Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #351
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 9/8/2002 8:20 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2002 : Issue 351
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Re: racial epithets                   [ Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed] ]
      Best of the 20th Century Collection   [ MAGICIN95@[removed] ]
      CHICAGO DJ'S                          [ Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed]; ]
      Amos N Andy and Responding            [ "George M. Kelly" <gkelly1@[removed] ]
      sunday , september 15,2002-louisvill  [ "e ginsburg" <edginsburg@[removed] ]
      Re: An Archie fan                     [ hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed]; ]
      Internment Camps, WW II, and OTR      [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
      Equalizers                            [ RICFAS@[removed] ]
      FDR & internment camps                [ Howard Blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
      Re: Hope and Crosby (and Benny)       [ "Michael Hayde" <mmeajv@[removed]; ]
      Hans Conried                          [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
      Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      Re: Martin/Lewis & M. Hayde           [ "Clyde J. Kell" <cjkell@[removed] ]
      Book                                  [ nicoll <nicoll@[removed]; ]
      Words and meaning                     [ "Danica L. Stein" <danicas@baymoon. ]
      The Best Broadcast Ever               [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
      Bill Farrell                          [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]
      segregation in the south and in the   [ Jer51473@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 12:06:21 -0400
    From: Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: racial epithets

    A couple of comments in response to John Mayer <mayer@[removed];'s post
    of 9/7/02:
    1. I don't remember reading any posts here that reflected "the notion that
    racism in any of its forms was restricted to the South".
    2. Elizabeth did not say that "all the complaints came from the Deep
    South". Probably most did, but we can assume that Allen received hate mail
    from all parts of the country.
    3. The "largest KKK rally and march ever held <that> took place in DC" was
    on August 8th, 1925, not "1929, I believe". Historians estimate the number
    of marchers as 40,000. Klan contingents from many states participated, but
    there is no evidence that "ninety percent of them were from the North". By
    1929 the KKK movement was in disarray, as many of its local and national
    leaders had been exposed as crooks - out to enrich themselves by stealing
    members' dues; selling members "official robes" made by the officers'
    companies; etc.
    4. Maybe "the South had little direct control over the racial stereotypes
    that appeared in magazines, syndicated comics, movies and the radio", but
    the economic power of its consumers' buying decisions was important to the
    producers & sponsors/advertisers of the media. In the event a movie
    studio/radio network/magazine executive wanted to run something that
    countered the "racial stereotypes" of the era, he had to consider the
    probability that his product would be boycotted by "the powers-that-be" in
    the South. (This does not excuse those who acceded to racial
    discrimination, no matter the market for their products, but it does
    explain it, to a certain extent.)

    Herb Harrison (who ain't no saint, hisself)

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 12:09:38 -0400
    From: MAGICIN95@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Best of the 20th Century Collection
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    I'm reviewing my collection and updating my web site and came across a Radio
    Spirits collection put together with (?) Walter Cronkite.  I'm curious to
    find out what other folks thought about the material collected on it.
    (Surely I'm not the only one here who has a copy?)

    Janet

    [removed]

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 12:09:32 -0400
    From: Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  CHICAGO DJ'S

>     In the 1950's there was a feud between two morning DJs on different
>     Chicago stations. I do not remember their names or the stations.

    Howard Miller, WIND and Ernie Simon, WJJD.

          [removed]
          A DATE WITH SINATRA

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 12:07:36 -0400
    From: "George M. Kelly" <gkelly1@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Amos N Andy and Responding

    Herb Harrison wrote:

>     Why bother to respond?
>     If it's a local paper with a "general" readership, most readers won't
>     know what the writer of the original letter was talking about.
>     If it's a paper with a more specific audience, like an in-house
>     retirement community publication, you might just be adding fuel to the
>     fire of a political feud.

    I live in a suburb of Jackson, Miss. and a few years ago the Jackson
    paper absorbed our local paper and now publishes it as a supplement on
    Thursday.  The paper serves a community of over thirty thousand, many of
    whom are very familiar with Amos n Andy (I've made several presentation
    on otr at the local library), but mostly with the last few years of the
    radio show and the television show.  The political feud involves a tree
    house, which made national news, but since that's off topic I won't go
    into details.
        BTW, I'm confused, what's wrong in a free country with "adding fuel
    to the fire of a political feud"?  Love the alliteration, Herb.
    Shouldn't our voices be heard?

    George Kelly

    Clinton, Mississippi

    Home of a Fortune 500 company but we dare not speak its name

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 14:53:24 -0400
    From: "e ginsburg" <edginsburg@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  sunday , september 15,2002-louisville,
     kentucky

    the september meeting of the louisville radio addicts will
    occur at 9:30 am at
    the Dillons steak house at the corner of hurstbourne lane and taylorsville
    road
    please feel free to bring in OTR tapes, pictures, videos or anything else
    pertaining to the love we all share for old time radio
    any question,coffee and sweetrolls will be served
    $5 admission fee
    please feel free to email me
    or call me @ 502-451-0071
    thanks again
    ed

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 14:52:35 -0400
    From: hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: An Archie fan

    Hi "rcg".

    Thanks very much for the kind words.

>     I'm so glad to see so many posts concerning the Archie Andrews show. It was,
>     by far, my favorite Saturday morning program and I awaited each weekly
>     episode
>     with great anticipation.

    You obviously were a child with incredibly good taste. :)

>     One of my most vivid recollections concerns the period when the show was
>     sponsored by Swift & Co. I loved hearing the kids in the audience sing the
>     Swifts Premium Franks theme. I always wondered if they were rehearsed before
>     air time.

    No, rcg, there was no need to rehearse them. At least not after the first
    few episodes during the period of the Swifts sponsorship. I suppose that in
    the initial weeks of that sponsorship, Bob Sherry, during his audience
    warm-up, probably taught them the words, and our organist, George Wright,
    played the simple melody for them. But after that, the theme caught on with
    the home audience, and when they finally got tickets to see the show, they
    knew it by heart.

    After Bob Hastings and I delivered our standard opening, we would remain
    down at the front of the stage and clown around and act like musical
    conductors when the theme was played. (Or maybe it was more like cheer
    leaders). Of course we would sing along at the top of our voices while doing
    so.

>     No matter, everything about the program instills fond memories for me.

    Me too! :) And boy! Were my memories ever honed and sharpened by the time I
    finished writing about those days.

    Hal(Harlan)Stone
    Jughead

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 14:55:00 -0400
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Internment Camps, WW II, and OTR

    In Digest 350, Jer51743 notes,

>     Roosevelt gave the ok and even though im not a big fan of his, i
>     believe he did what he thought he had to do to protect this country. For
>     those who were not here, believe me these were serious and scary times.
>     People were frightened much more than they were to  the debacle of 9/11
>     <snip>  I was only 5 when we got into ww2 but remember the times very
>     well. I used to have nightmares as a kid about the "japs" getting me

    To understand the United States' experience during World War II, you
    kinda had to be there.  In some respects, though, my situation was
    different, having both lived through the Pearl Harbor attack, and living
    under military restrictions until my mother, sister, and I were evacuated
    to the mainland.  So for us personally, living in the Mainland wasn't
    scary.  However, for most people of the time, it was the first time the
    country had been really attacked by a major power.  Prior to the attack,
    there was a certain sense of security because the country was buffered by
    two oceans (the distance between even Hawaii and the Far East was more
    than comparable to the East Coast and continental Europe).  The
    devastation of the attack was scary for a lot of people, including those
    who previously  were isolationist.

>     But those early days of the war were frightening and whose to say that
>     there wasnt someone, if not interned, was a spy and could have killed
>     thousands of citizens including japanese citizens.

    My father was Battery Commander of Battery B, 41st Coast Artillery, with
    Battery Hasbrouk as his command post.  Years after the war, when I was
    old enough to understand it, he told me that after the attack, every
    night someone would take potshots at the artillery emplacement.  This
    happened nightly until some soldiers were dispatched, though precisely
    how they stopped it my father never told me.  So such fears were not
    completely groundless, though the resulting solution of internment was
    rather Draconian.

    To steer this back to OTR, though, I've noticed that much of the
    "Japanese" being spoken in various World War II OTR episodes was
    meaningless jabber that doesn't sound very Japanese.  Now someone
    listening to it today might suspect that this would be some sort of
    insult/slur, but I rather suspect that it's because there were few
    available actors who could speak Japanese.

    There were, to be sure, commentaries on how the enemy was barbaric.  But
    that's only to be expected in the middle of a war.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 15:03:46 -0400
    From: RICFAS@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Equalizers
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
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    A question; I have always felt that when trying to better the sound of old
    time radio shows (from transcritions, reel-to-reel tape, etc.) a parametric
    equalizer is better than a graphic.  I would be interested in what other OTR
    collectors think in preserving OTR to a digital median without using a
    computer.

    Ric Ross

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 15:13:15 -0400
    From: Howard Blue <khovard@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  FDR & internment camps

    Some responses to at "Jer's" posting (Jer51473@[removed]) about internment
    of Japanese-Americans. (Sorry, he/she did not provide their name)

     Jer:  "they were NOT concentration camps."

    HB: They were not the same as the Nazi death camps (Auschwitz etc.)  And
    they were certainly not as bad as the Nazi concentration camps (Dachau
    etc.) as distinct from the death camps. But they were detention camps
    into which people were forcibly put without a trial.

    Jer: "whose to say that there wasnt someone, if not interned, was a spy
    and could have killed thousands of citizens including japanese citizens."

    HB: That's a good rationale for interning all Arab-Americans and all
    Muslims right now. And all young male American Christians and Jews who
    might become John Walker Lind's (?)

    We can asked too, why there was no mass detention of German-Americans on
    the scale of the detention of Japanese-Americans. Many [removed] born
    Japanese-Americans were detained, whereas many German born
    German-Americans  lived and worked as free citizens  during the war.
    Hundreds of German-Americans who had been active in the pro-Hitler
    German-American Bund were allowed to go free during the war. There was no
    comparable pro-Japan organization before the war among Japanese American.

     So the question remains, why Japanese Americans and not  German
    Americans? Why a Japanese-American farmer and not a pre-war pro-Hitler
    German American immigrant?

    Jer:  " the japanese population in hawai was made up mostly of good
    american citizens and/ or allies too, but its a known fact that there
    were many spies among them and they did indeed play a part in the
    planning of the bombing."

    HB: The term "known fact" is a dangerous one. What's the difference
    between a "known fact" and a rumor. Historians base their work, their
    claims, on primary sources, meaning the written and verbal statements of
    eyewitnesses. They  use information from secondary sources when the
    secondary sources can accurately refer readers to the primary sources.

    I would be very interested to see Jer provide evidence that's there was
    one Japanese-American spy, let alone "many spies among them."  I can tell
    you, that
    immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor there were rumors alleging
    sabotage by Japanese Americans. In my own research concerning the Lux
    radio theater show "Air Forced" for "Words at War," ( [removed]
    ) I  discovered a report written by the chief of police of Honolulu s and
    the Office of Military Intelligence which concluded that the rumors were
    unfounded.

    Howard Blue

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 15:13:27 -0400
    From: "Michael Hayde" <mmeajv@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Hope and Crosby (and Benny)

    Bill Harris wrote:

>     NBC had Hope and CBS had [removed] said NBC stood for "No Bing
>     Crosby"

    He also said CBS stood for "Crosby and Benny's Strongbox," in honor of the
    fortune that network was paying them.

    Michael

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 15:42:48 -0400
    From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Hans Conried

    I just received in the mail this weekend, a new book recently published.
    HANS CONRIED: A Biography; With a Filmography and a Listing of Radio,
    Television, Stage and Voice Work.  Written by Suzanne Gargiulo and with a
    foreward by Leonard Maltin.  The book was released through McFarland and
    although I have yet to agree on their productions (they charge WAY too much
    for their books), the book is both an entertaining read, and a wonderful
    reference work on Conried's work.  Notably, the entire first half of the
    book, dealing with Conried's radio work, and a lengthy appendix at the end
    of the book, listing hundreds of his appearances beginning with his 1936
    KECA Shakespeare Series to the early 1980s when he was doing CBS RMT, Sears
    Radio Theater, Same Time-Same Station, etc.

    There is even a wonderful chapter about his film work such as starring in
    Arch Oboler's THE TWONKY.
    I am not sure how much the book is available for from Mcfarland but they do
    have a paperback edition available.  (If anyone wants to save postage fees,
    you can visit the local Barnes and Noble and Borders bookstore and request
    to have a copy through special order.  Even though the book may not be on
    their shelf, they can special order and you don't have to pay postage.)
    This is a refrence book worth owning.
    Martin Grams, Jr.

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 15:42:58 -0400
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Today in radio history

      From Those Were The Days --

    1935 - The Hoboken Four, featuring Frank Sinatra as lead singer,
    appeared on Major Bowes Amateur Hour on WOR radio. The group won the
    competition held at the Capitol Theatre in New York City.

    1944 - Ed Wynn resumed his radio career after seven years off the air.
    Wynn starred in Happy Island on the NBC Blue network.

      Joe

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

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 15:46:56 -0400
    From: "Clyde J. Kell" <cjkell@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Martin/Lewis & M. Hayde

    Hello,
    I really enjoyed reading Michael Hayde's comments in issue
    Vol 2002: Issue 350, about the Martin & Lewis feud.

    Long, but very nice reading! I never knew much about
    the feud.

    It's good to be back on the Radio Digest mailing lists. I was a
    subscriber about a year ago under a different e-mail address.
    But then my mail server died and I lost the Radio Digest info until
    a fellow OTR friend pointed me here.

    Regards,
    Clyde J. Kell
    Mystery Play Internet Radio  OTR 24x7 mp3 stream
    [removed]

    [ADMINISTRIVIA: [removed] subscribers can get lost. Don't assume your
    friends know about the Digest, or how to [removed] 'em!  --cfs3]

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 18:28:19 -0400
    From: nicoll <nicoll@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Book

    	I bought a book at an estate [removed]"Stranger Than Fiction" by The
    Voice
    of Experience.  The book was printed in 1934 and apparently has an OTR
    connection.
    	The FOREWORD begins "When I signed off at noon, Friday, July 13,
    1934, for
    my last current broadcast over the coast-to-coast network to go on
    vacation, I had completed a little more than eight years on the air
    conducting a radio forum of questions and answers."
    	I would like to know more about this program.  Anybody??
    Will Nicoll

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 18:28:53 -0400
    From: "Danica L. Stein" <danicas@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Words and meaning

>     However, times can change the meaning of a word: perhaps the best example
>     is the word "gay," which used to mean carefree and happy rather than a
>     sexual orientation.

    It still does. The meaning hasn't changed. The word was put to another use
    as well, not unlike many other English words. For example, the word "wicked"
    -- which means evil, but if you listen to someone under the age of 18, it
    also means "very, very cool." That is different from a situation like Ron
    described, where a perhaps-once-descriptive word became pejorative. "Gay" as
    describing a sexual orientation is not pejorative, I might add.

    To bring it back to OTR, I like when I'm listening to a show and hear words
    or phrases that we just don't use anymore. My favorite is when someone is
    introduced to someone else, and everyone says "how do you do," or even
    "how-do." (Now, I think the proper response is "Hey.") Well, maybe people
    still say "how do you do" somewhere, but not in my part of the world, on the
    Central California coast.

    Danica

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 20:18:47 -0400
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  The Best Broadcast Ever

    Over the last couple of Digests, talk has again surfaced about the best
    broadcast ever aired.  IMHO, there ain't no such animal.  That's because
    OTR, or any art-form, for that matter, is inherently subjective.  Which
    is another way of saying "tastes vary," or "to each his own."

    There are many great programs that have graced the airwaves.  But is,
    say, Grand Central Station or The Mercury Theater any "better" than
    Fibber McGee and Molly or The Jack Benny Show?  Many of us have opinions
    as to which show best captures the spirit of OTR (my pick is a Lone
    Ranger story, "The Transcontinental Telegraph," yet I could see someone
    else going with Oboler's "The Chicken Heart"), but I doubt there would be
    across-the-board agreement for any one show.

    My "special" show is Captain Midnight; the scholarly Elizabeth McLeod's
    is Amos and Andy.  Others have their own "specials."  However, I doubt
    that, save to ourselves, any of us would characterize our shows as _the_
    greatest.

    There are two other factors to consider.  One is that when I was first
    listening to the shows over the air, I was rather young.  Now tastes
    change over time ([removed], my reactions to The Challenged of the Yukon and
    Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons, are far different now than when I first
    heard them), and many previously "great" shows are now merely
    entertaining.

    Second and worse:  we missed more than we heard.  Shows were opposite
    each other, and thus in hearing one show, we may have missed an even
    better one.    I'm painfully aware that I missed more than I heard, and
    neither I nor anyone else can comment on what they haven't heard.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 21:31:54 -0400
    From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Bill Farrell

    Hi Everybody,  Bill Farrell who was Bob Hope singer on radio in 1948, and
    1949 is going to be at the Friends of Old Time Radio Convention.  Bill is
    still performing in Palm Spring and is selling two of his CD there too.
    Bill would like to make contacts with radio personalities who might be
    whilling to play his music on there show.  Please get in touch with me off
    list if you can help,

    Walden Hughes

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 21:32:35 -0400
    From: Jer51473@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  segregation in the south and in the north

    <PRE>Everyones aware of this in the south, but some probably think it didnt
    exist
    in the north. Not so. As far as schools go there may not have been laws
    prohibiting intergration, but it took place and still does to some extent in
    the north, although not by law. Generally speaking, the vast majority of the
    black population in the north was and is in the large cities with a very
    small portion in the small towns. In the south the black population has
    always been spread more evenly among big cities, small towns, and the rural
    sections of the south. I lived in illinois for a short while when i was 7
    years old and i will never forget that in the small town we lived in, blacks
    were not allowed to reside. I wont name the town, but as i understand it,
    this was not unusual at all back in the forties. For what its worth, i am a
    white southerner and although during my childhood the schools were segregated
    by law, the two races grew up together in spite of segregation and got along
    very reasonably well in our small town. Things have changed for the better
    since then in the south, but needed positive changes have also taken place in
    the north. Most of the black population in the north is still centered in and
    around the large cities, but at least all people have the freedom to live
    where they choose.

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #351
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