------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2007 : Issue 102
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Eliminating Commercials when recordi [ "Robert Dawson" <robertdaws@hotmail ]
re: Damon Runyon [ Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed]; ]
contractions [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
Breakfast Club Question [ Doug Berryhill <fibbermac@[removed] ]
RE: La Rosa coda [ "karl tiedemann" <karltiedemann@hot ]
Re: Real Sound Effects [ "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed]; ]
it could be done [ "EDWARD CARR" <edcarr@[removed]; ]
3-30 births/deaths [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
RE: Damon Runyon [ Jeff Knowling <jeff_knowling@hotmai ]
Ruth Last [ "Jerry Williams" <mrj1313@[removed] ]
OTR in the News [ Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed] ]
Damon Runyon [ "BRay" <bray@[removed]; ]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:55:24 -0400
From: "Robert Dawson" <robertdaws@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Eliminating Commercials when recording CDs
MP3 to MP3
Thank you, ALL, for the information about OTR that you share with many of us
that are new to this joy. When I was much younger in southern california,
my Grandparents would listen to radio plays at night after they put me to
bed. Likely, it is because of those fond memories that my wife and I listen
to radio plays at night now. My Grandmother when I returned from SE Asia
gave me a Radiola record of Quiet Please! and Escape before the welcome hug.
Still have the record and remember the hug.
Ahh, to the point, could someone, please, help me for I have a collection of
CBS Radio Mystery radio plays on DVD. Some have commercials that I would
like to edit out when I record the radio plays from DVD to CD/MP3 format so
that I may play them on our Panasonic MP3 player. I was going to record on
our HP Pavilion computer. What software would you recommend? Currently,
the computer has iTunes, Sonic MyDVD Plus/Sonic Copy Module, and Windows
Media Player 11.
Thank you very much. Robert Dawson
new payment
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:56:04 -0400
From: Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: re: Damon Runyon
"wayne_johnson" <wayne_johnson@[removed]; wrote:
Anyone ever notice that "Broadway" and the other characters of The
Damon Runyon Theater never use contractions.
...
Any idea why? Does anyone know of other shows that don't ue
contractions?
I think it's because they're trying as hard as possible to mimic Damon
Runyon's literary style, a form of writing so distinct that the term
"Runyonesque" was coined to desribe it. (I've got an anthology of
Runyon's stories, which I enjoy--in small doses. His distinctive style
is fun, but also wears thin quickly, at least for me.)
I doubt it was emulated on any other programs, except for other
adaptations of his stories (which appeared in a couple of anthology
series), and perhaps the odd gangster character cast in the Runyonesque
mode (though I can't think of any examples).
To me, the key feature of Runyon's dialog is always speaking in the
present tense. I hadn't really noticed the lack of contractions.
Kermyt
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 14:04:42 -0400
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: contractions
I've often speculated how close the speech we hear on radio (or in movies,
for that matter) resembles the speech used by ordinary people at the time
the scripts were written. My conclusion is that it may be hopeless: writers
of dialogue were probably as self-conscious then as they are now, and that
speech in today's movies and TV shows doesn't match ours, either.
The TV version of Perry Mason is just great because the cast consists of old
drama and radio veterans. The best one may be Ray Collins, aka Lt Tragg,
who always seems to be ready to give elocution lessons.
I suppose people expected to hear what they conceived to be high-class
speech when they turned on their radio or went to a movie. Moreover, a
picture-less, streaming medium demands clarity: you have to hear it right
the first time, or the plot line is lost.
Even out in the field, recordings of ordinary people probably weren't too
authentic. I've listened closely to the discussions that take place in the
old folk song recordings, and I seriously wonder if Louis Lomax ever got
anything too authentic when he turned on that mostrous disk recorder of his:
one look at that thing would stiffen the vocal cords of a Cajun wedding
party.
M Kinsler
512 E Mulberry St. Lancaster, Ohio USA 43130 740-687-6368 740-503-1973
[removed]
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:53:02 -0400
From: Doug Berryhill <fibbermac@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Breakfast Club Question
-FIBBERMAC HERE-
Due to "real life" issues, I've been somewhat dormant
in OTR for the last year and a half, but I left up my
OTR web page thinking that I'll be coming back soon.
Thanks to the web page, I still get OTR e-mails from
time to time (which frequently don't get answered),
but this one came yesterday, and I'd like to answer
this man's question,... but I need help. Here's the
body of the e-mail I got yesterday:
Dear Fibbermac,
I am a 67 year old minister, who in about 10 days will
be giving a memorial service for a friend whose mother
just passed away yesterday. Most of the people that
will be present are non believers.
I don't want to offend anyone and I remembered that
when I was a kid in South Chicago, I listened to Don
McNeal and he always said something about prayer.
It went something like this:
Each in his own manner,
Each in his own way,
Bow your heads,
And let us pray.
If possible, could you email me back with the exact
wording so I may use it?
If not, I understand and many thanks either way,
Yours,
Rev. [Name Withheld]
I listened to what little "Breakfast Club" material I
had with no luck in finding this quotation.
If you know the words this man is looking for, please
respond to the list and I'll pass them along.
Thanks in advance!
Wonderful World!
-FIBBERMAC-
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 19:11:26 -0400
From: "karl tiedemann" <karltiedemann@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: RE: La Rosa coda
Now, is that anything like La Cosa [removed]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 23:43:55 -0400
From: "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Real Sound Effects
I'd really like to know if there are any other examples
of live radio plays where the microphone was outside
the studio, or where the actors made their own sound
effects as they played the scene.
1. In the 1920s, stations would often broadcast plays, musical
comedies and operas directly from the stage of local theaters. A
famous early example is KYW's 1921 Chicago opera broadcasts. In March
and April 1923, WJZ had quite a few non-studio dramatic broadcasts
scheduled, including: a number of operas from the Lexington Theatre;
the first act of "Laughing Lady" with Ethel Barrymore from the
Longacre Theatre; "Half Moon Inn," a varsity show by Columbia College
students from the Astor Hotel; and the first act of "Merton of the
Movies" from the Cort Theatre. A March 2, 1924 New York Times article
talks about WJZ's problems with this practice:
***
For a time broadcasting plays direct from the stage was discontinued
because technical imperfections in transmission made the reception
unsatisfactory. This was noticeable especially in the case of serious
plays such as "Romeo and Juliet." Thereafter only plays especially
prepared for radio were used, and these were broadcast direct from the
studio of the station.
Recent improvements show that broadcasting from the stage is feasible.
The best results are obtained with musical shows, because the music is
easy to pick up and more satisfactorily transmitted.
Radio program managers realize the value of broadcasting serious
plays, and efforts are being made to remedy existing technical
difficulties. The chief complaint is that there is too much echo and
that the voice is received in a jumble.
***
That same article describes, in part, the technique that WJZ used:
***
Four microphones are used as a rule, and these are usually placed in
the footlights. In some instances only one is placed in the centre of
the footlights and one hung on each of the boxes flanking the stage.
At other times they are placed as far back as the first balcony. ...
When the play is being broadcast a control box is located in one of
the wings and an operator in charge regulates the volume or input. It
is transmitted to the studio of the station where the electrical
impulses are amplified and sent into space.
***
2. Meanwhile, British radio dramatists seem to have been doing sound
effects on location. At least, that's what it sounds like in this
excerpt from a September 12, 1926 Chicago Tribune article about
advances in radio:
***
... While the spoken radio drama is in its infancy in this country it
has evidently progressed far ahead of us in England, for there they
give them the real thing for a scenic background. They have portable
relay broadcasting trucks which they take anywhere they choose to
stage a play.
If the scene is in a railroad station -- as do the movie people -- to
the railroad station the broadcasters go. Thus you hear locomotives
and trains actually arrive and depart. The same with a play on a sea
beach, where the ocean breakers may be heard, or in a crowded London
thoroughfare, where the listener is afforded the traffic roars. ...
***
The British, of course, usually placed actors in one studio, musicians
in another and sound effects in a third. So I'm guessing it probably
wasn't a big leap for them to go from "doing the sound effects down
the hall" to "doing the sound effects down the street" -- or "at the
beach" or "in a train station."
A couple of Digests ago, somebody mentioned that when NBC's "Empire
Builders" series was done in Chicago, some of the bigger, noisier
sound effects were done outside the studio, on the roof of the
Merchandise Mart. It's probably not a coincidence that the person in
charge of sound effects for "Empire Builders" was Fred Ibbett, a BBC
veteran. Here are two 1931 newspaper publicity blurbs about sound
effects on the roof (can't vouch for their veracity):
***
Sound effects engineers for the "Empire Builder" program recently
solved the problem of bringing the sound of fire engines dashing to an
alarm to the radio audience by enlisting the services of a Lincoln
park [Chicago] policeman who rode his automobile around the roof of
the Merchandise Mart where the Chicago NBC studios are located.
Microphones picked up the sounds of the roaring cutout, siren and
bells.
***
***
During a recent broadcast of the Empire Builders program from the NBC
studios in Chicago, part of the presentation required thunder for a
background. The production men on the roof were vigorously shaking a
great sheet of tin, to get the desired effect, when nature lent a
helping hand. A terrific thunder shower had appeared from nowhere,
laughing at man's efforts.
***
3. In 1932, CBS broadcast the Columbia Dramatic Laboratory, an
experimental series directed by Don Clark, which was sort of an early
version of The Columbia Workshop. One episode scheduled was a genuine
"on location" drama. Here are excerpts from radio columns in the July
17 New York Times and Washington Post:
***
[NYT, "The Microphone Will Present"]
... 10:30 P. M. - WABC - A drama, "Transient," will be broadcast "on
location" in a New York hotel, and this is made possible by the small
lapel microphones, which proved their worth at the national political
conventions. The broadcasters say this is the forerunner of more
realism in radio drama. They envision "on location" programs featuring
real sounds instead of those created by studio gatherings and
noise-making machines.
In the pioneer effort tonight "lapel" microphones will be "pinned" on
a cast of actors and [author Don Clark will] direct them in their
lines while Broadway's curious look on. The actors will move freely
from the curb, through the lobby to the room clerk's desk and
downstairs to the grill room, where an orchestra and dinner dancers
will lend atmosphere to the imaginary action. ...
***
***
[Washington Post, "Radio Dial Flashes"]
... Using the new lapel microphones, Columbia will move radio drama
from the studio to the street (WMAL, 9:30 p. m.) when it will present
a playlet actually enacted under the marquee, in the lobby and at the
grillroom of a Broadway hotel.
The sketch, "Transient," comprises three scenes and was written by Don
Clark, Columbia continuity chief. A cast of stage players, accustomed
to visible audiences, will move about the hotel with the "button
mikes" as Clark directs the action from the floor. An engineer will be
seated at controls in the mezzanine overlooking the lobby.
Sidewalk crowds, lobby loiterers and diners dancing to George Hall's
music in the grill, will furnish the atmosphere and background. No
artificial sound effects will be used in the experiment to determine
the practicability of "on location" settings and to compare the merits
of actual sounds with studio substitutes. ...
***
According to other press accounts, it seems that the hotel was the
Taft, that there were seven actors in the cast, and that the
microphone was a "product of the Columbia Broadcasting System. One
inch in diameter, weighs about one and one-half ounces. A thirty-foot
flexible cord provides connection to the amplifier."
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 23:44:21 -0400
From: "EDWARD CARR" <edcarr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: it could be done
good afternoon everyone
there is a way to make money on horded shows, and if it's a ilam then all
you have to do is get the word out
state a price say $500 and let people know you won't release it till you get
that figure, then you have the peoples name like in a round robin and send
it around.
as to the rumour of the fellow who has the tom mix
once again, just get someone to act in his stead, making no mention of his
name, let people know and do the round robin, because as martin said there
go the mps
and your investment is gone, but it can be done
i did it with a few things early in my collecting yrs
edcarr@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 23:44:31 -0400
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 3-30 births/deaths
March 30th births
03-30-1858 - DeWolf Hopper - NYC - d. 9-23-1935
host-narrator: (Husband of Hedda Hopper) "Roses and Drums"
03-30-1883 - Jo Davidson - NYC - d. 1-2-1952
sculptor: "Information Please"
03-30-1889 - Herman Bing - Frankfurt, Germany - d. 1-9-1947
tenor: "Gulf Screen Theatre"
03-30-1892 - Ethel Owen, Racine WI - d. 12-28-1990
actor: Siri Allen "Against the Storm"; Clara Noble "Backstage Wife"
03-30-1892 - Floyd Odlum - Union City, MI - d. 6-17-1976
owner of rko studios: "Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy"
03-30-1893 - Dennis Hoey - London, England - d. 7-25-1960
actor: Edward Welby "Pretty Kitty Kelly"
03-30-1896 - Samson Raphaelson - NYC - d. 7-16-1983
playwright: "Lux Radio Theatre"
03-30-1902 - Ted Heath - Wandsworth, London, England - d. 11-18-1969
bandleader: "Ted Heath and His Orchestra"
03-30-1905 - Don Hollenbeck - Lincoln, NE - d. 6-22-1954
news commentator: "CBS Views the Press"; "You Are There"
03-30-1913 - Frankie Laine - Chicago, IL - d. 2-6-2007
singer: "Big Show"; "Philco Radio Time"; "Spotlight Revue"
03-30-1914 - Stu Novins - Boston, MA - d. 11-7-1989
writer: "The City"
03-30-1916 - Will Hare - Elkins, WV - d. 8-31-1997
actor: "Words at War"; "New World A' Coming"; "Mysterious Traveler"
03-30-1922 - Anne Pitoniak - Westfield, MA
actor: "Radio City Playhouse"; "Cavalcade of America"; "Magnificent
Montague"
03-30-1922 - Turhan Bey - Vienna, Austria
actor: Francois Tarique "Notorious Tarique"
03-30-1926 - Bill Farrell - Cleveland, OH
singer: "Bob Hope Show"
03-30-1929 - Richard Dysart - Augusta, ME
actor: "We Hold These Truths"
03-30-1930 - John Astin - Baltimore, MD
actor: "Zero Hour"; "Empire of the Air"
03-30-1930 - Peter Marshall - Clarksburg, WV
actor: "Hollywood Radio Theatre"
03-30-1958 - Maurice LaMarche - Toronto, Canada
actor: "Empire of the Air"
March 30th deaths
01-08-1910 - Fabian Andre - La Crosse, WI - d. 3-30-1960
arranger for dance orchestras on NBC
01-11-1902 - Charlie Nehlsen - d. 3-30-1980
engineer: Recorded Hindenburg disaster as reported by Herb Morrison
03-12-1917 - Georgia Ellis - d. 3-30-1988
actor: Miss Kitty Russell "Gunsmoke"
04-09-xxxx - Louise Larabee - Bremerton, WA - d. 3-30-1988
actor: "Calvacade of America"; "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
05-05-1879 - Max Marcin - Posen, Prussia, Germany - d. 3-30-1948
writer, producer, director: "Crime Doctor"; "The FBI in Peace and War"
07-17-1899 - James Cagney - NYC - d. 3-30-1986
actor: "Arch Oboler's Plays"; "Screen Guild Theatre"
07-25-1905 - Harold Peary - San Leandero, CA - d. 3-30-1985
actor: Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve , "Fibber McGee and Molly and The
Great Gildersleeve"
07-28-1920 - Art Hannes - Newport, KY - d. 3-30-1992
announcer: "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar"; "Gangbusters"; "Suspense"
08-11-1915 - Bernard "Buddy" Arnold - NYC - d. 3-30-2004
writer: "Your Hit Parade"
09-17-1890 - Gabriel Heatter - NYC - d. 3-30-1972
news, commentator: "News and Comment"; "We. the People"
11-11-1917 - Robert J. Shaw - Wisconsin - d. 3-30-1996
writer: "Mr. District Attorney"; "Advs. of Christopher Wells"
11-20-1908 - Alistair Cooke - Manchester, England - d. 3-30-2004
host: "Transatlantic Quiz"; "Letter to America"; "Stage and Screen"
Ron Sayles
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:20:15 -0400
From: Jeff Knowling <jeff_knowling@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: RE: Damon Runyon
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
wayne_johnson asked:
Anyone ever notice that "Broadway" and the other characters of The Damon
Runyon Theater never use contractions.
Any idea why?
I have always thought it is because the citizens like to think of themselves
as having class. It is possible that they had another reason, but this is how
it has sounded to me. ; - )
Jeff Knowling
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:21:14 -0400
From: "Jerry Williams" <mrj1313@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Ruth Last
Greetings all,
Am looking for a picture of Ruth Last, have tried the internet without any
luck. Any ideas where I might find one.
Thank You
Jerry Williams
Oroville, CA
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:21:57 -0400
From: Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: OTR in the News
A review of a new book "Same Time, Same Station," about the transition of
entertainment from radio to television is here:
[removed]
A California-based presentation by an old time radio and early television
writer named Robert Fisher, who wrote for Groucho Marx and Jack Benny among
others is here:
[removed]
According to website "[removed]" March 29 is the anniversary of Jack Benny's
first radio program. Details here:
[removed]
The New York Post reviews the latest Film Forum presentation of old movies
in New York, which includes several OTR stars including Judy Canova (her
daughter, TV actress Diana Canova, is on tap to introduce the film on April
9), John Barrymore, Gene Kelly, Linda Darnell, Milton Berle, Frank Sinatra,
Jim Jordan, and Mary Livingston.
Rich Contay of WFUV will also take part.
Sounds like fun.
[removed]
This obituary for Audrey McClure notes that she performed with Jack Benny
and Tommy Dorsey among others.
[removed],1,[removed];ctrack=1&cset=true
This completely random review of 1952's "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn
Gorilla" is noteworthy in that it highlights an apperance in the film by
Muriel Landers, who appeared in the classic Jack Benny sketch "the Landrews
Sisters" on television.
[removed]
Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:31:58 -0400
From: "BRay" <bray@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Damon Runyon
The Damon Runyon Theater characters never used contractions because that's
the way Runyon wrote his stories. He was attempting to capture the speech
patterns of the characters he noticed in a certain place and time, [removed], a
particular section of Manhattan during the second quarter of the 20th
century. Personally, I never ran into people who talked that way, having
visited New York for the first time for two days in 1965. Before TV started
to homogenize dialects across the country, New York City boasted at least
ten different dialects. Radio shows tended to specialize in the 'dem, dere,
doses' of certain parts of Brooklyn, but in 1957 I had the opportunity to
visit Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico for a couple of weeks. While there
I ran into a troop of scouts from somewhere in Manhattan, and learned for
the first time that the "R" sound is not in their vocabulary. I later met an
engineer from some other part of Manhattan, and I never got over the way he
pronounced 'bo' les' (most folk say 'bottles,' but he used a glottal stop as
a substitution for the 'tt' sound. I wish I had the reference, but one of
the NY columnists from a time when there were many more newspapers than
today, wrote an essay on many of the different pronunciations used by
various "N'Yawkers." After seeing a couple of Bob Hope comedies based on
Runyon's work, and having begun to hear the DRT on the radio, I went to the
library to get the originals, and I was sorely disappointed. Runyon was a
talented writer, but his work was much darker than the Hope movies, the
radio program, and "Guys and Dolls." I was still a little kid, and looking
for comic stories with upbeat endings. Runyon's characters, sad to say,
often didn't live through the closing credits. And they all spoke without
using contractions.
[removed]
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #102
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