Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #46
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 1/31/2003 7:41 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2003 : Issue 46
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  trading tapes question                [ vigor16@[removed] ]
  Looking for some shows                [ "Li'l Reader Books" <lilreader2@yah ]
  Thanks--and a question                [ Mike Thompson <mthomp86@[removed]; ]
  WWVA and More:                        [ "Bob & Carol Taylor" <qth4@[removed] ]
  Mary; merry and furry                 [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
  radio shows that should be put back   [ "Greg Przywara" <gmprzywara@hotmail ]
  Re: OTR Stars on TV; OTR & Modern Sp  [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
  Duffys' Tavern                        [ "gregory walker" <gdwflo@[removed] ]
  Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  poetry on radio                       [ "Robert Angus" <rangus02@[removed]; ]
  KMOX Interview Reschedule             [ Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed] ]
  Lone Ranger Turns 70                  [ Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed] ]
  Re: Our Miss Brooks                   [ Dixonhayes@[removed] ]
  Re: Bob Hope OTR CD at Sams Club      [ Bryan Wright <bswrig@[removed]; ]
  Dragnet's Influence                   [ William Harker <wharker@[removed] ]
  Lorenzo or Luigi                      [ "rcg" <revrcg@[removed]; ]
  Re: "Mary, Merry, Marry"              [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]

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

Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 23:43:19 -0500
From: vigor16@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  trading tapes question

Hi all,

I hope I don't start something, but I have a dilemma and want feedback.
I can't think of a better group to come to for this moral issue.  Tell me
if you guys been here before on this list.  If so, try to let me know
what I can do.  I am a collector of OTR and enjoy it more than I can say.
 I started collecting 16 years ago on Feb. 14.  I celebrate my
anniversary, which can compete with my wedding anniversary for fun.  Good
thing my wife is an OTR lover too.  But, here is my issue.  I have been
collecting from some wonderful vendors over the years, and you know who
you are, Mr. Davenport.  But, I was asked, today, would I copy shows for
a friend.  I said that I'd do a couple, but am trying to urge him to
purchase shows from our wonderful recording engineers, but he keeps
insisting that he's a trader and wants to swap shows for music or
something like that.  So far, I've copied and lent a couple tapes but
have not seen any music in return.  My question is the issue of sharing
the tapings.  I want to share the hobby and promote OTR, but not at the
expense or loss of preservation of OTR.  He assures me that he doesn't
sell them, but that's not the issue I'm concerned about.  If we swap or
share programs, isn't that a deterioration effect for the hobby?  I ran
into this when I ran an OTR club in the mid-90s in St. Louis and it began
to turn into a swap club and guys were duplicating garbage bags of tapes,
and some of them were terrible as originals.  It sort of sickened me
inside.  Am I selfish or what?  I want to share the hobby with others but
I also want to preserve the generation level of recording.  I feel like
the boy that took his finger out of the dike when people ask me about
swapping.  Is this normal?  Has anybody been here before?  If you have,
please jump in and help out.  I can't think that I'm the only one in this
kind of thing.  What can I say so it can be firm but friendly?  Thanks
for my space Charlie and all.  I don't want to be mean spirited, but this
hobby is one of my loves, if not the love.  I'll wait to hear.

Thanks,

Deric M.

PS. Wonder if Fibber McGee ever had one like this one. Dad rat the dad
rat it anyway.

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 08:45:56 -0500
From: "Li'l Reader Books" <lilreader2@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Looking for some shows

Hello,  does anyone have the following shows to trade with me.  I am
looking for some of the following:

Alka Seltzer Time;  Adventures of Leonidas Witherall;  An American in
England;  Arch Oboler Plays;  Diary of Fate;  Father Coughlin; Good News
of 1938-39-40;  It's A Crime Mr. Collins;  Incredible But True;  I Deal in
Crime; MGM Lion Promotes MGM Newest Movies;  Leather Stocking Tales;
Misc. Detectives Women;  Poe Works;  Round the Home;  Shadow of the
Pharoah;  and the Sears Radio Theater.

I am willing to trade for these so view my availalbe list at
[removed] .  Check it out and let me know if I can trade
for some of the ones listed above.   I do use drop chute too - so I can
trade that way too,  my id is Lilreader.  thanks a bunch -

--lilreader
my master list is up and running - [removed]

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 08:46:19 -0500
From: Mike Thompson <mthomp86@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Thanks--and a question

First off, thanks to all those who answered me, both
on the list and through private email, about my Gale
Gordon-Mel Blanc question. I had no idea that Gale
apparently reacted so poorly to Mel's news. Of course,
I know that's only Mel's side of the story; it would
have been interesting to hear Gale's, but I don't
suppose he ever wrote his memoirs, did he?

Mike

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 08:46:55 -0500
From: "Bob & Carol Taylor" <qth4@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  WWVA and More:
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

I was wondering if anyone has any redcordings of Lee Moore who worked
overnights on WWVA.  He was a friend and we would offen talk about the days
between 47 and the time that the station changed hands and they also changed
the face of the station by letting some of the announcing staff go.

It was a real hay day for radio in those days when Doc Williams would
advertise his guitar course and baby chicks could be baught along with many
other products.

Does anyone have any recordings of the jamboree.

The Wheeling Jamboree is a shadow of what it was in the 50's and 60's.

Somebody posted a message lately about the Grand Ole Opry saying that it will
never be the way it was.  That is true and I have seen somewhere that they
even try to get older folks or shell we say the gray haired people to sit more
to the back of the house.  I guess they think the camera is so important now
that the Opry is brocasted or at least a half hour of it on CMT.  What
happened to the days when the Opry prided itself as a radio show?

WSM has recently let go of 8 people and I really think that a change is in the
wind for that station.

But as we know down through the years many stations have done exactly that,
and not with the true fans of the music or what ever they were doing
previously in mind.

WABC in the early 60's was a very popular rock & roll station and when they
changed formats we still lived and the sun still rose and set.

Just some ramblings.

Bob Taylor

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 08:50:24 -0500
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Mary; merry and furry

FKELLY <fkelly@[removed]; sez:
 In the northeast, "Mary" rhymes with fairy, "merry" rhymes with furry.
 and "marry" rhymes with carry.

In Knoxville "merry" rhymes with "berry," "Mary" and "marry" both
rhyme with "carry." However, it is a source of amusement to some of
us that the citizens of a nearby Maryville refer to it as
"Murryville."

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 08:50:44 -0500
From: "Greg Przywara" <gmprzywara@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  radio shows that should be put back on TV

As much as I enjoy and respect the original "Dragnet" from the previews I've
seen it looks like they have stuck with the gritty,realistic feel of the
older radio and TV series. I will be watching it with interest.
I wish they would put "The Whistler" on TV. The type of surprise endings
that made that show famous on the radio would keep all but the most jaded
mystery fan on the edge of his/her seat.
Technically with the way movies are hacked up for commercial TV the Lux
Radio Theater has already come back as the CBS Sunday Night Movie and the
"new AMC"

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 09:01:45 -0500
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: OTR Stars on TV; OTR & Modern Speech

One of the things I like about old tv is hearing voices I recognize
from radio. Last night I was watching a special feature length Jack
Webb Dragnet movie - really terrible; whatever charms the show had
wore completely away when they tried to take it beyond 30 minutes -
and recognized the voice of a guest at a party, a fellow with a kind
of western drawl who kept saying "Much obliged!" as a character actor
I'd heard on a hundred westerns, usually playing a bad guy. Guess
what? He didn't look at all like I'd imagined him; what a surprise!
But the point I'd intended to make was, they all had voices with
character, a quality that seems to be lacking in tv stars of today.
Of course, on radio the various characters had to be recognizable
only by their voices, a requirement no longer necessary. A cast
composed largely of OTR actors simply had, for lack of a better term,
a more textured sound to the dialogue.

As to the change in our national accent, I don't think that can be
entirely laid to a more mobile population or to the homogenizing
effect of tv. I think it has as much to do a sort of creeping verbal
laziness, a symptom of our increasingly actionless lives. I know that
_The FBI in Peace and War_ began with statements being made by police
officers around the country speaking "by proxy." So, when I heard the
more precise diction of ordinary citizens in "man-on-the-street"
interviews, or the guests on You Bet Your Life, I was skeptical. They
all sounded too poised, too polished. Listen and compare them, say,
to the interviewees on Leno's Jaywalking segments. I came to suspect
that they were all fakes, actors playing the parts of ordinary
people. But gradually I have come to accept that people were just
more "well-spoken" in those days. Lord knows they really did cuss
less (though I've heard uncensored snippets of the OTR equivalent of
_Cops_ that demonstrates that wasn't INVARIABLY the case).

Part of the explanation may be suggested by this excerpt from this
final exam someone emailed me, which was to given eighth graders of
Salina, Kansas in 1895. This excerpt deals with Orthography, which
online dictionaries define as "spelling," though this seems to have
as much to do with diction. The other parts of the test weren't this
easy:

******************************************
Orthography (Time, one hour)

1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography,
etymology, syllabication?
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph,
subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.'
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two
exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word:
bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and
name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd,
cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane,
fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate
pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.
********************************************
[Number Eight strikes me as a bit strange; divide into syllables?]

Nowadays things are much different. For example, it is pointless to
learn the correct pronunciation of a word as it will change once
enough people begin to pronounce it differently; for example vagary
has become VAYgurry instead of vuhGARie, grimace has become GRIMus
instead of gr'MACE, and culinary is now KULL'n ary instead of
KYOOLinary. I still refuse to pronounce forte (strong point) as
FORtay instead of the proper fort, since there is no reason to add
the final AY sound either in English or the original French, but even
the OED has thrown in the towel on that one. And I have no idea why
Norteamericanos have chosen to add a syllable to the Mexican border
town of Tijuana (almost alway pronounced, even on national news, as
Tee uh wanna).

There has always been a strong anti-intellectual sentiment in this
country, probably never stronger than today, and I guess people
today, in addition to being just plain careless in their speech, are
afraid of putting on airs and sounding pompous. I, for one, kind of
liked the way our political figures were so careful, even dramatic,
with their enunciation on old newscasts. When you're talking about
important things, I think it appropriate to sound important, just as
it's logical for public officials to dress up for public affairs. I
miss, for example, the stentorian tones of Roosevelt or Churchill.
Nobody ever "misunderestimated" them, to borrow a term from a much
more recent "world leader."

By the way, I have also heard it said of East Tennesse (as someone
claimed for Virginia) that our local twang is the closest surviving
dialect to Elizabethan English. That seems plausible considering our
long isolation, and my grandparents certainly salted their language
with some very archaic terms, but, of course, I can't say for sure,
never having been to the Elizabethan district of England.

Finally, on the subject of OTR actors who went to tv (didn't they
all?) can anyone tell me (as though there were any doubt that someone
here could) anything about the fellow with the soothing voice who
played editor Charly on Lou Grant and currently does the voice for
Smuckers? I seem to recall him from an afternoon short called
"Whispering" something or other. Any info?

[ADMINISTRIVIA: Please see:

[removed]

...for a detailed descussion of this test supposedly, "given eighth graders
of Salina, Kansas in 1895." There is no proof this "test" is legitimate, and
one should _always_ question the validity of Internet chain letters mailed
from address book to address book.  --cfs3]

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 09:02:43 -0500
From: "gregory walker" <gdwflo@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Duffys' Tavern

Does anyone remember a show called "Duffys' Tavern"? It started out with a
guy answering the phone saying "Duffys'[removed] Duffy aint' here". One
of the characters on the show was "digger O'dell" the undertaker,or have I
got my shows mixed up. I'm in my sixties and I was a little boy when the
show aired. I do remember my parents listening to it. The shows format was
of different characters coming in and out of "Duffys" usually in some kind
of funny dilema. G. Walker

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 09:02:50 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Today in radio history

>From Those Were The Days --

1936 - The Green Hornet was introduced by its famous theme song, The
Flight of the Bumble Bee. The radio show was first heard on WXYZ in
Detroit, MI on this day. The show stayed on the air for 16 years. The
Green Hornet originated from the same radio station where The Lone
Ranger was performed. You may remember that the title character in The
Green Hornet was really named Britt Reid. He was, in fact, supposed to
be the great nephew of John Reid, the Lone Ranger. Both popular series
were created by George Trendle and Fran Striker.

Birthdays --

1892 - Eddie Cantor (Iskowitz) 'banjo eyes',  died Oct 10, 1964

1902 - Tallulah Bankhead,  died Dec 12, 1968

1915 - Garry Moore (Thomas Garrison Morfit) died Nov 28, 1993

  Joe

--
Visit my home page:
[removed]~[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 09:02:57 -0500
From: "Robert Angus" <rangus02@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  poetry on radio
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Bob & Ray had a delicious bit about Charles the (Drunken) Poet.  Could they
have beern satirizing Bud Rainey, who graced the airwaves of WTIC in the late
1930s?  Rainey, if I recall correctly, had an oozy (possibly boozy?) voice
with a hint of a Southern accent.  His poetry, for the most part awful, was
read against the backdrop of Hal Kolb's organ music and consisted of
crackerbarrel philosophy platitudes.  He was only at WTIC for a few years.
Did he turn up elsewhere?  Possibly in the Boston area?

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 09:05:33 -0500
From: Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  KMOX Interview Reschedule

Hi - for all of you St. Louis folks - my interview about old time radio
collecting has been moved again - this time to 10:10 CST on the John Carney
show, KMOX-St. Louis this Sunday, February 2, 2003.

Please tune in and if you live in the area and could make me a tape or MP3
of the interview, that would be great.

See you on the radio,

Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 09:05:55 -0500
From: Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Lone Ranger Turns 70

Yesterday marked the 70th Anniversary of The Lone Ranger and it was duly
noted by New York's scholar of radio history, Daily News columnist David
Hinckley.

The article is online and focuses almost exclusively on the radio program!
Unfortunately, coverage of the new "Dragnet" and "Lone Ranger" programs is
in the hands of his colleagues in the television department.

Here's the link:
[removed]
 .
I've said it before and I'll say it again: David is an invaluable link to
radio's past and the only journalist in the entire city who takes radio
heritage seriously.  He is a treasure.

Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed].

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 09:08:26 -0500
From: Dixonhayes@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Our Miss Brooks

My goodness, a Crenna obit that actually mentions radio as something
more than an afterthought!  PS: My boyfriend thought maybe
it was
because OMB was a NBC show; was it?

No, actually "Our Miss Brooks" was always on CBS, radio and TV both. It was
never on NBC. What's interesting is that Crenna's other memorable radio role,
"A Date With Judy," *was* on NBC but wasn't mentioned in the MSNBC article.

Dixon

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 09:09:21 -0500
From: Bryan Wright <bswrig@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Bob Hope OTR CD at Sams Club

Ellsworth Johnson asked:

Please --if you have purchased the Bob Hope OTR CD at Sams Club-- advise me
of the Sams Club stock number or CD number on the actual CD. And how many
CDs are there in the set ??

The catalogue number on the box is 43462 and the package contains twelve
CD's. The CD's are packed pretty cheaply in little cardboard folders stuffed
inside a long, thin cardboard box with "Bob Hope" printed in purple letters
at the top on the front. I had to look for sometime before finding the set
at my Sam's club. When I did find it, there were only a few copies and they
were almost hidden next to popular music. They certainly don't stand out the
way the old 20-tape packs did. Anyway, the cassette versions were available
mixed in with the CD's and are packed in the same outer thin cardboard box,
so if you want to be sure you get the CD's, you might advise your son of
this.

This set does not duplicate any shows in the 20-CD set of Bob Hope released
last year by Radio Spirits. The price at my Sam's Club was $[removed] for either
cassettes or CD's.

This is Bryan "HOPE this helps" Wright.

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 09:09:37 -0500
From: William Harker <wharker@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Dragnet's Influence

I must admit I am not much of a Dragnet fan.  However, there is no denying
its influence beyond merely radio and television.

Dragnet was part of a general trend in entertainment media such as short
stories, novels, movies, radio, and television to show police work in a
more realistic manner.  On the Rara-Avis list (a list devoted to
hard-boiled detective fiction), Jim Doherty has argued that Dragnet
represented the point at which more realistic police work in fictional
environments gained mass attention.  Other forms had initiated the change
in view of police work, but Dragnet caught the mass public's imagination.

Anthony Boucher, in a review for the New York Times, coins the term "police
procedural" to describe Dragnet and provide a name to a new sub-genre of
mystery fiction.  Police procedural writers like Ed McBain (87th Precinct)
have acknowledged the debt they owe to Dragnet.

I doubt the people responsible for and acting in the new version of Dragnet
are aware of its importance beyond having created an "image" and being a
money-maker.

Bill Harker
wharker@[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 09:09:46 -0500
From: "rcg" <revrcg@[removed];
To: "Otr Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Lorenzo or Luigi

Very simple (and accurate) answer concerning theme music.

Lorenzo Jones: "Funiculi, Funicula"

Life With Luigi: "Oh Marie"

Take it to the [removed]

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

Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 09:09:51 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: "Mary, Merry, Marry"

On 1/30/03 11:50 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:

In the northeast, "Mary" rhymes with fairy, "merry" rhymes with furry.
and "marry" rhymes with carry.  Seems to me that this is true for the
three places I've lived in my life: Philadephia, New York, and
Pittsburgh.   Anybody disagree?

I think this is probably a mid-Atlantic thing. Up here in Maine, all
three words are pronounced "merry," and any divergence from this norm
will get you a funny look from the guy behind the counter at the Irving
Mainway. You might even get shortchanged if he doesn't like your dialect,
so be careful.

Another give-away that you ain't from around heah that you gutta watch
out faw is the word "Milk," which as all born-Mainers know is properly
pronounced "melk." Only outastatahs, summah people, and them that went ta
college sound the "short i".

Elizabeth

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #46
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