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| Press image of Ronald Liss c. 1945. Image reused with permission from The Big Broadcast by Frank Buxton and Bill Owens, 1972. |
Ronald Liss
April 4, 1930 - Fall 1969****
Also Known as Ron Liss, Ronny Liss, and Ronnie Liss.
Partial List of Known Radio Programs, Title and Range of Known Appearances
Columbia Workshop c. 1939 - 1947
Bright Horizon c. 1941-1945
Mrs. Miniver (CBS Series) 1944
Adventures of Superman, 1945-1948
Light of the World (1940s)
Eternal Light, 1945-1967
Adventures of Red Feather Man, 1946
Batman Mystery Club (unaired pilot) 1950
Hilltop House, early 1950s
Let's Pretend
Mark Trail, 1950
Theater 5, 1965
Discovery, writer 1962-1970
On Christmas Day 1999, when I was a kid, I received two long awaited sets of Superman radio episodes on CD and cassette that were produced by Radio Spirits. I quickly grew very fond of the Man of Steel as portrayed by Clayton "Bud" Collyer, Batman by Stacy Harris and a memorable Robin The Boy Wonder as portrayed by Ronald Liss.
Ronald Liss was one of radio's most dynamic child personalities and possibly the most consistently employed in the Golden Age or Radio. He was far more than radio's "Boy Wonder" (in more than one sense) as he may be most well known today.
Radio's Child Prodigy
Ronald S. Liss was born April 4, 1930* in New York City. He was one of radio's greatest child prodigies showing tremendous vocal and musical range from an early age. Little "curly-headed" Ronald was a featured singer and band conductor on the NBC Children's Hour from the age of 3. He was a regular on NBC's Lady Next Door, Coast To Coast on A Bus. He also made public appearances as the conductor of the Nee York Baby Orchestra organized by Karl Moldrem.
Throughout the 1930s he made guest appearances on The Rudy Vallee Hour, Goodman Ace, and other musical programs as a singer and violinist. A curious 1933 broadcast on the Marie Davenport program teamed 3 year old Ronald playing violin with a 110 year old pianist. With Audrey Egan and Theresa, Ronnie famously substituted for Singing Lady Ireene Wicker for a few broadcasts while she recovered from laryngitis in 1939.
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| "Curly Headed" Ronald Liss, age 3 (or 2), conducting the New York Baby Orchestra. Central New Jersey Home News, June 04, 1933. snippet |
Radio's Real "Boy Wonder"
His prodigious intellect also included languages as he learned Spanish and later Japanese. For his fluency in Spanish, Liss was called upon to due patriotic broadcasts during World War II. He was asked portray children with different dialects and even to do some broadcasts near the Southern US border.
Into his adolescent and teen years Ronald became even more well known for his roles on radio programs created to instill patriotism, goodwill, and diversity among American citizens. He portrayed youth in several episodes of the wartime propaganda series This Is Our Enemy. Liss was also heard on the famous African American civil rights series New World A-Coming.
He was in the cast of the daytime drama Bright Horizon (1941-1945) as adopted orphan Bobby. Liss is also credited in the cast for Aunt Jenny's Stories, and as Mickey the son of married detectives on the CBS series Two On A Clue** (1944-1946).
Further into the 1940s Liss was in demand for courageous youth on adventure themed programs. In 1945 he was cast in Cimarron Tavern a weekday serial about life on the western Frontier.
Ronny Liss' most famous radio role today was as Robin "young boy with mask and cape" and "youthful companion to the famous Batman" on recurring crossover stories on the Adventures of Superman between 1944 and 1948. The radio adventures of Superman with Batman were culturally significant as these characters did not have a written adventure story together in the pages of DC comics until the 1952. While several key episodes of Superman from World War II are lost today, (including the first appearance of Batman) the first two episodes with Liss as Robin from March 1945 can be heard today, followed by by several complete storylines until 1949.
Batman was portrayed by Matt Crowley and Stacy Harris, while Liss was always Robin. In 1950 Liss again portrayed Robin for an unsold pilot for The Batman Mystery Club. This was the second known attempt to give the Dark Knight Detective his own radio show.
With restorations by Radio Spirits, several of the Batman/Superman team-ups were re-released on cassette and CDs from 1999 to 2006. References to the name of Ronny Liss over the past few decades are from dozens of histories of Batman and Robin in mass media. From these releases and histories, Liss may be the most familiar name and voice of any juvenile actor today from radio's Golden Age.
The Light of the World was the daytime soap opera adapted from the Bible. Liss had several parts, with a young Daniel being notable. He also played a tough kid named Jimmy on the short lived Mrs. Miniver radio series on CBS.
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| Press images of Jeanne Elkins and Ronny Liss for the Magic Christmas Window. The Tribune(Coshocton, OH). November 28, 1948. |
While appearing in many adventure and drama programs, Liss could still be heard on more light hearted children's fare. With Jeanne Elkins*** cast as his sister, Ronnie was the co-lead of The Magic Christmas Window a syndicated series of holiday fantasies for children.
Liss was teamed up with Matt Crowley again for the 1950 Mark Trail series, based on the comic strip, as the title character's young friend Scotty.
With a voice that remained youthful well into young adulthood, Liss was cast as war orphans and juvenile delinquents on radio well into his early 30s. He had roles on the sci-fi anthologies 2000 Plus and X-Minus One with memorable roles on Suspense as late as 1961.
Official Adventures by Ronald Liss
In the mid 1960s, Liss was an actor and scriptor for the "Official Adventures" Leo The Lion series of audio/radio drama style stories for LP albums based on famous characters. The series included new adventures of Flash Gordon (with Buster Crabbe), The Green Hornet, The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, Superman, and Batman & Robin.
In the Batman & Robin album, Liss was once again the Boy Wonder. The Caped Crusader was portrayed by Jack Curtis (1924-1970) who was also a former radio child star on Coast To Coast on A Bus, and whose voice is instantly recognizable from his voice over work on Speed Racer and Marine Boy.
TV's Youngest Relic
Liss is known to have acted on television dramas as early as 1943. He was active in the new medium as an actor as a young adult. By the age of 28 he was a writer and producer. His full credits are still unknown, but he was interviewed while he was a production assistant for the Jimmy Dean Show. Since by 1958 he had TV experience longer most even while still young, he was dubbed "TV's Youngest Relic".
Beyond the Golden Age of Radio, Liss' greatest contribution to children media was as a writer for the educational series Discovery (1962-1971) on ABC TV. Still fondly remembered by Baby Boomers and older Gen Xers, Discovery brought culture, nature and history to young viewers as a weekly documentary.
Bill Owens, who was the host from 1966-1971 still recalls Liss as a good friend with "great prankish sense of humor" and his fondness for entertaining the young Owen children. Not only did Liss write several episodes, but he also shot publicity stills for the series.
Thanks to YouTube and the Internet Archive, several episodes written by Liss are now viewable for the first time in decades.
Liss was still a contributing writer on Discovery at the time of his passing at the age of 38 in 1969. Some sources have mistakenly listed his death date as 1970. No public obituary was located as of this writing, but the impact and shock at ABC was mentioned in press snippets. A tribute ad was published in the October 15, 1969 edition of Variety with the words "In the Memory of Ronald Liss By His Friends". Episodes written by Liss continued to air into 1971.
Many details of Liss' life remain a mystery due to limited documentation. More information is wanted about his family. In 1959 he was married to actress Jan Chaney. Press articles about their union described Liss as a "CBS assistant producer" or a "stage manage and assistant producer" at CBS.
Legacy
Ronald Liss embodied the full range of talent that any child actor could have. His career as an adult embraced the new medium of television while still producing colorful audio projects rooted in what made radio so special. With his multiple performances on Superman, Dimension X, and other programs, many more episodes with Liss have survived for entertainment and review than many of his childhood peers. Also with more knowledge of Ronald Liss' life, baby boomers and older Generation X kids can revisit Discovery on YouTube with a renewed appreciation of one of the amazing talents behind the scenes.
From war information programs, to dramas about racial tolerance and to writing television documentaries about culture and history, Liss is an overlooked figure in the history instructional children’s media.
The OTRR Library has hundreds of surviving programs with Liss as a cast member, the most plentiful being from Superman. More episodes with Liss exist in archival collections; for example one episode of Cimarron Tavern is in the OTRR Library, but an additional 23 exist in the J. David Goldin Collection at the Marr Sound Archives at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Notes & Acknowledgements
This blogger would like to thank Mr. Bill Owens for sharing recollections of Ron Liss, and special permission to use a photo from "The Big Broadcast" (1972)
*Some sources say Liss was born in 1931. Also early coverage may be incorrect about his age, as it was typical for a year or two to be added or subtracted from a child's age. Also, his given middle initial was S. I still have no idea what it stood for.
** Of all the lost programs featuring Liss, I am most curious about Two For A Clue.
*** This blogger would like to get in touch with Jeanne Elkins. Years ago a neighbor of hers was seeking out radio programs.
**** An exact date of death was not found for Ronald S. Liss as of June 11, 2026. His interment date was October 8, 1969.
