Subject: [removed] Digest V2004 #115
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 3/30/2004 9:09 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2004 : Issue 115
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Re: Broadcast Day Recordings          [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      Jan Sterling dead at 82               [ Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed]; ]
      Re: THE STATELY HOLMES OF ENGLAND     [ SanctumOTR@[removed] ]
      Query On Gobel and Shriner            [ Udmacon@[removed] ]
      Sherlock Holmes                       [ <robertgaxley@[removed]; ]
      Gobel, Sherlock etc.                  [ "Jim Harmon" <jimharmonotr@charter. ]
      Lay off Uncle Milton                  [ Jer51473@[removed] ]
      Re: Best Sherlock                     [ Fred Berney <fsberney@[removed]; ]
      Professional Screamers on OTR         [ Mike Thomas <calvetrecept@[removed] ]
      The Mysterious Traveler               [ Mike Thomas <calvetrecept@[removed] ]
      Brett and Rathbone                    [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
      Hector Chevigny                       [ JayHick@[removed] ]
      Rathbone/Holmes                       [ "awfulE" <emba@[removed]; ]
      Re: Holmes                            [ Shenbarger@[removed] ]
      Uncle Miltie and other transfers      [ Dixonhayes@[removed] ]
      Classical singing [removed]      [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
      RE: More full days?                   [ "Dave Walter" <fredallenfan@hotmail ]
      That bleeped Secret Squadron Session  [ Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed] ]
      1941 World Series                     [ George Aust <austhaus1@[removed] ]
      Radio legend Alistair Cooke dies at   [ Art Chimes <achimes@[removed]; ]
      broadcasting days                     [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 12:58:15 -0500
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Broadcast Day Recordings

    On 3/29/04 12:18 PM [removed]@[removed] wrote:

>     I seem to recall - there's that word again - coming upon mention of
>     other complete broadcast day recordings, though no doubt shorter
>     on-air times. Does anyone know of other such examples?

    Actually, there's a continuous-broadcast-day recording from 1944 that
    runs more than two *months.* NBC recorded everything that aired over WEAF
    from early in the morning of 6/6/44 all the way thru the end of
    broadcasting on 8/16/44 -- and these recordings still exist in the NBC
    Collection at the Library of Congress. Only the first two days of this
    recording are available for OTR circulation, but aside from the
    occasional lost or broken disc the rest of the run is at LOC.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 14:28:42 -0500
    From: Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Jan Sterling dead at 82

    Actress Jan Sterling has died at age 82
    ([removed]).
    I think the only OTR show I have her on is Screen
    Director's Playhouse 12/28/50 "Alias Nick Beal."
    Anybody know of others?

    She was married to Paul Douglas, who starred in one of
    the first OTR shows that grabbed me as a kid, "Man
    Alive" from Suspense (11/24/52). It was one of the few
    shows I had on tape when I was about 12 years old, so
    I listened to it again and again. I heard it again
    recently, and it was still enjoyable, but I recognize
    now a lot of cold war paranoia in the script.

    What with Jan Minor passing away a few weeks back, and
    Jan Berry (of Dean and Jan) also dying this weekend,
    it's been a bad year for Jans.

    Kermyt

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 14:52:58 -0500
    From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: THE STATELY HOLMES OF ENGLAND

    In a message dated 3/29/04 11:18:37 AM, [removed]@[removed]
    writes:

    In #112, chet norris wrote:

>     NO NO NO ! there was only ONE sherlock holmes whether
>     in movies or [removed] hands [removed] this
>     should start a wonderful argument lolol

    and Chris Holm responded:

>     Maybe it's because I'm a young guy, but for me the true Sherlock Holmes is
>     Jeremy Brett.  I like Rathbone and all, but Brett is the Holmes I grew up
>     with and he's the only one for me.

    ***Bill Nadel (of the Baker Street Irregulars) and I recently worked on Radio
    Spirits' THE ULTIMATE SHERLOCK HOLMES COLLECTION, which features 20 hours of
    Holmesian radio adventures starring Orson Welles, Basil Rathbone, Tom Conway,
    John Stanley, Sir John Gielgud and Carleton Hobbs.  After listening to the 39
    shows, we both agreed that our favorite radio Holmes was Carlton Hobbs (who
    portrayed the Great Detective over the BBC from 1952 through 1969).

    However, we were both surprised to discover that our mutual choice for the
    best American radio Holmes was Tom Conway, who costarred with Nigel Bruce in
    the
    1946-47 season.  Conway sounded incredibly like Rathbone, but was a much
    better radio actor than his more-famous predecessor.  This is very likely due
    to
    his pre-Hollywood background at the BBC.  Both of us would gladly have traded
    one of the Rathbone/Bruce seasons for another season of Tom Conway and Nigel
    Bruce.

    My all-time favorite SHERLOCK HOLMES was Paxton Whitehead in Paul Giavanni's
    1978 Broadway play CRUCIFER OF BLOOD.  And my favorite movie Holmes/Watson
    team was Christopher Plummer and James Mason in MURDER BY DECREE.  I've always
    felt that James Mason came closest to the intelligent Watson of Conan Doyle's
    original stories.

    BTW, I strongly recommend RSI's ULTIMATE SHERLOCK HOLMES COLLECTION.  Bill
    Nadel helped RSI's engineers restore many of the Gielgud/Richardson shows to
    their 1955 NBC lengths.  Charles Michelson had routinely chopped several
    minutes
    out of his syndication versions (which frequently ended up in OTR cassette and
    CD releases).  In fact, the Great American Audio version of "The Final
    Problem was missing seven minutes of continuity, mostly from Orson Welles'
    scenes as
    Moriarty, that have been restored for the RSI collection, which also includes
    a 32-page historical booklet by Bill Nadel and --ANTHONY TOLLIN***

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 15:04:54 -0500
    From: Udmacon@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Query On Gobel and Shriner

    I remember as a kid listening during dinner to a daily fifteen minute "Herb
    Shriner" radio show around 6 pm EST.
    We compared him to Will Rogers.

    George Gobel started out as a young "singing cowboy" on the WLS National
    Barndance out of Chicago. He was VERY popular in the 1930s and was known then
    as George Goebel.

                         *  *  *
    "People, when Columbus discovered this country it was plumb full of nuts and
    berries. But I'm right here to tell you the berries is just about ALL
    [removed]"  --Uncle Dave Macon: 1929"

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 15:06:03 -0500
    From: <robertgaxley@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Sherlock Holmes

    I'm of an age to thoroughly remember OTR and Basil Rathbone as Doyle's
    premier detective.  However, I am completely a Jeremy Brett fan.  To me, he
    is the quintessential Sherlock Holmes.
    Bob Axley

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 15:45:31 -0500
    From: "Jim Harmon" <jimharmonotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Gobel, Sherlock etc.
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Jell-O Again --

    George Gobel was one of the early actors to play "Jimmy", young sidekick to
    Tom Mix on that series.  He also sang on the Old Barn Dance radio show,
    similar to Grand Ole Opry.

    I enjoyed Jermey Brett on the BBC TV series as Sherlock Holmes.  But
    apparently some viewers missed something.  I believe Brett portrayed Holmes as
    a mad man -- really insane.   He was terribly "over the top" as they say of
    actors.  Rathbone had the dignity, stature and fine acting ability to portray
    Holmes.  To me, Holmes was a hero -- someone I would like to be like.  I would
    like to be like Rathbone.  I enjoyed watching Brett but I would not like to be
    a squirming, ranting, gesticulating creature like him.  He was great, but not
    my perfect image of Holmes like Rathbone.

        Thanks to Dave Jewett and others for welcoming me aboard.

        Jim Harmon

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 15:47:29 -0500
    From: Jer51473@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Lay off Uncle Milton
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
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    I challenge anyone to pick up any book on the history of tv programing and
    not heve [removed] on your mind as you open it whether you liked him or not. Also
    the
    book will be heavily laden with "milty" facts and pictures (if a pictorial
    book) as he was also on the mind of the author or publisher too. All of this
    putting down his high rating numbers by saying no one was up against him only
    points to the fact that the other networks knew that for several years they
    just
    couldnt compete, so why waste "their best" against impossible odds? All things
    come to an end, of course, as did the ratings also of those that did
    eventually surpass him. But, for those important early tv years, Milty was
    the king
    and goes down as one of the giant comedians of all time.

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    [ADMINISTRIVIA: Ok, ok, enough about Milton Berle on television. I don't want
    what as been prior to this point a reasonable discussion to devolve into an
    irrational argument.  --cfs3]

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 15:49:04 -0500
    From: Fred Berney <fsberney@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Best Sherlock

>     NO NO NO ! there was only ONE sherlock holmes whether in movies or
>     [removed] hands [removed] this should start a wonderful argument lolol

    I believe that you relate to the actor who you first saw or heard playing
    the role. For me Sherlock Holmes will always be Basil Rathbone, James Bond
    is Sean Connery and The Shadow is Bret Morrison.

    Fred
    [removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 15:50:57 -0500
    From: Mike Thomas <calvetrecept@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Professional Screamers on OTR
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
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    If someone knows the names of or how to obtain the names of professional
    screamers used in Old Time Radio, please e-mail me. Thanks!

    Mike And Ernestine Thomas

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 15:51:13 -0500
    From: Mike Thomas <calvetrecept@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  The Mysterious Traveler
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    The Mysterious Traveler has about 70 surviving shows out of about 360 total.
    Does anyone here know why and where the other shows went to? Thanks-a lot!!

    Mike And Ernestine Thomas

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 16:30:39 -0500
    From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
    To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Brett and Rathbone

    Brett and Rathbone are both my favorites.   I don't see any reason to single
    one out, especially since Rathbone was primarily radio, and the best at
    that,  and Jeremy Brett TV, and the best at that.   A lot that made Brett so
    exceptional was visual;  Rathbone had to do it all with his voice.   Apples
    and oranges?

    Are you all aware that Jeremy Brett was the smitten (with Audrey Hepburn)
    Freddie Eynsford-Hill in the film of 'My Fair Lady'.     I was disappointed
    to learn that he did not actually sing 'On the Street Where you Live' - it
    was dubbed.

    Irene

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 16:32:06 -0500
    From: JayHick@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Hector Chevigny

    Can anyone help Blue?  Jay

    I am the granddaughter of a radio writer named Hector Chevigny, and I am
    renewing my efforts to track down information and recordings of programs he
    worked on.  He wrote for numerous programs on CBS and NBC.  It is very hard
    to find recordings of some of those programs, and those that you can find,
    it seems near impossible to determine who the script writer was on a given
    episode of the show.
    The programs that I know he worked for are:  Black Chapel, Red Rider, The
    Bob Burns Show (he wrote a segment on each episode called "The Arkansas
    Traveler", according to my father), The Shadow, Portia Faces Life, Mr. and
    Mrs. North, the Second Mrs. Burton and maybe a few other things that I have
    not written down.  He worked from LA in the 30's and in 1945 he moved to
    New York and worked from there.  He was featured on the CBS Radio Workshop
    in the 1950's and I already got a copy of that, which profiles his work as
    a writer.
    Thank you very much for helping me look into this.  If you have any
    information about what episodes he wrote or if you know how I can purchase
    copies of audio from these shows, I would be very grateful for that
    information.
    I can be reached by mail, or email.  Mail: Blue Chevigny, 141 East 3rd
    Street, 8G, NY, NY 10009, email: bluechevigny@[removed]
    Thanks a lot,
    Blue Chevigny

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 17:18:52 -0500
    From: "awfulE" <emba@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Rathbone/Holmes
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    As a wee lad, I admired the nose.  "Oh, how I wished my nose looked like
    his."

    awfulE at emba@[removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 18:16:57 -0500
    From: Shenbarger@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Holmes
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
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    In a message dated 3/29/2004 David Phaneuf writes:

>     Gielgud, leaves me positively unconvinced
>     and unmoved. The performances were too stilted, to
>     "acted", too much like a memorized/recited dialogue,
>     rather than real.

    Those (Gielgud) are some of the best Sherlock Holmes radio dramas to me.
    Also, they are true Conan Doyle stories.

    With regard to another's comment on the film and video parts, Basil Rathbone
    looks very much like the tall lanky figure painted by Conan Doyle and drawn by
    the Strand artists. More so, I think, than Jeremy Brett. Brett suffered
    terribly from a harsh variety of illnesses that, as one of the treatment's
    side
    effects, caused him to become chubby and toward the end his resemblance
    drifted g
    reatly. While the earlier episodes show him lean, Rathbone still has the
    pointed chin resembling the Paget drawings.

    Some surprising facts:

    1. The deerstalker cap was not in the description of Holmes. It happened to
    be a favorite cap of Sidney Paget, the Strand illustrator and he

    2. The meerschaum pipe was not used by Holmes. It was adopted by William
    Gillette who played Holmes on the stage in 1899 who found its balanced design
    easier to hold clenched between his teeth without making his jaw sore.
    Frederic
    Door Steele, an American illustrator based his drawings on the Gillette image
    and perpetuated the image.

    3. Holmes never said, "Elementary, my dear Watson."

    4. The Inverness cape is a traveling cloak to keep train railway suit and mud
    off one's clothing. It would never be worn when out about town looking for
    clues.

    Don Shenbarger

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 18:18:06 -0500
    From: Dixonhayes@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Uncle Miltie and other transfers

>     The Texaco Theater made it's debut in 1948 on NBC.  Dumont and CBS tried to
>     compete by playing "dead air."

    What's interesting is, a list I saw of #1 TV shows for each season, indicates
    "Wagon Train" (1960-61) was the first to finish #1 for the season *without*
    having been adapted from a specific OTR series.  Uncle Miltie had several
    variety tries in radio; "I Love Lucy" was loosely based on "My Favorite
    Husband," and even "The $64,000 Question" was based on the
    much-lower-budgeted OTR game, "Take It or Leave It."   Of course we all know
    about "Gunsmoke."

    Dixon

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 20:18:17 -0500
    From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
    To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Classical singing [removed]

    It took years for classical singing commercials to come around.  Thanks to
    PDQ Bach (Peter Schickele) we have several really neat classical music radio
    commercials.  I can't recall what the products were, but one advertised a
    cold remedy. It was sung by a counter-tenor.  PDQ's broadcasting studio was
    a barn at the University of Southern North Dakota in Hoople, ND.  Partway
    through the playing of a piano piece, one side of the barn is blown out!

    And then there is the playing of part of the first movement of Beethoven's
    Fifth symphony.  Schickele and a friend describe it as if it were a sports
    competition!

    Ted Kneebone/1528 S. Grant [removed], SD 57401/605-226-3344
    OTR: [removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 21:47:05 -0500
    From: "Dave Walter" <fredallenfan@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  RE: More full days?

    John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; writes:

>     I seem to recall - there's that word again - coming upon mention of
>     other complete broadcast day recordings, though no doubt shorter
>     on-air times. Does anyone know of other such examples?

    Of course, there are two sets dealing with June 6, 1944. First, there's the
    entire day of CBS' programming, as fed down the network line (at least I
    think it's a linecheck). Then there's the one-and-three-quarters day
    sequence covering NBC's output from the earliest surviving recordings of
    bulletins on June 6 to the dinner hour on June 7, as airchecked from WEAF
    New York (thus also qualifying as a station's full day). Unfortunately,
    thanks to a malicious ex-landlord, my copy of the NBC set from that day
    contains only June 6, so is there anyone willing to dub me a copy of the
    June 7 Jack Kirkwood "Mirth and Madness" program? TIA.

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 23:25:13 -0500
    From: Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  That bleeped Secret Squadron Session Message

     "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed]; wrote:

    .......

>     In addition, I once got a tape of a Captain Midnight
>     show.  As I was hearing it for the first time (as a
>     tape), the announcer said, "And say, fellows and
>     girls, be sure to have pencil and paper handy at the
>     end of the show for a Secret Squadron Signal
>     Session!"

>     Guess what was cut out?

    I remember that message.  It was from a SS codegraph
    one of which I just happened then to have handy.

    The message said,  "Shark still lurking nearby. Be
    alert! SS 1"

    Don't believe me, do you?

    CAB

    =====
    ---
    conradab@[removed] (Conrad A. Binyon)
    Encino, CA
    Home of the Stars who loved Ranches and Farms

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

    Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 23:25:23 -0500
    From: George Aust <austhaus1@[removed];
    To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  1941 World Series

    Art Chimes commented about the National Recording Registry

    Other items of interest to radio enthusiasts include the broadcast of Game
    Four of the 1941 World Series with Red Barber and others

    Does Anybody know if this broadcast is available and if so where can I obtain
    it?

    Thanks
    George Aust

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

    Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 09:59:15 -0500
    From: Art Chimes <achimes@[removed];
    To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Radio legend Alistair Cooke dies at 95

    Alistair Cooke, the urbane and insightful BBC journalist and commentator,
    whose weekly 15-minute "Letter from America" broadcast ran from 1946 until
    last month, has died at home in New York.

    Cooke's 2,869 radio talks were well-known in Britain and to millions of
    others who listened on the BBC World Service. Cooke was better known to
    Americans as the long-time host of PBS's Masterpiece Theatre and, in an
    earlier era, of Omnibus.

    A brief obit appears on the BBC's web site, with links to related stories.
    [removed]

    Google News returns additional stories.
    [removed];edition=us&q=alistair+cooke

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

    Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 09:59:30 -0500
    From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  broadcasting days

    Hi Everybody,

    in the last digest a question was ask about other broadcasting days  This is
    what one know.

    1.  9-21-39 WJSV

    2.  NBC Red of 12-7-41 starting  at 2 [removed]  Eastern Time.

    3.  NBC Blue 12-7-41 starting at 2 [removed] eastern time.   .

    4.  NbC Red 12-8-41

    5.  NBC Blue 12-8-41

    6.  CBS 6-6-44 starting around 2 [removed]

    7.  CBS 6-7-44 most of the day

    8.  NBC 6-6-44 starting at 2 [removed] air check WEAF

    9.  NBC 6-7-44 until 6 [removed] radio air check WEAF

    10.  NBC 6-6-44 radio station WRVO around 6 hours and it pick up music shows
    sooner than the WEAF broadcast.

     broadcast

    11.  8-10-45 NBC starting around 11 [removed] covers most of the day time shows,
    and some of the night time shows.

    12.  NBC 12-23-55 day time shows

    13.  11-2-58 CBS night time shows

    14.  CBS 11-24-60 day time shows next to the last day of the Soaps.

    15.  11-25-60  CBS the last days of the Soaps.

    Take care,

    Walden Hughes

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #115
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