(JULY 14, 191 -  OCT. 13, 1990)

Douglas Edwards was America’s first television network news
anchor beginning with the first nightly news broadcast on CBS
from 1948–1962, which was later titled CBS Evening News.

The Adventures of Sam Spade was a radio series based loosely on the private
detective character Sam Spade, created by writer Dashiell Hammett.The show
ran for 13 episodes on ABC in 1946, for 157 episodes on CBS in 1946-1949,
and finally for 51 episodes on NBC in 1949-1951.The series starred Howard
Duff (above) and later, Steve Dunne as Sam Spade and Lurene Tuttle as his
secretary Effie, and took a considerably more tongue-in-cheek approach to the
character than the novel or movie. In 1947, scriptwriters Jason James and Bob
Tallman received an Edgar Award for Best Radio Drama from the Mystery
Writers of America.

Howard Duff with co-star Lurene Tuttle

In 1957, radio legend Alan Freed was given a weekly prime-time TV series, The
Big Beat(which predated American Bandstand), on ABC. The show was scheduled
for a Summer run, with the understanding that if there were enough viewers, the
show would continue into the 1957-58 television season. Although the ratings for 
the first three episodes were strong, the show was suddenly canceled after the
fourth episode. During that episode, singer Frankie Lymon, after performing a
number with his group The Teenagers, was seen dancing with a white girl from
the studio audience. Reportedly, the incident offended the management of ABC’s
local affiliates in the southern states, and led to the show’s immediate cancellation
despite its growing popularity.

Comedian Milton Berle, was host of NBC’s Texaco Star Theater (1948–55). In
1948 he was the first major star of American television and as such became
known as Uncle Miltie and Mr. Television to millions of viewers during TV’s
great golden age. Berle died of colon cancer at the age of 93.

1956

In 1951 disc jockey Alan Freed got a job playing classical music on Cleveland,
Ohio radio station WJW. Freed soon met Leo Mintz, the owner of the Record Rendezvous, one of Cleveland’s largest record stores, who proposed buying
airtime on the station to be devoted entirely to R&B recordings, with Freed
as host. On July 11, 1951, Freed started playing rhythm and blues records
on WJW. Freed called his show “The Moondog House” and billed himself as
“The King of the Moondoggers”. He had been inspired by a instrumental
called “Moondog Symphony” that had been recorded by New York street
musician Louis T. Hardin, aka “Moondog”. Freed adopted the record as his
show’s theme music.