Dick Beals, OTR Star, R.I.P.

Today was the sad passing of another star of the Golden Age of Radio and television, Richard "Dick" Beals.

Not being the best at writing about these things I will leave it to the experts like Mark Evanier who posted this brief but good obituary on Mr. Beals

Mr. Beals was famous for portraying young boys on the radio and in cartoon due to his youthful voice and never going through puberty.  He and Walter Tetley were the most called upon voice actors when a young boy was needed but so was a professional actor with the perfect voice.  Mr. Beals most famously portrayed Speedy the Alza Seltzer mascot in the 50s and 60s.

Thanks to my friend and OTR podcast master Buck Benny we have both Walter Tetley as Leroy and Dick Beals guesting as little Ronnie on the Great Gildersleeve radio show from September 23rd 1953.


 Also, from Buck Benny's Podcast the first regularly schedule episode of Gunsmoke "Billy The Kid" which featured Dick Beals as a young William Bonny aka Billy the Kid,

 Cartoon Brew highlights Mr. Beals work in cartoons and commercials in the 50s and 60s

Interesting Obituaries

This is an audio obituary from 1970, Paul Harvey on his daily noon newscast reads his tribute to the last Vince Lombardi.  Probably recorded around September 3rd of 1970 (the date of Lombardi's death).


Interesting indeed.

James Arness R.I.P.

Today we lost a real giant and legend in television, James Arness, who will forever be know as Marshall Matt Dillon.   He passed away today at the age of 88 and just a little over a year after the death of his brother Peter Graves.    The LA Times obituary 

  Here is CNN's Brook Anderson with a brief look back at the life and career of James Arness.

Even though the role of US Marshall Matt Dillon was originated on radio in 1952 by William Conrad, and for some is still the quintessential version, James Arness was picked to bring the character to the little screen in 1955.   He played that role until the end of the show in 1975 (at the time the longest running prime time show in tv history) and made a few "Gunsmoke" tv movies in the 80s where again he saddled up at the US Marshall.  He was even prouder of his time spent in the US military during WWII where he was wounded in Anzio.

On a personal note, Gunsmoke, was my dad's favorite western and when I was very young I remember being quite aggravated that every monday night we had to watch Gunsmoke.   Now I look back with fondness of that time with my dad and hope that kids will look back and remember something like that when they are grown.


Here is the episode of Gunsmoke,  Hinka Do,  which aired in Season 5, episode 21, January 30th 1960.   Originally aired on radio in season 1 episode 24 October 10th 1952.

Obit page always yields something interesting (again)

While scanning the NYTimes Obit page yesterday I saw this obituary for Howard Unruh. It was the lead obit this Tuesday October 20th and the headline caught my eye "Killed 13 of his neighbors in Camden in 1949".
I had never heard of this man or his crime and I am usually up to date on mass murders and serial killers.
I found only a brief mention of him in the Encyclopedia of Killers book I have and its in the spree killing section.
His obituary covers all of the details and after a Google search I found this amature documentary on Youtube. If you can handle the monotone and rapid narration it is an interesting 10 min film.
This was made in 2007 so it does mention Howard Unruh as being alive.