Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #277
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 7/16/2003 9:15 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2003 : Issue 277
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  copyright petition                    [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
  Re: CD/MP3 players                    [ Timothy Clough <timothy@[removed]; ]
  Orson Welles                          [ "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed]; ]
  Birthdays of fictional characters     [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
  Old time radio/Twilight Zone          [ "glen schroeder" <gschroeder10@char ]
  Bob and Ray                           [ Bob <hoban_2001@[removed]; ]
  recommendation - ipod?                [ Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed] ]
  Charlie Chan: not Chinese!            [ Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed] ]
  Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  The Stan Freberg Show                 [ "Gary Dixon" <argy@[removed]; ]
  Re: Lawrence Fechtinberger: Interste  [ rodney-selfhelpbikeco@[removed] ]
  Hello to one and all!                 [ "Larry Montgomery" <oscha_dierdorff ]
  Charlie Chan                          [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
  attention: otr fans of Kentucky and   [ "e ginsburg" <edginsburg@[removed] ]
  Original Mercury [removed]                [ Wich2@[removed] ]
  Rochester                             [ "Roby McHone" <otr_alaska@[removed] ]
  Sports on Gildersleeve                [ Tedshumaker@[removed] ]

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

Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 23:31:35 -0400
From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  copyright petition

>From the First Generation Archives newsletter, I just read a petition that
could result in Congressional action to change the Sonny Bono copyright act.
Senator Eldred has drafted a bill and introduced it into Congress, the
result of which could be a more sensible approach to the "forever" approach
of the current law.  URL to the website is below and allows anyone to sign
the petition using email.

  [removed]

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

[ADMINISTRIVIA: Online petitions tend to be worth even less than the paper
they aren't printed on. If you _really_ want to affect any legislation,
existing or proposed, you need to do it the old-fashioned way; contact your
local Senators and Representatives by postal mail. Information on the
proposed "Eldred Act" is available at [removed]  --cfs3]

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

Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 00:07:28 -0400
From: Timothy Clough <timothy@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: CD/MP3 players

My advice Re: your RioVolt CD/MP3 player is to find someone you can
trust and who is good at programming computerized gadgets and tell
him/her what you want done and let him/her reconfigure your RioVolt so
that it will behave in the manner you want. Make sure it's someone you
can trust not to change any of the other settings unless otherwise
specified.

Timothy Clough

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

Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 00:42:12 -0400
From: "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Orson Welles

Well, aside from a [removed] in English, I'm not an author but I wish I were.
The more of Welles I listen to, and especially comparing his
dramatizations with everybody else's, I am becoming more and more aware
of how much of a genius he was.  To hear his scripts and others based on
the same books, there is no comparison.  Somebody really needs to do
that.  If not me, hopefully somebody.  Kurt

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

Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 08:48:43 -0400
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Birthdays of fictional characters

Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 08:34:37 -0400
From: "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed];

I'm pleased to learn that I share a birthday (July 18) with so many radio
greats, including Rudy Vallee, Harriet Nelson, and Red Skelton (along with
John Glenn, Nelson Mandela, and Hunter S. Thompson), but I was surprised
to learn that I share a birthday with Charlie McCarthy.  How exactly was
his birthdate determined?  Is this common?
 
I don't know whether they did so in this case, but the creators of a fictional character can 
decide the character's birthday.  For example, it was established long ago by DC Comics 
that Superman's birthday is 29 February, but Clark Kent's birthday is 19 June.  

-- A. Joseph Ross, [removed] [removed] 15 Court Square, Suite 210 lawyer@[removed] Boston, MA 02108-2503 [removed] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 08:49:02 -0400 From: "glen schroeder" <gschroeder10@[removed]; To: "otr" <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: Old time radio/Twilight Zone Hi Will and listers. Your story about the old radio that was found in an attick brought to mine an episode of the Twilight Zone from the early in which this elderly man either buys or finds an old radio, and when he puts it on, it plays old time radio shows. He tries to get this elderly lady to come and listen to his special radio, but she does not beleive him. Finally she go4es to his room and llistens to his radio and hears the old shows. At the end of the show, after listening to some of the shows, they both become young again. This has always been one of my favorites from the Twilight Zone series. I wonder if Karl Amari did this episode on his new hour long radio shows. Love Dis List Glen Schroeder Madison WI ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 08:49:30 -0400 From: Bob <hoban_2001@[removed]; To: [removed]@[removed] Subject: Bob and Ray Laurence Spectenburger's humor is pretty much based on how long everything takes. How many episodes to move the plot along. While they did this with the Backstayges and the absolutely (purposely) pointless Todd Kneffer bits, with Spect they combined the unrelenting boredom of soaps with Space Cadets type sci-fi, resulting in little or no action for weeks. Spect orbits the earth for a month (at low altitude) while his mother attempts to shoot him a cheese sandwich, or the debate on another planet wherein he wants to stay and open a food kiosk. Trying to figure out which flavor ice cream would melt the slowest took a week. Now you are hearing a lot of these at one time. Bad idea. It all runs together and you miss the parody completely. It was meant to be heard with fresh ears. Their great creative series on WOR in the early-mid 70s I heard daily. Four new bits a day in three hours and forty-five minutes with two bits always repeated. When I first heard "The Gathering Dusk" I thought it would be another soap lampoon. About the sixth or seventh episode I began to laugh at the theme music. The first time Edna was NOT bed-ridden in the introduction, I broke a chair laughing. They had created, over time, a character that became more and more eccentric, and kept the writing way above most of their other bits. I'm thankful that I heard these bits well spaced, as it took quite a while before "Dusk" became much more than just another "hook" bit, like "Squad Car 119" or "Bridgett Hillary", the latter becoming very funny when it began to make fun of itself. Listen to one or two Spects a week and at the end of the month see if your hands aint milder. Much milder. Bob Hoban ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 08:49:47 -0400 From: Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed]; To: [removed]@[removed] Subject: recommendation - ipod? Jeff Weaver said: "The ipod is what you want." I have read that it's a very good player. It's made by Apple Computer. Is it compatible with Windows computers, or do you need a Macintosh to make it work? Herb Harrison ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 08:50:19 -0400 From: Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed]; To: [removed]@[removed] Subject: Charlie Chan: not Chinese! I've read that many of the complaints about the 'Charlie Chan' movies come from people who say the films are derogatory toward Asians because the actors who played Chan were white Westerners, as if Asian actors were not qualified to play the part. The argument is silly. The films should stand on their own merits as entertainment, no matter who has the starring role(s). I consider myself a (moderate) liberal, but there limits to [removed] Herb Harrison ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 08:50:57 -0400 From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed]; To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: Today in radio history From Those Were The Days -- 1934 - NBC Red network premiered the musical drama, Dreams Come True. It was a show about baritone singer Barry McKinley and his novelist sweetheart. Joe -- Visit my homepage: [removed]~[removed] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 08:55:42 -0400 From: "Gary Dixon" <argy@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: The Stan Freberg Show X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain Stan Freberg had the distinguished honor (or fatal assignment) of having the last network comedy radio program. It aired on the CBS Radio Network from July to October of 1957. Stan's supporting players included Daws Butler, June Foray, Peter Leeds, Peggy Taylor, Jud Conlon's [removed] many special guests like Hans Conreid and Marvin [removed] all made outstanding contributions to this wonderful half hour of satire. There were 15 [removed] no [removed] the exception of Show #14 in which Freberg wrote commercials about himself. These were send-ups of current commercials (aired during 1957). Does anybody remember? "You get a lot to like with a [removed]!" or "Stanley [removed] [removed] some of him today. This show is costing a hundred bucks and [removed] is hay He'll make you chuckle, chuckle, chuckle when he appears He filters the jokes all the way to your ears Stanley [removed] FRE-BERG ([removed]) THE ALL-AMERICAN DOG!" These shows are all available on [removed] the quality is very good. A few of the half-hours contain quick comedy bits that pre-dated Stan's original UNITED STATES OF AMERICA album. [They are referenced as "GREAT MOMENTS IN HISTORY"]. If memory serves me correctly, the closest Stan ever got to doing another live-audience radio show was in 1966 when he released an LP called FREBERG UNDERGROUND. It was on this one-shot lp that the phrase "PAY RADIO" was coined. In other [removed] would have to go into the record store and buy it! There are some terrific send-ups of BATMAN AND ROBIN [The Flackman and Reagan], FOLK SONGS, THE ALL-DIGIT DIALING SYSTEM [They Took Away Our MurrayHills] and the outstanding YOU CAN DO THINGS ON RADIO THAT YOU CAN'T DO ON TELEVISION! I just hope Stan has enough energy left to crank out Volumn 3 of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA? His satire is awesome. Needless, to [removed] wish I could talk to him sometime? How can you thank a man for making us [removed] think about life's [removed] the same time? Argydix *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear *** *** as the sender intended. *** ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 09:11:02 -0400 From: rodney-selfhelpbikeco@[removed] To: [removed]@[removed] Subject: Re: Lawrence Fechtinberger: Interstellar Officer Candidate! For me, the humor in these skits, like much of Bob & Ray, isn't what is said. There's often nothing funny about that, sometimes it's the sheer ridiculousness of what is said. Another good example of this is the skits featuring Matt Neffer: Boy Spotwelding King of the World. "You're always sneering Mellish!" rodney. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 09:58:14 -0400 From: "Larry Montgomery" <oscha_dierdorff@[removed]; To: [removed]@[removed] Subject: Hello to one and all! Hello all: I am a new member to the list and wanted to say hello and introduce myself. I am a relatively new listener to "OTR" as I am only 41 years old. I basically turned to OTR as a respite from the dreary news and music which is currently in vogue. I restore antique radios as a hobby and thought that after all the effort to acquire the parts and stuff listening to modern music would be just simply wrong. I found that listening to "Fibber McGee & Molly" and "The Life of Riley" and "Amos & Andy" is infitely more entertaining than the noise that is currently being broadcast. I even built an AM transmitter so that I can listen to the programs on my small but growing collection of AM radios. Here's to relaxation! Larry Montgomery ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 13:33:59 -0400 From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed]; To: [removed]@[removed] Subject: Charlie Chan Joy Jackson commented:
I'm always amused by the furor about Charlie Chan. Having read the books by
Earl Biggers, he makes no bones about his detective being in Hawaii. Hawaii,
to this day, continues to use pidgin among the locals, which is reflected in
Chan's speech.
There is always a section in the books where Chan speaks perfect English. So
it's clear to the reader that he deliberately hides behind the language,
setting up people who will underestimate his abilities. A detective needs to
use whatever he can to get ahead of the bad guys.
It could be the movies may over-look that point. I never forgot it, when I
looked at the movies. After all, the son speaks American English/slang all
the way through them. I recently got a tape of Charlie Chan on the
radio--I'll have to have a listen to what was done on radio.

The radio version was an attempt to cash in on the movies, rather than the
books.  If I remember correctly, only five or six Charlie Chan mystery
novels were ever written, though over 40 movies were made from 1929-1949.
The films were very popular and broadcasting stations never missed an
opportunity to present a radio series on any popular movie or series of
movies.  The fact that one of his sons spoke perfect English in present-day
slang was an emphasis of humor and many times "Pop" would never understand
what Number One Son said, and make a smart remark about deafness till the
end of the movie when he'd throw one back on his son.

The radio series made an error quite a number of times.  On some of the
broadcasts, Charlie Chan was accidentally referred to as an Oriental when in
fact he was really a Honolulu detective (the true fact was mentioned on the
air most of the times but the "Oriental" error slipped a number of times).
I am surprised this slipped on the air a couple times by script writers and
actors because during the war, detective characters like Mr. Moto were not
well-received because of their nationality and to make a mistake by
referring to Chan as an Oriental on the radio program - in my opinion should
have been emphasized to the actors and script writers many times.
Martin

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

Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 16:12:32 -0400
From: "e ginsburg" <edginsburg@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  attention: otr fans of Kentucky and southern
 Indiana

The July meeting of the Kentuckiana Old Time Radio Addicts will meet this
Sunday
July 20th, 9:30 am at Dillon's Steakhouse 2101 S hurstbourne parkway in
Louisville.
A good time is sure to be had by all who attend as we swap tapes, stories
pictures and magazines featuring our very favorite topic, Old time radio
memories

Refreshments are served($5 per person is requested per person)

any questions?

please feel free to call me @502-451-0071

look forward to seeing one and all

ed ginsburg

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

Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 17:12:56 -0400
From: Wich2@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Original Mercury [removed]

Dear Folks-
I've been comparing several CD's of WAR OF THE WORLDS recently. All seem to
be uncut, but Metacom's comes in at 57+, as opposed to everyone else's
(including Ed Carr's nice one)clocking at 59+.
I know that turntable speeds don't always match; as the Mercury was still
sustaining at this point, the longer time seems [removed] Opinions?
Thanks,
Craig Wichman

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

Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 20:11:27 -0400
From: "Roby McHone" <otr_alaska@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Rochester

Matthew Bullis was asking when Rochester made his first appearance on the
Jack Benny Program.  Eddy Anderson made his first appearance on March 28,
1937 as a porter on the train between Chicago and [removed]  His first appearance
as Rochester was on June 20, 1937.  Eddie Anderson also was on the program
sometime between those two dates as someone other than Rochester.

Roby McHone
Fairbanks, Alaska

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

Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 20:11:24 -0400
From: Tedshumaker@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Sports on Gildersleeve

There is an episode with baseball and one with college football
another has golf in the story and hockey is mentioned in another.

Ted

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #277
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