Let me say a few words about who should really take credit for this book and the two volumes that will soon follow it. It all began over twenty five years ago when I was looking for some way to enhance my radio show which I called Life in the Past Lane. At the time I was doing much the same thing that many others have done. I was simply replaying radio shows of the past and talking about them. I got to thinking about the many performers and technicians who made them and were still around at that time. Why not call them up, talk with them and then play the results on the air? To make a long story short, I developed a sort of Hollywood and New York underground and managed to get access to some hard to come by phone numbers. Much to my surprise, those folks were all more than willing to talk at length about their careers and their lives. It went so well that I decided to expand the project and include theatre, movies, early television and some fine musicians. The end result was that, over a two year span I was able to record over eighty extensive interviews with some of the people who made media history. Therefore-they are the ones who wrote this book. All I did was pull it together.