Subject: [removed] Digest V2004 #249
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 7/28/2004 1:21 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2004 : Issue 249
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Sam Edwards                           [ JJLjackson@[removed] ]
  Ted Donaldson                         [ Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed] ]
  CHARACTER ACTOR                       [ PURKASZ@[removed] ]
  Sam Edwards                           [ lawrence albert <albertlarry@yahoo. ]
  Re: Herbert Tareyton announcer        [ jodie <raisingirl@[removed]; ]
  7-29 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]

______________________________________________________________________

    ADMINISTRIVIA:

    Apologies for the recent "short" issues. When something is posted
    of a time-sensitive nature, I try to "push" out the issue early so
    the information can be distributed as quickly as possible. Over
    the last few days, there have been a larger-than-normal number of
    sad posts that I thought should be made available as quickly as
    possible, so I've been pushing out a lot of smaller-than-normal
    issues.  --cfs3

______________________________________________________________________


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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 13:16:13 -0400
From: JJLjackson@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Sam Edwards

The following is the e-mail sent to me by Bill Edwards, Sam's son, just
minutes ago on Wednesday morning. When I talked to Bil on Sunday, he told me
that Sam would pass on that night, and I send out the word with that
information. But Sam was a trooper to the end, and lingered long enough for
the family to gather and say good-bye.
I talked to Bev on Tuesday night--she sounded chipper and in charge--more
like her old self. She said that there wouldn't be a service (she feared that
Sam had out-lived all of his friends). The family has spent the time telling
stories about Sam and his life and experiences (oh, to be a fly on the
wall--with a tape recorder.)Basically, having an Irish wake, in a hospital
room.

In regards to Bev's request to send donations in Sam's name to REPS: Bev
thought that any donation should be ear-marked to bring other actors up to
Seattle. If you wish to remember Sam in that way, they can be sent to 3663
Carr Pl. N., Seattle, WA  98103--please include Sam's name on it. We will
also post them in our newsletter Air Check, unless you'd prefer otherwise.

Joy Jackson
Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound

Greetings all.

Sam managed to hold on through part of Monday, and even had moments of
lucidiity. His brother Jack was present, and when Sam was awake enough to say
simple words, he actually asked about Jack's wife Jane. So he did get to hear
all the final farewells from family members and many friends who attended his
bedside in Durango.

Late Monday night the heart seized and he suddenly opened his eyes and
stared up briefly. We believe that he may also have been responding to a
call. After a second seizure the body quit. We were told there was likely no
higher brain function from that time. However, the heart that had beat so
long and now had a hole in it refused to quit. With no life support other
than the love of my mother and a morphine drip to insulate from pain, his
heart and breathing held on through all of Tuesday.

Sam finally passed from this world around 9:20 mdt this morning, Wednesday,
July 28 2004 at the age of 89. Now it is all of us who will have a hole in
our hearts for a long time.

My mother has asked that any show of support or sympathy would best be
expressed by a donation to support REPS and their continuing efforts to
sustain legacies of such entertainers as Sam Edwards. Joy will send details
out as to how to do this.

Notes of sympathy will also be welcomed either through this email
(perfessorbill@[removed]) so I can pass them on, or directly to Beverly
Edwards, 457 Highland Hill Drive, Durango, CO  81301.

She is strong and will be OK. Much of the grief was processed over the last
few days. We are glad there was no further lingering beyond that extra day
when he stubbornly refused to take his card down. It is now removed, but we
have the programs to remember him by.

Obits will be sent to the LA Times, Variety and through Joy to a Seattle paper.

Thank you for your love and support to him over the years, especially during
his last visit to Seattle a month ago, where I had the privilege to accompany
him in his final public performance.

With sadness, Bill Edwards

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 13:54:42 -0400
From: Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Ted Donaldson

Awhile back, I asked about an actor who,  when given a  a script,  "blew"
his lines because he wasn't used to seeing them on paper. The medium  was
radio,  I believe, and the actor was principally a theatrical performer.  I
didn't get an answer so perhaps this anecdote is not well remembered by me
or anyone else.  Still, I'd like to know.

Now to the real subject of my post.  My  friend Gordon Gregerson noted that
he was  he was enjoying the complete run of  "Bright Star."  I am doing the
same with  "Father Knows Best,"  a truly entertaining comedy which lasted
for five years (1949-1954),  a total of 39 episodes a season.  Jerry
Haendiges has them all in excellent sound. I've noted before that  Robert
Young portrayed a gentler, kinder, less believable  father in the
television version.  Now I would like to comment  about the remarkable Ted
Donaldson who plays "Bud" in all the radio shows.

His natural voice has an accent that is different than the other cast
members  ([removed], scooter becomes "scootah") but it really doesn't matter.
Next to Young and Rhoda Williams, Donaldson is the best actor in the show.

I have a copy of  "On Borrowed Time," in which Donaldson starred as "Pug."
It is a  "Lady Esther Screen Guild Players" episode from 1946 featuring
also Lionel Barrymore, Agnes Moorehead, and Vincent Price. Donaldson's
voice is inflected with the same accent, but it's a remarkable change from
his voice three years later on "Father Knows Best," in which he plays a 15
year old for the duration of the series.  It is a night and day shift which
can not simply be attributed to maturation.  Voice transformation is an
actor's art, and Donaldson exemplifies the transformation  to the "nth"
degree. It is truly amazing to hear him over the five year span of the show
and compare him to the 1946 broadcast.  Donaldson actually was attending
USC during the time he was making "Father Knows Best" and admitted himself
in a 1980 interview conducted by SPERDVAC that he always could sound
younger than he really was. I have truly enjoyed these programs.  They are
witty, sophisticated, and topical. In various episodes,  Robert Young and
other  family members  make reference to the movie  "The Thing from Another
World,"  to  Richard Carlson, Van Johnson, and Farley Granger,  and  to
Margaret Truman's piano playing. The show resembles a blueprint of the
early 1950's and can be appreciated on many different levels.

I highly recommend  this famous comedy series to anyone. It is written and
performed much more skillfully and realistically than its television
counterpart.

Dennis Crow

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 13:55:41 -0400
From: PURKASZ@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  CHARACTER ACTOR
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

Chris:
    Lemme try to help you here.
    An actor is either a 'Leading Man' or a 'Character actor.'
    The former are sometimes called 'Stars' the latter are the secondary
support types that are heroes to a lot of us and sometimes even rise through
the
ranks to become stars.
    Lee Van Cleef was a character actor for many years before being
'discovered' in the Spaghetti Western genre in the 70s and 'starring' in a
few before
he died.
    Marlon Brando was never a character actor because he started as a leading
man and stayed there.
    One who 'carries' a picture in the leading role is a 'leading man.'
    Sometime you get there over the years because of a lucky break.
    Harrison Ford, an old friend from "The Farm" days, a delightful man and a
carpenter when not working and in fact a man who did some work for me in my
small art studio in Hollywood back in '73, was a character actor doing guest
star roles in all the 'hit' TV shows like the rest of us.
    He scored and rose to leading man with 'Star Wars.'
    Jack Nicholson, perhaps the biggest survivor of all, went from B-Minus
Roger Corman 'biker' films and horror stuff, to leading man after he replaced
Rip Torn in 'Easy Rider.'
    A small 'character' role in that film, you couldn't take your eyes off
him. Everyone wabnted to know, 'Who was that guy?'
    He caught everyone's attention and was then entrusted with a leading role
in "Five Easy Pieces" and he was off into the stratosphere where he keeps a
comfortable position to this day.
    Jack further blurred the lines when, as a full blown 'star' and leading
man in 1983, he agreed to take a small non-leading part in the movie "Terms of
Endearment."
    This after "Chinatown" and "Cuckoo's Nest."
    In accepting the part he was quoted in the trades as saying, "I'm a
character actor. Always have been. Always will be."
    Interesting. Hope that clear up some of the mud.
    An actor is an actor in my book. The people either like you or they
don't.
    That simple.
    Personally I've always thought of myself as a 'Leading Man' but no one
was following.
    You can tell me.
    Check me out in [removed]
    Maybe we've met across the glowing screen.
                Michael C. Gwynne

  *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
  ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 13:57:07 -0400
From: lawrence albert <albertlarry@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Sam Edwards

 I only knew Sam through the REPS Showcase meetings
that he and Bev attened here in Seattle. But in those
few days, once a year I always came away with the
conviction that I'd met a real gentleman and a true
professional.
  At last year's Showcase I was asked to host a panel
on radio actors on film. I put together a presentation
showing clips of the OTR talent in the movies or on
TV. For Sam I picked a clip from the Columbia Studio
Serial "Captain Midnight". He'd played Chuck, the
Captain's young assistant in this film. As the clip
was playing and the audience was enjoying the sight of
a very young Sam taking on the bad guys, I looked up
to see Sam and Bev standing in the back of the room
watching the clip. It was an odd sensation to be
looking at a man who was moving toward the end of his
time, watching himself preserved forever on film, at a
period when there was still so much of his life still
ahead of him.
  I wondered what Sam was thinking as he watched the
"he" that was himself from over sixty years ago,
leaping on tables, running at full tilt and in general
exhibiting all of the vigor that youth allows. I
wondered if there was any sadness in his mind at the
loss of that youth. I wondered a good many "deep"
things. However, when the clip was done and someone in
the room asked Sam what he thought all he said was
that the scripts for those old chapter plays were as
big as a New York Phone book. Sam didn't wallow in the
past, he put it in the proper perspective and moved
on.
    Let us all bow our heads and say a little prayer
of thanks that we were allowed to have him with us for
as long as we did. When the question comes up again,
and it undoubtly will, as what makes a professional,
just look at the life and work of Sam Edwards and the
answer will be clear.

           God Speed Sam
             Larry Albert

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 15:11:19 -0400
From: jodie <raisingirl@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Herbert Tareyton announcer

hi all --

Brian L Bedsworth corrected me:

That announcer was not Basil Ruysdale; it was none other than Senator
Claghorne himself, Kenny Delmar, working simultaneously for both "feuding"
camps.

Yeah, I remembered that about two minutes after hitting 'send.'  Thanks
for the corrective.  :)

jodie

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

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 16:13:08 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  7-29 births/deaths

July 29th births

07-29-1869 - Booth Tarkington - Indianapolis, IN - d. 5-19-1946
writer: "Maude and Cousin Bill"
07-29-1887 - Sigmund Romberg - Nagykanizsa, Austria-Hungary - d. 11-9-1951
composer, conductor: "An Evening with Romberg"; "Swift Hour"
07-29-1890 - Theda Bara - Cincinnati, OH - d. 4-13-1955
actress: "Lux Radio Theatre"
07-29-1892 - Horace Braham - London, England - d. 9-7-1955
actor: Charles Lang "Wendy Warren and the News"; Ernest Benning "Big Sister"
07-29-1892 - William Powell - Pittsburgh, PA - d. 3-5-1984
actor: Father "My Mother's Husband"
07-29-1906 - Thelma Todd - Lawrence, MA - d. 12-16-1935
comedienne: Series with Zasu Pitts
07-29-1907 - Clara Bow - Brooklyn, NY - d. 9-27-1965
actress: (The It Girl) "Kay Parker in Hollywood"
07-29-1910 - Joseph Curtin - Cambridge, MA - d. 4-5-1979
actor: Nick Charles "Advs. of the Thin Man"; John Perry "John's Other Wife"
07-29-1911 - Florence Freeman - NYC - d. 4-25-2000
actress: Ellen Brown "Young Widder Brown"; Wendy Warren "Wendy Warren and the
News"
07-29-1913 - Stephen McNally - NYC - d. 6-4-1994
actor: "Ford Theatre"; "Screen Director's Playhouse"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
07-29-1924 - Robert Horton - Los Angeles, CA
actor: "Suspense"

July 29th deaths

12-02-1899 - Sir John Barbirolli - London, England - d. 7-29-1970
conductor: "New York Philharmonic"
03-01-1910 - David Niven - Kirriemuir, Scotland - d. 7-29-1983
actor, panelist: "NBC Radio Theatre"; "Transatlantic Quiz"
06-09-1900 - Fred Waring - Tyrone, PA - d. 7-29-1984
conductor: "Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians"; "Pleasure Time/Victory Tunes"
08-30-1896 - Raymond Massey - Toronto,  - d. 7-29-1983
actor, host: "Doctor Fights"; "Harvest of Stars"
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #249
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