his role as President Art Hockstader in the film, Tracy received his only Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Tracy returned to military service. His career after the war focused increasingly on radio work and performing on the rapidly expanding medium of television. Between 1949 and 1954, he performed on both the radio and televised versions of the weekly series Martin Kane: Private Eye, in which he was one of four actors to play the title role. In 1958, he returned to the role of newspaper reporter in the syndicated series New York Confidential. Tracy did continue to return periodically to the big screen. In 1964, he portrayed the former President of the United States "Art Hockstader", a fictitious character loosely based on Harry Truman, in both the stage and film adaptations of Gore Vidal's novel The Best Man. The movie version featured Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson. Tracy received his only Academy Award nomination, as Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in the film.

Lee Tracy died in Santa Monica, California, of cancer on October 18, 1968. He was 70 years old. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Shavertown, Pennsylvania.

Marian Driscoll

Marian and Jim

Marian Driscoll Jordan was born on April 15, 1898 and was an American actress and radio performer. She was best known for portraying Molly McGee, Fibber McGee's wife, on the NBC radio series Fibber McGee and Molly from 1935 to 1959. She starred alongside her real-life husband, Jim Jordan, on the series.

She was born Marian Irene Driscoll in Peoria, Illinois. She was the twelfth of thirteen children born to Daniel P. Driscoll, (January 10, 1858 – March 25, 1916) and Anna Driscoll Carroll (February 28, 1858 – April 28, 1928). Her paternal great-grandfather, Michael Driscoll, Sr. (1793–1849), had immigrated with his wife and children from his home in Baltimore, Ireland, in 1836 to the Boston area, and then to Bureau County, Illinois, in 1848.

As a teenager and young adult, Driscoll studied music and sang in her church choir. While singing there, she met a choir member, her future husband, Jim Jordan. She married him on August 31, 1918. The couple had a son and a daughter.

Both had meager incomes, so Marian taught piano and Jim had to work as a mailman. Jim also joined the army and was sent to France in 1918 during World War I, where he contracted influenza. After the war, Jim remained in Europe performing vaudeville acts to entertain wounded soldiers.

Jordan's first contact with radio came in 1924 after a bet Jim had made with his brother. The couple's performance was a success, so they began working at WIBO radio station in Chicago, where they earned $10 a week.

Jordan and Jim's second radio show debuted in 1927. The series was titled The Smith Family, and aired on Chicago's WENR. The show gave a major boost to the couple's career, remaining on the air until 1930.

In 1931, while in Chicago, the Jordans met cartoonist Don Quinn. The three created the radio sitcom Smackout, (also known as The Smack-outs). In the series, Jordan was a chatty greengrocer, and her husband was the manager of the grocery store.

The show, for which Quinn was also a writer, was the Jordans' first major hit, broadcast nationwide beginning in 1933. It was also one of the first productions of the sitcom genre.
The show ended in 1935 when it was acquired by Johnson Wax,​ and produced by S.C. Johnson & Son. Johnson reworked the show, which was renamed Fibber McGee and Molly.
On April 16, 1935, created by the Jordans and Quinn, Fibber McGee and Molly premiered on the NBC Blue Network affiliate in Chicago WMAQ (AM).11​12​ The series became a huge success, and marked the birth of the sitcom format. Jordan played Molly McGee, the patient and intelligent wife of Fibber McGee, a character played by her husband.

But in 1938 the show and Jordan underwent major changes. Marian suffered from a drinking problem, so she checked into a rehabilitation center in Chicago. Because of this, Molly was written out of the script, and the show was renamed Fibber McGee and Company. Most people who knew about Marian's problems didn't believe she could return, especially after the show moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in early 1939.

But Marian surprised everyone by returning to the show in March 1939, in better shape than ever, according to some people, and without touching alcohol again.

The show had high ratings from the third season in 1938 until the end of its run. It spawned a spin-off when, in 1941, the antagonistic Fibber McGee character Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, played by Harold Peary, was given his own radio show, The Great Gildersleeve. The radio and television series Beulah was another spin-off of Fibber McGee, and premiered in 1945. Beulah was the McGee's maid on the series.

Jordan's health began to deteriorate in the 1950s, marking the beginning of the end for the show. The show officially ended in 1956, but Jordan and Jim continued to play their roles as Fibber and Molly McGee on the NBC radio show Monitor until October 2, 1959.
In the 1920s, Jordan had a radio show in Chicago called Luke and Mirandy. She played Mirandy, and Jim Jordan played Luke.

In addition, Jordan starred in six films based on the Fibber McGee series, in which she also played Molly.

Jordan married Jim Jordan on August 31, 1918, in Peoria, Illinois. They remained together for nearly 43 years, until his death on April 7, 1961. They had a daughter, Kathryn Therese Jordan (1920–2007) and a son, James Carroll "Jim" Jordan (1923–December 23, 1998). Jordan's first serious health problem occurred in 1938 while performing as Fibber McGee. In 1953, her health deteriorated progressively. She was suddenly affected by great fatigue. Although she was advised to rest, she decided to continue with her program, which was recorded at her home in Encino, California. The progress of her illness forced the daily show to end, although she continued the role on the Monitor until 1959.

By 1958 she was becoming increasingly ill, and was eventually diagnosed with inoperable cancer. Marian Jordan died in Encino on April 7, 1961. She was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Fibber McGee and Molly was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1989, and Marian and Jim Jordan were also inducted that year. Jordan was also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 Vine Street for her radio work.

Chester Morris

Chester Morris (February 16, 1901 – September 11, 1970) was an American film and radio actor, starring in the 1940s detective series Boston Blackie and participating in the Boston Black radio shows in the 1940s..

His full name was John Chester Brooks Morris, and he was born in New York City to stage actors William Morris and Etta Hawkins. Morris made his Broadway acting debut at the age of 17 in Lionel Barrymore's The Copperhead.

His film career began in 1917 with the film An Amateur Orphan. Morris was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor for his work in Alibi (1929), directed by Roland West. He also starred in two other West-directed films, The Bat Whispers (1930) and Corsair (1931).

In 1930 he appeared in the prison film The Big House, but by the end of the decade his career was on the wane, leading him to act in B-movies such as Smashing the Rackets (with Edward Pawley, in 1938) and Five Came Back (1939). His career was revived between 1941 and 1949, when he played the character Boston Blackie in 14 low-budget films produced by Columbia Pictures, the first of which was Meet Boston Blackie. He also played the detective in a radio show series.

Morris was also known for being a magic show enthusiast. He often performed as a magician on his personal tours and in promotion of his films. Unlike many stars who simply said a few words to the audience before the screening of the films, Morris enjoyed doing a full-blown magic and vaudeville act, even using live animals. During World War II he performed hundreds of free magic shows for the United Service Organizations at Army and Navy camps and hospitals. In 1944 a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was named "The Chester and Lili Morris" in honor of himself and his wife and their contribution to the U.S. war effort. Morris also contributed original tricks to magician's publications, often incorporating the magic tricks into his film performances, as in "Boston Blackie and The Law" (1946).

Morris married Suzanne Kilborn on September 30, 1927, and divorced in November 1939. They had two children, Brooks and Cynthia. He later married Lillian Kenton Barker on November 30, 1940, with whom he had a son, Kenton.

Chester Morris was severely afflicted with cancer when he committed suicide while occupying a room at the former Holiday Inn in New Hope, Pennsylvania by taking an overdose of barbiturates. He died in 1970. At the time of his death he was working on a stage adaptation of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope. His remains were cremated and his ashes scattered.