--
Ron Sayles
For a complete list:
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:16:59 +0000
From: Ron Sayles
<bogusotr@[removed];
To:
<[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Lois Wilson
Arlene Osborn pointed out to me:
> 06-28-1894 - Lois Wilson - Pittsburgh, PA (Raised: Birmingham, AL) - d.
1-8-1983
> actress: Daughter "Miss Hattie"; "Jack Benny Program"; "Thirty Minutes
in Hollywood"
Thanks Arlene for spotting that for me.
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:17:12 +0000
From: Rick Keating
<pkeating89@[removed];
To:
<[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Reagan pronunciation
Regarding the pronuncation of Ronald Reagan's last
name, by the time he did Suspense ("Circumsantial
Terror" and "One and One's a Lonesome") in the 1950s,
the pronunciation was Ray-gan. Do any recordings exist
of his sports broadcasting days in Iowa? If so, how
did he pronounce his name back then?
I have heard the "Ree-gan" pronunciation at some
point, but don't recall in what context.
Speaking of names, it's curious how the man went from
"James Stewart" to "Jimmy Stewart" as he got older.
Usually, it's the other way around, or someone is
known by a nickname from the beginning ([removed] Jimmy
Carter, Stevie Wonder, Donny Osmond, Tommy Lee Jones,
etc.).
Rick
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:17:51 +0000
From: Sean Dougherty
<seandd@[removed];
To:
<[removed]@[removed];
Subject: New Bob Hope DVD
Bob Hope has a new DVD collection coming out that includes many guest stars
from OTR.
Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]
BOB'S Back on DVD : Holiday Specials & USO Tours featured in 2 ...
[removed] - Canada
... The feature includes appearances by John Wayne, Red Skelton, Jack Benny,
Lucille Ball, Phil Silvers, Dyan Cannon, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire,
Dixie Carter ...
<[removed];
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:18:21 +0000
From: Sean Dougherty
<seandd@[removed];
To:
<[removed]@[removed];
Subject: James Lileks on Humor in the 1940s
This blog post by hilarious columnist James Lileks takes on bad late-era
Marx Brothers movies and comments in passing on the humor of the 1940s,
which aside from Fred Allen he professes not to get.
How could you get Fred Allen, who you practically have to have a masters in
American history to get at this point, and not find the rest of it funny?
I wonder.
Anyway, interesting stuff that I don't agree with follows.
Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:19:02 +0000
From: Dennis W Crow
<DCrow3@[removed];
To:
<[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Bill Forman and "Father Knows Best"
I am re-listening to episodes from "Father Knows Best," not only because
Ed James' scripts are amusing and clever, but also because I am fascinated
in Robert Young's characterization of "Father," which is a 180 degree
turn from his portrayal of "Jim Anderson" on the more famous television
version.
In the radio show, Jim is gruff, impatient, easily flustered, and almost
constantly shouting. The series ran for four complete seasons before
converting to television. "Father" then evolved into a sweet, loving,
"purveyor of all wisdom" kind of character, appearing on the small screen
as a model of the perfect dad.
My reason for writing is episode sixty-nine from February 15, 1951, whose
script is entitled, "Orchid for a Lady." Bill Forman announces the
program in normal fashion, but when he introduces the second half of the
show, he voices his narration just like he did on "The Whistler."
He starts, "Now, it's five o'clock, an hour of mystery and excitement. How
do I know? Well, I know many things, of men who walk by night with danger
by their side, of men who walk by eventide with orchids clutched beneath
their arms. Ah, yes, Jim, there's a smile on your face and a song in your
heart, as you stride across the kitchen floor. But how long will this
happiness last? You open the refrigerator door and the smile fades. The
song disappears. What is it you see, Jim, crisp and cool between a head of
lettuce and an old, tired meatloaf? That's right, Jim, it'[removed] ANOTHER
ORCHID!"
I presume there's a live audience even though the show is transcribed. I
didn't hear the audience react to Forman's obvious "Whistler" delivery.
For me, however, it was a great radio moment, well worth listening to.
Jerry Haendiges has all the programs in wonderful sound.
By the way, does anyone have a theory about why the character of "Father"
changed so completely for the long-running television series?
Dennis Crow
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:19:22 +0000
From:
ilamfan@[removed]
To:
<[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Non-Contact Audio Restoration
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
I heard on NPR this Monday morning about a couple of scientists who
have succeeded in restoring audio from fragile wax cylinders and
disc-related media WITHOUT CONTACTING THE MEDIA AT ALL. They do high
quality optical scans (2-dimensional scan for discs, 3-dimensional scan for
cylinders), and then use a computer to analyse and "play" the virtual
recording.
There is no danger of damaging the original media, because there is
no physical contact involved. The computer can also be taught to ignore
obvious groove defects (clicks and pops), so playback is greatly improved
over what would be a standard transfer.
I'm extra excited hearing this, because I was posting about the
feasibility of just such a process on this same digest about a year ago -
I'm sure I'm not the only person to have thought up the idea, but at least
NOW I don't seem so crazy!
The playbacks that were featured sounded pretty darn good, I'm not
sure if there was any additional denoise/dehum/declick audio improvements
added or [removed] this will surely be an important step in the
preservation of historical audio (it doesn't do anyone any good if it never
gets heard!).
Here is a link to the NPR page which offers audio of the show, and
several related webpages:
[removed]
Hope some of you find this as interesting as I did!
Stephen Jansen
--
Old Time Radio never dies - it
just changes formats!
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:19:55 +0000
From: Jack & Cathy French
<otrpiano@[removed];
To:
<[removed]@[removed];
Subject: The Lady in Blue
For those of you who have the two surviving episodes of this lady
crime-fighter, you may wish to change the dates which have been attributed
to it.
Most of us have assumed the blonde heroine, who was solving a burglary in
her first two 15 minute episodes, was part of the series NBC aired under
the same name, "The Lady in Blue", for about seven months in 1951. However,
that turns out not to be the case.
Karl Schadow, a first-rate OTR researcher, noted my discussion of the lack
of scripts for "Lady in Blue" in my recent book, "Private Eyelashes:
Radio's Lady Detectives" and emailed me that he had discovered that some of
these NBC scripts were on microfilm at the Recorded Sound Section of the
Library of Congress. So today, I visited "Fortress [removed]" and upon a review
of the scripts, quickly determined it's another show with the same title.
In NBC's 1951 "The Lady in Blue", it's a half-hour Saturday morning program
geared for very young children, and was a sustaining and transcribed
program from WNBC in Manhattan. It was hosted by June Winters, who tells
the kiddies stories, sings songs, and plays children's records. She is
assisted by "Spinner", her pilot and mechanic of her "magic jet plane."
Library of Congress has five audio copies of this series, but will not make
any copies for researchers without written authorization from
[removed], while difficult, is not impossible.
There now exists a rebuttable presumption that the other two circulating
episodes of "The Lady in Blue" are actually a pair of audition shows for a
program that never aired.
Anybody ever heard of a lady singer named June Winters?
Jack French
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:20:10 +0000
From: "REV WALTER R RIEDEL"
<revdbob@[removed];
To:
<[removed]@[removed];
Subject: newbie
As a person new to otr, but loving it, I would like some information. I am
also broke. I am looking for the free otr downloads that are sometimes
available. I am happy with mp3s. I doin't have much to trade with yet,
either. Can anyone steer me to good places to accumulate free downloads (or
even share with a new friend?
Bob
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:20:38 +0000
From:
JackBenny@[removed]
To:
<[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Appraisal needed
Pardon the off-topic posting, but I'm looking for some help for a friend
who needs an appraisal. She has a near-mint music hall/minstrel poster
from 1862, one of those very long, narrow papers that has a million
different fonts on it and lots of outrageous hucksterism, like (just making
this up, would be centered down the page with each section in different fonts):
Tonight on
OUR STAGE ONLY
you will be able to witness Mister Alphonse Lewis demonstrating his daring
and acumen by
SITTING ON FIVE CHAIRS AT ONE TIME!!!
An example of this sort of poster (but not the one she has) can be seen
at:
[removed](20).htm
I about had a heart attack when I first saw it, because I'd never seen one
of these "in the flesh", only reproductions in books. If anyone can give
help in locating someone who would be able to give a realistic appraisal of
this item, please contact me off-list at
jackbenny@[removed].
Laura Leff
President, IJBFC
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:20:49 +0000
From: "[removed]"
<[removed]@[removed];
To:
<[removed]@[removed];
Subject: unintended hilarity
In #215, Michael Biel wrote:
> I don't have the answer to Chris Holm's question, but I got
> a chuckle from his message's subject line " I was a
> communist for the music". It is like joining the army
> because you like Sousa marches, or buying Playboy for the
> articles. :-)
Actually, my intended subject line was "I was a communist for the music
appreciation society", but the digest server wisely cut it down to a
better length. In retrospect, I believe the subject I ended up with is
probably funnier, and certainly more ironic. You know us Gen X'ers, we
love irony almost as much as we love sarcasm - or maybe it's the other
way around.
As an aside, in my search to answer my own question, I ran across an
album on Amazon titled "Best of Communism: Revolutionary Songs". It
features hits like the Internationale, and other songs I'd never heard
of. It didn't answer my IWACFTFBI question, but I might have to get it
just for fun.
I'm sure many of the young OTR listeners find the rabid anti-communism
of shows such as "I Was a Communist for the FBI" a little silly, almost
campy. I suppose it's all a matter of perspective. The commies I was
familiar with were the corrupt spies of James Bond movies, or punks in
East-German rock bands. They seemed more like caricatures than a truly
malevolent evil. It must have been different for people who grew up in
the post WWII era, when the USSR seemed so isolated and powerful.
I wonder, were shows like "I was a [removed]" just smokescreen,
designed as proof that the networks were sufficiently anti-communist?
-chris holm
it reminds me of an anecdote (hopefully, someone can fill us in if it's
true, and the specifics). It seems that, following week after week of
commie-bashing on such a show, an ad rep was reported to have said
something like: "Hey, take it easy, communists buy our product too."
Any thoughts?
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:21:09 +0000
From: Ron Sayles
<bogusotr@[removed];
To:
<[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 6-30 births/deaths
June 30th births
06-30-1879 - Walter Hampden - Brooklyn, NY - d. 6-11-1955
actor: Leonidas Witherall "Leonidas Witherall"
06-30-1894 - Phillips Carlin - NYC - d. 8-27-1971
announcer: "Palmolive Hour"; "Atwater Kent Hour"
06-30-1896 - Wilfred Pelletier - Montreal, Canada - d. 4-9-1982
conductor: "Roses and Drums"; "Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air"
06-30-1898 - George Chandler - Waukegan, IL - d. 6-10-1985
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
06-30-1899 - Santos Ortega - NYC - d. 4-10-1976
actor: Nero Wolfe "Advs. of Nero Wolfe"; Richard Queen "Advs. of Ellery Queen"
06-30-1904 - Glenda Farrell - Enid, Oklahoma Territory - d. 5-1-1971
opposing pitcher: "Quizzer's Baseball"
06-30-1910 - Frank Gallop - Boston, MA - d. 5-1998
announcer: :Milton Berle Show"; "Gangbusters"; "Stella Dallas"
06-30-1913 - Harry Wismer - Port Huron, MI - d. 1967
sportscaster: "Harry Wismer Sports Show"; "Champion Roll Call"
06-30-1917 - Lena Horne - Brooklyn, NY
singer: "Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street"
06-30-1918 - Stewart Foster - Binghamton, NY - d. 2-7-1968
singer: "Stewart Foster Show"; "Galen Drake"; "On a Sunday Afternoon"
06-30-1919 - Susan Hayward - Brooklyn, NY - d. 3-14-1975
actress: "Radio Almanac"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
06-30-1920 - Dean Harens - South Bend, IN - d. 5-20-1996
actor: Arthur Anderson "We, the Abbotts"
June 30th deaths
02-20-1906 - Gale Gordon - NYC - d. 6-30-1995
actor: Mayor LaTrivia "Fibber McGee and Molly"; Osgood Conklin "Our Miss
Brooks"
05-18-1904 - Fred Shields - Kansas City, MO - d. 6-30-1974
actor: Bill Fraser "Tarzan"
06-20-1924 - Chet Atkins - Luttrell, TN - d. 6-30-2001
guitarist: "Boone County Neighbors"; "Grand Ole Opry"
07-26-1907 - Galen Drake - Kokomo, IN - d. 6-30-1989
commentator: "Galen Drake"
08-26-1873 - Lee de Forest - Council Bluffs, IA - d. 6-30-1961
inventor: Audion tube
11-27-1908 - Mary Livingston - Seattle, WA - d. 6-30-1983
comedienne: (wife of Jack Benny) "Jack Benny Program"