------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2005 : Issue 245
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
iTunes Suggestion/Question. [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
Sam's Almanac reprise [ Ed Kindred <kindred@[removed]; ]
Feitlebaum [ "Norman & Karen Schickedanz" <schic ]
This week in radio history 14-20 Aug [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
Beverly Hills Demolition [ seandd@[removed] ]
Musings on "Who's on First?" [ "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed]; ]
DVDs n' "ought" [ "david rogers" <david_rogers@hotmai ]
Enough To Make You Drink ... Ovaltin [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr" <skallisjr@j ]
8-13 births/deaths [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
Re: dollar DVD's [ Dixonhayes@[removed] ]
Spike and Doodles [ "Jim Nixon" <ranger6000@[removed] ]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 14:10:56 -0400
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: iTunes Suggestion/Question.
"Jerry Bechtel" <jerrybechtel@[removed]; mentioned:
I'm in the process(for the past 11 months) of formatting all my OTR
shows into the itunes system and preparing to attempt to dump all onto a
30 gig [removed] What a job to rename / format all the
various mp3 shows into itunes and maintain consistence!... Suggestions ?
For a free program iTunes is extremely easy to use to catalog and
organize your sound files. In fact, my pirate radio friends used it
to prerecord portions of their eclectic music, editorial and OTR show.
I have a couple of thoughts regarding your iTunes undertaking: first,
avoid compressing them unless space is critical (you can always move
to a 50 gig iPod :o> ). This is especially true of music and variety
shows which can quickly become unlistenable at higher
compressions/lower file size, but it's also true of dramatic shows,
past a certain point. The entire run of Suspense is broadly
available, but, compressed to 6 megs a show, is rather hard to listen
to; much of it sounds as though it were recorded from a shortwave
broadcast.
My second thought is as much question as suggestion and will call for
further advice from those more knowledgeable than myself. It might be
very helpful to the OTR community, but it will also call for even
more bother on your part: iTunes has a feature under the Advanced
menu that permits you to upload all the information you're so
laboriously entering anyway to make it instantly available to others
in the AIF or WAV (standard audio) format. One of the frustrating
aspects of standard audio CD's is that they have no way to retain the
information we take for granted in mp3's or other digital formats
(analog audio is so 20th century). As a workaround, iTunes can
connect you to an online service that will provide track, artist,
etc., info (even, sometimes, album art) on request. But someone first
has to enter all that information, which iTunes makes simple to do; I
entered the info for the Cinnamon Bear CD's produced by First
Generation (any errors I made can be corrected by any listener in the
same manner). But this would mean you would have to convert each mp3
to a sound file to enter the information, then discard the AIF or WAV
afterward since you don't need it. You probably wouldn't have wanted
to do this for the whole 30 gigs, but you might consider doing it for
some of the ones you've yet to do, since you're entering information
on your mp3 files; every little bit helps. Once that information is
in the web databank (I forget what it's called), whenever someone
loads a disc with that sound file they can download track info.
Thereafter, the track information comes up magically whenever you
load the CD in that same computer.
However, what I don't know is - well, there are several things I
don't know, but, as relates to track info - is what iTunes uses to
recognize the individual sound files. When I first inserted the
Cinnamon Bear tapes iTunes suggested they might be certain Salsa
albums Of course, all First Generation Cinnamon Bear CD's will be
exactly the same, so they should work. But one copy of an
Adventurers' Club episode might be very different from another in
terms of how it has been edited and compressed, though the wave forms
will be essentially the same. So, does anyone know whether it is
actually useful to enter this data on audio OTR recordings from
various sources into the public data bank? Or is there some special
signature on commercial recordings that is lost in translation of
older, non-commercial programs?
~ John Mayer
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 14:11:49 -0400
From: Ed Kindred <kindred@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Sam's Almanac reprise
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I can't believe I bumped Don McNeill down the alphabet to an O'Neill
considering the
number of times I marched around the kitchen table. Thanks to Steve Lewis
for his reference
website it brought memories of the scrap paper drive during WWII. You
older folks probably
remember and you young pups may have never heard about it. This seven year
old dragged
his RADIO red wagon through the sidewalks of Phoenix collecting about
1,500 pounds of paper.
I thought it pretty good until a woman told us that their FIRST load was
1500. I was patriotic but the
carrot was that my uncle Andy Womack, rodeo clown, building contractor and
motel entrepreneur
had donated a horse to the paper drive contest. Rumor had it that Clark
Smith creative used car
dealer (before they were pre owned) had his trucks running around the
valley collecting paper for
his son who won the horse. I never heard that the rumor was substantiated
and it could have been
sour grapes but what did I know at seven?
Reprise on feedle, beetle whoever bomb.
My freshman year at North Phoenix High we had a future club pro named
Chogy who would lip
synch to the Spike Jones "Dance of the Hours" race. He was good and funny.
Now in my dotage
I am questioning my memory as to whether Jones did a car race and a horse
race and I combined
them into one. Hep me hep me hep me, I'm losing itttttttttttttttt.
Ed Kindred
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Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 15:17:43 -0400
From: "Norman & Karen Schickedanz" <schick@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Feitlebaum
Hi, all.
A Spike Jones record album I have spells the name of the horse in the
"William Tell Overture" as Feitlebaum.
Regards,
Norm Schickedanz
Tucson
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 16:31:49 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otrd <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: This week in radio history 14-20 August
From Those Were The Days --
8/14
1933 - WLW in Cincinnati, OH premiered Ma Perkins. Just four months
later, Ma moved to WMAQ in Chicago and was heard over the entire NBC
network. Virginia Payne was 23 years old when she started in the title
role. Ma Perkins operated a lumberyard in Rushville Center. Her children
were Evey, Fay and John (who was killed in the war). One of the other
characters in the show was Shuffle Shober. Virginia Payne played Ma
Perkins for 27 years -- and 7,065 episodes.
1942 - Garry Moore hosted a new program on NBC. The Show Without a Name
was an effort to crack the morning show dominance of Arthur Godfrey
(CBS) and Don McNeil's Breakfast Club (ABC). A prize of $500 was offered
to name the show and Someone came up with the title, Everything Goes.
1945 - CBS began the series, Columbia Presents Corwin. Orson Welles did
a special reading about the fall of Japan, titled, Fourteen August.
8/15
1911 - Procter & Gamble Company of Cincinnati, OH introduced Crisco
hydrogenated shortening. (Where would all those shows have been with
Crisco as a sponsor? And remember, its digestable! -ed)
8/16
1922 - WEAF began broadcasting from new studios atop the Western
Electric Building in New York City.
1939 - Lights Out, radio's "ultimate horror show," was heard for the
last time on NBC. In 1942, Arch Obler brought the show back to life on
CBS. The show's most familiar trademark, guaranteed to put you under the
covers on a dark night was, "Lights out everybody!", followed by 12
chimes of a clock.
8/19
In 1929, Amos and Andy, starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll,
made its network debut on NBC.
Joe
--
Visit my home page: [removed]~[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 17:20:35 -0400
From: seandd@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Beverly Hills Demolition
This LA Times article covers a fight to prevent owners from demolishing the home of George Gershwin, and mentions several OTR neighbors he had.
I checked out Jack Benny's house from the outside during my "39 Forever" visit a few years back and it was the only house from that era still standing, according to Joan Benny who was at the convention.
I don't hold a lot of sentiment for such things - if I owned the house I wouldn't want busybodies from the neighborhood to tell me what to do with it either - but it was kind of neat to be able to see Benny's house, even from the street.
Sean Dougherty
sendd@[removed]
[removed],1,[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 19:52:34 -0400
From: "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Musings on "Who's on First?"
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The legend goes that when Abbott & Costello went to copyright "Who's on
First?"
that dozens of burlesque comics sued claiming authorship. A great book from
the mid-1970s called "The Abbott and Costello Book" by one-time "Tonight
Show" write Jim Mulholland actually has a chapter citing that the actual A&C
routine actually evolved out of a traditional burlesque routine in which
similarly
employed men have names like "Who," "What," [removed]
Somebody who's picked up on this thread by cited the vaudeville team of Tom
Howard and George Shelton doing a variant on "Who's" circa 1935 on the Rudy
Vallee Fleischmann Yeast Hour. I heard this show at NYC's Museum of
Television
& Radio. In it, Howard & Shelton (years before they found greater fame on "It
Pays to Be Ignorant") talk about factory workers like the foreman, the shop
steward,
the dispatcher, etc., having these indefinite pronoun-derived names.
In the early 1970s, a California-based comedy team, I'm leaning towards "The
Credibility Gap" (which included Harry Shearer, David L. Lander, & Michael
McKean), did a version about a rock promoter having a concert with "The Who,"
"The Guess Who," and "The Band." Hilarity ensued altho' I don't know why The
Who, headliners of the time, would go on "first," as indicated by this
routine's
bedrock "Who's on first."
Then ther'es always the Eastern religion comedy team of "Buddha Abbott
and Lao-tzu Costello" ("That Was Zen--This Is Tao!") devised by retired
Talking
Book reader Ed Blake and myself ; their main routine goes like this:
"WHO hears the tree when it falls in the forest? WHAT is the sound of one
hand
clapping? I DON'T KNOW, he's on third and I DON'T GIVE A DHARMA!"
[I know this is a re-tread but ther are newbies on this list, like Melanie,
who have yet
to read it]. Put me in, coach.
Covering all bases in the ether,
Derek Tague
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Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 19:53:19 -0400
From: "david rogers" <david_rogers@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: DVDs n' "ought"
not just say (as the copyright on some TV shows says) "MM-5" or verbally:
"EM EM-FIVE". I think it's a bit easier to get one's tongue around than
"Two Thousand Five". Just an idea.
Not next year, but the year after, I plan on saying:
"Welcome to the year of 007"
Love as always, David Rogers
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 20:26:15 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr" <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Enough To Make You Drink ... Ovaltine
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Many years ago, the Longines Symphonette Society issued a nostalgia kit,
"Years To Remember." Included in the kit were eight 33 1/3 RPM
seven-inch "floppy" LPs with OTR episodes on them. The whole kit was
built on Captain Midnight. All of the records were individual episodes,
shorn of their commercials, from the first network show until after World
War II. In addition to the records, there were other Captain Midnight
souvenirs, including a punch-out photo of a 1942 Code-O-Graph. It was
about life sized, and could be used to decipher various messages printed
on each of the program records. (which, since I deciphered them, have
nothing to do with the programs on each record).
The photo on the Code-O-Graph was labeled, in the instructions on how to
use it, as a Mystery Dial Code-O-Graph. Now the Mystery Dial
Code-O-Graph was the 1941 model. It was so named, according to the
accompanying manual, because the knob on the inner section (the
adjustable portion that cryptologists might call the rotor) was supposed
to look like the tuning knob on a radio.
The 1942 model was called the Photo-Matic Code-O-Graph, because it came
with a place to put the owner's picture, turning it into a photo=ID
badge. The manual described it as being "like those used in defense
plants." For some time, I wondered why the Longines people would stick
the wrong name on their (nonadjustable) photo.
Yesterday, I found out. Despite the name and description of the
Code-O-Graph in the manual, on Page 6 of that very publication, on
instructions on how to use the gadget, the headline was, "How to use your
new 1942 Mystery-Dial Code-O-Graph for sending and receiving complete
code messages!." Throughout the instructions on that page, the unit was
referred to as the Mystery-Dial Code-O-Graph. I can only speculate that,
since the methodology was identical with the previous year's (save there
was only one cipher-setting window instead of two), the copy writer just
used the description of operating the unit from the previous year's
manual.
I must have read the 1942 manual dozens of times, and this is the first
time I noticed it! And I pride myself in my Captain Midnight knowledge.
FWIW, it's still the Photo-Matic, despite the operating instructions.
But you can never be too careful.
Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.
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------------------------------
Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 09:24:42 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 8-13 births/deaths
August 13th births
08-13-1895 - Bert Lahr - New York City, NY - d. 12-4-1967
comedian: "Hildegarde's Raleigh Room"; "Manhattan at Midnight"; "Royal
Vagabonds"
08-13-1898 - Regis Toomey - Pittsburgh, PA - d. 10-12-1991
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"; "Campbell Playhouse"
08-13-1899 - Alfred Hitchcock - London, England - d. 4-29-1980
host: "Murder by Experts"; "Once Upon a Midnight"
08-13-1904 - Charles "Buddy" Rogers - Olathe, KS - d. 4-21-1999
bandleader, actor: (America's Boyfriend) "Twin Stars"; "Pick-A-Date"
08-13-1904 - Jonathan Hole - Eldora, IA - d. 2-11-1998
actor: Paul Henderson "Ma Perkins"; Dr. Clifford "Bachelor's Children"
08-13-1905 - Olga Albani - Barcelona, Spain - d. 6-3-1940
singer: "Coca-Cola Hour"; "Silken String"
08-13-1907 - Mabel Todd - Los Angeles, CA - d. 6-2-1977
vocalist: "The Al Pearce Show"; "Your Hollywood Parade"
08-13-1908 - Gene Raymond - New York City, NY - d. 5-3-1998
actor: John J. Malone "Amazing Mr. Malone"; "Witness"; "Hollywood Hotel"
08-13-1909 - Dave Willock - Chicago, IL - d. 11-12-1990
actor: Tugwell "Jack Carson Show, Sealtest Village Store"
08-13-1909 - John Beal - Joplin, MO - d. 4-26-1997
actor: Bonnie Doon "Amazing Mr. Tutt"; "Box 13"; "Favorite Story"
08-13-1910 - Skinnay Ennis - Salisbury, NC - d. 6-3-1963
bandleader, singer: "Bob Hope Show"; "Abbott and Costello Show"
08-13-1913 - Melvin Frank - Chicago, IL - d. 10-14-1988
film writer, producer, director: "Pepsodent Show"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
08-13-1913 - Rita Johnson - Worcester, MA - d. 10-31-1965
actress: Martha Curtis "John's Other Wife"; Joyce Jordan "Joyce Jordan, [removed]"
08-13-1916 - Gloria Dickson - Pocatello, ID - d. 4-10-1945
actress: "Warner Bros. Academy Theatre"; "Federal Theatre Special"; "Lux
Radio Theatre"
08-13-1918 - Bob Carroll, Jr.
writer: "It's A Great Life"; "My Favorite Husband"
08-13-1919 - George Shearing - London, England
sideman: The Bert Ambrose Band
08-13-1929 - Pat Harrington - New York City, NY
actor: "Hollywood's Open House"
August 13th deaths
02-21-1916 - Norman Jolley - Adel, IA - d. 8-13-2002
actor: Dr. Milingro "Space Patrol"
03-12-1893 - Gene Morgan - Racine, WI - d. 8-13-1940
actor: Rex Marvin "Myrt and Marge"; Bill Taylor "All My Children"
06-13-1913 - Bob Bailey - Toeldo, OH - d. 8-13-1983
actor: Johnny Dollar "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar"; George Valentine "Let
George Do It"
09-08-1910 - Joe Bolton - Flushing, NY - d. 8-13-1986
announcer: "The 1937 Radio Show"
09-21-1866 - H. G. Wells - Bromley, England - d. 8-13-1946
science fiction author: "A Discussion Between H. G. Wells and Orson Welles"
10-15-1879 - Jane Darwell - Palmyra, MO - d. 8-13-1967
actress: "Lux Radio Theatre"
10-20-1931 - Mickey Mantle - Spavinaw, OK - d. 8-13-1995
baseball great: "Hear It Now"; "Feature Project"
11-13-1913 - Helen Mack - Rock Island, IL - d. 8-13-1986
producer, director: "Beulah Show"; "Affairs of Ann Scotland"
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 09:25:07 -0400
From: Dixonhayes@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: dollar DVD's
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In a message dated 8/12/05 1:10:43 PM Central Daylight Time,
[removed]@[removed] writes:
What strikes me as a pale imitation, "Dollar Tree," is truly
nationwide, at least I've seen their stores in just about every weird,
offbeat location I've visited. They may carry these DVDs too, but for a
penny more than "99 Cents Only."
I can confirm that they do. Among the ones I've picked up include episodes
of the TV versions of "The Jack Benny Show" (one of which has Humphrey Bogart
as a guest star), "Dragnet" (the 1950s version) and "Mr. and Mrs. North."
Dixon
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Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 10:55:09 -0400
From: "Jim Nixon" <ranger6000@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Spike and Doodles
Thanks to those of you weighing in on the horserace question raised by Spike
Jones' "William Tell Overture". I think Michael Hayde and Philip Chavin
have nailed it with Doodles Weaver's alter ego, Professor
Feedlebaum/Feetlebaum. But guys, which is it?
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #245
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