Subject: [removed] Digest V2005 #314
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 10/12/2005 10:18 AM
To: [removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2005 : Issue 314
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Detergent and Godfrey                 [ Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@earthlin ]
  Re: Leon Belasco                      [ "Druian, Raymond B SPL" <[removed] ]
  Ave Maria Hour actors                 [ "WILLIS G Saunders" <saunders8@veri ]
  I CRASHED -- AGAIN!                   [ Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed]; ]
  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Nig  [ charlie@[removed] ]
  Golden Age candor                     [ Michael Berger <makiju@[removed]; ]
  10-12 births/deaths                   [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  Gilbert Seldes                        [ George Kelly <gkelly1@[removed]; ]
  games mentioned in otr                [ ".dan." <ddunfee@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:13:14 -0400
From: Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Detergent and Godfrey

At the risk of readers concluding understandably that I have no life other
than about Arthur Godfrey, I find another subject on this Digest that raises
a connection:  detergents!

During his career, I am aware of at least two occasions where Mr. Godfrey
"fired" sponsors.  In fact, I think there were others, but mostly they were
early in the career when he was on local radio in Baltimore or more likely
Washington.  For most of his career he was sanguine about promoting only
products that he, his family and cast had tried out, so that he could express
his personal enthusiasm, which proved contagious for his audiences.

But these two were network-wide.  The detergent was Axxion.  In case you
don't know, Arthur Godfrey was an early and dedicated conservationist:  clean
air and water, recycling, population control, the whole "ecology" thing.
That word is in our language as used today mostly because of Mr. Godfrey's
constant use of it - technically, incorrectly.

An OTR poster here referred to the suds in detergents.  Just as Pillsbury and
others found that cake mixes which needed no additive other than milk or
water and were rebuffed by mothers at home who KNEW they had to have fresh
eggs, detergent makers did their market research and learned the same mothers
associated suds with cleaning, and would refuse to buy detergents that didn't
foam or sud.  Suds?  Remember "Scrubbing bubbles - float the dirt right down
the drain"?

Sudsing had little to do with the actual cleaning surfactants in detergents,
but in there they were!  This became a serious problem because the foaming
components did not break down, as did soap suds.  They were found clogging
septic systems and sewers, then streams, swamps, deltas, rivers, and on into
oceans, which already had quite enough sudsing pollution on their own, thank
you!

The non-dissolving suds were threatening especially in high-rise buildings,
where dumped down drains they would tumble and bubble until there was
virtually no liquid left - just suds.  They would literally clog all those
multistories of drainpipes, forcing ensuing drained matter to back up into
peoples' sinks and elsewhere.  That - if not the nattering of ecologists like
Arthur Godfrey who were telling millions of folk that it was due to sudsing
detergents - finally got the attention of outfits like big-time sponsors
Colgate Palmolive (whatever happened to Peet?), Lever Brothers, and Procter &
Gamble.

Please assume that all these brand names are registered trade marks and/or
similar protection for their owners, so I don't have to mark (tm) after every
such word.

Enter Axxion.   Their development and advertising approach was that most
laundry soil was organic.   Grass stains.  Food spills.  Sticky sugar,
spilled drinks, chocolate and the like, especially from or on children,
mothers' little laundry-feeders!

Their answer:  enzymes!  They could be promoted as almost a sort of tiny life
form that would "eat up" or dissolve these forms of "dirt".  Mom no longer
needed bubbles!  Axxion was based on enzymes, not suds.  Enzymes are proteins
produced by living organisms, and function as biochemical catalysts, as
determined as far back as Louis Pasteur.

Arthur Godfrey was one of the folk unhappy with suds.  He had detailed
briefings by the makers of their "new idea", Axxion.  He was thrilled with
what they told him.  The new product was bumped to the head of the constant
line of sponsors waiting for a chance to be on the Godfrey programs.  Mr.
Godfrey gave strong personal testimonials to the new idea and to Axxion.
Both talent and sponsor were delighted with the results - as often happened
with Mr. Godfrey's newly introduced products, the boxes rapidly disappeared
off of grocery store shelves and into millions of homes across North America!

But then came word from the hustings:  those familiar beleaguered streams and
rivers!  The damn stuff never died!  It was becoming the original swamp
monster!  Mr. Godfrey's scientist friends were on his back, and he was not
pleased.  He went to the Axxion people, and they said they would change the
formula.  He waited.  As far as he could tell, nothing improved, so he
embarked on as pointed a campaign AGAINST the product as he had FOR it when
it was introduced.  The product, as they say, was "withdrawn".  For
consultation, no doubt.  A loooong consultation!

There is a same-name product on the market today, but I believe it's just the
brand name, for another type of cleaning product, not the same thing as
before.   Why the manufacturer - once bitten - would revive a brand name with
such a negative background, I can't fathom.  I am no professional launderer
so I am not expert, but I believe the new Axxion is not so much a detergent
as it is a pre-treatment product, like Shout and numerous others.  I won't
buy it in any case.

By the way, the second, even more Godfrey-connected brand that he "fired" was
Chesterfield Cigarettes, which he had built up into a major product, then of
Liggett & Myers (but no longer either).  This was after his cancer operation
when his surgeons convinced him to go public about having cancer, to urge
people to seek professional checking and medical attention to control this
scourge.

Arthur Godfrey has been credited by the medical community with undoubtedly
saving many lives through educating the public about the disease and ongoing
efforts to defeat it, just as he encouraged an aviation-wary public from the
1930s into the post-WWII years about the safety, ease and comfort of flying.

Still into the 1950s, virtually nobody would admit having "the big C", or
talk about it in terms other than previously reserved in hushed conversation,
for what are now called STDs.   He "entered stage left" on his Wednesday
night TV program holding a Chesterfield, and went into a gentle, low-key but
pointed discussion about how they and L&M had been very good "to this country
boy" and how he regretted it, but he had to stop encouraging people to smoke.
Not just Chesterfields, but any cigarettes.   Mr. Godfrey went on to become
an outspoken foe of cigarette smoking.

So my moral today, kiddies, is do not inhale either detergents or tobacco!
Until another time - Lee Munsick

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

Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 16:33:20 -0400
From: "Druian, Raymond B SPL" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Leon Belasco

 10-11-1902 - Leon Belasco - Odessa, Ukraine, Russia - d. 6-1-1988
 actor: Pagan Zeldschmidt "A Man Called X)

When I saw this entry in Ron Sayles' birthday list, I was surprised to see
only a single entry. I remember him well from "The Man Called X." but I
couldn't believe that was his entire body of work. So I Googled him. WOW!
IMDB has him down for appearances in 117 films and 17 "notable" TV guest
spots. MSN Movies notes that he was at one time a first violinist for the
Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. There was also a listing in [removed] for his
Broadway appearances. He was a very talented and versatile performer, and
it's sort of sad that he did so little radio work. Does anyone else know if
he did anything else on the radio besides a single series?

Thanx,

 B. Ray

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

Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 23:47:57 -0400
From: "WILLIS G Saunders" <saunders8@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Ave Maria Hour actors

Hi Folks

Here's some information which may be of use to the individual who was
inquiring about some of the actors on the Ave Maria Hour.  I'm not old
enough to remember all the actors on the show since its inception, I do
remember some from the late '40s to the mid-'50s.  Among these actors were:

ethel Everett, Helen Clair, Connie Lembcke, Elspeth Eric, Raynond Edward
Johnson, John Larkin, Norman Rose, John Brewster, William Podmore, Bill
Smith,Bill Lipton, and Richard Janaver.  Oops!  I almost forgot Joseph
Curtain (I hope I spelled his name right).  Of course there were others, but
that's the best my memory can come up with at this time.

Why do I remember so many?  I'm one of several blind subscribers to OTR
Digest and also an avid user of the Talking Book Program of the Library of
Congress.  Many (though not all) of the actors I mentioned were regular
talking book readers for the American Foundation for the Blind, one of the
regular recording producers for the Talking Book Program.  The others were
actors whom I just happened to be particularly fond of as actors.

I hope this has been some help.

Buck Saunders

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

Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 23:48:21 -0400
From: Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  I CRASHED -- AGAIN!

>From now on, everything goes to disc!  Need the names and addresses of
those whom I owe what to?

[removed]
          Sandy
[removed]
         [removed]

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

Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 02:12:00 -0400
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, 12 Oct 2005 08:20:48 -0400
From: Michael Berger <makiju@[removed];
To: otr <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Golden Age candor

Many thanks to Dick Bertell for his candid and
informative comments about the varied quality of the
Golden Age interviews.  I had the same reaction as the
WTIC editor to the Martha Raye interview and now,
thanks to Bertell's comments, I fully understand why
the interview never got very far with her.

In fairness, I'd like to mention some other interviews
in that series that I thought were superb. Rudy
Vallee's part 1 was amazing if for no other reason
than he had almost total recall of every person he
ever worked with; Kenny Delmar was delightful; soap
star Mary Jane Higby was full of great stories about
that genre and Hans Conreid came across as the superb
pro that he was.

Thanks, Dick and Ed, for all the good shows which are
now a living history of sorts. Nothing to apologize
for.

Michael Berger

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

Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 08:54:27 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  10-12 births/deaths

October 12th births

10-12-1899 - Phil Kramer - d. 3-31-1972
actor: grouch "The Grouch Club"
10-12-1900 - Ted Collins - New York City, NY - d. 5-27-1964
announcer, host: (longtime manager of Kate Smith) "Kate Smith Speaks"
10-12-1905 - Jane Ace - Kansas City, MO - d. 11-11-1974
comedian: "Easy Aces"; "Jane Ace, Disc Jockey"
10-12-1906 - Daniel Saidenberg - d. 5-18-1997
conductor: "Alec Templeton Time"
10-12-1909 - J. M. Kholos - d. 11-14-1998
producer: :The Zero Hour"
10-12-1912 - Robert Mitchell
choir director: (Robert Mitchell Boy Choir) "Nobody's Children"
10-12-1927 - Peggy Taylor - Inglewood, CA - d. 2-9-2002
singer: "The Breakfast Club"; "The Stan Freeberg Show"
10-12-1931 - Sam Buffington - Massachusetts - d. 5-15-1960
actor: Luke Slaughter "Luke Slaughter of Tombstone"
10-12-1935 - Luciano Pavarotti - Modena, Italy
tenor: "Metropolitan Opera"
10-12-1936 - Ron Sayles - Waukesha, WI (R: Pewaukee, WI)
gatherer of births and deaths

October 12th deaths

11-06-1916 - Ray Conniff - Attleboro, MA - d. 10-12-2002
arranger: Armed Forces Radio during World War II
xx-xx-1891 - Tim Healy - Sydney, Australia - d. 10-12-1947
commentator: "Calling All Stamp Collectors"; "Captain Tim Helay Spy Stories"
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 08:54:43 -0400
From: George Kelly <gkelly1@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Gilbert Seldes

I'm not surprised that Gilbert Seldes was offended by Murrow's
program since Seldes thought that Jack Benny's humor was "mean-
spirited."

George Kelly

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

Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 08:55:00 -0400
From: ".dan." <ddunfee@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  games mentioned in otr

I was listening to a richard diamond last night and mention was made of 3
games.  I knew 2 but the third was said to be "emmies" on the floor.  That
is my spelling and it sounded just like the tv award.  Does anyone know
what this was?

                               XB
                                IC|XC

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #314
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