Subject: [removed] Digest V2010 #9
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 1/16/2010 10:24 AM

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

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2010 : Issue 9
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      He was a commentator on MBS during t  [ Jonathan Scott <lotus@[removed] ]
      Input needed on Suspense find         [ rand@[removed] ]
      Thoughts on NBC-TV                    [ Stuart Lubin <stuartlubin6686@sbcgl ]
      Full Dress Suit                       [ "Holm" <cbholm@[removed]; ]
      1-16 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      This week in radio history 17-23 Jan  [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      Marginally [removed] new theme s  [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]
      Heart-Throbs of the Hills             [ guyotsmith@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:28:02 -0500
    From: Jonathan Scott <lotus@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  He was a commentator on MBS during the 1940s

    My father, Alan Scott, was news commentator on the Mutual Broadcast
    System originating out of Chicago during the 1940s with a break, of
    course, during the war. Later he returned to his native Philadelphia
    where he continued as a local radio commentator and later a TV
    personality. His daily commentaries were a forerunner of the type
    that Andy Rooney later brought to TV. One of his 1946 commentaries
    can be heard on a new web site I've launched. The site also contains
    some of his funny and insightful scripts. More to be added.

    [removed]

    -Jonathan Scott

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

    Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:29:18 -0500
    From: rand@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Input needed on Suspense find

    I recently picked up a "Suspense" disc set containing "Overture in Two
    Keys" with Joan Bennett from January, 1947.

    The set includes two different performances of the program - they're
    posted on my blog and I'd appreciate input on what these two versions
    might be (on air East coast/West coast, rehearsal, etc).

    Thanks!

    [removed]

    rand

    [ADMINISTRIVIA: While you're there, subscribe to the podcast. Trust me, it's
    well worth the player space.  --cfs3]

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

    Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:29:33 -0500
    From: Stuart Lubin <stuartlubin6686@[removed];
    To: Old Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Thoughts on NBC-TV

    This certainly does not qualify in the same category as what Jim Cox referred
    to, but I am reminded of the season when Hal Peary left The Great
    Gildersleeve, and Willard Waterman took over the role.  Peary went to CBS and
    starred in his own series, Honest Harold.  Because Willard Waterman's voice
    was so much like Peary's, I do not think the general public was too aware of
    the change. Of course, we radio buffs knew all about the change.

    Stuart

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

    Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:29:45 -0500
    From: "Holm" <cbholm@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Full Dress Suit

    I have a question that's off topic, but it was raised by an episode of the
    Jack Benny show, so I'm hoping it can skate by.

    On an episode of Jack Benny I was listening to lately, Jack is talking on
    the phone with Rochester.  Jack is looking for his "full dress suit," which
    Rochester turns out to be wearing.  Jack wants it back, and Rochester
    suggests he wear his Tuxedo instead.

    My question is what exactly is a full dress suit?  Google was initially
    unhelpful, suggesting definitions like "a suit consisting of a full dress
    jacket," or providing images from the 1800s.

    Can someone describe what a full dress suit in the 1940s/late-1930s might
    look like, and how it differed from a tuxedo?

    Thanks,
    Chris Holm

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

    Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:29:54 -0500
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  1-16 births/deaths

    January 16th births

    01-16-1878 - Harry Carey, Sr. - NYC - d. 9-21-1947
    actor: "Lincoln Highway"; "Suspense"
    01-16-1890 - Lloyd Bacon - San Jose, CA - d. 11-15-1955
    film director: "Screen Guild Theatre"; " Screen Director's Pla
    01-16-1895 - Irene Bordoni - Ajaccio, Corsica, France - d. 3-19-1953
    singer: (The Coty Playgirl) "The RKO Hour"
    01-16-1895 - John B. Kennedy - Quebec, Canada - d. 7-22-1961
    commentator: "Collier's Hour"; "RCA Magic Key"
    01-16-1901 - Sid Silvers - Brooklyn, NY - d. 8-20-1976
    actor: Beetle "Phil Baker Show"; "Jack Benny Program"
    01-16-1907 - Alexander Knox - Strathroy, Ontario, Canada - d. 4-25-1995
    actor: "Document A/777", BBC
    01-16-1907 - John Hiestand - Madison, WI - d. 2-5-1987
    announcer: "Amos 'n' Andy"; "Cinnamon Bear"; "Feg Murray Show"
    01-16-1909 - Ethel Merman - Astoria, NY - d. 2-15-1984
    singer" "Ethel Merman Show"; "Home Front Matinee"
    01-16-1910 - Dwight Weist - Palo Alto, CA - d. 7-16-1991
    actor: Mr. District Attorney "Mr. District Attorney"
    01-16-1910 - Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean - Lucas, AR - d. 7-17-1974
    baseball broadcaster: (Baseball Hall of Fame) "Game of the Day"
    01-16-1914 - Don Ettlinger - Detroit, MI - d. 8-6-2000
    writer: "Railroad Hour"; "Our Miss Brooks"; "Doctor Fights"
    01-16-1914 - Roger Wagner - Le Puy, France - d. 9-17-1992
    chorale director: "It's Time for Johnny Mercer"; "America Sings"
    01-16-1916 - Joe McMichael - Minneapolis, MN - d. 2-12-1944
    singer: (The Merry Macs) "Bing Crosby Show"; "Fred Allen Show"
    01-16-1916 - Norval Taborn - d. 1-23-1990
    singer: (The Vagabonds) "The Breakfast Club"
    01-16-1917 - Brainerd Duffield - Boston, MA - d. 4-5-1979
    writer: "The Ford Theatre"
    01-16-1917 - Buddy Lester - Chicago, IL - d. 10-4-2002
    comedian: (Brother of Jerry Lester) "Connee Boswell Show"
    01-16-1920 - Elliott Reid - NYC
    actor: Biff Bradley "Pepper Young's Family"
    01-16-1922 - Lina Romay - NYC
    latin singer: "The Bing Crosby Show"; "The Dick Haymes Show"
    01-16-1923 - Roy Lanham - Corbin, KY - d. 2-14-1991
    guitar: "Plantation Boys"
    01-16-1924 - Allen Swift - NYC
    actor: "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
    01-16-1924 - Katy Jurado - Guadalajara, Mexico - d. 7-5-2002
    actor: "George Fisher Interviews the Stars"
    01-16-1928 - Pilar Lorengar - Zaragoza, Spain - d. 6-2-1996
    soprano: "Ondas Infantiles"
    01-16-1929 - Popeye the Sailor - d. will live forever
    cartoon character: "Popeye"
    01-16-1947 - Michale Falconer Anderson - Aberdeen, Scotland
    author of radio plays

    January 16th deaths

    02-12-1888 - Victor Kolar - Budapest, Hungary - d. 1-16-1957
    conductor: "Ford Sunday Evening Hour"
    02-16-1911 - "Curly" Noland - Tennessee - d. 1-16-1993
    bass: "The Swift Jewel Cowboys"
    03-23-1905 - Sidney Walton - Mississippi - d. 1-16-1958
    announcer: "Arthur Tracy, Street Singer"; "Changing Times"
    03-24-1907 - Martin Kosleck - Barkotzen, Germany - d. 1-16-1994
    actor: "Treasury Star Parade"
    03-25-1867 - Arturo Toscanini - Parma, Italy - d. 1-16-1957
    conductor: "NBC Symphony Orchestra"
    04-21-1923 - John Mortimer - London, England - d. 1-16-2009
    author: "Rumpole of the Bailey"
    05-03-1907 - Earl Wilson - Rockford, OH - d. 1-16-1987
    columnist: "Earl Wilson's Broadway Column"
    06-13-1908 - Carl Eastman - NYC - d. 1-16-1970
    actor: "Mrs. Miniver"; "Renfrew of the Mounted"
    06-26-1913 - Jack Moyles - San Francisco, CA - d. 1-16-1973
    actor: Major Daggett "Fort Laramie"; Rocky Jordan "A Man Named Jordan/
    Rocky Jordan"
    07-03-1930 - Robert Robertson - St. Andrews, Scotland - d. 1-16-2001
    actor: "Have Gun, Will Travel"
    07-20-1911 - Bill Dillard - Philadelphia, PA - d. 1-16-1995
    jazz trumpeter: "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts"; "Arthur Godfrey Time"
    07-31-1892 - Herbert W. Armstrong - Des Moines, IA - d. 1-16-1986
    preacher: "Plain Truth"; "The World Tomorrow"
    09-01-1907 - Ray Barrett - NYC - d. 1-16-1973
    announcer, newscaster: "Monitor"; "Talent Search, Country Style"
    09-22-1875 - Guy Bates Post - Seattle, WA - d. 1-16-1968
    actor: Ulysses S. Grant "Roses and Drums"
    10-06-1908 - Carole Lombard - Fort Wayne, IN - d. 1-16-1942
    actor: "The Circle"; "Hollywood Hotel"
    10-10-1903 - Vernon Duke - Pskov, Russia - d. 1-16-1969
    broadway composer: "Mildred Baily Show"; "Good News of 1940"; "March
    of Time"

    Ron

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

    Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:30:13 -0500
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  This week in radio history 17-23 January

     From Those Were The Days

    1/17

    1938   Francis X. Bushman was the star of the program, Stepmother, which
    debuted on CBS. The show continued on the air for the next four years.

    1/18

    1929   New York Daily Mirror columnist Walter Winchell made his debut on
    radio, broadcasting a blend of political commentary and celebrity gossip
    to "Mr. and Mrs. [removed]" His quick jabbing, penetrating manner
    became his trademark. And so did wearing his fedora hat.

    1937   CBS introduced listeners to Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories for
    the first time. A complete story was told in five, 15 minute episodes
    which aired Monday thru Friday each week. Aunt Jenny was played by Edith
    Spencer and later, by Agnes Young. The show continued on radio until
    1956 and was sponsored over the years by Spry shortening and Lux soap.
    Aunt Jenny's whistling canary, for those of you ready to inquire, was
    played by animal imitator, Henry Boyd.

    1/20

    1954   The National Negro Network was formed on this date. Some 40 radio
    stations were charter members of the network.

    1/21

    1927   The first opera to be broadcast over a national radio network was
    presented in Chicago, IL. Listeners heard selections from Faust.

    1946   The Fat Man debuted on ABC. J. Scott Smart, who played the portly
    detective, weighed in at 270 pounds in real life.

    1/22

    1956   Raymond Burr starred as Captain Lee Quince in the Fort Laramie
    debut on CBS. The program was said to be in "the Gunsmoke tradition."

    1/23

    1937   In an article published in Literary Digest, Edgar Bergen
    mentioned that he made his dummy pal, Charlie McCarthy, the beneficiary
    of a $10,000 trust fund ($14,[removed] in 2007 dollars) to keep him in
    serviceable condition and repair.

    Joe

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

    Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:31:58 -0500
    From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Marginally [removed] new theme song

    Folks;

       I have a new personal theme [removed] only mention it here because the
    first two lines of the song deal directly with this hobby.

       (Who the heck am I [removed] mention it here because I'm mentioning it
    everywhere! I mean, c'[removed] theme song!!!)

       Check out the blog at [removed] for the bizarre tale of
    how I managed to have Jill Sobule write the theme song of my life - scroll
    down if it's no longer the top entry, or search for "theme" if you're reading
    the archives many years hence.  ;)

             Charlie

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

    Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:07:35 -0500
    From: guyotsmith@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Heart-Throbs of the Hills
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    For the past 50 years, I have very  unsuccessfully sought the possible
    whereabouts of a series of at least 52 NBC  Program Services transcriptions of
    "Heart-Throbs of the Hills," a show created  and written by my grandmother,
    Ethel Park Richardson. The quarter-hour  syndicated series was produced in
    1939 and 1940, and was run on various stations  throughout the 1940s. In all
    these years, I have actually seen only one of the  syndicated double-sided
    discs, which bore an attractive red, white, and blue  label. It was in the NBC
    library, along with acetates of three other episodes.  This material was
    subsequently turned over to the Library of Congress. I've  never heard of
    the
    existence of any other discs from this  series.
    My grandmother arrived in New York with a letter of recommendation from
    WDOD in Chattanooga just as NBC was beginning. She created and wrote  a number
    of series, remaining connected to NBC for some fifteen years. At the  same
    time, she did shows on numerous New York stations such as WOR, and briefly
    had a series on CBS. Although  primarily a writer, she played character parts
    on her own shows and also worked  on some other shows as an actress.
    "Hillbilly  Heart-throbs" premiered on NBC in 1933. Each week, my
    grandmother dramatized a  folk song or a hillbilly piece she had found in her
    Appalachian travels. Anne  Elstner, Curtis Arnall, Agnes Moorehead, Helen
    Clare,
    Dick Kollmar, Bud  Collyer, and countless others enacted the dramatic roles,
    while the musical  bridges connecting the stories were sung by the
    incomparable Frank Luther Trio.  A sustaining series, the title was changed to
    "Heart-Throbs of the Hills," in  the hope of attracting sponsorship. Still
    later,
    the title became "Dreams of  Long Ago," with the Vass Family providing the
    musical settings. After nearly six  years as a sustaining series, the
    program was retired. In 1939, however, a  special series of quarter-hour shows
    was
    recorded for syndication by NBC. Less  impressively produced, the
    syndicated series featured Bob Porterfield, Bobby  Strauss, The Song Spinners
    and
    others. Scripts were re-edited from the half-hour  network version.
    I  have lots of 16" transcription sleeves which advertise "Heart-Throbs of
    the  Hills" as a series available from NBC, but I have only held one of
    actual  syndicated discs in my hands in my lifetime. Do any copies of these
    transcriptions yet exist, outside of the one at the Library of Congress? Were
    absolutely all of them scrapped and destroyed? So many programs of that
    vintage  exist, at least in part, and yet I have never known of a collector
    who
    ever saw  a "Heart-Throbs of the Hills" disc. If any reader has seen or
    heard rumors of  the existence of any of these syndicated recordings
    (excluding the five episodes  in the Library of Congress), the news would be
    welcomed
    with unbridled  enthusiasm.
    Best regards,
    Jonathan

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    End of [removed] Digest V2010 Issue #9
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