Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #83
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 2/22/2003 3:03 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2003 : Issue 83
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  MB/JB Enterprises                     [ John Henley <jhenley@[removed] ]
  What's on my time machine agenda      [ Osborneam@[removed] ]
  Lone Ranger                           [ bruce dettman <bdettman@[removed] ]
  Radio Sound Effects,                  [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  Clifton Fadiman's daughter            [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
  "THE" Whistler                        [ Nick Coburn <coburn@[removed]; ]
  THE LONE RANGER                       [ oldpdb@[removed] (Paul Barringer) ]
  Re: WB's Lone Ranger                  [ "Maureen O'Brien" <mobrien@[removed] ]
  Paul Urbahns new crop of fans         [ "David Kindred" <david@[removed] ]
  The WB Lone Ranger                    [ Wwtom@[removed] ]
  breakfast club                        [ Michael Berger <intercom1@attglobal ]
  Date KECA moved from 780 to 790       [ "Jim Hilliker" <jimhilliker@sbcglob ]
  Chris Holmand the OTR Time Machine    [ George Aust <austhaus1@[removed] ]
  Who are these people?                 [ danhughes@[removed] ]

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

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 16:06:33 -0500
From: John Henley <jhenley@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  MB/JB Enterprises

Lynn Wagar asked,
In the early 1990's (I believe) I used to buy radio
shows from a place called MB/JB Enterprises out of
Spenser Iowa.  Any one else remember them or where
they ended up at???

MB/JB and Carl Froelich were my introductions to OTR
collecting.  In the late 1980s, MB/JB produced a big fat
spiral-bound catalog and then followed it up with mailing after
mailing after mailing of supplements.  They were getting ahold
of some good stuff, such as a run of Ed Wynn from '32 and '33.

In early 2001, they were still able to fill an order I sent them for
some Candy Matson episodes I found in their old supplements.
And at their same price of $[removed] per tape!

But you get what you pay for, I guess, and the sound quality
of their tapes was always extremely variable.  A handful of
the tapes I bought from them over a five-year period were
unlistenable, many others mediocre, and a few were surprisingly
crisp.  I think it depended entirely on their source masters, and
they did little-to-no equalizing.

I always suspected that they acquired some of the masters
that had belonged to Gary Dudash, operating as AM Treasures,
when he decided to leave the hobby.

Despite the sound issues, I think of MB/JB, AM Treasures and Carl
Froelich with fondness, because they got me started.

John Henley

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

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 17:12:02 -0500
From: Osborneam@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  What's on my time machine agenda

I've been thinking about what I'd snap up if I was lucky
enough to have a time machine and a way to capture any
radio programs I wanted.

First, I'd be sure to pick up all the I Love a Mystery
shows that we no longer have.

I'd also get The Shadow, any Chandu the Magician shows that
we are now lacking, Mr. & Mrs. North, Candy Matson, Three
for Adventure, Romance of Famous Jewels, Three Sheets to the
Wind, Jason & the Golden Fleece, Pete Kelly's Blues &
Pat Novak and The Green Hornet.

There are probably a lot more that I'd love to hear but
these would be a good start.

Thanks to Mike for starting a great thread.

Happy belate birthday, Tony!

Arlene Osborne

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

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 17:12:28 -0500
From: bruce dettman <bdettman@[removed];
To: old time <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Lone Ranger
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

I write a regular column for a small publication called Serial Report
which is devoted to movie cliffhangers. Recently in a review I was doing
of the Victor Jory Shadow chapter play I addressed this issue of
bringing back old heroes of  bygone times.

It's a chancy and delicate business and the odds are mostly against you,
mainly because characters and situations arose during specific eras and
by their very nature reflect those times. The Christopher Reeves
Superman series was well intentioned and pleased many and I know some of
the Batman films have been well received as has Spiderman. But remember
The Phantom, The Lone Ranger, Sheena, The Shadow, Doc Savage etc. etc.
Just awful and in most cases violated the very idea and essense of these
original characters. I know there are people who want to see these
characters live on and perhaps change gracefully with the times but for
the most part I cringe when I see plans to update and revive these
characters. Watching that Lone Ranger remake with Klinton Spillsbury was
like having a root canal for me.

By the way do you know the definition of an intellectual?
A guy who can listen to the William TellOverture and never once think of
the Lone Ranger.

Bruce Dettman

[removed]    Michael Hyde knows better than anyone else how great was Webb's
influence. Read his terrific book. Webb wasn't just the star, creator
and write of Dragnet. He was the soul of the show and I can listen to
the old radio and TV series forever. I only wish he hadn't done the
second series with Harry Morgan. I really think that hurt his image the
most.

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

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

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 17:44:55 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Radio Sound Effects,

Chris Holm, speaking of Dragnet, notes,

The sound effects on Dragnet are incredible, and with the exception of
Gunsmoke, are unrivaled by any past OR modern radio production.  All of
this is IMHO of course.

Of course.  In *my* HO, the absolute best sound effects are in The Lone
Ranger and Chandu, the Magician.  In TLR, they took the trouble to alter
terrain sounds when one of the characters was running.  Listening to
Chandu, you's swear you were hearing the street sounds of Cairo, or
wherever else he was.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 18:32:37 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Clifton Fadiman's daughter

I am searching for an address or e-mail to the daughter of Clifton Fadiman
(moderator of INFORMATION PLEASE).  I understand she has inherited her
father's talents and become a successful award-winning author/writer, and I
have something that will be of extreme interest for her and I'd like to send
it to her.
If anyone has any contact info, please drop me a line.
Thanks!
Martin Grams, Jr.

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

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 18:33:06 -0500
From: Nick Coburn <coburn@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  "THE" Whistler

I can't believe that no one remembers the Texas Red Bird.
Virtuoso whistler, Fred Lowery. I never missed his live shows at the
Capitol Theatre in Washington, [removed]

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

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 18:33:29 -0500
From: oldpdb@[removed] (Paul Barringer)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  THE LONE RANGER

The following exerpts are taken from the WB press release.

"THE LONE RANGER" GALLOPS ON TO THE WB IN A SPECIAL TWO-HOUR MOVIE EVENT
IN FEBRUARY.

The program will be presented on Wednesday, February 26, 8:00-10:00 [removed]
ET.

This updated classic takes a look at a champion in the years before he
became a legend.

Set in the 19th century, the saga begins with the intro. of Luke Hartman
(Chad Michael Murray), a 20-year old Boston law student whose life is
turned upside down when he is wounded in an ambush after witnessing the
murder of his brother, a Texas Ranger, rescued by an Apache named Tonto
(Nathaniel Arcand), Luke is instantly captivated by Tonto's beautiful
sister Alope (Anita Brown). Luke assumes the guise of a mysterious
masked champion to avenge his brother's death, and to fight the scourge
of injustice.

The Lone Ranger is a tale of honor, love, betrayal and - most
importantly-friendship.

So, some of the same parts as the original radio show,but with name
changes,  age changes, love interests etc.

Why keep Tonto's name and change The Lone Ranger's name?

Why change the profession of the Lone Ranger from Texas Ranger to a law
student?

Love interest? well ok, I'll go along with that if tasteful.

With the failure of the last Lone Ranger movie, you would think the
changes don't work.

With the exception of the television series with Clayton Moore, the
other movies, including the early motion picture shows (The Lone Ranger
and The Lone Ranger Rides Again) in no way followed the proven plot of
radio, I say proven because of the over two decades of radio programing
success.

I guess we'll have to wait and see, at least they are trying to bring
back the character.

Having grown up without a father, the character of The Lone Ranger and
the man I remember on radio as the Lone Ranger, Brace Beemer, were my
role models as a kid. Even after growing up I continued to think of the
character as a model to live by. I even thought that Clayton Moore was
the perfect Lone Ranger, and looked to him with the same kind of
reverence I held for Beemer.

On the radio program, Beemers voice was so intense and articulate, yet
so gentle and fatherly. He along with Fred Foy (The announcer I remember
most), held me spellbound through every episode.

My favorite episodes were, "The Origin Of The Lone Ranger" -  "The
Legend Of A Man And His Horse And How They Met" - "How The Lone Ranger
Found His Nephew" - and the twentieth anniversary show "The Return Of
Butch Cavendish".

Well I have rambled on far too long, time to let someone else get on the
soapbox.

I guess we will find out if the new program is worth watching or not. In
the meantime, thanks to the radio clubs around the country, sites like
this and the availability to listen to those old programs will help to
remind us that we truly lived in the Golden Age Of Radio.

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

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 18:40:16 -0500
From: "Maureen O'Brien" <mobrien@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: WB's Lone Ranger

Re: high school age and younger haven't heard of the Lone Ranger

Probably not. The movie came out in 1980; the most recent cartoons
aired from 1980 to 1982 (The Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour,
which was succeeded by the Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour).
And that was from Filmation, with one of its clunkier efforts (in my
ten to twelve-year-old opinion).

Re: The William Tell Overture

I suspect they'll use it for the show. Commercials rarely use the
show's theme music anyway.

Maureen

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

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 18:40:51 -0500
From: "David Kindred" <david@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Paul Urbahns new crop of fans

Paul Urbahns wrote:

We need to spread new seed in order to raise a new crop of fans.

Ah, but Paul, some of us are! Each evening I play 30 - 45 minutes of OTR
for my sons (aged 4, 6 and 8), and they love it. They've enjoyed,
amongst other shows, Speed Gibson, Space Patrol, Cinnamon Bear, Jack
Armstrong and Archie Andrews (they love Hal's squeaky voice and think
it's cool that I know him over the Internet). I play the shows (MP3
format) over ceiling speakers I placed in their rooms, and it's part of
their regular routine. One, I might add, which they greatly miss on
Saturday nights when we get home late from church.

I'm not sure what to play for them when the Jack Armstrongs run out. If
any of you have some suggestions for shows appropriate for children
their ages, I'd love to hear of them.

Just passing on the joys of OTR to the next [removed]

--David ("Tooth [removed]")

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

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 18:40:30 -0500
From: Wwtom@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The WB Lone Ranger

As I respectfully requested months ago to WB, please do NOT make the LR movie
if you will not preserve the Lone Ranger legend and tradition.  Some things
are perhaps best left in the past.  I suspect the new movie will have its
showing and then mercifully fade away forever.  What a terrible waste of time
and money.

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

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 20:23:37 -0500
From: Michael Berger <intercom1@[removed];
To: otr <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  breakfast club

Thanks for the link to the 12-8-41 Breakfast Club, and the breaking news from
London after the Pearl Harbor attack. Had forgotten that Charles Collingwood
was an NBC news reporter before he began his long CBS career.

Question for the experts out there: would the 12-8-41 Breakfast Club been
heard coast to coast, or was it mostly a midwest and eastern audience show at
that time? Being live, assume that it would have begun about 8am central
time, which would make it 6am on the west coast. I remember as a child
hearing the show in San Francisco from 8am but by that time, the postwar 40s,
think it was transcribed for west coast listeners.  Can anyone clarify?

Michael Berger

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

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 21:07:50 -0500
From: "Jim Hilliker" <jimhilliker@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Date KECA moved from 780 to 790

Hello again.  Glad so many of you enjoyed my rambling entry of 2/18/03 about
the basic story of Earle C. Anthony's KFI and KECA, and the tie-in to the
building they once occupied at 141 North Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles.

To answer Jay Ranellucci's question, first, I apologize for glossing over
the call letter change from KECA to KABC, and not telling when the move from
780 to 790 on the radio dial took place.

KECA moved 10 kilocycles up the dial from 780 to 790 on March 29, 1941,
while still under Anthony's ownership.  This was the date when the new NARBA
Treaty went into effect, which was the North American Regional Broadcast
Agreement.  It affected the Standard Broadcast Band (AM band) in the USA,
Canada, Mexico, Cuba and the other North American nations.  Before this
date, the band went from 550 to 1500 kilocycles.  On this date of 3/29/41,
the AM band was expanded to 1600 kilocycles and started at 540.

In conjunction with the expansion of the Broadcast Band on that date, the
FCC set up a major frequency reallocation for the majority of radio stations
nationwide.  This called for readjusting transmitters at the radio stations
affected, and listners at home had to re-tune their radios for their
favorite stations.

For the 18 radio stations then on the air that I researched in Los Angeles
and Orange Counties, plus the Riverside-San Bernardino area, the FCC moved
one radio station down 10 kilcocycles from where it had been on the dial.
One station moved up 10 kc, three stations moved up 20 kc, 10 stations moved
up the dial by 30 kc, and three stations stayed where they were.  Those were
KFI-640, there since May 15, 1923, KMTR-570 (now KLAC), there since November
11, 1928, and KMPC-710 (now KSPN), there since November 15, 1929.

So, KECA was the one and only station in the [removed] region to move up the dial
10 kc, from 780 to 790 on 3/29/41.  (Hope you don't mind, but when dealing
with this time period, I like to use the term kilocycles and not kiloHertz).

As I said before, KECA-790, was purchased by the Blue Network, which later
became  ABC and moved out of the KFI building in 1944.  On February 1, 1954,
the FCC approved the call letter change for KECA-790 to become KABC-790.
Not sure of the date the KABC call letters were used on the air for the
first time on 790.

So, hope that explains how we got from KEHE-780 to KECA-780, to KECA-790 on
3/29/41, and then to KABC-790 in 1954.

Jay, I highly agree, there are so many wonderful fountains of knowledge in
this amazing group of people.  I must admit, it's taken me at least 20 years
to research, learn and gather all the things I know now about Los Angeles
radio history from 1920-1940, and I still don't have all the answers.  I've
had help and shared information with numerous radio historians, some in this
group, along with people who worked in [removed] radio from the '20s to the 50s,
and librarians, historical societies, etc., not to mention regular people
who've told me stories about what they heard on the radio while living in
the Los Angeles area back then.  The search to get the history correct
continues for me.  I'm happy I was able to share a bit of what I know on the
topic, since I lived in the [removed] area (Anaheim) for 20 years.

I'll continue my work on this phase of old time local radio and hope to
contribute here whenever I'm able.

jh

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

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 21:48:34 -0500
From: George Aust <austhaus1@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Chris Holmand the OTR Time Machine

I am outraged!!!! I can't believe that Chris Holm would travel all the
way back in time to record the Jack Benny show at 7:00pm and then turn
it off at 7:30pm!
Jack Benny is one of the few great OTR shows that are mostly  preserved.
But Edgar Bergan/Charlie McCarthy came on at 8:00pm and he turns off the
recorder?
What a waste.:) :) :) :)

George Aust

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

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 22:18:41 -0500
From: danhughes@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Who are these people?

I'm hoping some of you can help me identify some signatures.  The first
is probably not OTR related, but it is probably from that era and it has
a photo attached.  It may be written in another language.  Who is this:
[removed]~[removed]

I'm hoping the next one is Paul Frees.  Does anyone know what his
autograph looks like?
[removed]~[removed]

And the final one is an early TV photo of a newslady from WNBW (now WRC I
believe) in Washington DC.  I can make out part of the signature--she
calls herself "the Duchess"--and the middle name looks like Wagner.  And
can anyone guess from the TV camera and the mike approximately when this
was taken?
[removed]~[removed]

Thanks so much for helping me solve these [removed]

---Dan

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #83
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