------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2006 : Issue 346
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
12-9 births/deaths [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
More on Sitcoms [ "Frank McGurn" <[removed]@sbcgloba ]
House in Cypress Canyon [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
Headphones at home [ "david rogers" <david_rogers@hotmai ]
Sitcom and Peg [ "Bob Burchett" <haradio@[removed] ]
This week in radio history 10-16 Dec [ "Joe Mackey" <joemackey108@adelphia ]
Visuals on radio [ "Joe Mackey" <joemackey108@adelphia ]
Blackhawk [ "Barbara Harmon" <jimharmonotr@char ]
SUSPENSE LORE [ PURKASZ@[removed] ]
Charlie Cantor items [ "karl tiedemann" <karltiedemann@hot ]
Blackhawk (or Black Hawk) [ Art Chimes <[removed]@[removed] ]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 22:23:51 -0500
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 12-9 births/deaths
December 9th births
12-09-1897 - Herb Lytton - d. 6-26-1981
actor: Bill Johnson "Gallant Heart"
12-09-1897 - Hermione Gingold - London, England - d. 5-24-1987
actor: "Stagestruck"
12-09-1902 - Joe Quillan - d. 12-xx-1983
writer: "The Eddie Cantor Show"; "Our Miss Brooks"
12-09-1902 - Margaret Hamilton - Cleveland, OH - d. 5-16-1985
actor: Aunt Effie "Couple Next Door"; "The Free Company"
12-09-1903 - Brace Beemer - Mount Carmel, IL - d. 3-1-1965
actor: Lone Ranger "Lone Ranger"
12-09-1903 - Matty Malneck - Newark, NJ - d. 2-25-1981
bandleader: "Campana Serenade"; "Duffy's Tavern"
12-09-1904 - Jerry Lesser - Cleveland, OH - d. unknown
actor: Dr. Benson "Life of Mary Sothern"; Brocco "Fight Camp"
12-09-1905 - Dalton Trumbo - Montrose, CO - d. 9-10-1976
writer: (member of infamous Hollywood Ten); "Arch Oboler's Plays"
12-09-1906 - Freddy Martin - Cleveland, OH - d. 9-30-1983
bandleader: "Penthouse Serenade"; "Fitch Bandwagon"; "Jack Carson Show"
12-09-1906 - Ken Niles - Livingston, MT - d. 10-31-1988
announcer: "Hollywood Hotel"; "Rudy Vallee Show"; "A Date with Judy"
12-09-1909 - Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. - NYC - d. 5-7-2000
actor: "Silent Men"; "This Is War"; "We Care"
12-09-1911 - Broderick Crawford - Philadelphia, PA - d. 4-26-1986
actor: "Hedda Hopper Show"; "Hallmark Playhouse"; Cavalcade of America"
12-09-1912 - Bartlett Robinson - NYC - d. 3-26-1986
actor: Walter Manning "Portia Faces Life"; Perry Mason "Perry Mason"
12-09-1915 - Bob Emerick - Tacoma, WA - d. 6-1-1973
announcer: "Two Thousand Plus"; "Mr. Feathers"; "Special Agent"
12-09-1915 - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf - Jarotschin, Posen, Germany - d.
8-3-2006
singer: Austrian Radio
12-09-1916 - Kirk Douglas - Amsterdam, NY
actor: "Doris Day Show"; "Hollywood Byline"; "Screen Director's
Playhouse"
12-09-1918 - George Heinemann - d. 8-21-1996
creator: "Faces in the Window"
12-09-1919 - Gil Rodin - Russia - d. 6-17-1974
saxophone: "The Bob Crosby Show"
12-09-1925 - Patricia Wheel - NYC - d. 6-3-1986
actor: "Stroke of Fate"; "Crime and Peter Chambers"
12-09-1927 - Benny Green - Leeds, England - d. 6-22-1998
musician, conversationalist, writer: ""Stop the Week"; "Kaleidoscope"
12-09-1928 - Dick Van Patten - Richmond Hill, Queens, NY
actor: Wilfred Finnegan "Duffy's Tavern"; "Let's Pretend"; Jimmy
Dugan "Reg'lar Fellers"
12-09-1934 - Dame Judi Dench - York, England
actor: Renaissance Theatre Company in association with BBC Radio Drama
December 9th deaths
01-03-1898 - John Loder - London, England - d. 12-9-1988
actor, host: "Crime Does Not Pay"; "Silver Theatre"
01-07-1922 - Vincent Gardenia - Naples, Italy - d. 12-9-1992
actor: "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
01-22-1907 - Douglas Wrong-Way' Corrigan - Galveston, TX - d. 12-9-1995
intrepid pilot: "Believe It or Not"
02-29-1896 - William A. Wellman - Brookline, MA - d. 12-9-1975
film director: "Screen Director's Playhouse"
03-13-1898 - Donald MacDonald - Denison, TX - d. 12-9-1959
actor: Willie the Weep "Big Town"
03-21-1911 - Henny Backus - Philadelphia, PA - d. 12-9-2004
actor: "Romance"
07-16-1928 - Robert Sheckley - NYC - d. 12-9-2005
writer: "X-Minus One"
07-28-1916 - Laird Cregar - Philadelphia, PA - d. 12-9-1944
actor: "Hello, Americans"; "Radio Hall of Fame"; "Suspense"
08-06-1881 - Louella Parsons - Freeport, IL - d. 12-9-1972
commentator: "Hollywood Hotel"; "Louella Parsons"
08-08-1905 - Nino Martini - Verona, Italy - d. 12-9-1976
singer: "Seven Star Revue"
10-09-1912 - Walter Compton - Charleston, SC - d. 12-9-1959
quizmaster: "Double or Nothing"
11-21-1908 - Mary Young Taylor - Star Lake, NY - d. 12-9-1973
commentator: (The First Lady of Radio) "Martha Deane Show";
11-21-1921 - Vivian Blaine - Newark, NJ - d. 12-9-1995
actor, singer: "Lux Radio Theatre"
12-18-1909 - George Fisher - d. 12-9-1987
hollywood reporter: "Hollywood Whispers"; "Hollywood Gossip"
12-25-1909 - Mike Mazurki - Tarnopol, Austria - d. 12-9-1990
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
xx-xx-1870 - Albert Ward - d. 12-9-1956
director: "Romance"; "Casey, Crime Photographer"; "Columbia Workshop"
xx-xx-xxxx - William Hiram Foulkes - d. 12-9-1961
presbyterian leader: mid-week inspirational talks
Ron Sayles
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2006 10:58:47 -0500
From: "Frank McGurn" <[removed]@[removed];
To: "The Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: More on Sitcoms
Elizabeth McLeod' s Definition of sitcom say it all. Take another look and
analyze it.
First, it's important to define terms. I define a "sitcom" as a program
heard in a weekly half-hour timeslot, dealing with continuing characters
in humorous situations. The episodes are essentially self-contained, and
although some plot threads may continue from episode to episode the
program does not depend on a continuing serial storyline for its appeal
I think it is very good, but I believe that she and others aren't listen to
the shows with both ears Fibber and Molly had a situation every week, and
it's loaded with comedy. Amos and Andy always had a situations Like Andy
lying about his income and filing with the IRS to impress his girl, and
trouble he get in with humor. Riley, Gildersleeve, Luigi, Ozzie & Harriet,
Halls of Ivy, Montague, Meet the Meeks, Miss Brooks, Alan Young, Henry
Aldrich, Little Margie. Date with Judy, Favorite Husband, Judy Canova, Mel
Blanc, and so on. All fit the definition of SITCOM. I am sure there are
others.
Some might say One man's Family, I think it's soap opera. You could stretch
and include Red Skelton's satire could be a [removed] humor or comedy was
subtle, not slapstick.
Lets' not over look 15 minute shows like Lum & Abner, Vic & Sade and Easy
Aces. They are certainly Sitcoms too.
Frank McGurn
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2006 10:59:42 -0500
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: House in Cypress Canyon
Someone asked:
> Was " House In Cypress Canyon" ever adapted for the SUSPENSE television
series and if so, is it available? Incidently, the most comparable
Hollywood
movie has got to be producer/director Robert Wise's 1963 "THE HAUNTING"
with
> Julie Harris. Like the SUSPENSE show, the house is the [removed]
Hard for me to see the comparison: _The Haunting_ was based on
Shirley Jackson's _The Haunting of Hill House_, and is about a team
of psychic researchers as best I can remember - and has a couple of
genuinely scary scenes with very little reliance on special effects -
whereas "The House in Cypress Canyon" is about a couple moving into a
haunted tract house. The latter story is pretty scary, too, but
almost incomprehensible as far as any cohesiveness of story line
goes; it has the quality of a nightmare, divorced from all logic,
rather similar to recent David Lynch movies. I understand it was
written by the author of the Doc Savage novels, Kenneth
Robeson/Lester Dent (I forget which is his real name), and was found
in the author's papers after his death. Perhaps he meant to go back
and refine the story, add a bit of structure to it, but didn't live
to do so; who knows. I recall the most remarkable thing about his
entertaining but campy Doc Savage stories was the way he was able to
pull half a dozen plot-lines together on the last page; the
ambiguities in this story seem to me to be very atypical.
BTW, I didn't see the beginning of this thread so likely this has
been commented upon, but among many strange aspects of this story is
that - if memory serves, always iffy - the real estate agent is
telling the story to his detective friend Sam Spade (identified by
first name and the fact that the voice was that of Sam Spade actor
Howard Duff). Or maybe I dreamed that part.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2006 11:00:18 -0500
From: "david rogers" <david_rogers@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Headphones at home
Somebody made a point about not liking to listen to OTR through headphones.
I just wanted to say that in my original post I did make the point about
listening with headphones whilst going out for a walk. When I am at home I
usually listen to shows through speakers so that my wife and I can enjoy the
shows together.
I also wanted to say something about the type of headphones that I use - in
case others are in the same situation as I am. I have a problem with the
canal in my ear and the ear drum in that they can become easily infected (I
can't go swimming any more). Using the heaphones that fit into the ear
itself may cause infection for me, therefore, I use headphones that hook
over the ear. That way nothing actually goes into the ear itself and so my
ears are a bit more protected.
It helps me and I pass it on for any others that maybe in the same
situation.
Love as always, David Rogers
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2006 11:00:31 -0500
From: "Bob Burchett" <haradio@[removed];
To: "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Sitcom and Peg
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Peg never claimed the tile. BBC did it on their own.
Bob Burchett
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------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2006 11:00:46 -0500
From: "Joe Mackey" <joemackey108@[removed];
To: "otrd" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: This week in radio history 10-16 December
>From Those Were The Days --
12/10
1927 - For the first time, famed radio announcer George Hay introduced the
WSM Barn Dance as The Grand Ole Opry.
12/11
1944 - The Chesterfield Supper Club debuted on NBC. Perry Como, Jo Stafford
and many other stars of the day shared the spotlight on the 15-minute show
that aired five nights a week. The show was sponsored by Chesterfield
cigarettes.
(Little humour here: The first display of the Northern Lights was recorded
in America. The sighting was made in New England on this day in 1719. The
report said that a mysterious face seemed to appear in the atmosphere; and,
since most aurora borealis displays occur in September and October and again
in March and April, this is very strange, indeed!
The green, red, and frost-white light displays occur most frequently when
there is a great deal of sunspot activity.
Old joke. Phil Harris and Alice Faye go to Alaska to see the Northern
Lights. While watching them Phil notices Alice yawning and asks, "Does the
aurora bore ya Alice?")
12/12
>From The [removed] --
1901 -- Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic
radio transmission in St. John's Newfoundland.
>From Those Were The Days --
1937 - The Federal Communications Commission was a bit upset with NBC. The
FCC scolded the radio network for a skit that starred Mae West. The
satirical routine was based on the biblical tale of Adam and Eve and, well,
it got a bit out of hand. So, following its scolding by the FCC, NBC banned
Miss West from its airwaves for 15 years. Even the mere mention of her name
on NBC was a no-no.
12/13
1942 - The characters of Allen's Alley were presented for the first time on
The Fred Allen Show. This particular segment of the show became very popular
and was used by Allen until 1949. Remember the stops along the way in
Allen's Alley? They were at the Brooklyn tenement of Mrs. Nussbaum, the
farmhouse of Titus Moody, the shack of Ajax Cassidy and the antebellum
mansion of Senator Beauregard Claghorn.
12/14
1953 - Fred Allen returned from semiretirement to narrate Prokofiev's
classic, Peter and the Wolf, on the Bell Telephone Hour on NBC.
12/16
>From Those Were The Days --
1949 - After a decade on radio, Captain Midnight was heard for the final
time. (Put your secret decoder badges away now, kids.)
Joe
----
Visit my homepage: [removed]~[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2006 11:01:22 -0500
From: "Joe Mackey" <joemackey108@[removed];
To: "otrd" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Visuals on radio
Randy Watts wrote --
The reason for the laughter is a mystery to anyone listening to the radio
version, because the reaction is based solely on what
Fred and Ethel look like when they come in.
Along these lines I have a question.
On Bob Hope's Pepsodent show there is a chorus singing the praises of
Pepsodent and how it helped poor Mariam have a better smile. During the
commercial there is a lot of laughter from the audience, which brings up
this question:
I assume this was all acted out on stage, rather than the singers merely
standing around a microphone.
What was Mariam doing? Walking? Smiling? Waving? Was the male chorus
walking leeringly behind her?
The picture I have in my mind was all walking around the stage, the
chorus singing and following her while she smiled and waved.
Joe
----
Visit my homepage: [removed]~[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2006 12:54:51 -0500
From: "Barbara Harmon" <jimharmonotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Blackhawk
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I HEARD the Blackhawk radio show when it was on ABC, probably about every
one of its few episodes. "Superman" was on twice a week, and Blackhawk once
a week in that time slot. Perhaps it started on Wednesday but I seem to
recall Superman was on Mondays and Wednesdays and Blackhawk was on Friday.
Just my memory, not exhaustive research. I do recall Blackhawk had one
different companion each episode - sometimes Andre, sometimes Olaf, etc.
But it was the same actor, just changing his accent. The show seemed to be
"okay", perhaps actually better than the short-lived half-hour Captain
Midnight.
In the movie serials, both Superman and Blackhawk were played by
the late Kirk Alyn. We were best friends for the last twenty years of his
life. There is a new deluxe DVD set of both of Kirk's Superman movie
serials from Warner Bros. It contains a documentary about Superman and
Kirk Alyn, hosted and narrated by five people - Don Glut, Bob Burns, Jan
Henderson, Gary Grossman, and myself, Jim Harmon. The image quality is
beautiful on the serials, and maybe too good on me - I did my segment just
getting over the flu, and I look it. But the whole boxed set is a wonderful
tribute to my old pal, Kirk, and I recommend it.
JIM HARMON
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------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2006 16:58:25 -0500
From: PURKASZ@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: SUSPENSE LORE
Martin Grams writes
In 1949, an actress drank a glass of blood in one SUSPENSE story,
and television viewers wrote in, upset over the scene, thus starting the
Auto-Lite concern.
As usual Martin is in possession of many and sundry factoids that only add
to the wonder and pleasure of OTR.
Now, after that titillating tale of blood cocktails Martin, what was the
name of THAT episode?
It does not ring a bell with me.
Loved the story of you giving him your KANE poster, autographed yet by Agnes
Moorehead. That was a treasure pal.
I met Robert Wise many years ago at a screening in Hollywood. The Sunset
Boulevard setting of the new Director's Guild theater featured a gathering of
those from the EARTH movie for a screening to benefit somebody I can't
recall.
Maybe it was the maiden voyage of the theater.
I met Patricia Neal and Bobby Gray whom I had worked with in a forgotten TV
show for Universal many years before. We both chuckled over our mutual
inability to recall what it was other than they threw us both in the same
limo to
drive to the set and none of us new what the hell we were going to do.
Wise was a gentle soul to be sure and really seemed to enjoy himself at the
screening.
I asked him about the radio version of the movie on Lux Theater and he
allowed as how Michael Rennie was really a major reason why the film worked.
His
quality as an actor and the gentle wisdom he imparted really was an offshoot
of Wise's own personality.
Thanks for that recall Martin.
Michael C. Gwynne
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2006 16:59:04 -0500
From: "karl tiedemann" <karltiedemann@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Charlie Cantor items
I seem to recall that many months back someone expressed interest in
material relating to Charlie Cantor. I assume that his appearance on, say,
the 1960 "Christmas shopping" episode of the Jack Benny television program
is pretty widely known, but recently two, more obscure, items have come my
way that I thought I might alert people to (apologies if these are
redundant):
Firstly, the 10-6-40 episode of a very engaging series called BEHIND THE
MIKE opens with a four minute scripted interview with [removed], as he
demonstrates several of his different voices. (Other episodes in this
series feature such old friends as Minerva Pious, Henry Morgan [very young],
and
Gertrude Warner).
Secondly, I acquired from [removed] a video containing the first 20
minutes or so of an episode of a 1950-51 Dumont variety series called STAR
TIME, which features Frances Langford and Benny Goodman. Charlie guest
stars and does a sketch-a combined parody of Robin Hood and Cinderella--
with that other hardy radio perennial, Ann Thomas.
Karl Tiedemann
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2006 20:23:29 -0500
From: Art Chimes <[removed]@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Blackhawk (or Black Hawk)
Craig somebody casts doubt on the very existence of the Blackhawk series
(Digest V2006 #345).
I have no firsthand knowledge, but I have found at least one standard
reference that mentions the series. According to Harrison Summers ("A
Thirty-Year History of Programs Carried on National Radio Networks in the
United States, 1926-1956," Ohio State Univ. 1958, reprinted Arno Press 1971),
"Black Hawk" (two words) was in its first season on ABC in January 1951,
airing Wednesday at 5:30 for a half-hour. As a sustaining show, it was not
rated.
It was not listed in January 1952.
Incidentally, is there any central archive of ABC Radio documents and records
from the OTR era (after it was spun off from NBC)?
-Art-
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2006 Issue #346
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