Subject: [removed] Digest V01 #71
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 3/4/2001 10:51 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                      The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                         Volume 01 : Issue 71
                   A Part of the [removed]!
                           ISSN: 1533-9289


                           Today's Topics:

 English / Grammar Teachers           ["Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm]
 GOLD MINE OF RADIO PROGRAMS          ["Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; ]
 reversing the shark                  [Joe Salerno <salernoj@[removed];  ]
 Jumping The Shark                    [Rob Chatlin <rchatlin@[removed]]
 WHY IS OTR DEAD IN THE [removed]         ["stephen jansen" <stephenjansen@ema]
 OTR Shows at Sam's Club              [luckycowboy@[removed] (Gregory Robe]
 1" Gold Land in Yukon                ["Lois Culver" <lois@[removed];  ]
 Re:Radio elsewhere and Sharks        [Sam Levene <srl@[removed];      ]
 Great Radio Heroes                   ["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@]
 Sharks and more sharks being jumped  ["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@]
 Re: More Shark Jumping               [Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed]]
 Re: Minor-station Programming        [Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed]]
 site for B movies and serials        [Jer51473@[removed]                   ]
 Book                                 ["Schickedanz" <schickedanz@[removed];]
 Tirade on OTR America                ["Ryan Hall" <thepezman@[removed];]

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

Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 23:47:32 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  English / Grammar Teachers

Looking for two experienced English / Grammar Teachers who might have the
next five or six days free to look over an unpublished Old-Time Radio
manuscript, which can be sent via downloaded e-mail file, and e-mail
corrections.  It's never been published before, but deals with those
wonderful days of nostalgia.
Must be able to accept a LARGE file via the web.  Conact asap.
Thanks!
mmargrajr@[removed]

[removed]  The latest issue of FILMFAX (Issue #83 with Caroline Munro on cover)
that is due for mailing and appearance on bookshelves this week features
three articles about Groucho Marx, his early media work, including exclusive
interviews with George Fenneman and Miriam Marx (Groucho's daughter).  In
case any Groucho fans are interested.

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

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 00:40:51 -0500
From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  GOLD MINE OF RADIO PROGRAMS

   I just got finished listening to a gold mine of "our kind" of radio from
the UK on "Radio 4" <[removed]; that are really great.  They are formatted
for the PC. When you find the site, click on Radio, then go to Radio 4 the
station that carries the OTR type format.  Here is what I heard tonight:

THE ARCHERS (AN ADVENTURE SERIAL)
HOME TRUTHS (CRIME DRAMA)
THE SATURDAY PLAY (THRILLER DRAMAS)
CLASSIC SERIAL THEATER (DRAMATIZATIONS OF FAMOUS PLAYS & BOOKS)

   I haven't had a chance to check out the other stations yet, but from what
I saw there is some comedy and variety on the other stations.

   Thee shows may not please all of you -  and - it is small pickings - but
at least you are hearing the shows in the style of yesterday in the 21st.
Century.

                                   -  30  -

Owens Pomeroy

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

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 00:40:48 -0500
From: Joe Salerno <salernoj@[removed];
To: OTR List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  reversing the shark

OK, are there any examples of a program that went from bad to great in a
single bound?

Joe Salerno
Video Works! Is it working for you?
PO Box 273405 - Houston TX 77277-3405
[removed] joe@[removed] Fax: 603-415-7616

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

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 12:16:39 -0500
From: Rob Chatlin <rchatlin@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Jumping The Shark

With so many people chiming in on this,
maybe we should approach the owner of the
Jumping the Shark site and ask if they would
be willing to add a section for OTR shows?

Just a thought,
rob

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

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 12:16:37 -0500
From: "stephen jansen" <stephenjansen@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  WHY IS OTR DEAD IN THE [removed]

My apologies in advance for this heated reply, which doesn't even offer a
decent "reply", just my strong opinion:

A recent post by Owens Pomeroy asks why OTR "died" in the [removed], yet seems to
flourish elsewhere.
      I wonder this myself quite often.  I notice what complete PAP we are
served on television, our main source of "entertainment" in this country.
There are talks in the TV industry of an impending writer's strike - my main
query is "How would we be able to tell?".
     Quick, [removed] was the last REALLY GOOD movie you saw?  If you had
to think a while to come up with it, do you believe it was your failing
memory?  Or maybe you just had to mentally file through all the CRUMMY
movies you've seen recently to get to a really good one.  Maybe the movies
just aren't that good lately.
     I should probably do the research for the actual quote, but wasn't it
Einstein who said something about "Imagination being more powerful than
Genius"?
     Almost all of the OTR fans that I know are also avid readers. Does
anyone else concur?   Maybe there is something to this "imagination" thing.
With so many millions of people hypnotized/addicted/entranced/enslaved by
their televisions, their imaginations have atrophied.  Their brains have
retarded.  "Why would I read the book?  That would take me weeks!  The TV
show is a nice, comfy hour-and-a half.".
     The [removed] advertisers who back our entertainment mediums realize that it
is to their advantage that we consumers remain complacent, uninformed, and
[removed]  Imagination and creativity are poisonous to their
agenda.
     I'm sure we've all run into someone who didn't quite know what OTR is.
We try to explain to them what it is, the lure of it, the charm, the
thrill - they might answer "Oh, you mean an AUDIOBOOK!".
     Yeah, right.

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

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 12:21:23 -0500
From: luckycowboy@[removed] (Gregory Robert Jackson, Jr.)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR Shows at Sam's Club

Wesley Tom mentions that he can no longer find Radio Spirits old-time
radio collections at his Sam's Club in Redlands, CA. Well, here in Las
Vegas, NV, Sam's Club has also discontinued carrying old-time radio
shows.

Gregory R. Jackson, Jr.

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

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 12:24:54 -0500
From: "Lois Culver" <lois@[removed];
To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  1" Gold Land in Yukon

Thanks to the people who answered in the Digest and also those who sent
personal messages to me.

One told a story about how several boys had pooled their deeds and asked
President Eisenhower to name a city on their [removed] threatened the
President if he didnt.  He said that the FBI was called in, etc.
Interesting!

"Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" was the show on which these deeds were
advertised, and the Deeds were free in exchange for single Quaker Puffed
Wheat or Quaker Puffed Rice boxtops to be sent to the Quaker Oat Company.
(Or use the Guarantee "Seal" from Quaker Pack-O-Ten). This Deed has a map on
it, and the letter which I have indicates it was a transaction involving
20,000,000 tracts of land "situated along the icy Yukon River in the heart
of the fabulous Gold rush region, south of Dawson City.  It tells me that I
am now a real Sourdough!

They did advise, however, "In the event you should like to pay your land
tract a visit, we recommend you wait until spring, since current
temperatures vary etween fifty and eighty degrees BELOW ZERO!"

Lois Culver

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

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 12:24:51 -0500
From: Sam Levene <srl@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re:Radio elsewhere and Sharks

I think this has come up before but the only reason we still have some
radio drama and satirical radio comedy in Canada- and I'm certain it's
equally true elsewhere -  is because our main broadcasting system - by no
means the only one anymore but the main one-  is a public radio and TV
network, the CBC.   CBC radio (not television) is non-commercial, although
oddly enough during the OTR era it did carry advertising. It was dropped a
long time ago. It has a mandate to serve the public interest in this vast,
thinly-populated country with all types of programming in both media,  (and
in 2 languages). It fails often but it tries - and indeed it isn't allowed
by the terms of its official mandate to abandon such things as "real"radio.
No one else could afford to provide such programming on a network to, for
example, the far north where the population is very small.
And CBC radio, though its audiences are relatively small, is beloved here
and much more appreciated than CBC TV which is often seen to have lost its
way and become imitation American.  But don't think for one second that the
private, commercial radio broadcasters in Canada are any different from in
the US.  We have radio drama because we have public broadcasting, and for
no other reason.   It's all about mass audiences and profit, and the CBC,
with all its other horrendous problems (mainly in television), is not
expected to make a profit, though it does care about its audience size, and
CBC Radio gets respectable, loyal, and devoted audiences, quite different
in behaviour from the TV audiences.

Sharks:  I loved Jack Benny shows during the Lucky Strike era. They're the
ones I was old enough to enjoy as a young kid, but also I thought then and
now that they were the best and the funniest and the best of them remain
the least dated and are still hilarious.  I too as a kid was clearly aware
of the impact of Phil's departure. I liked Bob Crosby because of his
marvellous big band, still do, (though he was mostly just a front man for
the band),  but he had no personality.  Phil's reasons for leaving are in
the Benny bios.

I hadn't heard of that Tom Mix broadcast with the gang breaking into the
studio but when you become that self-referential you're asking for trouble.
No doubt it seemed a brilliant idea in the writers' room- or maybe they had
no other ideas that day -  but someone should have thought better of it.
Tom Mix wasn't supposed to be a comedy show but with that stuff it becomes
comedy. It becomes Bob and Ray or Monty Python, in which you want inside
jokes and self-referential humour.  As for Mister DA without Jay Jostyn -
it ceases to be Mister DA, it becomes some other show.  Henry without Ezra
and Dollar without Bailey become inferior.  But the revised Mr. DA is
another program entirely, whether the creators knew it or not. I can't even
imagine Mr. DA without that theme music.   I suspect that Crosby (Bing)
late in his radio career had lost interest and become lazy about it and
just wanted to do as little as he could to get it over with.  However,
seguing a bit, I do look forward to reading the new Gary Giddins book which
will restore awareness and respectability to a great career.

Now can somebody tell me - I guess I haven't been paying attention - what
is MP3?

Sam Levene

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

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 12:25:36 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Great Radio Heroes

Stephen Jansen notes,

Just a note of interest to OTR and Jim Harmon fans - the new and
improved version of his 1967 book "The Great Radio Heroes" has finally
been published!  <snip>  What I have read of it is great - lots of
pictures, too!

I give up -- how has it been improved?

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 12:26:26 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Sharks and more sharks being jumped

Ken Piletic, speaking of the time the Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters
program "jumped the shark" identified it thus:

The Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters program jumped the shark
in 1949 (?) when a gang of 'bad guys" broke into the radio studio
during a broadcast.  Tom (Curley Bradley) told the gang leader to get
out because they were broadcasting a radio program.
The dialogue went something like this:

GANG LEADER :  How do we know you're broadcasting ?

TOM:  By that lighted sign on the wall.  It reads "On The Air".

At this point the gangleader draws his sixgun, shoots the
sign and the light goes out.

GANG LEADER:  Now you're not broadcasting any more.

I think Ken misremembers the sequence.  What happened that an Italian
(Italo-American, rather) gangster, Cesare [?] Ciano wanted Tom Mix off
the air.  He was told that the show was OTA, and had one of his henchmen
shoot out the sign with a Tommy Gun (which he called a "chopper").  When
Tom said they were still OTA, Ciano asked what would end the broadcast,
and Tom said a station break, so "at gunpoint," the announcer said, "This
... umm .. this is the Mutual Broadcasting System."  End of show.

It was a neat ending for that episode, but not for the show.

I think, though, that the real shark-jumping for most of the Children's
Hour shows was the shift to half-hour programming.  In the 15-minute
form, there was time to build complex plotlines, whereas in the half-hour
format, the whole thing had to be wrapped up in 30 minutes, less
commercials.  Most of the shows couldn't adapt to it easily.  Captain
Midnight, Tom Mix, and Jack Armstrong were the most prominent victims of
this.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 12:34:29 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: More Shark Jumping

A few additional thoughts on [removed]

Chris Chandler [removed]

In fact, we may need a separate category [removed] that undeniably hit
the shark-jumping skids, but recovered.  Jack Benny fits into this
[removed]'d say "Suspense" does [removed]

One of the most interesting periods of rapid-fire OTR shark jumping and
re-jumping occurs during the latter half of 1936 in "Amos 'n' Andy." The
program had been building up for eight years to Amos and Ruby's wedding,
and when it finally happened in December 1935, the program suddenly lost
its thematic center -- and when this starts to happen in any series, know
that the shark is in the pool. The first big jump occured in July, when
Amos, Andy, the Kingfish, and Lightning took a cross-country trailer trip
to Hollywood, where they toured movie lots and met a series of Very
Special Guest Stars. The shark was jumped when Walt Disney, Donald Duck
and Mickey Mouse made a guest appearance during this storyline -- as part
of a dream sequence in which Donald made angry threats against Andy's
person. And the shark jumped out of the water and lay on his back
flapping on the pier when Amos and Andy visited the home shared by Cary
Grant and Randolph Scott -- to find the two relaxing at poolside and
exchanging teasing wisecracks. If a recording of this scene ever
surfaces, it will no doubt become an instant classic of High Camp.

Once the Hollywood sequence was over, A&A moved into another potential
herald of the shark: pregnancy and childbirth. Amos discovered that Ruby
was pregnant when the trailer group stopped in Chicago, where she was
spending the summer with her father -- and managed to convey to his
friends, and to the listeners, the fact that she was expecting without
ever once actually saying so. The pregnancy was never explicitly
mentioned, but increasingly obvious hints were dropped thruout the late
summer and early fall, until the baby was born in late October. Although
this sequence had major shark-jumping potential, it was actually handled
quite well -- and helped the series recover from the Hollywood shark
encounters. However, the shark was almost immediately jumped again, when
Pepsodent turned the birth of the child into an excuse for a cheesy Name
the Baby Contest. (Name the Baby Contests, by definition, are *always*
cheesy and are always Shark Bait.)

The final jump of 1936 was the involvement of the characters in the two
experimental "Friday Night Minstrel Shows" in early December, in which
Correll and Gosden broke just about every rule they had set for their
characters -- allowing an audience into the studio, having their
characters "break the fourth wall" and interact with the announcer, and
having their characters directly sell the sponsor's product. And, of
course, whenever characters who do not ordinarily perform musical numbers
begin to do so, it's a definite shark attack. While they tried to tie
these episodes into the regular storyline by describing the shows as
community benefits put on by the lodge, they break continuity a bit too
much to really work.

But remarkably, the program recovered from this uncertain period quite
well -- during 1937 it got back on track plot-wise, and while it never
again attained the level of the pre-marriage era, it managed to avoid any
major shark appearances for the rest of the serial run. It's hard to know
exactly what G&C were thinking during the last half of 1936, but they
were clearly adrift.

And "One Man's Family" certainly falls into this [removed] By the
time the series switched to its 15-minute nightly format in 1950, the
stories were stronger than they'd been in [removed] characters more
involved, the series managing to reconstitute itself, even if its glory
years were past.

Agreed. The 1950-51 OMF episodes are extremely well done, managing to be
involving without being too soapy. And while this may or may not
constitute a shark jump, I do think the series lost something very
significant when Barton Yarborough died in December 1951, and Clifford
was written out of the show. It was a bit too dishonest, I think, for
Morse and Ware not to have dealt directly with the fact of the actor's
death -- and not to have killed Cliff off, rather than resorting to the
supremely lame expedient of having him suddenly get married and move to
Scotland. It wasn't really fair to either the actor or the character.

And Art Shifrin suggests,

Rudy Vallee: anything after the variety hours ([removed] Sealtest and Philip
Morris)

While I'm a huge fan of Vallee's variety hour work -- a show that
literally had Something For Everyone, and always did it well -- I have to
admit a sneaking enjoyment of the early Sealtest shows, the ones in which
Rudy and his cast perform original musical comedies centered around
historic personalities. Some of these are So Bad They're Good --the Beau
Brummell episode, with Lionel Stander as a swishy valet, is absolutely
hilarious, although for all the wrong reasons. Rudy definitely jumped the
shark when John Barrymore became a permanent cast member -- some of his
appearances, such as the "Vagabond Lover vs. the Great Profile" election
parody, were quite good, but there's a fine line between self-parody and
self-degradation, and as the series went on, Barrymore crossed that line
a little too often.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 12:34:31 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Minor-station Programming

On 3/3/01 11:11 PM [removed]@[removed] wrote:

That aside, I have a question for you.  I've noticed whenever I see old
radio schedules, they only list the four networks.  But what about the other
stations?  Take a large city like St. Louis or Detroit.  Weren't there many
more stations than just the big four?  What kind of programming did they
carry?

Most independent stations during the OTR era carried a mixture of live
and recorded programming -- and as the years went on the percentage
definitely tipped in favor of recorded, with the programming becoming
largely a mixture of phonograph records, music from transcription
services, and syndicated programs, leavened by the occasional
locally-produced variety program and rip-and-read newscasts. Some smaller
stations, often time-sharers, specialized in foreign-language programming
or religious presentations, brokering out blocks of time to various
interest groups.

That's not to say that some independent stations weren't genuinely
ambitious -- in New York, for example, WMCA, WNEW, WHN/WMGM and WINS all
produced an assortment of local drama and variety programs to go with the
recorded material, and some of these features were quite good. WHN, for
example, presented a lot of material targeted at Jewish audiences,
ranging from kleszmer-style dance bands on the "American Jewish Hour" to
dramatized biographies in both English and Yiddish of great Jewish
performers on "Lives of Our Greatest Artists." WMCA often presented
programs for black audiences, ranging from the magazine-style news
program "Tales from Harlem" in the 1930s to the well-known 1940s
civil-rights feature "New World a' Comin'." These programs were all on a
par, production-wise, with anything being done at the network level, but
were directed to niche audiences in a way that a network program could
never have been.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 12:34:33 -0500
From: Jer51473@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  site for B movies and serials

  actually almost any movie or type at [removed]

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

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 12:34:35 -0500
From: "Schickedanz" <schickedanz@[removed];
To: "Old-Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Book

Hi, all.

Has anyone read a recent (1999) book, "On the Short Waves, 1923-1945:
Broadcast Listening in the Pioneer Days of Radio" by Jerome Berg?  I'm
considering buying a copy and would be interested in any review-type
comments.

Norm Schickedanz
Elmhurst, IL

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

Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 12:34:38 -0500
From: "Ryan Hall" <thepezman@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Tirade on OTR America

Owen wondered, "Why did radio (as we knew and lived it) "die" in the [removed] -
but is flourishing more than ever "across the big pond" in the UK, (The Goon
Show, Around The Horn) Australia, South Africa, and English-language
stations in Germany and France and even our neighbors to the North in
Canada."

Well, I can't speak for the other places, but I have spent a lot of time in
Botswana and South Africa and radio is still very large there because they
did not get ANY sort TV signals until the early 1980s. And when I was in
Botswana, they still don't get much if any TV because no one can afford TV
and if the people don't have money the government has no money to fund
broadcasting. And the culture there is different as well. Even in more
affluent South Africa, a vast majority of people really have no interest in
sitting and watching TV for hours, but they do tend to tune into radio from
time to time. And I think its an interesting note that African culture is
very oral by tradition and radio plays better to that than TV visual does.
Of course I am not referring to the whites in South Africa, but they, too,
if they tend to gravitate to one or the other, prefer radio more than TV
format.
I have been dormant for a long while on this list because people think my
views are rather inflammatory on the state of OTR in America, but Owen
opened the door on this issue again, and I just can't stand it anymore. I
have to speak up again. Let me have my say, and The Heretic with again
withdraw into anonymity. I think the state of OTR in this country is due to
three things. Firstly, I have stated before that Americans have this
fixation visual format such as TV, Internet, etc., and so radio suffers. But
I won't go off on that tirade again. Secondly, which is closely related to
the first point, Americans have little patience and imagination, and what
little they have left is rapidly diminishing. OTR is antithetical to that
end. One must have patience when listening to OTR because instead of in your
face sex and violence or bouncing JavaScript, you have to listen and
understand what is being said, and that takes some cognitive skill. Thirdly,
and this is what I am going to get serious backlash from, is with whom the
legacy of OTR presently rests. OTR is from the past, and a majority of OTR
fans are content to live in that past! OTR fans don't want to speak out and
write letters to radio stations or do their own radio shows or take the
leadership to bring OTR to the new millenium or challenge the monopoly of
the evil spirits of radio (pun intended, you figure it out). Monopoly, of
course, leads to stagnation.
I, myself, am not excluded from this tirade. I don't do nearly enough to
secure the future of OTR. But I have written my own radio scripts as well as
record my own radio shows. I have even had some broadcasted some on a local
level. But the point is, I do try. The whole sad thing about the whole OTR
community and state of OTR in America is that fans are happy to sit on their
duffs and do absolutely nothing, thinking everything is fine and dandy in
the world of OTR. The fact is, looking toward the future, the legacy of OTR
in America has so many problems that the problems just come together as one
big noise and we just want to turn a blind ear and tune them out, contently
listening to our old reruns like the addict people from Huxley's Brave New
World.
My fear for OTR's future is when the Baby Boom generation is gone. When
those people that TRULY understand what radio should be and heard it in all
its glory and are not there to fuel the fire to bring it back. That will
indeed be the coffin nail for OTR's future, because if that generation that
knew OTR in all its glory cannot bring it back and cannot effect change, no
one can. That, my friends, is the truth and nothing but the truth. I know
many people feel as I do, but are too timid to say it or take the first
step. That is one of the good things about OTR [removed] are intelligent
and polite. I have never been one to mince words, so I have stated my mind.
Take it or leave it. I hope I am wrong about the state of OTR in America,
but I fear I am not. I meant not to offend anyone, but OTR is dear to me
since I was a boy (which I admit was not that long ago). For when OTR is
gone, one of the greatest institutions of America in the 20th century will
be gone. And when OTR dies in America, it with be gone, never to return.
Thanks for your attention, I will now return to my hobbit hole in the
ground, and I now return you to your scheduled [removed]

Sincerely Yours,
The Heretic of OTR

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #71
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