Blondie was a radio situation comedy adapted from the long-run comic strip by
Chic Young. The radio program also had a long run on several networks from
July 3, 1939 to 1950. It was a summer replacement for The Eddie Cantor Show,
but Cantor did not return in the fall, so the shows sponsor, R.J. Reynolds’ Camel Cigarettes chose to keep Blondie on the air Mondays at 7:30pm. The program
starred Arthur Lake and Penny Singleton (above).

The comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello (shown above) were
a summer replacement on radio for Fred Allen. They launched their own
weekly show October 8, 1942, sponsored by Camel cigarettes.The Abbott
and Costello Show mixed comedy with musical interludes by vocalists such
as Connie Haines and the Les Baxter Singers.

Actor and producer Tom Cruise has been nominated for three Academy Awards
and has won three Golden Globe Awards. Cruise first debuted in a major movie
in Francis Ford Coppola’s film The Outsiders, released in March 1983. His first
leading role was in the film Risky Business (1983). Cruise played the role of navy
pilot in the successfully popular 1986 film Top Gun. He is also seen in the Mission: Impossible action films in the 1990s and 2000s and Minority Report (2002) and
the Steven Spielberg adaptation of War of the Worlds (2005). 

 

Tom Cruise as Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic in the Oliver Stone film

Ken Curtis is best remembered for his role as Festus Haggen on the long-
running CBS western TV series Gunsmoke (1955 – 1975). Curtis was a
singer before moving into acting and combined both careers once he
entered films, performing with the popular Sons of the Pioneers from 1949
to 1953 as well as singing with the Tommy Dorsey band. Curtis replaced
Frank Sinatra as vocalist for the band. Curtis’ last acting role was as the
aging cattle rancher "Seaborn Tay" (above) in the Turner Network TV
production Conagher (1991).