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The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2016 : Issue 28
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Foreign language OTR [ Graeme Stevenson <graemeotr@[removed] ]
Sound Effects On OTR [ skallisjr@[removed] ]
Re: Foreign Language OTR Question [ "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed]; ]
Arthur Anderson [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]
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Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2016 15:13:02 -0400
From: Graeme Stevenson <graemeotr@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Foreign language OTR
Hi.
Damon's question about foreign language OTR is very interesting. If anyone
can give any links to foreign sites with historic broadcasts it would be nice
to see what has survived on disc or tape in other parts of the world.
Cheers ! Graeme
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Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2016 15:13:25 -0400
From: skallisjr@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Sound Effects On OTR
One of the things that helped make radio drama work was the influence of
sound effects. Some programs had realistic sounds; others, however, some
didn't. The influence of sound effects, though subtle, helped establish
the believability of whatever drama was being presented.
Of the surviving radio transcriptions, arguably the most detailed sound
effects can be found on /The Lone [removed] The sound effects in many
shows are extremely realistic. In one episode, The Lone Ranger was
running, and the sounds changed as he went from gravel to a wooden
sidewalk, without any narration to explain the change.
By contrast, some shows had sound effects that weren't very convincing.
Possibly the least convincing sound effects were on the surviving
episodes of /Jack Armstrong, The All-American Boy/.
Some sound effects were recordings of things, such as automobiles driving
or airplanes in flight, but others were creative, manufactured in-studio.
A few of the devices to create the sounds were very inventive.
Stephen Kallis, Jr.
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Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2016 15:14:17 -0400
From: "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Foreign Language OTR Question
A book that describes itself as "the first full history of Soviet radio in
English," was published last year: Stephen Lovell, _Russia in the Microphone
Age_ (Oxford University Press, 2015). According to the book, the USSR had
sound-on-film recording by the late 1920s and started an archive in 1932, but
"only a few dozen broadcasts from the 1930s have survived, due to a
combination of inadequate storage facilities and politically motivated purges
of the archive in the period 1939-41. Although the record for the post-war
era is much fuller--there are tens of thousands of surviving recordings--here
too the sound archive was routinely purged. Aural memory could be as
politicized as every other kind in the Soviet Union."
The book's two biggest programming surprises (at least to me): the
suppression of drama and the success of children's shows.
The Soviets experimented with artsy radio drama from 1925 to the late 1930s,
but largely abandoned it until the post-war period for being politically
and/or artistically incorrect ([removed], too artificial or "formalist"). Literary
readings by skilled narrators and actors, or sometimes the authors
themselves, were preferred because they focused on the written word with no
distraction from excessive sound effects, et cetera. Even in the fifties,
there were few original radio plays: "When Soviet people of the post-war
generation are asked about their strongest radio memories, more often than
not they mention 'Theatre at the Microphone'--live broadcasts of stage
productions."
Children's shows were also fondly remembered. Although essentially canceled
during the war, the pre-war and post-war programming for kids seems to have
been better (and freer) than anything for adults. Judging by the examples in
the book, the shows sound very much like American PBS series, educational but
fun. Top actors were used and "all the leading children's authors of the time
(Marshak, Chukovskii, Kassil', Gaidar) wrote for the radio from the early
1930s onwards ..."
"Kolobok, a [post-war] series aimed at preschool children and derived from a
well-known folk tale, had as its hero a round creature, a kind of perpetuum
mobile bread loaf, which rolled its way into various adventures. Other
programmes offered more interactive formats. 'Meeting at the Round Table'
presented ethical issues to children in the form of a conversation as well as
giving them inspiring examples of wartime heroism. The series 'Guess If You
Can' (Ugadai-ka) communicated important knowledge (some of it military) to
children by setting them riddles to solve. This was not the first time that
children had been set puzzles on Soviet radio, but never before had the
activity been woven into a long-running narrative with an established set of
characters."
"Perhaps the greatest triumph of post-war children's broadcasting was the
series 'The Club of the Famous Captains' (Klub znamenitykh kapitanov), which
first went out on New Year's Eve 1945. Set in a school library, it showed
characters from well-loved adventure fiction coming to life after dark.
Gulliver, Captain Nemo, and Robinson Crusoe, once released from the books
they inhabited, sang songs, asked interesting questions, and swapped stories
about their past adventures. The series managed like few others to be both
playful and impeccably enlightening; it also satisfied the immense yearning
of Soviet people--both children and adults--to travel the world (however
vicariously). This was a remarkable combination of storytelling, exoticism,
rousing music, and sheer romantika. Both writers and geographers were
involved in preparing the programmes, while the performers represented an
impressive roster of acting talent ..."
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2016 15:18:45 -0400
From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Arthur Anderson
Folks;
If you can, tune into SummersTime on Radio Once More (see
[removed] for how to listen) this evening at 6:00pm Eastern,
3:00pm Pacific for our tribute to Arthur Anderson.
And at the Nostalgic Rumblings blog, [removed] I posted a
few video clips of Arthur working at the Friends of Old-Time Radio Convention
as well as the 2010 episode of The Bob Edwards Show where Arthur was
interviewed by Bob about his long career.
Charlie
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End of [removed] Digest V2016 Issue #28
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