Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #27
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 1/20/2003 7:27 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2003 : Issue 27
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Censorship on OTR                     [ Kenneth Clarke <kclarke5@[removed]; ]
      Richard Crenna: An Actor's POV        [ Jordan Young <jyoung@[removed]; ]
      Bob Hope Bloopers On Radio            [ "James Faulkner" <tsunami100@[removed] ]
      Re: Radio Fax service                 [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      Gene Roddenberry                      [ "Ryan Hall" <rhall2@[removed]; ]
      Richard Crenna                        [ "welsa" <welsa@[removed]; ]
      facsimile                             [ "Nemesis@[removed]" <nemesis@[removed] ]
      "Radio Music Box"                     [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
      Brace Beemer                          [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
      Gale Gordon-Mel Blanc feud?           [ Mike Thompson <mthomp86@[removed]; ]
      Richard Crenna                        [ "Harry Machin, Jr." <harbev5@earthl ]
      Re: B. Rathbone "Christmas Carol"     [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      Highway Patrol                        [ otrbuff@[removed] ]
      Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      Richard Crenna                        [ "e ginsburg" <edginsburg@[removed] ]
      Re: Typing                            [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      More "props" to First Generation Rad  [ "Ivan G. Shreve, Jr." <iscreve@comc ]
      Hylo Brown Passes Away                [ "Bob & Carol Taylor" <qth4@[removed] ]
      Comedy That's Still Funny in the 21s  [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 22:11:52 -0500
    From: Kenneth Clarke <kclarke5@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Censorship on OTR

              I've read about there being censors on  the radio during
    it's  heyday.  What sort of standard did they use to censor programs?
    What type of things were objectionable?  Were there some
    particular performers who were more prone to be censored?
    Was there a censorship board, committee, or did each station
    have their own censorship department?

              I've been told the penalties imposed by the censors could be
    quite stiff.  The one example which jumps immediately to mind is
    the infamous "Adam and Eve" incident.  From all accounts, Mae
    West was banned from ever appearing on radio for 26 years and
    no radio performer could even speak  her name on the air without
    suffering  the consequences imposed by censors.  (Is this true or
    just an exaggeration of what actually happened?)  It seems
    unfair to punish  other actors/actresses for something one performer
    did on their own.  I've listened to this skit and can't understand what
    censors found so objectionable about it.

    Kenneth Clarke

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

    Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 22:12:36 -0500
    From: Jordan Young <jyoung@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Richard Crenna: An Actor's POV

    Veteran radio-TV-stage-film actor Elliott Reid, who needs no intro to
    most of you on the list, would like it to be known that his pal Dick
    Crenna was "one of the most beloved actors--beloved by his fellow
    actors--in the business." Reid told me he had just had a long
    conversation with Crenna at Parley Baer's memorial service, so he was
    quite shocked and saddened--crying on my shoulder as it were--when he
    called me Saturday afternoon with the news.

    I met Crenna perhaps three times but was struck by how down to earth
    and personable he was, especially when he dropped by a SPERDVAC
    rehearsal a few years ago, despite a busy schedule, just to visit for
    a few minutes with old co-star Janet Waldo. And it was very clear at
    a PPB luncheon honoring Crenna, not too many years ago, how much
    esteem his fellow actors and co-workers had for him. Among them was
    Mort Sahl, a boyhood actor pal from the days of "Boy Scout Jamboree."

    Jordan R. Young

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

    Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 22:13:15 -0500
    From: "James Faulkner" <tsunami100@[removed];
    To: "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Bob Hope Bloopers On Radio

    Following the current thread of censored words and some not-so censored, I'd
    like to offer this which came directly from a Bob Hope broadcast.  Bob Hope
    and Jerry Calona were doing a western sketch on his show.  His guest that
    evening was Jane Russell and which, obviously, it was to plug his movie,
    Paleface, in which he co-starred with Jane.  The incident got by the censors
    and it went like this:

    CALONA:  Hey,Bob!  Here comes Jane Now, and she's packin' a pair of 38's!
    HOPE:  Yeah, [removed] she's got guns, too!

    On another show, one of Hope's USO broadcasts, he was doing some patter with
    dancer Mitzi McCall, who was part of his troupe.  THAT little incident went
    like this:

    HOPE:  Hey Mitzi!  Look!  That sure is some moon!
    MITZI:  Yes, Bob, some moon!
    HOPE:  Look Mitzi!  Some Park!
    MITZI:  Yes, Bob, some park!
    HOPE:  And Look there, some bench!
    MITZI:  Yes, Bob, some bench!
    BOB:  Well, Mitzi, some do!
    MITZI:  I DON'T!

    Only on the Bob Hope Show could this suggestive material hit the airwaves
    with inpunity.  James Faulkner

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

    Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 22:13:46 -0500
    From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:  Radio Fax service

    Lee Munsick mentions seeing a sort of mail slot in a WOR executive's office
    monitor and being told "'years ago' the station used a sub-carrier on its
    710 kc signal to send facsimile letters, messages and the like to
    subscribers to the service."  Judging from the description, this probably
    was in the 40s but it most likely was a late-night service that had the
    strange sounds replacing the programming for a few minutes, not a silent
    sub-carrier.  But WOR had tried the same thing MUCH earlier.  In the Fall
    of 1927 thru the Spring of 1928 they had nightly facsimile pictures in the
    late evening hours using the Cooley Ray-Foto System developed by Austin
    Cooley.  Those interested could build their own receiver using an old disc
    phonograph turntable and additional parts made by the Presto Machine
    Products Co.  This system was written about in several issues of Radio
    Broadcast magazine by editor Edgar H. Felix.

    When the Cooley facsimile pictures would be broadcast, the listener was
    told what was going to happen and to switch the output of his radio from
    his speaker to the input of the facsimile recorder.  The phonograph
    turntable would drive a cylinder with sensitized paper, and a special
    device would scan across the paper as it turned.  It was very much like the
    wirephoto machines used by the press services and newspapers.  The
    listeners without the device could standby and wait till the picture was
    finished in a minute or two.  Felix had the idea that he could record the
    transmission on a wax cylinder dictating machine and play it back later to
    make more pictures, and in one of the issues there is a picture of Cooley
    and Felix with a facsimile receiver and a dictating machine.  Unfortunately
    Felix had kept no materials at all from his career other than bound volumes
    of the magazine.  And yes, this Presto is the same company which developed
    the lacquer recording disc several years later.

    Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 22:14:01 -0500
    From: "Ryan Hall" <rhall2@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Gene Roddenberry

    I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on this. I was listening to
    an episode of Have Gun Will Travel just now. (I love that radio show, but I
    know there are some who don't care for it.) The show aired on 12-21-58 and
    was entitled Matt Beecher. It had an interesting religious Christmas twist
    to it, which did not surprise me really until I heard the Gene Roddenberry,
    who was never really religious in the traditional sense, had written the
    screenplay. I assume this is the same Roddenberry of Star Trek fame. The
    point of this is: How many radio scripts did Gene Roddenberry write? I never
    knew that he had written any. Anyone with the OTR bible (so to speak) have
    any insight into this? [removed]

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

    Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 23:07:48 -0500
    From: "welsa" <welsa@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Richard Crenna

    The news I was reading on line about Dick Crenna had an interesting thing
    which I was not aware of before.  Crenna appeared in the Sylvester Stallone
    RAMBO movies.  He played the officer (I've forgotten the rank) who supported
    and backed Rambo in his exploits.  The character's name was Denton Walters.
    A tribute to the role of Walter Denton he created on Our Miss Brooks.

    I agree--he was one of the great radio performers.  How he managed to
    continue to play a 16-year old all those years is beyond me.

    Ted

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

    Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 23:45:07 -0500
    From: "Nemesis@[removed]" <nemesis@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  facsimile

    I have a question about the facsimile process that's been described here.
    According to several books, the Black Dahlia's fingerprints were somehow
    "wired" back east by the Herald Examiner for identification.  Is this the
    same process?
    Linda Thuringer, former girl photog at the HerEx

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

    Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 08:43:48 -0500
    From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  "Radio Music Box"

>     Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 23:12:49 -0500
>     From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];

> >     The first radio receiving set in this country was made in 1916. it was
> >     called the "Radio Musix Box" and was the brain child of David Saroff.

>     Sarnoff just wrote a memo, and did not actually make the receiver.

    But it doesn't say that he made the receiver.  It says the receiver was his "brain child."
    Sarnoff wrote a memo, describing an idea that he had.  Unless someone else got the idea
    and he was stealing it, it sounds to me as though the "adio Music Box" was his brain child.

    --
    A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                           [removed]
     15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@[removed]
    Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         [removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 08:43:45 -0500
    From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Brace Beemer

>     Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 12:40:46 -0500
>     From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];

>     When Brace Beemer died in 1941 in the auto accident, a very sick and
>     wounded Lone Ranger was played by some obscure radio actor uttering words
>     in pain so the children wouldn't recognize the voice difference.

    That was Earle W. Graser, not Brace Beemer.  Beemer replaced Graser as the Lone Ranger
    until the show went off around 1955.  He died in 1965.

    However, on the subject of radio personalities being ill, when Buffalo Bob Smith had his heart
    attack in September 1954, he also had a daily morning radio show on NBC (at 10 AM in the
    East).  His friend Bob Nicholson, who was probably a regular on the show anyway, hosted
    the show until it ended in December.  Nicholson also played Clarabell and J. Corneleus
    Cobb, and occasionally other characters on the Howdy Doody Show.

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

    Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 08:44:24 -0500
    From: Mike Thompson <mthomp86@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Gale Gordon-Mel Blanc feud?

    I'm a big Lucille Ball fan, and this one book I have,
    "The Lucy Book," has a short biographical sketch of
    Gale Gordon included in it. The author mentioned
    Gordon's illustrious career in radio, and wrote that
    he was loved by nearly every radio performer he
    performed with, "except for a strange antipathy he had
    towards Mel Blanc. Perhaps it was because they were
    often competitors for the same types of acting jobs,
    but the two men just did not get along."

    That's the first I've ever heard of any sort of rift
    between Gordon and Blanc. Does anyone know anything
    more about this?

    Mike

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

    Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 08:44:52 -0500
    From: "Harry Machin, Jr." <harbev5@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Richard Crenna

    When I attended the Date With Judy radio broadcast back in
    1951, I looked at Crenna and thought "he's my age, I wonder
    why he didn't get caught up in the Korean War like I did?"  Now
    I've learned one reason why not.  He was three years older than
    me.  He would not have been drafted at the age of 24-25.  I can
    still "see" that tall, gangley, young-looking man standing at his
    own microphone.  But I will miss him the most because he will
    no longer appear on the TV show "Judging Amy."  He had a
    light-weight role, but my wife insists that I watch that show
    with her every week.  There was no mention of Crenna's OTR
    work in the newpaper I read.  Surprise, surprise.

    Harry Machin, Jr.

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

    Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 08:45:04 -0500
    From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: B. Rathbone "Christmas Carol"

    Adding to the information yesterday about the Basil Rathbone Columbia
    record set of "A Christmas Carol",  this recording was made in Hollywood on
    July 26, 1942.   It was also available as an LP as Columbia ML-4081 and on
    45s as A-521.  Columbia reissued it on CD in 2001.

    Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 08:45:48 -0500
    From: otrbuff@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Highway Patrol

    Bob Taylor wonders if Highway Patrol was ever on radio.  Yes.  It's
    included in my latest book "Radio Crime Fighters" (McFarland, 2002,
    800-253-2187).  It ran weekdays over MBS in 1943 and starred Michael
    Fitzmaurice and John McGovern.

    He also inquires if Broderick Crawford (of the TV series) ever did any
    radio.  Other than rare guest appearances I'm unaware of anything
    permanent.  His professional concentration appeared to be in film and TV.

    On another subject Bob asks about Hawkshaw Hawkins radio shows.  I'm not
    aware of any beyond the traditional fare at WSM which might or might not
    have been recorded.  I used to watch him perform there on Friday and
    Saturday nights in the final years before his death in 1963 (in an
    airplane crash that also killed Patsy Cline and others).  He was a
    legendary country singer in the Hank Williams style, though never as well
    known.  Up close he often looked inebriated though he gave a good
    performance every time out.  He was married to the Opry's Jeanne Shepherd
    who, I believe, has never remarried but continues an active role as one
    of the program's most influential women.

    Jim Cox

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

    Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 08:45:57 -0500
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Today in radio history

>     >From Those Were The Days --

    1954 - The National Negro Network was formed on this date. Some 40 radio
    stations were charter members of the network.

    Birthdays:

    1896 - Nathan Birnbaum (aka George Burns) in New York City, died on
    March 9, 1996.

      Joe

    --
    Visit my home page:
    [removed]~[removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 08:46:23 -0500
    From: "e ginsburg" <edginsburg@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Richard Crenna

    how I am going to miss that fantastic actor!
    His act was truly timeless
    He was one of the great highlights of our miss brooks
    His Walter Denton, Luke Mccoy (how did they explain 'Sugarbabe's absence the
    last few years after athleen Nolan left the show?) and many other characters
    now belong to the ages
    Thank goodness he will be remembered on tape/cd/mp3
    etc
    He was so tremendous up to the end
    I will even miss him on the tv show Judging Amy
    ed

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

    Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 08:46:53 -0500
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Typing

    On 1/19/03 10:29 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:

>     Perhaps the writers did type the original, perhaps they didn't.  But I think
>     it is safe to say that nearly always the networks bank of typists re-did
>     them in the right format for broadcast.

    One example of writers-who-typed-their-own-scripts was Correll and Gosden
    -- every single page of the 4,091 episodes of the Amos 'n' Andy serial
    was typed by Charles Correll, who had worked as a stenographer just after
    graduating from Peoria High School in 1907, and never lost the knack.
    Correll typed along as Freeman Gosden dictated the dialogue, and there
    are many instances in the scripts where you can see thoughts changing in
    mid-sentence and lines being revised in mid-phrase as Gosden
    free-associated. The typing is filled with slips and strikeovers and
    sometimes entire sections are scratched out by hand and new dialogue
    typed in. Examining the scripts is a fascinating window into the actual
    creative process, even though they can be a bit messy to look at.

    The A&A scripts were typed out phonetically -- specifying the precise
    shading of dialect (or lack of dialect) to be spoken by each character --
    and this had a long-term effect on Correll's typing ability. For many
    years he found it nearly impossible to type a simple letter without
    instinctively lapsing into dialect.

    For most of the run, there were only three copies of each A&A script: an
    original for Gosden, a carbon for Correll, and a second carbon for Bill
    Hay. C&G each kept their copies, and Hay's scripts were bundled up and
    sent to the Library of Congress in batches as part of the copyright
    registration process. But around 1940, the performers decided to have
    another set of scripts made up for insurance purposes -- and this job
    kept the CBS typing pool busy for several months manually copying out
    twelve years' worth of daily scripts.

    Gosden liked to tell a story about Louise Summa -- their secretary for 30
    years -- very early in the series' run ordering a supply of onionskin
    paper for typing the scripts. She got some sort of a discount deal on a
    huge quantity of paper, and the performers were a bit puzzled when this
    supply of paper was delivered to their office -- their comment was "Do
    you really think we'll be on the air that long?" Gosden claimed that they
    were *still using* that paper nearly thirty years later.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 08:58:05 -0500
    From: "Ivan G. Shreve, Jr." <iscreve@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  More "props" to First Generation Radio
     Archives

    steven kostelecky, with great wisdom, typed:

>     Speaking of which, I have to plug the First Generation Radio Archives. I
>     have recently become a member and can think of nothing I've done in the last
>     year that made me feel like I am really doing something to keep this hobby
>     going (besides financially supporting this Digest that is). I urge everyone
>     to do the same if they can at all do so

    I would like to second this emotion.  I joined up in November of last year
    and haven't regretted it for a second.  The sampler CD that was included in
    my registration kit contained a Jimmy Durante program that had, without a
    doubt, the BEST audio I have heard in a long time.  It sounded as though I
    were sitting in the control room as the broadcast commenced.

    I also picked up a nice 10 CD-set of Lum 'n Abner programs that I have
    currently been listening to and enjoying the heck out of the same.  The
    price for these CDs was but a mere pittance--and the shows sound simply
    fantastic.  I would also urge non-members to check out what the Archives
    have to offer.  You won't be disappointed.

    Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.

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

    Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 09:22:00 -0500
    From: "Bob & Carol Taylor" <qth4@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Hylo Brown Passes Away

    Bluegrass Pioneer Hylo Brown passed away on Friday January 17 in Springfield
    Ohio.

    Frank Brown, the Grand Ole Opry member nicknamed Hylo because of his vocal
    range, died Friday morning, January 17th. He was 80.
    Brown, a former Springfield resident who made Mechanicsburg his home in
    recent years, died just after 4 [removed] in Mercy Medical Center, said his
    daughter,
    Sheila Brown. Hylo Brown had been in declining health because of cancer, she
    said.

    Hylo was on Capitol records in the fifties.  He received his nickname from a
    [removed] who marveled at the way he sang the prisoner's song, The prisoner's
    song
    is an old tune done in the 20's by Vernon Delhart.
    Hylo left the label after a few years.  He said in an interview that the
    major labels were spending more money on country music and not doing much
    with
    bluegrass.

    I remember hearing some old programs from PikeVille Ky,  They were and might
    still be available on County records and cd's.
    Brown is survived by four daughters and a son.
    Visitation is set for 4 to 8 [removed] Monday in the Richards, Raff and Dunbar
    Memorial Home. Services will be held there at 10 [removed] Tuesday.

    Bob Taylor

    [removed]  If anyone wants more info on Hylo or any other artist's I will be glad
    to help.

    [ADMINISTRUIVIA: AN over-long URL to the story in The Springfield News Sun is:

    [removed]

    --cfs3]

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

    Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 09:22:03 -0500
    From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
    To: OldRadio Mailing Lists <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Comedy That's Still Funny in the 21st Century

    Dixon Hayes offered:

>      "The Jack Benny Show" and "The Great Gildersleeve" are two high-profile
>      shows that definitely live up to their reputations.  They still hold up
>      surprisingly well.

    I think comedy ages more poorly than drama; check out some of the tv
    comedies of the 60's on _Nick at Night_ for proof. Comedy styles
    change and vaudeville routines based on puns and malapropisms, for
    example, just don't work any more. It's hard to say if comedy has
    actually gotten funnier or if it's purely a matter of our frame of
    reference changing. But even if the former, humor has also gotten, in
    my experience, far more mean-spirited, and that's unfortunate.

    I personally don't find either _The Great Gildersleeve_, or _Fibber
    McGee and Molly_ very funny, though I find them pleasant, much as I
    do _Andy of Mayberry_. A couple of shows that still make me laugh
    decades after they were broadcast, though, are _Baby Snooks_ and
    _Duffy's Tavern_. And, recalling the earlier thread about the present
    day equivalent of OTR's forbidden words, I have often found the _The
    Bickersons_, with their frequent references to Don Ameche's heavy
    drinking, quite amusing, a source of humor that would almost
    certainly be offlimits today.

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #27
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