Subject: [removed] Digest V2009 #47
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 3/4/2009 7:49 AM

To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2009 : Issue 47
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Networks                              [ "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@juno. ]
      3-3 births/deaths                     [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Nig  [ charlie@[removed] ]
      Newspaper Archive                     [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
      Farm Electricity and Radio            [ Rentingnow@[removed] ]
      When Radio Was (Special)              [ Wich2@[removed] ]
      Re: Electricity-Free Radios           [ "Kirby, Tom" <Kirby@[removed]; ]
      Spare batteries and latter-day radio  [ "Bob C" <rmc44@[removed]; ]
      Private Jokes                         [ seandd@[removed] ]
      Vanity Fair Article on Growing Up Ho  [ seandd@[removed] ]
      Re: crystal sets                      [ Grams46@[removed] ]
      The Brass Ring                        [ "Frank McGurn Jr." <[removed]@sbcg ]
      Paul Harvey influence                 [ Alan Bell <alanlinda43@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 14:12:53 -0500
    From: "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Networks
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           I know that there were several radio networks during the radio years
    (MBS, AFRS, NBC, NBC-Red, NBC-Blue, and CBS).  This is common
    knowledge.  I was listening to a recording of "The Fat Man" last night,
    which said it was being broadcast on ABC.  Common sense tells me that
    the ABC network started out as one of the NBC networks. My questions are:
    Which one of the networks eventually became ABC and when?  Why did NBC
    have so many networks?  and how many total networks were there?  I've already
    checked with the "Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio" and several other
    collectors,
    who suggested I contact them when I discover the answer.

           BTW, I do happen to have a copy of Dunning's book as reference.  Just
    so you'll know, while there are many of the OTR programs listed there, some
    are
    not.  I was looking for information on "Weird Circle" recently and it wasn't
    listed.
    It's been suggested that I check my copy for further information in the
    future,
    but there are some programs available for purchase which aren't listed.  I
    usually
    check all of the resources I have before asking the members of this list.

    As always,

    Kenneth Clarke

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    Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 14:13:00 -0500
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  3-3 births/deaths

    March 3rd births

    03-03-1885 - Marshall Bartholomew - Belleville, IL - d. 4-16-1978
    tenor on nbc, connected with the Yale Glee Club
    03-03-1890 - Edmund Lowe - San Jose, CA - d. 4-21-1971
    actor: Sergeant Quirt "Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt"
    03-03-1896 - Willie Fung - Canton, China - d. 4-16-1945
    actor: "Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show"
    03-03-1900 - Edna Best - Hove, East Sussex, England - d. 9-18-1974
    director: "Sherlock Holmes"; "Silver Theatre"
    03-03-1902 - Ruby Dandridge - Memphis, TN  - d. 10-17-1987
    actor: Mammy Brown "Gallant Heart"; Geranium "Judy Canova Show"
    03-03-1906 - Kenny Sargent - Centralia, IL - d. 12-20-1969
    vocalist/saxophonist: "The Camel Caravan"
    03-03-1907 - Canada Lee - NYC - d. 5-9-1952
    actor: "New World A' Coming"; "Lest We Forget"; "The Free Company"
    03-03-1907 - Donald Novis - Hastings, England - d. 7-23-1966
    actor: Matt Mulligan "Jumbo Fire Chief Program"
    03-03-1911 - Henry Gladstone - Boston, MA - d. 1-22-1995
    announcer: "White Owl Reporter"
    03-03-1911 - Jean Harlow - Kansas City, MO - d. 6-7-1937
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    03-03-1913 - Margaret Bonds - Chicago, IL - d. 4-26-1972
    composer: "Chicago Women's Orchestra"
    03-03-1914 - Donald Gray - Fort Beaufort, South Africa - d. 4-7-1978
    BBC actor from 1947 to 1951
    03-03-1915 - John Nelson - Spokane, WA - d. 11-3-1976
    emcee: "Bride and Groom"; "Know Your NBC's"; "Live Like a Millionaire"
    03-03-1919 - Enzo Stuarti - Rome, Italy - d. 12-16-2005
    operatic singer: "Stars for Defense"
    03-03-1920 - James Doohan - Vancouver, Canada - d. 7-20-2005
    actor: "You Never Had It So Good"; "The Investigator"
    03-03-1920 - Jimmy Edwards - Barns, Surrey, England - d. 7-7-1988
    actor: Pa Glum "Take It from Here"
    03-03-1921 - Diana Barrymore - NYC - d. 1-25-1960
    actor: "Crime Does Not Pay"
    03-03-1924 - Barbara Jean Wong - Los Angeles, CA - d. 11-13-1999
    actor: Judy Barton "Cinnamon Bear"
    03-03-1924 - Cathy Downs - Port Jefferson, Long Island, NY - d.
    12-8-1976
    actor: "Your Movietown Radio Theatre"; "Lux Radio Theatre"; "Mail Call"
    03-03-1937 - Bobby Driscoll - Cedar Rapids, IA - d. 3-20-1968 (body
    found)
    actor: "A Day in the Life of Dennis Day"; "Family Theatre"
    03-03-1939 - Sam Chu Lin - Mississippi - d. 3-5-2006
    newscaster, actor: "Empire of the Air"
    03-03-1948 - Byron MacGregor - Alberta, Canada - d. 1-3-1995
    CKLW radio newsman, recorded narrative "The Americans"
    03-03-1959 - Ira Glass - Baltimore, MD
    host: "This American Life"
    03-03-1970 - Christopher Cyrill - Melbourne, Australia
    writer: "What Withers and What Remains"

    March 3rd deaths

    01-15-1923 - Ivor Cutler - Glasgow, Scotland - d. 3-3-2006
    poet: BBC's Home Service
    01-18-1913 - Danny Kaye - Brooklyn, NY - d. 3-3-1987
    comedian: "Danny Kaye Show"
    01-31-1908 - Connie Desmond - Ohio - d. 3-3-1983
    sportscaster: play-by-play for the Brooklyn Dodgers
    02-08-1902 - Lyle Talbot - Pittsburgh, PA - d. 3-3-1996
    actor: "Your Hollywood Informer"; "Calling All Cars"; "The Unexpected"
    02-26-1887 - William Frawley - Burlington, IA - d. 3-3-1966
    comedian: Fred Mertz "I Love Lucy", "Hallmark Playhouse"; "Hollywood
    Hotel"
    03-06-1906 - Lou Costello - Paterson, NJ - d. 3-3-1959
    comedian: "Chase & Sanborn Hour"; "Abbott and Costello Show"
    03-13-1907 - Frank Wilcox - DeSoto, MO - d. 3-3-1974
    actor: Father "Central City"
    03-19-1889 - George L. "Doc" Rockwell - Providence, RI - d. 3-3-1978
    comedian: "Camel Pleasure Hour"
    04-04-1895 - Arthur Murray - NYC - d. 3-3-1991
    dance master: "Natural Bridge Dancing Class"
    04-05-1919 - Ted Liss - d. 3-3-1992
    actor: "Destination Freedom"
    07-24-1921 - Giuseppe Di Stefano - Motta, Sicily, Italy - d. 3-3-2008
    operatic tenor: "Standard Hour", "Metropolitan Opera"
    07-28-1925 - Paul Rogers - Chicago, IL - d. 3-3-2007
    host: "Great Music from Chicago"; "Music Unlimited"; "Nightside"
    08-22-1900 - Charles Halleck - De Motte, IN - d. 3-3-1986
    [removed] senator: "Meet the Press"; "American Forum on the Air"
    09-03-1912 - Peter Capell - Berlin, Germany - d. 3-3-1986
    actor:"Dimension X"; "Romance"; "Secret Missions"
    09-07-1918 - Al Christy - Kansas City, KS - d. 3-3-1995
    started his career in radio
    10-09-1909 - Robert Beatty - Hamilton, Ontario, Canada - d. 3-3-1992
    announcer: BBC Radio Newsreel"; "London Column"
    10-16-1917 - Alice Pearce - NYC - d. 3-3-1966
    actor: Daphne "Henry Morgan Show"
    10-30-1915 - Fred Friendly - NYC - d. 3-3-1998
    writer, director: "Hear It Now"; "Who Said That?"; "Quick and the Dead"
    12-02-1918 - Ezra Stone - New Bedford, MA - d. 3-3-1994
    actor: Henry Aldrich "Aldrich Family"
    12-12-1907 - Allen Massey - Midland, TX - d. 3-3-1983
    singer: (Louise Massey and the Westerners) "National Barn Dance";
    "Show Boat"
    12-25-1912 - Tobe Reed - Seattle, WA - d. 3-3-1988
    announcer: "The Bickersons"; "Burns and Allen"; "Frances Langford Show"

    Ron

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

    Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 02:12:01 -0500
    From: charlie@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Night!

    A weekly [removed]

    For the best in OTR Chat, join IRC (Internet Relay Chat), StarLink-IRC
    Network, the channel name is #OldRadio.  We meet Thursdays at 8 PM Eastern
    and go on, and on! The oldest OTR Chat Channel, it has been in existence
    over nine years, same time, same channel! Started by Lois Culver, widow
    of actor Howard Culver, this is the place to be on Thursday night for
    real-time OTR talk!

    Our "regulars" include OTR actors, soundmen, collectors, listeners, and
    others interested in enjoying OTR from points all over the world. Discussions
    range from favorite shows to almost anything else under the sun (sometimes
    it's hard for us to stay on-topic)...but even if it isn't always focused,
    it's always a good time!

    For more info, contact charlie@[removed]. We hope to see you there, this
    week and every week!

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

    Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 09:24:29 -0500
    From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Newspaper Archive

    I usually use newspaper archive at [removed] to investigate obituaries and
    such but sadly, even with their limitations they are not helping with a
    number of newspapers that fail to come up. At the Cincinnati OTR convention
    last year I faintly recall someone saying there was a better newspaper search
    engine that will allow me to see obituaries. I wrote it down and since
    misplaced it. If anyone knows of a better search engine for newspapers,
    please let me know. I was trying to find all the obituaries I could find on
    Richard Bluel and it has gotten frustrating this evening.
    Martin
    mmargrajr@[removed]

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

    Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 09:26:46 -0500
    From: Rentingnow@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Farm Electricity and Radio

    Electricity was acquired for farmers in  unusual ways. My mother told the
    story of cleaning the kerosene lamps in the  house and had spent the time on
    the
    persistently irritating job.  The house  had been wired for electricity (this
    was in the thirty's).  There was a  light switch which she would flick on and
    off out of dreamy hopefulness.   After doing all of the cleaning of the lamps
    she flipped the switch and the  lights went on much to her surprise.  Decades
    later she still expressed  resentment that she had spent all that time
    cleaning the lamps for no  reason.

    The electric lines were not originally strung for the  farms.  They were
    strung to power a digging shovel to dig the canal for the  Willwood Irrigation
    district in north western Wyoming.  When the canal job  was finished, lines
    were
    then taken over by a local co-op.  At that point  my folks could get rid of
    the expensive battery radio and buy an AC  one.

    The cooperative still exists today as Willwood Light and Power and  my
    brother and sister-in-law are involved with managing of the  co-op.   If you
    scroll
    down on this link you will see that Electricity  now costs about $[removed] per
    KW hour.   [removed].  Compare  that to
    current bills and it is about 1/2 what we pay in NY.

    Anyone interested on  the history of the area can contact me off list and I
    would be happy to  discuss.

    Larry Moore

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

    Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 09:27:05 -0500
    From: Wich2@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  When Radio Was (Special)
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    Subject:  Re: Not everyone had a radio during WWII

    Great  thread.

    My Dad (born in 1935, in farmland NW Ohio) has told the story of the family
    having only a battery-op, at first.

    And, the charge in same being valuable, the battery was only taken out of
    the tractor or the car for special programs - like Dr. Walter Meier's THE
    LUTHERAN HOUR.

    Best,
    -Craig W.

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    Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 09:27:12 -0500
    From: "Kirby, Tom" <Kirby@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Electricity-Free Radios

    I hope this isn't too far off-topic, but the Xtal Set Society
    (page is [removed]) still promotes the
    building of crystal radios, although the kits they sell have a
    1N34 diode rather than a galena crystal & cat whisker. Sample
    newsletters are available (although when I looked, the samples
    were from 2004 and 2005). They do sell galena crystals, in case
    you want a more authentic experience.

    I never asked my grandparents when they got their first radio (and
    it's too late now). They never had much money, but I know they had
    one in time for the "War of the Worlds" broadcast. I asked my
    grandmother if she had heard it, and she said she heard the start,
    and it didn't interest her so she turned it off. I don't remember
    whether she turned off the radio, or just tuned in elsewhere.

    -- Tom Kirby
    KJ4FUU

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

    Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 09:27:20 -0500
    From: "Bob C" <rmc44@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Spare batteries and latter-day radio stations

    Ian Grieve wonders about rural folk keeping spare batteries for
    their radio listening enjoyment. As I shared offline with a
    Digester last week, recalling conditions in West Texas during the
    Depression, my dad would often make the comment (I paraphrase),
    "You couldn't carry out in both arms all the groceries you could
    buy for five dollars; getting the five dollars was the hard
    part." So if you scrimped and saved for months and years for a
    radio, it's likely that a spare battery would be the farthest
    thing from your mind - nice to have, but not necessary if you
    used the one you had carefully. And believe me, as other
    offspring of someone who was a child/young adult of that era,
    making-do was a way of life they mastered and passed on.

    Randy Riddles refers to a radio station coming to his hometown in
    the late 1950s. It came to mine in the mid-50s ... one those with
    1,000 and a high frequency (1250 kc), meaning it barely covered
    the county, with music from records and rip-and-read news off the
    AP machine. It signed on at sun-up and ran down at sundown.

    But television didn't offer much in West Texas, either. About
    that same time (1954-55), there was the Today Show on the NBC
    station, followed by the Home Show with Hugh Downs and Arlene
    Francis, then it would sign off until 2 or so in the afternoon
    for the NBC Matinee Theater. On another NBC station, to the north
    of us rather from the south, after the news it would carry some
    network show via kinescope at 10:30 and then sign off at 11. We
    never knew first-hand of the Tonight Show with Steve Allen.

    Actually, considering the quality of programming, it doesn't seem
    like a such a bad pattern for stations to follow these days.

    Bob Cockrum

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

    Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 09:27:54 -0500
    From: seandd@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Private Jokes
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    When I first got e-mail the only thing I used it for was this list and trading
    OTR tapes, so made my e-mail address Kubelski@[removed] (someone else already
    had Kubelsky).  I used to get a lot of e-mail directed to Laura Leff, the
    long-standing president of the International Jack Benny Fan Club, as well as
    puzzeled responses from my non-fan friends but since most of the people I was
    writing were fans, most of them got it.  In short order, e-mail became the
    principle means by which I communicate with the outside world and I had to
    explain the joke to [removed] was almost a relief when I dropped AOL and
    used the change to pick something closer to my given [removed]
    DoughertySeanDD@[removed]

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

    Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 09:28:17 -0500
    From: seandd@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Vanity Fair Article on Growing Up Hollywood
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    This article about the children of Hollywood's golden age mentions many
    families prominent in Old Time Radio.

    [removed]

    Sean DoughertySeanDD@[removed]

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    Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 09:28:49 -0500
    From: Grams46@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: crystal sets

    From: "W. Harris" <nbcblue@[removed]"

>     And we cannot leave out  the crystal receiving set, which required no
>     electricity at all to operate,  other than the miniscule current induced on
>     the receiving antenna from the  radio waves being emitted by the very radio
>     station it was tuned to. An  Oatmeal box on which  to wind the coil, a glena
>     crystal, a piece of  adjustable wire called a cat whisker, a capacitor, ear
>     phones and one was in  business. Operated 24/7 and zero cost.

    from kathy;
    my uncle paul built a crystal set.   he and my mother and the  rest of their
    family listened to the 1938 joe louis/max schmeling fight on that  radio in
    arlington texas.
    the  african american family that worked for my grandparents also  heard the
    match  - but from outside the window.   my  grandfather left the window up
    probably figuring schmeling would be the  victor.
    after louis won (in two minutes) the family quietly walked  away toward their
    own home.   it took them about two minutes to  get far enough away before
    they felt it safe enough to celebrate.

    peace  from kathy
    support our troops; end the war in iraq
    john 3:16

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

    Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 09:29:01 -0500
    From: "Frank McGurn Jr." <[removed]@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  The Brass Ring
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    Ken Law was wondering what is meant by the Brass Ring.

    Reaching for/or trying to get the Brass Ring while riding a Merry-Go - Round
    (Carousel) an Arm had brass rings . The rider could reach for a ring. If he
    gets the ring he could get another free ride or a prize.
     If Wikipedia reaches to Great Britian, Ken can check Wikipedia for more
    Info.
    [removed]

    Frank McGurn

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

    Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 09:47:26 -0500
    From: Alan Bell <alanlinda43@[removed];
    To: Old Time Radio <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Paul Harvey influence

    Here's an interesting challenge for you. Find an old episode of Bill Stern's
    Sports Newsreel (I guess they're all old, aren't they?) and tell me that his
    style and delivery did not influence Paul Harvey. Stern went from story to
    story saying "reel 2" and "reel 3" etc. instead of "page 2," and so on. And
    while he never used the phrase "the rest of the story," the way he saved up
    either the name or some aspect of a story for the last moment is just the way
    Harvey would have done. I think they even sound similar in their delivery.

    I'm not saying Paul Harvey "stole" Bill Stern's act, but I'm certainly
    suggesting that when Harvey was still developing his own style, the Stern
    influence was definitely there.

    Alan
    _________________
    Alan/Linda Bell
    Grand Rapids, MI

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2009 Issue #47
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