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The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2008 : Issue 168
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
This week in radio history 6-12 July [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
Looking for news reports from 7/28/4 [ Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; ]
Radio Scripts [ JayHick@[removed] ]
RE: tape Head De-magnetizers [ "Paula Keiser" <pkeiser1@[removed]; ]
Semi-OT: De-Magnetizing Wands [ jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns) ]
Who [removed] [ Michael Ogden <michaelo67@[removed] ]
Re: head demagnetizer [ Fred Berney <fsberney@[removed]; ]
Re: Feature Film [ Fred Berney <fsberney@[removed]; ]
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Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 15:18:08 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: This week in radio history 6-12 July
From Those Were The Days --
7/6
1943 - Judy Canova, the 'Queen of the Hillbillies', began a weekly
comedy show on CBS.
1947 - A hidden microphone eavesdropped on unsuspecting people for the
first time this night, as Candid Microphone hit the ABC airwaves.
7/7
From The History Net --
1927 -- Christopher Stone becomes the first British 'disc jockey' when
he plays records for the BBC.
From Those Were The Days --
1920 - A device known as the radio compass was used for the first time
on a [removed] Navy airplane near Norfolk, Virginia.
1943 - For the first time, Flashgun Casey was heard on radio. Not much
later, the name of the program was altered to Casey, Crime Photographer,
and became much more popular.
7/8
1950 - Joel McCrea appeared in the lead role of Tales of the Texas
Rangers on NBC.
7/11
1944 - The Man Called X, starring Herbert Marshall, debuted on CBS.
7/12
1934 - The first appointments to the newly created Federal
Communications Commission were made. The governing body of the American
broadcasting industry was first served by seven men named as commissioners.
1946 - The Adventures of Sam Spade was heard on ABC for the first time.
Joe
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Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 15:19:17 -0400
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Looking for news reports from 7/28/45 about the
Empire State Building Airplane crash
I was contacted recently by Samara Freemark who is doing a story for
Radio Diaries on NPR. Here is her request below. I've already sent her a
pretty good copy of the widely circulating Mutual interviews of the
Empire State Building Crash. However, if you have what you consider a
good copy, she still wants to hear from you. She prefers not to have
mp3, but if you have anything on this news story, definitely contact
her. She is under a deadline.
Here is her email [removed] her directly.
My name is Samara Freemark. I'm working on a piece for National Public
Radio on a plane crash at the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945.
The piece will be non-narrated, so we're depending very heavily on
archived news reports.
If you have, or know of, any tape from that date (or days or weeks
following) that references the crash, please, please contact me. You can
email me at samara@[removed] <mailto:samara@[removed]; or
call me at 212-533-5247. In particular, I'm looking for NBC coverage of
the event. There's a specific piece of tape that I'd love to get; it's
got a long eyewitness interview by anchor Don Gotters (?) with a man
named 'Phil Kirby'.
Thanks so much! Samara"
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 15:19:48 -0400
From: JayHick@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Radio Scripts
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
Our local library has formed a Friends of Old Time Radio chapter; I
understand you are no longer selling radio scripts; do you have a contact you
could
send me so we could start a collection? Thank you. Bob Jones
rmjones@[removed]
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
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Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 15:20:40 -0400
From: "Paula Keiser" <pkeiser1@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: RE: tape Head De-magnetizers
Glen P. wrote,
"James H Arva" <wilditralian@[removed]; wrote that a cassette head
demagnetizer "SHOULD NEVER BE TURNED OFF WHEN WITHIN A FOOT OF THE HEAD
ITSELF" (capitals his). I'm curious to know the "why" to this empthatic
recommendation. What happens if a cassette head demaganetizer is turned off
(or "on", for that matter) within one foot of the playback/record head?
To interrupt the magnetic field produced by such a device is to run the risk
of RE-magnetizing the head. In fact, the correct procedure for
de-magnetizing a head (or a tape, in the case of a "bulk tape eraser") is to
bring the de-magnetizing device close to its target, turn it on, and then to
slowly separate the device from the target. This has the effect of
neutralizing any permanent magnetic field existing in the target. Turning
the de-magnetizer's alternating magnetic field off while it is still
strongly influencing the target will leave the magnetic polarization of the
target as it was at the instant the power was removed, which could be an
even stronger field than the de-magnetizer was supposed to fix.
Paula Keiser
Broadcast Engineer (retired)
Topeka, KansAS
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 15:21:25 -0400
From: jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Semi-OT: De-Magnetizing Wands
For years, I had this demagnetizing wand I had bought at Radio
Shack--one, I should say, meant for working on [removed]
It was about eight inches long or so, maybe longer, black handle, with a
trasluscent plastic "probe" extending outwards--
(No, I am not talking about an alien abduction here)--
And, along with cleaning a VCR's heads, it was terrific at keeping an
old VCR going.
A few years ago, it was time to clean a VCR for the first time in years,
but I could find the demagnetizer wand no where in the [removed]
I went to Radio Shack, and the salesmen looked at me, mystified.
Apparently, the VCR demagetizing wand has been out of their catalog for
years.
My attempts to find one on the net have also come to no avail.
Any idea where you can buy a VCR demagnetizing wand, nowadays?
Thanks!
Best, Jim
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 15:31:40 -0400
From: Michael Ogden <michaelo67@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Who [removed]
All right now, try this radio quiz.
I'm looking for the name of an OTR actor. Here's several clues:
1) He started his radio career with various roles on THE MARCH OF TIME.
2) In the early years of his radio career he appeared on the soap opera BIG
SISTER.
3) Simultaneously with his work in radio, he was very prominent in
professional theater, also.
4) One of his most famous roles was as Lamont Cranston AKA The Shadow.
5) In the 1940s he was involved in political activism and eventually was
blacklisted from broadcasting.
If you answered "Orson Welles," you'd be right. But if you answered "Lloyd
Lamble," you'd also be right.
There are some amazing parallels between the careers of these two men.
Although, theatre-wise, Lamble was never the producer-director-star that
Welles was, he did have a significant stage career, including the leading
part in the first Australian production of Emlyn Williams' NIGHT MUST FALL.
And so now our last radio Shadow is [removed] one of the Brazilian actors
who played him is still [removed]
Mike Ogden
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 15:32:10 -0400
From: Fred Berney <fsberney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: head demagnetizer
What happens if a cassette head demagnetizer is turned
off (or "on", for that matter) within one foot of the playback/record
head?
You take a chance of magnetizing the heads. The whole idea of
demagnetizing is to apply an AC magnetic field on the heads and then
slowly withdraw this field. If you were to just switch off the
demagnetizer, then I believe it is like putting an electrical spike
near the heads.
I'll grab one of my audio engineering books and quote the exact reason.
Fred
Check us out for old time radio & TV shows & Movie Serials
[removed]
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Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 15:41:52 -0400
From: Fred Berney <fsberney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Feature Film
This is as far off topic as anything I've ever posted on this digest
can be, but I though it might be of interest.
In 1964, I produced a feature film. It was called Once Upon A Coffee
House. Among those in the cast were Joan River, Deanna Lund and
Gloria Loring (at the time her name was Gloria Goff).
It turned out to be there very first motion picture for Joan Rivers
and Deanna Lund, although Deanna said that she was in a movie that
was shot earlier, but may not have been released until after ours.
Anyway, I use to like to say I discovered Joan Rivers.
Now, after more than 40 years, Alpha Video has take on the
distribution of the film on home DVD video. Their web site is [removed]
The other day I started selling some very old movies on Ebay and
people started asking me about the quality of the films, so I had the
brilliant idea of putting up some clips on YouTube, which a teenager
showed me how to do, and point my Ebay auction to the clips.
Then it hit me that I could put up clips of Coffee House. By the way,
Alpha renamed the movie Hootenanny A Go-Go. So, I have been putting
up about half a dozen different clips from the movie. The film was
shot in Miami, Florida in 1964. The cost was just over $100,000. A
very low budget for a movie even back in those days.
It had an all union crew and cast. As we were putting together the
DVD for Alpha, I asked my brother, who still lives in Miami and did
all the accounting and bookkeeping on the picture, to fly up to
Maryland and record a producers' commentary track with me for the DVD.
I think our comments on what it was like to produce a feature film
are worth the entire cost of the DVD. We spoke for about 82 minutes
and did it all without notes. Just off the top of our heads about the
challenges we met while filming the movie, the director, and all that
goes into producing a film.
You can find the clips at [removed]?
The above link will take you to the Oscar Brand clip and I think once
you are there you can see all the other clips that I posted. I'm
still learning about how YouTube works.
So, go take a look. Much to my amazement, the film is listed on the
IMDB database. [removed] and someone actually gave it a very
favorable review saying it was the best movie to have been made
depicting the coffee house scene back in the 60's. I have absolutely
no idea who that person was, but it was a good feeling finding
someone that felt that way about the picture.
Go through 40 years of having distributors telling you "no" and you
might have some idea of how I have felt about the film over the
years. It's my baby, good or bad, and it is a good feeling to hear
some good things about the film.
Sorry for this very long posting, but it's a long weekend.
Fred
Check us out for old time radio & TV shows & Movie Serials
[removed]
[ADMINISTRIVIA: As much as I love Fred, you might want to avoid YouTube like
the plague until the issue between Google and Viacom is worked out - see
[removed] for a link to the entire story, but Viacom has convinced a
judge to force Google to turn over ALL LOGS from [removed]'s right,
every person who has viewed any clip on YouTube will have their information,
including IP address and YouTube user name if existant, delivered to Viacom.
Yipe. --cfs3]
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2008 Issue #168
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