------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2005 : Issue 32
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Jerry Belcher at KGNC [ <mlhenry@[removed]; ]
1-29 births/deaths [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
re: Jo Stafford I'm My own Grandmaw [ Steve Salaba <dangerdanger@sbcgloba ]
Never Heard Character [ "Marty" <martyd@[removed]; ]
Re: Easy Aces with Audience (mr ace [ "W. Gary W." <wgaryw@[removed]; ]
OTR conventions [ Bagleyfan <bagleyfan@[removed]; ]
Carson as robot on Benny? [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
Jack Benny on radio in 1929 [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
1-30 births/deaths [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 15:30:01 -0500
From: <mlhenry@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Jerry Belcher at KGNC
I am researching the career of Jerry Belcher, the first
co-host of "Vox Pop". According to Broadcasting Magazine, he
was with the sales and promotion department of radio station
KGNC in Amarillo, Texas from April 1941 to September 1941.
Unfortunately, I haven't had much luck getting the local
newspapers through inter-library loan. Is there anyone in
Amarillo or other parts of Texas who might have access to
those papers and could help me find references to Belcher or
the station? If so, please contact me directly and I can give
you more information.
Thanks.
-Michael Henry
Library of American Broadcasting
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 16:14:55 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 1-29 births/deaths
January 29th births
01-29-1880 - W. C. Fields - Philadelphia, PA - d. 12-25-1946
comedian: "Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show"
01-29-1911 - Bryan Coleman - London, England
actor: John H. Watson "BBC Light Programme"
01-29-1913 - Daniel Taradash - Louisville, KY - d. 1-22-2003
film writer: "Lux Radio Theatre"; "Cavalcade of America"
01-29-1915 - Victor Mature - Louisville, KY - d. 8-4-1999
actor: "Hollywood Star Playhouse"
01-29-1917 - John Raitt - Santa Ana, CA
actor, singer: "MGM Musical Comedy Theatre"
01-29-1918 - John Forsythe - Penns Grove, NJ
actor: "NBC Star Playhouse"; "Best Plays"
01-29-1923 - Paddy Chayefsky - The Bronx, NY - d. 8-1-1981
writer: "Theatre Guild On the Air"
01-29-1942 - Robin Morgan - Lake Worth, FL
actress, Former president of National Organization for Women: "Cavalcade of
America"
01-29-1943 - Tony Blackburn - Guildford, England
disc jockey: "Midday Spin"; "Junior Choice"
January 29th deaths
01-14-1914 - Harold Russell - North Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada - d. 1-29-2002
world war II hero, actor: "A Salute to the [removed]"; "NBC University Theatre"
01-22-1899 - Anne Elstner - Lake Charles, LA - d. 1-29-1981
actress: Stella Dallas "Stella Dallas"; Mary Weston "Wilderness Road"
02-02-1875 - Fritz Kreisler - Vienna, Austria - d. 1-29-1962
violinist, composer: "Telephone Hour"; "Concert Hall"; "Gospel In Song"
02-10-1893 - Jimmy Durante - NYC - d. 1-29-1980
comedian: (Da Schnozz) Claudius 'Brainy' Bowers "Jumbo Fire Chief Program"
02-22-1925 - Stratford Johns - Pietermaritzburg, South Africa - d. 1-29-2002
actor: Pennington "Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile"
03-12-1916 - Mandel Kramer - Cleveland, OH - d. 1-29-1989
actor: Johnny Dollar "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar"
04-11-1912 - John Larkin - Oakland, CA - d. 1-29-1965
actor: Perry Mason "Perry Mason"; "Dimension X; " Ford Theatre"
09-03-1913 - Alan Ladd - Hot Springs, AR - d. 1-29-1964
actor: Dan Holliday "Box 13"; "Lux Radio Theatre"; "Proudly We Hail"
09-09-1930 - Martha Steinberg - d. 1-29-2000
detroit radio: WQBH-AM
10-27-1911 - Leif Erickson - Alameda, CA - d. 1-29-1986
actor: Richard Rhinelander III "My Friend Irma"
xx-xx-1885 - William Steinke - Slatinton, PA - d. 1-29-1958
host: "Jolly Bill and Jane"; "No School Today"
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 16:15:15 -0500
From: Steve Salaba <dangerdanger@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: re: Jo Stafford I'm My own Grandmaw
At 3:40 PM -0500 1/28/05, Ed Kindred wrote:
Inspired me to look up Darlene and Jonathan Edwards
Are these the same folks whose deliberately horrible version of "The
Carioca" was used as the theme in the movie "Kentucky Fried Movie"? I'm
ashamed to admit - I have that record album.
--
Steve Salaba
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 19:35:49 -0500
From: "Marty" <martyd@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Never Heard Character
One character I thought of that was never heard of (at least I don't
remember hearing) is the wife of Wallace Wimple, affectionately called
"Sweetie Face". She is always referred to as Wallace's "Big Old" wife.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 19:42:30 -0500
From: "W. Gary W." <wgaryw@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Easy Aces with Audience (mr ace and JANE)
I listened for the first time today to the WTIC 1970s
interview with Goodman Ace that included some
marvelous excerpts from Easy Aces shows, including
some done in front of a live audience. Anyone have
approximate dates of such shows?
that was a great interview-- i heard it recently
myself. and despite the fact that all you asked for
was apporximate dates for the series, i'm going to
nonetheless take this as an opportunity to drone on
about goodman ace for a few hundred thousand words.
these clips are from the 1948 revival of the series,
entitled "mr ace and JANE" (that's goodman ace's
capitalization, not mine. . . ) i don't have exact
dates for the series handy, but i know it debuted in
early 1948 (februrary, as i recall) and lasted for
around a year. there are about 14 episodes in common
circulation, though my frustrating suspicion is that
most, if not all, the shows do survive as recordings.
the prevailing opinion on this series is that the aces
were better in the 15 minute format without the
audience and the studio orchestra, but i think it's
much more a matter of taste than is gnereally
acknowledged. goodman ace actually made some major
changes to the show's format to accomodate the new
form, in some cases to the show's benefit.
for instance, he changed his own character's
profession from real estate in the easy aces series
(rather bland, in my opinion, leading to lots of
storylines about protracted land deals) to the
advertising business. this gave him the opportunity
to take a lot of satirical potshots at radio itself,
which was rarely, if ever, an element of the humor on
easy aces.
he also changed the setting of the program from an
unspecified small town in anywhere, USA to what he
referred to as "a typical small eastern town called
new york city."
both ace's profession and the setting of the show are
almost *always* gotten wrong by books and articles
about the 15 min easy aces, in that they generally
ascribe ace's advertising position and the NYC setting
to the first series, not the the revival (which is
always referred to only in passing). this is the kind
of error that makes one wonder if the authors of these
pieces ever listened to a single episode of the
series. (the wonderful-- on the whole-- recent BBC 6
part series, "who wears the trousers?", makes the same
mistakes). this is akin to describing "i love lucy"
as a show set in rural connecticut, just because that
was the setting of the show's final season.
i suspect the cause of these errors is that ace
published a book in 1970 (the one which he was
plugging in the WTIC interview) called "ladies and
gentlemen, easy aces", which purported to be a
collection of easy aces scripts. in fact, it was
comprised *exclusively* of scripts from "mr ace and
JANE" (many of which were admittedly based on easy
aces scripts.) the matter is even more confused when
you listen to the flimsy square plastic record
included with the book, in which the opening from
"easy aces" is used as an opening cue for an audio
clip from an episode of "mr ace and JANE"!
most of the time, the revival series is also
erroneously referred to as a "variety" format with
musical numbers, which is absolutely false. this was
a pure sitcom, with no musical interludes except the
linking themes between scenes. in fact, the only "mr
ace and JANE" show i've heard that had a musical
number included it only because it was part of the
show's plot, not as a stand alone, separate segment.
the most important change, though, and the one which i
really wish goodman ace received more (or any) credit
for, was that he made his own character a narrator who
speaks directly to the audience, two years before
george burns used the same technique to much critical
applause when moving burns and allen to TV (george
never acted as narrator in the radio series. as a
side poin t, it's even less acknowledged that the aces
were the first to portray a ditsy female character in
the context of a domestic marriage situtation
comedy/serial, as burns and allen didn't play
themselves as a married couple until 1941. up until
then, theirs was a vaudeville-style "flirtation" act,
very hard to swallow once you're familiar with their
later work. easy aces, however, employed the domestic
comedy format since the very early 1930s).
in fact, ace introduced several very novel "surreal"
touches in the 30 minute show. he turned his ulcers
into hilarious voiced characters who make repeat
appearances throughout the series.
in most of his opening monologues, he alternates lines
of his narration with lines spoken by the characters
he's describing, who respond in some humorous way to
what he just said (you have to hear this, perhaps, to
understand what the heck i'm talking about from this
poor description).
in one case ("jane wants a mink coat"), he split an
episode into six separate but connected
mini-storylines which all affected the others in
series, an unconventional narrative structure for a
radio sitcom to say the least.
on the negative side, most of the humor does seem to
go over the audience's collective heads, which throws
the aces' timing too often (ace always claimed that
the audience from the 30 min shows was comprised
mostly of people who wanted to get into a quiz show
but couldn't, not exactly the ideal audience
demographic for such sophsticated humor.) but when
the audience *does* get it, as in the "jury duty"
episode, the laughter energizes the performances in a
novel way not to be found in easy aces, which was
performed at a very relaxed pace. in fact, ace had
the actors on easy aces play their parts sitting
around a card table with a concealed microphone to
achieve this effect.
also on the negative side, there is a "cartoonish"
feel to the characters which is not the case with easy
aces, where the relaxed 15 minute serial format
allowed the characters much more room for development
and depth. all of the characters on "mr ace and JANE"
are pretty much cardboard one-joke setups, such as mr.
norris, ace's boss, who speaks only in proverbs (an
occupational hazard for an ad executive). then there
was the aces' maid mrs. bell, who paid no attention to
ordinary social boundaries and always referred to
everyone *else* by first name. jane's brother-in-law,
the only "carry-over" from "easy aces" other than the
aces themselves (though his name has been changed from
johnny to paul) is here a one dimensional lazy
sponger, where in easy aces his character was much
more complex and interesting.
forgive my ranting on this subject, but "mr ace and
JANE" has been, i feel, cruelly overlooked by even
radio comedy afficionados, so i welcome any
opportunity to sing its praises. this is, in fact,
one of the very few occassions on which i differ with
elizabeth mcleod's stated personal take on a series
that i love, in that she's said she vastly prefers the
15 minute format. as i said, i think it's a matter of
taste, but i also think that in general the revival
series is all but completely dismissed, perhaps
because it wasn't very successful and came at the tail
end of the OTR era. at least in elizabeth's case, you
know full well she's *listened* to the shows in
question before forming an opnion!
i would give my eye-teeth to hear the rest of the
series. i don't really know what eye-teeth are, so
maybe that's why i'm so willing to sacrifice them.
but i always hold out some small hope that someone out
there with more of these programs than the commonly
circulating 14 will make them available.
if you're interested in hearing these shows, they're
pretty readily available from OTR vendors such as
jerry haendiges. there are also mp3s on e-bay, though
if you abolustely *must* go this route, at least do me
the favor of sarcastically thanking whoever you order
them from for selling my encodes (for which i have
*never* received money from anyone, nor would i want
to. . . )
regards,
w. gary w.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 09:56:22 -0500
From: Bagleyfan <bagleyfan@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: OTR conventions
Somebody wrote that a list of OTR conventions could be found at
[removed]
I saw no conventions listed there, just a form for providing listings. Am
I missing something?
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 09:55:32 -0500
From: JackBenny@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Carson as robot on Benny?
Carson appeared on a Jack Benny TV show in the late 1950's or early 1960's,
playing a robot that is taken apart (Broken-down) at night and then
reassambled in the
morning.
Not quite. Johnny compliments Jack on his continuing youthful appearance
considering his age. At the end of the show, it is revealed that Jack is a
robot who is then disassembled by two stagehands.
--Laura Leff
President, IJBFC
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 09:57:00 -0500
From: JackBenny@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Jack Benny on radio in 1929
Bobb Lynes writes:
"In 1929 the Mann Brothers
made their radio debut with Jack Benny over KFI on the RKO Hour at the
Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. This also was Jack's first radio
appearance." Had you heard about that, Laura?
I've heard various reports of people finding snippets and listings of Jack
on various broadcasts before the vaunted March 1932 Ed Sullivan broadcast.
Jack had played on the Orpheum circuit for many years (although he was also
on
Keith at some points), so it's a definite possibility.
--Laura Leff
President, IJBFC
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 13:52:38 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 1-30 births/deaths
January 30th births
H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y C O N R A D ! !
01-30-1862 - Walter Damrosch - Breslau, Germany - d. 12-23-1950
conductor, commentator: "Baulkite Hour"; "Music Appreciation Hour"
01-30-1882 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Hyde Park, NY - d. 4-12-1945
[removed] president: "Fireside Chats"
01-30-1907 - Lois Wilson - IA - d. 1-8-1983
actress: "Jack Benny Program"
01-30-1911 - Hugh Marlowe - Philadelphia, PA - d. 5-2-1982
actor: Ellery Queen "Advs. of Ellery Queen"; Jim Curtis "Brenda Curtis"
01-30-1914 - David Wayne - Traverse City, MI - d. 2-9-1995
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre" ;" Eternal Light"; "Stars in the Air"
01-30-1914 - John Ireland - Vancouver, Canada - d. 3-21-1992
actor: "MGM Theatre of the Air"; "[removed] Steel Hour"
01-30-1915 - Dorothy Dell - Hattiesburg, MS - d. 6-8-1934
actress: "Stars of Tomorrow"
01-30-1925 - Dorothy Malone, Chicago, IL
actress: "Lux Radio Theatre"
01-30-1931 - Conrad Binyon - Hollywood, CA
actor: Chester A. Riley, Jr. "Life of Riley"; Henry Herbert Murray "One Man's
Family"
01-30-1934 - Tammy Grimes - Lynn, MA
hostess, actress: "CBS Mystery Theatre"; "Cavalcade of America"
January 30th deaths
01-05-1911 - Jean-Pierre Aumont - Paris, France - d. 1-30-2001
actor: "Hallmark Playhouse"; "Philip Morris Playhouse"
06-25-1918 - Ken Mayer - CA - d. 1-30-1985
actor: Robbie Robertson "Space Patrol"
06-27-1907 - John McIntire - Spokane, WA - d. 1-30-1991
actor: Benjamin Ordway "Crime Doctor"; Lt. Dundy "Advs. of Sam Spade"
07-03-1890 - Herbert A. Bell - Rock Valley, IA - d. 1-30-1970
radio manufacturer: Co-founder of Packard-Bell in 1945
07-09-1894 - Dorothy Thompson - Lancaster, NY - d. 1-30-1961
commentator: "Commentary"
08-08-1887 - Malcom Keen - Bristol, England - d. 1-30-1970
actor: "Cavalcade of America"
08-14-1909 - Ed Herlihy - Dorchester, MA - d. 1-30-1999
announcer: "Advs. of the Thin Man"; "Just Plain Bill"; "Vic and Sade"
08-15-1919 - Huntz Hall - NYC - d. 1-30-1999
comedian: (The Dead End Kids) "Texaco Star Playhouse"
10-01-1890 - Stanley Holloway - London, England - d. 1-30-1982
actor, singer: "Music As You Like It"
11-09-1895 - Lou Lubin - Pittsburgh, PA - d. 1-30-1973
actor: Shorty "Amos 'n' Andy"
11-24-1910 - Pegeen Fitzgerald - Norcatur, KS - d. 1-30-1989
host: "Fitzgeralds"
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #32
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