------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2004 : Issue 361
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
On-air OTR [ "Linda T" <nemesis@[removed]; ]
Longest-running detective series [ Anthony Tollin <sanctumotr@earthlin ]
So is Radio Spirits losing it? [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
Life Imitates "39 Forever" [ seandd@[removed] ]
Another Stop for "Say Goodnight Grac [ seandd@[removed] ]
Unique Radio Voices [ "jazmaan@[removed]" <dmf273@ya ]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 13:16:43 -0500
From: "Linda T" <nemesis@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: On-air OTR
My computer crashed recently and took all my e-mail addresses and websites
somewhere. Could someone on the list please re-post or send me the address
for the Los Angeles station that plays OTR online?
Thanks in advance
Linda T.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 13:18:08 -0500
From: Anthony Tollin <sanctumotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Longest-running detective series
on 11/10/04 10:49 AM, Kenneth Clarke asks:
I read in a recent mailing from Radio Spirits
that "Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons" was the longest
running detective show on radio (18 years) What confuses
me is that, according to John Dunning's "Encyclopedia of
Old Time Radio", the radio version of "The Shadow" was
on the air consistently for 27 years. Which one was on
the air the longest?
***I think it depends on what your definition of "consistently" is ... and
also "detective show." Also, July 31, 1930 through December 26, 1954 is 24
1/2 years, not 27 years.
>From July 1930 through March 1935, THE SHADOW aired as a mystery anthology
series, with the title character hosting and narrating mysteries that
featured one-shot detectives. Furthermore, THE SHADOW was usually off the
network airwaves during summer months until Blue Coal ended its sponsorship
in 1950, since the heating company had little interest in buying commercial
time over the hot summer months. THE SHADOW was also off the air from April
26, 1933 through October 1, 1934, with the exception of a one-shot audition
that aired over New York's WMCA in June of 1934 and featured the radio debut
of the LAmont Cranston character (and also pulp agents Harry Vincent, Cliff
Marsland and Burbank).
THE SHADOW did air consistently from October 1, 1934 through December 26,
1954, with syndicated repeats being heard on a variety of local stations
during the summer months when the network version was silenced. The 1934-35
CBS series starring Frank Readick was immediately followed by the MacGregor
& Sollie syndicated 15-minute series starring Carl Kroenke, which continued
to be heard for at least the next eight years and was still being syndicated
during the years Orson Welles and Bill Johnstone starred in the Mutual
network series. Also, the Welles and Johnstone episodes were syndicated to
local stations by Charlie Michelson (who had also agented the 15-minute
serial from 1938-43) during the years Bret Morrison was playing The Shadow
on Mutual.
Thus, THE SHADOW series featuring the title character as sleuth Lamont
Cranston aired continously from the first week of April 1934 through the
final week of December 1954 under a combination of network and syndicated
airings. (And we need to note that the 1938 and 1939 Goodrich syndicated
runs most likely aired on more --though smaller-- stations than the earlier
CBS, NBC and Mutual seasons.)
The 20 year-10 month run featuring The Shadow as detective hero is longer
than MR. KEEN's 17 year-6 month run. However, we also need to note that THE
SHADOW's 20-plus year run was made up of lots of syndicated repeats,
especially during the summer months when it was perhaps just too sunny for
The Shadow. MR. KEEN certainly had the longest network run, and the longest
unbroken run of new productions. --ANTHONY TOLLIN
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 16:18:42 -0500
From: <otrbuff@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: So is Radio Spirits losing it?
Kenneth Clarke observes and asks:
I read in a recent mailing from Radio Spirits
that "Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons" was the longest
running detective show on radio (18 years) What confuses
me is that, according to John Dunning's "Encyclopedia of
Old Time Radio", the radio version of "The Shadow" was
on the air consistently for 27 years. Which one was on
the air the longest?
Oh dear, I fear I'm repeating myself. It's a matter of semantics. When
Radio Spirits states that Mr. Keen "was the longest running detective show
on radio," they are absolutely, positively, 100% correct. This is a road we
have been down on this digest as recently as a couple of months ago. Mr.
Keen's 1,690 continuous (and sometimes overlapping, meaning dual)
performances from 1937-1955 easily qualify him as "the longest running
detective." For all of you who missed this argument earlier and don't have
my new volume on the kindly old investigator ("Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost
Persons: A Complete History and Episode Log of Radio's Most Durable
Detective," available from [removed], 800-253-2187), you'll find
the second, third and fourth most prolific radio detectives after Mr. Keen
delineated on page 3. And none in that quartet is named The Shadow.
Again, think semantics. The Shadow series never claimed for itself that it
was a "detective" show. What author John Dunning correctly allows is that
The Shadow was "perhaps radio's most famous fictitious crimefighter." I
find no argument with that assessment. There is a difference, however, in
assuming that he was a detective in the true sense of that word. He earns
more than five pages (with photo of Bret Morrison and Gertrude Warner) in my
book "Radio Crime Fighters: Over 300 Programs from the Golden Age" (another
McFarland release) for The Shadow fits that classification exceedingly well.
And, with a few breaks in the action, The Shadow was on the air from
1930-1954, qualifying it as one of the longest dramas in primetime.
Jim Cox
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 18:46:44 -0500
From: seandd@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Life Imitates "39 Forever"
I was a proud member of the winning team for Jackpardy at Laura Leff's "39
Forever" Jack Benny convention a couple of years back.
Apparently, last night Jack Benny figured in a critical question in the
television version of Jeopardy - as described in the following hometown news
coverage of one of the contestants.
Cool!
Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 18:51:11 -0500
From: seandd@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Another Stop for "Say Goodnight Gracie"
In final evidence that the USA PATRIOT Act didn't go far enough, Jamie Farr
is taking his one-man show on George Burns to Huntington, WV as described
below.
Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 07:27:11 -0500
From: "jazmaan@[removed]" <dmf273@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Unique Radio Voices
I've been listening to a few radio routines between Rochester and Butterfly McQueen. That's got
to be the greatest pairing of unique comic voices I've ever heard! It got me to wondering, who
are some of the other great comic voices of radio with unusual vocal tracts? Of course there was
Mel Blanc, the man of a thousand voices, but even if he or she had only one voice, who else stands
out like Rochester or Butterfly?
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #361
*********************************************
Copyright [removed] Communications, York, PA; All Rights Reserved,
including republication in any form.
If you enjoy this list, please consider financially supporting it:
[removed]
For Help: [removed]@[removed]
To Unsubscribe: [removed]@[removed]
To Subscribe: [removed]@[removed]
or see [removed]
For Help with the Archive Server, send the command ARCHIVE HELP
in the SUBJECT of a message to [removed]@[removed]
To contact the listmaster, mail to listmaster@[removed]
To Send Mail to the list, simply send to [removed]@[removed]