Subject: [removed] Digest V2008 #89
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 4/7/2008 10:18 PM
To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to:
[removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2008 : Issue 89
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Senator Dirkson's hit record          [ "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross. ]
  Re Cincy/general OTR convention stuf  [ Chargous@[removed] ]
  Re: fenestration and radio lab        [ "Glenn P.," <C128User@[removed]; ]
  Re: I Love Lucy on radio              [ rand@[removed] ]
  Re: Convention dealers                [ Rodney Bowcock <pasttense_78@yahoo. ]
  "I Love Lucy" on radio                [ Randy Watts <rew1014@[removed]; ]
  Radio Lab and WOTW                    [ Rentingnow@[removed] ]
  KFWB radio and Wikipedia              [ "Jim Hilliker" <jimhilliker@sbcglob ]
  Cincy Dealer Confusion                [ jack and cathy french <otrpiano@ver ]
  Joe Palooka                           [ jack and cathy french <otrpiano@ver ]
  The Baking and Watering of Reels      [ KENPILETIC@[removed] ]
  schlieben it yourself                 [ mchone@[removed] ]

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

Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 01:20:14 -0400
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Senator Dirkson's hit record

Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2008 11:15:24 -0400
From: cxm <cxm@[removed];

 Dirkson was a gravel voice orator of the old style [removed] he had a
good sense of humor and even went so far as to record a "rock" record
in the mid 1960s "Wild Thing."

I don't remember that one, though I seem to remember some Kennedy
spoof that had either Jack or Bobby singing "Wild Thing."  Senator
Dirkson did do a hit record circa 1965-66, called "Our Gallant Men."
He spoke the words, in his inimitable way, with an orchestra playing
a patriotic-sounding tune behind him.

I wouldn't call his voice "gravelly."  He was sometimes referred to
as "velvet-voiced," and I think that fits better.  His enunciation
and diction were very old-school and, by that time at least, unique
and endearing.

--
A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                           [removed]
 92 State Street, Suite 700                   Fax [removed]
Boston, MA 02109-2004           	         [removed]

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

Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 09:20:35 -0400
From: Chargous@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re Cincy/general OTR convention stuff

I didn't notice anybody setting up in the parking lot, but I wasn't exactly
noticing outside the convention too much.  I'll have to keep my eyes out
this year.  Unless they enjoy being in the rain, I don't think anybody will
try to clandestinely set up in the parking lot this year.

I generally buy from the same vendors each year - I have very strict
quality standards (If it's not FGRA or Ed Carr quality, I don't bother with
it - surface noise (uncleaned) is ok, I can fix that, but it's got to be a
low-generation, competent transfer), but I do make an exception and buy a
few cassettes at convention-time, if it's an obscure show, or something I
haven't found elsewhere.  I look for obscure shows, so I usually don't buy
the popular shows, unless it's a fill that I don't have.  I think that
would help dealers, too, to bring more offbeat stuff.  If the series is
somewhat interesting, I think they'd be suprised that many people would buy
copies of different stuff.  I also buy reels, assuming they're pedigreed
from a good source.  Per older transfers, one's much more likely to find a
quality lo-gen copy on open reel than cassette.

One buy I want to make is Martin's Sam Spade book.  Hint, bring some along,
Martin!  Martin's are generally my favorite OTR reference books, with no
disrespect to the other OTR authors - I like them too.  Martin's references
are very readable, have the information I'm looking for, and they're a
great reference too.

Last year, I bought 60 plus bucks worth or raffle tickets, but that was
partly to win, cause I had never won anything there before, and more so to
support the convention.  I sure love the convention, but my favorite
experience is meeting friends and going out to dinner with them - and
catching up with what's been happening with them, and OTR [removed]

I'm also somewhat surprised that I don't see more antique radios, restored
and otherwise, at conventions.  For some reason, the two hobbies don't
really overlap as much as one would think.  I have 30 tube radios, mostly
1935-1939, most of which are electrically restored.  - I enjoy both
hobbies, and think they go pretty well together.  It's pretty fun to
broadcast OTR to them via my AM transmitter.

I also collect transcriptions too - mostly for the show, and not so much
for the disc itself anymore, but I've built up a fairly impressive mystery
collection.  I have at least one example of every major (and some
not-so-major) detective series on ET (including ILAM), Thin Man, Fat Man).,
except for Barrie Craig, and Sherlock Holmes.  For some reason, network
Sherlocks, and even AFRS are very hard to find.  I'm probably the youngest
major transcription collector.   My specialty is detective, obscure shows,
and kids action serials.  My goal isn't to make money off my collection, as
I never sell anything off,  but to preserve OTR history, and help share
copies (of stuff from my own archives) with others.

[removed]  For the convention, I'm also looking for 12-8-41 Secret City, which
is listed as in circulation, but I've never been able to find a copy of any
kind.  I've also not seen the OTR series unsolved Mysteries for about 10
years.  They were somewhat common in the 1990s, but no one has those now.

Before and after the convention, there's also some other interesting things
to do and see in Cinci, such as the only remaining original old radio shop,
and the Reds, although they're not in-town on convention-weekend.  It's no
Wrigley Field, but Great American Ballpark is pretty nice  (I was in row
one, by the batboy today, 34 bucks, which isn't too bad for today's
sporting events).  Too bad Trivet's is no lnoger in business.  It sold new
old stock 60's clothes and other stuff (it was around back then, and bought
an enormous amount of clothes back then, and didn't sell them all, so hence
they had a lot of original stock.  It was a super-cool place, but it
finally went out a couple years ago.  Nostalgia-buffs would have loved that
place.

Travis

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

Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 09:20:54 -0400
From: "Glenn P.," <C128User@[removed];
To: "[The Old-Time Radio Mailing List]" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: fenestration and radio lab

On Sun., 06-Apr-2008, at 03:05:22pm EDT (-0400 GMT),
"Jim Widner" <JWidner@[removed]; posted in "Re:
fenestration and radio lab":

 > "Defenestrate" is a colloquially used word and is
 > legitimate -- meaning to "eject from a window."

I always thought it meant to uninstall [removed], 95, XP,
CE, ME, NT, or Vista.   :)

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

Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 09:21:19 -0400
From: rand@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: I Love Lucy on radio

Radiola issued an lp containing an episode of the radio version of "I Love
Lucy" contained with "My Favorite Husband".  The "Lucy" show is very odd
to listen to if you're familiar with the TV show.  They took the
soundtrack of the TV episode and did new material for the opening, closing
and commercials (it was still sponsored by Philip Morris).

Desi Arnaz provides an opening that sets the stage for the episode and
descriptive narration for part of the episode where the gags are visual.
The show on the Radiola lp is the one where they get in an arguement with
the Mertz's about noise late and night and decide to break their lease; it
includes a sequence where Lucy and Ricki are in bed and keep getting up
and down to open and close a window, so we hear the audio from the tv show
with Desi describing what's happening.

It actually works pretty well, but I imagine they weren't able to do some
of the shows that had extended visual gag sequences.

If you're curious, this episode of "I Love Lucy", the radio version, is
available at [removed]

Randy

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

Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 09:21:41 -0400
From: Rodney Bowcock <pasttense_78@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Convention dealers

The only problem with this is that the Cincy's
dealer's room is small,and tables sell out quickly.
It's not that other vendors are trying to avoid the
cost of a table, it's that there are no tables
available to them to rent.

Well, that's a different circumstance than staying
home and trying to pilfer business from the convention
to your house.  As far as I'm concerned, what I just
described is nothing more than a hangdog attempt at
creating a competing event.

Rodney

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

Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 11:46:39 -0400
From: Randy Watts <rew1014@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  "I Love Lucy" on radio

Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2008 09:45:05 -0400
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@[removed];

I was unaware that the I Love Lucy sound track was ever on radio, but
it wouldn't surprise me.

Phillip Morris had an "I Love Lucy" radio audition disc prepared in early
1952 by taking the soundtrack from a television episode and adding narration
by Desi Arnaz to clarify some of what was going on that the radio audience
wouldn't have been able to see. The project never got further than the
audition.

Randy

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

Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 12:33:13 -0400
From: Rentingnow@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Radio Lab and WOTW

I would agree that the program sometimes becomes  flip and too "clever for 
words". Sometimes, when that occurs, it is time to fast  forward on the I-Pod. 

I would suggest that they have a somewhat "college  frosh" approach to 
serious subjects.  I don't know how to describe the  approach but that it is trying 
to make a subject light and avoid a pedantic  approach to a serious subject.  
They are able to made a subject interesting  without lecturing.  If one wants 
to hear the direct opposite listen to the  dialogue on many of the WNET 
broadcasts which with sonorous tones relate a  multitude of facts accompanied with 
redundant images. 

The OTR "You Were  There" tries to do the same thing but with equal lack of 
success.  I can't  listen or watch either.

Sounds like either Cash Cab was wrong or my  memory was wrong about the 
origin of fenestrate. I do now recall fenetra from my  7 semester attempt to pass 2 
semesters of the college's required language  requirement.

Now it is time to Ouvrir la porte (open the door) and leave  the discussion.

Larry Moore

PS I used Google to help me with the  translation.  Please forgive me.  It 
HAS been 45 years since I  graduated from college with those VERY  expensive 6 
French passing credit  hours.  

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

Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 12:54:38 -0400
From: "Jim Hilliker" <jimhilliker@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  KFWB radio and Wikipedia

Hi again!

This is your picky Los Angeles radio historian, here to tell you, don't
believe everything you read in Wikipedia!  I've seen many mistakes in their
articles on radio stations.  But they don't list their sources in most
cases.

I believe that some of these mistakes first cropped up on the KFWB web site
10 years ago, when they wrote their history.  First of all, KFWB was not the
first radio station to broadcast the New Year's Day Rose Parade in Pasadena.
That honor goes to station KPSN-Pasadena (owned by the Pasadena Star-News)
on January 1, 1926.  KPSN went off the air and out of business in 1931.  I'm
also don't agree that Bing Crosby's career was launched by KFWB, but I'd
have to double-check that one.  As for Ronald Reagan, he came to California
after working as an announcer-sportscaster for WHO in Des Moines, Iowa.
When he passed a Warner Brothers screen test, he and other Warner Bros.
movie actors were expected to take part from time-to-time in some of the
locally produced shows and dramas broadcast by KFWB.

Also, it was KFWB announcer Al Jarvis who invented the concept of "The
World's Largest Make Believe Ballroom" in 1934 during his noon to 1 pm
record show over KFWB!  (Not "later used" by Jarvis, as Wikipedia claims).
An announcer named Martin Block was then working at station KMPC-Beverly
Hills, and often heard Jarvis' show on KFWB.  Martin later went back to New
York and at WNEW in 1935, started his version of "Make Believe Ballroom",
stealing the idea from Jarvis and claiming that he himself had invented it.
But Al Jarvis at KFWB had come up with this program idea on his own in 1934.
I do know that the western/cowboy harmony singing group The Sons of the
Pioneers began their radio broadcasts over KFWB in 1933 and OTR announcer
Art Gilmore got his first Hollywood radio job at KFWB in 1936.

The original station license issued by the government in 1925 lists the
licensee as Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. at 5842 Sunset Blvd. in
Hollywood.  In the early talkies made by the movie studio, audio from the
KFWB transmitter was getting onto the soundtrack of these films, so that's
why KFWB's transmitter was moved on its 4th anniversary, used for the first
time on March 4, 1929 at the Warner Brothers Theatre Building, 6425
Hollywood Blvd.
KFWB studiuos were gradually moved to this building as well, but many
broadcasts for KFWB continued to originate from 5842 Sunset Blvd. in the
1930s and '40s, a building that was later used by KMPC radio and KTLA/tv
channel 5.

A bit of the old technical history of KFWB still survives today. Next to the
Hollywood Freeway at Sunset and Van Ness, one of the two original 150-foot
towers that held the KFWB wire antenna from 1925 to 1929 still stands, but
as an advertisement for KTLA television, channel 5, which broadcasts from
the same site where KFWB started.  Also, atop the old Warner Brothers
Theatre building on Hollywood Blvd. still stands the two towers, which also
held a flattop wire antenna to transmit the KFWB signal from 1929 into part
of the 1930s.

Jim Hilliker
Monterey, CA

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

Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 13:15:11 -0400
From: jack and cathy french <otrpiano@[removed];
To: OTRBB <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Cincy Dealer Confusion

One Digester has informed us that at least one dealer is going
offsite to hawk his wares, thereby depriving the Convention of his
dealer's fee.

Another Digester says there is no other choice since the dealers'
room is so small, some dealers are turned away.

I have no idea as to what's going on in Cincinnati now.  Last
convention I attended there was about 8 years ago and the dealers'
room was bigger than my high school auditorium. It took me three
hours to tour the multitude of merchants.

Maybe it's time for the coordinator, Uncle Bob Burchette, to step in
and "splain it to Lucy."

Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL
<[removed]>

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

Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 13:49:34 -0400
From: jack and cathy french <otrpiano@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Joe Palooka

Bob Jennings asks if any of the 1932 Joe Palooka radio shows are
available and then ponders: Why a comic strip as popular as this
boxer was so unsuccessful on radio it lasted only one summer?

For the first inquiry, we merely turn to Jay Hickerson's "Ultimate
History" compilation and learn that four shows of Joe Palooka series
survived, including episodes 1, 3 and 7. Internet dealers have them
for sale.

As for Bob's second lament, he is certainly enough of  a comic book
expert to know that dozens of very successful comic strip characters
failed miserably, or never even got, on network radio. "Smilin' Jack"
was the longest running strip involving an aviator but his radio
version lasted only a few months. "The Black Hood" and "The Blue
Beetle", despite their hefty comic book sales, were a bust on radio.
Many very popular comic strip characters never got their own radio
show: Prince Valiant, Snuffy Smith, Captain America, Mutt and Jeff,
etc.  Heck, even Batman & Robin had to rely on the generosity of
Superman and Kellogg's to get near a radio microphone.

Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL
<[removed]>

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

Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 15:27:42 -0400
From: KENPILETIC@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The Baking and Watering of Reels

Hi Gang -

The baking of reels of tape (to eliminate squeak) has been mentioned in a
few recent issues of the digest.  While this de-squeking method works very
well, it is time consuming.  I wish to remind those who still work with
reel-to-reel recordings that the "Water Method", pioneered by the late Fred
Korb,
works equally well and does not require overnight processing.

To use Fred's method, simply hold a wet cotton ball against the tape, near
the head, as it plays.  The water lubricates the tape and cools the head at
the same time.  A copy of the tape should be made as it is being  played
because
the wetted tape is quite messy after this process is  used.

Fred used to throw the "original" tape away once it was copied.  It  was
squeaky (useless) anyhow, on the other hand, I keep everything, even  these
soggy
tapes.  Old-timers may remember that Fred provided water method  "kits" to
hold the wetted-cotton at past OTR conventions.

See You in Cincinnati,
Ken Piletic -- Streamwood, Illinois  and   Alma,  Arkansas

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

Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 15:59:24 -0400
From: mchone@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  schlieben it yourself

Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; wrote:

the term fenestrated comes from the German meaning hole

The German word for 'window' is 'fenster'.
Bitte schlieben Sie das Fenster. (Please close (you) the window).

Roby McHone
Fairbanks, Alaska

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2008 Issue #89
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