------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2003 : Issue 61
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Grapefruit spoons [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
The Shadow/Radio shows on sale at Ta [ Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed]; ]
from Grapefruit to Hal to Gildy [ Shakehip@[removed] ]
Shiva [ JimBourg@[removed] ]
Re: A&A's 10,000th Broacast [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
really beautiful people [ Maxjo@[removed] ]
Today in radio history [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
Re: The Happy Gang [ Elmer Standish <elmer_standish@telu ]
Re: Kudo's from Bryan [ hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed]; ]
MP3 on DVD players and DVD+RWs [ philipmarus@[removed] ]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 09:25:23 -0500
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Grapefruit spoons
Fred Berney wrote, with regard to grapefruit spoons:
I can just see this product trying to be sold today. The safety
organizations would be jumping all over the manufactures to remove those
small teeth.
Fred, I have and use grapefruit spoons. You too can buy a grapefruit
spoon, just like you can buy a grapefruit knife which does the same thing,
but has sharp "teeth" on both sides. They just don't spend their
advertising $$$ on such little things these days.
~Irene
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 09:24:44 -0500
From: Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: The Shadow/Radio shows on sale at Target
In response to my initial query about programs
included in this collection, Anthony Tollin said:
I'd recommended a number of shows for the collection, including the
03/13/39 version of "Can the Dead Talk" because of the section where
Bill and Agnes are introduced to the radio audience. RSI's
engineers went with the story's 08/27/39 repeat broadcast from the 1938
Goodrich summer season which was in better sound quality but didn't include
the spot with Johnstone and [removed] However, the show is the complete
Goodrich version as broadcast the week of 08/27/39.
[removed] Now, I'm even more confused. First, I thought
Goodrich sponsored only one season-- Orson Welles and
Margot Stevenson in 1938. They had a 1939 season with
Bill Johnstone, too? Second, if it was a
Goodrich-sponsored episode, Blue Coal got the credit,
since the episodes have commercials for Blue Coal. But
then, I guess that balances out all those Blue
Coal-era shows that have Goodrich commercials (Unless
it turns out that those weren't mistakes and Goodrich
did sponsor some of the Johnstone-era shows).
And yes, to answer Tollin's other question, I like the
collection just fine. Some of the episodes
I already had before (like "The Shadow Challenged"),
but it was nice to get them in a slightly better sound
quality.
Short of buying another collection, how would one get
the updated booklet?
As to "The Shadow: Radio's Greatest Man of Mystery" I
might get that one, too. Again, there are some
duplicates with what I already own; but on the other
hand I like "the Man Who Murdered Time."
But are you saying that "The Black Abbott" and "The
Ghost Walks Again" are the SAME story, or was the
basic plot re-worked and/or "tweaked" a bit? If it is
the same story, how often did "The Shadow"
re-broadcast an episode, possibly with different
actors?
In other news, I stopped at Target today and
discovered that they were selling the 20 hour/20
cassette Radio Spirits collections Old Time Radio's
Greatest Comedies; OTR's Greatest Shows; Legends of
Radio The Bob Hope Show; and The Shadow Greatest Radio
Adventures for $[removed] each.
They usually sell for $[removed] each (and Radio Spirits,
of course, sells them in the catalog for $[removed]
barring a sale).
I have no idea how long this reduced price will be in
effect.
Once upon a time Radio Spirits sold collections that
offered 30 hours on 20 cassettes for $[removed] Now they
offer 20 hours on 20 cassettes for $[removed] What's
wrong with this picture?
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 09:26:48 -0500
From: Shakehip@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: from Grapefruit to Hal to Gildy
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This is a 3 for the price of 1 [removed]
Fred : THOSE GRAPEFRUIT [removed] I never realized that they had vanished
from our [removed] what a keen sense of observation you have ! ! ! Then
again, now-a-days I just eat them like oranges. The problem is that with
those spoons, you'd usually get more juice than bulk (unless I never knew how
to use them.) (Off topic, my favorite "kiche" device : the Norwegian
Cheese Slicer - - I don't know if we have them in the US - - it looks more
like a carrot scraper and you just scrape it along the top of the cheese, and
it gives you a perfect slice - - no cutting machine or knives needed.)
Hal : Thanks for your [removed] I will take it to heart. Practising on it
already ! (Been promoting my CD, just catching up with my CD, sorry for the
belated note of appreciation.)
Incidentally, on my upcoming CD, I did a subtle tribute to OTR, we did
SPIDERMAN (of course not an OTR) but I decided to start and end it with some
sound effects (a brief clip is up at my site) - - (This is extremely rare
now-a-days since most Jazz musicians are utterly devoid of humor.) You hear
the sound of a machine gun, a car juicing up the gast and a siren, then when
it ends you hear the police car again, sound of breaks, and a car crash.
(There's actually a brief clip on the opening page of my website - -
[removed]) - - Incidentally if I ever do another CD I'm toying of
including the theme to The Great Gildersleeve.
By the way, as a total side topic, as it is well known, the Great
Gildersleeve was able to convey every known emotion through that laugh of his
(my favorite was the "foiled again" one he'd often do at the end of the show
or when all heck was about to break loose) - - and of course he had so many
catch phases [removed] for fun, has anyone ever thought of compiling them on a
website like a brief course in Gilderspeak ? - - I think it would be
hillarious - - or even a collection of OTR catch phrases (!)
Ed
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------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 09:25:38 -0500
From: JimBourg@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Shiva
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In Digest 50 Anthony Tollin refers to a Shadow adventure, "The Curse of
Shiva". I have an Avenger show named the "Eyes of Shiva". With the Avenger
being what appears to be an obvious knock-off of the Shadow did shows
knock-off each others scripts also?
Jim Bourg
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------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 09:30:43 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: A&A's 10,000th Broacast
On 2/7/03 11:03 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:
The actual episode they used for that scene was, in fact, the 10,000th "Amos
'n' Andy" broadcast from November 1952 (22 years after the scene takes
place), in which they restaged the duo's origins.
Except that nothing in that episode is an accurate representation of what
actually happened in the original broadcasts. A few major discrepancies:
*Amos and Andy left Georgia in March 1928 not May 1927 (as suggested by
the Lindbergh newspaper headline read by Andy in the "10,000th Broadcast."
*Amos and Andy did not go directly to New York from Georgia. They first
went to Chicago -- which was, in fact, a far more important destination
point for actual African-Americans in the Great Migration than New York.
They lived in Chicago for eighteen months, and it was in Chicago that
most of the program's important early story milestones occured: it was
there that they met the Taylor family, it was there that they met the
Kingfish, it was there that they formed the Fresh Air Taxicab Company.
The partners did not move to New York until the start of the network
series in August 1929 (a move insisted upon by the network because NBC
felt that New York listeners would not be interested in a series set in
Chicago.)
*Andy did not meet the Kingfish on the street, and the Kingfish was not a
pickpocket. The partners were introduced to the Kingfish by their
landlord, Fred Washington, in order to encourage them to join the lodge.
*The partners did not buy the Fresh Air Taxicab from the Kingfish. They
bought it for $75 from a Chicago used-car dealer named Jarvis.
*Amos did not meet Ruby Taylor at church. They were introduced by
Sylvester, the 19-year-old youth who lived across the street from the
partners, and who was a friend of the Taylor family. Amos and Ruby did
not fall in love immediately, although Ruby was clearly interested in
Amos. Amos was engaged at the time to Mamie Henderson, his childhood
sweetheart back in Georgia, and his friendship with Ruby ws purely
platonic until Mamie betrayed him by marrying a traveling man from New
York about three months after Amos left Georgia. Ruby consoled him during
his period of grief, and it was then that the couple fell in love.
*The account of the Breach of Promise case involving Andy and Madam Queen
is entirely fabricated in the 10,000th episode. Andy was represented in
the case by a professional, highly effective lawyer named Collins, not by
Calhoun, who didn't even exist in the series until 1949. None of the
testimony presented in the episode is taken from the actual 1931 scripts,
and the outcome of the trial is completely altered: In reality, Amos's
detective work revealed that the Madam was in fact still married to her
second husband, who had abandoned her several years before, and had
married and divorced a third time before becoming engaged to Andy. With
no legal dissolution to her second marriage, the Madam had no legal
grounds for an engagement to Andy -- and thus no legal grounds for a
breach-of-promise case. The Madam's second husband was alive -- and was
brought to the courtroom by Amos in person as proof of what he'd learned.
This second husband, Raymond Queen, *was* ultimately lost at sea, but
this didn't happen until November 1932, while the Madam was in Reno
pursuing divorce proceedings. It was briefly suggested that the Madam
would be charged with bigamy as a result of the revelations in the 1931
trial, but Correll and Gosden quickly abandoned this storyline when it
generated protests about being inappropriate subject matter for a program
with a large family audience.
The complete scripts for the "Breach of Promise" storyline -- 64
consecutive episodes from 1930-31 -- are available on my website, at
[removed]~[removed]
Correll and Gosden were clearly embarrased and upset about the adverse
reaction to the bigamy storyline -- and it was never again mentioned in
the series. As a result, the "10,000th Broadcast" version of the story
has become a persistent OTR myth -- even to the point of being picked up
and repeated by otherwise reputable historians. Arthur Wertheim, in
"Radio Comedy," erroneously cites the events in the 1952 broadcast as
having actually been aired in the original 1931 storyline -- even though
he had access to the original scripts and could have done the research to
get it right. Joseph Boskin in "Sambo: The Rise and Demise of an American
Jester," makes an even graver error: he describes the scene in which Andy
meets the Kingfish trying to steal his watch, as aired in 1952, and
*falsifies its source* in his footnotes, claiming the scene actually
comes from a 1928 script which, in reality, has nothing to do with the
scene cited. This is the sort of bogus scholarship that makes my own work
that much more difficult, and it's unfortunately all too common in
academic writings on A&A.
One more interesting note about the "10,000th Broadcast." Seven years
after it aired, the script was recycled for "The Amos 'n' Andy Music
Hall," serialized out over a week of episodes in August 1959, to
celebrate Correll and Gosden's 30th year of network broadcasting.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 10:40:00 -0500
From: Maxjo@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: really beautiful people
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i find that all the really beautiful people were born in 1935.
max salathiel
del city,oklahoma
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------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 10:47:16 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Today in radio history
>From Those Were The Days --
1924 - John Joseph Carty of the Bell Telephone System spoke in Chicago,
IL. His speech was carried across the nation on the first coast-to-coast
radio hookup. An estimated 50-million people heard the speech.
Joe
--
Visit my home page:
[removed]~[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 13:03:27 -0500
From: Elmer Standish <elmer_standish@[removed];
To: Old Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: The Happy Gang
With reference to you query about "The Happy Gang", i did a quick
search using [removed] and used the
"Pages from Canada" option. It yielded 164 hits and in them you
should find the information you need.
One of my memories is of a segment called the "Joke Pot" introduced
by a jingle (?) which, if memory is correct, went like this:
"Ready or not, this is the spot, here comes Hughie with the Joke Pot.
Old or new, come on Hugh, let's see what's cooking in the Joke Pot"
If any of you are interested in Canadian OTR, the use of [removed]
might provide more precise information than [removed]
Regards to all OTR Digest Subscribers ===> ELMER
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 16:08:40 -0500
From: hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Kudo's from Bryan
Bryan posted:
One thing I like about the 21st century is all the resources collectors have
today to enjoy this hobby . (SNIP) It's great to read all these books written
about OTR . I just finished reading Hal Stone's book . It was great ! No
surprises there ...right?
Thank you kindly Bryan. A am indeed gratified with the positive responses
and nice comments about the book from all my fellow "Digesters".
Makes you want to find a whole bunch of Archie shows and listen and listen
and [removed]
Ooops! Let's not go overboard with enthusiasm. (Besides, I don't get any
royalties). :)
You have to keep something in mind. (And it's tied in with the current
thread about re-makes of formerly popular OTR shows). Our tastes change over
time, (with maturity, hopefully)... and without question, are influenced to
a tremendous extent by the "artistic" and/or creative evolution of
entertainment in all forms of mass media. We won't debate for good or bad.
But it's a whole new world from those old days.
When I listen to some of the Archie shows (tapes that fans have sent me), I
am struck by the similarity between the episodes. Sure, the subject matter
(plot) might be different, but the formula is the same. Archie gets in and
out of trouble, (abetted by Jughead), messes around with Veronica to Betty's
dismay, drives Mr. Andrews to distraction, etc. etc.
There shows are written for a young (7 to 15) year old audience. They can't
possible hold any appeal for mature adults with any degree of sophisticated
tastes. So I don't recommend that anyone, who is not a kid at heart, go
"find a bunch of shows" to listen to. A few will suffice, to give you the
flavor of the series, in case you never heard the show before. As to the
hard core Archie fans that grew up listening to the [removed] Ah!..That's a
different story. It undoubtedly brings back fond memories of their youth.
But it is not adult humor by any means, and can't compete with Benny, Allen,
Fibber, et al.
Question for Hal : Which network had the most popular Saturday line-up ?
Was it NBC or CBS or another network ? I am looking at a few schedules
between 1948 and 1950 and I see on NBC Frank Merriwell , Archie Andrews,
Meet the Meeks and Smilin Ed MCConnell. CBS had Mary Lee Taylor, Let's
Pretend and for a time 'Junior Miss' and even a Saturday edition of
'ESCAPE! '
Whooee! That's a question best answered by the experts among us. I just
showed up for each Saturday broadcast. I didn't keep score! :)
All I know is that there was intense competition between the two major
networks (NBC/CBS), when it came to any time slot, and that definitely
included the Saturday daytime lineup. (Remember, kids were out of school
then, so programming was aimed at capturing that market). And the two
females who headed up Children's Programming at each network were fiercely
competitive. (I would imagine that, to some extent, their jobs depended upon
it, or at the very least, affected "salary review" time). It practically
bordered on paranoia. Madge Tucker for NBC, Nyla Mack for CBS. (I worked,
off and on, for both of them).
But once I started playing "Jughead" on NBC's Archie show, I was in the
"enemy" camp as far as Nyla was concerned. But there would have been a
scheduling conflict anyway, so no problem. I think "Let's Pretend" was on at
11:00. "Archie" was in the 10:30 [removed] we were not head to head
competition. NBC touted the fact that we were the top rated Saturday daytime
program. I'm sure CBS laid the same claim for "Let's Pretend". There is no
question in my mind that each was top in their respective time slots.
How that popularity translated to holding an audience for the entire Sat
line up could best be answered by other researchers.
How many years was the Archie show live versus pre-recorded I wonder ?
I do recall Hal stating that very early on they had to do another live show
forthe west coast . How long did this last ( I forget ) ? Out west Archie was
airing at 11AM Pacific Time.
The Initial broadcasts were always "live". But if you're referring to the
delayed broadcast for the West coast, I can only rely on an increasingly
faulty memory. Maybe we did the West Coast feed "live" for the first year or
two of the shows 9 year existence. Then, magnetic tape (as opposed to
transcriptions) made recording for Delayed Broadcast practical.
Incidentally, if anyone is interested, Arthur Anderson wrote a very
definitive book about "Let's Pretend" (Published by McFarland). I believe
it's out of print, but I know that Arthur still has some copies available
that he sells at OTR conventions. Maybe you could find it on E-bay. Arthur
and I traded copies of each others book. :)
I cover the competitiveness between the Networks fairly extensively in my
book. But as far as we kid performers were concerned, we didn't get caught
up in it. It didn't matter who hired us. The color of the money was the
same. And for the most part, we were all friends, although we often competed
for the same parts.
By the way, as most of you know from my earlier postings, I made the
transition from actor to TV director. I retired from that activity (happily)
in 1980. But I'm still interested in the state of the art, and am always
amazed at the production values that are available today.
This really doesn't relate to OTR, and is slightly off topic. But I must
say, after being in the business for almost 50 years, I am always thrilled
when I see some rare spectacular form of entertainment. Yesterday, my wife
and I went to see the film musical "Chicago". We had a lump in our
collective throats throughout, (and tears of joy), at the incredible
creativity, lighting, camera work, editing, performances, and of course,
direction. The production values blew our minds. Go see it.
We saw the stage production on Broadway a few years back, and thoroughly
enjoyed the music and staging. The film is 10 times better. If it doesn't
walk away with a ton of Academy Awards, there is something wrong.
Hal(Harlan)Stone
Jughead (& Author) :) [removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 19:49:16 -0500
From: philipmarus@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: MP3 on DVD players and DVD+RWs
This may have been covered in digest before but I wanted to report with what
success I have had.
Some months ago my RIO VOLT was stolen out of my car. In seeking to find a
replacement, I went with a APEX-1201 DVD player which is available at most
Wal Marts for around $55. I have good success with this unit - I've only
found one or two old time radio shows in mp3 that it would not play. These
were shows that were encoded in stereo instead of mono 32/22. Upon
re-sampling them I subsequently got them to play. I had previously owned a
Philips Home Theater system which does play mp3s but has trouble with old
time radio shows since it "skips" no doubt because it requires a sample
frequency of 32 instead 22 that most OTR shows are encoded at.
Since I already had the philips system I run the APEX through my AUX of my
PHilips receiver and then turn TV off after selecting the shows I want to
listen to when I go to bed. The unfortunate thing is the Philips can FF
through mp3 but APEX can't. However, since I would have re-sample all my
shows to at least 32 from 22 I can live without it.
What I have found really interesting to do plaing mp3 off a DVD+RW disc. I
added a SONY DVD+RW burner thanks to a afer christmas clearance sale about a
month ago for around $249. I can dump aproximately 700 mp3 shows onto DVD+RW
and then play them back in the APEX without trouble. Since RWs can be burned
and re-written to again and again I find this a handy way to make "play
discs". I Just burned a DVD+RW with a complete set of three of my favorite
shows on one DVD+RW disc. I can erase it and make another "play disk" of my
favorites. I realize this is not for everyone, but I have found it enjoyable.
I use the philips receiver as my audio since I already had it, and is my way
turning the "tv off" to prevent excessive wear on my tv. I'm sure their other
ways. The APEX DVD player does have screen saver built into it, but I only
never noticed it working when the unit is playing, only when it is idle with
menu on screen.
Mike Kerezman
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #61
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