------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2002 : Issue 88
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
"Hubub" & "Rhubarb" [ Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed] ]
Burns & Allen autograph card [ Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed] ]
Roma Wines [ Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed] ]
Cincinnati convention [ "Bob Burchett" <haradio@[removed] ]
Inner Sanctum [ Lilhave@[removed] ]
Surviving programs [ Jim Murtaugh <JimM@[removed]; ]
TV Ranger Project Not Lone One [ jleasure@[removed] ]
Bill Robson at UCLA [ "Thomas Mason" <batz34@[removed] ]
Violence in OTR [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
Suspense/Roma [ "Tom and Katja" <kattom@[removed] ]
RE: Witch's Tales [ OTRDSIEGEL@[removed] ]
Tijuana Bibles and OTR [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
The Shadow/Carey Salt Contest Winner [ "Karl Schadow" <bluecar91@[removed] ]
Re: Surviving A&A Recordings [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
Wine (and other) commercials [ "Lois Culver" <lois@[removed]; ]
Recording old [removed] [ Gary Hellermann <ghellermann@yahoo. ]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 10:39:10 -0500
From: Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: "Hubub" & "Rhubarb"
The esteemed Hal Stone wrote:
...cast members would gather around, slightly off-mike, and
mutter, murmur, or generally speak to each other in low tones to create the
"atmosphere" of a large group of people.
Slightly off-subject, but I remember reading some time [removed]
The baseball term "rhubarb", meaning a bench-clearing brawl on the field,
came from a live-theater practice: When the play called for a scene with an
irate crowd in the background, the individual cast members would say the
word "rhubarb" over and over, at various pitches and volumes.
It seemed right to me, with the word's mix of soft/hard/murmuring sounds.
Any comment?
Herb Harrison
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 10:39:49 -0500
From: Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Burns & Allen autograph card
Dan Hughes wrote:
I was at an auction of autographs collected in the mid-1830's, and one
that sold was by Burns and Allen. But that's all it was--a 3 x 5 card
with "Burns and Allen" written on it. Did George sign like this for both
of them? Or did Gracie?
Mdlang11@[removed] replied:
Well, since neither one of them was to be born for fifty years, I think you
can reasonably assume the autographs are [removed]
I think Mr. Hughes' "1830's" reference was a typo (something we've all
done), so the question remains: Does anyone know if the autographs could be
genuine? If so, which of the comedy duo signed it?
Herb Harrison
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 10:40:09 -0500
From: Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Roma Wines
lynn wagar <philcolynn@[removed]; writes:
Also for any Wine drinkers out there, is Roma Wines
still in business?
I asked this question about two years ago and someone (I can't remember
who) replied that they thought Roma had been bought out by Gallo Wines.
Herb Harrison
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 10:40:18 -0500
From: "Bob Burchett" <haradio@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Cincinnati convention
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
The convention booklets are ready. You can get
one by sending your mailing address.
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 10:47:15 -0500
From: Lilhave@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Inner Sanctum
In a message dated 3/5/2002 6:18:17 PM Eastern Standard Time,
Musiciantoo47@[removed] writes:
I have purchased 2 MP3 CD's of Inner Sanctum Mysteries off of Ebay
which has resulted in my having about 80 differen't episodes plus
Too Many repeats for comfort.
<snip>
I was wondering how many more actually exist.
Hi Kenny
Jerry H's logs states there were 527 episodes with 387 lost,. leaving 140 to
the masses. I have 156 in mp3 format and if you email me with your name and
address. it would be my pleasure to make you a set.
Harvey
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 10:57:24 -0500
From: Jim Murtaugh <JimM@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Surviving programs
Thank you Elizabeth for taking the time and trouble
to answer my question on why certain programs have so many surviving
episodes. As always your answers are both interesting and informative.
Jim
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 10:58:02 -0500
From: jleasure@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: TV Ranger Project Not Lone One
This is from the Hollywood Reporter:
March
6, 2002
'Lone Ranger' rides again with Col, Red Wagon
Columbia Pictures has picked up the feature film rights to the classic
property "The Lone Ranger" for Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher to
produce through their studio-based Red Wagon Entertainment. A screenwriter is
expected shortly to come aboard the project, which will chronicle the
adventures of a masked man known as the Lone Range, his horse Silver and
trusty companion Tonto. The new film is expected
stay within the classic Western genre but will incorporate a new
interpretation. Red Wagon's newly installed senior vp production Matt
Berenson brought the project to the company and will oversee it.
"Ranger" rights holders Classic Media, run by Eric Ellenbogen and Bob
Higgins, will executive produce.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 11:52:30 -0500
From: "Thomas Mason" <batz34@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Bill Robson at UCLA
My memories of Bill Robson are those of when he taught the advanced radio
production class at UCLA before the accredited professors voted out all the
professionals as being ill equipped to teach radio or tv production. Bill
was a hard taskmaster who never accepted anything less than the best we
could do in production. He enlivened our workshops with tales of real life
radio production and taught us many tricks of the trade. I was in awe of
him and a bit scared of him, but I would not trade what I brought away from
his class for anything. He brought us to his home and introduced us to great
radio actors like Agnes Moorehead. An evening with her talking of her
techniques with a microphone etc. was priceless.
The tale of the director cueing the actor by slamming his finger into the
control room glass is attributed to a lot of people, but he never said that
it had happened to him.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 12:11:07 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Violence in OTR
Rodney W. Bowcock, Jr. asks whether there were comments about excessive
violence on OTR. Well, I grew up in the era, I don't recall any, but
hey! I was a kid!
I don't think so, but I do recall a few interesting items on the radio
that, had they been broadcast today, might have caused comments.
In one Lone Ranger adventure, a young man was captured, questioned by the
villain about the location of the entrance to a hidden area, and was left
tied up on the prairie. The villain told the victim, and the baddie's
sidekick, that he'd ride to the location, and if the victim had given him
the correct information, he'd come back and untie him. Baddie and
sidekick find the location, and the sidekick asks what about the guy they
left tied up. The villain said, "Let him rot." Not violent, but nasty.
However, in Gangbusters, the criminal got the drop on a policeman and got
him incapacitated. He said, approximately, "Have you ever heard about
someone who's gotten shot in the kidney? They die real slow and real
painfully." Then, he shot the cop in one of his kidneys and lift him to
die.
Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.
------------------------------
From: "Tom and Katja" <kattom@[removed];
To: "OTR Newsletter" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Suspense/Roma
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 12:14:54 -0500
Hi:
I tried a few years back to track down Roma Wines. I also thought it would
be neat to have a glass while listening to a Suspense episode.
I was led to believe that perhaps Gallo had purchased Roma. I emailed Gallo,
and the response follows.
Perhaps a subscriber in NY would follow this up.
Tom Zotti
Wolfeboro, NH
- -----
Dear Mr. Zotti::
Thank you for your recent correspondence.
Roma Wine Company is not part of our Winery. However, we understand that
Guild Wineries purchased Roma Wine Co. around 1970. Canandaigua purchased
Guild. So if you are looking for information about Roma you should contact
Canandaigua Winery. Their address is: Canandaigua Winery, 116 Buffalo
Street, Canandaigua, NY 14424, Phone Number is 716-394-3630.
Good luck with your search.
All the best,
E. & J. Gallo Winery
Tedi Burris
Consumer Relations
- -----
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 12:38:52 -0500
From: OTRDSIEGEL@[removed]
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: RE: Witch's Tales
I noted the posting earlier today from as fellow interested in, among
other programs, THE WITCH'S TALE.
For others who may be interested, try this web site:
[removed]
Dave S.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 13:39:08 -0500
From: JackBenny@[removed]
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Tijuana Bibles and OTR
(This topic is brought up in the interest of its attachment to OTR. No
offense is intended.)
I have been paging over a book on Tijuana Bibles (or eight-pagers), which
were little dirty cartoon books that were done in the 20s to the 50s. Seems
that most of that industry was controlled by the Mob, had nothing really to
do with Tijuana, and their later influence runs to the pages of Mad Magazine
and R. Crumb.
I see that there are a number of these that were inspired by programs or
stars of OTR. An elaborate 16-pager is devoted to Amos n Andy, with a story
that would be worthy of one of their shows (were it not for the obviously
X-rated theme). Charlie McCarthy tries out a gift from Bergen with Carole
Lombard, and gets caught by [removed] Fields. And so on.
Has there been any discussion about the interaction of OTR and the Tijuana
Bible (or vice-versa)? Just curious if there are any thoughts on it.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 13:53:30 -0500
From: "Karl Schadow" <bluecar91@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: The Shadow/Carey Salt Contest Winner
In Digest #85, Frank (inquiry from Tammy Parker) asks about Mr. Parker as a
contest winner on The Shadow:
One of the few contests during the run of The Shadow was offered by The
Carey Salt Company of Hutchinson, Kansas. During the 1945-46 and 1946-47
seasons, Carey sponsored The Shadow on approximately 100 stations in 22
states covering the Mid-West, Great Plains and Southern regions. The contest
inquired by Miss Parker occurred during the second season.
On a weekly basis, from September 1946 through December 1946, announcer Dick
Willard would entice listeners to mail (to Carey c/o the station to which
they had tuned), a letter (100 words or less) explaining a new or unusual
use of any Carey product. Winners would receive a one-hundred dollar,
17-jewel Harmon Gold Wrist-watch. One man and one woman would be selected
per week. Winners were announced during the middle commercial of each Shadow
broadcast. During the episode of December 15, 1946 (Murders on the Main
Stem), a Mr. Samuel M. Parker from Grand Junction, Colorado is mentioned as
having won this week's contest. His letter concerned the use of Carey salt
by opticians to fit lenses into plastic eyeglass frames. I don't believe he
ever appeared or was interviewed on the episode, nor were any of the other
winners during the run of the contest. Miss Parker, please contact me as I'd
be happy to send you this episode.
Interestingly, Carey offered a number of premiums during its sponsorship of
The Shadow. These included: tulip bulbs (1945), Carey Farm Record Book (1946
and 1947), a G-Man fingerprint set (1947), spatula-paring knife (1947), and
The Shadow Magic Ring (1947). Has anyone seen Carey/Shadow blotters or
matchcovers re: blue coal?
Karl Schadow
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 14:53:13 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Surviving A&A Recordings
Mike Biel wonders,
Around 1970 when I walked into NBC Central Files in New York and
introduced myself as the one cataloging the NBC Chicago holdings at
Northwestern, practically before I could finish the sentence Ruth Terry
Preston pounced on me with "Do you have any early Amos 'n' Andy???" I
had to tell her that we had none except an insert in the 4/13/47 WMAQ
25th anniversary program and we figured that [removed] had some.
Well, at least they realized their error in not saving the programs in
the first place. Then they wouldn't have had to try and get away with
using "The Presidential Election" in all their anniversary programs over
the [removed]
I suspect at least part of the problem was that Correll and Gosden seemed
to be in the wrong place at the wrong time as far as making recordings
was concerned -- they moved to Hollywood in 1937, at just around the time
that NBC was starting to do a lot of recording in Chicago, but weren't
yet doing a lot of recording in Hollywood. And then they moved to CBS in
1939 -- which at that time didn't have an internal recording operation at
all. So there was never a chance for the programs to be recorded just as
a matter of course.
There *were* other possibilities that I've wondered about -- Lord and
Thomas, the agency which handled Pepsodent's account, was known to have
been experimenting with a Victor Home Recording setup for making
airchecks of certain of the agency's programs, but other than a couple of
Lucky Strike Hours from 1933 none of these have surfaced, and no evidence
has been found to suggest that L&T used the system to make recordings of
A&A. Another lost opportunity.
However, I strongly suspect that they *were* having reference recordings
made somewhere for their own use. I have several photos that were taken
in their Beverly Hills office in 1939 or 1940, and a transcription
turntable is clearly visible between their desks. The existence of the
fragments from the August 1937 episode -- which survive only because they
were incorporated into the gag recording made for their NBC farewell
party in March 1939 -- also supports the idea that recordings were made.
When the Electro-Vox studio in Hollywood closed down a couple of years
ago, a newspaper story on the closing featured a photo of a disc label
reading "Amos 'n' Andy -- December 24, 1937," suggesting that the
recordings may have been made by that studio. But, none have ever
surfaced -- and they may very well have been discarded. They are not now
in the posession of either family, nor are they at USC, where Gosden's
papers ended up.
But Elizabeth has now cataloged how few other recordings have turned up
since then. It is so astonishing that Gosden and Correll preserved the
scripts so well in bound volumes but had no apparent interest in
preserving recordings--even when that whole 1928-29 syndicated series
was already there ready to be saved.
The best theory I can come up with is that they were scared to death that
someone would get hold of the recordings and air them illegally -- given
the furor of the A&A craze in 1930-31, I wouldn't have put it past some
smalltime station to try and get away with this. Ensuring the destruction
of the discs was probably seen by Gosden as necessary to safeguard their
intellectual property rights -- and this was something that he was always
very strict about, never having forgotten the lesson they learned with
"Sam and Henry" and the Tribune Company. They were equally protective of
their scripts -- other than Correll and Gosden themselves, no one was
allowed to actually see them but Bill Hay, their supporting actresses,
their secretary Louise Summa, and the person filing their copyright
deposits in Washington. No one from Lord and Thomas was ever allowed to
even touch the scripts, nor was NBC -- in fact, up until they left for
CBS in 1939, Correll and Gosden had the distinction of being the only NBC
performers who were not required to submit their scripts to Continuity
Acceptance for approval.
For the sake of completeness, I might mention that the survival rate for
the 1938-43 Campbell Soup era is a bit better than that of the Pepsodent
period, but not by much. There are three complete Campbell's episodes in
the LOC collection -- one is the special 25 minute New York World's Fair
broadcast of 2/27/39 and the other two are, for some reason, *CBS*
episodes: the "Andy's Wedding" episode of 4/1/39, and the 6/30/39 episode
in which Andy has been kidnapped, and his friends are desperate for
information on his whereabouts. There is also the final four minutes of
the 9/8/38 episode on a disc which is taken up for the most part by an
Edwin C. Hill news commentary. There appear to be two copies of this disc
in the collection -- no one knows why.
The National Archives has the original disc of the 9/21/39 episode, as
part of the WJSV complete-broadcast-day, and a couple years ago Les
Waffen mentioned in a note that he was going thru a bunch of FCC
monitoring recordings that may have included a couple of 1935
Pepsodent-era fragments. Haven't heard anything more on these, though.
Three fragments exist from November 1938 and February 1939, recorded off
the air by engineers for WLW, Cincinnati as part of field-strength tests.
These are mostly openings, closings, and commercials, but each has a
brief bit of actual episode content. None is more than five minutes total.
Two recordings exist of the serial-era version of the Christmas episode
-- 12/24/41 and 12/24/42. The 1941 version was released by Radiola on an
LP in 1981, and the 1942 is available from the First Generation Radio
Archives. Commercials are deleted from both, and the 1942 version is
notable in that Del Sharbutt has replaced Bill Hay as announcer following
Bill's retirement. This is the only example I've heard of Sharbutt's A&A
work, and I have to say that without Hay, the program just doesn't sound
"right."
Two recordings exist which probably come from the Canadian
extension-spotting discs: the 11/12/40 episode, of which I have a blurry
tape dub, and the 7/29/41 episode in Dave Goldin's collection. Both of
these are missing opening, closing, and commercials, which is consistent
with what I would expect from the Canadian discs, and if two have
survived, there *have* to be more. Goldin also has a couple of fragments
from 1942 and 1943, including a five minute excerpt from the final serial
episode -- in which Andy finally settles all his debts and joins Amos in
going to work in a war plant.
And that's all there is. And, yes, it's *maddening* that this is all we
have of the radio program that laid the foundation for the entire OTR
era. While you can still read the scripts if you're willing to take the
time and make the effort to do it, so much of the quiet, friendly mood of
the program grew out of the on-air chemistry between Correll and Gosden.
That chemistry and that atmosphere -- the sense of visiting every night
for a few minutes with close friends -- were vital elements in the
program's success, and it is genuinely tragic that these elements may be
beyond recovery.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 16:22:20 -0500
From: "Lois Culver" <lois@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Wine (and other) commercials
Speaking of wine [removed] enjoyed the Cresta Blanca Wine commercials
done by Frank Bingman in Hollywood. Frank ran UP the scale with
C-R-E-S-T-A, and DOWN the scale with B-L-A-N-C-A. Very effectively saying
Cresta Blanca three times, each done differently.
That is one of the reasons he was hired to announce the Straight Arrow
[removed]"[removed] is the name to [removed] a breakfast you
cant beat, eat NABISCO Shredded Wheat" ....done to the beat of the Indian
drums.
Lois Culver
KWLK Radio (Mutual) Longview, WA 1941-44
KFI Radio (NBC) Los Angeles CA 1945-47, 50-53
Widow of Howard Culver, actor
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 18:00:02 -0500
From: Gary Hellermann <ghellermann@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Recording old [removed]
Hello list members,
I've enjoyed the list for some time, and now i have a
question that no one so far has been able to answer
for me. I have stacks of old 78's and 33's that i
would love to burn to cds, but how do you do it?? I
have a laptop with soundcard and a cd burner, and
people have told me that you just hook up the output
jacks from the turntable to the line-in jack on the
pc. The problem is, my Gateway does not have a
'line-in' jack. It has usb ports and a microphone
jack, but that's all. What i was wondering is can i
use an adaptor to run the leads from the turntable
into the mic-in jack and record that way or do i need
some accessory? I know there are some really tech
savvy experts on this list, so i look forward to
getting a final solution to this (CD) burning
question! Thanks to all of you for your educational,
wonderful, interesting posts!
Philo
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #88
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