On This Day, August 24: Orson Welles (Harry Lime) and Cab Calloway
Also featured: Johnny Mercer.
August 24 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 24 across American network, Australian radio, and international European syndication history (1934–1952):
1. Broadcasts
| Title | Network, Airdate & Showtime | Sponsor & Commercial Ads | Credited Cast & Performers | Director, Writers & Crew | Genres | Story-First Plot Synopsis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Sunday Funnies: Prince Valiant & The Phantom (Puck Comic Weekly)" | Hearst Synd. 1952-08-24 9:00 AM EDT |
Hearst Newspapers Puck — The Comic Weekly |
The Comic Weekly Man (Narrator), Ed Herlihy | Hearst Entertainment Radio Features | ["Juvenile", "Comics", "Storytelling", "Humor", "Americana"] |
The Comic Weekly Man delights Sunday morning youngsters with lively voiced readings of King Features Sunday comics, including Prince Valiant in the Misty Isles, Blondie and Dagwood, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, and The Phantom. |
| "Time Waits for No One & Powerhouse (The Raymond Scott Quintet — CBS)" | CBS / AFRS 1944-08-24 11:15 PM EWT |
Sustaining CBS Musical Innovation |
Raymond Scott, Dorothy Collins, Raymond Scott Quintet | Raymond Scott (Arranger), Andre Baruch (Announcer) | ["Music", "Jazz", "Novelty", "Big Band", "Swing"] |
Musical visionary Raymond Scott leads his avant-garde jazz quintet and orchestra through intricate arrangements of 'Powerhouse', 'In an 18th Century Drawing Room', and Dorothy Collins's tender vocal performance of 'Time Waits for No One'. |
| "Live from the Savoy Ballroom: The Hi-De-Ho Quiz (Cab Calloway's Quizzicale)" | Mutual (WOR) 1941-08-24 9:30 PM EDST |
Sustaining Harlem Savoy Live |
Cab Calloway, Cozy Cole, Chu Berry, Cab Calloway Orch. | Eddie Green (Announcer), Mutual Newsroom/Remote | ["Quiz", "Jazz", "Swing", "Game Show", "Variety"] |
Broadcasting live from Harlem's Savoy Ballroom, King of Hi-De-Ho Cab Calloway hosts a swinging musical quiz show, testing audience jive vocabulary and rhythm trivia while leading his roaring orchestra in jumping swing standards. |
| "The House of the Gargoyles (Part 1 — Old Nancy — The Witch's Tale Australia)" | 2UW Sydney 1934-08-24 9:30 PM AEST |
Commercial Sponsors Australian Retail Ads |
Queenie Ashton (Old Nancy), John Saul, Moray Powell | Alonzo Deen Cole (Author), Charles Tingwell | ["Horror", "Mystery", "Supernatural", "Macabre", "Australian"] |
The hundred and thirty-year-old witch Old Nancy and her black cat Satan introduce the chilling tale of an ancestral stone manor in Cornwall, where grotesque architectural gargoyles appear to come alive at midnight to claim the bloodline heirs. |
| "A Ticket to Tangier (Starring Orson Welles as Harry Lime — Anton Karas Zither)" | Towers London 1951-08-24 (IBC Studios) |
International Sponsors Commercial Advertisers |
Orson Welles (Harry Lime), Dana Wynter, Sebastian Cabot | Orson Welles (Writer/Dir.), Anton Karas (Zither) | ["Drama", "Noir", "Adventure", "International", "Crime"] |
In Tangier's sun-drenched underworld, cynical international rogue Harry Lime buys a forged passport and gets tangled in a deadly smuggling conspiracy involving stolen industrial diamonds and a double-crossing French countess. |
| "Old Gold Music Shop (Starring Johnny Mercer, Jo Stafford & The Pied Pipers)" | NBC (WEAF) 1943-08-24 10:00 PM EWT |
P. Lorillard Company Old Gold Cigarettes |
Johnny Mercer, Jo Stafford, The Pied Pipers | Paul Weston Orchestra, Howard Wiley, Doug Gourlay | ["Music", "Vocal", "Variety", "Swing", "Comedy"] |
Songwriting master Johnny Mercer opens his Old Gold Music Shop with songstress Jo Stafford and The Pied Pipers, dishing out witty lyrical rhymes and sparkling swing renditions of 'G.I. Jive', 'Blues in the Night', and 'Old Black Magic' for Old Gold Cigarettes. |