Subject: [removed] Digest V2004 #91
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 3/12/2004 2:55 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2004 : Issue 91
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  FWD: The tributes to my father        [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]
  Virgil Reimer                         [ DanHaefele@[removed] ]
  Cincinnati Convention                 [ "Bob Burchett" <haradio@[removed] ]
  Any interest in these shows?          [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
  First Television Sets                 [ Gerald Serrino <gserr@[removed]; ]
  Archie Andrews radio show             [ "William Schell" <bschell@[removed] ]
  A question for the OTR scholars       [ "Harry Machin Jr" <harbev5@earthlin ]
  Was Charlie McCarthy Real?            [ George Aust <austhaus1@[removed] ]
  "King for a Day" Moment               [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
  Jack Benny and George Burns           [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
  Re: Lower Case Ed                     [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
  Re: Lower Case                        [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
  Re: Halls of Ivy                      [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
  Palatine?                             [ Gsgreger@[removed] ]
  The Clock                             [ "Austotr" <austotr@[removed]; ]
  3-12 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  Back again:                           [ "Bob and Carol Taylor" <shadowcole@ ]
  "King for a Day"--The Musical         [ "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed]; ]
  crystal sets                          [ "Jim Harmon" <jimharmonotr@charter. ]
  Benny/Allen Feud                      [ kclarke5@[removed] ]
  Pure Crystal!                         [ BH <radiobill@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 21:43:58 -0500
From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  FWD: The tributes to my father

Folks;

   I received this note, which I joyfully share with all of you.

- ---

As Harry Bartell's daughter, I am basking in the reflected glow of all your
kind tributes posted on the Digest.  I have read them all, printed many, and
want to express my appreciation for your thoughts.  From the simple use of
Dad's own "struts and frets" quote used by Scott Rogers to the elaborate
passages by the OTR gurus and historians, they all touched me.  In his final
days, my father said what he had most wanted to be was a good actor and a
good person.  He wanted to help others.  From what you all have said, he
achieved that goal.  Sometimes almost his very words jumped off the screen
at me.  He would be so pleased.

I think Dad was sometimes overwhelmed by the responses from people out
there, especially after my mother passed away two years ago.  (Incidentally,
for any who don't know and may have wondered, "harverly" was a combination
of their two names, Harry and Beverly.)  He was surprised too to suddenly
have become a star after all these years.  After all, when he was doing
those radio shows, he was simply a working actor, even if he did have "star'
billing on some shows.  I do think though that sometimes his "aw shucks"
attitude barely masked how pleased he was at the attention he received these
last few years

I have a collection of Dad's shows, so I can hear him again, even though he
is gone.  Please do the same and continue to enjoy his performances.  And
while you are listening, feel free to have a glass of something.  I don't
think Petri wine still exists, but sherry, which he drank, will do nicely,
or some other beverage of choice.

Cheers OTR!
Judie Bartell

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 21:26:09 -0500
From: DanHaefele@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Virgil Reimer
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In a message dated 3/10/2004 4:39:35 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
[removed]@[removed] writes:

Mark Kinsler asks:

You mean that there really wasn't a sound-effects man
named Virgil Reimer?

Yes, he was a sound effects man at NBC in the 30s and 40s.  I met him and 
borrowed pictures from him which I used in one of SPERDVAC's radio magazines (not 
to be confused with the newsletter).

Dan Haefele

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Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 21:41:13 -0500
From: "Bob Burchett" <haradio@[removed];
To: "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Cincinnati Convention
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Had lunch at the hotel today, and they say we have 20 rooms
left in our block of rooms they hold for us. They didn't know
why we were told they were gone. So Rick you can still
get a room, and not stay at the Baymont which is right
across the street from the Best Western.
Bob Burchett

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 21:59:16 -0500
From: JackBenny@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Any interest in these shows?

Was recently approached by a person with some homemade discs of radio shows.
I can only speak to his Benny show, but is anyone interested in any of the
others?  If so, please contact me offline.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi,
I have a recording of the Jack Benny broadcast from April 14, 1947.  My
Grandfather was into electronic gadgets and recorded the broadcast on 78-rpm
disc.
Alas my turntable is unable to play it.  As a kid, I remember my Dad playing
it.  I also have what appears to be the entire Song of the South broadcast on
2/1/47, Dagwood broadcast on 4/13/47 and Prince Albert 2/1/47.  I don't know
if these are of interest to anyone.  I wish I had a 78 player, I would
transfer
them to CD.
Bill

--Laura Leff
President, IJBFC
[removed]

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 21:59:29 -0500
From: Gerald Serrino <gserr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  First Television Sets

While I am told TV was commercially in existence prior
to 1946, that was when I first saw it as a boy of
eight years old. Our first set was a Dumont and this
company also owned the major TV network of the same
name. Hallicrafters, a company which had made
electronics gear for the navy also made TV sets. The
picture, though referred to as black and white really
had a bluish tint to it. And it was all of ten inches
in diameter. The picture quality also was snowy and
left something to be desired. But, at that time, who
would have believed it was possible to transmit
pictures through the air. In Pittsburgh, the Dumont
Network was Channel 4. Milton Berle and Morry
Amsterdam, two comedians had variety shows that were
very popular. Morry Amsterdam many years later would
play a supporting role in the Bob Newhart Show. Milton
Berle made a fortune from Texaco starring on their
show. In time, there were children's shows and
detective and drama all offered. However, you didn't
have near the comercials we have today.

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 23:36:30 -0500
From: "William Schell" <bschell@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Archie Andrews radio show

I just fnished reading and enjoying Harlan Stone's book [removed], Archie!
Re-laxx!  It left me with a couple of questions.  Perhaps they were covered
and I am having a "senior moment". Anyway,  When was the last broadcast of
the  Archie Andrews Show?  Was the final show announced as the end of the
series ?   What brought about the end, TV, lack of sponsors ? Maybe Hal
Stone will read this and provide me the answers.
Bill Schell
Magalia, Ca

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

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 00:10:50 -0500
From: "Harry Machin Jr" <harbev5@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  A question for the OTR scholars

I remember, when quite young, that there was a slogan preceding
LS/MFT.  I think it was also a combination of letters, too.  The
new slogan was introduced as a puzzle to the radio audience.
The slogan LS/MFT was given, and the puzzle was to guess what
those letters stood for.  As I said, I was very young, and I can't
remember what the previous slogan was.  Can any OTR scholar
or old-timer come up with those letters (and what they stood for)?

Harry Machin Jr
harbev5@[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 09:38:53 -0500
From: George Aust <austhaus1@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Was Charlie McCarthy Real?

While Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy may have been seen in photgraphs
and in movies, for many of us who were too young to have been exposed to
those images we had only the radio to judge the reality of the character.
Charlie McCarthy is my earliest radio memory. I must have been listening
more closely than my parents when the next day after a radio show I was
still laughing about Charlie McCarthy eating peas with a knife. They
were amazed because they apparently hadn't heard that particular skit,
also because I was between 2 and 3 years old( if I am correct). Does
anybody know of such an episode in the 1939-1940 time frame?
Anyway I don't know how old I was when I found out that Charlie was a
puppet, but I remember the initial disbelief. After all he had to be
real because he had a voice and spoke just like all those other real
people on the radio! Plus he had a great personality.
But after the truth sunk in I think that I found it amazing that Bergen
was able to perform two parts without getting mixed up.
 I even had a Charlie McCarthy wind up toy that would sort of dance
around while his mouth went up and down about a mile a minute. Later I
also had a Mortimer Snerd Puppet that came with a bunch of routines that
you were supposed to perform. I never quite got the hang of that.

George Aust

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

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 09:39:56 -0500
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  "King for a Day" Moment

Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 20:50:40 -0500
From: JackBenny@[removed]

Sorry, you run a fan club for a while and start to assume that
everyone knows about certain classic episodes.  Jack appeared on the
Fred Allen program, and Fred said that people are only interested in
shows that give away stuff.  The scene eventually segues into Fred's
own quiz progam, "King for a Day".

As it turns out, I do remember that episode.  I even have it on tape.  But I
didn't make the
connection from the cryptic reference to a "King for a Day" moment.

--
A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                           [removed]
 15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         [removed]

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

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 09:40:20 -0500
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Jack Benny and George Burns

Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 20:55:42 -0500
From: JackBenny@[removed]

It's an interesting comment.  I don't know of any figures that can
directly correlate the start of Jack's or George's programs to an uptick
in purchase of TV sets, but would like to see them if anyone knows of any.

>From the histories I've read, the two shows that particularly spurred sales of TV sets were 
Howdy Doody and Milton Berle.  While Jack Benny and George Burns certainly had their 
following, I haven't heard that they spurred the purchase of TV sets.  I'm not as familiar with 
Burns & Allen, but by the time Jack started, in 1950, a lot of people had TV sets, at least in 
those parts of the country that had TV stations.  Jack was only on once a month at that 
time.  It's hard to believe that a lot of people would have bought TV sets specifically in order 
to see Jack on TV once a month, particularly since they could still listen to him on radio 
every week.  The thing about Howdy Doody and Milton Berle was that they were NOT 
available on radio.

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

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 09:40:45 -0500
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re:  Lower Case Ed

Elmer Standish wrote:

I always thought it was archie the cockroach who
wrote only in lower case.

True, Elmer but the most noted lower case writer, at least among humans, was
the poet [removed] cummings.    When my shift key sticks and gives me trouble I
consider becoming a lower case writer too.

-Irene

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

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 09:41:12 -0500
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Lower Case

At 1:51 AM -0500 3/12/04, John Mayer wrote:
Elmer Standish <elmer_standish@[removed]; commented:
In regard to: ed (lower case) in [removed] Digest V2004
#88.

I always thought it was archie the cockroach who
wrote only in lower case.

Well, there was [removed] cummings, too. I always get him and Archie mixed up.

Check out the poem at:
[removed]

Looks like that was not really typed by Archie for his boss, Don
Marquis, but rather by Betsy Hanes Perry as an homage. I recommend
the original cockroach highly; amazing how prescient that arthropod
was about some things.

--

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

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 09:41:51 -0500
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re:  Halls of Ivy

Claire Connelly wrote re Halls of Ivy:

5-23-51    Cooks Night Out
10-24-51   Mrs. Why
11-14-51   The Halls Have Car Trouble
4-16-52    The French Exchange Student

Claire, of those 4 episodes I have only one, The French Exchange Student -
4/16/52

I too am a big Colman fan and love their appearances with Jack Benny as well
as on The Halls of Ivy.

Irene

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

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 09:41:59 -0500
From: Gsgreger@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Palatine?

Sorry for the flubs in issue 90.  Senior moment?  Of course our hero is
Paladin, not Palatine (where'd I get that?).

Gordon

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

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 09:42:18 -0500
From: "Austotr" <austotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  The Clock

G'Day again folks,

I have had a few emails on my request regarding the Broadcast of The Clock.
I understand about the 1946/8 broadcast of the [removed] series and the
documentation of the series at that time.

What I am after is documentation of the Australian Series of The Clock,
produced by Grace Gibson Productions.  I have the details I require for the
Australian Broadcast and will be making that available as soon as I finish
the project.

About 52 of the circulating 55 episodes of The Clock are the Australian
versions.  They have long been mistakenly identified as the [removed] 1946/8
series and I am trying to fix that error.  *IF* the Australian series was
broadcast in the [removed], then that is the information and dates I am after.  It
should be after 1955/6.

I thank everyone who has contacted me so far and I am sorry for making the
explanation confusing :)  I hope I can make it up by providing the correct
information.

Ian Grieve
Moderator
Australian OTR Group

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

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 09:42:25 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  3-12 births/deaths

March 12th births

03-12-1893 - Gene Morgan - Racine, WI - d. 8-13-1940
actor: Rex Marvin "Myrt and Marge"; Bill Taylor "All My Children"
03-12-1900 - Harlow Wilcox - Omaha, NE - d. 9-24-1960
announcer: "Fibber McGee and Molly Show"; "Suspense"; "Amos 'n' Andy"
03-12-1912 - Paul Weston - Springfield, MA - d. 9-20-1996
conductor: "Chesterfield Supper Club"; "Paul Weston Orchestra"
03-12-1916 - Mandel Kramer - Cleveland, OH - d. 1-29-1989
actor: Johnny Dollar "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar"
03-12-1921 - Gordon MacRae - East Orange, NJ - d. 1-24-1986
singer: "Texaco Star Theatre"; "Railroad Hour"

March 12th deaths

01-03-1908 - Ray Milland - Neath, Wales - d. 3-12-1986
actor: Ray McNutley "Meet Mr. McNutley"
06-03-1901 - Maurice Evans - Dorchester, England - d. 3-12-1989
actor: "Keep 'Em Rolling"; "Texaco Star Theatre"
08-10-1885 - Hugh Herbert - Binghamton, NY - d. 3-12-1952
actor: Pop "That's My Pop"
08-29-1920 - Charlie Parker - Kansas City, MO - d. 3-12-1955
jazz musician: "This Is Jazz"
08-31-1900 - Cedric Foster - Hartford, CT - d. 3-12-1975
commentator: "News and Commentary"
09-09-1898 - Frankie Frisch - The Bronx, NY - d. 3-12-1973
baseball broadcaster: (Baseball Hall of Fame) New York Giants
11-02-1886 - Philip Merivale - Rehutia, Manickpur, India - d. 3-12-1946
actor: Reverend Spence "One Foot in Heaven"
11-18-1899 - Eugene Ormandy - Budapest, Hungary - d. 3-12-1985
conductor: "Roxy's Gang"; "Phildelphia Orchestra"
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 09:42:39 -0500
From: "Bob and Carol Taylor" <shadowcole@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Back again:
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Hi every one,  I am Bob Taylor.

I just thought I'd better write to say that I was not around for a while.  We
had problems and had to re-format the computer.

I have a question,  I have 359 episodes of Dragnet from Otrcat.  How many am I
missing and can someone tell me where I may purchase the ones that I don't
have, if available.

Bob Taylor

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Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 09:42:57 -0500
From: "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  "King for a Day"--The Musical
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Hi gang:

With all this talk about Fred Allen, Jack Benny, and "King for a Day," I'm
reminded that there's a song from the OTR era also called "King for a Day."
Unfortunately, the only context with which I know it is its use in several
Warner Bros. cartoons. I believe Daffy Duck sings a verse of it in  the film
"What Makes Daffy Duck?" and  that  Bugs Bunny warbles a brief indecipherable
version of it in "Bugs Bunny and The Three Bears." The lyrics begin something
like "Life is but a dream,/ Make that dream supreme--/ You're KING FOR A
[removed]"

As always, I defer to everybody's favourite OTR-cum-animation historian
Michael "Mr. Dragnet" Hayde.

"Th-that's all from the ether!"

Derek Tague

[removed]: Do vulcanologists graduate "magma-cum-lava." L-A-V-A, [removed]

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Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 09:43:13 -0500
From: "Jim Harmon" <jimharmonotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  crystal sets
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Hello Again -- Lloyd Nesbitt got me to join the group after forwarding some
letters from people wondering if I were still alive.  I am (as you may have
guessed).   I'm coming up on 71 on April 21, walk with a cane, but do still
walk, thankfully.
    The mention of crystal sets struck my interest.  As a kid, I tried to
build crystal sets with the wire around the Quaker oats box, etc., but I could
never get them to work.   I think the trouble was I lived in Mt. Carmel Ill.
too far from any radio station.   The Johnston Smith company (still going, but
with only some faint echo of what we knew and loved) sold a tiny crystal radio
with a crystal and an arm with "cat's whisker" which you could move over the
surface of the crystal.  They were very cheap, either 25c or 50c.  The trouble
was you had to buy an earphone or earphones and they were $[removed] up -- big
money for a kid in the forties.   I did buy one -- but the usual, it couldn't
bring in anything but static.   Once or twice I thought I picked up a faint
strain of music but it might have been my imagination.   I still have one of
those tiny sets (but no earphone -- I dismantled that in some kind of
experiment).
    Much later, as a teen ager or even in my early twenties I had a pocket
rocketship radio that operated on a crystal inside, came with a modern
earphone that fit in your ear like a hearing aid.
You had to ground it to some big piece of metal like a radiator, stove, or
even a metal window screen.  This worked great, and would bring in three or
four stations in a metropolitan area.  I took it with me on travels, and often
used it in hotel rooms which did not routinely provide radios in the fifties.
It got cracked, and though not unusable, I threw it out with the trash one
day.   A couple of Christmases ago, my daughter Dawn who had heard me speak of
the gadget got me a modern reproduction of it.  But it just does not work.
When I told her that she went back to the store and went through a number of
them and none of them worked.  I have it for display, but it still doesn't
work.  I wish I hadn't thrown away my original rocket radio, even if it had
got banged up a bit it was proof -- if needed -- that crystal radios did
work.
-- JIM HARMON

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Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 11:33:37 -0500
From: kclarke5@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Benny/Allen Feud

     I've often wondered about the famous (infamous?)
feud between Jack Benny and Fred Allen.  Was there an
actual feud between the two or was this just an ongoing
ploy to provide the two with heightened ratings? Was
the answer to this questions ever REALLY known?

Kenneth Clarke
OTR Fan

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

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 14:47:34 -0500
From: BH <radiobill@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Pure Crystal!

Today, one can still build crystal sets.  If you're not a classicist,
though, it's possible to substitute a semiconductor diode for the galena
crystal.  They work with the current frequencies, if one is appropriate
in selection of capacitance and inductance.

One can find everything they need to build a crystal set from Antique
Electronic Supply at [removed]
click on KITS. They have kits using glena crystal as well as the modren
diode or the foxhole radio using a razor [removed]

Having said that, yes, it is quite possible to make a crystal or one-tube
radio set.  The latter has vastly better performance, but the tubes are
approximately impossible to obtain these days.

Tubes are still plentiful, AES has them and the kits to build one and
two tube regenerative sets.

Bill H.

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #91
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