Subject: [removed] Digest V2005 #312
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 10/11/2005 6:08 AM
To: [removed]@[removed]

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                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2005 : Issue 312
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  "Mr. and Mrs. North"/Ronnie Barker    [ "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@juno. ]
  Neil Gabler on Murrow/McCarthy        [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Ass. Directors and other such         [ Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@earthlin ]
  The Soaps                             [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr" <skallisjr@j ]
  assistant directors                   [ "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@hotmail. ]
  Orson Welles' THE HITCHHIKER          [ Paul Evans <evans_paul1963@[removed] ]
  Scripts                               [ "Paul Adomites" <padomites@ccyberne ]
  12-8-41                               [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]
  Tape to CD                            [ "Diane Brown" <dianeb1963@bellsouth ]
  Re: Ass Directors                     [ jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns) ]
  Edgar Rice Burroughs                  [ <mkerezman@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 13:38:55 -0400
From: "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  "Mr. and Mrs. North"/Ronnie Barker
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       I'm currently looking for some eps of "Mr. and Mrs. North" and/or
"The Adventures of Philip Marlowe" to add to my collection.  If anyone
on the mailing list knows where I can get either of these programs either
on cassette or in audio CD format (no MP3 CD's), please contact me
off list.

       Also, I read recently that comedian Ronnie Barker had passed away.
He was a very talented comedian and starred on such BBC programs as
"Open All Hours" and (I believe) one titled "The Two Ronnies".

Another OTR Fan,
Kenneth Clarke

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Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:21:39 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Neil Gabler on Murrow/McCarthy

On 10/10/05 1:39 PM [removed]@[removed] wrote:

So despite Murrow being late to the starting gate, his effect was
probably more powerful. The earlier columnists and cartoonists certainly
bloodied the Senator, but Murrow helped push the knife in.

Apropos this ongoing discussion is an essay by author/historian Neil
Gabler in the October 9th New York Times, in which Gabler suggests that
Murrow's specific techniques as brought to bear in the McCarthy program
have had a not-entirely-savory long-term influence in the development of
broadcast journalism -- specifically, the idea of a documentary in which
carefully-selected in-his-own-words film footage is accompanied by
pointed narration to frame public opinion about a given figure. Gabler
writes:

"Murrow chose to frame himself as the hero, McCarthy as the sinister
villain (which, admittedly, wasn't too difficult). But Murrow's terms
were not journalistic terms. They were the terms of drama and film. By
engaging in a showdown with McCarthy, a political high noon, Murrow had
converted news into theater, not incidentally increasing its force. The
journalist in Murrow understood this, and was apparently disconcerted by
it; a colleague of his at CBS told another biographer, A. M. Sperber,
that "the McCarthy program bothered the hell out of him" and led him to
wonder, "Did he or anyone else have the right to use this tremendous
power to attack one man?"

That was a question which many critics asked in 1954, as well. Gilbert
Seldes, an outspoken liberal writing in the Saturday Review of
Literature, dissected the program carefully, and concluded that it was,
in fact, not journalism at all, but rather "an attack, followed by an
editorial call to action," and went on to question whether, in the
future, this technique might be abused by those with political axes to
grind. "In the long run," Seldes concluded, "it is more important to use
our communications systems properly than to destroy McCarthy." Murrow
himself, according to biographer Sperber, acknowledged the validity of
Seldes' point.

Gabler, in his essay, draws a direct line from the techniques introduced
in the Murrow-McCarthy broadcast to the sort of personality-driven attack
journalism practiced today on certain cable news programs, where in
Gabler's words "opinion-mongering, showboating and partisanship" dominate
the presentations. I agree with his concerns. As an American I'm glad
McCarthy was finally put in his place -- but as a journalist, I think
it's appropriate to question and rexamine the methods Murrow used without
wrapping the analysis in hagiography.

(Gabler's essay is available at

[removed] )

Elizabeth

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

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:22:51 -0400
From: Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Ass. Directors and other such

A recent thread has talked about Assistant Directors in radio.  Apparently an
NBC phenom on the west coast.  They are ubiquitous in television, of course.
I sincerely doubt that the term "Ass. Director" has been widely used - at
least in print - although perhaps often muttered "under one's breath", as
some wag has said.  I believe the appropriate abbreviation - if there must be
one - is "Asst."

Now comes a posting talking about the "difference" between Senators and
Congressmen.  Both are members of the United States Congress, of course, but
only those in the House of Representatives, I believe, are referred to with
"initial caps"as Member of Congress, or [removed], in the same sense that certain
elite Brits use the designation [removed] as a title after their names, along with
all those other peculiarly British initials.

Where I now live in Virginia, the old term "House of Burgesses" for the lower
legislative house has been replaced (I think sadly) by House of Delegates,
and a members is called Delegate somebody.  Burgess - a British term - also
used to be used in Maryland.   In New Jersey, County officers comparable to
Commissioners or Supervisors in other states or Judges (in Missouri, as was
Harry Truman) bear the delightfully old-fashioned title "Member of the Board
of Chosen Freeholders" and are referred to as "Freeholder Smith".  The term
is comparable historically to Burgess.

Those who are kicked upstairs to become members of the upper house are New
Jersey State Senators, referred to as Senator such-and-such.  The lower house
of the bicameral legislature is called the New Jersey Assembly, and members
are Assemblymen and Assemblywomen.  Stay with me -  there is a reason for
this history lesson.

Some years back, a member of the NJ legislature (a Senator, IIRC) wanted to
write to all the members of the Assembly requesting their support for a
certain legislative action.  Like all such officials, the Senator had a word
processing device which would type out an individual letter to each Assembly
member with the recipient's full name,  address, and appropriate salutation.

Apparently this particular task was given to a typist who was a fledgling to
the Garden State political arena.  Here is a perfect example of "A little
knowledge being a dangerous thing".  Knowing that letters to State Senators
were given the salutation "Dear Sen. Jones", she dutifully made out each
Assembly letter to "Dear Ass. Smith" or whomever.  The letters were duly
machine-signed and rushed out for distribution.

It didn't take long for someone to notice the unusual terminology, and call
the sender's office to rib the sender about the gaff.  With alacrity - dare
we say panic - an entirely new set of letters carefully adjusted to say "Dear
Assembly member John Doe" or whomever, were prepared and messengers corraled
to hand deliver them to each Assembly office, with clear instructions
urgently to request back the original letters.

By this time everyone in Trenton heard about this, and no Assemblyperson was
willing to give up the original letter with his or her special salutation of
the day.  The hapless typist seems to have dropped from the scene.  Quickly.

I imagine many have been suitably framed and rest on the walls in recipients'
offices or homes to this day.  It's entirely possible that some have changed
hands and been sold to collectors at escalating figures.  Keep your eye on
eBay!

Enjoy - from this former NJ Senatorial aide (but not to THAT Senator!), to my
friends out there in radioland!   And "No, I do NOT have one of the letters
myself.  Drat!"

Bestus - Lee Munsick

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

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 17:16:54 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr" <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The Soaps

Herb Harrison, speaking of detergents and timelines, notes,

I didn't know detergents were sold that early. I thought they were a
post-war product. Assuming detergents were better cleaning agents, why
were radio advertisements still pushing laundry soaps into the late
1940s?

Well, I was a little kid back then, but I do know that detergents of the
period had sudsing agents added in, so they would look "more natural"
like the soap powders then in use.  I recall an early television
commercial (1951) where a detergent was supposed to have "underwater
suds" as one of its cleaning features.  Part of the psychology was that
in the all-soap days, suds were an indicator of cleaning power.

Detergents made their greatest impact postwar, of course.  Again, back in
those days, every "new" development was part of that postwar euphoria
that made us feel we were speeding headlong into a utopia of "scientific"
gadgets.  A perusal of some of the Sunday supplements and magazines like
Popular Mechanics predicted incredible advances by the year 2000.  Some
of them even came to pass, but we have yet to have flying cars,
radio-wave heaters for our homes, and the like.

One of the lesser OTR shows of the period, 2000 Plus, which I used to
listen to, seems to have been popular in part because of its projections
to our future back in those days.

In any case, I suspect that prior to the war, any detergents might have
been viewed suspiciously by the housekeepers of the period.  But after
the war, with radar, guided missiles, ant the nuclear bomb showing the
average citizen that there was a "scientific" world ahead, homemakers
would have been more likely to accept detergents as part of the brave
world ahead.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 17:17:51 -0400
From: "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  assistant directors

Re my comment about assistant directors:

...... when Fletecher Markle directed a re-creation of a Suspense show at
Columbia Records in Hollywood.

GEESH! WHo proofreads MY stuff?  I meant FLETCHER, and CAPITOL Records!

Hal Stone responded:

But then, My other good friend, (and secret lover) [removed] (Snooks)  Watkins
[removed]

Ya just can't keep a secret, can ya!

And then said:

So I offer this possible explanation for what you saw demonstrated in 1982.
Your Director, Fletcher Markle ( I don't know the gentleman) was probably so
used to using an Assistant Director (if he had graduated to TV in the 50's)
that the two of them became inseparable.

I agree that that is entirely possible. Plus he did most of his radio and TV
directing in NEW YORK (Studio One, Ford Theater, etc.) before coming to the
West Coast to be "corrupted" by the movies.  :)

I can only say for certain that I was there when it was explained that an
assistant director would do the timing and Ken McManus did it for the
Suspense re-creation. Maybe Fletcher had forgotten he did his own timing in
radio.

Another listmember Jay Ranellucci who works at Capitol Records and was there
on that occasion may have a comment on this.

Barbara

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

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 17:18:22 -0400
From: Paul Evans <evans_paul1963@[removed];
To: Old-Time Radio <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Orson Welles' THE HITCHHIKER
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How many different versions of THE HITCHHIKER exist?  I have heard one where
Welles mentions about being back in the [removed] for a short period of time, and
that he is delighted to be directing THE HITCHHIKER again.  (I think this was
through the Campbell Playhouse.)  This was, I think, the version that was
recorded on an LP.  (Oddly enough, the background music during his intro was
by Bernard Herrmann, and it became the theme from Alfred Hitchcock's TV
show.)  There is also an ad by Ken Roberts for Pabst Blue Ribbon beer before
the story starts.

Another ends with a public-service announcement about the starvation wages
and dreadful conditions of workers in Nazi Germany.

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Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 18:50:24 -0400
From: "Paul Adomites" <padomites@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Scripts

We're doing another OTR night here in Franklin, PA on October 28. We'd like
to do "Tunnel Under the World," from X Minus One, originally broadcast March
14, 1956, and FM&M's Halloween Party at Gildersleeve's, Oct. 24, 1939. Is
there a good source for scripts for these programs?
Paul Adomites

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

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 19:55:15 -0400
From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  12-8-41

Hi Everybody,

does any one know where I can find a copy of the complete broadcast day of
12-8-41 on NBC Blue and Red.  I have some of it but would like to obtain the
rest of that day.  I would also like to find a copy of Mutual coverage of
12-7-41.  Thank you for any help,

Walden Hughes

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

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 21:07:59 -0400
From: "Diane Brown" <dianeb1963@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Tape to CD
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A few weeks ago someone mentioned a device that could be used to convert
audiotape to CD. Would you please repeat the type of device? Thank you,
Diane Brown

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Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 21:08:14 -0400
From: jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Ass Directors

Oh, thank [removed]

For a moment, I thought the estimable Hal Stone was, inexlicably,
starting a thread on blue movies of the pre-war [removed]

('Talk about "wiggle [removed]")

;-)

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

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 21:08:40 -0400
From: <mkerezman@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Edgar Rice Burroughs

I got to wondering while looking up at the Moon the other night - whether
any of Edgar Rice Burroughs Non-Tarzan Fiction was ever dramatized on Radio
? .

Regards.

Mike Kerezman

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #312
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