Old-Time Radio Names: Zenith, Zero and Tao

Posted August 21st, 2012

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I’m sure you’re all really busy making preparations to celebrate National Radio Day tomorrow, the day set aside to commemorate old time radio—I but hope you can take some time out to look at these interesting vintage radio character names we’ve dug up.

They date back to a time, from the 1930s to the fifties, when listening to the radio was the only home entertainment there was, aside from harmonizing around the piano. Moms tuned in to their daily soap operas— often only fifteen minutes long—as they feather-dusted and darned Junior’s socks, before Junior rushed home from school to hear the latest adventure of Don Winslow of the Navy.  And in the evening the whole family would gather around the big console to laugh at Baby Snooks or shudder at Suspense Theater.

Many of these shows were populated with great old names you don’t hear any more, from exotic flowers like Geranium (used not once but in two different shows), Gardenia, Lotus and Tulip, to unusual word names like Fury, Casino  and Tweed.

Here are some of the most interesting examples, with the titles of the mostly long-forgotten soaps and space odysseys they appeared in:

Girls

Ardala Valmar, Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century

Birdie Lee Coggins—The Great Gildersleeve

Burma—Terry and the Pirates

Casino—Home of the Brave

Charity Amanda Dyke—Amanda of Honeymoon Hill

Corliss Archer—Meet Corliss Archer

Ebba Fielding—Against the Storm

Effie Perrine—Sam Spade

Eula Sherman—Dan Hardin’s Wife

Fury Shark—Captain Midnight

Gardenia—Betty and Bob

Geranium—The Judy Canova Show, Amos ‘n’ Andy

Inza Burrage—Frank Merriweill

Keturah—Holly Sloan

Lillums—Harold Teen

Lish Harum—David Harum

Lorelei Kilbourne—Big Town

Lotus—Don Winslow of the Navy

Maisie Revere–Maisie

Maraine Clark—Barry Cameron

Marilly—Mayor of the Town

Mercy—Backstage Wife

Meta Bauer—The Guiding Light

Ora Mount—Stella Dallas

Oriole—Beulah

Pixie Osborne—Hilltop House

Portia Blake Manning—Portia Faces Life

Sapphire Stevens—Amos ‘n’ Andy

Siri Allen—Against the Storm

Sunday—Our Gal Sunday

Tulip Valentine Elson—Hilltop House

Zenith Sambrini—Ma Perkins

Boys

Ajax Cassidy—The Fred Allen Show

Alabama Randall—The Jack Pearl Show

Ballard Brandon, John’s Other Wife

Bronco Thompson, The Great Gildersleeve

California Carlson—The Hopalong Cassidy Show

Cleve Harrington—Evelyn Winters

Cosmo Topper—The Adventures of Topper

Cullen Andrews—Lone Journey

Eben Crowell—Four Corners, U.S.A

Enor—Lone Journey

Gann Murray—Our Gal Sunday

Goodman Ace—Easy Aces

Greyling Dennis—The Brighter Day

Hannibal Cobb—Hannibal Cobb

Ichabod Mudd—Captain Midnight

Kyron Welby—Pretty Kitty Kelly

Lansing McKenzie—Lone Journey

Lorenzo Jones—Lorenzo Jones

Nero Wolfe—The Adventures of Nero Wolfe

Oogie Pringle—A Date With Judy

Pagan Zeldschmidt—A Man Called X

Pascal Tyler—Against the Storm

Pepper  (born Lawrence) Young—Pepper Young’s Family

Philo Sands—The Story of Mary Marlin

Phineas T. Grant—The Man I Married

Poindexter Brice—Dear John

Robespierre—The Baby Snooks Show

Rollo St. Cloud—Lone Journey

Scotson Webb—Girl Alone

Socrates Mullen—The Fred Allen Show

Tao Smith—Lone Journey

Thatcher Colt—Thatcher Colt

Tweed Parker-The Romance of Helen Trent

Ulysses Hink—Dear Mom

Wolfe Bennett—Lone Journey

Zero  Smith—Howie Wing

Anything here that strikes your fancy?

Plus!  Hurry on over and vote for the Nameberry Awards.