Subject: [removed] Digest V2005 #208
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 7/10/2005 4:18 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2005 : Issue 208
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Diskwasher woes                       [ Christopher Werner <werner1@globalc ]
      Re: BBC does it again                 [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      Boswell Sisters                       [ Brian Johnson <chyronop@[removed] ]
      stoopnagle & budd / BBC follies       [ "karl tiedemann" <karltiedemann@hot ]
      7-10 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      Radio Premiums as a Part of OTR       [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr" <skallisjr@j ]

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

    Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 18:36:13 -0400
    From: Christopher Werner <werner1@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Diskwasher woes

    Many of you regularly work with transcription disks of OTR programs, so I
    assume (more like guess) that you use a solution to help clean the vinyl
    surface before playing it. Two months ago I finally got one of my computers
    set up correctly for digitizing records/cassettes/videos, etc. and so find
    myself working my way through my collection of 1200 [removed]

    I was always a great fan of the Diskwasher product. When we moved from
    house A to house B recently all the record cleaning supplies that were by
    the turntable disappeared except for one bottle of Diskwasher D4+.
    Undaunted I proceeded to dub records until I was half-way through an 18
    record set of the compete Organ works of JS Bach and I ran out. Quickly
    turning to the Internet I found several places where I could order [removed]
    of Diskwasher D4+ refill fluid for [removed] (+$[removed] s/h !!!). I order one, and
    was delighted when it arrived yesterday. This morning I joyfully pierced
    the sealed tip and began using the solution. I noticed that the product is
    now supplied by RCA rather than Diskwasher the company out of Shiller Park,
    IL. I also noticed quite quickly the familiar smell of isopropyl alcohol.
    My room began smelling like a hospital ward! Had I just lost it, or was
    this truly something new? I thought the fluid was oderless.

    Late this afternoon, after doing some more cleaning in one of the rooms, I
    came across the bag of vinyl care products. In addition to the Diskstat II
    anti-static mat and the SC-2 stylus cleaning solution (with handy hardwood
    combo-mirror-and-brush), was a 6 oz bottle of Diskwasher D4+ solution and a
    [removed] oz bottle of D3. I opened both nozzles and sniffed (old glue skills),
    no odor - I remembered correctly!  When I put some of the D3 fluid on the
    brush it came out a little viscous and milky. It also didn't absorb into
    the brush as quickly as the D4+ stuff. I assume that it was designed more
    for it's anti-static properties rather than the 'float the dust to the
    surface' approach of the D4+?

    So, my question is this: How can a company like RCA get away with selling
    isopropyl alcohol instead of the original D4+ odorless mixture using the
    same brand name??? Is there any harm in isopropyl alcohol and vinyl mixing?
    If not, why doesn't everyone just by 'pure' isopropyl alcohol from their
    drugstore and use that anyway??? Isn't anti-static important anymore to the
    vinyl spinning world?

    The world changed. Now I'm confused. Help!

    Chris.

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

    Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 21:05:29 -0400
    From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: BBC does it again

    In discussing the BBC's decision to close down their Cult website, David
    Rogers wrote: "Folks may remember that in the past the BBC destroyed some
    of its archive to make more space. . ."

    Actually it was not so much an act of destruction as it was a continuing
    act of selection.  While most American broadcasters have had specific
    episodes of purposeful destruction of hefty portions of a maintained
    archive, I am not sure that this has ever really happened to the BBC.  What
    DID happen was that they had protocols of what would be preserved, and they
    just didn't admit numerous things to their permanent archive.  The longtime
    head of the BBC Archive, Timothy Eckersley, told me around the time of his
    retirement in the mid-70s that he was most proud of maintaining a
    manageable archive by only saving NINE HOURS of programming PER WEEK.  Thus
    the destruction of programs was an ongoing process of deciding what not to
    keep so that the archive would not outgrow its space or become too large to
    find things.

    There is however, a similarity to how the archive was selected from the
    1930s thru the 70s with this present decision to delete the BBC Cult
    website.  It EMBARRASSES them.  That's right.  They are embarrassed that it
    is so popular.  Their recent survey showed that they get 700,000 hits on
    the Cult site per month and that it is second in popularity only to the
    News site.  They cannot abide the fact that there seem to be more people
    interested in Cult programs than are interested in fine literature,
    classical music, opera, drama, and other aspects of High Culture.  They
    would rather do away with their second most popular site than have to
    explain its popularity to some of the stodgy members of the upper
    government and society.  Similarly, for many decades they did not save more
    than a very tiny sample of its most popular programming because they felt
    it was too "Low Class."  It was bad enough that they stooped so low as to
    broadcast those programs in the first place.  To place them in their
    archive would be to admit that there might be some permanent value to them.
    So very few comedy and variety programs survive.  But speeches and items of
    high culture?  Sure.

    By the way, I have been told by people at the BBC Archive that this
    attitude there has changed.  Slightly.  They save most of their programming
    except for some of the routine things, like DJ shows.  Anything that cost
    them money to produce, like a sitcom, variety show, musical program, talk
    show, etc, will be saved.  With computers the indexing is often just
    migrating the program data from the production files into the archive
    files.  The irony is that this is not really new.  They had always had a
    good filing system for all of their recorded programs from the moment of
    their creation.  If a program was pre-recorded or was recorded from a live
    broadcast for repeat broadcasts, it was immediately given a file number.
    THUS WE KNOW THE FILE NUMBERS OF EVERY GOON SHOW INCLUDING THE ONES THAT
    WERE DESTROYED.  So Timothy Eckersley never had anything to worry about
    having the archive grow beyond being able to find things.  It was only an
    excuse to preserve dignity by not having to archive something so low class
    and common as The Goon Show,  It's That Man Again, or Dr. Who.  Most of the
    Goon Shows that exist are because the Transcription Service started making
    their own copies of the shows in the 4th year because it could make them
    MONEY.  Same with Dr. Who.  But ITMA had limited value overseas, so very
    few exist.

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

    Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 01:57:59 -0400
    From: Brian Johnson <chyronop@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Boswell Sisters

    Connee Boswell contracted polio as a child and was
    confined to a wheelchair. This did not prevent her and
    her sisters from pursuing a recording career. Connee
    went solo but never achieved real stardom. She
    recorded for Decca and cut some sides with Bing Crosby
    that were fairly successful.

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

    Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 01:59:53 -0400
    From: "karl tiedemann" <karltiedemann@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  stoopnagle & budd / BBC follies

    I agree with Mr. Tague that INTERNATIONAL HOUSE doesn't give one enough of
    Stoopnagle and Budd  (I was at the NYC Film Forum recently too, for the
    non-radio-related, but eye-poppingly Technicolorful, film of Da Sylva, Brown
    and Henderson's FOLLOW THRU).  His plaint reminded me that the [removed]
    old-films-on-video firm, Videobrary, offers, or offered, a few interesting
    shorts with radio roots:  Years ago, I bought from them THE INVENTORS, with
    S. & B., and DUMB LUCK with the Easy Aces.  The former is particularly
    interesting, a very off-beat picture with S. & B. right at the center.  I
    think you can find Videobrary on-line if you search for it, and even if you
    don't see these items officially listed, maybe you can still get them if you
    ask real [removed]

    And, yes, the BBC is, to say the least, erratic about its heritage.  I
    recall hearing a story that on the occasion of its 50th anniversary the Beeb
    wanted to rebroadcast one of its great postwar hits DICK BARTON, SPECIAL
    AGENT but could find no recordings.  So, quite enterprisingly, they rehired
    the original cast and restaged the first 10 episodes of the series.  Well
    and good, but mark the sequel:  Five or ten years later, they wanted to
    issue an audiocassette of the '72 re-creation and guess what?  Yes-- they
    had apparently thrown out their tapes of the re-enactment too!l!  Talk about
    not learning your [removed]

    The cassette was finally issued--  with the help of a listener who had
    recorded the anniversary broadcasts at home!  This thing apparently happens
    all the time with BBC radio TV material; great piles of stuff from as
    recently as the 70s, written by and starring such eminent people as Alan
    Bennett, Ronnie Barker and Eleanor Bron has all been [removed]

    You'd think that seeing as how every UK set owner has to fork over a large
    annual fee to the
    BBC-- what is it now?  about $250?-- or risk fine or imprisonment, that the
    Corporation would be a bit more careful about preserving their portion of
    the national heritage, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  Guess we
    should be grateful that we've got as many GOON SHOWS and PAUL TEMPLES to
    listen to as we [removed]

               Karl Tiedemann

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

    Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 12:51:03 -0400
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  7-10 births/deaths

    July 10th births

    07-10-1889 - Graham McNamee - Washington, [removed] - d. 5-9-1942
    announcer: "Fleischmann Hour"; "Fire Chief"; "Treasury Hour"
    07-10-1889 - Noble Sissle - d. 12-17-1975
    songwriter, orchestra leader: "Freedom's People"
    07-10-1894 - Jimmy McHugh - Boston, MA - d. 5-23-1969
    song writer: "Cavalcade of Music"; "It's Time to Smile"; "The Navy Sings"
    07-10-1896 - Slim Summerville - Albuquerque, NM - d. 1-5-1946
    actor: "Hollywood Star Time"
    07-10-1905 - Thomas Gomez - New York City, NY - d. 6-18-1971
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    07-10-1910 - Helen Pickens - Macon, GA
    singer: (Pickens Sisters) "The Pickens Sisters"; "The Magic Key"
    07-10-1913 - Joan Marsh - Porterville, CA - d. 8-10-2000
    actress: "Calling All Cars"; "Good News of 1939"
    07-10-1914 - Joe Shuster - Toronto, Ontario, Canada - d. 7-30-1992
    co-creator (with Jerry Siegel): "Advs. of Superman"
    07-10-1918 - Ernest Ricca - d. 10-10-1987
    director: "Lorenzo Jones"; "Valiant Lady"; "Stella Dallas"; "Romance of Helen
    Trent"
    07-10-1920 - David Brinkley - Wilmington, NC - d. 6-11-2003
    newscaster: WRC Washington [removed]; "Nightline"
    07-10-1921 - Jeff Donnell - South Windham, ME - d. 4-13-1988
    actress: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    07-10-1923 - Earl Hamner, Jr. - Schuyler, VA
    writer: "NBC University Theatre of the Air"
    07-10-1923 - John Bradley - Antigo, WI - d. 1-11-1994
    Iwo Jima flagraiser: "Interview programs"
    07-10-1926 - Fred Gwynne - New York City, NY - d. 7-2-1993
    actor: "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"

    July 10th deaths

    02-18-1924 - Sam Rolfe - New York City, NY - d. 7-10-1993
    writer, creator: "Suspense"; "Have Gun, Will Travel"
    05-30-1908 - Mel Blanc - San Francisco, CA - d. 7-10-1989
    actor: Professor Pierre La Blanc "Jack Benny Program"; August Moon "Point
    Sublime"
    06-27-1875 - Reginald Mason - San Francisco, CA - d. 7-10-1962
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    09-01-1886 - Sam Taub - d. 7-10-1979
    boxing writer and broadcaster
    09-20-1885 - Jelly Roll Morton - Gulfport, LA - d. 7-10-1941
    jazz musician, songwriter: "Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street";
    "Americana"
    10-06-1887 - Maria Jeritza - Brunn, Austria-Hungary - d. 7-10-1982
    singer: "General Motors Concerts"
    12-17-1896 - Arthur Fiedler - South Boston, MA - d. 7-10-1979
    conductor: "Robert Merrill with the Boston Pops Orchestra"; "Boston Pops"
    xx-xx-xxxx - William Ford Manley - d. 7-10-1954
    writer: "Snow Village Sketches"
    --
    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

    Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 12:51:11 -0400
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr" <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Radio Premiums as a Part of OTR

    Recently, I purchased a "radio premium" that I knew wasn't.  I did so
    because it looked as if it could have been, and I wanted to examine it to
    see if I could determine anything about it.  It turned out is was a
    "siren ring" made in Japan, probably in the mid 1930s.

    But this brought my thoughts to radio premiums in general, and how, for
    many of the younger listeners, the premiums augmented their show
    experiences.  Psychologically, any radio premium acted as a tangible link
    to the radio show, where the listener could hold and regard an object
    being talked about over the air in the program being listened to.
    Sometimes, the premium was central to the action of a show.

    Not counting the Decoder Pins on the Little Orphan Annie program, or the
    Code-O-Graphs of the Captain Midnight show, some premiums were a key
    factor in some of the action.  In the Captain Midnight show, the
    Whirlwind Whistling Ring was used by Chuck and Joyce to tell a rescue
    force where they were being held prisoner in underground tunnels in Hong
    Kong (an event I had to excise from my book coverage due to space
    limitations).  Other premiums played at least as critical a role in other
    programs.

    One premium was marketed brilliantly.  At the beginning of the Sulu Sea
    adventure in the Jack Armstrong show, Jack, Betty, and Billy catch
    somebody in Jim Fairfield's office, obviously searching it.  When
    confronted, he warns Jack and Billy to leave him alone, after which the
    boys "give him the old tackler."  He get away, though, leaving no clue
    what he was looking for.  (One of my favorite pieces of radio dialogue
    occurs in this episode.  Before the boys rush the intruder, Betty warns,
    "Look out, Jack.  He looks like he's getting ready to do something.")
    Later, the boys pick up a small parcel, addressed to Jim Fairfield, and
    mailed overseas.  Attempts to intercept the package are foiled by Jack.
    Finally, it's delivered to Jim Fairfield, who opens it up -- and it's a
    ring.  The ring is an ivory colored thing that was sent so that Fairfield
    could gain the confidence of natives in the Sulu Sea region, to help him
    in the search to recover a missing shipment of Uranium U-235.  [This in
    1940!  At least it wasn't 10 kilograms of the stuff.)  It was also
    luminous.

    Once the ring was revealed, there were repeated attempts to steal it.
    And soon, there was an offer for a ring that looked just like the one on
    the show, with a "genuine Tenite stone."  In the mind of the average
    listener, the ring was demonstrated to be valuable and desirable.  Is it
    any wonder that listeners would send for one?

    Once a child had a ring, he or she could sit in a darkened room,
    listening to Jack Armstrong while holding the mysteriously glowing
    premium.  What better connection with the show being aired?

    Premiums are an often overlooked aspect of OTR.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #208
    *********************************************

    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]