------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2001 : Issue 313
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Re: OTR movies reply [ Alan Bell <bella@[removed]; ]
Magic Blackout Lite-Ups [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
re: Jack Benny on TV [ dabac@[removed] ]
Marx of Time redux [ Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; ]
Jackson Beck & Harry Bartell [ "jstokes" <jstokes@[removed]; ]
Re: Jack Benny on TV [ "Robert M. Bratcher Jr." <bratcher@ ]
ELLERY QUEEN-(OTR on Screen) [ "Tim Lones" <tallones@[removed]; ]
OTR & Movies [ dabac@[removed] ]
Re: Local News, Then and Now [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
A. Robins, the Banana Man [ "Lee, Steve (DEOC)" <slee@[removed]. ]
hello all [ Michael Nella <serialous@[removed] ]
Six Shooter Theme Music [ Rkayer@[removed] ]
Help an OTR Newcomer Decide [ digital@[removed] ]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 22:38:42 -0400
From: Alan Bell <bella@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: OTR movies reply
"Martin Grams, Jr." suggests:
THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE - once had a 90 minute documentary on the
origin of radio, about Lee DeForest and Sarnoff. I forget the title
"Empire of the Air" by mega-documentary producer Ken Burns. I suggest
people check their local public library. I've used it in a college
class on broadcast history numerous times.
--
Alan Bell
Grandville, MI
bella@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 22:38:58 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Magic Blackout Lite-Ups
Will Nicoll observes,
A few digests ago Stephen A Kallis mentioned a Magic Blackout Lite-Ups
kit. I didn't exactly understand its function. I would appreciate it if
he could expand on the explanation.
Happy to speak about any Captain Midnight premium. During World War II,
a number of premiums had been designed both for war-related application
and made out of materials that were not "critical," such as brass. One
of these was a cardboard-and-paper plane spotting device, rather a junior
version of the plan diagrams of various Allied and Axis aircraft, which I
might detail another time.
The Magic Blackout Lite-Ups Kit consisted of two pieces of paper that had
been soaked in a chemical solution of a phosphorescent chemical, then
dried. These were contained in a folder that showed how they could be
used, in some ways to help during blackouts. One suggestion was to glue
tiny cut-off pieces of the papers at light switches, stairs, and doors to
help people find their way around a house or shelter. Other uses of a
wartime nature included pieces of luminous paper on fire extinguishing
equipment, flashlights, and other gear. The folder had war related items
such as pictures of the armband logos for civilian auxiliaries (air raid
wardens, etc.); it also had suggestions for kids to do with the luminous
paper for various activities. My favorite application was having a
"blackout party" with the KLite-Ups used for various things such as a
luminous target for a dartboard. [Every time I look at my Lite-Ups
folder, I can visualize a bunch of kids throwing darts in a blacked-out
room in the general direction of a dartboard. You think things were
exciting nowadays!]
Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 22:39:04 -0400
From: dabac@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: re: Jack Benny on TV
I was born in 1954 and watched some reruns during my teens and I
remember enjoying them very much. --Dan
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 22:39:26 -0400
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Marx of Time redux
One more item to expand on Elizabeth's and my comments on this series.
Elizabeth notes:
This was a show which had a very limited run over CBS in the spring of
1934 -- after the Marxes had been cut loose by Paramount
As I recall, they were commanding a weekly salary of $[removed] and it just
became too expensive to keep them on considering the low ratings the show
was getting at that time.
Jim Widner
jwidner@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 23:38:06 -0400
From: "jstokes" <jstokes@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Jackson Beck & Harry Bartell
Jackson Beck memories. The last commercial I heard his voice on (actually
voice-over :) was for Little Caesar's Pizza. Variously, I recall him
being the narrator and later on camera in Woody Allen's "Take the Money and
Run." Spots for Chesterfield Cigarettes and he had a long run (pun!) doing
the Ex-Lax commercials.
Am I right in thinking he was the voice of Bluto in the "Popeye" cartoons.
Was he also "Popeye?"
- --------------------------------------------------
Harry Bartell -- Your work will always be with us. So how about, "I'll Be
Back In Just A Moment." :)
Best,
Jim Stokes
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 10:27:00 -0400
From: "Robert M. Bratcher Jr." <bratcher@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Jack Benny on TV
At 09:08 PM 9/23/01 -0400, you wrote:
I watched JACK BENNY on TV and loved it!
Yes I like both the radio & TV versions. Don't prefer one over the other.
Radio I have on mp3 CDR's. Television is about 2 dozen VHS tapes with 6
tapes having shows with the original commercials in them plus three 16mm TV
prints which are very hard to find. I only wish I had more episodes of the
TV series!
Another show in which I like the TV version better than radio is Burns &
Allen. Thats because I'd seen the TV version (on videotapes) first before I
heard the radio version. Unlike Jack Benny where I heard his radio version
first. The only way I can find more Burns & Allen (or Jack Benny) on TV is
the 16mm filmprints found through Ebay & film dealers I know.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 10:29:02 -0400
From: "Tim Lones" <tallones@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: ELLERY QUEEN-(OTR on Screen)
The thread about OTR on screen made me think of an NBC-TV Mystery Movie
series called the New Adventures of Ellery [removed] about [removed] was
run in the same time as Columbo, Mc Millan, Mc Cloud, [removed] Jim
Hutton as Ellery and David Wayne as Inspector Queen with John Hillerman as
fictional radio detective Simon [removed] thought it was an entertaining
look at what life might have ben like in 1940's New [removed] OTR and
movie stars were cast in guest [removed] thought it was well produced,
enjoyable mystery [removed] bad it lasted only one season.
Tim Lones
East Sparta, Ohio
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 10:29:15 -0400
From: dabac@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: OTR & Movies
Reading the current thread about otr in the movies the thought occured
to me that there are probably a number of classic radio scripts that
would make excellent candidates for motion pictures. One that
immediately sprang to mind was "Three Skeleton Key" - which in my
opinion would make a great movie. I wonder what stories other readers
would consider good choices for film treatment? --Dan
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 10:31:53 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Local News, Then and Now
On 9/19/01 9:46 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:
Was it always this way, or did local news organizations have more class in
the OTR era? Was there very much local news on the radio back then? And did
local stations rely mostly on network national news feeds or originate it
themselves?
Local news varied from station to station, just as it does today: there
were stations which provided excellent coverage of local stories, and
stations which contented themselves to rip and read, or if they were
really cheap, to clip and read items straight out of the local papers.
Some station owners treated news as an asset, others believed it should
be used as a tool to promote their own political points of view -- and
any employee who dared to disagree would quickly be shown the door.
(Gordon A. Richards of WJR, Detroit, KMPC, Los Angeles, and WGAR,
Cleveland was the most notorious example of the latter -- insisting that
all newscasts be slanted to fit his own ultra-right-wing agenda. "To hell
with the FCC," was his retort when this policy was challenged by
soon-to-be-former news director Clete Roberts in 1948.)
Local stations usually didn't have "staff reporters" -- employees
dedicated exclusively to news -- until the 1950s or 1960s. Local news in
the OTR era would be read by staff announcers. The copy would most often
be wire service rip-and-read, with minor editing, unless the station
happened to have an affiliation with a local newspaper, in which case the
paper's news staff would furnish a condensed package of headline stories
adapted for radio and liberally plugging the newspaper itself. Surviving
recordings reveal that the quality of the staff announcers reading the
news varied wildly -- larger stations had voices approaching network
quality, small stations often had readers who sounded as though they had
been pulled in off the street at random.
Local stations could and did cover spot news -- fires, explosions,
floods, train crashes, etc. etc. etc., usually under the ausipices of the
station's "Public Service" or "Public Events" department. An announcer
would be sent out with a mobile transmitter (or in later years a wire or
tape recorder) and would report from the scene, trying to describe what
was going on. Examples I've heard seem no less nor no more articulate
than the reporters doing the same sorts of reports today.
Mention should be made of the regional newsgathering services which
served regional networks. The Yankee Network in New England and the Don
Lee Network on the West Coast both had ambitious local news operations,
and affiliate stations were able to present news in much greater detail
than independent stations. Yankee, especially, put heavy emphasis on its
news operation.
Also, I have the impression that people in general used to take
more pride in their everyday speech, being more precise and using less
slang.
Depends on who you're talking about: a gathering of white-collar office
workers would speak differently from a gathering of New England
longshoreman, a room full of Midwestern farmers, or a group of Harlem
jivesters. Dialects of all kinds were far more common then than they are
now, and different groups all had their own slang.
It's also important to note that people in general were poorly educated
during the OTR era: as of 1940, only about 25 per cent of adults were
high school graduates, and less than 4 per cent of adults had graduated
from college. My grandfather, a typical Depression-era American, quit
school in the eighth grade, and never worried too much about how precise
his speech was -- all his life he spoke with a thick Titus Moody dialect,
peppered with a combination of Nova Scotian oaths, gas-station
obscenities, and 1920s-vintage slang. I suspect his speech was typical of
that of his generation and social class -- all his contemporaries that I
knew talked the same way.
Did local broadcasters tend to have higher professional standards
long ago?
Lip service has always been paid to Professional Standards among
broadcasters -- perhaps more so then than now -- but the essential
purpose of the station has always been to make a profit. High standards
exist only to the point where they won't interfere with that goal -- and
if the choice is between hiring an experienced journalist at a decent
salary and a twenty-two year old kid just out of school at an entry-level
wage, most local broadcasters will choose the latter. The kid will stick
with it until he or she wises up, and the cycle will then repeat itself.
I knew a lot of old-time station executives during my days in radio who
used to brag about how clever they were in cutting corners and keeping
the payroll down -- and these attitudes still dominate the business
today.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 14:57:01 -0400
From: "Lee, Steve (DEOC)" <slee@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: A. Robins, the Banana Man
RE: A. Robins, the Banana Man
Don't know if A. Robbins is the same, but the "Banana Man" I remember made
occasional appearances on Sunday evening's "really big shew", "The Ed
Sullivan Show" in the late 50's early 60's. He was a one-man act that
revolved around the "Banana Man" character walking out on the stage in an
old suit with a very long suit coat and carrying a suitcase - (he looked
like a cross between Professor Irwin Corey, Chico Marx, and an old-fashioned
Italian organ grinder character). He did not speak, but he did hum and sing
the same melody as he took an unending amount of items and props from his
coat and other pockets. He would always sing the refrain "La-da
de-de-de-deeee", followed by a surprised and loudly trilled "WOW" as he
produced long strings of sausages and wieners; watermelons; streams of tied
together bandanas and handkerchiefs; socks; ties; bowling balls and pins,
cups and saucers, frying pans and pots, and of course, large bunches of
bananas. He also managed to produce kitty-car sized freight train cars that
he would unfold and hook together one at a time, and into which he dumped
all of his booty. He would then leave the stage with the "train" puffing
while he pulled it behind him like a little red wagon.
Steve Lee
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 15:27:49 -0400
From: Michael Nella <serialous@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: hello all
After watching the celebrity telethon Friday, I think I have a greater
appreciation of Command Performance and what the stars did then.
Michael Nella
serialous@[removed]
PS- My epitaph would be
---- Told You I Was Sick! ----
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 16:07:04 -0400
From: Rkayer@[removed]
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Six Shooter Theme Music
My question regards the theme music for the Six Shooter. (I have a feeling
this may have been covered recently and if so I apologize for bringing it up
again).
On one of later episodes it was announced that though there had been many
requests for information on the program's music, it was not commercially
availalbe as it had been commisioned by NBC specifically for the Six Shooter
Program. At this point, it was identified as 'Highland Lament'. I'm unsure
if this title referred to only the main theme or to the many additional
musical 'cues', as well.
I would appreciate any information on where this music may be availalbe on
the net (or anywhere else)
Thanks.
Bob Kayer
rkayer@[removed]
music available on the internet?
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 21:53:16 -0400
From: digital@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Help an OTR Newcomer Decide
I'm looking to follow my father's footsteps and collect old time
radio shows -- ILAM, to start. The main question I have is how do I
start? Taping off the radio is out -- we have terrible reception. My
choice now is joining a remote club (nothing local available) and/or
buying tapes from a commercial dealer. So, what club do readers
recommend and what is a good place to buy OTR episodes on cassette
tape? Thanks.
Ed
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2001 Issue #313
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