Here is issue 114.

Thanks for those who reported it missing in action.  Look for future
improvements as I begin to move some of this off to a new site.

Sincerelyu

William Pfeiffer
List Administrator

==============================



 SEE INFO SECTION AT END OF THIS DIGEST FOR UNSUBSCRIBE AND OTHER INFORMATION. 
	  	         === Last Update 1/17/95  ====





	    [removed]   Volume 96 : Issue 114


Articles in this issue of [removed]:

	 Capt. Midnight TV premiums & etc.
	 More on Antique Radio Classified
	 A Carr on the other side
	 Oldest living aircheck
	 Re: Hake's and radio premium prices
	 various
	 Re:West Coast Museum of TV & Radio
	 Green Hornet Interview Sought

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

Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 11:25:32 -0500
From: FabFicBks@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Capt. Midnight TV premiums & etc.
Message-ID: <960327112531_179262767@mail06>

Hi Everybody,
     The recent comment about the television Captain Midnight premiums and
having to send in either foil linners or entire labels (I forget which) to
get the premiums reminds me of my own experiences with Ovaltine.
     I have to agree that the stuff is pretty bad.  It was almost impossible
to get that crap to disolve.  I think they have ground creek gravel in the
bottle or something, you always wound up with gunk on the bottom and dry
raspy specks floating along the top no matter what you did.
     I didn't think it tasted all THAT bad, but it sure didn't have that
"rich chocolatey taste" that the announcer on TV was always talking about.
 It fact, except near the bottom where the gunk got thicker it tasted like
coca flavored sand had been added to the milk.  My little brother was less
discriminating that me, but even he, human garbage disposal that he was,
didn't really like it that much either.
     We drank this stuff so we could get the premiums.  My mom was not
thrilled with getting Ovaltine, since it was (and I believe still is) the
most expensive chocolate flavored flavor/nutritian additative on the grocery
shelf.
     I never did get the shake-up mugs.  However I did get the secret decoder
shaped like the jet plane he always flew around in, with the secret
comparment when you pulled off the glow in the dark red nose.  I still have
this, and even tho it is cheap plastic it's still pretty nice, especially for
the fifties TV crap they were turning out.
     The nicest premium I ever got from the show was an autographed
photograph of Captain Midnight in his uniform sent to me and signed to me by
Webb himself.  This I got simpily by writing a letter to the TV station when
they inadvertantly cancelled the show for a couple of weeks.  I guess they
got a lot of complaints because the show was back on shortly thereafter.
     About ten years ago Ovaltine decided to reintroduce Captain Midnight
premiums and ran ads in the comic sections of the newspaper, offering
T-shirts and Cap Midnight wrist watches for assorted Ovaltine proofs of
purchase.  The T-shirts were all child sizes, so even the largest wouldn't
fit me.  I don't know how they figured any kid in the world in the eighties
had ever heard of Captain Midnight.  Another brilliant piece of bad planning.
     The major piece of bad planning was that they simpily asked for the
proof of purchase seal on the outside label of the jar.  What happened next
startled even a cynic like myself.  I checked the grocery store the week
after the ad ran and I found that enterprising customers had cut off the
proof of purchase seal from every single one of the Ovaltine jars on the
shelves!  So, people were sending in for the free premiums without even
having to buy a jar of the product at all.
     I actually bought jars of the stuff.  I wound up giving it away (after
cutting off the proof of purchase seals, of course).  I found the cast iron
stomach of my youth was no more and I could no longer tolerate the taste of
Ovaltine at all.
     The Cap Midnight watch, which I still have somehwhere, is the crappiest
piece of plastic junk you could ever hope to see.  A friend said he actually
put a battery in his and got it to sort of work for almost ten minutes.
     After this less than glorious reintroduction of premiums for a character
only older people had even the vaguest recollection of to begin with, Gernal
Foods decided not to do any more Captain Midnight promotions.
     I got a chance to talk with Olan Soule, who played on the TV show in the
fifties, and he told me the shows were shot fast and cheap, and that often
the actors would make dispariaging comments about stupidities in the plots
which were so transparent and conflicting they didn't think even a small
child would accept them.
     Cut no ice with the director or the people producing the shows; scripts
once approved were rarely even changed in any way.  The sponsor wanted a
fast, cheap hero television show to push their product and quality was not at
the top of their list for requirments.  Too bad, that TV show could have
become almost as legendary as the radio show with more planning and care.

---Bob Jennings

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

Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 16:42:36 -0500 (EST)
From: Patrick Franzis <franzis@[removed]>
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed]>
Subject: More on Antique Radio Classified
Message-Id: <[removed]@esun212>

   For you [removed] subscribers out there, the latest issue has part two
   of the old time radio show quiz. Test your knowledge, I hope you
   do better than I did.

	-Patrick

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

Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 18:25:00 -0500
From: stevecap@[removed] (Steven Capsuto)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: A Carr on the other side
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

I remember reading in a British OTR book that APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR were
British productions of scripts that [removed] Carr had written previously for
SUSPENSE.  The review discussed how the British enjoyed the shows but found
the American radio styling a bit campy.  Can't recall where I read that, though.
___
Steven Capsuto, Philadelphia
stevecap@[removed]
WEB page: [removed]~[removed]

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

Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 18:27:03 -0600
From: bigsteve@[removed] (Steve Darnall)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Oldest living aircheck
Message-Id: <v01530500ad7f8b716d53@[[removed]]>

Jeff Miller was asking about the oldest radio aircheck in Digest #113. I'm
not going to claim myself as an authority on this subject (the entire Glden
Age literally happened "before my time," and the 20s were even more before
than most times), but I know the oldest aircheck-like program in my
collection is a recording of Charles Lindbergh's arrival in Washington
after his flight across the Atlantic. A myriad of annoucns (including
Graham MacNamee and Milton Cross) took various vantage points for their
coverage and the broadcast was later released on a series of 78 RPM
records. (Eventually, Chuck Schaden played it on his "Those Were The Days"
program, which is how I got it).

As I said, I don't know for sure if this qualifies as "oldest aircheck."
I'll be interested in reading about something even older.

Steve Darnall

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

Date: Wed, 27 Mar 96 20:38:02 PST
From: robertm@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Re: Hake's and radio premium prices
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

>>Several issues back, I mentioned an upcoming Hake's guide to character
>>collectibles which will contain some radio premium reference information.  
>>At least a couple of posters since have indicated that the prices are 
>>likely to be above market,  judging from (I'm paraphrasing) the prices 
>>Hake's charges.

Well, up until somewhat recently, I think they were doing mail order (I mean
direct, not just [removed])

>>Hake's as far as I know, has no retail outlet (they used to participate in 
>>some antiques and collectibles shows, but I haven't seen them there for 
>>several years). What they do is run a mail-in and phone auction.  In their 
>>catalog, they publish a predicted range for the winning bid for each item.  

Actually, the range they list is (and I quote :)  ):
"Values represent our idea of the item's minimum market value.  There are
 no set minimum bids."  And knowing the market value of a lot of older toys,
I can attest that many prices they list are high [removed]

I also have looked at some of their other price guides and within 
them, some prices are right on target, some are quite high, and some
are rather [removed]  It is just hit and miss within the same book.
However, their books have some great pictures!
I don't know if they arrive at the value based on what they have auctioned 
stuff off for (a bad gauge; just because one person -- or even a
couple -- pay around a certain amount, it does not mean that is the market
value of it.  I can sell someone a Blue Coal Shadow ring for $1000, instead of
$500-600, (who wants it right then, is rich, and i have it for sale at that 
moment) but that does not mean that it really is worth that much.  
This particularly applies in an auction where the bidder can often get about
crazed and glassy eyed and over pay (and I can personally attest to this --
this has happened to me and I have ended up paying a little more than I should

have for some [removed]
Again I do not know if this how Hake's arrives at their value listings; just 
[removed]

>>Hake's publishes a followup list of items which fail to reach their
>>minimum projected bid and seldom is a desirable radio premium among them.  
>>So it seems to that while Hake's does realize high prices for their radio 
>>premiums, those prices are not above market, but are, by definition, 
>>market prices.

Not really.  Just because something sells once (or even twice) for a certain
amount, that does not make it market value.  You need to look at what an
item will sell for on a continuing basis (so to speak), which is what makes
price guides tough to put together.

Soooo -- bottom line is:
I look forward to Hake's book, and will definitely buy it; and who knows?
Maybe all values will be right on target, but I will definitely be looking
at it with a careful eye when looking at the values listed (of course, I
do this with every price guide :)  ).  But heck, I will buy it just for
the photos!  Try as I might, I can't buy ALL the toys and premiums I want,
so photos have to pick up the slack!

BTW: I certainly have nothing against Hake's, nor do I mean to imply that
they rip people off or purposely mislead them!  I am sure to some I have
given this impression, but I truly do not.  I have just found that many
of their prices they list are off (I mean substantially) from what is
really going on, and this applies to being both too high and too low.
So all I am saying is read with caution, but definitely enjoy the content
(ie. photos!)

And Lee, if you ever want to discuss values, feel free to email me (um, but
after the 16th of April would be good if you want a somewhat timely response 
from me , since my wife and I are moving, so I have very little time to 
devote to email right [removed]).

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

Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 21:04:35 -0800
From: AndyBlatt@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: various
Message-ID: <960327210434_28442129@[removed]>

Bob Jennings in the last edition of this newsletter, mentioned that he
couldn't believe networks and stations would discard taped copies or
originals meant for archiving.  It happened all the time, due to lack of
space or the network's or stations lack of desire to pay for storage fees.
 I've heard tales of the Armed Forces using transcription discs for target
practice.  Years later, Johnny Carson wanted to put out a 3-decade
retrospective (sorry, this is the best example I have) of his work and there
was nearly nothing from 1963-1973, a little bit from 1973-1983 and most was
from the third decade of The Tonight Show.  Apparently, the video tapes were
stored in whatever format they used at the time (1-inch or two-inch (tape
diameter)  reels of video tape and the network's desire to stop paying for
storage (they owned the material until 1973).  Sometime before 1973, they
discarded virtually all of it.  I would suspect the same is true for radio,
but I don't have any good examples, except to say that what apparently exists
is but a small percentage of what should be available currently.
Bob Jennings is correct, because this is what I did for [removed]
editing is both time consuming and very exacting, especially when using an
editall splicing block, a razor blade and splicing tape.  I always used a
sharpie (wouldn't want a grease pencil's residue on the playback head).
 Nowadays, they use digital editing.

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

Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 01:02:57 -0500
From: GOpp@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re:West Coast Museum of TV & Radio
Message-ID: <960328010256_364280952@[removed]>

Someone asked about the opening of the West Coast edition of the Museum 
of Television and Radio.  I attended the Museum's free  "Members Open 
House" on Friday, March 15. (Not to be confused with the $1,000 a ticket 
black tie event on March 17).  In the Radio Listening room there were 
numerous headphones where you could listen in to continuously-running 
tapes of FDR's 1944 Election Eve Program on one channel, the "Jack 
Benny-Fred Allen Feud" on another, and some more recent material on the 
other two channels.  When I tuned to the Benny-Allen channel, Jack was 
introducing ten year old Stuart Canin, who then played "The Bee" on the 
violin.  Ron Simon, the museum's TV curator, who flew out from New York 
for the opening, told me that Canin now lives in Beverly Hills, very 
close to the Museum. 

The West Coast Branch is just a digital copy of what they have in New 
York. No curators -- just computers, monitors, tape machines, headphones, 
and a couple of theaters.  The computer software is easy to use, but 
during the Open House you couldn't request anything you found through 
your computer search -- just a selection of the 500 or so most-requested 
programs. 

I  had an interesting talk with June Foray, who is recovering from hip 
surgery but looks terrific and is still working all the time.  

Ken Mueller, the Radio Curator, also from New York, told me that MTR 
hopes  to make its  Web Page more interactive and useful later this year. 
 I told him to check out Lou Genco's website, and to sign up for the OTR 
Digest.  Unfortunately, he doesn't have Internet access at the Museum yet.

It's a beautiful building (transformed from an old Security Pacific Bank 
branch), and as you might expect, everything (and I do mean everything) 
is named after a donor.  I especially liked the view of the Danny Thomas 
Lobby and the Barbara and Garry Marshall Pool from my vantage point on 
the Bud Yorkin Balcony after I climbed the Carl E. Hirsch Staircase.   

- Gregg Oppenheimer

"Self-respect: The secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious" 
- [removed] Mencken

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

Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 02:32:06 -0600
From: David Van Nostrand <davetv5@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Green Hornet Interview Sought
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

        Hi 

I remember listening to a tape of a interview with I believe Al Hodge,
discussing the Green Hornet series.  Does anyone out there have a copy?

Please E-mail me if you do

David Van Nostrand


davetv5@[removed]

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

    


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---- 
End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #114

