Subject: [removed] Digest V2005 #23
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 1/21/2005 4:18 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2005 : Issue 23
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      same old question                     [ Pete <pappleyard_ca@[removed]; ]
      Re: Mae West/indecency                [ Illoman <illoman@[removed]; ]
      Mae West on radio                     [ Anthony Tollin <sanctumotr@earthlin ]
      Greetings                             [ Illoman <illoman@[removed]; ]
      TV's earliest days                    [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
      DR. IQ                                [ C-NO <voxpop@[removed]; ]
      MP3 Sources                           [ Al Girard <24agirard24@[removed] ]
      1-22 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      Mary Livingston                       [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      Re: taking reserach with a grain of   [ "Rodney W Bowcock" <[removed]@ ]
      Re: what characters looked like       [ Mike Thompson <mthomp86@[removed]; ]
      Re: "I'm My Own Grandpa"              [ jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns) ]
      John Basilone                         [ JayHick@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 13:02:28 -0500
    From: Pete <pappleyard_ca@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  same old question

    My father-in-law George has asked this question many
    many times and has never come across a show yet but
    once a year he asks me to ask the folks that get The
    OTR Digest again so here is the question  " Does
    anyone have a copy of a Canadian show that was
    broadcast during the war year, the show was named " L
    for Lanky "
    The old guy figures perhaps some day someone will see
    the question and perhaps he can buy a copy of it from
    him or her.
    Take care
    Pete        pappleyard_ca@[removed]

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

    Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 14:01:46 -0500
    From: Illoman <illoman@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Mae West/indecency

    On Friday, January 21, 2005, at 01:12 PM,
    [removed]@[removed] wrote:

>     While researching radio in the year 1938, I discovered that Mae West
>     was banned from radio by the then-FCC for "indecency." That brought to
>     mind Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" last year at the Super Bowl.
>     Was West's "indecency" common knowledge at the time? Does anyone have
>     the show on which she did that awful thing? I guess I'm saying I'm curious
>     if this was a cause celebre or no big deal at the time.

    I believe you are referring to the "Adam and Eve" sketch, written by
    Arch Oboler and performed on the Chase and Sanborn Hour show from
    12/12/37. Much has been written about this, but really from a 20th
    century timeframe I can't see what all the hubbub was about. Perhaps
    it's because the show was broadcast on a Sunday. Mae "sexed" up
    Oboler's script by the way she performed it. She did it differently in
    rehearsals.
    And yes, I have a copy of it.

    Mike

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

    Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 14:00:38 -0500
    From: Anthony Tollin <sanctumotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Mae West on radio

    on 1/21/05 12:11 PM, Paul Adomites asked:

    <While researching radio in the year 1938, I discovered that Mae West was
    banned from radio by the then-FCC for "indecency." <SNIP> Does anyone have
    the show on which she did that awful thing?>

    ***The infamous "Garden of Eden" sketch is commonly available, and is
    included in Radio Spirits' GREATEST OTR SHOWS OF THE 20th CENTURY SELECTED
    BY WALTER CRONKITE and TOO HOT FOR RADIO collections. The Biblical parody,
    airing on a Sunday, outraged a substantial number of listeners.  As I wrote
    in my historical booklet for the former booklet"

    "Arch Oboler's "Garden of Eden" script and Mae West's sultry delivery led to
    thousands of listener complaints, demands for government censorship of radio
    and a decade-long banning of even the mention of Mae West's name over NBC's
    airwaves. . . . The following week, NBC announcer Ronald Drake voiced the
    first ever on-air apology for a network broadcast. "We got into all sorts of
    trouble" Edgar Bergen later recalled. "The network apologized, Chase and
    Sanborn apologized and I went and hid for a week. The net result was our
    ratings went up two points so we weren't really too sorry." --Anthony Tollin

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

    Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 14:02:04 -0500
    From: Illoman <illoman@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Greetings

    I just joined this list, and have enjoyed reading it. I have enjoyed
    listening to OTR since I was young, my first exposure to ti being a
    cassette of Light's Out with Boris Karloff which I mailed away for, and
    one of my teachers playing a flexidisc of The Shadow in grade school.

    As far as Karloff goes, I am looking for an episode of Light's Out
    entitled Valse Triste with Karloff. This show was broadcast on 3/30/38,
    and remade in 1942 with a different cast. I have searched for a
    recording of the original broadcast with Karloff, and have come up
    empty. I have found twelve sites that have the 42 show listed as the 38
    show. Does anyone have a copy of the show with Boris?

    Thanks,
    Mike

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

    Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 14:03:04 -0500
    From: <otrbuff@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  TV's earliest days

    Bill Jaker writes:

>     Many believed at the time that CBS was doing so well

    with radio that it actually opposed the introduction of [removed];

    This squares with my research into the fascinatingly captivating compulsions
    of David Sarnoff and William S. Paley.

    For years Paley, the young CBS owner-mogul, was wary of the new medium of
    television and vigorously obstructed its development.  "He was like a
    horse-and-buggy driver who couldn't fathom the Model T," contended a
    biographer.  "Television appeared as a relentless expense that would end by
    draining attention and resources from radio, his first love."   Had it not
    been for the fact that Paley turned to Adolph Zukor, head of
    Paramount-Famous-Lasky Corporation, for financial rescue during Columbia's
    fledgling era-Zukor was intensely interested in the potential of TV and how
    it might affect filmdom-coupled with Paley's own competitive nature, CBS
    might not have pursued TV at all.

    But Paley knew that his most formidable rival, David Sarnoff, the recently
    named president of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and parent of the
    National Broadcasting Company and its dual radio networks (NBC Red and
    Blue), had taken an aggressive stance in television's development.  As early
    as 1923 Sarnoff predicted that television would be "the ultimate and
    greatest step in mass communications."   At his insistence, in 1928-less
    than two years after NBC Radio went on the air-RCA acquired a federal
    sanction to let it launch a first New York City-based experimental TV
    outlet.  That station, with call letters W2XBS, went on the air in July
    1930.  It would take CBS a full year beyond to do the same.

    A Sarnoff biographer reasoned, "David Sarnoff nurtured the development [of
    television] from unpromising beginnings to operational maturity, despite
    obstruction by segments of his own industry and small support from any
    source."   In 1941 Lee DeForest, who had been instrumental in sending sound
    across the ether as early as 1906, praised Sarnoff's resolve, claiming that
    without his "far-sighted vision, financial courage, faith, and persistence,
    [removed] still be a vague dream."   Three years hence the Television
    Broadcasters Association cited Sarnoff as the "Father of American
    Television."   A return on a $50 million investment-one of the few occasions
    that a single enterprise had put that much cash into one venture-didn't
    start to happen before 1949, more than two decades after Sarnoff instigated
    his mission.

    And what of Paley?  "Television wasn't on Bill's plate," allowed CBS
    executive Frank Stanton, who ran much of CBS's internal affairs after 1946
    and supervised TV operations in the early period.  Paley's biographer
    confided, "His concern about the high cost of shifting from audio to video
    gave CBS a curiously schizophrenic character in the late forties and early
    fifties.  Mighty radio and infant television inhabited different worlds at
    the company.  In those days CBS advertising salesmen carried calling cards
    engraved 'Sales-CBS Radio' with 'Television' typed underneath as an
    afterthought."   Without doubt, Paley and Sarnoff had both returned from
    World War II to pursue opposing obsessions-Paley, to master his chain's fate
    by controlling radio programming; Sarnoff, after years of imagination and
    experimentation, to turn TV into reality.

    Jim Cox

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

    Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 14:04:03 -0500
    From: C-NO <voxpop@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  DR. IQ
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    hi all
    i remember dr. iq saying something like "10 silver dollars to that lady
    in the balcony" but if the person didn't answer correctly he then said
    something about MARS BARS ..does anyone remember exactly what he said re
    mars bars?
    thanx, chet norris

      *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
      ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

    Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 14:05:24 -0500
    From: Al Girard <24agirard24@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  MP3 Sources

>     The problem is, the few times I've tried this, the CDs have had a
>     fair number of MP3s that are either poor quality, have significant
>     errors in them, are unusably corrupt, or are incorrectly labeled, or
>     there will be several copies of the same show with different file names.

    Ah yes -- the sellers of OTR CDs on eBay!  They download everything they
    can get their hands on and offer CDs for sale on Ebay, but the old rule
    "Caveat Emptor" prevails.  These "dealers" are not OTR fans but instead
    are just trying to make a buck.

    Al Girard

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

    Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 14:07:47 -0500
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  1-22 births/deaths

    January 22nd births

    01-22-1875 - D. W. Griffith - La Grange, KY - d. 7-23-1948
    movie producer-director: "Brooklyn Mark Strand Stage and Studio
    Program"
    01-22-1878 - Constance Collier - Windsor, Berkshire, England - d.
    4-25-1955
    actress: Jessie Atwood "Kate Hopkins, Angel of Mercy"
    01-22-1893 - Conrad Veidt - Potsdam, Germany - d. 4-3-1943
    actor: "Free World Theatre"
    01-22-1894 - Rosa Ponselle - Meriden, CT - d. 5-25-1981
    opera soprano: "Atwater Kent Hour"; "Metropolitan Opera"
    01-22-1895 - Ethel (Everett) Remey - d. 2-1979
    actress: Victoria Lorring "Young Widder Brown"; Kathleen Norris "By
    Kathleen Norris"
    01-22-1899 - Anne Elstner - Lake Charles, LA - d. 1-29-1981
    actress: Stella Dallas "Stella Dallas"; Mary Weston "Wilderness Road"
    01-22-1909 - Ann Sothern - Valley City, ND - d. 3-15-2001
    actress: Maisie Revere "Maisie"
    01-22-1920 - William Warfield - West Helena, AR - d. 8-25-2002
    bass-baritone singer: "Edgar Bergen Show"; "Beyond Victory"; "Music
    for America"
    01-22-1924 - J. J. Johnson - d. 2-4-2001
    jazz trombonist: "Arthur Godfrey Show"; "One Night Stand"
    01-22-1932 - Piper Laurie - Detroit, MI
    actress: "Lux Radio Theatre"; "NBC Radio Theatre"; "Screen Guild
    Theatre"
    01-22-1934 - Bill Bixby - San Francisco, CA - d. 11-21-1993
    actor: "We Hold These Truths"

    January 22nd deaths

    01-29-1913 - Daniel Taradash - Louisville, KY - d. 1-22-2003
    film writer: "Lux Radio Theatre"; "Cavalcade of America"
    02-10-1892 - Alan Hale, Sr. - Washington, [removed] - d. 1-22-1950
    actor:"Lux Radio Theatre"
    04-12-1919 - Ann Miller - Chireno, TX - d. 1-22-2004
    dancer, actress: "Forecast"; "Hollywood Hotel"
    05-23-1890 - Herbert Marshall - London, England - d. 1-22-1966
    actor: Ken Thurston "Man Called X"
    06-23-1895 - Pick Malone - nr. Dallas, TX - d. 1-22-1962
    comedian:"Show Boat"; "Chesterfield Supper Club"
    07-21-1901 - Allyn Joslyn - Milford, PA - d. 1-22-1981
    actor: "Island Boat Club"; "Page of Romance"; "Show Boat"
    10-22-1891 - Parker Fennelly - Northeast Harbor, ME - d. 1-22-1988
    actor: Titus Moody, "Fred Allen Show"; Dan Tucker, "Lawyer Dan Tucker"

    12-07-1920 - Frances Gifford - Long Beach, CA - d. 1-22-1994
    actress: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    --
    Ron Sayles
    Radio: Theatre of the mind
    Television: Theatre of the mindless

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

    Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 14:08:07 -0500
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Mary Livingston

    I have listened to hundreds of "Jack Benny Programs." While listening
    I get the distinct impression that the only reason  someone like Mary
    Livingston is there is because she is the bosses wife. How someone
    with as little talent has she had could be a member of what is the
    finest ensemble in all of radio is beyond my comprehension. I feel
    that she adds little to the program, quite the opposite, she detracts
    from the program. Do others feel this way or is it just me?

    Ron Sayles
    Radio: Theatre of the mind
    Television: Theatre of the mindless

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

    Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 14:41:34 -0500
    From: "Rodney W Bowcock" <[removed]@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: taking reserach with a grain of salt

    Tom van der Voort:

>     My point is not to tear down Martin's efforts but to indicate that OTR
>     scholarship is an evolving field, and we should be very cautious about
>     criticizing the hard work of others.

    So, because occasional mistakes have made it past the proofreading process
    in the works of Martin, does that mean that he should keep quiet about
    pointing out the mistakes of others?  Mistakes crop up in nearly EVERY book
    ever written on OTR, including those by Dunning, Grams, Cox and everyone
    else (especially my pet peeve in OTR [removed] Nachman's 'Raised
    On Radio' in which he seems to make up the story of the actors that he
    writes about as he goes along instead of actually writing the facts).
    Failing to point out those 'facts' simply ensures that the mistakes will
    become part of OTR lore and will be passed on and on and on.  Something
    that is possible to happen anyway.

    Personally, I'd advise any OTR fan or budding researcher to take ANY
    information found on a website with a grain of salt.  Mistakes can at times
    make it past printed works, but steps are taken to insure that this doesn't
    happen.  Many websites have no proofreading process (need one be reminded
    of the IMDB entry on Elliot Lewis?) and anything that the author wants to
    say can find it's way on there no matter how accurate or otherwise.

    Goldin's website is one of the best research stops on the web for classic
    radio info (I use it frequently), but that doesn't make it perfect, and
    that doesn't mean that it's still not best to doublecheck what you find
    there with a printed reference work, as one could recommend with ANY
    source.

    Rodney Bowcock

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

    Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 15:49:27 -0500
    From: Mike Thompson <mthomp86@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: what characters looked like

    Dixon wrote:

>     and Amos 'n' Andy
>     didn't look *anything* like I pictured them, when I
>     saw pictures of how they
>     were apparently supposed to look.

    Don't worry, I doubt you were alone. <g> Or did people
    at the time know Amos and Andy were played by two
    white guys? I wasn't alive at the time, so I honestly
    don't know.

    As for me, the OTR shows I listen to most frequently
    are My Favorite Husband and Burns and Allen. Being a
    big Lucy fan, I was familiar with what the main cast
    of the show (Lucy, Richard Denning, Gale Gordon and
    Bea Benaderet) looked like before I started listening
    to the series. I've always pictured the maid as
    looking like the maid from the episode of I Love Lucy
    where Ricky and Lucy hire a maid to help out around
    the apartment.

    As for B&A, I of course knew what George and Gracie
    looked like, so I would just picture them during the
    show. When I saw video of Bill Goodwin, it turned out
    he looked exactly the way he sounded on B&A. The one
    character I can't picture is Tootsie Sagwell. She was,
    ahem, not very becoming, but just how unattractive she
    was seemed to change all the time.

    Mike

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

    Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 17:57:56 -0500
    From: jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns)
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: "I'm My Own Grandpa"

    That's neat! I was only familiar with Floyd Vivino's version, from the
    '70s and '80s, on THE UNCLE FLOYD SHOW.

    (To  keep this on topic (!), for about a million years, Vivino has also
    had an Italian music radio show, where he plays many records from the
    OTR era, somewhere in the New York/Tri-State Area.)

    By the way, the Jack Nicholson item is no rumor. Nicholson was raised by
    his Grandmother, whom he thought was his mom. The gal who he was told
    was his older sister, was his actual mother.  He found out the truth, in
    a phone call on a set, when shooting a movie.

    Bobby Darrin had the same situation, growing up.

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

    Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 17:58:07 -0500
    From: JayHick@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  John Basilone

    Can anyone help?  Send responses to Seth.  Jay

    My name is Seth Paridon.  I am a researcher working on a project about the
    famous WWII Marine named John Basilone.  I am searching for any and all radio
    interviews with Mr. Basilone.  In particular I am searching for an interview
    done with him by Ed Sullivan, later of TV fame, with John somewhere between
    September 1943- December 1943.

    I know those dates are sketchy but that's all I have to go by.  At this time
    Ed Sullivan was still with CBS radio.  I spoke with Ms. Janet McKee from the
    Library of Congress and she is the one who gave me your contact information.
    Any help that you could give me in directing me to where this interview may be
    found would be of great assistance and would be appreciated deeply.  If needed
    you may call me at my office at (504) 304-2423.

    Thanks again!

    Seth Paridon   email: <sparidon@[removed];

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #23
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