Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #243
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 6/21/2003 3:03 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2003 : Issue 243
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Half shows and side [removed]         [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
  June 21st births                      [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  car radios of old                     [ "ellsworth o johnson" <eojohnsonww2 ]
  Tennessee or Texas                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  Two Eds are better than one!          [ Derek Tague <derek@[removed]; ]
  Arlene Francis and OTR                [ "David H. Buswell" <dbuswell@rivnet ]
  Re: Inside Out/Outside In             [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Old car radios                        [ "Jerry Bechtel" <jerrybechtel@jalc. ]
  Arlene Francis on OTR/Natalie Master  [ Kenneth Clarke <kclarke5@[removed]; ]
  collections                           [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]
  Rolling Radio                         [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  Re: Edgar Bergen vs. Jerry Mahoney    [ Kcpymurphy@[removed] ]
  Edgar Bergen                          [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
  Car Radios                            [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
  little men                            [ "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed]; ]
  Theater five                          [ "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 14:34:58 -0400
From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Half shows and side [removed]

Martin asked about "Suspense" half shows.  I cannot comment on availability
of shows, but I can comment on what probably was the practice regarding
making ETs at networks and local stations.  At one time, I had several
albums of ETs for "Frontier Town" (Jeff Chandler).  From memory only, there
were 2 to 4 discs in each album (16" red vinyl), recorded at 33 1/3 rpm.
Let's assume two shows are on 2 discs.  Side 1 of mythical show "Cowboy
trails", part 1 is on Side 1 of Disc 1, and part 2 of Cowboy trails is on
Side 1 of Disc 2.  For the second show, "High in the saddle", part 1 is on
Side 2 of Disc 1, and part 2 is on Side 2 of Disc 2.  The split was to make
it possible for the engineer to put the two discs of one show on separate
turntables.  When one side ended, he had already cued up Disc 2 and turned
it on.  No breaks.  Most syndicated discs had space for local commercials,
with separate tracks, or the music merely played under the local announcer.
    I have many of the Golden Age of Radio Theater discs which used a
different method.  (12" LPs)  These shows had separate tracks for each
program, space for commercials, and the side break came at the point of a
local commercial.  Thus, the local announcer read the cue sheet to know what
the last words of Victor Ives (host of GART) would be.  Annoucer read the
commercial while the engineer turned over the LP transcription, cued it up,
and when the announcer was done, played side 2.
    There may have been other methods as well, but these are the ones I am
familiar with.
    One more:  Arturo Toscanini (in recording on 78s) often refused to stop
conducting for side breaks.  To "solve" that problem, the engineers used two
disc cutters.  When Toscanini and the NBC symphony got near a good stopping
place, the engineer switched to the second turntable.  The result was
sometimes a bit messy with part of a note at the end of a side and the rest
of the note on the next side!  (As in his 78 version of Beethoven's Violin
Concerto.)  Or, as in the case of Beethoven's Symphony no. 7, there is
considerable blank space at the beginning of a side.
    Speaking of side breaks, Leopold Stokowski had his engineers experiment
with fading out at the end of a side, then fading in at the beginning of the
next side (Chaikovskii's Nutcracker suite).
    Sorry, Charlie, if I got a little carried away.  I suppose the last two
paragraphs belong on the
78-L !  But there were classical music disc jockeys even in the days of "old
time radio"!

Ted Kneebone/1528 S. Grant [removed], SD 57401/605-226-3344
OTR: [removed]

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

Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 21:01:37 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  June 21st births

June 21st births:

06-21-1900 - Jack Arthur - Brooklyn, NY - d. 10-1-1980
singer, emcee: "Echoes of New York"; "Family Time"; "Jack Arthur Show"
06-21-1921 - Jane Russell - Bemidji, MN
panelist: "Adventures of Ellery Queen"
06-21-1922 - Judy Holliday - NYC - d. 6-7-1965
actress: "The Big Show"

June 21st deaths:

None

Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Hometown of [removed] Kaltenborn and Spencer Tracy

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

Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 21:02:35 -0400
From: "ellsworth o johnson" <eojohnsonww2@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  car radios of old

In response to the post today re oldtime car radios, in the 30s and 40s you
could order a new car with a factory installed car radio but most purchased
a car radio from their local radio shop. A car radio  purchased from a radio
shop was apprx. $ 40. plus maybe another $ 3. for an antenna and approx. $
3. for installation.

My family owned a radio shop in those days. Starting in 1936 I became a
radio tech apprentice under my Father who had been earning his living as a
radio tech since 1923. I installed many a car radio. It was a good business
for us as those were depression days and hard to make a buck. I don't know
what the percentages were
but I would guess they were low like 10% of the people with cars had car
radios.

My radio experience paid off in that I was able to earn a commission in the
Signal Corps in WW2 . I returned from WW2 as a Capt.

Ellsworth Johnson
Spokane, Wa

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

Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 21:02:50 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Tennessee or Texas

Don Dean commented:

Chet Atkins was born in Luttrell, TN (Tennessee) not Luttrell, TX (Texas)
In fact, I could not find a Luttrell in Texas.

I have one source that said Luttrell, TN and another source that said
Luttrell, TX. You seem sure that it is TN and not TX so I will make the
appropriate change to my master list. Thank you for pointing this out, I
appreciate it.

Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 21:03:25 -0400
From: Derek Tague <derek@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Two Eds are better than one!

Jell-O Again, Everybody:

    Laura Leff wrote:

Arlene Osbourne asked?

Which brings to mind my question, who played Ed?

That was Joe Kearns.

    Yes, but please keep in mind that Ed's animated equivalent, heard though
not seen, in  the Warner Bros. Jack Benny-themed cartoon THE MOUSE THAT JACK
BUILT was clearly voiced by Mel Blanc.

Best from the ether!

Derek Tague

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

Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 21:03:37 -0400
From: "David H. Buswell" <dbuswell@[removed];
To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Arlene Francis and OTR
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

Marry Anne Morel asked about Arlene Francis and [removed] can recall that
during the mid-1940s she (sans Gabel) was the hostess/emcee of a radio show
called "Blind Date."  Male college students and servicemen would try to
impress via telephone hookup female college students and/or models and get a
blind date of major proportions paid for by the sponsor.  A wall separated
the two who were connected only by the telephone.  Ms. Francis reprised this
hostess role from 1949 to 1952 on the TV version which ran through 1953.
The last year's emcees were Melvyn Douglas and finally Jan Murray.

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Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 21:02:13 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Inside Out/Outside In

On 6/20/03 2:39 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:

many
engineers
would alternate between outside-in and inside-out cutting on disc sides to
avoid a noticeable change in quality ([removed], if side one were recorded
outside-in, side two would be inside-out so that when the change was made
>from side one
to side two, the audio quality of the end of side one would match that of the
start of side two).

This is a story I keep hearing -- but having handled a very large number
of transcriptions over the past twenty years, I've never run into a
single instance where this was actually the case. Everything I've ever
transferred -- no matter what the format -- has been either center start
or outside start thruout , with no mixing or matching between sides.
While it's true that audio quality degrades noticeably toward the center
of a disc, I've never found any positive evidence to prove that engineers
routinely compensated for this degradation by alternating starting
points.

Has anyone out there *actually held in their hands* a set of discs
recorded in such a mixed manner, or is this one of Those Stories?

Elizabeth

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

Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 00:30:42 -0400
From: "Jerry Bechtel" <jerrybechtel@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Old car radios

To add to John Mac's question of old car [removed] my 1939 chevy had a
radio that I listened to on occasion. Back then (late '40's) we really
didn't have the advertisement of program times as we do with tv today. I
rarely knew what was on at any given time so I didn't plan traveling
around the radio. Oh sure, I knew what night some favorites were on; The
Lone Ranger, The Life of Riley, The Aldrich Family, Gangbusters to name
a few. As I recall I don't think I ever remained in the car to listen to
the end of a show nor did I make plans around a show. I hardly ever
looked in the newspaper to see an evenings show schedule. We just turned
the dial until we found something of interest. Even when at home, we
would only listen to one or maybe two shows in the evenings. Certainly
not like sitting in front of the idiot box all evening like we do today.
The good old [removed] wow!

Jerry Bechtel

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

Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 00:30:52 -0400
From: Kenneth Clarke <kclarke5@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Arlene Francis on OTR/Natalie Masters

          I wouldn't say it was 'frequently discussed', if at all,
but Arlene Francis did star in an OTR series titled "The
Affairs of Ann Scotland" on OTR.  I don't think it was on
the air for very long.  You might be able to get some further
details from other mailing list members.

          I was channel surfing the other day and saw an episode
of the classic TV show "The Addams Family".  In  the credits
afterward, it mentioned an actress named Natalie Masters
who played a commissioner's wife.  My question is: Didn't
Natalie Masters play the private investigator Candy Matson on
the OTR show "Candy Matson" from the 1930's?

Kenneth Clarke

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

Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 00:31:06 -0400
From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  collections

Hi Everybody,

does any one know about any radio collections that are at libraries,
universities, ECt that has not been access by researchers, or collectors.  I
am aware for examle that at Wyoming Universities that there is over 100
boxes of ABC music that has not been open, because of lax of researches, I
would think other collectors exist.  Take care,

Walden

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

Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 00:32:17 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Rolling Radio

John Mac asks,

I've got a question for the folks of the Digest who are old enough to
have heard the original broadcasts.  Were car radios common?  I know some
cars had radios in the 30's and 0's, did most or were they only in luxury
cars?

My father was a career officer in the [removed] Army.  This meant that every
time he was reassigned to a new Army post, the family would have to
travel there by car.  Every car our family e ver owned (at least from
1945 on) had a radio.  My parents were very accommodating to my sister
and me as we drove cross-country.  We were often on the road when The
Children's Hour was being broadcast, and if we were traveling on Sunday
morning, we'd get to hear The Comics Weekly Man.

Car radios in those days were tube radios, the transistor having yet to
be invented.  One "tube" was actually a coil-transformer with a vibrating
element to provide a form of alternating current that could be elevated
to higher voltages.  I believe it was called a "vibrator" or something
like that.

Radios of that sort were very common when I was growing up.  They had
great range and good sensitivity.  On a good night, one could pull in
stations from more than 10 miles away.

If you had one in your car and arrived at your destination before the
program was over how did you handle it, did you stay in the car and
listen or shut it of and go about your business?

In  our case, several factors entered into it.  It would depend upon what
was on, whom we were  visiting (including what stores we might shop at),
how far into the show we were, and whether we running on a schedule.  No
simple answer.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 01:33:10 -0400
From: Kcpymurphy@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Edgar Bergen vs. Jerry Mahoney
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

Thought someone might respond that Jerry Mahoney was the dummy, as was
Charley McCarthy and Paul Winchell was the most excellent ventriloquist.

Kacie

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

Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 01:33:54 -0400
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Edgar Bergen

Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 09:54:53 -0400
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];

Bergen was the host of a television quiz show called DO YOU TRUST YOUR
WIFE? and his puppets were the panelists but it only lasted a few months.
Eventually the producer had to change the title near the end of the series
because of Christian groups complaining about the title of the show.
 
I read at the time that the title was changed to "Who do you trust?" because they wanted to 
have more flexibility in choosing couples as contestants, and not just have to have married 
couples.  Also, I believe the title change took place after Bergen was replaced by Johnny 
Carson.  Carson stayed with the show until he was hired to replace Jack Paar on the 
"Tonight" Show.  

Carson was hired by NBC sometime in March 1962 or thereabouts.  His contract with ABC 
continued through October.  But ABC immediately took "Who do you Trust?" off the air, so 
as not to give Carson any exposure before he switched networks.  Meanwhile, the "Tonight" 
show functioned with guest hosts until October, when Carson was free of his ABC contract.

A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                           [removed]
 15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         [removed]

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

Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 01:34:19 -0400
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Car Radios

Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 13:01:26 -0400
From: John Francis MacEachern <johnfmac@[removed];

Were car radios common?  I know some cars had radios in the 30's and
40's, did most or were they only in luxury cars?  

My father once told me that when car radios first came out, he had one of the early ones.  It 
was removable, so that if you got a new car, you could take the radio with you.

If you had one in your car and arrived at your destination before the
program was over how did you handle it, did you stay in the car and
listen or shut it of and go about your business? Did you plan trips or
errands around the times when the shows would be broadcast? 

The only time I remember listening to dramatic programs on the car radio was on fairly long 
trips.  I think that kids, especially, might have insisted on staying in the car until the program 
ended.  Or, perhaps, until a commercial break, when there might be just enough time to 
leave the car and go inside and turn on another radio.

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

Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 02:15:17 -0400
From: "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  little men

You don't mean Return To Dust, do you?  Do you remember anything else
about the show?  Kurt

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

Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 02:15:33 -0400
From: "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Theater five

I just got about 35 Theater five shows and thought that The Elevator was
the show I liked, but this was a show starring Edgar Staley.  I would
like to ask again, does anybody else have anymore theater five shows on
MP3?  Speaking of Martin Gable, Flights of Angels was another theater
five I really enjoyed, but haven't been able to find in MP3.  Can anybody
help?  Kurt

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #243
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