Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #2
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 1/4/2002 9:03 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2002 : Issue 2
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Today in Radio History                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  Dragnet in Daily News                 [ Kubelski@[removed] ]
  Fibber McGee & Molly/Charlie McCarth  [ "Ron Vickery" <RVICKERY@anchorwall. ]
  Born for the Role                     [ "William Harper" <whhsa@[removed] ]
  One more "Born to Play the Role"      [ Clifengr3@[removed] ]
  speaking of copyrights                [ Ben Ohmart <bloodbleeds@[removed]; ]
  My Favorite Husband                   [ "Bob Watson" <crw912@[removed]; ]
  Re: Today in Radio History for Janua  [ Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed]; ]
  Actors and Roles                      [ Harry Bartell <bartell@[removed] ]
  DVD/CD/MP3 Players                    [ luckycowboy@[removed] (Gregory Robe ]

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

Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 11:08:28 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Today in Radio History

  From Those Were The Days --

1938 - The first broadcast of Woman in White was presented on the NBC
Red network. The program remained on radio for 10 years and was one of
the first to feature real, honest-to-goodness doctors and nurses in
leading roles.

    Joe

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

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

Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 11:08:43 -0500
From: Kubelski@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Dragnet in Daily News

There is an article about Dragnet in today's New York Daily News that doesn't
mention the show's radio origins, doesn't mention Michael Hayde's book or
quote anyone involved in the show.

But it is about Dragnet.

Interested readers can check in here,

Sean Dougherty
Kubelski@[removed]

[removed]

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

Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 11:16:53 -0500
From: "Ron Vickery" <RVICKERY@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Fibber McGee & Molly/Charlie McCarthy/Search

for show
Approved: ctrn4eeWlc

Hi and Happy New Years to all!!

I'm a long time reader, but a first-time poster, so bear with me, I've
been saving questions up for a while.  First, I've been listening to
some of the Fibber McGee and Molly Christmas episodes I downloaded from
Al Girard's site (Thanks, Al!!!, love your site!), and have a question
about the hall closet.  Did the running gag with the hall closet get
used less in later years?  If so, why?  Were people just getting tired
of it?  Also, what ever happened to the characters of Horatio K. Boomer
and Nick Depopoulous?  Bill Thompson also did Wallace Wimple and The Old
Timer, so it wasn't like he wasn't part of the cast.  Did the shows ever
explain their leaving?  Did they disappear about the same time that
Gildersleeve moved to Summerfield?

Second, was the Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy show done before a
studio audience?  Charlie (in "body") wasn't really required for the
radio audience, but he would be for the studio audience.  If he was
there, did Edgar operate the mouth?

Finally, I'm looking for a 15-minute serial show that my Mom used to
listen to when she was a kid.  Mom is one of those people who listened
to the radio and remembered listening, but didn't really pay attention
to the details, so I'm surprised she remembered as much as she has.  (My
Dad, on the other hand, has specific favorite shows he remembers, so he
is easier to give shows to.)  Anyway, Mom was born in 1925, and
remembers listening to this after her and her siblings finished their
chores after school each day.  They lived in Howard Lake, Minnesota
(about 1 1/2 hour west of Minneapolis, today.  Her Dad spent 3 days on
trips to and from Minneapolis with the horse and buggy).  She said she
can't remember many of the details, but she thinks it was between 1932
and 1943, as she only associates it with listening after school.  The
opening credits, as best as she can remember, are:

"Here comes a true friend of every girl and boy
each day at 5:00 he brings the joy
from Monday through Friday, at this time we say
Here Comes Skippy."

She can't remember if Skippy was the name or not.  Does this sound
familiar to anyone?  Please let me know if any shows are available for
download, trade, or purchase.  I prefer MP3, if possible, but cassette
tapes are ok, too.  Sorry, I don't have the equipment for reel to reel.

Thanks,

Ron Vickery
rvickery@[removed]
(btw, collecting since my then future brother-in-law gave me "Who's On
First" about 22 years ago)

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

Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 11:48:31 -0500
From: "William Harper" <whhsa@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Born for the Role

Dear Radio Buffs, Pro and All;
Peace and joy in 2002.
Howard Culver was born to be Straight Arrow.  Listening to the first show
and then to later shows one relizes how Howard made Straight Arrow the hero
of our memories.
Manituwah,
Bill
PS Howard was born for the role of friend, lover, husband to Lois, but that
was on another network.

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

Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 12:07:15 -0500
From: Clifengr3@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: One more "Born to Play the Role"

Here's one more "Born to Play the Role" (in my humble opinion)

Frank Nelson as the Department Store Floorwalker

JIm Yellen

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

Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 12:07:52 -0500
From: Ben Ohmart <bloodbleeds@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: speaking of copyrights

I've spoken to Paul Rapp, son of Philip Rapp, and the
Bickersons are copyrighted well into the next century.
I've even seen the legal forms, and yep, it's true. Of
course Bickersons started in the late 40s, so the
works aren't as old as some things.

TV & film stills western & nostalgia books
[removed]

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

Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 13:42:22 -0500
From: "Bob Watson" <crw912@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: My Favorite Husband

I have been enjoying the My Favorite Husband entries on the I Love Lucy DVD
set.  Up until now, I haven't had much exposure to this series.  I would
like to know what episode was George and Liz's last name changed from Cugat
to Cooper.

Thanks,

Bob

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

Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 13:43:01 -0500
From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Today in Radio History for January 1

Joe Mackey passed along from Those Were The Days:
Jan 1, 1925 - Lucrezia Bori and John McCormack of the famous
Metropolitan Opera in New York City made their singing
debuts on radio this day. The broadcast over what was WEAF
Radio ... encouraged others to sing on radio.

From: "Dave Walter" <fredallenfan@[removed];
I find it odd that a 1925 broadcast would have "encouraged others
to sing on radio" ... as the very first station in Chicago, KYW,
initially did nothing but broadcast opera performances in 1921.
1925 seems a bit late for the "encoragement" to be needed.

Whenever a new technology is introduced, established stars are usually
very hesitant to test it out.  Very few established performers made
records before the brash young newcomer Enrico Caruso showed it could
help their careers.  Most early movie stars were newcomers, and the film
studios at first attempted to keep their names unknown.  It was
difficult to find anybody famous to perform in talking movies.  Warners
got Al Jolson only after Georgie Jessel backed out.  The biggest early
TV successes were either newcomers like Gleason, Caeser, Coca, Martin &
Lewis, etc; those who had not done well in radio like Sullivan and
Berle; or those whose careers were sliding downward like Ed Wynn.

But with radio there was one other factor: many of the major record
companies strictly forbid their performers from appearing on radio
during the early 20s.  The record companies were scared stiff about
radio because it was free entertainment in the home which might
discourage people from continuing to buy records--they had seen a big
slump in sales in 1923.  Although KYW in Chicago was broadcasting opera,
most of the major opera singers were at the Met in New York, and the
best of them recorded for Victor.  Some of the secondary rank of singers
in Chicago and NY were recording for Brunswick which had its major
recording studio in Chicago, and indeed, it was Brunswick which beat
Victor to the punch by broadcasting a program of its major opera
performers, minor Met performers Florence Easton and Mario Chamlee, on
the WJZ chain December 9, 1924.  Note that the Met itself did not
broadcast until Dec 25, 1931--ten years after KYW's Chicago opera
broadcasts.

Billy Jones and Ernie Hare were notable exceptions of performers who
were enormously popular broadcasters and prolific recording artists
simultaneously during the early 20s.  But they fall under the category
of newcomers, and they did not start making any duet recordings for
Victor or Columbia until 1925.  Vincent Lopez was a bandleader who did a
lot of early radio and recording, but almost all of his pre-1925
recordings were for OKeh.  There were notable performers like Eddie
Cantor who made one or two special broadcasts in the early 20s, but
recordings were a minor part of his career at that time and he was not
doing regular broadcasts then.

There's an interesting article from Radio News around 1924 that spells
out the attitudes of the different record companies, but things changed
drastically in 1925 as the two industries became more aligned.  Both
Victor and Columbia licensed AT&T's Western Electric recording process
(Victor Orthophonic and Columbia Viva-Tone) and Brunswick licensed RCA's
Pallophotophone electrical recording process.  It is notable that AT&T
owned WEAF and RCA owned WJZ--and those were the stations that Victor
and Brunswick respectively broadcast on at the time of the introduction
of electrical recording in early 1925.  (Victor's programs switched over
to WJZ in the fall of 1925, AT&T sold WEAF to RCA in 1926, and in 1928
the arrangements were made for RCA to buy Victor in 1929.  In 1927
Columbia put money into United Independent Broadcasters which became CBS
after the record company had pulled out of the deal.  CBS ended up
buying Columbia Records in 1939, but did have loose ties before then.
Although both Victor and Columbia participated in syndicated radio in
the 1930s, both NBC and CBS blew their chances to sew up the market in
the late 20s and early 30s despite their ties with these record
companies.  They were too committed to their wireline networks to see
how syndicated recordings could compliment the wireline network business
until it was too late.

Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 16:16:18 -0500
From: Harry Bartell <bartell@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Actors and Roles

There has been a lot of discussion lately about "Born-to-Play"

Has it ever occurred to those making selections that they have never
heard any other performers play those roles? Who besides Elliott Lewis
played Frank Remly? Suppose Frank Nelson had been cast in the part
originally. It would have been a completely different character and it
might very well be said that Nelson was born-to-play. Or suppose Parley
Baer had first been cast as Digger O'Dell. Same
situation.

The characters developed over time as the actors became more familiar
with the scripts and the scripts with the actors. This is not to demean
Elliott Lewis or John Brown. It is simply to point out the vagaries in
the careers of actors.

Harry Bartell

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

Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 16:36:02 -0500
From: luckycowboy@[removed] (Gregory Robert Jackson, Jr.)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: DVD/CD/MP3 Players

Does anyone know if there is a brand of DVD players that plays MP3s in
the order they were recorded on the MP3 CD?

My new Philips DVD 953 plays MP3s out of order. For example, when
playing my MP3 CD of All Star Wesern Theater, the first 9 shows played
are [removed], [removed], [removed], [removed], [removed], [removed],
[removed], [removed], and [removed]

I'll return my Philips DVD player if I can find another brand that does
not have this problem.

Greg

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #2
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