Subject: [removed] Digest V01 #158
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 5/27/2001 3:09 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                      The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                         Volume 01 : Issue 158
                   A Part of the [removed]!
                           ISSN: 1533-9289


                           Today's Topics:

 Frank Lovejoy                        ["Welsa" <welsa@[removed];        ]
 Re: British wartime transcription    [Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];       ]
 Benny questions                      [JackBenny@[removed]                  ]
 Re:  WOTW SCRIPT  ON THE INTERNET    [Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];       ]
 Re: OTR T-Shirts?                    [Garpboy@[removed]                    ]
 Wendy Warren and the News            [otrbuff@[removed]                   ]
 OTR Sponsors then and now            ["Eric Cooper" <ejcooper2001@[removed]]
 Thanks!                              ["Ken Kay" <kenwyn@[removed];   ]
 Have Gun Will Travel                 ["Donald & Kathleen Dean" <dxk@nfoli]
 North by Northwest                   ["Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm]
 Paula Winslowe in film               ["Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm]
 W. Watts Biggers                     [Bhob Stewart <bhob2@[removed]; ]
 Lava Soap?                           ["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@]
 The goons on cd                      ["Marcus Antonsson" <[removed]]

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

Date: Sat, 26 May 2001 18:32:49 -0400
From: "Welsa" <welsa@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Frank Lovejoy

Oops!  Thanks for the corection, Ivan.  I did err in placing Lovejoy in that
film.  I didn't even check on his presence because Binns does sound so much
like him.  Sorry about that!

Ted

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

Date: Sat, 26 May 2001 18:32:51 -0400
From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
To: Old Radio <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: British wartime transcription

From: "Tom Hood" <tomhood@[removed];

Today I found a 12" axetate that is rather [removed]
Recorded by Levy's Sound Studios, 74 New Bond Street,London,UK
"Carry On No 5"   Ed Lee  "I hear A Rhapsody" & closing
. . . the broadcast was made during WW II. There is no date on the
Disc. It's cut at 78 RPM. The acetate is bonded to heavy steel
[removed] aluminum like North American Discs.

Actually it is lacquer, not acetate, even though people often mistakenly
call them acetates.  The material was cellulose nitrate lacquer, not
cellulose acetate.  During the wartime, steel was also used here in the
[removed] as base material, but more often for amateur discs rather than
professional discs.  The steel would create a problem of attracting the
magnetic recording and/or reproducing heads used on most professional
machines, and this would increase the pressure on the disc.  Most
amateur machines used crystal cutters, which are non-magnetic.  The
steel base discs have an additional problem in that they often rust
under the surface of the lacquer.

Because there were far fewer broadcasters in the [removed] than in the [removed],
and fewer military bases. it is generally harder to find British forces
discs than [removed] AFRS discs.  This is a good find--especially since the
BBC probably doesn't have even this incomplete recording themselves.

Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Sat, 26 May 2001 18:34:00 -0400
From: JackBenny@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Benny questions

My apologies if these have already been [removed] catching up on some 
of the OTR Digest issues.

In the latter episodes for JELL-O, a generic announcer was spliced in over
Don Wilson, particularly in the last several weeks of the JELL-O sponsorship.
He was AWFUL!  Don Wilson was still in the cast.  It sounded like his actual
ad was cut out and this anonymous guy spliced in.  What gives?

I just pulled the shows from 5/10, 5/17, and 5/24/42 (among the last shows 
for Jell-O), and it sounds like the closing commercial is done by an 
alternative announcer, but I heard Don doing one of the opening commercials 
(didn't look for the middle commercial, but I bet it's done by the cast as 
well).  All three of these shows were from military bases, and the closing 
commercial is obviously done in a formal recording studio.  I don't know for 
certain, but General Foods may have wanted at least one commercial to be more 
formally-produced, as opposed to the sound vaguaries of the camp shows.

Additionally, Don makes a comment at the end of these shows that the 
broadcast of the shows from the bases "does not constitute an endorsement of 
their product by the [removed] Military".  I'd bet there was a limit to the 
commercials that they could broadcast from the bases.  The opening 
commercial, in the Jell-O days, came after the title announcement.  Thus it 
would be difficult to have the opening or middle commercial be from the 
studios, rather than the remote.  However for the closing commercial, they 
could just run the show a couple minutes short and cut back to the network 
studios.

Again, this is theory on my part, so I would be interested in thoughts from 
anyone else with more first-hand experience.

Then, in the spring of 1943, during the first season for Grape-Nuts, Jack
disappeared for four weeks.  Burns and Allen filled in for a week, Orson
Welles for three.  Ostensibly, Jack was laid up with a chest cold.  But for a
MONTH????  What happened?

According to Joan, it was an attack of pancreatitis.

--Laura Leff
President, IJBFC
[removed]

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

Date: Sat, 26 May 2001 18:34:35 -0400
From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re:  WOTW SCRIPT  ON THE INTERNET

From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
... There is also a page that explains about the copyrights, and in
particular, War Of The Worlds.  According to the information given,
When Howard Koch, who wrote the radio script was alive, he allowed
non-profit organizations to do the radio play without charge.
Read it for yourself at <[removed];  I hope this
helps any one who wanted to produce this show.  Owens Pomeroy

I did read it for myself, and found the information to be dangerously
different from this summary.  What it says is that when Koch had been
contacted personally on the phone he agreed to let THAT ONE organization
perform it for no charge that one time, but that his estate charges a
$200 fee.  I hope that no one relies on the previous posting alone if
proposing to do a performance.

Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Sat, 26 May 2001 18:39:16 -0400
From: Garpboy@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: OTR T-Shirts?

How feasible are T-shirt creations depicting our favorite OTR shows?  I
bought a set of cd's from Ebay about a year ago and always thought the lables
would make a great T-shirt decal.

Just think of the treasure of ideas--T-shirts saying our favorite phrases
from shows that are forgotten (or never known) by the general public but
still revered by us--such as YTJD, various Dragnet lines, etc.  It would be a
great way to fine other OTR fans in the course of our daily activities.

Quick, before R$I copyrights the idea.  How would one go about doing this?

Regards to all

Gary

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

Date: Sat, 26 May 2001 19:38:27 -0400
From: otrbuff@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Wendy Warren and the News

Jim Widner is correct in saying that Douglas Edwards, when finished with
the day's headlines, turned over the CBS microphone to Wendy Warren by
calling on her to bring "the ladies point of view" or some similar intro.
 But Widner missed the boat in believing her minute or so on the air was
"bogus."  It was very much for real every single day.  Herewith, from The
Great Radio Soap Operas, are some actual lines taken from a broadcast one
high noon in the summer of 1950:

EDWARDS:  "And now, Wendy, what's the news today for the ladies?"

WARREN:  "Well, Doug, the dean of Sweetbriar College, Dr. Mary Eli Lyman,
will become one of the first women ever to hold a full professorship in
an American theological school when the 1950 academic year begins.  Dr.
Lyman has been elected as the very first woman faculty member of Union
Theological Seminary in Manhattan, New York . . . Fall fashion previews
show that pockets of all kinds and sizes will be a leading feature in
milady's wardrobe.  Fall collections show pockets not only for daytime
but evening clothes as well . . . When a gunman entered the Pontiac,
Michigan home of Mrs. M. Russell Coile yesterday and demanded money, this
quick-witted housewife handed the bandit a ham sandwich instead.  He was
so surprised he gulped it down and fled."

Then telegraph keys popped.  Wendy acknowledged, "And now, here's Bill
Flood with a word for you."  The keys abruptly halted.  Hugh James (alias
Bill Flood) eased into his first commercial for Maxwell House coffee,
"ul-ways good to the last drop" (as he consistently pronounced "always").

Following the plug the keys rattled again.  After a few clicking sounds,
Wendy advised:  "Off the air!"  Then she said "good-by" to Flood and
entered her own mythical world of soap opera.  About five minutes had
elapsed since the start of the quarter-hour.

It was a unique blend of realism and fantasy, never successfully
accomplished elsewhere in radio soap opera.  Undoubtedly this played a
heavy role in the serial's ability to successfully achieve and maintain
ratings for a while within the top two or three daytime programs
(including all programs on the air).

Jim Cox

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

Date: Sat, 26 May 2001 19:38:28 -0400
From: "Eric Cooper" <ejcooper2001@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  OTR Sponsors then and now

I don't know if I want to start a new thread (or continue one) on this
subject but Jim Cox's mention of Proctor and Gamble, reminded me of when I
picked up a box of Grape-Nuts Flakes  the other day. Grape-Nuts cereal (Jack
Benny circa 1942-44) is now owned by Kraft (Great Gildersleeve, Kraft Music
Hall) which in turn is owned by Philip Morris (Playhouse, Candid Microphone
and others). Imagine if some of these conglomerates had been around in the
"golden age"--one or two giant corporations could have sponsored half the
programs on radio,

Eric Cooper

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

Date: Sat, 26 May 2001 21:16:06 -0400
From: "Ken Kay" <kenwyn@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Thanks!

I want to thank those of you who sent me information on picture books of the
OTR performers.

When I listen to OTR I paint a picture in my mind.  I know exactly what
Dodge City looks like when Matt and Chester stroll down to the Long Branch.
I've got the livery stable, Doc's and the rest all pictured in my mind.
And, of course, with Gunsmoke I see Matt and Chester's faces as I am
familiar with Bill Conrad and Parley Baer.  But, although I see Sam Spade
and his office clearly in my mind, I can't put a face to Effie.  And,
although I can picture just what Mindy's looks like in Damon Runyon Theater,
Broadway (John Brown) and the rest of the "Guys and Dolls" are a blur.

The list of book titles sent to me give me a good want list of books to add
to my library.

Ken Kay

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

Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 01:03:02 -0400
From: "Donald & Kathleen Dean" <dxk@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Have Gun Will Travel

I recently watched 5 or 6 episodes of Have Gun Will Travel television
series from the late '50's and was surprised to see a lot of the OTR
actors and actresses featured. One episode featured Parker Fennelly
of Allen's Alley fame. Another had Lurene Tuttle and Olan Soule
whose names should be familiar to all OTR fans. One episode was
written by Albert Alley. Could this be the same person I used to
listen to on Let's Pretend when I was a youngster? It's neat to watch
these old TV shows to watch for the familiar OTR stars.
Don  Dean - N8IOJ

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

Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 01:03:07 -0400
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  North by Northwest

Regarding the North by Northwest posting earlier, I can say for certain
(checking a VERY definitive source in Australia) that Frank Lovejoy was
never in the movie.  In fact, some of the cast posted previous are as
follows:

Stanley Adams - yes, he's in there.

Sara Berner - subject to debate.  Some reference sources credit her as the
operator's voice over the phone, when Cary Grant was in the hotel room
asking about his fictional double.  Other sources say it was not her.

Leo G. Carroll - plays head of FBI (or CIA, whatever it was)

Lawrence Dobkin - I can't find any reference work that says he was in this
movie, except for one that says he played a cartoonist drawing the faces of
the men who tried to murder Grant early in the movie.  But if he did, that
was a scene not in the [removed] course Dobkin is alive and well and he
himself would be the definitive source.  He has an excellent memory.

Jessie Royce Landis - played Grant's mother.

Frank Lovejoy - not in the movie

Ken Lynch - can't find a reference work that says so.

Robert Shayne - yes, he's in the film

Olan Soule - yes, that's him.  Soule was also Cartwright, the desk clerk at
the Carlton for three consecutive seasons of TV's Have Gun - Will Travel.
And if anyone remembers the classic "Bang! You're Dead!" episode of Alfred
Hitchcock Presents, Olan Soule played an uncredited role of the little
girl's father in front of the supermarket.  That episode was one of a
handful directed by Hitchcock himself.

Les Tremayne - not in the movie.  But he was directed by Hitchcock, who once
publicly commplimented Tremayne for his excellent portrayal of Audrey
Meadow's husband in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, "Mrs. Bixby and
the Colonel's Coat" also directed by Hitchcock.

Tom Tully - not in the movie.

Carleton Young - yes, he's in the movie.

There have been so many books written about Hitchcock's films that cast
lists are changing with each publication.  In fact, so many people submitted
cast and production credits so often at the imdb that they actually put a
block on that movie, stating that they won't take any more submissions
because people keep saying it's not 100% accurate.

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

Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 01:03:05 -0400
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Paula Winslowe in film

Interesting piece of trivia:
Jean Harlow died during the production of the 1937 film, Saratoga, so
Harlow's role was replaced with a look-a-like (who kept much of her back
toward the camera).  Sadly, the replacement had the figure, but not the
voice . . . so radio actress Paula Winslowe did Harlow's voice for those
scenes.  Winslowe is well remembered to radio fans as the wife of Chester A.
Riley on radio's The Life of Riley.

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

Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 11:53:10 -0400
From: Bhob Stewart <bhob2@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  W. Watts Biggers

This is a 1999 article from the CAPE COD TIMES about writer-composer W.
Watts Biggers:

[removed]

Biggers, author of the allegorical novel MAN INSIDE (Ballantine, 1967),
also wrote, produced and composed music for animated series, including
UNDERDOG, KING LEONARDO and TENNESSEE TUXEDO.

The CAPE COD TIMES article describes his revival of UNDERDOG in 1999 as
a half-hour radio play with his own original music. Biggers did the
voice of Underdog.
(The original voice of Underdog was Wally Cox.)

Bhob @ FUSEBOX @ [removed]

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

Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 11:53:45 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Lava Soap?

Jim Cox reminisced about The [removed] In Peace and War, noting,

There I spied bars of Lava soap, a commodity I hadn't seen in years and
didn't know was still on the grocer's shelves.  You know what tune
filtered through my mind, don't you?  It was L-A-V-A, L-A-V-A, with that
deep male voice barking the letters before the orchestra rolled into the
March from Love for Three Oranges by Sergei Prokofiev.  Is that familiar
to anybody or not?

Oh, yes!  A lot of us growing up were in awe of the [removed], and I for one
listened to both The [removed] In Peace and War, which was an "unofficial"
program, as I understand, and the "official" This Is Your [removed]  Oh, we
also listened to Gang Busters and David Harding, Counterspy.  But there
was a certain mystique about the [removed]  However, this was one of those
shows where memory of individual episodes fades, but (like the creaking
door on Inner Sanctum Mysteries) the introduction is vivid in our
recollections.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 16:50:38 -0400
From: "Marcus Antonsson" <[removed]@[removed];
To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  The goons on cd

Hi Gang,
Lately there's been some talk about the goons. I just want to throw in that
plenty of goon show-episodes are available on cds from the bbc. [removed]
is one good source for these and lots of other bbc-products. I've no
commercial interest in telling you this.
There are also good goon sites on the web. One is: [removed].

So long!

Marc Antonsson

Ps. Note that I have a new e-mail-address now. Ds.

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #158
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