------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2003 : Issue 113
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Re: WU Clocks [ "jay ranellucci" <otrfan@[removed]; ]
L:os Angeles pronunciation [ "jay ranellucci" <otrfan@[removed]; ]
Free Radio Shows [ otrdigest@[removed] ]
Old Talk Shows [ "jay ranellucci" <otrfan@[removed]; ]
Ozzie & Harriet on Monday [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
more Currency Notes [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
Hotbreath Houlihan [ "Harry Machin Jr" <harbev5@earthlin ]
Orphan Annie and Joe [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
Re: Aimee Semple McPherson [ "Stewart Wright" <stewwright@worldn ]
Re: Why A&A? [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
Network Clocks [ "Randall F. Miller Jr." <rfmillerjr ]
Lawrence Salerno [ "joe@[removed]" <sergei01@earthli ]
$1,000 Bill [ "Steve Thoburn" <scthoburn@adelphia ]
I've received a strange question [ Al Girard <24agirard24@[removed] ]
Re: M*A*S*H [ Ga6string@[removed] ]
Re: Orphan Annie CD Set [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 17:57:35 -0500
From: "jay ranellucci" <otrfan@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: WU Clocks
In issue #109 Bill Orr told of how Western Union clocks were synchronized
all around the country and in issue #110 I told how the reset the clocks
from daylight savings time to standard time.
Now if Bill could refresh my memory how did they move the clock ahead
one hour? I'm sure there must be a simple answer. I know I don't know
how it was done. Jay
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 17:57:57 -0500
From: "jay ranellucci" <otrfan@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: L:os Angeles pronunciation
I seem to remember 1947 was the year the pronunciation of Los Angeles
was standardized. I think it was the Southern California Association of
Broadcasters that decided to Anglicize it and all the member radio stations
of the association agreed to use just the one pronunciation.
Maybe some of the people on this list who were in [removed] at the time can
correct and or clarify this. Jay
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 17:58:04 -0500
From: otrdigest@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Free Radio Shows
A good site with free radio shows is
[removed]
Andrew Steinberg
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 17:58:22 -0500
From: "jay ranellucci" <otrfan@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Old Talk Shows
Speaking of old talk show does anyone remember listening to the Night
Owl show with Ben Hunter on clear channel KFI 640Kc? In [removed] it came on
around midnight to about [removed]
I remember listening to Ben getting calls from all over the [removed] This was
back in the 1950's Also around this time I believe there was similiar show
originating from Denver. I don't remember the name of the show exactly,
maybe the Lamplighter. But they had a newsletter I think that they called
"The Wick'.
The nice thing about these talk shows was they were friendly and
neighborly. Not antagonistic like some we hear these days.
Also I remember engineering one of Joe Pyne's syndicated talk show
where he's interviewing a chiropractor in the studio. Interviewing is an
understatment. It was more like lambasting the profession. But after the
broadcast when the mikes were off he told the chiropractor that he goes to
one all the time. What some people do to create a broadcast.
Jay
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 18:54:59 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Ozzie & Harriet on Monday
For anyone who has the Mystery Channel (that wonderful channel that shows
uncut mystery programs without commercials and in beautiful quality), part
of the Starz! Superpak, may I suggest you tune in Monday evening when at 6
pm, EST, they will be airing the episode of NIGHT GALLERY entitled "You Can
Come Up Now, Mrs. Millikan" which starred Ozzie and Harriet as a pair of
half-witted scientists attempting to create immortality with slick results.
I myself have been recording each and every episode of NIGHT GALLERY since
they began reairing them last month and they are almost through. I have
been handing the tapes to my younger sister over the past weeks who has
gotten hooked on the program. OTR fans stay tuned!
Martin
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 18:56:00 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: more Currency Notes
Joe Cline wrote:
Currency notes of denominations above $100 are not available from the
Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve System, or the Bureau of
Engraving and Printing. On July 14, 1969, the Department of the Treasury
and the Federal Reserve System announced that currency notes in
denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 would be discontinued
immediately due to lack of use. Although they were issued until 1969, they
were last printed in 1945.
This is very true. A kind of off-the-topic subject - if people mistook the
bills redesigned a couple years ago as Monopoly money, and hesitated at
first to receive them believing they were fraudulent, get ready for a new
look.
As of this autumn, a new $[removed] bill will be released in circulation
redesigned and this time in mutliple colors. Just like much foreign
currency, the $[removed] bill is going be have more than green and black. (The
reason they are starting with the $[removed] is obvious - the $[removed] bill is the
denomination counterfeited more than any other.)
Martin
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 18:56:28 -0500
From: "Harry Machin Jr" <harbev5@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Hotbreath Houlihan
I remember Hotbreath very well. Her opening line was always
"Relax, boys. It's Hotbreath Houlihan." I remember her voice and
that sexy way she announced her presence. My shaky recollection is that she
was a character for some time on the Bud Abbott-Lou Costello program and
that they were the "boys" she spoke to. But I remember very clearly that
Lou Costello's girlfriend was Bessie Mae Mucho. I think the gag about
Bessie was just her name, a joke that
a present day audience wouldn't get.
Harry Machin, Jr.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 19:29:03 -0500
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Orphan Annie and Joe
My introduction to the Annie program was through the wonderful Radio Archive
5-CD collection. That led me to want to learn more about the program on
the internet.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that at one time Mel Torme played the
part of Annie's good friend Joe. I had no idea that Mel was a child actor.
Doug Leary wrote that Florence Halop was 'Hotbreath Houlihan' on Jimmy
Durante's program. He also mentioned that she had numerous roles on TV.
The one that I remember the most was her role in 'Night Court' which was
wonderful. She was part of the original cast and died while still
appearing on that program.
And to complete my free association, anyone who watched "Night Court" will
probably remember that Mel Torme was the Judge's favorite singer, [he had
his picture in his chambers] which eventually resulted in Mel's appearing on
the show a few times.
Back to the original discussion. Does anyone know if tapes of 'Annie'
when Mel Torme played Joe are around?
-Irene
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 09:50:59 -0500
From: "Stewart Wright" <stewwright@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Aimee Semple McPherson
Here is a sidelight regarding Aimee Semple McPherson and her radio
station.
This comes from an interview tape I have of radio actor Doug Young.
Doug was enrolled in a radio school. The school would teach people
how to a radio actor, an announcer and such. The school that Doug was
enrolled in had an arrangement with Aimee Semple MacPherson for the use of
her radio station. The school and its students could use the her station
once a week to air radio dramas to give the students experience. There was
a stipulation that a religious aspect relating to God or the church had to
be worked into the plot line of each show.
Signing off for now,
Stewart
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 09:51:06 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Why A&A?
On 3/12/03 5:08 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:
When I listen to the shows now I'm amazed at what the show has to give. I
know that Ms. Elizabeth McLeod loves A&A more than anyone, and If you would
Elizabeth, would you share with us why this show means so much to you.
If you do not wish to do so that's cool.
Well, I got into studying the program out of curiosity: as I've mentioned
before, I spent a lot of time growing up around my grandparents, who were
scarred for life by their experiences during the Depression. And one of
the things that kept that generation distracted was the original "Amos
'n' Andy."
I listened to some of the half hour shows, in reruns broadcast in the
late 1970s, and I didn't really understand what the whole phenomenon had
been about. And all of the OTR books available then tended to repeat the
same shallow stories about the movie theatres and the water use and
George Bernard Shaw without ever really explaining what it was, exactly,
that captured the nation's attention about the program.
One of the Depression lessons my grandmother taught me was "You can't
depend on anyone in this life to do anything for you. If you want
anything done, you better do it yourself." So, I took that advice to
heart, and began doing my own research.
The turning point came when I read the original scripts for the entire
first decade of the original series -- over 2500 episodes worth. And then
I understood: "Amos 'n' Andy" as originally configured was not a comedy
program. It was a day to day, real-time chronicle of a small group of
working-class people desperately trying to maintain their confidence and
trying to push forward in spite of a crippling economic crisis. Often,
what happened to them had humorous overtones -- the sort of humor anyone
can find in the vagaries of daily life -- but the stories could also be
painfully tragic. (Few things I've ever read ever affected me as much as
Amos's grief when he thought Ruby Taylor had died of pneumonia.)
But the characters *survived.* They never gave up. And they kept the
really important things in mind -- above all, the original "Amos 'n'
Andy" was a story of evolving personal relationships -- emphasizing that
honest friendship is the most important posession anyone can have.
Correll and Gosden captured the essence of ordinary, everyday life among
the working class better, I think, than any other authors who ever worked
in radio -- one intellectual critic of the early 1930s praised their work
as "a bit of life as simple as a folk song." Their characters grew,
changed, progressed, *lived.* There were births -- and there were deaths.
And even today, squinting at the pages on a microfilm screen, there's an
uncanny sense of realism as the events unfold -- the characters in the
serial had a sense of genuine emotional substance that was all too rare
in radio.
For me, the only program that even comes close to the depth of the 1930s
"Amos 'n' Andy" is "One Man's Family" -- but because of the economic
conditions which surrounded my own childhood, I find it *much* easier to
identify with the struggles of A&A's little group of Harlemites than with
the upper-middle-class doings of the Barbours.
There's a lot more I could say -- but I've already said it at my website.
And that's where I'd refer anyone wanting to learn more about who Correll
and Gosden really were, and what they really accomplished:
[removed]~[removed]
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 09:51:44 -0500
From: "Randall F. Miller Jr." <rfmillerjr1@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Network Clocks
National Public Radio still uses the Naval Observatory Master Clock for it's
network standard.
When traffic is light they put the audio on the satellite on one of the
unused channels.
--- Randy Miller
Senior Engineer WITF-TV/FM & Radio Pennsylvania
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 09:51:51 -0500
From: "joe@[removed]" <sergei01@[removed];
To: "OTR List" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Lawrence Salerno
Nope, not related to me as far as I know. My grandfather's brother did live
in Michigan, he died in 1957 or so. I have always been told that our few
distant relatives were in California, but they are also no longer living
(Victor Borge joke: they are still dead).
There was also an accordionist named Frank Salerno, who recorded about 4
78-rpm sides, but I have no reason to believe he was related. Salerno is a
common name in Sicily (I'm told, never been there). My grandmother's maiden
name was Salerno before she married my grandfather, so she didn't have to
change her name, only her salutation.
Joe Salerno
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 09:52:52 -0500
From: "Steve Thoburn" <scthoburn@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: $1,000 Bill
>From [removed] Digest V2003 #112
[ADMINISTRIVIA: A beautiful photo of a $1,000 bill (front and back) can
be seen at:
[removed]$[removed]
Thanks. Now, if I could just borrow a color laser printer for a day or
[removed]
;-)
Steve Thoburn scthoburn@[removed]
Streamload ID: scthoburn
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 09:53:30 -0500
From: Al Girard <24agirard24@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: I've received a strange question
A Canadian asked me the following question, which I cannot answer. I'm
hoping
that someone from this list can come up with the answer. I guess Fibber
and Molly
must have run on Sundays.
- ----
Not sure if you can answer my question, but I hope you can. When I
was around 5 - 6 years old, Sunday nights were a special time I spent
with my Dad. Mom worked Sunday nights, my older siblings were off doing
their thing, and Dad and I listened to Fibber McGee and Molly and Jack
Benny. Why does the song the Shrimp Boats are a Coming also make me
think of those long ago Sunday Nights?
Thanks for your time.
- ----
I have no idea what the significance of Shrimp Boats Are A-coming would
have
to Sunday nights.
Al Girard
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 09:53:39 -0500
From: Ga6string@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: M*A*S*H
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
Hi all,
My two cents' worth, however belatedly, on the M*A*S*H thread: Apparently, Hy
Averback, a frequent M*A*S*H director, was referenced in the radio
"broadcasts" used in many of the episodes. Among them, you can hear him
mentioned in the opening scene of "The Army-Navy Game," in Col. Blake's
office, as part of a Bob Hope [removed] show, I believe. It's very subtle, but
it's there.
Of course, M*A*S*H paid tribute to plenty of "old-time" conventions along the
way -- how many Marx Bros. gags do you think they copped, particularly during
the first year or two?
Regarding the thread of listening to M*A*S*H, versus watching it, indeed,
I've dumped the audio from many of the early episodes onto cassette, and
they're very enjoyable to listen to in that format. I often go to sleep at
night listening to an episode. It's particularly pleasant if you have the DVD
sets (seasons 1-3 are out now, season 4 due in July), because you can TURN
OFF the laugh track on the DVD, which gives the audio a much more cinematic
feel. Try it some time!
Thanks,
Bryan Powell
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 09:53:55 -0500
From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Orphan Annie CD Set
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
The organ opening is fabulous. . . . I'm always sorry when that
guy jumps in with the lyrics to the theme, pushing the organ into
the background.
The package with my Annie CDs arrived last Wednesday just as I was starting
my drive up to NYC to visit my daughter, so the programs got me from
Kentucky all the way thru West Virginia, Maryland, just to the Pennsylvania
border.
Knowing that these were extension spotting discs, I was listening for clues
of the true origin of the recordings. I would think that anybody who
listened to this set would realize that the opening and closing organ
themes were all dubs of the same recording. Western Electric recording was
good enough that they could get away with it--and still have that full rich
sound that Irene and others have noted. But I couldn't help but wonder if
some of the surface noise we hear especially on the closing theme is from
the master disc World Broadcasting was dubbing from rather than the actual
discs my pal Joe Salerno had on his turntable. Because the fade outs on
the CDs come so quickly after the last notes of available music, we are not
able to tell if there is two sets of surface noise on the discs--but Joe
would know because he heard the discs continue after the end of the music.
How about it, Joe, where did the noise come from?
About a year or so ago there were some comments about the announcer stating
the exact starting time for the program despite it being syndicated via
recording. What if the station wanted to play it at some other time? I
might have info on this in my files but am too busy to look, but I suppose
that the contract for the extension spotting might require it to be played
at the precise established time, and on the proper day stated on the label.
This would lead me to believe that this program was syndicated in the same
form as were the Amos 'n' Andy programs in 1928 and early 1929--the
programs were done LIVE at the originating station while the syndicated
stations were playing the identical episodes that same day. This REQUIRES
that the recordings be made in advance--which would mean that these Annie
transcriptions are NOT THE LIVE WGN BROADCASTS--if indeed the WGN
broadcasts were live! Were they?
When Gosden and Correll left Chicago for a working vacation, from Sunday
April 28, 1929 onwards, the previously live WMAQ broadcasts were from the
discs. Perhaps the Annie programs on WGN were not live?? If they were
live, was the organ and vocal themes done live?? Another thing I noticed
was the horrid hollow reverberant sound of the studio the recordings were
made in. Whether the scene was outdoors or indoors, there was this same
wooden reverb off of the walls. This leads me to think that these were not
made in the WGN studios. Anybody have any recordings of confirmed live WGN
programs from this era for comparison?
Another clue as to how the recordings were made could have been gathered
from the matrix numbers of the discs, but for some reason the First
Generation Archive is not putting this information in the notation column
of their website indexes. This is surprising, considering the discussions
we have been having over the years. So guys, give us the list of the
matrix numbers matched with the program numbers and air dates, and perhaps
we might see a recording session pattern as we did with the Amos 'n' Andy
discs.
I've just printed out my 1936 Decoder Badge, so I'll get to work decoding
the secret messages. It is lucky that I did not have this last week while
I was listening to the programs. If you think it is unsafe to be using a
cell phone while driving, imagine what it would be like trying to decode a
message while driving at 70 miles per hour!!!!! And don't think that I
didn't wonder whether the concrete bridges I was driving over were safe or
not!
Michael Biel mbiel@[removed]
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #113
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