Subject: [removed] Digest V2005 #309
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 10/8/2005 4:18 PM
To: [removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2005 : Issue 309
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Re: Asst. Directors????               [ Hal Stone <otrjug@[removed]; ]
  Good Night, Good Luck, Great Movie    [ "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed]; ]
  Re: Pre-Murrow McCarthy Critics       [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Mister Kitzel                         [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
  39 Forever at FOTR?                   [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
  Sam Spade - the Indian Caper          [ Rutledge Mann <cliff_marsland@yahoo ]
  10-8 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  Another Good Night, Good Luck Review  [ JimBourg@[removed] ]
  Halloween OTR                         [ "James Yellen" <clifengr3@[removed] ]

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

Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 18:54:43 -0400
From: Hal Stone <otrjug@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Asst. Directors????

And I thought Doc Biel was my friend.

Not only does he "zing me" in his latest posting about script timing by
[removed] (as follows)

If the timing was correct, or on the nose, he would point to his nose.  (I
never was taught what it meant if the director pinched his nose, but I can
guess what that would mean!)  (Probably that Hal Stone ad-libbed a pun.)

Sticks and [removed]

But I was shocked at the misinformation contained in his explanation of
"script Timing". I revere my friend Doc Biel as a OTR historian of the first
magnitude , but can it be my idol has feet of clay????? He [removed]

In the days of live broadcasting, during the rehearsals
there would be an Assistant Director who would mark a script with the
timings at every important point in the program.

In all my years as a radio [removed] NEVER SAW A DIRECTOR HAVE AN
[removed] WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR TIMING OTR PROGRAMS. NEVER! NEVER!
EVER!

(There was no such category among directors.)  THE DIRECTORS ALONE DID ALL
TIMINGS, AND THAT APPLIED TO [removed] WELL AS THE SHOW.

On, (in) every show I ever did, the standard procedure for timing was as
follows.

The first read thru was usually done with the cast sitting around a table.
The director used a hand held stopwatch, and he would make notations on each
script page for a rough cumulative timing. The cast would usually go on mic
after that, and based on the directors first "rough" timing, he might tell
the cast, or a particular character, to pick up the pace, or perhaps, be
more deliberate (lay out the dialogue).

But this time, with the director in the control room, he would use a larger
stop watch built into, or atop the console, that had a little button
attached to a cable from that "clock". He could stop and start this larger
face stop-clock simply by clicking the button on or off. (At least that's
the way it was done at NBC)

After that rehearsal, he had a better idea of the overall timing, and made
any necessary cuts at that time.

Then, the dress rehearsal was the acid test. He would still be looking at
his script notations as to cumulative running time, and if it still wasn't
right (a trifle too long or too short) He would give the cast optional cuts,
or instructions to watch him when we got to page so-and-so. Because he might
want to reinstate some earlier cuts.

But Dr. Biel was absolutely correct when he described the hand signals used
as another means to have the program end "right on the money".

[removed] the heck misled you about Assistant Directors in OTR ? Maybe
the phony balonies on the west coast used them? Because that's the way
things were done in films?

Michael, you owe me a drink at FOTR for coming to your rescue. :)

Hal(Harlan)Stone
Jughead

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

Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 21:00:12 -0400
From: "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Good Night, Good Luck, Great Movie
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Hi Gang:

Some folks who read my postings here have probably guessed that I take a
particular aversion to the movies. Like a certain literary character with whom
I share a little-used middle-name, "I hate the g-----n movies." Anyway, I just
got back from seeing the Clooney/Murrow film "Good Night, And Good Luck" [yes,
the Oxford comma was on the title card] and I have nothing but good things to
say about it. The ideolologically right-leaning New York Post gave the film
four stars and even said words to the effect that George Clooney was able to
rise above his own personal politics to present a factual account of the
Murrow/McCarthy contretemps. My most favourable thing about the film is that
it gave insight into the suicide of the "listed"  CBS reporter Don Hollenback.
IThe overall excellence of the film more than made up for the prohitive $[removed]
NYC ticket price, the fact that the film started about 20 minutes after the
posted start-time because ofr endless previews and commercials, and in spite
of the theatre-hopping knucklehead who decided to climb over me to sit in my
row 15 minutes into the narrative and who then started to crinkle through his
smuggled-in plastic bag of contraband outside-food. Now, you know why I hate
the movies!].

Since McCarthyism and the blacklist has proven to be a very hot topic here on
the Digest, I feel I should cut to the quick and advise that anybody
interested in the machinations of early TV broadcasting should venture to see
it once it breaks out of the big cities and makes it to your favourite
cinder-block highway movie-plex. The film's soundtrack is punctuated by the
presence of a jazz singer played by Dianne Reeves  who sings songs like "How
High the Moon" and "One for My Baby, One More for the Road" (the closing
theme). As a radio fan, I could've done without her opening number, which was
"TV Is the Thing This Year," which had a lyric like "radio was great, but it's
out of [removed]"

Future movie Perry White plays CBS head William Paley, and David Strathairn
gives an Oscar-worthy performance as Edward R. Murrow. So, everybody go see
it, so we can argue about it in the Holiday Inn bar/lounge later this month at
FOTR.

Good night, and good luck in the ether.

Derek Holden Tague

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

Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 00:20:01 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Pre-Murrow McCarthy Critics

On 10/7/05 7:06 PM [removed]@[removed] wrote:

Murrow confessed his tardiness in
taking on McCarthy, according to an interview Gould
gave to Edwin R. Bayley for his 1981 book, Joe
McCarthy and the Press. "My God," he recalls Murrow
saying. "I didn't do anything. [Times columnist]
Scotty Reston and lot of guys have been writing like
this, saying the same things, for months, for years.
We're bringing up the rear."

The one journalist who really doesn't get his due whenever the McCarthy
era is discussed is Drew Pearson, who was one of the first, and
unquestionably the most aggressive of the columnists to go after the
Senator in the years prior to 1954. He began investigating and exposing
McCarthy's excesses nearly as soon as McCarthy elevated himself to
national prominence, and by 1951, he was at the top of McCarthy's
personal blacklist.

Their enmity came to a head the night before the columnist's fifty-third
birthday.  At a party at a Washington hotel, a drunken McCarthy assaulted
Pearson in the men's room, and beat him bloody before the fight was
broken up -- by none other than Richard Nixon, who happened into the
facilities at just the right moment. The assault did nothing to blunt
Pearson's criticism of McCarthy in his column and on his radio program;
in fact, it was Pearson, and not Murrow, Reston, or anyone else, who in
1953 first unearthed the bizarre chain of intrigues and bureaucratic
manipulations which led directly to the Army-McCarthy Hearings -- and,
ultimately, to McCarthy's downfall.

That Murrow was "bringing up the rear" by going on the offensive in 1954
was well understood -- and rather resented -- by many print journalists
of the time. The most arch comment on the subject came from New York Post
columnist Dorothy Schiff, herself an early McCarthy opponent, who wrote
"'This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep
silent,' said Ed, as he leaped gracefully aboard the crowded bandwagon."

Elizabeth

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

Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 01:40:33 -0400
From: JackBenny@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Mister Kitzel

Ray Druian writes:

On an early Jack Benny TV show, I thought I remembered Artie  Auerbach
appearing as
Mr. Kitzel. On the radio, he was a tiny, wizened old  man, but when I
actually
saw him, I thought he might have been a linebacker  for [name your favorite
NFL team, for me it's the Bears]. Still, the voice  was pure Mr. Kitzel. Does
anyone know for sure if Mr. Auerbach actually  appeared in on of the Benny TV
shows?

I've got a sneaking suspicion of what may have caused the confusion.
Auerbach appeared on several Benny television programs as Kitzel.  There  was
one
from 3-6-55 that featured Jack taking the Beavers to the fair,  and Kitzel
shows
up in a variety of places and roles.  I haven't seen the  show in a while,
but I know at the end (SPOILER ALERT) the kids look at a  beautiful hula
dancer
and ask if they can go in to see that show.  Jack  balks a bit saying that
it's for grown-ups, and the hula dancer looks at him and  in a Kitzel
voice-over
says, "Don't worry, Meester Benny, it's only me!"

Somehow I think that Kitzel may have been supposed to be a gorilla or
something in that show, and I wonder if you're mis-remembering  that.

--Laura Leff
President, IJBFC
[removed]

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

Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 01:40:40 -0400
From: JackBenny@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  39 Forever at FOTR?

Derek Tague writes:

Will anybody be selling Laura Leff's "39 Forever, Jack benny  Log"?

Thanks for the reminder, Derek.  I don't have anyone selling it yet,  but I'm
open to suggestions.

--Laura Leff
President, IJBFC
[removed]

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

Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 01:41:10 -0400
From: Rutledge Mann <cliff_marsland@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Sam Spade - the Indian Caper

Does anyone have the raw, uncleaned version of Sam
Spade - The INdian Caper, from 9-25-49?  I think the
original is probably an AFRS.

I've come to prefer uncleaned versions of shows.  I'd
rather have the surface noise than digital artifacts.

Thanks,
TC

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

Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 09:27:21 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  10-8 births/deaths

October 8th births

10-08-1881 - Oscar O'Shea - Peterboro, Canada - d. 4-6-1960
actor: John Marshall "Those We Love"
10-08-1890 - Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker - Columbus, OH - d. 7-23-1973
host, narrator: "The World's Most Honored Flights"
10-08-1897 - Rouben Mamoulian - Tiflis, Georgia, Russia - d. 12-4-1987
film director: "Theatre Guild On the Air"
10-08-1904 - Wally Brown - Malden, MA - d. 11-13-1961
actor: "The Jack Kirkwood Show"; "Joan Davis Time"
10-08-1906 - William N. Robson - Pittsburgh, PA - d. 4-10-1995
producer, director: "Beyond Tomorrow"; "CBS Radio Workshop"; "Escape"
10-08-1908 - Albert Maltz - New York City, NY - d. 4-26-1985
screen writer: (One of Hollywood Ten) "Words at War"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
10-08-1913 - Walter Schumann - New York City, NY - d. 8-21-1958
composer: "Dragnet"; "Junior Miss"; "Modern Advs. of Casanova"
10-08-1918 - Ron Randell - Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
10-08-1919 - Gabriel Dell - Barbados, British West Indies - d. 7-3-1988
actor: (The Dead End Kids) "Texaco Star Playhouse"

October 8th deaths

01-09-1915 - Fernando Lamas - Buenos Aires, Argentina - d. 10-8-1982
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
01-26-1913 - William Prince - Nichols, NY - d. 10-8-1996
actor: "Crime Does Not Pay"; "Philco Radio Playhouse"; "Somerset Maugham
Theatre"
02-04-1895 - Nigel Bruce - Ensenada, Mexico - d. 10-8-1953
actor: Doctor John H. Watson "Advs. of Sherlock Holmes"
02-18-1892 - Wendell Willkie - Elwood, IN - d. 10-8-1944
presidential candidate: "Information, Please"
04-29-1914 - Derek Guyler - Wallasey, Merseyside, England - d. 10-8-1999
actor: "It's That Man Again"
05-01-1933 - Joan Hackett - New York City, NY - d. 10-8-1983
actress: "CBS Mystery Theatre"
07-23-1908 - Karl Swenson - Brooklyn, NY - d. 10-8-1978
actor: Lorenzo Jones "Lorenzo Jones"; Lord Henry Brinthrope "Our Gal Sunday"
08-02-1900 - Helen Morgan - Danville, IL - d. 10-8-1941
hostess, singer: "Helen Morgan, Songs"; "Broadway Melodies"; "Fred Allen Show"
08-30-1887 - Eduardo Ciannelli - Island of Ischia, Italy - d. 10-8-1969
actor: "Hollywood Hotel"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
11-06-1886 - Gus Kahn - Koblenz, Germany - d. 10-8-1941
lyricist: "Good News of 1938"
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 09:27:45 -0400
From: JimBourg@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Another Good Night, Good Luck Review
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In a message dated 10/7/2005 6:06:48 [removed] Central Daylight Time, Sean
Dougherty writes:

It's by  the same reporter who
can't tell the difference between Senators and  Congressmen

Huh? Unless something changed when I wasn't looking, Senators are
congressmen.

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

Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 10:35:39 -0400
From: "James Yellen" <clifengr3@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Halloween OTR

I invite all to go to my nostalgic OTR related on-line novel, THE WISTFUL
RADIO CHRONICLES, for a scary Halloween tale that, I hope, will cause a
chuckle or two.

Here's the URL

[removed]

Thanks for checking it out.

Jim Yellen

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #309
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