Subject: [removed] Digest V2007 #336
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 11/29/2007 8:02 PM
To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to:
[removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2007 : Issue 336
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Willard Waterman                      [ Stuart Lubin <stuartlubin6686@sbcgl ]
  Howdy Doody                           [ JimBourg@[removed] ]
  TV Shows That Spun Off of Radio       [ JimBourg@[removed] ]
  dog story                             [ <vzeo0hfk@[removed]; ]
  Norman Corwin live on 12-7-07         [ "Walden Hughes" <walden1@yesterdayu ]
  11-29 births/deaths                   [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
  Benny bloopers and edits              [ "Laura Leff" <president@[removed] ]
  Howdy Doody                           [ "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross. ]
  Bob Bailey's 'Johnny Dollar' Swan So  [ "thomas" <evander800@[removed]; ]
  "The Cinnamon Bear"                   [ crow8164@[removed] (Dennis Crow) ]
  Missed opportunities                  [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:44:48 -0500
From: Stuart Lubin <stuartlubin6686@[removed];
To: Time Radio Digest Old Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Willard Waterman

I am very happy that there are those much wiser than I
am upon whom I can rely to get all the correct data on
who played what, and when.  With such sharp people in
our hobby, I know that I can look it up and get the
correct answers.  All I know is that I thoroughly
enjoyed Gildersleeve, and I hate to admit this, but I
could never tell the difference between Willard's and
Hal's voices.  They both were tremendously talented
performers.  I also was a fan of "Honest Harold", a
program that Harold Peary starred in, when he stopped
doing Gildy.

Stuart Lubin

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

Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:45:06 -0500
From: JimBourg@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Howdy Doody
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In a message dated 11/28/2007 3:18:43 [removed] Central Standard Time,
[removed]@[removed] writes:

 11-27-1917 - Buffalo Bob Smith - Buffalo, NY - d. 7-30-1998
actor:  Howdy Doody "Howdy Doody"

Buffalo Bob starred with Howdy but he didn't play him as I interpret  the
above entry to imply.

Jim

products.

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

Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:45:25 -0500
From: JimBourg@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  TV Shows That Spun Off of Radio
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In a message dated 11/28/2007 3:18:43 [removed] Central Standard Time,
[removed]@[removed] writes:

While  hundreds of radio shows eventually were reincarnated as a TV
series, there  are only eight TV shows that spun off a radio version.
And that's not  counting simulcasts

I'm aware of "Have Gun, Will Travel", what are the others?

Jim

products.

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  ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:45:53 -0500
From: <vzeo0hfk@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  dog story

When I interviewed Arthur Miller some years ago for my book, he mentioned
that he wrote "Canine Joe," a dog story, for the Cavalcade of America. I
believe the story may be among those in the boxed set of the Cavalcade that
Radio Spirits put out.

Howard Blue

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

Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:45:44 -0500
From: "Walden Hughes" <walden1@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Norman Corwin live on 12-7-07

Hi everybody,

on Friday night 12-7-07 between 7-30 PM to 9 PM west Coast time, Norman
Corwin will be live on the phone to talk about his memories of 12-7-41.  I
am not sure what time yet we will start the interview, and you might like to
call in and talk to Norman at (714) 545-2071.  You can hear the show on
Yesterday USA at [removed]

Take care,

Walden Hughes

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

Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:15:51 -0500
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  11-29 births/deaths

November 29th births

11-29-1876 - Joseph E. Davies - Watertown, WI - d. 5-9-1958
ambassador to the soviet union: "Information Please"
11-29-1894 - H. Leslie Atlass - d. 11-18-1960
Chicago radio pioneer, CBS executive
11-29-1895 - Busby Berkeley - Los Angeles, CA - d. 3-14-1976
choreographer: "Gulf Screen Theatre"; "Whatever Became Of . . . ?"
11-29-1895 - Yakima Canutt - Colfax, WA - d. 5-24-1986
actor, stuntman: "Daredevils of Hollywood"; "Hollywood Rodea"
11-29-1898 - [removed] Lewis - Belfast, Northern Ireland - d. 11-22-1963
author, lecturer: "Right and Wrong"; "Christian Behavior"
11-29-1900 - Mildred "Axis Sally" Gillars - Portland, ME - d. 6-25-1988
propagandist: Radio Berlin "Vision of an Invasion"
11-29-1905 - Chester Erskine - Hudson, NY - d. 4-7-1986
film director: "Lux Radio Theatre"
11-29-1905 - Mario Braggiotti - Florence, Italy - d. 5-18-1996
pianist, composer: "Fray and Braggiotti"
11-29-1906 - Luis Van Rooten - Mexico City, Mexico - d. 6-17-1973
actor: George Priestly "County Seat"; John Perry "John's Other Wife";
Nero Wolfe "Nero Wolfe"
11-29-1910 - Al Schwartz - Passaic, NJ - d. 3-25-1988
writer: "Phil Harris/Alice Faye Show"; "Bob Hope Show"
11-29-1912 - Alan Courtney - NYC - d. 9-16-1978
host: "Calling All Girls"; "Korn Kobblers"
11-29-1913 - Harry Bartell - New Orleans, LA - d. 2-26-2004
actor: Archie Goodwin "Advs. of Nero Wolfe"; "Adv of Sherlock
Holmes"; "Gunsmoke"
11-29-1914 - Hal McIntyre - Cromwell, CT - d. 5-5-1959
bandleader: "Hal McIntyre and His Orchestra"
11-29-1915 - J. G. Weightman - Callerton, Englans - d. 8-14-2004
translator and announcer in French for the BBC
11-29-1917 - George Walsh - Cleveland, OH - d. 12-5-2005
announcer: "Gunsmoke"; "Music 'Til Dawn"
11-29-1917 - Merle Travis - Muhlenberg County, KY - d. 10-20-1983
singer, guitarist: "Hollywood Barn Dance"
11-29-1921 - Virginia Egnor "Dagmar" - Huntington, WV - d. 10-9-2001
dumb blonde: "Stars On Parade"; "Says Who?"
11-29-1926 - Naomi Stevens - Trenton, NJ
actor: Irene Franklin "One Man's Family"; Daphne Royce "Brenthouse"
11-29-1927 - Vin Scully - The Bronx, NY
sportscaster (Baseball's Poet Laurate) Play-by Play announcer for the
Dodgers
11-29-1932 - John Gary - Watertown, NY - d. 1-4-1998
singer: "Christmas Music - Spots for the National Guard"

November 29th deaths

01-18-1904 - Cary Grant - Bristol, England - d. 11-29-1986
actor: Jim Blandings "Mr. and Mrs. Blandings"
02-24-1943 - George Harrison - Liverpool, England - d. 11-29-2001
singer: (The Beatles) "Here We Go Again"
02-26-1933 - Godfrey Cambridge - NYC - d. 11-29-1976
actor: "Voices of Vista"
04-28-1896 - Edith Evanson - Tacoma, WA - d. 11-29-1980
actor: Helmi "Myrt and Marge"
05-03-1899 - George H. Combs - Lee's Summit, MO - d. 11-29-1977
congressman, commentator: "Now You Decide"; "Spotlight, New York"
05-29-1897 - Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Brno, Czechoslovakia - d.
11-29-1957
"composer: "Contemporary Composers Concerts"; "Railroad Hour"
06-05-1910 - Herb Vigran - Fort Wayne, IN - d. 11-29-1986
actor: Sad Sack "Sad Sack"; Hector Smith "Father Knows Best"
06-17-1904 - Ralph Bellamy - Chicago, IL - d. 11-29-1991
actor: "These Are Our Men"
07-19-1912 - Frank Kane - d. 11-29-1968
writer: "The Shadow"
07-20-1938 - Natalie Wood - San Francisco, CA - d. 11-29-1981
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
07-27-1890 - Judith Lowry - Fort Sill, Oklahoma Territory - d.
11-29-1976
actor: Emma 'Stevie' Stevens "Valiant Lady"; Emmy Fergusson "Welcome
Valley"
09-05-1916 - Frank Yerby - Augusta, GA - d. 11-29-1991
author: "Best Seller"
09-20-1869 - George Robey - London, England - d. 11-29-1954
music hall singer: "Music Hall"
10-04-1900 - Robert Shayne - Yonkers, NY - d. 11-29-1992
actor: Walter Manning "Portia Faces Life"
11-03-1909 - George Wells - NYC - d. 11-29-2000
screenwriter: "Lux Radio Theatre"
12-22-1917 - Gene Rayburn - Christopher, IL - d. 11-29-1999
announcer, comedian: "Rayburn and Finch"
12-26-1902 - Irene Handl - London, England - d. 11-29-1987
actor: "Hello Playmates"

Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:40:21 -0500
From: "Laura Leff" <president@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Benny bloopers and edits

Matthew Bullis asks:
Hello, there's one question that none of the five Jack Benny books I've
read
has answered. When discussing the mistakes in dialogue, such as the chiss
sweeze and grass reek mistakes, they went into how that changed the
writing
for the week's after, and also how these mistakes were never planned. What
I've never found an answer to, nor a reprint of, is what the script was
like
after that part where they made a mistake, since they probably had to cut
some dialogue, or since it was near the end of the show anyway. Has
anyone,
in doing research for articles or books, found the original scripts on
which
these mistakes occurred, and were there funny endings we actually missed
out
on, which were dwarfed or completely excised because of the actor mistake?

There's a couple books called "39 Forever" that might be of [removed]
discuss this sort of thing in them in much more detail.  Not all mistakes
were mistakes.  Chiss sweeze and grass reek were.  If the show ran long for
any reason, be it a fluff + ad libbing or insufficient accommodation for the
spread (time for laughter), the place things were cut was the last blackout
bit in the show.  I'm sure just about everyone on this list has heard Jack
say, "We're a little late, folks,"  which signified the cut of the closing
tag.

For the specific shows you mention, there was only one ad lib line to Mary's
"chiss sweeze sandwich" (which was just Jack repeating it), so the only
extra time was the added laughter on her line.  On "grass reek", the fluff
is right in the closing tag.  The original dialogue was:

Jack:  Mary, I think the way I've got the interview is all [removed] think
people will be interested in the way I found Rochester.
Mary:  I think so.  But Jack, how could you possibly have hit his car while
it was up on the grease rack?
Jack:  Oh, I don't know, Mary, but I got Rochester, so I was just lucky, I
[removed] folks.

Jack's retort on the broadcast about Mary going back to the May Company
sounds like it was voiced over after the fact (the 12/3/50 show was recorded
on 11/28/50), and someone other than Don Wilson does the closing
announcement.  This would infer that the laughter went well beyond the air
time and was edited afterwards.

The show of 2/23/47 ran so long and had so many bloopers that it was cut off
by the network (for length, not bloopers).

--Laura Leff
President, IJBFC
[removed]

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

Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:38:23 -0500
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Howdy Doody

Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:12:51 -0500
From: jack and cathy french <otrpiano@[removed];

This entry prompts a number of interesting sidelights. First of all
"Bob Smith" was his professional name; he was born Robert Schmidt,
youngest of four children born to second-generation German immigrants
in Buffalo, NY.

"Bob Smith" was more than his professional name.  He changed his name
to Smith legally just before he got married.  He wrote in his
autobiography that he changed it before he got married in order to
avoid putting his wife through two name changes.

He would later be the star of both the TV and radio version of "Howdy
Doody."  The TV show, which started out as "Puppet Theater" in January
1948 aired two shows before Howdy Doody even appeared.

It actually began on 27 December 1947.  Howdy Doody was on the show,
but was hiding in a desk drawer for the first couple of shows.  This
was because the first Howdy Doody puppet wasn't ready yet.  Howdy
actually originated as a character on a Saturday morning show that
Smith had been doing on WNBC radio.

But after he did, they quickly changed the name of the show to his.

Well, it did take a year or two.

While hundreds of radio shows eventually were reincarnated as a TV
series, there are only eight TV shows that spun off a radio version.

I'd love to know what eight you're counting.  In the case of Howdy
Doody, it's more complicated than that.  As I said above, Howdy Doody
began on Smith's Saturday morning kids' show, "Triple-B Ranch," on
WNBC radio.  He did a bit every week with this hayseed character
called Elmer, who would come along and say, "Well, Howdy Doody!"  The
kids who were part of the studio audience complained because Smith
only sat there speaking in a different voice.  They wanted to see
"Howdy Doody."  Smith explained later that this gave him two ideas:
(1) to call the character "Howdy Doody," since that was what the kids
were calling him, and (2) to look into doing television.  He said he
went to the television people on a Tuesday, and they said, "You're on
Saturday."

And that's not counting simulcasts ([removed] "Two for the Money" and
"George Gobel Show") nor 50's TV shows like "Lassie" and "Rin-Tin-
Tin" that resulted in radio versions, since both of these canines had
their own radio shows in decades pre-dating their TV popularity.

I thought I remembered hearing Rin Tin TIn on radio when they
announced that Rin Tin TIn could now be seen on television, but I may
have been thinking of something else.  According to my favorite
reference, "Total Television," by Alex McNeil, Rin Tin Tin was on
television from 15 October 1954 to 28 August 1959.  The note mentions
that Rin Tin Tin "had also been a radio series once in 1930 and again
in 1955."

--
A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                           [removed]
 92 State Street, Suite 700                   Fax [removed]
Boston, MA 02109-2004           	         [removed]

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

Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:37:06 -0500
From: "thomas" <evander800@[removed];
To: "old_time_radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Bob Bailey's 'Johnny Dollar' Swan Song

     I recently listened to the final Bob Bailey 'Johnny Dollar' program
("The Empty Threat Matter").  There was no mention of the fact that it was
Bailey's last turn as the famed sleuth. This seems particularly strange
since two months earlier there was a celebratory program marking Bailey's
fifth anniversary in the role--"The Five Down Matter".
     Since Bailey gave a brief preview of the next week's program and there
was no break in the series, I wondered if anyone knows why the move to New
York with a new Dollar was completely ignored.
     Incidentally, Bailey fluffed a line in the body of the broadcast--the
only time I can ever recall this happening.
     Tom van der Voort

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

Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:57:58 -0500
From: crow8164@[removed] (Dennis Crow)
To: [removed]@[removed] (Old Time Radio Digest)
Subject:  "The Cinnamon Bear"

Just a final reminder, my friends, TODAY (November 29) is the day to begin "The Cinnamon Bear."  If you play one 15 minute segment a day, the story will conclude on Christmas Eve.

Also, as I have noted before, you can print the eleven songs and a map of Maybeland by going [removed] [removed]

May you enjoy this wonderful Christmas show with your entire family!  Paddy is 70 years old!

Dennis Crow

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

Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:39:37 -0500
From: <otrbuff@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Missed opportunities

Pioneering newsman Cesar Saerchinger (1884-1971), who spent the first nine
years of his life in his native Germany, is a fascinating study among early
electronic journalists.  He launched his professional career as a print
communicator, a foreign correspondent for The New York Evening Post
following World War I.  He wasn't the only fish in the sea transmitting
overseas stories for publication, of course -- he probably had lots of
contemporary company.

On the other hand, few American radio professionals had traversed the
Atlantic with a view of dispensing news to the homefolks.  Saerchinger was
among the first to put it into practice, although it wasn't even his
original target.  It was an assignment that fell into his lap after CBS
dispatched a staffer from New York to cover a five-power naval conference in
London.  When the event persisted well beyond its expected termination, the
CBS rep was in a pickle, due back in New York for engagements.  Saerchinger,
on duty for the Post, was "borrowed" for the duration of the meeting on
behalf of CBS.

After it ended the print journalist informed CBS officials he could arrange
for specific British luminaries to appear for radio interviews.  That was so
enticing to new CBS owner William S. Paley that Saerchinger was hired to
conduct interviews weekly over CBS.  A studio at the BBC was committed to
the purpose and Saerchinger performed splendidly from 1930-37.

But in one of those ironic twists that never seems easily explained,
Saerchinger informed CBS officials in May 1937 that he was resigning his
post, seeing little future opportunity for newscasting by an American chain
on the continent of Europe.  There may have been more to it than that, of
course, and there probably was.  But venerated sources confirm that he
expressed his desire to return to America, never fully appreciated the
groundbreaking strides he made as a pioneering broadcast journalist nor
viewed his effort as a foundation for subsequent work.  It had seemingly, in
his opinion, reached its outer limits.

Saerchinger joined NBC and, from 1938-44, appeared content with a
traditionally late-night quarter-hour weekly commentary titled "The Story
Behind the Headlines."  In the meantime, turning the efforts he made on
European soil for seven years to advantage, CBS seized upon the
opportunity -- intersecting as it did just as a madman with visions of
global domination put the initial pieces of his plan into action.  It could
hardly have been more timely or promising as CBS director of talks Edward R.
Murrow was tapped for the European assignment.  Overseas reporting appeared
to have begun precisely where Saerchinger left off.  In hindsight, it was
surely a missed opportunity on his part.  And considering Murrow's enormous
value to CBS, it could hardly have worked out better.

Jim Cox

Cesar Saerchinger, Oct. 23, 1884, Germany; commentator, emcee, print
journalist (The New York Evening Post) bka key figure formulating basics of
radio overseas reporting; hired by CBS 1930 to dispatch reports from London
(in pre-Edward R. Murrow epoch) became "dean of this esoteric profession of
foreign radio reps" inaugurating transatlantic aircasting; in an
ill-conceived notion-convinced there was no future in European newscasting
by May 1937-resigned post, succeeded by soon-to-be-venerated Murrow;
Saerchinger joined NBC, went on air with weekly quarter-hour commentary The
Story Behind the Headlines 1938-44; d. October 1971.

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #336
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