Subject: [removed] Digest V2001 #272
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 8/22/2001 12:33 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2001 : Issue 272
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  RE: talk radio                        [ Andy Lanset <alanset@[removed]; ]
  Re: Obsolete OTR products             [ Kenneth L Clarke <kclarke5@[removed] ]
  The Non-Walking Wounded               [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  Radio Spirits                         [ dabac@[removed] ]
  Jack Benny                            [ William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed]; ]
  Station List                          [ William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed]; ]
  Quiet Please- scripts                 [ dabac@[removed] ]
  Vic & Sade & P & G                    [ Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed]; ]
  Mandel Kramer                         [ Fred Berney <berney@[removed]; ]
  Re: Station Breaks                    [ Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed]; ]
  WHIZ Radio Zanesville, Ohio           [ "Tim Lones" <tallones@[removed]; ]
  Re: LAST B/CAST FROM BATTAN: REAL OR  [ Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed]; ]
  Re;Lone Ranger Supporting Voices      [ Don Hunt <ddhunt@[removed]; ]
  great actresses & Agnes Moorehead     [ Rarotz@[removed] ]
  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Nig  [ lois@[removed] ]
  Retro Radios                          [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  Making money in OTR                   [ Vntager8io@[removed] ]
  Re: WHIZ radio?                       [ Marklambert@[removed] ]
  WHIZ - Zanesville                     [ "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@worldnet. ]
  Ferncliff Cemetery                    [ "Robert Fells" <rfells@[removed]; ]
  A-N-A-C-I-N                           [ otrbuff@[removed] ]

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

Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:14:12 -0400
From: Andy  Lanset <alanset@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  RE: talk radio

I am looking for some information about early talk radio programs,
preferably those with call-ins.

I was told that in 1930, a man named John J. Anthony would ask listeners to
call him and he would repeat what they said on the air.  I don't know what
station this was for.

Also, I am aware that Barry Gary or maybe it was Barry Gray of WMCA spoke
with his callers.

I would appreciate any additional history/information or source for related
recordings.

Thanks.

Andy Lanset, Archivist
WNYC Radio, 1 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007
212-669-4685    212-553-0629 FAX

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

Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:20:29 -0400
From: Kenneth L Clarke <kclarke5@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Obsolete OTR products

I recently received a collection dealing with the "Gracie
Allen for President" episodes of "Burns and Allen".
The shows at that time were sponsored by Hinds Honey
and Almond Cosmetics firm.

Some of the products which I believe have become obsolete
since OTR are Hinds Honey and Almond Cosmetics, Sal
Hepatica, Bromo Seltzer, Blue Coal, and Ipana Toothpaste.

Can anyone think of more to add to the list?

While we're on the subject of sponsors, does anyone know which
company sponsored the same show for the longest period of time?
I believe it might have been the Blue Coal sponsorship of "The Shadow".
Surely, there were others.

Kenneth Clarke

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

Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:20:31 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The Non-Walking Wounded

Bill Harris, responding to Owens Pomeroy's  question as to whether "the
(supposed) final [removed] from Bataan as the Japanese are invading the
Island"   was "re-created" or an actual broadcast, noted,

I tend to think that this is a recreation. <snip> There is just too
much dialog for the amount of code characters being sent. For instance,
there is a burst of about eight letters (I copied ITWMNW), then the
commentator says, "they're piling dead wounded soldiers in our tunnel".

 Although for other reasons Mr. Harris is probably correct, having a
small group of letters represent a phrase isn't unusual -- it's using a
_code_ as opposed to a cipher.  "SOS" means "I am in difficulty/peril and
need assistance."  Three letters to convey a much longer phrase.  There
might have been a field code book that could employ an eight- to
ten-character group to convey a message.

However, his observation,

Frankly, the code is so poorly sent it is hard to make it out and all I
copied were random letters and a lot of what seemed like meaningless dits
an dahs. I even decreased the speed but still could not decipher a lot of
it. <snip> Also the tone of the code is not what you would hear coming
from a receiver set up to receive CW (code) transmissions. The tone is
rather raspy like it is being produced by a code oscillator used for
training, instead of a good sine-wave tone you would get from a receiver.

rings true.  And Walter Winchell, at the beginning of his show would
rattle a telegraph key without having the slightest idea of Morse Code.
But what does it for me is the quote from the commentator: "they're
piling dead wounded soldiers in our tunnel."  Either the soldiers are
wounded or dead.  "dead wounded soldiers" is rather oxymoronic; even
allowing for exhaustion by the commentator, that seems like a strange
phrase.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:20:36 -0400
From: dabac@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Radio Spirits

I was wondering if someone here might be able to explain something that
has puzzeled me for sometime? Examining the RS catalogs individual
cassette offerings, I find that many episodes which are generally
acknowledged to be among the all-time best of a particular series are
conspicuous by their omission - still I am fairly certain that RS must
carry most of these episodes. Is it just me or have others noticed this
as well?

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

Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:20:38 -0400
From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Jack Benny

There have been several asumptions about the Jack Benny Show. I joined
the engineering staff of CBS December, 1944, in New Yorks assigned to the
short wave division boradcasting propaganda to Europe and entertainment
to South America in both Spanish and Portuguese (musical and variety). We
had two transmitting plants, Wayne, New Jersey, and Brentwood, Long
Island. About June of 1945 I transferred to CBS-Hollywood (KNX), where I
remained untill I transferred back to New York in the spring of 1951.

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

Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:20:40 -0400
From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Station List

David Buswell posted a list of vintage New York City radio stations. An
added comment. WABC was originally the call letters for WCBS. WEAF and
WJZ were both owned by RCA who owned NBC. Come the revolution and WEAF
became WNBC and WJZ became WABC (American Broadcasting Company owned by
[removed] Noble, the Life Saver king). WMCA, which was originally owned by
Donald Flamm, remained WMCA the last I knew.

Gladys Swarthout and Rosa Ponselle were noted concert artists in my time.


I had a rather emotional chat with Janet Waldo a couple of years ago at
one of the west coast conventions, I think it was Seattle. Her late
husband, Robert E. (Bob) Lee was an old friend of mine (he was my
announcer when I was broadcasting name bands from the Great Lakes
Exposition in Cleveland during the summer of 1937 for Mutual). Janet
brought their daughters into the conversation and asked me to repeat what
I had to say about their father, a dear person. Bob and Jerry Lawrence
(another Clevelander)  became famous as Lawrence and Lee who produced
"Mame".

Bill Murtough

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

Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:20:42 -0400
From: dabac@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Quiet Please- scripts

Does anyone know if scripts exist from any of this series missing
episodes? Also, would anyone know if there were ever any re-enactments
of any episodes done?  --Dan

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

Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:21:21 -0400
From: Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Vic & Sade & P & G

A few days ago, I inquired whether "Vic and Sade" had ever been considered
for syndication or extension spotting, and ever-knowledgeable Elizabeth
replied:

V&S was *definitely* extension-spotted in Canada along with many other P&G
daytime shows, probably beginning in 1940 and continuing until the end of
the original run in 1944. However, extension-spotting discs were required
to be destroyed or returned to the distributor after use, and it's most
likely that when we speak of "Procter and Gamble destroying the
transcriptions," it's these spotting discs that we're talking about.

She then asked:

and does anyone actually have documentation for when and how this
happened, or is it simply hearsay? I know Billy Idelson has told this
story, but does anyone know where *he* got the story from? For that matter,
do we know for a fact if it was P&G at all? The recordings were actually
made for Compton Advertising, P&G's agency.

I originally heard the story recounted by Idelson on the c1974 Vic and Sade
radio documentary narrated by Bob Arbogast, in which Idelson states that
P&G destroyed them. The same story - probably taken from this same
documentary - is repeated as fact in Dunning. However, I get the impression
that Idelson told it differently from time to time; in one instance, I
hear, he was sent a few disks for his personal collection along with a
letter stating that the others had already been destroyed. It's likely that
Idelson could have confused P&G with Compton or that Compton had passed the
disks to P&G to dispose of - though why they would do this, I cannot say -
or simply that Compton had destroyed the disks and Idelson found out about
it after the deed had been done.

Elizabeth goes on to say:

No evidence exists to suggest that the series was being recorded as a
matter of course in the 1930s. (The NBC Collection at the LOC has 173 V&S
episodes, none dating before 1939, and only a few scattered pre-1939
episodes are currently known to exist from other sources.)

The majority of V&S shows in the NBC collection at the LOC seem to exist
for the same reason that many other daytime shows exist: they were recorded
for time-shifting or other purposes and only retained because the show on
the other side of the disk was something the network wanted to keep. We've
discovered a number of 15-minute shows recorded by local stations that were
retained for this same reason. Thank heavens that lacquer can't be recorded
over the same way tape can!

It's a tremendous shame that Paul Rhymer didn't recognize the possibilities
for future syndication of the series but, then again, he had no reason to -
almost no one else thought of the potential for widespread re-runs so why
should he have done so? At least he had the foresight to preserve the
scripts - and for that we can all be grateful.

Nevertheless, the simple fact that some of the circulating V&S shows are
almost certainly taken from Canadian extension-spotting disks - no openings
or closings, yet definitely line-checks - makes me think that at least a
few escaped destruction. Reason enough for the search to continue with even
greater optimism!

Harlan, who's idea of heaven would be to spend a few previously
undiscovered minutes at the small house half-way up in the next block

Harlan Zinck
First Generation Radio Archives
[removed]

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

Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:50:22 -0400
From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Mandel Kramer

A few weeks ago, I was asking where I might find a picture of Mandel
Kramer. Gordon Gregersen <gsgreg@[removed]; was kind enough to print out
two photos and mail them to me.

  I just wanted to personally thank him.

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

Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:50:26 -0400
From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Station Breaks

From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
by early 1929 . . . the chimes would be rung by the studio
announcer (five notes for Blue and seven notes for Red)

This numbering is new information.  Have you found a contemporary source
in print for this or are you infering it from the station break
recordings that we have heard?

Oddly, the one exception I've discovered to the use of the
specified-location studio cue in this period was "Amos 'n' Andy,"
which closed with "This program has reached you from the studios
of the National Broadcasting Company" without mentioning that it
originated in Chicago -- apparently NBC wanted to keep up the
illusion of the program originating in New York, but couldn't
come right out and lie about it on the air.

Did they say "from the studios of the National Broadcasting Company"
during the early years of A'n'A when those WMAQ studios were in CBS
territory?  Or did they add that only when NBC took over WMAQ?

By the mid-thirties, CBS had a somewhat different ID policy, with
its break in hour shows coming closer to the :40 mark than right
on the half hour.   Elizabeth

Verrrrrry interesting, considering the location of the middle station
break in War of the Worlds!  This might also explain FCC Rule [removed] in
the AM rules which in the early 60s read that the station ID should be
given on the hour and "either on the half hour or at the quarter hour
preceding the next hour".

I'd never noticed this version until recently because I had always been
more familiar with the rule as was stated for FM stations in that same
era in rule [removed] that the ID should be on the hour and "either at the
half hour or at the quarter hour following the hour and at the quarter
hour preceding the next hour".  This is taken from the 1961-62 edition
of the Broadcasting Yearbook.  Unless they misprinted the AM rule in the
'61 book, I know by the mid-60s both AM and FM had the option of doing
the ID at either :00 and :30; or at :00, :15, and :45.  Of course now
the only requirement is at the hour.

Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:50:31 -0400
From: "Tim Lones" <tallones@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  WHIZ Radio Zanesville, Ohio

I believe, from past sources, that WHIZ AM(1240) in Zanesville, Ohio went on
the air in [removed] FM most likely in the early to mid-60'[removed] to
the WHIZ website the TV station came on the air on channel 50 in May 1953
and by 1956 had moved to channel [removed] been an NBC TV Affiliate for all
these [removed] website though incomplete, is at [removed]

Tim Lones
East Sparta, Ohio

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

Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:53:12 -0400
From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: LAST B/CAST FROM BATTAN: REAL OR RECREATION?

"Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; commented on:
"Jack Benny's Golden Memories Of Radio"... (supposed) final
[removed] from Bataan ...  Was it a recreated incident or the
actual message tapping out on the telegraph key

I was also confused by this recording for a long time becuase the
introduction by Frank Knight on the LP seemed to imply that this was a
live broadcast of the real event.  However, it is a recreation, probably
from "The Army Hour" broadcast on May 31, 1942.

I remember reading in a trade paper, that Longines found the
actual operator who sent the message to recreate it for the Album.
True or not?

Well, of course, that alone would make it a re-creation!  But there is a
reprinting of that message in the CBS book "From Pearl Harbor Into
Tokyo" with the information about the Army Hour broadcast.  Since that
broadcast happened less than 4 weeks after the May 5 event, Irving
Strobing, the operator, would still have been a prisoner.  But did he
survive???   Anybody know?  It would have made sense for there to have
been yet another broadcast about this after his return, which would have
been some years later.  I have some very graphic propaganda broadcasts
our government made when some of the first Battaan Death March escapees
first told their stories a year or two later.

Like Bill Harris indicated, although the actor is reading the words very
slowly, as if it is being deciphered from the Morse Code, the Morse
transmission heard in the recording is going at a much slower pace than
even the recitation.  I'd always meant to try to have a ham operator see
if he could read the code, so I am glad to have the word from Bill that
the code is meaningless.  Surely there were some engineers around the
radio studio who were hams and knew code--but perhaps they purposefully
used someone who didn't know code to do some meaningless dots and dashes
to avoid the slim chance that a REAL operator might slip in some kind of
subversive message!

Now, while you are at it Bill, can you have a go at the code that we
hear in the background several times in the phony recordings in Volume 3
of "I Can Hear It Now".  It is behind the KDKA re-creation, one of the
phony Lindbergh reports, and in one or two other places.  I would think
that these also would be meaningless--perhaps just as meaningless as the
dits and dahs that Walter Winchell tapped out in his broadcasts!!

Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:53:17 -0400
From: Don Hunt <ddhunt@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re;Lone Ranger Supporting Voices

>From Don Hunt ddhunt@[removed].
This is mainly from my hearing TheLone Ranger on the radio and listening to
my growing collection
of the same. With very minor assistance from Mr. Dunning's "Encyclopedia Of
Old TimeRadio".
Paul Hughes----Best known as "Thunder Martin":. Also as an Army Colonel.
Hughes was equally adept
at portraying schiester lawyers, elderly sherriffs, etc
Elaine Alpert----"Clarabelle Hornblower", heroines, middleaged widows
Rollan Parker------Ethnic parts (aka chinese laborers), indian chiefs,
crooks, scientists,flim- flammers, outlaws, sherriffs, politicians, etc.
Rare, brief-substitute as "Tonto" for John Todd. Also portrayed padres. My
favorite is his one time portrayal as
"Shrmp Butler", a diminutive outlaw with an inferiority complex.
Bill Saunders---Best known as"Butch Cavendish" in most of the live revivals
of "The Origen of The Lone Ranger". He
reprised that role in the 25th Anniversary broadcast. I remember Saunders as
a crook more than in any other role.
Usually the gang lieutenant. Very rarely as a law abiding citizen and/or
sherriff.
Jay Micheal----as "Dan Reid" John  Reid's (Lone Ranger's) brother in
"Origin" saga. He played a variety of roles.
Ernie Winstanley---Usually, but not always, the dashing, true blue hero,
young rancher, cowboy, tenderfoot. His other
specialty was ethnic villans. Mexican outlaws
Harry [removed] Played roles similar to Winstanley.
Note: In the episode "Oh Bury Me Not" (50's) E. Winstanley plays "Jim Carry"
a notorious outlaw who doubles as a faithful husband/father-albeit from
afar.
Goldstein has the small role of a member of the gang-"The Singing Kid"
Jim Irwin ("Jim Carry, Jr") also played juvenile delinquints, outlaws,.mob
agitators, and at one time was :"Dan Reid",
the Ranger's teen age nephew.
Bob Martin-the last actor to portray young "Dan Reid". He inherited the part
from Irwin, who was prceded by Ernie Winstanley.
Frank Kelley-one of the oldest members of the WXYZ reperatory troup. Played
aging sherriffs, stage drivers, miners,
ranchers, muleskinners.
Also Lenore Allman, Jack Petruzza, Gilley Shea and Casey Kassem.
Dick Beals, who stands 4' 6", played juvenile roles fr. arounnd 1949-51 even
though he was several years older.
Mr Beals, 75, has his own ad agency does some voiceover fr. cartoon, i
think, and is in much denmand as a inspirational/
motivational speaker. In the 50's he was the voice of "Speedy Alkaselzer" on
radio and tv.
Don Hunt

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

Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:53:27 -0400
From: Rarotz@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  great actresses & Agnes Moorehead

Larry Evans wrote:

I think that, based on
their work, the following three actresses should be mentioned. Janette Nolan,
Shirley Mitchell and Agnes Moorehead.

Larry Evans, WA8DDN

No question in my mind that Agnes Moorehead was one of the greatest, perhaps
the greatest, radio actresses of all time.  To defend my failure to include
her in my original list, I'd go back to the point that the original question
spoke of *character* actresses.  Since she could pull in a big audience on
the strength of her name alone ([removed] Suspense), I felt she was too big a star
 to be considered in the character actress category.  Still think so.  (That
issue, however, seems to have dropped out of the discussion now.)

    -- Rhiman Rotz

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

Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:53:42 -0400
From: lois@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Night!

A weekly [removed]

For the best in OTR Chat, join IRC (Internet Relay Chat), StarLink-IRC
Network, the channel name is #OldRadio.  We meet Thursdays at 8 PM Eastern
and go on, and on! The oldest OTR Chat Channel, it has been in existence
over four years, same time, same channel!

Our numerous "regulars" include one of the busiest "golden years" actors in
Hollywood; a sound man from the same era who worked many of the top
Hollywood shows; a New York actor famed for his roles in "Let's Pretend" and
"Archie Andrews;" owners of some of the best OTR sites on the Web;
maintainer of the best-known OTR Digest (we all know who he is)..........

and Me

Lois Culver
KWLK Longview Washington (Mutual) 1941-1944)
KFI Los Angeles (NBC) 1944 - 1950
and widow of actor Howard Culver

(For more info, contact lois@[removed])

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

Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:54:41 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Retro Radios

Garry Lewis pointed us to a place with replica OT Radios.

If one goes to the home page, [removed] ,
one can choose  which decade to look at replicas of.  Although they're a
bit mixed up (cathedral radios in the 1950s?), the radio reproductions in
the 1930s section have built-in cassette drives or CD players.  More to
the point for the OTR crowd.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 10:12:27 -0400
From: Vntager8io@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Making money in OTR

Hi,

I've been following the thread about station ID's with interest, but it has
raised an old question for me. With such brief network silences between shows
(10-30 seconds) for local stations to give weather, timechecks, or station
ID, how did local stations make money? Surely, radio then was a business like
it is now, and it cost money to run a station. I understand that many local
radio stations had their own, locally-sponsored shows, and I can see how they
could have made some money that way, but how did local stations make money on
national network shows? I would assume that the time between network shows
would not have been long enough to insert a local commercial announcement.
Would the sponsor of a network show have to pay a certain amount to all
stations on the chain airing its show? Or were network shows carried by local
stations only to attract listeners that would keep their dials set to the
station and tune in to local shows?

Thanks!
Bryan Wright

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

Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 10:12:22 -0400
From: Marklambert@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re:  WHIZ radio?

Regarding the radio station at which Billy Batson (aka Captain
Marvel) worked, Stephen Kallis asked:

Which brings up a question: Just when did WHIZ of Zanesville, OH, first
 go on the air?  Before or after the comic-book station?

I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that in the 1970s, on
a syndicated cartoon version of Captain Marvel, they changed the call
letters to WHZZ (or something like that).   I presumed that was because
there was a genuine station out there with the WHIZ call letters.

Mark

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

Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 10:50:24 -0400
From: "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  WHIZ - Zanesville

Stephen Kallis took note of my smart-*ss remark about Captain Marvel
protecting the sleepy little hamlet of Zanesville, Ohio and wondered, "Just
when did WHIZ of Zanesville, OH, first
go on the air?  Before or after the comic-book station?"

The "original" WHIZ went on the air in 1924, followed by a TV station in
1952 and an FM station in 1961. The company has long been associated with
NBC.

Brj

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

Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 14:32:58 -0400
From: "Robert Fells" <rfells@[removed];
To: "old time radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Ferncliff Cemetery

A few posters in yesterday's Digest wondered why the Ferncliff Cemetery in
Hartsdale, NY is the resting place for so many Hollywood stars.  There's no
real mystery here: these individuals and their families lived in the New
York area at time of their deaths and some of them had long since severed
their connections with Tinsel Town.  Basil Rathbone is a typical example.
In fact, Ferncliff has been nicknamed "the Forest Lawn of the East Coast"
because of the many late celebrities in residence who made their home back
East.

Bob Fells

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

Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 14:33:00 -0400
From: otrbuff@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  A-N-A-C-I-N

Arlene Osborne questions why we don't hear of neuritis and neuralgia any
more, and did we ever know anyone who suffered from them?  I guess I
can't answer either other than to allow that marketing attempts moved on
to focus elsewhere.  Can't say I ever knew a sufferer by those malady
names, either.

In a chapter on Our Gal Sunday in "The Great Radio Soap Operas" I noted
that "the most consistently advertised commodity, the one most closely
identified with the program, was Anacin.  This headache, neuritis and
neuralgia remedy was often mentioned on multiple radio series for several
decades.  With little variation in advertising copy from show to show and
year to year, listeners could say the words of Anacin's commercial
messages right along with [announcer] Ed Fleming and his contemporaries:

"Anacin is like a doctor's prescription . . . that is, it contains a
combination of medically proven active ingredients in easy-to-take tablet
form. . . .  So many listening to me now have had an envelope containing
Anacin tablets given them by their dentist or physician. . . .  I'll
spell the name for you . . . A-N-A-C-I-N.  Anacin.  At any drug store in
handy boxes of twelve and thirty tablets and economical family-size
bottles of fifty and one hundred. . . .  The first few tablets are
guaranteed to give you the relief you seek or your money will be refunded
in full.

"It would have been difficult in those days to have tuned in regularly to
Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons or Front Page Farrell or Our Gal Sunday
or another American Home Products series without thinking of those words
as Fleming read them.  Thinking them--and even repeating them aloud in
many cases--must have become habitual to some listeners.  As a
consequence, all that repetition undoubtedly reinforced the product's
name when consumers appeared at the pharmacy counter for a pain
killer--which was, of course, what the advertiser hoped would happen."

Jim Cox

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2001 Issue #272
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