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

      Please Read Information Boilerplate at the End of This Digest
                          Last Updated 10-28-96

[removed] Digest				Volume 96 : Issue 496

Table Of Contents: 

	 Seasonal Wishes
	 Book
	 Voice of Whatever
	 Barry Gray
	 Re: Holiday OTR Stories
	 New Jean Shepherd listings
	 CHRISTMAS GREETINGS!!
	 Bill Pfieffer

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

Date: Sun, 22 Dec 1996 15:19:20 -0600
From: Joe Mackey <wmackey@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Seasonal Wishes
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

I would like to a second to wish everyone a most happy season (of their
choice) at this time of year and a most happy new year!
  Joe

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

Date: Sun, 22 Dec 1996 16:53:38 -0500
From: JayHick@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Book
Message-ID: <961222165337_2019387562@[removed]>

The Big Broadcast by Frank Buxton and Bill Owen is now available from
Scarecrow Press (301) 459-3366.  It is 320 pages and costs $[removed]  The
authors have added considerable information to the volume first published in
1972.  It includes a comprehensive bibliography and index.  The emphasis is
on cast, writers and other personnel.  Also included is theme music, openings
and closings, brief descriptions and chronology.  Many topics such as
announcers, remotes, newscasters, soap operas, quiz shows, etc. are also
covered in detail.

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

Date: Sun, 22 Dec 1996 17:16:38 -0500
From: Bigkids@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Voice of Whatever
Message-ID: <961222171637_437961687@[removed]>

Indeed, that booming, portentous delivery could have earned any number of
old-style announcers the title of Voice of Doom. I hadn't realized that Lorne
Greene held the honors on CBC during World War II. Others with a similar
delivery included Westbrrok Van Voorhees, Orson Welles, and Paul Frees.

But there were other announcers and commentators whose styles deserve some
recollection, and who might, in their own ways, have warranted the title of
Voice of Doom.

Anyone remember H. V. Kaltenborn, and his famous gaffe on election night,
1948: "We are no entering the Republican half of the evening."

Wrong!

And there was Gabriel Heatter, who would preface each evening's store of
headlines with, "Ah, yes, there's good (or bad) news tonight!"

Anyone remember Fulton Lewis, Jr., the right-wing looney?

I guess Paul Harvey is the last of the old breed . . . although some of the
"talk radio" personalities of the day represent a new generation of Voices of
Doom.

Dick Lupoff

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

Date: Sun, 22 Dec 1996 17:50:15 -0500
From: bilj@[removed] (Bill Jaker)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Barry Gray
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

We must note the passing of another of the greats of radio.  Barry Gray 
should qualify as one of the stars of "old-time radio" even though his was a 
very contemporary kind of program -- the talk show -- and although he was on 
the air over WOR in New York until recently.  He died in his sleep on 
December 21st at the age of 80.

Barry Gray's radio career dates back to the mid 40s.  Although he was 
considered the quintessential New Yorker, he was born in New Jersey and 
raised in Los Angeles, where he first broke into radio.  His late-night work 
began in New York at WOR, where on one memorable night Al Jolson arrived for 
a chat.  But Jolie couldn't simply chat, and since he'd brough his pianist 
along Gray had the program shifted to a larger studio and Jolson sang the 
night away.  (This impromptu three-hour performance was recorded -- does 
anyone have a copy?)

Gray later moved to WKAT in Miami and then back to New York, where he held 
forth on WMCA for nearly forty years.  Barry Gray didn't shun controversy -- 
he was twice beaten up by gangsters and Senator Joe McCarthy had him 
investigated -- but he was also one of the most considerate of listeners to 
guests who ranged from show biz luminaries to politicians and religious 
leaders.  It was a tempestuous career, but I'm sure Barry Gray will be 
remembered as one of the standard-bearers of broadcasting and someone who 
carried those standards across generations.

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

Date: Sun, 22 Dec 1996 22:47:17 -0500
From: GOpp@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Holiday OTR Stories
Message-ID: <961222224715_2019424827@[removed]>

I've been too busy to do anything but lurk for the last three months, but 
I get such enjoyment out of reading the OTR Digest that as a "holiday 
gift" to all of you I thought I'd post the following "seasonal" excerpt 
from my father's newly-published memoir.  The year is 1933, and the 
setting is the studios of KFRC, San Francisco, then part of the Don 
Lee-Columbia Network:
========================
The kind of folks who peopled radio in its early, relatively unorganized 
days were the sort of nervy, brash, crazy, loveable characters 
immortalized in newspaper stories such as Hecht and MacArthur's The Front 
Page.  Most of them had a wild sense of humor along with a prodigious 
appetite for alcohol.  But none was more memorable, at least to me, than 
one Arnold MacGuire.  Arnold was a writer, actor, newscaster--he could do 
anything that needed to be done around the studio, as well as a lot of 
things that were better left undone.  Drunk or sober, his greatest kick 
was making faces or holding up signs to actors while they were on the 
air, attempting to break them up.  When Mac walked in the door of a 
studio that was on the air, all the actors turned away from him with the 
precision of a marine drill team.  When he was sober, he had a deadly 
ability to make actors laugh when they shouldn't.  When he was loaded, 
his attacks were much more brutal and primitive, but just as effective.

He always seemed to be working on Christmas Day.  Or perhaps it's just 
that I remember some things that happened on various Christmases.  He 
might walk in one studio door and out the other while a newscast was 
going on, singing Christmas carols at the top of his voice, leaving 
whoever was on mike at the time to explain or to try to ignore it.  The 
ones who were able to explain it, and perhaps make a joke in the process, 
got off easy.  They were people who could roll with the situation.  The 
ignorers didn't really ignore it.  They just didn't say anything about it 
out loud.  But Arnold MacGuire well knew the inner turmoil they were 
going through.  A couple of minutes after one of Arnold's stunts, their 
tongues would invariably cease to take orders from their brains, while 
Arnold, listening delightedly in another room, would rock with glee at 
their verbal goofs.

On more than one occasion, Arnold walked through the studio during the 
course of a broadcast wearing nothing but a hat.  Some of the world's 
most misplaced guffaws came in the middle of religious programs visited 
by Arnold MacGuire in the buff on Christmas Day.

Mac was also responsible for one of radio's most unintelligible moments.  
It wasn't Christmas, but New Year's Day.  He was set to read the morning 
news, but he had been out making the evening's news, and he had come 
directly to the studio without a moment's rest or recuperation.  He was 
many sheets to the wind, but assumed an air of ultrasophistication and 
exaggerated control in an attempt to hide his intoxicated condition.  He 
sat in the studio and read the copy he was going to deliver, dutifully 
looking up the hard-to-pronounce foreign names and places in the 
newscasters' reference books.  Suddenly, with only forty-five seconds to 
go until airtime, he became violently ill.  He had no choice but to dash 
for the men's room, hoping he could empty his stomach and get back to the 
mike in time.

Off he ran to the privy, where he fell to his knees on the tile floor and 
delivered his goods in record time.  He sped back to the studio, coming 
to a brake-screeching, cartoon-type halt at the microphone, with just 
enough time to compose himself, pick up his script with exaggerated 
aplomb, and look over at the engineer, who raised his hand, finger 
extended, and lowered it to point at Mac.

Those who had the privilege of hearing the beginning of that newscast 
will never know what words Mac's brain instructed his mouth to 
articulate.  What came out is difficult to describe.  It was definitely 
human, yet it had a strange, moist, muffled quality, as though the words, 
if words they were, were riding in a bubble making its way to the top of 
a container of bottled water.

What had happened was that along with his undigested stomach contents, 
Mac had unknowingly deposited his full set of dentures into the toilet 
bowl.  The harder he tried to articulate meticulously, the more slobbery 
the sound came out.  It sounded like a man whose lips have suddenly 
turned into noodles.  The engineer grabbed the first person he saw, who 
happened to be Harry, the janitor, and had him read the rest of the news. 
Phrasing and pronunciation suffered a bit, but at least one could 
recognize the words.

-- From "Laughs, Luck . . . and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most 
Popular Sitcom of All Time" by Jess Oppenheimer, with Gregg Oppenheimer
Syracuse University Press, 1996 (ISBN # 0-8156-0406-8)
Hardcover (280pp.) plus audio CD/$[removed]
Copyright 1996 by Gregg Oppenheimer.  All Rights Reserved.
====================

I'm sorry my publisher wasn't able to have the book available in time for 
the FOTR Convention in October (Jay Hickerson planned to sell copies at 
his table at the convention, until technical problems at the printer held 
things up for almost two months), but I'm relieved to announce that it is 
finally available in bookstores, through Adventures in Cassettes, and 
online at [removed] and [removed]

If anybody's interested, I'd also be happy to post the "Blue Monday 
Jamboree/Train Whistle" story that was in the most recent issue of the 
SPERDVAC Radiogram.  Let me know.  And if any list member would like to 
reprint either excerpt in an OTR-related newletter, just e-mail me and 
I'm sure I'll quickly be able to get my publisher's permission (they 
control the print rights).

My thanks to John Rayburn for his kind words that he posted about 
"Laughs, Luck . . . and Lucy" in the OTR Digest last week.  So far the 
book has been generally well-received, except by the reviewer in 
Publisher's Weekly, who complained that "more time is spent reminiscing 
about Oppenheimer's radio days than recalling what went on behind the 
scenes at Desilu."  I don't think he subscribes to the OTR Digest.  He 
must also be related to the people at the first publisher I approached, 
who told me, "There's plenty of great material about I LOVE LUCY, but cut 
out all of the old time radio stuff. Nobody cares about radio anymore."   
I politely informed them that a lot of people out there DO care about 
OTR, and that I'd just have to find another publisher.  Fortunately, I 
found Syracuse University Press, which didn't make me cut a word of any 
of Dad's stories about people like Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Don Wilson, 
Fred Astaire, Johnny Green, Edgar Bergen, Marlene Dietrich, Al Jolson, 
John Barrymore, Frank Morgan, Rudy Vallee, Gale Gordon, Richard Denning, 
Bea Benaderet, Jerry Hausner, Hans Conried, and Arnold MacGuire.  They 
even let me include a radio comedy CD, plus a complete, photographically 
reproduced script for a "My Favorite Husband" radio program (one of the 
shows on the CD).

Maybe some people who buy the book just because they love Lucy will be 
surprised to discover what those of us on the list already know -- that 
there's a whole magical world of old time radio out there, just waiting 
to be enjoyed!

Happy Holidays.

Gregg Oppenheimer
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Laughs, Luck . . . and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom 
of All Time, by Jess Oppenheimer, with Gregg Oppenheimer (Syracuse Univ. 
Press, 1996)
"Thoroughly enjoyable"  -- Leonard Maltin 
"A must for radio buffs." -- Ralph Edwards
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

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

Date: Sun, 22 Dec 1996 23:47:16 -0500 (EST)
From: MAX SCHMID <mschmid@[removed]>
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed]>
Subject: New Jean Shepherd listings
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

	OK Jean Shepherd fans.  The Beta version of my 50+ cassette 
supplement is now available.  E-mail me for the new list (or the complete 
listing, if you need it.)  Still seeking any airchecks or other Shepherd 
material I don't have.
Standard disclaimer does not apply.  I am a great pal of the president of 
the vast Schmidco empire and am paid handsomely for these plugs.  End of
commercial. 

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

Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 02:18:05 EST
From: Thomas Heathwood <theathwo@[removed]>
To: <otr@[removed]>
Subject: CHRISTMAS GREETINGS!!
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

May I take this opportunity to extend my sincerest holiday greetings to
all for A Very Merry Christmas.  May the Spirit of the holiday find a
spot in all our hearts in coming years!
<<TOM HEATHWOOD>>
Heritage Radio Theatre
Heritage Radio Classics
Yesterday-USA Satellite Radio Network.
Hear our Christmas Shows on Y-USA over the next few days - On the
INTERNET: [removed]  (Using NETSCAPE and RealAudio).      12/23/96
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 08:37:10 -0800
From: "JACK MANN" <jmann@[removed]>
To: <otr@[removed]>
Subject: Bill Pfieffer
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Hi Digesters: I wanted to take this opportunity to wish Bill
and his Mom the very best of holidays. I realize the depression
must be almost overwhelming right now, Bill, but I hope we
Digesters  come through for you and, under these terrible
circumstances, make things better for you and her.

I'm praying for you, and I urge all Digesters that are into that
kind of thing to pray also. And when you get a chance, Bill,
please give us an update as to how you're both doing. We
care.

Jack



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End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #496
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