Subject: [removed] Digest V2004 #252
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 7/30/2004 11:08 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2004 : Issue 252
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Another Obit                          [ Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed] ]
  Marlon Brando radio show              [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
  Re: Thumper                           [ Jack Harris <jack@[removed] ]
  Corrections                           [ William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed]; ]
  Snapshot: Jackson Beck Part I         [ howard blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
  Burns and Allen Log                   [ Jandpgardner@[removed] ]
  two page dropping references in popu  [ "Michael Brady" <mbrady@[removed]; ]
  Does the first Dragnet show survive?  [ ".dan." <ddunfee@[removed]; ]
  Sam Edwards                           [ <whhsa@[removed]; ]
  New York Times Obit for Jackson Beck  [ seandd@[removed] ]
  Sun-Sentinel on Beck                  [ seandd@[removed] ]
  Re: a vintage radio mystery series    [ Steve Lewis <stevelewis62@[removed]; ]
  A gun for nine-year old               [ "Jim Nixon" <ranger6000@[removed] ]
  Snapshot: Jackson Beck Part II        [ howard blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
  Actors who are Characters!            [ "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed] ]

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

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 22:02:05 -0400
From: Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Another Obit

The actor who succeeded Parker Fennley as the Pepridge Farm pitchman died
yesterday - and Parker and Fred Allen are both mentioned in passing in the
obituary from The Hartford Courant.

Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]

`PEPPRIDGE Faahm' Pitchman Remembered
Hartford Courant (subscription) - Hartford,CT,USA
... the unexpected fame that the commercials brought him, friends and family
... but for longer amounts of time - 10 hours at a time.". ... But this
little old lady tapped ...
<[removed],1,[removed]
ll=hc-headlines-local>

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

Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 22:03:33 -0400
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Marlon Brando radio show

Barb Watkins asked:

I just read in Jay Hickerson's "Hello Again" that Marlon Brando was:
"...in one short series in radio (As Easy as ABC)."
Does anyone have any information about this series, or better yet (!) an
audio copy of one? When I did my too-short tribute to him on my radio
program the only show I was aware of was the Critic's Theater in which he
played in an excerpt from "The Streetcar Named Desire."

Two things:
1.  Brando was on the radio MANY times (not including the radio spots
advertising the movies he was in).  he was a guest on THE TEX AND JINX SHOW
on December 12, 1955.  There's a popular recording of BIOGRAPHY IN SOUND
about Ernest Hemingway and people who worked with him personally and
professionally from December 19, 1954.  Pat McCoy has a recording of BUD'S
BANDWAGON which features Marlon Brando speaking about his performance in "On
the Waterfront."

2. There does not exist any recordings of the radio series AS EASY AS ABC.
A broadcast log is listed below for anyone interested.

AS EASY AS [removed]
Thirteen-week series about the work of the UNESCO (United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) was a presentation of
United Nations Radio.  The first episode presented highlights and clips of
future broadcasts. Broadcast nationally on CBS from 11:30 to 11:55 [removed],
[removed]  Some broadcasts presented two, 12-minute dramas instead of one,
25-minute drama.

1.  "A is for Alphabet"  (2/23/58)  Jack Benny, Joe E. Brown, Eddie Cantor,
Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Bob Hope, Danny Kaye and Yehudi Menuhin
2.  "B is for Bargains"  (3/2/58)  Myrna Loy, Edward G. Robinson, and Dinah
Shore
3.  "C is for Charter" / "D is for Dreams"  (3/9/58)  Yul Brynner, Joseph
Cotten, Frank Sinatra, Claude Dauphin, Walt Disney and Ricardo Montalban
4.  "E is for Eve"  (3/16/58)  Ingrid Bergman
5.  "F is for Firsts"  (3/23/58)  Melvyn Douglas
6.  "H is for Humankind"  (3/30/58)  Yul Brynner, Maurice Evans, [removed]
Kaltenborn and William Marshall
7.  "I is for Ideas" / "J is for Julep"  (4/6/58)  Yehudi Menuhin, Basil
Rathbone and Judy Holliday
8.  "K is for Knowledge" / "L is for Library"  (4/13/58)  Eva Marie Saint
and Victor Borge
9.  "M is for Membership" / "N is for Name-Calling"  (4/20/58)  Charlton
Heston, Marlon Brando, and Sir Laurence Olivier
10.  "O is for Old Wives' Tales"  (4/27/58)  Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff,
Julienne Marie and Alfred Hitchcock
11.  "P is for Project 32-33" / "Q is for Questions"  (5/4/58)  Fred
MacMurray, Danny Kaye and Burt Lancaster
12.  "V is for Volumes"  (5/11/58)  Rita Hayworth, Bob Hope, Judy Holliday
and Fred MacMurray
13.  "Z is for Zoo"  (5/18/58)  Joe E. Brown and Ginger McManus

The source of this info comes from RADIO DRAMA published by McFarland &
Company, Inc. in 2000.  Jay Hickerson got his info from me personally - I
sent him the very same log above, in hardcopy format, months before it
appeared in the RADIO DRAMA book, which I compiled and wrote.  There WAS a
fella who reprinted the log on a web-site and until a few months ago, was
available for anyone who wanted to check it out but since he was claiming
credit for researching and compiling the log (and he didn't make any changes
from what I had done), I had my Uncle (an attorney) send a C&D order asking
him to remove his name as compiler - either give credit where credit is due
or don't give credit at all.  Instead of removing his name, he chose to
remove the entire log from his site.  Anyway, Jay got his info from the log
I sent to him back in November of 1999, and my source for this info were the
13 scripts in microfilm format at the Library of Congress in [removed], not
newspapers which would have been inaccurate - note I went to the direct
source so the information above is as accurate as available.  I can detail
more from the script covers (which I copied from the microfilm reader and
still have) but the pages are sitting in a filing cabinet and that's a
needle in a haystack at the moment.  The script covers were more detailed
but for the sake of RADIO DRAMA, I had to keep each entry brief.  The Brando
broadcast in question is featured in the log.
Martin Grams, Jr.

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

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 00:03:56 -0400
From: Jack Harris <jack@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Thumper

According to the Maltin book The Disney Films, Peter Behn did the voice of
Thumper.  He quotes: "Although no voice credits were issued it is known
that Peter Behn did the voice of Thumper."  I am guessing he got his info
from Disney???  or did he?

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

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 00:04:26 -0400
From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Corrections

Ed Bliss was Murrow's writer for his evening radio news program. Ar one
point we lived in the same apartment complex and later in neighboring
towns and rode the same [removed] knew he and his familt well. Although
he may have been an actor earlier, Charlie Irving was a TV director on a
morning soap opera that I was the audio engineer on. Can't come up with
the title but recall that Don Knotts and Connie Ford played a brother and
sister  who owned an egg farm where a lot of scenes were around their
kitchen table. The name of the show and the actress who played the lead
escapes me at the moment but will come to me.

BILL MURTOUGH

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

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 00:27:31 -0400
From: howard blue <khovard@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Snapshot: Jackson Beck Part I

      Snapshot: Jackson Beck Part I

"I don't know how you got me started on that," the short man with the
powerful build said to me, shaking his head from side to side." I laughed
to myself. I had not planned the way it came out. But the couple of
glasses of beer had loosened Jackson Beck's tongue.

We were in the bar at the Holiday Inn in Newark. I had asked Beck if we
could talk away from the usual hubbub of the FOTR Convention and we had
just finished an almost hour-long conversation. I don't remember these
five or so years later whether any of the material that I used from Beck
for the book that I eventually wrote* came from this particular occasion.
But in any case, it had been an interesting and revealing conversation,
the third or fourth interview that I had done of Beck. I had conducted
those other interviews during earlier FOTR Conventions or over the phone.
He had always turned down me offer to take him out to lunch in Manhattan
where he lived.

When I first learned that Beck had an apartment on the east side I
wondered if he had grown up in the area, Yorkville, a hot of pro-Hitler
support in the late 1930's. I even wondered about his own family's
politics. But during our last little session at the bar, I learned that
Beck was from a German Jewish family. There was a little bias in his
background, but not what I had expected. "My mother once said to me "I
don't want you dating any of those Russian Jews," Beck told me, provoking
a good belly laugh on my part. In my own family, the joke was about the
cultural wars between the Lithuanian and the Galician Jews (of eastern
Europe.)

Beck had also told me how he broke into radio. His actor father had
opposed the son's plan to go into acting. But Jackson had been
determined. He was systematic. He had taken a map of Manhattan and
divided it into grids, marking each site where he would try for an
interview, and then organizing his itinerary.

Beck succeeded--- and that's an understatement.

The obits talk about Jackson Beck's  role in the Superman series and
various other shows that he did. Much to my regret, I missed the fact
that he had done the "March of Time" series which came to interest me
late in my research--although I did interview Art Carney and the wife of
another actor who had worked in that great training ground for radio
actors. I knew that Beck had also worked in the Peabody Award winning
anti bias documentary, "An Open Letter on Racism" which Bill Robson had
produced in 1943. But the several items I asked him about it, I drew a
blank. He just didn't recall the show.

We ended our bar talk on a rather sad note. Beck's wife had died some
years earlier and he spoke of his loneliness, particularly how he wished
he had a woman in his life.
* WORDS AT WAR (Scarecrow Press, 2002) see [removed]

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

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:40:14 -0400
From: Jandpgardner@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Burns and Allen Log
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

Does anyone know where I can find a fairly complete log of the 'Burns and
Allen Show'? I am trying to date one of their shows that was aired on the
K-Surf
 website this week. The shows on this site are in excellent sound but, for
some reason, they do not give the dates of the shows. This one with George
and
Gracie has 'Hormel Spam' as the sponsor, so is on a Monday night from the
period  July 1940 to March 1941. The guest is Joe Pasternak, the announcer is
Bud
 Hiestand and the cast includes Senor Lee, Artie Shaw and his orchestra (who
play  'Sweet Sue') and the Smoothies (who sing 'Mr. Meadowlark').
On Jerry Haendiges' usually very reliable website of Vintage Radio Logs, it
must be one of the shows listed as 'title unknown' and David Goldin does  not
seem to list this one on his site. A 'Google' search does not assist. Jay
Hickerson's log that I have only dates shows where George and Gracie  had
guests
but Joe Pasternak is not among the guests listed by Jay for the  'Spam' period.
So, does anyone know where I can find a site that will assist me in finding
the date of this show?
Regards to all from sunny England.
John.

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

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:48:13 -0400
From: "Michael Brady" <mbrady@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  two page dropping references in popular
 [removed]
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

De-lurking for a moment, in the hopes that Charlie will let this drag on for
one more [removed]

A couple of years ago I played Lou, the stage manager-sound effects man in the
stage show "1940s Radio Hour," if I'm not mistaken, written during the
resurgence of otr interest in the 1970s.  During one section, a scripted
commercial is read with three actors participating, and the page dropping is
choreographed as if to make a point about it.  I just kept my mouth shut.
:-)

And, while perusing the extras in my Hellboy DVD, I saw that an included
cartoon short, "Gerald McBoing Boing," has our hapless young title character,
who can only speak in sound effects, get a job on the radio.  As he finishes a
page, guess what he does with [removed]  [removed] lists this Dr.
Seuss creation as 1951.

Yep.

I threw something soft and harmless at my tv in response.

Michael Brady

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

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:53:43 -0400
From: ".dan." <ddunfee@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Does the first Dragnet show survive?

If it is the one where a person with a bomb holds the police dept. hostage,
then yes it does.  I heard it on a local radio station and am pretty sure
it was the one doing the radio spirits syndication.  I recall the
introductory commentary said it was the first show.

                               xv
                                ic|xc

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

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:54:30 -0400
From: <whhsa@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Sam Edwards
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

Dear OTR Fans;

Peace be with you.

I am always sorry to learn of the passing of OTR actors/actresses especially
as so many of their stories have not been preserved. But Howard Culver said it
best, "If I had known there would be an interest I would have kept notes." So
many of these great voices saw there role in OTR quite frankly as a means to
live, which rightly they were, and went from show to show thankful for the
work. I have talked with some that I knew appeared on Straight Arrow and they
didn't even remember being on the show. I noted in the list for Sam Edwards
that Straight Arrow was not mentioned. He, Jack and Florida appeared on the
show. Sam quite often. Florida Edwards' name intrigued me as I thought, when I
first read it, it was an AKA, but the listing on Radio Digest proved me wrong.
Florida appeared only once as best as I can determine and that was as Abby on
the last show in June of 1951.

May Sam Edwards rest in peace.

Manituwah,

Bill

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

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 12:23:54 -0400
From: seandd@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  New York Times Obit for Jackson Beck

Our own Anthony Tollin is quoted in today's New York Times about our late
friend Jackson Beck.

The Times gives Mr. Beck his due with an extended obituary.

Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]

[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 12:24:33 -0400
From: seandd@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Sun-Sentinel on Beck

I found another staff-written obituary of Jackson Beck from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, another comprehensive piece.

She interviewed Jackson's protegee Jeff David for the article, which added some nice personal touches about his career and generosity.

Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]

[removed],0,[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 12:24:56 -0400
From: Steve Lewis <stevelewis62@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: a vintage radio mystery series

Good morning

Victor Berch, a friend of mine who's an active researcher in the field of
vintage mystery fiction, came across a question that I thought someone here
might be able to answer.

    While I was going through the copyright catalogs for some other
information, I came across an item of interest to OTR mystery fans. This
was for a radio show called  A Case of Mr. Fortune, based on the H. C.
Bailey character, Reginald Fortune, and adapted by Edith Meiser.  The radio
plays were registered to McKnight and Jordan, who were the same individuals
that were connected with the early Sherlock Holmes' radio plays, also
written by or adapted by Edith Meiser. We know from other sources that
Edith Meiser was at one time married to Tom McKnight [i. e. Thomas H.
McKnight] and that McKnight was one of the producers of those shows. Jordan
was the other part of that team and he was Wallace S. Jordan. But I
digress. The radio plays were copyrighted from October 1937 through March
of 1938. Does any one of the OTR specialists know if the episodes, 19 in
all, were ever aired?

   He can also list the episodes and the short story collections that they
were derived from, and if anyone is interested, he will be sending them on
to me shortly.

                         Best

                           Steve

Publisher of Mystery*File.  See [removed] for more
information.

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

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 12:25:05 -0400
From: "Jim Nixon" <ranger6000@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  A gun for nine-year old

Mahlon Wagner asked about suggestions for sci-fi OTR shows for a precocious
nine-year old.  In addition to "A Gun For Dinosaur", an excellent choice,
try Ray Bradbury's "Mars is Heaven" and "And There Shall Come Soft Rains".
"Mars" scared the beejessus out of me when I heard it at about that age.
Kept expecting my brother to creep into my bedroom and murder me!

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

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 12:33:43 -0400
From: howard blue <khovard@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Snapshot: Jackson Beck Part II

         Snapshot: Jackson Beck Part II

[Yesterday I discussed my last interview of Jackson Beck which took place
about four or five years ago. Among other things, I mentioned how he had
started out seeking his first job in radio by systematically marking a
map of Manhattan with the locations of places where he might get a job
and then set out on a very organized itinerary. I also mentioned Beck's
work on Bill Robson's 1943 Peabody Award winning anti bias documentary,
"An Open Letter on Racism."]

I am sitting in my home in Huntington, Long Island. It's May 1998 and I
am recording a telephone interview with Jackson Beck. My research touches
not only on the World War II era's morale boosting radio plays (the main
theme of my research), but but also on the broadcasting industry
blacklist which affected many of Beck's actor colleagues as well as many
of radio's writers. This latter topic makes Beck a bit uneasy.

I tell Beck that I have read the interview with "Newsday" that he did
some time prior to this conversation. In it, he had commented about an
actor friend whom we are discussing vis-a-vis the blacklist. Beck is
sensitive about this latter topic. It is public record that he himself,
was involved to some extent in trying to force colleagues in AFTRA (The
American Federation of Television and Radio Actors) to cooperate with the
Congressional Committees which had subpoenaed them to testify and name
names of people they believed were members of the Communist Party. I know
of Beck's role from a memoir by broadcast personality John Henry Faulk
who successfully sued the blacklisters. Beck does not know that I know
this and I don't want to put him on the spot.

In his interview with Newsday, Beck mentions a dark side of his late
friend. The friend had taken the most active role in AFTRA in trying to
force accused persons out of the profession. From his comment it appears
that Beck had some second thoughts about the roles that he and his
friends in the AFTRA faction had taken in the 50's. Today's "Times"
obituary does not mention Beck in relation to the issue---not because it
would be inappropriate to do so, but most likely because its author was
unaware of it. Ironically in a semi-public forum, a former actor who did
not know Beck suggested that Beck was a leftists.

 I recall Beck with a great fondness, enhanced perhaps by the few times
when he let his guard down and revealed his so very human qualities (see
my earlier posting). He worked on radio in its most formative days. He
even had a role in the broadcast of the seminal radio play, Archibald
MacLeish's "Fall of the City." A few times when complimentary remarks
about him appeared on the Digest, I called him and read them to him.

Howard Blue

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

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 13:29:13 -0400
From: "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Actors who are Characters!

In #251, Hal Stone wrote:

For some reason (I don't quite understand either, Chris),
Actors/Actresses were divided into two [removed]
[BIG SNIP] ...Does that explanation help?

Yes, very much so.  Thank you to Michael C. Gwynne and Hal Stone who were
both kind enough to reply to my question.  I understand now, and I hate not
understanding.

In #249, Michael C. Gwynne wrote:

Check me out in [removed]  Maybe we've met across the
glowing screen.

I did check you out on IMDB, and we have met on screen.  Aside from a ton of
TV work, two movies jumped right out of the list: "Raise the Titanic" and
"Private Parts".

It's great that we have members of the industry among us who are so willing
to share their knowledge.  Thanks!

In #250, Mahl Wagner wrote:

I am looking for a description of the X-Minus One
radio program: A Gun for a Dinosaur,

I see someone already gave a description, but I want to say that this is my
favorite X Minus One episode.  I loved it when I was young and I love it now.
Just the idea of being able to go back into time and see dinosaur really
grabs my imagination.  An excellent choice for a bright child who is into
Sci-Fi.

I'd also recommend "Martian Death March", though I can't remember if it was X
Minus One or Dimension X.  A really well done show, with a young boy as one
of the main characters.  A little heavy subject matter, but entertaining and
with a great lesson.

enjoy
-chris holm

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #252
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