On this day in 1932, George Burns and Gracie Allen debuted on CBS radio and eventually got their own show. The two held steady jobs for more than 30 years.

In 1929 they made their first radio appearance in London on the BBC. Back in America, they failed at a 1930 NBC audition. After a solo appearance by Gracie on Eddie Cantor’s radio show, they were heard together on Rudy Vallee’s The Fleischmann’s Yeast Hour and in February 15, 1932 they became regulars on The Guy Lombardo Show on CBS. When Lombardo switched to NBC, Burns and Allen took over his CBS spot with The Adventures of Gracie beginning September 19, 1934.

The title of their top-rated show changed to The Burns and Allen Show on September 26, 1936. When ratings began to slip in 1940-41, they moved from comedy patter into a successful sitcom format, continuing with shows on NBC and CBS until May 17, 1950. As in the early days of radio, the sponsor’s name became the show title, such as Maxwell House Coffee Time (1945-49).

You can find out more about this day in history at Those Were The Days, and InfoPlease.

On this day in 1949, Willie Pep recaptured the world featherweight boxing title.

1948 was a year that would become important in Pep’s life: He won 15 bouts before going into what would be the first fight of his four-fight series with Sandy Saddler. He retained the title by beating Humberto Sierra by a knockout in 10, and he beat former world champion Paddy DeMarco, also in ten, but by decision. Then, on October 29, he lost the world featherweight title to Saddler in a four-round knockout.

After two wins, he and Saddler met in 1949. On their rivalry’s second installment, Pep recovered the world’s featherweight championship by beating Saddler by a 15 round decision, and then he engaged in a series of exhibition and ten round bouts before defending the crown against Eddie Campo, winning by a knockout in the seventh. He finished that year beating former bantamweight champion Harold Dade by a decision in ten at St. Louis.

How do those guys keep their weight so low while working out? They didn’t have an effective diet pill back then, did they?

On this day in 1935, CBS radio presented “Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch”. Those were the days when people went out into the fields long before the sun came up and stayed until the sun went down. They led a difficult life, and made do with what they had at the time.

Just imagine how awesome their life could have been if they had been able to purchase a compost tumbler.

compost tumbler

On this day in 1949, Lloyd Mangrum won the Los Angeles Open golf tournament and admitted that he wore a lucky pair of pajamas under his pants. If he hadn’t worked as an assistant to his brother before going pro the guy could have ended up working as a motorcycle accident lawyer. Every good lawyer needs a pair of lucky pajamas under his pants.

Mangrum was born in Trenton, Texas. He became a professional golfer at age fifteen, working as an assistant to his brother Ray, the head professional at Cliff-Dale Country Club in Dallas. He joined the PGA Tour in 1937 and went on to win 36 events on the Tour. He might have won more if his career had not been interrupted by service in World War II. While training for the D-Day landings, Mangrum was offered the professional’s job at the army’s Fort Meade golf course, which would have kept him out of combat, but he declined. He won two Purple Hearts and was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. His best years on tour came after the war. He led the PGA Tour money list in 1951 and won the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average on the tour in 1951 and 1953.

Mangrum’s only major championship win came at the 1946 U.S. Open, though he was runner-up in four majors and third in five more. He lost in playoffs at the 1940 and 1950 U.S. Opens. He finished in the top ten at The Masters Tournament ten consecutive years. In 1940 he shot a tournament record 64 in the opening round of The Masters, a record that stood for decades until Nick Price shot a 63 in 1986.

On this day in 1878, the first female telephone operator was hired and the sales of women shoesskyrocketed once again.

Emma Mills Nutt became the world’s first female telephone operator on 1 September 1878 when she started working for the Edwin Holmes Telephone Dispatch Company (or the Boston Telephone Dispatch company) in Boston, Massachusetts.

In January 1878 the Boston Telephone Dispatch company had started hiring boys as telephone operators, starting with George Willard Croy. Boys (including reportedly Emma’s husband) had been very successful as telegraphy operators, but their attitude (lack of patience) and behaviour (pranks and cursing) was unacceptable for live phone contact, so the company began hiring women operators instead. Thus, on September 1 1878, Emma was hired, starting a career that lasted 33 or 37 years, retiring in 1911 or 1915. A few hours after Emma started work her sister Stella Nutt became the world’s second female telephone operator, although, unlike Emma, she only stayed for a few years.

On this day in 1932, John Updike was born.

Updike grew up in Shillington, Pennsylvania, and many of his early stories draw on his youthful experiences there. He graduated from Harvard University in 1954. In 1955 he began an association with The New Yorker magazine, to which he contributed editorials, poetry, stories, and criticism throughout his prolific career. His poetry—intellectual, witty pieces on the absurdities of modern life—was gathered in his first book, The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures (1958), which was followed by his first novel, The Poorhouse Fair (1958). About this time, Updike devoted himself to writing fiction full-time, and several works followed. Rabbit, Run (1960), which is considered to be one of his best novels, concerns a former star athlete who is unable to recapture success when bound by marriage and small-town life and flees responsibility. Three subsequent novels, Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit Is Rich (1981), and Rabbit at Rest (1990)—the latter two winning Pulitzer Prizes—follow the same character during later periods of his life. Rabbit Remembered (2001) returns to characters from those books in the wake of Rabbit’s death. The Centaur (1963) and Of the Farm (1965) are notable among Updike’s novels set in Pennsylvania.

I’ve always wanted to rent and rv and visit all of the places that great authors like Updike wrote about.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was born on this day in 1882.

The only president elected to the office four times, Roosevelt led the United States through two of the greatest crises of the 20th century: the Great Depression and World War II. In so doing, he greatly expanded the powers of the federal government through a series of programs and reforms known as the New Deal, and he served as the principal architect of the successful effort to rid the world of German National Socialism and Japanese militarism.

On this day in 1926, George Burns and Gracie Allen were married.

On this day in 1957, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were married, setting the stage for one of the best singing duos in history.

Twas The Night Before Christmas was published in the Troy Sentinel of New York.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”