Subject: [removed] Digest V2006 #7
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 1/8/2006 3:41 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2006 : Issue 7
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      1-8 births/deaths                     [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      Disk to Digits                        [ Art Chimes <[removed]@[removed] ]
      Re:John Dawson                        [ Thomas Butts <trbutts@[removed] ]
      The Greatest Performer                [ "david rogers" <david_rogers@hotmai ]
      Was Jack Johnstone was John Dawson?   [ "Stewart Wright" <stewwright@worldn ]
      The Greatest Performer                [ Robert Angus <rangus02@[removed]; ]
      Greatest Entertainer?                 [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr" <skallisjr@j ]
      Arrgh!                                [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr" <skallisjr@j ]
      Greatest performer of all time?       [ Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed]; ]
      DX-ing                                [ mmartini@[removed] ]
      Re: Recording from LP's               [ Jeffrey Ellis <jellis@[removed] ]
      Greatest Radio Entertainer            [ K & J Hammel <haml@[removed]; ]
      Jack Johnstone was NOT John Dawson    [ "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@hotmail. ]

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

    Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2006 23:33:45 -0500
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  1-8 births/deaths

    January 8th births

    01-08-1902 - Alexander Gray - Wrightvilles, PA - d. 10-4-1975
    baritone: "Chesterfield Quarter Hour"
    01-08-1903 - Roger Bower - New York, NY - d. 5-17-1979
    announcer, emcee: "Can You Top This?"; "Stop Me If You Heard This One"
    01-08-1904 - Peter Arno - d. 2-22-1968
    panelist: "Stop Me If You Heard This Before"
    01-08-1908 - William Hartnell - London, England - d. 4-23-1975
    actor: The Doctor "Doctor Who"
    01-08-1909 - Jose Ferrer - Santurce, PR - d. 1-26-1992
    actor: Philo Vance "Advs. of Philo Vance"; Minister "We Love and Learn"
    01-08-1910 - Dick Jurgens - Sacremento, CA - d. 10-5-1995
    orchestra leader: "Summer Spotlight Revue"
    01-08-1910 - Richard Cromwell - Los Angeles, CA - d. 10-11-1960
    actor: Kit Marshall "Those We Love"
    01-08-1911 - Butterfly McQueen - Tampa, FL - d. 12-22-1995
    actress: Oriole "Beulah"; Butterfly "Jack Benny Program"
    01-08-1914 - Sam Cowling - d. 2-14-1983
    singer: (The Three Romeos) "The Breakfast Club"; "Club Matinee"
    01-08-1923 - Giorgio Tozzi - Chicago, IL
    opera singer (bass): "The Chicago Theatre of the Air"
    01-08-1923 - Larry Storch - New York, NY
    comedian: "Duffy's Tavern"
    01-08-1926 - Soupy Sales - Franklinton, NC
    script writer, disc jockey: WHTN Huntington, WV
    01-08-1930 - May Wynn - New York, NY
    actress: "Amos 'n' Andy Show"
    01-08-1933 - Charles Osgood - New York, NY
    reporter: "Osgood File"
    01-08-1935 - Elvis Presley - Tupelo, MS (Raised: Memphis, TN) - d.
    8-16-1977
    singer: "Grand Ole Opry"

    January 8th deaths

    01-03-1918 - Jesse White - Buffalo, NY (Raised: Akron, OH) - d. 1-8-1997
    actor: "Hollywood Radio Theatre"; "Sears Radio Theatre"; "We Hold
    These Truths"
    01-24-1902 - Walter Kiernan - New Haven, CT - d. 1-8-1978
    commentator, emcee: "Sparring Partners"; "Weekend"
    01-30-1907 - Lois Wilson - Iowa - d. 1-8-1983
    actress: "Jack Benny Program"
    03-25-1909 - Jay Blackton - New York, NY - d. 1-8-1994
    composer, conductor, pianist: "Stu Erwin Show"; "Broadway Showtime"
    05-16-1891 - Richard Tauber - Linz, Austria-Hungary - d. 1-8-1948
    opera singer: "General Motors Concert"
    05-19-1919 - George Auld - Toronto, Canada - d. 1-8-1990
    bandleader: "Saturday Night Swing Session"
    05-29-1899 - Don Brodie - Cincinnati, OH - d. 1-8-2001
    grouch: "The Grouch Club"
    06-11-1889 - Wesley Ruggles - Los Angeles, CA - d. 1-8-1972
    film director: (Brother of Charlie) "Screen Guild Theatre"
    06-18-1906 - Ray Bauduc - New Orleans, LA - d. 1-8-1988
    drummer, composer: "The Bob Crosby Show"
    06-19-1915 - Pat Buttram - Addison, AL - d. 1-8-1994
    actor: (Sage of Winston County) "National Barn Dance"
    07-14-1911 - Terry-Thomas - London, England - d. 1-8-1990
    comedian: "Top of the Town"
    07-23-1910 - Gale Page - Spokane, WA - d. 1-8-1983
    actress: Holly Sloan "Story of Holly Sloan"; Gertrude Lamont
    "Masquerade"
    08-15-1901 - Sam Perrin - d. 1-8-1998
    writer: "Jack Benny Program"; "Phil Baker Show"; "Tommy Riggs and
    Betty Lou"
    08-28-1914 - Richard Tucker - New York, NY - d. 1-8-1975
    opera tenor: "Chicago Theatre of the Air"; "Standard Hour";
    "Metropolitan Opera"
    11-06-1905 - Isabel Carothers - Mt. Pleasant, IA - d. 1-8-1937
    actress: Lu "Clara, Lu and Em"
    12-22-1911 - Milton E. Drentz - d. 1-8-2000
    seminary producer: "The Eternal Light"

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 01:31:13 -0500
    From: Art Chimes <[removed]@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Disk to Digits

    Roger Keel (Digest no. 6) and others have been discussing transfers from disk
    to computer.

    If you are at all serious about getting good quality, one thing you'll want to
    avoid is going through the standard audio in and out jacks on your computer.
    The inside of a PC is an electronically noisy environment, and the quality of
    the analog-to-digital converters in most PCs is less than outstanding. (I have
    zero Mac experience; are the expensive Apple products any better than the
    commodity PC boxes?)

    You can get an outboard converter (at prices ranging from reasonable to
    ridiculous). Or you can use an external USB audio interface; I have one from
    Edirol that works quite well. You may not need the latest model; Ebay is a
    good place to shop for these.

    Software noise reduction is tricky, especially the more powerful programs.
    Less is almost always more. Clicks and pops can usually be removed more
    transparently than surface noice.  I've had good experience with Cool Edit Pro
    (now Adobe Audition), Sound Forge, and some others. (Never had the pleasure of
    using Cedar.) While I am a big fan of open source software, I can't recommend
    the noise reduction in Audacity, which has insufficient controls.

    -Art-

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 01:31:59 -0500
    From: Thomas Butts <trbutts@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:John Dawson

>            Jack Johnstone was  hiding an important fact from you.  He sometimes
>     wrote under the pen name  John Dawson.  (He told me this when I interviewed
>     him for SPERDVAC.)

    I do not know if this is true or not, but I always conjectured that the
    reason E. Jack Neumann [or Jack Johnstone] used the name John Dawson for
    the 75-minute episodes  was that they were all rewrites of  30-minute
    episodes that Neumann wrote for the O'Brien and Lund shows.

    Tom Butts
    Dallas, TX

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 11:05:04 -0500
    From: "david rogers" <david_rogers@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  The Greatest Performer

>     the MC was proclaiming Howard Stern as the greatest radio performer of all
>     time.

    How ridiculous!!!!!  As every true Englishman knows it was John Peel.

    Actually I am only partially joking there.  It has been a long time since
    any radio personality was given such a star-studded send off.

    Love as always, David Rogers

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 11:09:50 -0500
    From: "Stewart Wright" <stewwright@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Was Jack Johnstone was John Dawson?

        I know that Jack Johnstone used at least one pen name when writing radio
    dramas:  Jonathan Bundy.  The source of this information is Johnstone
    himself.

        In a 03/11/1984 interview conducted by John Dunning, Jack Johnstone
    mentioned he sometimes wrote using the pen name Jonathan Bundy.  In that
    interview Johnstone mentions he was the writer of the scripts for the final
    episodes of YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR ("The Tip-Off Matter") and SUSPENSE
    ("Devilstone") which both aired on 09/30/1962.  He mentioned he used the
    name Jonathan Bundy for "Devilstone" and his own name, Jack Johnstone, for
    "The Tip-Off Matter."  Johnstone used the name Jonathan Bundy for several
    other 1962 SUSPENSE scripts including "Feathers" 01/14/1962, Friday"
    02/04/1962, and "Formula For Death" 06/10/1962.

        Johnstone as Bundy also wrote the SUSPENSE episode "The Curse of
    Kamoshek" which aired on 04/22/1962. Johnstone used his own name when he
    wrote the multi-part YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR episode "The Curse of
    Kamashek Matter which aired on 09/03/1956 through 09/07/1956.

        A Jack Bundy also wrote at least three SUSPENSE episodes including
    "Bells" 08/06/1961, "The Green Idol" 09/17/1961 and "Dreams" October 8,
    1961.  Could these episodes also be by Johnstone using a slightly different
    pseudonym?

    Was John Dawson A Pen Name For E. Jack Neuman or Jack Johnstone?
        I have always believed that it was E. Jack Neuman who used the John
    Dawson pen name.  Here are a couple of examples of radio scripts that were
    originally written by E. Jack Neuman and later reworked by John Dawson.

    "The Prodigal Daughter"/"The Pearling Matter"
        The 07/17/1948 script "The Prodigal Daughter" that E. Jack Neuman wrote
    for the half-hour JEFF REGAN, INVESTIGATOR series has many plot
    line/character similarities to the to five-part  YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR
    adventure "The Pearling Matter" which aired on 06/18/1956 to 06/22/1956.
    For the JOHNNY DOLLAR script extensive changes and additions were made
    regarding characters, scenes, and dialog.  John Dawson is credited as the
    writer for the 1956 effort.

    "The Story of the Big Red Schoolhouse"/The Clinton Matter"
        The YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR episode, "The Story of the Big Red
    Schoolhouse" which aired on 04/04/1950 was written by E. Jack Newman and
    John Michael Hayes. The script was reworked and aired again aired as a
    multi-part, JOHNNY DOLLAR story, "The Clinton Matter," aired on 03/13/1956
    through 03/17/1956. The script writer for "The Clinton Matter" was John
    Dawson.

    Signing off for now,

    Stewart Wright

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 11:16:50 -0500
    From: Robert Angus <rangus02@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  The Greatest Performer

    One of the problems with compiling lists of "greatest" is the
    parochiality of the compiler, who usually limits his choices to his own
    hearing experience.  The examples cited in the posting all are of
    American entertainers heard nationally during a limited period in
    history.  One might argue, for example, that an entertainer who carried
    an entire nation through a World War might be considered for such a
    list.  That entertainer was the BBC's Tommy Handley.  Or a program which
    raised a fanatical following all around the world and still maintains
    fan clubs from Australia and Auckland to New York and London.  That was
    The Goons.  Or how about an entertainer who maintained a loyal following
    for more than half a century on the same station, like WTIC's Bob
    Steele?  At various times, morning man  Steele not only had the highest
    ratings in southern New England, but also was tuned in by more than 50
    per cent of his market.  My grandfather would have cited Sir Harry
    Lauder, who was the top-selling recording artist of his day and
    fantastically popular on early British radio.  Nor should one overlook
    the incredibly versatile and inventive Max Ferguson, Canadian radio's
    Rawhide.  Finally, back to the OTR giants, why not Orson Welles, who
    gave us not only great radio drama, but also was an excellent comic
    substitute for Jack Benny (another name worth considering)?  My point is
    that not only is it impossible to cite a single "greatest entertainer,"
    but that in trying to do so, one should  cast the widest net possible in
    a search for candidates.

    [ADMINISTRIVIA: The point here is not to come to some impossible-to-achieve
    consensis, but rather to give one's _own_ suggestions for who is "greatest."
    Since _everyone_ is subjectively "correct," there can be no "wrong"
    [removed] interesting part is considering other people's suggestions, not
    some presumption we can all agree on a single person.

    So to clarify, the question is, "What performer from the OTR era do YOU think
    is the greatest?" And why?  --cfs3]

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 11:13:47 -0500
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr" <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Greatest Entertainer?

    Al Girard, speaking of "the greatest entertainer of all time," asks whom
    we would consider as the greatest entertainer of all time, and the
    greatest in the radio venue.  He then suggests,

>     I can think of Bob Hope, who was in vaudeville, radio, movies, night
>     clubs and war zones.  Others who
>     you might consider are Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, Red Skelton
>     and Danny Kaye.

    And, for radio, doesn't mention Jack Benny.  But this is a tricky thing
    anyway.  "Entertainer" doesn't necessarily mean "performer," so a good
    case might be made for Cecil B. Demille or John Ringling North.  Also,
    popularity doesn't necessarily mean "greatest," or for radio, the
    hands-down winner(s) would be Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll -- Amos
    and Andy -- which was so popular in its prime that it was a real "must
    listen."

    A lot of this is also time driven, which is a consequence of such a poll.
     Many of those responding doubtless never heard much, if any, OTR.  Some
    years ago, I was playing some old recordings, and played an Al Jolson
    song.  My wife, who was born in 1950, thought he was great (to the point
    of saying, "Wow!" after the song concluded), but had never heard one of
    his numbers before.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 11:14:41 -0500
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr" <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Arrgh!

    DOORBELLONE,  notes that nostalgia is a personal thing, anent OTR, and
    then adds,

>     I have to go now and shine my Captain Midnight decoder rings and
>     [removed] want to exchange some secret messages?

    The not so secret message: there were no decoder ring premiums during the
    OTR period (a few appeared in the TV era).  And while I'm at it, there
    were seven Captain Midnight cryptological radio premiums (all called
    Code-O-Graphs).  Only four of them were badges; the other three, pocket
    items.  One had a body of stamped sheet steel, overcoated with "gold"
    paint.  For that one, "shining" might mean waxing, like waxing a car's
    paint job.  And of course, there was the 1947 model, in the form of a
    plastic whistle.

    Cryptological radio premiums were primarily an Ovaltine (at the time, The
    Wander Company) concept, starting with the Radio Orphan Annie (ROA)
    Secret Society (SS) 1935 Decoder Pin, and ending with the 1949
    Key-O-Matic Code-O-Graph.  (A trivium: the ROA SS 1938 Telematic Decoder
    Pin and the 1948 Mirro-Magic Code-O-Graph were cryptologically identical.
     The same dies were used to stamp out the cipher elements in both
    premiums.)  Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters had two actual code devices
    (mist "decoders" were actually cipher devices), a set of Decoder Buttons,
    and a Six-Gun Decoder Badge.  There were a few scattered others
    (Tennessee Jed and Red Ryder spring to mind), but most other code/cipher
    premiums were used for inter-child communication rather than being
    broadcast.  (An aside: a "decoder" in the Tom Mix Secret Ink Writing Kit
    premium, was rather sophisticated for such things: it used what
    cryptologists call "polyalphabetic substitution," where one letter may
    have different other-letter substitutions depending on its position in
    the message.  Most cipher schemes were "monalphabetic" or "simple"
    substitutions.  But the Secret Ink "decoder" wasn't used for broadcast
    messages, as far as I can determine.)

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 11:15:05 -0500
    From: Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Greatest performer of all time?

    It is impossible to name a Greatest Performer of All Time because the
    category is too broad.  It's like naming the greatest athlete of all
    time.  Narrow that to the greatest baseball player, then to the greatest
    third baseman, and you still will argue whether your criteria should
    include batting or just fielding.  And if batting, power hitting, clutch
    hitting, or batting average?

    With entertainers, how can you possibly assert "X is a better singer than
    Y is a Shakespearian actor, and A is a better comedian than B is a film
    actor."

    And as you collapse the parameters ("Comedians who uses pratfalls while
    talking in a lower Scandinavian dialect about their mothers-in-law's
    cooking") you are getting farther and farther away from finding someone
    acceptable to everyone as "The Greatest Entertainer of All Time."  This
    is one of those topics that can (and probably will) be argued futilely
    forever, a dog chasing his tail until he collapses from exhaustion.

    I've seen Jolson and Cantor named as likely candidates - and I'm not
    crazy about either one.  Garland never made me laugh, Hope never engaged
    my deeper emotions, Skelton never impressed me with his hoofing.

    The exercise is futile.  Period.

    Besides, everybody knows it's Jack Benny anyway.

    ---Dan

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 15:25:25 -0500
    From: mmartini@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  DX-ing

    I wanted to pass this [removed]
    I spent Christmas with my parents and at one point in the evening my father
    pulled out a small, yellowed piece of paper he had found at the bottom of a
    box.  It dated from around 1940, when he was a boy and received his first
    radio.  Printed, very neatly, were the call letters of about 50-radio
    stations, the dates they were heard and their cities or origin (Dad always
    did have perfect penmanship--too bad it never rubbed off on his son.)
    Anyway, dad recounted his Zenith table-top radio that he used to listen to
    every night before bed.  I told him that, by coincidence, I did a little
    DX-ing about three weeks [removed] was coming home from a meeting late one
    night and was bored with the usual radio fare so I started at the high end of
    the AM dial and worked my way all the way down.  I reached 550 when I pulled
    in my driveway, having visited old friends WGN, WOR, KNOX and several others
    along the way.  The conversation then turned to crystal [removed]'m not that
    old (41), but I had a Radio Shack crystal kit that I built as a boy and
    listened to almost every night.  Other than hometown boomer WLW, I would get
    some station in Canada (I forget which) which seemed to have hockey on every
    night.  Although not really a fan of the sport, I loved falling asleep to the
    sounds of the nightly hockey from so far away and carried, magically and for
    free, on the night winds and I would wake up in the morning, scrambling to
    find the earplug which would fall out as I slept.  It was very comforting and
    I miss those days.
    Anyway, the reason I mention this is that my ten-year old son sat listening
    in fascination to his dad and grandpa's conversation.  Immediately, he wanted
    to try a little DX-ing and asked if he, too, could get a crystal set.  Of
    course, I'll do my best to satisfy his curiosity, but I couldn't help but
    feel a little sad, too!   The crystal set, as well as "DX-ing the AM band,"
    will all become impossible in the next five or ten years as digital radio
    comes along and analog radio is phased out.  Even dad's old Zenith, which I
    keep in my basement, will eventually become just a display piece.  I guess my
    son, who is the family computer whiz, will have to "google" radio station
    streaming audio from around the country to get the same effect.  But I doubt
    he'll have as much fun as his dad/grandpa!
    Mike Martini

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 16:51:15 -0500
    From: Jeffrey Ellis <jellis@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Recording from LP's

    on 1/7/06 8:37 PM, Pete Appleyard  wrote:

> >     I have a number of radio shows that are on LP records and have been trying
> >     to put the shows on cassette tapes. Sounds easy but how does one get rid
> >     of the hisses, pops, scratch clunks etc or in other words the noisy sounds
> >     that records make??

    I use Digital Performer along with the Waves Restoration package. Be
    forewarned, this is all professional level stuff, and pricey, but well worth
    it. The Restoration package has separate plugins each for Noise, Clicks,
    Crackle and Hum, each with many presets and settings to adjust your
    clean-up.

    Within Performer itself, you can eliminate specific pops by manually editing
    them out using a simple pencil tool. You can then EQ the track and even use
    professional quality Compression or a myriad of other audio filters which
    come pre-packaged with Performer to make the audio sound as superb as when
    originally recorded (or maybe better).

    This same setup will work equally well for all OTR media, including
    Transcription Discs, Cassettes, and even material already available in
    digital form, but which hasn't been cleaned up prior to digitization. The
    final results can be output to virtually any format, AIFF files for transfer
    to CD's or Cassettes, MP3's or a large variety of other file formats
    depending on your end use.

    All My Best,
    Jeffrey

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 16:51:41 -0500
    From: K & J Hammel <haml@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Greatest Radio Entertainer

     In a recent digest Al Girard  asked:

    A:  .... who was the greatest entertainer of all time?
    B: Who would you say was the greatest radio entertainer of
    all time?

    In my humble opinion, it would be difficult to out match
    Jack Benny in either of categories.  His humor was not only
    funny then, but holds up well [removed] and he kept it
    clean.

    Kathy Hammel

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

    Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 16:53:58 -0500
    From: "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Jack Johnstone was NOT John Dawson

    In Digest #6 Dan Haefele wrote:

>     Jack Johnstone was  hiding an important fact from you.  He sometimes
>     wrote under the pen name  John Dawson.  (He told me this when I interviewed
>     him for SPERDVAC.)...E. Jack  Newman wrote under his own name and I can't
>     fathom either man using the other's  work.   Can you give an example of two
>     shows with exactly (or nearly)  the same story and different authors?"

    Not true. I asked Jack Johnstone, at the SPERDVAC meeting where he was the
    guest speaker, whatever became of writer John Dawson. Johnstone explained
    that John Dawson was a name that E. Jack Neuman (correct spelling) used when
    he rewrote some of his 30-minute Johnny Dollar stories for the 5-part Johnny
    Dollar serials. Jack Johnstone then said that he himself sometimes wrote
    under the name SAM Dawson. All of this conversation was recorded and can be
    heard on the SPERDVAC PRESENTS recording of that meeting in SPERDVAC's
    General Library. I don't recall if Johnstone gave any in-depth explanation
    as to why they used different names. I would encourage all of you to check
    out the wealth of information that can be found on these recordings of so
    many of our honored OTR actors, directors, etc.  Check the index at
    [removed]

    Barbara

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2006 Issue #7
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