Where Have You Gone?

So much of 1951 is gone, but not forgotten, including publications, ballparks, and other buildings. Gone or not, the work of many writers and architects in 1951 impacted the future.

Welton Becket, 49-year-old architect, Robert E. Petersen, 25-year-old publisher, and John Steinbeck, 49-year-old writer, were all doing work that would impact people for years to come.

The stories of Becket, Petersen, Steinbeck, and more are featured in...

This installment of Where Have You Gone looks at Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World”. It put the New York Giants into the 1951 World Series against Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and the New York Yankees.

Ever since October 3, 1951, the date and Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” have been linked. Since then, Thomson’s name has been chiseled into the story of baseball.

Thomson’s home run was the high mark of ...

One of the champions of radio in 1951 was Gordon McLendon, creator of the Liberty Broadcasting System. Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee were part of the creation of the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS). 

Lawrence and Lee became one of America’s great writing duos. Their work stands the test of time. If Gordon McLendon’s work has not lasted in the same way, he remains an inspiration for anyone enthralled by the spoken word.

Th...

The New York Giants had 17 wins and 19 losses when Willie Mays made his Major League Baseball debut on May 25, 1951. By the end of September, he was a fixture in the Giants’ lineup and helped put his team in a pennant race for the ages with the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was a high point in the history of Major League Baseball.

In 1951, the Lux Radio Theater celebrated its 17th anniversary and Meredith Willson turned 49 years old. NBC’...

On September 20, 1951, Ford Frick was elected Commissioner of Baseball. The next day, A Place in the Sun opened at the Loew’s State in downtown Cleveland. Also on the 20th, screenwriter Michael Wilson “appeared before the House Committee on Un-American Activities as an ‘un-friendly’ witness” and took the fifth. 

In the fall of 1951, Saturdays were special. Saturday was the night for Your Show of Shows. Carl Reiner was playing sec...

We look at the 25th birthday of Route 66 and some of baseball’s all-time great broadcasters at the middle of the 20th century.

Route 66 turned 25 years old in 1951. In his book 1939 book The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck called it “The Mother Road” and the moniker stuck. It ran through baseball cities large and small. It was immortalized in the song “Get Your Kicks on Route 66”.

Route 66 is a long road, and the 1951 National ...

We take yet another look at the legendary poet laureate of radio, Norman Corwin, and the husband-wife acting team of Paul Douglas and Jan Sterling.

On September 2, 1951 Norman Corwin “intermittently watched [the] Giants-Dodgers game” in New York City.  He was in New York for a trade screening of The Blue Veil on September 5. 

The film careers of Paul Douglas and Jan Sterling were taking off in 1951. That year, the couple, marri...

Another great playwright, Paddy Chayefsky, supporting players like actors Joe Mantell and Art Gilmore, and many of the Dodgers and Giants on October 3, 1951 are featured.

In 1951, Chayefsky turned 28 years old, and Mantell was 36 years old.  By 1955, Mantell and Chayefsky were both Oscar nominees for the film Marty. Mantell was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and Chayefsky won the Oscar for Best Screenplay.

On...

We feature a look at two more legends, college baseball coach Rod Dedeaux and filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock.

On June 16, 1951, the 37-year-old Dedeaux and the University of Southern California Trojans baseball team was in Omaha, Nebraska playing the Tennessee Volunteers in the College World Series. It was USC’s first trip to Omaha for the College World Series.

In 1951, Hitchcock turned 52 years old. As “The Master of Suspense,” Hi...

Lucille Ball, John Wayne, Rod Serling, and General Douglas MacArthur take center stage as our look at 1951 continues.

On March 31, 1951, five days after Mickey Mantle’s big day at Bovard Field, the last broadcast of “My Favorite Husband” starring 39-year-old Lucille Ball, aired on the CBS radio network. Lucy’s transition from radio to television and “I Love Lucy” marked a fundamental change in American life. It also changed the l...

One of the seminal moments in American history took place on October 3, 1951, when Bobby Thomson hit what has become known as “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”. Earlier in 1951, Mickey Mantle burst onto the scene as a rookie for the New York Yankees. These seemed like two good bookends for a story about 1951 as a turning point in American history.

We feature stories about Mantle and his big day at Bovard Field on the University o...