Subject: [removed] Digest V2005 #107
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 4/4/2005 2:41 PM
To: [removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2005 : Issue 107
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  CAPONE?!                              [ Wich2@[removed] ]
  Re: Aw, Relax [removed]           [ "Austotr" <austotr@[removed]; ]
  I Swan, how about you?                [ "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed] ]
  Identifying OTR voices                [ Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed]; ]
  secondary characters                  [ Robert Cockrum <rmc44@[removed] ]
  Kraft Frizz                           [ "mike karp" <mkarp@[removed]; ]
  early non-colored margarine           [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
  Wooden Shoe [removed]                   [ skallisjr@[removed] ]
  Re: Harry Bartell's voice             [ David Phaneuf <david_phaneuf@yahoo. ]
  Re: Secondary characters              [ Jay Sweet <sweetedit@[removed]; ]
  Secondary characters                  [ wilditralian@[removed] ]
  Twlight Zone                          [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
  Re: Coloring Margarine                [ Ron Schalow <rschalow@[removed]; ]
  OTR time travel tales                 [ "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed]; ]
  Recognizable voices                   [ "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@juno. ]
  OTR ringtones?                        [ Melanie Aultman <otrmelanie@[removed] ]

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

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 07:34:43 -0400
From: Wich2@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  CAPONE?!
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Folks-

Still playing catchup here:

From: "William Vest III" _tsukasasan@[removed]_
(mailto:tsukasasan@[removed])

...I  found a site comparing Carl Amari to Al Capone. Claiming he (Amari)
had bought a  ton of otr shows,
claimed ownership, the tried to go after companies who were  selling or
giving
(downloading for free)otr [removed]

The Great Carl Debate will probably never be over. I recall Harry Bartell,
of sainted memory, having some very cogent remarks on the [removed]

But it should be fairly said, that at least in several cases, the ORIGINAL
Radio Spirits did not just "claim" ownership, but did indeed locate
copyrights,
 clear titles, and-

-generate new income for those rightful parties.

Best,
-Craig Wichman

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Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 07:37:55 -0400
From: "Austotr" <austotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Aw, Relax [removed]

 In issue 105 Hal Stone replied to Chuck Case's comments about his book.

Mr. Stone, I finished your brilliant book about 1 week ago and I thought
it was excellent.

I do believe that's the first time in my life I've ever been referred to as
"Brilliant". Accolades like that make life worth living. I wish my school
teachers were still alive so they could change their opinion of my potential
in life. :)

 Sorry Hal but your record with your teachers is still intact.  Note that
the
use of the word 'brilliant' referred to the book, not to you personally.  I
can see your English teacher now, still shaking his/her head.  Mind you, it
was
a good try but I am sure that I am not the only one to notice not only your
blatant attempt to shift the description to yourself, but also to blatantly
turn it into an advertising campaign for the book Aw, Relax [removed]
that is available at this link
[removed]

I have noticed the trend whereby you do manage to sneak details of your
brilliant book Aw, Relax [removed] that is available at this link
[removed] into your replies to posts on this
list.

 I myself who purchased a copy of Aw, Relax [removed] that is
available
at this link [removed] found it to be a great
read, yes, I
suppose brilliant read, but I am surprised that there are any copies left.
Is it into its fourth printing now?

But, I do know that very soon, there will be 10 or more Archie shows that
have NEVER been circulated before

Great news.

The Archie gang will get together again for a recreation, and three
of the four remaining (surviving) stars will reprise their rolls. Bob
Hastings (Archie), Rosemary Rice (Betty), and Yours Truly (Jughead) will do
our thing, for what will likely be the last time.

I can only wish I was there.  I haven't checked my lotto numbers for this
week, so [removed]

There are a few copies left and no more will be printed.  So grab a copy of
this "Brilliant" Literary Masterpiece while you can. Tell 'em Chuck sent
you.: )

See, you knew all along that it was the book that was brilliant not you!

 Literary Masterpiece? Hey Hal is this a different book from Aw, Relax
[removed] that is available at this link
[removed] that you flogged to me?

Ian Grieve
(living far enough away that Hal can't throw rocks at my roof :)

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

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 09:20:46 -0400
From: "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  I Swan, how about you?

I was listening to some Burns and Allen the other day, and I have a question
about the Swan Soap spots.  Is the Swan Soap slogan really "Pure as fine-cast
steel"?  That's what it sounds like, but that doesn't sound like much of a
slogan.

-chris holm

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

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 09:21:00 -0400
From: Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Identifying OTR voices

Joe Kearns is easy if you ever saw the first few years of the Dennis the
Menace TV show with Jay North; Kearns was the original Mr. Wilson.

I used to have a record album by Paul Frees in which he did songs in the
voices of [removed] Fields, Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, etc.  He reminded me
of Rich Little with his many different impersonations, and I wonder if he
ever used his regular voice?

---Dan

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

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 09:21:20 -0400
From: Robert Cockrum <rmc44@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  secondary characters
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Although I replied to Michael's post off-list about secondary characters and
recognizing Harry Bartell's voice, I failed to mention the most obvious,
which several have done now ... that Bartell was the announcer on the
Sherlock Holmes series in the '40s. Another choice I should have thought of,
because of his continuing role, was that of Lt. Sibert on Ft. Laramie. Those
two series easily acquaint you with his voice.

Long before I was paying attention to such things and realized his
distinguised acting career, I simply knew him in the '60s as the announcer
for the "Dear Abby" feature on CBS Radio.

Bob Cockrum

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Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 09:21:37 -0400
From: "mike karp" <mkarp@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Kraft Frizz
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I never heard of the Kraft 'Frizz' product that was mentioned,but my mother
used to make a product by Lipton called 'Frostee' that was the same thing. It
was an ice cream product that you made yourself in the freezer,by pouring it
in an ice cube tray. It came as a powder, in either vanilla or choclate
flavors. I remember Arhtur Godfrey advertising it on his morning radio [removed]
it was very popular in the late 1940's.

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

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 09:22:24 -0400
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  early non-colored margarine

Also do you remember DelRich? It
was a sponsor of "Nick Carter, Master Detective" on [removed] was a
product
of "Old Dutch" cleanser, if you can imagine [removed] was margarine in a
plastic style bag, with a color bud in  it. You kneaded the bag until the
white margarine turned yellow. The flavor bud was an off-color [removed]
believe it may have been the first company to do [removed] 1949, I think
it
disappeared to be replaced by cubed margarine, which was already colored at
the factory. It came 4 cubes to the box.

Margarine has a long and strange history.  The uncolored stuff with the
color capsule in it was a means of getting around the powerful dairy
interests, who did not appreciate the introduction of a butter substitute.
They contended that margarine that was colored like butter, instead of the
sickly white it had when manufactured, would fool the public into buying an
inferior product.  I don't know if the rules were state, or Federal, or
what.

Eventually yellow margarine became legal--except in Wisconsin, where things
got exceedingly strange.  There was apparently a state law that forbade the
sale of colored margarine.  My uncle used to smuggle the stuff into Madison,
WI from Rockford, Illinois, where there were stores that sold it in bulk.
The law was repealed after a dramatic episode in the state legislature,
where a state representative who was the leading proponent of the ban
flunked a margarine vs. butter taste test.

Years ago I bought some margarine that contained whale oil.  Said so on the
label.

M Kinsler

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

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 09:23:12 -0400
From: skallisjr@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Wooden Shoe [removed]

Bob Slate notes,

Also do you remember DelRich? It was a sponsor of "Nick Carter, Master
Detective" on Sundays. It was a product of "Old Dutch" cleanser, if you
can imagine that. It was margarine in a plastic style bag, with a color
bud in  it. You kneaded the bag until the  white margarine turned yellow.

Ah, memories!  I do not know, but suspect that oleomargarine was
originally forced to be sold "white" by the American Dairy Association.
The usual process was that the white margarine had with it a small
envelope of dye powder that one sprinkled on the white stuff and mixed
it, in our case, with a fork.  We listened to the kitchen radio as we
worked.

But as to Old Dutch cleanser, during the later OTR period, they changed
their formula, improving it.  They advertised it as "*new* Old Dutch
Cleanser," which  led to a series of "new old" jokes.  The manufacturer
threw in the towel and renamed their product "Dutch Cleanser."  Now it's
back to Old Dutch Cleanser, seeing, I suppose, that the "newness" is
better than half a century behind us.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 09:34:34 -0400
From: David Phaneuf <david_phaneuf@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Harry Bartell's voice

Michael Leannah wrote
Is anyone able to tell me how to recognize the voice
of Harry Bartell, for
instance. He's a part of so many OTR shows (Diamond,
Gunsmoke, etc.) but
I'm never sure which voice is his. Did he appear on
TV or in the movies? Is
there a character he played that defines his voice
in a way that I'll know
it every time I hear it?

I don't know how to tell you to identify his voice
except to hear him again and again, and as someone has
suggested, know which role he was playing.  In
Gunsmoke, Bartell was a regular, but played various
parts. Still for the most part his voice, though
disguised for the different character roles, carries a
certain quality that is recognizable once you learn to
know it.

I would suggest obtaining copies of the old Basil
Rathbone/Nigel Bruce "Sherlock Holmes" series
sponsored by Petri Wines. I know that Mr. Bartell was
the regular announcer during that period. He also
later did interview & commentary on the series when it
was re-broadcast (I think in the 80's) as an
anthology.

If  you want to see him, I know he appeared in many of
the original televised Dragnet shows of the 1950's.
One episode, however, will not be any help. All you
can see is his eyes, in the bandaged-up character that
he plays! LOL

I cannot even begin to tell you the roles he played or
the programs in which he appeared. My OTR focus is
mainly on Gunsmoke, Dragnet, Sherlock Holmes, on all
of which Harry is active. I don't think I've ever
heard him on anything but dramatic programs, I've
never heard him on comedic ones. But Harry's credits
are too numerous to list -- others, I'm sure will give
you much more information. He was ever-present in the
world of OTR, and once  you learn his voice, you will
be surprised to find him in what seems like just about
every OTR program!

I never knew Harry personally, but I became a fan of
his, like you, listening for him on every program I
listened to -- and I came to admire and respect him,
and look forward to his contributions to this digest.
I miss Harry a lot here on the Digest. His absence is
indeed a great void. But I'm thankful for the exposure
to him that I've had here.

Dave Phaneuf

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

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 09:34:48 -0400
From: Jay Sweet <sweetedit@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Secondary characters

Somebody mentioned "I Love Lucy" as a good way to see and learn to recognize
the voice of Harry Bartell.

Lucy and Desi made extensive use of radio actors, at least in the first
season of Lucy. I've been watching Season 1 on DVD recently and the bonus
features include little bios on the guest stars and a great many of them were
OTR actors. I don't have access to the DVDs right now, but, for example, an
episode I watched last night had Joseph Kearns on it. (Who looked nothing
like I'd imagined him looking over the years!) It's a great way to see some
familiar OTR voices.

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

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 09:36:04 -0400
From: wilditralian@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Secondary characters

Michael Leannah writes:

Is anyone able to tell me how to recognize the voice of Harry Bartell,
for instance. He's a part of so many OTR shows (Diamond, Gunsmoke, etc.) but
I'm never sure which voice is his. Did he appear on TV or in the movies? Is
there a character he played that defines his voice in a way that I'll
know it every time I hear it?

I can't think of anything that would help you recognize his voice, but I
can fill in some other information.  I had several telephone
conversations with Harry and we exchanged many e-mails.  He told me that
he was in approximately 10,000 episodes in radio and TV.  He played in a
number of TV "Gunsmokes" and "Dragnets", and played a Roman Catholic
priest in the Ddragnet show in 1957 that was the first network color
television program, of which I have a videotape.  I never heard of him
appearing in a movie.

Voice-wise, he could do many -- including the mad German in "The
Three-Skeleton Key" (one of the best programs I ever heard or saw), but
his normal speaking voice, as I remember it from our conversations
together, was identical to the voice he used when playing the part of
himself in one of his few announcing roles - on "The New Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes", on the season that ran from fall of 1945 through the
end of Basil Rathbone's tenure on the show, in the spring of 1946.  Those
Petri wine commercials he did were magnificent -- downright hilarious by
today's standards -- such as educating a very unsophiisticated american
audience on what was the correct wine to serve with meatloaf, etc.

It's amazing, but I bet that Harry appears in one out of every 25 radio
shows in my collection.  He was unbelievably prolific.  Our Sherlock
Holmes club once did a re-creation of "The April Fool's Day Adventure" as
a feature at one of our meetings.  Instead of having one of us play the
part of Harry Bartell, I sent him the script and he recorded all his
lines for us.  I abstracted from the original recording a lot of the
organ music, and a recording of Harry mixed with the organ music and a
few other sound effects played in and out along with the actors and
actress.  That was a very generous thing for him to do for us.  I miss
him greatly.

Regards,
- ------------------
James H. Arva
HOME: 201 Short St.; Harrisburg, PA 17109; (717) 545-5709
E-MAIL:  wilditralian@[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 11:35:02 -0400
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Twlight Zone

Sean Dougherty mentioned: This review of the upcoming DVD release of The
Twilight Zone television series mentions OTR stars Agnes Morehead and Jack
Benny, both of whom appear in the
set.

I don't believe Jack Benny was ever on THE TWILIGHT ZONE.  Jack Carson was,
during the second season, along with Agnes Moorehead and Fred Allen's voice
over an antique radio.

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

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 11:36:28 -0400
From: Ron Schalow <rschalow@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Coloring Margarine
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Here's a follow-up note to Bob's comment about margarine.  He was referring
to margarine sold in bags, and this margarine was grey/white in color with a
small color capsule inside.  The consumer would knead the margarine, breaking
the color capsule, until the margarine was yellow in color, like butter.

The inventor of this process was Leo Peters, whose company, Butterball Farms
Inc., is still in operation in Grand Rapids, MI.  At that time, Mr. Peters
was an employee of another well-known food company, and he offered this
invention to them.  They told him that they thought the idea had no
commercial merit and that he was free to pursue it on his own.  He did, and
it made him wealthy for life.

Leo also invented the famous Butterball turkey process (which he later sold)
and which is now a part of the ConAgra family of companies.

Ron Schalow
OTR fan of long standing
Former Customer Service Manager
Butterball Farms Inc.

Old-Time Radio fans, check out the
OTR Researchers Group Forum at
[removed]

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Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 11:58:25 -0400
From: "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR time travel tales

I guess an obvious choice would be H. G. Wells' novel "The Time
Machine" which was done once on "Favorite Story" and twice on
"Escape."

But defining "time travel" means opening an interesting can of worms.
In a certain sense, Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" is a time travel
story.

Robert Nathan's short novel "Portrait of Jennie" (in which an artist
meets a rapidly-aging girl from the past) was adapted for "The
Columbia Workshop" before it was made into a movie and then appeared
on "Screen Director's Playhouse," "Academy Award Theater" and "Lux"
afterward. Another 1940s movie with a time travel theme was "It
Happened Tomorrow" (a reporter gets the next day's newspaper) which
showed up on "Screen Guild Theater," "Academy Award Theater" and
"Lux."

More obscure are things like "The Ineffable Essence of Nothing" by
Ranald MacDougall (a man visits his own future) which was done more
than once on NBC's "Radio Guild." Another MacDougall play on that
series, called "The Man Who Was Tomorrow," was about a guy who could
control time.

"Light the Lamp for Me" (an author explains why his history books are
so accurate) is one of the better time travel stories that Wyllis
Cooper wrote for "Quiet, Please!" Other interesting ones from that
series are "One for the Book," "It Is Later Than You Think" and, if
I'm remembering correctly, "Not Responsible After Thirty Years." There
are a couple of others, too -- surprising for such a short series. I
suppose you could argue that Cooper's "Three Men" (three soldiers at
Christmas turn out to be the Three Wise Men) which aired on "Lights
Out" and "Radio City Playhouse" qualifies as well.

Three from "The Mysterious Traveler" series: "Operation Tomorrow,"
"The Most Famous Man in the World" and "The Man Who Tried to Save
Lincoln."

And then there's that Arch Oboler play about the couple who wreck
their car and encounter a Neanderthal man ...

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

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 13:37:01 -0400
From: "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Recognizable voices

       The most recognizable voices I can think of
are those of Groucho Marx on "You Bet Your Life":

Fenneman: The secret word today is (gives word)
Groucho: Really?
Fenneman: You Bet Your Life!

       Of course (and this may be dating myself a bit)
the voice of Rod Serling from "The Twilight Zone".

       Natalie Masters had a pretty distinctive voice
too.  Whenever I heard her start to speak, I just that
another episode of "Candy Matson" was about to begin.

       These are but a few of the many voices which,
once heard, signalled the beginning of another round
of enjoyable OTR programs for me.

Another OTR Fan,

Kenneth Clarke

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

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 16:41:14 -0400
From: Melanie Aultman <otrmelanie@[removed];
To: OTRDIGEST <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  OTR ringtones?
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I don't have a cell phone, but am wondering if anyone uses any OTR related
ringtones on theirs.

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[ADMINISTRIVIA: Please contact the requestor directly regarding this somewhat
esoteric question.  --cfs3]

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #107
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