------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2003 : Issue 41
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Re: Harry Potter, "Henry Eldrich & C [ SanctumOTR@[removed] ]
Re: Radio Couples [ SanctumOTR@[removed] ]
Read slower! [ danhughes@[removed] ]
Supporting N - TR [ wich2@[removed] ]
Harry Potter's OTR Roots [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
Re: accents on radio [ "Maureen O'Brien" <mobrien@[removed] ]
Edgar Bergan [ ralph larson <clockglass@[removed]; ]
The Shadow's popularity [ "Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@neb. ]
re: accents, etc. [ bloodbleeds@[removed] ]
United Radio Network [ JACKGP20@[removed] ]
Lum and Abner mix-ups [ "Michael Leannah" <mleannah@charter ]
Broadway Is My Beat [ "Scott D. Livingston" <sdl@[removed] ]
Fred Allen [ JayHick@[removed] ]
i know not the longest [removed] [ Ronald Staley <mrvintageradio@earth ]
let's hear it for Dick Cole [ Ronald Staley <mrvintageradio@earth ]
Actors on Radio & TV [ "Harlan Zinck" <preservation@radioa ]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 16:22:00 -0500
From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Harry Potter, "Henry Eldrich & Chandu
the Magician
In a message dated 1/25/03 11:09:48 AM, my friend Derek Tague writes:
Being that Harry Potter deals in "magicks unholy" (to use one
of Alistair Crowley's turns of phrase), would that make him "Henry!...Henry
Eldritch!"?
And in a message dated 1/25/03 6:09:25 PM, Stephen A. Kallis, Jr. writes:
Actually, Harry and Friends don't do that. They deal with "magicks
nonholy," if anything. Aleister Crowley, then or now, is not a reliable
one to cite. Stick with Chandu, the Magician.
***Well, I recall that Derek Tague once told me that Crowley had a penchant
for rhyming his own name with "unholy." Derek discovered such while
researching the pronunciation of Crowley's last name at his job for a
recording for the blind. (BTW, I first came across Crowley's name while
staying at Walter Gibson's home the weekend of his 80th birthday. The
creator of The Shadow was a sweetheart of a guy who had known Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle and Houdini and interviewed a [removed] president, but the one person
he really wished he had met during his lifetime was the infamous Crowley.)
I'd agree with Stephen Kallis that Aleister Crowley is certainly not a
particularly valid source for Harry Potter (or Sabrina the Teenage Witch, for
that matter). However, Crowley is certainly a more reliable reference point
for Harry Potter's practices than Chandu the Magician. Harry's studies grow
out of a Western occult tradition, while Chandu's abilities have far more to
do with the Eastern practices of Buddhism and Hinduism, the same traditions
that inspired The Shadow and Jethro Dumont, [removed] the Green Lama.
Considering that CHANDU THE MAGICIAN debuted October 10, 1932, the character
of Frank Chandler is almost certainly inspired by Alexandra David-Neel's 1929
book MAGIC AND MYSTERY IN TIBET, first translated into English and published
in America in 1932. David-Neel was a Frenchwoman who lived in Tibet for more
than 14 years and became the first Westerner to be initiated as a Buddhist
lama. Her real-life experiences (and descriptions of Tibetan invisibility)
inspired the creation of both the Green Lama and the mind-clouding abilities
of radio's Lamont Cranston. (BTW, her book is still available in an
inexpensive Dover reprint.) The practices and teachings she describes from
Buddhist Lama traditions are certainly holy, often requiring years of
monastic life.*
Behind Crowley, there's the Golden Dawn, alchemy, Hermeticism and Rosicrucian
and Masonic rituals (which were in turn based upon earlier Gnostic Christian
and Templar beliefs and practices), and of course Egyptian and Hebrew
Kaballa. And despite Crowley's penchant for rhyming (and anti-Christian
prejudice), most of those mystic traditions would also be better termed
"holy" than "unholy." ***
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 17:09:05 -0500
From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Radio Couples
In a message dated 1/27/03 3:30:53 PM, Don Frey writes:
The talk of Lucille Fletcher reminded me that she was married to Bernard
Herrmann, the great music man. So, then I started thinking of married folks
who were both in radio: <SNIP> ......help me out and name some more.
***How about Claire Trevor and BIG TOWN-producer Clark Andrews, Veola Vonn
and her first husband Hanley Stafford, and Frank Readick and Dorothy Randall
Readick?***
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 17:44:52 -0500
From: danhughes@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Read slower!
Ed asks how actors keep themselves from reading too [removed]
I teach radio broadcasting, and the most common problem for beginning
newscasters is that they read too fast. I tell them (over and over I
tell them) to pretend the person they are talking to is a little hard of
hearing and a little slow mentally. So speak slowly, distinctly, and
just a little bit louder than normal. I also explain to them that when
listeners can't see your mouth they have a much harder time understanding
your words. Eventually, most of them get it.
I once had a student with dyslexia. She was afraid she would not be able
to read a live newscast. She turned out to be one of the best
newsreaders to ever take my class. She HAD to read slow to get the words
right, and she sounded great.
---Dan
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 18:30:03 -0500
From: wich2@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Supporting N - TR
Folks-
To make a long story short - Quicksilver Radio Theater was commissioned over
the holidays by the New Jersey Theater Alliance, through the East Lynne Co.,
to put together a new Sherlock Holmes piece.
I feverishly began a draft script, and we had a great first reading -
immmediately after which, WBGO got cold feet & pulled the rug out from us.
[removed] my wife Bernadette & I are saving our lunch money, to put the thing
together ourselves. AND - I'm looking high & low for a decent engineer &
studio, at a decent rate. Here in NYC, Sat. Mar. 1 or 8?
Any leads, please email.
Thanks.
Craig Wichman
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 18:56:01 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Harry Potter's OTR Roots
Anthony Tollin, while agreeing that Aleister Crowley isn't a
"particularly valid source" for Harry Potter, noted,
However, Crowley is certainly a more reliable reference point for Harry
Potter's practices than Chandu the Magician. Harry's studies grow out of
a Western occult tradition, while Chandu's abilities have far more to do
with the Eastern practices of Buddhism and Hinduism, the same traditions
that inspired The Shadow and Jethro Dumont, [removed] the Green Lama.
However, to bring this back solidly to OTR, Harry's magical practices are
closest to those of the radio version of Mandrake the Magician. To cast
a spell, Mandrake would call out, "Invoco legem magicarum," which is
Latin for, "I invoke the laws of magic." All the magical phrases in the
Harry Potter tales are just Latin for what's being spellcast. So the
closest "tradition" that Harry follows was an OTR tradition. (This
technique was also used in the 1981 film, Dragonslayer, but that was
*long* after the OTR Mandrake.)
Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 19:10:33 -0500
From: "Maureen O'Brien" <mobrien@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: accents on radio
Bob Keldgord said:
My theory is that America is rapidly losing its accents, whether on
the air or in everyday speech, and that broadcasting is merely a
I'm happy to say this isn't true. In fact, accents are still deepening
and becoming more and more different from each other; if anything,
such changes are accelerating. The major difference is that people are
able to "code switch" easily from the way they talk at home to a more
bland way of talking learned from TV and radio.
For proof, check out the Telsur Project, which produced a new linguistic
atlas of the United States by telephone survey. :) Some of
the maps and info are available online.
I saw Dr. Labov speak in 2000. It was very informative. It also
allowed me to prove to my American Dialects teacher that I _had_ been
answering the questions about my local dialect correctly, as people in
Dayton really do pronounce things two or three different ways. (The
collision of different dialects produced by GM and the Air Force
hasn't destroyed differences; it incorporates them all! Mwahahaha!
I can worsh clothes and wash them too!)
And if you want to hear where your local dialect is headed
(phonetically), listen to how teenage girls talk. They are the
vanguard of phonological trends. ;)
Maureen O'Brien
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 20:40:47 -0500
From: ralph larson <clockglass@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Edgar Bergan
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
Edgar Bergan and Charlie McCarthy was on the radio for some 20 years, but not
many of these shows seem to be available. Are there shows that are lost, or
being held out of circulation? Also, I wonder if anyone knows the name of a
daytime radio program in the mid 1940's whose theme song was Finiculi,
Funicula? Thanks for the help.
Chuck
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 20:41:02 -0500
From: "Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@[removed];
To: "old time radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: The Shadow's popularity
Hi all:
Today in my Broadcasting class, my instructor was discussing the rise of
radio in the 1920's and 30's. He mentioned that the Mutual Broadcasting
System tried to be a major player in the game, but they never really
attained status until 1941. He said the only major program they carried
throughout the 1930's was The Lone Ranger. I wanted to jump up and yell,
"what about The Shadow?" I know that it was a popular program, but then I
wondered how long it took the program to gain fame in the country. Was the
show only a regional program when Orson Welles and Bill Johnstone were in
the role? When did it go national?
Hope someone can answer these questions for me.
RyanO
"Eagles may soar, but a weasel never got sucked into a jet engine."
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 20:41:41 -0500
From: bloodbleeds@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: re: accents, etc.
Some of you interested in accents & voices might be interested in Scenes For Actors
and Voices by Daws Butler which I'm putting out in June. It contains exercises for voice
actors, plus reprints the booklet How To Do Dialects which was popular in Los Angeles
acting classes in the 1970s. The cover's not quite ready yet, but you can find out a little
more at
[removed]
Ben
It's That Time Again!
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 20:41:49 -0500
From: JACKGP20@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: United Radio Network
Hi Gang:
I was listening to a 1946 Fred Allen show tape. When the show ended, a studio
announcer cut in and stated the guests on the next show. He was talking in
present (1946) tense. Then he announced "This is the United Radio Network."
This was the time that NBC carried the show. Was this United a pirate
network?
Cheers,
Jack Grasso
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 22:34:09 -0500
From: "Michael Leannah" <mleannah@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Lum and Abner mix-ups
Andrew Steinberg asks if there are any Lum and Abner episodes in which the
two performers are doing multiple voices and get mixed up. I know it
happened but it would be hard to pinpoint the date on a show when it
occurred. Amazingly, it didn't happen often and when it occurred it was
corrected quickly. Worth listening for are the shows in which Lauck and Goff
crack up on the air and carry on with the show, trying to contain their
giggles all the while. Something gets them going and it's hard to stop. It's
a joy to hear how well these two men worked together and got along with each
other.
Mike Leannah
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 23:02:29 -0500
From: "Scott D. Livingston" <sdl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Broadway Is My Beat
My favorite OTR show, without a doubt is "Broadway Is My Beat." I have a
collection of all of the shows that are is circulation with the exception of
one I just saw sold on ebay.
I'm writing to solicit some help from the faithful readers of the list. A
sixteen inch transcription disk of episode 89 from 12-1-1951 entitled
"Clinton Pace" was recently sold at auction. I sent an email to the buyer
through ebay asking to purchase a copy of the program. I have not heard back
and was hoping that someone reading the list was the buyer or knows who
"orthacoustic" might be so I can try and make a deal for an audio copy of
the program.
I love this list and all the knowledge and experience that repose here and
know that the spirit of love of Old Time Radio might again be demonstrated
with help in this matter.
Scott D. (Fibber) Livingston
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 00:03:46 -0500
From: JayHick@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Fred Allen
My brother Joe Hickerson is seeking two items from the old-time radio corpus.
The first is a Fred Allen routine concerning a request to his insurance
company for recompence for an accident involving transferring a load of
bricks from an upper floor of a building to the ground, with numerous
injuries in the process. Does anyone know what program this was one, and
does anyone have a recording thereof?
Joe's other request is for a performance of "Kum Ba Yah" by a gospel group on
Don McNeil's "Breakfact Club," perhaps in the late 1940s or early 1950s.
Again, when did this occur, and does anyone have a recording?
Joe will be happy to reciprocate with any song search you would like to pose.
Respond to Joe Hickerson, 43 Philadelphia Avenue, Takoma Park, MD 20912;
301/270-1107; jhick@[removed]; [removed]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 00:04:41 -0500
From: Ronald Staley <mrvintageradio@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: i know not the longest [removed]
Well, for the same host, there is a show from chicago that began in
1950--The Unshackled, and while not the longest it does qualify as one of
the longest.
The World Tomorrow, announced by Art Gilmore was one of the longest running.
I believe Grand Ole Oprey qualifies, though not with the same announcers.
It started on WSM in 1926, and still runs on radio and tv today.
ron staley
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 00:04:35 -0500
From: Ronald Staley <mrvintageradio@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: let's hear it for Dick Cole
I am looking for anyone who may have discs or extremely good tapes of
"The Adventures of Dick Cole.
I'd like to know a little more about that one. It seems to me Elspeth Eric
and Robert Readick both were on that one, can anyone fill in?
It's one of those 1930's shows that to me represents the all american side
of radio. I believe it to be as good as Frank Merriwell.
While on the subject of good sounding shows. I would like to put on cd once
and for all "good clean copies of The Avenger. anyone got any discs of the
entire 26. I know two persons who have tape recordings, and I'd rely on
them in a final analysis, but surely when Charlie Michelsen was throwing
discs away, someone got the avenger in their hot little hands.
I was friends with Charlie for years, just at the wrong time--as he said,
fide known you were here Id just filled your trunk full of stuff.
Seriously, Charlie said that once at a dinner, after we had been shewed out
by Harry Allen Towers, who had invited us to drinks and dinner, only to
have a better offer come along.
ron staley
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 10:21:01 -0500
From: "Harlan Zinck" <preservation@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Actors on Radio & TV
"Andrew Godfrey" <niteowl049@[removed]; writes:
These warmup shows give listeners a chance to really get to
know people like Phil Harris. Didn't know he was a bandleader until
listening to the Jack Benny shows. Always thought of him as a comedian that
sang and liked to hunt.
Ah, the "American Sportsman"! Until Andrew brought this up, I had forgotten
about that ABC TV series of the [removed], Phil Harris liked to hunt, so did
Crosby. Like you, Andrew, I had no idea that Harris was anything more than a
convivial hunting companion for Curt Gowdy until I later started hearing
Jack Benny shows being rebroadcast on my local AM station in the 1970s.
Being born in 1960, I never knew OTR when it was simply radio - aside from
my grandmother occasionally listening to Arthur Godfrey on her desk model
RCA Victor bakelite radio in the mid-1960s - and it was years before I found
out that radio used to be different than the disk jockeys, news, sports, and
weather reports I grew up with.
This memory got me to thinking about all of the radio stars whom I only knew
through TV until I discovered OTR in 1971. A few of them come to mind:
* Eve Arden, whom I knew only through "The Mothers-In-Law" (1967-69) until I
discovered "Our Miss Brooks" years later. Even in this sit-com series,
though, I knew that she was someone I wanted to know more about. No one
could deliver a dry respost with more well-phrased sarcasm -- and the series
was very, very funny, too!)
* Olan Soule, who seems to have spent the majority of his TV career playing
scientists, doctors, various Madison Avenue-type executives, and the guy who
lived next door. His voice was always familiar to me, but it was a delight
to later discover that his TV versatility was matched and exceeded by his
radio work. He could truly portray an "every man" as well or better than
anyone else I've ever heard. (Apologies to Elliott Lewis, an equally
talented actor with an equally impressive ability to be an outstanding
likeable guy - him I guess I never saw on TV!)
* To me, Hans Conried was Uncle Toonoose on the Danny Thomas Show - and I
remember always looking forward to his appearances because they were always
hysterically funny. Such timing - and such a dialectitian, too! Oddly
enough, I also knew him from a very early age as Snidley Whipflash in the
Dudley Doo-Right cartoons. I don't suppose it's all that odd that a kid
would know and like cartoons, but even then I remember thinking that this
was an extremely unique and talented fellow - though some of this
recognition may have come from seeing him as a wildly funny and intelligent
guest on daytime game shows, too.
* Gale Gordon, of course, I knew from all those Lucy shows that we watched
religiously throughout the 60's and 70's. Who knew then that had previously
enjoyed a career as a sophisticated dramatic radio actor or spent all those
years as Mayor LaTrivia and Osgood Conklin? In retrospect, of course, both
make sense; Lord knows no one could be as imperious as Mr. Mooney could be -
or could have been portrayed as well for so many years as Gordon played him.
(Conried and Gordon, by the way, bring to mind the thought that both actors
were well versed in playing imperious characters that, in the hands of other
actors, could quickly have become either tiresome or obnoxious: the
demanding boss, the snooty neighbor, the stuffed-shirt politico, the
Shakespearean thespian, etc. Both of these men could play parts like this
in such a way that they could be taken seriously as real or at least
believeable people, but played them with an edge that implied that they knew
and understood the undeniable faults of their characters. As a result, both
could make hilarious comedy out of characters that you could literally never
stand in real life.)
* Growing up, I knew the real "greats" of entertainment primarily as either
guests on Ed Sullivan's show or that week's host on the Hollywood Palace.
However, even at the age of six, I remember very distinctly thinking that
Jimmy Durante must have been a very nice guy in real life - that warmth came
through to me even then. What a pleasure to find all of his radio work
existed later on. Groucho Marx I knew from "You Bet Your Life" re-runs -
which I didn't care for much then because I never got the jokes. (I doubt
Groucho ever thought to gear the show for the 4-7 year old crowd.)
* Henry Morgan and Garry Moore I knew from game shows. Who knew then what
careers they had before or what I was missing?
* Art Linkletter I knew from "House Party" and all those "Kids Say the
Darndest Things" bits.
* Bill Thompson I knew from "Touche Turtle" and Kenny Delmar I knew from
"The World of Commander McBragg" cartoons. It was a delight to find out
later on that "Touche Turtle" was really Wallace Wimple on Fibber McGee and
Molly and that Kenny Delmar had spent time as Fred Allen's announcer.
I'm sure there are lots of you "boomers" out there with similar memories of
TV performers whom you had no idea had previous radio careers. Any
additional people come to mind, folks?
Oh, yeah, one more - Mel Blanc. There were the much-anticipated Warner Bros.
cartoons that my local kids show host, [removed] Patches, played only once each
program at straight-up 8 AM. But I also remember him on the Dick Cavett show
once doing some of his cartoon voices - then following it all up with a big
finish: Jack Benny's Maxwell. I flash on the memory of the way his sad-eyed
rubber face looked when he did it: eyes popping, lips spluttering, his whole
body vibrating like the engine of that ancient, crumbling rattletrap.
Amazing. I remember thinking then that you couldn't help but love a guy who
could literally and believeably impersonate a car - and, like every
eight-year-old kid, the minute he finished (to wild applause, of course), I
wish I could have been sitting right next to him so I could ask him to do it
again.
Heck, if Mel were with us today, I'd ask him to do it again right now!
Harlan
Harlan Zinck
First Generation Radio Archives
[removed]
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #41
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