And also this, about Helen O’Connell:
I noted in previous posts, below, that a Wikipedia photo of Ms. O’Connell was, evidently, from the 1951-1953 radio version of Your Hit Parade, which starred Guy Lombardo and his orchestra.
I don’t have the date of the photo of Helen O’Connell’s Hit Parade appearance. I do have a list of the vocalists who appeared on the radio program from September of 1951 until June of 1952 (each week, a guest female vocalist appeared as “Your Lucky Star of the Week”), and Ms. O’Connell appeared on the show on May 1, 1952. What I do not have is the list of singers who appeared on the show beginning in the fall of 1952, and continuing until the early part of 1953, when the program left the air. It is possible, therefore, that Ms. O’Connell also appeared on the show at some point during that latter period, and that the photo is from that time.
Yet (it interests me to note), O’Connell’s May, 1952 appearance on the radio show took place the week after my mother appeared on the program; my mother had also appeared as the show’s guest vocalist on a January, 1952 broadcast. Her April 24, 1952 appearance took place on the show’s 17th anniversary broadcast, which aired from the United States Naval Hospital, in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
Here is a page of the script from the end of the April, 1952 program—and it is noted (by Guy Lombardo, and announcer Kenny Delmar) that Helen O’Connell will be appearing on the show the following week, from Fort Monmouth, in New Jersey.
