J. Scott Smart

The Fat Man, a popular radio show during the 1940s and early 1950s was a
detective drama based on characters by Dashiell Hammett. It starred J. Scott
Smart (above) in the title role, as a detective who started out anonymous but
rapidly acquired the name ‘Brad Runyon’.

Broadcast from the studios of WJZ in Newark, New Jersey, the series premiered
on the ABC Radio Network on Monday, January 21, 1946, at 8:30pm, as part of
a block of four new programs and ran until 1951. Based on Dashiell Hammett’s
fiction, The Fat Man was further developed by producer, E.J. Rosenberg. The
program was directed by Clark Andrews, creator of Big Town, and Charles
Powers. The main writer was Richard Ellington, with other scripts by Robert
Sloane and Lawrence Klee.

Arthur Gordon "Art" Linkletter (Gordon Arthur Kelly)
(July 17, 1912 – May 26, 2010)

House Party is a daytime radio daytime variety/talk show that aired on
CBS Radio and on ABC Radio from January 15, 1945 to October 13,
1967. The show had an equally long run on CBS Television as Art
Linkletter’s House Party.

The 6ft 6in Edmund "Tiny" Ruffner (right) was the host of The Better
Half.

The radio quiz show The Better Half was aired for the first time on Mutual. The
show involved 4 married couples pitted against each other in various feats to
find out which of them was the "better" one.

Raymond Edward Johnson was "Your host, Raymond,"

Inner Sanctum Mystery, also known as Inner Sanctum, is a popular radio
program that originally aired from January 7, 1941 to October 5, 1952,
was created by producer Himan Brown and was based on the generic
title given to the mystery novels of Simon & Schuster. A total of 526
episodes of the anthology series were broadcast.

Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch was a Western variety radio show that ran until August
1, 1943, and from September 23, 1945 to May 16, 1956. The show’s entire run was broadcast on CBS radio, sponsored by Doublemint gum. The approximately two-
year interruption resulted from Autry’s enlistment in the U.S. Army to fight in World
War II. Episodes were 30 minutes long except for a 15-minute version that ran from September 23, 1945 to June 16, 1946.

Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry
(September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998)