Random Rarities 19

America Calling for Greece, WWII began when the Italian Army invaded from Albania at the end of October 1940. The Greek Army was able to push the invaders back across the border, but in April the Germans stepped in, using paratroops to occupy Greece and Yugoslavia. The America Calling Program was broadcast over two major networks featuring the biggest names in the film industry to drum up financial support for the Greek resistance fighters.

By the time NBC began broadcasting America United in 1945, Victory in the War in Europe was nearly assured. However, paying for the effort was still in question. "America United, united in the War and in the Peace" was an open forum of Workers, Employers, and Farmers. The guest speaker for the initial broadcast was Henry Morgenthau, Secretary of the Treasury.

The American School of the Air began broadcasting to classrooms across the country in 1930, and at its high-point was heard by an estimated 3,000,000 students. In 1936, the School presented an abridged version of Shakespeare's romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet, "the most celebrated love story in all literature".

Askit Basket was a 1939 question-and-answer format quiz show sponsored by Colgate Toothpaste.

"Adventures in Living" was the theme for The Ben Alexander Show from Los Angeles. Ben was a child actor in movies during the Silent Era and found a new career as a radio announcer during the Forties. He appeared in a recurring role as a cop on Jack Webb's Dragnet TV show, and he owned a Ford dealership in Northeast L.A. and another in San Francisco. The discussion on this episode of his talk show is "Let the punishment fit the crime". Jack has three Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6471 Hollywood for TV, at 6482 Hollywood Blvd for Motion Pictures, and at 6672 Hollywood Blvd for Radio.

Edward R. Murrow's Person to Person took its microphone into the home of several various celebrities in the mid-Fifties, for this edition Murrow visited the Holmby Hills home of Bing Crosby.

Bing's kid brother Bob Crosby ran a Dixieland outfit, and in 1946 Bob Crosby and his Bobcats had a variety program sponsored by Ford Dealers. In this version, Vera Vague was the comedy guest.

In 1946, the Continental Can Company sponsored a very well done variety program called The Continental Celebrity Club The program attracted some high-powered guests, including Peter Lawford, Carole Landis, and Dorothy Lamour, but the Company decided to leave advertising to the people who put the labels on their cans.

Doctors Courageous,recorded in 1941, dramatizES the efforts of doctors around the world who faced danger to discover new ways to save their patients.

"Mr. Guitar" himself, Chet Atkins, along with songstress Watson, presented a series of Nashville lullabies on Dream Time.

The Mutual Network gave us something to think about with 1941's I Want a Divorce. The breakup of a marriage was not something discussed during the period, but it did, in fact, happen so the discussion was appropriate.

See also Random Rarities 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23.