------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2006 : Issue 315
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
11-13 births/deaths [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
Susquehanna Hats [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
Studio audience, Inner Sanctum [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
Re:OTR under 40 [ Dixonhayes@[removed] ]
Re: A Joke about the Nash. [ "Bill Harris" <nbcblue@[removed]; ]
Age of collector(s) [ "[removed]" <asajb2000@ ]
Re: Re: "A Joke I Don't Get" [ jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns) ]
Re: Various [removed] [ "Glenn P.," <C128User@[removed]; ]
OTR fans under 40 [ "Ryan Hall" <uncle_festor@[removed] ]
Finding Fibber [ "frank mCgurn" <[removed]@sbcgloba ]
fans under 40 [ Rodney Bowcock <pasttense_78@yahoo. ]
Nightbeat- trying to locate a Christ [ "Charles Salt" <charles_salt@hotmai ]
Under 40 [ "Karen Lerner" <[removed]@[removed] ]
Fans under 40 [ harx1@[removed] ]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2006 22:33:28 -0500
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 11-13 births/deaths
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November 13th births
11-13-1850 - Robert Louis Stevenson - Edinburgh, Scotland - d. 12-3-1894
author: "Mercury Theatre of the Air"; "This Is My Best"
11-13-1903 - Conrad Thibault - Northbridge, MA - d. 8-10-1983
singer: "Show Boat"; "Packard Hour"; "Manhattan Merry-Go-Round"
11-13-1913 - Alexander Scourby - Brooklyn, NY - d. 2-23-1985
actor: Herbert Temple "Young Widder Brown"; Philip Cameron "Against
the Storm"
11-13-1913 - Helen Mack - Rock Island, IL - d. 8-13-1986
producer, director: "Beulah Show"; "Affairs of Ann Scotland"
11-13-1917 - Robert Sterling - Newcastle, PA - d. 5-30-2006
actor: Michael Shayne "Michael Shayne"
11-13-1932 - Richard Mulligan - NYC - d. 9-26-2000
actor: "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
November 13th deaths
03-03-1924 - Barbara Jean Wong - Los Angeles, CA - d. 11-13-1999
actor: Judy Barton "Cinnamon Bear"
04-09-1906 - Antal Dorati - Budapest, Austria-Hungary - d. 11-13-1988
conductor"; "CBS Symphony Orchestra"
04-14-1917 - Valerie Hobson - Larne, Ireland - d. 11-13-1998
actor: Guest Contestant "One Minute Please"
04-29-1915 - Donald F. Mills - Piqua, OH - d. 11-13-1999
singer: (The Mills Brothers) "Mills Brothers Quartette"
05-29-1892 - Mario Chamlee - Los Angeles, CA - d. 11-13-1966
singer: Tony "Tony and Gus"; "Arco Birthday Party"; "Swift Garden Party"
06-13-1903 - Jack Fulton - Philipsburg, PA - d. 11-13-1993
singer: "Ben Bernie, The Old Maestro"; "The Kraft Music Hall"
06-29-1893 - Alma Kitchell - Superior, WI - d. 11-13-1996
singer, commentator: "Melody Hour"; "Brief Case/Streamline Journal"
07-25-1901 - Lila Lee - Union Hill, NJ - d. 11-13-1973
actor: "Fleischman's Yeast Hour"
09-15-1908 - Penny Singleton - Phildelphia, PA - d. 11-13-2003
actor: Blondie Bumstead "Blondie" Penny Williamson "Penny Singleton
Show"
10-08-1904 - Wally Brown - Malden, MA - d. 11-13-1961
actor: "The Jack Kirkwood Show"; "Joan Davis Time"
xx-xx-1890 - Louis Katzman - Odessa, Russia - d. 11-13-1943
musical director: "Fred Allen's Linit Bath Club"
Ron Sayles
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Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2006 23:20:25 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Susquehanna Hats
Where I live, the Susquehanna is a river that divides York and Lancaster
County in Pennsylvania but I believe there is actually no such company known
as the Susquehanna Hat Company. The skit was done on vaudeville and in the
Abbott and Costello movie mentioned in a previous posting but I do recall
Costello and Fields doing the routine on the short-lived TV series, THE
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO SHOW. I believe it was also done on two radio
broadcasts so it was repeated a number of times.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2006 23:21:07 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Studio audience, Inner Sanctum
Ted wrote:
I spoke with a man this morning who grew up in the New York City area. He
says that he and his brother would frequently attend Inner Sanctum Mysteries
in the audience. I didn't know this show had an audience. Is his memory
correct? He said they had a very large auditorium and it was usually filled.
Must have been his bad memory. INNER SANCTUM MYSTERY was NEVER broadcast
before a live studio audience. It was done in a small studio where no
public performance was available. New York City was the host of numerous
radio broadcasting, and studios in the city was host to a number of
broadcasts that featured a live studio audience - but INNER SANCTUM was NOT
one of those programs. Himan Brown directed that series and I cannot think
of a single show he produced/directed that ever had a studio audience.
Programs that usually had a large audience were those with huge prestige -
LUX RADIO THEATER, CAVALCADE OF AMERICA, THE SHADOW, THE CHASE AND SANBORN
HOUR, etc.
Martin Grams Jr.
author of "INNER SANCTUM MYSTERIES: BEHIND THE CREAKING DOOR"
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2006 23:21:27 -0500
From: Dixonhayes@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re:OTR under 40
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In a message dated 11/12/06 9:34:14 PM Central Standard Time,
[removed]@[removed] writes:
You forget, Mr. Godfrey, that a subsequent generation had the CBS RADIO
MYSTERY THEATER and the SEARS(/MUTUAL) RADIO THEATER and the GENERAL MILLS
ADVENTURE [removed]
I'm 42 and I never heard an old time radio show first run. I missed
"Suspense" and "Yours Truly Johnny Dollar" by two years, not old enough to
remember
"Theatre Five" and never heard "Breakfast Club" or Arthur Godfrey in my
market.
But in addition to the shows mentioned above I was exposed through reruns. A
station in Albertville, Alabama reran "The Great Gildersleeve," "Fibber McGee
and Molly," "The Lone Ranger" and "The Shadow" weeknights. I listened mostly
to the two comedies since I went to football games Fridays when "The Shadow"
ran. I recall the syndicated copies had all new music dubbed in and possibly
even a local announcer reading the script for any narration.
When I was 12 a friend of mine ordered the War of the Worlds broadcast from a
mail order company advertised in TV Guide and that hooked me.
Dixon
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------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 00:13:33 -0500
From: "Bill Harris" <nbcblue@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: A Joke about the Nash.
In response to the question about the Walter Denton being awarded a Nash and
pajamas to drive with it on. The Nash sedans, (about 1952 I belive), rear
seats were designed to be made into a bed.
And no father wanted to see a young suiter drive up in a Nash to take his
daughter on a date.
Bill H.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 00:14:09 -0500
From: "[removed]" <asajb2000@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Age of collector(s)
Like Mr. Webb, I was exposed to oldtime radio by
listening to it on WRVR [removed] FM. I was also a fan of
jazz and WRVR seemed to do a great job at that as
well. I started listening to the 7 or 7:30-8 pm
rebroadcasts from Charles Michaelson. My first
exposure to oldtime radio came in the 1960's when,
during dinner, my dad decided we were going to listen
to The Shadow on WEEI in Boston (I grew up initially
in the Boston area). I too, bought cassettes from
([removed]) Korvettes. Their cassettes were called XAM and
it was there that I also bought FM Guide because I
also enjoyed classical music in the 1970's. The
potential to reach new people and many more than
conventional trading of tapes and conventional radio
broadcasting is probably limitless. Anyone that
doubts the breadth and scope of internet radio need
only type in [removed] Every conceivable format
of internet radio station is well-represented there,
including some that feature oldtime radio.
Andy Blatt
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 00:37:12 -0500
From: jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Re: "A Joke I Don't Get"
Has anyone ever checked on the number of men in their early-to-mid
fifties who have Nash, as a middle name?
;-)
(And, by the way, Rick Keating's recommendation of the THREE
INVESTIGATORS mystery series of novels, is dead on. When I 10, or 11, or
so, I LOVED them! Interesting, that the kids lit of a prior time--Danny
Dunn, et. [removed] able to transcend at least one era.)
Jim Burns
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 00:38:41 -0500
From: "Glenn P.," <C128User@[removed];
To: Old-Time Radio Mailing List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Various [removed]
Lots of interesting Stuff in the Digest to respond to! One at a [removed]
-----------------------------
On Sun., 12-Nov-2006, at 11:18:47am EST (-0500 GMT), "[removed]@[removed]"
posted to [The Old-Time Radio Mailing List] under the subject of "A Joke
about the Nash":
> In response to the question about the Walter Denton being awarded a
> Nash and pajamas to drive with it on. The Nash sedans, (about 1952 I
> belive), rear seats were designed to be made into a bed.
Yow! Talk about your make-out seats! :)
-----------------------------
On Sun., 12-Nov-2006, at 02:44:47pm EST (-0500 GMT), "Mr. Robert Birchard"
<BBirchard@[removed];, posted to [The Old-Time Radio Mailing List]
under the subject of "Susquehanna Hats":
:> A couple of issues ago was a story which culminated in the line,
:> "Susquehanna Hats!!! My brother was KILLED wearing a Susquehanna Hat!!"
> Clearly Alan is lacking an education in Burlesque in general and Abbott
> & Costello in particular, the reference refers to a routine, similar to
> "Niagara Falls -- slowly I turned," in which a salesman for Susquehanna Hats
> encounters a series of customers with strongly negative associations to said
> product and who after declaiming their grievances proceed to destroy the
> salesman's sample products ([removed] fist through the top of the straw hat,
etc.)
1. You have traded one incomprehensible refrence for another: What is
this "Niagara Falls" routine you refer to?
2. "Slowly I turned" reminds me of an episode of "I Love Lucy" in which
a salesman grew chronically violent ("slowly I turned, inch by inch,
step by [removed]" whenever the name "Martha" was mentioned. Was that
episode a "take-off" on the routine you reference above?
-----------------------------
On Sun., 12-Nov-2006, at 02:48:19pm EST (-0500 GMT), "Mr. Joe Mackey"
<JoeMackey108@[removed]; posted to [The Old-Time Radio Mailing List]
under the subject of "Nash and pajama's":
:> Maybe the seats were as comfortable as your bed?
> Close, but no cigar.
Now, THERE's a phrase I've always wondered about! Does it originate in OTR?
>From "You Bet Your Life", perhaps? (I have no idea what makes me think so,
save that Groucho was alway smoking cigars.)
-----------------------------
On Sun., 12-Nov-2006, at 03:56:37pm EST (-0500 GMT), "Mr. Rick Keating"
<PKeating89@[removed]; posted to [The Old-Time Radio Mailing List] under
the subject of "Re: Kids' shows":
> Scott Benson wrote (about his 12-year-old son):
:> I am also looking for similar shows that he might
:> enjoy. He is a Hardy Boys junky, likes Nancy Drew as
:> well. Both kids like to watch Burns and Allen with
:> us.
> ...if he enjoys mysteries. He might also enjoy
> "I Love a Mystery."...
I say, didn't Radio Orphan Annie have some mysteries? (Or maybe he's a
tad too old for that sort of thing?)
> [removed]: Since your son likes both _The Hardy Boys_ and
> _Nancy Drew_, you might also want to consider buying
> him some of the reprints of the original editions of
> books in both series.
"The Mickey Mouse Club" also did a passable version of "The Hardy Boys"
mystery series starring, if I recall correctly, Tim Consadine. He could
probably find it on VHS or DVD, if he isn't too particular about seeking
only RADIO [removed]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 07:47:57 -0500
From: "Ryan Hall" <uncle_festor@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: OTR fans under 40
I am under 40, in fact under 30 (barely). I have been listening to OTR shows
since I was about 10 years old or so. When I was very little, I had a few
little records (LPs) that I liked to play on my little kiddie plastic record
player of Just So Stories and Robin Hood and such, which I think were more
Modern Audio Drama for kids, but with sound effects. This was when records
were basically still around in shops but were on the way out and the shops
were just trying to get rid of them and move to cassette tapes. I remember
saving up my allowance many times and going on a Saturday to buy a new
record of audio drama for probably a few dollars or so, but for a 6 year
old, that was a lot of money.
We also listened to a lot of radio, especially John Ward's broadcast of
Tennessee football games, etc. We weren't particularly rich and living in
the rural South, my family didn't actually have cable television until I was
about 8 or 9 years old in the mid-'80s, so maybe I was not unlike those
listening to radio when it was the mass communication medium it was in the
'40's.
I actually discovered OTR proper back in the early '90s, when the New
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes came out on cassette tape. Having been a
Holmes fan since I was young, I really was enthralled by the whole concept
of radio. It was not until I was in high school that I discovered that there
were other radio shows still in existence, namely The Shadow and a few
others like X Minus One that came out on cassette tapes occasionally.
When I was in college, I discovered this new fangled invention of the
internet and discovered all sorts of radio shows thanks the MP3 technology
and Ebay. I have no doubt I will one day tell my grandkids about life before
the internet like grandparents today tell of life without automobiles and
television.
I remember the first time I surfed onto the [removed] site and managed to
get onto the OTR chatroom group and actually got to chat briefly with Harry
Bartell one evening. That was quite a treat. I had no idea that such people
were still around, or that there were other fans of OTR around. Until that
point, I thought I just had this eccentric habit of collecting of radio
shows because I was literally the only person I knew that even knew or cared
about radio at all.
I became so interested in radio that I actually got a job in college at the
campus radio station and took several radio communication classes. I even
talked the professor in charge of the project to let us do a few recreations
of OTR shows. Interestingly enough, they were a hit on campus, and always
had the greatest number of listeners of all the variety radio programming we
cobbled together.
I am not sure what my personal fixation with radio is, though. I think maybe
actually have to do with the fact that it is, in a sense, counter-cultural.
Maybe that was the attraction for a teenage/college age student. We live in
a completely visual society now, what with TV and internet. I remember some
of the other students who had signed up for the Radio communications class
who had no background in listening to radio format had serious trouble in
class discussing the content of a radio show that the professor would play
bits of in class. Once they finally figured it out, most liked it. But
forcing them to listen was like pulling teeth. Listening is just not a skill
that most of the people in the current generation of 20 somethings or
younger have much practice at because everything is so visually based.
So there is one (under 30) man's odyssey with OTR.
-Ryan1
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 08:24:45 -0500
From: "frank mCgurn" <[removed]@[removed];
To: "The Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Finding Fibber
Help for Karen:
Sunday night was tuned into an OR T program and heard Fibber McGee show
dated 11/18/41 "Mayor Latriva Won't Leave" when the mayor finally leaves He
open the Closet door and we hear "No, NO not that door" The mayor helps to
put everything back.
As usual it is great episode.
Frank McGurn
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 08:49:06 -0500
From: Rodney Bowcock <pasttense_78@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: fans under 40
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I'm 27. Grew up with OTR, thanks to WVXU in Cincinnati. Like so many people
older than me, my childhood favorites were Green Hornet and Great
Gildersleeve. I wrote an article on younger people being interested in OTR
in Bob Burchett's print Old-Time Radio Digest a couple of years ago.
Rodney
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------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:22:31 -0500
From: "Charles Salt" <charles_salt@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Nightbeat- trying to locate a Christmas
episode
Myself and some friends from an OTR forum are trying to locate an episode of
Nightbeat that one member recalls as follows:
"Randy has to go around the city with a woman from the paper, and they're
tracking down some "props" for a party being given by the wife of the owner
of the newspaper Randy works for. She wants a sleigh with reindeer, and all
Randy can find are a couple goats. As I recall, all he can find for a sleigh
is an old Radio Flyer wagon. Part of the episode has Randy roaming around
town with the two goats in his car."
It's a Christmas episode but we're pretty sure it's not 'Five Days Of For
Christmas'. Does any have a copy of the episode described above please?
Thanks.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 14:00:18 -0500
From: "Karen Lerner" <[removed]@[removed];
To: "OTR Digest (E-mail)" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Under 40
In response to Andrew Godfrey's OTR Fans Under 40 [removed]
I am seven years shy of the big 4-0 and I would be happy to tell you how I
was first introduced to OTR - a junior high school teacher. She played us
epiosdes of the Shadow and a few other mystery-type programs. What really
stuck with me was - in one story (I don't remember from which series) - there
was a character who was walking in the dark through some trees to sneak up to
a house. They had a moment of fright when something cold and damp touched
their cheek, only to discover that it was just a leaf, dangling from a branch
that was close by.
I have always been a storyteller at heart, and was truly taken with this
method of storytelling. We don't know what the cold, damp thing is any more
than the character does - so, in a way, we're experiencing the story by being
right inside the mind of the character. BUT - the absolute best thing is
that, in truth, these OTR stories lead us right inside our OWN minds. It's
whatever would be scary to US (personally) that we imagine has touched the
character's cheek. OTR can take us in to corners of our own minds that we
might not have even known were there. To me, that's the genius of OTR
storytelling.
Since junior high, I had scant contact with OTR - going to the movies to see
the ([removed] not so good) Shadow movie, and using a copy of "The Most Dangerous
Game" as part of a high school class when it was my turn to be the teacher.
But, the interest was always there - plus, I must confess a natural interest
in the music, fashion, and history of the time period - and, I consider
myself quite lucky to have found my way back to it as an adult.
Karen Lerner
Radio Spirits
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 14:00:49 -0500
From: harx1@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Fans under 40
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I'm 31 and I've been a fan OTR, since I was 14 (or so). I used to watch
black and white movies on AMC (back when they did that sort of thing) each
morning before school. I saw Burns & Allen in their supporting roles in the
Fred Astaire starrer, "Damsel in Distress", and I knew who George Burns was
because of the Oh G-d! movies, and for some reason I had a couple of his
comedy books, but through that movie, I became a huge fan of Gracie Allen.
As I often did at the time, I started researching people who I found
interesting (I was a strange kid) and happened upon this strange phenomenon
called Old Time Radio. I found a couple of tapes in the local library and
was hooked. For Hanukkah that year, my parents got me one of the set of four
tapes with different comedians (Burns & Allen, Jack Benny, Abbot & Costello
and Fibber McGee & Molly) and there was no turning back. When I got to
college a few years later, the Internet was just beginning to take off and I
discovered that there was a whole online community where people traded tapes
and then I discovered SPERDVAC, and before I knew it I had a couple of
thousand tapes. Unfortunately, my parents sold their house in the suburbs,
so I ended up donating most of my collection to a local senior citizens home
and I'm now trying to recreate my collection with mp3s, as that's much easier
to handle.
-Kerri L. Berney
harx1@[removed]
" " -Harpo Marx(smarter words were never uttered)
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--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2006 Issue #315
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