Mike Douglas with Kay Kyser's Orchestra 1945

Born Michael Delaney Dowd in Chicago on Aug. 11, 1925, Death Aug 11, 2006 Douglas began his career as a teenage singer and entertainer for supper clubs and radio programs. He was the staff singer at radio station WKY in Oklahoma City before joining the Navy during World War II and serving on a munitions ship. Returning home, he became a featured performer on the radio and eventual television program, "Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge." Kyser gave him his stage name. Douglas had some hits with Kyser in the 1940s, including "Old Lamplighter" ( our podcast selection) and "Ole Buttermilk Sky." He made the pop charts one more time in 1966 with the sentimental "The Men in My Little Girl's Life."