Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #23
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 1/18/2003 10:57 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2003 : Issue 23
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Mutual Pearl Harbor revisited         [ chris chandler <chrischandler84@yah ]
  WLW facsimile service                 [ chris chandler <chrischandler84@yah ]
  Stan Freberg                          [ jay ranellucci <otrfan33@[removed]; ]
  1943 "Archie Andrews" review          [ Derek Tague <derek@[removed]; ]
  Re: Slipping jokes past censors       [ Ed Kindred <kindred@[removed]; ]
  39 Forever: SID CAESAR                [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
  Wayne Raney (again)                   [ TallPaulK@[removed] ]
  Sad facts about OTR                   [ "Michael Leannah" <mleannah@charter ]
  Re: Gildy's Laughing Coyote           [ Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed]; ]
  Walden Hughes                         [ otrbuff@[removed] ]
  Re: It snowed today                   [ Fred Berney <berney@[removed]; ]
  Bob Hope Sets                         [ George Aust <austhaus1@[removed] ]
  Recommendations                       [ "Gary Clark" <garyclarkfm@[removed] ]

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

Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 19:01:40 -0500
From: chris chandler <chrischandler84@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Mutual Pearl Harbor revisited

[removed]'m about a month late on the discussion back
around the Pearl Harbor [removed] couple of
posters asking about what Mutual had on its air during
the crisis.

I've just had a chance to hear several hours of MBS
crisis material, and wanted to make one observation
about it--especially as it relates to the more
widely-circulated NBC coverage of these same events.

We've periodically discussed just WHY NBC stayed with
so much of its regular programming as the world was
falling apart--sporadic bulletins, but no long-form
coverage of any type between 5:30 and 11:00 PM. The
surmises have ranged from "they had all those Sunday
night sponsors to consider" to "it was just a
different [removed]"

But I must tell you this Mutual material is VERY
impressive.  The network almost immediately instituted
brief hourly updates from Washington, a move NBC
didn't make for another 24 hours.  Royal Arch
Gunnison's work from Manila is very solid, miles above
the woefully inadequate Ford Wilkins on CBS, and very
nearly equalling NBC's fabulous (and
soon-to-be-captured) Bert Silen.  In Washington,
Fulton Lewis, Jr. was just a marvel, at one point
mounting an extemporaneous 20-minute commentary from
the White House press room!  I gather Lewis is better
known for his latter-day political views, but he get
my vote as one of THE top wartime broadcasters, and
there's little hint of politics in his work on the
'big' wartime days.  (As an aside, I expect he might
have ended up on Fox News were he alive [removed]
reminds me alot of Brit Hume.)

Now of course all the nets had their star commentators
and reporters.  So here's the real difference in their
approaches to the 'Pacific Crisis':  Mutual's is, by
definition, de-centralized; therefore, we get a few
minutes from WOL, Washington, followed by a few
minutes from KHJ, Los Angeles, followed by a few
mintues from Denver, etc.  The overall
effect--military furloughs cancelled across the
country, commanders and civic leaders issuing orders;
the phone company pleading west-coasters to keep the
lines clear; civilians-on-the-street demanding swift
retribution--paints a far more complete picture than
"From the NBC Newsroom in New York, the Dutch East
Indies has declared war on Japan," which is the type
of thing to which that network's listeners were
treated in and around "Manhattan Merry-Go-Round" and
the rest.

Listen carefully to the NBC coverage, what there is of
it: the chain featured remotes from Beunos Aries and
Ankara (though even THESE were after midnight), but NO
American cities other than New York and
Washington--most egregiously, not a word from our own
war-threatened west coast, except some analysis from
nutty Upton Close in San Francisco. Other than a few
newspaper editorials, there was simply NO domestic
reaction, no hint what was going on across the
country, little hint what cilivians or military
personnel outside New York City should be doing.  NBC
routinely mounted this type of cross-country reax
later in the war--why not on this historic night?
Pomposity?  Provincialism?  A simple inability to
grasp the enormity of what had happened?

It's difficult to judge the overall CBS effort on this
day, since so little of it survives.  But after
listening to these Mutual broadcasts, I personally
think the door's shut on the 'what was NBC thinking'
question.  It's certainly not out of the question that
NBC simply botched a historic occasion--think CBS
D-Day, or CBS-TV the first night of the Gulf War.  And
once you've heard Mutual's man-on-the street
broadcasts of a father frantically searching for the
teenage son he fears has run off to join the navy, or
newsboys shouting "Japs attack United States!" at the
corner of Hollywood and Vine, it's clear just HOW
topsy-turvy the world had become within a few short
hours, and just how little of the story NBC's news
effort managed to capture.  NBC was playing by an old
set of rules, on a day that saw all the rules
changed--and the network came up miserably short as a
result.

chris

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

Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 19:01:49 -0500
From: chris chandler <chrischandler84@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  WLW facsimile service

On another [removed] just heard some 1939 WLW
[removed] of them advertises an hour of
'facsimile service' at 2:15 AM.  I never heard this
term--what is it?  TV?  Modern day 'fax' of some kind?
Why did they do it in the middle of the night?  Any
info appreciated.

chris

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

Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 19:02:02 -0500
From: jay ranellucci <otrfan33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Stan Freberg

Hi There,

As you already know Stan Freberg's appearance at
Feinstein's at the Regency in NYC the last week of
January has been cancled. But only temporarily. Stan
says it will be rescheduled for sometime in late
spring. Possibly in May.  When I hear something
definite I will let everyone know.  Or you could
contact Feinstein's at [212] 339-4095.
          Jay

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

Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 19:02:08 -0500
From: Derek Tague  <derek@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  1943 "Archie Andrews" review

Hi Gang:

   Knowing that the Digest is rife with fans of "Archie Andrews"  (you know
who you are), I'd very much would like to share with everybody the following
review from the "Radio Reviews" pages from the Wed., Oct. 13th, 1943 issue of
VARIETY, which I serendipitously stumbled upon while doing some OTR-related
research  here in NYC.
   The bad news [removed], read the review.
   The good news [removed] Stone wasn't in it.

"ARCHIE ANDREWS"
With Jackie Grimes, Cameron Andrews
Comedy Sketch
25 Mins.; Fri., 7:05 [removed]
Sustaining
WJZ-Blue, New York

    Having recently completed a 16-week run as a 15-minute, five-times-a-week
Blue network show in the 7:45 spot, 'Archie Andrews,' based on the comic strip
character, premiered Friday (8) as a half-hour nighttime sustainer to be
presented every Friday. Obviously patterned after the Henry Aldrich show,
dealing humorously with the trials and tribulations
of adolescents, 'Archie,' on the basis of the initial stanza, falls far short
of his prototype in both humor and originality.
     Whereas in the Henry Aldrich saga, the situations become so involved that
they invariably manage to become uproarious yet at the same time believable
because the characters remain understandable and real, the juvenile
protagonist of the new series was burdened with a script that,
instead of remaining funny, became downright maudlin and sentimental. Perhaps
the fault lay, too, in the fact that the meager plot was stretched so thin to
cover the allotted time that it made the situations too obvious, placing the
listeners one step  ahead of the script at all turns.
      As Archie, Jackie Grimes gave an adequate portrayal as a much harassed
highschool juve who winds up at the big dance with his mother as his date. Kid
was handicapped by poor material, as were the others, who on the whole well
well cast. Single exception was Archie's boy friend, who, in an obvious
attempt to ape Homer of the Aldrich series, with his changing voice, only
succeeded in sounding remarkably like Tom Howard of the Howard and Shelton
vaude team.         Rose.

"LAND OF THE LOST"
With Isabel Manning Hewson, Delores Gillen, Junius Matthews, Betty
   Jane Tyler, Raymond Ives and Walter [removed]

    Well, it's on the same photocopy from which I'm transcribing. VARIETY
seemed to   like that one. "Aw, relax, 'Variety', re-laxxx!" "Archie" became
more "Swift" & more of a "Premium" as it went along ("frank"ly speaking).
    Wouldn't you say so, Jughead, er, I mean Hal?

Yours in the ether,

That Derek

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

Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 20:11:37 -0500
From: Ed Kindred <kindred@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Slipping jokes past censors

Speaking of "racy" jokes, I was listening to a Fibber show yesterday (I
can't remember which one it was, but it was from the 40's) and I nearly
fell
off my chair. One of the characters says something about hundreds (?) of
children all over the [removed] (?)--I can't remember exactly what this was in
reference to--and Molly says "don't look at McGee, he's been here all
afternoon." !!!  Danica L. Stein

This illustrates how far we have changed in our national moral psyche.  In
the 40's we would have understood
that  Himself was not one of the hundreds children because he had been
indoors. Ms. Stein seems to
interpret that he was not out creating those hundreds of children.  It is a
different world we live in.
Ed Kindred

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

Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 20:16:39 -0500
From: JackBenny@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  39 Forever:  SID CAESAR

 am happy to announce that television legend SID CAESAR will be presenting
the National Comedy Hall of Fame award to Joan Benny and her family during
the 39 Forever Friars Club banquet.  We are pleased to have Mr. Caesar, one
of the ground-breakers of television comedy, there to honor Jack Benny, one
of the ground-breakers of radio comedy.

  And you can be there to witness it!  There is still time to sign up to
attend 39 Forever.  For full details, please see the first link under
Featured Items on our home page ([removed]).

  Here is the full schedule of events for the weekend:

  Friday, February 14 - Birthday party and radio show recreation - 7:00 -
10:00 PM

  7:00    Cocktails
  7:30    Buffet
  8:00    Welcoming remarks
  8:20    Radio show recreation
  9:00    Socializing

  ================================================
  Saturday, February 15 - Jack Benny Marathon - 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM

  8:00    Auditions for script contest winner recreation
  9:00    Jackpardy! team trivia game

  10:00  Benny Coworkers panel - Irving Fein, Al Gordon, Kay Linaker, Beverly
Washburn

  12:00  Jack Benny television program screening

  1:00    Benny Family panel - Joan Benny and Michael Rudolph - moderated by
Michael Levine

  2:00    Benny Musical panel - Gisele MacKenzie, Jay Meyer (Sportsmen
Quartet), Robert Clary, Brian Gari (Eddie Cantor's grandon), Norma Stevens
(Mrs. Larry Stevens)

  3:00    Jack Benny's impact on comedy - BBC comedienne Emma Kennedy, and
more to come - moderated by Michael Levine

  4:00    Recreation of script writing contest winner
  4:20    Drawing for Benny prizes and memorabilia

  =============================================
  Saturday, February 15 - Friars Club Celebrity Banquet - 6:30 PM - 10:30 PM

  6:30    Cocktails
  7:30    Dinner and music
  8:30    The Ink Spots
  9:30    The comedians pay tribute to Jack Benny
  10:15  Sid Caesar presents National Comedy Hall of Fame award to Joan Benny

  ========================================
  Sunday, February 16 - Down Memory Lane

  All Day    Self-guided Benny tours
  All Day    Museum of Television and Radio - Benny media available for
private viewing

  Noon  Hillside Memorial Park - Memorial service for Jack Benny
  1:00    Canter's Delicatessen - Informal lunch
  2:00    Museum of Television and Radio - Theatre screening of Jack Benny
shows and 20th Anniversary Special

  Looking forward to seeing you there!

  --Laura Leff
  President, IJBFC
  [removed]

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

Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 20:16:54 -0500
From: TallPaulK@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Wayne Raney (again)

Since the Wayne Raney thread doesn't want to die, I might as well chime in.

The show that that the poster inquired about a few days ago was called "The
Saturday Night Jamboree" and originated from WCKY in Cincinnati.  In those
days (very early 50's), the WCKY was aimed due south, and had a strong signal
into all southern states.  I recall my father telling me he would listen to
WCKY in 1944 while he was recovering from a WWII wound at the VA hospital in
Nashville, Tennessee.

Wayne Raney would open the show like this:  Well, a great big Saturday
evening howdy to you friends and neighbors.  This is Wayne Raney and the
Saturday Night Jamboree.

Wayne would play C&W music and sell everything from his records to baby
chicks.

-                   Paul Kattelman - Sharonville, Ohio

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

Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 21:18:35 -0500
From: "Michael Leannah" <mleannah@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Sad facts about OTR

    With the Christmas season fading into the past, all the talk on the
Cinnamon Bear has stopped, but one thing about the show is still on my mind.
    I think one of the saddest things about our wonderful hobby is the fact
that we do not know who played the part of Jimmy Barton. I know there is
still hope; some people are following leads yet today. But with every year
that passes the hope grows dimmer.
    If the person who provided the voice of Jimmy Barton is still alive, he
would only be about (I'm guessing) 75 years old. It's sad to think that this
man could be out there somewhere completely unaware that there is a sizable
number of people who would love to know more about him. Sad, too, to think
that he has already passed away without acknowledgment.
    I am a devoted fan of Lum and Abner so another thing that tears me up is
the fact that no film exists of Chester Lauck and Norris Goff doing their
show. How I would love to watch them going at it, sitting at a table
delivering the lines of a dozen or so characters, just the two of them.
    Many of us will always be sad, of course, that so many shows were
destroyed or were lost through neglect. We are always hoping that something
will yet turn up. I would love to hear that the identity of Jimmy Barton has
been found, and to hear that a film of the making of the Lum and Abner show
has been discovered. Does anyone have a similar feeling about a favorite
show or personality? Perhaps opening up some of these topics will lead to a
discovery. After all, If we don't put out the call, how can we expect a
response?

Mike Leannah

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

Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 21:19:45 -0500
From: Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Gildy's Laughing Coyote

"steven kostelecky" <skostelecky@[removed]; writes:

The 3/18/45 episode, "Laughing Coyote Ranch," in the form I have heard,
through Wayback, sounds like a
composite show from much later on.

I've never heard the show you mention, Steven, but given your description I
would guess that it might have been taken from one of those public service
shows produced in the post-war years (Guest Star, Here's to Veteran's,
etc.). Shows like this often used recorded portions of earlier shows (with
permission, of course). In addition, it might have come from an AFRS
compilation show titled "To the Rear, March," which took segments from
earlier network shows - sometimes up to 3-5 years old - and repackaged them
into a half-hour "greatest bits" kind of show.

This presumes, of course, that the program actually came from a broadcast.
Given that Lillian Randolph isn't portraying Birdie, I'm guessing that this
could well be a rehearsal recording. Some of the rehearsals I've heard
don't have openings, closings, or commercials and some had stand-ins fill
in for absent actors.

Sheer conjecture here -- maybe helpful, maybe not.

Steven also writes:

If anyone has any knowledge of the Neiman-Marcus/Nostalgia Lane records I
unearthed, please post. Just
curious.

This set of six records, released by Nostalgia Lane in the mid-1970s, was
marketed in a number of ways. The individual LPs were released separately
with their own covers and also in this boxed set. (There were cassette
versions as well, though I believe they were only issued as individual
releases, not in sets.) Nostalgia Lane did similar multi-LP releases
bringing together mysteries and dramas, and once again these were just
multi-disk repackages of albums which were previously released as single
LPs.

I've never seen the Neiman-Marcus boxed set, but I suspect this was just
the same material as the standard release with a specially printed N-M
cover exclusively for sale in their catalog and stores. OTR LPs were often
packaged and repackaged this way for various outlets. Radiola created many
boxed sets solely for sale through a now-defunct catalog-based bookseller
called Publishers Central Bureau: a set of Jolson Kraft Music Hall shows;
"Swingin' Sisters on the Air," containing some full and excerpted shows
featuring singing sister groups like the Andrews Sisters, etc.

Harlan

Harlan Zinck
First Generation Radio Archives
[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 21:50:20 -0500
From: otrbuff@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Walden Hughes

I appreciated what Harlan Zinck had to say about Walden Hughes and his
Saturday night program.  I'm compelled to second the motion about
Walden's easygoing style, putting his guests at ease and allowing them to
speak freely on topics of interest.  I didn't know what to expect when he
asked me to be a guest last Saturday night (1/11) but it was a most
pleasant encounter.  Walden is a good host and has a deep knowledge and
appreciation of OTR.  I'm grateful for his contributions to the hobby and
his concern that this interest be preserved and perpetuated.  We are
fortunate to have a few people among us with similar opportunities who
use them well.

Jim Cox

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

Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 12:36:35 -0500
From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: It snowed today

Yesterday I asked for a big snow storm so I could get caught up on my OTR
dubbing. Would you believe it snowed today. Not big, but it snowed. [removed]
Wouldn't it be nice if I won the lottery.

Well it's worth a try, isn't it? :-)

Fred
[removed]

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

Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 12:36:53 -0500
From: George Aust <austhaus1@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Bob Hope Sets

I probably should wait until I've heard more of the two Bob Hope sets
from Radio Spirits, but I am so impressed with the first tape that I
just had to share my feelings with someone.
I bought the two sets when they first became available, one at Target
(on CD) and one at Sam's Club (on cassette or have I got that reversed?)
but I just now am getting around to listening to them.  The first tape
in the Sam's Club set are shows from 12/20/38 and 3/7/39. I am mainly
interested in 1940's shows and so I wasn't looking forward to the 1938
tape especially. My first impression was that the date was wrong!  Bob's
material was so fresh sounding and the format of his show  was almost
exactly the same as his later shows.  But the sound was so good that I
was sure that it had to be 1948 or 1958.

But then he introduced Dagwood and Blondie(Arthur Lake and Penny
Singleton) in their first appearance on radio, so I knew the date had to
be right.  Also Hope said that he was buying a doll for Shirley Temple
which gave me a clue that it wasn't '58 and in the only joke that I
didn't get, he said that he got it for her hoping to get the answers to
the "Movie Quiz"? The audience didn't seem to get that one either.

The 1939 show featured Judy Garland in a really charming bit where she
sang "It Had to be You" in a fashion similar to her "Dear Mr. Gable".
But then Bob and Judy talked in the middle of the song sparring ala
"Thanks For the Memories" with Shirley Ross.  A really inspired
performance. She also sings "FDR Jones". I love topical songs even more
than topical humor and this is  a song that  takes one back to 1939.
Six Hits and a Miss also sing with the exuberance of Swing when it was
still new.
Also don't miss reading Bob Hopes Foreword in this set, it's really
funny. Anthony Tollin's introduction ain't bad either! : )

George Aust

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

Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 12:37:05 -0500
From: "Gary Clark" <garyclarkfm@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Recommendations

Hi to all. I'm new here and I'm interested in OTR, which I've sampled only
briefly in the past. A friend has a large collection of shows and he's
graciously made it available to me.

I am especially interested in comedy shows and I'd like to get your
recommendations. Maybe it's an obscure series that gets [removed] maybe
it's a mainstream show that lives up to its reputation. I'd like to know
what you think are the best comedy shows of the era. Are there any places on
the web that have a critical look back at OTR and which shows measure up?

I appreciate any advice you can provide and I look forward to some great
"vintage" listening in these cold winter months.

Gary

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #23
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