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The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2015 : Issue 99
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
This week in radio history 29 Novemb [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
Gunsmoke Episode Adaptation For Tele [ Stewart Wright <otrwash@[removed]; ]
Aunt Sammy [ jack and cathy french <otrpiano@ver ]
Jubilee #001 & Maxine Sullivan [ Chargous@[removed] ]
audio CD degeneration/ Scotch 176 sq [ Chargous@[removed] ]
This week in radio history 6-12 Dece [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
Ralph Platten [ "Walden Hughes" <waldenhughes@yeste ]
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Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2015 22:12:27 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: This week in radio history 29 November to 5
December
11/29
1950 "I Fly Anything", starring singer Dick Haymes in the role of
cargo pilot Dockery Crane, premiered on ABC. With a title like that, is
it any wonder the show only lasted one season? Haymes went back to
singing and did very well, thank you.
11/30
1940 Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were married.
12/2
1932 The Adventures of Charlie Chan was first heard on the NBC Blue
network.
12/3
1928 The first broadcast of The Voice of Firestone was heard. The
program aired each Monday evening at 8. The Voice of Firestone became a
hallmark in radio broadcasting. It kept its same night, time (in 1931
the start time changed to 8:30) and sponsor for its entire run.
Beginning on September 5, 1949, the program of classical and
semiclassical music was also seen on television.
12/4
1932 "Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. North and South America and all the
ships at sea. Let's go to press!" The Jergens Journal aka The Walter
Winchell Show and later, Kaiser Frazer News was first heard on the NBC
Blue network. Winchell kept that gossip show going on the radio for 23
years. It was sponsored at first by Jergens lotion and, later, by Dryad
deodorant, Kaiser Frazer cars and Richard Hudnut shampoo.
1933 One of America's great radio shows made the leap to the big time.
Ma Perkins moved from WLW in Cincinnati, OH to the NBC Red network. The
show proved to be so popular that it was later carried on both CBS and NBC.
12/5
1936 Bing Crosby took over as host of The Kraft Music Hall. Jimmy
Dorsey (who would later be host, himself) led the Kraft Orchestra.
1952 Mutual broadcast The Green Hornet for the final time. The show
left the air after 15 years on Mutual, NBC and ABC.
Joe
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Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2015 22:12:37 -0500
From: Stewart Wright <otrwash@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Gunsmoke Episode Adaptation For Television
Even though I have been researching the radio version of GUNSMOKE for over 20
years, I continue to learn additional information about the series.
BACKGROUND:
The GUNSMOKE Radio episode Meshougah written by Antony Ellis, which aired
02/21/1953 was later adapted by Ellis for television, but not for the
television version of the series.
Meshougah was adapted for an episode of the Western anthology television
series ZANE GREY THEATRE, Village of Fear (Season 1 Episode 21) which aired
on March 1, 1957.
The plot line for both the original and the adaptation are quite similar:
an entire town is terrorized by a gang of killers led by a crazy man.
(Meshougah is a variation of the Hebrew or Yiddish word which means "Crazy.")
Also, most of the character names in the radio production were retained in
the television production.
ZANE GREY THEATRE is currently airing on over-the-air rerun channel GRIT
which also shows up on various Cable and Satellite channels.
COMING ATTRACTION:
The next showing of the ZANE GREY THEATRE episode
Village of Fear
on the GRIT TV Network is scheduled for
Wednesday, December 09, 2015
7:00 AM EST
To find out if GRIT is available in your area, go to
[removed]
This page has a map and a listing which show the over-the-air stations and
cable systems that carry GRIT programming.
Signing off for now,
Stewart
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2015 22:12:57 -0500
From: jack and cathy french <otrpiano@[removed];
To: OTRBB <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Aunt Sammy
I'm working on a long-term project involving a USDA radio show that ran from
1926 to 1946. Unless you lived on, or near, a farm you probably never heard
of it. It was, at various times, called "Housekeeper's Chat", "Homemaker's
Chat" or "Homemaker's News" but the central character and only voice on this
weekly 15 minute program was a woman called "Aunt Sammy." USDA provided only
the scripts to local stations throughout the USA and each station had a local
woman voicing Aunt Sammy. She discussed food, fashion, labor-saving devices,
canning fruits and veggies, child care, and gave out recipes. The latter
became so popular that USDA published a series of cook books under her name,
and continued distributing them through the 1970's.
There are no known audio copies of this program, although odds would favor
the fact that of the hundreds of women at the mike at different stations over
the two decades, at least a few of them had the engineer make her an
air-check, if only to play later for her grandkids.
Most of the stations were reluctant to identify the woman at the mike,
preferring that listeners thought the voice was coming from Washington, DC.
So very few of these women were publicly identified in news [removed] far
I've found only 11, the last identity of which came from a gentleman whose
mother played Aunt Sammy prior to the 30s at WBZA in Boston.
Is it possible that among our far-flung Digesters that one or two of them may
have also had a relative who played Aunt Sammy? If so, please advise me.
Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL
<[removed]>
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2015 22:13:16 -0500
From: Chargous@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Jubilee #001 & Maxine Sullivan
I was wondering if anyone here knew exactly who Maxine Sullivan was? An
educated guess is that she was a West coast nightclub singer. She appeared
in a bunch of Jubilees, but I can find very little information about her.
I'm interested in all things big band, especially hot bands. I've been
looking for a quality copy (non-mp3) (wav/flac/audio CD at last resort) of
#001 in particular. I've exhausted most other possibilities and I hoped
someone here might have it. Always interested in any lo-gen quality copies
of Jubilee I don't have.
Travis Conner
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2015 22:13:31 -0500
From: Chargous@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: audio CD degeneration/ Scotch 176 squealer reel
While I'm at it, I'd like to address a couple of long-time audio
concerns. I'm sure everyone's noticed that pc-burned audio CDs generally
go bad very quickly - esp. ones with writing on them, white thermal ones
(VERY FAST). It starts out with the track closest to the CD's edge and
generally starts at the end of the program - a tika tika sound or a flange
and progresses throughout the whole CD over time. I was wondering if
anyone had techniques to get a decent rip out of one? I abandoned audio CD
pretty early on, but it's so frustrating to come across a show I really
want (such as an Inner Sanctum recently - Death Watch in Boston) and tika
tika tika. Data wav is much better and I've never lost a whole CD/dvd that
way, although at this point I only use DVD as a third backup. I strongly
recommend anyone to rip a CD to wav/flac as soon as they get said CD.
Reel people know of the black-coated squealer reel. They're a pain, but
treatable by baking at 110 for 11 hours. Unfortunately, I learned (and
experienced) that Scotch 176 is a squealer reel and doesn't seem to respond
to baking. The same goes for cheaper grade greyish-black reels and some
chocolate colored ones. Does anyone have any Scotch
solutions? Fortunately, it was a pricey reel and I always used Ampex
631/641. Transferring a squealer at 7 1/2 ips (and digitally fixing the
speed) also helps ease squeal/shed, even after baking. The type of black
coated reels I come across the most are the kind that were in the
RHAC/Sperdvac archives libraries. Does anyone know what these were? Ampex
291? They're almost always good after treatment.
Thanks,
Travis Conner
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2015 22:13:43 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: This week in radio history 6-12 December
12/6
1923 The first presidential address to be carried on radio was
broadcast from Washington, DC. President Calvin Coolidge addressed a
joint session of the [removed] Congress.
12/7
1948 NBC presented the Horace Heidt Youth Opportunity Program for the
first time. The talent show earned Dick Contino, an accordionist, the
$5,000 ($47,042 in 2012 dollars) prize as the program's first national
winner. Over the years Heidt gave some big stars their big starts: Art
Carney, Frankie Carle, Gordon MacRae, the King Sisters, Alvino Rey, Ken
Berry, Frank DeVol, Dick Contino, Al Hirt, Fred Lowrey, Ronnie Kemper,
Larry Cotton, Donna and her Don Juans, Ollie O'Toole and many others.
1952 My Little Margie, starring Gale Storm and Charles Farrell, made
its debut on CBS. The TV version of the popular show had begun on June
16, 1952. My Little Margie stayed on radio for three years.
12/9
1940 The Longines Watch Company signed for the first FM radio
advertising contract with experimental station W2XOR in New York City.
The ads ran for 26 weeks and promoted the Longines time signals.
12/10
1927 For the first time, famed radio announcer George Hay introduced
the WSM Barn Dance as The Grand Ole Opry.
12/11
1944 The Chesterfield Supper Club debuted on NBC. Perry Como, Jo
Stafford and many other stars of the day shared the spotlight on the 15
minute show that aired five nights a week. The show was sponsored by
Chesterfield cigarettes.
12/12
From The [removed]
1901 Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi receives the first
transatlantic radio transmission in St. John's Newfoundland.
From Those Were The Days
1937 The Federal Communications Commission was a bit upset with NBC.
The FCC scolded the radio network for a skit that starred Mae West. The
satirical routine was based on the biblical tale of Adam and Eve but
West's "suggestive" reading was not to network standards. So, following
its scolding by the FCC, NBC banned Miss West from its airwaves for
several years. Even the mere mention of her name on NBC was a no-no, it
is said.
Joe
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2015 22:14:09 -0500
From: "Walden Hughes" <waldenhughes@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Ralph Platten
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
Hi everybody
On the Saturday night show we play the Grand Central Station Christmas show
and we talk about it on the air. Does any one have any background on Ralph
Platten who played Mason? Take care,
Walden
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
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End of [removed] Digest V2015 Issue #99
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