Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #417
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 10/25/2002 9:03 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2002 : Issue 417
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  FOTR Convention; Thursday             [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]
  Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  Cliff Johnson                         [ "alanladdsr" <alanladdsr@[removed] ]
  Re: The Eddie Cantor Story            [ Bob Fells <rfells@[removed]; ]
  McFarland books                       [ Albert Fields <nick98tom00@[removed] ]
  Apology                               [ "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed]; ]
  Eddie Cantor                          [ Harry Bartell <bartell@[removed] ]
  NOT THURL                             [ Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed]; ]
  RSI Shadow Set                        [ "Scott Eberbach" <seberbach@earthli ]
  Bob Hope &The Shadow                  [ "JPlummer" <jplummer@[removed]; ]
  Telephone exchanges, lunch, and Arch  [ "Holm, Chris " <[removed]@delphiau ]
  halloween listening                   [ "Chuck Case" <ccase3@[removed]; ]
  re The Eddie Cantor Story             [ John Henley <jhenley@[removed] ]
  Making OTR books accessible           [ Tony Baechler <tony@[removed]; ]
  Norman Brokenshire                    [ Ronald Staley <mrvintageradio@earth ]
  old phone exchanges                   [ michael berger <intercom1@attglobal ]
  Re:Eddie Cantor on Film               [ Eric J Cooper <ejcooper2002@[removed] ]

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

Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:29:29 +0000
From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  FOTR Convention; Thursday

Folks;

    It's been a wonderful day here in Newark! Today's panels included Dave 
Zwengler as Archie from Duffy's Tavern, our own Fred Berney discussing 
copying from analog to digital, our own Howard Blue presenting information 
from his new book with an all-star cast, our Gary Yoggy running through the 
ten WORST OTR shows, our Jack French discussing the breakfast programs, and 
a touching tribute to Dave Warren, hosted by our own Derick Tague.

    (Have you noticed a trend here, with most of the presenters also being 
subscribers of and contributors to the Internet OTR Digest?)

    This evening, the winning script was performed by an all-star cast lead 
by Arthur Anderson, the Those Were the Days Players from Chicago presented, 
&quot;Hall of Fantasy,&quot; and Dave Zwengler hosted a fan-based talent show.

    Outside of that, I've met lots of subscribers in the halls and dealers 
rooms, spent way too much money, and had a blast. And there are two more 
days to go!

    I've placed just a couple pictures at:

[removed]

    ...and will try to get some more pics up tomorrow.

          Charlie

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

Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:33:43 +0000
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Today in radio history

 >From Those Were The Days --

1929 - Rudy Vallee, hosting the Fleischmann Yeast Hour, was broadcast
for the first time over NBC. Actually, the Rudy Vallee show had several
different titles over the years, all of which were referred to by the
public as The Rudy Vallee Show. Megaphone-totin' Rudy and his
Connecticut Yankees band were mainstays on radio into the late 1940s.

   Joe

-- Visit my home page: [removed]~[removed] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:33:30 +0000 From: "alanladdsr" <alanladdsr@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: Cliff Johnson Bill Murtough, in writing about KFWB, mentions his announcer Cliff Johnson and his later days in Oak Park, Illinois with a morning chat/breakfast show. I remember the show and have a 20m excerpt (later time in 60's) and recall listening to it and enjoying the fluffs his kids would make. One time one of the girls (Pam, I think her name was) said "I hate Broadcast Brand Cornbeef Hash (sponsor) it burns my tongue!" I thought I was the only person who even knew who Cliff Johnson [removed], Mr Murtough. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:34:24 +0000 From: Bob Fells <rfells@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: Re: The Eddie Cantor Story Regarding Richard Pratz's comments on the film, The Eddie Cantor Story, Mr. Cantor continued to make radio appearances almost up to his death in 1964. In his last years, he taped a series a five minute segments in his home that were broadcasts a few times a week. Apparently, he discussed important news issues of the day and I believe his grandson, Brian Gari, has possession of these tapes now. Sadly, one of Mr. Cantor's five daughters died in 1959 and is entombed with him and his wife Ida. Keefe Brasselle, the actor who played Mr. Cantor in the film, later became a novelist. Although he resembled Montgomery Clift, the Cantor film seemed to end his budding film career. I recall an appearance by Mr. Brasselle on The Joe Franklin Show on WOR-TV in New York around the mid 1960s. He came on the show to promote his new book but Mr. Franklin was much more interested in asking him about Eddie Cantor. Mr. Brasselle made it clear that he preferred not to discuss Mr. Cantor or the film but Joe Franklin persisted and acted as though it were the high point of his career. Personally, I prefer to watch the films made by Eddie Cantor himself rather than these Hollywoodized film bios. I should say the same for Al Jolson and The Jolson Story. Ironically, Mr. Jolson's double, Larry Parks, also suffered career setbacks not unlike Keefe Brasselle, but for different reasons. Perhaps imitating a famous star in films is dangerous! Bob Fells ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:34:13 +0000 From: Albert Fields <nick98tom00@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: McFarland books X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain There have been questions about McFarlands books. I just purchased "Beginning of Broadcast Regulations', "Radio Live, Television Live", and Sies' "Encyclopedia" from The Scholar's Bookshelf in Cranbury NJ for $[removed] total. I have also purchased other books from them on OTR at great prices. I am not associated with them. I am a serious student and lecturer on OTR. *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear *** *** as the sender intended. *** ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:34:34 +0000 From: "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: Apology That post I made about color video tape at NBC was an error -- it was supposed to go to another mailing list. In the process of changing the address (so it would go to that list rather than only to Joe) I somehow got this list's address rather than the one I meant to use. So if anybody's wondering what that had to do with OTR, now you know how it got here. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:35:11 +0000 From: Harry Bartell <bartell@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: Eddie Cantor Richard Pratz asks > And did any of the actors on this list ever work with old banjo > eyes? I did one show with Cantor . I remember that Jimmy Wallington was the announcer and we did the broadcast from a military hospital in San Fernando Valley during WW II. I did not find Cantor particularly charming. He did play very large to the audience-- lots of mugging and lots of brave flag waving. Harry Bartell ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:35:44 +0000 From: Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: NOT THURL > ...the voice does sound the same on both sounds of This Old House, and > Dance With Me, Henry. Thurl did This Old House, but a member of David Carroll's orchestra was heard on the Gibbs recording of Dance With Me, Henry, who's history goes back to a hit record, Work With Me, Annie, sung by The Midnighters -- lyrics filled with sexual innuendos. Re-written, Etta James', Roll With Me, Henry, became a #2 hit on the rock & roll charts in 1955. This was 'covered' by Georgia Gibbs' re-named, Dance With Me, Henry, with still further watered-down lyrics, that reached #1 on the pop [removed] Sandy, the DJ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:36:09 +0000 From: "Scott Eberbach" <seberbach@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: RSI Shadow Set X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain Hi All! Has anyone bought the Shadow 40 episode collection that Radio Spirits has just put out? I'm just wondering how good it is. With other collections put out by GAA I have seen incorrect titles, inconsistent openings and [removed] Morrison openings on an Orson Welles and/or Bill Johnstone episode. Do all the episodes in the collection have the original organ music or do they have a number of them with the stock orchestration music that Charles Michaelson had inserted when he broght them out for air-play back in the 1960s? I have most of the extant episodes; however, I'm always on the lookout to improve the sound quality, find ones without the stock orchestration music, and episodes that have the correct openings and closings. Thanks in advance! Scott *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear *** *** as the sender intended. *** ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:37:28 +0000 From: "JPlummer" <jplummer@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: Bob Hope &The Shadow I picked up the Radio Spirits sets of Bob Hope and The Shadow at Sam's Club today for $[removed] ea. The packaging is cheaper than the catalog but the cassettes fall out anyway! They carry both cassettes and cds at the same price Jim Plummer ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:36:31 +0000 From: "Holm, Chris " <[removed]@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: Telephone exchanges, lunch, and Archie I checked out the website that Chris Dandrea mentioned in Digest #415 ([removed]), and looked up my exchange. I live in Saginaw, MI and the first two digits of my phone number are 79. Well, the database on this website says that the historical exchange in Saginaw for 79 is SWift. And guess what that immediately made me think of. Boy, I sure wish I had a Swift hot dog right now. I'm not sure I'd want to listen to Archie Andrews at the same time, but the hotdog would be good! -Chris Holm ...who is just kidding, I'd much rather be listening to OTR right how. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:37:43 +0000 From: "Chuck Case" <ccase3@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: halloween listening X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain Hi all, Just a question from a newbie. In your opinion, What are the three best Halloween ( scariest) radio shows? My two favorite are Suspense : House in Cyprus Canyon, and of course Mercury Theater: War of the Worlds. Being new I haven't listened enough to actually have a third one, but with Halloween just around the corner I was hoping for some suggestions for some Fright Night listening fun. Thanks Chuck *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear *** *** as the sender intended. *** ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:38:00 +0000 From: John Henley <jhenley@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: re The Eddie Cantor Story With regard to Richard Pratz' posting on the Cantor Story film:
 I wondered how Eddie Cantor (1892-1964) could ever have let his name be
connected with such a debacle.

If I recall correctly how it's told in Herbert Goldman's
Cantor biography, Cantor was quite positive, overall,
about the project while it was in production; he envisioned
having the same big success as "The Jolson Story" of several
years earlier.  More than a little desire to match or best Jolson
at that game was in play there, of course.
But as the film was unreeled, it was obvious to everyone what
a debacle it had turned out to be, and though I don't recall what his
immediate public reaction was said to be, Cantor was deeply
disappointed.

...whatever became of Keefe Brasselle?.....

In 1963, he was the star of the heavily-promoted-in-advance
variety tv show, "The Keefe Brasselle Show."  It's funny to me
that all these years later, I can sort of remember those spots.
Because I never got to see the show - it was an even bigger bomb
than that same year's "The Jerry Lewis Show," and was gone
within a handful of episodes.
Mr. Brasselle next distinguished himself as the author of a
1968 novel titled "The Cannibals."  The plot involves a nightclub
entertainer who is insulted during his act by an elderly
"ad-lib king" comic in the audience; the hero then takes
his revenge by seducing the comic's much-younger wife.
This information comes from Hector Arce's biography of
Groucho Marx - make your own inferrals.
And lastly, he has the director credit for, and appeared in,
a 1970s movie called "If You Don't Stop [removed]'ll Go Blind,"
which was one of several low-budget cash-ins on Woody Allen's
"Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex."
Brasselle died in 1981.

.....does anyone know
whatever became of the five Cantor girls?

Marjorie died in the late 1950s, a blow from which Eddie
and Ida did not fully recover.
For the status of Eddie's youngest daugher Janet, go right
here:  [removed]
and for lots of other nifty info and links, there is of course:
[removed]

Not affilliated, just glad it's there.
Cheers,

John Henley

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

Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:39:11 +0000
From: Tony Baechler <tony@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Making OTR books accessible

Hello all.  This post is mostly for authors and publishers, but hopefully 
this will be of interest to others on the list or upcoming authors.  If you 
self-publish OTR books or have written any (or many, as the case may be) I 
ask you to please read.  If you miss this request or need reminders, I will 
post again in a week or two, after the conventions are over.

As some of you might know, there are very few books about OTR available in 
Braille or other formats accessible to the blind.  The only book I am aware 
of which primarily deals with OTR in an accessible form is Dunning's 
encyclopedia.  That is only available on cassette, which can be a problem 
when trying to find page 557 and being unsure which of the 16 cassettes it 
is on.  It can be done if one wants to take the time to read the table of 
contents, which in itself takes a lot of one cassette.  There are some 
other books on radio which mention OTR, but not in as much detail.

I myself am blind and have enjoyed posts from many very knowledgable people 
here.  I know that some of them have written books, but many are not widely 
available and are usually somewhat expensive.  I would like to see more 
books become accessible, preferably from the authors themselves.  I 
understand that most authors are already losing money on their books or are 
not making very much, and I do not want to take away from what little they 
already get.  However, it is not reasonable to expect a blind person to pay 
upwards of $30-35 for a book which they cannot read without scanning 
first.  In other words, besides paying more than usual for a book, they 
must scan it as well which takes a minimum of a day and usually introduces 
errors in the text.  Therefore, it is doubtful that authors are going to 
lose royalties to blind people since most often they will not spend that 
much on a printed book anyway.

What can be done to make books more accessible?  There is a fee-based 
service called [removed]  It has recently won a prize in the StockHolm 
Challenge in education.  I am a member and can very highly recommend them 
to anyone who is blind.  However, even they have no OTR books which I could 
find, although they do have a Dunning novel.  All I am asking of authors 
and publishers is to go to [removed] at:

[removed]

and click on the "for authors and publishers" link.  Please read their page 
and consider letting them at least borrow copies of your books to 
scan.  They are volunteer-based but are backed by Benetech, Inc. of 
California.  I am not asking you to give away your work or to go through 
additional expense to make it available.  Please read their information and 
consider helping out.  Thank you very much.  I and others will appreciate 
your kindness and generocity.

There are other volunteering opportunities for the sighted public, but I do 
not have details on that. Please look at the above link and read the 
volunteering pages if interested.

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

Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:36:59 +0000
From: Ronald Staley <mrvintageradio@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Norman Brokenshire

		The United States steel Hour, or "Theatre Guild on The Air" as it was
often called had Norman Brokenshire in the early 1950's.

Brokenshire had done Hollywood Star Playhouse and the Bromo Seltzer
commercials a little earlier. His alcohol problem nearly got him banned
from radio, but he prevailed after recovery.

Larry Thor had a similar problem. He also recovered.

Lots of our greats  in OTR had to battle some sort of addiction including
Bill Stern, on of my sport announcer heroes.

Just goes to show you, we are all human--subject to frailties and addictions.

I used to love to hear the  voice of Brokenshire announcing the Theatre
Guild, though I was quite small. His imperial tones gave me comfort that
there would always be a Sunday, so long as Theatre Guild was at hand.

Ron Staley

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

Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2002 14:45:37 +0000
From: michael berger <intercom1@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  old phone exchanges

In San Francisco, at least, you could tell the district
a person lived in by the phone exchange. Ours was
SKyline which was in the Richmond District; so was
EVergreen, while OVerland was in the Sunset, MIssion in
the Mission, of course; SUtter and PRospect were
downtown, etc.

Michael Berger

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

Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2002 14:45:49 +0000
From: Eric J Cooper <ejcooper2002@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re:Eddie Cantor on Film

A much better film vehicle for Mr. Cantor was "Thank Your Lucky Stars",
circa 1943, in which he got to play a dual role. Also featured in that
film were Spike Jones and His City Slickers, Dinah Shore and Edward
Everett Horton.

Eric Cooper

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #417
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