The child of vaudeville performers, Bill Thompson’s destiny was show business. At 21, he started singing and doing voices on The Breakfast Club, a popular national morning radio show originating in Chicago. He developed a slow-speaking, mush-mouth character he dubbed “Mr. Wimple.” Bill would nurture this voice for the rest of his career. In 1936, …
It’s week number two of Inktober (the JPiC version) and prolific character actor Lionel Atwill is the featured star. While Lionel Atwill appeared in a slew of films in all genres, including romance and comedy, he is best remembered for his supporting work in a number of Universal horror films. Beginning with 1932’s Dr. X, …
A chance audition for the role of “Joe Hardy” on a serialized version of The Hardy Boys was Tommy Kirk’s ticket to stardom. The show, broadcast as part of the popular Mickey Mouse Club, was the first installment in Tommy’s long, productive and lucrative association with the Walt Disney Company. 1957 saw Tommy star in …
Here we are again! October! And Inktober is once again upon us. That means it’s time for hundreds of talented artists worldwide… and me…. to create special works daily just for October, based on a set of suggestions from the official Inktober website. And once again, I’ll be making up my own rules of participation. …
Minnie and Clara Bagelman began their singing career on a New York radio show called “Uncle Norman,” which was geared towards children. This led to the sisters making some recordings for RCA Records in the early 1930s. Their records, which were recorded in Yiddish, had limited appeal and sold mostly to the fans of New …
I loved listening to the radio when I was a kid. As far as I was concerned, there were only two radio stations to listen to in the Philadelphia area — WFIL and WIBG, the AM home of Top 40. Yeah, I knew there were others, but they didn’t play “the hits.” My mom listened …
Just a few years after her father’s death, Mary Koenig took a job as a housekeeper to help support her family. Taking advantage of her connection to employer, the wealthy and influential Harry Payne Whitney, Mary pursued Broadway. Taking the stage name “Mae Murray,” she landed a place in the chorus line of the famed …
