------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2007 : Issue 95
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
The Story of the ILAM ETs [ Ken Greenwald <radio@[removed]; ]
This week in radio history 25-31 Mar [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
Shadow episode [ mikennancy2001@[removed] ]
Re: The Birds and the Electric Eye [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
The Birds [ William Brooks <webiii@[removed]; ]
Groucho, Live or On ...? [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr" <skallisjr@j ]
microphones to famous objects [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
Re: Birds? [ Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; ]
Benny hour-long radio [ "Laura Leff" <president@[removed] ]
Jack Benny on Gisele Of Canada [ "Matthew Bullis" <matthewbullis@run ]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 09:43:00 -0400
From: Ken Greenwald <radio@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: The Story of the ILAM ETs
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
Below is what I have learned over the years about the I Love A
Mystery ETs. I have no final proof that any of this is true, but I
got this info, from a few people whom I believe are honest and
truthful about the information. Still, bear in mind that I do NOT
have proof of what I know. So, with that in mind, here it goes:
When The Baker Street Associates was formed to produce the Sherlock
Holmes radio cassettes/CDs, one of the people involved was RALPH
BECKER. Ralph was a vice president of Standard Oil Company who, years
earlier, worked out of Standard Oil's Denver, Colorado offices. An
accomplished flyer, he had a private plane which he used often. Ralph
was a very big fan of OTR, and especially of musical radio shows. He
started collecting original ETs long before most of us were
collecting radio tapes. I mean, he was collecting ETs in the 1950s.
One show that he loved dearly, that was not musical, was I Love A
Mystery.
AL BLOCH lived in the San Francisco bay area. Though I don't know
what he did for a living, he was, for all intent and purposes, a
fanatic about collecting ETs. Somewhere along the line (Ralph never
told me when) Bloch and Becker met when Ralph flew into San Francisco
hunting for radio shows. In essence, they became partners. As each
collected ETs, they would trade the ETs so that they could copy them
to open reel tape. Ralph flew into San Francisco on weekends and
obtained many ETs from Al Bloch. I learned later from a source that
Al was not a "good' collector of ETs. In other words, he was sloppy
with his transcription discs. He would store them flat in large
garbage cans, one on top of the other! OUCH! It's a fact that if you
store ETs on top of each other (in their paper sleeves) eventually
the weight of the ETs will cause the paper fibers to become imbedded
in the grooves of the recordings. I do not know what shows Al Bloch
had, or what shows he had piled high in those garbage cans. Ralph led
me to believe that Al Bloch had most of the ILAM original ETs. That
would make sense, considering that Carlton E. Morse also lived in the
San Francisco bay area. I then heard from another source that Ralph
had the ETs. That he "borrowed" them from Al Bloch.
Ralph later moved from Denver to Orange County (I believe it was
Rancho Mirage). After Ralph moved here, I saw him more often. One
evening The Baker Street Associates were having a meeting/dinner.
Ralph was there. Conversation turned to OTR. Straight out, I asked
Ralph if he had the ILAM ETs. A deft businessman, he quietly changed
the subject, frustrating me and the others seated with him. I asked
him that question because another member of the group had been to
Ralph's house and looked through some of his ET collection. He
spotted some ILAM ETs.
In one conversation Ralph said that he would love to have me drop by
his home and take a look at his collection (it was Ralph who released
a lot of the RAILROAD HOUR shows).
Surprise, surprise! About a year later Ralph moved his entire family
up to the state of Washington. Unless I was willing to travel, that
killed my chances to look through his collection.
Wait --- there's more: No one, to this date, had any proof that Ralph
had more than a few ILAM ETs, as witnessed by my friend who did have
a chance to look through a small portion of the hundreds and hundreds
of ETs Ralph had.
About two years later, Ralph passed away. The member of the Baker
Street group who saw Ralph more than anyone, was also close to his
wife. She said that she would let my friend catalog the discs. That
never happened. As far as I know, the Ralph Becker ET collection is
still stored in Washington. His widow has no interest in ETs, but has
done nothing with the ETs. Presumably they are still sitting there
collecting dust.
That leave Al Bloch. After Ralph's death, I was told Al Bloch was
going to go to Ireland and Scotland in search of the ILAM ETs.
Ireland? Scotland? Why? Seems that Carlton E. Morse's agent during
the radio years had later moved to either Ireland or Scotland. Morse
had given his ETs to his agent, who then took them with him across
the pond. (That was the rumor) So Al was going to track down the
agent and see if there were, indeed, any ILAM ETs. When Al came back
he revealed that he had NOT found any ILAM ETs.
Is any of this story true?
It would seem logical for Morse to leave his ETs with his agent.
Alice Faye left the PHIL HARRIS/ALICE FAYE SHOW ETs with her agent.
Possibly Morse did the same.
If so, then why couldn't Al Bloch (the ET fanatic) not find them?
I suspect Al was going on a hunch, without proof the ETs were now
with the retired agent.
About 10 years later, Al Bloch passed away. So where are the hundreds
of ETs he had in his garage? No news has come to me about the ETs
over the years. I never had the time to track all this down; to go to
San Francisco and find out about Al's ET collection. AND WHO HAS THE
ILAM ETs?
Everything is hanging in the air, with no definite answers.
There were also rumors back in the 1970s that Dr. Barry Brooks had a
large collection of the ILAM shows. He would not release any of the
shows he obtained. Is he still alive? Was it true he had a long run
of ILAM shows?" I've heard no answers.
I don't pretend to be up to date on all the OTR news. I move between
OTR dubbing and the world of filmmaking. I do loose track of recent
information. Witness that I never heard a decent sounding ILAM
episode, only to find out on the OTR Digest that there are a few
excellent sounding copies available. Art Chimes and Ted Kneebone are
just two of the people who brought me up to date on this. Thank you
very much.
So where does all this information leave us. Nowhere! Unless there is
someone out there who knows more recent information or has picked up
the thread of the above stories and knows more, then we will continue
wondering -- "where are the ILAM radio shows and how can they become
available?"
Thanks to everyone for reading this info, though I don't know if it
helps any.
Ken Greenwald
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 13:36:21 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otrd <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: This week in radio history 25-31 March
From Those Were The Days --
3/25
1943 - Jimmy Durante and Garry Moore premiered on network radio. The
pair replaced the popular Abbott and Costello following Lou Costello's
heart attack. Durante and Moore stayed on the air for four years.
3/27
1943 - Blue Ribbon Town was first heard on CBS.
3/28
1941 - Louella Parsons hosted Hollywood Premiere for the first time on
CBS. The gossip columnist introduced famous guests who appeared in
dramatized stories.
1944 - WQXR in New York City, owned by The New York Times newspaper,
banned singing commercials from its airwaves as of this day.
Understandable, since the station has always been the classical music
voice of Manhattan and there aren't many classical singing commercials.
3/29
1932 - Jack Benny appeared on radio for the first time. He agreed to
join then newspaper columnist, Ed Sullivan, on his interview show.
1937 - The serial, Our Gal Sunday, debuted. The question, "Can this girl
from a small mining town in the West find happiness as the wife of a
wealthy and titled Englishman?" was asked each day for next 22 years.
3/30
1936 - The serial Backstage Wife made a move across the dial from the
Mutual Broadcasting System to NBC. Once there, the program continued to
air for the next 23 years.
1945 - The Dreft Star Playhouse was heard for the final time. The show
had been paying up to $3,000 per week to attract name talent.
1946 - Academy Award was heard for the first time. The first dramatized
story was titled, Jezebel and starred actress Bette Davis.
3/31
1937 - Phil Harris recorded one of his best-known songs, That's What I
Like About the South.
1953 - Cavalcade of America was heard for the final time on network
radio. It had been the longest-running show of its kind. Cavalcade of
America presented dramatized events in American history for 18 years.
Joe
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 13:36:37 -0400
From: mikennancy2001@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Shadow episode
There was an episode called "Death Stalks the Shadow" where our hero has to
enter a room with an electric eye and is momentarily trapped in that room by
the bad guys. I think he escaped by blowing the fuse in the room.
Great episode -- remember getting it for Christmas when I was a kid!
Mike in Mountain View
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 13:39:50 -0400
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: The Birds and the Electric Eye
Dan <teac35@[removed]; asked:
...a friend who had told me that there is an episode of The Shadow
where he had to enter a building (as the shadow) that had a
automatic door (much like grocery stores today) outfitted with an
electric eye. I am curious if such a show exists. If so, what would
the title be? "RadioAZ@[removed]" <radioAZ@[removed];
There is indeed a show where the Shadow, at least, speculates on the
difficulties presented by the new "electric eye" invention. I can't
tell you the date or how it played out; I heard only the snippet
provided on the Jack Benny/Longine Symphonette multi-album tribute to
OTR, one of the first acknowledgements of the importance of this
genre. I've got the full set somewhere; there was a truncated version
issued later on.
Ted "RadioAZ@[removed]" <radioAZ@[removed]; asked:
...Lux Radio Theatre from July 20, 1953. The title of the show?
The Birds. IMDb only list one movie by that title, and of course it
was the Alfred Hitchcock classic from 1963--ten years later. What
movie was Lux doing in 1953?
Hitchcock, of course, didn't write his own material (hear the one
about the dumb blonde who went to Hollywood and tried to advance her
career by sleeping with a writer?). In fact Robert Bloch, the author
of probably Hitchcock's best-known movie Psycho, was once in my hotel
room, though not to visit me but rather my other guest Manly Wade
Wellman, another writer (I know that's name-dropping, but it was a
heady moment in a young fan's life [I believe Bloch's widow Eleanor
Alexander Bloch just died recently]). I haven't heard the Lux Theater
episode to which you refer, but I assume it was based on the same
Daphne du Maurier short story that the Hitchcock movie was based on,
though it's said Hitchcock was inspired to do the movie by reports of
the aggressive behavior of seagulls who had eaten tainted shellfish.
The Birds couldn't be made in the US today, I trust, due to animal
rights concerns, as many of the shots involved live birds being flung
at the actors by, I suppose, special bird-flinging machines. Tippi
Heddren was injured at least once, and, reportedly, at one point
collapsed in hysterics. I don't know if her breakdown was filmed and
used in the movie or not. I don't believe any motive for the birds'
behavior is ever given in the short story (which I read prior to the
movie) nor in the movie; the reader/viewer just assumes nature is fed
up. The movie version ends without an ending, nor even the usual
words "The End," a device that frustrated many movie-goers.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 14:50:19 -0400
From: William Brooks <webiii@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: The Birds
According to the book "Lux Presents Hollywood" by Billips & Pierce the
show for 7/20/53 was The Birds, based on a short story by Daphne du
Maurier. The show starred Herbert Marshall and Betty Lou Gerson as a
couple "living in an isolated English seaside community who are forced
to defend themselves from a series of violent and seemingly unprovoked
attacks by thousands of birds of varyng species".
The story was adapted from the du Maurier story for radio by James
Cole and sound effects by Ray Kemper and Bill James. ESCAPE did a
different adaptation July 10,1954
Quoting Billips & Pierce: "Alfred Hitchcock's screen version of The
Birds makes use only of the story's basic idea (and is, if fact, closer
in incident to the Lux broadcast than to the story)". The picture was
released by Universal in 1963.
Bill
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 14:50:55 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr" <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Groucho, Live or On ...?
Many years ago, I read an article in American Cinematographer magazine
about the way You Bet Your Life was covered. The show started prior to
the use of videotape. According to the article, the show used multiple
sound-on-film cameras (like Auricons), but the film soundtrack was used
as a director's signal between cameras, with the audio being recorded
separately on tape.
The radio version was edited to take out periods of silence, etc. The
video was edited to make the most of Groucho and/or the contestants'
reactions, etc. The overall show was significantly longer than what was
released in either form, according to the article. Naturally, both
edited versions fit their time slots.
If the article was accurate, it represented an interesting blend of
motion picture, television, and audio technologies.
Stephen A. Kallis, Jr,
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 14:51:36 -0400
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: microphones to famous objects
On the Bloomberg Radio Network, which I think is principally a creation of
XM Radio, they do financial news from 6 [removed] to 6 [removed] each business day.
One of the features is a the actual sound of the closing bell of the New
York Stock Exchange, apparently run into the studio by a special audio
channel of some sort. At least they say that's what it is.
So I was listening to this one evening and it reminded me that there have
been other such special live hookups to radio stations from famous audible
objects in the past. I know about the one to the NBC chimes, but it seems
to me that there may have been something to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia
once, and to one or another device. Does anyone know, or am I summoning up
false recollections?
There's much precedence for this sort of thing: when the Golden Spike was
driven to complete the railroad link across the US, the hammer and the spike
were wired into the telegraph circuit so that the nation could hear, sort
of, the first tap of the hammer on the spike.
M Kinsler
512 E Mulberry St. Lancaster, Ohio USA 43130 740-687-6368 740-503-1973
[removed]
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:40:46 -0400
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Birds?
Ted asked:
>The Lux Logs do show that The Birds was indeed done on that date. It
>starred Herbert Marshall.
>What movie was Lux doing in 1953?
Good question. I was wondering about that about 5 months ago after I
heard that Marshall
version. My only guess was that by 1953, I don't believe Lux was always
following the format
of re-doing movies (though I am not sure about that since I don't have a
copy of that book
on Lux Radio Theater from McFarland).
The Hitchcock version came ten years later than this radio version. And
if you have read the
story the radio program and the film were based on the short story, but
the radio version is much
closer to the book which led me to believe the radio play was strictly
based upon the book
and not a film. Also by this time the Lux Video Theater was on
television and perhaps they
were focusing less on movies on the radio program.
If anyone has the Lux book, I'd be curious if they mention anything
about some of the plays
not being adaptations of films.
Jim Widner
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:55:08 -0400
From: "Laura Leff" <president@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Benny hour-long radio
Brian Bedsworth asked:
Laura Leff mentioned the 1956 Xmas special, but didn't he also do a
one-hour
Philco Radio Hall Of Fame program as well? I realize, it's not quite the
same as his own program, but it was -his- cast and -his- writers.
Sure, Jack appeared on shows other than his own that were an hour long.
Just check [removed] and
search for "60". Jack's writers and cast have influence/appearances on many
of those programs.
--Laura Leff
President, IJBFC
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 08:22:22 -0400
From: "Matthew Bullis" <matthewbullis@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Jack Benny on Gisele Of Canada
Hello, I just got a program of Jack Benny guesting on Gisele Mckenzie Of
Canada, a fifteen-minute program of talk and song. Do you have any idea of
when this series was recorded? Apparently, there were thirteen shows in
Gisele's series, but no one seems to have dates on them.
Thanks a lot.
Matthew
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #95
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