Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #495
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 12/19/2002 5:36 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2002 : Issue 495
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  How I got hooked                      [ "Scott Eberbach" <seberbach@earthli ]
  Shadow Question                       [ "Scott Eberbach" <seberbach@earthli ]
  re Young Members                      [ "Merlin" <merlin7@[removed]; ]
  Thank you, Harry                      [ John Henley <jhenley@[removed] ]
  "Young" OTR fans and Harry Bartell,   [ "Tony Bell" <t_bell61@[removed]; ]
  Favorite Christmas shows              [ "Andrew Godfrey" <niteowl049@[removed] ]
  Re: developing an affinity for OTR    [ Al Girard <24agirard24@[removed] ]
  Young (?!?) Person's Story            [ MGiorgio1@[removed] ]
  Re: young members                     [ BrianWest2@[removed] ]
  Youth                                 [ "Tom and Katja" <kattom@[removed] ]
  Young OTR fan                         [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
  young listener                        [ "Brad Stucky" <[removed]@[removed]; ]
  RE; Young Members                     [ mart459@[removed] ]
  It Came! It Came!                     [ Grbmd@[removed] ]

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 14:01:56 -0500
From: "Scott Eberbach" <seberbach@[removed];
To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  How I got hooked
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Hi All,
 I often like posts such as Ron's because they get to the heart of what we
like about the medium.  And I will be interested to see what the "hook" was
for many of the younger members of the digest.  I'm 44 and was born 4 years
before radio "died"; however, I have no recollection of ever hearing any radio
show other than music at that time.

My first indication that radio was something other than music and lots of
commercials was one evening in the late 1960s when I was spending an evening
with my Dad while he was nursing a headache upstairs in his bedroom.  Mom was
out running a few errands.  I asked him what he watched on TV when he was a
child.  He replied that they didn't have TV and that they listened to the
radio.  He got that faraway look in his eyes and began to tell me about some
of the shows that he listened [removed] Shadow, The Green Hornet, The Lone
Ranger, Fred Allen, The Great Gildersleeve, and a host of others.  About this
time my mother returned and joined in the conversation and talked about some
of her favorite shows such as The Lone Ranger and Hop Harrigan.  Apparently
this sparked something inside me.  By 1970 or so DC comics started reprinting
some of the old comics from the late 30s early 40s as filler for their more
popular titles such as an early Batman story before Robin came along and
Batman carried a pistol and the origin of Dr. Fate.  I loved reading those
stories that had not seen the light of print in over 30 or 40 years  I suppose
that the nostalgia craze of the 70s was kicking in about this time.

I had started moving away from AM Top forty Rock and Roll about this time and
on Sunday nights I used to listen to an Oldies show (late 50's early 60s Rock
and Roll) on WOR-FM.  One night they aired an old Shadow broadcast and then
about a week later they broadcast the origin episode of The Lone Ranger.
These were the first OTR shows that I ever heard.  When we moved to North
Carolina in January of 1972 I thought that these two were the only shows that
I was likely to ever hear.  One afternoon in the local library I came upon Jim
Harmon's book "The Great Radio Heroes" and devoured that, but thought that
would be about as close as I'd ever come to actually hearing these old
broadcasts.

One morning in 1972 when getting ready for school a radio station that I had
tuned into the night before announced that that evening they were going to
start airing some of the old radio shows on a weekly basis.  [removed]
Shadow, [removed] McGee and Molly, [removed] Lone Ranger, and
[removed] Minus One.  For whatever reason The Shadow was my favorite and
the only one I was really interested [removed] listened occasionally to the
others but The Shadow I never missed and manage to tape a few of them.  I
found that cleaning the kitchen after dinner with The Shadow to listen to
didn't seem quite as much a chore as it was before!

When the summer came I discovered The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre (on that same
station which I believe at the time was an NBC [removed] it was only
NBC news)  I managed to tape a few of these too.  I remember spending many a
night listening to those shows in bed with an occasional burst of static due
to sheet lightning.  That fall, 1973, I was looking through the classified
section of one of my Monster magazines and came across an ad from a fellow in
the mid west selling [removed] sent away for his catalog.  In November I placed
an order for two reels of The [removed] I got them I was hooked, but good.
I ordered the remaining 6 reels of The Shadow with money I had received at
Christmas time.  I got catalogs from other dealers but for some reason I
always was on the lookout for Shadow stories I didn't have or wanted in better
sound.  I began buying some LPs that were available in some of the larger
record stores at the mall of other shows.  Pretty much for the remainder of my
high school years my interest in OTR waxed and [removed] still listened and
occasionally bought some more shows.  I went into the Navy in 1976 and
rekindeled my interest in the late seventies and placed an order with Radio
Yesteryear.  Throughout the 80s and while in college again I listened to a lot
of my old shows, got some friends interested in the art, and occasionly bought
some more shows.  In fact, a few of us produced and acted in a few radio shows
that we got onto the college radio station.  We used some non-royalty plays
and a one or two originals as well.

It was only in the 90s that I started collecting in [removed]
collections were showing up in some of the larger bookstores and I renewed my
business with Radio Yesteryear and placed a number of large orders with them.
I have also enlarged my collection via the internet newsgroups as well.
Unfotunately I lost a large number of them when my computer crapped out on me
and I had to do a quick restore that only restored the software that was
installed on the computer at the factory.  Thankfully, some of what I lost I
had burned onto a disc or two, yet I still lost a lot of stuff.  Oh well, this
stuff usually shows up on the news groups time and time again!

I doubt that I will ever lose my interest in [removed] is a major part of my
free time.  I always go to bed with a show or two and have been trying to
interest my two little nephews in the [removed] some success I might add.
The Adventures Of Superman and The Cinnamon Bear are the ones they like.  The
older one Samuel startled an older gentleman a couple of years ago with his
knowledge of OTR that he gleaned from me telling him about the shows in my
collection.  This man came to fix something in the house and the boys were
watching television and the gentleman remarked that when he was a boy they
didn't have TV they had radio.  Sam said to him "Oh you mean shows like The
Shadow, The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet, and Superman?"  My sister says that
this fellow was quite started that this little boy, who was only 4 years old
at the time, had some knowledge of these shows.  And so it [removed] of the
younger generation "hooked" on OTR.

Happy Holidays to all!

Scott

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Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 14:43:21 -0500
From: "Scott Eberbach" <seberbach@[removed];
To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Shadow Question
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Hi All
In response to the Shadow question about the recreation of The Man Who Dreamed
Too Much was produced and directed by our resident expert on all matters
pertaining to The Master Of Men's Minds Anthony Tollin and used many, if not
all, actors that had roles in The Shadow.  John Archer reprised his role as
The Shadow.  I'm not sure who the others were nor when this recreation was
done.  Perhaps Tony can leave his Sanctum long enough to give us the full
[removed] about it Tony?

Scott

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Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 15:55:17 -0500
From: "Merlin" <merlin7@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  re Young Members

How did I get in to OTR?
Here in the UK we had a radio channel called BBC Radio 5 and they introduced
me to Frank Lovejoy and Niightbeat
Then Radio5 became a rolling news station and Frank vanished in to the ether
Then thanks to ORCA and Barry Hill  I discovered the wonderfully suave Paul
Temple , after that it was OTR from ebay
And now, I`ve just got a DAB radio so I can listen to BBC 7 to catch all
those all classics that I missed first time round

Alison
Listening to The Navy Lark

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 15:55:33 -0500
From: John Henley <jhenley@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Thank you, Harry

I haven't spoken up here lately but I just wanted to
say that Harry Bartell's so-very-modest demurral re
being worthy of Kennedy Center Honors made me smile
and at the same time made me a bit [removed] did his
holiday greeting to us.

So I'd like to return the wishes to my favorite radio actor,
and to each and every one else as well.  Happy Holidays,
everyone.  May the new year bring better chances of peace
for all.
John Henley

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 15:56:06 -0500
From: "Tony Bell" <t_bell61@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  "Young" OTR fans and Harry Bartell, [removed]
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Being "only" 44 myself, I certainly wasn't around when radio was in it's
heyday, but, as I have shared here before, my interest on OTR began when
I was growing up in St Louis, and listening to the late Jack Carney's
Radio Comedy Show ( I don't think that was the title, but it was
something like that).  Carney would play routines from shows like "the
Bickersons" and "Jack Benny" and "Fibber McGee".  Later, KMOX, the
powerful station out of the Gateway City, would program dramas like
"Gunsmoke".  I was hooked.  By the time the "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
came around, I was in heaven.  I was sure the "Golden Days of Radio" were
on their way back.  I guess I was just a bit off!

I also wanted to chime in with praise of having Harry Bartell, as well of
other veterans of OTR in attendance on our Digest.  I read where Mr.
Bartell thought that most of his fame here was do to the fact that he is
still around.  Well, sir, that may be true to some extent, but I'll take
it!!  Speaking as one of the"younger" OTR fans here, I never got a chance
to rub elbows (even if only in cyberspace) with people who actually
worked in the medium until now.  What a treasure we have here! I try not
to get star-struck around "celebrities", I think they just want to be
treated like regular people and I respect that.  But I'd be crazy not to
place some value to  the words of Mr. Bartell and Mr. Stone and Mrs.
Culver and Mr Munsick and all the others who do their part to pass along
the oral (and written) history  of OTR to future generations, because
they were there.  I don't want to see radio history get eaten up by
other, more modern mediums, and I don't think it ever will, thanks to all
the people here, and other places, who keep that torch burning.

Tony Bell

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Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 15:55:47 -0500
From: "Andrew Godfrey" <niteowl049@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Favorite Christmas shows

  When I think of my favorite OTR Christmas shows I think of shows like the
When The Chimes Rang episode of Great Gildersleeve. Fibber McGee and Molly
had several good Christmas shows like the one when a present to their
neighbor Gildersleeve arrived at their house. They just had to open the
package to see what was inside then when they found out it was a phonograph
they just had to play it. Next thing you knew they had broken it so they had
to go to BonTon department store to replace it and it cost $160.
  Red Skelton had a Christmas show that had him selling Christmas trees.
One customer said he wasn't going to spend more than 40 cents for a tree so
Red showed him a brown tree for 40 cents  and he asked Red if brown trees
were something new and Red said no they were something old because they had
it left over from last year.
  Listening to these OTR shows while watching Christmas tree lights has
really made this Christmas special.
Andrew Godfrey

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 15:56:25 -0500
From: Al Girard <24agirard24@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: developing an affinity for OTR

 In a recent Digest issue, Rick Keating said:

I suppose I also like OTR because of a certain
affinity I seem to have with certain aspects of a
bygone era (though my interest in OTR may have spawned
that affinity for all I know). I mean, while I own two
computers and a Smith Corona PWP word processor, and
just recently purchased an Alpha Smart lap top word
processor; I also own 10 manual typewriters (with two
more on the way) a stereo with phonograph player (33,
45 AND 78 RPMs), and a candlestick-style phone.

I sense another thread possibility.  I own several rotary-dial telephones
and use one of them right here beside my computer.  I also own
a Brother portable electric typewriter.  I even have a teleptype machine.
How about the rest of you?  Do you have any devices that would have been used
in the forties and fifties?  Do any of you use a fountain pen?
Do you have an inkwell or a blotter?  I have a very old
fountain pen that may or may not work as I haven't filled it
for years.

Al Girard

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 16:04:21 -0500
From: MGiorgio1@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Young (?!?) Person's Story

Hi all,
With children ranging from college age down to two, I'm not sure how young I
am or feel (I'm eight days short of my 38th birthday), but I do know how I
got involved in OTR.

Very shortly after my father died (all too young at age 54) in 1985, I was
wandering around various stores killing time before having to be at work.
One store featured a discount rack of audio cassettes, a dollar each for
obscure bands and whatnot.  Mixed in the middle of the mess was a tape simply
labled "Gunsmoke."  Still missing my dad so much, my mind immediately flashed
on memories of being a small boy allowed to stay up an hour late to watch
Gunsmoke on Mondays nights with my dad.  That was our special time together,
since I was the only one of the four of us to pick up his love of westerns.
So I picked up the cassette, more out of curiousity to find out what kind of
band would use the name Gunsmoke than anything else.  The label read "as
originally broadcast on CBS Radio."  In homage to my father, I bought it.

And I was hooked.

Simple story, really, but OTR's lead me to so many other things.  Through
FOTR's scriptwriting contest, I rediscovered my love of writing.  Through
writing, I found my wife, became a stepfather three times over, and we have a
little girl of our own.  So, thanks Dad, thanks William Conrad, and thanks to
whoever started this thread for bringing back so many happy memories.

Happy Holidays to Everyone
Michael Giorgio
Waukesha, WI

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 16:02:52 -0500
From: BrianWest2@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: young members

Ron Sayles asked how we got interested in OTR. It was just about two years
ago that I came across a radio spirits advertisement with an offer for
christmas shows and I thought it might be [removed] fell instantly in love and
picked up some shows periodically from radio spirits as I thought that was my
only outlet. Then earlier this year I heard about these different internet
groups and have been happy ever since.

brian west

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 16:04:18 -0500
From: "Tom and Katja" <kattom@[removed];
To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Youth

Sometimes I don't feel so [removed] 39.

My first experience with OTR was in the early-to-mid-70s, when my father---a
teacher--started using some OTR shows in his classes. Of course, he prepped
at home, and we started listening to many of them. Lots of Suspense, The
Shadow, etc.

Around the same time, I found a two-record (yes, vinyl) set of The war of
the Worlds in the elementary school library. Had that sucker checked out for
weeks.

This led to the discovery of the CBS Mystery Theatre, which I listened to
pretty faithfully until leaving for college.

I've since started collecting again, and have greatly enjoyed this digest.

Still like Suspense best of all, though.

Tom Zotti

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 16:37:50 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Young OTR fan

I received my first cassettes as a Christmas gift from my grandmother when I
was probably ten or eleven.  Those were the 30-minute cassettes Adventures
in Cassettes came out with (fifteen minutes per side which meant flipping
the cassette half way through).  Shadow's "Death From the Deep," a best-of
Jack Benny, Baby Snooks, [removed] Fields, and so on.  Half a dozen I recall and
from there, I got their catalog.  After that it was pickings, till I
discovered that there was a wider variety and better prices from collectors
and dealers who trade and sell.

SUSPENSE was what got me hooked, and I began that high-school project most
people on this digest are familiar with.

A couple years ago I attended a nostalgia convention in Pittsburgh and a
friend of a friend asked me the ever popular question, "What got someone
like you into viewing and listening to all these classic shows?"  He was, of
course, referring to the addage that most young people these days don't give
a flying fig about old black and white movies and radio shows, and expect
Matrix and Harry Potter type stuff.

After a bit discussion, I finally figured the answer that probably holds
more true than anything is "exposure to the classics, even through reruns if
not through educational methods."  If the younger generation were exposed to
the medium of radio drama as much as they are the internet or satellite TV,
they would probably get into radio drama big-time.

If anyone thinks I'm walking on the wrong tightrope, just how many people
during the seventies got hooked into old-time radio by being exposed to
late-night airings of CBS RMT?  I could name dozens and I am sure there are
thousands and thousands of people who qualify towards this.

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 16:37:16 -0500
From: "Brad Stucky" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  young listener
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Having reached the Jack Benny age--no, really--maybe I'll jump in. I came to
OTR through a back door. One day when I was finally sick enough to get to stay
home from school, but not so sick I had to stay on the couch all day, I
explored the bookcase and found a Book-of-the-Month-Club copy of Buxton and
Owen. I remember reading all those names for the first time and wishing those
shows were still being broadcast.
Jump ahead many years, when I was on a university exchange program. When our
first stipend check came, I rushed ou to the "kaufhaus" for those two
essentials: a radio and a coffee maker. It turns out the local AFRS affiliate
carried a bit of OTR.
Got to hear Johnny Dollar.
For those who haven't tuned out, jump ahead again a few years. Living in
France now, and when my parents came to visit, I saw an ad in a magazine my
mom had been reading on the plane. An ad for Radio Spirits. That did it.
I still have her copy of Buxton and Owen. That doesn't bother her near as much
as having a 39-year-old son.
Brad

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Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 16:56:14 -0500
From: mart459@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  RE; Young Members

Well, I still think of myself as young (42) (Except first thing in the
morning). I started by having a ringing in my ears when I was growing up, and
I would have the radio on at night to distract me. It didn't take me long to
realize that radio took imagination, and TV drained it. Got into the habit of
AM DX'ing and listening to programs and my interest just grew from there. The
BEST christmas gift that I ever got was a Zenith Transoceanic that Dad had
bought from the Zenith company store for me. I just kept listening to radio,
and (unfortunatly) to this day cannot sleep without a radio going. Which makes
life interesting, because my wife NEEDS a TV on in the background. And a large
assortment of radios and antennas throughout the house.
And listening to the QUALITY of the writing of many of the shows (not all by
any means) as opposed to a lot of the pap being presented as entertainment
[removed] Especially Comedy - where wit and talent and good writers beat some
jerk standing up and spouting the 'F' word twenty times over and people
laughing because it is expected of them.

I (hopefully) have my son (6) interested in some of the shows. Driving him and
his mother to his grandmother's, we were able to listen to cinnamon bear all
the way through, and he loved it.

Jon M.

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 17:21:31 -0500
From: Grbmd@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  It Came!  It Came!

Just 10 minutes ago it arrived.  Our mailperson just delivered my copy of Hal
Stone's book, "[removed] Relax, Archie!  Re-Laxx!"  I had been camping out by my
mailbox, anxiously awaiting its arrival.  Now I can fold the tent and move
back into my house.

Just flipping through it, I can see it's going to be a fun read.  Lots of
photos and illustrations.  Lots of recollections, some of which may relate to
my teen years when I listened to "Archie Andrews" on the radio.  Little did I
suspect then that someday I would be exchanging messages with the guy who
played Jughead.

And thanks also, Hal, for autographing it with a personal note about OTR and
the Digest.  (Hey!  Maybe I could sell this autographed book for a profit and
skip reading it.  Naw, that probably wouldn't work.)

By the way, Hal, I noticed those photos of you as a child model.  How come a
cute kid like that turned out to [removed]  Well, let that go.

Yours in old-time radio,
Spence Coleman

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #495
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