Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #178
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 5/18/2002 9:03 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2002 : Issue 178
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      E. P. Butler OTR                      [ ClifSr@[removed] ]
      Margaret Truman                       [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]
      Olsen & Johnson                       [ Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed]; ]
      Radio Spirits                         [ Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed] ]
      Re: Inner Sanctum Question            [ Vntager8io@[removed] ]
      Re: Inner Sanctum Question            [ Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed]; ]
      Great American Audio                  [ Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; ]
      MediaBay Watch!                       [ Jim Widner <widnerj@[removed]; ]

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    Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 11:08:21 -0400
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Today in radio history

      From Those Were The Days --

    1938 - The NBC Blue network presented Information Please for the first
    time. The radio quiz show was moderated by Clifton Fadiman.

    1939 - The Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, NY was the scene of a
    memorable dual-network radio broadcast of Glenn Miller and his
    orchestra. Both NBC and Mutual carried the event, which was attended by
    1,800 people in the casino ballroom.

      Joe

    --
    Visit my home page:
    [removed]~[removed]

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    Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 11:08:31 -0400
    From: ClifSr@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  E. P. Butler OTR

    There's some delightful OTR related stuff on this Ellis Parker Butler site.
    [removed]

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    Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 11:55:02 -0400
    From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Margaret Truman

    I just book Margaret Truman as a guest on Yesterday USA for a tape
    interview.  Does any one know other radio shows she appeared on beside
    Screen Director playhouse with Jimmy Stewart and the Big Show.  She told me
    working with bankhead was crazy, and she learned allot with Fred Allen.
    Take care,

    Walden

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    Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 14:54:43 -0400
    From: Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Olsen & Johnson

    Lee, this came from a ventriloquist friend:

    Hello,Sandy Singer,
    I have a clip of Ole Olsen & Chic Johnson doing a
    "phony" ventriloquist [removed]
    (Unfortunately,I cannot locate this video clip on
    short notice.)
    To the best of my recollection,this short but
    very funny and very physical/slapsticky routine
    is in their (1943) film - 'CRAZY HOUSE'...

          [removed] <:-)
              A DATE WITH SINATRA

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    Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 17:07:46 -0400
    From: Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed];
    To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Radio Spirits

    Maybe I have missed it, but until Jim Widner updated the Radio Spirits
    story today I had no idea Carl Amari is no longer associated with the
    company or the distribution of old radio shows.

    Are there any parts of this story that still need to be told?  Awhile back,
    Radio Spirits discussion consumed several days of this forum.  I don't
    recall extended comment about the changes Jim has outlined.

    Dennis Crow

    [ADMINISTRIVIA: Apparently their purchase of Great American Audio (GAA) was
    complete as of March first, killing what little competition they had left in
    the market.

    But let's not consume too many more days with this, shall we? The company is
    [removed] to the collector, since they only sell the mass-market
    stuff anyway.  --cfs3]

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

    Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 19:13:47 -0400
    From: Vntager8io@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Inner Sanctum Question

    "The Fibber" asked: "Does anyone know what the relationship was between the
    programs "Inner Sanctum" and "Mystery Playhouse"?"

    I believe that "Mystery Playhouse" was simply a repackaging of "Inner
    Sanctum" and several other mystery programs for the Armed Forces Radio
    Service. The "Mystery Playhouse" shows had all original commercials edited
    out, and had the new openings and closings tacked on before they were pressed
    into vinyl AFRS transcriptions and shipped overseas. Essentially, they are
    "Inner Sanctum" shows, just altered for AFRS use.

    Bryan Wright

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

    Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 20:02:59 -0400
    From: Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Inner Sanctum Question

    First off, a quick note of thanks to Jim Widner for writing a very concise
    and fair review of Radio Spirits' past and current history. After all the
    rants and controversy over the years among the OTR community regarding RS,
    it was good to read a simple, balanced account. Well done, Jim.

    Being involved in the First Generation Radio Archives, an organization that
    preserves and restores original radio broadcasts from disk recordings, I
    also appreciate Jim's observations regarding MP3s and "free downloads." OTR
    dealers and organizations that devote countless hours and considerable
    amounts of money to locating and restoring radio programs often find
    themselves criticized for not offering shows for free or for next to
    nothing - and are then sometimes called "hoarders" for charging even very
    reasonable prices for loans or sales of tapes and CDs.

    A brief browse of eBay will let you know how much some radio transcription
    disks are selling for these days - often astounding figures for disks that,
    only a few years ago, were being regularly discarded by radio stations and
    networks.

    Without the financial support that comes from memberships in organizations
    like the Archives or through the sale of tapes or CDs from non-corporate
    dealers like Ed Carr, Ted Davenport, Gordon Payton, and others,
    newly-discovered recordings will likely end up only in the collections of
    those with the deepest pockets - and, believe me, someone who pays over one
    hundred dollars a recording of *one* show is not likely to make it
    available for free download anywhere soon!

    On another subject, Doug Berryhill ("The Fibber") asks:

>     Does anyone know what the relationship was between the
>     programs "Inner Sanctum" and "Mystery Playhouse"? I
>     have a few episodes of a program called "Mystery
>     Playhouse", hosted by Peter Lorre, that seem to be
>     nothing more than Mr. Lorre introducing an episode of
>     "Inner Sanctum".

    "Mystery Playhouse" was a catch-all title used by the Armed Forces Radio
    Service to rebroadcast edited, no-commercials versions of network programs
    like "Inner Sanctum," "The Whistler," "Charlie Chan," "Mr. District
    Attorney," "Molle Mystery Theater," "Ellery Queen" and other mystery shows.
    In order to provide some sort of continuity, Lorre was recruited to
    introduce the programs. It was common for the AFRS to re-title shows that
    had some title-related sponsor affiliation ("The Voice of Firestone" became
    "Music We Love" and "The Bell Telephone Hour" became "Music From America,"
    to cite two examples) but I'm not sure why the AFRS chose not to record and
    rebroadcast these shows individually under their original titles, rather
    than the catch-all.

    Similar examples of catch-all titles are "Front Line Theater," a half-hour
    dramatic anthology series taken mostly from "The Screen Guild Theater" and
    other similar series, and "Comedy Caravan," which was often - but not
    always - the "Jimmy Durante-Garry Moore Show."

    Since they were given carte blanche permission to record, edit, and
    rebroadcast practically anything broadcast during the war years and beyond,
    the AFRS often combined bits and pieces from one show into another to make
    up a full half-hour program. Thus, even though most AFRS rebroadcasts do
    list an original broadcast date (scratched into the run-outs on the vinyl
    disks), you can't be sure that the *entire* show was first broadcast on
    that same date.

    It gets more difficult when dealing with compilation shows the AFRS
    broadcast in the later days of the war and well into the 1950s. Shows with
    titles like "Great Music," "Showtime," and "Great Moments in Music" took
    their musical selections from all manner of broadcasts, making the original
    broadcast dates of the individual selections almost impossible to track
    down. The same applies to "To the Rear, March," a half-hour compilation of
    comedy and variety bits that rebroadcast pieces of network shows that were
    often four to six years old!

    Harlan

    Harlan Zinck
    First Generation Radio Archives
    [removed]

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    Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 21:34:18 -0400
    From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Great American Audio

    Is anyone aware of the details of the recent acquisition (March) of the
    radio division of Great American Audio by Mediabay?  I know that any
    licenses that GAA had to market "The Shadow" has now transferred to
    Mediabay as part of the acquisition.

    Jim Widner
    jwidner@[removed]

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

    Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 21:34:35 -0400
    From: Jim Widner <widnerj@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  MediaBay Watch!
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from text/html

     Sorry for the subject pun, but I couldn't resist. This was just released
    this week:

    CEDAR KNOLLS, [removed], May 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MediaBay, Inc.
    (Nasdaq: MBAY - News), a leading spoken audio content, marketing and
    publishing company, announced today that its subsidiary, Radio Spirits,
    has entered into an exclusive long-term agreement with Hope Enterprises,
    Inc. for all episodes of "The Bob Hope Show." The agreement provides
    Radio Spirits with exclusive worldwide broadcast, Internet, reproduction,
    marketing and selling rights for all of the approximately 700 episodes of
    "The Bob Hope Show," which was originally broadcast on radio between 1937
    and 1955.

    Jim Widner
    Dayton, OH
    "Language most shows a man: Speak, that I May see thee" - Jonson

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    End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #178
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