Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #411
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 10/21/2002 7:53 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2002 : Issue 411
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Halls of Ivy CDs                      [ "Don Belden" <[removed]@[removed]; ]
  KFWB                                  [ Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed] ]
  SPERDVAC convention                   [ "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@hotmail. ]
  MIKE, THURL & JENKINS                 [ Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed]; ]
  Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  A Little Personal Problem             [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  Re: GRB of Maryland Web Site          [ Grbmd@[removed] ]
  YOUR PHONE NUMBER                     [ Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed]; ]
  old time telephone                    [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
  Candy Matson's phone number           [ Art Chimes <achimes@[removed]; ]
  Telephone dialing                     [ leemunsick@[removed] ]
  BULK TAPE ERASERS                     [ CHET <voxpop@[removed]; ]
  Tony Baechler- Sara's Private Caper   [ robert <gudguyus@[removed]; ]
  Re: Passing Parade                    [ Fred Berney <berney@[removed]; ]
  THURL RAVENSCROFT                     [ PURKASZ@[removed] ]

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

Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 18:17:49 -0400
From: "Don Belden" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Halls of Ivy CDs

I was originally on the circulating list for copying these CDs. I have
changed my email address and have missed the CDs. Would someone please send
me copies. I will be willing to pay shipping etc.

If you are willing to send me copies email me and I will email back my snail
address.

Don in Denver

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

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 11:41:54 -0400
From: Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  KFWB

Elizabeth McCloud's interesting discussion of Warner Brothers' owned KFWB
led me back to Robert C. Bruce's spoken biography, MY LIFE AS A THIRD
BANANA: THRU THE GOLDEN YEARS OF RADIO AND BEYOND, a two cassette offering
privately produced by Bruce himself in 1991.  Elizabeth mentioned Bruce as
a performer on KFWB in its very early days.

Bruce notes that KFWB had four or five shows a week that used actors.  The
station had developed a staff of four actors who worked regularly for one
director. Elizabeth mentioned Bruce and Arthur Q Bryan.  The other two were
Jack Lescoulie and Alan Ladd.  These four actors earned five dollars a
show. When union scale went to eight dollars, the shows were canceled, and
the four actors moved on to other projects.

Bruce and Bryan found careers with  regional and national radio; Lescoulie
eventually became famous on  the TODAY show when it was hosted by Dave
Garroway.  We all know that  Alan Ladd  finally became  a movie star of the
first rank.

It would have been great to have listened to this distinguished repertory
company  on some of the early KFWB shows.

Dennis Crow

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

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 11:43:23 -0400
From: "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  SPERDVAC convention

On Friday evening, November 2, 2002, Herb Ellis will direct a recreation of
THIS IS YOUR FBI "The Adopted Thief" from August 10, 1951. The cast will
include Larry Dobkin, Tommy Cook, Shirley Mitchell, Gil Stratton, Barry
Gordon and Eddy King.

In the audience will be Parley Baer who is coming to see his many friends!

The convention will be held at the Hacienda Hotel, 525 N. Sepulveda Blvd, in
El Segundo. That's a half-mile south of the 105 freeway.

For convention information, call (877)251-5771, email sperdvac@[removed], or
visit the website at [removed] where you can download a registration
form. For hotel room reservations, call 1-800-421-5900 and be sure to
mention the SPERDVAC convention.

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

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 11:45:07 -0400
From: Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  MIKE, THURL & JENKINS
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

In My First AFRA Meeting story, Mike's 'completion' should, of course,
read Mike's [removed]

Thurl Ravenscroft was mentioned in the last Digest, as was Manhattan
Tower a couple of months ago.  For all you Gordon Jenkins fans, you can
now hear the Complete Manhattan Tower, which features Ravenscroft in the
cast, on the DATE WITH SINATRA now airing at:
[removed]

  *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
  ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 11:45:14 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Today in radio history

>From Those Were The Days --

1930 - One of the most memorable of all radio shows, The Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes, was first heard on the NBC Red network. Its first
entry, The Speckled Band, featured William Gillette in the role of the
famous detective. Gillette introduced Holmes to New York audiences as
early as 1899 ... on the stage, not the radio, of [removed]

  Joe

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

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

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 11:45:22 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  A Little Personal Problem

I recently had a difficulty with my e-mail files, which effectively wiped
them out.  If you've contacted me directly about some OTR issue and I
haven't responded, please check with me again; I may have lost your
address.

Stephen A. Kallis, [removed]

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

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 11:56:37 -0400
From: Grbmd@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: GRB of Maryland Web Site

In a message dated 10/20/02 11:03:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Jack French
writes:

 The Golden Radio Buffs of Maryland can be contacted through their web
 site: [removed] or by emailing their co-founder,
 Owens Pomeroy, at Opomeroy@[removed]

Just a slight correction:  Substitute a slash for one of the dots.  Our Web
site is

[removed]

Spence Coleman
GRB of Md. Webmaster

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

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 11:56:42 -0400
From: Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  YOUR PHONE NUMBER
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

We've been having a little fun with telephone numbers.  Here's a WebSite
that will convert your number to words, or words to numbers:
[removed]
OTRADIO converts to 687-2346

  *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
  ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 12:28:05 -0400
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  old time telephone

Just a trivial note, the dial phone, using the spring dial method is not
really unlike the old use of telegraph keys which used a magnet and metal
to click together to form the Morse code signals.

The dial phone employed similar electro-magnetic force to create the dial
sound. Wouldn't you love a penny for every ratchet of that dial. The
inventor was a genius and most probably was grossly underpaid.

Now you've done it.

The inventor was a gentleman named Charles Strowger, an undertaker by trade.
  Infuriated by telephone operators who were bribed to steer business to the
competition, he invented the first automatic switchboard early in the
1900's.  My guess is that Western Electric paid him well for his work,
though I know nothing of his later career.

Telephone switching is at least one order of magnitude more advanced than
telegraph signalling.  The telegraph is, in theory, a simple device: your
home's doorbell would make a pretty effective telegraph over short
distances.  The genius in early telegraphs was less in the hardware than in
the organization of operators and the system.  Reliable, long-distance
telegraphy relied on hardware developed by Edison and his predecessors.

If you listen closely to the descriptions of telephoning in old-time radio
shows you can learn a good deal about how early telephone systems worked.

Fibber McGee's telephone, plus perhaps 999 others, were each connected to a
socket on Myrt's switchboard.  When Fibber picked up his phone (or when one
of his more rural neighbors cranked a generator built into the telephone),
she'd hear a buzzer and see a light above his socket turn on.  She'd plug
her headset into his line's socket and they'd discuss every little thing.
If Myrt didn't pick up right away, he could click the handset switch a few
times.  That would cause the light above his line's socket to flash, thus
attracting Myrt's attention.  Myrt would have been in charge of one
telephone prefix, perhaps MAin 000 through MAin 999.

Myrt had the ability to connect his phone to any other on her switchboard,
and the number of calls that could be made at once was limited to the number
of connecting cords she had available.

If a call had to be made to another town, Myrt would call the operator in
that town over one of the several trunk lines she had available and set up
the connection through her.  Then both operators would inform the parties
that the connection had been set up through the trunk line and the call
could proceed.

Since every switchboard did not (and does not) connect _directly_ to every
other switchboard, additional hops must be made through the trunk lines that
are available.  The routing was complex, and each operator kept a route book
handy to help set up long-distance calls.  That's why on drama shows, it
often took forever to 'get a call through.'  If a switchboard along the
desired route was damaged or busy, the call would have to be routed around
that city.  This happened a lot in wartime, when linemen and operators were
scarce.

Now, all the routing and negotiation is handled in that short time span
after you dial the last digit of the number and the time you hear the first
'ring' signal.

Out-of-state calls were and are usually handled through a toll center, which
has trunk lines that connect to every switchboard in the state (now, the
area code).  The 'trunk lines' were copper wires in Myrt's day, and many
still are.  However, they're also satellite links and optical fiber links as
well.  International calls, much beloved in spy shows, are now handled by
automatic equivalents of the international operators we hear on the radio
shows.  Each nation had a central toll center, which had trunk lines that
connected it to each of its regional toll centers.  Very much the same thing
is done today, but it's all automatic.

If this all sounds suspiciously like the Internet, it should.  The
Internet's system of routers and ISP's and backbones is set up precisely
like the telephone company's system of switchboards.  And the basic
principles are the same.  Myrt and her friends at the downtown telephone
exchange were replaced through the 1940's and '50's by large automatic
Strowger switchboards residing in those elegant small-town Bell System
buildings all over the USA.  These, in turn, have been replaced by automatic
electronic switchboards that live in steel boxes in building basements and
outdoors on concrete pads.

Mark Kinsler

[ADMINISTRIVIA: If you're interested in the history of the telephone, you
should listen to the documentary series, "Hell's Bells," sponsored by the
Telecommunications Education Trust established by the California Public
Utilities Commission and was produced by Gregg McVicar and Pacific Multimedia
for Western Public Radio. It was distributed way back in the mid-1990's by
the first "radio station" on the Internet, "Internet Talk Radio," home of
"Geek of the Week," and is now archived by [removed] at
[removed] - it's a great series, although
obviously now dated in the later episodes. And I _really_ miss [removed] used
to downoad the 22M .au files on a [removed] modem through _email,_ using an
FTP-to-mail gateway, and allowing the PowerBook 145 to be connected all night
to MCI Mail pulling the parts which had to be combined manually so I could
listen to the shows the next morning. It isn't as much fun [removed]  ;)
--cfs3]

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

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 12:26:20 -0400
From: Art Chimes <achimes@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Candy Matson's phone number

According to Dave Goldin's [removed], Candy either moved around
a bit without the benefit of call forwarding, or perhaps she sometimes
gave out her home and mobile numbers, too. This is from Dave's listing:

Candy Matson, EXbrook 2-9994( 1)
Candy Matson, YUkon 2-8209( 11)
Candy Matson, YUkon 3-8309( 1)

Or maybe the writers needed some continuity help.

Although all-number dialing (as I think it was called) was introduced in
the late '60s, I believe, I was assigned a named exchange in 1971 when I
moved to Philadelphia. It was SHerwood 8-8711.

The names of exchanges could be quite evocative. There was a steamy John
O'Hara novel called "BUtterfield 8" that was made into an equally steamy
Liz Taylor movie in 1960. (Well, steamy for that era.) In New York,
PLaza 7- represented a level of sophistication that I seem to recall
lent its name to a revue that played for a number of years, at the Plaza
Hotel, I think. The same exchange was used by WNBC in its 1960s talk
format which featured Brad Crandall, Lee Leonard, etc., and could be
reached at PL 7-8866.

Named phone exchanges were often incorporated into advertising jingles.
I recall decades ago New York's Gimbel's department store - Macy's
arch-rival - featured a vocalized version of their MElrose
five-five-three-hundred number in their radio ads.

My current phone number, with its boring 785- prefix, could certainly
benefit from an upgrade to STate, STerling, STillwell, STory, or
improbably SUnset 5- (using the Bell System recommended exchange names
at [removed]. Of course, I could go
with a more OTR-ish exchange such as STrange Dr. Weird 5- or possibly
STreamlined Shakespeare 5-.  You are invited to come up with an
appropriate OTR-related exchange for your own phone.

Regards
Art Chimes
Arlington, VA

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

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 14:07:09 -0400
From: leemunsick@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Telephone dialing

This is off topic, but in keeping with the telephone number thread.  Maybe
it'll slip by Charlie when he's on the way to join so many of my friends at
FOTR.

When I was just a kid, we lived well out in the beautiful Garden State
countryside.  We got our milk from the farmer down the road.  Walked a mile
to get to the school bus.    Had strawberry festivals and square dances in
the little local one-room school house.

In line with this, our telephone service was a party line.  To make a call,
one picked up the phone, waited for the operator with her cheery "Number,
[removed]" and told her what number one wished to call.  I've forgotten
whether there were three or four parties total on our line.  Our number in
Morristown NJ was 1338-R (party line delineators, if I recall, were J, M,
R, and W.  If I'm wrong, friend Jim Douglass in NY will promptly correct
me!  One knew whether the phone was ringing for oneself by the way one's
telephone rang, how many rings, etc.  I've always wondered if they ever did
that in England.  I've never been there, but watching British films and BBC
shows, I'm familiar with their multi-ring telephones.

Anyway, I think about 1950, it was announced that our area phone numbers
were all going to be changed, to prepare for the advent of dial
telephones.  So we got not only a new number, but a thoroughly different
looking one:  MOrristown 4-6995 (specially reduced from 7000, I
guess).  One was then to dial seven digits, including just the initial two
in the exchange "name".  Not long afterward, this was changed to JEfferson
8-6995.

This annoyed a lot of local historians, who pointed out that Morristown had
a rich colonial/revolutionary era history with such folk in residence as
George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Lafayette, etc.  Local area street
names abound with such references, but there is none named Jefferson,
because he never visited our little town.   Just one occasion in which
technology didn't match history.

With the new numbers, we soon had dial telephones installed, and awaited
the day for the dial service to commence.  As is their wont, the phone
company announced that this would occur at a certain date, at 12:01
[removed]   For some strange reason (probably just the future newsman's innate
curiosity) I managed to stay up until midnight.  Trying to do so precisely
at 12:01, I picked up the telephone just in time to hear the dulcet tones
of "Number pleauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhh".  History in the hearing!

Years later in the 1960s, we were one of the very first areas to switch to
Touch Tone (TT) phones.  At the time I was involved with producing
fundraising programs for various Jaycee Chapters, promoting a Morristown
benefit concert featuring the Glenn Miller Orchestra.  This involved a
telephone sales room (the word "telemarketing" had not yet been invented)
with a number of phone positions, at which charming ladies called local
businesses seeking donations.

Heavy, workaday calling is hard on telephone.  We used "high speed" dial
phones.  They really took a beating.  On occasion, a dial would come loose
and--propelled by a little spring inside--hit the solicitor in the
face!  To see what the difference might be, I switched half the phones to
the new Touch Tone ones.  This evoked screams by my ladies that they didn't
want to use a phone with an adding-machine keyboard!  Within about 3 days,
all my solicitors wanted the new phones.  My thought was that changing from
a mechanical dialing system to a series of microswitches under the Touch
Tone "pad", would eliminate service calls and phone down-time.  We were
calling businesses, many of whose numbers tended to end in two or three
zeros, which took the longest time for the dial to return.  We were
surprised to learn that the physical dialing of numbers now went so
quickly, that each of my ladies gained about 20 minutes extra time every
day, and thus increased income for them and the Jaycees?  The added cost
for the new service on each line was recouped in about 2 days.

Representatives from New Jersey Bell Telephone called to say they heard
that I had specifically changed to the TT phones in mid-campaign.  They
asked if they could meet with me to learn why.  I said "[removed] me to
lunch"!  The only time the phone company ever paid me for something related
to their business, instead of the other way around!  I met with three reps,
all fresh from an AT&T sales seminar, to teach them how and why to sell the
TT phones to customers.  They had never heard of any of the reasons that I
gave them.   They ate 'em up, while I scarfed down the meal they
hosted.  And they say there's no such thing as a "free lunch"!   Especially
from the phone company!

Now, I defy you good readers to wait until 12:01 [removed], pick up your phone,
and see what you get!  Certainly nobody saying "[removed]"

I'll sign off a la Groucho Marx:  Hello!   Lee Munsick

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

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 14:07:18 -0400
From: CHET <voxpop@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  BULK TAPE ERASERS

HI
i need to find a GOOD bulk tape eraser for audio [removed] one from radio
shack i returned this [removed] know of a store that handles that sort
of thing?
thanx, chet norris

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

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 15:18:32 -0400
From: robert <gudguyus@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Tony Baechler- Sara's Private Caper

Broadcast History: June 15- Aug 24 1950, NBC,30min.
Thursdays at 10:30, Wheaties. Cast Sara Bermer as a
stenographer with ambitions to be a detective. Bob
Sweeney as her hapless boyfriend.

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

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 15:43:59 -0400
From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Passing Parade

Does anyone know of the first Passing Parade film was three stories, with
the first being UNCLAIMED MILLIONS?

I have a log of all 72 films and the only one on the log that has no title
is number 1.

The film has just the name Passing Parade and then gives the credits. All
of the other films have an opening title after the main Passing Parade title.

The credits are followed by each story with a title before each of the stories.

Fred
[removed]

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

Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 15:45:15 -0400
From: PURKASZ@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  THURL RAVENSCROFT

    About two years ago my New York commercial agent called me and said an
agency had requested I audition for the new "Tony the Tiger" voice.
    The '...guy who used to do it is no longer going to be available.'
    None of us knew his name at that point and I must confess I never did
until I began reading this Digest.
    I thought, why not, I'd heard that voice ever since I was a kid and was
sure I could do a fine if not better "Tony."
    I even practiced on my grand kids who were merely bored with yet another
of Grampa's 'silly voices.'
    By this time they are convinced I AM a cartoon anyway.
    I accepted the invitation and went next day to a studio on Broadway in
Times Square. The same building incidentally that had a bronze plaque at the
entrance saying this is where the young Bix Beiderbecke used to play in a
band on the rooftop gardens back in 1920s.
    Also a recording studio for the great Charlie Parker in the 40s and 50s.
    I was in a broadcasting and jazz history building all at the same time.
    Only in New York.
    When I got to the studio waiting room it was just Jerry Orbach and me.
That was amusing as we smiled at each other, secretly saying
"Gre-e-e-e-a-a-a-t" under our breathes.
    We both knew this could be a lucrative and invisible career move.
    He went in first and was back out in less than two minutes, which was
rather fast I thought. Then I went in and found out why.
    There were two guys in there and a big mike on a stand and a small piece
of 'copy' on a music stand.
    It [removed]"Great."
    What else.
    I said the word four or five times, summoning up all the variations and
yet remaining faithful to this man's interpretation which was almost fifty
years old by this time.
    I didn't get the part but the kids still follow me around and, well, yes,
they say it every time I ask them how dinner was!
    Sigh.
    The power of the media.
    The power of brevity.
    I wonder if Thurl is using the word to describe anything in his life now.
    I hope so.
                 <A HREF="[removed],+Michael+C.">Michael
C. Gwynne</A>

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #411
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