------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2004 : Issue 98
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
ADMINISTRIVIA: Another use for the b [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]
St. Patick's Day births/deaths [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
Message From The Past [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
OTR Linguistics [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
Re: Berle on TV [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
Satellite Radio [ "tlevare@[removed]" <tlevare@excit ]
Rewinding tapes [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
Update on Jim Cox, OTR Author [ Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@erols ]
Actress Mercedes McCambridge dies at [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]
Re: FM Transmitter [ Shenbarger@[removed] ]
MERCEDES McCambridge Passing [ "mike kerezman" <philipmarlowe@cfai ]
Howdy Doody [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
CBSRMT [ John Francis MacEachern <JohnFMac@c ]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 15:25:02 -0500
From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: ADMINISTRIVIA: Another use for the [removed]
Folks;
The other day, Greg Przywara posted a note about the Fibber McGee and
Molly film, "Here We Go Again" playing on TCM yesterday morning.
Unfortunately, by the time the issue was released, the film had already
played. (Fortunately, at least for me, I had set the computer to record the
film over a month ago, when someone, please forgive an old man but I can't
remember whom, posted about that film running.)
Also yesterday, John Dunning was a guest on RadioWest, a program produced
and aired by public radio station KUER in Salt Lake City, Utah. I have no
idea if anyone noticed the blog entry I posted about it, but if you did, you
had plenty of time to catch the rebroadcast on KUER's Internet feed. I didn't
bother posting to the Digest, since I knew the issue wouldn't be released
before the rebroadcast at 7:00pm Mountain time.
See, the same thing that makes most of you love the Digest, the gathering
of information into daily doses instead of a constant stream of posts
throughout the day, makes it difficult to get late-breaking information out.
Sometimes, if I notice, I "force out" a short issue with information like
that, but even then it becomes a race to see if you get the chance to _read_
it before the time limit. Short of giving a week's notice, the Digest isn't
the best way to get breaking "news" out to everyone.
So what I am going to do in the future is use the blog (at
[removed] - AOL-friendly link at the bottom of this message)
to get out information like I've mentioned. If you subscribe to the RSS
(Really Simple Syndication) newsfeed the blog makes available, you can get
this news in a timely fashion.
There are a bazillion RSS clients out there, but the easiest, and the one
that supports the most platforms, is probably AmphetaDesk (at
[removed] - there's a link on the blog page). It's
a perl script (with runtimes for those systems, like WIndows, which don't
normally supply perl) that you run, maybe in your StartUp, to which you add
newsfeeds. Routinely, the script checks for new stories, and plops them into
a browser window. The feeds running on [removed] give a short
capsule of the article with a [removed] it's of interest to you, you click
the link, and if not, you don't. It's _really_ that easy.
I can't guarantee I'll get everything up immediately (hey, I gotta sleep
_sometime!_), but I'll do the best I can to forward any information that is
time-sensitive up on the blog. You can be pretty sure it'll show up there
before the Digest is released, anyway.
If you run into any problems connecting to the RSS feed, feel free to drop
me a line; I'll do whatever I can to help.
As promised, for AOL users:
<A HREF="[removed]">[removed]</A>
Charlie
[removed] A bunch of people asked me what a "blog" is. The word "blog" is a
corruption of "Web Log," implying a log or diary posted to the World Wide
Web, or more accurately a log or diary posted _about_ the Web. Check your
favorite geek dictionary for more [removed] likely won't find it in your
Webster's.
Me
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 10:41:49 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: St. Patick's Day births/deaths
St. Patrick's Day births,
03-17-1884 - Frank Buck - Gainesville, TX - d. 2-25-1950
wild animal hunter: "Bring 'em Back Alive"
03-17-1892 - Ferde Grofe - NYC - d. 4-3-1972
conductor, composer: (The Grand Canyon Suite) "Florsheim Frolic"
03-17-1901 - Alfred Newman - New Haven, CT - d. 2-17-1970
composer, conductor: "Hollywood Star Time"; "Radio Hall of Fame"; "Silver
Theatre"
03-17-1906 - Michael O'Shea - Hartford, CT - d. 12-3-1973
actor: "Textron Theatre"; "Radio Reader's Digest"; "Philip Morris Playhouse"
03-17-1916 - Karl Weber - Columbus Junction, IA - d. 7-30-1990
actor: Ray Matson "Dr. Six Gun"; Phil Stanley "When a Girl Marries"
03-17-1918 - Bill Felton - Greenland, MI (Raised: Appleton, WI)
newscaster, disc jockey: "Vall;ey Varieties"; "Recreation Room"
03-17-1918 - Mercedes McCambridge - Joliet, IL
actress: Sunny Richards "I Love A Mystery"; Martha Ellis Bryant "Defense
Attorney"
03-17-1919 - Nat "King" Cole - Montgomery, AL - d. 2-15-1965
singer: "King Cole Trio Time"
St. Patrick's Day deaths
02-21-1880 - Frank Orth - Philadelphia, PA - d. 3-17-1962
actor: Inspector Faraday "Boston Blackie"
05-31-1894 - Fred Allen - Cambridge, MA - d. 3-17-1956
comedian: "Linit Bath Club"; "Town Hall Tonight"; "Fred Allen Show"
08-26-1905 - George F. Hicks - Tacoma, WA - d. 3-17-1965
announcer: "Metropolitan Echoes"; "Death Valley Days"; "Seth Parker"
09-28-1919 - Tom Harmon - Rensselar, IN - d. 3-17-1990
sportscaster: "Here Comes Harmon"; "Jimmy Durante Show"
10-10-1900 - Helen Hayes - Washington, [removed] - d. 3-17-1993
actress: "New Penny"; "Electric Theatre"; "O'Neill Cycle"
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 10:42:17 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Message From The Past
The other day, I received in the mail a CD with a number of MP3 shows on
it. Some of them were Little Orphan Annie programs. Little Orphan Annie
broadcasts preceded my serious radio listening, so these were new. to
me. The story was definitely juvenile, but at its close was a Secret
Message using the new 1936 Secret Society Decoder Pin!
Since I already had all the ROA Decoder Pins, it took practically no time
to decipher the message, "Mysterious accident at bridge." But what a
strange coincidence that the very first episode I heard was complete with
a "secret message."
Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 10:42:43 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: OTR Linguistics
During the Skelly Oil years of the Captain Midnight show, specifically in
the "Pareda Treasure" sequence, there was a Mexican boy, Pebbles, who was
friend and companion to Chuck Ramsay and Patsy Donovan. He would
frequently address Patsy as "Mi amigo."
This always bothered me, because Patsy, being a girl, should have been
addressed, "Amiga mia."
In the Little Orphan Annie program I recently listened to, an Italian
mother referred to her baby daughter as "My little bambino." "Bambina"
would at least have been consistent with Italian.
Admittedly, both shows were in the Children's Hour, and I suspect that
the Little Orphan Annie scripters weren't exposed to romance languages
when in school, but to my ears, at least, it puts a strain on suspending
disbelief.
Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 11:26:40 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Berle on TV
A few thoughts to add on the current discussion of Milton Berle's TV
[removed]
While he was indeed a dominant figure in television during the 1948-51
era, it's important to keep in mind that the actual number of people who
*saw* him during this period was very small: as of 1950, the peak of
Berle's popularity, only 9 percent of American homes had television, and
although his program had a whopping 75 percent share of that audience --
it was, in total scope, 75 percent of a comparatively *small* audience.
During this period, Berle's weekly audience ran around 5 million viewers
-- compared to the 30 million or so who continued to follow the top-rated
radio programs -- and more than a third of Berle's total audience was
concentrated in New York City, with the rest of the audience was
concentrated in Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit,
and Los Angeles (which got the show by kinescope a week late.) The
majority of Americans in 1950 never saw "The Texaco Star Theatre," and
what they knew of Berle's popularity was gleaned entirely from references
to it in other media.
While it's true that Berle's program sold a lot of television sets in the
cities mentioned, it had little impact on the expansion of television
outside these markets -- the peak of Berle's popularity coincided with
the era of the FCC freeze on the issuance of new television licenses. By
the time the freeze was lifted and television resumed national expansion,
Berle's popularity was declining sharply, and he had little impact on new
television markets.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 14:04:31 -0500
From: "tlevare@[removed]" <tlevare@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Satellite Radio
On Chris Holms point about not feeling like you have a relationship with the
DJ's on XM channels. That's true for most of the music channels. However
UPOP on XM29 gives you this feeling especially the morning show. They take
request which are not only played but dedicated. The moring show often puts
callers on the air.
There are also talk channels which are pretty much like what is on your
teresterial radio.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 14:59:31 -0500
From: JackBenny@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Rewinding tapes
Lee Munsick writes:
Rewinding a tape is ever so much more difficult (not to mention
time-consuming) than
simply picking up a tone arm and placing it down at the correct START
position!
Nem-ay to that! Not old radio but related to this topic, I was given the
task of training a guy to DJ on a station in Fort Wayne. The station was
actually two, with an AM and FM side which played different formats (gold
rush oldies
vs. easy listening), and required a steady and highly-organized hand to run
them both simultaneously during the overnight. The music was kept on large
reels which were stored "tails out". In other words, they needed to be
rewound
before playing. Four reels supplied the AM music, and five reels on the FM
side. Fortunately, we did have a computer on the AM side to partially
automate
it, and the FM side had a box with little wheels that you could spin to bring
up the number of the deck that should be played next. When the music was to
stop for a break, you set the next wheel to 0.
I tried very hard to train the guy, and he had a good heart, but just
couldn't get the hang of it. I told the Program Manager that I didn't feel
he was
ready, and suggested that he do an afternoon when the AM side would be
broadcasting baseball and not require attention. Nevertheless, the PM put
him on a
Friday overnight (midnight to 6AM) for his first solo flight.
About 1:00 AM, I got a call. The new DJ had lost control of both stations,
and asked me to come down to the station and help. I switched on the radio
and
heard a very strange [removed] of like an echo of music playing backwards.
For what few reels were still playing, at least one of them was not only
playing backwards, but playing the shiny side of the tape.
--Laura Leff
President, IJBFC
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 16:42:01 -0500
From: Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@[removed];
To: OTRBB <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Update on Jim Cox, OTR Author
Today I received an email from Sharon Cox, Jim's wife. I later spoke
on the telephone with Jim in his hospital in Louisville. JIm gave me
permission to post Sharon's note on the Digest, as follows:
"JIm is in room 529, bed 2, (at Norton Suburban Hospital) and is still
pretty seriously ill, although the doctors are saying he has improved
tremendously. He still has a small pocket of fluid on his left lung,
low red blood cells, and needs to get his kidneys to improve by 30%
more before he comes home. Thank you for the wonderful BIG card from
MWOTRC. He has enjoyed
looking at and reading all the messages. He has improved enough that
visitors are permitted again.
Sharon"
In our telephone conversation, Jim said his medical problems involve
most of his major organs, including heart, lungs and kidneys. He is
being attended by a host of medical specialists and while some progress
has been made, he has a long way to go in his recovery. How long he
will stay at this hospital is not certain; it is possible he will be
transferred to another care facility next week. His spirits have been
elevated by the outpouring of good wishes from the OTR community
throughout the [removed]
We agreed that I would not release his phone number at either the
hospital or his home. While many expressions of support have been
coming to him via email, the family would prefer that these messages
come by snail mail so they are not burdened with printing email in
order to carry such to Jim's bedside.
JIm's friends and fans can send him messages of hope and support by
posting them to his residence: 202 S. Evergreen Rd, Louisville, KY
40243. Do not send any more messages to the hospital as Jim may be
released before they arrive.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 19:50:47 -0500
From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Actress Mercedes McCambridge dies at 85
Actress Mercedes McCambridge, who worked on shows ranging from I Love a
Mystery, Red Ryder, and Abie's Irish Rose, and the woman who Orson Welles
called, "the world's greatest living radio actress," died on March 2.
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 20:28:33 -0500
From: Shenbarger@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: FM Transmitter
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
In a message dated 3/17/2004 Michael Gwynne wrote:
Does anyone remember about three months ago there was a posting about
a device that plugged into the earphone jack of an mp3 player and then you
tuned it to a vacant spot on the FM dial and were able to get those mp3s to
play on your radio some distance away?
I have a Sound Feeder model SF-120. It was purchased at Best Buy about two
years ago for $20. It works using a single AA battery and seems to run a long
time. I can get a signal over a distance of about 50 feet through the house
walls.
It is continuously adjustable across the entire FM radio band.
It is about the size of a pack of cigarettes.
It plugs into the headphone jack on any radio, CD or tape player that has
one.
It broadcasts in stereo, but it is not high quality. I set the tuner for mono
when using it.
Don
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 23:09:56 -0500
From: "mike kerezman" <philipmarlowe@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: MERCEDES McCambridge Passing
Well Folks I just saw on YAHOO! the news of the passing of Mercedes
McCambridge at the age of 85. The story can read here
[removed];cid=492&ncid=762&e=11&u=/ap/20040318/ap_en_ce/obit_mccambridge
The story mentioned credits from her Radio Career including I LOVE A MYSTERY
Mike Kerezman
Macomb, Oklahoma
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 02:06:39 -0500
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Howdy Doody
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 19:19:38 -0500
From: JackBenny@[removed]
(Clarabell didn't transfer well to radio).
Kind of like Harpo Marx.
Exactly.
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 19:20:44 -0500
From: Grams46@[removed]
howdy doody began his show business career on the radio program,
puppet playhouse in january 1948. in april of that same year, howdy was
the star of the howdy doody show on nbc. from kathy
Howdy began on the local New York radio program "Triple-B Ranch" sometime in 1946 or
1947 on WNBC as a character called "Elmer" who traded hayseed-type jokes with the host,
Bob Smith. When he arrived, and again when he left, he would say, "Well, Howdy Doody!"
The kids called him "Howdy Doody," and Smith quickly realized that was a better name.
And since the kids visiting the radio studio were disappointed that they couldn't see Howdy
(Smith didn't use a puppet, he just spoke with a different voice), Smith decided to go to the
network about doing television.
Howdy's television debut on "Puppet Playhouse" was on 27 December 1947, albeit only as a
voice hiding in a desk drawer. Since they didn't have a puppet yet, they pretended for a
couple of weeks that Howdy was too shy to come out.
The first puppet, generally called "Ugly Howdy," appeared in January 1948 and only lasted a
couple of months before Frank Paris, the man who made him, walked out in a contract
dispute and took the puppet with him. Howdy, running for President of the Kids, then
declared he was having plastic surgery and appeared as a random puppet with a bandaged
face for awhile. The puppet that so many of us remember fondly, now residing in the Detroit
Institute of Art, debuted in June 1948. At the end of the election campaign, Howdy's
mystery opponent, Mr. X, turned out to be his twin brother, Double Doody. And, curiously
enough, Double looked just like Howdy, post-plastic surgery.
The Double Doody that appeared in that November 1948 show was deemed unsatisfactory
and was turned into Inspector John J. Fedoozle, and a new Double Doody was made. That
one is on display as "Howdy Doody" in the Smithsonian.
--
A. Joseph Ross, [removed] [removed]
15 Court Square, Suite 210
lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2503
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 09:20:16 -0500
From: John Francis MacEachern
<JohnFMac@[removed];
To: OTR Digest
<[removed]@[removed];
Subject: CBSRMT
Hi!
I just visited Himan Brown's website, there are two different areas on
the site where they request your feedback. I tried sending my thoughts
through both and both were bounced back. Does anyone know the status of
their attempts to get Mr. Brown's work rebroadcast or offered for sale?
I know that the couple of attempts a few years ago didn't last too long,
but that was before the introduction of XM Radio and I think that might
be a perfect venue for his shows.
Melina Brown has been a member of our digest, I'm not sure she still
is. I'd be very interested in her thoughts on this.
If she gave word that this idea is something they would be interested
in, as a subscriber to XM, I would lobby hard for it.
Does anyone else know anything more?
John Mac
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #98
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