Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #164
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 5/3/2002 3:54 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2002 : Issue 164
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  More Benny and Seinfeld               [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
  Life in Shakespeare's England         [ Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed]; ]
  OTR RA to MP3                         [ Chris & Carla White <cncwhite@ricon ]
  OTR books                             [ Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed]; ]
  Re: Marge's Obituary                  [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Alistair Cooke                        [ "Phil Watson" <philwats@[removed] ]
  Tape to CD                            [ "Gareth Tilley" <tilleygareth@hotma ]
  Alistair Cooke                        [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
  Rayburn and Klavan                    [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
  Norman Brokenshire                    [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
  Fred Allen                            [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
  Re: Book Notes                        [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Omnibus                               [ "Ed Kindred" <kindred@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 12:47:47 -0400
From: JackBenny@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  More Benny and Seinfeld

Another thought that crossed my mind while watching the Jerry Seinfeld
routine is how many people over the years have commented to me that
"Seinfeld" is today's "Jack Benny Program".  Apparently, the former (as Pat
Albright mentioned) cashed in on being "the show about nothing."  People
observe that Jack's program was the original "show about nothing."  Jack's
characters--more in the Jell-O days than Lucky Strike-- were standing around
talking, rather than having a background setting and pursuing a definite
plotline.  I still enjoy the observation that Dennis Day seemed to never
actually sing on the show, but he performed plenty for Jack in his living
room or other offstage settings.

Not having watched Seinfeld, I try to avoid any direct comparison of the two
shows.  But there was an editorial a few years back which I found rather
enlightening.  The author (a woman) noted that growing up, she always thought
that Jewish boys were nice, polite, quiet, well-educated young men, if a bit
bookish.  She drew some of this perception from watching "The Goldbergs".
However, her daughter had stated that she'd never date a Jewish boy because
they were loud, hyper, and brash.  Her daughter drew much of this perception
from watching "Seinfeld".

I still have many people who tell me that they felt like Jack's gang were
personal friends, even extended family members.  Some people have noted that
they fantasized that Jack was their father or grandfather, usually standing
in for someone who had passed away.  In the latest issue of "The Jack Benny
Times", I included a Larry Wilde interview where Jack notes the importance of
this audience connection:

"In the first place, to become real successful they must like you very much
on the stage.  They must have a feeling like:  ’ÄúGee, I like this
fella’Äù’Äî’ÄúI wish he was a good friend of mine’Äù’Äî’ÄúI wish he was a
relative.’Äù  You see, it’Äôs like a television show’Äîif they like you, you
may think sometimes you are doing a bad show and you’Äôre not at all.  But if
they don’Äôt like you, you cannot do a good show."

So it makes me wonder if anyone would fantasize about Seinfeld as being a
relative, or wanting his ensemble as extended family.  Is having the audience
like you just not as important any more?  Or is it just a different style?

--Laura Leff
President, IJBFC
[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 12:57:09 -0400
From: Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Life in Shakespeare's England

A friend of mine is working on his doctorate, and part of his research
involves an OTR show called Life In Shakespeare's England.  He has read
scripts, maybe heard sample shows, and he says the program ran on network
radio in the US even though it is not mentioned in Dunning.

Does anyone (Elizabeth?) have any info on this program; dates, network,
sponsor, etc?  Thanks!

Also--he needs a copy of the CBS Workshop presentation of MacBeth.  He
said it may not exist; that he has never seen a copy.  I thought I'd
throw it out to this group and see if anyone has it.

Thanks,

---Dan

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

Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 13:25:28 -0400
From: Chris & Carla White <cncwhite@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR RA to MP3

I have been seeing a lot of postings about converting otr mp3 files to wav
files but I'd like to know if anyone knows of a program that will convert
otr real audio or ra files to mp3 files. If anyone has any info on this
subject please contact me.

                      Thanks,
                   Bryant White

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

Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 14:11:24 -0400
From: Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR books

Irene Heinstein asks about several books related in
one way  or another to OTR.  I can tell her that "Tune
in Yesterday"  by John Dunning (later republished and
updated as "On the Air" in 1996), is an excellent
resource, listing details on radio shows including
airdates, sponsors, stars and guests as well as the
origins and developments of the shows.

I should add, however, that the more recent-- and more
affordable-- "On the Air" delves deeper than "Tune In
Yesterday" did. It includes a wider variety of
programs, and has more details about each show.

I recently checked Harmon's "The Great Radio Heroes"
out of the library. It's much less detailed than the
Dunning books, but told from a more personal point of
view. In one chapter, Harmon describes his meeting(s?)
with ILAM creator Carlton E. Morse.

I've seen some of the others, either the actual books
or advertisements for them, but am not familiar enough
with them to offer descriptions.

Rick

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

Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 14:49:20 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Marge's Obituary

Jim Cox wrote:

While not
intending to stir controversy, my research indicates that Fick's demise
resulted at age 29 immediately following the birth of her third child on
Valentine's Day 1941.

This is correct -- although the date was actually early the following
morning -- and from all indications the death was directly related to
complications from childbirth. The following obituary appeared in the
March 1-7 1941 issue of "Movie-Radio Guide:"

"Mrs. Peter Fick, who played Marge in the radio team of Myrt and Marge
died February 15 in Englewood Hospital, Englewood NJ, after giving birth
to a son. The twenty-eight year old actress did her February 14th
broadcast as usual, leaving for the hospital immediately after going off
the air. The child was born at 12:42 the next morning and Marge died just
eighteen minutes later. The baby is well.

"The death breaks up a mother-daughter team which has been broadcasting
continuously since November 1931. The mother, Mrs. Myrtle Vail Damerel
(who plays Myrt in the serial), has announced she will continue the
program, as she believes that is the way Marge would have wanted it.

"Marge [born Donna Damerel] was born in Chicago July 8, 1912, the
daughter of vaudeville artists. After attending Chicago public schools
until she was fifteen years old she left to join a musical-comedy chorus.
Later she joined her mother and father in a vaudeville sketch. When
vaudeville engagements became scarce the family moved to a farm outside
Chicago where the father died a few years later. The mother, pressed for
financial assistance, conceived the idea of the Myrt and Marge radio
program based upon the lives of struggling vaudeville artists, sponsored
by a Chicago chewing gum company.

"Marge is survived by two other sons, Charles Griffiths and William J.
Kretsinger, by two previous marriages, her mother, and her husband, Mr.
Fick, Olympic swimming star to whom she was married on January 13, 1940.
Funeral services were held at 8 pm, February 17, in Manhattan."

Death in childbirth was all too common up thru the 1930s -- as of 1937
the US ratio was around 600 to 800 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live
births, compared to 10 to 100,000 today. Massive blood loss and
post-natal infections (which women spoke about in horrified whispers as
"childbed fever") were the most common factors leading to maternal
deaths, and the wartime development of reliable antibiotics and
blood-transfusion techniques are the major factors in bringing this ratio
down.

As far as the car-accident story goes, Myrtle Vail was severely injured
in a car wreck in 1933, and was laid up in the hospital for several
weeks. An agency writer took over the scripting during this period, and
the character of Myrt was temporarily written out of the show by the
device of having her kidnapped by gangsters -- allowing the action to
focus on Marge's search for her sister until Myrt was sufficiently
recovered to return to the program. It may be that over the years, this
account has gotten garbled up with the story of Marge's real-life death.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 15:11:13 -0400
From: "Phil Watson" <philwats@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Alistair Cooke

Lee Munsick mentioned the great commentator Alistair Cooke in today's
Digest. Yes he's almost 94 years old, but still sends his weekly "Letter
>From America" on BBC Radio 4 on Fridays at [removed] British time. He picks on
some microscopic event in the New York papers and puts his own slant on it,
speaking for fifteen minutes. You can hear it at [removed]
at your equivalent time.

Sometimes he picks on an item of importance, sometimes not. And he's been
doing it since 1946. Every week. (That's the OTR angle, folks !)

Two or three years ago he commented on the Bobby Kennedy murder in 1968 - he
was in the room when it happened. I've never heard a more concise,
informative and erudite news report. In fifteen minutes he blew away all the
silly theories, conspiracies, the lies and misinformation, speaking with
such authority you knew he was speaking the literal truth.

I wish I'd been half as sharp as he is now at half his age !

[ADMINISTRIVIA: Mr. Cooke's Letter from America can also be heard on the BBC
World Service. Complete broadcast times (UTC, GMT) are:

Radio 4: Friday, 20:45
Radio 4: Saturday, 5:45
World Service: Saturday 10:15
World Service: Saturday 19:45
World Service: Sunday 3:45
Radio 4: Sunday 8:45
World Service: Monday 7:45
World Service: Monday 12:30

You can also read the scripts (but, oddly, not hear on demand) to his weekly
broadcasts at:

[removed]

...including the one on the Kennedy assisination Mr. Watson references which
was first broadcast in June, 1968, at:

[removed]

--cfs3]

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

Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 15:17:48 -0400
From: "Gareth Tilley" <tilleygareth@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Tape to CD

Can anyone give me some info on how to convert tape to CD? Do i need special
software? I've got lots of OTR sohws I which to convert!

Gareth

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

Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 15:39:04 -0400
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Alistair Cooke

Lee Munsick said:

Alistair Cooke, by the way, is still with us.  He will be 94 in
November.  Congratulations on a wonderful life, Mr. Cooke.  Thanks for
sharing so much of it with us in so many ways!  When will someone do a
special or Biography on him?

Lee Munsick brought up "Omnibus" and Alistair Cooke, both favorites of mine.

Cooke still does his weekly "Letter from America" for the BBC and it is
carried by NPR Stations who broadcast some of BBC World programming.
That's the case here in the SF bay area and he's as good as ever.  He pulls
no punches.

Of course 'Biography' should feature him.

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

Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 16:44:46 -0400
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Rayburn and Klavan

Michael Biel mentioned
and a guest shot on "Make
the Connection" with Gene Rayburn AND Gene Klavin.

When I was a school child I had my clock radio set to wake me up to 'Rayburn
and Finch".    Then Gene Rayburn left around 1952 and was replaced by Gene
Klavan making it "Klavan and Finch".   Now I see that Rayburn and Klavan
worked together.

Klavan's son, Andrew is a highly successful Edgar-award-winning thriller
writer.   His novel 'Don't Say a Word' was made into a movie (which he wrote
as well) starring Michael Douglas.   I have known his wife since she was a
child.   When she married Andrew she was delightfully surprised that I knew
of his father.

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

Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 16:46:36 -0400
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Norman Brokenshire

Joe Salerno asked for info about Norman Brokenshire whose verbal trademark
was:

"How do you do, ladies and gentlemen, how DO you do?"

There is quite a lot of info about him on the internet.   Try Google or
Yahoo search.

Irene
IreneTH@[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 16:46:51 -0400
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Fred Allen

Michael Biel mentioned Fred Allen's death in 1956.    As a precursor to the
Enquirer School of Journalism I will never forget my shock at seeing a
picture of Fred Allen, face down dead on a sidewalk in NY, on the front page
of the Daily News.

"What's my Line" is a legendary program and Fred made a great contribution
to that show.    He was a very popular media personality at the time of his
death.

Irene

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

Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 16:50:28 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Book Notes

Irene Heinstien wrote:

I did a search at Alibris and found the following radio books available from
used book sellers.   I don't know anything about most of them myself and
would appreciate comments from anyone who does.

Pictorial History of Radio, by Irving Settel, 1967

This was, in its first edition, probably the first book of the first wave
of OTR nostalgia, and you'll recognize a lot of the pictures. It's
surprisingly well done for a coffee table book, and includes as its
preface a 1959 article from Esquire magazine reflecting back on the "long
ago days" of the OTR era.

The Big Broadcast 1920 - 1950, 1973 ed. Frank Buxton and Bill Owen

Cast-and-credits book. Was important in its day, but is very incomplete
and has many errors, many of which have been cribbed by subsequent OTR
authors and now turn up all over the place.  However, the preface by
Henry Morgan is, in itself, worth the price of the whole book.

Tune in Tomorrow, Or How I found the Right to Happiness With Our Gal
[removed] Other Sudsy Radio Serials, by Mary Jane Higby, 1968

An excellent autobiographical account by one of the major New York soap
actresses, and one of the first such books to be written by a radio
veteran. Higby is a very entertaining storyteller.

Great Radio Heroes, by Jim Harmon, 1967  (includes actual scripts of your
magic hours lived with Jack Armstrong, Tom Mix, I Love a Mystery, First
Nighter, Inner Sanctum, Ma Perkins, Sherlock Holmes

Another of the early wave of OTR books -- it's written more from memory
than from serious research, so it shouldn't be used as a reference work.
But it makes for entertaining light reading if you're a fan of this genre
of programming.

Radio's Golden Age:  the Programs & the Personalities, by Frank Buxton and
Bill Owen, 1966

First edition, expanded to create "The Big Broadcast."

Tune in Yesterday:  the Ultimate Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, 1925-1976,
VERY PRICY

This was the reference book everyone wanted until the New Dunning came
out. I got mine new at B. Daltons for $[removed] when it first came out, but
for a long time you couldn't find it secondhand for less than $100. It
was the definitive OTR book of the 1970s-80s, but there's no longer any
reason to pay big dollars for it unless you're a manic bibliophile.

Listening in:  Radio and the American Imagination:  From Amos 'n' Andy and
Edward R. Murrow to Wolfman Jack and Howard Stern, by Susan J. Douglas, 1999

One of the few academic/deconstructionist books on radio that doesn't
make me want to throw it across the room. There's a lot of postmodern
cultural-studies theory involved here, and some of it is just a little
too farfetched to read with a straight face - but Douglas has the
advantage of being an entertaining writer even if you aren't buying what
she's trying to sell. But I do get the feeling she doesn't much *like*
OTR-style radio -- she seems much more at home writing about baby-boomer
DJ stuff.

The Great Radio Comedians,  by Jim Harmon, 1970

Same caveats apply as to Harmon's first book.

Cavalcade of Broadcasting, by Curtis Mitchell, 1970 (forward by Bob Hope)

Mitchell had been editor of Radio Guide in the late 1930s, and knows the
subject well. This is a coffee-table book -- but a enjoyable one.

Radio Comedy, by Arthur Frank Wertheim, 1979

One of the best OTR books ever written, and I'd say this even if it
didn't have two full chapters devoted to Correll and Gosden. This is a
serious, scholarly study of the development of radio comedy from the
twenties to the fifties -- with none of the usual cultural-studies
theoretical wordgames. Errors are minor, and there's comparatively little
subjective interpretation  -- more often, the approach is basic and
factual, and there are complete footnotes.

Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheet-the Marx Brothers' Lost Radio Show, by
Michael Barson, 1988

The scripts for almost the entire series of the 1932-33 Marx Brothers
program, exhumed from dead storage at the LOC. Fun to read if you're a
Marx Brothers fan, but the scripts are often quite lame without Groucho
and Chico's delivery to punch them up.

Raised on Radio, by Gerald Nachman, 2000

Personal reminiscences and impressions of radio from a child of the
1940s. Not a book to rely on as a reference source, but it makes for
pleasant light reading.

This Was Radio:  a Personal Memoir, by Joseph Julian (Introduction by Howard
Clurman), 1975

Julian was one of the workhorses at CBS-New York in the forties, and this
is an interesting look at the everyday life of a busy radio actor and the
people he interacted with (Welles, Corwin, etc.). I was disappointed,
though, that he didn't mention what should have been one of his career
highlights: in the mid-thirties, he appeared as one of Fred Allen's Town
Hall Amateurs, doing an act which involved playing popular tunes by
squeezing his hands together to make a rude and flatulent noise. I would
have liked to have known more about how he developed and exploited this
unusual talent -- to say nothing of what Janet MacRorie thought of his
performance.

Radio's Golden Years:  the Encyclopedia of Radio Programs 1930-1960, by
Vincent Terrace, 1981

Another cast-and-credits book. Lots of errors.

On the air:  the Encyclopedia of old-time radio, by John Dunning, 1998
Pricey - $[removed] and up.

The must-have one-volume reference book. It's uneven in spots -- some of
the articles are far more accurate than others, and if you're an expert
on any given show you'll probably find questionable elements in Dunning's
entry on it. But for what it is, it's very well done, and a very valuable
work to have on hand for quick reference.

Holy Mackerel! the Amos 'N' Andy Story, by Bart Andrews & Juilliard Ahrgus,
1986

This is much more about the TV series than the radio program, and when it
does discuss the radio series, it's unfortunately riddled with
misinformation and factual errors jumbled all together without footnotes
to help sort it out. It also can't decide if it wants to be a fan book or
a volume of social criticism -- and it ends up doing neither one
particularly well. On the plus side, it offers a detailed and reasonably
accurate account of the development of the TV series between 1948 and
1950 along with biographical information on the A&A TV cast. If you want
a factual history of the radio program, visit my website, and if you want
a social-history approach, Melvin Ely's book is a much better choice.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 17:34:42 -0400
From: "Ed Kindred" <kindred@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Omnibus

I have to heartily agree with Lee Munsick concerning the omission of
Omnibus from the top 50 compared to some of the dregs which made it. Lets
face it though any best ever list is slanted towards the latest as we are
rapidly becoming a country without a known history. Dennis Rodman a great
rebounder? Oh, you never saw or heard of Wilt the Stilt and so on. If you
don't have the History Channel or watch Spielberg, WWll never existed.
I grew up in a small desert oasis in the 50's that had great radio (3
stations at first) and one TV which relied on kinescopes and local live
since they could not justify the cost of coax (pre sputnik) to such a small
population base at that time.
Sunday was culture day. Well Saturday was good with the Met competing with
national collegiate football. Ah Sunday, Toscanini and Walter on the same
day.
Heck it was the only day for classical music in Phoenix unless you dx'd.
Omnibus where a khaki colored nerd could learn the existence of the Watts
towers and watch Lenny at the piano expounding on Bach or Jazz. I don't
remember any other details other than I lived for Omnibus. Today we are
inundated with TLC, History, several varieties of Discovery, PBS if you can
stand their agenda and anything from golfballs to meatballs, but in the
time of Charlemagne Omnibus was great.
Ed Kindred

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #164
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