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

[removed] Digest				Volume 96 : Issue 308

Table Of Contents: 

	 destroying history
	 Lady of the Press
	 Re: surfing otr and otr Digest V96 #307
	 Trains! (chugga-chugga-chugga)
	 The female of the species
	 Re: Milford-Haven, U. S. A.
	 Grand Ole WLS
	 Are you sure?
	 Tape Recorder
	 YUSA

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

Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 01:08:00 -0400
From: Donna Halper <dlh@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: destroying history
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

[removed] Bensman knows whereof he speaks.  I am a radio consultant and broadcast 
historian and I'm currently doing the history of WBZ in Boston for their 75th 
anniversary.  It is both heart-breaking and appalling that so many boxes of archival 
material were tossed out as 'junk' and others were left to mildew in old cartons out at 
a transmitter.  My personal crusade is restoring the name and achievements of WGI, 
greater Boston's first radio station-- but I'm doing it with virtually no archives at 
all.  Most of their history was lost in a fire, and what remains is sketchy at best.  
Although they were on the campus of Tufts and may have been broadcasting with a regular 
schedule MONTHS before the much better known KDKA, when I asked several professors and 
librarians at Tufts about WGI, the general consensus was tepid at best.  One person 
remarked, "Why should we preserve the history of something that only lasted for five 
years?" ...[removed]  It is a great responsibility being a historian-- we have the power 
to keep people from being forgotten.  The first woman engineer in Boston radio, Eunice 
Randall, has been written out of history and it is my intention to write her and other 
innovators back in.  But this isn't just about Eunice Randall or about WGI-- it's about 
how disposable our culture has become.  One thing that worries me about the Net is how 
will future historians find out what we were thinking?  Letters and journals can be 
preserved.  So can old newspapers.  But e-mail is so nebulous, so difficult to save for 
prolonged periods of time.  I wonder how future historians will deal with [removed]   just 
a few random thoughts at 1 [removed] on a Friday [removed]    donna halper

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

Date: Thu, 29 Aug 96 23:10 PDT
From: lois@[removed] (Lois Culver)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Lady of the Press
Message-Id: <m0uwMmG-0007RqC@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>>If the character qualifies as a full-fledged private eye, she seems to
beat >Candy Matson by half a dozen years.

>Does anybody have any installments of "Lady of the Press?" It would be great
>to find out whether she was played up as a detective, or more as a
>journalist, "news-hen," or even sob-sister.


The Review from Variety of May 2, 1944 says:

"Tee-up episode sets the scene for the murder of a society dame crusading
against the black market.  While being photographed at the newspaper office,
she is shot by an unknown assailant.  When one of the city dicks fails to
get excited over the murder, the gal reporter takes up the trail, determined
to bring the killer to justice.  Just off the last commercial the sobbie is
closing in on her quarry, but danger lurks ahead."

I have a copy of Lady of the Press, #17 "The Picture of Death".  It was
dubbed from my reel by The Radio Showcase.  Contact Steve there for a copy -
SteveK1425@[removed]

Lois Culver

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

Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 12:02:16 +0100 (BST)
From: hbj@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: surfing otr and otr Digest V96 #307
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

I think I may have a solution to the question/fantasy of surfing the
airwaves.
If you can receive world service on shortwave well enough, there are a
number of interesting plays.
Reception not the greatest, but can be done.
2.
Prepair a bunch of your favorite shows on cassettes. Don't label them.
Keep them in a bag on the floor in the car, and drop them in.
You won't have an idea (if you use the same brand of cassette for this purpose) of
what you are going to hear.
Perhaps some way to enhancing the fantasy.
I suppose, when the recordable cd becomes eminently affordable, and
multiple play machines cheaply available, one could have a pack of cds,
and shove them in, and let the machine shuffle.
In this situation, you'd have the ideal setup.
Good listening



henry: [removed]
hbj@[removed]

`[1;30;44mNet-Tamer V [removed] Beta - Registered

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

Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 07:51:41 -0400
From: DavidLHsl@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Trains! (chugga-chugga-chugga)
Message-ID: <960830075140_190979826@[removed]>

  Marty Dzik requested OTR episodes taking place on a trains.  Interesting
premise.  Here are the only ones I could come up with (Note that not all the
action may take place on a train, just at some portion in the episode):

  The Green Hornet: Disaster Rides the Rails
  Obsession: Train Ride in Car B-92
  The Third Man (or Adventures of Harry Lime): It's in the Bag
  The Great Gildersleeves: Premiere episode (08/31/41)
  The Man Called X: Spy on the Orient Express (01/27/51)
  The Shadow: The Giant of Madras (05/16/48)

  Jack Benny had great episodes that took place at a train station.  Mel
Blanc's announcements for the incoming and outgoing trains are hysterical.
 The episodes I know of are dated 04/01/51 and 05/15/55, but I'm sure there
are others.

  Finally, you can hear the sound of a train during the introductions to "I
Love a Mystery" and "The Mysterious Traveler."  The action didn't take place
on a train, however.

David Hassell
"Clams got legs!!!" (from the comic strip [removed])

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

Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 08:09:54 -0400 (EDT)
From: Bruce Rudesill <lranger@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: The female of the species
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

It surprises me that "Lady of the Press" is as close as anyone could come
to a radio, female detective. Actually it sounds like an OTR version of
the movie's Torchy Blane who was most definitely a reporter first and an
investigator second.

Go back to 1946 when "Meet Miss Sherlock" ran as a summer replacement. In
1941 "Miss Pinkerton" starring Joan Blondell and Dick Powell appeared, at
least in pilot show form. A real pity it wasn't picked up for a regualr
run. as I am sure I would have loved it. These two pre-dated Candy Matson
by three and eight years. Candy herself only lasted eleven months.

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

Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 08:16:27 -0400
From: OTRDSIEGEL@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Milford-Haven, U. S. A.
Message-ID: <960830081625_468578327@[removed]>

  Some time ago I received copies of the first two episodes of a modern
series called Milford-Haven, U. S. A.  Do any subscribers have additional
programs in this series?  If so and they care to [removed] have an extensive
collection of otr material that I would be willing to exchange for programs
in the series that I don't have. Contact me at my e-mail address please.
Thanks.  Dave Siegel

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

Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 09:50:34 -0400
From: Udmacon@[removed]
To: oconnell@[removed]
cc: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Grand Ole WLS
Message-ID: <960830095033_397581227@[removed]>

WLS was founded by Sears-Roebuck, thus WLS meant "World's Largest store." Not
too long into its history it was bought by the "Prairie Farmer"publication.
>From about 1924 to 1960, when ABC bought it, WLS was aimed at the farm
listener. It shared time with WENR, so it was on the air from 5 [removed] to 2
[removed] (CST); then for ninety minutes weeknights. 

The core of WLS was its Saturday night National Barndance, 60 minutes of
which was on NBC years before the Grand Ole Opry. In the thirties it was
truly authentic since Kentucky's John Lair was involved with booking the
acts. He later formed his own Renfro Valley Barndance from Rockcastle County
KY, and the Renfro Valley Sunday Morning Gathering, still syndicated! 

Another alumnus of WLS and the Barndance was announcer George D. Hay, the
"Solemn Old Judge" from Attica, Indiana, who was lured away by Nashville's
WSM, and who started a modest little Saturday night show in 1925 called the
"WSM Barndance." Two years later, he rashly adlibbed a new name for the show,
the "Grand Ole Opry." 

(If OTR folks would like some info on Judge Hay, I'll post it)

Stars of the Barndance included faded phonograph stars including Billy Murray
and Henry Burr (the National Barndance was not as country as the Opry was),
and Lulubelle & Scotty, Red Foley, the Hoosier Hotshots, Karl & Harty
("Hartford Connecticut Taylor!!"), Mac & Bob, Lily May Ledford, Arkie the
Arkansas Woodchopper, Homer & Jethro, a young Gene Autry, Bradley Kincaid
(country music's first superstar, whom I'll also expand upon if you like),
Little Georgie Goebel (yep, HIM!) and hundreds of others. 

Paramount made "National Barndance" in the 1940s featuring many of its stars,
plus Robert Benchley! I've never been able to find it, however; although I DO
have a program from its world premiere at the 8th St. Theatre in Chicago, in
1944; the home of the Barndance each Saturday night.  

Looking at the annual WLS Family Albums (1930-1957), and the station's weekly
"Standby" of the 1930s showing the elephantine staff of the station's
musicians, singers, personalities and announcers, one wonders how the
part-time station could turn a profit! 

It all died (was killed!) overnight in 1960 when WLS went rock and roll and
made another type of history in its second reincarnation (I guess). Now it's
all talk, and fulltime. At least it kept its historic call letters!

BILL KNOWLTON: "BLUEGRASS RAMBLE", WCNY-FM, SYRACUSE NY (since 1973)
It had a daily  [removed] "Smile Awhile" live show, a Dinner Bell Program, and
even the Martha Crane womens' program had singers and an orchestra. WENN with
a very big budget!

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

Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 09:19:08 -0500 (CDT)
From: barrym <barrym@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Are you sure?
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

> Okay, if you want West Coast OTR, I wonder if you've ever heard of "Candy
> Matson." I have just two installments of this show, produced in San Francisco
> and carried on the NBC Network in 1950.
> 
> She has a collaborator/boyfriend in the SFPD and an apparently gay
> photographer pal named Rembrandt.

I find it pretty amazing that a radio show had a gay person in
the 50's and I have to say I'm very sceptical.  Are you sure this
wasn't just the way the guy talked?

I don't think I've ever encountered a gay character, or even one
that was intended to make you think they were gay, in any radio
or tv show from that era.

Barry

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

Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 10:39:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: "The Cruisin' Quartet" <tenor@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Tape Recorder
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Yesterday I responded to Ed Carr's message about selling his tape
recorder.  I am very interested and I sent e-mail but it was returned
address unknown.  Perhaps, I copied it wrong.  Can someone (hopefully Ed)
send me some information.  Thank you.

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

Date: 30 Aug 96 13:09:00 EDT
From: "Robert I. Scherago" <[removed]@[removed]>
To: Old Time Radio <[removed]@[removed]>
Subject: YUSA
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

Now that I finally have a sound card installed,
I don't know where to find YUSA.
Can somebody direct me?
Thanks.
Bob




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End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #308
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