------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2004 : Issue 145
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
More, re Texaco Opera [ Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed]; ]
Lowell Thomas and nuclear war [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
Re: Lowell Thomas [ SanctumOTR@[removed] ]
Article about "Monitor" [ "Jerry Reed" <jerry@[removed]; ]
Re: Rueing retirement? [ hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed]; ]
Milton Cross and the Met [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
Syndicated radio [removed] [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
4-26 births/deaths [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 18:52:51 -0400
From: Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: More, re Texaco Opera
Earlier, I wrote:
I don't know which opera will be performed for the first radio
broadcast under the new foundation sponsors, but I assume that it will
air on the first Saturday of December (2004), on 4-Dec-2004.
Just before the final sign-off outcue at 6pm EDT, announcer Peter Allen
stated that the first Saturday broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera with
the new foundation underwriters will be on Saturday 11-December-2004.
And the opera scheduled to be performed that day will be Verdi's "I
Vespri Siciliani". This was also mentioned by Peter Allen at the
sign-off final outcue, and it is also mentioned on some of the Opera's
webpages as well.
I also found another page at the website regarding the broadcast history
of the Metropolitan Opera:
[removed]
It is mentioned that the first Texaco sponsored broadcast was on
Saturday 7-December-1940 (one year to the date before Pearl Harbor,
BTW), and performed from the old Metropolitan Opera House at Broadway
and 39th, and was Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" (featuring Licia
Albanese, Elisabeth Rethberg and Ezio Pinza, and was conducted by Ettore
Panizza).
It also mentions that Milton Cross was the announcer at that first
Texaco sponsored radio broadcast, and that he continued announcing the
opera on radio until his death in 1975, at which time the current
announcer Peter Allen took over. I wonder if CBS had Milton Cross as
announcer in 1958/59 and 1959/60, as Mr. Cross was also a staff
announcer at ABC (and previously for NBC, prior to ABC formed as being
the NBC-Blue Network spun off by RCA).
And even *this* webpage (which goes into greater detail) still doesn't
make it clear that ABC was actually the old NBC-Blue Network prior to
the Feds forcing RCA to spoin-off one of their two NBC radio networks.
However this page, [removed]
does credit the Texas (Oil) Company, aka Texaco, with a long history of
radio and television. The followuing are quotes from that page:
"Texaco already knew the power of radio to galvanize public interest and
promote the company's image. In 1932, the company had introduced
national audiences to a weekly radio comedy starring actor/vaudevillian
Ed Wynn as the 'Texaco Fire Chief', which helped to boost sales of the
company's new Fire Chief gasoline. Following upon the success of this
program, the company began its sponsorship in 1940 of the 'Texaco Star
Theatre' starring comedian Fred Allen."
[removed]
"While Texaco continued its support for radio programming, the company
was also quick to realize the potential of television as a mass medium.
Nothing demonstrated this potential more emphatically than the 'Texaco
Star Theater' starring Milton Berle. From its inception in 1948, the
weekly program became the most-watched show in the United States and
earned its star the title 'Mr. Television'. In 1954, when Berle left
the program, Jimmy Durante and Donald O'Connor were among the stars who
subsequently hosted the 'Texaco Star Theater'."
"Television also proved to be an effective medium for presenting opera
performances to nationwide audiences. In 1949, Texaco made history by
sponsoring the first television broadcast of an opera, Verdi's 'Otello',
from the Metropolitan Opera. In addition to continuing its periodic
support of television broadcasts from the Met, Texaco also sponsored the
1975 presentation of Danny Kaye's Look-in at the Metropolitan Opera, an
introduction to the art form by an entertainer popular among both
children and adults."
This webpage, [removed] also seems
to indicate that it was (7-December) 1940 when NBC Radio (Blue?) started
carrying the Metropolitan Opera on a national basis, as it says that
when Texaco first started sponsoring, NBC carried on a network basis.
It also appears that there was proably a sponsor for the early 1930s,
I assume the Opera was only carried locally in New York on radio,
because this webpage mentions that there was no corporate sponsor for
soem three seasons prior to Texaco.
BTW, I wonder if during the two CBS Radio seasons, 1958/59 and 1959/60,
if during the broadcasts themselves (not necessarily at the very
beginning if a broadcast started that week at the TOP of the hour), if
the CBS Radio (and TV) hourly BONG tone actually sounded during the
performances! Or maybe (hopefully), the network engineer at CBS at
485 Madison Ave would temporarily disable the hourly *BONG* tone during
the opera broadcasts? And for that matter, ABC Radio still was using a
700 or 770 Hz hourly tone when it still shared facilities from RCA/NBC
at 30 Rockafeller Plaza well into the 1950s. That 770 Hz tone being the
long established NBC Radio (and later NBC-TV) hourly tone. I wonder
during the NBC-Blue / ABC Radio years, if RCA/NBC/ABC would temporarily
disable the standard hourly tone from feeding down the lines during
their radio broadcasts of Metropolitan Opera performances?
Mark J. Cuccia
mcuccia@[removed]
New Orleans LA CSA
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 23:07:37 -0400
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Lowell Thomas and nuclear war
I am, I'm afraid, quite old enough to have heard Lowell Thomas, but for
whatever reason we didn't listen to him very often. My father was a devotee
of Morgan Beatty's "Three Star Extra" news broadcast, with announcer Hugh
James droning on about Sunoco.
I don't know how Lowell Thomas's broadcasts were constructed, but ol' Morgan
Beatty was given a good deal of editorial latitude. He was, perhaps, the
last open supporter of Herbert Hoover. Hoover was loathed by many
Depression survivors, including my mother, who is still mad at him. But
Beatty felt that Hoover had been given a bum rap and mentioned him
frequently. During Hoover's final illness, we heard nightly reports on his
declining progress. I'm sorry to report that my mother's comment was,
"Hurry up, already."
Obviously, the point was to help calm the people and avoid panic, while the
real executives and those on the recordings would be whisked off to remote
transmitters. Back then, science apparently did not know (or did not share
with us) what we have since been told, that atomic attacks would interfere
with any kind of electrical current and transfer, including broadcasts,
auto
ignition systems, etc.
A hydrogen bomb releases a great deal of energy in but an instant. In doing
so, it produces a single huge radio wave. Every radio wave produces a
certain amount of electrical energy in any bit of metal--that's how radio
works: radio waves from the transmitter produce little radio-wave-shaped
bits of current in your Crosley's antenna. The concern was that the single
huge radio wave (termed NEMP, for Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse) from a
hydrogen bomb would make huge voltages in parts of electronic devices and
electric power networks and thus disable them.
So the Department of Defense let a number of research contracts to electric
power laboratories to see if this would really happen. The very large high
voltage laboratory at Mississippi State University conducted a good deal of
this research, and I was there to witness the last of it.
The lab is so big that it looks like science fiction, and we would
occasionally suffer the attentions of film-school kids who periodically
discovered it. It has a 3-million-volt artificial lightning generator that
we would climb inside to replace resistors and such. There are a number of
labs like this throughout the world, Mississippi State's facility being the
biggest associated with a school.
They, and we, tested cables, electronics, and entire airplanes with every
sort of impulse that could be summoned up. The results, much to our sorrow,
were entirely negative. Power distribution systems, electric motors, radio
transmitters, computers, and most electronic circuits proved exasperatingly
indifferent to our gentle mercies. The Department of Defense finally said
thanks and withdrew further funding. Probably the last bit of scientific
effort was something I tried: I placed a little nine-volt transistor radio
on a crossbeam of the big lightning generator and turned it on to a local
station. We fired off the generator. The radio kept playing
country-and-western with nary a burp.
One of the principal theoreticians in the field since published a paper that
showed that the dsturbance produced by a healthy nearby lightning stroke is
comparable to that of an H-bomb-induced NEMP.
You can see pictures of the Mississippi State facility at
[removed]
One further comment. There are several urban legends associated with NEMP,
many having to do with automobile ignitions. These are not affected by
external electrical disturbances. However, as in all such matters, you can
find convincing Web sites that contend otherwise.
M Kinsler
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 23:07:59 -0400
From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Lowell Thomas
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
In a message dated 4/24/04 5:58:34 PM, Herr Munsick writes:
I wouldn't put too much faith in the admittedly funny line about people who
heard Lowell Thomas while waiting for "that other program". Thomas was a
huge success on the lecture circuit, through numerous fascinating books, on
film and newsreels, and on the radio, for many, many years.
***Personally, I wouldn't discount it, especially since Lowell Thomas was the
one who originally made the comment. Everyone has to start somewhere,
and Thomas began his 46-year run in 1930, around the time when
AMOS 'n' ANDY was at its peak of popualarity ... and when some 40 million
listeners were tuning in each night to the groundbreaking A'n'A 15-minute
serial. AMOS 'n' ANDY had a lot of ups and downs over the years, but Lowell
Thomas immediately preceded them during the time they truly were a national
phenomenon. The newsreels, books, lecture circuit fame came later, after
he had been lucky enough to be paired on-air opposite A'n'A at the
BEGINNING of his long radio run. --Anthony Tollin***
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 14:26:15 -0400
From: "Jerry Reed" <jerry@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Article about "Monitor"
Here's an article I thought the list might enjoy from the San Bernardino
County Sun - U Living.
A new look at pioneering radio days
" By Bob Sokolsky, Correspondent
The book is the recently published "Monitor (Take 2)." Its author is Dennis
Hart, a UC Fresno professor of history, offering his second recollection of
"Monitor," the pioner radio program NBC premiered in 1955 and nurtured until
1971."
[removed],1413,216~24290~2107242,[removed]
Jerry E. Reed
Web site - [removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 14:26:36 -0400
From: hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Rueing retirement?
Rebel Lee Munsic, in discussing the fact that Lowell Thomas and Walter
Cronkite both regretted that they retired too early, went on to say.
Like a lot of retirees who realize after the fact that they wish they'd never
done any such thing! Does that strike a chord with anyone here?
Certainly not any chord in my bod. I couldn't wait to retire. After spending
47 years in Show Biz, I was ripe to finally enjoy life. Holy Shmoly, most
people can retire after 20 years.
I had carefully planned my exit. When I set up my TV Production Company in
1970, the pension Fund and profit sharing funds that I established were
fully vested after 10 years. When 1980 rolled around, that was my exit cue.
At age 50, I was still young enough, and energetic enough to smell the
roses. There weren't enough hours in the day to finally be able to do all
the things that interested me. And even more so now, at age 73 (this June).
It's not so much the hours in a day that concern me now. It's the years
racing by. :)
Wow! I just realized I've been retired for 24 years. If "retirement" was a
career, that means I had earned the right to start retirement all over
again.
Hal(harlan)Stone
Jughead
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 14:27:16 -0400
From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Milton Cross and the Met
I can't speak for the last two CBS years, but I have a recording of the last
broadcast Milton Cross did before he died. The date is December 28, 1974.
The opera was Puccini's "Turandot." I was not a regular Met listener but
for virtually all the programs I heard from the 1940s well into the 1970s,
Cross was the announcer and narrator. My copy of the recording of the opera
ends as Cross introduces "the latest member of the Metropolitan", so there
is no network identification.
On reflection, I think I listened to the Met broadcasts as much for Milton
Cross' plot synopses and descriptions as I did for the music!
Ted Kneebone/1528 S. Grant [removed], SD 57401/605-226-3344
OTR: [removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 14:27:33 -0400
From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Syndicated radio [removed]
Has anyone published a book about radio programs that were syndicated?
That would cover quite a bit of territory and probably most of the years
that we usually consider to be in the "old time radio" timeframe.
This could be a massive collection of logs, but it could be made even
more interesting by writing some history of each program. It could include
the usual cast credits, and also something about how stations got the
programs, what they paid for them, sponsorship, etc. Method of production,
marketing, did they record a whole batch of shows, or one at a time? When
did they switch from 16" ETs to 12" LP format? What companies were the
major and minor producers of these shows?
In fact, this could be two books: one that covers the program
information, and another that has accurate logs.
"The world of syndicated old time [removed]" -- or some such title.
Ted Kneebone/1528 S. Grant [removed], SD 57401/605-226-3344
OTR: [removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 15:26:52 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 4-26 births/deaths
April 26th births
04-26-1890 - Edgar Kennedy - Monterey, CA - d. 11-9-48
actor: "Screen Guild Theatre"; "Radio Reader's Digest"
04-26-1906 - [removed] "Albert" Alexander - Winthrop, MA - d. 2-24-1967
moderator: "Goodwill Court/Court of Human Relations"
04-26-1912 - John McGovern - d. 7-25-1985
actor: Mike Gallagher "Highway Patrol"; Harold Wilkinson "The O'Neills"
04-26-1916 - Frances Robinson - Fort Wandsworth, NY - d. 8-16-1971
actress: Helen Asher "Richard Diamond"; Claire 'Brooksie' Brooks "Let George
Do It"
04-26-1916 - Vic Perrin - Menomonee Falls, WI - d. 7-4-1989
actor: Ross Farnsworth "One Man's Family"; Sergeant Gorce "Fort Laramie"
04-26-1918 - Helen Burgess - Portland, OR - d. 4-7-1937
actress: "Lux Radio Theatre"
04-26-1927 - Granny Hammer - Richmond, VA
sportscaster" "Sports Hilites"
April 26th deaths
01-09-1914 - Gypsy Rose Lee - Seattle, WA - d. 4-26-1970
exotic dancer: "Advs. of Ellery Queen"; "What Makes You Tick?"
02-16-1910 - Del Sharbutt - Ft. Worth, TX - d. 4-26-2002
announcer: "Hobby Lobby"; "Jack Benny Program"; "Victory Theatre"
02-18-1890 - Edward Arnold - NYC - d. 4-26-1956
actor: President "Mr. President"
05-08-1913 - Sid James - Newcastle, Natal, South Africa - d. 4-26-1976
comedian: "Hancock's Half Hour"
07-01-1909 - Madge Evans - NYC - d. 4-26-1981
panelist: "Leave It to the Girls"; "Who Said That?"
07-03-1906 - George Sanders - St. Petersburg, Russia - d. 4-26-1972
host: "High Adventure"; "Hollywood Hotel"; "[removed] Steel Hour"; "Cavalcade of
America"
07-12-1909 - Joey Faye - NYC - d. 4-26-1997
actor: Recruit "The Rookies"
07-15-1897 - Howard Lanin - Philadelphia, PA - d. 4-26-1991
bandleader: "Ipana Troubadors"; "Benrus Ticksters"
08-06-1911 - Lucille Ball - Celoron, NY - d. 4-26-1989
comedienne: Liz Cooper "My Favorite Husband"; Lucy Ricardo "I Love Lucy"
08-13-1909 - John Beal - Joplin, MO - d. 4-26-1997
actor: Bonnie Doon "Amazing Mr. Tutt"; "Box 13"; "Favorite Story"
08-21-1904 - William Allen "Count" Basie - Red Bank, NJ - d. 4-26-1994
bandleader: "Command Performance"; "Jubilee"
10-17-1903 - Irene Noblette Ryan - El Paso, TX - d. 4-26-1973
actress: "Tim & Irene Sky Road Show"; "Royal Crown Revue"
11-17-1905 - Josef Marais - Sir Lowey's Pass, South Africa - d. 4-26-1978
singer: "African Trek/Sundown on the Veld"; "Meredith Willson Show"
12-09-1911 - Broderick Crawford - Philadelphia, PA - d. 4-26-1986
actor: "Hedda Hopper Show"; "Hallmark Playhouse"; Cavalcade of America"
--
Ron Sayles
For a complete list:
[removed]
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #145
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