Subject: [removed] Digest V2001 #314
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 9/25/2001 9:03 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2001 : Issue 314
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Epitaph                               [ sfx-meow@[removed] (Ray Erlenborn) ]
  William L. Spier Golden Microphone A  [ "David L. Easter" <david-easter@hom ]
  Re: Radio Movies                      [ Alan Bell <bella@[removed]; ]
  Re: Mea Culpa                         [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Uneducated 40s Radio listeners        [ OTRChris@[removed] ]
  Re: JACKSON BECK                      [ SanctumOTR@[removed] ]
  Re: Jackson "Bluto" Beck              [ "Michael Hayde" <mmeajv@[removed]; ]
  how people spoke                      [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
  Re: Jackson Beck                      [ Roo61@[removed] (Randy Watts) ]
  "Empire of the air"                   [ Richard Carpenter <sinatra@ragingbu ]
  OTR movies                            [ Michael Nella <serialous@[removed] ]
  The [removed] & Cheerios                   [ "Richard Pratz" <[removed]@home ]
  The Aldrich Family                    [ "Lee, Steve (DEOC)" <slee@[removed]. ]
  Digest:White Cliffs of Dover          [ JJLjackson@[removed] ]
  RE local news reporting               [ John Henley <jhenley@[removed] ]
  Epitaphs                              [ "David H. Buswell" <dbuswell@rivnet ]

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

Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 21:53:29 -0400
From: sfx-meow@[removed] (Ray Erlenborn)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Epitaph

The following was suggested to me years ago by Hans Conried.
                       ERLENBORN
                        ERLEN DIED
Corny but compact!
Ray

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

Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 21:54:12 -0400
From: "David L. Easter" <david-easter@[removed];
To: "Old-Time Radio Digest (E-mail)" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  William L. Spier Golden Microphone Award

Reported in the Science Fiction Weekly, [removed]:

The board of the Society of American Vintage-Radio Enthusiasts Inc., a
non-profit educational and archival society, has awarded its annual William
L. Spier Golden Microphone Award to The SCI FI Channel and Leonard Nimoy for
[removed]'s Seeing Ear Theatre <[removed];.


David L. Easter

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

Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 22:31:30 -0400
From: Alan Bell <bella@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Radio Movies

Philip Railsback describing an old Claude Rains movie:

he uses his radio
show as an alibi for murder.  That is, he couldn't have commited the murder
since he was on the air.

Many Digesters* will recognize that plot from the Whistler episode,
"A Brief Pause for Murder" heard on 9-11(!!)-46.


*[removed] come to think of it, anyone who eats is a digester, eh?
--
Alan Bell
Grandville, MI
bella@[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 23:19:47 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Mea Culpa

I referred to the notorious

Gordon A. Richards of WJR, Detroit, KMPC, Los Angeles, and WGAR,
Cleveland

when I should have referred to *George* A. Richards. Please make all
prior copy conform, as the AP wire would [removed]

Elizabeth

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

Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 23:20:51 -0400
From: OTRChris@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Uneducated 40s Radio listeners

Elizabeth writes:

 It's also important to note that people in general were poorly educated
 during the OTR era: as of 1940, only about 25 per cent of adults were
 high school graduates, and less than 4 per cent of adults had graduated
 from college. My grandfather, a typical Depression-era American, quit
 school in the eighth grade, and never worried too much about how precise
 his speech was

While the statistics are  probably   true I am not sure that it would have to
mean that people were any less educated than today. I am not saying that they
were not less educated. However, the statistics you used only gives  how many
years people were schooled.
Your conjecture that it  implies  that they were less educated would require
additional information before being more than merely an opinion.
For instance  I am  aware of some college educated people who have only about
the same education that my mother received  by her  10th grade year.  And
High School graduates who know less than her class did when they were only in
the 5th grade.
So quality of education is a factor in the equation also . I would say that
the poorly educated groups of the 40s are probably more educated today .
However, the educated groups are probably not as educated as their 1940s
counterparts. Again this is just my opinion and only based on my personal
observations.
Based on the radio programs of the 40s it would appear that certain kinds of
shows
could atleast attract somewhat of an audience for the classical music that
today's audience would not sit still for.
Would NBC of today ever broadcast  The Voice of Firestone, Standard Symphony
Hour,  General Motors Concerts  [removed]


Just my thoughts


-Chris

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

Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 23:21:23 -0400
From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: JACKSON BECK

In a message dated 9/24/01 9:13:00 PM, [removed]@[removed]
writes:

Am I right in thinking he was the voice of Bluto in the "Popeye" cartoons.
Was he also "Popeye?"

***Jackson Beck was indeed the voice of Bluto in approximately 300 POPEYE
CARTOONS, acting opposite Mae Questel (as Olive Oyl) and Jack Mercer (as both
Popeye and Bluto).  BTW, Mae Questel also provided the voice of Popeye
himself while Jack Mercer was in the service during WWII.

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

Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 08:24:42 -0400
From: "Michael Hayde" <mmeajv@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Jackson "Bluto" Beck

Asks Jim Stokes:
Am I right in thinking he was the voice of Bluto in the "Popeye" cartoons.
Was he also "Popeye?"

Beck became Bluto when Paramount's Famous Cartoon Studios moved back to NYC
from Florida in mid-1943, and the Popeye cartoons went to color.  He also
took on the role of Buzzy the Crow for Famous.

Popeye was mainly (and brilliantly) voiced by Jack Mercer, from 1935 to the
bitter, made-for-TV end.  Mae Questel was Olive Oyl from the catoons' 1933
beginning 'til the [removed] except during the Florida years (1939-43).

Michael

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

Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 08:25:29 -0400
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  how people spoke

Also, I have the impression that people in general used to take
more pride in their everyday speech, being more precise and using less
slang.

Depends on who you're talking about: a gathering of white-collar office
workers would speak differently from a gathering of New England
longshoreman, a room full of Midwestern farmers, or a group of Harlem
jivesters. Dialects of all kinds were far more common then than they >are
now, and different groups all had their own slang.

..............

This brings up one of my favorite questions.  Recordings seem to indicate
that Franklin D Roosevelt, J. Edgar Hoover, and just about every other
speaker before about 1950 all seemed to speak in a manner that is thoroughly
extinct.  In television, it seems that only Ray Collins (Lieutenant Tragg on
Perry Mason) ever used this formal, elocution-class style.  It's clearly
what people wanted and expected to hear, but I find it fascinating that
styles changed so quickly.  In the 1950's, President Eisenhower sounded
like, well, us.

It seems that radio hasn't been able to give us an accurate indication of
what ordinary people sounded like.  Anyone who wasn't an actor--GI's in
World War II, the 'man on the street', and the rest--sounds hopelessly
stilted.  I suppose it's that microphones, either public or private, were
about as rare as space aliens back in the days of OTR, and just as welcome.

I can only guess that actors like the Jordans and their writers had a
relatively good ear for how ordinary people spoke at the time.  But does
anyone today speak like people do in TV sitcoms?

(TV comment: Lt. Tragg was my favorite.  It's not at all surprising that
everyone on Perry Mason seems to have done radio.  That show is a speech
class disguised as a TV series.)

Mark Kinsler

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

Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 08:26:01 -0400
From: Roo61@[removed] (Randy Watts)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Jackson Beck

Am I right in thinking he was the voice of
Bluto in the "Popeye" cartoons. Was he
also "Popeye?"

Beck provided Bluto's voice from 1944 through a group of early 1960s
made-for-TV cartoons, but never Popeye's.  That role was played for
decades by Jack Mercer, with Mae Questel as Olive Oyl.  (Trivia note:
For a brief period during World War II, when Mercer was in the service,
Questel did double-duty as Popeye!)

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

Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 09:08:29 -0400
From: Richard Carpenter <sinatra@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  "Empire of the air"

You can find the "Empire of the Air" video on the PBS shopping page. Try:
[removed]
Then use "Quick Search" to locate this video.

Or, you might try your luck on ebay, where it is offered from time to time.

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

Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 17:25:43 -0400
From: Michael Nella <serialous@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR movies

Does anyone know if the Great Gildersleeve movies are for sale anywhere.
Someone told me they were on AMC a few years ago, but I would think some
small video producer would have put them out for sale. That and Buck Benny
Rides Again I'd like to see.

Michael Nella

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

Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 17:26:22 -0400
From: "Richard Pratz" <[removed]@[removed];
To: "OTR (Plain Text Only)" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  The [removed] & Cheerios

I just ran across what I believe to be another OTR innacuracy that made me
wince. Sure, it's not life-altering and won't cause OTR fans to develop a
stress disorder,  but I wish authors were more accurate. Let me share it
with you and see if you don't agree. My wife was reading a book entitled
"Clean Your Clothes With Cheez Whiz" by Joey Green, copywrite 2000,
Renaissance Books, Los Angeles. It's Mr. Green's 18th published book and
deals with offbeat uses for brand-name products. (Some guys make a buck from
the strangest ideas such as substituting Cool Whip for shaving cream!) After
listing several wierd uses for Cheerios, he mentions some "Strange Facts"
about the breakfast food. Quoting one of them - - - "Cheerios sponsored "The
Lone Ranger" on radio from 1941 through 1949. Whenever the masked man
righted a wrong, a radio announcer reminded listeners of the essential
goodness of toasted whole-grain oats. Before riding off on his horse Silver,
the Lone Ranger frequently touted Cheerios and then left behind his
trademark silver bullet. In 1949, when the Lone Ranger and his faithful
companion Tonto moved to television, Cheerios boxes contained a free silver
bullet and offered Lone Ranger flashlight pistols for just ten cents and one
yellow boxtop."

My wife (who is considerably younger than her old duffer of a hubby) asked
me if that was correct. Did the Lone Ranger actually "tout Cheerios" before
handing out his silver bullets and riding off into the sunset? Remember, the
author said the [removed] himself did [removed] just the program!  I
immediately replied that to my knowledge, the [removed] NEVER "touted" Cheerios
either in or out of character! The program did, but not the masked man
himself!  Whose memory is correct, mine or author Green?  Geeesh!!

Rich

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

Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 17:26:29 -0400
From: "Lee, Steve (DEOC)" <slee@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  The Aldrich Family

RE: The Aldrich Family

I was surprised (and pleased) at the frequency in which the Aldrich Family
appeared on the members recent Top Five List. My question is: does anyone
have a good source for purchasing?  I have all that RSI offers, as well as
those of the dealers who appear on the "Humongous Old-Time Radio Search
Engine". Surprisingly, there are not as many episodes available as one would
think. Is there a "King" of Aldrich Family episodes?

Thanks
Steve Lee

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

Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 17:26:49 -0400
From: JJLjackson@[removed]
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Digest:White Cliffs of Dover

Someone mentioned that the composer of White Cliffs of Dover was an American,
writing from the West Coast. The thread has been about bluebirds.

Could it be possible that the composer knew that bluebirds dont exist in
England, and they are really a reference to Americans flying over the Cliffs
of Dover? If this was written prior to WW2, if bluebirds are Americans, this
song would be yearning for Americans to enter the European war, and save them.

Just a thought.

Joy Jackson/Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound

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

Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 17:27:56 -0400
From: John Henley <jhenley@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  RE local news reporting

Elizabeth noted,
Local stations could and did cover spot news -- fires, explosions,
floods, train crashes, etc. etc. etc., usually under the ausipices of the
station's "Public Service" or "Public Events" department. An announcer
would be sent out with a mobile transmitter (or in later years a wire or
tape recorder) and would report from the scene, trying to describe what
was going on.

That reminded me of something I hadn't thought of in a long,
long time.   Speaking, to be accurate, of the post-OTR era:
I grew up in a small town in central Texas and we had
two local radio stations.  In a town like that, the sound of a siren
blaring from an emergency vehicle was always apt to get peoples'
attention, and we always wondered whether we'd see an ambulance,
fire truck, police car - or a "news wagon," generally a station wagon
(no pun intended, I suppose), from one of the two radio outlets.
They always had red lights on top of their vehicles, if I recall correctly,
and barrelled through town at speeds comparable to the police.  In
fact, for a time sirens were more likely to be coming from those news
wagons than from the other sources.
But it's been forever since I witnessed such a thing, and I can only
assume that it's not now legal for non-emergency vehicles such as
those to employ a siren or to drive at police-car speeds.
Anyone know?

John Henley
jhenley@[removed]
ph  (512) 495-4112
fax (512) 495-4296

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

Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 17:27:30 -0400
From: "David H. Buswell" <dbuswell@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Epitaphs

Here are two actual epitaphs of individuals who certainly appeared on OTR
over the years:

1.  Dorothy Parker:  "Pardon My Dust!"

2.  Clark Gable:  "Back to Silents"


Dave

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2001 Issue #314
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