Subject: [removed] Digest V2005 #22
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 1/21/2005 11:11 AM
To: [removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2005 : Issue 22
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  "Hey - I KNEW her!"                   [ Wich2@[removed] ]
  1-21 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  I'm My Own Grandpa                    [ "Dominick Cancilla" <mac@[removed]; ]
  Just Plain Bill                       [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
  MP3 source                            [ "Dominick Cancilla" <mac@[removed]; ]
  Dossier on Dumitrius                  [ Jim Kitchen <jkitchen@[removed]; ]
  GOLDEN AGE OF RADIO SHOW # 8          [ PURKASZ@[removed] ]
  Father Peyton for Sainthood           [ seandd@[removed] ]
  When I listen, passing it on, and ba  [ "Bill Scherer" <bspro@[removed]; ]
  Elliott Lewis                         [ William Atkinson <willatkinson@yaho ]
  White Christmas                       [ George Aust <austhaus1@[removed] ]
  TV vs Radio in 1933                   [ Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed]; ]
  Re: Mae West                          [ "Paul Adomites" <padomites@ccyberne ]
  Ted Drake, Guardian of the Big Top    [ Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@erols ]
  Dave Goldin's Web Site, etc.          [ "Tom van der Voort" <evander800@ver ]
  OTR on Jeopardy, The Thing            [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
  Re: OTR on "Jeopardy!                 [ Dixonhayes@[removed] ]
  Re: how we picture OTR characters     [ Dixonhayes@[removed] ]
  Lux Radio Theatre & Big Bands         [ Pete <pappleyard_ca@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 14:41:47 -0500
From: Wich2@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  "Hey - I KNEW her!"

Dear Folks-

Does anyone have nice-condition, CD if possible, copies of either:

-THE BREAKFAST CLUB 8/6/40
-SUNSET DREAMS
-Any other shows with the singing Morin Sisters?

Turns out, my elementary music teacher was one of same.

Look forward to hearing from you,
-Craig Wichman

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

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 14:41:56 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  1-21 births/deaths

January 21st births

01-21-1897 - J. Carrol Naish - NYC - d. 1-24-1973
actor: Luigi Basco "Life with Luigi"
01-21-1904 - Allen Prescott - St. Louis, MO - d. 1-27-1978
host: "Wife Saver"; "Prescott Presents"
01-21-1915 - Alan Hewitt - d. 11-7-1986
actor: Ken Martinson "This is Nora Drake"; Karl Dorn "Romance of Helen Trent"
01-21-1915 - John Dunkel - Springfield, OH - d. 2-22-2001
writer: "Escape"; "Fort Laramie"; "Gunsmoke"
01-21-1919 - Jinx Falkenburg McCrary - Barcelona, Spain - d. 8-27-2003
hostess: "Hi! Jinx"; "Tex & Jinx"; "Weekend"
01-21-1924 - Benny Hill - Southampton, England - d. 4-20-1992
comedian: "Educating Archie"
01-21-1925 - Telly Savalas - Garden City, NY - d. 1-21-1994
actor: "[removed] Story"

January 21st deaths

01-21-1925 - Telly Savalas - Garden City, NY - d. 1-21-1994
actor: "[removed] Story"
02-21-1915 - Ann Sheridan - Dallas, TX - d. 1-21-1967
actress: "Smiths of Hollywood"; "Stars in the Air"; "Screen Guild Theatre"
03-22-1895 - Joseph Schildkraut - Vienna, Austria - d. 1-21-1964
actor: "Intrigue"; "Best Plays"; "Columbia Workshop"; "Hollywood Hotel"
05-22-1938 - Susan Strasberg - NYC - d. 1-21-1999
actress: Emily Marriott "Marriage"
05-26-1920 - Peggy Lee - Jamestown, ND - d. 1-21-2002
singer: "Jimmy Durante Show"; "Chesterfield Supper Club"; "Peggy Lee Show"
06-01-1917 - Donald Dame - Titusville, PA - d. 1-21-1952
singer: "Music for an Hour"; "American Album of Familiar Music"
06-02-1904 - Johnny Weissmuller - Windber, PA - d. 1-21-1984
actor: Movie Tarzan and Jungle Jim
08-11-1908 - Russell Procope - d. 1-21-1981
clarinetist, saxophonist: "Duke Ellington and His Orchestra"; "Ellington at
Newport"
08-12-1881 - Cecil B. DeMille - Ashfield, MA - d. 1-21-1959
host: "Lux Radio Theatre"
10-17-1914 - Jerry Siegel - Cleveland , OH - d. 1-21-1996
co-creator (with Joe Shuster): "Advs. of Superman"
10-25-1908 - Polly Ann Young - Denver, CO - d. 1-21-1997
actress: (Sister of Loretta) "Lux Radio Theatre"
--
Ron Sayles
Radio: Theatre of the mind
Television: Theatre of the mindless

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

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 14:43:24 -0500
From: "Dominick Cancilla" <mac@[removed];
To: "OTR Listserve" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  I'm My Own Grandpa

I don't believe anyone's mentioned Phil Harris' "I'm My Own Grandpa" in our
discussion of silly songs. I used to listen to my grandmother's 78 of that
and
"The Thing" over and over as a child.

There's a Web page on a parody Web site that takes a rumor about Jack
Nicholson (that the woman he thought was his sister turned out to be his
mother)
and replaces it with material from "I'm My Own Grandpa" and the Harris/Fay
show. I'm not sure how non-OTR people would take the page, and I'm not
sure about some of the spelling on the page, but I think it's cute. Anyway,
here's the URL:

[removed]

Enjoy!

--Dominick

[removed] For listening habits -- I have a 30 GB Ipod crammed with OTR and set to
play shows at random from among those I have listened to the least. I listen
to entire shows, including credits, but skipping the occasional tenor singing
something melancholy.

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

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 16:25:01 -0500
From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Just Plain Bill

I am looking for a few episodes of Just Plain Bill.  I have only one
(undated) episode, so if you have any of them you will trade for, please
contact me off the list.  Thanks.

Ted Kneebone / 1528 S. Grant St. / Aberdeen, SD  57401
[removed]

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

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 16:25:27 -0500
From: "Dominick Cancilla" <mac@[removed];
To: "OTR Listserve" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  MP3 source

A recent question about sources for MP3s reminded me of something I've been
meaning to ask. I have moved most of my collection to MP3s for iPod use,
and want to get more. I don't have much patience for downloading and would
rather purchase a CD of shows and dump them into my collection. The
problem is, the few times I've tried this, the CDs have had a fair number of
MP3s that are either poor quality, have significant errors in them, are
unusably
corrupt, or are incorrectly labeled, or there will be several copies of the
same show with different file names.

So my question is this -- is there anyone out there who sells MP3 CDs that
actually listens to the files and gives them correct labels, as opposed to
just
downloading from the Internet and putting them on a disk?

Since I'm asking for commercial advice, I suppose you should respond off
list. I certainly appreciate the help!

--Dominick

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

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 20:01:58 -0500
From: Jim Kitchen <jkitchen@[removed];
To: old time radio digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Dossier on Dumitrius

Introduction to episode #1: "Announcing the return of Australia's
Greatest Radio Serial, Lindsey Hardy's post war story of mystery and
intrigue 'Dossier on Dumitrius' starring Bruce Stewart as Major Gregory
Keen, Dinah Shearing as Hettie Bergner and Guy Dahlman as Dumitrius."
Set in London several years after WW II, Major Keen is assigned to MI5
to track down the illusive Dumitrius. Aided by his Assistant, Sgt. Tom
Katz, played by Ivan Vander, they eventually settle scores with
Dumitrius. Ending credits say this is a Grace Gibson Radio Production.

I just listened to the "Dossier on Dumitrius." It took me a month to
complete 104 episodes. With episodes averaging about 12 - minutes this
is 22 hours of enjoyable listening! The casting was fantastic with all
voices fitting their parts.

Perhaps, our Australian Colleagues can provide information about Grace
Gibson Radio Productions, Major Gregory Keen and are there other Major
Keen Serials in circulation?

Jim Kitchen

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

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 20:02:38 -0500
From: PURKASZ@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  GOLDEN AGE OF RADIO SHOW # 8
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

   I have been away for a month or so and before I left I made a quick
download from the WTIC Golden Days of Radio site that featured program number
8 and
was about the program "Suspense" and featured interviews with folks.
    I have lost it and now can't find the original page as I set it in
Favorite Places. It seems to be down.
    Can anyone help me find that page again? Are they still hanging shows up
for d'load?
    Can someone let me have that show # 8 about Suspense?
    Many thanks.
                    Michael C. Gwynne

  *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
  ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 20:02:51 -0500
From: seandd@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Father Peyton for Sainthood

The Boston Globe reports on efforts to make Father Peyton of Holy Cross
Ministries, a religious radio broadcaster from the Golden Age a Saint.  He
apparently once had Jack Benny as a guest and managed to stay on the air
until 1960.  These are good starting qualifications.

Sean Dougherty
seandd@[removed]

[removed]

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

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 20:03:21 -0500
From: "Bill Scherer" <bspro@[removed];
To: ""old-time radio digest">" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  When I listen, passing it on, and bad
 Characters

Hi all,
I'll give my 3 cents worth here on listening, passing on the hobby, and one
of the characters that drive me nuts.
I listen when I go to bed at night and sometines when I'm at my local coffee
shop in the morning for my cup of freshly roasted dark roast.
My kids have also been in the habbit of listening when they go to bed at
night.  They are 12 and 16 and have been doing this for 6 or 7 years, maybe
more.   It
started with Star Wars and moved on to Benny, Gildersleeve, F & M, Our Mis
Brooks to name just a few.  Every year they listen to the Cinnamon Bear too.
Superman, Space Patrol
 were also favorites.  Now it seems all over the map as they have gotten
older--everything from Lux Radio Theater to Lone Ranger to Johnny Dollar and
on and
on.
We used to listen together when they shared the same room but now they each
have their own rooms and bed times have changed.  I really miss when we
would listen together.  The only time we get to do that is when we are
travelling or if I'm listening when they come home from school.

Now a character that folks seem to like but I never saw the joke in.  It's
the postman that Mell Blank played on Burns and Allen.
Can you say dumb?
Bill

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

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 20:18:34 -0500
From: William Atkinson <willatkinson@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Elliott Lewis
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

This is my 1st time posting though I have enjoyed this forum for a long time.
Yes there really was a Frankie Remley in the band on the Jack Benny program.
When Phil Harris started his show he brought on E. Lewis to play the part of
Frankie Remley.  Late in the show there was some type of complaint by the
real Remley about using his name and it was dropped from the show though
Elliott Lewis continued on in the character part using his real name.

Elliott Lewis has, over the years, become one of my favorite OTR actors.
Some of his last radio work, On Stage, with his wife Cathy Lewis, is
considered some of the best radio work done.  I agree.  Dunning gives almost
2 pages to On Stage and the career of Elliott and Cathy Lewis.  There are
about 20 something of these shows available and give you an understanding of
the versitility of Elliott Lewis.

Will Atkinson

  *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
  ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 23:14:14 -0500
From: George Aust <austhaus1@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  White Christmas

Russ Butler posted

A Vermont friend of mine collects "Everything Crosby" and he's looking for a
copy of a 1942 broadcast of the Kraft Music Hall, on December 25th with Bing
Crosby.  Bing introduced and sang a new song for the first time on that
program called "White Christmas."  This was five months before his first
Decca recording of the classic and months before he started filming
"Holiday Inn"

Hi Russ, I think your Vermont friend is a bit confused. 1942 IS the year that
"White Christmas" was a big hit for the first time. Bing recorded it earlier
that year in order to have a Christmas record out for that season.

There is a recording of "White Christmas" from 1941! It was during the
Christmas season and was performed on the Kraft Music Hall I think in
December of that year. I have it somewhere but can't seem to lay my hands on
it right now. It may not be a complete broadcast so that maybe why I can't
find it in my logs. I'll keep looking and if I find it I'll contact you
offline.

George Aust

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

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 23:16:11 -0500
From: Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  TV vs Radio in 1933
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

Richard Carpenter quoted from Robert Taylor's biography of Fred Allen
about a "Golden Age that Almost Never Was":

   "... Video seemed imminent in 1932; CBS had a
regular program schedule for an estimated nine
thousand television receivers in metropolitan New
York, while NBC had established a station atop the
Empire State Building. 'The most prevalent explanation
for delaying television was engineering difficulties,'
states William Hawes, a scholar of primitive video,
but the Depression was the true overriding factor. 'If
it had not been for the nation's financial crisis, the
public might have had television by 1933, and radio
might not have become as prominent as it did.'"

    This is way way off, especially that estimate of 9,000 TV sets (look
at photos of New York prior to 1945 and try to spot a TV antenna on a
rooftop).  In the early 30s, television was still emerging from the era
of crude mechanical scanning.  By 1933 RCA/NBC was working to perfect
electronic television and was transmitting experimental 240-line
pictures.  (Today's analog TV is 525 lines).  NBC's first public
demonstration of TV wouldn't come till 1936.  CBS also began
experimenting with electronic television in 1936, but without the
resources of an RCA the Columbia Network was not an enthusiastic entrant
in the TV race.  Many believed at the time that CBS was doing so well
with radio that it actually opposed the introduction of television.
    The TV engineers still were trying to solve major problems of both
production and transmission.  Meanwhile, radio had become so popular and
lucrative -- even during the economic crisis -- that television was not
the top priority.  Television was "imminent" for about twenty years, and
when mass production began of the first home receivers shortly after
World War II, a good proportion of  TV stations were owned by radio
broadcasters who often had to subsidize the new medium with income from
radio.  As we all recognize, radio remained quite prominent as a mass
entertainment medium well into the 1950s.

  *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
  ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 23:16:31 -0500
From: "Paul Adomites" <padomites@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Mae West

While researching radio in the year 1938, I discovered that Mae West was
banned from radio by the then-FCC for "indecency." That brought to mind
Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" last year at the Super Bowl. Was
West's "indecency" common knowledge at the time? Does anyone have the show
on which she did that awful thing? I guess I'm saying I'm curious if this
was a cause celebre or no big deal at the time.
Paul Adomites
PS. BTW, I still haven't heard from anyone about call-in shows, and when
they become possible (and popular). Anyone know?
Thanks

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

Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 08:52:19 -0500
From: Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@[removed];
To: OTRBB <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Ted Drake, Guardian of the Big Top

This series, sometimes called "Circus Detective", was a  30 min
juvenile adventure show on Mutual which was the 1949 summer replacement
for "Adventures of Superman" airing from June through September, when
it went off the air. Vince Harding played the title lead and Fred Rains
portrayed his circus sidekick, Eddie Roth. To date, no audio copies or
scripts have ever surfaced.

Now, thanks to the diligent research of MWOTRC member, Bob Slate, who
is an OTR researcher and collector in Exeter, CA, the OTR community
will soon have access to audio copies of this series. Slate was able to
locate Fred Rains, who still had some 16 inch disks of the show, and
arrangements are being made to have them converted to CDs. Some are
already in Slate's possession. In the near future, Jim Widner, will
make at least one of these newly discovered programs available on his
web site.

Mutual produced this show out of their affiliate in Nashville, TN under
the title of Monogram Radio Productions. This half hour show was on
three times weekly, alternating with "Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-Bar
Riders." Fred McCue directed the series and most of the scripts were by
Cliff Thomas and/or Patricia Mahan. Bob Larrimore was the announcer and
narrator.

Digesters will be kept advised on our progress in this matter.

Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL

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

Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 08:55:58 -0500
From: "Tom van der Voort" <evander800@[removed];
To: "old_time_radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Dave Goldin's Web Site, etc.

     I was interested to read in a note by Martin Grams Jr., in OTR Digest
#21 that Dave Goldin's web site should be taken with a grain of salt. This
rather harsh statement could be applied to Martin's work as well.  His
excellent book on the 'Cavalcade of America' contains many errors despite
his assiduous research. To take one example, his alternate title for the
program of January 6, 1937, is 'The Story of Thomas Jefferson'. The program
is not about our third president but rather actor Joseph Jefferson. My point
is not to tear down Martin's efforts but to indicate that OTR scholarship is
an evolving field, and we should be very cautious about criticizing the hard
work of others.
     By the way, I was the catalyst for the change in the 'Jungle Jim'
dates. I pointed out that it did not make any sense for Jungle Jim to be
fighting the Axis in 1947, which the original dating would have us believe.
As I recall, I worked from a specific reference in a particular show and
went forward and backward from there. Incidentally, the program was
syndicated and thus played by different stations on different dates. This is
a work in progress and corrections are readily welcomed.
   Tom

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

Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 08:54:42 -0500
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR on Jeopardy, The Thing

Fred Berney <fsberney@[removed]; wrote:
The other day on Jeopardy, one of the subjects was OTR and nobody got any
of the answers correct.

I've often wondered why no OTR questions ever came up on any quiz
shows, despite its seeming growing popularity. Glad one of the
Jeopardy "answer" scribes finally recognized the category, though I
guess the poor showing of the contestants won't encourage them to use
that category again. If only one of the Digest subscribers had been
on that show!

Bob Slate <moxnix1961@[removed]; wrote:
I read an article that said they thought that Phil Harris
record ,"The Thing" was a take off on the Sc-Fi movie that came out right
about that time, called "The Thing"

Sounds logical, but the song actually came out the year before the
movie. Of course, folks in Hollywood might have been aware of the
production, but you'd think, in that case, they'd time the release of
the song to capitalize on the publicity attending the release of the
movie.

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

Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 11:29:45 -0500
From: Dixonhayes@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: OTR on "Jeopardy!
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

In a message dated 1/20/05 1:55:23 PM Central Standard Time,
[removed]@[removed] writes:

The other day on Jeopardy, one of the subjects was OTR and nobody got any
of the answers correct. In fact they left the last question in the list. I
would have liked to have heard what it was.

I'd like to hear the other four, do you remember them, or at least the
specific shows/personalities mentioned?

Dixon

  *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
  ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 12:11:43 -0500
From: Dixonhayes@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: how we picture OTR characters
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

In a message dated 1/20/05 1:55:23 PM Central Standard Time,
[removed]@[removed] writes:

The first time I saw pictures of Fibber McGee and Molly, I thought, "Man, I
would have NEVER thought they looked like that!"  They didn't look [removed]
they certainly did not fit the "picture" I had of them in my head.

What's interesting is, I heard FM&M for years rerun on a radio station in
Alabama, and when I finally saw what Jim and Marian Jordan looked like, they
looked exactly as I pictured them.  The only difference was that for some
reason,
I always pictured Fibber wearing a funny hat, even though I don't remember any
references to one.

"The Great Gildersleeve" (Harold Peary) also looked like I pictured him.  But
I always pictured Henry Aldrich to look like the one in the movies (rerun in
those days on WTCG in Atlanta) and nothing like Ezra Stone, and Amos 'n' Andy
didn't look *anything* like I pictured them, when I saw pictures of how they
were apparently supposed to look.  As for real people, Fred Allen looked
absolutely *nothing* like I pictured him.

Dixon

  *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
  ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 13:02:04 -0500
From: Pete <pappleyard_ca@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Lux Radio Theatre & Big Bands

Can anyone remember if any Lux Radio Theatre had any
shows that had Big Bands featured on them??
Pete  ( pappleyard_ca@[removed] )

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #22
********************************************

Copyright [removed] Communications, York, PA; All Rights Reserved,
  including republication in any form.

If you enjoy this list, please consider financially supporting it:
   [removed]

For Help: [removed]@[removed]

To Unsubscribe: [removed]@[removed]

To Subscribe: [removed]@[removed]
  or see [removed]

For Help with the Archive Server, send the command ARCHIVE HELP
  in the SUBJECT of a message to [removed]@[removed]

To contact the listmaster, mail to listmaster@[removed]

To Send Mail to the list, simply send to [removed]@[removed]