------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 01 : Issue 79
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
More little people inside the radio [Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed]; ]
Unshackled ["Ron Vanover" <vanoverr@[removed]; ]
Fu Manchu plots ["J. Randolph Cox" <cox@[removed]]
OTR ECONOMICS ["Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; ]
Re: TV "as" Radio [GEORGE WAGNER <gwagneroldtimeradio@]
Re: Radio, TV, and Literalism [Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed]]
Cincinnati Covnention ["Bob Burchett" <haradio@[removed]]
Today in Radio History [Joe Mackey <wmackey@[removed]]
Re: TV *as* Radio [John Francis MacEachern <johnfmac@m]
Radio Logs ["Art Department" <wolowicz@[removed]]
little people in the radio [Tyrone Settlemier <settlet@[removed];]
OTR in Sacramento ["Matt Votisek" <mattvotisek@hotmail]
Help Needed ["Stewart Wright" <stewwright@worldn]
A Dark and Stormy [removed] [Larry Groebe <lgroebe@[removed]; ]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 22:40:44 -0500
From: Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: More little people inside the radio
By the way, did you think there were little people inside the radio
doing their stuff like I did when I was little?
This appears to have been a fairly universal impression for kids during
the Golden Age of Radio. We had an RCA console model that was taller
than I was, and if I couldn’t hear something well enough I’d press my
ear against the dial – not the speaker, which was hidden behind its
grille cloth, but the glowing orange dial which, after all, is what
brought in the program.
I did indeed crawl inside the radio trying to see the people I could
hear, probably motivated by Uncle Don telling a listener that he’d find
his birthday present “behind the radio, where I am”. Since I didn’t see
him right away I could only assume that Uncle Don wasn’t there because
it wasn’t my birthday. But on another occasion I sneaked a peek and
looking toward the loudspeaker I swore I could see someone!
Then one day my mother took my sister and me to see a real radio show,
“Daily Dilemmas” on WOR/Mutual, from one of the Mutual auditorium
studios in Manhattan (probably the Longacre Theater). I remember this
well because Mom was picked as a contestant and won the day’s top prize.
I also got to see people talking into microphones that sent their voices
out on the air. Now I understood how they did “Daily Dilemmas”. But I
couldn’t figure out where the rest of the programs came from, and for a
long time I believed that if there was no studio audience then the other
shows on WOR must originate from the seats in the auditorium. I could
picture John Gambling and Martha Deane and Ed & Pegeen Fitzgerald and
The Answer Man scattered throughout the hall, passing the microphone
around till they had to get up and make way for the next studio
audience.
--Bill Jaker
(Oh yes, sometimes we did listen to the radio during dinner).
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 01:14:38 -0500
From: "Ron Vanover" <vanoverr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Unshackled
To those who expressed interest in the radio drama Unshackled, I have placed
ten episodes on the web. They can be downloaded at [removed].
I will leave these programs in place for a week or so. If interest exists
for additional programs, drop me a line and I'll rotate the shows until my
entire collection has been made available.
I trust discussing this long-running radio drama doesn't take us too far
from our shared love of oldtime radio.
Ron Vanover
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 01:14:40 -0500
From: "J. Randolph Cox" <cox@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Fu Manchu plots
I should correct Bob fells on the title of the final Fu Manchu novel,
published in 1959. It was not Fu Manchu for President, but Emperor Fu
Manchu. There was an earlier novel called President Fu Manchu -- published
in 1936.
Incidentally, Gordon Peyton and I have been in touch because I sent him a
list of all the books in the series with their dates and offered to read the
relevant titiles to see how they match the tapes. There's no point in both
of us doing this, as long as you have them identified so well. I will
re-shelve my set od the novels and return to other projects -- of which I
have many.
Randy Cox
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 01:53:35 -0500
From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: OTR ECONOMICS
When the CBS Mystery Theater debuted in the 1970's, Hyman Brown, the
Producer was interviewed in Variety about the show and possible risk in
launching such a project. The conversation got around to the cost
(economics) of the project4ct. He gave a very (maybe tongue in cheek)
comparison. He said the TV series Dallas probably cost in the neighborhood
of a half-million dollars per episode to produce. He said if you gave him
the same story to produce for radio, all he would need would be the cast who
would stand around the mike, a man,and pre-recorded music, and he could
bring it in for less than $1500 per episode (1970 prices, that is).
According to the interview the people who did the CBS Radio Mystery Theater
agreed to work for scale., so that may be the reason Hyman Brown made that
statement.
Of course, at today's prices, it probably could not be done, for less
than 3 or 4 times the amount back then.
- 30 -
Owens Pomeroy
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 08:53:13 -0500
From: GEORGE WAGNER <gwagneroldtimeradio@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: TV "as" Radio
The story's told about the late Dr. Isaac Asimov
that he once got into a friendly argument as to which
was the more important to conveying the story-line of
a television drama - the video images or the
soundtrack.
"The pictures, of course," maintained the Good
Doctor's opponent.
So at the start of the next hour Dr. A. tuned into
a television drama. He turned the sound all the way
down.
"Let's view the picture," he said, "until we both
agree that we've lost the plot."
This took less than 30 seconds.
Next the sound was turned up and the picture down.
Isaac and his friend then followed the plot until the
end of the hour!
(I have absolutely no reason to doubt this story.
Although I myself knew Isaac Asimov only slightly - he
one sprayed me with his famous "immortality serum"
[just tap water, alas!] - I heard this tale from one
of Dr. Ike's close personal friends.)
George Wagner
GWAGNEROLDTIMERADIO@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 09:21:08 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Radio, TV, and Literalism
OTRChris wrote:
I agree with you . Television has offered some very interesting programs. The
more creative ones offer alternate worlds and experiences that we could never
truly experience. For this reason some people find the shows silly because
they cannot get into this imaginative mode. Not "real" enough for them .
This is a very good point -- and one which can be helpful in
understanding the problems some modern audiences have with understanding
the appeal of OTR.
Over the last twenty-five years or so, television has become increasingly
literal-minded, a result, perhaps, of the "relevance" movement of the
early 1970s - the era in which it wasn't enough just to entertain, a show
also had to present a message. This isn't a flaw in the medium, it's the
result of a specific cultural trend that affected movies, music, comics,
and just about every other form of popular entertainment.
The sort of exaggerated, larger-than-life programs that had thrived
during the 1960s had no place in this era, even though the veiled social
messages in "The Beverly Hillbillies," to use one example, strike me as
being just as potent in their own way as the hit-em-over-the-head
approach popularized by Norman Lear. But to the avatars of "relevance,"
there's no place for allegory: everything has to be made painfully clear
and obvious, and everything has to be taken absolutely literally, with no
room for layers of interpretation: here is the character, here are his or
her positions, here is the contrast with this other character, and it's
all meant to be taken strictly at face value. In skilled hands this sort
of approach can be effective, but in the hands of a hack, it becomes the
Hollywood equivalent of a classroom educational film. Didacticism for the
sake of didacticism. The whole show becomes an excuse for the MOS at the
end. (That's writer's jargon for the climactic emotional moment at the
end when the audience goes "awwwwwwww." MO stands for "moment of.")
Radio had much more in common with the television of the 1960s than it
did with the television of the mid-1970s forward. There are relatively
few OTR characters who were meant to be taken literally -- for the most
part, they were deliberately larger than life. While these characters
incorporated real life character traits, these traits would be amplified
for radio -- farced beyond the level of reality. The audience *knew* this
was the case, and played along with the game: everybody knew Jack Benny
wasn't trying to portray a literal miser, but an extreme caricature of a
miser. The listeners were in on the gag, and part of the fun came from
knowing this. But the more literal-minded the listener today, the less
likely such characters are to be accepted. It's not unknown for
literal-minded academic types to go on at length about Benny's
incorporation of "Jewish stereotypes" in his characterization, totally
missing the point of what he was trying to do.
There is hope, however -- over the last decade, some TV programs have
begun to gradually move away from strict literalism. I happened to see a
"Seinfeld" rerun a couple nights ago which included a brilliant,
old-style gag: Kramer installs an old screen door on his apartment, "to
catch the summer breeze," and decides to turn the hallway into "Front
Porch Small Town America," complete with a rocking chair, potted plants,
a flag, and children playing ball in the "street." This is a genuinely
surreal bit which could come right out of one of Uncle Fletcher's
rambling stories in "Vic and Sade," and shows that all is not lost for
OTR-style writing in modern TV.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 10:15:00 -0500
From: "Bob Burchett" <haradio@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Cincinnati Covnention
The Cincinnati Convention:
Thursday: Dealers will set up sometime during he day
Friday: 9:00 Dealers roon opens
4:00 Casting non-professional re-creation roles
7:00 Ethel & Albert
Peg Lynch & Bob Hastings
Boogie Woogie Girls
Frontier Town
Tyler McVey & Esther Geddes
Saturday: 9:00 Dealers room opens
1:30 Ethel & Albert
Peg Lynch & Bob Hastings
Boogie Woogie Girls
The Fatman
3:00 Raffle drawing
4:00 Dealers room closes
5:30 Cocktails
6:00 Dinner at hotel
7:00 Request Time with Ed Clute
Boogie Woogie Girls
Ethel & Albert
Casey, Crime Photographer
Bob Hastings & Rosemary Rice
Our hotel rate Is $75. There are other motels close
to the Radisson with lower rates.
Radisson 513-771-1720
Red Roof Inn 513-771-5541
Signature Inn 513-771-7877
Comfort Inn 513-771-3400
If anyone needs anymore information call toll free 1-888-477-9112
Looks like another great weekend of OTR and nostalgia.
We always have a large group that comes on Thursday to visit
with the guest and other collectors. See you April 19,20,21.
Bob Burchett
Econo Lodge 513-771-0370
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 10:53:53 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <wmackey@[removed];
To: otr-otrd <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Today in Radio History
From the AP,
- In 1996: Comedian George Burns died in Beverly Hills at age 100.
Thank you George for the joy you brought.
Joe
--
Visit my home page:
[removed]~[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 10:53:57 -0500
From: John Francis MacEachern <johnfmac@[removed];
To: Old Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: TV *as* Radio
I too grew up like Elizabeth watching the boob tube; I
agree with her wholeheartedly, most TV doesn't require
pictures.
Linda Ellerbee, the TV newswoman, in her autobiography wrote
something to the effect: "Turn on your TV, go into the next
room, if you can still understand the entire broadcast, then
throw out your TV and buy a better radio. Good TV should
compel you to watch."
Personally, I have my TV wired into my stereo system in such
a way that I can listen to the audio without having the
actual tube on. This is the way I 'hear' most TV shows, of
course for certain shows and all movies and news events, I
do sit and watch the boob tube. However, for the majority
of my TV "viewing", it's audio, only. I can still enjoy the
program while attending to other things.
Also, when I was still in school, I had a small boombox that
could receive TV audio. I had a job as a delivery boy and
spent many nights making my rounds listening to the TV.
John Mac
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 11:55:09 -0500
From: "Art Department" <wolowicz@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Radio Logs
Are there any good and web-based repositories for radio logs? I'm looking
for Bold Venture as well as Superman and I'm sure I'll need others from time
to time.
Thanks!
Shawn
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 12:42:56 -0500
From: Tyrone Settlemier <settlet@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: little people in the radio
Hope you don't mind a second-hand story. A friend of mine, from England,
related that when she was four (in the mid 1940) she was told by a teasing
uncle that there were little people in the radio. Later in the day the radio
was discovered with a piece of bread stuffed inside it, and Gillian just
getting ready to pour tea inside. When told the radio wasn't a
toaster/kitchen/what-are-you-doing? she replied that the little people in the
radio must be terribly hungry, since she never saw anybody else feeding them.
Tyrone Settlemier
settlet@[removed]
settlet@[removed]
[removed]~settlet/[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 13:27:04 -0500
From: "Matt Votisek" <mattvotisek@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: OTR in Sacramento
To all,
I am joining the list for a 2nd time now. A few of you may recognize my
name because I belonged up until about 2 years ago when things got really
hectic in my life, but now that I graduated college I finally have some
extra [removed] am looking forward to reading the daily newsletter again.
I recently relocated to the Sacramento area, I am wondering if anyone knows
of any OTR events in my area? Are there radio stations broadcasting? Any
OTR clubs? Anything close to this area, maybe not Sacramento?
Thanks.
Well were a little late [removed] Folks!
Matt Votisek
mattvotisek@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 18:24:03 -0500
From: "Stewart Wright" <stewwright@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Help Needed
I received the following e-mail from Mike Sprague of "The One Man's
Family Family" organization. I thought people on the Digest might be able
to help.
>From Mike Sprague
I'm actively involved in The One Man's Family Family, the club
devoted to that classic program. Recently, I was contacted by Malcolm
Collins, the son of actor Tom Collins. Mal and his sisters are trying to
obtain copies of shows on which his father worked to surprise their mother.
TOM COLLINS SEARCH
The children of actor Tom Collins are trying to obtain copies of
shows on which Collins worked in radio. They want to surprise their mother.
Some of them are One Man's Family, The Adventures of Frank Race (the family
has most of these), Cavalcade of America, The Whistler, The Romance of Helen
Trent, Aunt Mary, The Gallant Heart, The Greatest of These, I Love a
Mystery, Dear John, Stars Over Hollywood, The Theater of Famous Radio
Players and more.
Please contact Mike Sprague hrrmikes@[removed] Box 723, Bothell,
WA 98041
Stewart Wright
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 19:10:13 -0500
From: Larry Groebe <lgroebe@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: A Dark and Stormy [removed]
Anyone out there can help this person?
-----
My grandmother memorized a script from the radio. It goes like this . .
It was a dark and stormy night when my Nellie went away.
The old cow died and the hen wouldn't lay.
I only remember bits and pieces of the rest. My grandmother died recently
and I'd like to find the script. Any ideas?
Jerri Hardaway
-----
Pass any good guesses on to me or the list, and I'll pass them on to Jerri.
--Larry Groebe
Old Time Radio Script Library
[removed]~lgroebe
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #79
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