Subject: [removed] Digest V2009 #201
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 10/24/2009 10:18 AM
To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to:
[removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2009 : Issue 201
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  10-23 births/deaths                   [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  RE: Were the Mercury players aware o  [ Michael Ogden <michaelo67@[removed] ]

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

Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:30:56 +0000
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  10-23 births/deaths

October 23rd births

10-23-1871 - Rev. Dr. Karl Reiland - Brooklyn, NY - d. 9-12-1964
clergyman: 15-Minute NEWS commentary program for NBC
10-23-1884 - Cesar Saerchinger - Aix-la-Chapelle, France - d. 10-10-1971
news correspondent: "Story Behind the Headlines"; "America's Town
Meeting of the Air"
10-23-1887 - Oliver M. Saylor - Huntington, IN - d. 10-19-1958
reviewer: WGBS New York City
10-23-1896 - Nathan Abas - d. 6-1-1980
orchestra director, violinist: "Northern California Symphony Orchestra"
10-23-1901 - Arthur Jacobson - NYC - d. 10-6-1993
actor: Kirk Harding "Woman in White"; Anthony J. Marleybone "Affairs
of Anthony"
10-23-1904 - Ford Bond - Louisville, KY - d. 8-15-1962
announcer: "Cities Service Concert"; "Manhattan Merry-Go-Round";
Highways in Melody"
10-23-1904 - Margaret Speaks - Columbus, OH - d. 7-16-1977
singer: "Voice of Firestone"
10-23-1904 - Oliver Barbour - d. 4-11-1968
producer, director: "Life Can Be Beautiful"; "Parker Family"; "When a
Girl Marries"
10-23-1906 - Lucy Monroe - NYC - d. 10-13-1987
singer: (The Star-Spangled Soprano) "Hammerstein's Music Hall";
"Manhattan Merry-Go-Round"
10-23-1911 - Martha Rountree - Gainesville, FL - d. 8-23-1999
co-founder, moderator: "Meet the Press"
10-23-1912 - Floyd Mack - Ava, OH - d. 1-3-1983
commentator: "Floyd Mack and the News"; "Bell Telephone Hour"
10-23-1916 - Red Quinlan - Maquoketa, IA - d. 3-11-2007
founding board member of the Museum of Broadcast Communications
10-23-1918 - Augusta Dabney - Berkeley, CA - d. 2-4-2008
actor: "Theatre Five"; "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
10-23-1918 - James Daly - Wisconsin Rapids, WI - d. 7-3-1978
actor: "Monitor"
10-23-1921 - James Blackwood - Ackereman, MS - d. 2-3-2002
singer: (Blackwood Brothers Quartet) "Songs of the Gospel"
10-23-1922 - Coleen Gray - Staplehurst, NE
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
10-23-1922 - Ewell Blackwell - Fresno, CA - d. 10-29-1996
baseball pitcher: "Babe Didrickson Zaharius Sports Show"
10-23-1923 - Frank Sutton - Clarksville, TN - d. 6-28-1974
actor: "Couple Next Door"
10-23-1925 - Johnny Carson - Corning, IA - d. 1-23-2005
announcer, disc jockey: "Johnny Carson Show"
10-23-1931 - Diana Dors - Swindon, Wiltshire, England - d. 5-4-1984
actor: "Earplay"
10-23-1940 - Tom McGrath - Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, Scotland
writer: "The Silver Darlings"
10-23-1943 - Roger Scott - London, England - d. 10-31-1989
disc jockey: "Three O'Clock Thrill"; "Hitline"

October 23rd deaths

01-31-1872 - Zane Grey - Zanesville, OH - d. 10-23-1939
writer: "Rudy Vallee Hour"
02-13-1919 - Janet Logan - Eldon, MO - d. 10-23-1965
actor: Stella Moore "Girl Alone"; Clara Blake "Romance of Helen Trent"
03-16-1892 - James C. Petrillo - Chicago, IL - d. 10-23-1984
union leader" Head of the American Federation of Musicians
03-23-1892 - Nadea Dragonette Loftus - d. 10-23-1982
Sister and business manager of Jessica Dragonette
04-09-1916 - Bill Leonard - NYC - d. 10-23-1994
interviewer: "This Is New York"; "In Town Today"
05-10-1909 - Maybelle Carter - Nickelsville, VA - d. 10-23-1978
singer: (Queen of Country Music) "Grand Ole Opry"
05-26-1886 - Al Jolson - Srednick, Lithuania, Russia - d. 10-23-1950
singer: (The Jazz Singer) "Shell Chateau"; "Kraft Music Hall"
06-04-1919 - Robert Merrill - Brooklyn, NY - d. 10-23-2004
singer: "An Evening with Romberg"; "Robert Merrill Show"
06-05-1928 - Robert Lansing - San Diego, CA - d. 10-23-1994
actor: "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
06-20-1911 - Edward Eager - Toledo, OH - d. 10-23-1964
writer: "Jane Pickens Show"
06-26-1920 - Leonid Hambro - Chicago, IL - d. 10-23-2006
pianist: "WQXR Halloween Party:
07-21-1905 - Diana Trilling - d. 10-23-1996
writer: "NBC University Theatre"
07-26-1915 - Fred S. Fox - St. Louis, MO - d. 10-23-2005
writer: "Freddie the Fox"
08-04-1897 - Abe Lyman - Chicago, IL - d. 10-23-1957
bandleader: "Jack Pearl Show"; "Lavender and New Lace"; "Waltz Time"
12-02-1915 - Adolph Green - NYC - d. 10-23-2002
songwriter: "Columbia Presents Corwin"

Ron

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

Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:26:53 +0000
From: Michael Ogden <michaelo67@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  RE: Were the Mercury players aware of the
  panic?

Thanks to Craig for his nod of the hat to yours truly. And I stick to my 
guns on the idea of the Mercury Theater, being a sustaining show, only 
having one live broadcast.

Martin mentioned the possibility of two other broadcasts, but at this point 
we really need more information on this. What's the source of information 
for the Sunday night Buffalo broadcast at 10:00? And what was the New York 
radio station that supposedly ran the Mercury show on Monday nights? I 
checked the New York Times from September through November and could find 
no listing for such a show.

Now as to the question of whether Welles and the other people in the studio 
were aware of the panic: Dick Wilson personally told me that after he had 
finished his last role in the broadcast, he decided to leave and go back to 
the theater where they were rehearsing "Danton's Death."

As he left the studio, he chucked his copy of the script in the garbage 
can. He made a point of telling me this because he wanted to emphasize how 
bad everybody thought the show was. Dick was the self-appointed "saver" of 
the Mercury Theatre. From the time he joined in 1937, he saved everything 
connected with Orson and the Mercury that he could get his hands on: 
transcription recordings, scripts, photographs, correspondence, memos, 
production [removed] At the time that his Welles collection went 
to Indiana University there were over 17,000 items in it. So the fact that 
he trashed his script of WOTW shows how much he felt that "it was the worst 
show we had ever done." He didn't even want to be reminded of it by having 
the script around!

[removed] tossed the script, he stepped out of the studio into the 
hallway and went directly to the elevator. As the elevator doors opened, 
two policemen stepped out and headed for the studio. So, before the 
"newscast" portion of the broadcast was even over, the people inside the 
studio had to have become aware that something unusual was going on.

In later years, Welles would sometimes claim that he had deliberately 
created the panic. But I think another statement of his is much closer to 
the truth: he said that, going into the broadcast, he had the thought that 
a certain "lunatic fringe" of the population might be stirred up by it. 
But, he added, "we had no idea to what extent or how large that lunatic 
fringe was."

Oh,one more thing. Speaking of Mercury rehearsals where some other actor 
stood in for Welles, we have actual recorded documentation of this. In the 
rehearsal recording which exists of "The Man Who Was Thursday," Paul 
Stewart can recognizably be heard doing Gabriel Syme, Welles' part, until 
about halfway through when Orson quietly arrives and assumes the role. 
("The Man Who Was Thursday" is also unique among Mercury rehearsal 
recordings in that it appears to be a first reading of the script, which 
runs to almost 90 minutes. It's like a mini-reading of the book. Other 
Mercury rehearsals appear to be dress rehearsals or at least recorded close 
to the time of broadcast. There's even one--"The 39 Steps"--where Orson 
disgustedly comments at the end of the rehearsal, "This was NO dress!")

Mike Ogden

   			   		

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End of [removed] Digest V2009 Issue #201
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