Critic's Review
arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide
All of the material in this compilation consists of radio transcriptions from the late '40s. The whole point is to revisit the final heydays of live comedic radio during a transitional period when television was already beginning to usurp the older medium. While there's always something to be said for live vaudeville, here one must contend with shrieking crowds and heavily scripted banter. For this reason some may prefer Durante's recordings from the 1930s and '40s that were produced in a studio without a live audience (see The Great Schnozzle, ASV/Living Era 5271). For those who seek instead campy exchanges between famous hams playing to giddily responsive audiences, Living Era's Radio Stars of America compilation is ideal. The longer tracks contain medleys of old-time melodies interspersed with gags and laughter. In addition to his old vaudeville cohort Eddie Jackson, Durante collides and/or colludes with Bing Crosby, Dick Haymes, Bob Hope, Tallulah Bankhead, Alan Young, Rose Marie, Arthur Treacher, Lucille Ball, and Frank Sinatra. Which is one hell of a lineup.
