Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #3
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 1/5/2002 9:03 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2002 : Issue 3
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Russian inventor of Radio             [ Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed]; ]
  Today in OTR History                  [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  MP3 CD track order                    [ Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed]; ]
  DRAGNET ARTICLE                       [ "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; ]
  Re: Skippy                            [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Re: My Favorite Husband               [ GOpp@[removed] ]
  NO MENTION OF DRAGNET ORIGIN          [ grayghost@[removed] ]
  Re: Dragnet article in NY Daily News  [ "Michael Hayde" <mmeajv@[removed]; ]
  Conelrad system                       [ Neal Ellis <bstenor@[removed]; ]
  Today in Radio History                [ dougdouglass@[removed] ]
  Actors Born [removed]                     [ "John edwards" <jcebigjohn41@hotmai ]
  RE: Actors and Roles                  [ Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed]; ]
  "born to play," and Harry Bartell     [ Gary McDole <gmcdole@[removed]; ]
  Let's [removed]                      [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
  Weird Circle                          [ JE Purvis <hqsouth@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 11:50:50 -0500
From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Russian inventor of Radio

One of the adjuncts to my interests in radio and records is postage
stamps relating to these.  I just found a neat web site of a Russian
stamp dealer, and since we have been discussing WHO invented radio, I
thought you might want to see who the Soviets thought invented radio.
At this URL you can see the first day of issue cover for the 1989 stamp
commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Alexander S. Popov,
picturing an 1895 demonstration of radio.
[removed]   (usual
disclaimers apply.)

Unfortunately I can't seem to locate an web image of the 1995 stamp they
issued for the 100th anniversary of Popov's invention (Scott 6258).  I
wish someone had told me about this anniversary when I spent the Summer
of 1995 in Moscow.

Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 11:50:59 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Today in OTR History

  From Those Were The Days --

1928 - NBC radio debuted one of radio’s first variety shows. The Dodge
Victory Hour starred Will Rogers, Paul Whiteman and his orchestra and
singer Al Jolson. The cost to produce this one show was $67,600.

1932 - NBC Red presented The Carnation Contented Hour. The show
continued on network radio for 19 years as a showcase for top singers
and musicians. Why The Carnation Contented Hour? Because Carnation
evaporated milk comes only from contented cows, silly.  (It began as a
west coast show on April 26, 1931)

1935 - Bob Hope was first heard on network radio as part of The Intimate
Revue with Jane Froman, James Melton and the Al Goodman Orchestra.

  Joe

--
Visit my home page:
[removed]~[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 11:51:24 -0500
From: Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: MP3 CD track order

Greg asks why his MP3 play out of order in his DVD player:

I think that DVD players play MP3 CD tracks in alphabetical order.  So if
the naming method wasn't consistent when the CD was made, you will have
problems.

All of the tracks should be named by show and date:  "ASWT110547" would
be All Star Western Theater, Nov. 5, 1947," for example.

If you got your shows from different sources, the names are probably not
uniform.  So if one show is named "ASWT110547" and another is
"AllStarWT11-12-47," the latter one will play first because "Al" comes
before "AS" alphabetically.

---Dan

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

Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 12:08:29 -0500
From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: DRAGNET ARTICLE

In today's (Friday) posting Sean Daughtery said that the Dragnet artcle did
nit mention Drgnet on radio. It does in the first paragraph (though very
small mention).  What a pity!

Owens

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

Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 12:10:29 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Skippy

Ron Vickery wrote:

"Here comes a true friend of every girl and boy
each day at 5:00 he brings the joy
>from Monday through Friday, at this time we say
Here Comes Skippy."

This was indeed "Skippy," a radio adaptation of Percy Crosby's comic
strip that aired from 1932 to 1935. The original comic strip was one of
the most unique of its era -- with a sophisticated point of view that
foreshadowed "Peanuts" by twenty years. However, the strip fell out of
favor by the end of the thirties as a result of Crosby's increasing
preoccupation with ultraconservative political causes (and his eventual
mental breakdown -- he died institutionalized) and is unfortunately
little remembered today. His daughter has spent the last forty years in a
bitter legal battle with the manufacturers of Skippy Peanut Butter over
their use of the "Skippy" trademark.

The "Skippy" radio program was loosely adapted from the strip -- both
revolved around Skippy and his best friend Sooky, two young working-class
boys who lived in a poor Depression-era neighborhood. Before it turned
into a vehicle for Crosby's political views, the strip tended toward a
very gentle sort of philosophical humor -- but the radio show was a
conventional adventure series, revolving around smugglers, gangsters and
the like: it was very close kin in this respect to "Little Orphan Annie,"
and like "Annie" was occasionally condemned by Concerned Parents worried
about its occasionally-violent content. The program was written by Robert
Hardy Andrews, a former newspaperman turned out vast amounts of serial
material for the Hummert factory in the thirties.

No recordings are known to exist, although the program *was* recorded for
extension spotting during the 1932-33 season. It's entirely possible that
a disc or two may someday surface.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 12:11:47 -0500
From: GOpp@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re:  My Favorite Husband

Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 13:42:22 -0500
From: "Bob Watson" <crw912@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: My Favorite Husband

I have been enjoying the My Favorite Husband entries on the I Love Lucy DVD
set.  Up until now, I haven't had much exposure to this series.  I would
like to know what episode was George and Liz's last name changed from Cugat
to Cooper.

Dad changed the name from "Cugat" to the more waspish "Cooper" on January
7, 1949, in the episode entitled "Over Budget/Beans", to coincide with
the first show sponsored by General Foods (JELLO).

[removed]

It's just a coincidence (because the name Cugat was taken from Isobel
Scott Rorick's book, "Mr. and Mrs. Cugat"), but isn't it ironic that in
Lucy's radio sitcom her husband had the name of a famous Cuban
bandleader, and when she moved to TV, her husband WAS a famous Cuban
bandleader.

- Gregg Oppenheimer

[removed] Before someone corrects me, I know that Xavier Cugat was born in
Spain. However, his family moved to Cuba when he was only three.

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

Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 12:14:44 -0500
From: grayghost@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: NO MENTION OF DRAGNET ORIGIN

Being a new member of the Digest, and from "across the big pond," I hesitate
to rebite a statement by Sean Daughty about the article on Drasgnet not
mentioning the Vintage radio (as I like to call it), origins of the show.  In
the very first paragraph it states that  Dragnet did get its start in radio.
Hate to be pickey, but also hate to see such a little mention of its origins.

Gray Ghost

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

Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 12:22:53 -0500
From: "Michael Hayde" <mmeajv@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Dragnet article in NY Daily News

Sean Dougherty wrote:
There is an article about Dragnet in today's New York Daily News that
doesn't mention the show's radio [removed]

True, the article pushed "Dragnet" on television, but it DID mention the
radio version, in the second paragraph:  "Like so many series during the
formative years of TV, "Dragnet" came from radio, where Webb's no-nonsense
narration as Sgt. Joe Friday had made it a distinctive hit since 1949."

Even so, the piece was basically just fluff and contained a few errors, and
since Joe would've wanted "just the facts," I submitted my own write-up to
the Daily News message forum, just as you did.

Michael J. Hayde

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

Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 12:25:01 -0500
From: Neal Ellis <bstenor@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Conelrad system

Hi,

I am an audio engineer at National Public Radio and an old time radio
collector.  All Things Conisdered is about to do a piece on the old
conelrad (I hope this is spelled correctly) system.

Does anyone have any recroded [removed] etc.
We would like to use them for the piece which is slated to air next
week.

Neal Ellis
Audio Engineer
National Public Radio

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

Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 14:23:37 -0500
From: dougdouglass@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Today in Radio History

I want to thank Joe Mackey for "Today in Radio History".  He takes the
time to search several sources each day to bring us the information
which often creates very interesting discussions.

---Doug

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

Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 15:07:15 -0500
From: "John edwards" <jcebigjohn41@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Actors Born [removed]

Hi, I though Harry Bartell makes a very good point about actors who were
born to play a particuliar part on radio.  If an actor was the 1st & only
one to play the part how could you know if another wouldn't have done an
equally outstanding job in the [removed] just develop the character
differently.  It does make it very difficult for a replacement to measure up
to your expectations though.  I loved Mandel Kramer as an actor but as Yours
Truly, Johnny Dollar I was always comparing him in my mind with Bob Bailey
(my favorite Johnny Dollar)...certainly did not mean that Mandel was a very
good [removed]  Thanks John Edwards

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

Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 18:02:05 -0500
From: Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: RE: Actors and Roles

My thanks to Harry Bartel for helping me clarify a thought that's been
rolling around my head ever since this "born-to-play" thread started.

Mr. Bartel wrote:

Has it ever occurred to those making selections that they have never heard
any other
performers play those roles? <snip> The characters developed over time as
the actors became more familiar with the scripts and the scripts with the
actors.

I'll take this one step further: there are some roles that were "born" to
be played by certain actors, not the other way around.

Take, for example, Connie Brooks - played to perfection by Eve Arden on
"Our Miss Brooks." Connie could have been played by any number of actresses
and each would have played the part differently (for better or worse would
be a matter of opinion). Examples might include Joan Davis, Lucille Ball,
Lurene Tuttle, or even Verna Felton. But the fact is that Connie Brooks was
*created* to be played by Eve Arden - meaning that Connie was born to be
played by Eve, not the other way around.

Same applies to Britt Ponset, who was created - or "born" - to be played by
James Stewart. Perhaps the show would have sold had the part been played by
someone else, but the series was created for Stewart and Ponset really only
existed for Stewart to play the part.

The same situation applies to Dan Holiday, born be be played by Alan Ladd
on "Box 13," Amos Jones & Andrew H. Brown, born to be played by Freeman
Gosden and Charles Correll, any of the well-known radio/TV characters
played by Red Skelton over the years, Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, born to
be played by Hal Peary, Fibber McGee, born to be played by Jim Jordan, and
so on and so on.

Now, in a slightly different and somewhat more convoluted way, the same can
be said for Frankie Remley. Remley was originally a real person, of course
- the guitar player in Phil Harris' band - whose name came to stand for
every drunken, shiftless, layabout musician known to man via endless
references to him on the Jack Benny programs. However, when the decision
was made to turn Remley into a speaking part on the "Phil Harris/Alice Faye
Show," the man actually born to *be* Frankie Remley turned out not to be
the man born to *play* him. The real Remley wasn't very good as an actor so
he personally recommended Elliott Lewis for the part and the rest is radio
history. Thus, even in this case, it could be argued that the actual
speaking role of Frankie Remley was "born" to be played by Elliott Lewis,
not the other way around. Had he not existed, the writers may not have
written the part at all.

Now then, getting back to the original "born-to-play" string, I would add
the name of one actor who was born to play *himself* - or, at least, the
character that his name came to represent: Jack Benny, who is often spoken
of as one of the nicest, most generous, gracious, and down-to-earth
gentlemen ever to succeed in show business, was definitely born to play
"Jack Benny," the cheap, vain, skinflint miser who'd do anything to save a
buck.

An hilarious, skillful, well-timed, and beautifully acted characterization
that endured for well over 40 years.

Harlan

Harlan Zinck
First Generation Radio Archives
[removed]

PS: The Archives has just released its latest newsletter, announcing the
most recent first-generation, direct-from-disk additions to our CD
libraries. Send your name and address to newsletter@[removed] for a
free subscription.

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

Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 18:40:45 -0500
From: Gary McDole <gmcdole@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: "born to play," and Harry Bartell

Harry Bartell <bartell@[removed]; wrote:

There has been a lot of discussion lately about "Born-to-Play"
Has it ever occurred to those making selections that they have never
heard any other performers play those roles?

As someone who very seldom posts to the Digest, I was thinking the same
thing but was reluctant to say it.  Also, sometimes when more than one
actor has played a role, our idea of how the character "should" be played
may be determined by who we first heard (or saw) in the role.  Not to
mention that there's sometimes a fine line between "born to play" and
"typecasting."

Having said that, I'll add something, at the risk of sounding
sycophantic.  When I began collecting OTR a little over a year ago, one of
the first three series I started acquiring was "The New Adventures of Nero
Wolfe."  During the 26 episode run of that series, five actors had played
Archie Goodwin.  Harry Bartell was the third or fourth of those that I
heard in the role.  By the time I heard him as Archie I'd already become
fairly disenchanted with the show (among other things, as good as the idea
may have seemed, it turns out that Sidney Greenstreet apparently was NOT
born to play Nero Wolfe), but when I first heard an episode featuring Harry
Bartell my reaction was "now THAT'S Archie Goodwin !"  True story, and at
that time I had no idea who Harry Bartell was (though I'm aware now that I
must have heard his voice on the radio many times during the 1950's) or
that within a year or so I'd be able to publicly compliment him on what I
realize was only one small part of a varied career, having been "born to
play" Archie Goodwin.

Gary in Berkeley

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

Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2002 01:51:13 -0500
From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Let's [removed]

Several weeks ago, someone on this list (I think her first name is Cynthia)
asked about locating some LPs of "Let's pretend."  Not the radio programs
but the recreations done especially for LP discs.  If you are the person,
here is a replay from Norm Cohen copied from the 78-l:

Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 21:46:10 -0800
From: "Norm Cohen" <ncohen@[removed];
Subject: Childrens records


Could the person who inquired about old recordings of  the "Let's Pretend"
series contact me (if still interested)?  I found the LPs that I had thought
had been disposed of.
Norm Cohen
ncohen@[removed]

Ted Kneebone
1528 S. Grant St., Aberdeen, SD 57401 / 605-226-3344
OTR:  [removed]

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

Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2002 01:51:31 -0500
From: JE Purvis <hqsouth@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Weird Circle

Hi group,
I'm sure I'm showing my ignorance here, but I ran across
several MP3s of a series called Weird Circle.
It isn't listed in Dunning's OTR encyclopedia. Could anyone
fill me in?
Thanks,
Jerry

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #3
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