Subject: [removed] Digest V2004 #62
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 2/18/2004 1:05 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2004 : Issue 62
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      2-18 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      Trains, ships, etc.                   [ <robertgaxley@[removed]; ]
      Cod Liver Oil                         [ <robertgaxley@[removed]; ]
      When You Say I Beg Your Pardon        [ seandd@[removed] ]
      Kay-lack water                        [ mike <mwheeler@[removed]; ]
      Cel Ray, Whispeirng Adams             [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
      Request from Danish Reseacher         [ Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@erols ]
      Pardon Lee's Blooper                  [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      Re:Jan Minor                          [ hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed]; ]
      Ransome Renwick                       [ Steve Lewis <lewis@[removed]; ]
      Max Morath - Ragtime                  [ Lee Munsick <leemunsick@[removed] ]
      Re: cod liver oil                     [ Sam Levene <sam6@[removed]; ]
      Jan Miner, [removed]                     [ Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@erols ]
      Jan Miner                             [ Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 17:22:58 -0500
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  2-18 births/deaths

    February 18th births

    02-18-1890 - Adolphe Menjou - Pittsburgh, PA - d. 10-29-1963
    host: "Texaco Star Theatre"; "Eternal Light"; "Hallmark Playhouse"
    02-18-1890 - Edward Arnold - NYC - d. 4-26-1956
    actor: President "Mr. President"
    02-18-1901 - Wayne King - Savannah, IL - d. 7-16-1985
    bandleader: (The Waltz King) "Lady Esther Serenade"
    02-18-1903 - Jacques Fray - Paris, France - d. 1-20-1963
    pianist, disc jockey: "Fray and Braggiotti"
    02-18-1907 - Billy de Wolf -  Wollaston, MA - d. 3-5-1974
    actor: "Ginny Simms Show"; "Philco Radio Playhouse"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
    02-18-1913 - Dane Clark - Brooklyn, NY - d. 9-11-1998
    actor: Perry 'Quiz' Quisinberry "Passport for Adams"; Flamond "Crime Files of
    Flamond"
    02-18-1914 - Pee Wee King - Abrams, WI - d. 3-7-2000
    singer, songwriter, accordionist: "Grand Ole Opry"; "Pee Wee King Show"
    02-18-1917 - Jack Slattery - MO - d. 10-29-1979
    announcer: "House Party"; "You Bet Your Life"
    02-18-1919 - Jack Palance - Lattimer, PA
    actor: "Bud's Bandwagon"
    02-18-1920 - Bill Cullen - Pittsburgh, PA - d. 7-7-1990
    host, announcer: "Winner Take All"; "Arthur Godfrey Show"
    02-18-1925 - George Kennedy - NYC
    actor: "Suspense"; "Hollywood Radio Theatre"

    February 18th deaths

    03-01-1920 - Harry Caray - St. Louis, MO - d. 2-18-1998
    baseball announcer: St. Louis Cardinals; Chicago Cubs
    12-11-1894 - Eddie Dowling - Woonsocket, RI - d. 2-18-1976
    host: "We, the People"; "Ziegfeld Follies of the Air"
    12-25-1889 - Nat Shilkret - Queens, NY - d. 2-18-1982
    conductor: "Eveready Hour"; "Music That Satisfies"; "Palmolive Beauty Box
    Theatre"

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

    Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 18:02:44 -0500
    From: <robertgaxley@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Trains, ships, etc.

    How about the Voyage of the Scarlet Queen?  It was a great sea adventure.
    Bob Axley

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

    Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 18:03:04 -0500
    From: <robertgaxley@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Cod Liver Oil

    To add my 2 cents worth.  My mother put the cod liver oil in the orange
    juice.  While the juice tasted a little funny, it was better than the
    straight stuff!
    Bob Axley

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

    Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 18:32:39 -0500
    From: seandd@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  When You Say I Beg Your Pardon

    Jack's song is deservedly one of the longest-running gags on a show that
    found ways to make schtick last decades.  I don't think there was anything
    you could do with a bad song that the writers didn't think of at some point.
    The celebrity recordings, Jack's incessant pitching of the song to the hot
    singers of the day (there must have been 20 versions of that one), the
    Spainish version I had forgotten about but it fits perfectly and so on.

    The ability to take a simple idea like a bad song, or Si, Sy, Sue, or "The
    Horn Blows at Midnight," being 39 Forever, the Maxwell, blue eyes, the
    drunken bandlead, Frank Nelson, the telephone operators and so on and keep
    finding new ways to use the gag is what made Benny's show the best old time
    radio comedy.

    I continually notice how fast even good television shows sink to mediocrity
    or worse these days when Benny was able to keep his cast and materials fresh
    for more than 30 years on the air.  These days the half-life for a good
    comedy series seems to be about three seasons -- and those seasons are about
    1/3 shorter than they were during OTR.

    Good thing we still have our tapes,

    Sean Dougherty
    Clifton, NJ

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

    Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 19:27:31 -0500
    From: mike <mwheeler@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Kay-lack water

    All this talk of cod liver oil has me wondering about another otr
    related palliative.  Judge Horace Hooker, on The Great Gildersleeve, was
    often portrayed as having an unsettled stomach which caused him to eat
    milk toast and drink something that sounds like kay-lack water.  I've
    tried every conceivable spelling I can think of and can't find anything
    in the dictionary or on the web.  So, does anyone know what the heck
    kay-lack water is?

    Thanks
         Mike

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

    Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 20:21:22 -0500
    From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Cel Ray, Whispeirng Adams

    Doug Douglass <dougdouglass@[removed]; remarked, on the topic of celery tonic:

>     Here in New York, it's sold as "Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray Soda" in an aluminum
>     can tinted green.

    We get it here in Knoxville, too, at Harold's Kosher Deli on Gay
    Street (yes, there are Jews in the Smokies, and Gay Street got its
    name before the word had its present connotation; there was an effort
    to change it, but local folks would have none of such foolishness).
    It's not served as a health tonic, but just another soft drink. I
    love it. I often give to friends without letting them see the label
    and ask them to identify the flavor; they seldom can. Usually folks
    like it better, I've found, if you don't tell them that exotic flavor
    is celery.

    "Stewart Wright" <stewwright@[removed]; suggested:

>      RE:  Mason Adams The series that John Mayer was asking about might
>     be the series which ran from March, 1952 through November 1960,
>     "Whispering Streets."

    Thanks, Stewart, but that wasn't it. I vaguely remember that show for
    its spooky opening, though, as a young boy, I had no interest in soap
    operas. The Mason Adams show I remember as being titled something
    like Whispering Smith, a short maybe 15 show, maybe even shorter. I
    remember it being entirely monologues by Adams, though I don't recall
    the subjects. Mind you, this is all from childhood memory, and that's
    been quite a [removed]

    --
    "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad."
                                                 -- Aldous Huxley

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 10:54:03 -0500
    From: Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@[removed];
    To: OTRBB <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Request from Danish Reseacher

    I got the following today from lady in Denmark. If you can help, please
    contact her off-line by email.

    Jack French
    Editor: RADIO RECALL

    + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    I'm a reseacher on four educational documentaries about the history of
    global environment. The programmes are scheduled for the end of 2004 in
    all of Scandinavia. The angle is "early warning - late lesson". and the
    first two
    programmes deal with asbestos and lead/ethyl in gasoline.

    My job is to locate all footage, ads in magazines, commercials on radio
    and TV, and photos showing
    how people viewed, or were presented with,  asbestos and lead from the
    beginning of the 1900s until
    today. Our deadline is the first of June 2004

    Thank you so very much for your help, I really appreciate it.
    Best regards
    Lise Frederiksen
    Express-TV Production
    Studiestraede 24, 2. floor
    1455 Copenhagen K
    Denmark
    Phone: 0045 33422000
    Fax: 0045 33422001
    e-mail: lise@[removed]

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 10:56:38 -0500
    From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Pardon Lee's Blooper

    >From my pal Lee Munsick <leemunsick@[removed];

>     I was reminded that my first visit to John Nebel's program
>     caused one of my most memorable faux pas. . . .
>     The script ended with two tag lines. The announcer was supposed
>     to use whichever one was appropriate for the day he was reading:
>     1) On Christmas, say Merry Christmas!
>     2) At New Year's, say Happy New Year!
>     I narrated through to the best of my ability. Including both of the two
>     tag-lines at the bottom, exactly like the old commercial in the Blooper LP!

    Actually, Lee, I think that this is rather sage advice!  Nothing wrong with
    it.  "On Christmas, say Merry Christmas; at New Year's say Happy New Year!"
    Words to live by!!!!

    On the other hand, once in a newscast I called Drew Pearson a "Communist"
    instead of a "Columnist."  Whoops!!!!!  But at least I didn't do it on a
    50,000 Watt Clear Channel station heard in 38 states!

    Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 10:58:31 -0500
    From: hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re:Jan Minor

    I just read an obit in our Phoenix paper yesterday regarding the passing of
    Jan Minor. I will never forget her. In fact, my fondness for her resulted in
    a "tribute" of sorts when I wrote about her in my book. For what it's worth,
    I'll share those reminisces with you. To some, it may sound a bit irreverent
    to comment about Jan's sex appeal, but frankly, I'd much prefer remembering
    her as a vital, classy and very attractive lady. Other's can recount her
    many OTR credits. Me, I'll dwell on her warmth and charms. I mourn her
    loss, and she will always occupy a place in my [removed] that she captured so
    many many years ago.

    Excerpted from  "Aw! Relax [removed]!!!

    "Another favorite of mine was Jan Minor. I worked with her more than a few
    times, and fell more and more in love with her on each occasion. I'm
    serious. You can call it puppy love if you want, or infatuation, but she
    sure stirred something in my adolescent breast. Now, in my old age, I can
    identify it. It was lust. The teenage version I suppose.

    Jan usually wore high heels, (had great legs), a tight white
    buttoned-down-the-front blouse that she filled out admirably, and a form
    fitting skirt. Top that off with her charming personality and warmth, and I
    was definitely smitten. There certainly were times in my life that I yearned
    to be older and in her league. She was a very classy lady. And a very hard
    working and busy radio actress. She had a running part on many of the soaps
    of the day, and was a front runner when directors were casting other
    programs. When TV came along, she easily made the transition to that medium,
    particularly in the early days of live dramatic shows. She was almost a
    fixture on "Robert Montgomery Presents", and played many parts on that
    program throughout the early '50s. She appeared in a few films, but the bulk
    of her credits were in New York television, with appearances on "Naked
    City", the daytime TV soap "The Nurses", "Alcoa Presents", "The Defenders",
    "Law and Order", etc.

    Some of you will recall that she went on to TV advertising fame and fortune,
    and for years, played "Marge the manicurist", (who recommended soaking in
    Palmolive Dishwashing detergent), usually in a "close up", so one couldn't
    see  her other formidable charms. (gee, I better get off this kick so I can
    concentrate on writing the rest of this book). Jan did these commercials for
    ALMOST 20 YEARS. I was thrilled for her. They had to have provided her with
    a comfortable living. I can almost bet that in the final year those spots
    ran on National TV, her talent fees  for doing them eclipsed he total amount
    of money she earned in all her years as a radio actress in those early days.

    Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to work with her when I began
    directing. But if I had, I definitely would have told her about the major
    crush I had on her when I was a young kid.

    * *******

    Excerpted from "Aw! Relax Archie!...Re-Laxx!!!
    [removed]
    Reprinted with permission of the author. HA! That's me. :)

    Hal(Harlan)Stone
    Jughead

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 10:59:24 -0500
    From: Steve Lewis <lewis@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Ransome Renwick

    A friend of mine, Victor Berch, sent me the following.  Is this true?  Is
    Ransome Renwick really the first fictional detective created for radio?

                             Best

                              Steve

    - -----

    I recently came across this notice in the BOSTON EVENING
    TRANSCRIPT for Sep. 20, 1929, p. 11: "Ransome Renwick, cold, shrewd,
    analytical and unemotional, the first fictional detective ever created for
    radio will make his debut in a new detective story serial entitled Mystery
    House which will begin over WEAF tonight at 10:30". I couldn't find anything
    about this first fictional radio detective in any of the radio reference
    books. Anybody know anything about this program?

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 11:19:06 -0500
    From: Lee Munsick <leemunsick@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Max Morath - Ragtime

    Jim Burns reported that he has seen Max Morath's new show in New York.  It's
    at the York Theatre, located in the "Jazz Church" in Manhattan, and is in a
    six-week run.  I heartily urge anyone who can get there: SEE IT!

    I first became aware of Max in the 1950s, when he appeared often on the
    Arthur Godfrey morning shows.  Max was a fan of ragtime music, and for years
    played it in what I call the "honky tonk" mode.  Not quite like "Crazy Otto",
    but also not like Max learned to play it later, once he had really studied
    Scott Joplin and other masters of the ragtime genre.  Joplin marked on his
    music that ragtime should be played slow, never fast.  Joplin had classical
    musical training, was a serious composer.  He wrote two operas.  One, sadly,
    is apparently lost forever (we can hope someday a copy will be found).  The
    other, called "Treemonisha", has been produced numerous times to great
    acclaim.  It stands up well to comparison with "Progy and Bess".

    In the early 1960s I joined a New York firm called "Civic Club Concerts".
    They staged fund-raising shows in about a half-dozen states around New York,
    mostly for Jaycee Chapters, but also for Lions Club, Shrine and other groups.
    Our performers were mostly older headliners who were breaking in new acts,
    and we were able to book them for a week of performances during which they
    honed their new gigs.  I produced shows with many wonderful performers.  Max
    was one of them, and we hit it off right away.  His appearances with Arthur
    Godfrey made me a ragtime afficionado, and a Morath fan.

    A decade later, I was one of the founders of a New Jersey not-for-profit
    educational, historical corporation called "Yesteryear Museum".  It had 32
    rooms in a former nursing home at one time owned by Eddie Cantor, outside of
    Morristown, New Jersey.  Yesteryear's displays of sight and sound traced
    automatic and mechanical music and mass entertainment communications,
    beginning with Swiss music boxes and working its way up through player pianos
    and organs, a great deal of Edisonia, phonographs and gramophones, and the
    history of early motion pictures, radio, and television.

    We drew attention to our opening in October 1971 by putting on a gala
    fund-raising program at Morristown High School, featuring Max's successful
    Broadway show, "Max Morath at the Turn of the Century".  Eubie and Marion
    Blake attended the formal opening of the museum the following weekend.  Over
    a period of eight such annual programs, our event became a highlight of the
    entertainment and social scene in northern New Jersey.  Eubie Blake headlined
    the one program which we produced ourselves.  In it, he ave the world
    premiere of his "Rhapsody in Ragtime", reminiscent of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in
    Blue", yet all Eubie.  I was honored to be asked by Eubie and Marion Blake to
    come to their home, a museum in its own right, and to attend the naming of a
    New York City public school for Eubie Blake.

    Max Morath's nostalgic journeys were so popular with our audiences that we
    had him return for two additional programs, each a great success.  At them,
    we sold a number of several LPs of his various shows.  I still have some, and
    plan to be selling them soon on eBay.  Max and I have remained in touch over
    the years, and he gave me a "heads-up" for his new program, "Ragtime And
    Again".  Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend in person, but have urged
    friends to do so, as I do with you.

    The show is in the York Theatre, located at St. Peter's Church, the renowned
    "Jazz Church" in Manhattan.  This was the location in 1983 of an historic,
    day-long memorial for our mutual friend Eubie Blake, who had passed away
    about a week after reaching the age of 100.

    It was only about a week before that memorial, that I had the honor of
    sitting in the same row in the Shubert Theatre with Max Morath, fabled record
    producer and impresario John Hammond, and tapdance star Gregory Hines.
    Musicians, dancers, elected officials, alumni of Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle
    shows from 60 years before, and other dignitaries from as far away as London
    came to pay their respects to Hubert "Eubie" Blake.

    Eubie composed many songs, including "I'm Just Wild About Harry", "Memories
    of You" and my personal favorite, "Love Will Find A Way".  Max was
    instrumental in arranging that impressive centennial birthday celebration,
    held on the very day Eubie became a centenarian.  Eubie was too frail to
    attend, but Max arranged for the sound from the Shubert's PA system to be
    piped over a Class A telephone line, broadcast to its important audience of
    one, as Eubie listened in his bedroom in Brooklyn.

    Many people credit composer Marvin Hamlisch with "bringing back" ragtime,
    because of his arrangements of ragtime used in the hit movie "The Sting".
    Hamlisch, whose many accomplishments include composing "A Chorus Line",
    demurs from the honor of reviving ragtime, and told me that he felt the honor
    belonged to Max Morath, who has banged away on reviving ragtime, playing
    hundreds of pianos in as many venues for years.  He is the real revivor.
    Sorry about the "banged away", Max!

    If you can't get to New York to see him in person, by all means find
    recordings of his shows.  They exist on LP, tape and CDs.

    Bestus, Lee Munsick

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 12:00:23 -0500
    From: Sam Levene <sam6@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: cod liver oil

    Not to turn this into the Old Time Health Digest but this issue of cod liver
    oil happens to be extremely timely, and it turns out that once again mother
    knew best.  On Monday the front page of Canada's leading newspaper, the
    Globe and Mail, said that fish sales are plummeting because of fears that
    "farmed" fish are contaminated with PCBs, dioxins and other chemicals.  This
    has the makings of a "public health disaster".
    "Fish are the principal source of omega-3 fatty acids, key nutrients for
    healthy heart and eyes,and essential building blocks for the neurological
    system of fetuses." They can reduce the risk of diseases "that include
    certain forms of cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and other autoimmune diseases
    like lupus, as well as heart disease" says the director of the School of
    Dietetics and Human Nutrition at McGill University.  There are more detailed
    statistics and they're startling.  "It is only in recent years that
    scientists, --(unlike  mothers)-- have truly begun to understand the
    importance of the 'good fats' in fish."  And our diets are aleady deficient
    in omega-3s because we don't each much fish in the first place and now sales
    are dropping due to these fears.  The fears are very likely exaggerated
    compared to the good we obtain from omega-3s but meanwhile a followup
    article tells us that fish oil capsules contain only a fraction of the PCBs
    found in fresh farmed fish.  The capsules "also contain a greater
    concentration of the most important fish oils for the body". So -- if you
    fear or dislike fish - you should be taking fish oil capsules, which of
    course means cod liver as well as other oils, such as salmon oil which is
    popular in health food stores. I've taken them in the past and am about to
    start again.
    So did the stuff do us any good?  Indeed it did.  Personally I never minded
    the taste, rather liked it in fact, but maybe I'm just a weird Canadian
    (among the weirdest were those in the studio audience when Conan O'Brien
    taped 4 shows here last week but that's yet another medium).  Anyway the
    capsules make it all painless.  So listen to Mom, folks, whether in the US,
    Germany or Canada. But now you have a choice of other fish oils in addition
    to that which is extracted from the livers of cod, who themselves may be
    healthy but are in increasingly short supply.

    Sam Levene

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 14:11:58 -0500
    From: Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@[removed];
    To: OTRBB <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Jan Miner, [removed]

    Prominent OTR performer, Jan Miner, died on Feb 15, 2004 in Bethel, CT
    at the age of 86.

    Several obituaries, including on in the Washington Post on Feb 18th
    (Style Section), give a detailed history of her acting accomplishments
    on stage, on TV, and her fame as "Madge", the spokesperson for
    Palmolive Liquid Detergent. The Post piece, as may be expected, devotes
    not one word of her quarter of a century working at network radio
    microphones.

    Miner, who started at radio station WEEI in Boston, came to NYC in the
    early 30s and achieved rapid success in soap operas, including leading
    roles in "Hilltop House" and "The Second Mrs. Burton." Her smart, sassy
    voice came across well in adventure shows also, and at different times,
    she played "Boston's Blackie's" female sidekick, was Della Street on
    "Perry Mason" as well as Annie Williams on "Casey, Crime Photographer".
    She also got to play Casey's associate on the short-lived television
    version of that show in the 1951-52 season.

    My new book, "PRIVATE EYELASHES: Radio's Lady Detectives" has more
    information on Miner, and all the other women who starred in the
    forty-four network series featuring a feminine sleuth. For details, go
    to publisher's web site at [removed] and click on my book
    title.

    Jack French
    Editor: RADIO RECALL

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 14:21:08 -0500
    From: Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Jan Miner

    Jan Miner died on Feb. 15, according to the NY Times
    ([removed]).
    She played the female lead in the excellent anthology
    series "Radio City Playhouse." What a great actress!!
    She'll be missed.

    Kermyt

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #62
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