For most of the program's time on the air, Dennis Day played a soda jerk who sang as he worked. His character was naive, innocent, and prone to making wisecracks, much like the character Day played on The Jack Benny Program.[2] Radio historian John Dunning wrote, "His [the character's] name was Dennis Day, but not, he emphasized, the same Dennis Day as that bright young man on the air with Jack Benny."[1] Plots often derived from problems with his girlfriend and her parents. Before the show ended, it changed to a variety format.[2]
Being the star of his own program was a departure from Day's previous experience as a regular on Benny's show. "I'm just as scared as I was in 1939 [when he joined Benny's show]," he said. "You know, you get used to being a stooge. This one I'll have to carry myself."[3]
Personnel
Day starred as himself in the program, which began after he was discharged from the Navy in 1946.[4] Mildred Anderson (played at different times by Bettie Miles, Barbara Eiler, and Sharon Douglas) was Day's girlfriend. Mildred's parents, Herbert and Clara Anderson (played by Francis "Dink" Trout and Bea Benaderet, respectively), owned the boarding house in which Day lived. Homer Willoughby (played by John Brown) owned the drugstore in which Day worked.[5]
