Subject: [removed] Digest V2008 #7
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 1/8/2008 8:18 PM
To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to:
[removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2008 : Issue 7
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  1-8 births/deaths                     [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
  Opera satire                          [ "Jim Nixon" <ranger6000@[removed] ]
  Re: Satire on the Opera               [ Jordan Young <jyoung@[removed]; ]
  Re: Satire on the opera               [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
  OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK               [ Jerry Haendiges <jerryhaendiges@cha ]
  Re: Satire on the Opera               [ Keith Hiatt <keith_h@[removed]; ]
  RE: Satire on the Opera               [ "D. Fisher" <dfisher052@[removed] ]
  Opera lover: Anna Russell             [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
  Re: Satire on the Opera               [ Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@sbcglo ]
  SKIP CRAIG                            [ PURKASZ@[removed] ]
  Various follow-up thoughts            [ "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed]; ]
  Bill Idelson Obit Link                [ Kevin Bristol <citadel92@[removed] ]

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 05:51:59 -0500
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  1-8 births/deaths

January 8th births

01-08-1879 - Emory S. Land - Canon City, CO - d. 11-xx-1971
[removed] naval officer: "Information Please"
01-08-1902 - Alexander Gray - Wrightvilles, PA - d. 10-4-1975
baritone: "Chesterfield Quarter Hour"
01-08-1903 - Roger Bower - NYC - d. 5-17-1979
announcer, emcee: "Can You Top This?"; "Stop Me If You Heard This One"
01-08-1904 - Peter Arno - d. 2-22-1968
panelist: "Stop Me If You Heard This Before"
01-08-1908 - William Hartnell - London, England - d. 4-23-1975
actor: The Doctor "Doctor Who"
01-08-1909 - Jose Ferrer - Santurce, PR - d. 1-26-1992
actor: Philo Vance "Advs. of Philo Vance"; Minister "We Love and Learn"
01-08-1910 - Dick Jurgens - Sacremento, CA - d. 10-5-1995
orchestra leader: "Summer Spotlight Revue"
01-08-1910 - Fabian Andre - La Crosse, WI - d. 3-30-1960
arranger for dance orchestras on NBC
01-08-1910 - Richard Cromwell - Los Angeles, CA - d. 10-11-1960
actor: Kit Marshall "Those We Love"
01-08-1911 - Butterfly McQueen - Tampa, FL - d. 12-22-1995
actor: Oriole "Beulah"; Butterfly "Jack Benny Program"
01-08-1914 - Sam Cowling - Jeffersonville, IN - d. 2-14-1983
singer: (The Three Romeos) "The Breakfast Club"; "Club Matinee"
01-08-1921 - Guy Bagil - d. 2-xx-1971
sportscaster: WALT Tampa, Florida; WTVT Petersburg, Florida
01-08-1923 - Giorgio Tozzi - Chicago, IL
opera singer (bass): "The Chicago Theatre of the Air"
01-08-1923 - Larry Storch - NYC
comedian: "Duffy's Tavern"
01-08-1926 - Soupy Sales - Franklinton, NC
script writer, disc jockey: WHTN Huntington, WV
01-08-1930 - May Wynn - NYC
actor: "Amos 'n' Andy Show"
01-08-1933 - Charles Osgood - NYC
reporter: "Osgood File"
01-08-1935 - Elvis Presley - Tupelo, MS - d. 8-16-1977
singer: "Grand Ole Opry"; "Louisiana Hayride"

January 8th deaths

01-03-1918 - Jesse White - Buffalo, NY - d. 1-8-1997
actor: "Hollywood Radio Theatre"; "Sears Radio Theatre"
01-24-1902 - Walter Kiernan - New Haven, CT - d. 1-8-1978
commentator, emcee: "Sparring Partners"; "Weekend"
01-30-1907 - Lois Wilson - Iowa - d. 1-8-1983
actor: "Jack Benny Program"
03-25-1909 - Jay Blackton - NYC - d. 1-8-1994
composer, conductor, pianist: "Stu Erwin Show"; "Broadway Showtime"
05-02-1952 - Campbell McComas - Melbourne, Australia - d. 1-8-2005
regular performer on Australia's ABC radio
05-16-1891 - Richard Tauber - Linz, Austria-Hungary - d. 1-8-1948
opera singer: "General Motors Concert"
05-19-1919 - George Auld - Toronto, Canada - d. 1-8-1990
bandleader: "Saturday Night Swing Session"
05-29-1899 - Don Brodie - Cincinnati, OH - d. 1-8-2001
grouch: "The Grouch Club"
06-11-1889 - Wesley Ruggles - Los Angeles, CA - d. 1-8-1972
film director: (Brother of Charlie) "Screen Guild Theatre"
06-18-1906 - Ray Bauduc - New Orleans, LA - d. 1-8-1988
drummer, composer: "The Bob Crosby Show"
06-19-1915 - Pat Buttram - Addison, AL - d. 1-8-1994
actor: (Sage of Winston County) "National Barn Dance"
07-14-1911 - Terry-Thomas - London, England - d. 1-8-1990
comedian: "Top of the Town"
07-23-1910 - Gale Page - Spokane, WA - d. 1-8-1983
actor: Holly Sloan "Story of Holly Sloan"; Gertrude Lamont "Masquerade"
08-15-1901 - Sam Perrin - d. 1-8-1998
writer: "Jack Benny Program"; "Phil Baker Show"; "Tommy Riggs and
Betty Lou"
08-23-1919 - Olin Tice - Savannah, GA - d. 1-8-1998
announcer: "The Mindy Carson Show"; "The Peggy Lee Show"
08-28-1914 - Richard Tucker - NYC - d. 1-8-1975
opera tenor: "Chicago Theatre of the Air"; "Standard Hour";
"Metropolitan Opera"
09-01-1922 - Yvonne De Carlo - Vancouver, Canada - d. 1-8-2007
actor: " Screen Guild Theatre"; "MGM Musical Comedy Theatre"
10-10-1889 - Harold Vermilyea - NYC - d. 1-8-1958
actor: Cornlius Potter "Big Sister"; Mr. Bruce "Stella Dallas"
11-06-1905 - Isabel Carothers - Mt. Pleasant, IA - d. 1-8-1937
actor: Lu "Clara, Lu and Em"
12-22-1911 - Milton E. Drentz - d. 1-8-2000
seminary producer: "The Eternal Light"

Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 05:52:24 -0500
From: "Jim Nixon" <ranger6000@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Opera satire

Larry Jordan wonders who the funny lady was who made fun of grand opera back
in the 1950's.  It sounds like Anna Russell, a so-so singer who became more
famous for routines in which she "explained" grand opera for the
unenlightened.  "I'm not making this up, you know" was one of her more
quoted lines.
I thought she was hilarious.

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 05:52:39 -0500
From: Jordan Young <jyoung@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Satire on the Opera

The comedienne Larry Jordan asks about is almost certainly Anna
Russell. She recorded a number of very funny albums which have been
released on CD. She died in 2006; the [removed] Times obit indicated that
she started her career as a folk singer on BBC Radio.

Jordan R. Young

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 05:53:01 -0500
From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Satire on the opera
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
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The lady operatic satirist who Larry Jordan is undoubtedly referring to is
Anna Russell who recorded six LPs for Columbia in the 1950s.  Most of them
have been transferred to CD, and there also is a video of a mid-80s concert.
Although she appeared on radio in her native England and Canada, she was
mainly known from her LPs and her concerts throughout the world. She died in
Australia only recently, in Oct 2006.

Michael Biel   mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 05:53:36 -0500
From: Jerry Haendiges <jerryhaendiges@[removed];
To: Old Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK

Hi Friends,

Here is this week's schedule for my Olde Tyme Radio Network. Here you
may listen to high-quality broadcasts with Tom Heathwood's "Heritage
Radio Theatre," Big John Matthews and Steve "Archive" Urbaniak's "The
Glowing Dial" and my own "Same Time, Same Station."  Streamed in
high-quality audio, on demand, 24/7 at [removed]
Check out our High-Quality mp3 catalog at:
[removed]
=======================================

SAME TIME, SAME STATION

A Look at Chet Huntley

COLUMBIA WORKSHOP
Episode 18    5-12-46    "No Children At Play"
Produced and Narrated by: Chet Huntley
Stars: George Coulouris and Lurene Tuttle
A heart wrenching drama about the hungry in Europe after World War II

COLUMBIA WORKSHOP
Episode 28 8-18-46 Modern Exhibit
Narrator: Chet Huntley
Featuring Igor Stravinsky conducting the Woody Herman Orchestra

BIOGRAPHY IN SOUND
Episode 55    7-10-56    "[removed] Mencken - The Bitter Byline" Narrated by:
Chet Huntley
==================================

HERITAGE RADIO THEATER

ARTHUR GODFREY TIME
(CBS)    7/8/46 Arthur and all "The Little Godfreys" in year 2 of the
network show.

THE ANDERSON FAMILY
(SYND)    1947   "Another Woman" Another radio rarity.

DANNY MARSDEN
(Canadian)    10/6/48
Program drama - ? Broadcast propaganda.
====================================

THE GLOWING DIAL

Quiet Please - "Beezer's Cellar"
originally aired October 10, 1948 on ABC
Starring: Ernest Chappell as the man who spoke to you,
Lotte Staviski, Warren Stevens, Charles Egelston.
Written and Directed by: Wyllis Cooper
Sustained.

Quiet Please - "Shadow Of The Wings"
originally aired April 17, 1949 on ABC
Starring: Ernest Chappell as the man who spoke to you.
Written and Directed by: Wyllis Cooper
Sustained.

Quiet Please - "The Oldest Man In The World"
originally aired May 21, 1949 on ABC
Starring: Ernest Chappell as the man who spoke to you,
Don Briggs, Nancy Sheridan.
Written and Directed by: Wyllis Cooper
Sustained.

Quiet Please - "And Jeannie Dreams Of Me"
originally aired October 17, 1948 on ABC
Starring: Ernest Chappell as the man who spoke to you,
Murray Forbes, Ruth Last, Arthur Cole.
Written and Directed by: Wyllis Cooper
Sustained.

Quiet Please - "Good Ghost"
originally aired October 24, 1948 on ABC
Starring: Ernest Chappell as the man who spoke to you,
Anna Maude Morath, Sarah Fussell, Claudia Morgan (Mrs. Ernest Chappell).
Written and Directed by: Wyllis Cooper
Sustained.
==================================

If you have any questions or request, please feel free to contact me.

      Jerry Haendiges

      Jerry@[removed]  562-696-4387
      The Vintage Radio Place   [removed]
      Largest source of Old Time Radio Logs, Articles and programs on
the Net

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 08:23:05 -0500
From: Keith Hiatt <keith_h@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Satire on the Opera

female comedian who did a satirical play-by-play of an opera

   You are probably thinking of Anna Russell.  [removed] has her CD's
and audio samples to verify whether or not it's her you are referring to.

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 08:23:12 -0500
From: "D. Fisher" <dfisher052@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  RE: Satire on the Opera

I think the person you may be thinking of is Anna Russell.

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 11:34:10 -0500
From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Opera lover: Anna Russell

In response to Larry's question, I wrote [removed]

The woman you are referring to is Anna Russell, one of my favorite
comediennes.  She made several LPs, and I did see a video of her in her
later years. Among other things she did a parody of the entire Wagner Ring
operas: "Remember the Rhine maidens?" She taught us how to play the
bagpipes, and her folk music imitations were -- outstanding.

One could call her a female Victor Borge. Also, there was Alec Templeton.
This heritage has been carried on by PDQ Bach's (Peter Schickele) humor and
his compositions. "If you can name this Baroque tune, you will win the
complete works of Antonio Vivaldi (on 100s) of convenient 45 rpm records."
And there is "The Stoned Guest" as well as his inspired work from the
open-air barn in Hoople, ND. (There is a real Hoople in ND.) I recommend a
hearing of Beethoven's 5th symphony done as an athletic event, with Peter
and a friend's narration of the Event.

I have forgotten the name of the British comedian who sponsored several
music festivals, one of which was the Interplanetary Music Festival.  These
also have been recorded.  One of them featured a duel between the Grieg and
the Chaikovskii piano concertos.  He also included a bunch of weird
instruments like bicycle pumps and a caliope.

Music can be funny.  Even Mozart realized this with his "Musical joke."

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

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 11:34:36 -0500
From: Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re:  Satire on the Opera

On 1/7/2008 Larry Jordan  wrote:
A couple of years ago, on a public radio station, I heard excerpts
>from a recording made in the 1950s which featured a female comedian
who did a satirical play-by-play of an opera, along the lines of the
Andy Griffith hayseed interpretation of "Hamlet." The female routine
was VERY funny. She did this running commentary in sort of a "mock"
high brow or pretentious fashion, as an opera was being performed in
the background.

You may be thinking of Anna Russell (1911-2006) who did not do a
commentary so much as she *was* the opera, annotated by her as it
was. It was all parody and fun to listen to. She did the complete
twenty-hour Ring in twenty minutes singing portions of all the parts
and also did a "How to Write Your Own Gilbert & Sullivan Opera" based
on a G&S formula. Anna Russell was operatically trained but spent
most of her career in musical parody and satire. The early to
mid-fifties were her peak years.

Don Shenbarger

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 13:35:43 -0500
From: PURKASZ@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  SKIP CRAIG

Ken Greenwald just sent a frisson of delight thru me  with his mention of the
name, Skip Craig!!
I met Skip in  early 70's when I was living in Hollywood and slaving at the
movie/TV racket.
    Without him I would never have heard any of the  great old SUSPENSE shows
as he had a box of reel-to-reel tapes in his editing  room and would
graciously allow me to borrow a few from time to  time.
I am delighted and I hope not presumptuous in  assuming that Skip is still
with us and if he is and by any good stroke of luck  actually reading this
would
he please let me hear from him off message at my  address:
michaelcgwynne@[removed]
Thanks Ken.
The New Year may already be starting along  its road of fortunate
coincidences.
Michael Gwynne

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 17:35:38 -0500
From: "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Various follow-up thoughts
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WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE SHOP STEWARD?:

Karl Tiedemann wrote:

I acquired a bunch of FLEISCHMANN HOURS and found that, on one of them,
Howard and Shelton were doing a version of Who's On First-some years before
Abbott and Costello even met.  Hot stuff for the comedy archaeologist.

I know of what Karl speaks. Back in 1997, I wrote a script for the "Friends of
Old Time Radio" script-writing contest administered by Dave Zwengler and
Arthur Anderson. The idea was to write a new script for an OTR-era show. I
chose one of my favourites "It Pays to Be Ignorant," but the new "spin" I put
on it was a general celebration of contemporaneous radio in which the
dunce-cap questions were about other radio programmes. The resultant questions
were on the order of: "What is the profession of "Mister District [removed]"
and "In what train station does the show 'Grand Central Station' take place?"

In executing my "research," I began throwing myself into everything involved
with the show, and this included checking out the holdings of NYC's MT&R (the
Museum of Television and Radio, which in 2007 was re-christened "The Paley
Centre for Media").  I think I know of the Rudy Vallee/Fleischmann Yeast show
Karl speaks of. For a while, the comedy team of Tom Howard and George Shelton
were featured on Fleischmann and they did a prototypical version of "Who's On
First." and, if I'm not mistaken, the players (Who, What, I-Don't-Know, etc.)
all worked in a factory with one being a foreman, another a shop steward, etc.
Howard and Shelton went on to find greater success abchoring "Ignorant."

[Just for the record, my new treatment of "IPTBIgnorant" didn't win the FOTR
contest, but was later performed once  in 2002 by Michael Leannah, Ron Sayles,
and the rest of the Milwaukee-Area Radio Enthusiasts (MARE)].

FREES FRAME, Or: Precious and Few Are the Moments We Toucans Share:

Speaking of the MAREs, Mark Higgins wrote about how his idol Paul Frees once
did the voice of Toucan Sam, the cartoon pitch-bird for Kellogg's Froot Loops.
Keen voice observers can tell that the toucan's voice is modeled after that of
Ronald Colman, but does anybody else beside me remember when the character's
voice had more of a Brooklynese wise-guy tinge to it which evoked the stylings
of Ed Gardner-as-Archie, the Bartender? --back when the cereal was called
"FRUIT flavored LOOPS."  Nowadays, Maurice LaMarche does the vocal work for
the Toucan. LaMarche is known for his impeccable Orson Welles
characterisations, made manifest as the Brain in the "Pinky and the Brain"
cartoons, in a recent WOTW parody on "The Simpsons," and as the voice of
Welles in the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie "Ed Wood" although Vincent
D'Onofrio played Welles in the flesh).

TIMBRE!:

Speaking of TimBur (ton), my pal Ken Greenwald wrote about various OTR
personages and their ability to alter the "timber" of their voices. Yes, folks
off-list take me to task for my inclination towards British spellings (yes, I
know I spelled "Center" in "Paley Center" above with a final "-RE"), but in
this case, I have to insist "timbre" be spelled "-RE" and not
"-ER" in order to drive home the fact that the preferred pronunciation is
"TAM-ber" (to approximate the original French pronunciation) and not the way
it's pronounced in lumber camps. Ken wrote:

A perfect example would be Edgar Bergen. When he played Charlie McCarthy or
Mortimer Snerd there was a complete change in voice timber or pattern, and
Charlie and Mortimer sounded completely different from Edgar.

What, Ken! You used the word "timber" in the same sentence as "Charlie
McCarthy" without making a joke! That wood've been nice.

GATHERING MOSS, Or: Does That Voice Ring a Bell?:

It's nice that when I mentioned the great voices of Ralph Bell and Arnold Moss
in connexion to both their OTR work and TV ad voice-overs that a thread about
OTR diction arose. I've often written here about having worked with some of
the great OTR actors here at Talking Books. When I first started recording, I
was fortunate enough to catch the tail-end of the era of Talking Book
narrators whose training was rooted in OTR. I worked on the last books
recorded by Robert Donley, Ralph Bell, Norman Barrs, and Earle Hyman (Earle is
very much alive), and heard stories about how great the quality of diction
from the OTR crowd was. Among the names who preceded me were Alexander
Scourby, the husband-and-wife team of Mary Jane Higby and Guy Sorel, Alan
Hewitt, Arnold Moss, Norman Rose, Larry Robinson, et. al.  Some of the current
crop include persons who also did retrO-TR  ("CBS Radio Mystery Theatre,"  and
other types of "throwbacks") who've been reading here 20-35 years such as
Gordon Gould, Suzanne Toren, Catherine Byers, John Horton, and Barbara Caruso.
>From first-hand experience, I can assure you that the newer generation of
Talking Book narrators (post-OTR & post-retrO-TR) just can't cut it like the
old-timers. Elocution and proper diction has been diminished over the years.
That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

MAX/SADE:

At some point in the next couple of days,  fans of "Vic 'n' Sade" and the
recently departed Bill Idelson will be able to check out, via the WBAI
archives at [removed] <[removed];  , the
phenomenal tribute-show Max Schmid staged in Mr. Idelson's honour this past
Sunday (6th) over his regular "The Golden Age of Radio" showcase heard here in
NYC. Max mentioned yours truly as the one who had the unfortunate task of
breaking the bad news to him, indisputably one of the biggest V'n'S fans
walking the planet. Two episodes of "Vic 'n' Sade" bookended the two-hour
programme; in between were appearances by Idelson in "Gunsmoke" and "Romance,"
as well as a "Suspense" episode starring John Lund which Idelson wrote.
Intermixed between these episodes was an interview Billy Idelson gave in 1972
in which he cited the great writer Hendrik van Loon as having once said that
"VnS" was a prime example of  pure "Americana" [OK, I admit, I don't have the
exact quote].

Van Loon, of couse, was the author of the book "The History of Mankind," which
was used as the basis for an ill-fated movie (circa 1957) starring the
aforementioned Ronald Colman as well as Groucho Marx [who the aforementioned
Ralph Bell once mimicked as the Vlasic Pickles cartoon stork -- so you can
see, it's all relative]. Apropos of van Loon's love of the denizens of "the
little house half-way up on the next block," I'd like to know if the Digest
readership would be able to conjure up any other examples of great authors and
persons of letters elevating radio as an art form and giving it literary
legitimacy back in the day. If I'm not mistaken, I believe Elizabeth McLeod
has proven George Bernard Shaw's favourable tip o' the mortarboard to "Amos
'n' Andy" to be, at best apocryphal.

Anything else?

Yours appreciatively in the ether--

Derek Tague

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  ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 22:19:22 -0500
From: Kevin Bristol <citadel92@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Bill Idelson Obit Link

Here's the link to the web version of the Bill Idelson obit in the 
Chicago Tribune. No picture on the online version:

[removed],0,[removed]

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2008 Issue #7
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