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The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2012 : Issue 131
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
RE: Tony Marvin et al [ "Bob Scherago" <scherago@[removed] ]
Re: Music organs [ <radioaz@[removed]; ]
8-14 births/deaths [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
Re: Dragnet scripts and other Dragne [ Michael Hayde <mikeh0714@[removed]; ]
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Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:19:57 -0400
From: "Bob Scherago" <scherago@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: RE: Tony Marvin et al
Martin Fass <watchstop@[removed]; wrote:
Who would receive YOUR award as the network radio announcer with the
niftiest regionalisms in some of his words?
My vote goes to Milton Cross, who, in addition to being the voice of the
Metropolitan Opera and "Coast to Coast on a Bus," was also a network staff
announcer.
During the opera broadcasts, he would give the network system cue between
acts - this signaled the local station to give a station ID. He would say,
rolling his "Rs, "This is the Texaco Metropolitan Opera Radio Netwoik!" When
I was an engineer at WTIC, and an announcer would be required to read the
station ID live, many would break up as a result!
--
Bob Scherago
[removed]
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Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:20:58 -0400
From: <radioaz@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Music organs
Yes, the Hammond Company sold a lot of instruments to radio stations and
networks. But did you know that initially it was incorrect to refer to them
as Hammond ORGANS. The Hammond company thought their product was quite
unique when it introduced the drawbar sound generation systems. They it was
so unique they did not want them to be called organs. They wanted them to
simply be called Hammonds. Like it was a musical instrument in its own
right--oboes, trumpets, Hammonds. However, this was a marketing idea that
never caught on with the public. They sounded like an organ and that's what
they were called.
That aside, my grandmother lived in a small town in central Minnesota. She
was an accomplished piano player, and she wanted to learn to play the organ.
As most any keyboardist will tell you, a piano and an organ are played quite
differently. Grandmother made a deal with a local mortuary that if she
could come in when there was no public visiting and practice her organ
playing, she would in turn play for funerals. She became good at the organ,
too. The mortician mentioned it to the one and only local radio station.
The upshot is the grandmother was invited into the station sometimes to
play the Hammond B3 to fill 15 to 30 minutes of unscheduled air time.
Sometimes I would go with her and wait in the lobby while she played. I
could see her through the big glass window.
One image that has stayed with me since the mid-1940s is walking up the
steps to the porch of the old house that served as the station's studios and
offices. There, in a neat pile much taller than I, were hundreds (it seems
to me) of egg cartons. They used them as sound baffling by stapling them to
the studio walls and ceilings.
This was station KLIZ in Brainerd, Minnesota.
Ted
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:21:09 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 8-14 births/deaths
August 14th births
08-14-1863 - Ernest Lawrence Thayer - Lawrence, MA - d. 8-21-1940
author: "Favorite Story"
08-14-1867 - John Galsworthy - Kingston Hill, Surrey, England - d.
1-31-1933
author Several of his works adapted for radio
08-14-1870 - Harry Lauder - Edinburgh, Scotland - d. 2-26-1950
singer: "Sir Harry Lauder"; "The Fourth Christmas"
08-14-1876 - John Todd (Fred McCarthy) - Crossingville, PA - d.
7-14-1957
actor: Tonto "The Lone Ranger"; Mr. Reid "The Green Hornet"
08-14-1879 - Edna Fisher - NB - d. 4-23-1978
actor: "The Al Pearce Show"
08-14-1889 - Robert Woolsey - Oakland, CA - d. 10-31-1938
actor: "Hollywood Hotel"
08-14-1892 - Paul Wing - Tacoma, WA - d. 5-29-1957
producer: "Story Man for Children"
08-14-1893 - Carl Benton Reid - Lansing, MI - d. 3-16-1973
actor: Roger Allen "Big Sister"
08-14-1897 - Lal Chand Mehra - Amritsar, India - d. 10-21-1980
actor: "I Love A Mystery"; "I Love Adventure"
08-14-1902 - Harriet Allyn - d. 9-18-1998
actor: Aggie Horn "In the Case of Aggie Horn"
08-14-1903 - Millard Mitchell - Havana, Cuba - d. 10-13-1953
actor: Casey "Mighty Casey"
08-14-1909 - Ed Herlihy - Dorchester, MA - d. 1-30-1999
announcer: "Advs. of the Thin Man"; "Just Plain Bill"; "Vic and Sade"
08-14-1909 - Frank Papp - d. 5-27-1996
director: "The Bartons"; "Words at War"; "Right to Happiness";
"Eternal Light"
08-14-1911 - Ethel Payne - Chicago, IL - d. 5-28-1991
commentator: "Spectrum"; "Matters of Opinion"
08-14-1913 - Ferrucio Tagliavini - Reggio Emilia, Italy - d. 1-28-1995
lyric tenor: "Encores from the Bell Telephone Hour"
08-14-1913 - Peggy (Craven) Lloyd - d. 8-30-2011
actor: "Mercury Theatre"
08-14-1914 - Alyce King - Payson, UT - d. 8-21-1996
singer: (The King Sisters) "Horace Heidt and His Brigadiers"; "Al
Pearce and His Gang"
08-14-1914 - Andrea Leeds - Butte, MT - d. 5-21-1984
actor: "Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show"
08-14-1914 - Bill Downs - Kansas City, MO - d. 5-3-1978
newscaster: CBS Moscow 1942
08-14-1917 - Marty Glickman - NYC - d. 1-3-2001
sprorts broadcaster: "Saturday Night Bandwagon"; "Play Ball"; "Box
Score Review"
08-14-1921 - Cobina Wright, Jr. - NYC
actor: "Your Blind Date"
08-14-1926 - Alice Ghostly - Eve, MO - d. 9-21-2007
actor: "Theatre Five"
August 14th deaths
01-07-1930 - Douglas Kiker - Griffin, KS - d. 8-14-1991
nbc newsman: "Meet the Press"
01-11-1910 - Gene Baker - Portland, OR - d. 8-14-1981
announcer: "Lum and Abner"; "Queen for a Day"
02-15-1899 - Gale Sondergaard - Litchfield, MN - d. 8-14-1985
actor: "Columbia Presents Corwin"
03-04-1888 - David Frederick Smith - Clarksburg, IN - d. 8-14-1976
early radio broadcaster: Creator of "March of Time"
03-18-1911 - Deane Kincaide - Houston, TX - d. 8-14-1992
saxophonist: "The Bob Crosby Show"
04-29-1863 - William Randolph Hearst - San Francisco, CA - d. 8-14-1951
publisher: Owner of several radio stations
05-11-1922 - Eve Boswell - Budapest, Hungary - d. 8-14-1998
singer: "The Eve Bosewell Show"
06-22-1909 - Milton Kaye - Brooklyn, NY - d. 8-14-2006
pianist/arranger: "Roger Kilgore, Public Defender"; "Under Arrest"
06-25-1895 - Donald Gallagher - Quincy, IL - d. 8-14-1961
actor: P. Wallace Carver "Houseboat Hannah"; Humble Dickinson "Joan
and Kermit"
07-07-1917 - Doris Dudley - NYC - d. 8-14-1985
actor: Peggy Meek "Meet Mr. Meek"
07-16-1920 - Edwin Cooper - d. 8-14-1961
announcer, actor: "The Milt Herth Trio"; "RFD America"
07-23-1918 - Pee Wee Reese - Ekron, KY - d. 8-14-1999
baseball great: "Play Ball"; "Box Score Review"; "Feature Project:
This Game of Baseball"
07-27-1914 - Ira Avery - Albany, NY - d. 8-14-1984
director: "We Came This Way"; "Eternal Light"
08-24-1900 - Ralph Kirbery - Paterson, NJ - d. 8-14-1993
singer: (The Dream Singer) "Mohawk Treasure Chest"; "Musical Moments
Revue"
08-30-1925 - Jack Bivans - Evanston, IL - d. 8-14-2009
actor: Chuck Ramsey "Captain Midnight"
09-13-1894 - J. B. Priestley - Bradford, Yorkshire, England - d.
8-14-1984
dramatist: "London After Dark"; "Studio One"; "NBC University Theatre"
09-16-1903 - Joe Venuti - Lecco, Italy - d. 8-14-1978
jazz violinist: "Friendly Five Footnotes";"Paul Whiteman Show";
"Jubilee"
09-26-1914 - Dora McCann - d. 8-14-1975
host: "McCann Pure Food Hour"
11-29-1915 - J. G. Weightman - Callerton, Englans - d. 8-14-2004
translator and announcer in French for the BBC
12-01-1920 - Mary Wells - Omaha, NE - d. 8-14-2000
actor: "John Steele, Adventurer"
12-21-1913 - Louise King - Salt Lake City, UT - d. 8-14-1997
singer (The King Sisters) "Horace Heidt and His Brigadiers"; "Al
Pearce and His Gang"
12-27-1906 - Oscar Levant - Pittsburgh, PA - d. 8-14-1972
panelist, pianist: "Information, Please"; "Kraft Music Hall"
Ron
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:21:50 -0400
From: Michael Hayde <mikeh0714@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Dragnet scripts and other Dragnet questions
Ron Vickery asked "Did they ever reuse the radio scripts for the television
episodes or vice-versa? I would think they could adapt scripts for one media
to the other with minimal work, and if they aired them far enough apart, they
probably wouldn't be noticed."
That is exactly the [removed] (in "Dragnet-speak") used by Jack Webb. A good 70%
or so of the TV episodes from the 1951-59 run were based on "Dragnet" radio
scripts. The only example of "vice-versa" that I can think of is "The Big
Little Jesus" (or "The Christmas Story"), where the radio version mostly
consists of the TV soundtrack, with added narration by Webb.
Ron also asks if "all of the scripts taken from real-life accounts from the
LA police records? Did they ever use crimes from other cities' police
departments?" For the most part, the cases were culled from Los Angeles
[removed] although once again "The Big Little Jesus" is an exception. That
case occurred in San Francisco. A few high-profile cases, such as those of
Caryl Chessman (the "Red-Light Bandit") and serial killer Harvey Glatman,
were used, but very rarely were they recognizable by those who knew the
real-life perps.
It's at this point that I would ordinarily recommend my 2001 book MY NAME'S
FRIDAY, which answers all questions about "Dragnet" and Webb's other
creations. Unfortunately, it's now officially out-of-print, although some
opportunistic vendors are selling it on Amazon Marketplace at ridiculously
exorbitant prices. I sold every copy I brought to MANC this year.
Michael
[ADMINISTRIVIA: It was nice to see Michael [removed] and end. --cfs3]
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2012 Issue #131
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