Subject: [removed] Digest V2007 #357
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 12/22/2007 4:18 PM
To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to:
[removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2007 : Issue 357
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Benny and [removed]                   [ jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns) ]
  Mala Powers                           [ JayHick@[removed] ]
  12-22 births/deaths                   [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
  Re:Integrated Seating                 [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  And the Night lives [removed]             [ Wich2@[removed] ]
  Re: Pardon the Grammer/Benny "Wonder  [ Jordan Young <jyoung@[removed]; ]
  Jack Westaway                         [ jack and cathy french <otrpiano@ver ]
  This week in radio history 23-29 Dec  [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]

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

Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:59:40 -0500
From: jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Benny and [removed]

And, as I'm sure has been commented here at some point--

Johnny Carson wrote his college thesis paper on timing in radio comedy,
or timing in comedy, and used an episode of THE JACK BENNY SHOW, as his
model.

To his last days, Carson mentioned his debt to Benny, as one of his top,
and maybe THE top, comedy heroes.

Jim Burns

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

Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 21:19:04 -0500
From: JayHick@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Mala Powers

Mala Powers I believe died either in late spring or early summer

Mala Powers died June 11, 2007.

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

Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 22:23:26 -0500
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  12-22 births/deaths

December 22nd births

12-22-1862 - Connie Mack - East Brookfield, MA - d. 2-8-1956
baseball manager: "The Shell Show"; "A Tribute to Lou Gehrig"
12-22-1885 - Deems Taylor - NYC - d. 7-3-1966
commentator: "Deems Taylor Music Series"; "Prudential Family Hour";
"RCA Victor Show"
12-22-1891 - Mc Kay Morris - Fort Sam Houston, TX - d. 10-3-1955
actor: Abe Lincoln "The Abe Lincoln Story"; Gregory Ivanoff "Ma Perkins"
12-22-1901 - Andre Kostelanetz - St. Petersburg, Russia - d. 1-13-1980
conductor: "Chesterfield Hour"; "Light Up Time"; "Pause That Refreshes"
12-22-1907 - Peggy Ashcroft - London, England - d. 6-14-1991
actor: BBC "Queen Victoria"
12-22-1909 - Robert Barr - Glasbow, Scotland - d. 1-30-1999
radio writer: "To Tell You the Truth"
12-22-1911 - Bob Guilbert - Wisconsin - d. 10-19-1990
actor: Don Winslow "Don Winslow of the Navy"
12-22-1911 - Milton E. Drentz - d. 1-8-2000
seminary producer: "The Eternal Light"
12-22-1912 - Lady Bird Johnson - Karnack, TX - d. 7-11-2007
first lady: owner of radio station KTBC Austin, Texas
12-22-1912 - Myron Barg - d. 1-11-1994
disk jockey: WJBC Bloomington, Indiana
12-22-1917 - Gene Rayburn - Christopher, IL - d. 11-29-1999
announcer, comedian: "Rayburn and Finch"
12-22-1918 - Frankie Darro - Chicago, IL - d. 12-25-1976
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
12-22-1921 - Hawkshaw Hawkins - Huntingdon, WV - d. 3-5-1963
singer: "Country Style [removed]"; "Country Music Time"
12-22-1936 - Hector Elizondo - New York, NY
actor: "We Hold These Truths"
12-22-1948 - Noel Edmonds - Ilford, England
presenter: Weekday Breakfast Slot replacing Tony Blackburn

December 22nd deaths

01-08-1911 - Butterfly McQueen - Tampa, FL - d. 12-22-1995
actor: Oriole "Beulah"; Butterfly "Jack Benny Program"
01-14-1904 - George McCoy - d. 12-22-1976
1930's broadcaster: (Pioneered the radio talk show)
01-30-1862 - Walter Damrosch - Breslau, Silesia - d. 12-22-1950
conductor, commentator: "Baulkite Hour"; "Music Appreciation Hour"
02-15-1908 - William Janney - NYC - d. 12-22-1992
actor: Gary Haven "We are Always Young"; Howie Wing "Howie Wing"
02-17-1871 - Donald Brian - St. John's, Canada - d. 12-22-1948
singer, actor: "The Philco Hour"
03-07-1878 - Percy Hemus - Auckland, New Zealand - d. 12-22-1943
actor: Dr. Winslow "Road of Life"; Old Wrangler "Tom Mix"
03-21-1869 - Vivia Ogden - Ohio - d. 12-22-1952
actor: Mrs. Manners "John's Other Wife"; Annie "Orphans of Divorce"
03-25-1887 - Raymond Gram Swing - Cortland, NY - d. 12-22-1968
commentator: "Voice of America"
04-13-1906 - Samuel Beckett - Dublin, Ireland - d. 12-22-1989
writer: "All That Fall"
04-23-1931 - Tom Pettit - d. 12-22-1995
nbc reporter: "Meet the Press"
04-24-1928 - Ted McKay - Raised in North Avondale, OH - d. 12-22-2005
talk show host: "Party Line"; Created first talk show on WKRC
Cincinatti in 1955
04-30-1886 - Dick Elliott - Boston, MA - d. 12-22-1961
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
05-10-1914- Frank Martin - Oklahoma - d. 12-22-1994
actor: Hashknife Hartley "Hashknife Hartley"
05-24-1902 - Wilbur Hatch - Mokena, IL - d. 12-22-1969
conductor: "Our Miss Brooks"; "Gateway to Hollywood"; "Screen Guild
Theatre"
05-25-1913 - Richard Dimbleby - Richmond onThames, England - d.
12-22-1965
BBC's first-ever radio news reporter: "Down Your Way"; "Twenty
Questions"
06-19-1902 - Ed Thorgerson - Elizabeth, NJ - d. 12-22-1997
announcer/sportscaster: "A&P Gypsies"; "The Elgin Football Revue"
07-04-1912 - Virginia Graham - Chicago, IL - d. 12-22-1998
talk show host: "Cancer Can Be Cured"; "Weekday Theatre"
07-05-1898 - Richard P. Condie - d. 12-22-1985
director mormon tabernacle choir: "Music and the Spoken Word"
08-20-1906 - Floyd Neal - Iowa - d. 12-22-1985
announcer: "Uncle Don"; "Vienese Night"
08-27-1901 - Al Ritz - Newark, NJ - d. 12-22-1965
comedian: (The Ritz Brothers) "Hollywood Hotel"
09-05-1902 - Darryl Zanuck - Wahoo, NE - d. 12-22-1979
film director: "Jack Benny Program"; "Hollywood Hotel"; "Triburte to
Irving Berlin"
09-05-1907 - Jimmy Wallington - Rochester, NY - d. 12-22-1972
announcer: "Chase & Sanborn Hour"; "Texaco Town/Star Theatre"; "Alan
Young Show"
09-22-1881 - Joe Parsons - Indianapolis, IN - d. 12-22-1947
singer: Edelweiss Joe "The Sinclair Minstrels"; "The Yeast Foamers"
10-11-1913 - Sherman H. Dryer - d. 12-22-1989
producer, director: "Two Thousand Plus"; "Heritage"; "Exploring the
Unknown"
10-24-1901 - Gilda Gray - Cracow, Poland - d. 12-22-1959
ziegfeld follies singer/dancer: WOO Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
11-27-1898 - Eddie Kay - NYC - d. 12-22-1973
composer, conductor: "Those We Love"
12-17-1919 - Edward "Shrimp" Wragge - NYC - d. 12-22-1992
actor: "Gold Spot Pal"

Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:56:03 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re:Integrated Seating

On 12/21/07 6:18 PM [removed]@[removed] wrote:

Would African-Americans attending broadcasts have had
to sit in a certain area? Would this have been an
unspoken arrangement, so to speak, similar to movie
theaters? Were some studios segregated and others not?
I wonder, also, if programs starring African-American
performers would have had special seating
[removed]

Not in New York, Chicago, or Hollywood -- smaller stations might have had
their own policies, but the major networks had no such policies, as far
back as the mid-thirties. Photos of "Amos 'n' Andy's" first broadcast
before a live audience -- a broadcast which featured both white and black
performers at Chicago's Merchandise Mart in 1936, clearly show an
integrated audience.

However, NBC *did* segregate documentation of "Negro Radio Artists" in
its record cards, keeping such performers in a seperate section. The
reasons for this were never noted in any official records, but the file
as such was preserved as found by the Library of Congress.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:17:25 -0500
From: Wich2@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  And the Night lives [removed]
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(...Ebenezer Scrooge's horrid one, of infamous memory, that [removed])

Dear Folks-

We've spoken recently of some of the many CHRISTMAS CAROLS that OTR  offered,
chief of which is Lionel Barrymore's from 1939.

As a Christmas gift to those of you whose horizons extend to contemporary
audio drama as well, and in thanks for the pleasures this group yields, an
off-list request to me will bring info about how to hear a "new" production
of
Dickens' timeless tale - for free!

(My gift to those of you who think that the medium did indeed die in 1962,
is the "let's talk elsewhere" form of this offer!)

As far as OTR connections, this production was directed by FOTR '07's
"Brooklyn Brain" director Jay Stern, and our own Bill Owen has called
Quicksilver
Radio Theater's work, "Not just good, but GREAT."

The most wonderful of holidays to all of your & yours - belated  Good Yontif,
Merry Christmas, and all else!
-Craig Wichman

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

Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:17:59 -0500
From: Jordan Young <jyoung@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Pardon the Grammer/Benny "Wonderful Life"
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Although George Balzer had issues with Milt Josefsberg's Benny book,
I agree, it's very much worthy of a reprint.

And speaking of JB, seems there's a one-man show playing at Two Roads
Theatre in Studio City (Hollywood area) called "It Could Have Been a
Wonderful Life," with this intriguing premise:

"What if the classic movie 'It's A Wonderful Life' had featured a
Jewish family, the guardian angel was Jack Benny and it was set in
Hollywood? Find out as former Tonight Show writer Fred Raker portrays
twenty-five wildly entertaining characters in a solo comedy the SF
Bay Guardian describes as 'nothing less than a wonderful 70 minutes.'
"

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

Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 09:50:43 -0500
From: jack and cathy french <otrpiano@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Jack Westaway
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Dick Fisher asks about a Jack Westaway Club drivers helmet pin. He
could find out nothing about the radio show, nor does the pin appear
in Tumbush. The full name of this club is "Jack Westaway's Under Sea
Adventure Club."

Malt-o-Meal created this club in the mid 30s, but it was not
accompanied by a radio series. This was not uncommon to promote
premiums (without radio backup) to sell cereals. There were several
of these Westaway premiums offered back then and most are pictured in
Official Hake's Price Guide to Character Toys (5th edition) which is
far superior to anything Tumbush ever put out.

The helmet pin, depending  on  condition,  is worth from $ 15 to $50.
Other premiums include: "Under Sea Adventure Club" newspaper, club
membership card, recruitment brochure with underwater map, and a
letter explaining the shark tooth story (although apparently  no
shark's tooth has survived to this day.) You may not be surprised to
learn that the membership card, which spelled out the rules, required
a kid to eat a bowl of Malt-o-Meal every day.

Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL
<[removed]>

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Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:55:07 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otrd <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  This week in radio history 23-29 December

 From Today in history, the NY Times --

12/23

In 1928, the National Broadcasting Company set up a permanent,
coast-to-coast network.

 From Today's Almanac --

In 1947, the transistor was invented, leading to a revolution in
communications and electronics.

 From Those Were The Days --

12/24 --

1906 - It is said that Professor Reginald A. Fessenden sent his first
radio broadcast from Brant Rock, MA. The program included a little
verse, some violin and a speech.  (This is a disputed event according to
some sources -ed).

1928 - The first broadcast of The Voice of Firestone was heard. The
program aired each Monday evening at 8. The Voice of Firestone became a
hallmark in radio broadcasting. It kept its same night, time (in 1931
the start time changed to 8:30) and sponsor for its entire run.
Beginning on September 5, 1949, the program of classical and
semiclassical music was also seen on television.

1944 - The Andrews Sisters starred in the debut of The Andrews Sisters'
Eight-to-the-Bar Ranch on ABC. Patty, Maxene and LaVerne ran a fictional
dude ranch. George 'Gabby' Hayes was a regular guest along with Vic
Schoen's orchestra. The ranch stayed in operation until 1946.

12/25

1931 - Lawrence Tibbett was the featured vocalist as radio came to the
Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The first opera was Hansel
und Gretel, heard on the NBC network of stations. In between acts of the
opera, moderator Olin Downes would conduct an opera quiz, asking
celebrity guests opera-related questions. The program's host and
announcer was Milton Cross. He worked out of the Met's Box 44.

1934 - The Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, was read by
Lionel Barrymore on The Campbell Playhouse on CBS. The reading of the
tale became an annual radio event for years to come.

1937 - Arturo Toscanini conducted the first broadcast of Symphony of the
Air over NBC.

1942 - The longest, sponsored program in the history of broadcasting was
heard on NBC Blue network. The daylong Victory Parade's Christmas Party
of Spotlight Bands was heard over 142 radio stations. The marathon
broadcast was sponsored by Coca-Cola.

12/26

1953 - Big Sister was heard for the last time on CBS. The show had been
on the air for 17 years. Big Sister was the ongoing story of Sue Evans
Miller and her relationship with her big sister, Ruth Evans. Actresses
who played big sister Ruth over the years: Alice Frost, Nancy Marshall,
Marjorie Anderson, Mercedes McCambridge. Little Sister Sue was played by
Haila Stoddard, Dorothy McGuire, Peggy Conklin and Fran Carlon.

1954 - One of radio's most popular programs, The Shadow, lurked around
the airwaves for the last time. Vigilante crime-fighter Lamont Cranston
battled greed and corruption since 1930. "Who knows what evil lurks in
the hearts of men? The Shadow [removed]"

12/27

1932 - Radio City Music Hall, in New York City, opened. It was the
largest indoor theatre in the world. The gala grand opening show was a
six-hour extravaganza that lost half a million dollars within three
weeks. The theatre has since been renovated to recapture its original
decorative charm. An Art Deco cathedral of entertainment, it seats more
than 6,200 people and is still a must-see for those visiting New York.
During the holiday season, audiences continue to get a kick out  of
seeing the world-famous Rockettes perform in precision on Radio City
Music Hall?s nearly 10,000-square-foot stage.

1939 - The Glenn Miller Show, also known as Music that Satisfies,
started on CBS. The 15-minute, twice-a-week show was sponsored by
Chesterfield cigarettes and was heard for nearly three years.

1940 - Singer Al Jolson and actress Ruby Keeler were divorced after 12
years of marriage. They had separated a year earlier; but Jolson talked
Keeler into co-starring with him in the Broadway show, Hold on to Your
Hats. She left the show before the opening and then left the marriage.

1968 - The Breakfast Club signed off for the last time on ABC, after
over 30 years on the air.

12/28

1941 - The Helen Hayes Theater, on CBS, was called the first casualty of
World War II. Lipton Tea dropped sponsorship of the program as it
prepared for shortages in tea imports from India.

12/29

1945 - The mystery voice of Mr. Hush was heard for the first time on
Truth or Consequences, hosted by Ralph Edwards. The feature was intended
as a spoof of giveaway shows. However, the idea was taken seriously and
lasted five weeks before fighter Jack Dempsey was identified as Mr. Hush
-- for a prize of $13,500.

Joe (and a Merry Christmas to all)

--
Visit my homepage: [removed]~[removed]

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #357
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