Subject: [removed] Digest V2001 #319
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 9/30/2001 9:03 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2001 : Issue 319
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Lullaby Lady                          [ "Tim Taylor" <tt327@[removed]; ]
  Gleason Archer on radio               [ Donna Halper <dlh@[removed]; ]
  Re: My own education                  [ OTRChris@[removed] ]
  small correction-- Empire of the Air  [ Donna Halper <dlh@[removed]; ]
  Situation comedies?                   [ "[removed]" <[removed] ]
  Empire; Epitaph;                      [ "Robert Paine" <macandrew@[removed] ]
  Re: RKO Radio Pictures                [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Major Armstrong                       [ "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed]; ]
  Rio Volt                              [ Ga6string@[removed] ]
  Kix In Sensitive Areas                [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  OTR versus OTV                        [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  Mr. Keen and Gangbusters              [ "Mike Kerezman" <philipmarlowe@mynr ]
  The Greatest Generation and Radio     [ "Philip Railsback" <philiprailsback ]
  Re: Turned their back on radio        [ "Philip Railsback" <philiprailsback ]
  Re: Courses on Broadcast History      [ Alan Bell <bella@[removed]; ]
  Re: Rhimon Rotz                       [ Alan Bell <bella@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2001 20:55:13 -0400
From: "Tim Taylor" <tt327@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Lullaby Lady

Hi all:

Does anybody know anything about the Lullaby Lady from the 1920s or perhaps
early 1930s? She sang on WEAF, I think, around kids' bedtime.

Thanks!

Tim

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

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:12:54 -0400
From: Donna Halper <dlh@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Gleason Archer on radio

In the late 1920s, the founder and dean of Suffolk Law School here in
Boston, Gleason Archer, began doing guest appearances on some local radio
shows, mostly on WBZ Radio.  But in late 1930, he was signed on by NBC
(Blue, I think) to do a once a week show about the law, in which he
explained certain laws that protect the rights of Americans, as well as
giving case studies to illustrate various legal matters.  He continued to
do a once a week show through 1933, and then returned to NBC several other
times for another series of programs. In the late 30s, he also was a
featured guest on Alma Kitchell's women's show (I saw the script for his
guest spot-- it was right after he published his book about the history of
radio, circa 1938), also on NBC.  Does anyone know if any of these shows
were ever transcribed?  I would guess the show was not sponsored, but it
certainly got plenty of ink-- Radio Digest magazine and the Boston Post
both had excerpts.  Anyway, I had some fun at the Suffolk Archives the
other day (contrary to his starchy, formal image as the president of a law
school, Gleason Archer's personal life reads like a soap opera that makes
Bill Clinton's seem tame by [removed]), but I wondered if any of his
programs are available to listen to.  All the educational and public
affairs shows I've heard from those days seem to feature announcers with a
very florid, oratorial style, but it probably didn't sound as artificial
back then as it does [removed]

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

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:13:10 -0400
From: OTRChris@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: My own education

Reading my last digest posting wherein I posted the following :

"They turned there backs on radio "

     I obviously should have typed  "their " rather than "there " .
I also  typed the word  granparents without the  "d" .

Therefore,  I am either a horrible typist or  my  postings betray  my own
education.

In regard to education and how it related to radio . Were there any shows
that teachers encouraged students to listen to ?

-Chris

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

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:13:19 -0400
From: Donna Halper <dlh@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  small correction-- Empire of the Air

Bill Harris wrote--
I don't think Armstrong can be given credit for inventing AM as
spark-gap transmitters and radio frequency generating alternators
were being Amplitude Modulated while Armstrong was still a lad in
school. Using an alternator, Ernst F. W. Alexanderson sent AM
transmissions on Christmas Eve, 1906.

Umm, not exactly.  That was Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian (and a believer
in eugenics when he wasn't advancing the cause of broadcasting).  And what
about Guglielmo Marconi?  And let's not forget Charles "Doc" Herrold, the
father of College Radio, whose broadcasts along with his wife Sybil from
about 1909-1913 featured voice and music.  The final exam at the Herrold
College of Wireless was to be able to build a small radio station and
transmit programs with [removed] had been college stations that broadcast
code, but Doc and Sybil played requests, sent out dedications, etc.  My
problem with "Empire of the Air" in the TV version was it cleaned up the
fact that DeForest was a racist, and in fact minimised the racism and
sexism that was a part of early broadcasting.  It also minimised the
important work of the late great John Shepard 3rd and his Yankee Network--
Shepard invested in FM when nobody believed in it; he even lent money to
Armstrong while the latter was heavily involved with litigation; it was
Shepard who put the first FM network on the air, 1939-40.  "Empire of the
Air" stressed the big name corporate guys, and frankly, some of the
non-corporate guys and ladies were equally important.  But, that having
been said, it was wonderful to see ANY documentary about the history of
broadcasting-- there are so many great stories that have yet to be told.

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

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:14:51 -0400
From: "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Situation comedies?

I recall a statement by Jack Benny to the effect that Burns & Allen created
the
modern sitcom.  (I think this was said in Sundays at Seven--er, Sunday
Nights at Seven?--by Jack and Joan Benny.)

Can anyone explain what he meant by that?  What is the history of the
development of the situation comedy as a form?

Thanks,

Pat Adkins
[removed]

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

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:15:00 -0400
From: "Robert Paine" <macandrew@[removed];
To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Empire;  Epitaph;

Re: Empire of the [removed] few years ago I contacted an individual who both
knew and worked with the Major, and was present for the final broadcast of
W2XMN/KE2XCC, Alpine NJ in March 1954. He knew the man who voiced the actual
sign-off, which was abbreviated for Empire of the Air ("This is the last
broadcast of our eighteen [removed]" "As we now prepare to pull the switch
and close the station down, we salute the memory of Edwin Howard
Armstrong."), and he was kind enough to send me a tape of the final 90
minutes of the station. The voice was Harry Sadenwater. The final 30 was a
program of the Major's favorite music.   The tape speed wasn't consistant
but the fidelity was pretty fair.   Unfortunately, the tape - like my set of
Radio Annuals and everything else - is squirrelled away amidst the hundred
or so boxes still unpacked since the recent move to This New House.

For an epitaph that applies to OTR as well [removed] choose "The reports of
my death are grossly exaggerated."



  Macandrew

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

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:16:14 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: RKO Radio Pictures

Ed Ellers wrote:

That Turner logo (it did not mention broadcasting, just the name) and
fanfare was a lamentable decision of Ted's.  It would have been perfectly
appropriate for new productions, but why add it to existing material?

All of the pre-1948 RKO films were leased in 1956 to a company called "C
& C Movietime," which packaged them for local TV syndication for many
years thereafter. This firm made a point of deleting all RKO logos from
the prints it distributed, replacing them with a generic "C&C Movietime
Presents" title card. These cuts were made on fine-grain 35mm
preservation prints, which were then duped down to 16mm for TV
distribution.  It may be that at the time of the Turner VHS release of
"Citizen Kane" the 35mm C&C print might have been the best available copy
for use as the video master -- and if so, the "Turner" logo would have
been necessary to replace the C&C title card. A previous video version of
the film, a "Nostalgia Merchant" VHS released in the early 1980s, *did*
have the original RKO titles, but this print came from a 16mm source and
is visually inferior to the Turner version.

C&C prints seem to be all that's available for many early RKO films, and
they are usually blurry, poorly-contrasted, and quite unpleasant to look
at. After years of searching, I recently got hold of a copy of the 1991
Turner video release of "Check and Double Check" -- a film which is
usually seen only in C&C prints on shoddy public-domain video labels --
and was very pleased to see it was taken from pristine 35mm materials,
including the original RKO opening titles. The sparkling quality of the
print doesn't do anything to improve the quality of the script -- but it
does at least make the film a little less difficult to watch.

Now that VHS is on the way out, OTR fans might want to watch the cutout
racks for other radio-oriented films that Turner released on video around
the same time -- I believe some if not all of the Fibber McGee films
("Look Who's Laughing," "Here We Go Again," "Heavenly Days") may have
been released as part of this early 1990s "RKO Collection" series.

A question for any CW-proficient ham operators in our midst -- what
exactly does the morse code in the RKO logo say? I've never had the
patience to try and figure it out.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:16:34 -0400
From: "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Major Armstrong

Alan Bell <bella@[removed]; wrote:

Actually, while Armstrong made tremendous strides and improvements,
he did not invent AM.

He didn't invent FM either -- what Armstrong did in that case was come up
with the idea of using *wideband* FM, and then develop the first practical
circuits to generate and demodulate FM.  Even then, his receiver system used
an existing circuit (the Foster-Seeley discriminator) to which he added
limiters to eliminate static and other noise from the received signal.

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

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:16:43 -0400
From: Ga6string@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Rio Volt

Hi all,
I was looking at the Rio Volt web site, and it describes three different
models, an SP90, SP100, and SP250. I know they have different accessories,
but do any of you have any experience with their basic performance; that is,
how well each of them plays OTR MP3 CDs? Any difference in the flexibility of
the respective models? Please feel free to respond on-list or off.
Thanks,
Bryan Powell

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

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:17:08 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Kix In Sensitive Areas

Ed Kindred notes,

[After eating Wheaties, Cheerios and Kix] I hated Kix and it was over
50 years before I ate Wheaties again. Cheerios is ok but no food value.
Wheaties I might buy on sale and mix with
something else. KIX? NEVER!!!!!

For latecomers: Kix back in the 1940s wasn't quite as hard as crushed
rock out of the box, but close.  You could let it stand in milk for as
long as you wanted, and it would get no softer.  It had no culinary
redeeming features; the only way it "redeemed" itself was that the
boxtops served as partial currency to get some neat premiums.  I suppose
the cereal might have prevented tartar, but that's speculative at best.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:17:25 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR versus OTV

Clyde Kell, speaking of OTR and TV notes,

I think the reason for this is that many of the story lines were
designed to enhance and make the listener's imagination run wild. You
can't  do that with television or movies.

I suspect that it's rather the other way around.  Oral traditions and
books were not hampered by things that were common to early TV.  Those
shows that translated easily to TV were those that could deliver
something within a rational budget.  Ozzie and Harriet was a perfect
example of that.  But the technical restrictions of early TV prevented
doing anything too innovative.  OTR was an extension of
around-the-campfire storytelling; early TV was an extension of a stage
play.

Nowadays, with digital manipulation in films, images can match or exceed
many folks' imagination, but that's a different story.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:17:34 -0400
From: "Mike Kerezman" <philipmarlowe@[removed];
To: "OTR DIGEST" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Mr. Keen and Gangbusters

I was wondering in anybody knows how many surviving shows there are of Mr.
Keen and Gangbusters. I have been unable to find a log on either of these
two shows. So far I have collected 52 shows of Mr. Keen which includes
around five (5)  15 minute episodes and around 40 or so shows of
Gangbusters. Does anyone know of the exact number of surviving shows of
each. Gangbusters is particular difficult show to catalog since the same
show often goes by different titles. For example The Case of Nichalas Seno
aka Case of the Triple Threat Bandits.

Any Help would be appreciated.

Mike Kerezman

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

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:17:47 -0400
From: "Philip Railsback" <philiprailsback@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The Greatest Generation and Radio

When I interviewed my grandparents in the
late 1970s for their memories of radio, their most vivid recollection >was
of listening to FDR's first Fireside Chat in 1933, but most >everything
else mushed together in their memories -- they weren't >people much
interested in remembering the past, since it had been such >an unpleasant
time for them. But they *had* listened.

When I tried to start a converasation about radio with my 80 year old mother
and a friend of hers a few months ago, I was in for a rude shock.  They
remembered Jack Benny, but that was about it.  "Suspense"?  Never heard of
it.  I let it drop there. It was obvious they couldn't care less about old
time radio. My suspicion is that the vast majority of radio fans dropped the
habit the day their TV appeared and never looked back.

  - Philip

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

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:17:59 -0400
From: "Philip Railsback" <philiprailsback@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Turned their back on radio

Chris wrote:

With Television things didn't change either for my granparents . I >recall
them watching Ed Sullivan and other variety shows , some >westerns and
Walter Kronkite

I mentioned in earlier that my mother had virtually no memories of OTR, but
your post reminds me that that would be true of TV as well.  I don't
remember her ever watching anything other than the news.  So I doubt that
"Hogans Heroes" would hold a lot memories for her.

  - Philip

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

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:18:12 -0400
From: Alan Bell <bella@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Courses on Broadcast History

Howard Blue wrote: " I would appreciate  receiving the names and colleges
of any professors
around the country who teach courses  on broadcast history.

Actually, I imagine you could come up with dozens, maybe even
hundreds of colleges that teach, at least, a semester-long basic
history of broadcasting. I teach such a course at Grand Valley State
University in western Michigan, plus a course under the "Media and
Society" heading called Radio and American Culture: 1920-1960. There
are several readings from contemporary and historical sources about
radio of the era, plus they have to listen to LOTS of radio shows,
both in and outside of class. Some students get into it, others have
a very tough time.

As Susan Stonehill put it:
Many of the younger students had trouble "hearing" the shows and were
restless

Very well put. I hadn't tried getting them to "produce" their own
shows yet, as she has, but I do think we might be able to mount a
course on audio drama sometime soon.
--
Alan Bell
Grandville, MI
bella@[removed]

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

Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 13:22:01 -0400
From: Alan Bell <bella@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Rhimon Rotz

Sorry to hear of the passing of Dr. Rotz. Even though I didn't know
him, I recall reading his posts many times over the years. I've been
on this forum, though sometimes inactively, since 1995, and one does
get to recognize certain people's "voices" over time. I'm sorry his
has been stilled.
--
Alan Bell
Grandville, MI
bella@[removed]

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2001 Issue #319
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