------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2002 : Issue 66
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Forgotten American Scientist [ "vegan" <vegan@[removed]; ]
WNBC [ "Robert Angus" <rangus02@[removed]; ]
musical idents [ "Robert Angus" <rangus02@[removed]; ]
Re: Arnold Stang [ hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed]; ]
Newspaper radio listings [ Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed] ]
Newspaper Radio Listings [ steve mcguffin <earl22002@[removed] ]
Re: Re: Book [ "Garry D. Lewis" <glewis@[removed] ]
Networks, ratings services, theme tu [ "Dave Walter" <fredallenfan@hotmail ]
Re: Eddie Cantor [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
dick martin"moonglow with martin" [ Maxjo@[removed] ]
Earle Graser's Lone Ranger opening [ "Thomas Mason" <batz34@[removed] ]
Captain Midnight [ "Thomas Mason" <batz34@[removed] ]
Existence of NBC Radio [ "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@worldnet. ]
Re: Moran and Mack and Pick and Pat [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 09:56:54 -0500
From: "vegan" <vegan@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Forgotten American Scientist
I am writing this to all our members to share a discovery I made while
searching the net for information on my hero of all time Nikola Tesla. All
of us might not have had the joy of radio listening had it not been for
[removed] years of litigation in Federal Court, Tesla was finally
acknowledged as the true inventor of the radio ,not Marconi. Unfortunately
most textbooks have not corrected this error. Many of you may know the Tesla
story, but that is not why I'm writing [removed] John W. Wagner of Ann
Arbor Michigan is a school teacher who has tried to bring more awareness to
the many advances in our technology that are the genius of Nikola Tesla.
Harnessing Niagara Falls to bring us Alternating Current (Edison wanted to
give us DC power which would have required a plant every couple of miles)
was another example of his greatness. For an amazing story of Mr. Wagner's
efforts and the shame of the Smithsonian Institute and others, I urge
everyone to go to [removed]~Jwwagner/ It's a long read,
but worth it. Another site that is pro Tesla is
[removed] Tesla was "a man out of his time"-far ahead
of everyone. Some of his work is still not understood, but it seems that he
may have been involved in particle beam weaponry,microwave transmission,and
other high tech. This is amazing when we realize that he died in 1943 in
relative poverty. Robert Dezendorf -Florida
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 09:57:21 -0500
From: "Robert Angus" <rangus02@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: WNBC
Lee Munsick's stroll down the (Allen's) Alley of old radios and call letters
reminded me that the call letters WNBC will always remind me of the Blue
Network outlet in New Britai, Conn., from whom RCA bought the call
letters---in 1941, I think. Also, his list of radio manufacturers from that
wonderful era fails to mention Scott, Capehart, Fisher, Philco and Andrea
(for listeners who had higher incomes than my family had).
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 09:57:49 -0500
From: "Robert Angus" <rangus02@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: musical idents
Eric Cooper, I believe, mentioned the very pleasant musical idents still
used by many European broadcasters. One of the nicest of these, I think, is
a snippet from Verdi's Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves (can't remember which
opera) used regularly by Radio Vltava, the classical music network of Ceske
Rozhlas in Prague. It's performed by everything from a marimba or steel
drums to full orchestra or chorus. And speaking of the Czechs and musical
idents, is CSA the only airline with a musical ident for its on-board
entertainment system (Smetana's Moldau)?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 09:58:54 -0500
From: hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Arnold Stang
Kenneth Clarke Posted;
someone asked me a question regarding one
of the lesser known/lesser reported performers on OTR
Arnold Stang the other day. As far as I know, he was on the
"Henry Morgan Show" <SNIP> "Milton Berle on TV" Etc. Etc. <SNIP>
Tsk! Tsk! Kenneth. When you listed the major "Highlights" of Arnold Stang's
career, you left out (what was to me) was one of his most notable OTR
assignments. :) He substituted for me in the role of "Jughead" on the
Adventures of Archie Andrews for a period one year. (Until I returned from
overseas duty in the USAF during the Korean "thing". (Do they now call it a
"War?)
As of this writing, Arnold is still alive and living in Connecticut. As a
matter of fact, he's a friend and "neighbor" of Charlie Mullen, who was the
Original "Archie" before Bob Hastings took over the role in 1946.
You might try to get Charlie's Address from the American Tobacco Co. and see
if Charlie's willing to share Arnold's address. Charlie retired as Chairman
of the Board of that company about 6 or seven years ago.
In my latter career as a Director of TV Commercials, I used Arnold on more
than a few occasions. One in particular comes to mind. I believe it wqs the
first commercial ever to be banned in Boston. Not because of Arnold, but
because of the leggy, busty gal that played his "Assistant" in the spot.
How come sure a "purient" minded city puts up with Teddy Kennedy? :)
Hal(Harlan)Stone
"Jughead"
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 10:00:10 -0500
From: Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Newspaper radio listings
Spence asks:
How about the papers from other cities? Do any of your papers still list
radio stations program by program?
Here in southern California, the LA Times (our "newspaper of record") is
lamentably short of radio coverage. About the best info we get is in the
Sunday edition, which lists some "highlights" - for Sunday shows only, with
dial locations and broadcast times. The space devoted to this listing
varies from week to week, but it's never more than half-a page of the
"Calendar" section.
There is no "Department" for radio, like there are for stories on Movies,
Television, Theater, etc.
There are no daily listings for radio shows, in a "grid" format or otherwise.
Maybe twice a year the TIMES does a feature on some part of the local radio
scene - much less than you'd expect from a major newspaper covering a
market with over 30 stations serving millions of listeners; I get more news
about radio in the TIMES Business section than in the rest of the paper
combined.
For details about what the various radio stations are broadcasting, we have
to check their Web sites for schedules.
This is a shame.
Herb Harrison
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 10:02:57 -0500
From: steve mcguffin <earl22002@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Newspaper Radio Listings
Here in Virginia, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the
Harrisonburg Daily News-Record publish similar
descriptions of radio stations. I can't remember if
this is on a daily or weekly basis. By the way,
Harrisonburg's WSVA was one of the stations
responsible for getting me (34 years old)interested in
OTR. Back in the late '70s, they had OTR right after
the 10 o'clock news every weekday night.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 10:03:21 -0500
From: "Garry D. Lewis" <glewis@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Re: Book
I'm still looking for a book called "Verse By The
Side Of The Road".
[removed]
Frank Rowsome Verse by the Side of the Road
yours burma shave,
Garry D. Lewis
--
Yo! SOC ET TVEM!
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 10:02:40 -0500
From: "Dave Walter"
<fredallenfan@[removed];
To:
[removed]@[removed]
Subject: Networks, ratings services, theme tunes and
news correspondents
Approved: ctrn4eeWlc
Lee Munsick wondered aloud about the ownership of the current version of NBC
Radio and its related companies. What happened is this: Westwood 1, the
company originally set up to syndicate the "Dr. Demento" novelty record
program in the 1970s, had become so large an outfit by the early 1980s that,
when AmWay was looking for a party to take the Mutual Broadcasting System
off its hands, Westwood 1 decided to be the purchaser. Westwood 1 was also
the party who bought out the short-lived RKO Radio Network around the same
time. Then, when GE took over RCA and decided it didn't want to stay in the
radio business, Westwood 1 also purchased NBC's radio network, which was
promptly folded into the Mutual network division (for several years the only
difference between the top-of-the-hour news headlines on the two networks
was the opening sounder). Westwood 1 was then taken over in the early '90s
by Infinity Broadcasting, which in turn merged with Westinghouse/CBS, thus
bringing the CBS and NBC/Mutual networks under common ownership. A few years
back, Mutual was phased out as an active network, and NBC restricted to a
morning news headline service, sharing material with CBS. Current-day NBC
Radio affiliates carry CNN Radio throughout the remainder of the day.
Westwood One is now CBS' syndication service to non-primary affiliates,
handling most sports events Infinity owns the rights for and several talk
shows (Tom Leykis, Don Imus, until recently G. Gordon Liddy).
In a post about "Fibber McGee & Molly," Eric Cooper appears to make a
reference to the [removed] Nielsen Company as a source for radio ratings. I've
only known Nielsen to be a television ratings company, and so would be
curious to learn more about any dealings Nielsen would have had on the radio
side of things.
Russ Butler credits Symphony Sid Torin's theme tune "Jumpin' With Symphony
Sid" to George Shearing; while Shearing did record the piece (as did Dizzy
Gillespie's big band), it was actually composed by Lester Young.
While not exactly a musical cue in the same sense as the NBC Chimes,
throughout the '60s and early '70s most of the Westinghouse-owned stations
used a lengthened edit of the intro to Henry Mancini's "March of the Cue
Balls" as a newscast theme in one form or another.
In the most recent digest there is an unattributed quote referring to Howard
K. Smith's book THE LAST TRAIN FROM BERLIN, about "his own experiences as
the last American news correspondent to leave Berlin after WWII was
declared." This strikes me as particularly odd, as I've always heard Alex
Dreier billed as such; he's certainly introduced that way on NBC's D-Day
coverage as he reported that morning from Chicago, having been brutally
expelled from Germany (beaten up by the Gestapo and literally dumped over a
gate on the German-Swiss border)just hours before the bombs fell on Pearl
Harbor. Similarly, I believe both William Shirer and another correspondent
whose name escapes me at the moment were broadcasting from Berlin for CBS
after the European Theatre of the War broke out in September 1939. Does
Smith actually claim to be the last American correspondent in Berlin in that
book?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 10:05:13 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod
<lizmcl@[removed];
To:
<[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Eddie Cantor
Kenneth Clark wonders,
His comedic talent,
his penchant for publicly supporting various charities on his
radio program, and ability to hold an audience are well known.
I've also heard that during rehearsals for his show he'd steal
other players lines and assign them to himself and was quite
arrogant. Which is closer to the truth? From what I've actually
heard, he was quite funny and public spirited.
Both are true, actually. But the best way to understand the arrogance is
to understand that Cantor came out of the theatrical tradition of the
"top banana." During his career on Broadway in the 1920s, he was
showcased in a series of large-scale revues in which he himself was
essentially the whole show. The entire revue was a showcase for his
performance, and everything and everyone else -- the orchestra, the
chorus, the supporting cast --- existed only to make him look good. This
wasn't necessarily an expression of Cantor's ego -- it's what audiences
were paying to see.
Nor was Cantor the only performer to work this way -- during the same era
there were similar lavish revues built around the likes of Al Jolson, Ed
Wynn, Joe Cook, Will Rogers, and Frank Fay. People didn't go to these
shows to see Joe Juvenile or Suzy Ingenue get laughs -- they wanted
Cantor, Jolson, Cook, Rogers, or Fay. And that's what they got. This was
absolutely not "character comedy" or "ensemble comedy." It was one
performer connecting with a live audience by any means necessary. Nothing
-- and no one -- else mattered.
Joe Cook (a goofy Midwestern nut comic who sounded a lot like Jim Jordan)
was actually the first comedian to bring this idea to radio, doing a
brief series in 1930, but Cantor's success for Chase and Sanborn in 1931
proved the formula could work in radio -- and signaled the beginning of
the Broadwayfication of the medium. The format did evolve over the years
-- by the end of the thirties, Cantor's style had been moderated, and he
was shifting much of the emphasis on his programs to Young Talent like
Bobby Breen and Deanna Durbin -- but elements of "top bananaism" carried
over thruout the rest of Cantor's career.
Cantor was, indisputably, the most active performer in radio so far as
raising money for charity is concerned, and he was also an activist for
his fellow performers, serving as the first national president of AFRA --
and thus using his prestige to give the union front-line credibility from
the beginning. He was accused of opportunism almost from the beginning of
his charity activities, with his critics arguing that he was using these
appeals to make himself look good -- but the fact remains that he
accomplished far more in this area than any other radio performer. "What
would they rather I do?" he once said. "*Not* support the March of Dimes?"
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 10:15:31 -0500
From: Maxjo@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: dick martin"moonglow with martin"
are there any recordings of jazz dj dick martin "moonglow with martin"
available?
i listened to his show from wwl in new orleans in the '50s & later on krmg in
tulsa into the '[removed] believe he passed away during the '80s while in tulsa.
i am a retired musician & enjoyed listening to his late night show while
driving home from late night jobs.
max salathiel
del city , oklahoma
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 10:50:25 -0500
From: "Thomas Mason" <batz34@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Earle Graser's Lone Ranger opening
I acquired a series of 18 of the old Earl Graser Lone Ranger shows some time
back and what fascinated me was his openings and closings for the show. The
LR would be galloping along full tilt on Silver and at the same time
shouting to him what was going to happen on the upcoming
[removed] Silver needed to know each episode's plot. Great
stuff. I find it is possible to enjoy all the different versions of the
western icon, even though I was raised on the Brace Beemer sound. When I
met Clayton Moore he told me that he was instructed to modulate his voice to
resemble the cadence and sound of Beemer's. Fortunatly, as he became
comfortable in the role, they allowed him to settle back into his own
natural voice pattern.
Tom Mason
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 10:50:21 -0500
From: "Thomas Mason" <batz34@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Captain Midnight
This is probably a question that has been asked before, so forgive [removed]
Have and of the 40's Captain Midnight shows starring Ed Prentis surfaced in
any quantity? Lots of the old Skelly Oil shows are out there, but the
Ovaltine years seem to have disappeared. Any info on this?
Thanks,
Tom Mason
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 11:57:37 -0500
From: "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Existence of NBC Radio
NBC radio does exist but, in a form that would surely make General Sarnoff
spin his grave, as a syndicated service of Westwood One, aka Infinity, aka
Viacom, aka CBS.
The lines of media are so blurred now its boggling. Just yesterday a federal
judge vacated an FCC rule that prevents cable system owners from owning TV
stations in the makets they serve. They also said that the justification
capping ownership to 35% of the total US audience as "inadequate." But they
left both rules standing until the FCC could explain to the court why they
needed to be retained. If these rules are indeed overturned, broadcast
ownership in the US will reside in the hands of few - Viacom (CBS), Disney
(ABC), News Corp (Fox), GE (NBC) and AOL-Time-Warner (which runs, at last
count, owns 1 over the air network, 14 basic cable nets and 11 pay
channels.)
We have often lamented in these pages, about the headaches of American
Copyright laws. But in a few short years, perhaps, you will only have to
deal with the legal departments of these five behemoths.
Brj
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 12:00:57 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Moran and Mack and Pick and Pat
Kevin Michaels wonders,
I know that Amos & Andy
made a fantastic career in radio, but there were other similar acts that did
not, for one reason or the other. There was Moran & Mack (Two Black Crows)
>from the Broadway stage, Pic & Pat and Mollasses & January, who appeared on
various Variety shows, but never seemed to be given, (to my knowledge), a
show of their own. Any one know the reason for this?
Both Moran and Mack and Pick and Pat did have shows of their own, but
neither ever attained the success of Amos 'n' Andy -- because, deep down,
these acts had nothing in common with A&A. The original Amos 'n' Andy
serial built its success on the development of an intimate emotional bond
between the characters and the audience -- while the Crows and P&P were
two guys in cork telling jokes. The A&A type of
character-and-plot-oriented program was the wave of the future, while the
old-style joke-oriented shows were throwbacks to the past.
Moran and Mack became extremely popular in 1927 with a series of
talking-comedy records for Columbia, and it was on the strength of these
records that they landed a 13-week contract to appear on "The Majestic
Theatre of the Air" in the spring of 1928. By this time, Correll and
Gosden had completed two years as "Sam and Henry," and were beginning the
distribution of the syndicated "Amos 'n' Andy," -- and already had a
national reputation. The serial format was radio's Coming Thing, and it's
quite likely that the approach taken by Moran and Mack in their radio
series owed something to Correll and Gosden's success. There is also the
possibility that Columbia intervened in the program, preventing Moran and
Mack from using material from their recordings.
Whatever the explanation, listeners who tuned in on the Majestic program
expecting to hear about why white horses eat more than black horses and
"why bring that up?" found themselves disappointed. Instead of
duplicating the record routines, the Majestic series presented a
serialized adaptation of Charles Mack's novel "Two Black Crows in the A.
E. F.," which told the story of the Crow brothers' experiences in the
first World War. However, there was a vital difference between the focus
of this serial and the focus of A&A.
The conventional wisdom of the 1920s was that white audiences would not
accept black characters as the focus of a serious story (unless that
story was something like "Uncle Tom's Cabin," set in the remote past, and
using highly-stylized characters.) Correll and Gosden rejected this
attitude, and conclusively proved it wrong -- but Moran and Mack accepted
this old-fashioned point of view, and made the Crows comedy-relief
figures to the "real" story, a sappy love triangle involving a farmer's
daughter and two white soldiers. The result pleased no one. Fans of the
Crows complained that there wasn't enough of them -- and that they
weren't doing their familiar routines, and fans of the love story
considered the Crows an annoying distraction, who wandered into the story
with irrelevant wordplay and had no real role in developing the plot. The
series ran thirteen weeks, and the Crows' starring radio career was
finished. They made a few guest appearances later on, but never again had
a series of their own.
(Interestingly, in both the novel and the radio series, the Crow brothers
were named Willie and Amos, and the name "Amos" in fact is heard on the
first "Two Black Crows" record, released in 1927. While Correll and
Gosden never suggested that they were influenced by Moran and Mack in
their use of this name -- Amos was a very common name among Southern
blacks in the 1920s, and it could very well be that they came up with it
independently -- it is unlikely that they weren't aware of its use by the
Crows. Correll once admitted that when they learned that Moran and Mack
were going on the air, it was the only time they were really worried
about their future -- fearing that the Crows would preempt the national
audience, and that they would be unable to get their syndication of A&A
off the ground. Those fears turned out to be unfounded.)
Pick Malone and Pat Padgett also had series of their own, both in
syndication and on the networks, but they never really became stars
because frankly, they weren't very good. They used crude, trite material,
and thier presentation of it was hopelessly generic: there was nothing
the least bit distinctive about the characters of Pick, Pat, Molasses, or
January. They were simply hooks to hang tired old jokes on, and compared
to the sophisticated, groundbreaking work being done by Correll and
Gosden in the early thirties, Pick and Pat must have seemed like
something out of a small town Lions' Club Revue. The 1939 scandal
surrounding Pick Malone's arrest in a drunken bar fight didn't help their
career any, and while they lingered on the fringes of radio during the
1940s, they didn't amount to much.
Elizabeth
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #66
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