Garry Moore

Beat the Band was a musical quiz show heard on NBC radio from Sunday,
January 28, 1940 to September 6, 1944. Host Garry Moore read music-
related questions submitted by listeners to band members in Ted Weems
Orchestra.

The show was originally sponsored by the General Mills cereal Kix with
Marvin Miller and Tom Shirley as announcers. Among the program’s
vocalists was Perry Como.

Unlike most radio shows of the time, Beat the Band did not always originate
in Chicago; the program was often broadcast on location from places like
Denver, St Louis, and Milwaukee.

The program popularized the show business catch phrase, "Give me a
little traveling music," often uttered by Jackie Gleason.

Perry Como 

Marvin Miller

 
The cast of Easy Aces: Goodman (center) and Jane (right) Ace, with faithful friend Marge (Mary Hunter, left),

Easy Aces was one of radio’s most respected comedies that had a fifteen-year run  
from 1930 to 1945. It first aired for 15-minutes on KMBC in Kansas City,Missouri and went  become a 30-minute network show on CBS radio in March 1932. The show
starred creator and writer, Goodman Ace and his wife Jane.   

Goodman and Jane Ace

 

         Lyle Russell Cedric “Skitch” Henderson 
      
           (January 27, 1918 – November 1, 2005)

Skitch is best known as the conductor and bandleader on
TONIGHT! and later THE TONIGHT SHOW from 1953-1966
on NBC-TV. Prior to this, Skitch Henderson led bands on 
such radio programs as THE PEPSODENT SHOW starring
Bob Hope, THE LUCKY STRIKE SHOW starring Frank
Sinatra and THE PHILCO HOUR starring Bing Crosby.

In 1983, Henderson founded The New York Pops orchestra,
based at Carnegie Hall in New York City. He served as the
music director of the orchestra until his death.
 

From left: Steve Allen and Skitch Henderson

Johnny Carson (left) and Skitch

Jack Benny married Sadie Marks (above) on January 25, 1927. The couple met
while she was said to be working as a lingerie salesgirl at a May Department Store
in Los Angeles. Sadie changed her name to Mary Livingstone, a scripted character 
in one of Jack’s vaudeville shows.

            Mary Livingstone (1905-1983)      Jack Benny (1894-1974)

Cast of The Guiding Light from 1937 (left – right) Arthur Peterson, Mercedes
McCambridge, Helen Behmiller, and Henrietta Ledro.

Guiding Light (known as The Guiding Light before 1975) is a television soap opera
the Guinness Book of World Records credits as the longest running drama in TV
and radio history. The program began as a NBC Radio serial on Monday, January
25, 1937 and moved to CBS radio on June 2, 1947. It started on CBS -TV, June 30,
1952 where it ran until 2009 when it was cancelled. Guiding Light was created by
schoolteacher Irna Phillips, who based it on her personal experiences.

Irna Phillips, mother of the Soap Opera