------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2002 : Issue 31
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
FM Band Location [ "Robert J. McKee" <mckee137@mindspr ]
Suspense Picks [ "Jimidene Murphey" <jimimark@[removed] ]
Re: Early Minstrel Acts [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
Hearst, Paley and Welles [ "Dave Walter" <fredallenfan@hotmail ]
Re: Misspelling Arthur [ Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed]; ]
Consider the Source [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
OTR and Engineering [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
The appeal of OTR [ "Scott D. Livingston" <sdl@[removed] ]
Re: crime solutions in OTR [ RadioCM25@[removed] ]
MCGEES' CAR [ FiremanRet@[removed] ]
Re: Phil Harris shows [ "Rodney w bowcock jr." <rodney-self ]
Minstrel shows and radio [ Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed]; ]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 11:20:29 -0500
From: "Robert J. McKee" <mckee137@[removed];
To: "Old Radio List" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: FM Band Location
[removed]
My dad was in radio receiver sales and repair from high school
days and as a youngster during WW II I can remember dad
bringing home a console radio with FM in it and putting an
antenna in the attic of that two story appartment building in
which we lived.
At that time FM broadcasting was in the 30 - 50 MHz band
and that move to 88 - 108 MHz was a nip in the bud for a
service that had hardly gotten started. Mostly as a simulcast
with AM broadcasters.
I remember dad being very disappointed with all those radios
that he had sold to folks being "obsolete" for FM reception.
Bob McKee
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 11:21:04 -0500
From: "Jimidene Murphey" <jimimark@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Suspense Picks
Ryan Osentowski wrote of Suspense picks:
The Hitch-hiker"- This is just a really cool ghost story, that doesn't
come off as too cornie. Orson Welles really does a good job of drawing us
into the character. His performance, combined with the eerie music and the
lonely atmosphere of the story, makes it a real chiller. I always felt this
piece of writing by Lucile Fletcher was much better than her more famous
work, "Sorry, Wrong Number.
One of the first (may have been the FIRST) of Rod Serling's unforgetable TV
Twilight Zones was Fletcher's "The Hitch-hiker". My friend, who gets the
SciFi cable channel, recorded a whole weekend's worth of Twilight Zones, and
when this one came up, I screamed (and I was alone in my living room at the
[removed]) "that's Suspense's Hitch-hiker." It was executed with every bit as
much suspense, spookiness, and panache as the radio show.
I also agree that however awesome Wrong Number is, Fletcher did other work
that was equally as awesome. I will admit though that Wrong Number is a
truly terrifying tale.
Informal poll: What's your top three Suspense shows? It will be hard to
narrow to [removed]
Jimidene Murphey
Keepin' It Alive
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 11:21:21 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Early Minstrel Acts
Dave Walter wrote:
However, Tosches does mention a weekly minstrel show, "Mr. Bones & Company,"
which apparently ran on the NBC Blue Network on Monday nights during the
summer of 1931, probably as a companion of sorts to "Amos 'n Andy" on the
same network.
Old fashioned minstrelsy was rampant on radio in the twenties and
thirties, and undoubtedly if Bert Williams had lived, I suspect he would
have had a significant radio career -- even though he would have had a
lot of competition in the burnt-cork category. Some of the other minstrel
acts on the air during this era included:
The WENR Weener Minstrels
The KOA Minstrels
The WGY Minstrels
The WSM Minstrels
The CNR Porters
The Joe Bren Minstrels (KYW) (Correll and Gosden themselves appeared as
end men in this company on a few occasions circa 1924)
The Fair Minstrels (also featuring Correll and Gosden, concurrent with
the first year of "Amos 'n' Andy" on WMAQ)
The Dutch Masters Minstrels (NBC)
The Crosley Burnt Corkers (WLW)
Hindermeyer and Tuckerman, aka the Gold Dust Twins (WEAF/Red/NBC)
Moran and Mack, the Two Black Crows (CBS) (who presented a serialized
version of their book "Two Black Crows in the A. E. F." which flopped
resoundingly)
Pop and Fizz (who actually were black, and were featured over WCKY,
Cincinnati)
Honeyboy and Sassafrass (KSAT, San Antonio)
Smokey Joe and Cinders (WSMB, New Orleans)
Rastus and the Professor (KLX, Oakland)
Miller and Lyles (CBS) (Legendary black musical-comedy team)
Whitman and Green (NBC) (Ernie Whitman and Eddie Green -- famous black
comics)
Pick and Pat (NBC/CBS, aka Molasses 'n' January)
Slo 'n' Ezy (Syndicated, and perhaps the most explicit A&A imitators of
all -- they not only did an appallingly crude swipe of the A&A format,
they closely duplicated the voice characterizations of Amos, Andy, and
the Kingfish in doing so. I have no idea who they really were -- but
would be interested in finding out. Although their storylines are awful,
their use of dialect was extremely skillful.)
But I've never come across a mention of a program specifically called
"Plantation Minstrels," although given how spotty the documentation of
1920s programming is, I wouldn't rule one out. I suspect, however, that
the program mentioned by Owens in his original posting is a pastiche
rather than a recreation of an actual show.
What I find most interesting about all these acts is how unlike them the
original A&A was -- one could argue that A&A stood out not because they
were a minstrel act -- but because they *weren't.* Although certain of
these acts -- Moran and Mack, Honeyboy and Sassafrass, and Slo 'n' Ezy
especially -- tried to follow A&A's example in telling a serialized
story, none of them managed to really bring their characters to life --
perhaps because of all radio's blackface acts, only Amos and Andy and
their friends were presented as real people and not mere joke-telling
minstrels. That more than anything else was the secret of their success.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 11:22:04 -0500
From: "Dave Walter" <fredallenfan@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Hearst, Paley and Welles
William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed]; writes:
I never see any mention of the fact that the Journal American newspaper
had a reporter in a press car parked in front of the studio building
every morning in an effort to get something on Arthur. Actually publisher
Randolph Hearst was not sore at Arthur but had a bug up his fanny against
Mr. Paley, due to Paley having married a former lady friend of Hearst.
I think there was another reason for Hearst's bug at Paley -- one dealing
with corporate politics in addition to personalities. If I recall correctly,
most of the Hearst Corporation radio stations were CBS affiliates (I
definitely know WISN in Milwaukee was one). And, of course, a continual
presence on CBS for over a decade was the voice of Orson Welles, who would
take the fame he received on CBS to RKO Radio Pictures in Hollywood, where
he made that little opus about, among other personalities, [removed] Hearst
himself, CITIZEN KANE. While it would have been easy enough for Hearst's ban
on newspaper advertising for RKO releases to spread over to Hearst's radio
properties, I have to wonder if most -- any? -- of Hearst's CBS affiliation
contracts wound up forcing Hearst to continue broadcasting Welles' radio
work, which would certainly be another irritant. This, of course, would be
in addition to Welles' frequent guest appearances on CBS programs,
particularly "Columbia Presents Corwin" and Fred Allen's "Texaco Star
Theater"/"Texaco Time."
In fact, for all the negative controversy the "War of the Worlds" broadcast
caused, Paley wound up being remarkably loyal to Welles in the dozen years
afterwards. That alone would probably also be a thorn in Hearst's side,
regardless of affiliation issues.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 11:22:34 -0500
From: Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Misspelling Arthur
Dont know why i do these things sometimes, but in my mind at the time of
posting, Arthur was spelled A-u-r-t-h-u-r, sorry
You are forgiven. After all, that's how announcer Tony Marvin
pronounced it.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 11:23:22 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Consider the Source
Ron Sayles, commenting on listening to OTR, notes,
What I do is play all my radio shows through a replica of a cathedral
style Philco. It is a real
radio, but I use it as a speaker. It may sound stupid, but it really does
take me back to the good old days.
Well, that's one approach. Another is to get a replica radio with a
cassette player (or audio CD player) built in. A more elegant approach
would be to get some sort of short-range broadcasting device such as a
phono oscillator and tune in to the show on one's replica.
Actually, the radios I used to hear OTR shows on were later than the
cathedral models. The only cathedral radio I ever listened to belonged
to my great aunt, and by the time I played with it, the OTR age was
mostly over.
Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 11:23:43 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: OTR and Engineering
After providing an example of a technical point that had changed because
of advancing technology, Christopher Werner asks,
My question: Can any of you think of other examples of events from OTR
programs that would not make any sense because of todays technology -
because of Engineering advances?
Well ... there's a problem about technical components in storylines.
Some of them didn't make any sense even when they were broadcast. I
recall a 2000 Plus program where the problem was to cope with fogbound
airports, and the solution was to dissipate the fog using ultrasonics.
Doesn't work now, and didn't work then. The Hop Harrigan adventure
serial "The Wailing Witch" had an impossible solution to the structural
stresses imposed on a Flying Wing, as any aerodynamicist of the time
would have recognized instantly. Those off the top of my head (I don't
include such absurdities as the Superman sequences where a nuclear
reactor was installed in -- and powered -- a model airplane); with a
little thought I could dredge up more.
However, there's a very serious problem here, which is level of
knowledge. No human being has in-depth universal knowledge. What
percentage of listeners would know of or care about those levels of
technical knowledge? More important, would these realistically fall into
Christopher Werner's criteria?
An alternate thought: there were a few pieces of clever technology
embedded in shows where they were unnecessary. In one Green Hornet
adventure, the hero and Kato discover that secret messages were being
transmitted by light that had been modulated by polarization. And the
reason they noticed it was that one of them was in their car, the Black
Beauty [trust a Reid to name a car after a horse :-) ], whose windshield
had the windshield treated with polarizing film to cut down glare. Now
both the idea of polarizing windshields and using polarization as a
modulator were cuting-edge then, and decades ahead of the late 1940s when
the show was aired. It might be that other prescient technological
nuggets can be found in OTR shows, and _that_ would be a good project for
National Engineering Week.
Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 11:24:15 -0500
From: "Scott D. Livingston" <sdl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: The appeal of OTR
I just have to jump in here and add my two cents worth. With everyone
commenting on how they bring back the old days I just had to tell about my
method. For Christmas my wife gave me a new replica of a circa 1938 Crosley
radio. It looks exactly like the real thing that my parents had in their
bedroom when I was growing up. The difference is that it has been updated
with an FM tuner and a CD player which is hidden under a liftable lid. With
input jacks in the back I have hooked up my Rio volt behind it so that I can
turn it on, have the glowing dial in the evening and play my MP3's through
it from my Rio Volt. I have also burned a bunch of CD's with OTR programs in
wav file format and listen to them directly from the hidden CD player. I
have burned several CD's with the programs in the sequence that they were
heard originally on a particular date and that way I am recreating the exact
programming from a given day. I never turn on the TV anymore in the evening.
I just turn on my radio and travel back in time to the early days of my
youth.
I love this hobby and thank all this who help keep it going - especially my
good friend Gary.
Fibber
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 11:24:41 -0500
From: RadioCM25@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: crime solutions in OTR
Although the same clue could still be used today, one, I think from a CBS
Mystery, was a car identified by its color in a night time crime.
Supposedly, and usually so, you can not necessarily catch the color of a car
in the dark
Chick Meyerson
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 11:24:55 -0500
From: FiremanRet@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: MCGEES' CAR
This may be more than readers want to know. If so, I apologize. Gary Shehan
Some
McGee shows in which they own a car ....
4/16/35 MOTORCYCLE COP, JUDGE, & FIBBER
4/30/35 HOT DOGS AND A BLOWOUT
8/26/35 HOUSE RAFFLE
11/14/39 TRAFFIC TICKET
11/28/39 FINANCE COMPANY AFTER CAR
1/16/40 NEW LICENSE PLATES - CAR STOLEN
10/29/40 NOTRE DAME VS ARMY
4/1/41 THE MISSING FENDER
12/1/42 MILEAGE RATIONING
11/13/45 FIBBER TEACHES MOLLY TO DRIVE
4/1/47 SAFE DRIVER MCGEE
10/21/47 LATE CAR PAYMENT
4/18/50 MANHOLE COVER
11/28/50 PARKING METERS
5/22/51 FIBBER RUNS A RED LIGHT
4/22/52 TRAFFIC COURT
11/25/52 POLISHING DOC'S CAR
3/10/53 SOMETHING FELL OFF THE CAR
4/21/53 DELIVERING A CAKE
6/9/53 TRAFFIC SAFTY CAMPAIGN
2/7/59 AN AUTUMN DRIVE
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 11:25:14 -0500
From: "Rodney w bowcock jr." <rodney-selfhelpbikeco@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Phil Harris shows
Currently, I'm listening to the 49-50 season of the Harris/Faye show. I
haven't gotten along to the later episodes (yet!) but I plan on it,
though I have heard from many other people that the show really dropped
in quality after the 50-51 season.
As for people that don't like the show, I didn't care for it either
during the first 3 or 4 I heard. But it grew on me as I adapted to the
rythem of it. Is it predictable? Yes, very. But it also has a sort of
charm to it that I find very inviting.
rodney.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 11:26:02 -0500
From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Minstrel shows and radio
Subject: RE: FAKED /RECREATED DOCUMENTARIES
"Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; writes:
I have another album called "Tonight At 8:30," a recreation of
a very early OTR show called "Plantation Minstrils." with
impersonations of Pic & Pat, Bert Williams, Benny Fields,
Honey Boy West, and other great Minstril men of the early days of radio.
From: "Dave Walter" <fredallenfan@[removed];
It would be rather unlikely (though not impossible) for
Bert Williams to have become an early radio star, as he
died in 1922. Certainly, his phonograph records could
have been played on the air, but how common was that
in the extremely earliest days of commercial radio?
Quite common. In the pre-industry days Fessenden, deForest, and Conrad
were well noted for playing records. Many individual stations used
records, to the point that in 1922 the Sec. of Commerce set up two
classes of stations whereby only the lower class was allowed to play
"mechanical reproductions". Thus started the prejudice against
recordings in the minds of some broadcasters, but the government soon
rescinded the prohibition and claimed that they would not penalize
stations for using recordings as long as they were identified as such.
As well, it's interesting to note that, in the index to Nick
Tosches' recent book on blackface singer Emmett Miller and
minstrelsy in general, WHERE DEAD VOICES GATHER, neither the
title "Plantation Minstrils" nor the other performers listed
above are mentioned at all.
Well, the people who put that album together certainly weren't scholarly
researchers or historians, so don't blame Owens for any inaccuracies of
the album! :-) But at the same time we should also note that Nick
Tosches is not noted for all-inclusive research, so I wouldn't ever
depend on his books as being the last word. He is an entertaining
writer who is known to occasionally go on flights of fantasy and
fictionalize events--perhaps he's been listening to "I Can Hear It Now"
re-creations too much!!
I have the disc of two Pic and Pat syndicated programs from around 1933,
and at the Edison Site there is a 1929 sample program of a proposed
syndicated Gold Dust Twins program of Goldy and Dusty that has some
elements of minstrelry. (I've heard rumors that these might be the same
performers, or maybe that was Molasses 'n' January?)
Benny Fields with his wife Blossom Seeley were great stars of vaudeville
and minor stars of radio. But since Benny Fields was still important
enough to have starred in the wonderful 1944 movie "Minstrel Man", and
for Fields and Seeley to be the subject of a 1952 biographical film
"Somebody Loves Me" starring Betty Hutton and Ralph Meeker, it is
illustrative of Tosches' research to have apparently ignored him. I
seem to recall that Honey Boy West was part of the team of Honey Boy and
Sassafras, who were also vaudeville and movie performers, but I'm
hitting a dead end on further information.
However, Tosches does mention a weekly minstrel show, "Mr. Bones
& Company," which apparently ran on the NBC Blue Network on
Monday nights during the summer of 1931, probably as a companion
of sorts to "Amos 'n Andy" on the same network.
There were some other shows, some local and some syndicated, but
minstrel shows as a genre in general was dying out and old fashioned
even by the late teens. I really see the occasions where the
traditional minstrel show was presented after that as a form of
nostalgia. Yes, nostalgia, even in the 1920s! There might be minstrel
show skits and segments within longer variety programs, so that is one
reason why not too many individual programs would be listed specifically
as minstrel shows. In addition to the aforementioned programs with Pic
and Pat, Molasses 'n' January, The Gold Dust Twins, there also was
Colonel Stoopnagel and Budd ([removed] Taylor and Willard Budd Hulick)
but I do not know how closely any of these stuck to the outdated
minstrel show format. There was a recording that might have been a
syndicated series called "Al Bernard's Merry Minstrel Show" but
songwriter and publisher Joe Davis insisted to me that this was not an
old transcription but was recorded especially for the record album he
put out of it in the mid-40s--but it sounds too much like Al Bernard's
1920s records.
There was another wave of nostalgia in the 1950s about this form of
entertainment, and the album Owens has is part of this. There were a
bunch of LPs of this type, two on Epic, one on Somerset/Stereo Fidelity
(this might be the one Owens has), and Bill Cullen was the MC of one on
ABC Paramount. The album cover photo of Cullen in the white tuxedo is a
classic! In England in the 50s and 60s there was a long running BBC-TV
program and LP series "George Mitchell's Black and White Minstrel
Show". The men were in blackface but the women were NOT. I wonder how
our Southerners would have reacted to THAT image!
Along these lines, although some of you might consider it off-topic to
mention this, TVLand is airing a 3-part documentary "African Americans
In Television" starting next Friday, and from the looks of the large
article about it in today's Lexington Herald-Leader, "Amos 'n' Andy"
might not fare too well in it. The first episode on Feb 1 is about
variety programs, so that might mention the subject at hand. On the
15th they discuss dramatic programs, and on the 22nd comes the episode
on comedy where Amos 'n' Andy might be mentioned.
[removed]
(but as Charlie might say, remember to turn those cookies off--this site
just loves to load 'em into your computer.)
Michael Biel mbiel@[removed]
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #31
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