Subject: [removed] Digest V2007 #14
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 1/12/2007 10:03 PM
To: [removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2007 : Issue 14
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  1-12 births/deaths                    [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
  Colonel Robert McCormick              [ "Frank McGurn Jr." <[removed]@sbcg ]
  Col. McCormick bio - black actors     [ "karl tiedemann" <karltiedemann@hot ]
  WOR Towers                            [ "Bill Knowlton" <udmacon1@[removed] ]
  Changing of the guard                 [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
  1-13-births/deaths                    [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]

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

Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:19:43 -0500
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  1-12 births/deaths

January 12th births

01-12-1878 - Ferenc Molnar - Budapest, Austria-Hungary - d. 4-1-1952
playwright: "Fleischmann's Yeast Hour"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
01-12-1887 - Theresa Helburn - NYC - d. 8-18-1959
producer: Was the guiding light of "Theatre Guild on the Air"
01-12-1892 - Ed McConnell - Atlanta, GA - d. 7-24-1954
host, actor: Smilin' Ed McConnell Show"
01-12-1894 - Georges Carpentier - Lens, France - d. 10-27-1975
boxer: Dempsey vs. Carpentier first boxing match broadcast
01-12-1894 - Tommy Handley - Liverpool, England - d. 1-9-1949
comedian: Minister of Aggravation "It's That Man Again"; "Radio
Radiance"
01-12-1896 - Harry Reser - Piqua, OH - d. 9-27-1965
bandleader: "Cliquot Club Eskimos"
01-12-1902 - Joe E. Lewis - NYC - d. 6-4-1971
comedian: "Midnight to Dawn in New York and London"
01-12-1904 - Eddie De Lange - Long Island City, NY - d. 7-13-1949
musical director: "Honolulu Bound"; "Phil Baker Show"
01-12-1905 - Tex Ritter - Murvaul, TX - d. 1-2-1974
singer: "Lone Star Rangers"
01-12-1908 - Joan Burroughs - Chicago, IL - d. 12-31-1972
actor: (Daughter of Edgar Rice Burroughs) Jane "Tarzan"
01-12-1910 - Luise Rainer - Vienna, Austria or Dusseldorf, Germany
actor: "Linclon Highway"; "Yesterday's Children"
01-12-1910 - Patsy Kelly - Brooklyn, NY - d. 9-24-1981
comedienne: "MGM Musical Comedy Theatre"; "Screen Guild Theatre"
01-12-1911 - Lon Clark - Frost, MN - d. 10-4-1998
actor: Nick Carter "Nick Carter, Master Detective"
01-12-1912 - Sara Berner - Albany, NY - d. 12-19-1969
actor: Mable Flapsaddle "Jack Benny Program"
01-12-1915 - Martin Agronsky - Philadelphia, PA - d. 7-25-1999
newscaster: "The ABC Morning News"
01-12-1916 - Jay McShann - Muskogee, OK - d. 12-7-2006
jazz pianist and bandleader: "Jubilee"; "Jazz Alive"
01-12-1920 - Theodor Uppman - San Jose, CA - d. 5-17-2005
operatic baritone: "Bell Telephone Hour"
01-12-1923 - Ira Hayes - Gila River Indian Reservation, AZ - d.
1-24-1955
Iwo Jima flagraiser: "Interview programs"
01-12-1925 - Don Atlas - d. 12-28-2005
sportscaster: KLOK San Jose, California
01-12-1926 - Ray Price - Perryville, TX
singer: "Galaxy of Stars"
01-12-1930 - Glenn Yarbrough - Milwaukee, WI
singer: "Guest Star"

January 12th deaths

01-17-1899 - Nevil Shute - d. 1-12-1960
novelist: "Lux Radio Theatre"
01-23-1919 - Ernie Kovacs - Trenton, NJ - d. 1-12-1962
announcer, panelist: Monitor, "Where Have You Been?"
02-05-1901 - Arthur Sheekman - Chicago, IL - d. 1-12-1978
writer: "The Marx Brothers"
03-15-1932 - Ray Aparicio - d. 1-12-2006
disk jockey: KBUC Corona, California
03-16-1893 - Isobel Elson - Cambridge, England - d. 1-12-1981
actor: Jessie Hughes "Young Dr. Malone"
04-20-1914 - Betty Lou Gerson - Chattanooga, TN - d. 1-12-1999
actor: Mary Marlin "Story of Mary Marlin"; Charlotte Wilson "The
Guiding Light"
04-21-1923 - Tex Antoine - d. 1-12-1983
announcer: "The Eternal Light"; "Jane Pickens Show"
05-09-1908 - Leonard Sillman - Detroit, MI - d. 1-12-1982
producer: "New Faces of 1948"
06-07-1911 - Stanley Unwin - Pretoria, South Africa - d. 1-12-2002
sound engineer, commentator, actor: "Beyond Our Ken"
06-18-1904 - Keye Luke - Canton, China - d. 1-12-1991
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"; "Image Minorities"
07-09-1917 - Kay Aldredge - Tallahassee, FL - d. 1-12-1995
actor: "Maxwell House Coffee Time"
07-21-1925 - Anne Meacham - Chicago, IL - d. 1-12-2006
actor: "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
08-03-1903 - John S. Young - Springfield, MA - d. 1-12-1976
announcer: Foreign news for NBC in Nyw York
09-15-1890 - Agatha Christie - Torquay, England - d. 1-12-1976
author: Creator of "Hercule Poirot"
09-22-1932 - Allen Actor - d. 1-12-2004
disc jockey: Orlando, Florida
10-18-1911 - Helen Claire - Union Springs, AL - d. 1-12-1974
actor: Virginia Lansing "Backstage Wife"; Joyce Jordan "Joyce
Jordan,[removed]"
11-12-1884 - Griff Barnett - Blue Ridge, TX - d. 1-12-1958
actor: Rexall Family Druggist "Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show"
12-21-1917 - Rolly Bester - NYC - d. 1-12-1984
actor: "Tales of Tomorrow"

Ron Sayles

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

Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:20:00 -0500
From: "Frank McGurn Jr." <[removed]@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Colonel Robert McCormick
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

For more info. on McCormick search Goggle and you'll have a weeks reading. He
was really quite a man. The Chicago Tribune Had it own timber and paper mills
to produce the paper to print the paper on. The head quarter's Bldg was
designed by an architect that won a world wide competition. The tribunes Co.
owns TV stations and radio stations all over the country, as well as many
news papers. The call letters WGN stands for World Greatest Newspaper.

  The Chicago station WLS is for Wolds Largest Store , Sears Roebuck owner. I
guess if Wall-mart had a radio station it should have the WLS these days

  Frank McGurn

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

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

Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:41:17 -0500
From: "karl tiedemann" <karltiedemann@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Col. McCormick bio  -  black actors

A reputedly excellent biography of Col. McCormick appeared a few years back
entitled THE COLONEL:  THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF ROBERT R. MCCORMICK, 1880-1955
by presidential historian Richard Norton Smith.

On the subject of the gradual ascendancy of black actors:  I don't think
it's generally recognized that they were given a big boost in the 1950s by
an old radio hand, viz., Nat Hiken (THE FRED ALLEN SHOW, THE MAGNIFICENT
MONTAGUE, etc.).  The biggest hit of his career was THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW
(1955-59) and he consistently used black actors in a highly visible and
groundbreaking way:  Bilko's platoon always had at least one black member;
Billie Allen played one of the female secretaries in Col. Hall's office, and
in an episode concerng Bilko's production of a musical training film she was
featured in what was probably TV's first integrated chorus [removed]!  Most
notably, Hiken used Frederick O'Neal (founder of the American Negro Theatre
in 1940 and years later the first black president of Actor's Equity) in
several episodes as "Sgt. Birch".  In this role, O'Neal was explicitly
placed on the same level as "Grover," "Ritzik" and the show's other NCO
characters;  and the utter lack of condescension or self-consciousness that
the show displayed towards its black players was eloquently demonstrated in
a very funny sequence in which Sgt. Ritzik (Joe E. Ross) is confined to the
guardhouse and fellow sergeants Bilko, Grover and Birch try all manner of
gimmicks to reach him so they can take him in a card game.  At one point,
Bilko even resorts to dressing in drag, claiming to be Ritzik's wife.  This
is escalated when Grover comes in, having had the same bright idea.  Then:
in comes Sgt. Birch also dressed as a woman, topping the scene and, I should
think, providing network TV comedy with its first intimation of interracial
marriage!

Might not sound like much now, but things had come a long way from the days
when Fred Allen got hate mail for having Joe Louis on his show and allowing
the man to call him "Fred"....

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

Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 09:57:05 -0500
From: "Bill Knowlton" <udmacon1@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  WOR Towers

Lee Munsick's report on the WOR towers was fascinating, but I wonder where
the "new" towers are; how far away they are from the old site.

in the late 1960s, when I was stationed with the USAF at a remote site, 663
Fifth Ave NYC (!), I was a public affairs officer, and had some occasions to
escort an Air Force member to WOR for an interview at 1440 Broadway.

I remember the ancient Art Deco reception desk, precided over by a huge
woman, appropriately named Belle Armor, who could have professionally
guarded the River Styx.

NOBODY got past Belle, and into the studios, without her seal of approval.

I remember sitting in on the Barry Farber Show (He's still subbing on talk
shows), and once bringing Gen. George C. Kenney up to the Fitzgerald's
apartment to be interviewed on the 25th anniversary of the end of WWII. I
still have a tape of that somewhere.

I also escorted USAF interviewees to the McCann program, the Arlene Francis
Show, and all the way up to New Rochelle for Peter Lind Hayes & Mary Healy's
remote daily broadcast.

Ah, memories!

BILL KNOWLTON

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

Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 21:02:10 -0500
From: <otrbuff@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Changing of the guard

The Chattanooga Old Time Radio Club is experiencing a rare shift of
leadership.  Bob Axley, who to many of us outsiders has been the backbone of
that organization and was instrumental in its founding in the early 1990s,
is stepping down as both club president and editor of Chattanooga Airwaves,
the troupe's monthly newsletter.  That journal has attempted to cover many
facets of OTR life, incorporating past and current news of interest to its
members.  Axley and his wife will soon be moving to a retirement home
currently under construction at Anniston, Ala., too far removed from
Chattanooga for him to maintain regular ties.  That group will surely miss
his dedication and fortitude in preserving OTR in that geographical
territory.  With the exception of the narrowly-focused Lum and Abner
assemblage in Mena, Ark., the Chattanooga brigade may be the only cluster
with our passion currently operating in the deep South.

Correspondence to the club, for now, should be addressed to Jim Adams,
Secretary-Treasurer, 1340 Woodsage Dr., Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379, (423)
843-2869.  Mike Utz (address unknown) is expected to edit the newsletter at
least temporarily.  An election of officers is scheduled for the club's
February meeting.

When founding fathers of OTR clubs leave the scene it is great if there is
sufficient interest to continue what they have begun.  When Tom McConnell
died three years ago this month, the Louisville area club was able to
persist, albeit with a small membership.  A few other clubs have done
likewise.  The Chattanooga crowd has an opportunity to carry on a proud
tradition.

Jim Cox

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

Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 00:02:15 -0500
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  1-13-births/deaths

january 13th births

01-13-1882 - Domenico Savino - Tranto, Italy - d. 8-8-1973
composer/conductor: "Evening in Paris"; "La Palina Smoke Dreams"
01-13-1884 - Sophie Tucker - Russia - d. 2-9-1966
singer: (The Last of the Red Hot Mammas) "Sophie Tucker and Her Show"
01-13-1895 - Campbell Arnoux - d. 11-1-1966
announcer: Uncle Billy "Uncle Billy"
01-13-1901 - A. B. Guthrie - Bedford, IN - d. 4-26-1991
author, screenwriter: "NBC University Theatre"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
01-13-1903 - Charles Kullman - New Haven, CT - d. 2-8-1983
singer: "The Palmolive Beauty Box Theatre"
01-13-1903 - Kay Francis - Oklahoma City,  Oklahoma Territory - d.
8-26-1968
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
01-13-1909 - Danny Barker - New Orleans, LA - d. 3-13-1994
jazz guitar: "This Is Jazz"
01-13-1910 - Jack Mercer - d. 12-4-1984
actor: Popeye "Popeye the Sailor"
01-13-1913 - Jeff Morrow - NYC - d. 12-26-1993
actor: "Electric Theatre"
01-13-1913 - Paul Birch - Alabama - d. 5-24-1969
actor: Radio work in St. Louis under the name of Paul (Lowery) Smith
01-13-1914 - Stanley Waxman - Ohio - d. 9-27-1998
actor: "Escape"; "Man Called X"; "Tell It Again"; "Presenting Charles
Boyer"
01-13-1915 - Mahlon Aldridge
sportscaster: Missouri
01-13-1918 - Steve Dunne - Northampton, MA - d. 9-2-1977
actor: Sam Spade "Advs. of Sam Spade"
01-13-1919 - Robert Stack - Los Angeles, CA - d. 5-14-2003
actor: "Family Theatre"; "Lux Radio Theatre"; "Screen Guild Theatre"
01-13-1925 - Gwen Verdon - Culver City, Los Angeles, CA - d. 10-18-2000
actor, singer, dancer: "Stagestruck"; "WOR Diamond Jubilee"
01-13-1930 - Frances Sternhagen - Washington, [removed]
actor: "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"

January 13th deaths

02-02-1882 - James Joyce - Dublin, Ireland - d. 1-13-1941
author: "NBC University Theatre"
02-09-1915 - Charlotte Holland - d. 1-13-1997
actor: Nita Bennett "Lone Journey"; Nora Drake "This is Nora Drake"
02-26-1922 - Margaret Leighton - Barnt Green, England - d. 1-13-1976
actor: "Variety Playhouse"; "Pocket Theatre"
03-16-1859 - Alexander Popov - Turinsk Districk, Russia - d. 1-13-1906
One of the claimants for inventor of radio (along with Marconi and de
Forest)
04-03-1920 - Stan Freeman - Waterbury, CT - d. 1-13-2001
pianist, composer: "Piano Playhouse"; "All Night on NBC"
04-10-1897 - Eric Knight - Menston, England - d. 1-13-1943
writer: "Everyman's Theatre"
04-21-1914 - Norman Panama - Chicago, IL - d. 1-13-2003
writer: "Pepsodent Show starring Bob Hope"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
04-24-1871 - Blanche Ring - Boston, MA - d. 1-13-1961
actress/singer: "Fight Camp"; "Jumbo"
05-11-1911 - Doodles Weaver - Los Angeles, CA - d. 1-13-1983
comedian: (Brother of Pat Weaver) Professor Feedlebaum "Spike Jones
Show"
07-05-1911 - Richard Newton - Vancouver, Canada - d. 1-13-2006
actor: "Now Hear This"
07-09-1881 - Samuel "Roxy" Rothafel - Stillwater, MN - d. 1-13-1936
emcee: "Roxy's Gang"; "Roxy Revue"
07-13-1934 - Philip Crosby - California - d. 1-13-2004
actor: "Bing Crosby Show"
07-15-1920 - B. H. Anderly - d. 1-13-1998
newscaster, disk jockey: KLIZ Brainerd, Minnesota
07-22-1908 - Shirley Howard - d. 1-13-1988
singer: "Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou"
09-13-1880 - Jesse L. Lasky - San Francisco, CA - d. 1-13-1958
film producer, host: "Gateway to Hollywood"
09-23-1889 - Don Bestor - Longford, SD - d. 1-13-1970
bandleader: "Nestle Program"; "Jack Benny Program"
11-04-1896 - Harry Woods - North Chelmsford, MA - d. 1-13-1970
compser: "Great Moments to Music"
12-22-1901 - Andre Kostelanetz - St. Petersburg, Russia - d. 1-13-1980
conductor: "Chesterfield Hour"; "Light Up Time"; "Pause That Refreshes"

Ron Sayles

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #14
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