Old time radio show series available at RUSC Old Time Radio
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FIRST BROADCAST: 29th February 1936 as part of The Ziegfield Follies of the Air LAST BROADCAST: 29th May 1951 CAST: Fanny Brice as Baby Snooks. Henley Stafford as Lancelot “Daddy” Higgins, Baby Snooks father. Lalive Brownell as “Mommy” Higgins (later played by Lois Corbet and Arlene Harris).Leone Ledoux as Snook’s little brother Roberspierre. ANNOUNCERS: John Conte (late 30s and early 40s). Tobe Reed (1944-45), Harlow Willcox (mid to late 1940s), Dick Joy, Don Wilson and Ken Wilson. VOCALIST: Bob Graham MUSIC: Meredith Willson (37-44), Carmen Dragon. PRODUCER-DIRECTORS: Mann Holiner (early 1940s), Al Kaye (1944), Ted Bliss, Walter Bunker, Arthur Stander. WRITERS: Phil Rapp, Jess Oppenheimer, Everett Freeman, Bill Danch, Sid Dorfman, Arthur Stander, Robert Fisher. SOUND EFFECTS: Clark Casey, David Light. Baby Snooks became a character for Fanny Brice at some point in the early 30s, nobody seems to know exactly when. What is for sure is that by 1934 Fanny was appearing on-stage in her baby costume as part of the Follies show on Broadway. In 1936, at 45 years of age, she used this baby persona to great effect on the CBS show The Ziegfield Follies of the Air and a radio legend was born.
After various format and slot changes Snooks eventually got her very own show in 1944. Lalive Brownell took on the role of “Mommy” Higgins alongside the now well entrenched part of Lancelot “Daddy” Higgins played by Hanley Stafford. The half-an-hour slot was initially aired at 6:30pm on Sundays, but later to moved to an 8pm slot on Friday and then in Nov 1949 to an 8:30pm slot on Tuesday evenings.
The shows revolved around the Snooks character creating vignettes through which the comedic potential of the Snooks chartacter could be fully exploited. Snooks specialized in making minor mishaps into major catastrophes and small parental disagreements into all out war.
In 1945 Fanny was forced to miss several episodes due to illness and her disappearance was covered up through a story-line involving a search for the missing Snooks involving leading stars of the time such as Robert Benchley, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Kay Kyser. The same year saw the first appearance of Leone Ledoux as Snooks brother Robespierre, who until then had been an off-mike character.
On May 24th, 1951, Fanny Brice suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and died five days later, at fifty-nine. The final broadcast was a memorial broadcast on May 29th, 1951. THEME: Rockabye Baby
RUSC Old Time Radio (or RU Sitting Comfortably to give the site its full title) is a web site specializing in the wonderful world of old time radio. It is run by a crazy guy (that's me) who has nothing better to do than listen to old radio shows all day. To find out more visit the web site at www.rusc.com. All the old time radio shows on RUSC are understood to be in the public domain. RUSC has been on the web since January 1999 and is run on a not-for-profit basis.