Subject: [removed] Digest V01 #153
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 5/22/2001 8:41 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                      The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                         Volume 01 : Issue 153
                   A Part of the [removed]!
                           ISSN: 1533-9289


                           Today's Topics:

 Sir Cumference                       [Bhob Stewart <bhob2@[removed]; ]
 Re: Social Diseases On The Air       [Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed]]
 bbc world service clarification      [leonardfass@[removed] (Leonard Fass]
 mutual                               [leonardfass@[removed] (Leonard Fass]
 Re: War of the Rights                [StevenL751@[removed]                 ]
 Re: Mutual                           ["Robert Paine" <macandrew@[removed]]
 The death of Mutual                  ["Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@worldnet.]
 Remley Station                       ["Michael Stein" <MSTEIN@[removed]]
 War of the Worlds                    ["Doug Leary" <dleary@[removed];    ]
 Radio/tv sets                        ["John Sloan" <jdsloan@[removed]; ]
 Ritz Brothers on radio?              [Ben Ohmart <bloodbleeds@[removed]; ]
 Re: sorry wrong number               ["Rodney w bowcock jr." <rodney-self]
 Misnamed / Misdated Ozzie and Harrie ["Ron Vanover" <vanoverr@[removed];  ]
 Re: Radio Sets and Television        [Bill Harris <radioguy@[removed];   ]
 Frank Hemingway on Roy Rogers Show   ["Gordon Gregersen" <gsgreg@pacifier]

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

Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 10:20:29 -0400
From: Bhob Stewart <bhob2@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Sir Cumference

"Ying Tong Iddle I Po"

On Sunday (5/27), WHRB-FM (Cambridge, Massachusetts) will feature a
135-minute "Goons Orgy" as a tribute to Sir Harry Secombe (1921-2001).

Secombe obit by Sarah Vernon:
[removed]
Rebecca Allison wrote this 4/12/01 GUARDIAN obituary of Secombe:
[removed],3604,472090,[removed]
Memory of Secombe by Michael Freedland:
[removed],4678,0-47259
1,[removed]

Despite WHRB's claim that in 1961 it was "the first American radio
station to run the Goon Shows" (see below), I persist in my belief that
NBC carried THE GOON SHOW in the summer of 1953 or 1954. I would be most
appreciative if someone can confirm my memory of this with specific
details.

To hear WHRB's Secombe tribute on Sunday, go to [removed] and
click beneath "Listen!"

Windows Media Player is required. Note the free download link for
Windows Media Player on the WHRB main page. I never had a positive
reaction to early versions of Windows Media Player for Macintosh users,
but the new Windows Media Player 7 for the Mac is most impressive:
[removed]

HRB=Harvard Radio Broadcasting. The WHRB-FM Orgies, marathons designed
to carry Harvard students through exams, are traditionally musical
programs devoted to a single composer, performer, genre or subject,
sometimes stretching on for hours or days. For instance, their Blue Note
Orgy will fill four days (5/29 to 6/1) with the 60-year history of Blue
Note Records.

According to station legend, the WHRB Orgies can be traced back to the
spring of 1943 when "one Harvard student, then a staff member of WHRB,
returned to the station after a particularly difficult exam and played
all of Beethoven's nine symphonies consecutively to celebrate the end of
a long, hard term of studying. The idea caught on, and soon the orgy
concept was expanded to include live Jazz and Rock Orgies, as well as a
wide variety of recorded music." The station went to FM in 1957
(expanding beyond the Harvard campus to Cambridge), and it began stereo
broadcasts in 1967.

Below is the description of the Secombe tribute show as it appears in
WHRB's Program Guide. Actually, the full Sunday afternoon line-up,
concluding with a show devoted to songwriter Harry Warren (4:30pm), is
of interest, so I'm adding a few other Program Guide entries:

May 27 -- Sunday

12:30 pm HARRY SECOMBE/GOONS ORGY -
Sir Harry Secombe passed away last month at the age of 79, but he will
remain forever young as a member of The Goon Show, a classically silly
and surrealistic program which ran for a decade on the BBC in the
1950’s. He and the other two principal cast members, Peter Sellers and
Spike Milligan (who wrote the shows), became beloved figures for the
post-war generation. WHRB was the first American radio station to run
the Goon Shows forty years ago, and today we celebrate the life of Sir
Harry with a prime selection of Goonery, plus a couple of Secombe’s solo
recordings.

2:45 pm STEVE ALLEN TRIBUTE -
The briefest of tributes to Allen (December 26, 1921-October 30, 2000).
Includes "A Very Square Dance" and other classics.

3:00 pm MARLENE DIETRICH CENTENARY -
Marlene Dietrich seemed timeless when she was before the public, so it’s
difficult to imagine her centenary (she was born December 27, 1901 and
died May 6, 1992). We remember her with her earliest recordings and her
appearance in the 1950’s at the Café de Paris in London (Sony).

4:00 pm RALPH RAINGER CENTENARY -
Ralph Rainger was born a century ago and died young, in 1942. In his
short career he was responsible for many memorable songs, from Libby
Holman’s "Moanin’ Low" to Crosby’s "Please" , Hope’s "Thanks for the
Memory", and Benny's "Love in Bloom". We’ll hear those and others.

Bhob @ PRE-FUSE @ [removed]

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

Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 10:20:27 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Social Diseases On The Air

Jim Amash wonders,

I was listening toa  tape of the Singing Lady the other day.  For those who
don't know, this was a fifteen minute show in the late 1930's and was for
little kids.  So imagine my surprise when I heard the guest talk about how
the war was being won against Syphillis.  I'm not a prude but I was shocked
that subject would be discussed on a little kids show in the 1930's.  I
always thought that type of subject wasn't discussed much in public, not to
mention on a kid's show.  Have I misjudged those times?

The appearance of such a subject on a children's show *is* rather odd for
the period -- are you sure of the date? Ireene Wicker continued her
broadcasts over WNYC, the municipal station in New York, well into the
1970s, and it almost sounds like you've come upon a later broadcast from
the series.

But while OTR-era radio wasn't exactly filled with a constant stream of
broadcasts about VD, neither did it totally ignore the subject. Syphilis
was considered "the great scourge" of the early 20th century: it was a
national epidemic during the 1910s, with infection rates reaching an
all-time high during World War I. This crisis led to a full-scale
educational campaign against the disease, which continued thru the 1920s
and 1930s. In an era where middle-class Americans insisted on referring
to such diseases by such euphemisms as "bad blood," and insisted that
they only infected "those people," educators had their work cut out for
them.

Radio was a frequent tool in this educational effort -- sustaining public
service programs dealing with the dangers of "social diseases" were
offered, often under the auspicies of the Surgeon General's Office or the
National Social Hygiene Agency. One such broadcast, aired over NBC-Blue
on 2/2/38, presented a panel discussion of the battle against syphilis by
Surgeon General Thomas Parran, Professor R. N. Wilbur, and General John
J. Pershing. Surgeon General Parren was especially noted for his activist
role in promoting public awareness of the VD problem, and it was under
his administration that the educational campaign in the US reached its
peak, continuing thru the World War II era. There was even a regular
series dealing with the topic, a daytime show called "The Silent Enemy,"
aired as a local feature by WNBC in New York during the fall of 1946.
While such programs weren't explicit by modern standards, they were
certainly frank by the standards of their own time.

Around 1948, Columbia University produced a series of transcribed public
service programs featuring folk and country music artists in musical
dramas designed to encouraged unreported syphilis cases to come forward
for the recently-developed antibiotic treatments -- this was part of a
campaign focused on low-literacy-rate areas of the rural South, which
also involved the distribution of specially-prepared educational comic
books to supplement the broadcasts.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 13:16:43 -0400
From: leonardfass@[removed] (Leonard Fass)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  bbc world service clarification

once the bbc ends current transmissions to america, you will still be
able to hear programs that have been on your local public radio, since
they are distributed via satellites and [removed]   if you are lucky
your locate cable system will still have it 24 hours a day audio
distributed by c [removed]  you can still listen via the bbc web [removed]
and there is something call bbc 4, but if it is on here now via short
wave, those antennas might be down [removed]  hope all that [removed]

[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 13:16:48 -0400
From: leonardfass@[removed] (Leonard Fass)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  mutual

somehow mutual and nbc radio are all part of westwood one which owns the
other [removed] one radio that is the source for jim bohannon and larry
[removed] it does not have as many radio outlets as the big it (three or
more networks) once [removed]

[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 13:17:48 -0400
From: StevenL751@[removed]
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: War of the Rights

There's been some discussion here lately on who owns the performance rights
to the Mercury Theatre "War of the Worlds" script.  On the Radio Drama
Mailing list a similar discussion has been going on and one commercial
producer seems to have researched the issue and has an answer.  Here is what
he had to say:

-----
Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 19:43:16 -0500
From: Jerry Stearns <jstearns@[removed];
To: Radio Drama Mailing List <radiodrama@[removed];
Subject: Rights to WotW

Several people have asked me where they might find
rights to perform Koch's "War of the Worlds" script.
I asked the nice folks at Otherworld Media, who had
actually purchased those rights for their 1988 50th
Anniversary Production of the show, and they told me
they are owned by Koch's wife, Anne, who has a lawyer
who does the granting of those rights.
I've sent a couple people to that lawyer, and those
people have come away very satisfied.  Since one of
them is a little group in Nevada, I'm sure the
rights for them weren't as much as $5K, though I
didn't ask for specifics.
(I do have that lawyer's name around here somewhere,
and I hope I can find it again.)
-----

The reference to 5K is apparently the price that Carl Amari of Radio Spirits
quoted to one radio theater company when they asked him for the rights to do
a single live broadcast of the script.

Steve Lewis

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

Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 13:20:16 -0400
From: "Robert Paine" <macandrew@[removed];
To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Mutual

A recent call to the corporate offices gleaned the info that  Mutual still
exists, if in name only, as part of the Westwood/Westwood One organization,
or whatever the formal name is ...you can't keep up on the changes without a
scorecard.

The contact said that some features are aired under the Mutual banner.

The net was purchased by Amway in the 70's, I believe, about the time a
friend worked at a then-affiliate in CT. I recall that it went through a
phase which might be described as the "owner of the moment club", finally
being purchased by Westwood.

I saw the operation in the early 80's, then in the Crystal City area of
Arlington VA. The Larry King studio was rather generic and non-descript.
There were four racks through which were routed commercials for the various
time zones. There were also two news booths, routed through one control
room. I don't recall what the second was for, I think this was before they
got the NBC radio net. In any case, the news was identical on each service -
only the voices differed. Same stories, same actualities, pretty much the
same right down the line.

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

Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 13:20:14 -0400
From: "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  The death of Mutual

Mutual went through many changes of ownership over the years until finally
landing in the Westwood One/Infinity stable of Mel Karzamin (as did NBC's
radio assests.) In early 1999 the decision was made that this radio
conglomerate had too many brands.  Mutual was deemed expendable and on April
18th of that year the name was consigned to the broadcast dustbin (though if
you tried to resurrect it you would probably have a corporate lawyer all
over you in a heartbeat.)

Westwood distributes or controls the following radio networks:
CBS        NBC        CNN        FOX        Notre Dame Football        MTV
Shadow Traffic    Metro

They also distribute Larry King Live (an audio refeed of the CNN show), Jim
Bohanon and others.

Karzamin gained control of all this when his Infinity Broadcasting acquired
CBS and now all are under the umbrella of Viacom and Sumner Redstone, though
Karzamin remains firmly in control of the radio side.

It is amazing how cylical this has become due to changing attitudes about
regulation in Washington.
Viacom was once a subsidary of CBS designed to syndicate old CBS TV shows
off-net. The Justice Department made CBS divest itself of Viacom and now, 30
years later, CBS is a subsidary of Viacom.

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

Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 13:20:31 -0400
From: "Michael Stein" <MSTEIN@[removed];
To: "<"<[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Remley Station

I'm just getting caught up on some recent Digests--following the Frank Remley
postings. I'd like to add a question to the mix. One of our fire stations
here in Moorhead, Minn. is named Remley Station for one of our past fire
chiefs. Years ago I heard our Chief Remley was related to the one and only
Frank Remley. Does anyone have Remley family information that might verify
this?

Michael

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

Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 14:07:52 -0400
From: "Doug Leary" <dleary@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  War of the Worlds

The script for the 1938 Orson Welles adaptation was written by Howard Koch
(who also wrote the screenplay for "Casablanca"). I was unable to find
copyright information about the script itself on the Internet, but here is a
website with a very good list of radio stations that have re-performed the
script over the years. Producers names are included. I'm sure one of them
would have information about the rights:
[removed]~[removed]

[removed] Wells' novel is in the public domain, so you are free to write and
produce your OWN adaptation as a radioplay, movie, puppet show, whatever. In
fact, you can read the complete text of the novel online at various
websites. Here's one:
[removed]

Doug Leary

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

Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 14:55:18 -0400
From: "John Sloan" <jdsloan@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Radio/tv sets

Thank everybody for updating me on the radio/tv sets.  Guess my leg wasn't
being pulled as I first suspected.

I'm new to otr and it looks very interesting.  I listened to a "Suspense"
show yesterday afternoon and now I remember why I had a hard time sleeping
after I listened to one when I was 6-7 years old.  I would like to collect a
few shows but am trying to be selective cause it looks like it could be
overwhelming if a persons not careful.  Is there logs available for most of
the shows?

Probable all I'll be contributing to this list for awhile will be dumb
questions cause thats the kind of questions I'm most qualified to ask.  Bear
with me.

John Sloan
Dayton Ohio

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

Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 18:29:27 -0400
From: Ben Ohmart <bloodbleeds@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Ritz Brothers on radio?

They're one of my favorite comedy teams, yet as of
now, I can't find any references that they did any
radio. Does anyone know if the Ritz Brothers performed
on any shows?

Thanks.

=====
Check out Fibber McGee's Scrapbook, a new otr book!
[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 21:02:41 -0400
From: "Rodney w bowcock jr." <rodney-selfhelpbikeco@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: sorry wrong number

George Aust made some comments about  Suspense  that I would like to
[removed]

Since he only has about 5 Suspense episodes in his collection, George is
probably unfamiliar with the "format" of Suspense.  Believe [removed]
threw me the first few times too.  Suspense tended to wait until the last
possible moment for the climax, and then end the program on the height of
that climax.  You rarely hear what happened next, you just get either
what was inevitable, or an incredible plot twist and that's it.  The rest
of the program is filled up with Roma Wines ads or good ol' Harlow (my
favorite announcer next to Don Wilson) singing the virtues of AutoLite
Sparkplugs.  After I knew this is the way the program works I was able to
enjoy the show more knowing not to expect any more than necessary.  These
are probably some of the reasons why most folks see Escape as a better
program.  But I only have 3 or 4 episodes of Escape, so I'm not really
anyone to judge.  I like what I've heard, but with Suspense in my top 3
shows of all time, it's gonna be tough to top.

(By the [removed] case you're curious, the other 2 favorites are Jack
Benny, and Yours Truly Johnny Dollar--the 5 parts with Bob Bailey of
course)

Rodney

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

Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 21:23:05 -0400
From: "Ron Vanover" <vanoverr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Misnamed / Misdated Ozzie and Harriet Episode

I recently discovered that two of my Ozzie and Harriet episodes are
identical, even though they bear different names and dates.  I visited a few
of the internet sites and found the same problem with their episodes as
well.

Does anyone OZ481107 - Ozzie is in a Rut and OZ481114 - The Boy's Night Out
and find they are actually different episodes?

Thanks for [removed]

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

Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 00:58:22 -0400
From: Bill Harris <radioguy@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Radio Sets and Television

"James B. Wood, [removed]" <woodjim@[removed]; writes:

Bill Harris' explanation of the jack on the back of radios holds true in
most cases, but some sets from the late '20s and early '30s did make
provision to view the low definition TV services of the time.

We are getting a little off topic here with all this tv stuff, but after
all, if it were not for radio television would have had a hard time
making it. The setup James mentions is for the early mechanical scanning
systems using a revolving disc. Viewing the neon bulb through holes in
the revolving disk formed the rather crude image. One such system was
the Jenkins Television System which was demonstrated in Jersey City, NJ
in 1930. For anyone interested, I scanned a photo from an issue of Short
Wave Craft magazine of a young lady viewing the Jenkins demonstration.
The photo can be viewed at: [removed]~[removed]
In the lower photo you can see the simplicity of the receiver.
In this same issue of SWC, there is an article about transmitting
television on Short Waves, the band between 100 and 150 meters (2-3
MHz). In the Jenkins system, the video is transmitted on one wavelength
and the sound on a different wavelength in the broadcast band.

Bill Harris

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

Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 10:24:09 -0400
From: "Gordon Gregersen" <gsgreg@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Frank Hemingway on Roy Rogers Show

On May 17, Michael Berger shared his recollection of Frank Hemingway.  I too
remember
hearing Hemingway's news broadcasts for Folger's Coffee.  When I was a young
boy,
around 1950 or 1951, my father would listen to Hemingway's news program
before bedtime
on many evenings.

Not so well known, however, is another facet of Frank Hemingway's career.
During
the two Post Cereals sponsored seasons of the Roy Rogers Show (1951-52 and
1952-53),
Frank Hemingway was the narrator of the exciting action adventures that Roy,
Dale,
and Roy's sidekick Jonah Wilde (played by Forrest Lewis during 1951-52) or
Pat Brady(1952-53)would
get into.  If you listen to a Rogers episode from these years, and have the
patience
to wait for announcer Art Balinger to get through a final Aunt Jemina Pancake

When Dodge began sponsoring the RR Show in January of 1954 (with announcer
Lew Crosby),
the action adventures continued (Roy, Dale, Pat Brady), but Hemingway was
gone as
there was no separate narrator used on the show,

Does anyone know what Hemingway did after 1953?  Tel_____n ?

Gordon Gregersen
Portland, Oregon

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #153
*******************************************

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]

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]