Abe Lincoln (1907-2000)

Abram Lincoln was born March 29, 1907, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He began studying cornet with his father at the age of five. His dad never let him go to bed at night until he played all major and minor scales. Eventually, Abe settled on the trombone as his instrument. In 1921, he became the solo trombonist with his dad's band, the Bud Lincoln Orchestra, which was also known as the Brunswick Orchestra.

In time, Abe became friends with many of the great hot jazz musicians of the time, including the Dorsey Brothers. After Tommy Dorsey joined the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, Abe took his place with the California Ramblers.

In time, Abe was a member of several of the best known bands of the 1920s and 1930s.

He joined the Ozzie Nelson Orchestra in 1934. If a listener pays attention on Ripley's Believe It or Not, one can hear some of the most unusual trombone playing. He became notorious for making animal sounds with his trombone.

Abe was heard on many of the best know and loved radio programs of the Golden Years of Radio. Although his real love was jazz, he was one of the most innovative trombonists of all time. When Universal Pictures created Woody Woodpecker cartoons, his trombone was often the sound of the little red bird.

He was married in 1921 and had a son, Abe Lincoln, Jr.

Abe Lincoln died June 8, 2000, at the age of 93 in Los Angeles.

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Speaking of Lincolns, Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926) was the only one of President Abraham Lincoln's four sons who lived past puberty. By the time his father was inaugurated President, the eldest son was already out of the house (as a student at Harvard University). In 1865 he left school to join the Union Army. He rose to the rank of captain and was present at Appomattox when General Robert E. Lee surrendered.

He had a distant relationship with his father. He was present at Ford's Theater when actor John Wilkes Booth shot his father and was one of the few who stayed around to see him die. He openly wept.

After the Civil War was over he enrolled at the University of Chicago (not the same as the present University of Chicago) and finished his studies in law. He was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1867. The following year, he married Mary Eunice Harlan (1846-1937). They had two daughters and a son (the son, Abraham Lincoln, II, called "Jack," died of blood poisoning at the age of 16 in London, England).

One of the terrible trivial tidbits about Robert Todd Lincoln was that whenever there was a Presidential assassination he was there.
-Abraham Lincoln (Ford's Theater, Washington, DC)
-James Abram Garfield (Sixth Street Train Station, Washington, DC)
-William McKinley (Pan American Exposition, Buffalo, NY)

After a political/service career, Robert Todd Lincoln took over for George Pullman in 1898 when he died, Lincoln served as president of the Pullman Company until 1911, after which time he served as Chairman of the Board.

Robert Todd Lincoln died July 26, 1926, in Manchester, Vermont, at the age of 83.

Danny Kaye (1913-87)

David Daniel Kaminski was born January 18, 1913, in Brooklyn, New York. He was the son of Jacob Kaminsky (yes, the spelling was different) and his wife, the former Clara Nemerov. With their sons, Mack and Larry, they emigrated from the Ukraine to the United States in 1910. For school, he attended P.S. 149 in Brooklyn before going on to Thomas Jefferson High School also in Brooklyn, but he never even finished the first year, leaving at the age of 13.

At that time, Danny became a tummler, which is Yiddish for master of ceremonies at Jewish resorts in the Katskill Mountains of Pennsylvania. Danny would do many other things and, as it can be seen from the program on the right, he experimented with different names. He did many other jobs that had nothing to do with entertainment.

In 1935 he acted in some shorts for Educational Films, usually as a Russian musician acting with future stars June Allyson and Imogene Coca (his contract actually began in 1936). Sadly that division of 20th Century-Fox shut down in 1938 which meant the end of Danny's film career, at least for six years.

Danny premiered on Broadway in 1941 in a show called, Lady in the Dark. He stopped the show with a tongue twisting song called Tchaikovsky. It was written by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin.

He began doing some experimental radio programs in 1940. He starred in his own program beginning in 1945, about a year after his "big break" in motion pictures. Also in 1940, he married a young pianist by the name of Sylvia Fine (1913-91). They remained married until his death in 1987. They had a daughter, named Dena who was born in 1946.

Danny is best known for his movie career which included such films at The Court Jester, The Inspector General, and started out with Up in Arms.

In the 1950s, he wrote for Mad Magazine. In the 1960s he had his own variety show. Toward the end of his life, he appeared in a number of comedy shows and was lauded for a dramatic film called Skokie.
He was a life long Democrat and active with UNICEF and also owned a baseball team in Seattle.

Danny Kaye died March 3, 1987, at the age of 74 in Los Angeles of hepatitis.

Lorne Greene (1915-87)

Lyon Chaim Green was born February 12, 1915, in Ottawa, Ontario. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants to Canada, Daniel and Dora Green. He attended Lisgar Collegiate Institute (a public high school), where he earned his diploma in 1932. He then attended Queens University in Kingston, where he majored in chemical engineering. He was also involved drama and worked at the school radio station, CFRC. An excellent student, his professors had the idea that the young man was going to be a wonderful chemical engineer. But he changed majors in the middle of his college career and took a degree in languages so he could spend more time with drama activities.

When he graduated from Queens in 1937, rather than go into engineering, he went in for broadcasting, he spent some time in New York City to get some honest to goodness
drama training. Unfortunately, being at the deepest depths of the Depression, there were no jobs and he was not a US citizen. So he went back to Canada.

He walked into the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) studios in Ottawa and was hired on the spot, thanks to his, low booming voice, even as a young adult.

In 1938 he married Rita Hands; they would have two children, twins born in 1945 named Susan and Charles.

In 1939, he became the principal newsreader for CBC's national evening news broadcasts. It was also this time he became known as Lorne Greene, which was based on his birth name. Having an unusual deep, rich voice, when they heard his voice, they said they had to have him. The Canadian Broadcasting Company billed him as the Voice of Canada. To most Canadians listening to the radio in 1939-42, he became known as the Voice of Doom, because when they heard his voice, it was normally tragic news about the war in Europe.He also narrated a number of documentary films for schools.

From late 1942 to early 1945 Lorne served as a flying officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force.When he returned from military service he went in more for acting. He began acting on the radio and worked in television as soon as it became available. Lorne helped establish the Academy of Radio Arts (founded as the Lorne Greene School of Broadcasting) and the Jupiter Theatre (1951).

In 1953, he made the move to California to try his luck at Hollywood acting. He got a lot of acting work on television and his booming voice also helped him to get work as narrator for more of those school documentary films,when times were lean.

The biggest break in his life was when he was cast as Ben Cartwright in the dramatic western series, Bonanza. Debuting in 1959 on NBC, it would be the defining role of his life. Lorne would go on to do animal shows and dog food commercials, but he would always be Ben Cartwright, the owner of the Ponderosa Ranch for those of us who watched him every week through September 1973. This was one of the greatest family television shows of all time.

Lorne Greene died September 11, 1987, following heart surgery in Santa Monica, California. He was 72 years old. Married twice, first to Rita Hands (1938-60) and then to Nancy Deale (1961-87), he was the father of three children. Green is buried at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.

Liberace (1919-87)

Wladziu Valentino Liberace was born May 16, 1919, in West Aldis, Wisconsin. His family was quite musical. His father, Salvatore Liberace (1885-1977) played the (French) horn with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. His mother, Frances Zuchowsky (1891-1990), was a pianist. By the time young "Walter" was four, he could play anything on the piano by ear. He learned both from listening to his mother and from experimentation. Because of his parents' connections, he was able to earn money as a piano player when he was in his early teens. But his father did not want his children involved in music.

Walter had three siblings, brothers George (1911-83) and Rudolph (1931-67), and a sister, Angelina (1914-96).  They were all musicians. 

Walter made his big time piano debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the age of 14. He didn't just play the classics. He had a dance combo ("The Mixers") at the same time and later played piano in nightclubs as a student at the University of Wisconsin. He used the pseudonym Walter Busterkeys for those gigs. 

After graduating from college, he moved to California to try his hand at some kind of stardom. He was not against doing any kind of work. The first movie that he was in where he could be seen (even though unbilled) was Best Foot Forward (1943), in which he appeared as a piano player (what else?)

It was after this time that Liberace began his radio career. (Don't blink too fast or you might miss it!)  He wasn't only a piano soloist at this time, so he played in the orchestra for a number of radio programs that aired between 1941 and 1950, originating from Los Angeles. As a soloist, he played for the Texaco Star Theater (starring James Melton) and a number of Armed Forces Radio Service shows.

After 1950, he began working in television. His local TV show on channel 13 in Los Angeles was often poked fun at in Warner Brothers cartoons.

Now something should be said about his music. He was what most people would call a classical musician. He played Chopin, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and all those other guys. But he liked everything. He was Elvis Presley's friend. He had friends who worked in country and western music.

Probably the most controversial aspect of Liberace's life was his sexuality. His homosexuality was rumored as early as 1945, when he began to make a name for himself in radio.  Fortunately, the world was a much more innocent place during the time between the 1930s and the 1960s. Liberace's sexuality was something most people really didn't care about. He was a heck of a piano player. He had a nice personality. He was respectful. 

But there was a homosexual episode that happened in England that got coverage in several magazines. Because it was a defamation to his character (and, while what he did was probably immoral, but it wasn't illegal) he successfully sued a British publication for the equivalent of $110,000 in 1957. That was the setting for his one joke, "I cried all the way to the bank." With his settlement money, he was able to make some shrewd investments. From that he had a second joke: "You know the bank where I went crying to? I bought it!"

His career took a nosedive in the early 1960s as the world was going through some changes which made us all a little less innocent. Paul Harvey would tell of the story how Liberace had a performance one November and he couldn't get one of his suits cleaned. So he had some chemicals in his hotel room and cleaned the clothes in his room of the hotel where he was staying.  But the room wasn't well ventilated and he breathed in too much of the noxious chemicals. He tried to yell for help, but the dry cleaning chemicals made it so he couldmake no sounds and he began to pass out. 

The radio was on. The President of the United States was spending the day in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. And suddenly there was a commotion. Liberace almost completely passed out. But he listened intently to the radio. He prayed, not for himself, but for the country. He was scared of what might happen. And Liberace clung to his life as he worried about the President's life. 

A maintenance man was doing some work in the all of the hotel. He lingered near Liberace's room and listened to the radio. It concerned him, too. He knocked on the door to ask if the radio could be turned up. Liberace tried to say something, but nothing came from his mouth. The maintenance man heard this and opened the door with his master key. Seeing Liberace lying on the floor, he called an ambulance. As the medical personnel came to pick him up, it was announced on the radio that President John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead.

But after this, his career really took off. He had been working in the motion picture industry for some time since 1950.  But by the mid 1960s he was doing everything. He was even a guest villain on the Batman series!

That lasted into the 1970s. Then he began making public appearances. Most of his fans were middle aged women. Most of them were married. They didn't care about the gossip about his sexuality. Liberace was an A1 entertainer and he was a gentleman. And such a great pianist!

Liberace died on February 4, 1987, in Palm Springs, California. Because so many aspects about his life were kept secret, there were thousands of reporters at the Riverside County Administration Center in Riverside (Palm Springs is in Riverside County). When the Riverside coroner announced that he died from AIDS, itwas big news.  He is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Hollywood Hills, in Los Angeles, in a large white crypt with his mother and older brother.

Milton Cross (1897-1975)

Milton John Cross was born March 16, 1897, in New York, New York.  In 1910, at the age of 13, he saw his first performance of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He was a trained serious singer, a tenor.  For about five years, he had a distinguished singing career.  In 1923, he became the pioneer announcer of radio station WJZ in Newark, New Jersey, during the days of radio's infancy. He also announced part of the inauguration of President Herbert Hoover in 1929. WJZ eventually moved to New York City, where it became the flagship station of the Blue Network of NBC, sharing facilities with WEAF. WJZ is known as WABC today. WEAF became WNBC and is known as WFAN today. WJZ moved from 30 Rockefeller Plaza in 1946 when the Blue Network, which had already broken from NBC in 1942, became known as ABC.

On December 24, 1931, NBC began to broadcast the concerts of the Metropolitan Opera and Milton Cross became the Voice of the Metropolitan. Since opera broadcasts don't happen every day, Mr. Cross announced other programs on NBC.  He announced game shows, gothic dramas, and mostly musical shows. OTR fans know him best as the narrator for This is Your FBI. He narrated the program and helped sell some darned good life insurance. It's difficult for most fans of Old Time Radio hear his voice and not think of him saying,  "... the Equitable Life Assurance Society." 

He continued broadcasting the Metropolitan Opera for exactly 43 years.  He only missed two broadcasts for all those years. The first time was in 1933, when his eight year old daughter, Lillian Gale died. The second time was 40 years later in 1973 when his wife, also named Lillian, died. Incidentally, the tombstone for Lillian Gale originally intended for her alone. But it ended up also marking the grave of her parents, who are buried on top of her.

His movie career only consists of four pictures: Historic Greece (a 1941 school documentary); Gaslight Follies (a documentary from 1945 in four parts about entertainment of the past--he narrates the first part; the other narrators are Ben Grauer, John B. Kennedy, and Ethel Owen); Fifty Years Before Your Eyes (a 1950 documentary about the twentieth century); and Grounds for Marriage (a 1951 comedy, in which Mr. Cross narrates a dream scene from George Bizet's opera Carmen).

Old Time Radio fans remember Milton Cross as the narrator of This is Your FBI, as stated previously. But he only narrated 18 episodes of that series. He did much more work on Information Please, the Chamber Society of Lower Basin Street, and the soap opera Betty and Bob.

Book lovers know Milton Cross from the musical reference books he authored, edited, or co-authored. While, because of their popular appeal, they have never been widely accepted as textbooks for serious musical study, because of their simplicity, many postgraduate students of music have relied on his material to help them study for their final written comprehensive examinations (including your loyal 'Blogger!) These books are written in the form of novels. They lack cross referencing, which is  what college textbooks should have. 

Here are some of the books Milton Cross authored, edited or co-wrote:

• Complete Stories of the Great Operas
  
• More Stories of the Great Operas 
  
• Encyclopedia of the Great Composers and Their Music [two volumes] (with David Ewen)
  
• Milton Cross' Favorite Arias from the Great Operas
  
• From the Beauty of Embers: A Musical Aftermath (with Gordon M. Eby)

Cross never retired. He died suddenly at the age of 77, of a heart attack, at his home in New York City on January 2, 1975. He was getting ready for his next broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera.

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Texaco (later Chevron/Texaco) was the sole sponsor of the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts 1940-2004.  Originally, the Met was sponsored by a pool of advertisers, as most commercial broadcasts are sponsored today. These sponsors included Lucky Strike cigarettes, Listerine toothpaste and mouthwash, and RCA electronics. Today the sponsor is Toll Brothers house contractors.