Subject: [removed] Digest V2006 #17
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 1/17/2006 10:18 AM
To: [removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2006 : Issue 17
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Re: Transcription discs               [ Cnorth6311@[removed] ]
  Re: Pepsodent                         [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Milton Berle, Howard [removed] and Am  [ Alec Cumming <arack@[removed]; ]
  Re: Destroy After Use                 [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Helen Kane Info. Needed               [ "Bill Knowlton" <udmacon1@[removed] ]
  Rexall -- again!                      [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
  Walgreen's                            [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
  Products which have become obsolete   [ "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@juno. ]
  superman otr                          [ michael chatterton <chat51@sbcgloba ]
  Fatima cigarettes                     [ James H Arva <wilditralian@[removed] ]
  Cereal Sponsors                       [ David Rutsala <drutsala@[removed]; ]
  Defunct OTR Sponsors                  [ James H Arva <wilditralian@[removed] ]
  Recording media                       [ "Jim Harmon" <jimharmonotr@charter. ]
  Re: OTR sponsors still with us        [ "Michael Ogden" <michaelo67@hotmail ]
  1-17 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 09:49:27 -0500
From: Cnorth6311@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Transcription discs

I recall going to a local radio station and going through their
transcription discs. there were hundreds of discs of the Kitchen Klatter
radio  program.
Does anyone remember that show? I remember my Grandmother stopping  whatever
she was doing, and listening to it every day. As best I recall, it was  a show
sponsored by the Kitchen Klatter company, and dealt with household tips,  and
recipes. If I had known then what I know now, I would have taken them all
home
with me. I was much younger at the time, and had no idea what they were. I
was more interested in the musical albums at the time. I still have those
albums  by the way.

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

Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 10:25:41 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Pepsodent

On 1/16/06 9:50 AM [removed]@[removed] wrote:

If memory serves correctly it was Amos 'n' Andy's original network sponsor.
Could it have been on our shelves since the 1920s -- or earlier?  What a
durable
brand!

Pepsodent actually goes back even further, to about 1916. It was a local
Chicago product built into a national brand by Albert Lasker of the Lord
and Thomas advertising agency -- who was responsible for a number of
hard-selling advertising innovations which promoted the brand. It was
Lasker's promotions which first made the American public aware of "film"
on teeth, after Lasker read about plaque in a dental-science textbook,
and during the A&A era the "See Your Dentist Twice A Year" tag line
helped to create a national habit that still persists. By the time The
Pepsodent Company assumed sponsorship of A&A in 1929, it was well
established as one of the top-selling toothpaste brands in North America,
and Lasker himself had acquired a significant stock interest in the
company.

An interesting footnote -- not only was Pepsodent Correll and Gosden's
first network sponsor, they were also one of their last: the product
carried half sponsorship for the C&G-voiced animated series "Calvin and
the Colonel" over ABC-TV in 1961-62, and Correll and Gosden themselves
voiced some of the commercials.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 10:26:04 -0500
From: Alec Cumming <arack@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Milton Berle, Howard [removed] and Amos 'n'
 Andy?

The advance of media technology can be personality driven. It's widely
believed that Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theater helped drive the sales of
TV sets in the late '40s and early '50s. And today's biggest radio star -
Howard Stern - is certainly driving the sales of Sirius satellite radios and
subscriptions.

My question: do you think that Amos 'n' Andy - or any other specific radio
stars of the late '20s-early '30s era (perhaps Rudy Vallee?) - helped drive
radio sales, and thereby hasten the heyday of great radio entertainment?

Or was it a more general thing - that RCA created a National Broadcasting
Company to encourage radio [removed] and the talent then rose up to fill the
airwaves with that needed entertainment?

Curiously yours,
Alec Cumming

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

Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 10:58:13 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Destroy After Use

On 1/16/06 9:50 AM [removed]@[removed] wrote:

I can imagine more than a few from the 1950s and early 1960s,
perhaps even older (historians?) were meant to be destroyed similarly.

Well, the discs for the very first radio program to be syndicated by
transcription, the 1928-29 "Amos 'n' Andy," were required to be sent back
to the Chicago Daily News after one broadcast, where they were destroyed
to prevent unauthorized reuse, and this was standard operating procedure
for other early syndicators as well. Many discs distributed by the
National Radio Advertising Company between 1928 and 1931 have turned up
over the years neatly broken in half as evidence of compliance with this
rule. I've also found discs of this vintage with the playing surface
defaced by an ice pick or a screwdriver, or scribbled over with grease
pencil to prevent reuse.

Not all distributors destroyed their discs, however. Some reused the same
pressings for years and years, sending them out over and over again to
different subscribing stations. One occasionally finds Radio
Transcription Company of America pressings from the early thirties with
labels of subsequent distributors simply pasted over the original Transco
labels as the discs continued to circulate well into the 1940s even as
the library itself changed hands.

As far as the latest programs to be distributed on disc, most of the
long-form syndicated features aired over stations where I worked during
the 1980s and early 1990s were distributed on microgroove LPs. These were
usually pressed on inferior quality vinyl that wouldn't stand up for more
than two or three playings before the surfaces began to show signs of
damage. Some distributors required the discs be returned for recycling,
but others simply advised the stations to destroy them after use. I often
took these discs home for my little brother, who had a taste for cheesy
80s pop.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 10:59:11 -0500
From: "Bill Knowlton" <udmacon1@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Helen Kane Info. Needed

I'm doing some fact gathering on Helen Kane, the original Boop-boop-a-doop
Girl.

I'd appreciate any citings of Helen's appearances on radio shows.

When I interviewed her in 1959 she mentioned that she'd done radio but I
didn't have the brains then to ask her what shows she did.

Thanks!

BILL KNOWLTON

"(Helen) Kane would spin in her grave if she knew that most people think she
provided the voice for Betty Boop cartoons; in fact, Kane and Boop were the
musical comedy version of Margo Channing and Eve Harrington. Betty Boop
stole Helen Kane's career and never looked [removed](when she died) she was
survived by her husband, brother Louis, and Betty Boop, who today continues
to confound her unwilling creator."

---Films Of the Golden Age, Fall 1995

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

Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:43:48 -0500
From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Rexall -- again!

Yes, Dixon, the Rexall drug stores are still alive and well in Minnesota!
As I travel thru some of the towns on my trips to visit my daughter, I have
seen these stores in North Branch, MN and a few other places.  How many are
left and in what states I do not know.  The signs are still blue and orange.

Ted Kneebone.  OTR website:  [removed]
Democrats: [removed]
1528 S. Grant St., Aberdeen, SD 57401 / Phone: 605-226-3344

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

Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:44:08 -0500
From: <otrbuff@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Walgreen's

Perhaps some corporate merger could bring the name back like it apparently
did recently with Walgreen's, another name from out of the past (and OTR).

Some of you -- or I -- must be living in the twilight zone.  Our Walgreens
stores have never ever been out of business.  Period.  Are we on the same
planet?

Jim Cox

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

Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:44:16 -0500
From: "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Products which have become obsolete
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

       I can think of several.  Among them: Rinso Detergent, Lux Soap,
Richard
Hudnut Cosmetics, Lady Esther Cosmetics, Coty Cosmetics, Fatima Cigarettes,
Bromo Seltzer, Ipana Toothpaste, Old Dutch Cleanser, and 20 Mule Team Borax.

Another OTR Fan,

Kenneth Clarke

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

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

Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:44:30 -0500
From: michael chatterton <chat51@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  superman  otr
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

does anyone have the complette superman otr starting from kypton to his grown
up days ?? could you streamload  it [chat51]  streamload ID

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

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

Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 17:59:09 -0500
From: James H Arva <wilditralian@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Fatima cigarettes

01-16-06

Andrew Godfrey mentioned Fatima Cigarettes' sponsorship of Dragnet for a
while.  They also sonsored Basil Rathbone's second short-lived attempt at
getting back on radio after his summer-1946 exodus from the role of
Sherlock Holmes -- "Tales of Fatima".

Regards,

Jim
- ------------------
James H. Arva
201 Short St.; Harrisburg, PA 17109; (717) 545-5709
E-MAIL:  wilditralian@[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 17:59:31 -0500
From: David Rutsala <drutsala@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Cereal Sponsors
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

A few of the cereal sponsors have gone.  Kellog's Pep, Ralston Cereal,  and
Post's Sugar Crinkles.

  -- David

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

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

Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 17:59:47 -0500
From: James H Arva <wilditralian@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Defunct OTR Sponsors

01-16-06

	I have some defunct sponsor names to add with respect to the program,
"The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".  One is Clippercraft Clothes for
Men.  Another is Petri Wine.  Then there was Kreml Hair Tonic.  One of
the early ones of this particular series was Bromo-Quinine Tablets, which
I don't think are available for squelching our colds any more.
	The first network Sherlock Holmes program ever was written by Edith
Myser, who wanted to do Holmes set in his original Victorian times on
American radio, but the networks wouldn't hear of it unless set in
"modern" times.  Finally, she got the backing of the president of G.
Washington Coffee, who was a fellow Sherlockian, and with someone like
him footing the bill, the networks went along with it.  She then
proceeded to call upon her old colleague, William Gillette, to assume the
role of Holmes in the first episode.  That was back when it was called
"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", without the "New" on the front end
of it.

Regards,

Jim Arva

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

Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 17:59:54 -0500
From: "Jim Harmon" <jimharmonotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Recording media
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

When I was living in Hollywood in the early 1960s there was a store that sold
used recording tape at 99c each for a boxed 7 in. reel.  I was already into
collecting old radio at this time and I bought many of those reels to re-use,
to copy shows off the air or off transcription discs I found in record stores
or thrift [removed]  Some tapes were blank.  Others just had clicking sounds,
probably from some early computer use.
Still others had music tracks from albums of various sorts, orchestral,
country-Western, rock.  I wasn't interested in the music; I was after drama.
Or comedy.
    Some of the tapes were of the Amos 'n' Andy Music Hall.  In fact, they
were the master recordings for the show.   Each time Freeman Gosden changed
from doing Amos to Kingfish in the same scene (or vice-versa) there would be a
splice in the tape where the slight pause he made was taken out.
    The problem was the show was recorded at 15 inches per second, and I
didn't have any recorder that would play that speed.  Furthermore, since that
speed would require a larger than 7 in. reel to hold the complete program,
only half of a show was on each reel I bought.   I could recognize the
characters even at 15 ips.  I figured out a method where I could play the
master reels at [removed] ips and record them at [removed] ips, but play them back at [removed]
ips, succeeding in halving the speed to the normal listening mode.
Fortunately, my recorders were on speed and the playback sounded fine.  I
still have those copies I made, about eight mis-matched halves of the Music
Hall show.
(I didn't know which bulk tapes had the Amos 'n' Andy shows on them, and
although I bought a reasonably large number looking for them, these were all I
found.)
    I wish I had kept the original master reels with those occasional splices,
but I was living in a small apartment and I needed space and to re-use the
erased tapes for other purposes.  At least, I did save the contents.  I trust
the copies still play -- I haven't checked them out in twenty years.
    The spliced reel-to-reel recordings do demonstrate how radio production
changed over the years.   On the half hour series, at least, on the rare
occasions Amos and the Kingfish spoke to one another, Andy would often throw
in a line between them.  Kingfish: "Well now, Amos, how does you feel 'bout
that?"
Andy: "Yeah, Amos, what does you think?"  Amos: "Well, fellows, if you ask me
I think it is a bad idea."   With the medium of spliced tape, the transition
went smoother.
    JIM HARMON

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

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

Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 18:32:24 -0500
From: "Michael Ogden" <michaelo67@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: OTR sponsors still with us

Dixon mentioned Chase and Sanborn and Maxwell House as coffee brands still
actively on the shelves.

Add to that list also Joseph Martinson's Coffee, which sponsored THE WITCH'S
TALE briefly in the fall of 1935. I seem to remember reading that old Mr.
Martinson himself appeared on the show, dispensing java tips to the
listening multitudes.

The Publix grocery store just around the corner from my neighborhood stocks
it regularly, and I've purchased it on a number of occasions out of belated
"sponsor loyalty." Of course, I can only be so loyal; after all, they didn't
renew their sponsorship after the initial test period. Gee, and heavy
caffeinization and horror stories seem to go together so naturally--for a
double case of the jitters, that is! :)

Mike Ogden

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

Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 00:04:43 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  1-17 births/deaths

January 17th births

01-17-1874 - Edna Wallace Hopper - San Francisco, CA - d. 12-14-1959
Gave beauty tips on the networks 1930-1932
01-17-1875 - Minetta Ellen - Cleveland, OH - d. 7-2-1965
actress: Francis 'Fanny' Barbour "One Man's Family"
01-17-1880 - Mack Sennett - Richmond, Quebec, Canada - d. 11-5-1960
king of silent comedy: "Hear It Now"; "Biography In Sound"
01-17-1884 - Noah Beery, Sr. - Kansas City, MO - d. 4-1-1946
actor: "Campbell Playhouse"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
01-17-1891 - Marjorie Gateson - Brooklyn, NY - d. 4-17-1977
actress: "Lux Radio Theatre"
01-17-1899 - Nevil Shute - d. 1-12-1960
novelist: "Lux Radio Theatre"
01-17-1903 - Warren Hull - Gasport, NY - d. 9-14-1974
actor: Jack Hamilton "Gibson Family"
01-17-1904 - Grant Withers - Pueblo, CO - d. 3-27-1959
actor: "Calling All Cars"; "Screen Guild Theatre"
01-17-1904 - Knox Manning - Worcester, MA - d. 8-26-1980
announcer: "Advs. of Sherlock Holmes"; "Headlines on Parade"
01-17-1910 - Tex Fletcher - Harrison, NY - d. 3-14-1987
actor: Tex Mason "Songs of the B-Bar-B"
01-17-1914 - Howard Marion-Crawford - England - d. 11-24-1969
actor: Sherlock Holmes "BBC Home Theatre"
01-17-1914 - Irving Brecher - New York, NY
writer, producer: "Community Sing"; "The Life of Riley"
01-17-1919 - Dallas Townsend - New York, NY - d. 6-1-1995
newscaster: "CBS World News Roundup"; "World Tonight"
01-17-1921 - Herb Ellis - Cleveland, OH
actor: Archie Goodwin "Advs. of Nero Wolfe"
01-17-1922 - Betty White - Oak Park, IL (Raised: Beverly Hills, CA)
hostess: "Betty White on Animals"
01-17-1927 - Eartha Kitt - North, SC
singer: "Here's to Veterans"
01-17-1930 - Dick Contino - Fresno, CA
accordionist: "Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights"; "Hedda Hopper's
Hollywood"
01-17-1931 - James Earl Jones - Akabutla, MS
actor: "We Hold These Truths"
01-17-1941 - Clive Elvyn Rice (Clyde Campbell) - Haslemere, Surrey,
England
actor: Bobby Benson "Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders"

January 17th deaths

03-06-1916 - Rochelle Hudson - Oklahoma City, OK - d. 1-17-1972
actress: "Hollywood Hotel"
03-22-1907 - Bernice Claire - Oakland, CA - d. 1-17-2003
vocalist: "Waltz Time"
08-17-1913 - Guy Della-Cioppa - Philadelphia, PA - d. 1-17-2000
director: "An American in Russia"; "The Columbia Workshop"
09-20-1912 - John W. Loveton - d. 1-17-1997
director: "The Shadow"; "Mr. and Mrs. North"; "Court of Missing Heirs"
09-22-1915 - Vincent Donehue - Whitehall, NY - d. 1-17-1966
actor: Neil Davison "Home of the Brave"
09-26-1919 - Barbara Britton - Long Beach, CA - d. 1-17-1980
actress: Pamela North "Mr. and Mrs. North"; "Screen Guild Theatre"
10-10-1903 - Vernon Duke - Pskov, Russia - d. 1-17-1969
broadway composer: "Mildred Baily Show"; "Good News of 1940"; "March
of Time"
11-27-1910 - Ray  Herbeck - Los Angeles, CA - d. 1-17-1989
bandleader: "Ray Herbeck and His Orchestra"
11-30-1920 - Virginia Mayo - St. Louis, MO - d. 1-17-2005
actress: "Lux Radio Theatre"
12-02-1916 - Charlie Ventura - Philadelphia, PA - d. 1-17-1992
tenor sazophonist: "Spotlight Bands"; "Gene Krupa and His Orchestra"
12-15-1896 - Betty Smith - New York, NY - d. 1-17-1972
author: "Studio One"; "Hallmark Playhouse"

Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2006 Issue #17
********************************************

Copyright [removed] Communications, York, PA; All Rights Reserved,
  including republication in any form.

If you enjoy this list, please consider financially supporting it:
   [removed]

For Help: [removed]@[removed]

To Unsubscribe: [removed]@[removed]

To Subscribe: [removed]@[removed]
  or see [removed]

For Help with the Archive Server, send the command ARCHIVE HELP
  in the SUBJECT of a message to [removed]@[removed]

To contact the listmaster, mail to listmaster@[removed]

To Send Mail to the list, simply send to [removed]@[removed]