Subject: [removed] Digest V2009 #171
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 9/8/2009 10:18 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2009 : Issue 171
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      SoundScriber and WLW JFK Days         [ LBiel <[removed]@[removed]; ]
      9-6 births/deaths                     [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      Joan Alexander Memorial Service       [ Doug Douglass <dougdouglass@[removed] ]
      A flame about to be extinguished      [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
      Jack Benny: Between The New And The   [ "Joe" <jpostove@[removed]; ]
      Memories are made of this             [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
      9-7 births/deaths                     [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      Bradley Kincaid To Be Feted           [ Bill Knowlton <udmacon1@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 20:29:44 -0400
    From: LBiel <[removed]@[removed];
    To: "Bulletin Board, OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  SoundScriber and WLW JFK Days

    Mike Martini described the SoundScriber logging recorder used by WLW to
    record the JFK Assassination day of broadcasting recording being made
    available by Neal Ellis.  He mentioned that it used slow moving 2-inch
    tape with a "rotating head (like on more recent VCRs)"  Actually it is
    more like the original Ampex Quadraplex videotape recorder, because the
    heads move transversly across the tape at a right angle to the edge.
    The two machines were developed at about the same time -- my asumption
    is that SoundScriber copied the concept from the Ampex Quad VTR.   Other
    later videorecording systems use a helical head scanning system where
    the heads move across the tape at a steep angle because the tape is
    wrapped around a head-drum  with the head wheel rotating horizontally
    across the angled tape wrap.

    Many other stations used this machine.  In the late 70s I saw a bank of
    four of them at WOR being used for WOR, WOR-FM, WOR-TV audio, and the
    extra being the change-over machine so that one could be started before
    a tape would be changed so there would be no gap in the recordings.   I
    think WABC also used them.

    By the way, I have one of these machines and would love to be able to
    try it out if there are other WLW tapes (or any others) that need
    transferring.

    Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 20:29:50 -0400
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  9-6 births/deaths

    September 6th births

    09-06-1881 - Charlie Dale - NYC - d. 11-16-1971
    comedian: (Smith and Dale) "Al Jolson"; "Kate Smith"
    09-06-1885 - Otto Kruger - Toledo, OH - d. 9-6-1974
    actor: "Nobody's Children"
    09-06-1888 - Joseph P. Kennedy - East Boston, MA - d. 11-18-1969
    ambassador to Great Britain: "Ambassador Joseph Kennedy"
    09-06-1889 - John Charles Thomas - Meyersdale, PA - d. 12-13-1960
    singer: "John Charles Thomas Program"; "Westinghouse Program"
    09-06-1889 - Louis Silvers - NYC - d. 3-26-1954
    music director: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    09-06-1894 - Billy Mills - Flint, MI - d. 10-20-1971
    conductor: "Fibber McGee and Molly"; "Great Gildersleeve"; "Amos 'n'
    Andy"
    09-06-1899 - Billy Rose - NYC - d. 2-10-1966
    creator-stager: "Jumbo Fire Chief Program"
    09-06-1900 - Charles Kemper - Oklahoma Territory - d. 5-12-1950
    actor: "Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show"
    09-06-1901 - Joseph Vitale - NYC - d. 6-5-1994
    actor: "Great Plays"; "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
    09-06-1902 - Morgan Beatty - Little Rock, AR - d. 7-4-1975
    newscaster: "News of the World"
    09-06-1904 - Maxie Rosenbloom - NYC - d. 3-6-1976
    light heavyweight boxing champion, actor: "Slapsie Maxie Show"
    09-06-1904 - Mildred Baker - Atlanta, GA - d. unknown
    actor: "Roses and Drums"; "Cavalcade of America"; "By Kathleen Norris"
    09-06-1904 - Ted Royal Dewar - Skedee, Oklahoma Territory - d. 3-27-1981
    orchestrator: "Wayne King and His Orchestra"; Ted Weems and His
    Orchestra"
    09-06-1908 - Paul Lavalle - Beacon, NY - d. 6-24-1997
    conductor: "Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street"; "Dinah Shore
    Show"
    09-06-1909 - Michael Gordon - Baltimore, MD - d. 4-29-1993
    film director: "Screen Director's Playhouse"
    09-06-1911 - Eleazar Lipsky - d. 2-14-1993
    district attorney, writer: "Indictment"
    09-06-1914 - Ken Vogt - Wisconsin - d. 10-10-2002
    disk jockey: WMIL; WFOX; WRIT Milwaukee, Wisconsin
    09-06-1915 - Kleve Kirby - d. 3-5-1949
    actor: John Murray "Today's Children"
    09-06-1916 - Marie Green - Antrim, NH
    vocalist: "Everything Goes"; "Hobby Lobby"; "Alec Templeton Time"
    09-06-1917 - John Berry - The Bronx, NY - d. 11-29-1999
    director: "Screen Director's Playhouse"
    09-06-1918 - Jay Stewart - Summitville, IN - d. 9-17-1989
    announcer: "Great Gildersleeve"; "Hollywood Barn Dance"; "Spotlight on
    Music"
    09-06-1919 - John Mitchum - Bridgeport, CT - d. 11-27-2001
    actor: (Brother of Robert Mitchum) "This Is Your FBI"
    09-06-1925 - Jimmy Reed - Dunleith, MS - d. 8-29-1976
    blues singer, guitarist, harmonica playere: "One Night Stand"
    09-06-1927 - Waring Jones - Minneapolis, MN - d. 1-10-2008
    announcer: Armed Forces Radio
    09-06-1930 - Bernard Jaffe - d. 8-2-1993
    science writer: "Information, Please"
    09-06-1934 - Jody McCrea - Los Angeles, CA - d. 4-4-2009
    host" Armed Forces Radio Channel
    09-06-1939 - Ray Barfield - Thomasville, GA
    producer, host: "Shakespeare Scene by Scene"

    September 6th deaths

    01-22-1914 - Dick Willard - d. 9-6-2000
    announcer, emcee: "The Strange Dr. Weird"; "Take it Easy Time"
    02-07-1903 - Graeme Lorimer - Wyncote, PA - d. 9-6-1983
    writer: "Maudie's Diary"
    02-09-1914 - Ernest Tubb - Crisp, TX - d. 9-6-1984
    singer: (The Texas Troubador) "Grand Ole Opry"
    02-15-1910 - Vladimir Selinsky - Kiev, Russia - d. 9-6-1984
    music: "The Doctor Fights"; "The FBI in Peace and War"; "The Electric
    Theatre"
    03-05-1881 - Toby Gremmer - Bainbridge, GA - d. 9-6-1981
    actor: Hermit "The Hermit's Cave"
    03-23-1910 - Akira Kurosawa, Tokyo, Japan - d. 9-6-1998
    film director: NHK Tokyo, Japan
    05-04-1886 - Shelton Brooks - Amesburg, Ontario - d. 9-6-1975
    composer, author, pianist: "Cavalcade of Music"
    06-27-1911 - Dr. Jay Morton - Hollywood, CA - d. 9-6-2003
    Best know for the catchphrase "Look; up in the sky, etc." on "Superman"
    07-04-1900 - Gertrude Lawrence - London, England - d. 9-6-1952
    singer, actor: "Royal Gelatin Hour"; "Campbell Playhouse"; "Radio
    Reader's Digest"
    07-11-1914 - Tommy Bartlett - Milwaukee, WI  - d. 9-6-1998
    emcee: "Welcome Travlers"
    07-18-1918 - Jane Frazee - Duluth, MN - d. 9-6-1985
    vaudeville act with sister
    09-06-1885 - Otto Kruger - Toledo, OH - d. 9-6-1974
    actor: "Nobody's Children"
    09-07-1908 - Max Kaminsky - Brockton, MA - d. 9-6-1994
    jazz musician: :This Is Jazz"
    09-26-1875 - Edmund Gwenn - Glamorgan, Wales - d. 9-6-1959
    actor: Ebenezer Scrooge "Christmas Carol"; "Lux Radio Theatre
    10-02-1909 - Alexander Raymond - New Rochelle - d. 9-6-1956
    cartoonist: Created Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim
    10-12-1935 - Luciano Pavarotti - Modena, Italy - d. 9-6-2007
    tenor: "Metropolitan Opera"
    11-14-1920 - Johnny Desmond - Detroit, MI - d. 9-6-1985
    singer: "I Sustain the Wings"; "Philip Morris Frolics"; "Songs for Sale"

    Ron

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

    Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 20:29:56 -0400
    From: Doug Douglass <dougdouglass@[removed];
    To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Joan Alexander Memorial Service
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    >From The New York Times - Sunday, September 6.

    A Memorial Service for Joan Alexander Stanton will be held on Tuesday,
    September 22nd at 10am at St. Thomas More Church, 65 East 89th Street, New
    York City.

    Doug Douglass

    Hotmail. is up to 70% faster. Now good news travels really fast.
    _HYGN_faster:082009

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

    Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 20:30:04 -0400
    From: <otrbuff@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  A flame about to be extinguished

    As the capstone 15,762nd episode of The Guiding Light (the definite article
    being carried over from radio, which no self-respecting modern reporter is
    probably aware of) draws to its inevitable conclusion on Friday, Sept. 18,
    we can expect lots of verbal (live and on tape) and published farewells to
    that "longest-running drama in the history of broadcasting."  Some of them
    could be tear-jerkers for the nostalgia-minded.  But I suspect more will
    react as simply a means of doing business, and a necessary gallop off the
    scene.

    Few of these will elaborate on the program's humble beginnings in radio.
    Alas, in some situations will that word even be mentioned?  Creator Irna
    Phillips, the granddame of daytime drama, may fail to draw proper respect,
    too.  It was she, a Jewish schoolteacher-writer, who -- inspired by a
    Christian minister of her acquaintance -- developed the character of Rev.
    Dr. John Ruthledge, a kindly cleric of a nonsectarian flock in the mythical
    town of Five Points, Calif., the original protagonist of her
    well-intentioned storyline.  Ruthledge's mission was to demonstrate how to
    live a good life through understanding and patience.  "No matter how
    difficult your problems may be," said he, "others have been faced with the
    same obstacles, and with faith and determination and courage have managed to
    overcome them."

    When Phillips sold some of her narratives to Procter & Gamble to remain
    solvent and pay some legal bills she had incurred, The Guiding Light and The
    Road of Life each fetched $50,000 while a spinoff of Light, The Right to
    Happiness, brought $75,000.  She was hired as writer-consultant by P&G and
    persisted in similar arrangements with myriad radio and TV washboard weepers
    for decades.

    Back to the present.  Some who have closely followed the series in
    contemporary times may be filled with angst, rage, hurt, disbelief and
    despair.  That won't be many if the falling ratings are to be believed.  I'm
    not in that group and never paid much attention to it then or now.  But I do
    recall my own sense of frustration when Perry Mason disappeared from the
    airwaves at the end of 1955, the most gripping, spine-tingling daytime drama
    I ever recall hearing, thanks to writer Irving Vendig's fabulous storylines.
    I was also around on "the day drama died" Nov. 25, 1960, when the last of
    those daily soap operas that had been airing for several decades vanished as
    if they had never been there.  The switchboards at CBS lit up like Christmas
    trees, and thousands spewed their venom.  It was like a death in the family
    to millions across the nation.

    The flame's about to go out on The Guiding Light after 72 years.  As the
    last throwback to daytime radio drama (it being the only one still airing
    that was heard on radio), there is definitely something poignant there.  I
    wonder if some of those modern scribes will be able to capture that and
    convey it to a public that includes people who still "remember when."

    Jim Cox

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

    Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 20:30:12 -0400
    From: "Joe" <jpostove@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Jack Benny: Between The New And The Reruns

    In Jim Cox's book "Say Goodnight Gracie" (a fantastic tome on the last years
    of otr) he notes that Jack Benny's radio show was cancelled by CBS as of
    5/22/55. However, as Jim writes this was not Benny's "last gasp" on radio;
    his show was rerun on CBS from 10/28/56 until 6/22/58 (in his regular Sunday
    night at 7 slot).

    My question is what did CBS program in the Benny slot between 5/22/55 and
    the return of reruns on 10/28/56? And I'm assuming that CBS continued to
    program the 7-7:30pm slot on Sunday's after Jack's departure in 1958, so
    does anyone know what was heard then, and for how long? I'm also curious as
    to how long CBS continued to program that hallowed half hour.

    OK, last question? Was the Jack Benny radio program ever syndicated
    nationally?

    Thanks, crew!

    Joe Postove

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

    Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 20:37:11 -0400
    From: <otrbuff@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Memories are made of this

    Being a baseball addict and living in a Triple A town, I'm there frequently
    pulling for the local team.  But I also do what lots of spectators do, and
    that's head for the gates before the last pitch is thrown and the last out
    is recorded.  Usually I'm moving that way in the top of the 9th because
    we've fielded a team with a stellar record the last couple of seasons.  It's
    been just like it used to be when we won year after year in the 1980s and
    1990s in the old rambling stadium at the fairgrounds.  Now we're at a more
    "intimate" smaller, newer facility downtown.

    I don't recall the last time I stuck around 'til the end, until one night
    last week when my grandkids wanted to "run the bases" after the game.  It's
    one of those things you can do in Triple A that I think might get you
    arrested in the Majors, where anybody who wants to goes down on the field
    and runs just like those potential stars after the game.

    That's when I heard it.  Above the boisterous noise of a happy crowd, as we
    were leaving, there it was again ... something carried over from the old
    stadium that took me back to hundreds of nights when it was easy to get out
    of the parking lot there and we frequently stayed to the game's end.  On the
    PA system we heard the familiar "Happy trails to you ... until we meet again
    ... happy trails to you ... keep smiling until [removed]"  It was Roy and
    Dale.  And it brought smiles to our faces.  Our heroes, whether wearing a
    catcher's mitt or a six-gun holster, were rolled into one as that
    unmistakable nostalgic tune wafted above the crowd.  And for a few moments,
    we basked in glories past.

    Jim Cox

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

    Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 20:37:19 -0400
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  9-7 births/deaths

    September 7th births

    09-07-1886 - Alan Devitt - d. 1-28-1955
    actor: "Famous Jury Trial"; "The March of Time"
    09-07-1888 - Alec Harford - London, England - d. 3-31-1955
    actor: "Escape"; "NBC University Theatre"; "Romance"
    09-07-1891 - Roscoe Karns - San Bernadino, CA - d. 2-6-1970
    actor: "Hollywood Hotel"
    09-07-1900 - Emerson Treacy - Philadelphia, PA - d. 1-10-1967
    actor: Fred Thompson "One Man's Family"
    09-07-1903 - Margaret Landon - Somers, WI - d. 12-4-1993
    author: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    09-07-1903 - Milton Brown - Stephenville, TX - d. 4-13-1936
    singer: "The Musical Brownies"
    09-07-1905 - Ivy Maude Baker Priest - Kimberly, UT - d. 6-23-1975
    treasurer of the united states: "Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show"
    09-07-1907 - Johnny McAfee - d. 10-18-1982
    vocalist: (Harry James Band) "Chesterfield Time"
    09-07-1908 - Max Kaminsky - Brockton, MA - d. 9-6-1994
    jazz musician: :This Is Jazz"
    09-07-1908 - Paul Brown - Norwalk, OH - d. 8-5-1991
    football coach: "Greatest Sports Thrills"
    09-07-1909 - Elia Kazan - Constantinople, Turkey - d. 9-28-2003
    film director, actor: "Free Company"; "Philip Morris Playhouse"
    09-07-1910 - Don Ried - d. 9-16-1996
    vocalist: "The Jack Kirkwood Show"
    09-07-1913 - Anthony Quayle - Ainsdale, England - d. 10-20-1989
    actor:  Guest Panelist "[removed]"
    09-07-1918 - Al Christy - Kansas City, KS - d. 3-3-1995
    started his career in radio
    09-07-1919 - Louise Bennett - Kingston, Jamaica - d. 7-26-2006
    poet, folklorist: commented on social matters as Aunty Roachy
    09-07-1920 - Mende Brown - d. 2-2-2002
    director: "The Affairs of Peter Salem"
    09-07-1921 - Art Ferrante - NYC
    pianist: (Ferrante and Teicher) "The Zero Hour"; "Hollywood Radio
    Theatre"
    09-07-1923 - Peter Lawford - London, England - d. 12-24-1984
    actor: "Radio Reader's Digest"; "Suspense"
    09-07-1927 - Don Messick - Buffalo, NY - d. 10-24-1997
    actor: "Let George Do It"; "Horizons West"; "NBC University Theatre"
    09-07-1930 - Sonny Rollins - Harlem, NY
    jazz saxophonist: "White House Jazz Festival"
    09-07-1936 - Buddy Holly - Lubbock, TX - d. 2-3-1959
    singer: "Sunday Party"; "Buddy and Bob Show"

    September 7th deaths

    01-04-1896 - Everett Dirksen - Pekin, IL - d. 9-7-1969
    [removed] senator: "Meet the Press"; "American Forum on the Air"
    03-29-1919 - Robert Enders - Pennsylvania - d. 9-7-2007
    producer: "Our Land Be Right"
    05-04-1923 - Godfrey Quigley - Jerusalem - d. 9-7-1994
    producer: "The Kennedys of Castleross"
    05-18-1912 - John Campbell Crosby - Milwaukee, WI - d. 9-7-1991
    radio critic: New York Herald Tribune
    05-20-1934 - Ken Boyer - Liberty, MO - d. 9-7-1982
    baseball player: "Tops in Sports"
    05-29-1911 - Vivi Janiss - Nebraska - d. 9-7-1988
    actor: (Married to John Larch) Kit Calvert "Aunt Mary"
    06-06-1917 - Maria Montez - Barahona, Dominican Republic - d. 9-7-1951
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    06-20-1924 - Billie Lou Watt - St. Louis, MO - d. 9-7-2001
    actor: "Land of the Free"; "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
    07-29-1892 - Horace Braham - London, England - d. 9-7-1955
    actor: Charles Lang "Wendy Warren and the News"; Ernest Benning "Big
    Sister"
    09-14-1918 - Mike Stokey - Shreveport, LA - d. 9-7-2003
    announcer: "One Night Stand"
    09-24-1900 - Ham Fisher - Wilkes-Barre, PA - d. 9-7-1955
    cartoonist: (Creator of Joe Palooka) "Raleigh Room"; "Philco Radio Time"
    09-26-1889 - Frank Crumit - Jackson, OH - d. 9-7-1943
    singer, emcee: "Blackstone Plantation"; "Battle of the Sexes";
    "Singing Sweethearts"
    10-13-1900 - Georgia Backus - Columbus, OH - d. 9-7-1983
    actor: Peg Riley "Life of Riley"; Portia Brent "Brenthouse"; Doris
    Foster "A Date with Judy"
    10-17-1893 - Spring Byington - Colorado Springs, CO - d. 9-7-1971
    actor: Lily Ruskin "December Bride"
    11-07-1906 - Red Ingle - Toledo, OH - d. 9-7-1965
    vocalist: (Spike Jones and his City Slickers) "The Spike Jones Show"
    11-27-1890 - Gladys Rice - Philadelphia, PA - d. 9-7-1983
    singer: "Roxy's Gang"; "Lucky Strike Dance Orchestra"; "Voice of
    Firestone"
    12-17-1900 - Norman Cloutier - Hartford, CT - d. 9-7-1962
    orchestra leader: "Cloutier Calling"; "Cosmopolitan Melodies"
    12-20-1920 - Dennis Morgan - Prentice, WI - d. 9-7-1994
    actor, singer: "Lux Radio Theatre"; "[removed] Steel Hour"; "Screen Guild
    Theatre"

    Ron

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

    Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 20:38:28 -0400
    From: Bill Knowlton <udmacon1@[removed];
    To: oldtime radio <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Bradley Kincaid To Be Feted
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Pioneer WLS National Barn Dance balladeer Bradley Kincaid will be honored with
    a plaque in the Starr-Gennett "Walkway Of Stars" early Saturday evening, Sept.
    12, in Richmond IN.

    Richmond was the home of the Starr Piano Company and from 1914 to 1934
    operated Gennett Records and various subsidiary labels that attracted scores
    of black, jazz and pioneer country music artusts to its shedlike recording
    studio.

    also included in this stream were radio broadcasters from Chicago and
    Cincinnati.

    After his great introductory career at WLS, Bradley spent the next quarter
    century going from one high power station to another selling his songbooks and
    playing area venues until he felt that he'd totally worked the territory.

    Bradley was heard over WTIC, Hartford, KDKA, Pittsburgh, WGY and WHAM

    in upstate New York, WLW, and even over the NBC network from New York City.

    At WBZ, Boston, he nicknamed his sideman Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones.

    For awhile on the 40s Bradley was a member of the WSM Grand Ole Opry but left
    when he felt that his authentic ballad singing was no longer appropriate to
    the program.

    Bradley retired in 1950 after purchasing WSWO in Springfield, Ohio and putting
    it into the black. He lived into his mid nineties.

    More information: [removed]

     BILL KNOWLTON

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    End of [removed] Digest V2009 Issue #171
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