Subject: [removed] Digest V2004 #243
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 7/25/2004 4:59 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2004 : Issue 243
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Paper on the floor                    [ "welsa" <welsa@[removed]; ]
      "The Lone Listener"                   [ "Philip Railsback" <philiprailsback ]
      7-26 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      radio logs                            [ "dick g. wamser" <snapp@[removed]; ]
      BILL RANDLE                           [ Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed]; ]
      LSMFT                                 [ BH <radiobill@[removed]; ]
      FOTR Convention                       [ Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; ]
      Old folks                             [ "Roby McHone" <otr_alaska@[removed] ]
      Re: Mary Livingstone, Professional S  [ "Brian L Bedsworth" <az2pa@[removed]; ]
      Sam Edwards                           [ JJLjackson@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 15:08:23 -0400
    From: "welsa" <welsa@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Paper on the floor

    My, that sure is a lot of paper on the floor of that 1924 shot.  Almost too
    much to be scripts.  Me thinks, since the actors seem to be "acting" more
    than was required in radio, that the paper may be there for sound effects.
    Shuffling feet through the sand, or grass, or whatever.

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

    Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 15:08:49 -0400
    From: "Philip Railsback" <philiprailsback@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  "The Lone Listener"

>     Finally, I am stumped in trying to find a name for my new OTR based
>     website.

    "The Lone Listener", I like.  And here's another one for wordplay, and
    definitely off the wall  -- "Amos and Randy".

      - Philip

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

    Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 15:12:41 -0400
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  7-26 births/deaths

    July 26th births

    07-26-1896 - Charles Butterworth - South Bend, IN - d. 6-13-1946
    comedian: "Fred Astaire Show"
    07-26-1899 - Danton Walker - Marietta, GA - d. 8-8-1960
    broadway columnist: "Forty-Five Minutes on Broadway"; "Twin Views of the News"
    07-26-1902 - Gracie Allen - San Francisco, CA - d. 8-27-1964
    comedienne: "Burns and Allen Show"
    07-26-1903 - Donald Voorhees - Allentown, PA - d. 1-10-1989
    conductor: "Show Boat"; "Cavalcade of America"; "Telephone Hour"
    07-26-1907 - Galen Drake - Kokomo, IN - d. 6-30-1989
    commentator: "Galen Drake"
    07-26-1909 - Vivian Vance - Cherryvale, KS (Raised: Independence, KS) - d.
    8-17-1979
    actress: Ethel Mertz "I Love Lucy"
    07-26-1911 - Buddy Clark - Dorchester, MA - d. 10-1-1949
    singer: "Your Hit Parade"; "New Carnation Contented Hour"
    07-26-1918 - Stacy Harris - Big Timber, Quebec, Canada - d. 3-13-1973
    actor: Jim Taylor "This is Your [removed]"; Carter Trent "Pepper Young's Family"
    07-26-1922 - Blake Edwards - Tulsa, OK
    writer: "Lineup"; "Richard Diamond, Private Detective"

    July 26th deaths

    05-04-1927 - Terry Scott - Watford, England - d. 7-26-1994
    actor: "Junior Choice"; "Great Scott, It's Maynard"; "Hugh and I"
    05-07-1919 - Eva Peron - Los Toldos, Argentina - d. 7-26-1952
    actress, hostess: "Radio Argentina"; "Radio Belgrano"
    11-18-1901 - Dr. George Gallup - Jefferson, IA - d. 7-26-1984
    statistician: "Living 1948"
    --
    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

    Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 15:13:04 -0400
    From: "dick g. wamser" <snapp@[removed];
    To: "otr" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  radio logs

    Hello all: haven't posted in a right smart while, as I've been busy.  (so,
    who hasn't?)  I've got nearly three years' worth of saved and unread OTR
    digests to go through some day? <G>

    I've started with yesterday's issue and came across the item about attempting
    to find radio logs in the newspapers.  A memory popped up concerning my
    1950's childhood in Ohio, near the town of Panesville.  That city contained a
    newspaper, the Painesville Telegraph.  (now defunct) We lived near Cleveland
    as well as nearby other towns with network affiliated stations.  In many
    ways, equal distant from many.  As I remember, the Telegraph carried logs
    from stations in Cleveland, Youngstown, Detroit and Akron.  I'm pretty sure
    they listed programs and times as well as stations.  WGAR in Cleveland, WKBN
    in Youngstown and WJR in Detroit were all CBS radio affiliates as most of you
    know.

    The point is, if you live in a limbo town as we did, perhaps the newspaper
    morgue might be morgue fruitful than one in a big city.  Worth looking?
    Dick, Donna, Clayton, Bart, Mizzie  and Ginger

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

    Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 19:04:30 -0400
    From: Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  BILL RANDLE

    The most influencial DJ of his time.  Worked for WERE in Cleveland,
    Ohhoho.
    BILL RANDLE 1923-2004
    DJ legend Bill Randle dead at 81
    July 10, 2004

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

    Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 19:05:35 -0400
    From: BH <radiobill@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  LSMFT

    Doug writes:

> >     In the opening of some of the later Lucky Strike programs there is  an
> >     announcer who says "[removed]"  We all know what that  means, but between
> >     the lines we hear what sounds like some kind of  mechanical device clicking.

    And Laura comments:

>     I believe that's a telegraph key.  I don't know Morse code, but the
>     inference to me has always been that it's repeatedly transmitting "LSMFT"
>     much  as someone might transmit "[removed]" or "[removed]".

    It is just random clicks of a telegraph key that seems to be tapped in
    time with the words LS-MFT.  If you listen there are two groups of five
    clicks each,  two quick clicks for "LS" short pause, then three clicks
    for "MFT".

    Morse code for LSMFT is: L= dot dash dot dot - S=dot dot dot - M= dash
    dash - F= dot dot dash dot and T = dash.

    Since the telegraph uses clicks instead of tones, a dash is represented
    by two quick dots. So to spell out LSMFT with the telegraph would take
    19 clicks.

    "([removed]) Lucky Strikes/Mean Fine Tobacco"
    "([removed]) Lucky Strikes/Means Filter Tips."
    "Light up a Lucky Strike, it's light-up time."
    "Luckies taste better. Cleaner, fresher, smoother."
    "Do you inhale? Of course you do! Lucky Strike has dared to raise this
    vital question because certain impurities concealed in even the finest,
    mildest tobacco leaves are removed by Luckies' famous purifying process."
    "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet."

    Bill H.

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

    Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 19:05:53 -0400
    From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  FOTR Convention

    Looked over Jay's latest update for the Friends of Old Time Radio
    Convention in October.

    Glad to see Jack Bivans as one of the guests. Jack and I have emailed each
    other over the past few years about his role in Captain Midnight, which is
    featured on my web site

    [removed]

    Jack provided a number of photographs that I have on the pages plus some
    background information.
    Hopefully, he will be able to make it and I can finally meet him in person.

    Jim Widner
    jwidner@[removed]

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

    Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 19:06:20 -0400
    From: "Roby McHone" <otr_alaska@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Old folks

    In the latest OTR Digest Mark Kinsler noted "I'm pretty sure that their
    dress and hairstyles make them look a good deal older than the were."  I had
    to laugh at that because it is true.  Last year my high school had a
    re-union, I mean the every class that graduated from there because it was a
    very small school.  The largest class was 1966 (26) the smallest was 1954
    (1).  My daughter, who is 20, was going through the 1966 year book and
    thought the senior class was the teachers section until she saw my picture.
    She said that we all looked to be in our late 20s or early 30s.  She was
    right, compared to her friends we did look much older and more mature.
    Maybe the fact that the pictures were in black and white as well as dress
    and hairstyle had something to do with it or maybe no piercings or tattoos.

    Roby McHone
    Fairbanks, Alaska

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

    Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 19:07:17 -0400
    From: "Brian L Bedsworth" <az2pa@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Mary Livingstone, Professional
     Script-Dropper?

    Jer51473@[removed] reminds us that:

>     Mary Linvingston was a professional
>     radio performer. She did the show for years and im sure she got paid.

    Are you? Other than any prescribed AFRA minimums (which =anyone= with a
    speaking part on a scripted series received, amateur or "professional"), it
    would be a surprise if Sadye/"Mary" drew a regular salary, if only because
    of the favorable tax treatment on income received through a corporation
    (either the CBS-era "Amusement Enterprises" shell or whatever other entity
    Jack's business manager used before that) in the (bad old) days of 90% top
    marginal tax rates on personal income.

>     She was
>     a household name. Because she was nervous certainly doesnt make her a non
>     professional. Ive heard many actors, performers, athletes, etc. testify to
>     being nervous, uneasy or whatever, but that does not make them unprofessional.
>     Its well known that Mary was nervous, but to the public only because we have
>     been told such by Mary and others close to her. She sure didnt come across on
>     the air, to me, as being anything but an entertaining performer and just as
>     professional as many others that were better known or not as well known as
>     she was.

    She was also well known for being, shall we say, a bit on the, ah, "odd"
    side. (Biographical sketches of Benny by both George Burns and Milton Berle
    go into great detail on these matters, but sympathetic treatments by Irving
    Fein -- and even Jack & Joan's book -- allude to them, but only if you know
    how to fill in some of the gaps.) Based largely on her, um, personal
    idiosyncrasies -- presuming the words of those in the industry who knew Jack
    best are to be trusted -- Sadye Marks Kubelsky was in the business =solely=
    because she was "Mrs. Jack Benny" (a title and persona she would eventually
    assume in place of either Sadye or "Mary" for the last two decades of her
    life), and not because of any level of "professionalism" she may have
    projected or may have been attributed to her.

>     The determining factor as to whether she was a professional or not sure
>     wasnt "did she drop paper on the floor or not?".

    Think of it as a "window on the soul", then. If, indeed, it was considered
    by the vast bulk of the industry to be "unprofessional" to drop script pages
    to the floor, what does it say about someone who continues to do so?
    (Presuming, again, that the Camp Hahn video shows Mary dropping pages to the
    floor rather than, say, on a table out of camera range.)

    Don't take this to be saying that Sadye was untalented or did not perform
    well in the role of "Mary Livingstone". =Do= take it to be saying that
    there's more to being a professional in =any= field than just talent.

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

    Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 19:56:47 -0400
    From: JJLjackson@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Sam Edwards

    It is with great sadness I have to share some news.

    Bill Edwards, Sam and Bev's son, called me on Sunday afternoon (7/25) to say
    that Sam is dying. He has a hole in his heart, which can't be mended, and he
    will slip away tonight. Sam has had a quadruple bypass 12 years ago, and they
    deteriorate after 10 years. The family is gathering around him in Durango as
    he slides. Bill said that Sam was alert and aware of everyone up until the
    very end.

    Bill will be composing the obit for the LA Times, and I promised that we'd
    take care of getting it to the Seattle papers. I've asked Paul Feavel if he
    has a photograph that would be good to accompany it.

    We were fortunate to have Sam as part of our REPS family, and such an
    integral part of Showcase 2004. He continues to live on in the Showcase
    recordings. Those of you who were able to attend Sam's tribute as well as the
    rest of Showcase 2004 saw the man in his last public appearance.

    I was proud to be able to call him a friend, and share some time with him in
    the Green Room, listening to him talk about being in Chabua, India, during
    World War II, an area and a time that figured in my play Skyway to Hell.

    I will miss his quick wit as he ad-libbed to cover a mistake in a rehearsal,
    like the time in the Cold Read when Herb Ellis got confused with the pages of
    the script and couldn't find page 15. Sam handed him the page, and said, "He
    can have [removed] can't read it anyway." The whole room of people listening
    came apart.

    Or the time in our recreation of "The Game", when the gun went off, and Sam
    and Gil tried to cover a sound effect that shouldn't have been.

    Sam had great timing and skills, that he shared with us at Showcase. He
    donated boxes of scripts to REPS, from both Sam's and Jack's careers,
    original scripts with Jack's drawings on them. They form a significant part
    of the 800 scripts that REPS safe-guards.

    He was Chester Proudfoot in last year's "They went That-away"--his final
    performance.

    So lift a glass to one of the Greats. We will miss him.  Our best thoughts
    and wishes fly to Bev, Bill and the rest of the family. May he find safe
    passage.

    joy jackson
    Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound

    [ADMINISTRIVIA: I have a photo of Bill playing for Sam as he, "sings for his
    supper" during REPS Showcase 2004 at [removed]  --cfs3]

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #243
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