OTRR maintained A Day in the Life of Dennis Day v2208 (1.96 GB on Windows/66 episodes plus related) is available for download from Dropbox, OneDrive or pCloud. Thanks to all those who made this collection possible.

 

IMPORTANT: This is being distributed as one zip file. In Windows, right-click on the file and choose Extract all.

 

These links will be available for 30 days. The episodes of this set will be available on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/OldTimeRadioResearchers starting August 13.

 

Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sg64f8orndyibek/A%20Day%20in%20the%20Life%20of%20Dennis%20Day%20-%20OTRR%20Maintained%20v.%202208.zip?dl=0

OneDrive: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Al5Sbh6lIkj5jppu_r_OuE354bcsaw?e=jJGKNn

pCloud: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZilxQVZlqXMa23HSJ8dcpCL5waxm4U8qyIV

 

Synopsis:

 

Born Eugene Patrick McNulty, Dennis Day would get his start in 1939 on the Jack Benny Program. Day replaced the show’s previous tenor, Kenny Baker, who left for The Fred Allen Show. At first, Day was mainly a singer with few lines and a short studio contract. But his character as an Irish kid with a head full of air quickly developed and became popular with listeners. While Day maintained his role on Benny’s program, A Day in the Life of Dennis Day was developed. In April of 1946 an audition episode of a situation-comedy featuring Day was created and Colgate-Palmolive signed on as the sponsor. The sponsor pushed for wide exposure and the series premiered October 3, 1946, a month later than scheduled. Jack Benny and Don Wilson were the guests on the first show, which was about how Dennis got his own radio program.

 

The show had Day, recently discharged from the Navy, as a singing soda jerk who did impressions. He would maintain the halfwit character developed on Benny’s show. Day worked at Mr. Willoughby’s Drug Store, with Willoughby played by John Brown. Browne was known for his work in the role of Gillis and Digby O’Dell on The Life of Riley. First Sharon Douglas and then Barbara Eiler would play Mildred Anderson, Day’s girlfriend, and Francis “Dink” Trout played Mr. Anderson, Mildred’s father. All of them also had roles on The Life of Riley.

 

A vehicle for Day’s singing, A Day in the Life of Dennis Day always included three songs; one in the beginning, one in the middle, and one at the end of the show. The series morphed over the five-year run, especially in the fourth season when Eiler and Trout both left the show in March 1950. Trout passed away following cancer surgery March 27, 1950. By the end of the fourth season Day was on a road trip with his father, moving to Hollywood, and ended up with a new landlady and girlfriend. However, Eiler returned as a different girlfriend, Gloria, in the fifth and final season.

 

The show was popular and had a spin-off of its own. In 1949, Day created six 5-minute episodes for the National Safety Council called An Unsafe Day in the Life of Dennis Day. A Day in the Life of Dennis Day should not be confused with the later program The Dennis Day Show, a variety television show that ran from 1952 to 1954, or the unsuccessful radio program of the same name which ran from September 26, 1954 to March 6, 1955.

 

Announcers for the show were Verne Smith, Jimmy Wallington, and Frank Barton. Writers included Arthur Alsberg, Frank Galen, Bill Davenport, and Frank Fox. Music was by Robert Armbruster and Charles Bud Dant. Of 212 episodes produced, only about 70 are currently available. Day would continue his run on the Jack Benny Program into the 1960’s, which generated a running gag that Day and Phil Harris both rated two shows, but Benny only one.

 

Information for this synopsis was taken from material compiled by Dr. Matthew J. Nunes, from John Dunning’s The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, The Internet Movie Database, and from Wikipedia.