A recording of the premiere episode of the radio series Frank Sinatra In Person with guests Orson Welles and Gloria DeHaven has surfaced online.
Sponsored by Vimms vitamins, the broadcast first aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System on August 9, 1944. Sinatra fan Jim Mahoney recently uploaded the unedited 32-minute program to YouTube. He noted the vintage audio recording had been preserved by Sinatra expert Ric Ross.
“This is the entire program which is believed to have originally aired on August 9, 1944 but which does not appear on any list of known Frank Sinatra radio programs. Prior to the discovery of this episode, the In Person radio show was believed to have premiered on August 16, 1944 with a program that featured Eileen Barton and Fredric March as Sinatra’s guests,” Mahoney wrote in his introduction.
Newspaper advertisements of that era reveal the half-hour series aired on Wednesday nights with Ol’ Blue Eyes welcoming Hollywood guests like Welles, March, and Joan Leslie. The series ran through the spring of 1945 with appearances by Edward G. Robinson, Carmen Miranda, Lionel Barrymore, Dinah Shore, Lou Costello and Bob Hope, according to a script book that was on the auction block in 2019.
The August 9, 1944 debut episode contains some good natured ribbing of Welles on the subject of his ego and acting abilities. There are several songs performed by the host, including the Word War II era favorite I’ll Be Seeing You.
Welles would guest again on the series on October 18, 1944. That appearance can be heard at youtube.com/watch?v=S0SF6IXNmX8.
Welles’ appearances are not surprising since he and Sinatra were good friends. The pair campaigned together for President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the fall of 1944.
A decade later, Sinatra provided financial support for Welles’ Don Quixote and served as godfather of Welles’ youngest daughter, Beatrice. Sinatra also was the host of the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony honoring Welles in 1975.
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