Subject: [removed] Digest V2001 #385
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------------------------------


                           The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                             Volume 2001 : Issue 385
                        A Part of the [removed]!
                                ISSN: 1533-9289


                                Today's Topics:

 Re: [removed] Kaltenborn                   [ Fred Berney <berney@[removed]; ]
 Today in Radio History                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey5@[removed]; ]
 Re: Databases and OTR                 [ Fred Berney <berney@[removed]; ]
 cataloging programs                   [ "theo farmer" <thefarmer3@[removed] ]
 Best Actor/Actress                    [ "David H. Buswell" <dbuswell@rivnet ]
 Overall Picks                         [ lynn wagar <philcolynn@[removed]; ]
 Explaination                          [ "Ian Grieve" <ian@[removed] ]
 FLYWHEEL, SHYSTER AND FLYWHEEL        [ "Ian Grieve" <ian@[removed] ]
 Re: No School Today                   [ Fred Berney <berney@[removed]; ]
 Big Jon and Sparkie                   [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
 Cataloging OTR                        [ Frank Kendall <efkendall@[removed]; ]
 Re-writing history, (was: NPR segmen  [ Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed]; ]
 OTR list keeping                      [ "Donna Byrd" <dmb5@[removed]; ]
 SINATRA ON OTR                        [ Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed]; ]
 Cataloging OTR                        [ "John edwards" <jcebigjohn41@hotmai ]
 Favorite actor                        [ Tony Baechler <tony@[removed]; ]
 Miscelaneous                          [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
 new sony changer - little off topic   [ Jon Martin <mart459@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2001 13:18:06 -0500
From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: [removed] Kaltenborn

Back in the 1950s or 1960s, Mr. Kaltenborn spoke at our synagogue in Miami.
As I recall it was a Men's Club function. My father did the introduction
and for some reason I taped most of his talk. I have it somewhere in my
vast library of reel to reel tapes.

Fred
For the best in Old Time Radio Shows [removed]
New e-commerce page [removed]

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

Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2001 13:18:15 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey5@[removed];
To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Today in Radio History

 From Those Were the Days--

1932 - The Adventures of Charlie Chan was first heard on the NBC Blue
radio network. The Chinese detective became even more popular on the
movie screen in the 1930s and 1940s.

 Joe

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

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

Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2001 13:43:19 -0500
From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Databases and OTR

My entire catalog is in WordPerfect as a text file. When I need to check on
a particular program, I just do a word search and it locates the program.
Not as fancy as a data base or spread sheet, but it allows me to elaborate
on the program.

Years ago, I wrote a program in DOS that produces pin feed audio cassette
labels. It is very simple in that it uses data statements. For example

DATA 01,LONE RANGER,Program number 200,etc

The number after the data statement is the reel number. This is followed by
the program name and then the title or number of the show. It can then be
followed by the date and any other information.

This could be listed in a word processor and then sorted when needed.

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

Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2001 15:46:07 -0500
From: "theo farmer" <thefarmer3@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: cataloging programs

When cataloging my programs I use a commerical program called "whereisit" it
does a very good job which includes bitrates, bit size, location, and is
searchable. and you can print catalogs to your liking.

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

Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2001 22:35:24 -0500
From: "David H. Buswell" <dbuswell@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Best Actor/Actress

Waldon Hughes asks for a favorite male and female actress accomplished in
virtually all OTR acting genres.  I'm sure there will be many candidates,
but for me it would be Kathy and Elliott Lewis.

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

Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2001 22:35:33 -0500
From: lynn wagar <philcolynn@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Overall Picks

Question: Who do you like overall?  My Favorites are-

Learding role in a comedy are Jack Benny and Eve Arden

Supporting role in a comedy are Phil Harris and Gracie
Allen
even if she was one of the stars of Burns and Allen.

Leading roles in a Drama are The guy who did Johnny
Dollar- Bob Baily? and Agnes Moorehead
for all her roles.

Supporting role in a drama Male ? I don't realy have
one.  Female- Marjorie Anderson/ Margo Lane from the
shadow.

Question-Who is your favorite Pitch man?  Mine-Harlow
Wilcox. Waxie For Johnsons Wax

How about you???

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

Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 00:26:45 -0500
From: "Ian Grieve" <ian@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Explaination

In digest 382 Hal STONE wrote:

Finally, two  off the subject items. In a recent posting (on an unrelated
subject, my Aussie Buddy Ian Grives threw in a line when talking about our
Digest Icon, Elizabeth. He [removed]"No Hal, it WOULD be more than just a
little puff in my case". ?????

Ian, were you referring to me, or the other "Hal" that posts. I'm mystified,
confused, and so what else is new?

Yes Hal I was refering to you.  I didn't know you were off visiting friends
and family.  I don't know why, but I pictured you hard at work on your book.
I guess that is the beauty of Radio where we all provided our own 'pictures'
of the action, or in this case lack thereof.

I had just finished reading a wonderful explanation from Elizabeth and I was
still trying to get over how much thought and effort that Elizabeth must put
into all the posts she makes here (unlike me) and I used the word
Mindblowing.  Hence I threw in the line you refer to, just in case a witty
remark was forthcoming.  Having to explain my joke sort of takes off
whatever shine there may have been.  Thanks Hal (STONE).  May I call you
Jughead?  That will remove all chances of confusion with others sharing the
name Hal. No other Jughead on this Digest that I know of :)

Ian Grieve
(back to the books Hal (STONE))

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

Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 00:28:06 -0500
From: "Ian Grieve" <ian@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: FLYWHEEL, SHYSTER AND FLYWHEEL

In Digest 383, Rodney wrote:

Groucho's first radio appearance was probably on Flywheel, Shyster, and
Flywheel.  The show no longer exists, but most of the scripts are around.
I think it only lasted for 1 season.

Rodney, I am unaware if the answer is right or wrong, however in regard to
Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel  there is at least one full episode and 2
partials surviving, as those are in my mp3 collection and must have come
>from somewhere.  There is also a British re enactment based on the scripts
(I believe).  I have 6 episodes of series 1 and I believe there were further
series done.

It was after hearing the British re enactment and then reading on a British
website that none of the originals existed, that I went looking for and
found the episode and 2 partials.  Great series and the re enactment was
very well done.  Being a naive colonial it took me 3 episodes to realise it
was a re enactment rather than an original, but now I put that down to good
acting.

Ian Grieve

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

Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 00:28:36 -0500
From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: No School Today

This was one of my favorite shows. I got my tape recorder in June of 1952.
From January of 1953 until sometime in 1955, I recorded the 10 minute
opening of every No School Today show.

This was the Captain Jupiter serial "General Comet of the Universe Patrol",
that Sparkie would see each week at the West Wood theater and then tell Big
Jon about it the following week. I start with Chapter 247 and end with
chapter 393. I missed a few chapter when we went on vacation, but not many.

One week I even had a local recording studio record the program for me. As
I recall, he recorded the entire program. But, if I remember correctly, I
erased the balance of the show after the serial. It may still exist, but I
haven't found it yet. I will keep looking.

In addition to the opening, I also recorded bits and pieces of the program.
Like the Magic Spy Glass section, times when Big Jon would just talk to us
kids about his childhood, and some of the Make Believe dramatizations.

I'm am slowly putting these on CDs. I have all the dates. I hope to finish
this project in time for the Cincinnati Convention.

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

Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 00:27:25 -0500
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Big Jon and Sparkie

Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2001 15:32:27 -0500
From: Gerry Wright <gdwright@[removed];

The "No School Today" (referred by many as "Big Jon and Sparkie") show was
broadcast on Saturday mornings, from Feb. 18, 1950 to 1958 (120 min. until
1951 then 90 min.).

I seem to remember that during the spring or summer of 1955, "No School
Today" was again a two-hour show.  This was because "Space Patrol," which
followed it, was discontinued, apparently rather suddenly.  Eventually,
later the same year, "No School Today" returned to a 90 minute format,
probably once the network figured out what else it wanted to do with the
time slot.

A. Joseph Ross, [removed]
 15 Court Square, Suite 210                      lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         [removed]

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

Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 00:28:54 -0500
From: Frank Kendall <efkendall@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Cataloging OTR

I use a freeware program called MPEG Audio Collection.
Available in both a Windows and a (beta) MAC vesion, I
find the program works beautifully for this purpose. A
number of options allow you the freedom of what
information you want to include and the program will
output to a text file, HTML file or Excel file. Pretty
impressive program for free.

Available here: [removed]

Frank Kendall
Fort Worth, TX

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

Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 00:30:00 -0500
From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re-writing history, (was: NPR segment on KDKA

founder)
Approved: uyDjd7sF

From: Michael Berger <intercom1@[removed];
Heard  part  of  this  segment  this  morning and in view of past
discussions about which station was actually the first on the air
with  programming,  wonder  if  this  will spark some comments to
NPR's All Things Considered.

Well, not as much as it would have been if they aired the program last
month as they originally intended.  Following some messages from
historians like Marvin Bensman, they held back and made some changes.
The introduction to the story was now filled with a lot of "hedge"
words, like "some say" or "it is widely considered", and they did
mention other previous experimenters like Reginald Fessendon, Lee
deForest, but NOT 8MK/WWJ or Charles Herrald!  They even mentioned
Marconi--and he did not work much on voice transmissionm if at all.

There are two things that bothered me most about this broadast.  First
was the proposition that the other experimenters were not thinking of
broadasting to wide audiences--not true, they WERE--and the discussion
about the broadcast of the election returns of 1920 being the first time
people could find out the results before the morning papers were
printed.  Also not true.

Probably since the founding of our nation there had been a tradition of
people congregating at headquarters where votes were counted to get the
results of local elections.  And ever since the newspapers started using
the telegraph to receive votes nationally in the mid-1800s, people would
congregate around the newspaper offices to get the latest information
throughout the evenings, especially for Presidental elections.  The
updated returns would be posted on chalkboards or projected by magic
lantern onto large sheets on the sides of buildings across the street.
I have a very vivid account of the 1884 election from Frank Leslie's
Illustrated Newspaper which even discusses some of the long-held
traditions of the election evenings in New York City.  Ironically, what
radio did was eventually bring an end to these community gatherings by
allowing people to find the information while staying at home.  Only the
party faithful gather together anymore.  Broadcasting has actually
lessened the community spirit of elections.

There is a similar misunderstanding of radio's role in announcing
Lindbergh's flight.  ABC-TV's "The Century" program about the event
cited this as the first big event which was followed by vast multitudes
of radio listeners.  As proof they played the phony recordings from the
1950 record "I Can Hear It Now"  I finally got them to admit the
recordings were fake, and they now label them as re-creations in the
videocassettes and rebroadcasts.  But they were not necessarily
re-creations--they probably never happened in that form, but it was too
good a premise to give up.  They found one guy they interviewed who said
that he had heard about the progress of the flight on the radio, and ABC
then expanded this to the premise that EVERYBODY found it out this way.
Wrong.  If they had bothered to do some REAL research, they would have
read newspaper accounts about thousands of people phoning the newspapers
in New York City for information, and other thousands gathering in front
of the newspaper offices for the latest word to be displayed in the
windows.  In New York City the police and fire department made use of
their interconnected telegraph system to relay the news of the
successful conclusion of the flight and have the fire stations all over
the city blow their sirens to notify all the people.  Radio broadcasting
is hardly mentioned at all--and it is not because of anti-radio bias.
The following month The New York Times even printed a stenographic
transcript of some of the NBC broadcast of Lindbergh's return to
Washington, [removed]  If radio had played a big role in informing the
populace of the flight, they would have reported it.

Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 10:23:47 -0500
From: "Donna Byrd" <dmb5@[removed];
To: "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: OTR list keeping

How to keep records has come up several
times before. Having used a database with fields,
I went with a freeform database. There are no
fields, and it allows partial boolean searching
([removed] and, or)Just type what you want on the record,
save it, and go on to the next using any order you
want. It need not be the same from record to record.
When you want to find something just type a word
-any word- in that record, and it will pull up any
record with that word or number in it. Typing a
phrase will limit the search. You can create more
than one file, so you could keep a straight title
list as an index and another file as full records.

I can't recommend the one I'm using as I started
with it when the 728K on my Kypro 2000 was
more than IBM was putting out. It has gotten
crotchyer with every new computer - now
windows ME. But with that recent upgrade I did
search "memorymate" and a shareware
program turned up being sold by Brown Bag.
Sounds very like the "MemoryMate"
I'm still using. Don't know more than that,
but it offers a free trial, and Brown Bag has been
around a long time. Must be others around
"Ask Sam", a commercial program of some years
ago did the same thing at 6 times the price.

Good luck

Don

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

Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 10:24:16 -0500
From: Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: SINATRA ON OTR

    Q: Do you miss the "GOOD OLD DAYS" of radio ?
    [removed], Camden, [removed]
 I have a deep hunger for those times.
Commercial television has become too
much of a children's plaything, an
electronic theater of occasional
innuendo, frequent smut and adolescent
humor. We should re-examine the last days
of radio before television. Take the best of radio
and set it to pictures. It's not too late to unleash
the imagination again.
  Frank Sinatra   1981

         [removed]
         A DATE WITH SINATRA

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

Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 10:25:02 -0500
From: "John edwards" <jcebigjohn41@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Cataloging OTR

Recently there have been several who have discussed what they use to catalog
their OTR programs.  I'm a novice on the computer and am getting ready to
try Tom Althoff's MY-CAT program.  Has anyone used this and what are the
good points and bad (if any). I have a large reel to reel and much smaller
cassette collection.  Hope to here from someone either on or off the air.
Thanks John

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

Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 10:23:58 -0500
From: Tony Baechler <tony@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Favorite actor

Hello all.  My favorite actor is definitely Eliott Lewis, without a
doubt.  No matter what he does, whether it is giving the AFRS ID or playing
Captain Friday in "Adventures by Morse," to various comedy and suspense
roles he is excellent.  I really like his directing style as well.  Easily,
my favorite Suspense shows are from the 1950's when he took over.  As a
brief aside, I highly recommend any of the 1950's Suspense Christmas shows
to anyone interested.  I especially recommend the 12-21-53 and 12-13-55
shows.  Anyway, I also liked Eliott Lewis on Phil Harris.

My second favorite actor would be Paul Frees, but even he does not quite
compare.  I do not think Frees did comedy.  William Conrad and Bob Bailey
were also very good and I think Bob was under-appreciated for what he could
do (he actually does well at comedy) but neither compared with Lewis.  I
really do not have a favorite female actress and I have not studied them
enough to form an opinion.

While we are on the subject of favorites, I encourage everyone to list
their favorite Christmas shows.  That is, besides "The Cinnamon Bear."  My
favorites, besides the above Suspense shows, are the 12-20-47 "Truth or
Consequences" show and the 1942 Fibber Christmas show.  I am not sure of
the exact date but I think it was around 12-20-42 or so.  However, the show
that I always listen to every year without exception is the 12-24-41 Amos
and Andy show.  I listen to it after Thanksgiving dinner.  It helps put the
entire Christmas season in focus for me.  I liked the 15 minute version
better than the later 30 minute shows.  Any other thoughts, anyone?

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

Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 10:24:51 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Old Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Miscelaneous

When Walden asks the question, "who is the best radio actor and actress", that
poses an interesting dilemma, there were so many great ones. However, after
giving it some thought, for actor I have narrowed it down to four. Parley
Baer, William Conrad, Orson Welles and Raymond Burr. Being from Wisconsin one
might suspect that I would pick Orson Welles, not so. If push came to shove
and I must select only one, my choice is Parley Baer. Everything that he did
on radio was outstanding. I never heard Parley give a bad performance. His
Chester Wesley Proudfoot on GUNSMOKE is one of the all-time great
characterizations. Just listen to GUNSMOKE and you cannot help but be
impressed.

Actress? Easier. Agnes Moorehead, the first lady of Suspense. Just listen to
"Sorry Wrong Number". No more need be said.

On the DRAGNET book. I just purchased a book called, "My Name's Friday, The
Unauthorized but True Story of DRAGNET and the Films of Jack Webb" by Michael
J. Hayde.  Although not a biography, it is interesting. It covers DRAGNET in
some detail. It does have the complete list of radio programs and the complete
list of the television programs.

Finally, can someone out there me why on the Millionaire show with Regis
Philbin they never, or seldom ask questions on Old Time Radio? I thing they
once had a SUPERMAN question, but it was like a $200 question that anybody
could answer. Just wondering.

Ron Sayles

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

Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 14:56:45 -0500
From: Jon Martin <mart459@[removed];
To: OldRadio Mailing Lists <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: new sony changer  - little off topic

Hello All;

just saw an announcement for something that will make life easier for me. A
sony Mega changer that holds  400 CD/CDR/CDRW MP3 disks. That will hold
my entire collection plus in one place. And the price is going to be fairly
cheap - $299. Shipping next june.

They are also shipping in the same time frame a 400 disk DVD changer - not
sure if it does handle MP3, but sony is making sure that they can handle
all dvd recorder formats. So if you can put a couple of gig onto a DVD
media with [removed] a lifetime of listening on one box.

Also in 2002 the USB enabled minidisc recorder is coming out ($200-250)
with 4 hours per disk. Sony sees major growth in MDs
next year - better sales then their MP3 offerings.

A stand alone "music" system with a hard drive is also coming out. 650
hours of music AND controls the 400 disk changer.
Not sure of interface other than it has a USB connection. Price est. at
$700 since they mentioned with the cd changer the price would be around $1K.

I'm starting to save my money now for the changer and the minidisc :)

Jon M.

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2001 Issue #385
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