On This Day, August 23: Ann Sothern and Tom Stoppard
Also featured: Barrie Craig.
August 23 Exhaustive Update
This report documents the comprehensive provenance, broadcast scheduling, commercial sponsorship, credited cast, production personnel, alternate circulating titles, and story synopses for historical broadcasts transmitting on August 23 across American, British, and Canadian broadcasting history (1946–1998):
1. Broadcasts
| Title | Network, Airdate & Showtime | Sponsor & Commercial Ads | Credited Cast & Performers | Director, Writers & Crew | Genres | Story-First Plot Synopsis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Maisie at the Mountain Resort (Eversharp Schick Injector)" | CBS (WABC) 1946-08-23 8:00 PM EDT |
The Eversharp Co. Eversharp Schick Injector |
Ann Sothern (Maisie), Elliott Lewis, Hans Conried, Elvia Allman | Arthur Phillips (Writer), Tony Martin (Director), John Conte (Announcer) | ["Comedy", "Sitcom", "Romance", "Adventure"] |
Good-hearted Brooklyn showgirl Maisie Ravier takes a job as a social hostess at an eccentric mountain resort, trying to mediate a bitter feud between two wealthy hotel guests while evading a persistent phony French count. |
| "The Case of the Contested Will (Kool Cigarettes)" | NBC (WNBC) 1949-08-23 8:30 PM EDT |
Brown & Williamson Kool Cigarettes |
Carlton KaDell (Jonathan Kincaid), Myron McCormick, Joan Banks | Erle Stanley Gardner (Creator), Chick Vincent (Director), Bud Collyer | ["Legal", "Courtroom", "Drama", "Mystery"] |
Defense attorney Jonathan Kincaid cross-examines a scheming nephew who accuses a family nurse of poisoning a wealthy dowager, proving in open court that the nephew forged a second will using an outdated notary stamp. |
| "The Dog It Was That Died (by Tom Stoppard)" | CBC Radio 1997-08-23 6:30 PM |
Non-commercial Canadian Broadcasting Corp. |
Kenneth Welsh (George), Fiona Reid (Penelope), Douglas Campbell | Tom Stoppard (Writer), James Roy (Producer & Director) | ["Satire", "Comedy", "Spy", "Mystery", "Canadian"] |
Kenneth Welsh and Fiona Reid star in Tom Stoppard's espionage comedy about a deeply conflicted Cold War double agent who loses his sanity trying to remember which intelligence service he is actually loyal to. |
| "The Dobsky Engine (The Perpetual Motion Mystery)" | BBC Radio 4 1998-08-23 9:00 PM |
Non-commercial BBC Public Service |
John Rowe (The Seeker / Narrator), Geoffrey Whitehead, Janet Maw | John Peacock (Writer), Cherry Cookson (Producer & Director) | ["Mystery", "Drama", "Historical", "British"] |
An antiquarian investigator researches the Victorian disappearance of an eccentric inventor who claimed to have constructed a perpetual motion steam engine, tracing his hidden blueprints to a bricked-up cellar in Yorkshire. |
| "Dig Another Grave (Starring William Gargan)" | NBC (WNBC) 1953-08-23 10:00 PM EDT |
Sustaining NBC Crime Drama |
William Gargan (Barrie Craig), Ralph Bell, Santos Ortega | John Roeburt (Writer), Himan Brown (Director), Don Pardo (Announcer) | ["Detective", "Hardboiled", "Mystery", "Noir"] |
Hardboiled Madison Avenue private eye Barrie Craig is hired by a frantic socialite whose supposedly deceased first husband is blackmailing her from the shadows, unearthing an empty grave in a storm-drenched cemetery. |
| "The Waterfront Cargo Hijackers (Captain John Drake)" | Mutual (WOR) 1953-08-23 5:00 PM EDT |
Sustaining Mutual Radio Series |
Joe DeSantis (Captain Drake), Mandel Kramer, Bryna Raeburn | William Sweets (Writer), Wynn Wright (Director), Carl Warren | ["Police", "Procedural", "Detective", "True Crime"] |
Police Captain John Drake breaks up an armed waterfront hijacking ring that has been intercepting transatlantic cargo shipments, going undercover on the docks to trap the fence in a warehouse sting. |