------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2010 : Issue 180
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
long-running program(me)s [ Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed]; ]
[removed] [ aeiouqwert@[removed] ]
Re: Oldest Programs/Trace of Reality [ LBiel <[removed]@[removed]; ]
Thanks, Jim Cox! [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
forgotten laughter [ karl tiedemann <karltiedemann@hotma ]
10-15 births/deaths [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
Gunsmoke query [ serialous@[removed] ]
Private collections [ <radioaz@[removed]; ]
The Fourth Wall [ "Paula Keiser" <pkeiser1@[removed]; ]
Perry Mason on OTR [ "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@juno. ]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:08:51 -0400
From: Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: long-running program(me)s
Ted Kneebone asks:
I wonder if there are long-running programs still on the air from the
CBC and BBC?
Possibly the longest running extant BBC show is Desert Island Discs, which
began in 1942 and is still going strong. It's had only four hosts over that
entire run (nearly 70 years). The BBC recently made it available for download
as a podcast.
Kermyt
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:09:31 -0400
From: aeiouqwert@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: [removed]
My old-time radio site has returned from the dead (grin). Currently,
I'm offering modem-friendly 16kbps MP3 streams of 40 shows - all with a
holiday season theme or connection (that's Christmas, not Halloween).
I'll keep them up until after the holidays.
Regards,
J. Alec West
[removed]
--
aeiouqwert@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:07:33 -0400
From: LBiel <[removed]@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Oldest Programs/Trace of Reality
Joe Salerno is right that there are published excerpts of the NY
Philharmonic-Symphony broadcasts from 1924, and I do have transfers of
some others going back into 1923. As they were made by Western
Electric, the recordings might be line-checks rather than air-checks of
their radio station WEAF.
And I agree with Jim Cox's "Just a trace of reality" when he describes
his "lifetime trying to correct the mistakes that were originally penned
by a nameless hack sans accurate data." and trying to "set the record
straight on behalf of those to whom little details matter. I guess it's
probably a quirk of the journalistic craft." As a fellow nit-picker,
and someone who has recently been scolded by our listmaster for (gasp!)
wondering what research a posting was based on, I have been meaning to
correct a couple of things in Jim's books -- knowing that this IS what
he wants! In two books there are scripts of the 1922 Queensboro Corp
WEAF paid-broadcast for Hawthorne Estates. The footnote tells us that
part was from Gleason Archer's book and part was from Bob Schulberg's
1989 "Radio Advertising: The Authorative Handbook." Don't believe the
title. That last paragraph starting with "Friends, you owe it to
yourself and your family . . ." is FAKE. It was invented for the August
1952 30th anniversary program "The Billion Dollar Show". As usual, NBC
screwed up their own history by not being able to find the easily
accessible real script and making up this little excerpt. So don't
trust a book even if it has "Authorative" in the title!!!!
The other error concerns a typo from a source that has also been copied
by several other books. The station which AT&T first started in NYC was
WBAY in 1922, not WBNY in 1921. WBNY is a different station, not owned
by AT&T, and was somewhere listed as the station that preceded WEAF by a
TYPO. I've seen the bound original WBAY/WEAF logs, and this is
discussed in the Banning WEAF book which is not in your bibliography but
is vital for any history of early broadcasting. (Edgar H. Felix, who
was the pre-NBC publicist for WEAF, personally endorsed the veracity of
the Banning book to me.)
Nit picks which have traveled from book to book to book!!!
Another nit pick. While putting on the final touches of my announcing
styles of the 20s paper for FOTR I noticed the preview of the "1930"
audition program for "Clara, Lu and Em" on Jerry Haendiges' site and
started editing together just the opening announcements. I was amazed.
This could be the greatest announcing job of the first decade of radio
-- but it ain't! Not only is the style way, Way, WAY ahead of its time,
the theme song "You" wasn't written until 1936!!! This program has been
falsely identified as 1930 going back as far as Jay Hickerson's 2nd
edition, and maybe even further. If it really is an audition program,
it might be for the 1945 attempt at syndication that Dunning mentions as
"unsuccessful".
Here's my nit. Somebody (Jerry??) had or has the disc. If it was an
audition -- the opening says "NBC presents" -- it might be on a
pressing, rather than being a one-off lacquer disc. If it is a vinyl or
shellac pressing there will be matrix numbers in the material, most
likely RCA Victor numbers since this is NBC. Those numbers will give us
the date of the recording. If it really is 1930 -- and it can't be --
the prefix would be MVE. If from the mid 30s it would be MRC, MS, or
NS. If 1945 it would probably be ND5. The numbers after the prefix
would help give more accurate dates. I have been amazed for the past
40+ years that OTR dealers and collectors who have access to syndication
discs would rather guess at a date, make one up, or put "unknown"
instead of writing down the matrix numbers that are actually there on
the disc. (Penciled dates on syndication discs are always wrong.) If
this disc still exists, send me a scan of the label and/or a description
and the matrix numbers.
Michael Biel mbiel@mbiel (sent via Leah's email)
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:09:39 -0400
From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Thanks, Jim Cox!
Thanks, Jim Cox, for setting the record straight on Mr. Keen. If I had the
time, I would copy notes from Jim, Martin, and others and paste them into my
books. But I probably would not need to because most of my books are
authored by Cox, Grams, Halper, Blue, and other trustworthy writers. This
is just my way of thanking the people who spent the time to research their
books.
I would not think of just copying info from sources -- without checking
the validity of them. As a former reference librarian, I recall helping a
student at Sangamon State Univerity find biographical info about some
historical figure. We checked every souce we could find in their library.
It was amazing how many authors merely repeated info from other sources. We
finally located an author who had different information. I told the student,
"Use your own judgement. Merely saying something ten times does not
automatically make it correct. Maybe the author who wrote something
different was correct!"
Ted Kneebone. Old Time Radio:
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:09:46 -0400
From: karl tiedemann <karltiedemann@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: forgotten laughter
Hello, all. I'm in the early stages of work on a documentary about three
neglected television comedians of the 1950s: Ben Blue, Martha Raye and George
Gobel.
The latter two, of course, have radio connections-- as most of you probably
know, [removed] was a regular on NATIONAL BARN DANCE and the Tom Mix [removed]
We've already started to get on-camera interviews set up, both in California
and back East, with various friends colleagues, co-workers, etc.
If anyone can point us to any good interview subjects, or research resources
we may have overlooked, etc., we'd be most grateful. In addition, I already
have some radio material with M. Raye but have yet to find any with Lonesome
George so leads there would also be very welcome.
Thanks.
Karl Tiedemann (NYC)
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:09:54 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 10-15 births/deaths
October 15th births
10-15-1879 - Jane Darwell - Palmyra, MO - d. 8-13-1967
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
10-15-1879 - Sara Allgood - Dublin, Ireland - d. 9-13-1950
actor: "Radio Guild"; "Family Theatre"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
10-15-1881 - P. G. Wodehouse - Guildford, Surrey, England - d. 2-14-1975
author: (Jeeves and Wooster) "Forecast"; "Stagestruck"
10-15-1893 - Ina Claire - Washington, [removed] - d. 2-22-1985
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
10-15-1896 - Joe Sanders - Thayer, KS - d. 5-14-1965
bandleader: (The Ole Left Hander) "Nighthawks Frolic"
10-15-1898 - Ransom Sherman - Appleton, WI - d. 11-26-1985
actor: Uncle Dennis "Fibber McGee and Molly"; Hap Hazard "Hap Hazard"
10-15-1900 - Fritz Feld - Berlin, Germany - d. 11-18-1993
actor: "NBC Uinversity Theatre"; "Nightbeat"; "Advs. of the Saint"
10-15-1900 - Mervyn LeRoy - San Francisco,CA - d. 9-13-1987
film director: Intermission Guest "Lux Radio Theatre"; "Songs By
Sinatra"
10-15-1908 - Gus Hatula - d. 10-9-1997
audio engineer for WXYZ
10-15-1908 - Herman Chittison - Flemingsburg, KY - d. 3-8-1967
jazz pianist: "Casey, Crime Photographer"; "The Gloom Dodgers"
10-15-1908 - John Kenneth Galbraith - Iona Station, Canada - d.
4-28-2006
economist: "University of Chicago Round Table"; "Meet the Press"
10-15-1909 - Robert Trout - Wake County, NC - d. 11-14-2000
commentator: "Headlines & Bylines"; "Robert Trout with the News Til Now"
10-15-1912 - Vivian Fridell - Milwaukee, WI - d. 8-20-1998
actor: Mary Noble "Mary Noble, Backstage Wife"; "Road of Life"
10-15-1912 - "Zeb" Tennis - Missouri - d. 8-10-1972
fiddle: "Plantation Boys"
10-15-1915 - Nellie Lutcher - Lake Charles, LA - d. 6-8-2007
jazz singer: "Jubilee"; "Spotlight Revue"; "Command Performance"
10-15-1917 - Jan Miner - Boston, MA - d. 2-15-2004
actor: Ann Williams "Casey, Crime Photographer"; "Lora Lawton "Lora
Lawton"
10-15-1917 - Merrill Ash - d. 11-9-1999
newscaster: KOMO Seattle, Washington
10-15-1918 - Bob Sherry - Chattanooga, TN - d. 2-17-2003
announcer: "Archie Andrews"; "Author Meets the Critics"
10-15-1918 - Bobby Gimby - Cabri, Saskatchewan, Canada - d. 6-20-1998
musician, songwriter: "Happy Gang"
10-15-1918 - Harold Gast - d. 12-28-2003
writer: "Front Page Farrell"; "Real Stories from Real Life"
10-15-1918 - Robert Lee - Elyria, OH - d. 7-8-1994
writer: "Columbia Presents Corwin"
10-15-1921 - Allan Drake - Massachusetts - d. 3-8-1986
actor: "The Ethel Merman Show"
10-15-1921 - Geri Fontane - New Milford, NJ - d. 9-13-1993
singer: (The Fontane Sisters) "Chesterfield Supper Club"
10-15-1921 - Robert Rockwell - Chicago, IL - d. 1-25-2003
actor: Philip Boynton "Our Miss Brooks"
10-15-1922 - Paul Kasander - Detroit, MI - d. 10-17-2002
actor: "Challenge of the Yukon"; "Lone Ranger"; "Green Hornet"
10-15-1926 - Jean Peters - Canton, OH - d. 10-13-2000
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
10-15-1929 - Art James - d. 3-28-2004
announcer: Armed Forces Radio
October 15th deaths
01-20-1920 - Derek Bond - Glascow, Scotland - d. 10-15-2006
actor: "A Christmas Carol"
03-08-1912 - David Friedkin - d. 10-15-1976
writer: "Bold Venture"; "Broadway Is My Beat"; "The Front Page"
03-23-1917 - Josef Locke - Londonderry, Northern Ireland - d. 10-15-1999
actor: "Variety Fanfare"
04-16-1927 - Edie Adams - Kingston, PA-d. 10-15-2008
singer, actor: "Stewart Foster Show"
05-07-1900 - Ralph Truman - London, England - d. 10-15-1977
actor: John H Watson "BBC Home Theatre"
05-21-1923 - Rick Jason - NYC - d. 10-15-2000
actor: "Sears Radio Theatre"
06-09-1891 - Cole Porter - Peru, IN - d. 10-15-1964
composer: Theme for "My Friend Irma"
06-17-1916 - Terry Gilkyson - Mont Clare, PA - d. 10-15-1999
singer, songwriter: "Solitary Singer"; "America Sings"; "Here's to
Veterans"
07-06-1924 - Bobby Mauch - Peoria, IL - d. 10-15-2007
actor: "Coast-to-Coast on a Bus"; "Let's Pretend"; "Robinson Crusoe,
Jr."
07-09-1917 - Ted Steele - Hartford, CT - d. 10-15-1985
bandleader: "Ted Steele's Studio Club"; "Chesterfield Supper Club"
09-12-1918 - Ethel Beard - d. 10-15-2003
actor: "Experimental Playhouse of the Air"
09-20-1937 - Tom Tresh - Detroit, MI - d. 10-15-2008
baseball player: "Tops In Sports"
09-25-1905 - Carl Hoff - Oxnard, CA - d. 10-15-1965
bandleader: "Al Pearce and His Gang"; "Your Hit Parade"
10-09-1916 - Jack Boyle - Illinois - d. 10-15-1965
actor: Andy Gump "The Gumps"
10-13-1918 - Cornel Wilde - NYC - d. 10-15-1989
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
10-16-1904 - Raymond Meurer - d. 10-15-1974
Part owner of WXYZ
11-11-1899 - Pat O'Brien - Milwaukee, WI - d. 10-15-1983
actor: Dan Carson "Dan Carson"; "Screen Guild Theatre"; "Family Theatre"
11-13-1922 - Jack Narz - Louisville, KY - d. 10-15-2008
announcer: "Meet Corliss Archer"; "Tenneessee Ernie Ford Show"
11-23-1911 - Edward Breuder - Hoboken, NJ - d. 10-15-1989
director of CBS radio network music division
12-18-1919 - Ralph Levy - Phildelphia, PA - d. 10-15-2001
director: "Burns and Allen"
Ron
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:10:16 -0400
From: serialous@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Gunsmoke query
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I was wondering something after reading about Suspense and leafing through
John Abbott's Yours Truly Johnny Dollar book that the latter show moved from
Hollywood to New York because CBS radio had shut down (or was in the process
of) their west coast radio drama department. If that's the case, since Johnny
Dollar's first NY shows are in late 1960, what kept Gunsmoke on the air for
the next 7 or so months? Was it still being respected because of the audience
it built up and probably any goodwill generated by Meston & McDonnell? Or was
it supposed to complement the TV version?
Thanks
Michael Nella
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------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:44:48 -0400
From: <radioaz@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Private collections
Is anyone else watching the current PBS series about Michael Feinstein?
This week he visited several people who each have an extensive private
collection of musical recordings. One of them had reel-to-reel tapes of
many old radio shows. Wonder how many such private collections there are
and what can be done to preserve and share them with others. Many of the
people Feinstein interviews are getting along in years. Seems a shame to
have unknowing family and friends sweep in after they are gone and just
destroy these recordings.
Ted
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:44:58 -0400
From: "Paula Keiser" <pkeiser1@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: The Fourth Wall
On October 15 Dixon Hayes wrote:
I always remembered the TV "Ellery Queen" for being the first dramatic show
I ever saw in which someone (Jim Hutton, as Ellery Queen) broke the fourth
wall.
Although not a dramatic show, George Burns regularly broke the fourth wall
in the 1950 "Burns and Allen" show. I wonder if there is an earlier TV show
that used this OTR technique.
Paula Keiser
Topeka
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:17:07 -0400
From: "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Perry Mason on OTR
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I realize I'll probably get many responses from this question, so
please
contact me off list with the replies. I heard recently that "Perry Mason"
was
on OTR before it ever was broadcast on TV in the 1950's with Raymond Burr
(which is what I remember). I did some research, and asked around to some
OTR collectors, and many told me that the radio version of "Perry Mason"
was different in some respects to the TV version.
One told me that the storylines weren't 30-60 minutes long, but were
stretched out over several episodes. (Were there any 60 minute episodes of
this program?) Another one told me that although the TV version included
some investigation of the crime as well as the courtroom adjudication, that
the radio version was centered more on the investigation aspect. (Were there
any more differences between the two versions of this program?)
Also, what OTR program(s) would you suggest if I were looking for one
with
some courtroom action as well as some investigation?
Please help!
Kenneth Clarke
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[ADMINISTRIVIA: There's nothing wrong sending your responses to the list;
there may be others here who have never heard the original Perry Mason
series. --cfs3]
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2010 Issue #180
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