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

[removed] Digest				Volume 96 : Issue 313

Table Of Contents: 

	 Ed McConnell & Watching the Radio
	 More train OTR
	 I think you're doing great
	 Issue #305
	 Repairing Cassettes
	 [removed]!
	 Stale Radio
	 "Wendy Warren and the News"
	 Mrs Calabash and net bash
	 Tape Eating
	 Tape Eating 

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

Date: Sun, 1 Sep 1996 18:53:54 -0400
From: KENPILETIC@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Ed McConnell & Watching the Radio
Message-ID: <960901185352_469846000@[removed]>

Hi Gang -                    September 1 - 1996 -- Sunday 4:30 PM cdt 

First Topic -  Smilin' Ed McConnell's Other Program

You may recall that in two previous issues I asked if anybody had any 
recollection of the line "... If I have Wounded any Soul ..." as used by 
an OTR personality as a regular sign-off.  I received two replies (both 
from the second posting).  Both replies said that the line was used by Red 
Skelton from his early TV programs, not from radio. 

I vaguely remember Skelton using this line, so I wrote to the librarian 
who asked me about it.  I got a reply from the librarian.  The patron who 
was inquiring at the library said she found her own answer, and it was 
Smilin' Ed O'Connell (sic) and that it was a hymn that he used to open his 
radio program. 

Now, I have only one program in my collection of Ed McConnell (not 
O'Connell) doing his "other" show (which was a sort-of combination of 
Breakfast Club and House Party).  He doesn't mention it.  I believe the 
program was heard only in California.  This was from the late 1930's or 
early 1940's I think.  If Ed McConnell did use this line, it would have 
pre-dated Skelton.  It's possible that Red Skelton could have used the 
line, too.   

Anyway what I'm asking now is - Does anybody have any of the Ed McConnell 
programs (NOT BUSTER BROWN GANG), and could you check to see if he used 
the phrase "... If I have Wounded and Soul ..." as the opening (or close) 
to his show?  Thanks. 

-----  New Topic -- Special Standard -- 

For those of you who send tapes through the mail, be advised that Special 
Fourth Class Mail no longer exists.   The new service is called "Special 
Standard".  This has the same rate as Special Fourth Class, and also 
replaces Book Rate.  There is no change in price.  Tapes still base their 
postal rate by the pound, the same as books, regardless of ZIP Code.  It 
appears to be just a name change.  This change went into effect on July 1. 
There are now only four classes of mail:  First Class, Standard, Special 
Standard, and Periodicals.  The man at the post office said that the old 
"Numbered Classes" were confusing.  The new nomenclature easier to 
understand.  First Class is the same as before (mostly letters).  Standard 
is the old Fourth Class Parcel Post.  Special Standard is the old Special 
Fourth (aka Book Rate).  Periodicals is periodicals (mostly magazines).   
So remember to send your tapes "Special Standard", not "Special Fourth". 

----  New Topic --  Watching the Radio -- 

In a recent issue, someone refered to people watching the radio as they 
listened (in the days before TV).   I don't recall ever watching the radio 
when I listened to it.  I don't recall anyone else in my family watching 
the radio.  My mother did her housework while listening to "Young Widder 
Brown".  My dad was usually building something or repairing something when 
he listened to "Walter Winchell".  I was generally doing my homework at 
the same time I listened to "Jack Armstrong".  My sister would cringe 
under the table as she listened to "The Shadow".  I don't know anybody who 
watched the radio.  Where did this notion come from?  Possibly from a 
Norman Rockwell painting?  

I have recently taken to recording some of my old time radio programs on 
videotape.  Sometimes I put my video camera on the tape recorder to give a 
picture (for sync pulses to help older VHS players).  When I play these 
tapes back through my TV set, I catch myself watching the reels go round-
and-round on the TV screen.  I tell myself it so I can see how much tape 
is left, but I wonder if I have become "conditioned" to watching something 
while listening.  Does anybody who was born before 1940 remember watching 
the radio?   My guess is you don't.

See You In Newark -- Ken Piletic - Streamwood, Illinois 
kenpiletic@[removed] 

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

Date: 01 Sep 1996 14:09:16 GMT
From: [removed]@[removed] (Ron B. Hare)
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: More train OTR
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

There are a few repeats here from previous posts, but here is yet another list
of train-oriented OTR selections. Some are trolleys, one is a monorail, one
is a ghost and one is mules. There is also some chit-chat about the miniature
steam railroads owned by David Rose, Walt Disney and Edgar Bergen on variety
shows, but they would be real hard to locate.

SUPERMAN - Saves train at Rainbow Bridge
THRILLS OF TOMORROW - Amphibian train
Spike Jones or Vaughn Monroe record - Mule Train
STRANGE - Ghost Train
ESCAPE - Train from Olbiefelde (sp?)
RADIO MYSTERY THEATER - Last Train Out
JACK BENNY - Train from Chicago (12/18/38)
JACK BENNY - Leaves for New York by train (date unknown)
Sparky and the Talking Train (kid's 78 rpm record album)
GENE SHEPHERD - Talks about trains
SHADOW - Death on the Rails
GREEN HORNET - Disaster Rides the Rails
JACK ARMSTRONG - (one of the ads hypes the Hiawatha)
"A Thousand Miles of Railroads" (documentary)
EDGAR BERGEN HOUR - Monorail engineer is guest
MILTON BERLE - Salute to railroads

Ron
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Transmitted via LiveWire, a Virtual Valley service. Modem: [removed]
(FirstClass, VT-100)              [removed]

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

Date: Sun, 1 Sep 1996 19:37:18 -0500 (CDT)
From: barrym <barrym@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: I think you're doing great
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

> This is the reason I read but seldom post to this group. I worked in OTR
> from 1948-1955, but no matter what I post somebody declares it wrong and has
> heard the true story, etc etc [removed]
 
I'd like to respectfully suggest that this reaction from people
should not be taken as criticism of your posts.  This is the way
people are on this group.  We discuss and offer other posibilities
and ideas and that's the fun of it.

In fact, I would say that the reaction to your post that you've
described in the above paragraph should be taken a positive
response.  It means you're making people think and come up with
their own ideas.

I hope you'll have that effect on us more often.

Barry  (who doesn't know beans about the business of radio,
	but loves to listen)

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

Date: Mon, 2 Sep 1996 00:59:34 GMT
From: veedee@[removed] (Vincent R. Damiano)
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Issue #305
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Could someone please email me a copy of the OTR Digest #305.  I never
received this issue. 
 
veedee@[removed]

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

Date: Sun, 1 Sep 1996 21:04:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: Philip Quardokus <quardok@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Repairing Cassettes
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

I don't know much about Old Time Radio but I am trying to learn.  
However, I have worked with cassette tapes since their introduction.

Here is a suggestion for saving a valuable tape that is on a bad cassette.

1. Find a high quality cassette.
2. Pull all the tape out of it.
3. Splice the end of the tape you want to save on to the end of the tape 
from the good cassette.
4. Wind the tape onto the good cassette from the old cassette.
5. Splice the take up end to the new cassette.

I hope these directions are somewhat clear.

The goal is to have the valuable tape on a quality cassette cartridge shell.

The process is not to difficult if you make sure you keep the oxide side 
facing out on the cassette  (It is usually the dull side.)

Philip Quardokus

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

Date: Sun, 1 Sep 1996 22:40:01 -0400
From: JRayb71827@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: [removed]!
Message-ID: <960901224000_399187252@[removed]>

Enough, already!  It appears we may have to re-name the Digest "Psychology
101."  Is it necessary to keep on analyzing what did or did not happen to
OTR.  Can't we just accept it for what it is and get on with more
entertaining subject matter?  I'm sorry but theories on what may or may not
have occurred lose their charm after I've waded through days and days of
"psych."

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

Date: Sun, 1 Sep 1996 23:34:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: "'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Stale Radio
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

> Date: Sun, 01 Sep 1996 10:33:49 -0400
> From: Michael Carraher <carraher@[removed]>
> To: [removed]@[removed]
> Subject: Re: Stale Radio
> Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> 
> 1.  Radio moguls resisted and delayed the introduction of TV.

Strangely enough, radio moguls also resisted the introduction of FM radio,
for reasons which I find much harder to understand.

> 2.  Advertisers used to own the shows and used sponsorship of radio
> shows to build long-term good will.  Now advertising media buyers look
> to immediate numbers.

Actually, the ownership of shows by advertisers continued into the TV era.
The quiz show scandals of the late 1950s played a large part in changing
that.  There was as much complaining about the tyranny of the sponsor as
there has been in more recent times about the tyranny of the network
programming executives.  I remember reading some columns by TV critics
suggesting that changing to the British system of commercial TV, where
sponsors just bought advertising time from the network and didn't own the
programs, would be a big improvement over the then-current system of
sponsor ownership.  I'm not sure it has been.

For that matter, it often happened that the show was the property of the
advertising agency.  I know of at least one instance where a show was
cancelled simply because the sponsor changed ad agencies, and the new
agency wanted to do something different from what the other agency had
been doing.  (The show was Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, which was cancelled
when Kellogg's changed ad agencies.  It eventually returned with another
sponsor.)

The increased cost of TV shows probably makes it much too costly for a
single sponsor to underwrite them, especially where the shows tend to make
more money in syndication than on the networks.  But it was not unheard of
in the old days for a show to have alternating sponsorship, and some
combination might have developed if the networks hadn't used the quiz show
scandal to take greater control of the programs.  As I recall, Captain
Midnight, on TV, had alternating sponsors for awhile (Ovaltine and Kix),
and Groucho Marx alternated for awhile with DeSoto and Prom Shampoo.
Howdy Doody, when it was on weekdays, usually had two sponsors a day
(though I don't know how often what I thought were two sponsors were
simply two different products of the same company).  And yet, sponsor
identification with the shows they sponsored still existed.  Today,
sponsor identification with a TV show is rare.


======================================================================
A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                                      617/367-0468
15 Court Square                                   lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2573                    [removed]~lawyer/
======================================================================

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

Date: Sun, 1 Sep 1996 23:42:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: "'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: "Wendy Warren and the News"
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

The thread about female detectives reminds me of a show I think I heard
only once or twice in the early 1950s.  It was on in the afternoon, I
think on a five-day-a-week schedule.  It was about Wendy Warren, who was a
female radio news reporter.  The program was about her adventures as such,
but at the end, after the last commercial, the announcer would say, "And
now, Wendy Warren and the News," and Wendy Warren would actually come on
for a few minutes and read that day's news.

Or at least that's how I remember it.  In all the years I've been into
otr, I don't think I've ever seen any mention of the program, tapes
available, or appearances on any otr radio broadcasts.  Does anyone else
remember this program?

======================================================================
A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                                      617/367-0468
15 Court Square                                   lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2573                    [removed]~lawyer/
======================================================================

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

Date: Mon, 02 Sep 1996 00:39:03 -0400
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Mrs Calabash and net bash
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Sheesh, Aubrey, count to ten. Ken was not calling you a liar, he was just
doing what everyone else does on this list, offering his opinion. Just
because you indicated Durante made the comment directly does not necessarily
make it true. I have read of many "star" differences of opinion one
interpreting the truth one way or another a different way. Witness the
Welles/Houseman argument. 

Please continue to post but for gosh sakes, don't feel so persecuted if
someone varies from your own opinion.

>Let's see now Ken, re Mrs Calabash. You knew a guy who knew a guy who
>worked with a guy who used to know about Durante? Or was it a guy who
>thought he [removed] [removed] to keep the old pot boiling.
>
>Why in hell would Jimmmy Durante get up in front of the National Press club
>and out and out lie. Especially why would he drag his long-dead wife into
>it? And why would Durante need a gimmic anyway? To keep his name remembered
>by the public? Are you kidding?????????? This man needed recognition like
>George Burns needed a recognition gimmic.  
>
>Would you believe it if I said the sky is blue? Or would you say that wasn't
>necessary so, just for the sake of argument.
>
>This is the reason I read but seldom post to this group. I worked in OTR
>from 1948-1955, but no matter what I post somebody declares it wrong and has
>heard the true story, etc etc [removed]
>

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Widner                      INTERNET: jwidner@[removed]
Dayton, OH                      WWW: [removed]
COMPUSERVE: 74566,3041          
AOL: JimWidner                            

                                                 

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

Date: Sun, 01 Sep 1996 22:09:36 -0700
From: Jack Mann <jmann@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Tape Eating
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hi All: RE cassettes that eat the tape, I've found that loosening the
four screws just a tad often makes the problem disappear.

Jack

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

Date: Mon, 2 Sep 1996 01:37:35 -0500 (CDT)
From: wdp (AIRWAVES MEDIA)
To: otr@[removed] (Old Time Radio)
Subject: Tape Eating 
Message-Id: <m0uxSdb-000YUQC@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Length:       1378

}  Jack Mann <jmann@[removed]> wrote:
} 
} Hi All: RE cassettes that eat the tape, I've found that loosening the
} four screws just a tad often makes the problem disappear.

That is a workaround, but not a fix.

Tape eating is almost always caused by one thing.  The take-up
reel is not exerting enough force to keep up with the capstan.  The
cause is usually a belt or other drive component associated with the
take-up reel getting stretched, dirty or both.  So the capstan feeds
tape out, and there is no take-up action and the tape winds around the
capstan [removed] well you know the rest.

We clean our tape heads, usually our capstans, but when was the last
time you opened the entire thing up to inspect, clean or replace those
belts under there?  Probably never.  If some cassettes eat and others
do not, it often means that some have greater internal friction (worn
slip sheets, shoddy case design).  Often tape eating occurs as the
tape is almost finished (more tape on the take-up side).  

Cleaning these belts and associated pulleys and such with alcohol will
help, maybe cure, the problem.  But if the problem is severe, new
belts may be in order.  Then are cheaper than new copies of your
favorite shows :-).

Believe me on this one, I know from whence I speak.

William Pfeiffer
Administrator: Old Time Radio Digest
wdp@[removed]
Web: [removed]




--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #313
*******************************************

