October 20-23 SHOWCASE: SCREEN LEGEND MARGARET O’BRIEN SCHEDULED TO APPEAR

We are very excited to hear the news that screen legend Margaret O’Brien will be joining us for SHOWCASE 2022.   Not only does Margaret have an incredible resume of appearances in some of the very best and well known classic Hollywood movies, she was practically a regular on radio during the Golden Age.
Born Angela Maxine O’Brien; January 15, 1937)  she was to become an accomplished American film, radio, television, and stage actress. She began her prolific career as a child actress in feature films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at the age of four, O’Brien became one of the most popular child stars in cinema history and was honored with a Juvenile Academy Award as the outstanding child actress of 1944.
O’Brien made her first film appearance in Babes on Broadway (1941) at the age of four, but it was the following year that her first major role brought her widespread attention. As a five-year-old in Journey for Margaret (1942), O’Brien won wide praise for her convincing acting style. By 1943, she was considered a big enough star to have a cameo appearance in the all-star military show finale of Thousands Cheer.  Also In 1943, at the age of seven, Margaret co-starred in, “You, John Jones,” a “War Bond/Effort,” short film, with James Cagney and Ann Sothern, (playing their daughter), in which she dramatically recited President Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.”
She also played Adèle, a young French girl, and spoke and sang all her dialogue with a French accent in Jane Eyre (1943). Arguably her most memorable role was as “Tootie” in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), opposite Judy Garland.  For several years in the mid 1940s, Margaret O’Brien was voted by exhibitors as among the most popular stars in the country.
Among her Film credits include:

Lost Angel (1943)
Jane Eyre (1944)
The Canterville Ghost (1944)
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Music for Millions (1944)
Little Women (1949)

Radio was a second home for Margaret O’Brien. She was regularly making appearances often reprising her role in radio adaptions of films she appeared in or as a requested guest star on a popular comedy variety program.
Selected Radio Credits:

Screen Guild Theater “Journey for Margaret”(April 5, 1943)
Lux Radio Theater “The Canterville Ghost”(June 18, 1945)
Lux Radio Theater”Meet Me in St. Louis” (Dec 2, 1946)
Philco Radio Time with Bing Crosby (May 28, 1947)
The Jimmy Durante Show (Dec 24, 1947)
Philco Radio Time with Bing Crosby (March 17, 1948)
Suspense “The Screaming Woman” (Nov 25,1948)
Lux Radio Theater “Little Women” (March 13, 1950)
The Big Show (Dec 24, 1950)

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APRIL 2017 SHOWCASE: LASSIE COMES HOME WITH JON PROVOST (TIMMY)

Lassie is best known as a very popular and long running TV series which aired from 1954-1973.  Most are not aware that Lassie was also a radio show airing between 1947-1950, years before the award winning television show.  Sponsored by the Red Heart dog food and treat companies, the radio series was quite unlike the Television version as well.  The radio version was more of an anthology and each week, Lassie as the star, would “portray” a completely different dog in one heroic adventure or another. Some critics really enjoy the series claiming that each adventure offers a dog gone good time with such dramatic plots as:

  • “Jumpy” the heroic dog can save a baby from a big one-eyed cat and helping lock the vicious animal in “the jug”,
  • “Tramp” despite being afraid of the water from being thrown in the river as a pup, he saves a boy from overflowing river
  • Brave, injured and starving “Laddy” fights off a bear for food then after long travels, returns safely to his mistress’ home.

The fictional character of Lassie was actually created by English American author Eric Knight in Lassie Come-Home, first published as a short story in The Saturday Evening Post in 1938 and later as a full-length novel in 1940. Set in the Depression-era England, the novel depicts the lengthy journey a rough collie makes to be reunited with her young Yorkshire master after his family is forced to sell her for money. In 1943, the novel was adapted into a feature film, Lassie Come Home, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) that starred Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor. The movie was a hit and enjoyed favorable critical response.  MGM followed this with several additional films, including a sequel entitled Son of Lassie (1945), starring Peter Lawford and June Lockhart, and Courage of Lassie with Elizabeth Taylor.   To capitalize on the popularity of the motion pictures the radio series was created.  Each program ran for about 15 minutes.  For the last few weeks the REPS SHOWCASE team have been looking over some of the original radio scripts which were produced for the National Broadcasting Company with the task of finding one which could be dramatized Saturday April 22nd at the REPS SHOWCASE.   Once the script was selected, who was to star with Lassie in her return to radio? Enter Jon Provost! Jon portrayed Timmy on the Lassie TV series for seven season ( 1957-1964) and will appear in the SHOWCASE reenactment of the Lassie radio show.  This should be a real treat!

Provost was born in Los Angeles. At the age of four, Provost was cast in the film The Country Girl (1954), starring Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly. He then appeared in Back from Eternity (1956) with Anita Ekberg and Escapade in Japan (1957), with Teresa Wright, Cameron Mitchell, and an unknown and uncredited Clint Eastwood.

In 1957, Provost won the role of Timmy Martin in the CBS television series Lassie.

   

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John Wilder – Radio Actor and Award Winning Writer – To Make First REPS Appearance

 

 

JW 1John Wilder Portrait

Here’s terrific news for your morning.  Tacoma born John Wilder who has written and/or produced nearly 400 hours of prime time television drama on network and cable and also received the Writer’s Guild Award for Best Long Form Teleplay and Best Episodic Drama and Emmy nominations for Best Dramatic Series,  will be joining us for the REPS SHOWCASE.  This will be John’s first appearance at the REPS SHOWCASE and an actor with more radio credits to his name would be hard to find.    As a child actor and then known  as Johnny McGovern, John was one of the busiest child actors in the radio business.   Here’s a list of some of his work:
The Jack Benny Show as Joey, The Great Gildersleeve as Craig Bullard, The Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy Show as Schuyler Van Snoot,  The Abbott and Costello Kid Show as the youngest emcee in radio,  The Jimmy Durante Show, Red Ryder as Little Beaver,  Date With Judy as Randolph, and Jump Jump of Holiday House), as well as leading and featured roles on other major network broadcasts, including 21 appearances on Lux Radio Theatre, and multiple appearances on Academy Award Playhouse, Stars Over Hollywood, The Hallmark Hall of Fame, Hollywood Star Playhouse, Hollywood Star Theatre, The Ford Theatre, The Screen Guild Theatre, Screen Director’s Playhouse, Family Theatre, Favorite Story, The Bakers Theatre of Stars, On Stage, Stars In The Air, The NBC University Theatre, Rexall Theatre, Command Performance, Broadway Is My Beat, Cavalcade of America, California Caravan, The CBS Radio Workshop, Hollywood Story, The Bob Hope Show, The Red Skelton Show, The Dennis Day Show, Gunsmoke, Dragnet, Our Miss Brooks, Doorway To Life, My Favorite Husband (Lucille Ball), The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Amos and Andy, The Halls of Ivy, NBC Presents, Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch, The Roy Rogers Show, Hopalong Cassidy, The Cisco Kid, My Friend Irma, The Clyde Beatty Show, The Phil Harris/Alice Faye Show, Dr. Christian, The Stories of Dr. Kildare, The Harold Peary Show, Rogers of The Gazette, Suspense, Fibber McGee and Molly. 
Whew! and we didn’t even list them all.   Recently, John and Larry Gassman had a chance to sit down with John Wilder and talk about his days in radio.

 

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