Duffy’s Tavern (1941-1951) aired “Mystery Valentine” on February 9, 1951, as the 396th of its 425 episodes. An identical version titled simply “Guest Shelley Winters” aired on February 16, 1950 as the show’s 351st episode, but here we prefer to showcase the latter episode.

Duffy’s Tavern was created and hosted by radio veteran Ed Gardner (1901-1963). Though the low rent tavern located on Third Avenue and 23rd St. in New York is owned by Duffy (who never appears), it is run by Archie the Manager, whose catchphrase is “where the elite meet to eat, Duffy ain’t here, Archie the Manager speakin’…” This radio sitcom often featured a celebrity guest, among them the likes of Boris Karloff, Dinah Shore, Gene Tierney, Mickey Rooney, Lucille Ball, Shelley Winters, and of all people Marlene Dietrich. Archie spices up each humorous situation he finds himself in—or has gotten himself into—with his comic malaprops, a linguistic device used to great effect by such as the standup comedian Norm Crosby ([1927-2020] “a standing ovulation” & “the pinochle of perfection” are two of his more memorable examples), and made a standard part of Archie Bunker’s linguistic antics on the long-running TV sitcom All in the Family. An interesting sidebar is that when this famous sitcom came to an end, a spinoff began with the title Archie Bunker’s Place. This show, while differing in certain respects from Duffy’s Tavern, is similar in setting (a working man’s bar in New York) wherein humorous situations occur weekly, and the guy who runs the bar is also named Archie (though I feel this is but a happy coincidence), and both succeed in mangling the English language to great effect. Of possible interest is that while there were several regular characters in Duffy’s Tavern episodes, the actress portraying Duffy’s scatter-brained daughter was none other than Shirley Booth (1898-1992). Booth would go on to star in several Hollywood films (winning a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in 1952’s Come Back, Little Sheba (starring Burt Lancaster). Of course, most folks today remember her for the popular TV show Hazel, where she played a maid to the Baxter family. For the aforementioned 1952 film, her TV role as Hazel, and as the star in the 1952 Broadway play The Time of the Cuckoo, Booth would become one of the very few to win an Oscar, a Grammy, and a Tony award. Shirley Booth was married to Ed Gardner of Duffy’s Tavern fame from 1929-42. They remained friends, though they had no children.

As for “Mystery Valentine,” the guest for this special Valentine’s show, as you might have surmised from reading above, is Shelley Winters (1920-2006). Miss Winters will be dropping by Duffy’s on Valentine’s Day, and when Archie sees her he falls immediately in jaw-dropping love. He wants to marry her, but she lets him know in no uncertain terms that for her next marriage she will be marrying for money. The fun begins as Archie tries to convince her with the most outlandish lies that he is really super rich. The lies grow larger and larger and the audience loves it. And so will you, I daresay, as you listen to this delightful Valentine’s escapade, direct from Duffy’s Tavern.

Play Time: 29:16

{As always, the Friday night episode of Duffy’s Tavern brought a smile to tired faces. The coming Wednesday would be Valentine’s Day with love on the minds and in the hearts of most everyone, especially those of the fairer sex. Unfortunately for the neighborhood gang, they still had to pay for the prank they had played on their sisters some months back, so the girls got together and decided that their younger brothers could make up for their prank by buying them some of their favorite magazines, perfect reading for the upcoming holiday. With a list from their sisters the gang met at the corner newsstand with glum faces and bought the following magazines for their dorky sisters for Valentine’s Day, and to clear the slate for their Halloween prank from the previous year. Gay Love Stories (1942-60) was on their list and was easily removed from its place on the far end of the middle shelf (of three) which took up nearly a whole wall of the newsstand. It was a bi-monthly in 1951. Today’s Love (1933-59) was only a few places down from Gay Love and was also removed from its hiding place behind other romance titles. It was a bi-monthly as well in 1951. Way down at the other end of the wall they found another of their sisters’ choices on the list given to them. Western Rodeo Romances (1942-51) would make one of the gang’s sister happy with this odd choice, but figuring out which one would keep them occupied for months. It was a quarterly in 1951 and would last but one issue beyond the one shown below.}

[Left: Gay Love Stories, 3/51 – Center: Today’s Love, 2/51 – Right: Western Rodeo Romances, Winter ’51]

To view the entire list of weekly Old Time Radio episodes at Tangent Online, click here.