Barbara Jean Wong 100th Birthday Part I: OTR Child Star of the Month - March 2024

Barbara Jean Wong around age 9, from Radio Mirror July 1936. From Media History Digital Library

It was hard to decide on the Old Time Radio (OTR) Child Star of the Month, until I realized a very special star was born 100 years ago this month. 

Born 100 years ago today was Barbara Jean Wong (March 3, 1924- November 13, 1999) talented dancer, actress, singer drum majorette, acrobat, and later a public school teacher. She was known as "The Chinese Shirley Temple" and radio's "Chinese Wonder" as a child. Her specialty was as a voice chameleon who portrayed children of all races on the radio well into her adulthood.

Of all her roles from the Golden Age of Radio the most enduring today was the voice of Judy, one of the Barton Twins, on The Cinnamon Bear (1937), a captivating Christmas serial that is still broadcast on many stations today, and on The Amos 'n' Andy Show as Amos’ daughter Arbadella. She memorably played Arbadella Jones on the Annual Christmas annually from 1940 to 1960. 

Barbara Jean Wong was born in Los Angeles on March 3, 1924, to parents Thomas and Maye Wong. In the early 1930s for station KFAC she was a cast member of the “Whoa Bill” Club and acted in the radio skit “Billy and Betty” with actor Dorian Thompson. From these early broadcasts Wong is believed to have been the first Asian American to act in an American radio comedy or drama. 

She was cast was Asian, White, and Black children, girls and boys on many programs for the next 2 decades On Strange as it Seems, a radio program based on John Hix' comic strip which was similar to Ripley's Believe It of Not, she portrayed Alice (of Wonderland), even once portrayed George Washington as a boy which made national headlines

Radio was the theater of the imagination, and for Barbara Jean Wong there was no color or race, nor age. In the new medium of television, a 30-year-old Wong once commented that she found herself typecast as Asian women. She had appeared in several movies in the 1930s and 1940s always as Asian girls or women. One of her last film roles was in The Man From Button Willow (1965), an animated tale in which she played a little Asian girl, and a possible first introduction to Wong for those unfamiliar with radio's golden age,

Barbara Jean Wong Lee passed away November 13, 1999 at the age of 75. Today via radio and film collections on the internet her talented voice performances can easily be rediscovered. 

To Be Continued........For the month of March, I want to follow up this post with highlight for her childhood performances, and her performances as children. 

Patricia Ryan - Part II

Ad for Pat Ryan promoting her work on "Let's Pretend" and the "March of Games" series from the Buffalo Courier Express August 2, 1938

To recap, Patricia "Pat" Ryan (February 21, 1921 - February 15, 1949 was a versatile child, teen and young adult actress from Radio's Golden Age. She began with children's series like "Let's Pretend" but began to have more roles in primetime programs with age. 

Some confusion in researching Patricia Ryan in press articles 

In reviewing radio listings and contemporary events from 1937-1940, there were a number of women named "Patricia Ryan" who were grabbing headlines. Here is some helpful information to help other researchers avoid some of these hassles. 

In 1937 while CBS aired “Let’s Pretend” on Saturday mornings, the NBC-Blue network had an adult singer 30 minutes later named Patricia Ryan. 

Actress Betty Winkler as another "Patricia Ryan" in Girl Alone on NBC Radio.
From Radio Guide October 1, 1938

The radio drama “Girl Alone” starred Betty Winkler as a character named “Patricia Ryan”. In some sources her character was "Patricia Rogers"

There was some alarm when another New York woman named Patricia Ryan was accused of murdering her husband in 1938. There are claims that the NBC switchboard was lit up with calls concerned that the adult singer was the same person. Patricia Ryan is even said to be the name used by Pat Nixon when attending college. “Pat Ryan” was also the name of a character in comic strip “Terry and the Pirates”. 

And now back to our Patricia "Pat" Ryan.

A press photo of Nila Mack (left), Estelle Levy [Gwen Davies] and Pat Ryan, for the 10th anniversay of "Let's Pretend", or more accurately 10 years as Mack as Director. The inner photo shows how Levy and Ryan looked c. 1930. The blogger would like to know if this that image of Levy and Ryan exists in higher quality.

In 1941, she co-starred with Richard Kollmar in the summer series “Claudia and David” based on the popular stories by about a young newlywed maturing into life. A highly coveted part, Ryan won the part over hundreds of actresses. Unfortunately none of the broadcasts with her in the role are available today, but an episode of "Treasury Star Parade" with Ryan and Kollman in their roles has survived.

Praised for her beauty even as a child, Ryan was featured in numerous articles, fashion photoshoots, and advertisements for cosmetics, fashion, and beauty tips. Even in 1941 just as CBS was re-entering television, Ryan was considered ideal and photogenic for the new medium. Metro Goldwyn Meyer screen tested her as reported in a 1942 edition of Variety. 

Patricia Ryan in her nursing aid uniform on the cover of "Radio Mirror" August 1943. 

Along with radio acting Patricia also trained and served as a nurse’s aide for 2 years during World War II. If a 1943 account in Radio Mirror is accurate, her peers at the Misericordia Hospital in Manhattan unaware that she was a radio star until some commotion started during the diploma ceremony. In a strange foreshadowing, this article also gives an account by Pat stating that nothing really exciting happened to her radio except for a incident when a microphone struck her in the head knocking her unconscious when she was 12. After she was revived, she continue to perform, "Although" she said" I had a slight headache". 

.................To Be Continued With Part III

Additional Writings by Patricia Ryan:

"We'll Never Give Enough". Radio Romances formerly Radio Mirror, April 1945. https://archive.org/details/radiomirro00mac/page/n377/mode/1up?view=theater 

OTR Child Star of the Month: Patricia Ryan Part I

In order to speed up a goal of completing a definitive history of children's radio before 1960, I will try to write about one juvenile star a month. Another February could not go by without acknowledging Patricia Ryan. 

Old Time Radio Child Star of the Month, February 2024: Patricia Ryan – Part I

Photo of Patricia "Pat" Ryan, from Radio Mirror, April 1936

Patricia Marion “Pat” Ryan (February 25, 1921 – February 15, 1949)

Selected Radio Programs
Adventures of Helen and Mary [Let’s Pretend]

Land O’ Make Believe (Land of Make Believe)
Daddy and Rollo
Sunday Morning at Aunt Susan’s
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

Aunt Jenny

The Parker Family

American School of the Air
Claudia (and David)
The Aldrich Family 

Patricia “Pat” Ryan was a leading child, teen, and young adult actress of Radio’s Golden Age. She acted on radio constantly from the age of 7 or 8 until her untimely death in 1949 at the age of 27. Now 75 years after her passing and for February which was also the month she was born here is a research complication of Patricia’s story. 

Patricia Marion Ryan born February 25, 1921 in London, England, the second child of John and Edith Lottie (Wood) Ryan. Her New York born father and English born mother also had Pauline Edith (b. 1917 - 2007), and baby sister Juanita (b. 1926 - ????). Edith, Paulina and Patricia immigrated to Ellis Island, NY when Patricia was just 3 months old.

“Pat” as she was commonly named as a child, began appearing in radio broadcasts around 1929 on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). In future press articles Pat Ryan was sometimes called Columbia's first child star. The series she would be most identified for was the Saturday morning children's series “The Adventures of Helen and Mary” (1929-1934) with Estelle Levy*. Levy and Ryan would work together for nearly 20 years. This fantasy series created by Yolande Langworthy would become the Peabody award winning “Let’s Pretend” (1934-1954) under the direction of Nila Mack. As Let’s Pretend, children of all ages were swept into the best fairy and folk tales, all enacted by a juvenile cast. 

Patricia "Pat" Ryan, with Yolande Langworthy, and Artells Dickson on "Land O' Make Believe",
From "What's On The Air, August 1930.

most radio histories (and ongoing publicity from CBS and the press) Pat Ryan was the first and only Mary**, but recent research for the Children’s Media Archive blog has found that she began this role in 1930 following actress Jean Derby. At the same time Derby was on the series, Ryan was listed as a featured CBS child actress, so further research is needed to confirm which children's series Pat Ryan appeared on first. 

Pat Ryan and Estelle Levy c. 1935

Before the age of 14 little Pat was featured on Land O’ Make Believe, Littmann’s Mountainville True Life Sketches, Daddy and Rollo, and Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. 

Ryan was part of a new generation of wonder children who were leading and starring in network radio programs and would graduate to adult programming, stage, and screen like Jimmy McCallion, Baby Rose Marie, Nancy Kelly, Shirley Bell, the Mauch Twins, and Franklin Adams.... just to keep the list short. 

Ryan went a step further and was also a writer and director. Pat was already writing plays for local theater, but it even more was widespread news when 12-year-old*** Pat was allowed to write and cast players for an original story for Let’s Pretend. She was reported as the youngest playwright for nationally broadcast radio program. Her story “The Silver Knight” was originally broadcast April 27, 1935. While a recording does not exist, an abridged version was published in the September 1935 edition of “Radio Stars. A script copy exists in the Let’s Pretend Collection at the Emerson College Archives and Special Collections. Pat did not appear in the play herself, but reportedy was interviewed by Nila Mack at the beginning of the broadcast. 

Abridged version of "The Silver Knight" from Radio Junior section of "Radio Stars" September 1935. Arty by Jim Kelly. 

Sources for Part I

"New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J6J7-938 : Thu Feb 08 23:09:00 UTC 2024), Entry for Patricia Marion Ryan and June Wood, 09 May 1921.

The Silver Knight, 1935-04-27, MSS 004-01-70, Box: MSS 004 Box 02. The "Let's Pretend" Collection, MSS 004. Emerson College Archives and Special Collections. https://archivesspace.emerson.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/15006  

"United States, New York, Index to Passengers Arriving at New York City, compiled 1944-1948", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:78Z3-1DMM : Thu Oct 05 04:06:39 UTC 2023), Entry for Patricia Marion Ryan, 1921.

Notes***

*Estelle Levy would later act, sing, and do animation voice overs as "Gwen Davies". Her married name was Gwen Greenhaus (1922-2022).

**Many contemporary sources list Pat Ryan in either role of Helen or Mary.  

***Like many child stars of the past, there are discrepancies with her age. Press articles from 1935 say Pat was 11 or 12 when the The Silver Knight premiered, but Patricia was really 14. 

Season's Greetings From Alice Remsen - The Musical Story Lady

 

Christmas Greetings from Alice Remsen, NBC Blue Radio's "Musical Story Lady" From Radio Daily December 1937.

From Variety, January 4, 1939

Alice Remsen (1886-1974) was a British born American entertainer, whose career spanned nearly 50 years. In some histories she was the first singer to perform regularly on television. Her program "Alice Remsen" aired on W2XCD from Passiac, New Jersey in 1931. 

Alice Remsen c. 1932. Image from Radio Digest January 1933

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s she sang regularly on the radio. For NBC she starred in 3 programs at once, one of which was for children called "Land of Make Believe". She was known as the "Musical Story Lady" on this program and released albums based on this series. 

In radio trade magazines, radio stars would extend Christmas Greetings, and this post includes a few from Ms. Remsen. 

Island of Lost Christmas Specials - A Christmas Carol (1945) with Ireene Wicker, plus the WRGB Christmas Pary

"A Christmas Carol"
Broadcast Date:    Decemeber 21, 1945, WRGB, Schenectady, New York 
Cast:    Starring Ireene Wicker "The Singing Lady"

Status: Most likely never recorded, but publicity stills may exist. 

WRGB Christmas Party 

Broadcast Date: December 24, 1945, WRGB Schenectady, New York

Cast: Unconfirmed

Status: Not recorded, but 11 photographs are available online. 

From "In television too-- the show's the thing : the first year of ABC television" (1946). The woman at the center appears to be Ireene Wicker.

It has been 3 years since I wrote a post with the theme of "Island of Lost Christmas Specials". The island would be a mythical place where scores of kinescopes, VHS tapes, transcription discs and more of yesteryears merriest programs may be found.

Irene "Ireene" Maud Seaton Wicker Hammer (c. 1900*-1987) or simply Ireene Wicker was the famous Singing Lady of NBC Blue (later ABC) Radio from 1931 - 1945. She continued telling stories as a Peabody award winner even into the 1970s on New York radio.

By 1945, she was actually a 14 year veteran of television. Her first appearance was in a televised play broadcast from Chicago in 1931. Wicker had multiple telecasts before her ABC TV series debuted in 1948, including at least six at station WRGB in Schenectady, New York. WRGB was the General Electric owned landmark station with multiple groundbreaking programs broadcasts in the 1940s.

One of Wicker's programs was her presentation of "A Christmas Carol" on December 21, 1945. The program is listed in the book "In television too-- the show's the thing : the first year of ABC television" (1946), which is freely available from Hathi Trust. 

WRGB also broadcast the "WRGB Christmas Party on December 24, 1945. A photo for the ABC book appears to show Wicker (not in her usual fairytale gowns) reading to a group of children, with a caption suggesting that she was reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas". This image is one of 11 that exist from this broadcast. The full photo is also available from the Digital Public Library of America courtesy of the Museum of Innovation and Science. A brief caption in the ABC book stated that this was a special program "given for underprivileged children". This party included Santa Claus and storytellers. 

It is not known if an image of Wicker's 1945 Christmas Carol program exists today. 

"The Singing Lady" would return to Dickens' famous tale again on her ABC-TV series in 1948. That December, she was assisted by the Suzari Marionettes. 

For an idea of what she may have sounded like as Ebeneezer Scrooge, listen to one of her Christmas music albums for children. 

The Island of Lost Christmas Specials

* Some sources list her birthdate as 1900, 1906, and 1907. 

Christmas in Junior Newspaper Sections: Lost In Christmas Tree Land (1923)

 From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 23, 1923, here is a charming Christmas coloring page. 

From Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sunday, December 23, 1923

Here is the same page colored with Palette. FM AI tool. 

(It's Not A) Lost Classic Film: Little Iodine (1946)

 

Lobby card for "Little Iodine" (1946) colorized with Palette.fm Ai Technology. Left to Right, Irene Ryan, Hobart Cavanaugh, and Jo Ann Marlowe

"Proof that comics strips can be good screen material" - Jimmy Fidler In Hollywood, newspaper column, September 1946. 

Little Iodine was the only live action film adaptation of the mischievous child character created by Jimmy Hatlo for his long running comic strip (1943-1983). The film "officially" debuted in theaters October 20, 1946, several months after a delayed released due to a polio epidemic. It was feared that the illness would reduce the number of children who could come to theaters. Little Iodine was screened for critics a month earlier in September. 

For decades, and across the internet, it it widely cited as a lost film, with no known surviving print. This post will shock many but "Little Iodine" IS NOT A LOST FILM.  A print DOES EXIST in the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Film and Television Archives. A nitrate print and non-circulating research copies plus safety storage copies are cataloged in their library holdings. It has been commercially & publicly unavailable for over 70 years, which could still qualify it as a "lost" film today.

Little Iodine was the first film from newly formed Comet Productions, a company started by Mary Pickford, her husband Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and Columbia Pictures executive Ralph Cohn. The film was one of its few productions withins a couple of years. Little Iodine was distributed by United Artists. 

After playing in countless kiddie matinees with serials, cartoons, and other B-features, Little Iodine disappeared from theaters around 1950, and has not been screened publicly since. I also have not found any accounts of prints being distributed by local television stations. 

Matinee Ad from The Daily Alaska Empire, [Juneau, Alaska], page 5. November 12, 1948. From Chronicling America

Child actress Jo Ann Marlowe (1935-1991) made her film debut in the Oscar winning musical Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and appeared in "A" & "B" vehicles throughout the 1940s. From existing promo photos she visually looks like a perfect match for Hatlo's chaos causing child. A press snippet from March 1946 claimed that Marlowe was suggested for the role to Charles Rogers by Joan Crawford. Marlowe had portrayed Joan's youngest daughter in her Oscar winning performance film Mildred Pierce (1945).

Audiences today are most familiar with Irene Ryan as Granny from TV's "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1962-1971), and it would be nice to see her in a lost performance from over 15 years earlier. Iodine's father Mr. Trimble was played by Hobart Cavanaugh. A review from Variety suggested that Ryan and Cavanaugh were the stand out performers of the film. Also in the cast was former child actor Lanny Rees (1933-2023) who passed away February of this year. Rees may have been the last surviving cast member. 

Austrian director Reginald LeBorg (1902-1989) also helmed "Joe Palooka, Champ" from Monogram Pictures the same year as "Little Iodine". LeBorg would direct 10 sequels for this series based on Ham Fisher's famous comic strip character. One wonders what could have been if there had been a "Little Iodine" series. 

Hatlo's Little Iodine would not appear again in a film until 1972's "Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter", an animated ABC Saturday Superstar Movie" with a cast of a comic strip greats. Iodine was voice by Corinne Orr. 

Contemporary reviews suggest that it was an overall good picture. Little Iodine currently has an 80% Rotten Tomatoes scored from 5 surviving 1940s critic reviews. It would be fascinating to see Comet Productions' Little Iodine restored after so many decades. Columbia Pictures recently released a 2K scan of Little Orphan Annie (1932) with Mitzi Green as a bonus features in a movie set, so anything is possible. 

Further Reading:

Graham, Shelia. "Rich, but He Wants To Be a Star". March 30, 1946. Washington [D.C.] Evening star. Page B-16. Link from Chronicling America. 

Variety Review, September 11, 1946 - https://archive.org/details/variety163-1946-09/page/n65/mode/2up  

Motion Picture Daily Review, September 6, 1946 - https://archive.org/details/motionpicturedai60unse/page/n472/mode/1up