Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #240
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 6/27/2002 12:30 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2002 : Issue 240
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Show quality, RS & Amari              [ "Harry R. Keller" <hrkeller@earthli ]
  Re: where are they now                [ hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed]; ]
  Re: Aldrich Fam. voices               [ norman flagg <nflagg@[removed]; ]
  Re: Gee, A New Fan                    [ Al Girard <24agirard24@[removed] ]
  Apples and Oranges                    [ Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@erols ]
  Rexall                                [ "Russ Butler" <oldradio@[removed] ]
  Rexall and Ted Edison                 [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
  Re: Bud Duncan                        [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Rexall memories                       [ Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed]; ]
  Reply to Hal Stone                    [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
  Radio blackouts?                      [ Bill Harris <radioguy@[removed] ]
  Hoagy                                 [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
  Re: Nifty Device (irock 300W)         [ passage@[removed] ]
  re: radio blackouts                   [ Eric J Cooper <ejcooper2002@[removed] ]
  I always thought Hal Stone was---     [ Jer51473@[removed] ]
  Re: The Phantom Pirate                [ Steven Kelez <otrsteve@[removed]; ]
  Rexall drugstore still operating      [ Jer51473@[removed] ]

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

Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 21:43:21 -0400
From: "Harry R. Keller" <hrkeller@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Show quality, RS & Amari

I suspect that like a few members, my first venture into buying OTR were
the records offered by Radio Yesteryear and a few other outfits back in the
mid-to-late 1970s. In the late 70s I discovered OTR tape vendors. While I
taped CBS Radio Mystery Theater on r-t-r, the tapes I bought were on
cassette. I bought from several outfits (I don't believe any are still in
business).

Oddly, the "better" quality tapes I bought and paid a premium for
(generally an Ampex brand) got murky sounding after 10 or 12 plays.

Ironically, the "cheapie" made in Mexico tapes were/are just about
indestructable. HOWEVER, the majority were originally taped so that The
Shadow, Nero Wolfe, or Raymod of the Inner Sanctum tend to sound like Alvin
the Chipmunk.

After that experience I stopped buying tapes, just listening to what I had
over and [removed]

It wasn't until my wife and I moved to Milwaukee and heard "When Radio Was"
that I took the chance and called for the catalog. It was the generally
fine quality that "won" me back to being an active "buyer" - and I buy from
several outfits now, not just RS. So my point of view is that if it were
not for Carl Amari, I sure wouldn't have "gotten into" the hobby again and
the hobby of OTR would not be quite as robust as it appears to be.

That having been said, I was a little disappointed hearing he left RS. I
did a Google search and found that he has been replaced by four people with
seeming good qualifications for marketing and production. But the bios
didn't mention any hobby interest or affection for OTR. While that isn't
needed - it might help.

But before anyone says Radio Spirits doesn't have much of a market, the
same search turned up a report that while Mediabay is improving in its $$$$
struggle, RS has improved its own situation within Mediabay. If I read the
report correctly, for the first quarter this year RS had a profit gain of
$694,000 versus a loss of $396,000 last year - or per the summary, an
earning of $298,000. That isn't small potatoes for a niche like this, and
it can't all be tape bundles for Grandpa or Grandma. There have to be some
new hobbyists out there.

Like him or hate him, Amari, RS, and "When Radio Was" seemed to tap a
larger audience and it is up for the rest of the hobby to exploit that
potential.

Bob Keller
Waukesha, Wisc.

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

Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 21:43:47 -0400
From: hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: where are they now

 Jerry Bechtel asked

Would any of our local scholars happen to know if Ezra Stone, Jackie
Kelk or any of the Aldrich Family cast members are still alive? None
would be lurking in the shadows of this forum would they? Since Harlan
Stone contributes so colorfully to our [removed] just wondering.

Well, Jerry, this unfortunately will not be one of my "colorful"
contributions, but I thank you for the compliment.

I believe Ezra Stone would still be with us today if he had not been killed
in a tragic automobile accident about 4 years ago (If my memory serves me
correctly).

Not sure about Jackie Kelk. The last time I saw him was at a Sperdvac
Convention some years back. I bet Jay Hickerson would know for sure.

As for the rest of the regular cast members, it is highly unlikely that
anyone survives. All the adults were "old" back in the mid forties when I
appeared on the show in a supporting role a few times.

Hal(harlan)Stone
Jughead

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

Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 21:45:06 -0400
From: norman flagg <nflagg@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Aldrich Fam. voices

WIlliam Maham wrote:

When Bobby Ellis and Jack Grimes took over these roles in the early 50s it
became a totally different show.

You got that right. The biggest problem for me was that you couldn't
distinguish Homer from Henry, the voices were almost identical. Who cast
that show anyway and what were they thinking??

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

Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 21:45:34 -0400
From: Al Girard <24agirard24@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Gee, A New Fan

Hal Stone wrote:

(NOTE TO All Digesters). Autographed pictures are only sent to those who
think I was "Hilarious". :)

Does that mean that those of us who think Jughead is STILL funny need not
apply?

Al Girard

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

Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 21:44:50 -0400
From: Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@[removed];
To: OTRBB <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Apples and Oranges

John Mayer writes:

.....the FBI in Peace and War" .....used that same march from "Love for
Three Oranges"
(Prokofieff, I think). Personally, I think J. Edgar Hoover singing "I
Feel Pretty" would have been more appropriate.

Since we pride ourselves in this Digest of providing accurate
information to others, this smear of Director Hoover (reciting the
calumny about Hoover in a dress) needs prompt correction. The original
source of this lie is convicted perjurer Anthony Summers' controversial
book and has been proven totally untrue. But, of course, this has not
stopped "humorists"  in the media of repeating it so often that Joe
Six-Pack now assumes it's true.  Credit of trying to stop the spread of
this bogus story must go to the New York Times, which after determining
there was no validity to this canard, have since referred to it as such.

Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL

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

From: "Russ Butler" <oldradio@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Fw: Rexall
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 16:47:17 -0700

"Good health to all!!"  The Rexall brand name continues, it has merged with
Unicity Network - an alternative, homeopathic MLM-distributor at
[removed]  or [removed]

I still see the old Rexall orange and blue signs on
some pharmacies in small towns.  It makes you think they are still in
business in rural America at least, but they apparently they are not
"Rexall" as we remember them - just continuing the nostalgia, and
the memories that linger on,  I guess.
=Russ Butler

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

Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 22:37:06 -0400
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Rexall and Ted Edison

Two topics in one message, if I may:

Rexall was going great guns in the late 1960's and early '70's.  I think
that it failed because the owner was the Dart Drug Co., a family-owned
outfit that bankrupted the firm through years of intra-family legal
disputes.  I believe at least one book has been written about the matter.

Thomas Edison was a genius.  As a family man and general human being he was,
well, a piece of work.  From the biographies I've read on the man, I can't
imagine him having anything like a normal relationship with a son.  It was
pretty much the same with his wives (he was widowed once, I think.)  In many
ways, he was the very model of the 19th-century Victorian entrepreneur.

Furthermore the letter Mr Biel quoted was from 1926, if I'm not mistaken.
Edison was born in 1847, so he would have been perhaps 79 and even grouchier
than he normally was.  He died in 1931.

God save the children of famous parents.  Ted Edison should have changed his
name and escaped somehow.

Did Edison have a daughter?

M Kinsler
512 E Mulberry St. Lancaster, Ohio USA 740 687 6368
[removed]~kinsler

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

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 00:27:57 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Bud Duncan

On 6/26/02 9:50 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:

But MacHarrie did say  that they chose an actor to play
Paddy O'Cinnamon who was well known from cartoon comedies and who was a
showman from the early days of vaudeville. He was also among the first
featured comedians in the early silent picture days.  This confirms that
vaudevillian Bud Duncan IS the Buddy Duncan who plays CB.

You'll find an excellent biographical piece on Albert Edward "Bud" Duncan
by silent-film scholar Bob Birchard at
[removed]
As you'll see, he rather looked like a cinnamon bear himself late in
[removed]

Bud Duncan made his name as part of the movie comedy team of Ham and Bud,
with Lloyd "Ham" Hamilton, and together they turned out over a hundred
one-reel comedies between 1914 and 1917, all of which seemed to revolve
around the idea of uninhibited mass destruction of private property and
continuous acts of outrageous violence against each other, with Ham
usually the aggressor and Bud his helpless victim. In discussing the
series on [removed] not long ago, film scholar Richard Roberts
described them as "the most sociopathic comedy team of all time" (no
small feat) and described one of their typical shorts:

"Ham accidentally shoots the landlady while potshoting bedbugs with his
.45, then because Bud  witnessed it, he strangles Bud and throws him out
a third story window, then feels remorse and tries to hang himself before
falling out the same third story window. And this is the first five
minutes of the short."

He goes on to note that Ham and Bud would gladly lie, cheat, steal,
murder, sell each other for medical experiments, or commit any other kind
of chicanery necessary to accomplish their purposes. In other words, just
the kind of good clean wholesome fun that our great-grandparents didn't
want our grandparents to see.

MacHarrie talks about how Charles C. Pile [I do not know if this is the
correct spelling of his last name],

That would be "Pyle." Transco was arguably the top producer of syndicated
programming in Hollywood in the 1930s, and turned out dozens of series
over the decade. Their entire catalog was sold in the 1940s to Bruce Eels
and Associates -- which kept many of the most popular Transco programs in
circulation long after competing syndicated features had disappeared.

WOW!  No name for Jimmy Barton yet, but we do know the actor who played him
and Barbara Jean Wong (Judy Barton) were featured in other media as brother
and sister several times. That would be pre-summer, [removed] OTR Digest
readers, help me track Jimmy Barton down.

This is an interesting clue, but a check of the Variety Radio Directory
unfortunately comes up short -- while Barbara Jean Wong was a very
prominent child actress at the time, she isn't listed in the artists
section of the directory -- a listing which would have provided a
detailed list of credits which might have offered additional clues. If
anyone out there has access to any West Coast casting directories which
could provide a detailed credit listing for Miss Wong circa 1935-37, that
might be the next step. Or, I'd suggest contacting the LOC and getting
them to check Miss Wong's card in the NBC Artist Record Card files to see
if this yields any listing of programs in which she might have played
someone's sister.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 00:28:47 -0400
From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Rexall memories

Elizabeth mentioned the gradual demise of the Rexall Drug Store
franchise into the 80s, and it reminded me of what it was like when I
moved here to Kentucky in 1978.  Bishop's Drugs had the Rexall franchise
in Morehead on Main Street right across the street from the Post
Office.  The town's ONLY stoplight was at that corner, and you could sit
on a stool at Mr. Bishop's  lunchcounter and drink a nickel Coke (!!)
and watch the traffic light change.  Not much else happened in town.
Mr. Bishop retired a few years later and the shop closed and the orange
Rexall signs came down a year or two after while the location remained
vacant.  Mr. Bishop's house is right across the street from my building
at the university and I still see him once in a while--he's in his
nineties.  They've built a new Post Office out on the bypass, City Hall
took over the old Post Office building, and there are now several
outlying shopping centers and a couple dozen stoplights in the town--but
ironically a 4-way stop sign is at the corner where Bishop's Rexall and
the town's only stop light used to be!  I live in the small neighboring
town of Owingsville now, and I can see the town's only full-time stop
light from my front porch!  (And my daughter's starting college in New
York City this fall to get away from all this!  I came here FROM New
York City to get away from all that!)

Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 08:33:33 -0400
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Reply to Hal Stone

I think it is important that we all remember what we share in common, why we
are in this group.      I am quite bothered by the ease and the language by
which you castigated 'liberals'.     Surely you don't assume that everyone
in this group is a 'conservative'.    I am a liberal and truly resent being
painted by your broad brush of blame and unfair characterization

I'm sure many of us agree that there is far too much gratuitous violence and
would like to see more self-censorship, but I also believe in free speech
even when I don't like a lot of that speech.    My degree from Cal was in
Poli Sci with an emphasis on constitutional issues and political theory to
which I have a great commitment.

As parents we  monitored our children's tv viewing, reading, movie going,
etc.  It worked quite well.   We were ever-present parents who knew what our
kids were up to and there were no great surprises like in Columbine.

To blame 'liberals' as you did is very disappointing and I hope we can keep
politics out of this group.   Let's remember our common ground, not our
differences.

Irene
IreneTH@[removed]

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

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 08:33:46 -0400
From: Bill Harris <radioguy@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Radio blackouts?

Kelli Stanley <ks4color@[removed]; wonders:

Were there blackouts after Pearl Harbor?  Does anyone know what the
"plan of action" was?  I understand that quite a number of shows in
Hollywood had to reschedule because of the blackout threat.  The Guide
also lists a number of blackout stations that would be "periodically
silenced."  Did this happen?

I was very young when the US entered WWII. I don't remember any
radio blackouts but being so young I would not have know much
about what was happening on radio anyway. We lived very close to
Camp Barkley, which was an Army basic training camp near Abilene,
Texas and I do remember that we had heavy shades on all windows.
On occasions an Army jeep would pull up at night time and an
Officer would come to the door and declare a "blackout" and we had
to either turn out all lights or pull the shades so no light could
be seen outside the house.

Bill Harris

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

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 08:34:10 -0400
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Hoagy

I think it's a local and basically Italian thing because most of the
sandwiches that fall into this group were made on Italian bread.    I grew
up in Westchester County, a suburb of NYC where there were (are) many
Italians and what some people call a hoagie, or a submarine, or a hero, we
called a wedge and we bought them in Italian delis.

Very strange name.   Never thought about why it had that name, unless it was
because the sandwich was made on a big slab of italian bread.   Does anyone
know?

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

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 10:19:42 -0400
From: passage@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Nifty Device (irock 300W)

Hi All,

"Richard  Carpenter" <sinatra@[removed]; wrote:
 
  I've just tried out my new irock 300W -- a small wireless device that
plugs into a portable CD or MP3 player and broadcasts over your car radio.
<snip> The irock is supposedly available at various electronics stores 
and sites. 

Radio Shack carries it for about $25.  I works reasonably well.  It 
transmits on [removed], [removed], [removed] or [removed] MHz.  I happen to have rather
strong stations in my area on [removed]  Most home or portable radios 
have a lot of trouble receiving the irock because of it.  Their claim
of 10 to 25 feet may be based on using it when there's no other 
stations in the area near it's broadcast frequencies.

The main reason I bought it was for use in the car.  The antenna on 
the irock is the cord that plugs into the CD player, so it's 
compromised already.  Still, if you can get the cord straight and
in the clear, it does work OK.  I noticed some ignition noise and
interference from other stations that cleared this up by moving the 
unit around.  Your mileage here may vary <grin>.

Would I buy it again?  Not sure.  It's the only way I can play 
cassettes in my wife's car, with only a CD player.  And it's 
nice not having a wire dangling out of the cassette door in my
car for playing CD's.  At home, I just dangle the thing close to
the radio I'm listening to.  Beats having to make direct connections.

Frank

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

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 14:15:21 -0400
From: Eric J Cooper <ejcooper2002@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  re: radio blackouts

>From the Los Angeles Times, February 24, 1942 (this was the morning after
a Japanese midget submarine attempted to shell and take out an oil
pumping station near Santa Barbara, CA)

"At 7:58pm, upon orders from the Fourth Interceptor Command all radio
stations in southern California abruptly left the [removed] coastline was
completely blacked out from Carpenteria to Goleta. The blackout area
covered a distance of about 25 miles. The yellow alert flashed
simultaneously in police headquarters in Los [removed] The 'all-clear'
signal light was flashed in Los Angeles at 12:11 am, four hours and 13
minutes later"

And here are excerpts from the Los Angeles Times, April 26, 1943:

"Los Angeles last night underwent its sixth air-raid alert and radio
silence of the war when 'unidentified targets" later found to be friendly
plunged the city and its environs into a 56 minute blackout"
..............
"In the Los Angeles area, the yellow alert was ordered at 8:19 pm, the
blue alert at 8:26 pm and the red and radio silence alert at 8:30pm. The
all clear was given at 9:26pm"

Eric Cooper

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

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 14:15:51 -0400
From: Jer51473@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  I always thought Hal Stone was---

 Just a silly old guy like me. But from his recent post, I come away thinking
that he has philosophies on the more serious side that are not unlike my own.
I do disagree somewhat with the assertion that the media is all to blame for
disasterous change in the attitudes and behavior of our youth. The parents
have to shoulder most of the blame no matter how hard society has made this.
But, again to Harlans credit, it has been the media that changed parents
perceptions and they are being handed down now from generation to generation.
The media ridicules today the unrealistic settings for the old radio shows
such as archie, aldrich family, corlis archer, our miss brooks, joey
brewster, websters, etc. and tv programs such as beaver, father knows best,
donna reed, andy griffith, and many more as misleading youth  into a
perception of unattainable family life. Well, it also taught the youth the
correct ideals of how life should be lived and goals to strive for. Since all
these programs have been replaced by "more realistic" ones, we have seen this
vast decline in the morals and attitudes of our society as a whole and in our
youth in particular. The models for behavior have been removed, sad. Go
Harlan!

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

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 14:16:27 -0400
From: Steven Kelez <otrsteve@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: The Phantom Pirate

Arlene Osborne asked about the Phantom Pirate, so I just listened to the only
episode I have, The Last Voyage of the Sally Ann. The opening mentions the
great
ship Avenger and that the Phantom Pirate "strikes for Freedom!" Actually, the
show
sounds exactly like an episode of Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. I would bet that
the
same production staff from WXYZ, including the actors, created this program.
The
only identification comes at the end of the show, with the tag line, "This has
been a copyrighted feature of the Lesser Company." At least "Lesser" is what it
sounds like, though I probably have the spelling wrong. I'm sure a Lone
Ranger/Sgt. Preston expert would be able to name all the actors. The music, the
sound effects, the pacing, and the inflection of the announcer's voice, all
have
that George W. Trendle feel. The program runs almost 30 minutes, so I don't
think
it would have been a children's record set. But then, there is no mention of
any
sponsors, nor breaks for sponsor's messages, nor any indication that this is an
audition for a proposed series.

If this piques anyone's interest, you can find the program listed at my site,
<[removed];. While you are there try out the search
feature.
And if you like that, wait until you see the new double field search I will
soon
have available.

Steve Kelez
RADIO SHOWCASE

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

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 14:16:46 -0400
From: Jer51473@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Rexall drugstore still operating

 In Hazard, kentucky the store opened in 1912 and they claim it is still
operating even though it burned down on main street i assume recently. They
have kept it alive in this small town by creating a website. At the site you
can read the history of the old store including many personal memories by the
customers and the owners. Also there are several clink on pictures showing
life at and in the old store. You may find it interesting. Go to
[removed]

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #240
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