Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #480
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 12/10/2002 9:32 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2002 : Issue 480
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      ANOTHER CHANNEL HEARD FROM            [ "randy story" <bygeorge@[removed]; ]
      Communist Blacklisting                [ badaxley@[removed] ]
      Re: The Beginning Of The End On OTR   [ otrdsiegel@[removed] ]
      a question about old reel-to-reel ta  [ Magilla445@[removed] ]
      HAY! for what it's WORTH              [ Derek Tague <derek@[removed]; ]
      Anyone recommend a mp3/CD player sol  [ Ed Kindred <kindred@[removed]; ]
      Re: McCarthyism: Reuben Ship's "The   [ Geoff Loker <gloker@[removed]; ]
      Senator McCarthy                      [ "George Tirebiter" <tirebiter2@hotm ]
      Stalinist??                           [ "J. Pope" <jpope101@[removed] ]
      A Sidepoint on the Blacklisting       [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
      Blacklisting                          [ "Gary Yoggy" <yoggy@[removed]; ]
      BLACKLISTING                          [ "Ian Grieve" <austotr@[removed]. ]

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

    Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 18:04:40 -0500
    From: "randy story" <bygeorge@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  ANOTHER CHANNEL HEARD FROM

    Greetings, Gates!
    Let's pontificate!!!

    I have sat idly by in the last few digests watching this whole argument over
    the Red Scare and Red Channels growing ever more [removed] have withheld a
    lot of my personal attitudes and feelings because I really dislike conflict;
    especially in a freindly setting like this one(is supposed to be). But, my
    friends, I must say a few things and then be done with [removed] my corner,
    anyway.

    I have read with disappointment the attacks on one another lately.
    Innunendos. Suggestive statements. Almost to the point of name-calling. Sad
    really.

    But, I have heard all of this before somewhere. Where was [removed],
    yes. History class. And a thing called the Red Scare. Took place in the
    United States some 50 or so years ago. The key word in that last sentence
    was: history. Past is passed; we move on as a nation and as a people. If we
    allow ourselves to fall into the same trap they fell into then, we are doing
    nothing but repeating the past mistakes of our culture.

    Now, I am not as seasoned in life as some on this digest, but I am a student
    of history. And human nature. And I can tell you that both are driven by the
    individual perspective, or how we each see things differently. I for one
    feel that  how these people behaved during the time of the Red Scare was
    their business and should be no reflection upon their work. This would be
    like saying: "That Raymond Burr was a socialist. Too bad. I guess I can't
    like his work on FORT LARAMIE or DRAGNET anymore."

    We seperate the human choices people make from the work they do. If we did
    not, much of Hollywood would not exist today probably. And it goes far
    beyond just the choices people make, but into their color, religions, [removed]

    I think what I am trying to share is this fact. We all choose different
    paths in life; sometimes we take a turn for the bad, other times for the
    good. Who is to judge which is which except us? The human individual. What
    others say should not really matter in today's world and most of the people
    we are speaking of in these Red Scare arguments are gone anyway. Why
    diminish their memory by second-guessing their character now?

    I am not personally going to discontinue my admiration for people like Bud
    Collyer or whomever for a decision based largely on the fear of  job loss
    some 45 odd years ago. Good Lord, people, half of his contemporaries were
    forced into his situation! As well as dozens of others in this nation in all
    walks of life during that frightening [removed] Capra was almost labeled a
    'commie' for his work on my favorite film of all time, IT'S A WONDERFUL
    LIFE, along with several other legendary directors and movies. It all got
    ridiculous becasue so many people were afraid of what they saw happening to
    handful of people. Wrong or right, Americans in all careers were forced to
    make choices that must have been painful for most of them to make.

    I love OTR for the voices, stories, and personalities I hear every day of my
    life now. I could really care less about their political leanings. I will
    continue to enjoy those shows and the wonderful memory of those people who
    created them for all of us to share and enjoy.

    Why put a shadow over all of that with arguments and disagreements along the
    lines we have seen on this digest in the last several weeks? We have more
    positive things to talk about. The world of today has enough probelms
    without drudging up baggage from our past.

    We have learned what lessons we need to have learned from the Red Scare;
    what we do with the knowledgre obtained from them is a matter of choice.

    Thanks,
    Randy
    (who hopes he has not angered anyone with his commentary; I am not wanting
    to open any more channels of debate on this subject)

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

    Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 18:05:14 -0500
    From: badaxley@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Communist Blacklisting

    I would agree with Hal's comments:

>     Subject:  Re: What else is new

>     Ok! Ok! call off the dogs.

    Let's call off the dogs.  It's the season to be jolly!  Unfortunately what
    happened has already happened and can't be undone.  I also remember the period
    and tend to agree with Hal.  But to take so much time in vindictive arguments
    ain't what this digest is all about.  Back to good old OTR!
    Bob Axley

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

    Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 18:05:51 -0500
    From: otrdsiegel@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: The Beginning Of The End On OTR

    In 1954, some 48 years ago, a sub committee of the United States Senate
    chaired by the junior senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy (R) was
    involved in a series of investigations of various government agencies that
    might be tainted by Communist influence.  In April of that year the committe
    found itself embroiled in a contraversy in which the United states Army
    accused the chairman and the committee's attorney, Mr. Roy Cohen, of trying
    to influence the army to grant special favors to a former committee
    investigator who had been drafted and who was serving as a private, G. David
    Shine.
        Senator McCarthy responded to those charges by accusing the Secretary of
    the Army, Robert Stevens, of covering up communism in the army and trying to
    get the committee to drop it's investigation of the army.
        The sub committee scheduled a series of hearings on the counter charges
    and temporarily relieved Sen. McCarthy of his chairmanship since he was one
    of the accused.
        The National Broadcasting Company decided that rather than lose
    commercial revenues in giving daytime TV coverage to these hearings they
    would cover the hearings, record the testimony and provide it's RADIO
    listeners with a recorded summary of each day's hearings in the evening.
        THe hearings And testimony went on for some 36 days, frOm April 22, 1954
    thru June 15, 1954 and Richard Harkness of NBC news broadcast a 45 minute
    summary with recorded testimony each night of the hearings.
        I recently acquired a full set of these radio broadcasts and found them
    to be as dramatic a form of radio drama as one could imagine.
        One hears the voices of the parties in conflict, Senator McCarthy (who
    becomes famous for his constant  POINT OF ORDER interuptions) of Roy Cohen
    and of Se. of the Army Stevens. One also hears the voices of the temporary
    committee chairman, Karl Mundt of South Dakota and of senators Symington of
    missoiru, Dirkson of Illinois, Jackson of Washington, McClellen of Arkansas
    and others. Acting as attorney for the commiutte was Roy Jenkins and acting
    as attorney for the army was Joseph Welch.
        For anyone who may be familiar with this history the fasmous
    confrontation between the senator from Wisconsin and Joseph Welch is said to
    have put the final nail on the coffin that was to bring the senator down in
    the eyes of hisvfellow senators and of the public.
        The total run of these 36 broadcasts plus the introductory program
    broasdcast the day before the very first hearing, runs close to 25 solid
    hours.
        Dave Siegel

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

    Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 18:06:26 -0500
    From: Magilla445@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  a question about old reel-to-reel tape
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    I'm hoping someone on the list can help with a minor problem. I recently
    picked up a large batch of old reel-to-reel tapes. Most of them were recorded
    in the 50s and 60s.
    There is a fair amount of music on them along with religious sermons and
    such. The problem with most of these tapes is they are very dirty. There is
    no serious warpage or flaking. They had obviously been stored away twenty or
    so years in some musty old basement or garage. I assume much of the dirt and
    grime on them is mildew. Most of the tapes seem to play OK, discounting all
    the crackling and background noise due to the dirty tape. At least the audio
    portion hasn't been lost. But they are so dirty that I am constantly cleaning
    the head on the old tape player. My question is if there is some sensible
    (and hopefully easy) way to give all these tapes a good cleaning. I think
    they deserve to be preserved. Any help or suggestions will be greatly
    appreciated.

    Warmest [removed] Frantz

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    Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 18:06:52 -0500
    From: Derek Tague  <derek@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  HAY! for what it's WORTH

    Dear Charlie & Co.:

         I found an interesting juxtaposition in the recent posting by my buddy
    Anthony Tollin ["that's a Coke, son!"--inside joke]. anyway, here goes:
    Anthony [removed]

>      A group of Hollywood and radio's elite
>     including Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson, Danny Kaye,
>     Gene Kelly, Ira Gershwin, Rita Hayworth and Norman Corwin formed the
>     Committee for the First Amendment to fight the blacklist (with many of the
>     above appearing on Corwin's ABC broadcasts AMERICA FIGHTS BACK).

       And then later about Jackson Beck:

>     Jackson himself was a victim of the blacklist ...  Jack too lost QUICK AS A
>     FLASH because of the
>     blacklist, though he was quickly restored to good graces when Vinton Hayworth
>     and others discovered that Jack was a brother Freemason.

         I never knew Rita Hayworth to be overtly political as, say, her fellow
    aforementioned colleagues in "Americans for the First  Amendment" [unless one
    considers that she was once married to Orson Welles, who was quite political
    in the 1930s]. But aren't the Hayworths, Rita and Vinton, related  somehow?
    If so, then it's obvious that either one were on opposite sides of the 1940s
    efforts of Congressman J. Parnell Thomas, [removed]  Would anybody out in the
    ether happen to  know  if these particular political stances caused a rift in
    their releationship [provided, of course, they're related]?  The only thing
    "red" I can envision was her hair colour  when she played the titular role in
    that James Cagney movie "The Strawberry Blonde."  [OK-OK, I appropriated that
    line from Desi Arnaz].

    Waiting on an answer,

    Derek  Tague

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

    Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 18:07:14 -0500
    From: Ed Kindred <kindred@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Anyone recommend a mp3/CD player sold in UK

    I tried to send this note off-line unsuccessfully.

    Here is a site for Philips products available in the UK. Maybe it will
    help.
    There are probably others but I figured that the Euro monster would have a
    very international website.
    Be of good cheer,
    Ed Kindred

    [removed];groupId=AUDIO&catId=PORTABLEAUDIOPRODUCTS

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    Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 18:11:46 -0500
    From: Geoff Loker <gloker@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: McCarthyism: Reuben Ship's "The
     Investigator"

    According to Joyce Brabner:

>     The story of the CBC
>     broadcast's suppression and clandestine distribution is pretty amazing.

>     You'll find it at
>     [removed]

    Thanks for the pointer to the page on "The Investigator" - an interesting
    read.

>     There's a recent new Canadian recording starring John Drainie, Barry
>     Morse & James Doohan as an audio book, but why bother?

    Sorry, but it is not a new recording.  This is the original broadcast from the
    CBC Stage series.  John Drainie was the actor who managed, so I have heard, to
    nail down McCarthy's sound and vocal mannerisms so well.

    As for "why bother", the CBC has wonderful archives full of old programmes
    that have not been heard for many years.  Unfortunately, they haven't got a
    great track record of bringing out this old material, which is part of why
    there is not so much Canadian OTR around in comparison to [removed] OTR.  By
    purchasing these tapes, it helps to encourage the CBC to bring out more.
    Also, the tape of "The Investigator" also comes with the CBC Stage version of
    "Heart Of Darkness", starring Lorne Greene as Kurtz.

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

    Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 18:12:14 -0500
    From: "George Tirebiter" <tirebiter2@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Senator McCarthy

    Hello All:

    Kenneth Clarke wrote:

>     Why was it that the entertainment industry was so
>     summarily targeted?  Why didn't McCarthy research his allegations
>     against these people more thoroughly before publicly placing
>     their names on a list which damaged many of their careers?
>     During a time when we were already having to fight enemies
>     outside of our country, why did McCarthy feel it was necessary to
>     start an entirely new war within it?

    Someone once described McCarthy as a man who was fundamentally attracted to
    dishonesty even when honesty would have better served his purposes.  I think
    that is the best one sentence summary of the man and the "ism".

    George

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

    Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 23:15:11 -0500
    From: "J. Pope" <jpope101@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Stalinist??

>     Two, to indicate the extent to which many prominent actors and artists
>     have been inveigled to lend their [removed] to organizations espousing
>     Communist causes. THIS REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEY ACTUALLY BELIEVE IN,
>     SYMPATHIZE WITH, OR EVEN RECOGNIZE THE CAUSE ADVANCED.

        This doesn't sound like intimidation or thought-policing to me.  It's
    not even accusing those "prominent actors and artists" of having communist
    leanings - just of being gullible enough to "lend their names" to things
    they don't really agree with or understand.  Where's the chilling evil??

    Jennifer

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

    Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 23:17:50 -0500
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  A Sidepoint on the Blacklisting
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    Although this is tangential to OTR, there's one thing of interest.

    Edward G. Robinson was one of those who was considered "questionable."
    In his biography, All My Yesterdays, Robinson's career was virtually
    over, but Cecil B. Demille hired him to play a major part in The Ten
    Commandments.  Demille was considered such a rock-solid anticommunist
    that Robinson's career was saved: if he was okay with Demille, he had to
    be okay, period.   Whatever else, Demille went his own way.

    To nail it to OTR, Demille was host of Lux Radio Theater from 1936 -
    1945, and his departure from that show was because he refused to
    sacrifice his principles.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr

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    Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 23:27:37 -0500
    From: "Gary Yoggy" <yoggy@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Blacklisting
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    Though I hesitate to get involved in such an emotional issue as blacklisting,
    I think Howard Blue's book is excellent: well organized, well researched and
    factual, highly readable and a magnificent addition to the ever-growing
    academic study of the history of broadcasting in the US.

    What truly frightens me in this whole "debate" is the way in which the
    defenders of those who participated in the blacklisting of their fellow
    actors, etc. seem to justify the TACTICS they used whatever their motives (and
    dare I say I'll bet more were motivated by self-survival than patriotism).
    Guilt by association based upon the assumption that it is better to wrongly
    crucify 100 innocent men than to let one guilty one escape.  But then, of
    course, the end justifies the means!!!  Can't these people see that the
    blacklisters were playing right into Communist hands, for it was Karl Marx
    himself who preached this very strategy.

    Once again kudos to Howard Blue for his fine [removed] disappointment for
    those who fail to see the REAL danger in blacklisting.     Gary Yoggy

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    Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 23:32:57 -0500
    From: "Ian Grieve" <austotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  BLACKLISTING

    I for one enjoyed the debate on the "Blacklisting", "Communism",
    "redlisting", "McCarthyism" etc, not much in the way of blood was spilled
    and I learnt a lot about a subject I only vaguely knew about.  I thank those
    who gave an opinion and I thank Charlie for allowing it to continue to a
    pretty natural end.

    Ian Grieve

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #480
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