Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #494
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 12/19/2002 12:03 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2002 : Issue 494
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Young members                         [ "Holm, Chris " <[removed]@delphiau ]
      Re: Young members                     [ "Kirby, Tom" <Kirby@[removed]; ]
      Re: Young Members                     [ Wboenig@[removed] ]
      Juniper Junction                      [ EdHowell@[removed] ]
      Harry Bartell on Fort Laramie         [ "Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@neb. ]
      I Love a Mystery                      [ Brian Betsworth <brianbetsworth@cas ]
      Re: Young People                      [ Richard Sumpter <rlsumpt@[removed]; ]
      Re: Young OTR Fans                    [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      Re: Young Members                     [ mobrien@[removed] ]
      Harry Bartell                         [ "mike ray" <mikeray42@[removed]; ]
      Re: Young People                      [ Don Strong <donsplace@[removed] ]
      Christmas shows                       [ Art Chimes <achimes@[removed]; ]
      Re: Young People                      [ "J. Pope" <jpope101@[removed] ]
      young people                          [ JIMWMQT@[removed] ]
      Seeking Minnesotan OTR fan, preferab  [ Howard Blue <khovard@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 10:40:47 -0500
    From: "Holm, Chris " <[removed]@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Young members

    In #492, Ron Sayles asked:

>     My question is to those young people
>     who did not grow up with radio as us
>     "old-timers" did. How did you first
>     get interested, what happened to make
>     you love, or at least like Old Time Radio?

    At 28 years old, I'm certainly not the youngest member of the digest.
    However, it's still not young enough to have any experience with OTR the
    first time around.  However, my experience is similar to many of the older
    members of the list - I grew up listening to old time radio.

    I grew up in the DC area, and as long as I can remember, my family listened
    to the Big Broadcast every Sunday from WAMU.  It was the perfect end of the
    week.  It was the time when we prepared for the new week ahead, and then
    settled down till it was time for bed.

    Even now, living in Michigan, I still listen to the Big Broadcast every
    Sunday, via the internet.  I bought a pair of wireless speakers, plugged the
    transmitter into one of the audio out jacks on the sound card, and placed the
    speakers around my apartment.  So now, while I spend Sunday evening getting
    ready for the week ahead, I'm still surrounded by old time radio.

    So for me, I don't remember a time when old time radio wasn't on the radio
    (at least once a week), and that's how I fell in love in with OTR.

    -Chris Holm
    Who is also a contributing member of WAMU, and his local NPR station as well.

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

    Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 10:41:04 -0500
    From: "Kirby, Tom" <Kirby@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Young members

    Ron Sayles asks:

>     How did you first get interested, what happened to make you
>     love, or at least like Old Time Radio?

    At the age of 45, I don't think I qualify as "young" anymore,
    but the old-time radio ended within 5 years of my being born,
    so I have no recollections of listening to anything but music
    and DJs on the radio. Like most kids my age, I was a TV addict.

    The first thing that got me interested in OTR was hearing about
    the "War of the Worlds" panic, overblown as it may be, when I
    was in high school. Shortly thereafter, I saw a magazine add
    selling cassette tapes of OTR shows, which I ordered. My entry
    in the hobby almost ended there, as the tapes never showed, and
    I had to scramble around looking for alternate Christmas gifts.
    I was still interested, but this unpleasant incident moved my
    interest to the back burner, to be rekindled many years later
    when I got a Radio Spirits catalogue in the mail.

    I started by getting the War of the Worlds broadcast in a
    Smithsonian collection, along with some other sci-fi shows, along
    with some comedy collections. These were nice, lacking only the
    commercials that were originally present. I'm still a Radio
    Spirits customer, and I like to listen mainly to comedy and
    sci-fi, but occasionally, I enjoy a good police/detective story.

    Now, I can also listen to channel 164 on my XM radio.

    I've also bought a few books on the subject (I have the order
    form for Jughead's book filled out, but I just haven't dropped
    it in the mail yet, out of laziness because I have the money).

    This is probably more information than Ron wanted, but here it
    is anyway.

    -- Tom Kirby

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

    Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 10:41:33 -0500
    From: Wboenig@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Young Members

    Ron Sayles writes:

>     I know that there are several young people on this list who did not grow up
>     with Old Time Radio. I grew up with it and a little bit of me died when when
>     radio died. What came after did not replace that little bit that died. It
>     made
>     me miss radio all the more.

>     My question is to those young people who did not grow up with radio as us
>     "old-timers" did. How did you first get interested, what
>     happened to make you
>     love, or at least like Old Time Radio?

    Ron, without intending it, you actually mention two groups of people, of
    which I belong to only one.  By even the most liberal of definitions, I
    missed the OTR era (by a few months), but at age 40 I hardly consider myself
    a "young person"!   ;-)   Nevertheless, I will give you some input as to how
    I got interested in the hobby.

    As a youngster in the 60's, I developed a fondness for old B&W comedy movies,
    such as those made by Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Abbott & Costello, The
    Marx Brothers, [removed] Fields, etc.  Silent ot talkie, it didn't matter.  Then
    one pre-Christmas around 1975 or 1976 I came across a Radiola LP of [removed]
    Fields radio broadcasts, whcih I decided to buy as a gift for my father, who
    also enjoyed a good laugh.  Anyway, this record may as well have been a gift
    to me, because I played it over and over.  The banter between Fields and
    Charlie McCarthy was the funniest routines that I had ever heard!  (Too bad
    my friends had no idea what I was doing when I recited both parts of those
    dialogues to them.)

    Move ahead to 1980 -- I'm on vacation in upstate New York (Lake George area),
    and we visited a wax museum that sold OTR cassettes from AIC in the gift
    shop.  I bought one (more [removed] Fields material that was not on the
    aforementioned album), and I also used the form on the inside of the label to
    send for a free catalog from AIC.  My first order was for six tapes,
    including some Fibber McGee and Molly, Jack Benny, and Suspense.  That's all
    it took to get me hooked.

    Wayne Boenig

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

    Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 10:58:34 -0500
    From: EdHowell@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Juniper Junction
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    Would like to hear from anyone who knows where I might find episode(s) of
    Juniper Junction.  Merry Christmas to all!

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    Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 11:18:59 -0500
    From: "Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@[removed];
    To: "old time radio" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Harry Bartell on Fort Laramie

    Hello all:
    Harry, if we're going to discuss various stars and shows, I'd sure love to
    hear about your work with Raymond Burr on Fort Laramie.  Looking at it from
    a historical perspective, you worked with him just before he achieved great
    national fame as television's Perry Mason.  You may not remember your
    regular role as Lt. Seiberts, but I sure enjoy it.  Fort Laramie was one of
    the most under-rated, superior programs I've heard and its one of the few
    period pieces to do justice to the Native-American, in my opinion.
    RyanO

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

    Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 11:51:13 -0500
    From: Brian Betsworth <brianbetsworth@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  I Love a Mystery
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from MULTIPART/ALTERNATIVE
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    I have all four complete episodes of  "I Love a Mystery" available for
    sharing.  Does anyone have other scripts for any ILAM shows that our
    "Rochester Radio Theatre Guild" [removed] can recreate for fans?

    Brian Betsworth
    brianbetsworth@[removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 12:30:29 -0500
    From: Richard Sumpter <rlsumpt@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Young People

    Mornin'

    Well, I have been lurking on this list for a couple of years now, and
    as a "young" listener, I thought I would chime in with my two cents. I
    first discovered OTR at the ripe old age of 10, back in 1986. We had
    moved into a new house and in the basement I found on a promotional ad
    for "The Shadow" magazine plastered on the wall. After I asked my
    father about it, he dug out an old notebook from 1938, when he was
    around the same age. Inside was his home made radio time guide. Later
    that same year, I was able to find cassette versions of "War of the
    Worlds" and the Shadow episode, "Death from the Deep". I still have
    that very well-worn cassette, and can recite almost the entire script
    from memory. After that I spent every waking hour attempting to
    purchase every radio episode I could find.

    Now, I have converted all of my tape collection onto home-burned audio
    CDs, storing the well-worn masters away and archiving them into digital
    format to play on my mp3 player. I still spend many hours listening to
    classic radio, and now look for MP3 of new series to see if they are to
    my liking. The funny thing is a couple of years ago I found my father's
    old notebook again and discovered we listened to the exact same shows.

    I guess I'll return to my lurking, thanks for a great list. :-)

    Richard Sumpter
    MultiMedia Resource Center
    University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

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

    Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 12:35:45 -0500
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Young OTR Fans

    One of the reasons I enjoy this group is that it still considers me a
    "young person," helping to make turning forty a little less [removed]

    While I didn't grow up in the OTR era, I *did* grow up with radio as a
    stimulus to my imagnination: my grandmother and I used to listen together
    to baseball games, and it was thru this that I came to understand and
    appreciate radio's power to create a mental image in the mind of a
    listener. I also caught Jean Shepherd occasionally in his last few years
    on WOR, Larry Glick on WBZ, and other 1970s era talk-show personalities
    who understood what radio was all about.

    My interest in the OTR era itself also stems from my grandparents -- who
    were scarred for the rest of their lives by their experiences during the
    Depression. For example, they obsessively saved anything they got their
    hands on, "because you never know when we might need it." When a bedsheet
    wore out, rather than throwing it away, my grandmother would cut it in
    half lengthwise, turn the worn middle to the outside and then resew it so
    that the unworn edges were now the center. Or if it was too far gone,
    she'd cut it up and make pillowcases. Clothes would be patched, socks
    would be darned, collars would be turned, toothpaste tubes would be cut
    open and the last little bit scraped out, brown bags would be carefully
    folded and stored under the sink,  cigarette butts would be torn apart so
    that my grandfather could smoke the remnants in his pipe -- there was no
    end to it. It was asking them why they did these things when there was no
    obvious need for doing so -- "Can't you just go to the store??" --  that
    got them to talking about their Depression experiences, and this got me
    interested in the era itself.

    When I was 13, I read "The Glory and the Dream," William Manchester's
    two-volume narrative history of the generation that came of age in the
    1930s, and this inspired me to start doing research of my own. An
    interest in OTR soon followed -- helped by the fact that several stations
    were airing syndicated OTR reruns in my area. That was twenty-seven years
    ago, and I've been at it ever since.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 13:05:40 -0500
    From: mobrien@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Young Members

    Wow! At 32, I'm young! Now _there's_ a reason to get into a [removed]
    <g>

    I'm not really as 'into' OTR as most of the people around here, I'm
    afraid. I do remember listening to CBS Mystery Theater when I was a
    really little kid, with that wonderful creaking door giving me the
    shivers. My parents listened to it all the time in their bedroom, but
    you couldn't really hear it from my bedroom and it was past my bedtime.
    So listening to it required some powerful little kid negotiation to
    get into my parents' [removed] since that was kind of a creepy
    show, so claiming a nightmare was obviously not a good plan! <g>

    I've read a few books I've found along the years, though, including a
    really good autobiography of *mumble-actorwhosenameIcan'tremember* that
    we bought at a library sale when I was a kid. It opened a whole new
    world to me. I'm still a bit indignant that the whole expanse of radio
    drama is left out of the reading books and even English lit courses. I
    never really had the money to really get into listening, though, until
    the net and mp3s made the logistics easier.

    I'm mostly interested in mysteries, pulp shows like The Shadow, and
    science fiction shows (those being my favorite reading materials). I've
    learned to like the comedy shows pretty well when I hear them, though.

    Oh, and I did actually help write a radio comedy! <g> My friends and I
    were at the Pennsic War, a very large (10,000+) camping/sporting/socializing
    event held out in Pennsylvania every August by the Society for Creative
    Anachronism (the big medieval recreation club). Some friends and I were
    joking about how the characters on the show King of the Hill would fit
    into Pennsic, and it turned into a big extended conversation about how
    you could write a fanfiction about such a thing. The next morning I woke
    up early and started scribbling down some of the dialogue we'd thought
    up in a more coherent form. I got through a couple scenes and then took
    them to my friends' camp after breakfast. Everybody got excited, and for
    the rest of the afternoon, we wrote and finished "King of Horde Hill".

    We cast it (based on who could do the voices), did it a couple times for
    people in camp (who thought it was funny), and then got offered time on
    the Horde's pirate radio station, Radio Free Mongolia. (Yes, this is what
    happens when medieval reenactment meets technogeeks.) So we recorded the
    show outside the yurt with the recording studio (no, I am _not_ joking)
    and played it on the radio that night. For those so unfortunate as to miss
    the broadcast, you can download it from Mark Peters' website.
    [removed]~[removed]

    We did _try_ not to do the "Now I'm looking at the wall" kind of
    dialogue. I think we did a pretty good job except where the jokes
    flagged. (Well, and my voice acting left a lot to be [removed],
    well.)

    My friends and I obviously were modeling our work on that of the
    cartoon's voice actors. There are a _lot_ of cartoons, and a decent
    amount of good voice actors out there (especially in Vancouver). I
    think if I were making a real modern audio drama, that's where I'd
    look to cast people. Presumably the actors wouldn't be so terrified
    by the idea of acting only with their voices, since that's what they
    do. In fact, they'd have more artistic freedom, since they wouldn't
    have to worry so much about matching animated mouth and body movements,
    and could pay more attention to their fellow actors.

    Maureen

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

    Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 13:20:18 -0500
    From: "mike ray" <mikeray42@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Harry Bartell

    My sincere thanks to Harry Bartell for being so gracious and patient with me
    over this issue of his reflections regarding Bob Bailey. My time of pestering
    him over this issue should now be laid to rest. The comments that Harry did
    make about Bob in response to my posting are sufficient and greatly
    appreciated. Now regarding the Kennedy center honors, I would be delighted to
    provide you with the Tux you would need, and I'm sure that all of us who love
    you and appreciate you would consider it an honor to chip in and provide
    first class accommodations to the event. Harry, one last thing; you made the
    statement, "The wonderful people in this group have elevated me to a status
    that isn't really true-- in large part I think, because I am still here."
    Goodness, I hate to debate anything with you Harry, but on this point I think
    the logic is upside down. Orson Welles, late in life, told director Peter
    Bogdonovich "they will love me when I'm gone." True enough; during his life
    he was a vagabond, hustling to raise money constantly to fund his "next"
    project. After his death, several of his projects were taken up by others,
    and Mr. Welles' fame has risen to legendary levels. I use the Welles example
    for this point. Harry, many glowing testimonials are spoken about the "great
    men" after they have gone. The world takes time to reflect, and then come to
    the conclusion, "hey, he was a great man." On the other hand it is "very"
    rare indeed when a man is honored in his lifetime. Yes, Harry we love your
    work. Yes, you have given us enormous pleasure and enjoyment. You are a
    consummate actor. You are what Chekhov, and O'Neil dreamed of in an actor.
    You are what McDonnell, Johnstone, & Webb depended on. You are what the
    American listening public relied on. You are apart of that great tradition of
    craftsman like actors, Fredric March, Dick Powell, Gerald Mohr, John Dehner,
    Frank Lovejoy, and many others of that temperament who put their craft ahead
    of whatever star status they might receive. You see Harry, some the most
    significant moments in our lives pass us by before we realize it. You "are"
    however one of the most significant people in our lives. We have been greatly
    blessed by your talent. You are an American treasure whose work has stood the
    test of time. Let the Kennedy honors begin!
    Warmest regards,
    Mike Ray

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

    Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 13:21:27 -0500
    From: Don Strong <donsplace@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Young People

    My Sunday School kids keep telling me that I'm "older than germs", but
    since I was born in 1959, I guess I qualify as young by OTR [removed]

    I was introduced to OTR by my 6th grade teacher; he used to bring RTR
    recordings of various shows to class to either illustrate a subject, or
    just for the fun of it - I later found out that OTR for "reading class"
    was just an excuse to get us kids to settle down a little, and maybe
    learn something by mistake. It worked!

    While in high school, John Monroe of KGMI in Bellingham started playing
    OTR nightly in the evening, which was perfect for me because the TV
    shows my parents liked were quite boring. Only an hour, but I rarely
    missed a show. After a few months, John was only able to play OTR on
    Saturday nights, but they gave him 3 hours. By my senior year in high
    school, OTR was no longer available on KGMI. I found out shortly before
    John retired that the OTR collection he was using belonged to one of
    the engineers, and when that gentleman retired, John suddenly had no
    source material! He had enjoyed airing the shows, but his main hobby
    was (and still is) amateur radio; he never got around to getting any
    recordings himself.

    At about the same time, I discovered Jack Cullen on CKNW. At that time,
    he was airing 2-3 hours of OTR weekdays, plus what seemed like almost
    all night on weekends. That man caused me to loose a lot of sleep :)
    Unfortunatly, there isn't any OTR on CKNW anymore. I suspect that Mr.
    Cullen is no longer with us.

    I didn't discover that there was such a thing as OTR tapes you could
    actually purchase and play any time you want until I met a vendor at a
    science fiction convention I was working at while in college. Now I
    have quite a collection on RTR, cassette, CD, and mp3 - all because of
    a grade school teacher who believed that learning should be fun.

    BTW - Mr. Greenough introduced me to comic books in 5th grade, too!

    "Prevent truth decay - study the Bible daily"
          ---- [removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 13:21:48 -0500
    From: Art Chimes <achimes@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Christmas shows

    It's that time of year again.

    Broadcasters who air OTR have been dusting off the usual seasonal
    suspects for their annual airing.

    Do you have a favorite radio Christmas show?

    Yes, they're all too sappy, which is why one of my favorites is a
    Suspense episode featuring Raymond Burr as felon who gets "Out
    for Christmas."

    Just about any Jack Benny episode that involves shopping for
    Christmas gifts also makes my list.

    (Benny, born Benjamin Kubelsky, was of course Jewish, which
    didn't keep him from celebrating Christmas on his show. Can
    anyone recall observance of Chanukkah or any other Jewish holiday
    on a mainstream network radio show? I can't.)

    My personal holiday favorite, though, is Frank Morgan's 1945 tour
    de force on Cavalcade of America: "Names on the Land," a
    make-believe train journey across America with stories of how
    various places got their names. (It's based on the wonderful book
    of the same name by George R. Stewart.)

    Regards,
    Art

    --
    Art Chimes
    Arlington, VA
    achimes@[removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 13:22:04 -0500
    From: "J. Pope" <jpope101@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Young People

        Growing up in the '80s and '90s, my only exposure to OTR was hearing
    about the famous "War of the Worlds" broadcast.  I did like classic
    t********n shows, though, and when I gained cable access in college, I
    discovered the 1960s version of 'Dragnet.' I joined an on-line discussion
    list and soon learned of the radio series.  It was all downhill from there
    ;)

    Jennifer

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

    Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 13:46:11 -0500
    From: JIMWMQT@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  young people

    I actually discovered OTR two ways.  When I was a kid in the 70's, a local
    radio station would play 5 minutes of an episode of "The Shadow" every
    morning when I was getting ready for [removed] up an old show into a
    5-day story.  Never having heard of anything like that, I thought it was neat.

    Later, in college, while doing research for a project, I discovered that the
    final episodes of "Suspense" and "Johnny Dollar" went off the air September
    30th, [removed] day i was born.

    Guess I was kinda hooked from there!

    Jim Koski

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

    Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 13:46:50 -0500
    From: Howard Blue <khovard@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Seeking Minnesotan OTR fan, preferably one
     from St. Paul

    I have a question for a Minnesotan OTR fan, preferably from St. Paul.
    Please contact me off-line

    Howard Blue

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #494
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