Subject: [removed] Digest V2008 #27
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 1/30/2008 3:13 PM
To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to:
[removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2008 : Issue 27
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  OTR in the News                       [ seandd@[removed] ]
  Partially transcribed                 [ "b. schell" <bschell@[removed]; ]
  Re: Jack and Jell-O                   [ dixonhayes@[removed] ]
  RIP Margaret Truman                   [ seandd@[removed] ]
  margaret truman dies                  [ Afanofoldradio@[removed] ]
  Credit where it's due                 [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
  Going away days                       [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
  Bob Cook and CBSRMT                   [ Rentingnow@[removed] ]
  Almanac or encyclopedia?              [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
  Nautical [removed]                   [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Nig  [ charlie@[removed] ]
  1-30 births/deaths                    [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
  Information Please                    [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
  Margaret Truman, radio personality?   [ jack and cathy french <otrpiano@ver ]

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

Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:47:44 -0500
From: seandd@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR in the News

This article from the Knoxville News is part nostalgia and part researched on black actors and black roles in OTR.  Jack Benny, Fibber McGee & Molly, Amos and Andy, The Great Gildersleeve and Beulah are all mentioned.

[removed]

Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]

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

Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:47:58 -0500
From: "b. schell" <bschell@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Partially transcribed
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

I am currently listening to The Great Gildersleeve programs from December of
1951.  At the beginning of each show the announcer says the program is
partially transcribed.  In listening to the shows I am not able to determine
which part is transcribed. Can anyone provide information on this?
Bill

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

Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:48:24 -0500
From: dixonhayes@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Jack and Jell-O
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

 I saw an old 1963 TV episode
of "The Jack Benny Show" online today and got quite a surprise: one of
the two sponsors was Jell-O, and you can actually hear Jack using his
old "Jell-O again!" greeting under the sponsor ID at the beginning of
the [removed] I had no idea Jell-O actually advertised on his TV show as they
did for six years on [removed] Anyone know how long this lasted?

Dixon

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

Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:48:48 -0500
From: seandd@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  RIP Margaret Truman

Former Big Show guest star Margaret Truman (the former President's daughter,
not Beverly Washburn) has died.

The obituary makes brief reference to her singing career but not to radio
appearances specifically.

Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]

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

Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:49:02 -0500
From: Afanofoldradio@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  margaret truman dies
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

margaret truman daniel, who sang with jimmy durante and milton berle, died
today 1-29-08, in chicago at age [removed] would have been 84 on feb.  11   ed
kienzler

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

Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:49:47 -0500
From: <otrbuff@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Credit where it's due

Our chum Stuart Lubin brings up a topic that continually mystifies and
fascinates me -- the attribution, or lack thereof, of those who labored in
the vineyards of the daytime dramas.  While you might not expect to hear an
announcer reveal "The part of Superman is played by Bud Collyer," what was
so wrong that prevented narrator Dick Stark (who wasn't allowed to tell us
his own name) from saying "John Larkin appears as Perry Mason while Joan
Alexander is Della Street"?  Only original inspirator Erle Stanley Gardner
and the talented man who turned his idea into the powerful prose of daily
gripping installments, Irving Vendig, were mentioned (besides Tide, of
course).

Stuart cites the case of Hector Chevigny who, for a time, penned The Second
Mrs. Burton.  Chevigny is one of those individuals in radio whose personal
experience rivals anything that flowed from his pen.  Born in Montana in
1904, he became a novelist of some repute.  Shortly after moving to Gotham
in 1943, meanwhile, he lost his sight from bilateral retina detachment.  He,
his wife, two kids and a seeing eye dog resided in Manhattan's Gramercy
Park.  There he successively wrote TV plays, published a passel or works
(Adjustment of the Blind, Lord of Alaska, My Eyes Have a Cold Nose, Woman of
the Rock, et al.), and passed away in 1965 at the age of 60.

He also did something of particular note to those of us curiously interested
in washboard weepers.  The Second Mrs. Burton drew three wordsmiths to its
lair over the course of a run that extended nearly 15 years from Jan. 7,
1946 to Nov. 25, 1960 (the infamous Black Friday), in this order:  Martha
Alexander, John M. Young, Hector Chevigny.  Each of those manifest a style
that was distinctly his/her own and could be instantly differentiated from
the others.  As a result, their figures and plots reached near-metamorphosis
proportions when each scribe left.

Alexander, the first (which sounds like a queen), had done her
apprenticeship in the trenches of Air Features alongside scores of other
Hummert minions, principally fleshing out dialogue for Helen Trent and her
ilk.  Gifted beyond the normal fare there, she was picked as Burton's
premiering penwoman.  There she was allowed to reach her potential,
skillfully crafting intelligent dialogue and storylines for Terry and Stan
Burton and their sidekicks.  The Burtons lived in the hamlet of Dickston
with Stan proprietor of a retail emporium.  Their story launched with
Terry's search for happiness as his second wife.  (An earlier version, aired
on CBS's West Coast stations from May to December 1942, was in fact branded
Second Wife.)

It was a fairly decent, peaceful, cheerful tale in the tradition of a
handful of authentic "family" serials then being aired -- One Man's Family,
Pepper Young's Family, etc. -- plus The Woman in My House coming along in
the 1950s.  But Martha Alexander's abrupt departure from Burton in 1947
instituted dramatic changes (dramatic being the operative word).  Her early
exit resulted from some philosophical differences with Young and Rubicam,
the ad agency producing the show.  She requested, for instance, that the
Burtons say an open-mouthed "ah" instead of a puckered "prunes" in a kissing
scene.  That was simply too depraved for "prissy" standards then touted and
she and the show went separate ways.

Burton then became a strictly formulaic serial under the tutelage of
succeeding creative genius John M. Young.  Evolving into a true drainboard
drama, it couldn't be easily separated from almost three dozen other
washboard weepers pursuing similar themes -- amnesia, backbiting, discord,
jealousy, tyranny of many sorts.  Young was a vet, straight from The Right
to Happiness, and applied all the pathos and turmoil in his arsenal to
create misery for the Burtons, especially the heroine.  It was pure soapy
saga that saw the arrival of the "first" Mrs. Burton in the plot who drove a
wedge between all the other characters, creating a misery mill that was
typical of so much pouring out of daytime radios.  Many other examples could
be given but you get the picture.  There were plenty of unscrupulous
characters to go around in that kind of environment, lots of hurt, anger,
jealousy, etc.

Just when the serial seemed fixed for life, in 1952 writer John M. Young
departed and -- almost as if riding on a white steed -- in swept Hector
Chevigny to pick up the pieces of a narrative that sounded like a carbon
copy of almost all the others on the air.  Immediately, he began to plot an
entirely new direction.  The strong imprint he made wasn't apparent at once,
for he took some time to transform the situations and characters into a
lighter, genuinely homespun soap opera.  Within a few months he was writing
what he considered his most successful sequence -- the courtship of Stan's
sister, Marcia, by Lew Archer.  Gradually Chevigny returned the storyline to
its earlier themes.  He went even further than Martha Alexander had.
Instead of being preoccupied by the fact that the second Mrs. Burton was the
second "wife," Chevigny strengthened the character of Mother Burton.

In late 1954 CBS assumed control of Burton from the ad agency.  At that
juncture Chevigny was offered an answer to an author's prayer:  he was
essentially given a blank check to write the program in any manner he chose.
Consequently, the serial evolved into an easygoing drama with comedic
relief, nearly 180 degrees opposite the formula it had followed since 1947.

There's lots more to this, should you care, in "The Great Radio Soap Operas"
([removed]).  I suspect that the episodes Stuart Lubin referred
to in which Chevigny's name was touted on the air (and often mispronounced
by announcer Warren Sweeney) may have occurred in this era of its most
charming, yet fading days when the dialogue was bright, the troubles were
light, and the figures chuckled out loud frequently over the antics of
Mother Burton (the elder).

Sorry to have run on so long.  I started out talking about why artists
weren't credited very much for their efforts on daytime radio.  I'll save
most of that for another time.  The Hummerts, of course, who controlled far
more than half of the fare, wanted all of the credit for themselves, giving
in finally toward the end to a very few who made large contributions over
sustained periods to their dramas (directors, writers, actors, announcers).
Creators-writers Irna Phillips and Elaine Carrington got name billing
virtually everywhere they went, too.  But some of the most talented
thespians like Florence Freeman (Wendy Warren, Young Widder Brown), Arthur
Hughes (Just Plain Bill), Mason Adams (Pepper Young), Aunt Jenny (Edith
Spencer) got raw deals.  If it was all being done today, of course, their
agents and/or the AFTRA wouldn't stand for it.

Jim Cox

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

Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:55:19 -0500
From: <otrbuff@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Going away days

We've referred to the cessation of daytime dramas from the airwaves many
times in this forum, frequently citing Nov. 25, 1960 as the end of the
epoch.  There was also a couple of earlier days that saw longrunning serials
vanish from the ether.  CBS banished four of its durable goods -- Backstage
Wife, Our Gal Sunday, Road of Life, This is Nora Drake -- on the same day,
Friday, Jan. 2, 1959.

That got the ax to swinging at NBC.  In one fell swoop, the chimes chain did
away with "NBC's two hours of drama in the afternoon" as it was touted
frequently on the web.  On Friday, April 24, 1959, that block from 2-4 [removed]
ET got its block knocked off.  Gone were Real Life Stories, One Man's
Family, The Affairs of Dr. Gentry, Five Star Matinee, The Woman in My House,
Pepper Young's Family.  And with it, the end of an era at NBC.  Although
there was a couple of daytime anthologies aired earlier in the day, the
serialized quarter-hour dishpan dramas that had persevered since the early
1930s at NBC were no more.

Jim Cox

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

Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:31:54 -0500
From: Rentingnow@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Bob Cook and CBSRMT

A number of years ago Bob Cook had collected  almost all of the CBSRMT and
posted them on a university FTP site.  I  haven't heard his name here.

Does anyone know anything about  him?

Larry Moore

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

Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:03:11 -0500
From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Almanac or encyclopedia?

Frank McGurn asks if there is a difference between an encyclopedia and an
almanac.  He has part of the answer from a dictionary definition
(Merriam-Webster).

An encyclopedia can be a 1-volume work, or a multi-volume work.  Articles
are arranged alphabetically.  Some encyclopedias have an index in each
volume; some have a single-volume index.
The information is usually [removed]

...as opposed to an almanac, which includes short, not comprehensive
articles.  Almanacs are usually single-volume works.  Articles can be
organized under broad subject headings, or scattered helter-skelter with no
apparent organization.

Almanacs I am familiar with include the World Almanac, which has been
published for over 100 years.  The British equivalent of the World Almanac
is Whittaker's Almanac.  The Information Please Almanac was published from
the early 1940s until recently.  The New York Times had an almanac, and
there have been others.

Multi-volume encyclopedias I have known are:  Encyclopaedia (British
spelling) Britannica, Encyclopedia Americana, Colliers Encyclopedia, World
Book Encyclopedia, Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia.   The Columbia-Viking
Encyclopedia is a notable one-volume encyclopedia.

Since I have not been a "practicing" librarian since 1998, I am sure there
are other librarians out there who can bring this information up to date.

Ted Kneebone /  1528 S. Grant Street, Aberdeen, SD  57401
Phone: 605-226-3344 / OTR: [removed]
St Marks: [removed] /

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

Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:03:22 -0500
From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Nautical [removed]

Frank's other definition of an almanac fits what I have known as The
Nautical Almanac and Ephemeris, published by some arm of the US government.
Gives astronomical tables, and stuff like that used by navigators.

Ted Kneebone /  1528 S. Grant Street, Aberdeen, SD  57401
Phone: 605-226-3344 / OTR: [removed]
St Marks: [removed] /

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

Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:12:01 -0500
From: charlie@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Night!

A weekly [removed]

For the best in OTR Chat, join IRC (Internet Relay Chat), StarLink-IRC
Network, the channel name is #OldRadio.  We meet Thursdays at 8 PM Eastern
and go on, and on! The oldest OTR Chat Channel, it has been in existence
over nine years, same time, same channel! Started by Lois Culver, widow
of actor Howard Culver, this is the place to be on Thursday night for
real-time OTR talk!

Our "regulars" include OTR actors, soundmen, collectors, listeners, and
others interested in enjoying OTR from points all over the world. Discussions
range from favorite shows to almost anything else under the sun (sometimes
it's hard for us to stay on-topic)...but even if it isn't always focused,
it's always a good time!

For more info, contact charlie@[removed]. We hope to see you there, this
week and every week!

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

Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:37:07 -0500
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  1-30 births/deaths

January 30th birthdays

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CONRAD!!

01-30-1862 - Walter Damrosch - Breslau, Silesia - d. 12-22-1950
conductor, commentator: "Baulkite Hour"; "Music Appreciation Hour"
01-30-1882 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Hyde Park, NY - d. 4-12-1945
[removed] president: "Fireside Chats"
01-30-1885 - Ida Bailey Allen - Danielson, CT - d. 7-16-1973
homemaker: Told listeners her favorite recipies and household hints
on CBS
01-30-1896 - Joseph Gallicchio - Chicago, IL - d. unknown
orchestra leader: "Amos 'n' Andy"; "Music from the Heart of America"
01-30-1907 - Lois Wilson - Iowa - d. 1-8-1983
actor: "Jack Benny Program"
01-30-1911 - Hugh Marlowe - Philadelphia, PA - d. 5-2-1982
actor: Ellery Queen "Advs. of Ellery Queen"; Jim Curtis "Brenda Curtis"
01-30-1914 - David Wayne - Traverse City, MI - d. 2-9-1995
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre" ;" Eternal Light"; "Stars in the Air"
01-30-1914 - John Ireland - Vancouver, Canada - d. 3-21-1992
actor: "MGM Theatre of the Air"; "[removed] Steel Hour"
01-30-1915 - Dorothy Dell - Hattiesburg, MS - d. 6-8-1934
actor: "Stars of Tomorrow"
01-30-1925 - Dorothy Malone, Chicago, IL
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
01-30-1928 - Ruth Brown - Portsmouth, VA - d. 11-17-2006
singer: "Newport Jazz Festival"
01-30-1931 - Conrad Binyon - Hollywood, CA
actor: Roscoe 'Butch' Gardiner "Mayor of the Town"
01-30-1933 - Louis Rukeyser - NYC - d. 5-2-2006
economic commentator: "Rukeyser's World"; "College Quiz Bowl"
01-30-1934 - Tammy Grimes - Lynn, MA
hostess, actor: "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"; "Cavalcade of America"
01-30-1937 - Vanessa Redgrave - London, England
actor: Histories "I, Boadicea"

January 30th deaths

01-05-1911 - Jean-Pierre Aumont - Paris, France - d. 1-30-2001
actor: "Hallmark Playhouse"; "Philip Morris Playhouse"
02-11-1917 - Sidney Sheldon - Chicago, IL - d. 1-30-2007
writer: "Lux Radio Theatre"
02-18-1912 - Earl George - Donora, PA - d. 1-30-2004
actor: "Curtain Time"; "Girl Alone"; "Mortimer Gooch"
03-02-1904 - Leonard Levinson - Pittsburgh, PA - d. 1-30-1974
writer: "Fibber McGee and Molly"; "Great Gildersleeve"; "Jack Carson
Show"
03-07-1923 - Arthur Julian - Memphis, TN - d. 1-30-1995
writer: "The Beulah Show"
03-12-1910 - R. Dale Butts - Lamasco, KY - d. 1-30-1990
staff arranger for NBC Chicago
03-12-1910 - Robert Denton - d. 1-30-1990
announcer: "Dimension X"; "The Robert Merrill Show"
03-19-1919 - Alfred Apaka - Honolulu, HI - d. 1-30-1960
vocalist: "Hawaii Calls"
04-05-1921 - Barney Beck - d. 1-30-2007
sound effects: "The Shadow"; "I Love A Mystery"; "Bob and Ray"
04-23-1901 - George Harmon Coxe - Olean, NY - d. 1-30-1984
novelist: "Casey, Crime Photographer" based on his novels
05-15-1897 - Jacques Renard - Kiev, Ukraine - d. 1-30-1973
bandleader: "Burns and Allen"; "The Joe Penner Show"; "Stoopnagle and
Budd"
06-02-1896 - Katherine Bacon - Chesterfield, England - d. 1-30-1982
pianist: WOR New York
06-25-1918 - Ken Mayer - California - d. 1-30-1985
actor: Robbie Robertson "Space Patrol"
06-27-1907 - John McIntire - Spokane, WA - d. 1-30-1991
actor: Benjamin Ordway "Crime Doctor"; Lt. Dundy "Advs. of Sam Spade"
07-03-1890 - Herbert A. Bell - Rock Valley, IA - d. 1-30-1970
radio manufacturer: Co-founder of Packard-Bell in 1945
07-09-1894 - Dorothy Thompson - Lancaster, NY - d. 1-30-1961
commentator: "Commentary"
08-08-1887 - Malcolm Keen - Bristol, England - d. 1-30-1970
actor: "Cavalcade of America"
08-14-1909 - Ed Herlihy - Dorchester, MA - d. 1-30-1999
announcer: "Advs. of the Thin Man"; "Just Plain Bill"; "Vic and Sade"
08-15-1919 - Huntz Hall - NYC - d. 1-30-1999
comedian: (The Dead End Kids) "Texaco Star Playhouse"
09-15-1878 - William Hard - Painted Post, NY - d. 1-30-1962
commentator: "Back of the News"
09-21-1901 - Talitha Botsford - Millport, NY - d. 1-30-2002
composer and violinist
10-01-1890 - Stanley Holloway - London, England - d. 1-30-1982
actor, singer: "Music As You Like It"
11-09-1895 - Lou Lubin - Pittsburgh, PA - d. 1-30-1973
actor: Shorty "Amos 'n' Andy"
11-24-1904 - Pegeen Fitzgerald - Norcatur, KS - d. 1-30-1989
host: "The Fitzgeralds"
12-22-1909 - Robert Barr - Glasbow, Scotland - d. 1-30-1999
radio writer: "To Tell You the Truth"
xx-xx-1898 - Jane Seymour - Hamilton, Canada - d. 1-30-1956
actor: Mrs. Brown "Claudia and David"

Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:37:33 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Information Please

The INFORMATION PLEASE almanac did indeed originate from the popularity of
the radio progam.  John Kieran, who was a regular panelist, was involved with
it for a number of years, as was Dan Golenpaul, the creator.  However, the
staff and crew involved with it today is completely different from what the
Almanac was decades ago.  (If I was home right now I would be able to pull
out a copy of the book documenting INFORMATION PLEASE available from Bear
Manor Media, so I recommend [removed] as the book has all of the
information involving the radio show and details of the almanac's
relationship.)
Martin

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

Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:13:24 -0500
From: jack and cathy french <otrpiano@[removed];
To: OTRBB <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Margaret Truman, radio personality?

While I'm fairly familiar with the career of President Truman's
daughter, Margaret, and have read a few of her mystery novels
(including "Murder at the FBI") I had no inkling that she was also a
radio personality.  However, her obituary today in the Washington
Post attempts to make that case. It states that as a concert singer
she appeared regularly on the concert stage ($ 1,000 fee), on radio
($ 3,000 fee) and on television (fee not listed.) She signed a record
contract with RCA Victor in 1949.

The obit further states she made her radio debut in 1947 on a network
program featuring the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Later, for a seven
year period, she had her own radio show called "Authors in the News."

I've never heard of the latter series, nor does it appear in any
standard OTR reference book, including Jay Hickerson's Ultimate
History. Anybody know where the Washington Post got all this material
on Margaret's radio work?

Apparently the Post is letting bygones be bygones. She and the Post
had a tempest-in-a-teapot eruption in 1950 when one of her Washington
concerts was panned by Post music critic Paul Hume. This resulted in
a blistering letter from her father in the White House which was
picked up by the wire services and flashed around the country.

Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL
<[removed]>

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2008 Issue #27
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