Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #186
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 5/26/2002 1:05 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2002 : Issue 186
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Bernice Berwin                        [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  mp3 CD                                [ nicoll <nicoll@[removed]; ]
  TV/Radio redux                        [ wich2@[removed] ]
  Re: Lucy on radio                     [ Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed]; ]
  Re: Why A&A Changed                   [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Re: DVD/VCR/MP3 Player Problem        [ JDavis3153@[removed] ]
  Lucy on radio                         [ Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed]; ]
  Chicken Heart                         [ Kubelski@[removed] ]
  MP3 Recordings                        [ "ralph314" <RWARD@[removed]; ]
  Bob Hope                              [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]

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

Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 16:45:25 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Bernice Berwin

I would like to pass this along. File it under the “coincidence” category. I
recently purchased a book about One Man’s Family. I started to read it on
Wednesday, May 22nd, the very day the Bernice Berwin died. Scary!

Does anyone know what Bernice Berwin’s city of birth was. I have the feeling
it was San Francisco, but I am not sure.
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 16:45:43 -0400
From: nicoll <nicoll@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  mp3 CD

Help!  I'm having trouble with a Fibber mp3 CD I recently bought on
E-Bay.  It is my first experience with a mp3 CD.  My computer (6 year old
-Windows95) doesn't even  "open" the CD.   In contrast, it work like a
charm on my daughters computer (Window 2000).   My daughter says my
computer doesn't have the capacity to play mp3 CDs.

Will Nicoll

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

Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 18:16:26 -0400
From: wich2@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  TV/Radio redux

From: "Philip Adams" padams33@[removed]
Subject:  Lucy on Radio

The "radio show" in question was indeed just the soundtrack from the
particular tv episode (with the additional narration by Desi). I seem to
recall that someone involved explained that it was just an experiment to see
if they could "reuse" what they had already done for tv and resale it to
radio since both mediums were still active.

Do any of you (particularly, DRAGNET) experts out there know how common this
technique was? I am about [removed] sure that one of my favorite episodes was
done this way: Christmas's THE BIG LITTLE JESUS. The audio version I have (&
have heard from several sources) is almost surely swiped from the video, and
sweetened by Webb, ala Arnaz- though, in this case, done quite well. Does
anyone have/know of a UNIQUELY radio production of this script? Or for that
matter, a COLOR version of the TV show? (The end credits mention color, but
the cassettes I've seen are all b&[removed]
Best,
Craig Wichman

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

Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 18:17:51 -0400
From: Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Lucy on radio

In reference to "I Love Lucy" on radio, Allen writes:

It was the soundtrack from the filmed episode with Desi doing the
narration for radio. By the way if you noticed that the opening was very
different from the famous opening used on television. Very strange!

I wonder if the radio "I Love Lucy" - using the soundtrack from the TV
series - was ever actually broadcast? The existing episode strikes me as
being nothing more than an audition for Philip Morris to see if they could
use something they already had to expand into homes without televisions.

The notion of using a TV soundtrack repackaged as the basis for a radio
series does have precedence. Art Linkletter used the TV soundtrack from
"People Are Funny" as the basis for the radio version of that show (which,
as syndicated by Charles Michaelson, ran for years and years on local
stations). Eddie Fisher's pre-recorded and syndicated "Coke Time" radio
series was, for the most part, constructed from the soundtrack of the live
television version.

Though not in circulation (that I'm aware of), there was also a radio
version of "The Honeymooners" with Jackie Gleason, also using the TV
soundtracks from the filmed series combined with new announcements and
advertisements. I've never heard any of these and I don't know how long the
series ran, but a set of 16" disks containing two episodes of the radio
version did pop up on eBay about three years ago - and went for a sizeable
chunk of change, if memory serves.

The AFRS and AFRTS rebroadcast TV soundtracks as radio shows throughout the
1950s and even into the 1960s. Edited versions of game shows like "What's
My Line" and talk shows like "Tonight!" were commonly distributed this way,
though they were never to my knowledge rebroadcast on radio by the civilian
networks.

Allen also writes:

It was more of a plug for Chester Morris Cigarettes. Which was their sponsor.

I hope you'll forgive me for making light of this, Allen, but it was
*Philip* Morris Cigarettes, not Chester Morris - though I love the thought
of Chester Morris Cigarettes:

"When I'm not playing "Boston Blackie," I like to sit back and light up a
Chester Morris - a strong, silent, and sophisticated smoke. It may not be
the smoothest or most expensive cigarette around but boy, it sure packs a
wallop. You may not remember the name, but you've sure seen them in the
movies: Chester Morris Cigarettes, a reliable, hard-working smoke!"

Hey, I'd have bought them! <g>

Harlan Zinck
First Generation Radio Archives
[removed]

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

Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 18:20:37 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Why A&A Changed

Walden Hughes asks:

What factors causes Amos and Andy to change there program in 1943?

It was a combination of factors.

The first was the fact that listening patterns had changed substantially
since the program was at its peak in the early thirties. Overall radio
istening at the 7pm hour had been declining steadily since the
mid-thirties, and reached an all-time low during 1942-43. This was
considered a consequence of wartime changes to many family schedules --
people just weren't home in the early evening to follow a continuing
serial program.

The second major factor was economic. In January 1943, the shortage of
tin due to the war forced the Campbell Soup Company -- then A&A's sponsor
-- to cut its domestic production by fifty per cent. This meant a
corresponding cut in the company's advertising budget, and as a result
Correll and Gosden were informed that month that Campbell's simply
couldn't afford to continue the nightly broadcasts, which were then
concluding the third year of a $1,000,000 contract. As a result, "Amos
'n' Andy" as it was originally concieved -- a nightly strip -- came to an
end on 2/19/43. In that episode, Andy announced that he was finally out
of debt -- and that he would follow Amos's example and take a full-time
job in a defense plant, bringing the series to a natural conclusion. The
central theme of the whole series had always been the conflict between
Amos's work-to-get-ahead outlook on life and Andy's "something for
nothing" attitude -- and having Andy finally acknowledge that Amos was
right all along was a satisfying way to end the series.

The third major factor was personal. Correll and Gosden had both gone
thru some significant changes in their personal lives since 1940.
Correll's wife Alyce had given birth to two children by 1943, fulfilling
Charlie's lifelong dream of having a real family of his own, and he
wanted to spend more time with them. Meanwhile, Freeman and Leta Gosden's
13-year marriage had ended in divorce in 1940, with Leta's major
complaint being that her husband's single-minded devotion to the radio
program made any sort of normal social life for the couple impossible.
Then in 1942, Leta Gosden died -- leaving Freeman with two teenage
children to raise on his own. (He would remarry in 1944.) With all these
changes, the performers were forced to reevaluate their personal
priorities -- and decide whether the grueling workload of writing and
performing a five-a-week program on their own was really worth it
anymore. After fifteen years of this routine (or seventeen, if you count
"Sam and Henry,")-- with only one vacation, an eight-week break in 1934
-- they finally just felt like they'd had enough.

The fourth major factor had to do with changing styles in radio
programming. "Amos 'n' Andy" in its original form was never a
laugh-out-loud funny program, nor did it intend to be. Gosden described
its formula as "a laugh here, a little pathos there, and some good advice
everywhere" -- a formula which combined elements that were amusing,
touching, and instructive. But this combination was very much out of
style by 1943 -- the trend was to loud and brash. To survive, A&A had to
become an entirely different program. So it was that when A&A returned to
the air in October 1943, it had become a half-hour weekly sitcom instead
of a nightly serial.

And the fifth major factor was dilution of vision. For fifteen years,
Correll and Gosden alone had decided what would go into A&A -- but with
the sitcom, outside writers, producers, and agency people suddenly had
more of a say. This progressively changed the content of the program --
the agency wanted Laughs, Laughs, Laughs, and as a result new supporting
characters had to be introduced to supply them -- and old established
characters dropped because they weren't exaggerated enough for a sitcom
setting. The result was an uncomfortable blending of elements from the
old show, distorted to fit the new format: Andy, Kingfish, Sapphire --
with new joke-driven sitcom elements: Gabby, Shorty, etc. And the whole
Amos-and-Ruby storyline, which had been the heart of the original series,
was first marginalized and then dropped -- because Amos wasn't, and had
never been, a comedy character. Finally, the addition of the live
audience meant a degree of separation from the listener that had not been
there in the serial: listening to the serial, you were right there in the
taxicab office *with* the characters, like old friends -- but with the
sitcom, you were sitting in an audience watching performers on a stage.
The intimacy that had made the original series so special had been
shattered forever.

As a result of these factors, the disciplines that had given the original
series its unique flavor were abandoned -- and it's unfortunate that
without a substantial run of recordings of that original series, it's
difficult for modern OTR enthusiasts to really grasp what it was that
made the original program so memorable. Because in its day, and in its
prime, it was the best-crafted program on the air.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 18:52:55 -0400
From: JDavis3153@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: DVD/VCR/MP3 Player Problem

In Digest #185, George Guffey [removed]

The instructions that accompanied Kenny's player emphasized that it could
handle only "ISO9660 Certified" files. I suspect that what is being referred
to here are the ISO9660 specifications for file [removed]

To clarify, simply changing the file names to comply with ISO9660
specifications will not solve the problem.  The disc itself must comply with
the ISO9660 standards.  For example, I use Adaptec Easy CD Creator Deluxe [removed]
(for Windows) and have the option of burning an ISO9660 disc or a Joliet
disc.  To explain the difference, I'll quote the Adaptec Help Manual:

ISO9660: Select this option if you want to be able to read the CD on
different platforms including DOS, Macintosh, OS/2, Windows and UNIX. Files
and directories recorded to CD based on the ISO 9660 standard must meet the
following (8+3) requirements:

A file name may not contain more than eight alphanumeric characters and the
underscore symbol [_].

A file name extension may not contain more than three alphanumeric characters.

A directory name may not contain more than eight alphanumeric characters and
the underscore symbol [_].

Joliet: Select this option if you want to use file names that contain up to
64 characters in length, including spaces. This is the default option and is
used to record most CDs. Joliet also records the associated DOS-standard name
(8+3 characters) for each file so that the CD may be read on DOS systems or
earlier versions of Windows.

The key here is the platform on which the disc will be read.  Since the
DVD/VCR/MP3 player is neither a DOS system or Windows platform, a disc burned
in the Joliet format cannot be read.

When you burn your test disc Kenny, be sure to select the ISO9660 file system
option.  I'm confident your player will at least be able to read the disc(s).
 Whether it will play the lower bitrate files is another question.

For what it's worth, my Apex AD-500W DVD player handles Joliet formatted
discs and has played every mp3 I've thrown at it.

Hope I've helped,

Jeff

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

Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 18:59:17 -0400
From: Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Lucy on radio

The "Breaking the Lease" episode of "I Love Lucy" can
be heard as one of the "60 Greatest old time radio
shows of the 20th century, selected by Walter
Cronkite." According to Anthony Tollin's accompanying
booklet, that episode was chosen as a radio "audition"
because CBS executive Hal Hudson and his wife were
watching the episode when the picture went dark. They
still enjoyed it and persuaded creator Jess
Oppenheimer that the show could work as both radio and
TV. So Oppenheimer prepared new commercials and a
narration by Desi Arnaz.
   Tollin goes on to say that Oppenheimer ultimately
decided not to produce a radio version of I Love Lucy,
fearing the TV show would suffer.

By the way, Lucy's radio series was My Favorite
Husband, not My Favorite Wife. It was also created by
Oppenheimer.  Lucy's Liz Cugat (later Cooper)
anticipated Lucy Ricardo in many respects. A few years
ago, Oppenheimer and his son Gregg  wrote a book
called "Laughs, Luck and Lucy" that details the
creation of I Love Lucy. It includes an audio CD of
various scenes from the TV show as well as outtakes
from My Favorite Husband.

Rick

[removed] Those of you who think of Lucille Ball only in
terms of her Lucy Ricardo character should hear her on
Suspense. In "A Shroud for Sarah" (Oct. 25, 1945) she
plays a character who is about as far removed from
Lucy Ricardo (or Liz Cugat/Cooper) as you can get.
She's closer to Lady MacBeth, actually.

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

Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 00:03:09 -0400
From: Kubelski@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Chicken Heart
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I have a copy of the Gotham Radio Players excellent production of "Chicken
Heart" broadcast on Halloween 1999 on Max Schmid's Golden Age o<A
HREF="[removed]">f</A> Radio.
Until I heard this broadcast, I had assumed I'd heard the show because of the
LP version Oboler did after the Golden Age.  The original show was very
different.  And, I don't recall the exact Cosby routine very well, but I'm
told his routine has very little to do with the plot of the original show.

The Gotham Players are a great audio drama troupe who do faithful recreations
without trying to do imitations of the original productions.  As a caveat, I
should mention that many of the Gotham Players are personal friends, but all
of their shows are worth listening to and the best are exceptionally good.
Their director, Steven M. Lewis, won the Allan Rockford Award from the
Friends of Old Time Radio last year for his work with Gotham, and a
well-deserved nod it was.

A personal favorite that is available online at Charlie's site is "Stark
Rock, Manly Detective at Large," which is a detective show spoof.  Very
funny.

In any case, if you'd like to trade for the "Chicken Heart" tape, let me
know.

Sean Dougherty
Kubelski@[removed]

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Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 00:24:15 -0400
From: "ralph314" <RWARD@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  MP3 Recordings
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The problem with  Mp3 recording not playing on most MP3 player is in
the way the orginal recording was made It seems that many Mp3 programs were
recorded in 8 bit sound and can't be played on most MP3 players.  The Mp3
programs playable on most Mp3 players are in a 16 bit sound. What the
technical differences is beyond me.  I have been able to convert some(not
all) 8 bit recording with a freeware program called SaveCast. SaveCast is a
plug-in to the popular Winamp. It will also record(off-the Air)  programs
like those carriedby Live365 and Shoutcast.  I kept the bitrate at 56, the
quality 03 on the 1-9 scale and used  44,100hz  and have used both the stero
and mono settings.  I've found out that the higher bitrate seems to cause a
chipmunk effect on the recored program.  The SaveCast may have many more
possibilites in the recording field but
since I'am just a layman  the more experienced "Computer Jockey" could find
more possibiltes.  SaveCast  can be found as freeware at [removed]
org/tools/dsp_savecast/.   The site gives a through  and in plain English in
how to use the SaveCast.  Winamp of course can be downloaded as freeware
from [removed].
I hope this is somehelp to the readers of this EXCELLENT OTR DIGEST.

Ron Ward

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Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 14:24:02 -0400
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Bob Hope

Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 14:00:04 -0400
From: "Jim Lewis" <jimlew2@[removed];

Is there an interesting story behind how this got to be Bob Hopes theme
song.

I suppose the image of Bob singing that song with Shirley in the movie became fixed in the 
public mind, and the song became identified with him, much as "Hooray for Captain 
Spaulding" became identified with Groucho Marx.

And, of course, there is the story of Bob Hope, as a small child.  Every time his mother 
finished nursing him, he would sing, "Thanks for the mammaries."

-- A. Joseph Ross, [removed] [removed] 15 Court Square, Suite 210 lawyer@[removed] Boston, MA 02108-2503 [removed] -------------------------------- End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #186 ********************************************* Copyright [removed] Communications, York, PA; All Rights Reserved, including republication in any form. If you enjoy this list, please consider financially supporting it: [removed] For Help: [removed]@[removed] To Unsubscribe: [removed]@[removed] To Subscribe: [removed]@[removed] or see [removed] For Help with the Archive Server, send the command ARCHIVE HELP in the SUBJECT of a message to [removed]@[removed] To contact the listmaster, mail to listmaster@[removed] To Send Mail to the list, simply send to [removed]@[removed]