Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #162
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 4/18/2003 8:43 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2003 : Issue 162
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  snapshot 4: --from an eight-year lon  [ Howard Blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
  Singer in Duffy's Tavern May, 5, 194  [ lance <lancepawl@[removed]; ]
  Tripping the light fantastic!!        [ Zharold138@[removed] ]
  classical music AFRS                  [ "joe@[removed]" <sergei01@earthli ]
  Re: give away? right, share oh yeah   [ "Ed Carr" <edcarr@[removed]; ]
  Re: British Blackface                 [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Gay Characters                        [ ilamfan@[removed] ]
  Make Believe Ballroom                 [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
  OTR PETS AND ANIMALS                  [ CHET <voxpop@[removed]; ]
  The Cincy Three                       [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
  Digitech player                       [ "Nemesis@[removed]" <nemesis@[removed] ]
  Gas Rationing Stickers and Car OTR    [ George Aust <austhaus1@[removed] ]
  favorite OTR animals                  [ GREGORY M PRZYWARA <gmprzywara@stud ]
  Gay Characters on Radio               [ GEORGE WAGNER <gwagneroldtimeradio@ ]
  Sitting on recordings                 [ JackBenny@[removed] ]

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

Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 19:14:57 -0400
From: Howard Blue <khovard@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  snapshot 4: --from an eight-year long book
 research project--the drunken American prof

snapshot 4:  --of an eight-year long book research project--the drunken
American prof

	It's a spring evening in 1994. I am sitting in a a New York restaurant
with Professor R.  He is quite knowledgeable about radio during the
1940s, particularly about radio drama. He is also quite drunk. But my
notebook is filled. One of the people he tells me about is a man named
Norman Corwin.  I've never heard of Corwin before, but the professor says
Corwin and his work is crucial to my research. I take him at his word.

Coming soon: snapshot 5: Interviewing Norman Corwin

Howard Blue
[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:18:21 -0400
From: lance <lancepawl@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Singer in Duffy's Tavern May, 5, 1944 show
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This might be a long shot, but I'd like to find out the name of the female
singer that sang 'I'll be Seeing You' on the May 5, 1944 Duffy's Tavern radio
program entitled 'Men's Fashion Lecture-Adolph Menjou'. Her voice was so
nice, I'd like to know who it was. I would assume that it was a well-known
singer who was appearing as a guest, and not a regular on the show.

In general, what is the best way to find out details, such as this, about
specific programs? Also, the music numbers on the show sounded very good at
32 kbps quality. I don't know what a higher kbps would have bought you,
besides two or more times storage space.

Lance P.

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

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:19:27 -0400
From: Zharold138@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Tripping the light fantastic!!
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        Hi Everyone,
   I'm sorry to being so late in explaining what happened to me Saturday
night at the Cin City convention but I came home to a leaking washing machine
so it was my first "honey do" that I had to do.
   Well, to make a short story long ,here's what I think happened.
   I was going to sit down while I was taping Chuck Shaden's thank you's and
being a little tired from the best "Bob and Robert"convention I missed the
chair or the chair slipped and I cracked my head in the rail on the wall
which extended about a inch and a half from the wall and if I would have hit
the wall flat I wouldn't have cut open my head.
  I would like to thank Charlie Summer's wife and Hal (Harold) Stone's wife
as they applied first aid to my head till the medics arrived to take me to
the four stay at the hospital (which I had a good time with all of the people
there) and thanks to Robert Newman (SP) who kept my spirits up for four hours
at the hospital and one more hour at Walgreen'[removed] he wasn't real happy
to miss the Saturday night
party as he also did last year with Dave Davies problem.
  Thanks to Steve Hiss for baby sitting me at our motel room which he had to
wake me every two hours to see if I was acting "normal" which for years I
haven't!
  Thanks to Barbera and Jerry Williams for driving to the convention and back
by the way of California.
  Thanks to Bob (hare lip) Burchett for his concern about me ,
,just kidding about the "hare lip" Bob.
   Thanks to Terry Salomson for the great picture of me waiting for the
medics.
  Thanks to Charlie Summer's help with my video camera (running it after I
fell and packing it up for me).
   And thanks to anyone else I might have missed and I'm sorry I stopped the
program but I did wait till it was at the end and I had to top Burchett's
"lip act".
   I still had  a hell of a good time there before the "slip" and it was
thanks to all the wonderfull guest and conventioneer's who attended the great
week end.

                 Thanks Again To Everyone,Harold (Hal) Zeigler

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

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:23:34 -0400
From: "joe@[removed]" <sergei01@[removed];
To: "OTR List" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  classical music AFRS

Tom,

There are a few of us that collect classical music from broadcasts. Every so
often some AFRS ETs turn up on the auction lists of dealers like Kurt Nauck
nauck@[removed] ([removed]) or Tom Hawthorn hawthorn@[removed]

Joe Salerno
Video Works! Is it working for you?
PO Box 273405 - Houston TX 77277-3405 [removed]

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

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:24:11 -0400
From: "Ed Carr" <edcarr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: give away? right, share oh yeah

i get so steamed up everytime i read the mp3 vs audio cd  argument,
with someone or two saying, oh,you should open up your collection
so everyone can enjoy it, or if you charge you aren't in it for the right
reason.
 my reasons for being in this hobby are mine, not yours, this is my
collection i will do what i want with it, and how do you know what
is the right or the wrong reasons.
to continue this argument i have to give some reasons, here they
are.
i can only enjoy clean copies of shows, i don't want a show that
has 2 others in the back ground competing for my ears
so in the early days it cost to get started, then find some one
to trade with, in those days you also had to find a trust worthy
person to trade with, that found you had to decide if their quality
was as good as yours to keep on trading, and they felt the same
way (to improveyour quality you had to figure, well copies from discs
is the best way, then you had to find someone to help you record them
i was lucky and taken at the same time, i found discs by calling all
over america, then i had to pay for the shipping not to me but to
the persons who where was going to record them, then shipping to
you, and in one case i bought 25 discs of the lone ranger for $25 ea
and the fellow never sent them back, (share huh?) then onceyou got
the tapes you went back to trading, and in alot of cases got crap back
(give away huh?) lets see  what have i spent so far? and this was in the 70s
now the digital age has arrived, discs are more expensive now than  ever
look at ebay, yeah look, i have a set up now with a starting price of $50
with a reserve, but these discs are scarce network,
i am excited over  this digital climate, now those tapes sound really nice
because  persons (friends know what they are doing, still costs though
because no one wants to do things for free over a long period of time
even if it's to make sure they get your quality, okay the steam has let up
since i started typing, this isn't the end of the argument,and you know it
but i got my frustrations for the while out
take care
ed

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

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:26:02 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: British Blackface

On 4/17/03 7:23 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:

I found an interesting web page which mentions him
[removed]#Popular and was surprised to see
two blacked-up minstrels who broadcast on the BBC in the 1920's & 30's.
Have you any information, Elizabeth ? (tongue so firmly in cheek I may not
be able to prise it out!)

They were probably "Alexander and Mose," a blackface team heard on the
BBC beginning in 1930, and who may well have been inspired by the
stateside success of "Amos 'n' Andy." Alexander was Billy Bennett, a
veteran British blackface comic, and Mose was played at various times by
James Carew (who died in 1938) and Albert Whelan. The format of this
program owed less to "Amos 'n' Andy" than to the traditional crossfire
acts of minstrel end men, however -- the appeal of the series was based
more on wisecrackery than on the substance of characterization or
storyline.

British listeners, in fact, had a chance to hear "Amos 'n' Andy" for
themselves. On the night of December 31, 1930 the BBC picked up the
regularly-broadcast A&A episode by a shortwave relay from NBC, and
presented it to British audiences just as it was heard in the States.
This was a key episode in the series -- it was the night Andy finally
told Madam Queen he couldn't marry her, kicking off the chain of events
that would lead to the Breach of Promise suit, and the relay was heavily
promoted in the British press as an opportunity to "gain insight into the
American soul." British listeners also got an unexpected surprise -- the
BBC failed to blank out the two Pepsodent commercials during the pickup,
and thus the King's subjects were advised to Use Pepsodent Toothpaste
Twice a Day and to See Their Dentist Twice A Year -- a rare example of
the BBC accidentally transmitting direct advertising for a commercial
product.

The most memorable blackface program on British radio, however, was
"Kentucky Minstrels," heard from 1933 to 1950. This was a production of
Harry S. Pepper, one of the most important figures in 1930s British
variety programming, and recreated the format of a traditional minstrel
show -- chorus, end men, and interlocutor and all. The program was
notable in that for much of the program's run, the end men were Harry
Scott and Eddie Whaley, two African-American blackface comics who had
toured the US in the late 19th Century, and came to Britain in 1909. They
worked as a team until Scott's death in 1947, combining crossfire comedy
with musical specialties. Another interesting element of their act -- and
this illustrates exactly what the stylized blackface mask represented to
performers of this generation -- is that of the two performers, only
Whaley -- as "Pussyfoot," the "comic" of the team -- appeared in
burnt-cork-and-white-lips and misfit clothes. Scott, as "Cuthbert" the
straight man, appeared in an elegant evening suit and straight makeup.

Minstrelsy lived on in Britain as a mainstream attraction far longer than
in the US -- "The Black and White Minstrel Show" was a regular feature on
BBC-TV until 1978. (While I've uncovered documentation of occasional
full-scale blackface minstrel shows being produced in the US during these
years -- the last I know of was at a high school in Rhode Island in 1976
-- there was nothing on the national scale of the BBC series.)

Elizabeth

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

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:27:26 -0400
From: ilamfan@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed] (OTR Bulletin Board)
Subject:  Gay Characters

     I'd always thought that Pat Novak's liquor-laden cohort, the ex-doctor
Jocko Madigan was a bit to effeminate to be a staunch heterosexual ("Good
night, Lover!" one of many reasons), though not as blatantly so as Candy
Matson's Rembrandt Watson.  But then again, I mentioned this to several of my
friends at an OTR listening session, and they thought I was crazy.  Now I
don't
know if he's gay or not - "Not that there's anything wrong with that!
People's
sexual preferences should be their own business!"-Seinfeld television show.

Stephen Jansen

--
Old Time Radio never dies - it
just changes formats!

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

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:27:48 -0400
From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Make Believe Ballroom

Ross Butler's postings about Martin Block are very interesting but contain
several inconsistencies.  Since Block was borrowing the identical title and
virtually identical format from the well established West coast DJ Al
Jarvis, how can it be said "Block was the first person to personalize the
records."?  He was merely doing what Jarvis had already been doing for
several years.

Likewise, it is interesting to know that Block purchased six Clyde McCoy
records for the first program on February 3, 1935 including "Sugar Blues"
which was "brand new for McCoy and was to become his band's theme."
However, the recording of "Sugar Blues" that would have been available at
Liberty Music Shop would have been Columbia 2309-D which McCoy recorded
four years earlier, January 22, 1931.  He probably had been using this for
many years as the band's theme.   The only other McCoy records Block could
have bought would have been some of his other Columbia's from 1931 and
1933.  Yes, McCoy DID make another recording of "Sugar Blues" for Decca,
but that recording session had taken place only four days before this
broadcast, on January 31, 1935, and it is impossible that Decca 381 would
have been available that quickly.  (Ross, I know your source says this
record "had just been released a few days earlier" but your source has
confused recording dates with release dates.  That's not your source's only
error.)

By the way, there is a recording in the Library of Congress of a Martin
Block Make Believe Ballroom from later in 1935, but it is from after the
time of the Hauptman trial.  What is additionally interesting about the
recording is that it includes several program openings, closings, and
station breaks for the hour prior to Block's program.  It includes systems
cues from the short-lived American Broadcasting Company, and a closing
announcement from a Press Radio Bureau newscast reminding you that you can
get further information by reading your newspaper.

WNEW's collection of 78 RPM records is at the Rodgers and Hammerstein
Archive of Recorded Sound of the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center.
One day while walking thru the stacks I came across a pile of white-label
vinyl test pressings of the Glenn Miller recording of "It's Make Believe
Ballroom Time", which leads me to believe that this collection includes the
records that Block used.  Although the source Ross used mentions this
theme--it's the one the writer mentions that he heard while growing up in
the 40s and 50s--he did not mention the earlier theme song recording by
Charlie Barnett in 1936 which had to be taken off the air in 1940 because
of the ASCAP strike.  When the new song was written, Barnett was
unavailable but Block wanted the same vocalists, so the Barnett Modernaires
appeared with Miller.  And Miller liked them so much he hired them away
from Barnett!  Barnett and the Modernaires had also recorded in 1936 the
theme song for another DJ show mentioned in Ross Butler's postings, "The
Milkman's Matinee" but I don't know if it also had to be changed for the
strike.

There are other records of these themes, and that sounds like an
interesting compilation I ought to work on.  I already have most of them.
I could end it with my favorite recording of this genre, Steve Allen's
"Disk Jockey Theme Song."  It includes these immortal lines:
"Teenagers, fossils, don't be a jerk
Turn off the program and get back to work.
Why waste your time with rhythm and blues,
Go read a book, or listen to the news."

Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:27:55 -0400
From: CHET <voxpop@[removed];
To: OTR <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  OTR PETS AND ANIMALS

RE OTR pets and animals my favorite would have to be all of LEINENGINS (SP?)
ANTS!!!!

CHET NORRIS

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

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:28:12 -0400
From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The Cincy Three

Bob Burchett reports that Robert Newman says that Cincy attendance was down
only 3 from last year.  OK, that would be Shawn A. Wells, Leah, and myself.
:-)

Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:28:31 -0400
From: "Nemesis@[removed]" <nemesis@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Digitech player

Now I have my Digitech MP3/CD player.  I have tried all three of the MP3
CD's I downloaded from Media Bay.  I tried the ones I downloaded direct and
I re-burned a CD from the hard drive.  All I get is a "bad disk" message
from the player.  It will play regular CD's.  How do I fix this?  Or just
get a refund since it's worthless so far?
Linda T.

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

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:29:10 -0400
From: George Aust <austhaus1@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Gas Rationing Stickers and Car OTR

John Mac updated us on his PT Cruiser with a C ration sticker.

It sounds great John and I must admit that you have a higher priority
than I do, as I have only an "A" gas rationing sticker on my  maroon '41
Chevy club coupe. Fortunately I've never been asked for ration stamps at
a gas station.
I also have an "FDR" as well as a "Remember Pearl Harbor" window sticker
that I've never put on the car, but still may some day.

I don't believe they had bumper stickers in those days.  Although I
could be wrong, the first time I remember seeing them was in the 1952
Presidential election.( I Like Ike and I'm Gladly for Adlai)

I have had a heck of a time finding a satisfactory method of listening
to OTR in the car.  My Chevy  has a 5 band (9 tube) shortwave original
equipment radio in it and even though I have had it worked on several
times by experts I can't get it to stop blowing fuses and otherwise
sounding lousy.
Currently I am using a Sony boom box AM FM CD and casette player with a
remote control. I can put it in the back seat and control it from the
front. The remote seems to work hesitantly at best. The sound is very
good on this unit but it does not play MP3.  I have recently purchased a
Rio MP3 CD player which I got for $[removed] less a $[removed] rebate at Best
Buy.  It is also not great in that it uses batteries up too quickly and
it does not remember where I left off in the middle of a track. I have
been using this in one of my modern cars and have used a cassette
adaptor to play it through my car stereo system. My trips are often
short ones and when I've made a quick stop at a store, get back into the
car I have to hear the same first ten minutes of a show over and over
again without ever hearing the ending. The fast forward and rewind
features on it are almost useless they are so agonizingly slow.
Frustrating!  Also since the unit doesn't turn off when I leave the car,
I'll come back to find that I've left the darn thing playing and using
up more battery juice.

So maybe you have the right idea with the XM radio.  I think though that
I'd wait till I traded for a new car before making that investment.

George aust

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

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:29:19 -0400
From: GREGORY M PRZYWARA <gmprzywara@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  favorite OTR animals

My two fave OTR animals would be that dog on
Spotlight Revue who howls to opera music and Polly
on Jack Benny.

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

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:30:46 -0400
From: GEORGE WAGNER <gwagneroldtimeradio@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Gay Characters on Radio

     Among characters who may (or indeed may not)
have been intended to be gay, the following stand
out in my mind - a couple of minor walk-on roles
in the 1932 FRED ALLEN SHOW, Ersell Thwing on
CHARLIE McCARTHY, and Phil Harris' brother-in-law
on the PHIL HARRIS AND ALICE FAYE SHOW.

     Around 15 to 20 years ago I had a gay
customer at the bookstore whose speech-patterns
were very nearly identical to Pat Patrick's
"Ersell Thwing" characterization. It was a voice
I hadn't expected to hear in the "real" world.

     Sincerely,

     George Wagner
     GWAGNEROLDTIMERADIO@[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:31:48 -0400
From: JackBenny@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Sitting on recordings

The worst trait, and many,many in our hobby share this, is that they sit on
recordings and don't share them. This is completely
unfathomable to me.

I try to resist "me too" postings, but I'll chime in on this one.  Although
the original author was talking about recordings of old radio shows, my
comment is a bit broader.  I have done many interviews for the International
Jack Benny Fan Club with folks like Phil Harris, Dennis Day, Isaac Stern,
etc.  They're IJBFC exclusives and the transcriptions have been published in
their entirety (for the ones I [removed] have some in store for future
issues).

I used to have them available from the IJBFC library, but had very few
takers.  Once the various audio formats ([removed], RA/MP3) made pirating rampant,
I decided to no longer make them available.  I have been amazed at the speed
with which someone's encode becomes available in collections on Ebay, and the
thought of having someone making a buck off of our exclusives (Donate any of
it back to the club?  Ha!) is offensive to me.

Had some people say that it's "my duty" to make them available, but I feel
that I've done that by publishing the transcriptions in the Jack Benny Times.
No more than "my duty" to loan my purse to someone, and hope no one steals my
identity.

Laura Leff
President, IJBFC
[removed]

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #162
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