Subject: [removed] Digest V2007 #57
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 2/18/2007 9:52 PM
To: [removed]@[removed]

------------------------------


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2007 : Issue 57
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Howard Duff                           [ Jandpgardner@[removed] ]
  Mel Allen, [removed]                    [ jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns) ]
  Harry Houdini ... and more on Chandu  [ Ljk2476@[removed] ]
  DX'ing ???                            [ Penne <bandpy@[removed]; ]
  Our not so finest hour                [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
  Pee Wee King                          [ jack and cathy french <otrpiano@ver ]
  The Clan of the Fiery Cross           [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
  The Big Lie                           [ "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed]; ]
  Re: Clear Channel Radio               [ Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@sbcglo ]
  OTR in Presidential Libraries?        [ Melanie Aultman <otrmelanie@[removed] ]
  OTR themed shows                      [ Melanie Aultman <otrmelanie@[removed] ]
  Mel Allen                             [ <verotas@[removed]; ]

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 10:57:24 -0500
From: Jandpgardner@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Howard Duff
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Following the recent postings on the Digest regarding Howard Duff and the
effect on his career of the Un-American Activities Committee, I was most
interested to hear him on a "Suspense" show that was never broadcast. I have
just
been listening to it on Jerry Haendiges' "Same Time Same Station" where,  from
today, Jerry has the version of "A Murderous Revision" starring  Richard
Widmark that was aired on "Suspense" on 3 December 1951 and that with  Howard
Duff
recorded on 13 October 1951 but, as Jerry puts it, "never aired  because of
"Howard Duff's alleged Communist leanings". Being in England, I will  not
comment on the "Activities" of the Committee but it would seem  that CBS
decided not
to broadcast the show, in which Duff gives his usual  excellent performance,
because he was in it, even though, strangely, his name is  not mentioned at
all. Presumably CBS was thinking of broadcasting this episode  with no mention
of his name but then realised most people would recognise his  distinctive
voice and decided to redo it with Widmark. Thank you Jerry for  giving us the
chance to hear both versions.
John.

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Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 14:22:38 -0500
From: jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Mel Allen, [removed]

It was not uncommon, when Allen was doing those ballroom music shows,
for him to careen out of the studio, where he had been announcing a
different gig, grab the elevator to the street, and rush into a waiting
car, to get to the designated hotel--

With less than fifteen minutes before airtime!

In later years, when Allen's incredible lineup  included the New York
Yankees, football, collegiate meets, a multitude of charity functions,
AND being the voice--for YEARS--of the Pathe sports newsreels (which he
also wrote)--

It was not uncommon for him to criss-cross the country a few times, in
the same week--

In the days BEFORE the advent, of [removed]!

An interesting aside:

When Ed Murrow featured Mel on PERSON TO PERSON, Allen's family went to
the trouble of creating a tremendous, home-cooked feast--featuring just
about every great Jewish delicacy one could imagine--OFF-camera, for ALL
the crew-members to enjoy, before and after the broadcast.

In the history of the hit CBS series, one of the cameraman recalled that
Allen was just about the only guest ever to show such generosity, and
graciousness.

Jim Burns

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 14:23:30 -0500
From: Ljk2476@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Harry Houdini ... and more on Chandu!
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"Hello, Again!" - as Jack Benny used to say:
        The question  of the seance' for Harry Houdini on radio has come up,
and I seem to remember  that either Radiola/Radio Yesteryear used to sell this
on an LP record (and also  might have had this on tape cassette). I thought
maybe it was available from  Mark 56 Records on an LP, but I seem to think it
came from Radiola - so SOMEBODY  might have a copy out there!
    I am coming close to the deadline on  the CHANDU history book that I am
co-writing with my friend Kris Dewey for  BearManor Media Press. I have been
waiting patiently for some new "Revised  Edition" old-time radio reference
books
from [removed] as I only seem to find  the older versions - even in our
wonderful Chicago Public Library. One finally  came a couple of days ago - THE
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN RADIO by Ron Lackmann  (Revised Edition as of 2000).
Mr.
Lackann states - under his entry for CHANDU  THE MAGICIAN:
"JASON ROBARDS, SR., Gayne Whitman, Howard Hoffman and Tom  Colliins l played
the Chandler-Chandu character at various  times."
    WHEN did Jason Robards, Sr. play the  character? I've found plenty of
documentation about Gayne Whitman playing  "Chandu" (late 1931 through 1934),
Howard Hoffman (apparently just 1935 for the  Chicago version), Tom Collins
(1948
revival through 1950). So, was Tom Collins  or Gayne Whitman ill at some
point in time and Robards, Sr. taking over? Or,  could he have finished the
1950
season at ABC? Jason Robards, JR. I could see,  but poppa had to be getting up
there by 1950!
    On the other hand, when I did a search  for "Chandu" and "Jason Robards,
Sr." at [removed] I found a  newspaper entry from Sept. 25, 1974 of
THE LOWELL SUN  in which you'd find  a "nostalgia quiz." One of the answers
to a question about Jason Robards, Sr.  claimed he played CHANDU. So, there
must be something to this! Anybody have a  clue? All my research shows that
Tom
Collins played "Chandu" from the entire  1948- 1950 run from Mutual to ABC.
     Mr. Lackmann also  sez:
"The last time the series was on the air, CHANDU THE MAGICIAN  was PRODUCED
by Cyril Armbrister and DIRECTED by BLAIR WALLISER. The scripts  were written
by DAM DUNN and Vera Oldham."
    As far as I've been able to tell,  Blair Walliser PRODUCED (and also
possibly DIRECTED) the 1935 Chicago WGN  version of CHANDU THE MAGICIAN. I
have
never seen his name connected with the  later ABC version. Not in print,
anyway,
and I've looked! Also, somewhere I have  info. that the last season (1950) of
CHANDU THE MAGICIAN did have another  writer. so "Dam" (or Dan?) Dunn is
probably correct.
    My co-writer Kristin Dewey and I have  talked to Cyril "Ted" Armbrister,
Jr. Ted Armbrister seems to remember watching  his father work (he was about 8
or so at the time) on CHANDU THE MAGICIAN at the  Rockefeller building in New
York City c. 1948. I was always under the impression  that THAT building was
RCA's New York headquarters, and that NBC had their New  York programs come
from there. John Dunning's information is that CHANDU was  produced - once
again
- in [removed], and that Cyril Armbristher had been directing  radio shows in New
York and was hired by Raymond Morgan to once again direct  CHANDU THE
MAGICIAN. So, I am a bit confused here. Was the revived CHANDU series
produced in New
York or [removed] My educated guess is that it WAS  Los  Angeles, especially as
it was sponsored by White King Soap (I think  exclusively), which came from
sunny California. Perhaps, Mrs. Howard Culver  could answer THIS question,
anyway? Thanks! - Lenny Kohl

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Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 14:26:25 -0500
From: Penne <bandpy@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  DX'ing ???

Ted Kneebone wrote:

I haven't done any DXing for quite awhile, but your answers may get me back
to listening again.

  Is there anyone else here who doesn't know what DXing is?  Sorry to be
dense on the subject, but I just haven't heard this before.   Thanks in
advance.

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:38:02 -0500
From: <otrbuff@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Our not so finest hour

Things did not always work without a hitch on those premium-laden promotions
on radio, at least not consistently the way the advertisers envisioned.  In
the late 1940s, daytime serial heroine Stella Dallas pursued a lecherous
scoundrel to his lair in the far-off Middle East where he had carried Stella's
precious adult daughter Laurel ("Lolly Baby").  That bit of nonsense
provided the serial's sponsors (Sterling Drugs) with a golden opportunity to
introduce a premium tied to the plot development.  An "exact copy" of a
necklace worn by Egypt's Queen Sit-Hat-Nor-U-Net could be any listener's
prized possession for only two bits.  (Inflation had set in by then; earlier
trinkets went for a dime.)  But just as the premium was about to be
announced on the air, the tiny plant that had contracted to make the charms
temporarily shut down.  During the three weeks that Laurel held the culprit
at bay, a wordsmith was left holding the bag; the scribe strung out the
dialogue in measured words, without any mention of the queen's precious
bauble, awaiting the opportune moment to introduce it.  If the dialogue had
proceeded at the normal pace, the sequence would have ended with Stella
returning to her home in Boston long before the costume jewelry rolled off
the assembly line.  When its manufacture began at last, Stella tore into the
harem, the narrator offered the premium for a quarter and the perspiring
writer resigned from the show.  It wasn't the radio premium's finest hour.

Jim Cox

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:38:46 -0500
From: jack and cathy french <otrpiano@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Pee Wee King

On Sunday, February 18, 2007, at 11:09 AM, Ron Sayles wrote:

02-18-1914 - Pee Wee King - Abrams, WI - d. 3-7-2000
singer, songwriter, accordionist: "Grand Ole Opry"; "Pee Wee King Show"

What a remarkable musician from the tiniest of towns! My family lived
in Abrams in the late 30s, my brother was born there, and at the time
the population was less than a hundred. It was just a small farming
community, close to Stiles Junction and Lena, all of them within a long
buggy ride of Green Bay.

King was born Julius Frank Kuczynski, son of Polish farmers, and by the
time he got out of high school, he was playing the accordion (mostly
polkas) and leading his own band. He took the professional name of
Frank King. In 1934, he joined Gene Autry's Log Cabin Boys, where he
started using his nickname of "Pee Wee." (This had nothing to do with
his height; he was as tall as anybody in the band.)

By 1937 he and his band, "The Golden West Cowboys" were regulars on
Grand Ol' Opry. At a time when nearly all of the performers wore
overalls and farmer garb, King dressed his musicians in fancy western
rodeo gear, including boots and Stetsons. Later musical historians
would credit him with nudging the Opry into a modern age with drums,
horns, and electric guitars. Three of the songs he helped compose,
"Slow Poke" "You Belong to Me" and "Tennessee Waltz" went on to top
rungs on the hit parade in the 1950s.

Incidentally, I was back in Abrams in the early 1990s (at the time my
folks owned a maple sugar cottage near by) and the town wasn't much
bigger than when I had left 60 years ago. While there, I attended a
church social and, of course, it featured a local polka band.

Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL
<[removed]>

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:39:21 -0500
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The Clan of the Fiery Cross

"Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed]; asked:
I believe that there was at least one Superman episode about the KKK.
Presumably it was fictionalized, but would some of the secret codes and
 rituals have been exposed there?

I'm sure this will be answered by more knowledgeable OTR historians
than myself, but I've heard that series, and I don't think there are
any secrets that weren't common knowledge or that might not have been
assumed by any writer of fiction. When I was contributing to our
local pirate station I played a lot of OTR (and NTR) for a mostly
young listening audience, and this was a series I thought would
resonate with them. Many young folks seem to think that social
conscience is a relatively recent phenomenon; the show got a very
positive response from listeners.

I think it took a certain amount of courage to run this story, and
there doesn't seem to have been much to gain financially from it.
It's important to remember that through the first half or so of the
20th century the Ku Klux Klan had national support, not just
Southern. In the 1920's its membership included 15% of those
Americans eligible to join, 4 to 5 (some estimates say six) million
men (as opposed to an estimated 8000 members today of the various
groups calling themselves by that name). In 1925 a march of 40,000
Klan members and supporters was held in DC; over half the marchers
were from the North, with New Jersey and Pennsylvania alone supplying
about half. There is a short article about that event on the American
Heritage site:
[removed]

Today denouncing the Klan is hardly a controversial stance, including
in the South (where I live). In the 40's it was highly provocative
and, to a degree, daring, drawing controversy the show could just as
easily have avoided. There was, reportedly, an attempted boycott of
Superman's sponsor Kellog. And, of course, in those days actual
violent reprisals were not out of the question.

One might wonder why the victim family in the story is Chinese rather
than black. I'm not aware of any special hostility of the Klan toward
the Chinese in particular. I'll speculate that it was thought that
Chinese victims might be more sympathetic, the Chinese having been
our allies in World War II and having suffered greatly from the
racial hatred of their Japanese occupiers.

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:40:51 -0500
From: "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The Big Lie

Bob Slate asked about:

"The Big Lie?" How long was that program on the air, and where
did it originate from?

According to the New York Times, "The Big Lie" premiered on 15 October
1961 over Mutual with Phil Clarke as commentator. Clarke won a 1964
Overseas Press Club award for his work on the series. Using the
[removed] index, I was able to find mention of "The Big
Lie" in radio listings as late as 1970.

Here's a publicity blurb from the 13 October 1961 Gettysburg Times:

***
WGET Will Air New Program

Beginning Saturday evening at 7:35 o'clock WGET will present the
weekly series, "The Big Lie," as prepared by the news department of
the Mutual Broadcasting System.

The 25 minute program will be a "debunking" of communist propaganda,
according to Robert F. Hurleigh, president of the nationwide network.

Excerpts from English language propaganda broadcasts beamed by such
stations as Radio Moscow. Radio Peiping, Radio Havana and others,
illustrating the communist techniques, will be presented on "The Big
Lie." Then Phil Clarke, Mutual reporter, will demonstrate how these
broadcasts differ from the truth.

Clarke is former editor and United Nations correspondent for Newsweek
and long time Associated Press bureau chief. He has served throughout
the Middle East, in Rome, Paris, London and Washington.

"The Big Lie" will be broadcast by WGET and Mutual every Saturday.
***

I found it very intriqueing, interesting, and
[removed] should revive it for countries like Iran and Syria.

Out of morbid curiosity, I looked up the English language radio
outlets of Iran and Syria. Syria's Damascus Radio doesn't seem to be
available for listening online but IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting) streams its English radio service over the net at:

[removed]

The site includes commentaries analyzing and "debunking" Western
propaganda. There is apparently  a series called "The Voice of
Justice" which specifically critiques the [removed] on a variety of
subjects including its "media distortion."

On the flip side (and in an effort to stay on-topic), I read an
absolutely hilarious piece last week about the failure of the [removed]'s
Persian language radio (run by Voice of America and Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty) here:

[removed]

-

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:41:54 -0500
From: Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Clear Channel Radio

On 2/18/2007 Ted Kneebone wrote:
This has probably been covered, but I will ask it anyway.
Whatever happened to the so called "clear channel" radio stations?  They had
frequencies assigned that no other stations had when other went off at
sunset, and most were 50,000 watt stations.  Are there any left?  Are they
still "clear channel" or do other stations interfere with their reception?

I haven't done any DXing for quite awhile, but your answers may get me back
to listening again.

The AM broadcast band is divided into Local, Regional and Clear channels.

Clear channels still exist. Some clear channel stations have a
frequency to themselves at night. AM radio travels further at night
and that led to the need for clear channel frequencies. A look at the
list on the link below will show several stations sharing a clear
channel frequency with a generous distance between stations.

Most, maybe all, clear channel stations use 50,000 watt transmitters.

The fact that AM signals travel far at night led to a need for quiet
hours for the new High Definition AM digital transmissions.
Apparently the digital transmissions travel farther than the
traditional analog signals and cause interference with each other. HD
AM sounds really good by the way and the signal is normally in
stereo. The audio quality is roughly equal to FM or better. HD FM is
failing quickly though, it seems to be entirely unreliable. I live
about 50 miles from downtown Chicago and was unable to receive any HD
FM signals using an outdoor antenna when testing an HD table radio at
Radio Shack. In any case the HD equipment is now turned off at night
at AM stations until somebody figures out what to do about the interference.

Here is a list of all clear channel AM frequencies and the stations using them.

[removed]

Don

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 20:08:43 -0500
From: Melanie Aultman <otrmelanie@[removed];
To: OTRDIGEST <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  OTR in Presidential Libraries?
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Passing by a small library on the ground floor of the White House during a July 4 tour in
the late 90's, I wondered what was in there.  Guess the Pres can get anything he wants--
does each one add/delete things?  Is there a White House Librarian?  Does anyone know
if any of the presidents was an OTR officionado? [specific shows]  Has anyone visited
and/or donated to a Presidental Library?  Any OTR there?  I seem to remember Harpo
Marx visiting one of the Pres.
   
  Melanie

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Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 20:09:09 -0500
From: Melanie Aultman <otrmelanie@[removed];
To: OTRDIGEST <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  OTR themed shows
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Lists are made of OTR Valentine shows, etc. but has anyone put together lists of
shows with similar plots?  With that many shows over that many [removed]
   
  Melanie

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Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 23:44:10 -0500
From: <verotas@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Mel Allen

I can remember my father listening to ballgames on the radio with Mel Allen
announcing.  He relied totally on what Mr. Allen was saying about the game in
progress.  When they began to telecast the games, he would continue to listen
to Allen, but watch the games on TV.

It didn't take long before Dad would get pretty upset, and start yelling in
the general direction of the TV and/or the radio, and anybody else who could
hear him - something like, "Is Mel Allen watching the same game I am?" (there
were a few other choice words mixed in).   I brought into play (pardon the
pun) my cool, analytical and critical ears and eyes (of course!)

I had to agree with my dad - it became totally obvious to us that neither of
us had any idea whether Allen was even in the same stadium!  I didn't
particularly care, but my angry and frustrated Dad just simply stopped
auditing the games.

Lee Munsick

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #57
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