Subject: [removed] Digest V2004 #90
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 3/11/2004 7:25 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2004 : Issue 90
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  PALADIN                               [ Gsgreger@[removed] ]
  The Clock                             [ JayHick@[removed] ]
  King For A Day/building radios        [ jodie <raisingirl@[removed]; ]
  Pure Crystal!                         [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  buying your first television set      [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
  RE: Bergen and McCarthy on TV         [ "Tim Lones" <timl2002@[removed] ]
  RAY ERLENBORN, Actor on Roy Rogers S  [ Gsgreger@[removed] ]
  radio construction                    [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
  Halls of Ivy Episode                  [ Lilah60@[removed] ]
  ed (lower case)                       [ Elmer Standish <elmer_standish@telu ]
  Dragnet Copyright                     [ "Austotr" <austotr@[removed]; ]
  Bob & Ray                             [ "Robert Blume" <bblume@foxinternet. ]
  Rolling your own (AM radios)          [ danhughes@[removed] ]
  News from Around                      [ seandd@[removed] ]
  This weekend with Walden Hughes       [ BryanH362@[removed] ]
  Benny/Burns vs. Stern                 [ "George Tirebiter" <tirebiter2@hotm ]

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 10:40:09 -0500
From: Gsgreger@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  PALADIN

>From the radio series, Have Gun Will Travel, we actually know very little
about Palatine?

We learn that he was a former [removed] Cavalry Captain educated at West Point.

In the 5 Apr 1959 episode entitled Maggie O'Bannion, ranch owner Maggie
questions  Palatine:  "Who are you?" she asks, to which he replies, "Would
you believe the eldest son of an English nobleman?" [Harry Bartell plays
Margaret "Maggie" O'Bannion's crooked foreman, Cyrus]

In the 27 Mar 1960 episode They Told Me You Were Dead, we learn that Palatine
served in the 112th Illinois in the Civil War.

Another episode (forgot to note which one) finds Palatine stating that he was
raised on a farm.

We never learn his name, age, or birthplace.  He is mysterious and evasive.
He is Palatine.

We do know Hey Boy's name.  In the 1 Mar 1959 episode Hey Boy's a Revenge
(and at other times), we learn that his name is Kim Chang.

Much, much more (all you could ever want to know) about Palatine, the TV
series, the radio series, Richard Boone, John Dehner, Ben Wright, etc, etc,
can be learned from the fine book by Martin Grams, Jr. and Les Rayburn, The
Have Gun-Will Travel Companion, published in 2000.  It contains complete
(!!!) episodic logs of both the radio and TV series, with plots, players, and
character names. It's a gem!

Gordon Gregersen
La Grande, Oregon

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 11:43:51 -0500
From: JayHick@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The Clock

According to the New York Times, The Clock was broadcast in the US from
11/3/46 to 5/23/48.  Jay

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 12:01:50 -0500
From: jodie <raisingirl@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  King For A Day/building radios

hello all --

Laura Leff wrote:

infer that he did.  The show ends in chaos, with Jack trying to get his pants
back.  The classic capper was Jack saying, "Allen, you haven't seen the end
of
me!" and Fred retorting, "It won't be long now!"

To this day, if somebody gets a little impatient with me, I'll still say
"Keep your shirt on, King!" as a result of being exposed (oooh, bad
choice of words) to part of this skit on a "best of Jack Benny" tape I
had when I was 10 or 11.  Very few people have any idea of what I'm
referring to when I do it!  :)

Deric wrote:

Tell me if you guys get this feeling. My real concern about hobbies these
days is that, some people see them as "work" and don't have a desire to
extend much energy toward them.  .   Personally, I find my many hobbies
quite interesting and enjoyable.

We have the same discussions in one of my other hobbies (plastic
aircraft/ship/car modeling), and, there's no question that hobbies
aren't what they used to be.  Witness all the "pre-built" kits you can
buy now.  I don't know if it's because people don't have time for
hobbies any longer, or if it's successive generations wanting more and
more instant gratification, or preferring to interact with computers
rather than making something with their hands, or what it is.

(The paradox is, the model kits and related products you can buy now are
about the finest there's ever been, and are very labor-saving, but
they're getting more expensive and the number of people entering the
hobby seems to be getting smaller.)

Jodie Peeler

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 14:56:00 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Pure Crystal!

Deric writes,

A program I was listening to referred to making your own radio with an
oatmeal box, a piece of wire and an earphone, which, I take it, was what
amatuers did to hear radio transmissions before or in the early days of
commercial broadcasting.

Even after.  Through the 1940s, there were "build crystal set" projects
in some boys' magazines.  One could buy crystal-set kits in some
department stores, but that was cheating.

However, besides wire, oatmeal box, and earphones, one also needed a
"crystal," a detector (rectifier) made out of galena, a semiconducting
mineral, and a "cat's whisker," which was a wire probe.  The galena
crystal would be probed with the cat whisker until a "sensitive spot" was
found.  This was a semiconducting region that made the crystal a
rectifier.

The radio engineer and science-fiction author, George O. Smith,
speculated that Quaker Oats made a fortune by having oatmeal boxes a near
perfect size to wind a coil for a crystal set.

Today, one can still build crystal sets.  If you're not a classicist,
though, it's possible to substitute a semiconductor diode for the galena
crystal.  They work with the current frequencies, if one is appropriate
in selection of capacitance and inductance.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 14:56:47 -0500
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  buying your first television set

Would you invest in a television to see Jack for half an hour once every
three weeks?
<snip>
Probably a more accurate scenario would have been Jack, George, and others
moving to the new medium and making it a more compelling and solid medium.

The histories I have read tell a somewhat bleaker story.  Apparently many,
if not most
initial TV sales were largely due to a man who had little radio exposure:
Milton Berle.

M Kinsler

mr tuesday night

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 14:56:58 -0500
From: "Tim Lones" <timl2002@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  RE: Bergen and McCarthy on TV

Purely speculation on my part:
Despite the seeming "reality" of Charlie, Mortimer, etc. as  personalities,
I think most people still realized they were puppets (in the back of their
mind)  Also, Bergen and McCarthy had made some motion pictures and personal
appearances,  so it wasnt as if some people hadnt seen Charlie before, so
the transition to television was probably not terribly difficult.

Tim Lones
Canton, Ohio

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 14:57:14 -0500
From: Gsgreger@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  RAY ERLENBORN, Actor on Roy Rogers Show

OTR convention favorite Ray Erlenborn appeared in the role of Jeff Meeker on
the May 25, 1954 GHOST RIDERS in the SKY episode of the ROY ROGERS SHOW. As I
recall he was in a poker-playing scene.

Also appearing in this episode, in addition to Roy, Dale and Pat Brady, were
Tom Holland, Eddie Marr, Paul Dubov, Ken Christy, Jack Kruschen, and
announcer Lew Crosby.

Gordon Gregersen
La Grande, Oregon

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 14:58:24 -0500
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  radio construction

A program I was listening to refered to making your own radio with an
oatmeal box, a piece of wire and an earphone, which, I take it, was what
amatuers did to hear radio transmissions before or in the early days of
commercial broadcasting.

Yep.

I'm sure you all been here before, but it may
have been before my time.  Apparently, according to some OTR listening
I've done it was something many boys did durring the early part of the
20th century, maybe some girls, who knows?

Both.  There was a radio construction project for Cub Scouts in the 1950's.

My questions are related to that subject.
1. Is it possible to do that these days and would it be significent given
the frequencies today?

Yup.  See [removed].

2. Are there any diagrams, like they built from in those days, or do you
start with prefab kits?

Either one.  I've built both sorts, but there are certain issues that I will
address shortly. See the website above.

Tell me if you guys get this feeling. My real concern about hobbies these
days is that, some people see them as "work" and don't have a desire to
extend much energy toward them.  .   Personally, I find my many hobbies
quite interesting and enjoyable.

As you'll see at the website whose URL I've noted above, hobbies of all
types have descended into what one might term "wretched excess."  I'm glad
to see that little of this sort of obsession seems to be present amongst the
parishioners of this list, but I'm afraid that my boomer generation has
succeeded in making many 'traditional' hobbies ([removed], those of our
longed-for youth) into tedium.

Having said that, yes, it is quite possible to make a crystal or one-tube
radio set.  The latter has vastly better performance, but the tubes are
approximately impossible to obtain these days.

The difficulties I had with crystal sets were two-fold:  (1) the
galena-crystal detector was darn near impossible to deal with.  (2) the
standards of craftsmanship necessary to make an effective tuned circuit were
somewhat beyond my abilities (or desires, for that matter.)

The second point can be addressed by anyone with normal manual skills, which
I don't have.  The first is more interesting, because technology has sort of
danced around it.  Harrumph, the lecture begins herewith:

The 'detector' that's used to strain the music out of the radio waves is
known technically as a 'point-contact semiconductor junction.'  These
conduct electric current in one direction, but not the other.  They can be
made in many ways, with many different materials.  The home-built crystal
radios used a steel-galena junction.  Galena is a crystalline lead ore.  The
steel is a bit of coil spring that's also known as a 'cat's whisker.'  The
galena crystal is clamped into a stand and the cat's whisker is pressed into
the surface of the crystal.  If all goes well, an effective, if temporary,
semiconductor junction is formed and you hear music.  Inevitably, however,
air gets into the junction, or the cat's whisker gets disturbed, and
suddenly Jack Benny vanishes.

It is also worth noting that a crystal radio can only be heard through a
high-impedance headphone, which is tough to find and not the kind that comes
with your Walkman.

Thus, crystal detectors were improved years ago by manufacturing techniques
that were well beyond the capabilites of the home craftsman.  The first
improvement was the encasement of the galena crystal in a lead matrix, thus
ensuring a proper ohmic contact with the tuned circuit of the receiver.  The
whole crystal assembly thus became the size of a largish pain-relief tablet,
and was nicely clipped into a factory-made stand that included the cat's
whisker spring.

The next improvement was to make a stable semiconductor junction by what I
think may have been a welding process.  However it was done, the 'cat's
whisker' was permanently affixed to the galena crystal and the entire
assembly installed in a capsule of transparent plastic.  I've never seen one
of these, but I've seen the catalog description.  Philmore (still in
existence) used to make them.

Finally, there came the 1N34A germanium diode.  These had a crystal of
germanium semiconductor inside them with an almost microscopic cat's whisker
welded to it.  Tiny glass enclosure.  These are insanely sensitive,
completely stable, and you'll find them still in use inside your present
radio.  And you can buy a rather large quantity of them at Radio Shack; if
you look into the glass enclosure, you can see the tiny cat's whisker.

The reason I mention this last device is because it is used as the 'crystal'
in most nominal crystal radio kits of the present day, even though it
utterly lacks authenticity.  On the other hand, the germanium diode made me
a crystal radio that actually worked.  You'll find a germanium diode in the
ever-popular Radio Shack crystal radio kit.

I have no doubt, however, that you can now get authentic (and probably
expensive) galena crystals along with exhaustive instructions for getting
them to work.  Such is the competitive hobby environment.

One aside, here.  An effective semiconductor junction can be made with
graphite and whatever iron compound is formed in the process of
manufacturing old-fashioned steel razor blades.  Might be iron phosphide.
So one can make a detector by affixing a piece of pencil lead to a safety
pin and letting said piece of graphite bear upon the surface of a used razor
blade.  The wire for the antenna and the tuned circuit are obtained by
unwinding the magnet coil from one set of a pair of government-issue
headphones.

This is the famous 'foxhole radio' from World War II.  I believe that Bill
Mauldin wrote the best description of its construction; the first
instruction in the recipe was to steal a pair of headphones from the nearest
tank.

Inevitably, the foxhole radio has found its way into the modern hobby
machine.  You can get, believe it or not, a rather expensive kit for it at
(I think) Antique Electronics Supply in Arizona.  Check Google for the URL.

Please note that the original software is no longer available: after you're
finished with your crystal radio you'll be listening mainly to Rush Limbaugh
and them.

Mark Kinsler

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 15:00:16 -0500
From: Lilah60@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Halls of Ivy Episode
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Ronald Plumb wrote:

I recently got most of the Halls of Ivy episodes on CD.  The episode labelled
Faculty Frolics Pt. 2 dated 5/27/52 is, in fact, a different episode. Does
anyone know where I can get the real 5/27/52 broadcast?

In my own (also incomplete) Halls of Ivy collection, the episode "Faculty
Follies 2" is dated 5-07-52,  It makes sense, especially since it follows my
episode (FF 1) dated 4-30-52, and itself is followed by eps dated 5-14, 5-21,
and
5-28-52.  I suspect there is no 5-27-52 program. Just possibly, a case of
mislabeling syndrome, an ailment which has been discussed often on this
forum.

I recently found a helpful and interesting website that not only presents an
extensive Ivy log, but also traces the various Intros and Credits formats that
evolved on Ivy from January 1950 through June 1952.
[removed]

 It's sometimes rewarding to compare one's collection to another's. In
the
above log, I found titles and dates that I had never heard of.  I wonder if
anyone reading this message would know if these episodes are available
anywhere:

5-23-51    Cooks Night Out
10-24-51   Mrs. Why
11-14-51   The Halls Have Car Trouble
4-16-52     The French Exchange Student

I have to say that I'm always delighted to find more Colman fans out there!

Claire Connelly
Alexandria, Virginia
Below the Beltway

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Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 15:01:01 -0500
From: Elmer Standish <elmer_standish@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  ed (lower case)

In regard to: ed (lower case) in [removed] Digest V2004
#88.

I always thought it was archie the cockroach who
wrote only in lower case.

Check out the poem at:
[removed]

a google (Advanced Search) on 'archie the cockroach' brought
up lots of hits.

Regards to all the Group ===> ELMER

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 16:48:44 -0500
From: "Austotr" <austotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Dragnet Copyright

G'Day folks,

I seem to remember a list of series known to still be protected by
copyright, that was posted on this list quite some time ago, I think by
Elizabeth McLeod.  I also seem to remember that Dragnet was one of them and
it listed who the copyright holder was currently.  Could someone please
provide me with the details of the copyright hold of Dragnet (radio series)
and confirm that it is definately under copyright if that is known.

Thank you.

Ian Grieve

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 16:57:30 -0500
From: "Robert Blume" <bblume@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Bob & Ray
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Count me as a top ten Bob & Ray fan as well.

I think Sheryl Smith brings up an interesting subject in her recent posting.
The whole question of Tom Koch is far less interesting to me than the
chronology of Bob & Ray's career. I've been collecting and listening to B&R
for over 30 years and I'm still not completely straight on their resume after
Boston. I'd rather see someone research an accurate 'map' of this great team's
incredible and long career. That might be a more manageable and relevant
project.

Regarding the question of writers, we should remember that B&R had a lot of
hours to fill. It's not as though they were doing a weekly series like Benny,
Hope, Caesar and other contemporaries. For the most part B&R were on daily.
Their stuff sounded so spontaneous that many of us would like to think it was
all off the [removed] They had formidable improvisational talents (just listen to
those loose, goofy, freewheeling local shows for WHDH ) But broadcasting eats
up comedy in a hurry. It would have been a super human effort for these two
guys, as great as they were, to generate that enormous volume of stellar
material without some help. So it shouldn't be a huge shock that writers like
Koch were heavily involved. But I have no doubt that B&R were right at the
center of the creative process no matter who wrote the sketch or created the
character. The end result is a body of work that, for me, is still fresh and
funny after all these years.

Bob Blume

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Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 16:58:01 -0500
From: danhughes@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Rolling your own (AM radios)
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I forwarded the request for info on homemade radios to a fellow faculty
member--here's his reply:

A friend passed your inquiry to me.  The plans for "Oatmeal Box" and
other Crystal Sets are easy to find on the WWW.  Here are some links:

[removed]

[removed]

[removed]

[removed]

good [removed]

Steve  / W9HC

Stephen E. Brown
Director, Speech Communication Program
Professor,  Speech and Mass Communication
Parkland College
Champaign, Illinois 61821
(217) 351 2367  / office C-127
sbrown@[removed]

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 19:06:55 -0500
From: seandd@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  News from Around

More Jack Benny news today.  His famous feud with Fred Allen is mentioned in
the Cambridge Chronicle of Cambridge, Mass.

Also, some might find this review of Sirius Radio and XM Satelite Radio from
the Deseret Mountain-Times helpful.

Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]

CAMBRIDGE history
Cambridge Chronicle - Somerville,MA,USA
... March 15, 1942: Jack Benny, perhaps the greatest comedian in the Golden
Age of Radio, and Cambridge native Fred Allen, the most erudite comic
on the air ...
<[removed]
[removed];

SATELLITE radio offers clear reception, wide range of programming
The Desert-Mountain Times - Alpine,TX,United States
... wireless broadband internet and the satellite radio ... At Stuff, long-time
friends Kelly Doyle ... Marathon Bank and felt it was time ... based business,
the 52 year old ...
<[removed];

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 19:07:35 -0500
From: BryanH362@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  This weekend with Walden Hughes

Place :  Yesterdayusa
on the internet at [removed]
When: Friday , Saturday and Sunday at 10:30pm Eastern /7:30pm Pacific

Friday

A.  topic Arthur Godfrey

Saturday

A.  interview with the Ava Guarnder museum

C.  Larry King interview with Jimmy Stewart

Sunday

A.  Biels on the history of recordings

B.  Laura on 3-7-37  Jack Benny  broadcast.

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

Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 19:07:47 -0500
From: "George Tirebiter" <tirebiter2@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Benny/Burns vs. Stern

Some people may have bought TVs to see Benny or Burns, but from what I've
read the first real programming coup for TV was the World Series in 1947 on
NBC.  Then in 1948 came Ed Sullivan in Talk of the Town and (especially)
Uncle Miltie. Then, in 1951, I LOVE LUCY.  If you lived in an area that had
TV these were the things on that everyone who had a TV was talking about and
that made people want to get a set. By the mid-1950s pracitically everywhere
in the country was within range of TV broadcasts and virtually every family
that could afford a set had one.

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #90
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