I love the bounceback I get on this blog. Here's an e-mail from my friend Tony Tollin, who's an expert on, among other things, old radio shows and the character actors who worked in that medium…
Knowing your interest in animation voices and breakfast cereal mascots, I thought I'd point out that the Car 54 video features Arthur Anderson as the contest emcee. He's the second person you hear in the opening scene, and later introduces the various acts.
Arthur Anderson is probably best-known as the original voice of Lucky, the Lucky Charms leprechaun, a role he voiced for 29 years. A veteran of Let's Pretend and Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre (where he played Lucius in Welles' legendary modern-dress production of Julius Caesar and Jim Hawkins in the Mercury Theatre's radio adaptation of Treasure Island), Arthur has been a regular at the annual Friends of Old-Time Radio Convention for the past 30 years.
This episode also features Leon Janney as the doctor. A former child actor in vaudeville and films, Janney moved onto the airwaves at age 15 where he starred in The Parker Family and in the title role on Chick Carter, Boy Detective. He was a regular on Ken Roberts' Quick as a Flash quiz program and was also frequently heard on The Shadow, Charlie Chan and Mr. District Attorney. Leon also served on the national board of AFTRA for 30 years. Coincidentally, the most recent volume of my Shadow trade paperbacks (#26) features a 1944 Chick Carter radio script in which Nick Carter's adopted son shares an adventure with The Shadow and Thanksgiving dinner with Lamont Cranston and Margot Lane in a rare radio crossover.
And I'm pretty sure that's Ruth Last as the butcher's wife.
What Tony's talking about regarding The Shadow is that he publishes some fine reproductions of classic pulp magazines, The Shadow included. You can find out all about them at his website. Thanks, Tony, for all the info.