Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #482
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 12/11/2002 9:26 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2002 : Issue 482
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Nig  [ lois@[removed] ]
  oddities, movies/TV audio, etc.       [ Ga6string@[removed] ]
  Re: Capehart                          [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  intro                                 [ "Chris Swank" <radionut@[removed] ]
  Re: Empire Of The Air                 [ "Robert M. Bratcher Jr." <bratcher@ ]
  Re: Pearl Harbor Interruptions        [ Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed]; ]
  Capehart/Farnsworth                   [ "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed]; ]
  The Greatest Gift                     [ Philipmarus@[removed] ]
  Re: Pearl Harbor Interruptions        [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Empire of the Air                     [ "JLF" <infom@[removed]; ]
  Empire of the Air Schedule            [ "JLF" <infom@[removed]; ]
  Paul Temple                           [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
  Parley Baer in Adventures In Odyssey  [ "Matthew Bullis" <MatthewBullis@run ]
  Re:a question about old reel-to-reel  [ Fred Berney <berney@[removed]; ]
  WORDS AT WAR and Paypal               [ Howard Blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
  Re: Gerry de la Ree                   [ mickey44@[removed] ]

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 04:52:03 -0500
From: lois@[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 five years, same time, same channel!

Our numerous "regulars" include one of the busiest "golden years" actors in
Hollywood; a sound man from the same era who worked many of the top
Hollywood shows; a New York actor famed for his roles in "Let's Pretend" and
"Archie Andrews;" owners of some of the best OTR sites on the Web;
maintainer of the best-known OTR Digest (we all know who he is)..........

and Me

Lois Culver
KWLK Longview Washington (Mutual) 1941-1944)
KFI Los Angeles (NBC) 1944 - 1950
and widow of actor Howard Culver

(For more info, contact lois@[removed])

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 10:00:05 -0500
From: Ga6string@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  oddities, movies/TV audio, etc.

Martin asks:

What the heck is a Capehart?  was it a turntable for 78 rpm or LP records in
the forties?

I don't know, either. But I enjoy some of the terms you hear in OTR (and old
books, movies, etc.) that are no longer in use today. Example: Why was a
couch sometimes called a davenport, or Davenport? Was it the proper name of a
furniture company? A name of an individual or city?

Just curious.

By the way, recently somone mentioned the topic of "TV as radio." I've taken
some of my favorite movies and TV shows and dumped the audio onto a cassette.
Anyone else ever do that? That way, for example, I can listen to my favorite
Bogart movies that were never performed (or didn't survive) on OTR. Works
better for some than for others, of course, and it helps if you're familiar
with the movie, but all in all it's very enjoyable [removed] that
doesn't keep you tied down to the davenport!

Bryan Powell

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 10:00:12 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Capehart

On 12/10/02 5:16 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:

What the heck is a Capehart?  was it a turntable for 78 rpm or LP records in
the forties?

It was an extremely expensive, high-quality line of radio-phonograph
combinations introduced in the late 1930s, and manufactured thru the
1940s, known for a very complicated automatic record-changer mechanism
that could play both sides of a stack of discs. These were not
"mainstream" instruments -- Mr. and Mrs. Joe Blow would not have owned
such a thing, and might not have even been aware that it existed -- but
Capeharts were extremely popular with the rich-and-famous
"mine's-bigger-than-yours" crowd. They were the definitive show-off home
audio system of their era, and some models cost more than $1000.

In one of his autobiographies, Rudy Vallee goes on at some length about
the Capehart presented to him by Standard Brands when their ten-year
sponsorship relationship ended in 1939 -- he had remote speakers wired
into every room of his Hollywood home, and used the Capehart to play
transcriptions of his old programs for guests or for his own enjoyment.
(I've done transfers of a number of Vallee's discs, and some of them bear
bumps and bruises suggesting that even with all of its technological
sophistication, the Capehart changer mechanism wasn't all that gentle on
[removed])

Elizabeth

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 10:00:16 -0500
From: "Chris Swank" <radionut@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  intro

OK, after being on this list in lurk mode for much too long, perhaps I'll
make an atempt at a bit of an intro. Name is Chris Swank and I'm located in
Fortuna, California. That's about 250 miles or so north of San Francisco for
those of you who are curious. I'm just a listener and fan, although at 37
I'm too young to have been around when classic radio was heard live. Thanks
to KEX in Portland, Oregon playing old shows at night, I could hear that
stuff and really enjoyed it. For a time our local station in Fortuna played
episodes of the Shadow and now and then I did listen to the CBS Radio
Mystery Theater when it aired as well as some of your more recent radio
dramas. Most of the old-time shows I have now are on mp3 CDs, although I had
a modest collection of shows on commercial cassettes and did a bit of
trading that way on tape. Unfortunately a lot of that stuff is in storage,
and I can't trade CDs as I have no burner. I'm also interested in collecting
non-drama-oriented stuff like radio jingles and airchecks, network
anouncements and sounders and other signals of that type, and maybe even
some old shortwave interval signals and stuff. Thanks to the net, I cna hear
a lot of that kind of thing at least in streaming formats. Now, one thing
I'm interested in collecting is old sound effects records and production
music and material, especially if it's in the science fiction and horror
categories. I'm also a fan of tape manipulation and found sound. I don't do
it myself but I like to hear it done. I think that covers it for my radio
and audio interests. I wouldn't mind getting in contact with anyone else
interested in some of the same stuff. You can e-mail me off list if you like
at
radionut@[removed]
Thanks for reading.

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 10:01:59 -0500
From: "Robert M. Bratcher Jr." <bratcher@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Empire Of The Air

Thanks to Mark Lambert for alerting us to the re-run of Ken Burns' special
about radio, "Empire of the air."

You can buy it from [removed] in both VHS & DVD versions. A book is also
[removed]

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 10:04:12 -0500
From: Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Pearl Harbor Interruptions

On Sunday 8 Dec 2002, I originally wrote (regarding sporting events
carried on network radio):

I would guess that Mutual or NBC Radio in the 1970's and early 1980's,
and ANY radio network in the good old days, would break into their
coverage of the game for informing the audience of such major breaking
[removed] [removed], Mutual did break into the Sunday afternoon NFL game they
were carrying on that Sunday, December 7th, 1941, sixty-one years ago,
yesterday. (Does anyone have the details on what NBC Red, NBC Blue and
the Columbia Network were carrying at the time they broke in with the
news?)

And Elizabeth McLeod replied with details on NBC's breaking into the feeds
of the Red and Blue networks, as well as the situation over at CBS.
(Thanks for the detailed info!)

And she continued (regarding Mutual and WOR):

I believe the interrutpion during the Dodgers-Giants football game was
only on WOR, not the full Mutual network -- I've not seen any evidence
that the game was fed to the network or carried anywhere outside of New
York. Other Mutual stations for which I've seen December 7th listings
show only local programming for this time period.

[removed] then when did the Mutual Network break into any of its program
feeds (if they indeed did so) and what Mutual programming was interrupted?
I have re-listened to a clip I downloaded a few years ago, of the
Dodgers-Giants game where it is interrupted with the announcement, and
yes, it only mentioned WOR, *not* the "full" Mutual network. But I gave it
a filename of "[removed]", probably because it was WOR, the New
York City "key" station of Mutual, and I thought that it was something fed
to the full network.

Mark J. Cuccia
mcuccia@[removed]

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 10:04:27 -0500
From: "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Capehart/Farnsworth

Martin Grams, Jr. <mmargrajr@[removed]; wrote:

What the heck is a Capehart?  was it a turntable for 78 rpm or LP records
in the forties?

Capehart was a radio and phonograph manufacturer in the early days of radio,
based in Fort Wayne Indiana, concentrating on the high end of the market;
one of its claims to fame in the late 1930s was a record changer that could
turn records over automatically to play both sides in order, and that may be
what you're referring to.  (RCA briefly had a changer, in one 1942
radio-phonograph console, that could play both sides of a record in order
*without* turning the record over.)

In 1939 the company had fallen on hard times and was bought out by the
backers of Philo Farnsworth, who quickly introduced a much broader product
line under the Farnsworth name and hoped to use the company to market TV
equipment when that business got going.  The company did well during the
war, but after some management problems set the firm somewhat adrift the
Farnsworth Radio and Television Corporation was bought by IT&T (as it was
then known) in the late 1940s.  They proceeded to phase out the Farnsworth
name in favor of the Capehart brand, but as the TV business got rough in the
mid-1950s ITT phased out consumer electronics and sold the Capehart brand
name.  The division itself is still in business as the
Aerospace/Communications Division of ITT Industries
([removed]).

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 10:04:37 -0500
From: Philipmarus@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The Greatest Gift

My Name is Mike Kerezman Jr. I wish to say hello to all those listening. I
have not been active in this list for sometime. My Father introduced me to
Old Time Radio when I was 7 or 8 years old. I have shared this wonderful
hobby with him for years as I am now 31. My father just passed away on
December 3, 2002 after a long battle with Prostate Cancer. I used to read
from this list many of the intringuing commentary left here. We spent many
hours listening to Old Time Radio after he came home from Chemotherapy in
last few years. It seemed to bring him peace. About a year ago he
"discovered" the Johnny Dollar serials and realized what all the excitement
was about. His all-time favorite Mr. Keen he enjoyed immensely which brought
memories to him of having heard this program as a boy who couldn't follow the
convuluted plots of more adult oriented detective programs. He began
collecting in 1974-75 while listening to John Dunning's radio program in
Denver, CO and collected on cassette. When I became a more serious fan, we
both enjoyed listening to large numbers of programs when computers and MP3
came around. The show we had listened to recently was sometimes the subject
of dinner conversation. Even when he spent the last two months of life in
hospital, he discovered YESTERDAY USA on the hospital cable tv and was able
to listen to Frontier Gentleman and Have Gun, Will Travel. I cannot listen to
a episode of GUNSMOKE or THE SHADOW or MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER without
remembering my Dad and gift he gave me. I will miss him but it is through Old
Time Radio that he lives on for me.

In Memory of my Dad Michael J. Kerezman, Sr
(December, 2 1939 - December 3, 2002)

Sincerely
Mike Kerezman, Jr
Macomb, Oklahoma

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 10:04:59 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Pearl Harbor Interruptions

On 12/10/02 7:29 PM Mark J Cuccia wrote:

[removed] then when did the Mutual Network break into any of its program
feeds (if they indeed did so) and what Mutual programming was interrupted?
I have re-listened to a clip I downloaded a few years ago, of the
Dodgers-Giants game where it is interrupted with the announcement, and
yes, it only mentioned WOR, *not* the "full" Mutual network. But I gave it
a filename of "[removed]", probably because it was WOR, the New
York City "key" station of Mutual, and I thought that it was something fed
to the full network.

As far as I can see from Northern Atlantic Region station listings as
published in Movie-Radio Guide there could have been network
interruptions in Rev. Charles E. Fuller's Old Fashioned Revival Hour --
which aired on certain Colonial Network stations (Mutual's New England
leg) during the 2 to 3 pm period. It's not clear, though, if this was a
live network feed or a transcription broadcast: Fuller used both. If
there were interruptions though, they probably would have come from the
Yankee News Service newsroom and not from WOR-Mutual.

Colonial (plus WNAC, a Yankee station -- the Yankee and Colonial Networks
had a common ownership) carried "The Shadow" at 430 pm -- possibly from a
transcription. No Mutual programming appears for WOR itself until 530,
when "The Shadow" airs for New York. There would likely have been
interruptions -- if the program aired at all.

Again, this is strictly Northern Atlantic Region. Given the
decentralized, fragmented way in which Mutual operated during this era --
there was no single "Mutual feed," but rather a variety of regional
circuits that fed different programming at different times -- I can't
tell you what might have been going into the Midwestern section of the
network via WGN, or what the Don Lee Network would have been broadcasting
to the west.

Fragments of WOR's Pearl Harbor coverage exist at the Library of Congress
-- and I *mean* fragments, since many of the glass-based discs are
cracked or broken. The earliest WOR recording from the afternoon of 12/7
dates to 345 PM, and is a 6 minute pickup from Los Angeles, containing a
late news summary. This suggests that WOR had dumped the football game
and that the network was fully operational within an hour or so of the
news breaking. The next fragment is a 5 pm newscast by Frank Blair and
commentator Richard Eaton. This program originates at WOL, Washington,
and is clearly a network pickup. The program listing shows a Blue Barron
band remote slated for 5 pm on WOR, but no other Mutual station -- and
that program is scrapped in favor of the news summary.

Mutual apparently did not go to continuous coverage, but there were
several substantial news broadcasts inserted over the course of the
evening. The highlight of the coverage from what I've heard of it was an
1130 pm roundup of man-in-the-street opinion including pickups from
several Mutual affiliates. The most interesting portion comes from Times
Square in New York, with WOR's Dave Driscoll interviewing a crowd of
increasingly agitated bystanders. One man makes a grab for the microphone
and begins denouncing the Roosevelt administration, but Driscoll cuts him
off before he can get a full sentence out and he is taken away. A woman
declares that it's time to "round up every Jap in the country" and
Driscoll notes that Mayor LaGuardia has asked all New Yorkers of Japanese
ancestry to stay off the streets for their own safety. It's quite obvious
that emotions are running high and Driscoll is clearly flustered thru
much of this broadcast.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 10:05:05 -0500
From: "JLF" <infom@[removed];
To: "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Empire of the Air

Go to [removed] and you can find the schedule for Empire of the Air by
giving your location and even gives the schedule for Dish Network and Direct
TV.

JLF

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 10:05:12 -0500
From: "JLF" <infom@[removed];
To: "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Empire of the Air Schedule

On my Dish Network 'on screen guide' it's listed as "Ken Burns American
Stories" and is on now, again at 10pm and again at 1am. These are Pacific
Standard Times. It's also on Dish
again two more times this month. Don't have this listing close at hand.

JLF

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 10:05:18 -0500
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Paul Temple

I've been looking for tapes of the BBC radio long-running  mystery series
"Paul Temple".    There are about 6 stories available out their in cyberland
but that's it.   I wonder if some of our UK members have any leads on more
tapes.

Irene
IreneTH@[removed]

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 10:05:53 -0500
From: "Matthew Bullis" <MatthewBullis@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Parley Baer in Adventures In Odyssey

        Hello, just to let any fans of Adventures in Odyssey know that
Parley played Connie's Uncle Joe in the broadcasts where Uncle Joe was
featured.
Matthew

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 10:08:20 -0500
From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re:a question about old reel-to-reel tape

At 11:36 PM 12/10/02 -0500, you wrote:
a question about old reel-to-reel tape

One way I have found to clean an audio tape is to take a cotton glove, the
kind used by film editors or photographers, and run the tape between it. If
you have a reel to reel recorder that doesn't run too fast in the fast
forward or rewind position, you can easily hold the glove around the tape
as it runs at fast forward.

If the glove starts getting dirty, stop the tape and reposition the glove.
Just be careful to keep your fingers away from the edge of the tape. It can
act like a razor blade at high speeds.

I don't use any type of chemical or liquid when I do this. This way I don't
take a chance of damaging the tape.

If you have a pair of 8mm rewinds, you could also use them instead of using
a tape deck.

Fred
For the best in Old Time Radio Shows [removed]

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 10:08:32 -0500
From: Howard Blue <khovard@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  WORDS AT WAR and Paypal

Hi,

To sort of paraphrase what Abraham Lincoln said to Harriet Beecher Stow
when he met her "So you're the woman who started this war."  "Hello, I'm
the guy who  some time ago posted a suggestion that there was another
aspect to the character of an actor whom at this point I won't name. And
the rest is history."

 Alan Chapman commented about Words at War: " This is book worth reading
-- it is exceptionally well written, and it is an excellent snapshot of
the time.  This is NOT a book about blacklisting -- that is actually a
comparatively small part of book -- this is book about RADIO . . .

and Gary Yoggy  recently added ". . .  excellent: well organized, well
researched and factual, highly readable and a magnificent addition to the
ever-growing academic study of the history of broadcasting in the US.

Recently there was discussion about OTR books appropriate as Christmas
presents. Because mine came out  just a few weeks ago, Alan's & Gary's
were the first reader comments about WORDS AT WAR.  Anyone wishing to
order the book in time for Christmas can  do so by contacting Paypal with
which I recently opened an account. Just contact Paypal on the Internet,
give them my e-mail address, Khovard@[removed], and you can pay in that
manner. For further information about ordering please contact me
directly.

Howard Blue
[removed]

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

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 11:00:22 -0500
From: mickey44@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Gerry de la Ree

Martin Grams, Jr. inquired :

I came across a fan letter mailed to a broadcasting station regarding a
radio mystery, and it was signed Gerry de la Ree. A very knowledgable
authority said they believe he was a well-knonw science-fiction fan or
author of the 1950s. Anyone know who he is? It's be interesting because of
the letter he wrote.

It's been a LONG time since I posted here; hopefully I'll hit
all the right buttons.

Although I never met the man, I had contact with Gerry from
about the mid 60's to the mid 80's. This was in relation to
my collecting of Science Fiction pulps. I still remember spending
a couple of days packing up about a thousand digest-sized
magazines (20 boxes worth) and sending them off to Gerry. In
return I received 88 issues of Astounding Stories, mostly from the
30's, We were both pleased with the trade, and I still have those
magazines.

I believe Gerry went through the same progression as many
Science Fiction devotees: Fan, Collector, Dealer and in his case,
Publisher. I don't believe Gerry penned any fiction, but his small
print-run portfolios of the works of fantasy artist Virgil Finlay are
still very sought after.

To get back to OTR, I don't believe Gerry and I ever discovered
our mutual interest in that artform, but I'm not surprised to find that
it did interest him, as I have found that many of my Science Fiction
acquaintances are also OTR fans, and vice versa.

Gerry was a gentleman and a knowledgeable and fair fan & dealer.
He passed away in 1993, I believe.

m

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #482
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