Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #35
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 1/23/2003 3:05 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2003 : Issue 35
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Goodrich tires and The Shadow         [ Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed]; ]
      Howdy Doody radio show                [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
      Gunsmoke- Radio & TV; Bonanza         [ Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed]; ]
      The New Kid on the Block              [ JACKGP20@[removed] ]
      Terry L. Black                        [ LSMFTnolonger@[removed] ]
      Re: Gildersleeve war bulletin         [ "Harlan Zinck" <preservation@radioa ]
      Gildersleeve 02-25-45 War Bulletin    [ BryanH362@[removed] ]
      Re: Sgt Preston                       [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
      Cassette Holders                      [ Philipmarus@[removed] ]
      Maple Leaf Trivia                     [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
      Adventure Is Where You Find It.       [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
      itinerant radio stations              [ "Robert Angus" <rangus02@[removed]; ]
      Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      Re: Ozzie & Harriet gripes-and how i  [ [removed]@[removed] ]
      Stan Barnett and Lux Radio Theatre    [ Howard Blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
      Re: Ozzie & Harriet                   [ Dixonhayes@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 00:52:21 -0500
    From: Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Goodrich tires and The Shadow

    Some time ago, there was a discussion of the
    occasional Bill Johnstone Shadow episodes which
    somehow included the Orson Welles-era Goodrich tire
    commercials. At least two of my programs have these
    misplaced ads ("The House of Horror" and "Can The Dead
    Talk?"-- the latter from Radio Spirits' The Shadow
    Greatest Radio Adventures collection).

    I was wondering how many Johnstone programs had the
    Welles commercial, and how this might have come about.
    I vaguely recall the previous postings on this subject
    aluding to this problem first appearing in the Charles
    Michaelson (Michaelsen?) era, but I don't recall if
    there was any discussion as to how it happened.

    By the way, is it Michaelson's voice we hear at the
    beginning of the old Radio Reruns tapes saying, "this
    old time radio program was originally aired live, long
    before the advent of high fidelity. As a result you
    may detect an occasional surface noise or volume drop
    due to transmission problems so common to old radio.
    We hope, however, that any variance in audio quality
    will not take away your pleasure in listening to
    this-- one of the all time favorite shows." (followed
    by show's opening).

    Written entirely from memory. Scary, huh?

    Rick

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:44:16 -0500
    From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Howdy Doody radio show

>     Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2003 14:50:45 -0500
>     From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];

>     Hey, let's get this back on-topic.  Who played Clarabell for the Saturday
>     morning Howdy Doody RADIO program?  :-)

    Despite the emoticon, I think I'll take the comment seriously and respond.  I listened to the
    Howdy Doody radio show for awhile in 1954, which was its last year.  It was discontinued
    fairly suddenly after Buffalo Bob's heart attack in September.  I believe I remember noticing
    at the time that Clarabell never appeared there.  But the [removed] radio show existed for a couple
    of years before I discovered it, and Clarabell may have appeared before then.  If he did, of
    course, it would have been simply a honk of the horn, which could have been done by a
    sound man.

    However, the Howdy Doody radio show was in fact recorded in segments during the week,
    after each television show.  Therefore, if Clarabell appeared, it's possible that whoever was
    playing Clarabell at the time might have still been in costume and played the part.  That
    would have been Bob Nicholson.

    But Nicholson also played J. Corneleus Cobb, who regularly appeared on the radio show.
    Although a costume wouldn't have been required, he may have changed costume so as not
    to destroy the illusion for the kids from the peanut gallery, who also formed the studio
    audience for the radio show.

    What I'd really like to know is who played the part of Dr. Hodzenfeffer, a character on the
    Howdy Doody radio show who never appeared on television.

    --
    A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                           [removed]
     15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@[removed]
    Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         [removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:46:24 -0500
    From: Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Gunsmoke- Radio & TV; Bonanza

    Bob Taylor wrote:

>     How long did Gunsmoke run on the radio?  It seems as a little boy my
>     folks use to watch Gunsmoke on TV. We just bought a color TV and
>     being blind that didn't mean a lot to me but in the show they ran a
>     Chevrolet commercial that my family said the colors were just
>     magnificent in, does any one remember that spot and can they explain why
>     the colors or location of that spot were so captivating?

    Gunsmoke ran on CBS Radio in "prime-time" or late Sunday afternoons, from
    Spring 1952 until mid-June 1961. There were also Saturday mid-day/early
    afternoon *RERUNS* on CBS Radio as well (sponsored by Dodge Division of
    Chrysler) from 1954 to 1959. And, while I don't think they were broadcast
    they *are* available in the collector's circuits, there were several
    individual "one-time" pilots of Gunsmoke produced by CBS Radio in the late
    1940s and early 1950s. I think there was one "pilot" for Gunsmoke that was
    actually performed as a story on 'Escape'.

    But throughout its 9-year CBS Radio run (1952-61), Gunsmoke was sometimes
    25-minutes long, sometimes 30-minutes long.

    In Fall 1955, Gunsmoke premiered on the CBS Television Network, pre-filmed
    (NOT live), with a *different* cast playing the roles. It started off
    Black-and-White, 30-min's. It expanded to a full hour for Fall 1961 (right
    after the radio edition ceased), but it was still Black-and-White.

    While many other CBS-TV programs were going Color for Fall 1965, Gunsmoke
    and *MOST* other dramatic type programs on CBS-TV in 1965/66 were still
    Black and White. (Rawhide's last 13 episodes in Fall 1965 were still B&W,
    Perry Mason's final season in 1965/66 was B&W except for a single episode
    filmed in color, "The Case of the Twice Told Twist", Lost in Space was
    B&W, and there were still other B&W series on CBS-TV as late as 1965/66).

    Gunsmoke was filmed in Color for new episodes beginning Fall 1966, its
    11th season. Actually, *ALL NEW PRIME-TIME* programming on CBS-TV was now
    *IN COLOR* for the 1966/67 season. (New daytime programming on CBS-TV,
    [removed], Game shows and Soaps didn't necessarily go color until Fall 1967 or
    so). Gunsmoke on CBS-TV continued through a 20th season, 1974/75, and also
    spawned a short-lived spinoff in the early 1970's called "Dirty Sally".

    As for the color Chevrolet commercial, you *might* be thinking of NBC-TV's
    Bonanza. It premiered in Fall 1959 and ran about 14 seasons on NBC-TV,
    until around 1973. NBC-TV actually owned/produced this series (CBS Radio
    and CBS-TV actually owned/produced Gunsmoke as well).

    Bonanza started off in 1959 in color and a full hour. Some of its regular
    early sponsors were RCA and Kodak, both promoting COLOR -- RCA (which
    owned NBC as well) for RCA Victor Color TV sets, and Kodak for color film.

    I know that in the early 1960's, Chevrolet/GM was another one of Bonanza's
    regular sponsors, and I've seen a 2-minute Chevrolet commercial performed
    by the cast of Bonanza. The commercial was filmed in Color, and was done
    with some "extravaganza" and "fanfare" as well.

    There were also a few other hour-long Westerns on NBC-TV in the early
    1960's, which were also filmed in color -- something unique when virtually
    everything else on network TV (including a good deal of NBC-TV prime-time)
    was still mostly B&W (although NBC-TV, of course *owned* by RCA, did
    usually have at least one prime-time color program each night of the week
    in the late 1950's until virtually all NBC-TV prime time went color in
    Fall 1965).

    There was "The Virginian" and also "Laramie", both westerns, in color, and
    on NBC-TV in the early-to-mid 1960's. There were probably a few others as
    well that I can't think of at the moment.

    Mark J. Cuccia
    mcuccia@[removed]
    New Orleans LA

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:46:30 -0500
    From: JACKGP20@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  The New Kid on the Block

    Hi Gang:

    I have just joined the OTR Digest. I have enjoyed reading the posts which are
    very entertaining and informative. I like most OTR shows; but my favorite
    personalities are Fred Allen, Orson Wells, and Glenn Miller. I am now
    researching the life and programs of Fred Allen for a possible book. Would
    appreciate any input you could give. Thanks!

    Cheers,

    Jack Grasso

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:46:47 -0500
    From: LSMFTnolonger@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Terry L. Black

    Dennis Crow, in his letter about Chuck Schaden, mentions Terry Black, an
    Illinois collector of old-time radio.

    Terry L. Black is the man who got me (and many others) into the hobby of
    collecting old-time radio shows. In 1966, I saw his ad in an antique
    journal offering to send old-time radio shows on reel-to-reel tape in
    exchange for blank tape.

    Does anyone know what happened to Terry Black?

    Greg Jackson, Jr.

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:44:35 -0500
    From: "Harlan Zinck" <preservation@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Gildersleeve war bulletin

    Andrew Godfrey <niteowl049@[removed]; wrote:

>     Wish there were more OTR shows that were accidentally put on air before
>     show started so we could hear what was going on between actors and

    audience.

    If you've never heard them, Andrew, there is a wonderful series of Phil
    Harris / Alice Faye shows from the 1953/54 season that contain the
    fifteen-minute audience warm-up portion as well as the program itself.
    They're really very funny and demonstrate clearly just what a master
    audience-pleaser Phil Harris was.

    -begin plug-

    The Archives has them available for inexpensive loan on audio CDs.

    -end plug-

    Also, additional kudos to the radio 'veterans' on this list for their
    wonderful insights into the day-to-day life in the radio business.
    Invaluable stuff, folks, and many thanks for sharing it with us!

    Harlan

    Harlan Zinck
    First Generation Radio Archives
    [removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:49:00 -0500
    From: BryanH362@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Gildersleeve  02-25-45 War Bulletin
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>     The NBC-Hollywood engineer in charge of
>     making the recording switched his input from the network line after the
>     bulletin was announced, and instead plugged into the studio program
>     monitor line. This resulted in the recording preserving what was going on
>     in the studio -- Peary and Tetley gagging it up for the audience

    The Hollywood engineer may have not known that the opening of the
    Gildersleeve
    program was to be delayed until the news bulletin was over. He may  have
    figured that the show was going to be joined in progess and for the complete
    actual show to be recorded he thought that he needed to begin recording the
    actual performance from  the studio. (perhaps) .
    Gildersleeve was a Hollywood based program. The show aired on this particular
    evening at 6:30 PM  EWT. Which meant that the show was being done live from
    Hollywood at 3:30  PM Pacific War Time.  It is important to note that this
    "feed"
    was for  the Eastern audience  so it could not be a California air check.
    Gildersleeve would not  be heard on the west coast  until that  evening at 8
    PM PWT.
    Was the later west coast broadcast a second LIVE [removed] In that event
    it is
    possible  that there are two recorded versions of this broadcast.  However,
    the west
    coast show might not have been delayed for a news bulletin meaning that the
    west coast show might be a full  30 minutes.  If the west coast show was just
    a recording of the earlier east coast show (which I doubt)  it might explain
    why the engineer was trying to record direct from the studio to get the
    entire  program for the later west coast feed (transcribed).  Again I kind of
    doubt this latter theory.

    -Bryan

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    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:53:29 -0500
    From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Sgt Preston

    "Bob & Carol Taylor" <qth4@[removed]; asked:

>      I was listening to an old Yukon King show the other day and was wondering if
>      the show was 15 or 30 minutes in length?

    The show began in Detroit on WXYZ as _Challenge of the Yukon_, a 15
    minute show on 1938. Jay Michael played Sgt. Preston. It soon became
    a 30 minute, complete-in-one-episode show, which is the way I
    remember it. I seem to recall it alternated on weeknights with _The
    Lone Ranger_, but I'm not sure of that. According to my source, Brace
    Beemer took over the role of Sgt. Preston early on. He was also the
    announcer for _The Lone Ranger_. When the Masked Man's alter ego Earl
    Graser fell asleep at the wheel and died in the resulting car crash
    in 1941, Brace Beemer took over that role, and Paul Sutton became
    Sgt. Preston. Why Sutton did not simply step into the Lone Ranger
    Role I don't know. For at least part of the run of _Challenge of the
    Yukon_ the other male lead was played by Dewey Cole, who had an
    authoritative bark. On November 13, 1951 the title of the show was
    changed to _Sgt. Preston of the Yukon_, a change that has caused
    great confusion among collectors.

    The theme was "Overture to Donna Diana," music that still sends a
    little Northwind chill along the hairs of my neck each time I hear
    it. In some of the earlier Lone Ranger episodes you can also hear
    that music used as a bridge. And you might hear Paul Sutton playing a
    bad guy, for that matter. The third member of this trio of crime
    fighters was the Green Hornet, who was a nephew of the Lone Ranger.
    I'm not aware of any storyline connection between the Lone Ranger and
    Sgt. Preston, but, since the Klondike Gold Rush began, as I recall in
    1898 (there was once a mention here of the anachronism of a
    flashlight premium on the show, but 1898 happens to have been the
    year the flashlight was invented), the Lone Ranger might have been no
    more than middle age, so a meeting between them would not have been
    impossible.

    To respond to another question, I haven't heard any report of Richard
    Simmons' death. I had the great pleasure of meeting him at the Cowboy
    Cavalcade in Knoxville, the first such Nostalgia Festival I ever
    attended. He had actually been an outdoorsman, horse trainer and
    pilot when he was discovered and was no actor. He seemed to have no
    fondness for the light-footed, exercise huckster who had taken over
    his name. I got him to autograph a number of photos, some of which I
    gave to my ten-year-old nephew, already an avid OTR fan back in the
    80's. Surprisingly, no one had yet asked him to say it, so I did and
    he obliged: "Well, King, I guess this case is closed."

    Mr. Simmons said that he had done a few radio shows as well as tv.
    Even though Sgt. Preston spoke with the voice of Paul Sutton, as my
    family had no tv, it was Richard Simmons' face, familiar to me from
    comic book covers, that I saw on the radio. When I actually got to
    see the tv show it was a great disappointment, as the sets were
    nowhere near as grand and desolate as those on the radio. Even the
    snow was less white.

    Much of this information I got from an article by former Klondike
    broadcaster Les McLaughlin; you can read it at
    [removed]~[removed] where there is a great account
    of the development of one of the most famous radio premiums of all
    time, the land rush engineered by The Klondike Big Inch Company.
    There you'll learn that, indeed, each square inch was individually
    charted so that you could, in theory, visit your very inch, how one
    of the promoters ultimately lost a leg to this advertising scheme,
    and that the entire holding was confiscated for $[removed] in Canadian
    back taxes.

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:53:37 -0500
    From: Philipmarus@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Cassette Holders
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    I am tring to find some Cassette Storage racks for my Mother who still
    listens to Cassettes mainly. I am having difficult time finding the variety I
    obtained a few years ago at Wal - Mart. What I am looking for are the plastic
    kind that can be mounted on the wall that hold approximately 60 cassettes. I
    have had no luck in finding anything but the expensive wooden variety.

    Any Help would be greatly appreciated

    Mike Kerezman Jr

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    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:53:46 -0500
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Maple Leaf Trivia

    Bob Taylor asks,

>     I was listening to an old Yukon King show
>     the other day and was wondering if
>     the show was 15 or 30 minutes in length?

>     I have a few shows and   they were a
>     30 minute show, but someone told me that
>     the show ran 15 minutes.

    I started listening to The Challenge of the Yukon in 1947, and it was
    always a half-hour show.  However, there was another, very similar show,
    Renfrew of the Royal Mounted, that was a 15-minute adventure.  Perhaps
    whoever told Bob what he or she did was confusing the two shows.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:54:14 -0500
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Adventure Is Where You Find It.

    Michael Lennah wrote, anent Ozzie and Harriet,

>     Personally, Ozzie and Harriet is one show I have a hard time
>     tolerating. There are funny moments
>     in every episode, but by and large the humor is painfully predictable.
>     How in the world did something this insipid stay on the air for so
>     long?

    The simple answer: because different folk have different tastes.

    More complexly, because the times were different.  The humor of the show
    evolved with the times, from OTR to TV (even to the point in the later TV
    version of having Ricky Nelson sing songs at the end of the show,
    complete with Go-Go dancers -- possibly the first national TV show with
    such folk).  Many people enjoyed the gentle humor of the show.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:54:29 -0500
    From: "Robert Angus" <rangus02@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  itinerant radio stations
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    Here's a question for the broadcast historians: apparently in the VERY early
    days of AM radio broadcasting, there were itinerant radio stations which would
    set up shop in a town for a limited period of time, then pack up and move on
    to another.  One of these was hired by a department store in Waterbury, Conn.
    during the Christmas season of 1921 or 1922 to provide the locals with
    something worth buying a radio to hear.  There is some evidence of the same or
    perhaps a different broadcaster doing similar things in Bangor, Me. and the
    New London area of Connecticut.  My question: how common was this practice?
    Did it happen only in New England, and only with a single entrepreneur, or was
    it also going on in other parts of the country?

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    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:54:36 -0500
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Today in radio history

>     >From Those Were The Days --

    1937 - In an article published in Literary Digest, Edgar Bergen
    mentioned that he made his dummy pal, Charlie McCarthy, the beneficiary
    of a $10,000 trust fund to keep him in serviceable condition and repair.

      Joe

    --
    Visit my home page:
    [removed]~[removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:55:27 -0500
    From: [removed]@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Ozzie & Harriet gripes-and how it
     affected my life
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    First off, this is not sour grapes, but just a humble admission of my own
    naivete.

    I grew up on O&H on radio & TV,  and graduated to the Donna Reed Show and
    Father Knows Best, etc.

    They gave me a distorted picture of what to expect from family life.  I
    was deeply disappointed when my family life with kids wasn't even close to
    the script of any show ever broadcast.

    But guess what--move forward 30 years or so and I found the light in
    "Married with Children"

    Again, no sour grapes but I laugh at my expectations.

    Some of our media efforts were more than just insipid (as the previous
    respondent commented) but rather viewed the world through rose colored
    glasses.

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    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 09:55:36 -0500
    From: Howard Blue <khovard@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Stan Barnett and Lux Radio Theatre

    Stan (Sandy) BARNETT wrote for Lux Radio Theatre. I would appreciate any
    information about him for a distant relative who is trying to locate his
    family.

    Howard Blue

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 16:57:00 -0500
    From: Dixonhayes@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Ozzie & Harriet

>     But I have never had a chance to hear the ABC Radio episodes (1949-54),
>     when there were various sponsors here
>     and there, one of the more regular ones being Heinz-57 Varieties.

    Radiola once released an album containing an excellent copy of a 1951 ABC
    Heinz episode.  It was said to be one of the earliest with the real David and
    Ricky, as they had been played by actors previously. And I think that's "The
    Life of Riley" 's John Brown as Thorny, the wacky next door neighbor.  I also
    have a 1944 AFRS broadcast with a lot of musical numbers, and a 1949 show
    that's more sitcom-ish in feel, like the 1951 show.  Personally I always
    liked "Ozzie and Harriet," liked the detail in the writing of the most
    mundane "Adventures."

    I got a bit of a jolt not long ago when I heard O&H in the December 27, 1947
    "Suspense" play "Too Little to Live On."  Those who are used to their normal
    "Adventures" are in for a shock, as the two (Ozzie especially) play murderous
    heavies.  Look for a shock ending.

    Dixon

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #35
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