His mother's voice came to him
after the passage of 55 years
By JOHN MARTIN
Journal-Bulletin TV Writer
Bruce Kalver loves old-time radio. It has long been a part of his life.
Now it holds a special place in his heart.
Kalver, a Cranston resident who hosts a Sunday morning nostalgia show on New Bedford's WBSM radio, will have a special guest tomorrow morning. His mother Eunice Woolf will sing.
At least, you'll hear her voice as she appeared at the age of 15 on Major Bowes' Amateur Hour 55 years ago, singing a medley of songs in the style of Dinah Shore, Judy Canova, Judy Garland and others.
Stored on a thin audiocassette, it is a performance of a lifetime, a moment frozen in time and preserved forever thanks to a Major Bowes' producer and the Library of Congress, and in Kalver's hands thanks to the kindness of a stranger on the Internet.
Kalver will play the tape in the 10 o'clock hour of Nostalgia Times Radio Programme tomorrow, the 11th anniversary of Eunice's death.
This all began innocently enough. Eunice, who grew up in Providence, was vacationing in New York with her parents when her mother suggested that, as long as they were in the city, Eunice should audition for Bowes.
Eunice was no stranger to the world of entertainment. Her mother, Jeanette Zenenberg Woolf, danced with Rudolph Valentino movies; her father, Samuel, was an assistant to legendary magician Harry Houdini.
Kalver, himself a magican, also produces dinner-theater productions and murder-mystery evenings.
``About 25 years ago I started collecting old radio shows in hopes of coming across a recording of my mother,'' he said over lunch recently. ``But I soon realized there weren't many recordings. I would ask and I woul