------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2005 : Issue 352
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Lord of the Rings [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
Night Beat [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
Re: A&A Music Hall [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
Radio Conventions [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
Lord of the Rings on Radio [ "Andolina, Joe" <Joe_Andolina@cable ]
NBC Chimes [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
RE: Lord of the Rings on Radio [ James Meadows <walthamus@[removed]; ]
bread slicing and kids' shows [ Robert Angus <rangus02@[removed]; ]
The Key [ "Austotr" <austotr@[removed]; ]
Rare syndicated series? [ Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@erols ]
Two new OTR books [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
Amos 'N Andy Music Hall [ "George Tirebiter" <tirebiter2@hotm ]
Re: Meyer The Buyer [ "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed]; ]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 14:02:55 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Lord of the Rings
Tom Barnett commented:
I have just finished watching all three movies comprising the LOTR Triliogy
(DVDn with extra scenes of course) First, I am struck once again with what a
fablulous movie it is. Knowing that it was inspired by the World War I was
wondering if this ambitious tome had ever been attempted on radio. Then I
noticed the character of Aragorn from LOTR in Ron S.'s most recent
list.
Did LOTR ever become an OTR or newer radio series?
Actually there was a number of versions. Most dramatic readings with sound
effects but there are at least two radio dramatizations I know of that's in
circulation. Sadly, the only person I know who has them is Gordon Payton
and he's been out of business for years. Course, the posting reminded me of
one evening when Gordon phoned me to tell me his latest treasures which he
sought after - one of them being a German radio production of LORD OF THE
RINGS (and this was a couple years before the movie premiered). I asked him
if the cast spoke English and Gordon said no. I asked him what could
possibly hold my interest if they were speaking German and I couldn't
understand a word of language. Gordon said he just had to have it for his
collection - that's how comprehensive his collection was. I posted his info
on the Digest a few weeks ago so anyone seeking any LORD OF THE RINGS radio
dramas might want to drop him a line.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:09:20 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Night Beat
Ah, the spelling of whether NIGHT BEAT is one word or two. A nit-pickers
delight. This question has come up numerous times and of similar questions
on OTR and there isn't a real answer for said questions. Here's why:
Regardless of how or where you research a radio program, even official
documents such as scripts, correspondence from producers and directors,
writers, periodical advertisements, can all conflict with one another.
Should INNER SANCTUM MYSTERY really be INNER SANCTUM MYSTERIES? That one can
be answered with ease. Listen to the show itself. it's billed by the
announcers as "Inner Sanctum Mystery." Even the advertisements, CBS memos,
and Simon & Schuster's mystery novels call the series "INNER SANCTUM
MYSTERY." Yet collector catalogs and reference guides conflict today.
Hickerson's Guide simply calls it INNER SANCTUM, Dunning's ON THE AIR states
INNER SANCTUM MYSTERIES, but the actual title is indeed INNER SANCTUM
MYSTERY. (Yeah, I wrote a book on the show and the title of the book is
INNER SANCTUM MYSTERIES but the title of the book had to go along with what
the majority of fans and collectors would most commonly type in a search
engine if looking for info on the show.)
This is just one example of probably hundreds and maybe thousands. NIGHT
BEAT is spelled both one word and two words, depending on which NBC press
release or newspaper advertisement is being reviewed. The scripts have it
spelled both ways (in fact some scripts have it listed as two words on the
cover and one word in the script itself where the announcer reveals the
program!).
The question of whether NIGHT BEAT should be one word or two could not
possibly be answered easily since even the scripts contradict themselves.
As long as all nine letters are in the correct order I would think the title
would be accepted.
Interesting trivia: Should Wyllis Cooper be spelled Wyllis or Willis? It is
spelled both ways in the movies (the title screens of Son of Frankenstein,
The Phantom Creeps, etc.) The answer is both. He changed his name from one
spelling to another to please his wife's numerological preferences. All
depends on what time period you are writing about depends on which spelling
is accurate for that time.
Martin Grams
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:11:40 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: A&A Music Hall
On 11/14/05 2:02 PM [removed]@[removed] wrote:
Regarding David Ballarotto's comments about Elizabeth McLeod's
book and his liking that she "doesn't take a pot-shot at 'The
Amos 'n' Andy Music Hall,' which is often derided as something
beneath Gosden and Correll." I haven't read the book, but I'd
hope she wouldn't take pot-shots, but give it thoughtful analysis
by herself or others.
The Music Hall *is* an odd format, and given that Correll and Gosden had
originally hoped to retire for good at the end of the 1952-53 season,
it's difficult to understand why it even existed -- until you realize
that the decision really wasn't up to them. CBS owned the program, and
with it retained an exclusive option on Correll and Gosden's services as
performers -- and the network had no intention of letting the franchise
go until they'd recovered their investment.
The network spent over $2 million to buy out Correll and Gosden in 1948,
and had hoped that future profits from a television version would more
than recoup that expenditure. The network had projected a seven-year
prime-time run for the A&A TV series, but when Schenley Distilleries
pulled out of its sponsorship after two years, and in the wake of the
NAACP's 1951 protest campaign no other sponsor came forward to carry the
load, that source of income dried up. The network would milk the TV
reruns in syndication for as long as it possibly could, but that was no
substitute for the revenue generated by an ongoing series. Thus, Correll
and Gosden were obligated to keep going -- with two additional seasons of
the weekly sitcom, along with six years of the Music Hall. Whether it was
beneath them or not is a matter of opinion, but the fact is that it was
basically just a contractural-obligation project for them, and they had
next to nothing to do with the actual production: they simply came in
once or twice a week to tape their lines.
Perhaps the most unusual fact connected with the Music Hall was that it
actually won an award. In 1957, George "Kingfish" Stevens was elected the
Disc Jockey of the Year by the readers of Radio-Television Mirror
magazine, and although that publication was hardly on the cutting edge of
contemporary pop culture, it does at least indicate that the series had a
strong following, right up to the end.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:13:25 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Radio Conventions
Ben Ohmart stated:
Someone just posted about the Wall St. Journal article and how it's important to
some to attract more young people to the events. I think a good idea would be to tie
yesterday to now. You don't have to get Johnny Depp in, but there's a medium: voice
actors. Try to hook into the cartoon voice - and possibly anime - society, since many of the
actors who quit radio went into cartoons and/or early television. So there is a
connection. Just a few thoughts. :)
I agree with Ben. It doesn't matter if you put 20 people or 50 people in
the same room to decide what to do or how to do it, you have to bring young
people to the convention, certainly a lot more than what I have seen, and if
The Cinammon Bear isn't going to bring 13-19 year olds to Newark, Cincy,
etc., some stretching will have to be put into effect. A number of people
at Newark were griping about this, claiming no one's doing anything to bring
the younger crowd to the convention, and also the fact that there were
television actors instead of radio actors, I asked the simple question: "Who
do you feel we should have at the convention?" Apparently NO ONE could name
a radio actor that hadn't been to Newark yet (I am sure there are plenty but
they could not name one off the top of their head) but they firmly insisted
that TV personalities like Soupy Sales and actors like Jimmy Lydon shouldn't
be there, or were misplaced for FOTR.
I have attended about 30 conventions this year. No joke. Seven conventions
in eight weeks from mid-June to mid-August. The conventions that bring in
the largest crowds are not because of the location. Not because of the
stars (only a percentage of attendees come to meet stars just as much as a
percentage come to watch the films in the movie room, a percentage to check
out the dealer room and a percentage for a specific event or two during the
weekend). The crowds are the largest at conventions that have the widest
appeal.
Regardless of how many would argue with over this, the fact still remains:
conventions are going to get a lot smaller and a lot less if the people who
attend keep getting older, younger people are not being prompted to attend,
and more of an appeal towards youngsters are placed on the events of the
convention. If an 18 year old isn't interested in old time radio, it'll be
difficult to convince an 18 year old to attend unless of course you have
something that appeals to him and it happens to be at the convention at the
same time. Remember, youngsters who are not interested won't pay the gas,
tolls, hotel costs and admission just to attend something they don't like.
Keeping an OTR convention strictly OTR means you're limiting the market and
ultimately the attendance.
Perhaps guests like Julie Newmar and James Arness might bring a crowd?
Certainly and who attending FOTR wouldn't mind meeting James Arness? He may
not have been radio's Matt Dillon but GUNSMOKE fans would attend for certain
and that would include GUNSMOKE radio admirers . . .
Martin
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:13:37 -0500
From: "Andolina, Joe" <Joe_Andolina@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Lord of the Rings on Radio
Let us not forget the NPR American serialzed version sometime in the 80's.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:14:13 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: NBC Chimes
Sandy Singer commented about the NBC chimes being part of practical jokes.
I wonder how many people have heard the few songs from the 1930s or 40s
where the lines of a certain ditty actually substituted bad language for the
NBC chimes - thus making it more funny than the words themselves. One such
example is "We're Very Fussy on the Radio." Some of the lines goes
something like this . . .
"And while the villain may persue her,
he never gets to (NBC Chimes, Bong! Bong! Bong!)
Oh we're very fussy on the radio."
and . . .
"But if we swear it'll cause a rukus
and the FCC will (NBC Chimes, Bong! Bong! Bong!
And they're very fussy on the radio."
They circulate among collectors for anyone wanting to seek out how humorous
the NBC Chimes were placed in comedy. And I'm not even considering the old
Three Stooges gag where they each drop one of the big black balls attached
to their prison chains and one by one they do the NBC [removed]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:14:42 -0500
From: James Meadows <walthamus@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: RE: Lord of the Rings on Radio
I remember listening to the BBC "Lord of the Rings"
in the 1980s over public radio station WCBU in Peoria
IL. I believe NPR distributed it, and going by Michael
Shoshani, it must have been the 1981 version. It was
quite good, and I found it as enjoyable as I've found
the Peter Jackson movie version today. Despite its
length, the radio version, like the movie, could find
no room for Tolkein's Tom Bombadil character.
Jim Meadows
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:15:22 -0500
From: Robert Angus <rangus02@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: bread slicing and kids' shows
"The best invention since sliced bread". An oft-overlooked invention is
the commercial bread slicer, which came along only a few years before
the first kids' adventure shows hit the airwaves (roughly 1926 and 1932
respectively, if memory serves). Proir to the commercial bread slicer,
most bread was dark in color and baked either in the home or in small
neighborhood bakeries. As I understand it, white bread as we know it
was impractical to bake in these small ovens. With the coming of the
bread slicers large commercial bakeries serving an entire city became
practical (Bond, Ward's, Silvercup and their kin). So was the slicer
responsible for the commercial bakeries and were the bakeries
responsible for the kids' shows (Lone Ranger comes immediately to mind;
when I first heard it in the 1930s it was sponsored in different markets
by different bread companies).
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:17:55 -0500
From: "Austotr" <austotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: The Key
G'Day Folks,
A friend of mine on this list, purchased a couple of reels from John Edwards
at FOTR, they were numbered 2, 3, We are hoping someone else here bought
reel 1 and maybe 4 and wants to trade the contents. The contents on reels
2, 3, include 20 episodes of an Australian self contained series called The
Key. It was an ARC production and was first broadcast in Australia 13th
December 1957. Thats all the information in our database. I do not know
how many episodes were made at this stage. The style is very similar to The
Clock, top Australian Radio Actors of the day were in the cast, including
Harp McGuire. Unfortunately there were no episode numbers included on the
reels, but the Transcription Discs must be somewhere.
It would appear that no examples of The Key survive in Australia, the
Archives have none and enquiries to collectors indicate the same. If
someone has Low Gen audio episodes of this or any other Australian Series,
please contact me off list as I am happy to organise a trade or exchange of
prisoners.
If collectors have Australian Episodes they do not want to sell, trade or
copy, then please, pass on the information on the label so we can include
the information in our database project.
In the 6 years or so that I have been involved in this hobby, we have moved
from very little correct information on Australian OTR to now a database of
over 5,005 series/serials. Whilst there are still more series/serials to be
listed, we are trying to flesh out the information on each episode of those
series/serials and the over 2,000 Actors and other people involved in
Australian OTR production. The database is not my creation, it is the
creation of Moris Sztajer and every bit of information we glean from the
various conversations, collectors holdings, research etc, gets thrown to
Moris. He spends all his spare time in his state Library researching. To
have achieved over 5,000 Australian series/serials databased is an amazing
feat. But we are always looking for more information.
Each day when I am answering the questions on Australian OTR in my inbox, I
have the database open. When I clean transcriptions prior to recording, I
am writing down the episode information and sending it to Moris. In this
way it adds to our collective knowledge and helps me to answer the email
questions I get each day. The tough ones I throw to the panel of collectors
to see if there is a known answer.
Please, if you find any Australian episodes or suspected Australian
episodes, contact me and I will do my best to tell you what it is you have
found and the information that the Australian Old Time Radio Group hold on
that series/serial.
Its not all about the Discs, its about what is on them.
Please keep an eye out for The Key.
Ian Grieve
Moderator
Australian Old Time Radio Group
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:16:48 -0500
From: Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Rare syndicated series?
On Monday, November 14, 2005, at 02:02 PM, speaking of "Meyer the
Buyer"Paul Urbahns wrote:
If it was syndicated this series will probably have to go down as one
of the
few syndicated series were no episodes have survived.
Actually, that's a common misperception, thinking if a show was
syndicated, some copies "must" have survived. What the heck, they were
all on transcription disks, so they must be around somewhere?
While the syndicated shows definitely have a much higher survival rate
than the regular network stuff, this does not mean that all but a few
of them are still here for us to enjoy.
To illustrate, let's review the series from only one firm of the
approximately 100 companies that were in the syndication business in
the high water mark of 1941: Conquest Alliance Company of New York and
Chicago. Here's several of their offerings that we have no episodes of:
Adventures in Christmas Tree Grove, Adventures of Sir Kinmore Kinik,
Adventures of Robin Hood, Armchair Radio Romances, Belle and Martha,
Betty Borden, Congo Bartlett in Ethiopia, Girl Friend, Hollywood
Cinderella, Krausmeyer & Cohen, McCoy-Mendel Agency, Musings, Romance
Ahead, Romance of Song, Royal Intrigue, Today with Aesop, Treasure of
the Lorelei, What Would You Do?, White Eagles, and You Be the Judge.
It's evident that plenty of syndicated shows have disappeared, just
like their network [removed]
Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 20:06:55 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Two new OTR books
Apologies for the postings, I just got back from a week-long trip and came
across two books I had sent to me complimentary by friends. Both have OTR
themes and I am not sure if they were brought up on the digest but being
recently published I figured to make a mention.
One of KING OF THE COWBOYS, QUEEN OF THE WEST by Raymond E. White. The book
is a career biography featuring a wealth of material including a HUGE
chapter listing radio episodes of Roy Rogers' and Dale Evans' radio programs
with titles, dates, plots, etc. A discography of their LP records and the
numerous radio guest spots they did on other radio programs are included and
from what I've checked out, it's meticulous, detailed and as complete as I
have ever seen in years. Of course the book includes everything about Dale
and Roy, but the radio section is COMPREHENSIVE so it comes recommended.
University of Wisconsin Press. Retail is $[removed] but I have a flier and can
make a copy of the flier for anyone wanting to use it to place an order and
get 30% off.
The other book is THE ETERNAL LIGHT by Eli Segal. What was considered one
of the finest dramatic series on Sunday radio, this NBC radio program from
1944-1984 is documented with a lot of material including an episode guide
for the radio broadcasts including plot and story synopsis. The book can be
purchased at Yesteryear Press, Box 542, Newtown, CT 06470.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 20:07:21 -0500
From: "George Tirebiter" <tirebiter2@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Amos 'N Andy Music Hall
I've listened to most of the circulating A & A Music Hall shows in recent
years and I rather like them. I'm too young to remember pre-rock n' roll
50s popular music, but in recent years I've developed a taste for it from
listening to a couple of local stations that play it. The great thing about
the Music Hall is they tend to play what might be called "non-canonical" 50s
pop, in that most of the records on the Music Hall seem to be ones that
don't get played on stations today that include 50s music in their
programming, but they are equally as good.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 20:07:53 -0500
From: "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Meyer The Buyer
I didn't search very thoroughly but I couldn't find any mention of a
syndicated version of "Meyer the Buyer" in any of the old newspaper
databases I frequent. According to the papers, the series ran
Thursday nights on CBS in the last half of 1932, starting around
August. Stations that carried it at one time or another included: WABC
(premiered August 25, according to the New York Times), WNAC, WFBL,
WBBM, WCCO, WTAQ, WISN, WJAS, WHAS, KMOX, KHJ, WMAL. Teddy Bergman
played Meyer and Ruth Yorke played his wife.
A profile of Hershfield from the mid-1970s mentions in passing that
"Meyer" was "a Sunday comic" that ran in the New York Herald Tribune
and quotes the cartoonist's description of it as "a Republican version
of 'Abe Kabibble,'" one of his previous strips.
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #352
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