------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2005 : Issue 78
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
3-11 births/deaths [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
CANADIANS NOT ALLOWED!!! ...YIKES [ PURKASZ@[removed] ]
Chuck Thompson [ "erest@[removed]" <erest@bel ]
May Days [ seandd@[removed] ]
Correction for date of "The Shadow C [ "Karl Schadow" <bluecar91@[removed] ]
More Wilbur Hatch Musical Affiliatio [ Orphan Annie <eabartz@[removed]; ]
"It's gonna be a great day" [ Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@earthlin ]
Family listening and how [ Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@earthlin ]
Re: XM Radio [ LBohall@[removed] ]
Orson Welles' THEATRE OF THE IMAGINA [ Paul Evans <evans_paul1963@[removed] ]
1955 and 1956 Bing Crosby shows [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]
Ed Bonner [ "Frank Absher" <fabsher@[removed]; ]
boring to watch? [ "Mike Hobart" <zines50@[removed]; ]
OTR announcer books [ "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed]; ]
burns and allen on dvd [ "W. Gary Wetstein" <wgaryw@pacbell. ]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 14:23:51 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 3-11 births/deaths
March 11th births
03-11-1887 - Raoul Walsh - NYC - d. 12-31-1980
film director: "Jack Benny Program"
03-11-1898 - Dorothy Gish - Massillon, OH - d. 6-4-1968
actress: Texaco Star Playhouse"; "[removed] Steel Hour"; "Lux Radio
Theatre"
03-11-1900 - Andy Sannella - Brooklyn, NY - d. xx-xx-1961
bandleader: "Campbell Soup Orchestra"; "Gillette Community Sing"
03-11-1903 - Lawrence Welk - Strasburg, ND - d. 5-17-1992
bandleader: "Lawrence Welk Orchestra"
03-11-1907 - Jessie Matthews - London, England - d. 8-19-1981
actress: Mrs. Mary Dale "The Dale's"
03-11-1909 - Karl Tunberg - Spokane, WA - d. 4-4-1992
film writer: "Lux Radio Theatre"
03-11-1909 - Ramona - Lockland, OH - d. 12-14-1972
singer, pianist: "Kraft Music Hall"; "Paul Whiteman's Musical
Varities"
03-11-1934 - Sam Donaldson - El Paso, TX
talk show host: "Live in America"
03-11-1952 - Douglas Adams - Cambridge, England - d. 5-11-2001
writer: "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"
March 11th deaths
02-02-1912 - Stefan Schnabel - Berlin, Germany - d. 3-11-1999
actor: Herbert Yost "Joyce Jordan, [removed]"
06-09-1910 - Joseph Julian - St. Marys, PA - d. 3-11-1982
actor: Sandy Matson "Lorenzo Jones"; Archie Goodwin "Advs. of Nero
Wolfe"
06-14-1893 - Joe Forte - England - d. 3-11-1967
actor: Osgood Conklin "Our Miss Brooks"; Horowitz "Life with Luigi"
07-17-1889 - Erle Stanley Gardner - Malden, MA - d. 3-11-1970
creator, writer: "Advs. of Christopher London"; "Perry Mason"; "Life
in Your Hands"
10-24-1911 - Sonny Terry - Greensboro, NC - d. 3-11-1986
blues singer, harmonica player: "Hootenanny"; "Roomful of Music"
10-25-1888 - Richard E. Byrd - Winchester, VA - d. 3-11-1957
explorer: "Admiral Byrd Broadcasts"
11-15-1890 - Samuel Ornitz - NYC - d. 3-11-1957
hollywood ten screen writer: "House Un-American Activities Committee"
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 15:16:11 -0500
From: PURKASZ@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: CANADIANS NOT ALLOWED!!! ...YIKES
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As a Canadian I am not allowed to subscribe to satellite radio.
What the heck's going on up there?
This is carrying 'National Identity Crisis' too far.
I remember back in 1968 when Murray The K and I started CHUM-FM in
Toronto they kept hammering me to play more "Canadian content."
I said I'd be glad to if they could come up with something more than
Anne Murray and Gordon Lightfoot.
They were miffed that Sol Zaentz had sent me tapes, not even discs of
the then just recorded group Credence Clearwater Revival and it was stealing
all the thunder on the airwaves.
Very sad indeed once government gets involved in regulating
entertainment.
Maybe it's the cold air.
The airwaves are free last time I looked tho subscription seems the way
of the day lately.
Have the 'greed heads' as Lord Buckley called them, taken over
everything?
Michael C. Gwynne
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[ADMINISTRIVIA: The airwaves are _not_ "free," they are licensed and
controlled in thic country by the Federal Communications Commission. XM not
being available in Canada or Mexico has to do with frequency licensing more
than any bias against Canadians or Mexicans. The FAQ says it all: "XM is only
licensed to provide service to the [removed] (all states except Alaska and
Hawaii), its territories and adjacent waters. XM's satellite signal reaches
into portions of Canada and Mexico near the [removed] borders; however, XM's
service is not currently sold in Canada, Mexico, or any other region outside
of the continental United States." --cfs3]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:19:08 -0500
From: "erest@[removed]" <erest@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Chuck Thompson
Baltimore lost a great sport's broadcaster when Chuck Thompson died this
week. He had done Colts and Orioles game including the 1958 World
Champion game and the 1966 World Series.
He often worked the network games. With the talk of the many
recreations (Fred Friendly et all) that have made it difficult to tell
the truth from some revision, I thought one story about Chuck would be
welcome here.
Chuck was calling a world series game for the network when a home run
was hit in the ninth inning to win the game. Chuck somehow got the name
of the pitcher and hitter wrong doing the call. Later on someone wanted
to use this call in a commercial and asked Chuck to come in to correct
the errors. He declined saying that's the way I called it , leave it
that way .
Rest in peace Chuck
Rob
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:19:30 -0500
From: seandd@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: May Days
Blogger Cathy Siepp laments the demise of the May company, mentioning its
connection to OTR, in today's National Review Online.
Ms. Siepp is a dedicated OTR fan who has been glum since KNX took its OTR
program off the air (she can't get the smaller station that picked it up
where she lives).
She even plugged FOTR last year on her blog after I wrote her about it.
Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:19:43 -0500
From: "Karl Schadow" <bluecar91@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Correction for date of "The Shadow Challenged"
In my posting in Issue #77, I stated the incorrect date for the episode of
The Shadow entitled, "The Shadow Challenged." The correct broadcast date was
January 19, 1941, and not January 26, 1941. Sorry about that folks.
Karl Schadow
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:28:17 -0500
From: Orphan Annie <eabartz@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: More Wilbur Hatch Musical Affiliations
Greetings,
I think I can be of help in answering Clark's question on Wilbur
Hatch. Mr. Hatch did the music for the I Love Lucy television,
which was so popular in the 1950's.
I can still remember every kid in our block running inside their home
on Thursday evenings at 7:00 sharp to see this program, and I can
still recall the program credits rolling down the TV screen after
the show. !
Hatch also did the music for the "Our Miss Brooks" show. I am not
certain if he was in charge for the radio broadcasts, but he was for
the television series, which was also popular in the '50's.
Fond memories, all of them !
Elizabeth Anne Bartz
eabartz@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:39:23 -0500
From: Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: "It's gonna be a great day"
As a youngster in northern New Jersey, smack dab in the greater New York
plethora of broadcasters, I was an admitted, deep-addicted radio fan.
Yesterday I found myself first humming and then singing out,
"When you're down and out,
hold up your head and shout,
it's gonna be a great day."
I have no idea what spurred the moment, but I recalled that I heard it often
in those salad days. I'm pretty sure that it was the upbeat, sprightly
themesong of a regular early morning program, I suspect across the board, on
one of the major NYC stations. But for the life of me, I can't remember what
program, station, or singer(s).
I also remember "Smiling Jack Smith" (one of the few vocalists, if not the
only one that I can recall, that the listener could literally hear him
smiling as he sang. And don't tell me it's because I saw him somewhere; I
don't think he was ever on TV, and if he was, I missed him. Quite sure I
never saw him, except still photos in radio mags.
Another personal favorite was Jack Berch (his theme was "I'm whistlin', are
ya listnin', to this silly (?) little ditty that I'm singin' all in rhyme",
so it was not he. I was kind of surprised to learn years later that the
Berch show was on CBS's tidy little web, and not a local NY offering! I also
saw a photo of him just a few years back and was stunned to find that it was
not he, but a popular band leader of the era, whose name escapes me at this
senior moment. Dead ringers or as people are wont to say, "spitting image"
which, incidentally, is dead wrong: the correct original term is "spit and
image".
I'm hoping perhaps this may pique the gray matter of any of my fellow addicts
like Bill Jaker or his colleagues Frank Sulek or Peter Kanze (authors of "The
Airwaves of New York", which I deeply recommend). Can they or anyone else
please help me out on this show, which I loved so much but ashamedly can't
identify in my own mind? Many thanks! Lee Munsick
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 18:08:18 -0500
From: Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Family listening and how
Andrew Godfrey inquired how "in the good old days", families listened to
radio, doing what. Of course he and all of us have seen "ad nausea" the
shots with members of a "typical American family" in various poses sitting or
lying around the big floor model Philco whilst listening together to their
particular favorites. Perhaps that wasn't as common as some people would
like us to think.
I can tell you one program at least, which our entire family enjoyed "en
ensemble". In fact, three programs, back to back. Sunday [removed] you
guess what?
Dennis Day, followed by Jack Benny, followed by Phil Harris, each with his
own show. Both Dennis and Phil had ongoing voice roles on "The Jack Benny
Program", Dennis as the silly kid ("Hello, Mr. Benny"), and Phil as the
wisecracking non-teetotaler ("Hiya, Jackson!"). Dennis sang, Phil led "his
band" and wisecracked about Frankie Remley, as played by Elliott Lewis . But
each appeared on his own program, which explains why one never heard Dennis
early in the Benny program, nor Phil Harris in the latter third or so of the
Jack Benny opus, as wach was transitting from or to his own nearby studio.
I've always wondered if Phil had two bands to accomplish this, since "his
band" accompanied all the vocalizing on his show and Benny's. I assume the
entire band didn't just up and move across the hall or wherever. Anybody
know?
Now, what were WE in my family doing? Sunday evening's "dinner" was what my
mother always called our weekly "pick me up". Everything left over from the
week, in the refrigerator or elsewhere in the vicinity of the kitchen was
fair game, and put on the table. Each concocted his or her own meal, drink,
and dessert. As we ate, we listened to all or part of the three programs,
and we definitely all heard all of Jack Benny.
How about the rest of you out there? It would be fun to know the listening
habits of all those OTR families, not only the programs and stars, but the
circumstances in the family homes! Thanks, Andrew!
Bestus, Lee Munsick
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 21:05:06 -0500
From: LBohall@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: XM Radio
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I've been following all the postings about XM and [removed] I just wanted
to add my two cents. I LOVE XM. So does my wife. We listen to it all the
time, and we have the portable version, so it goes in the car with us, on
road
trips, and in the house. I even liked it so much that I went to CCrane and
bought an FM transmitter to broadcast it throughout the house.
We love the OTR channel, the new Radio Drama channel (I especially like the
science fiction shows), the 40s on 4, Frank's Place, the classic channels,
and I listen to ACC basketball (Duke alumnus) on it. The only thing that
frustrates me about the OTR channel is they replay the programming all the
time--they schedule about 48 hours/week of programming, then repeat it.
That's nice
if you miss [removed] I end up hearing the same thing all week, and
then
again on the weekend.
And as for the [removed] don't mind them. I would never know about
some of the really neat things that XM plays all the time--concerts,
interviews, retrospectives--if it weren't for the promos. Listening to them
told me
that they were running a Bing Crosby marathon one weekend. Hours and hours of
Bing (I taped it and replay it often). Ditto with Tommy Dorsey and others.
Larry
My new novel, Martyr's Cry: a mystery for hopeless romantics, is available
now! Go to _[removed]_
([removed]) for more [removed]
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------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 22:39:29 -0500
From: Paul Evans <evans_paul1963@[removed];
To: Old-Time Radio <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Orson Welles' THEATRE OF THE IMAGINATION
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Several years ago, I borrowed a compilation of some of Orson Welles' best
radio work (THE SHADOW, "Heart of Darkness," his meeting with [removed] Wells,
Shakespeare readings, etc.) from the library. It was four or five cassettes
long, and it was called THEATRE OF THE IMAGINATION. My library no longer has
a copy, and a long time ago I wrote to the production company (an address in
Southern California--I forget its name and the town), but the letter came
back with a MOVED, FORWARDING ORDER EXPIRED stamp on it. Does anybody out
there have a copy they can dub for me, or know where a copy of this
collection can be had? If so, please E-mail me privately. Thanks!
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------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 00:34:50 -0500
From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 1955 and 1956 Bing Crosby shows
Hi Everybody,
does any one have the 1955 and 1956 Bing Crosby shows on audio CD or tape?
I have them on MP3. Take care,
Walden Hughes
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 09:16:31 -0500
From: "Frank Absher" <fabsher@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Ed Bonner
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Harold: You'll find a piece on EB on my website under the "Articles"
section, and another small piece in the Hall of Fame.
[removed]
His son Rick dabbled in radio, and was somewhere down south last I
heard.
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------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 09:17:23 -0500
From: "Mike Hobart" <zines50@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: boring to watch?
Bob Cockrum meditates on what it would be like to watch an OTR broadcast for
a "civilian" ([removed] non-fan).
I remember years ago the first radio broadcast I ever watched as a
television special was "The Last Goon Show of All". It was fun to watch
Sellers, Secombe and Milligan bringing their famous characters to life, but
I was quite confused by the beginning of the programme.
That was because they had included the studio warm-up, which was never
actually broadcast as part of the show. I sat there for a few minutes
thinking "I don't remember this part at all!"
===
This week's "Theatre of the Mind" broadcast from Screensound
[removed] was an interesting
double. They had two episodes of the 1950s comedy serial "Bottle Castle"
(made in Australia but set in London, which wasn't unusual) and an episode
of the Australian version of "Gunsmoke" (which did at least star a Canadian
as Marshal Morgan, so there were none of those excruciating phony-Yank
accents).
Regards from down under, Mike Hobart
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 09:29:30 -0500
From: "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: OTR announcer books
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Kenneth Clarke wrote:
This may just be a crazy idea blooming here,
but wouldn't be great if any books would be written
about the announcers of the OTR programs we all
remember? I think so.
<snip>
Altho' the thrust of Mr. Clarke's posting concentrated
on the type of announcer who was just as much part of
an OTR's cast as the "star" performers ([removed], Don Wilson,
Harlow Wilcox) and how it'd be real neat-o if someone
were to devote an entire book to them ["the Great Radio
Comedy Announcers"?...Jum Harmon, take note], I can
recommend a couple of other books.
First, "The Radio Commentators" by Irving Fang, for those
who are inclined to refere to radio newsmen like [removed] Kaltenborn,
Lowell Thomas, Gabriel Heatter, and Galen Drake as "announcers."
Also, Dick Osgood wrote about his experiences as an announcer at'
WXYZ/Detroit in a book titled "WYXIE Wonderland," a book long
out-of-print and crying out for a reissue. The cover resorts to that
annoying early 1970s trend of spelling things out with asterisks
between the letters ["M*A*S*H," "The Education of
H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N" by Leo Rosten, "The Rape of
the A*P*E" by Allan Sherman]. Hence, it's alternately
referred to as "W*Y*X*I*E Wonderland."
Yours in the E*T*H*E*R,
Derek Tague
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[ADMINISTRIVIA: I'd also like to recommend the book written by my friend
George Ansbro, "I Have a Lady in the Balcony: Memoirs of a Broadcaster in
Radio & Television." George had an amazing career as an announcer in radio
and television (the title comes from the TV show, "Dr. IQ"), and closed the
bar with Annie and me the evening I was honored by the Allen Rockford Award
back in 1999, telling us stories from the yet-unreleased book. It's a
McFarland hardcover, well worth the cost. And if you order the book through
the link at [removed] we'll get a
few pennies' commission to help offset the cost of the server and webspace.
--cfs3]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 13:13:23 -0500
From: "W. Gary Wetstein" <wgaryw@[removed];
To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: burns and allen on dvd
i've recently finished putting together a 26 disc set
of dvds of the impossible-to-find burns and allen tv
show. this show has been almost totally unavailable
for years in reruns, so most of the episodes on my
discs come from VHS and beta tapes of reruns from the
1980s. with the help of two other collectors, i've
managed to restore 221 of 291 total episodes. i
remastered the audio and spliced in extra scenes when
i had more than one version of a program with
alternate edits. this project took well over two
years, but the show is so rare it was certainly worth
the effort!
please drop me a line off the list to
wgaryw@[removed] if you're interested in more info.
thanks,
w. gary w.
- ---------------
"there's some folks out there that if they don't get it, you can't tell
'em." --(louis armstrong)
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #78
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