Subject: [removed] Digest V01 #178
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 6/7/2001 1:52 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                      The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                         Volume 01 : Issue 178
                   A Part of the [removed]!
                           ISSN: 1533-9289


                           Today's Topics:

 Snake Song                           ["jstokes" <jstokes@[removed];    ]
 Michael Edwards                      [PURKASZ@[removed]                    ]
 The Digital Debate                   [Tom van der Voort <evan@[removed];]
 Smokey Montgomery                    [Duane Keilstrup <duanek9@[removed]; ]
 Tomorrow the World                   [hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];    ]
 Magic fiction                        ["Harry Machin, Jr." <harbev5@earthl]
 MICHAEL JACKSON, THE BEATLES, AND OT ["David Phaneuf" <dphaneuf@[removed]]
 Re: Birdie and Beulah                [SanctumOTR@[removed]                 ]
 Re: RADIO-RELATED 16MM FILMS         [Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];       ]
 Re: RADIO DOCUMENTARIES              [SanctumOTR@[removed]                 ]
 Re: Beulah and Company               [Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed]]
 OTR as a dying hobby                 [jason carr <mouse@[removed];   ]
 Snake Song Lyrics                    ["MAS Art Department" <wolowicz@masc]
 "Tomorrow the World" as a Motion Pic ["David H. Buswell" <dbuswell@rivnet]
 RE: Carl Amari's letter              ["Elliott Stein" <[removed]]
 Open Letter to all List Members      ["MAS Art Department" <wolowicz@masc]
 father coughlin                      ["laurie1125" <lauriep@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 12:50:12 -0400
From: "jstokes" <jstokes@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Snake Song

Alexandre Luigini composed his "Ballet Egyptien" in 1879.   I didn't go back
to the other OTR digest to see what year those other folks were dancing and
prancing to it.    It's nothing new for classical music composers or any
other composer to borrow folk music, if this be the case.   I don't know.

But let's consider some interesting borrowings of others works in musical
history.   That naughty old Rachmoninov.   He borrowed that famous old song,
"Dies Irae" from the 13th Century monk Thomas of Celano.   And look at all
the money that Rocky's "Symphonic Dances," which is a wonderful set of theme
and variations of that old motiv, brings in!   But then Franciscan's take a
vow of poverty.  :)

And look at Pete Tchaikovsky.   That old sly pants!   Why he took "Sweet
Rosey O'Grady" and put it in his "Nutcracker Ballet" just to please the New
York City audience, when he conducted his music here in America.

And I hear 'Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son' quoted note-per-note in Vaughan
Williams' "London Symphony."
- ----------------------------------------------------------
    BTW, is there a REAL COPYRIGHT LAWYER in the OTR group?   I am quite
weary the the speculation of what's right and what's wrong with Radio
Spirits.   Lots of conjecture.   But I don't think there is one person
posting who really knows the copyright law.

Jim Stokes
former "voice of classical music" on WLOL-FM, Mpls, MN,
talking into an Altec 639B mic set on cardiod pattern.
jstokes@[removed]

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 12:50:10 -0400
From: PURKASZ@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Michael Edwards

    Take it easy man. Lotta room for many topics here. Don't forget to dance!

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 12:51:12 -0400
From: Tom van der Voort <evan@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The Digital Debate

      In view of ongoing discussions of the best way to archive old radio
programs, I  thought the comments of Alan Stoker, audio restoration
engineer for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, might
be of interest. Mr. Stoker, who works with metal, glass and cardboard
discs, was the subject of an article by Daniel Menaker that appears in
"Slate". Mr. Stoker transfers his material to analog tape, and here's what
he had to say:
    "The quality of sound on tape degrades in a fairly predictable way. And
it's essentially recoverable. With digitization the storage is good up to a
point and then it falls down like a brick wall.  We've had CDs
for--what?  Only about 20 years. Who knows how long digitized CDs are going
to last?   Who knows what format is going to be next?"
Tom van der Voort

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 12:51:27 -0400
From: Duane Keilstrup <duanek9@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Smokey Montgomery

Smokey Montgomery, longtime performer with radio's Light Crust Doughboys
died June 6, 2001, of a heart attack at the age of 88.  Heaven's music just
became more heavenly.

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 12:52:15 -0400
From: hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Tomorrow the World

Hey there Dennis:

Kudo's for the historical input re "Tomorrow the World". It's a lot more
than I remember about it's critical acceptance. I just knew it was a big
hit.

Until Harlan mentioned it, I had never heard of this play.

Hey Dennis, you can call me Hal. ( I really diliked the "Stage Name" that I
got stuck with, but if I don't use it, OTR fans would probably say "Hal"
Who?)

Skip (Skippy) Homeier played the boy's role on Broadway and I am assuming
this
is the part that Harlan assumed on tour.

Don't I wish. The Producers had already found Dicky (Dick) Tyler to play the
lead in the Road Company. Then began looking for some kids the same age to
fill supporting roles, (as well as one of them to be the understudy for the
lead part of "Emil"). That assignment went to me. I did get to play the part
a few times when Dick was ill, and it was, as you say, a very challenging
role. But a gas to play.

We all know Harlan Stone as a good  actor, and  I am delighted he is
contributing to this forum.

 A modest Blush from this end!

I am wondering if Harlan desires to comment  about his work with this play.
I hope it's not one of those things he is reserving for his book which he
has already told us  he is writing.

You caught me, David. As a matter of fact, I just got through writing the
chapter that contains my recollections about the show, and about getting to
play that part occasionally. I also tell what career Dick Tyler pursued
after he quit acting, and some insight into how really neat it was to
associate with cast members like Paul McGrath, Elissa Landi and others.

I am particularly interested in how audiences reacted  to his
characterization.

Don't hate me, my kind friend with the silver tongue. I've got to save
something for the book.

But I can tell you this much. Skip Homeier was a good friend from our
earlier days working together in Radio. In Later years, I had the chance to
direct Skippy (I couldn't stop calling him that) in a series of Commercials.
You are aware that he went on to some success in films and TV programs,
right?. As a matter of fact, he starred in his own TV Detective series for a
brief period. He much preferred being called "Skip" when he got older.

Just like I prefer being called "Hal"

Hal( Blankety-Blank Harlan) Stone

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 12:52:17 -0400
From: "Harry Machin, Jr." <harbev5@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Magic fiction

Several months ago, Dan Garrett recommended two
books with the magic theme.  One of these I have just
finished reading.  The title:  "The Prestige."  (I ordered
it from [removed])  I thoroughly enjoyed the book,
and my wife is now reading it and also enjoying it.  It
concerns a feud between two stage magicians of the
late 19th Century, as well as events concerning their
descendents in the present time.  The book is a blend
of magic (in our sense), fantasy & science-fiction.  If
Dan Garrett reads this note, I want to say "thanks for
the tip."  Other readers of the Ring 2100 digest, who
like imaginative fiction, should read this book.

Harry Machin, Jr.
Scribe, Ring One

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 13:00:57 -0400
From: "David Phaneuf" <dphaneuf@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  MICHAEL JACKSON, THE BEATLES, AND OTR????

J. ALEC WEST writes:
Or Michael Jackson?  I thought it was Jackson who owned rights to the
earlier Beatles recordings.

It's my understanding that Jackson has been selling off his Beatles
copyrights and that Paul McCartney has been buying them.

Don't know the veracity of this, however.

Dave Phaneuf
"All you need is love"

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 13:01:49 -0400
From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Birdie and Beulah

In a message dated 6/7/01 9:23:23 AM, Michael Berger writes:

Speaking  of  which:  listened  to an old Gildy show recently and
when  his  maid,  Beulah, came on, the audience went bananas. She
was  funny,  but  THAT  funny?,  I thought. Then I remembered; it
wasn't a black woman speaking, but a white male and now I wonder:
as  clever as he was, how come there was no room for an authentic
black  actress,  like Lilian Randolph, who later played Beulah in
her own show, no?

***I'm afraid you have your black maids mixed up.  Beulah was the maid on
FIBBER McGEE AND MOLLY (and later on her own show).  Gildy's maid was Birdie
Lee Coggins and was always played by Lillian Randolph on radio and the GREAT
GILDERSLEEVE movies and television series.  (She also played Madame Queen in
both the AMOS 'N' ANDY radio and TV series.)  Lillian also briefly played
Beulah on radio before her sister Amanda Randolph (Kingfish's dreaded
mother-in-law) took over the role for the duration of the radio series.
Ethel Waters and Louise Beavers played the role in the BEULAH television
series.

It was Beulah who was originally portrayed by white actors, first Marlin Hurt
and later Bob Corley before the Oscar-winning black actress Hattie McDaniel
took over on radio (preceding the Randolph sisters).  Hurt always drew a huge
laugh on FIBBER McGEE AND MOLLY when he'd spin around at the microphone and
the studio audience discovered that Beulah was actually a white male.  If the
GREAT GILDERSLEEVE audience "went bananas" for Lillian Randolph's first
appearance in the show, it was because they loved her character, just like
Henry Winkler would later draw applause for Fonzie's first appearance on TV's
HAPPY DAYS.  --Anthony Tollin

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 13:02:40 -0400
From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: RADIO-RELATED 16MM FILMS

From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
Before they were available on Video Cassettes, I was a collector of
Radio-Related Vintage Movies of the 30's and 40's on 16mm Sound Film.
I had such shows as Heavenly Days, Buck Benny Rides Again, It's A Joke
Son, etc. and such Cliffhangers as Gangbusters and The Green Hornet,
Batman and Drums Of Fu Manchu.
The reason I am mentioning this is that for twenty years or more I
was collecting and trading 16mm Films and there was never a question
from any of the "powers that be" to stop what we were doing.

It's funny you should be bringing this up right now, because only this
week I have been introducing my daughter to my film collection and
teaching her how to work projectors!  I also told her the story about
the evening in the early 70s when the FBI visited my home to query me
about my films!!!  You see, the powers that be WERE concerned with the
film trade that preceeded the VCR era!  But they were only concerned
with newly struck prints of new and relatively new theatrical feature
films.

One of my sources, Gaines 16 Films, had been accused of this practice
and I was on their subscribed mailing list.  But when I showed the FBI
that I was merely buying old TV programs and old newsreels with OTR
material, and was paying substantially less than even the raw film would
have cost, they were no longer interested in me.  For example, Gains had
done a close-out on hundreds of original duplicate network prints of
"The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet" for perhaps $15 apiece.  Since the
cost of a 1000-foot roll of raw unexposed B&W 16mm film was at least $75
then, what profit could they make by pirating new prints of the
programs???  That's why the film hobby remains to this day--most sales
or trades are of old existing prints or occasional new prints of known
public domain material.

Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 13:03:13 -0400
From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: RADIO DOCUMENTARIES

In a message dated 6/7/01 9:57:46 AM, [removed]@[removed]
writes:

I own a copy of a radio documentary from 1975 on, Gunsmoke.  I also own a
copy of a documentary about The Shadow called, Voices From the Shadows.  Can
anyone tell me if there are any other documentaries of radio shows that I
could get?  Hearing interviews with the actors is really a neat thing!

***Hi.  I produced and narrated the VOICES FROM THE SHADOWS documentary.  You
might also enjoy my TOO HOT FOR RADIO documentary, included with the GAA CD
and cassette collection of the same name (which includes clips from
interviews with Edgar Bergen, Don Ameche, Mae West, GUNSMOKE cast members and
many other OTR personalities).  And if you can get the Yesteryear USA
satellite station, you'll probably want to tune into Frank Bresee's GOLDEN
DAYS OF RADIO program and some of the ongoing series that regularly feature
interviews with OTR actors.  Also, recordings are available of many of the
panels and interviews from the SPERDVAC and FOTR OTR conventions.  You might
want to join SPERDVAC to get access to their lending libraries and hear many
of these great interviews. --ANTHONY TOLLIN

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 13:19:36 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Beulah and Company

Michael Berger wonders,

Speaking  of  which:  listened  to an old Gildy show recently and
when  his  maid,  Beulah, came on, the audience went bananas. She
was  funny,  but  THAT  funny?,  I thought. Then I remembered; it
wasn't a black woman speaking, but a white male and now I wonder:
as  clever as he was, how come there was no room for an authentic
black  actress,  like Lilian Randolph, who later played Beulah in
her own show, no?

Lillian Randolph did in fact play Gildersleeve's maid, Birdie -- you're
thinking of Fibber McGee's maid Beulah, who was indeed played by the very
white, male Marlin Hurt.

Hurt had been a member of the Chicago vocal group Tom, Dick and Harry
during the thirties, along with the brothers Gordon and Bud Vandover.
This trio had been featured on the "Avalon Show Boat" program in 1940-41
(not to be confused with the better-known Maxwell House Show Boat of the
thirties) and had done comedy routines as well as singing -- Bud Vandover
specialized in doing "nance" or "swish" characterizations, as they were
known, and Hurt added a female-impersonation routine that he had based on
memories of his childhood nursemaid.

It was this routine that formed the basis for "Beulah" after Hurt moved
to Hollywood. The role was primarily a novelty bit for the amusement of
the live audience -- the whole point of the character seemed to be built
around the idea of Hurt startling the audience by breaking out suddenly
with that high-pitched squeal -- and this is why, after Hurt died early
in the run of the "Beulah" spinoff program, a female impersonator named
Bob Corley was hired to take over the part. Eventually, the novelty wore
off, and Hattie McDaniel and both of the Randolph sisters took turns in
the role before the series ended.

Beulah as a character was part of a long line of blackvoice housemaid
impersonations on radio that went all the way back to Tess Gardella's
"Aunt Jemima" and Katherine Tift-Jones's "Calliope" in the late twenties,
extended thru Harriette Widmer's various voices on "Cabin in the Cotton"
and Edith Davis's "Gardenia" on the soap "Betty and Bob" in the
mid-thirties, and finally down to the Beulahs and the Birdies of the
forties.

Given that integrated casting was still far from universal during the
early OTR era, most of the early performers specializing in these roles
were white -- Tess Gardella was an Italian-American vaudeville singer who
had played Aunt Jemima in various promotional stage shows, and became a
Broadway star in the original 1927 production of "Show Boat" (playing
Queenie to Jules Bledsoe's Joe -- Bledsoe himself was unquestionably a
genuine African-American, and this led some in the audience to conclude
that Gardella was as well. Gardella's identity was further blurred by the
fact that Kern and Hammerstien insisted on billing her as "Aunt Jemima"
thruout the run of the production.) Tift-Jones was a wealthy Southern
heiress who dabbled in radio as a hobby, Widmer was a professional
puppetteer from Mississippi who had honed her dialect skills doing puppet
shows around the Uncle Remus characters, and Davis -- who was Nancy
Reagan's mother -- had built an entire career in the 1920s playing
blackface maids on the Chicago stage. But by the forties, a few black
actresses had begun to establish themselves in radio, spurred by the
movie popularity of Hattie McDaniel.

The most important of these performers were Lillian Randolph, Amanda
Randolph, and Ruby Dandridge. All were veteran performers who could
portray endless variations on the "sassy maid" role, but occasionally
they got chances to play less-stereotyped parts, or to at least display a
shade of humanity behind the stereotype. Ruby Dandridge frequently
appeared on "Amos 'n' Andy" as a refined society matron, and Lillian
Randolph's enactment of Madam Queen during the 1943-44 season of A&A is
much more subtle, sympathetic, and interesting than the bellowing
one-dimensional shrew the character turned into when Randolph returned to
the role during the early fifties.

There were occasional black actresses in network radio who weren't
stereotyped as maids and didn't speak in dialect. Beginning around 1944,
and continuing into the early fifties, Dorothy and Vivian Dandridge, Ruby
Dandridge's daughters, occasionally played supporting roles on A&A,
usually as office workers, sales clerks, or flirty young women who caught
Andy's eye. Millie Bruce, a former Harlem showgirl who was married to
boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, was another black actress who frequently
appeared in such parts during the 1950-54 era. And over the last three
years of the original "Amos 'n' Andy" serial, Ernestine Wade played an
entire range of non-stereotyped characters, from society women and
heiresses to a Jamaican chorus girl.

What *was* rare, however, was for African-American actresses to get roles
other than as maids in non-comedy programs, except for
civil-rights-oriented series like "Destination Freedom" or "New World
A'Comin'." While black male performers like Roy Glenn and Juano Hernandez
can be heard in occasional straight roles in dramas of the late forties
and fifties I've yet to recognize any black supporting actresses in such
parts.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 13:35:52 -0400
From: jason carr <mouse@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR as a dying hobby

From: BRC Productions <platecap@[removed];

Old time radio is in fact, a dying hobby.  Has been for years.  I am in the
syndication business and OTR is considered niche or nostalgia programming by
broadcasters today.

Maybe it's a dying broadcast business, but I have seen no evidence that
the personal hobby is in any worse shape.

"Keeping the shows
alive" is a fine and noble cause, but after all, this is the year 2,001.
It's
time to move on.

Again, I think there is a useful delineation between business OTR (where it
may be time to move on - I wouldn't know) and personal and archival OTR
interests.

Perhaps it is my historian's background, but it warms my heart to think
that as long as one person somewhere has a copy of a document (OTR or
otherwise) it's still available to our descendants.

[removed], jc
work - [removed]
play - [removed]~mouse/
OTR  - [removed]

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 13:55:44 -0400
From: "MAS Art Department" <wolowicz@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Snake Song Lyrics

Here's the mid-70's Ohio version of the lyrics:

"There's a place in France,
Where the naked ladies dance
There's a hole in the wall,
so the men can see it all,
but the men don't care,
'cause they're in their underwear."

Shawn Wolo
    -who hasn't thought of that song in 'many a moon'

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 13:55:41 -0400
From: "David H. Buswell" <dbuswell@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  "Tomorrow the World" as a Motion Picture

In 1944,  the stage play that Harlan Stone, Dennis Crow, et. al. have been
discussing was also made into a motion picture in 1944 starring Fredric
March, Betty Field, Agnes Moorehead, and Joan Carroll.  Skip Homeier
reprised his role of the Nazi youth and frankly was unforgettably evil as I
can personally attest.  The screenplay, based on the stage play,  was
written, in part, by Ring Lardner, Jr.

After another 20 years or so of sporadic parts in occasional movies and TV
ventures, Homeier retired to Palm Desert, California and has refused
interviews.

Dave Buswell

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 14:15:44 -0400
From: "Elliott Stein" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  RE: Carl Amari's letter

Reply to letter from Carl:

There's one thing I don't understand Carl: With regard to your disclosure of
your copyright holdings -  Wouldn't it be in your interest to disclose your
holdings? It would mean, for example, that anyone who wants show X for
personal or professional reasons would know that RS is the company to
contact.  I would think that you would want people to know who the copyright
owner of works are so that they know who the rightful company to do business
with is.

ENS

[removed]

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 15:51:20 -0400
From: "MAS Art Department" <wolowicz@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Open Letter to all List Members

Cheers to Carl Amari for stating his case.  Regardless of what any of us
think about RSI, it's prices, or it's business practices, I think we all
need to recognize that Mr. Amari has the right to pursue his business and
it's interests.  Plus, he had the coutesy and huevos to post a letter to all
of us folks who have either been discussing or reading conjecture about his
company and it's practices.

I'm not at all crazy about the prices that RSI charges, but how often does a
person
see a product he or she wants and finds out it's really, really cheap?  I
mean, if you want a Tommy Hilfiger shirt you know that the price will be
high, but many people buy and support that line of products.  I think it's
the same with RSI. [I choose to shop the discount section of the RSI
catalog, hehehe]

If Carl Amari/RSI choose to go into the OTR business, and legally have
the right (or even exclusive right) to sell it, well that's their
perogative.  We may not like it, but "Such is the Way of the World".

I do owe RSI some thanks for introducing me to the world of OTR! So, Mr.
Amari, thank you!

Peace,

Shawn Wolowicz
Graphic Designer
Mid-American Specialties, Inc [removed] Ext. 1213

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

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 15:51:18 -0400
From: "laurie1125" <lauriep@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  father coughlin

Roby I lost your e-mail address, the tapes arrived today of Father
Coughlin. Thank you so much

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #178
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