Original air date - Phantom Dancer :: 12:00pm 21st Mar 2023

Paul Douglas, 1930s CBS announcer and later Broadway and Hollywood film star, is this week's Phantom Dancer non-stop swing jazz feature artist. He opens this week's show in a 'Saturday Night Swing Club' broadcast. Greg Poppleton has been bringing you The Phantom Dancer, your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV, each week since 1985. Hear The Phantom Dancer online from 12:04pm AEST Tuesday 21 March at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/ where you can also hear two years of archived shows. The finyl hour is vinyl.

RADIO

Though Paul Douglas Fleischer performed in dramatics as a student at Yale, he first started in radio, He began as an announcer for CBS radio station WCAU in Philadelphia, relocating to network headquarters WABC in New York in 1934. Douglas co-hosted CBS's popular swing music program, The Saturday Night Swing Club, from 1936 to 1939. He was host and commercial pitchman for Chesterfield Cigarettes on swing band leader Glenn Miller's 1939-42 CBS radio series.

BROADWAY

Paul Douglas made his Broadway debut in 1936 as the Radio Announcer in Doty Hobart and Tom McKnight's Double Dummy at the John Golden Theatre. In 1946 he won both a Theatre World Award and a Clarence Derwent Award for his portrayal of Harry Brock in Garson Kanin's Born Yesterday.

HOLLYWOOD

Douglas began appearing in films in 1949. He may be best remembered for two baseball comedy movies, It Happens Every Spring (1949) and Angels in the Outfield (1951). He also played Richard Widmark's police partner in the 1950 thriller Panic in the Streets, frustrated newlywed Porter Hollingsway in A Letter to Three Wives (1949), Sgt. Kowalski in The Big Lift (1950), businessman Josiah Walter Dudley in Executive Suite (1954) and a con man-turned-monk in When in Rome (1952). Douglas was host of the 22nd annual Academy Awards in March 1950. Continuing in radio, he was the announcer for The Ed Wynn Show, and the first host of NBC Radio's The Horn & Hardart Children's Hour. In April 1959 Douglas appeared on The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show as Lucy Ricardo's television morning show co-host in the episode "Lucy Wants a Career". Douglas starred in Clash by Night in 1952 with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas was originally cast in the 1960 episode of The Twilight Zone called "The Mighty Casey", a role written for him by Rod Serling based on his character in Angels in the Outfield. Douglas died the day after production of the episode had been completed. He had been in his last stages of illness during filming, and his severe physical state was apparent on film. (The crew incorrectly assumed that his condition was the result of heavy drinking.) The episode – which was a comedy – was deemed unairable. It was, however, resurrected some months later, and Douglas's scenes were re-shot with Jack Warden. Film director Billy Wilder and his longtime co-writer I. A. L. ('Izzy') Diamond had just offered Douglas the role of Jeff Sheldrake in the 1960 movie The Apartment that went to Fred MacMurray instead. Wilder later said: "I saw him and his wife, Jan Sterling, at a restaurant, and I realized he was perfect, and I asked him right there in the parking lot. About two days before we were to start, he had a heart attack and died. Iz and I were shattered."

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

A trailer from the 1950s US/UK sci fi shlocker, 'The Gamma People', starring Paul Douglas and Leslie Phillips. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d5RIQDcxLA Make sure you come back to this blog, Greg Poppleton's Radio Lounge, every Tuesday, for the newest Phantom Dancer play list and Video of the Week!

21 March PLAY LIST

Play List - The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #590
107.3 2SER Tuesday 21 March 2023 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 - 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 - 5:55pm National Program: 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Sunday 10 - 11pm 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 - 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 - 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 - 4am 2SEA Eden Monday 3 - 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 - 4pm 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 - 4pm 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 - 7pm 7MID Oatlands Tuesday 8 - 9pm 2MCE Bathurst / Orange / Central West NSW Wednesday 9 - 10am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 - 1pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 - 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 - 6am 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Sunday 5 - 6am
Set 1	Swing on 1930s Radio
Open + Panamania	Leith Stevens Orchestra	'Saturday Night Swing Club' WABC CBS NY 12 Jun 1937
Naila (Delibes)	Arnold Johnson Orchestra	Comm Rec (unissued) Variety Records New York City 26 May 1937
RCA Radio Ad + Wolverine Blues + Study In Brown (theme)	Larry Clinton Orchestra	'RCA Campus Club' Glen Island Casino New Rochelle WEAF NBC Red NY 2 Jul 1938
Set 2	Latin Sounds on 1946-53 Radio
Open + Chiu Chiu	Desi Arnez Orchestra	Ciro's KNX CBS LA 1946
Bolero	Sergio Torres Orchestra (voc) unannounced woman singer	'Chicklets Program' XEW Mexico City 1949
Chi sas? Chi sas?	Xavier Cugat Orchestra	'All-Star Parade of Bands' Last Frontier NBC Las Vegas 30 Nov 1953
Set 3	1943-44 Swing Radio
Joshua	Richard Himber Orchestra	'Spotlight Bands' Aniston, Alabama Blue Network 13 Nov 1943
I've Got You Under My Skin	Leo Reisman Orchestra	'Spotlight Bands' National Press Club Washington DC Blue Network 23 Jan 1943
I Got Rhythm + Close	Lenny Conn Orchestra	'One Night Stand' Los Angeles AFRS Re-broadcast 1949
Set 4	Special Music Programs
First Movement	Morton Gould Orchestra	'American Symphonette No. 3' WOR MBS/CBC New York City 1939
Open + I've Got Rhythm + Money Money (calypso)	Lucky Millinder Orchestra with Noble Sissle and the Hall Sisters	'Swingtime At The Savoy' WNBC NBC NY 28 Jul 1948
Circle of Fourths + Jam With Sam	Duke Ellington Orchestra	'Ravinia Festival' WBBM CBS Chicago 1 Jul 1957
Set 5	1939 Radio Singers
We Three	Johnny Messner Orchestra (voc) Johnny Messner	Radio Transcription New York City 1939
Stairway To The Stars	Teddy Wilson Orchestra (voc) Thelma Carpenter	'America Dances' CBS NY / BBC London 1939
From The Bottom Of My Heart	Harry James Orchestra (voc) Frank Sinatra	'America Dances' CBS NY / BBC London 19 Jul 1939
Chew, Chew Your Bubblegum	Chick Webb Orchestra (voc) Ella Fitzgerald	Southland Cafe WNAC NBC Boton 4 May 1939
Set 6	Traditional Jazz on 1939 - 1951 Radio
Way Down Yonder In New Orleans (theme) + Maple Leaf Rag	Wild Bill Davison	'This Is Jazz' WOR Mutual NY 19 Apr 1947
You're Driving Me Crazy	Bob Crosby Bobcats	'Camel Caravan' WABC CBS NY 18 Jul 1939
Snag It	Henry 'Red' Allen Dixielanders	'Doctor Jazz' Stuyvesant Casino WMGM NY 1950
There'll Be Some Changes Made + I Would Do Anything For You	Eddie Condon Group (voc) Red McKenzie	'Eddie Condon Town Hall Jazz Concert' Town Hall WJZ Blue NY 16 Sep 1944
Set 7	Benny Goodman On The Air
The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise	Benny Goodman Quintet	'Jubilee' AFRS Re-broadcast Jan 1948
Clarinade	Benny Goodman Orchestra	Meadowbrook Gardens Culver City Ca KECA ABC LA 26 Jan 1946
Sweet Georgia Brown	Benny Goodman Quintet	'Spotlight Bands' Springfield Mass. Blue Network 29 Sep 1943
Jack Benny-Gary Cooper Skit + One O'Clock Jump	Benny Goodman Orchestra	'Jack Benny Show' WEAF NBC NY 13 Dec 1942
Set 8	Modern Sounds on 1940s-50s Radio
Romance Without Finance	Tiny Grimes Quintet (voc) Tiny Grimes	Comm Rec 15 Sep 1944
Hot House	Barry Ulanov's All Star Modern Jazz Musicians	'Bands For Bonds' WOR MBS NY 13 Sep 1947
Painted Rhythm	Stan Kenton Orchestra	Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS LA 27 Nov 1945
Fine and Dandy	Slim Gaillard Quintet	'Symphony Sid Show' WJZ ABC NY 2 Jun 1951