------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2002 : Issue 190
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
DVD player, MP3, VHS copier all in o [ leemunsick@[removed] ]
Lum and Abner [ Mleannah@[removed] ]
Lum and Abner's switch to 30 minutes [ "[removed]" <swells@[removed]; ]
The Honeymooners/Tonight Show [ Roo61@[removed] (Randy Watts) ]
#OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Nig [ lois@[removed] ]
Re: Children's Hour / California [ BryanH362@[removed] ]
Sorry, Wrong Number [ Roo61@[removed] (Randy Watts) ]
Today in radio history [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
Archie Andrews [ "Kirby, Tom" <Kirby@[removed]; ]
Re: MP3 Players for OTR [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
Elizabeth's very informative OTR Dig [ "Jerry Reed" <jerry@[removed]; ]
Re: "Lum and Abner" [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
Re: Honeymooners on radio [ Eric J Cooper <ejcooper2002@[removed] ]
TONY WONS [ Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed]; ]
Lucy and Desi in radio [ William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed]; ]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 21:34:24 -0400
From: leemunsick@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: DVD player, MP3, VHS copier all in one!
Bryan Powell raised a point which I am looking at also. A machine to play
DVDs, MP3s, etc.
I was at Sam's Club today (a rare occasion for me). I noticed they have a
GoVideo machine which will play DVD and (it says) MP3 as well as regular
CD, and record DVD (unless copyright protected) onto VHS. There are two
decks in the unit, similar to the GoVideo dual-deck VHS player/copier.
Sam's price was $179 and change.
I have had one of the latter double-decker GoVideo units for several
years. I have found it a fine, well performing unit. I have no way other
than that experience, by which to judge this new machine.
Bryan might want to look into this, and perhaps other readers. I'd like to
hear from anyone who has checked out this device and perhaps others capable
of similar use. Mike Biel, for instance.
The unit has a read-out screen which the box says shows Channels (I assume
that's what they call "bands" on a DVD). I don't know if it will give a
numerical read-out to find a specific point on a VHS, or whether it has a
clock which can be set to record a specific show to VHS off the air, cable
or dish.
The sealed boxes at Sam's gave very little information, although they were
wonderful in supplying that laxity in several different languages!
Any comments, anyone? Thanks so much! Lee Munsick
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 00:15:26 -0400
From: Mleannah@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Lum and Abner
Lum and Abner went to weekly half-hour shows from 1948 to 1950. They were off
the air from April, 1950, to February, 1953. The show returned to a 15-minute
format for 13 weeks in 1953. During this run, the storylines were condensed
versions of plots that had run earlier.
I, too, agree that Lauck and Goff were amazing performers. I think of
them as geniuses. I so wish a film existed of them doing their radio show,
the two of them changing voices, making it sound like 5 or 6 people are
talking at once. Sadly, as far as I know, no such film exists.
Mike Leannah
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 00:16:33 -0400
From: "[removed]" <swells@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Lum and Abner's switch to 30 minutes
Mark Asked:
I assume this would also be part of the reason Lum and Abner
switched to the 30 minute format. Is there more to the story? Also,
when L & A resumed the serial format, were the shows repeats? Thanks!
I would assume the switch to a 30 min. program was partially due to the
health problems of Norris, and the fact that they were to have a new sponsor
and after roughly 17 years of semi-daily 15 minute serials, I too would be
up for a change. As for the '53 and '54 series' that revived the 15 minute
serial, there are some repeated storyline with some variations, and then
some that were new. I personally think that by this time both Chet and Tuffy
had started to become the old characters they created and portrayed for so
many years. I recently finished a log of the programs that are known to
exist, you can view it at [removed] under the 'logs' section.
Shawn
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 00:17:09 -0400
From: Roo61@[removed] (Randy Watts)
To: [removed]@[removed] (OldRadio Mailing Lists)
Subject: The Honeymooners/Tonight Show
The Honeymooners was NOT EVER done on radio!!
The old Radio Yesteryear catalogue carried three episodes of "The
Honeymooners," identified as "apparently" television soundtracks adapted
for radio. They were all from the AFRS.
Does anyone know if any of the tonight radio shows exist? I think i heard
that none of the steve allen tonight tv shows exist, but perhaps some
of it exists in this format.
Again from the old Radio Yesteryear catalogue, they carried a couple of
AFRS "Tonight Show" rebroadcasts. Both were from the Carson era, though,
and edited to thirty minutes.
I've never heard any of these, myself. Just remembered the information
from their catalogue.
Randy
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 04:52:03 -0400
From: lois@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Night!
A weekly [removed]
For the best in OTR Chat, join IRC (Internet Relay Chat), StarLink-IRC
Network, the channel name is #OldRadio. We meet Thursdays at 8 PM Eastern
and go on, and on! The oldest OTR Chat Channel, it has been in existence
over five years, same time, same channel!
Our numerous "regulars" include one of the busiest "golden years" actors in
Hollywood; a sound man from the same era who worked many of the top
Hollywood shows; a New York actor famed for his roles in "Let's Pretend" and
"Archie Andrews;" owners of some of the best OTR sites on the Web;
maintainer of the best-known OTR Digest (we all know who he is)..........
and Me
Lois Culver
KWLK Longview Washington (Mutual) 1941-1944)
KFI Los Angeles (NBC) 1944 - 1950
and widow of actor Howard Culver
(For more info, contact lois@[removed])
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 11:05:02 -0400
From: BryanH362@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Children's Hour / California
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
Walden Hughes wrote:
My understanding that out here in California that the children hour was
between 5 to 6 PM. Does any body know what kids
shows went head to head which each other and who generally won the rating
battle
5-6pm . 15 minutes increments unless otherwise noted . Seattle schedules
utilized and not California but does give somewhat of an indication for west
coast.
1943
Sea Hound /Dick Tracy/Jack Armstrong /Captain Midnight NBC BLUE KJR
News/ Superman /Information Desk/Norman Nesbitt Mutual KOL
1944
Terry & Pirates /Dick Tracy/Jack Armstrong /Captain Midnight NBC BLUE KJR
News/ Superman /Front Page /News
Mutual KOL
1948
Dick Tracy / Terry and Pirates /Jack Armstrong (30 min) MWF /
Sky King (30 min) TTH
ABC KJR
Hop Harrigan/Superman/ Captain Midnight / Tom Mix
Mutual KVI
The ratings listed in "A Thirty Year History of Programs Carried on Nation
Radio Networks" by Harrison B Summers would suggest Jack Armstrong was
consistently the most rated nationally ( for the most part). However, the
rating for Superman is not listed on many occasions by Summers and the
rating provided was for one sample week and not really the average for
any given year . And it is a National rating and does not indicate
specifically what was more popular in California.
-Bryan
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 11:15:44 -0400
From: Roo61@[removed] (Randy Watts)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Sorry, Wrong Number
I understand that there is an LP version of SWN that Agnes Moorehead made.
Was this taken from a radio broadcast or completely done in studio for the
LP??? Is it available anywhere these days??
Moorehead made a commercial recording of "Sorry, Wrong Number" for Decca
Records in 1947. It was originally issued as an 'album' of two 12-inch
78 rpm discs and was later reissued on LP. So far as I know, it's been
out-of-print for years.
Randy
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 11:16:08 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Today in radio history
From Those Were The Days --
1939 - When a Girl Marries was first heard on CBS. The serial continued
for eighteen years.
1943 - The Million Dollar Band was heard for the first time on NBC.
Charlie Spivak was the first leader of the band that featured Barry Wood
as vocalist. The unusual feature of the show was the awarding each week
of five diamond rings.
Today's birthday's:
1894 - Beatrice Lillie (Gladys Lillie) d. Jan 20, 1989
1903 - Bob Hope (Leslie Townes Hope) Happy birthday Bob! Thanks for
the memories.
1914 - (Walter) Stacy Keach Sr.
Joe
--
Visit my home page:
[removed]~[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 11:16:22 -0400
From: "Kirby, Tom" <Kirby@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Archie Andrews
I was over at my grandmother's house this past weekend. I took some OTR
recordings over, and one of them I played was the Archie Andrews episode
where Archie ordered bubble bath from the drug store to give to Veronica,
but his mother ordered health tonic (that smelled like rotten eggs), his
father
ordered hair tonic, and Betty Cooper ordered glue. The resulting mixup was
hilarious. I think I heard Arnold Stang as the drug store clerk.
Anyway, my grandmother really enjoyed the show, but she had never heard of
it.
I'm not sure what time it played. It could have been on against something
she
did listen to, or maybe it was on when she wasn't home. Does anyone know
what
time the show would have been aired in the Washington, DC area?
Note: I was born in 1957, so I missed the golden age of radio. I think I
picked
up the OTR bug when I read about the panic caused by the "War of the Worlds"
broadcast. My dad was born in 1931, which was apparently a good year for
comedians.
-- Tom Kirby
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 11:16:33 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: MP3 Players for OTR
David Wikle posed --
Before I go and spend my $$$$ on a player, I need to know which ones work
for OTR.
I use the Emerson HD7088 and its played every .mp3 I've thrown at it.
Wal-Mart sells them for around $70, including AC jack and headphones.
Battery operation is two aa. (I use plain external [pc] speakers and
the sound is good).
Joe
--
Visit my home page:
[removed]~[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 11:17:06 -0400
From: "Jerry Reed" <jerry@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Elizabeth's very informative OTR Digest
stories
I have only recently re-subscribed to the OTR Digest after several years
absence. I have found your (Elizabeth McLeod's) messages to be wonderfully
written and so informative. Have you written any books on radio history? If
not, you should. I
would be first in line at the book store.
Jerry E. Reed
e-mail: jerry@[removed]
Web site - [removed]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 11:19:23 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: "Lum and Abner"
Mark Justice wrote:
I assume this would also be part of the reason Lum and Abner switched to
the 30 minute format. Is there more to the story? Also, when L & A resumed
the serial format, were the shows repeats? Thanks!
"Lum and Abner" was an interesting case -- it was in fact the last of the
quarter-hour nighttime comedy-drama serials (although it leaned much more
to the straight comedy side than A&A had). There were a number of reasons
why it managed to endure in this format into 1948, long after everyone
else using this format had given it up, but I think the most significant
was probably the fact that Miles Laboratories was a sponsor that tended
to focus its radio advertising on small-town, rural listeners. The fact
that L&A never scored blockbuster ratings in the cities made no
difference to Miles Labs, since the series remained quite popular in
rural markets. As long as the program delivered these listeners at a
reasonable cost, Miles Labs was quite willing to continue it. (I don't
know what Lauck and Goff were getting paid by 1948, but I suspect it
wasn't in the range of the $1,000,000 a year Correll and Gosden were
getting for the last three years of their serial.)
The end of the L&A serial in 1948 and the switch to the half-hour format
was largely Chet Lauck's decision -- and as the story goes, he was
advised against it by both Norris Goff and writer Roswell Rogers, who
felt that regardless of current trends, the characters just wouldn't work
in a sitcom format. But the change was made -- and while the series ran
in the half-hour format for two seasons, the change was not a success.
One reason may be that one of the most important characters in the serial
was the town of Pine Ridge itself -- and you never got this same sense of
place in the sitcom version. And, as with A&A, the live audience changed
the entire mood of the program -- and not for the better.
When the program returned in 1953, most of the episodes were revised
restagings of scripts from 1941-42. L&A had occasionally recycled old
scripts during their Miles Labs series as well -- the "movie theatre"
storyline from 1943 was only slightly reworked from the original version
aired in 1935, the major change being the elimination of Dick
Huddleston's prominent on-mike role in the earlier series. (For some
reason, the character of Dick rarely appeared on-mike in the Miles Labs
era, although he returned without explanation as narrator of the 1953
series.)
Lanny Gilbert wrote:
In 1945, Lum and Abner took a six week vacation during the summer months. In
their place, Chet Lauck exhorted the listeners to tune into their
replacements, Pick and Pack. I've never heard of Pick and Pack. Does
anyone on the list know them? I'm guessing they didn't go over too [removed]
Pick Malone and Pat Padgett were old-school blackface comedians -- and by
old-school I mean the types of comics who went in for crude jokes like
"who left a load of coal in the bathtub?" "Dat ain't no load of coal,
dat's me!" They had been knocking around radio since the early thirties,
and achieved their greatest success on the Maxwell House Show Boat as
"Molasses 'n' January" -- even though one critic reviewing that program
awarded them the title of "Worst Blackface Team In The History Of The
World." Their career went into eclipse in the late thirties after Malone
was arrested in New York for threatening someone with an unlicensed
handgun during a bar fight, but they resurfaced during the war era, and
even made a few TV appearances in the late forties. But thruout their
careers, their level of humor never advanced much beyond the "load of
coal" stage, and they were considered out-of-date even in their own time.
Also, I found on the web somewhere a show starring two L 'n' A clones called.
Cy and Elmer It was a really bad (IMHO) program, but I'd like to know if
anyone else has heard about it and how it came about.
"The Misadventures of Si and Elmer" was a syndicated comedy-mystery
serial written and produced in 1933-34 by a California-based personality
by the name of Perry Crandall. Si and Elmer were elderly no-account
loafers in the town of "Punkinville" who took a correspondence course in
How To Be A Detective and opened their own agency. While Si and Elmer
themselves were the epitome of cheesy hick humor, the mystery elements
were played almost straight, which gives the series a rather
Scooby-Dooish feel.
It's hard to say who, precisely, Si and Elmer were imitating -- the basic
quarter-hour serial strip format is derived from "Amos 'n' Andy," and the
comedy-mystery format owes a lot to an earlier syndicated series called
"The Adventures of Black and Blue," which was quite popular in the early
thirties. (This series, in turn, might have been inspired by one of the
most obnoxious of the A&A imitators, "Honeyboy and Sassafras," which
revolved around the title characters' "Black Panther Detective Agency.")
Radio hick characterizations go back further than Lum and Abner - during
1930-31, Phil Lord and Arthur Allen had done "Uncle Abe and David," a
serial about two storekeepers from Skowhegan, Maine who moved to New York
City. At the same time, Lord was writing "The Stebbins Boys," another
Maine-based comedy serial in which Arthur Allen was featured with Parker
Fennelly. Fennelly and Allen, in turn, were at the same time featured in
"Soconyland Sketches," which went back to 1928. And even further back,
beginning in 1927-28, George Frame Brown had created entire towns full of
rural types in his "Luke Higgins' Main Street Stories" and "Real Folks"
series. Of course, you could suggest all the hick-comedy shows owe a
great deal to Cal Stewart and his "Uncle Josh of Punkin Center"
phonograph records from the 1900s-1910s, which in turn owe a lot to 19th
century "Yankee humor."
I know that it can be argued that L 'n' A were a clone of Amos and Andy,
just set in the Arkansas hills, but I thought it was an excellent program
and think that Messrs. Lauck and Goff are vastly underrated radio performers.
I think Lauck and Goff, of all the A&A imitators, were the only ones to
really get it right -- and they did so not by being slavish imitations of
the original but by giving the format their own distinct twist. There's a
good reason why they're still fondly remembered and all the Si and Elmers
and Slo and Ezys of the 1930s are forgotten.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 11:19:47 -0400
From: Eric J Cooper <ejcooper2002@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Honeymooners on radio
Well, I will answer Harlan's comments this way. The "I Love Lucy"
audition disc has been known and written about since the early 1970's.
John Dunning even gave a cursory mention of it in his first book , "TUNE
IN YESTERDAY", in 1976. I would think that any audition disc of the
Honeymooners would have been known about SOMEWHERE in the OTR community
by now. Nonetheless I will concede the point that there might have been
an audition disc made for radio. I also will reiterate my belief (based
on reading two books on the show and seeing numerous interviews and other
material) that there was no intention by Jackie Gleason to have a
concurrent radio series of any type and that this idea (if true) must
have come from an ad agency or a network executive rather than someone
connected with Gleason's troupe. It would be interesting to hear it. Any
idea of how much it went for Harlan?
Eric Cooper
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 12:09:34 -0400
From: Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: TONY WONS
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
You will find a sample of his work at:
[removed]
Does anybody remember a Bob Pool, who used to do a show called Pool's
Paradise?
[removed]
A DATE WITH SINATRA
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 12:14:46 -0400
From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Lucy and Desi in radio
During my long career as a CBS engineer I spent a number of years at KNX
(Hollywood), 1945 to 1951. In the latter years CBS-Radio decided to
package some of it's own shows. This was to offset the problem of
agencies switching their shows to other networks, thereby screwing up
their programming and status. I do remember a Sunday afternoon show
starring Desi and Lucille, mainly because I had known Desi for many years
and recall his friendly wave as he and Lucille would pass my glassed in
master control room located in the lobby. (I never knew Lucille). We did
have a program titled "The Cugats" but I am not sure whether it was that
one. (The Cugat name was changed as the radio audience was expecting
Xavier and his orchestra). Most of the staff that went with them when
they formed Desilu were former CBS people, including the mucicians,
writers, engineer. and announcer. Also the actors were radio people,
including the stunning Mary Jane Croft. When they formed Desilu they took
over a vacant motion picture studio which is where the TV program was
reccorded. Musical director for the show, Wilbur (Bill) Hatch was a
conductor along with Lud Gluskin at KNX. CBS announcer Roy Rowan was the
announcer.
Bill Murtough
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #190
*********************************************
Copyright [removed] Communications, York, PA; All Rights Reserved,
including republication in any form.
If you enjoy this list, please consider financially supporting it:
[removed]
For Help: [removed]@[removed]
To Unsubscribe: [removed]@[removed]
To Subscribe: [removed]@[removed]
or see [removed]
For Help with the Archive Server, send the command ARCHIVE HELP
in the SUBJECT of a message to [removed]@[removed]
To contact the listmaster, mail to listmaster@[removed]
To Send Mail to the list, simply send to [removed]@[removed]