or, …

maybe, Tom Dowd

(although I'm not sure if that's "earlier era" enough)

or... 

Spencer Bonaventure Tracy, maybe. 

…might be fun…delivering that biggie monolog in Inherit The Wind

or tradin’ licks with Clark Gable (even havin the chops to begin with)

Not to mention Kathryn Hepburn (although I think Andrea did;

... Spencer never really did, did he?) …But then he really

took a turn for the worst, climbed into the bottle, no?

...

Somebody mentioned Jimmy Stewart too?  There you go.

Might be cool to lasso the moon…for me best gal

or…Filibuster for a lost cause

“love thy neighbor”

P.S.

whoops, Audrey Hepburn mentioned earlier