Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #266
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 7/8/2003 12:44 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2003 : Issue 266
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  A Crow has fallen into the inkwell    [ Christopher Werner <werner1@globalc ]
  The Hitchhiker                        [ "Albert P. Cohen" <apcohen@intercom ]
  Another AM reception comment          [ "Jim Hilliker" <jimhilliker@sbcglob ]
  Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  LONE RANGER NO WHISTLER               [ Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed]; ]
  [removed]                  [ tweten@[removed] ]
  OTR Star on Contemporary Television   [ LSMFTnolonger@[removed] ]
  Re: Radio collector amiss?            [ Elayne Beneford <elayne@[removed]; ]
  Memories Are Just That                [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  Og, Son of Fire                       [ Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; ]
  OTR Actors on TV's Dragnet            [ Art Chimes <[removed]@[removed]; ]
  Introduction                          [ "Steve Rossiter" <SRossiter@[removed] ]
  KNX transmitting tower                [ "Jim Plummer" <[removed]@[removed] ]
  Time Magazine Article From WWII Era   [ Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed] ]
  Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  new JFK audio                         [ chris chandler <chrischandler84@yah ]

______________________________________________________________________

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

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 16:14:04 -0400
From: Christopher Werner <werner1@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  A Crow has fallen into the inkwell


On Sat, 5 Jul 2003 11:56:01 -0400 Dennis Crow exclaimed:

In the conversation Derek "It's Me Again, Gang" Tague had with Christopher
Werner in Thursday's Digest, I don't understand the "chocolate war"  thrust
of the repartee,  the reason Mr. Tague was humorously pulling Werner's
chain, and what all of this had to do with old-time radio.  Since both
conversants are usually on point, perhaps they could enlighten us?  What am
I missing?

Hearing Mr. Crow's cry for help, Derek and I shall attempt to rescue him
from the Inkaboos
and thereby enlighten him as to the meaning of our sweetened correspondence.

First of all Derek has reminded me that he prefers the tagline of "from the
Ether" and
we both wish to express our thanks for the credibility you've endowed upon
us. Alas,
with power comes great responsibility and so an explanation:

The subject began with a commentary on our experiences with doing OTR research
in various libraries.  I expressed my adventures at the TV & Radio Museum
and Derek
extolled the joys of working in the Billy Rose collection of the New York
Public Library.
Most large libraries (like any large organization) temper chaos with
procedures, some
of which may be interpreted as cumbersome to the casual user. Library patrons
often require assistance (help) in interpreting and correctly following
procedure and
that is were the chocolate comes in. "You can catch more flies with honey
than vinegar"
is the base principle here, and the conversation escalated to 'what's the
best method
to butter up the library staff to get better service'. Therein lies the
chocolate answer.

Now Derek, gracious as he is with guidance in New York, does do research
for a fee
for those unable to come to the area (and even assist those who do). Since
he was
kind enough (during a phone conversation) to volunteer some of his time to
'guide'
me through some of the sources, I thought the jab of working for chocolate
(as the
librarians seem to do) was worth a try.

In the end, the result is more efficient OTR research that in turn provides
more information
to the members of the list in general.

So, Dennis, feeding LiBEARians chocolate can help OTR.

Chris

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

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 17:41:12 -0400
From: "Albert P. Cohen" <apcohen@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  The Hitchhiker

Some time ago a contributor noted the broadcast dates of Lucille Fletcher's
"The Hitchhiker."  Does anyone have that information readily at hand.  I
suspect the original broadcast was in 1942 with a non-sponsored second play
a year later and a play in 1946 or 1947 with Pabst Blue Ribbon as the
sponsor.

Thank you in advance.

Al Cohen

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

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 17:41:18 -0400
From: "Jim Hilliker" <jimhilliker@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Another AM reception comment

When I sent in my comments last week on reception of the clear channel AM
radio stations in recent years, I forgot to mention another important factor
affecting reception of all AM radio stations today, whether they are local
or distant.

In the past 10 to 20 years, I've noticed a significant increase in the
amount of man-made noise, which causes severe problems for many people when
trying to hear AM radio stations in their homes and apartments today.

Most of this noise comes from computers, television sets, light-dimmers,
fluorescent lights, city street lights, AC powerlines, transformers and
other various electrical sources.  So, try to place the radio and antenna
away from these sources or turn them off before listening to AM radio, to
try and get rid of most of the offending interference from man-made noise.

Jim

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

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 17:41:43 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Today in radio history

   From The History Net --

1927 -- Christopher Stone becomes the first British 'disc jockey' when
he plays records for the BBC.

 From Those Were The Days --

1920 - A device known as the radio compass was used for the first time
on a [removed] Navy airplane near Norfolk, Virginia.

1943 - For the first time, Flashgun Casey was heard on radio. Not much
later, the name of the program was altered to Casey, Crime Reporter, and
became much more popular.

1949 - Dragnet was first heard on NBC.

   Joe

--
Visit my homepage: [removed]

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

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 17:41:29 -0400
From: Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  LONE RANGER NO WHISTLER
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My good friend, writer/director, George Seaton [Airport, Miracle On 34th
Street, etc], was the first person to portray the Lone Ranger on Detroit
station WXYZ; he claimed to have come up with the Ranger's immortal cry
"Hi-yo, Silver" because he couldn't whistle for his horse, as the script
required.

Sandy Singer

  *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
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------------------------------

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 18:25:02 -0400
From: tweten@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  [removed]

Has anyone listened to [removed]?

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

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 18:25:33 -0400
From: LSMFTnolonger@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR Star on Contemporary Television

Charlie mentions that Beverly Washburn will be featured on the first
episode of the new TV series "Las Vegas." Beverly Washburn lives here in
Vegas and has been featured twice in articles in our local newspaper,
the Las  Vegas Review-Journal.

Greg Jackson, Jr.

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

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 18:25:49 -0400
From: Elayne Beneford <elayne@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Radio collector amiss?

Martin, you are almost correct. It should be:

Allan Ropchan, 8923 84th Ave. NW, Edmonton Alta, Canada  T6C 1E3

You can look Canadians up at [removed]

Elayne

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

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 19:32:57 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Memories Are Just That

Laura Leff, speaking of today's audiences, notes,

I came up with the idea of a theatre devoted to media from the turn of
the century to 1965.  I could screen movies, television shows you don't
see today (like Your Show of Shows), have places for people listen to
OTR, put some of my own personal collection there, etc. <snip> The gist
of what I heard is [removed] people have tried variations of this in my
area, and it just doesn't work.  <snip>  For the kids, the pacing of that
material is just too slow and the special effects look schlocky compared
to today.  And OTR?  People just won't pay to come in the door to hear
it.  In short, people would rather pay to see Dumb and Dumber than, say,
the Marx Brothers or Abbott and Costello.

The whole business about audience views is that some could make the same
case back then.  Frankly, most of the movies in the 1930s and 1940s were
potboilers, and many were quite terrible by contemporaneous standards.
For every Stagecoach there were a dozen Yellow Tomahawks.  In the
pre-television days, many families went to the movies just to get some
visual entertainment, no matter how lame.  (And there were serials to
induce people to come back to the theater when a really schlocky film was
going to be shown.)  And, frankly, not every OTR program on the air was a
masterpiece.  In my opinion, even among surviving shows, some were pretty
steady where others ran hot and cold.

I got the following information from a filmmaker and IJBFC member.
Hollywood targets its movies mostly at male teens that get the money from
their parents to go to the movies.

But one of the highest grossing films made it because it was aimed at
teenage girls: Titanic.  A movie like Lord of the Rings, definitely aimed
at younger boys didn't do as well as Harry Potter, which was aimed at
families.  And Silence of the Lambs did fine, and it certainly wasn't
aimed at the teen crowd.

One of the problems with much of the entertainment industry is that they
listen to each other rather than feedback from outside their circles.
The most recent statistics from the Tampa area show that the most
listened to radio station is WGUL, an "oldies music" station (I even
listen to it from time to time, even though their "oldies" aren't really
old enough).  Nowhere what most people would have predicted.

And because education in this country is largely in decline, they "dumb
down" the movies so that the humor is handed to you on a plate (or thrown
in your face) rather than making you think to get the joke (ala the Marx
Brothers or Preston Sturges).

One reason I cannot categorize the half-hour Captain Midnight radio shows
as part of the Canon is that unlike the serials running for the previous
eleven years, the 30-minute version was dumbed down.  Dumbing down is
nothing new: those programs were in the Fall of 1949.

One problem with nostalgia is that we filter out the worst part of the
past and retain and revere the better memories.  And, alas, memory is
fallible.  From personal experience, I've learned not to trust memory
exclusively.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 10:27:21 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Today in radio history

   From The History Net --

1927 -- Christopher Stone becomes the first British 'disc jockey' when
he plays records for the BBC.

 From Those Were The Days --

1920 - A device known as the radio compass was used for the first time
on a [removed] Navy airplane near Norfolk, Virginia.

1943 - For the first time, Flashgun Casey was heard on radio. Not much
later, the name of the program was altered to Casey, Crime Reporter, and
became much more popular.

1949 - Dragnet was first heard on NBC.

   Joe

--
Visit my homepage: [removed]

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 13:32:11 -0400
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Og, Son of Fire

My co-author (Meade Frierson - now deceased) and I mention this in our 1996
book on Science Fiction on Radio. Meade always felt it got his nomination
as the least known sf radio show. I sort of always felt it was stretching
the sf label a bit.

Og, Son of Fire was a CBS show sponsored by the Libby Company (same people
who later sponsored Terry and the Pirates) from November, 1934 through
December 1935 with some time off in the summer of '35.

It starred Alfred Brown as Og and was essentially a juvenile series about
prehistoric times.  As I recall, John Dunning described it as a
"prehistoric Jack Armstrong."  Og was a young caveman who like Jack
Armstrong had his circle of "cave people friends" including Ru, Gnu and Nad.

The sound effects are what is often remembered by those who heard it with
their creation of "hissing giant snakes," "roars of sabre-toothed tigers"
and the "snap of bull crocodiles."

There is a web site devoted to the show which has links to articles of
reminiscenses:
[removed]

Jim Widner
jwidner@[removed]

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 13:32:18 -0400
From: Art Chimes <[removed]@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR Actors on TV's Dragnet

[removed]

This website has screen capture head shots of a number of OTR
personalities who have appeared on TV's Dragnet (apparently the 1967-70
run). You might be interested in having a look at pictures of -

Howard Culver
Virginia Gregg
Ralph Moody
Vic Perrin
Olan Soulé
Herb Vigran
Peggy Webber

and others

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 13:32:43 -0400
From: "Steve Rossiter" <SRossiter@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Introduction

Hello everyone,
  As an introduction, I have just recently begun to look into the
marvels of golden age radio and have been surprised by the variety of
programs available so it'll take a little time to sort it all out.
Strangely enough my interest are not only the better known dramas but
some of the lesser known instructional/educational series. I probably
need to read a FAQ or some other intro so if somebody can point me in
the right direction that would it would be appreciated. Anyway, I'm in
So. Cal. and lucky enough to have KNX broadcasting shows nightly from
8-9p. Our local library has a Dunnings encyclopedia which has a number
of interesting looking shows, my problem initially is going to be how to
find a place that has them for sale/download. Are there certain sites
for this or is it a bit of a hunt depending on what one is looking for?
  Well, I won't go beyond this for now. Thanks for the help and to the
list owners for this resources. Steve.

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 13:32:49 -0400
From: "Jim Plummer" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  KNX transmitting tower
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Bill asked the other day if the KNX transmitting tower is still in Torrance at
190th & Hawthorne Blvd. Yes it is. I pass by it five or six days a week.
Somebody is currently building a structure between it and 190th, but its still
there

Jim Plummer

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 13:32:38 -0400
From: Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Time Magazine Article From WWII Era

This vintage article from Time magazine covers the war in the Pacific,
particularly the experience of troops in the Philippines.

Every now and then you hear people decry the portrayal of the Japanese in
[removed] entertainment and other propaganda during World War II.  So sometimes
it helps to read up on why those portrayals were so well deserved.

There is a lot of disturbing period racism in old time radio broadcasts that
comes across badly 60 years later, but never for a moment think the
portrayal of the Japanese is in that category.

In fact, my wife's grandmother witnessed Japanese atrocities first hand
during the occupation and my wife has relayed stories to me worse than
anything I've heard on radio broadcasts.

Please note that this article contains an urban legend at the time
attributed to the [removed] commander of forces in Wake Island, who when radioed
by the supplymaster to find out what he needed to continue the fight there
was said to have replied "Send us more Japs."  It turns out that reply is
fictional.

Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]

[removed],8599,128081-2,[removed]

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 13:32:54 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Today in radio history

   From Those Were The Days --

1950 - Joel McCrea appeared in the lead role of Tales of the Texas
Rangers on NBC.

   Joe

--
Visit my homepage: [removed]

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 13:32:51 -0400
From: "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Robert Bloch

The interview with Robert Bloch was on a show called Hour 25 a science
fiction show that ran on KPFK for a number of years.  You are right, you
have only deepened the mystery.  Are there any copies of the Kate Smith
show that contained Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper, if it was on that show?
 I do not have a copy of the interview, the details are provided by my
possibly cloudy memory, but that possibly cloudy memory says that he
attributed the loss of all those shows to the plane crash, but the
possibility is that my memory could be incorrect, since I had only pieces
of the puzzle and did not know how they went together.  To cloud the
waters further, the title Stay Tuned for Terror does vaguely ring a bell.
 Well, that still leaves us with a serious problem to be solved by the
willing student, doesn't it.  Kurt

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 14:18:25 -0400
From: chris chandler <chrischandler84@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  new JFK audio

Hey [removed]

Just listening to some 'new' material on the JFK
assassination, and wanted to pique some of your
memories with a question.

First, a couple notes that may be of general interest:

We discussed here a few months ago the generally
disastrous first hour of the NBC-TV coverage, but a
funny thing--the sountrack alone actually makes a
fairly riveting audio broadcast (right up until Frank
McGee can't operate the little phone gizmo, and the
whole enterprise goes to seed).  When you can't SEE
Chet Huntley going to pieces, it sounds as if HE is
the steady, calm anchorman, and the otherwise-lauded
Bill Ryan comes across as an intrusive, almost rude
buttinsky!  It's a really weird effect, listening to
this instead of watching it, I suppose similar to
folks who drew different opinions listening, rather
than watching, the 1960 Presidential debates.  (This
WNBC-TV audio line recording also includes the first
NBC network bulletins, not preserved anyplace else:
Don Pardo's the announcer, and I found it kind of
quaint the network, in 1963, was using the same
program interrupt cues it was using back in 1945!)

Couple more notes:  for all the criticism we heaped
upon the NBC-TV effort, a recent listen to an ABC-TV
audio recording has to be classified as the worst
broadcasting train wreck I ever heard or saw.  They
used to say ABC stood for "Almost a Broadcasting
Company", and boy this could be Exhibit A.  Ron
Cochran anchors, spectacularly badly--he wildly
misquotes wire copy, most notably getting Kennedy's
time of death wrong by more than half an hour; there's
also a ghastly minute-and-a-half in which Cochran
doesn't know he's on the air, even as stagehands
frantically try to get him to say something, and he
actually LAUGHS.  Oopsie.  I don't know much about
this fellow, apparently his main attraction was that
he used to work for CBS.  Whatever became of him?

Finally, this discovery:  there's an unexpected "I Can
Hear It Now" moment in the otherwise excellent
widely-circulated Fred Foy-narrated ABC radio
assassination retrospective.  On the record album, Don
Gardiner pronounces JFK dead, says "let us pray", then
introduces Quincy Howe.  Turns out there's actually
more than twenty minutes between these two events!
Ironically, the 'missing minutes' are very deeply
moving--Gardiner summons every ounce of his skill and
experience in the moments after the President was
confirmed dead.  Like many of you, though I'm too
young to have experienced the event, I have heard many
version of the "Kennedy Is Dead" moment over the
years, and this is the ONLY one that has ever actually
brought me to tears.  (And so did this: an otherwise
dry VOA retrospective in the overnight hours 11/22/63,
concludes with "This program comes from the United
States of America."  [removed] sure [removed])

Now the question:  we all know CBS radio broadcast
word Kennedy had died waaaaay before anybody else,
ostensibly because of a miscommunication involving Dan
Rather in Dallas, who has always said he never
intended his info to be broadcast.  I know we're only
talking about a 15-minute time frame here, but
listening to all this material has made me wonder: how
much confusion did this premature announcement create
out there in the country?  Did people madly flip the
dial around, as they do today, going from station to
station?  Were there any repercussions from CBS'
actions?  I get the sense, listening to this stuff,
there actually WAS some confusion created.  The Voice
of America, for example, quoted the CBS radio report,
only to frantically backpeddle a minute later,
realizing the news wasn't being reported anyplace
else.  And when KRLD, Dallas, broke away from the CBS
network just after the death announcement, you can
actually hear people in the background--possibly other
reporters!--saying "What?  Who says? Connelly too?"

I suppose the fact they were RIGHT saved their
patooties, but I've always held the view that the
unconfirmed death announcement was just wildly
irresponsible, especially under the circumstances.
The Rather report could have been used as a single
piece of the mounting evidence that Kennedy had indeed
died of his wounds; this is the way CBS-TV handled the
info.  Saying "It has just been [removed]" was
inaccurate and premature, and I wondered if anbody
here remembered this few minutes well enough to know
if it actually caused any confusion out there in radio
land.

chris

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #266
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