Mike Fright is a 1934 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gus Meins. It was the (42nd talking episode) 130th Our Gang short that was released.
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A follow-up to the popular radio/talent show based Our Gang entries Mike Fright and Beginner's Luck, Our Gang Follies of 1936 took the concept of those two films one step further by having the kids themselves stage an elaborate revue on their own.Maltin, Leonard & Bann, Richard W (1977, rev. 1992). The Little Rascals: The Life & Times of Our Gang. New York: Crown Publishing/Three Rivers Press. p. 161-162. .
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After announcing roles on several radio programs, he earned an audition for the NBC affiliate WEAF in New York. Despite numerous roles on the radio, Keech caught a case of mike fright. However, a second audition several weeks later earned Keech a spot on NBC's board of announcers. Keech was most noted for announcing The Eveready Hour, Bill and Betty, Popeye the Sailor and Terry and the Pirates all on NBC during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.
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They made it seem as natural as tying their shoes: Ace himself prodded his network to build set tables with microphones embedded beneath them, not in front of or above them, the better to ease the prospect of mike fright among their co-performers and allow them to sound like themselves and not actors. Further along that line, Ace refused to rehearse an episode more than once, the better to avoid destroying the spontaneity that made the show work as it did.
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Harold Arlin is also believed amongst many historians to be the first to utilize the celebrity interview. There are no immediate available sources to dispute this claim. During his time at KDKA, Arlin interviewed on the air humorist Will Rogers, actress Lillian Gish, orator/politician William Jennings Bryan and baseball legend Babe Ruth. Arlin later recalled in an interview conducted in 1952 that Ruth had such a terrible case of "mike fright" that Arlin had to take the script out of his hands and read it himself.
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A version preceding the Fields film was performed by the Our Gang (Little Rascals) kids as the International Silver String Submarine Band in the 1934 short film Mike Fright. A second Our Gang rendition, by Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, was later included in the 1939 short Clown Princes. The passengers on the bus sing the song in the 1934 Frank Capra film It Happened One Night. The song was the basis of the 1934 Popeye the Sailor musical cartoon The Man on the Flying Trapeze.
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Mike Fright was the first Our Gang short since Pups Is Pups to not contain the opening "Good Old Days" Our Gang theme song. Instead, it was replaced with the Leroy Shield incidental tune "Little Dancing Girl", which appeared as background music in many of the films and would be the music used for the first 4 minutes of this episode. Because the nature of this film was a talent show with a variety of musical selections, additional background music was not used, nor was it needed.
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Billy Lee (William Lee Schlensker) (March 12, 1929 – November 17, 1989) was a child actor who appeared in many films from the mid-1930s through the early 1940s. He is probably best remembered for his performance in The Biscuit Eater. Lee's first role was in the Our Gang comedy short Mike Fright as a tap dancer in a sailor suit. He was signed under contract with Paramount Pictures from 1934 to 1941 and his first significant role was in Wagon Wheels when he was just four years old.
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At night, the station's time was leased to "Renegade Radio," a dance music/techno music format hosted by DJ Racer and former rave station MARS-FM 103.1 DJ Mike "Fright" Ivankay. Renegade Radio also broadcast MARS-FM music director Swedish Egil's syndicated Groove Radio program, which later became a full-time local electronica format at 103.1 KACD/KBCD. In January 1997, Liberman switched the AM and FM services, making the FM a Spanish-language station and the AM aimed at Vietnamese-Americans. While Liberman has three FM stations in the Los Angeles market playing contemporary Regional Mexican music, 96.7 KWIZ specializes in classic Mexican hits from past decades.
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The USA's first commercial full-time dance radio format was MARS-FM, airing in Los Angeles and Orange County, California on 103.1 FM KSRF/KOCM from late 1991 to late 1992. The rave-inspired format was created by KROQ DJs Swedish Egil and Freddy Snakeskin. 103.1 FM would later be the home of several subsequent Los Angeles dance radio formats: "Groove Radio" (1996–1998), "Groove 103.1" (1998) and "KDL" (2003). After the demise of MARS-FM, the former general manager of KSCR, who had been responsible for that station's change to a dance format, created a nighttime leased-time format from 1993 to 1994 at Santa Ana's KWIZ 96.7 FM called Renegade Radio, a dance music/techno format hosted by DJ Racer and former MARS-FM DJ Mike "Fright" Ivankay.
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Krupnick, Jerry, "Despite dial- switching, WKRP keeps on surviving", Montreal Gazette (February 4, 1982) p D10 However, their relationship never seems to go further than the occasional date. (It is implied at the end of "For Love or Money" and "Mike Fright" that they have had at least casual sexual relations, though in both cases, it could be discounted as hyperbole.) In season four's "Rumors", when Johnny stays at Bailey's place for a few days, Bailey is infuriated by the gossip that they are sleeping together, disappointing Johnny, who was hoping that the rumors would come true. While her friend Jennifer dates mostly wealthy older men, Bailey seems to have a different taste in men, dating not only Johnny but also (in the episode "In Concert") a manic-depressive divinity student with a serious drinking problem. In the episode "The Americanization of Ivan", Bailey is the focus of a Russian defector's attentions; although he wishes her help in defecting to the U.S., the Russian is also smitten with her good looks.
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