Subject: [removed] Digest V2004 #195
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 6/8/2004 4:21 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2004 : Issue 195
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK               [ "Jerry Haendiges" <Jerry@[removed] ]
      New vs Old                            [ hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed]; ]
      Omphale's Spinning Wheel              [ "joe@[removed]" <sergei01@earthli ]
      radio in the 1940s                    [ howard blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
      Classical music in OTR                [ "John Matthews" <glowingdial@wowway ]
      Hartz Mountain Canaries               [ mickey <mickey44@[removed]; ]
      Sam Spade and Suspense in-jokes       [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
      Re: CD Failures                       [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      D-Day and baseball                    [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      OTR, NTR and BBC                      [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
      OTR vs NTR                            [ "Doug Leary" <doug@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 09:52:57 -0400
    From: "Jerry Haendiges" <Jerry@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK

    Hi friends,

    	Here is this week's line-up for the week of 6-6-04 on my Olde Tyme
    Radio
    [removed] Featuring Tom Heathwood's "Heritage Radio Theatre," Big John
    Matthews and Steve Urbaniak's "The Glowing Dial" and my own "Same Time, Same
    Station" broadcasts, being broadcast on demand 24/7 in high quality
    streaming RealAudio at [removed]

    Past archived broadcasts are also available there.

    We look forward to having you join us!

    	Jerry

    Here's this week's lineup:

    SAME TIME, SAME STATION with Jerry Haendiges

    YOUR HIT PARADE
    12-29-45
    Stars: Joan Edwards and Dick Todd
    With Mark Warnow's Orchestra, Lynn Murray and The Hit Paraders

    LET'S GO TO TOWN
    Episode 173  1955
    Stars: Patty Page with the Tony Pastor Orchestra
    National Guard Recruitment program

    YOUR HIT PARADE
    11-13-47  Italian Broadcast
    Stars: Frank Sinatra and Doris Day
    With Axel Stordahl Orchestra

    THE FAT MAN
    1-17-51  "The Nightmare Murder"
    Stars:  J. Scott Smart
    With: Ed Begley, Marry Patton and Amzie Strickland
    Author: Dashiell Hammett
    =======================================

    HERITAGE RADIO THEATRE with Tom Heathwood

    D-DAY MEMORIAL
    With Frank Knight

    LADY ESTHER SCREEN GUILD PLAYERS
    CBS    9-20-43    "The Maltese Falcon"
    Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.
    (Listen for Lady Esther clear her throat in the middle of the last
    commercial)

    DIMENSION X
    NBC    6-17-51    "Pebble In The Sky

    XTRA
    Two chapters of Gary Owens' "The Amazing Radio"

    ADVENTURES OF BONNIE & CLYDE
    ======================================

    THE GLOWING DIAL with Big John Matthews and Steve Urbaniak

    Mystery In The Air
    NBC    9/4/1947    "The Mask Of Medusa"
    with Peter Lorre, Peggy Webber, Lucille Meredith, Stanley Waxman, Russell
    Thorson, Ben Wright, Phyllis Christine Morris
    Henry (Harry) Morgan as the Voice of Mystery.
    Michael Roy announcing.
    Sponsored by Camel Cigarettes

    The Great Gildersleeve
    "The Jolly Boys Band"
    NBC 11/23/1949
    with Harold Peary.
    Sponsored by Kraft Foods

    Quiet Please
    "If I Should Wake Before I Die"
    ABC 2/27/1949
    with Ernest Chappel as the Man Who Spoke To You, Don Briggs.
    Written and Directed by Willys Cooper.
    Sustained

    Mail Call
    "The Wedding Night"
    AFRS 11/24/1943
    with Lucille Ball, Laurel & Hardy, Edgar Kennedy, Patsy Moran.
    Don Wilson announcing.

    The Shadow
    "Death Rides A Broomstick"
    MUTUAL 3/2/1941
    with Bill Johnstone, Marjorie Anderson.
    Ken Roberts announcing.
    Sponsored by Blue Coal
    ====================================

    Please feel free to contact me with any questions or requests for upcoming
    shows.

                Jerry Haendiges CET <Jerry@[removed]; 562-696-4387

      [removed]  The Vintage Radio Place
      Largest source of OTR Logs, Articles and programs on the Net

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

    Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 10:14:59 -0400
    From: hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  New vs Old

    John Mayer, (in his posting to mike kerezman about the diminished quality of
    acting between new radio drama and OTR), hit the nail right on the head when
    he said;

>     The acting is part of it, but the writing is, perhaps, even more
>     deficient.

    Wasn't it Shakespeare (considered by some a pretty fair writer) who once
    [removed]"The play's the thing".

    Without good writing to begin with, the best actors in the world can't
    salvage the material. And John correctly points out that there is no longer
    any money to be made in writing for Radio, so all the good material is
    hustled to the producers of TV and Films.

    We're talking Drama here, right. Popular non-drama radio programs could
    exist based on personalities, like Benny, Bergen, Etc, but they still needed
    routines and sketches written for them. But in the case of Radio Drama,
    particularly the anthology series (I'm excluding "soaps" from this
    discussion) good, concise writing, and on-target character development was
    essential.

    Then, filling the roles with good OTR actors became the frosting on the
    cake.

    A prime example of good writing being the cornerstone of a successful series
    can be found in recent long lived TV programs. Frasier, Friends, Sienfeld,
    Mash, Everybody Loves Raymond, etc.

    Certainly, the cast of characters captures your interest, but let's face it.
    The writers first created the characters. But let's not lose sight of the
    fact that certain performers bring even more to the character than the
    writers could ever imagine, and the writers modified, or enhanced the
    development of a particular characters dialogue or persona based on the
    actors portrayal or interpretation of that character. In those instances,
    it's a double edged sword. The writing for that particular character simply
    evolves, and they become solidly identified with the role, and it appears
    that no one else could possible play the part as well.

    However, it was easier to replace or interchange actors in radio than it is
    in TV. Obviously, in TV, physical characteristics wed an actor to a specific
    role. It was certainly easier to replace performers back in the old days of
    OTR. You simply looked for someone who sounded similar. Or at the very
    least, a similar character type. When I had to take a leave of absence from
    playing "Jughead" on "Archie Andrews" (The Air Force requested my services
    during the Korean war), NBC simply got Arnold Stang to take my place.

    I saved our Country, Arnold saved the show. :)

    Nuff said?

    Hal(Harlan)Stone
    Jughead

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

    Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 10:43:47 -0400
    From: "joe@[removed]" <sergei01@[removed];
    To: "OTR List" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Omphale's Spinning Wheel

    was written by Charles Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921), A French composer
    and pianist who lived long enough to make some solo piano records, but not
    of this work, which is written for orchestra.

    Joe Salerno

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

    Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 12:05:46 -0400
    From: howard blue <khovard@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  radio in the 1940s
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Jim Cox wrote "I've often wished that somebody would prepare a work
    [about OTR . . .  on the  decade of the 1940s]  Those were the halcyon
    days of the medium we  loved.

    While my book WORDS AT WAR (Scarecrow Press, 2002) focuses on radio drama
    of the era, it remains one of the most comprehensive books (if not the
    most comprehensive one) about radio in that decade. In fact, Jim even
    quoted from it for his book about the Hummerts. For further information
    about WORDS AT WAR and about ordering, see my website

    Howard Blue
    [removed]

    ". . . .  masterly,  . . .  . . . Blue stands with Barnouw and Dunning,
    and that is high rank indeed."
                            Norman Corwin

      *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
      ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

    Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 13:05:04 -0400
    From: "John Matthews" <glowingdial@[removed];
    To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Classical music in OTR

        Hi folks, just an addition to the thread concerning the theme from Sgt.
    Preston.  There is another piece that was used in that series as incidental
    or background music and that is "Les Preludes: Symphonic Poem No. 3" by
    Franz Liszt.  It is one of my favorite classical pieces and was used in some
    Flash Gordon serials in the 30's as well.  Just my little contribution to
    the digest.

        Actually, I am trying to compile a list of classical pieces that were
    used on old time radio shows as main themes, bridges and incidental music.
    I have the following info but need more.  Can anyone help further ?

    The Shadow - Omphale's Spinning Wheel
    Quiet Please - Symphony in D Minor by Cesare Franck
    Lone Ranger - 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky
    Sgt. Preston of the Yukon - Von Reznicek's "Donna Diana Overture", "Les
    Preludes: Symphonic Poem No. 3" by Franz Liszt
    Mercury Theatre - Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1

    Thanks in advance!

    John W. Matthews
    The Glowing Dial  [removed]

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

    Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 13:05:35 -0400
    From: mickey <mickey44@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Hartz Mountain Canaries

    The Learned Stephen opined:

>     On the radio-to-comic thread, Jack French notes,

> >     A better question, or thread, would pose this quiry: Try to name a
> >     radio series that was never in a comic book?

>     That's easy.  The Hartz Mountain Singing Canaries.  ;-)

>     Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

    If we take Mr. French's question literally, i. e. "...in a comic book",
    I'd have to disagree, as the Hartz Mountain Canaries were indeed
    featured in ads "in a comic book".

    I may dig through some of my hundreds of boxes of stuff to find
    an example of this.

    m

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

    Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 13:10:42 -0400
    From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Sam Spade and Suspense in-jokes

    Kermyt mentioned:
    I am pretty sure "Suspense" was unsponsored when it ran The Kandy Tooth
    Caper--yet presumably they had to pay a royalty to Raymond Chandler for
    having Robert Montgomery play Phillip Marlowe in a cameo? The more I think
    about it, the less convincing the royalty argument becomes.

    Yes, the hour-long SUSPENSE broadcasts were not sponsored. CBS footed the
    bill when Roma Wines dropped sponsorship.  As for the "Kandy Tooth Caper,"
    Robert Montgomery didn't have to do much to be hired for the role of Mrlowe
    since he was the weekly host for the series at the time (if I recall
    accurately) so it was easy for him to play a quick role.  Spier did NUMEROUS
    in-jokes in the SUSPENSE broadcasts, many were not intented for the
    listening audience.  Listen to the one with Rita Hayworth in "Three Times
    Murder" and you'll hear her real-life husband, Orson Welles, make a quick
    cameo unbilled.  Spier's real-life wife June Havoc supplied the voice of
    "Double Ugly" that chants through the drama.  There are many episodes in
    which Spier himself plays a small role As for the "Kandy Tooth Caper," there
    is a bit of history behind that.

    During the hour-long season of SUSPENSE was put together in a hurry.  A few
    occassions actually called for repeats of previously-dramatized scripts such
    as "Wet Saturday" and "August Heat."  On the radio series THE ADVENTURES OF
    SAM SPADE, there was a two-part drama entitled "The Kandy Tooth Caper" was
    was written as a sequel to the novel, "The Maltese Falcon."  So for this
    particular SUSPENSE broadcast, Spier simply offered both half-hour scripts
    in the form of an hour-long presentation.  In this case, Spier had
    permission to do a Sam Spade drama, according to a letter dated January 4,
    1948.

    During the late 1980s, when the USA Cable Network was airing the low-budget
    Canadian productions of the new ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS series, the
    network aired an episode entitled "Diamonds Are Forever" with George Lazenby
    playing the role of a British Secret Agent named "James."  Everytime the
    last name was spoken, a slock would dong or dishes would be dropped, etc.
    Without the use of the name "Bond," the licensed owners of the Bond
    character couldn't do too much about it.  It would seem to me that the same
    goes for the "House by Cypress Canyon," broadcast almost fifty years before.
      With Howard Duff playing the role of a private detective named "Sam" was
    Spier's in-joke without having to pay for a license.
    Martin Grams, Jr.

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

    Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 13:12:19 -0400
    From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: CD Failures

    Mike Kerezman discussed a failure of a DURABRAND CD-R and described it as a
    generic brand.  Actually Durabrand is a Wal Mart house brand, but in a
    sense qualifies as a generic brand because not only are we not sure who
    actually makes the discs, the manufacturers probably continually change
    anyway.  They might be different every time you buy them.   This can happen
    with regular name brands as well, but you are still safer with them then
    with house or generic brands.

    Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 15:51:32 -0400
    From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  D-Day and baseball

    Sean Dougherty's mention of Cliff Robertson having fought in the battle of
    the bulge brings to mind the interview segment on MSNBC last night (Mon
    June 7) with the person who was introduced as the most famous person known
    to have fought in the D-Day Normandy invasion--so famous that he was
    actually an answer in yesterday's New York Times crossword puzzle--Yogi
    Berra!  He was a seaman on a small supply boat near Omaha Beach for two
    weeks but never had to actually go on shore.  It was a great interview.  I
    wish more people had had a chance to see it.

    This feature had been scheduled to be aired earlier in the weekend __on__
    D-Day, and probably would have been aired several times, but was bumped--as
    was almost every other planned D-Day commemoration broadcast--for coverage
    of Reagan's death.  It was very disappointing to know that the American
    audience was missing most of the D-Day tributes they would have seen.
    There was practically nothing except on CNN-International and MSNBC.
    Considering that everybody knew that there would be at least five more days
    of Reagan ceremonies to cover and that this was the ONLY day for the D-Day
    ceremonies, it is astonishing that they abandoned so much of their
    expensive and planned coverage.  It is as if the newscasters seemed to
    think that nobody was interested in D-Day any more.

    MSNBC used actual NBC radio recordings in its introduction to their
    coverage segments and I understand that there were features planned that
    would play and describe radio's role in D-Day, but most of it was scrapped.
    There were four planned airings of "As It Happens", a re-creation of D-Day
    coverage in the form of a modern TV newscast as if the now-current
    technology had been available in 1944, but they only got around to airing
    it once on Sunday evening.  This did include one or two actual original
    radio recordings, but surprisingly ignored the George Hicks recording from
    on-board a battleship.  It turns out that the original radio reporting that
    we hear in our OTR recordings was far more exciting and informative than
    was this re-creation.  If they were trying to show us how much better they
    can do things now, they failed.

    As was mentioned in postings yesterday, many of the Reagan tributes
    discussed his beginnings in radio.  Some showed how this lead to his movie
    career, including showing clips of his first films showing him playing a
    radio announcer.  But once they started discussing his film and television
    career they never included mention of his OTR career while in
    Hollywood--the things that were discussed here on the OTR-D a week or two
    ago.  His baseball re-creations were briefly mentioned in the digest but in
    mentioning the one radio broadcast where he re-created a re-creation, it
    was not mentioned that he once filled in briefly during a ball game
    telecast during his presidency and discussed the re-creations.  Was it for
    the Cubs???  Anyway, during this telecast he mentioned that occasionally
    when doing the re-creations the telegraph line would fail.  Because his
    conception of these broadcast was that he was trying to really make the
    audience believe he was really there, he couldn't let on to that technical
    difficulty.  So those many years later he proudly explained that when this
    happened he made up things.  He had someone foul off a dozen times until
    the wire resumed, or perhaps even put in a rain delay if it was necessary.
    Later on, Red Barber commented on this, probably during his Morning Edition
    segments with Bob Edwards.  Although Barber was also trying to create the
    atmosphere of being at the ball park, he said that he didn't try to lie to
    the audience. They knew he wasn't there.  If the telegraph wire went out,
    the wire went out.  He delayed the game.   He didn't fake endless foul
    balls.  He didn't pretend that the weather was any different than it was.
    Reagan made it obvious that all those years later he thought it was great
    that he had been able to fool his audience.  Barber made it obvious that
    all those years later he thought it was great that he had told the truth.

    Michael Biel   mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 15:52:03 -0400
    From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
    To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  OTR, NTR and BBC

    I find the comparisons between OTR and NTR a little too general.  We are
    different generations and we listen to OTR from a different perspective,
    with different expectations.   There's certainly a lot of OTR acting that
    doesn't hold up and some that is dramatically overblown with series intros
    that a non-fan would find laughable.  I've often stretched my imagination
    listening to a very mature-sounding actress who is supposed to be 23.  That
    doesn't detract from its enjoyment for me since it was right for the time,
    and in many instances it was 'my' time, part of my history.

    Many younger people who have become OTR fans say they were first attracted
    to OTR by listening to Jack Benny programs, which have held up so well, most
    likely because they are timeless in their quality.  Jack did not date his
    programs with too many references that would not be recognizable outside of
    their time period, and like Seinfeld his shows were about nothing.

    David Rogers recommended BBC7.  I enthusiastically second that.  I believe
    the Merrison-Williams series is the only true and complete Holmes Canon
    series.  One can listen to Clive Merrison and Michael Williams as Holmes and
    Watson then go over to BBC4 and listen to Clive Merrison and Andrew Sachs in
    'The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'(Sachs became Watson after the
    death of Michael Williams, who was the husband of Dame Judi Dench.  Sachs is
    an actor I will always fondly remember as 'Manuel' in Fawlty Towers) .
    Today's broadcast will then be available through 'listen again' for a week.

    The BBC rebroadcasts can run deep into the past as well. BBC7 is currently
    running 'Paul Temple and the Margo Mystery' which was first broadcast in
    1961.  The Paul Temple intermittent series which began in 1938 are favorites
    of mine and other OTR collectors.  The 9 series in circulation were
    broadcast between 1950 and 1968 falling into both OTR and NTR years.

    One big difference between British and American actors is that the Brits act
    wherever the opportunity, in film, TV, radio, pantomimes, regional theater,
    national theater, in small parts or large, both comic and drama, and the
    quality and variety of BBC radio programming is excellent and enviable.

    For example, I recently listened to a current 'Saturday Play' on BBC4
    starring Patricia Routledge who is a familiar name to many PBS watchers for
    'Keeping up Appearances' and 'Hetty Wainthrop Investigates'.  Although she
    is more familiar to Americans as a comic actress she is also a strong
    dramatic actress.   She is classically trained with impressive credentials
    (and awards) on the stage, in regional theater and on TV.   When she and
    others like her appear on radio they are not doing 'star turns'; they're
    just working, and probably not for very much $$.

    If only we had not turned our back on radio with the advent of [removed]

    Irene

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

    Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 15:53:08 -0400
    From: "Doug Leary" <doug@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  OTR vs NTR

    A pattern I notice in modern radio shows is the prevalence of certain
    annoying voice types that place them visually in a studio instead of in a
    dramatic setting. One example is the obviously young actor affecting to be
    old. The women make their voices strained and quavery, the men make their
    voices strained and husky. Usually there's a little added country twang, as
    if all old folks come from somewhere down south. It just doesn't work.
    Another example is the disk jockey voice, which sounds exactly like a DJ and
    nothing else. DJs aren't even actors, they just think they are. Thirdly, and
    please don't let me offend anybody with this, but there's what I would term
    the "young gay actor" voice, not a lisping parody but a sort of petulant
    sound. I hear that one quite frequently. For me these voice types just don't
    associate with what is supposed to be going on in the story, and I think
    that's the key. It goes without saying that not all OTR is good, but when I
    listen to OTR drama I mostly see characters in cheap hotel rooms, crowded
    train stations, smoky bars and so forth. When I hear modern radio drama, I
    mostly see people standing behind microphones in a studio.

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #195
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