Little Orphan Annie was initally a daily comic strip created by Harold Gray (below) and syndicated by Tribune Media Service. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem
“Little Orphant Annie” by James Whitcomb Riley, and made its debut on August 5,
1924 in the New York Daily News. It ranked number one in a popularity in a Fortune  
magazine poll in 1937. The strip’s popularity began to decline over the years and 
and was running in only 20 newspapers when it was cancelled on June 13, 2010.

Harold Gray

First Little Orphan Annie Sunday newspaper comic strip, November 2, 1924.

Actor Dale Robertson is best known for his starring roles on television. He played
the role of Jim Hardie in the NBC- TV series, Tales of Wells Fargo (1957-1962)
and the owner of a railroad line in ABC’s The Iron Horse (1966-1968) After a
long career that included 63 films, Robertson retired and now lives in Yukon,
Oklahoma.

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).

Host Graham Archer (KGW Radio)

Archie Andrews, based on the comic book series, was also a long-running radio
show that began on the NBC Blue Network on May 31, 1943, switched to Mutual
in 1944, and then continued on NBC from 1945 until September 5, 1953. The
program’s original announcer was Kenneth Banghart, later succeeded by Bob
Shepard (during the 1947-48 season, when Swift and Company sponsored the 
program) and Dick Dudley. Archie was first played by Charles Mullen, Jack
Grimes and Burt Boyar, with Bob Hastings (below) as the title character during 
the NBC years. Jughead was portrayed by Hal Stone and Cameron Andrews. For 
the NBC run, Betty was portrayed by Rosemary Rice (below), and Veronica by
Gloria Mann.

                  
Bob Hastings                                              Rosemary Rice