Happy Labor Day! This week, I direct your attention to WGN's
Hi Ladies, and the Mike Douglas that hosts that show is, indeed, the same Mike Douglas that we all know and love from his long-running, eponymously named, talk show. Douglas first hit it big in 1945 as a guest on
Strike it Rich, did a stint as singer with Kay Kyser's band, voiced Prince Charming in Disney's
Cinderella, and had a national radio program. Eventually, a friend of his who worked at WGN urged Douglas to audition for the station's show
Luncheon Party, where the station's general manager saw him and said "Sign him up!" His career would endure more ups and downs in the years to come, but in 1961 he started his talk show, and it was all-up from there on. This week's listings come from Chicagoland.
