------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2003 : Issue 213
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
CBS Radio in the 1960s; NBC Monitor [ Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed]; ]
NBC-Monitor, some typos [ Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed]; ]
INNER SANCTUM recordings [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
Familiar voices [ "Andrew Godfrey" <niteowl049@[removed] ]
Re: Bruce Eells [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
Re: impressionistic tv sets [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
Your Hit Parade [ Paulurbahn@[removed] ]
Marian Seldes [ Osborneam@[removed] ]
May 25th birthdays [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 11:25:08 -0400
From: Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: CBS Radio in the 1960s; NBC Monitor
Jim Cox (otrbuff@[removed]) replied regarding the demise of the radio
soaps:
He [Walden Hughes in a post inquiring about the demise of radio sopas]
is correct that CBS halted them in their tracks on Friday, November
25, 1960, often referred to as "the day radio drama died." I'm aware
that at least three nighttime dramas continued a while longer but that
was the DAY the longrunning, longsuffering sagas vanished forever.
Those three night-time CBS Radio dramas would be "Suspense", "Gunsmoke",
and "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar". Actually, CBS only aired only 'two at
any time' of those three during that [removed] to [removed] timeframe.
Beginning [removed], "Suspense" was cancelled -- but only temporarily.
"Gunsmoke" episodes from CBS Hollywood, and "Johnny Dollar" episodes from
CBS New York (now with Bob Reddick as Johnny Dollar, instead of from CBS
Hollywood with Bob Bailey as Dollar) were the only two remaining 'night
time' radio dramas reamining on CBS Radio or *ANY* radio network in the
US, fed down the network late Sunday afternoons.
"Gunsmoke's" last regular Sunday afternoon radio broadcast on CBS Radio
was 18-June-1961, about six months later. Beginning the following Sunday
afternoon, on 25-June-1961, CBS Radio revived "Suspense" in the time slot
which "Gunsmoke" had for the previous six months. "Suspense" had already
migrated its production center from CBS Hollywood to CBS New York back in
August 1959, so when it resumed in late June 1961, it was produced out of
New York. Also beginning that Sunday 25-June-1961, the actor doing the
voice for "Johnny Dollar" changed *YET AGAIN*, to Mandell Kramer, but
still continuing to be produced out of New York.
The late Sunday afternoon pair of "Johnny Dollar" (Mandell Kramer) and
"Suspense", both fed out of New York, continued for another year-and-a-
qyarter, with both programs having their last last CBS Radio episodes on
Sunday 30-September-1962.
A connection to "soaps" [removed] when "Suspense" and "Johnny Dollar" had
moved their production from Hollywood to New York, many of the New York
City radio actors were also on many radio (and TV) soaps, some of them
being seen on P&G soaps on CBS-TV and NBC-TV well into the 1970s and 80s
if the soap was produced out of New York.
Mandell Kramer was a regular on "The Edge of Night" (CBS-TV thru 1975,
ABC-TV starting [removed]) as Monticello's District Attorney, from 1959
until 1979. Other regular voices in radio soaps or other night-time radio
dramas out of New York who have been seen in TV soaps over the years have
been Charita Bauer of the "Guiding Light", Rita Lloyd on "Guiding Light",
Ralph Camargo on "The Edge of Night", etc. Many of these same actors were
also heard on NBC Radio's "X-Minus-One" in the later 1950s which came out
of New York, on ABC Radio's "Theater Five" in 1964/65, and then in the
1970s on "CBS Radio Mystery Theater" and the "General Mills/CBS Radio
Adventure Theater".
Departing were The Couple Next Door, The Right to Happiness, Whispering
Streets, Ma Perkins, Young Doctor Malone and The Second Mrs. Burton.
Not by coincidence the Amos 'n' Andy Music Hall disappeared that same
evening as CBS pursued housecleaning with a vengeance to give
affiliates opportunity to sell more time more profitably.
That 'Friday after Thanksgiving' in November 1960 was also the final
broadcast to a few other weekday evening CBS Radio commedy broadcasts.
"Amos 'n' Andy Music Hall" had been airing weeknights for several years,
mostly as a music/commedy 'DJ' type show, instead of as a sit-com. It was
about 25-min's long with five minutes of CBS News filling up that
half-hour slot. But the remainder of the hour also had other CBS Radio
commedy/entertainment programs which had their last CBS Radio broadcast
the day-after-Thanksgiving November 1960. There was a 15-minute CBS
edition of "Bob and Ray", and some 5-minute commedy vignettes. Those
five-minute vignettes frequently changed or rotated as to who was
featured, but I think during 1960, two of them (back-to-back) included
one with Andy Griffith, and another of a two-way dialog skit (possibly
taped from a radio or TV episode) of George Burns & Gracie Allen. Then
there is the reamining five minutes of that hour, which might have been a
CBS Radio sports daily wrap-up or maybe a news commentary feature.
All of the entertainment programs in that 'Commedy Time' one-hour (well,
just under an hour) weeknight block were gone by December 1960.
CBS Radio indicated that they wanted to go more towards a network of news
and information. Starting the next Monday, most of the hourly newscasts
were expanded to *TEN FULL MINUTES* of CBS News (there are promos heard in
Suspense, Gunsmoke, Johnny Dollar, etc. around that time touting the
expanded newscasts), and also during the daytime "soap" blocks, there were
*NO* hourly newscasts, just the four quarter hours of the soaps, one after
the other. So now, with the ax falling on the soaps, there were new hourly
newscasts, and they were *TEN* minutes instead of five!
Other cancellations around that time included several live classical music
performances. The New York Philharmonic and the Texaco Metropolitan Opera
were both dropped by CBS Radio. The 'Met' had only recently been picked up
by CBS Radio after ABC Radio had dropped the opera about a year earlier.
After CBS Radio dropped the 'Met', Texaco and the opera decided to set up
a separate radio network of interested stations, just to carry the 'Met',
similar to how live sporting events not carried by a major radio or TV
network will set up ad-hoc team/event broadcast networks. Of course, only
this past week, we hear that after all these decades, Texaco will drop its
sponsorship/underwriting of the 'Met' after the 2003/04 Opera season.
CBS Radio now would air hourly *ten* minute newscasts during those hours
on the weekends when it previously carried the Philharmonic or the Met.
One thing CBS Radio *did* retain in the way of entertainment or
"non-news" type programming during the 1960s was the weekday daytime block
of commedy/music/variety/interview type programming. Some of the programs
had to be reformatted in their "clock" so as to accomodate the new ten
minute hourly newscasts, but there were still these various weekday
daytime variety programs throughout the 1960s of lengths of 10, 15, 20,
30, etc. minutes long, such "Dear Abby", "Garry Moore", "Bing Crosby and
Rosemary Clooney's Funny Side Up", "Art Linkletter's Houseparty" which was
a reformatted audio track of his TV show, and continuing the now
radio-only version of "Arthur Godfrey Time". I think there were a few more
such programs -- I'd read that when "Garry Moore" discontinued his
10-minute weekday daytime CBS Radio program in the mid-1960s, CBS Radio
brought LUCY back to radio, with a ten-minute pre-recorded interview type
program called "Let's Talk with Lucy". As a *BIG* Lucy Fan, I'd like to
hear some of those tapes if any exist. They were more like interviews
where Lucy and one of here Hollywood friends would "gab" for about ten
minutes, but I still think it would be fun to hear some things like that
from back when Lucy was still doing regular weekly prime-time TV, and
others were still around doing TV and movies!
As the 1960s continued on, CBS Radio began to cancel or trim-back the
length of these weekday daytime variety type programs, the last one still
on being "Arthur Godfrey Time", leaving the air altogather at the end of
April 1972. But by then, the program was only 30-mins long instead of a
much longer length when the 1960s started.
I know that radio was changing, and a lot of affiliates wanted more LOCAL
time rather than having to carry a lot of network baggage. But if CBS
Radio was continuing with long-form daytime variety programs in the 1960s,
and they claimed that they wanted a newscast virtually EVERY hour and
usually "on-the-hour", with most of them being TEN minutes, did they
really have to cancel all of the soaps? They were able to reformat the
"clock" on the variety programs which had been on prior to [removed]
([removed], Godfrey, Linkletter, Garry Moore, etc) to accomodate the new
ten-minutes of newscasts each hour, so why not re-do the soaps?
They *COULD* have aired a ten-minute newscast from :00 to :10, then a five
minute program-- either a commedy/musical vignette or news commentary or
sports update from :10 to :15, and then three fifteen minute blocks of
soaps from :15 to :30 then :30 to :45 then :45 to :00 for two+ hours. all
in the midday and afternoon time; and the long-form variety programs would
all have still aired in the morning. But maybe that would have cost too
much money for a supposedly dying medium?
Was Proctor and Gamble also *directly* involved in the ax falling on the
last radio soaps on CBS? Or were they just part of the "flow"? Of course,
P&G was sponsoring and even owning several soaps already on TV (mostly on
CBS-TV), such as "Search for Tomorrow", "The Guiding Light", "The Edge of
Night", "The Brighter Day", "As the World Turns", etc., so their
commercials were getting out to the daytime 'housewife' audience, only now
exclusively on television.
Jim Cox continued regarding NBC Radio's trimming back and ultimate
elimination of their line-up of radio soaps:
The other networks divested themselves of dishpan dramas in increments,
mostly one or two at a time. NBC cleared much of its daytime deck for a
fatefully disastrous Weekday in late 1955 (which took over almost 6
hours of sunlight programming and remained for 10 months). Just Plain
Bill and Lorenzo Jones left Sept. 30; Stella Dallas was gone Dec. 30.
Young Widder Brown expired June 22, 1956.
There was an episode of "Just Plain Bill" from the second half of 1955
which aired a few years ago on the Golden Age of Radio, a local OTR block
locally here on WTIX-690 in New Orleans, hosted by Mr. George Buck, the
owner of WTIX. He has quite an extensive collection of OTR that he runs on
Sunday afternoons, between Noon-6pm (Central), NBC/CNN hourly news at the
top of the hour obviously, and baseball/basketball frequently pre-empts
one or more hours, DAMN!
But on this particular episode of "Just Plain Bill", which was completely
intact, running 14:30+, you hear the opening announcer who I immediately
recognized as Don Pardo, say that the program was sponsored by "The
National Broadcating Company". Thus, it was sustaining -- it couldn't find
a paying sponsor by then! I don't remember what the opening 'promo' or PSA
was for, but as the story ended around :12:30 or so into the broadcast,
Don Pardo's voice was heard once again:
"How'd your portable?"
I thought he was going to start talking about a portable washing machine
or dish-washer, or such. Then when I realized he was talking about a radio
or record player 'portable', I thought it was going to be a plug for
RCA-Victor, since "Just Plain Bill" was 'sustained', being 'sponsored' by
NBC owned by [removed]
But no, it really wasn't a 'plug' for RCA-Victor. Pardo continued by
saying that many portables do have phonograph turntables built in, and
many new models can also pick up *FM* (wow!)... and he continued with that
one could take their portable (radio) with them on weekends to the beach
or to the park or such, and catch up with the latest on the [removed]
MON-I-TOR!
"Yes, Mon-i-tor, the new and exciting weekend radio concept from N-B-C.
Music, commedy, variety, news, sports, information, all weekend long".
I wish that this promo would have included some of the electronic beacon
beeping away, but it didn't.
And then the closing theme of "Just Plain Bill" started up, and Don Pardo
re-iterates that it was "sponsored" by the National Broadcasting Company.
He also identifies himself at the end: "[removed] is Don Pardo speaking",
and then gives the system outcue, followed by the chimes.
Since "MONITOR" premiered on Saturday 18-June-1955 (well, there was that
preview/premiere on Sunday evening 12-June-1955), and "Just Plain Bill"
ended on 30-June-1955, this episode of "Bill" with the MONITOR promo would
have been 3rd Quarter 1955.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 11:25:48 -0400
From: Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: NBC-Monitor, some typos
In my post about Pardo's announcing on "Just Plain Bill" including a promo
for Monitor, I mis-spelled/mis-typed a few thngs:
Don Pardo's voice was heard once again:
"How'd your portable?"
That should read "*How's* your portable?" !!!
and also:
Since "MONITOR" premiered on Saturday 18-June-1955 (well, there was that
preview/premiere on Sunday evening 12-June-1955), and "Just Plain Bill"
ended on 30-June-1955, this episode of "Bill" with the MONITOR promo
would have been 3rd Quarter 1955.
"Just Plain Bill" ended on 30-SEPTEMBER-1955, not June! I was typing too
fast and not thinking! :)
BTW, that "preview/premiere" of Monitor on Sunday afternoon/evening,
12-June-1955, started at around 4pm or 5pm Eastern, continuing through
11pm or Midnight Eastern. I don't remember the "exact" times, but they
could be found from microfilms of old newspapers' radio listings, such as
New York Times on microfilm.
Anyhow, the first hour (or two) of that Monitor preview/premiere was
actually *simulcast* over the NBC Television Network! I don't know if
Monitor was ever simulcast on NBC-TV in later years on special events or
not, but at least with its preview/premiere, Monitor could also be said to
have been seen on TV as well as heard on Radio!
In the [removed] NBC-TV coverage of JFK (rerun almost in full on A&E in
November 1988 on the 25th anniversary), as NBC-TV News closes out late
Friday night, Frank McGee says something about how NBC-TV News will resume
early Saturday morning coverage of the JFK assassination with an early
edition of "The Today show", and remain on the air with coverage all day
long. I was hoping he would make mention of NBC Radio and Monitor, if one
wasn't able to sit in front of a TV all day, but he didn't.
But I have been told that Gene Rayburn did occasionally make a 'plug' for
Monitor during "The Match Game" when it was still on NBC-TV in the 1960s,
live from New York. Of course, he hosted Saturday Monitor back then. And I
*HAVE* actually heard clips of Monitor where Rayburn makes mention that he
also hosts "The Match Game" weekdays on NBC-TV.
mjc
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 12:39:57 -0400
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: INNER SANCTUM recordings
Doug Berryhill asked about INNER SANCTUM episodes existing.
Here's something that will help greatly.
Facts:
Litpon Tea and Soup insisted that copies be made of each broadcast during
their two-year sponsorship. Thus about a third of the existing recordings
in circulation are from the Lipton sponsorship.
About a third of the existing are from transcriptions (3 from Bromo Seltzer,
etc.)
About a third of the existing are Armed Forces Radio Service rebroadcasts.
About a dozen are from the summer 1952 series which were not done live, but
recorded for later playback and most of those exist.
As for a list of what episodes do exist, which ones are in circulation and
which ones exist but are not in circulation, check out Lou Genco's web-site
listed below:
(This page also lists a huge list of "alternate titles" that Doug Berryhill
was referring to, which should help put titles and dates on the alternative
episodes greatly.)
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 12:40:07 -0400
From: "Andrew Godfrey" <niteowl049@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Familiar voices
I have noticed that certain voices can be recognized easier when listening
to OTR shows. The one voice that I can recognize easiest of all is Herb
Vigran. Another voice easy for me to recognize is that of John Brown.
Would like to know if anyone else remembers voices of actors who were not
too well known but their voices were instantly recognizable.
Andrew Godfrey
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 12:42:05 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Bruce Eells
On 5/24/03 11:32 AM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:
These are definitely from the thirties because I know they were produced by
Bruce Eells Productions via his Broadcasters Program Syndicate. He was the
production company who also produced a 1932 series called POLICE
HEADQUARTERS.
I also thought that Eells was connected to the CINNAMON BEAR program. I
know I have seen radio transcriptions identified as Bruce Eells
transcriptions with regard to this program.
Eells actually had nothing to do with the production of any of these
series -- he was in fact something of a bottom-feeder: an entrepreneur
who specialized in buying up the back catalogs and distribution rights of
defunct transcription producers and keeping their most profitable program
materials in circulation for many years after they were produced.
Most of the series handled by Eells in the 1940s were actually programs
produced by the Radio Transcription Company of America, Ltd. of
Hollywood, (popularly known as Transco) between 1932 and 1937. The Eells
company bought up the rights to the entire Transco catalog and their
master recordings in the early 1940s, and continued to distribute many of
these series well into the early 1950s.
Original Transco pressings for these series will usually be found on
extremely heavy shellac, sometimes with an odd blue-grey color, and with
a red or orange Transco label. The Eells reissues are invariably on
vinyl, but were done from the original Transco stampers, and will carry
original Transco matrix numbers. Transco for a while at least had a
recording studio of its own on Cosmo Street in Hollywood, but they also
made ample use of rented facilities like the Freeman Lang studio
(recordings made there can be identified by an L prefix on the mx number)
or Radio Recorders. Much of the production talent at Transco was drawn
from the KHJ stock company, with former KHJ production manager Lindsay
McHarrie heading up Transco production.
Transco appears to have gone out of business around 1938, so "Cinnamon
Bear" was likely one of their last efforts. Among the other well-known
Transco series bought up and distributed by Eels in the 1940s were, as
noted, "Police Headquarters," "The Origins of Superstition," "Comedy
Capers," "Komedy Kingdom," "Hollywood Casting Office," and "Hollywood
Spotlight."
Transco also had an excellent roster of dance-band programs, including
the orchestras of Phil Harris, Jimmie Grier, and Gus Arnheim, but Eells
didn't seem to be interested in this part of the catalog, perhaps because
they were badly dated by the 1940s. However, these were either sold or
licensed to another distributor who successfully reissued them as sort of
a nostalgia package in the mid-forties.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 13:10:15 -0400
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: impressionistic tv sets
What struck me was that the "rooms" that the people on the television moved
around in didn't have solid walls: The walls were framed in 2X4's, and the
doors were, too - the "empty" doors moved on hinges attached to "empty"
walls.
I don't know which soap opera this might have been, but I'm pretty certain
that the impressionist sets would have been just a matter of style. Have a
look, sometime, at the movie version of "Oklahoma!" There isn't a real wall
in the entire production, just an occasional wagon wheel leaning against a
vague fence.
The early days of TV were much like the early days of radio, I believe:
there was a tremendous amount of creative freedom, presumably because there
wasn't all that much money involved when the mediums were young. One of
these days I'll have to ask about the music on the old Joan Davis TV sitcom,
"I Married Joan." It was entirely choral--no instruments at all.
M Kinsler
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 14:42:15 -0400
From: Paulurbahn@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Your Hit Parade
I recently purchased a video from ebay with a lot of Your Hit Parade tv shows
on it. And started wondering about the radio series. I have a book with the
history in it, but I noticed when Radio Spirits put out the Frank Sinatra tape
set, not a single Your Hit Parade was on there. The TV shows on the video
indicate the tobacco company owned the show. Do they still maintain the
rights? I
haven't seen any commerical use of Your Hit Parade material in years.
Just curious
Paul Urbahns
paulurbahn@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 15:29:09 -0400
From: Osborneam@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Marian Seldes
In OTR Digest 211, Harry Machin Jr. asks if there exist
any photographs of Marian Seldes.
While I have no answer for photographs, one can find Ms.
Seldes appearing in one of the recently-cancelled A&E
Nero Wolfe series episodes. It was the episode about a
dance (Champagne for One perhaps?) and Archie finds a
charming dance companion. (She's not the companion, BTW.)
Hope that helps.
Arlene Osborne
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 15:29:55 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: May 25th birthdays
If your birthday falls on May 25th, you share your birthday with:
05-25-1898 - Bennett Cerf - NYC - d. 8-27-1971
narrator, panelist: "Biography in Sound"; "What's My Line?"
05-25-1907 - Barbara Luddy - Helena, MT - d. 4-1-1979
actress: Carol Evans "Road of Life"; Janet Munson Adams "Woman in White"
05-25-1916 - Ginny Simms - San Antonio, TX - d. 4-4-1994
singer: "Ginny Simms Show"; "Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge"
05-25-1925 - Jeanne Crain - Barstow, CA
actress: "Lux Radio Theatre"
05-25-1929 - Beverly Sills - Brooklyn, NY
singer: "Major Bowes Capitol Family"
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Hometown of [removed] Kaltenborn and Spencer Tracy
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #213
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