Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #1
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 1/1/2003 1:37 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2003 : Issue 1
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  New OTR Project finally completed.    [ gad4@[removed] ]
  Long running [removed] on !       [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
  Hank Williams' Death                  [ "timl2002" <timl2002@[removed]; ]
  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Nig  [ lois@[removed] ]
  Hank Williams                         [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
  George Burns' Potion                  [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
  Live Music, Meredith Willson & Bay A  [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
  Phil Harris as network star           [ Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed] ]
  Re: Young Talent                      [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Burns on Broadway                     [ "Gary Yoggy" <yoggy@[removed]; ]
  Walden's Questions for Conrad         [ Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed] ]
  It's Jim, not Jack, French            [ Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@erols ]
  "Voice of Doom"                       [ "Russ Butler" <oldradio@[removed] ]
  If                                    [ Harry Bartell <bartell@[removed] ]
  the March of Time                     [ Howard Blue <khovard@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 00:23:39 -0500
From: gad4@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  New OTR Project finally completed.

One thing Ive been thinking during the past year is when folks have been
encoded and what shows haven't.   By folks not knowing what shows have been
encoded has caused people to duplicate work of others and spend time on
things that werent needed.

I felt it would be great to have a list of
what's out there/not out there.  Once we have a common list to relay this
information, we can all check this list and add to it.

The idea came to me about 6 months ago. For the past couple months, Ive been
using the majority of my time to create such a public service site for the
community. The site is now a reality.

It is at:

[removed]

The site has been pulled from up to 150,000 mp3s. Its obviously
a first draft and while I've worked to remove duplicates, there are a bunch
that still need to be manually weeded out.

I estimate there are still probably are still 3,000-5,000 shows NOT on this
list.
Hopefully, in time, these will be added and with the help of many who
contribute, it will be full. But this still will give people a very good idea
whats been done.

For the moment, Im going to watch if this site is an asset to the community.
If it is, I'll continue working on it. If not, then Im sure there are other
projects that will help the community out more.

For the time being, take a look at the site enjoy it, and let me know what
you think. and Happy New Year.

Sincerely,
George

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 00:24:06 -0500
From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Long running [removed] on !

There are several radio programs that have long histories -- and they are
still on the air!

    Mormon Tabernacle Choir, 1929. I think it is only available in western
states, or via satellite, however.  Also known as "Music and the spoken
[removed]"
    Paul Harvey "News and comment", 1950.
    Unshackled, a Christian radio drama series, 1950.
    Metropolitan Opera, 1931. Available in NPR states that choose to carry
it. Not in South Dakota!

    A regional program that has been on for a long time is The Neighbor Lady
(Wynn Speece).  She has been on the air almost continuously since 1941,
WNAX, Yankton, SD.  The station is celebrating its 80th anniversary this
year.

Ted Kneebone/1528 S. Grant [removed], SD 57401/605-226-3344
OTR: [removed]

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 01:55:35 -0500
From: "timl2002" <timl2002@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Hank Williams' Death

     It was actually said that Hank was on his way from a performance in
Tennesee and that he died in Oak Hill,  West Virginia on his way to Canton,
Ohio to perform at the Memorial Auditorium on Jan. 1, 1953 .  Our Newspaper,
the Canton Repository had a feature story last Monday on the events leading
up to his death and describes briefly the show that was presented without
him according to the coverage at that time. The story also included the
poster advertising the show.

If interested, here's a link to the story:

[removed];Category=11&fromSearch=yes

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 04:52:04 -0500
From: lois@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Night!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO #OLDRADIO!

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 SIX 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, 1 Jan 2003 07:59:27 -0500
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Hank Williams

Phil Watson wrote:

 Incidentally if you want to feel old, it's the 50th anniversary of Hank
 Williams' [removed]

And I remember it well.   WWVA, in Wheeling West Va had such a strong signal
that we received it in the greater NY area, better at some hours then
others, and they played Hank Williams records all day when he died.    WWVA
introduced me to country music, which I liked, although my favorite music
was typical of most NY teenagers of the time.

~Irene

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 08:00:12 -0500
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  George Burns' Potion

"Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed]; mentioned:
 George [Burns] never really left the spotlight and continued working until
 shortly before his death at age 100 in 1996. He always referred to Bob
 Hope, who was 7 years younger and will reach age 100 next May,  as "kid".

Which reminds me of an episode of _Burns and Allen_ in which (as I
recall) Gracy talks George into volunteering for what they both
believe is a stint singing for American servicemen, but which is in
reality a call for a human guinea pig to test a potent but
potentially deadly drug. I believe the episode ends with George
dancing and singing nude during his physical exam, which he thinks is
an audition, and one of the scientists remarking that the drug could
conceivably permit George to live to be 100. Anybody remember that
show more clearly, or at least the punchline?

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 07:59:15 -0500
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Live Music,  Meredith Willson & Bay Area
 radio history

Two topics recently under discussion:   The first asks about current live
music on radio.

One of our NPR stations in the Bay Area, KALW, produces a program called
"West Coast Live" which is on here at 10 AM, Saturdays.    I know it's live.
I've been in the audience a couple of times.  Lots of live music.   This
program is carried by other NPR stations as well and has interesting
non-music guests also.   A recurring visitor, who is a favorite of mine, is
the writer Anne Lamott, who is naturally funny.

As for Meredith Willson.    Immediately prior to "The Big Show" which Steve
Lewis mentioned he was associated with "Maxwell House Coffee Time".    I am
always running into Willson's sheet music of songs written for that show in
collectible shops.

I always love the queries on this list because my curiosity leads me into
searching and thereby finding out all kinds of interesting things, in this
case in my own backyard.   For example, I learned that Meredith Willson
spent about 10 years in SF as a musical director.  He was the musical
director at radio station KFRC in [removed] from 1929 through the early 30s when
he became music director for NBC in San Francisco and eventually in the late
30s moved to NBC in LA.   KFRC is now an oldies station.

One of the musical stars broadcast live by KFRC during that same period was
the legendary Bay Area bandleader Anson Weeks.    At the Museum of the City
of San Francisco website you can hear in real audio or download in mp3 an
actual, almost complete 1932 broadcast from the Mark Hopkins Hotel.   Weeks
was on almost every night, carried by KFRC and NBC west coast.   Rather then
paraphrase here's what the museum website said about this broadcast:

"was digitally encoded from the 1932 MacGregor and Sollie transcription disc
in the possession of Jack Bethards. Walter Bunker, Jr., the announcer, told
the Museum's webmaster that these broadcasts were recorded directly to disc,
with no retakes because there were then no editing facilities for wax
recordings. Mr. Bunker currently (2000) lives in Pebble Beach, California."

There is also a restored 1932 version of "You Little So and So" on the Weeks
page.

Besides the Meredith Willson info on the site, and the Anson Weeks info
there is also a wonderful section about Edna Fischer who was known as "San
Francisco's First Lady of Radio."  She was a pianist and composer.  Her
radio career began in 1918 when she was 16 years old.  Mayor (now Senator)
Dianne Feinstein proclaimed Oct 1, 1983 as Edna Fischer Day.   She was then
81 years old.  Her husband had passed away in 1981 and in 1983 she revived
her "Talent in the Making" program on the NPR station I mentioned earlier,
KALW  Her show was so popular that she worked until 1995 when she again
retired.  She died in 1997 at the age of 95.   It's nice to discover that
not everyone has forgotten radio's greats.  You can listen to (but not
download) a 1937 broadcast of NBC's "Carefree Carnival" on the Edna Fischer
page.   Meredith Willson, a good friend of Edna's was musical director and
she was the special guest on this particular broadcast.   She also wrote the
theme music for the program.  And on this broadcast she wrote ALL the music.

It's an interesting bit of radio history in the Bay Area which I recommend.
The link is:

[removed]

~Irene

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 08:00:30 -0500
From: Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Phil Harris as network star

Over 40 years ago my aunt told us kids that Phil Harris had been so popular
on radio that his network (NBC, ABC?) had signed him to a long-term
exclusive contract for something like 25 years to ensure that he wouldn't
be "stolen" by another network. Later, I read the same type of thing about
Milton Berle's television contract(s).
Are these stories true?
(I assume that that type of "career-lock" doesn't happen anymore, for a
variety of reasons.)

Herb Harrison

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 09:22:09 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Young Talent

On 1/1/03 12:44 AM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:

Note the inclusion of the term 'young.'  It's easy to forget that the people
who ran OTR shows were, from the perspective of old fogies like me,
essentially kids.

This is a fascinating point to think about. While many of the
better-known OTR personalities came to radio after established careers in
other media, most of them were quite young when they first entered show
business. To wit:

Fred Allen was 38 years old when he began his radio career -- but he had
been in show business since the age of 18.

Jack Benny was also 38 when he started in radio -- but his first
professional stage work was at the age of 23.

George Burns was 36 when Burns and Allen got their first regular series,
but he had been a professional since the age of 7 (!). Gracie Allen was
27 when the team's regular radio career began, but she had been on stage
since the age of 14.

Freeman Gosden was not yet 27 when "Sam and Henry" began -- and first
entered professional show business as a traveling home-talent-show
director at the age of 19. Charles Correll was less than a month away
from turning 36 when "Sam and Henry" started, but he got his first
show-business job -- playing piano in a Peoria nickelodeon -- at the age
of 20.

Jim and Marian Jordan were 28 and 26, respectively, when they first
entered radio - but Jim Jordan had been dallying off and on with
smalltime vaudeville since the age of 22.

Chester Lauck and Norris Goff were 29 and 25, respectively, when they
first started fooling around with radio. They are among the very few
major radio performers who had no professional experience in any other
performing media before entering broadcasting: Lauck had been in
advertising and Goff was a wholesale grocer.

Carlton E. Morse was 28 years old when he took a job on the continuity
staff at NBC-San Francisco, after spending most of the previous decade as
a newspaper reporter. He created his most enduring work, "One Man's
Family," at the age of 31.

Paul Rhymer was 24 years old when he began writing for NBC-Chicago -- and
was 27 when he created "Vic and Sade."

Orson Welles began his radio career at 20, having already established
himself as the legitimate theatre's most up-and-coming Boy Genius.

There's definitely a pattern here -- as with any mass medium in any era,
it's the young people who shape the trends. Very few major creative
figures in OTR entered the business after the age of 40.

Thus I have to ask: into what enterprises are the
best young show people--musicians, actors, writers, and the rest of the
creators of entertainment heading lately?

As sacreligious as it might sound, I'll stand right up and declare that
amidst all the drek on television these days there are some real gems
that stand with the best that OTR ever produced -- well written, well
acted, and well-conceived. For just one example, take a good look at the
depth of the characterizations, the subtlety of the humor, and the
quality of the voice acting on "King of the Hill" -- had Mike Judge lived
in the OTR era, I think he would have been a major figure as both a
writer and performer.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 09:22:35 -0500
From: "Gary Yoggy" <yoggy@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Burns on Broadway
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I am much relieved by the many responses to my query re SAY GOODNIGHT GRACIE,
both in the Digest and privately.  It is such a wonderful way to both pay
tribute to and keep alive the work of those many show business greats who have
gone before!!!!   And let me quickly add there is room for all points of view
in our [removed] naysayers!!   Why there are even some who don't like AMOS
AND ANDY and, dare I say it,  VIC AND SADE.  Differences of opinion are what
make the world go round.  Enough clichis for one day so let me end with a time
honored [removed] NEW YEAR!!   Gary Yoggy

  *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
  ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 09:24:17 -0500
From: Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Walden's Questions for Conrad
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Walden Hughes on the 12th of Dec 2002 asked me the following:

[removed], two question for Conrad.  do you have any  memories about
Mayor of the Town during Christmas time, and on One Man Family were
there a special type of bell used on that annual Christmas show?  Take care,

Walden,  wouldn't you know that Digest No. 2002/484 in which you asked those
questions didn't make it to my server so I wasn't neglecting you on purpose.
I just didn't see them until by chance I ordered from the archive the missing
484 of my [removed]  For what it's worth at this late date here are my
memories pertaining to your questions.

The "Mayor of the Town" Christmas show wasn't an episode of the MOT, given
Lionel Barrymore was available, "A Christmas Carol" was always performed with
LB doing his legendary characterization of "Scrooge"  Agnes Moorehead played
Mrs. Bob Cratchet, and  did the boy at the end sent by Scrooge to fetch the
Christmas Goose in the window to be delivered as the Cratchet family
Christmas dinner. I always enjoyed doing that show, for the number of folks
on the cast increased considerably and it was great fun doing as well some of
the kid voices in the "Fezziwig" [removed] was the standard Christmas
offering of the MOT production during the season.

For One Man's Family's annual Christmas Show, if you remember it consisted of
the Family gathering on Christmas Eve to decorate the Family Christmas tree.
Ostensibly it was sitting there bare in the living room and all the family
members and their children came to the Seacliff Barbour home for dinner and
to decorate the tree.  After the ornaments and lights were affixed and
displayed with the proper amount of "Ohhs and Ahhhs" voiced, the tradition
was that each family group in turn would march out to gather the gifts they'd
brought earlier and place them around the tree.  They would carry a set of
sleigh bells to ring/jingle as they approached the living room area thus
warning the family members to shut their eyes while they placed their gifts
around the tree.  The bells used were real sleigh bells attached to a single
strap held in the middle while shook by the soundman.  There were about five
bells in the set attached to the strap.  They were the only bells I remember
associated with the Christmas show of OMF. I trust I answered your questions.

CAB

---
conradab@[removed] (Conrad A. Binyon)
   From the Home of the Stars who loved Ranches and Farms
     Encino, California.

  *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
  ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 09:43:10 -0500
From: Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@[removed];
To: OTRBB <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  It's Jim, not Jack, French

Henry Howard recently posted:

"Imagination Theatre is written by Jack French, and usually produced by
Jack, or his wife Pat."

While the rest of Henry's post about Imagination Theater is accurate,
his first statement merely represents the umpteenth time that Jim French
and I (no relation) have been mixed up in OTR communiqués and other
print media. (Jim Widner even make this mistake in that great book on
OTR Sci-Fi he co-authored.)

I'm married to Cathy, live in Northern VA (next to Washington, DC),
write OTR fiction and non-fiction, and currently working on a book on
radio's lady sleuths.

Jim lives in Washington state and writes primarily scripts for original
programs in an OTR vein. His Imagination Theater is far more well known
than the journal, "Radio Recall" which I edit. And despite our
respective contributions to the OTR hobby over many years,  we've never
met personally.

Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL
[removed]

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 11:49:53 -0500
From: "Russ Butler" <oldradio@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  "Voice of Doom"

<<Howard Blue posted his cousin's comment that Lorne Green, as the CBC's
chief announcer, was called "The Voice of Doom" >>>

The "radio newsreel" program, The March of Time's narrator and announcer,
Westbrook Van Voorhis was often referred to as "The Voice of Doom" for his
dramatic, deep voice when he began with the program in 1933.  He was also
called "The Voice of Time" for his signature [removed]"...time, marches on!!"

Incidentally, some of the voices used to impersonate the newsmakers of the
day in the program's repertory company included Agnes Moorehead, Art Carney
and Orson Wells.
The March of Time became a straight news program in 1942 with short-wave
reports from the Time Magazine correspondents around the world and it left
the air in 1945.

Happy New Year to the list!

Russ Butler  oldradio@[removed]

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 13:37:39 -0500
From: Harry Bartell <bartell@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  If

Mark Kinsler writes:

... if Freeman Gosden,Chas. Correll, Jack Benny, Orson Welles, and perhaps
even Harry Bartell were starting their careers in 2003, there'd be
no shortage of body piercings and odd tattoos in the crowd.

If I might rise to a point of personal privilege, Tattoos, conceivably. Body
Piercings, NEVAH!!!

Harry Bartell

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

Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 14:40:51 -0500
From: Howard Blue <khovard@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  the March of Time

Thanks to Russ Butler for his comments about the March of Time.

 The show, which is discussed in "Words at War," was indeed the training
ground for many of radio's best voices. Included in the discussion is a
passage about Dwight Weist, based partly on an interesting letter that he
wrote to someone about his work on the show. Art Carney was one of
several actors noted for his fine renditions of President Roosevelt's
voice. Carney and a radio writer almost got into a fistfight at a party
one time when at the request of other guests, he did an impromptu "FDR"
and the writer, thinking Carney was being disrespectful to the president,
took a swing at him.

Howard Blue

 Scarecrow Press has just published "Words at War"  For more information
& ordering information, see [removed]

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #1
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