Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #276
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 7/15/2003 8:30 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2003 : Issue 276
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Laura Leff and "Fibber"               [ nicoll <nicoll@[removed]; ]
      vendors at FOTR in Newark             [ Howard Blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
      P-A-L-M S-P-R-I-N-G-S = Vacuum Clean  [ Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed] ]
      Derogatory WW2 language               [ Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed]; ]
      Re: Racial slurs against the Japanes  [ "Jan Bach" <[removed]@[removed] ]
      CD/MP3 players                        [ "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed]; ]
      Did Jack Benny swear in this episode  [ "Matthew Bullis" <matthewbullis@run ]
      When did Rochester join the cast of   [ "Matthew Bullis" <matthewbullis@run ]
      Stan Freberg                          [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
      Jack Benny restorations               [ "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed]; ]
      Re: "The War of the Worlds"           [ "Michael Ogden" <michaelo67@hotmail ]
      A birthday for Charlie McCarthy?      [ "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed] ]
      Yes, I am offended                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      radio, tv, and Stan Freberg           [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
      recommendation                        [ Jeff Weaver <jweaver@[removed]; ]
      Obit: Happy Gang's Eddie Allen        [ Stephen Davies <SDavies@[removed]. ]
      Welles biographies                    [ Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed]; ]
      Language and war                      [ "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@worldnet. ]
      Fat Man log                           [ StevenL751@[removed] ]
      Charlie Chan                          [ JJLjackson@[removed] ]
      bob and ray character                 [ Grams46@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 23:33:16 -0400
    From: nicoll <nicoll@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Laura Leff  and "Fibber"

    A little late .....--Laura Leff and her story on picking up Fibber Mcgee on
    her cathedral radio made me go to my OTR scrap book.
    "FRIGHTENED FAMILY HEARS FDR BROADCAST - LIVE!   OLD RADIO PLAY 1930s PROGRAMS!
    Telecommunications experts are said to be reeling over the discovery of an
    old-timey tube radio that receives and plays broadcasts from the 1930s -
    live.
    	Private electronic engineers hired by the family that owns the old
    Philco
    table set have yet to make report.	But several sources independently
    confirmed that the 55 year-old receiver is in fact the focus of an
    "unusually intensive study" by engineers.
    	According to one highly placed insider, the experts have tuned in and
    analyzed some 12 hours of programming that was broadcast nationwide in
    1934, including Amos and Andy, the Rudy Vallee Show and Walter Winchell's
    Jergen's Journal.
    	That doesn't include the Jack Benny Show and one of President
    Franklin D.
    Roosevelt's Fireside Chats heard by the family who found the radio in their
    attic - and fled the house until engineers arrived to take it away.  "I
    heard a Walter Winchell newscast and it wasn't the re-broadcast of a tape,"
    said one engineer who requested anonymity.
    	"This was the real McCoy, either that, or the finest electronic
    sensing
    equipment in America, isn't worth a damn.
    	"We must have had half a million dollars worth of equipment stacked
    around
    that old radio.  But our stuff didn't pick up a thing, no sound, no static,
    no nothing.
    	"And yet, here was this broken down Philco blaring away - I should say
    Walter Winchell blaring away, about movie stars and conditions in pre-war
    Europe and the Great Depression."
    	The set was discovered by two boys playing in the attic of their
    family's
    home in north Georgia.  Their mother, who agreed to talk about the find
    only if their name be kept secret, said it had belonged to her father and
    hadn't been plugged in since 1934.
    	"The boys found it and plugged it in just to see if it still worked,"
    she
    said.
    	"When it warmed up and started playing, they called me from the
    kitchen to
    come listen.
    	"When I got there I heard Roosevelt talking about the Depression."
    Where else?     National Inquirer  - I don't have a exact date - about 1989.
    Will Nicoll

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

    Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 23:33:26 -0400
    From: Howard Blue <khovard@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  vendors at FOTR in Newark

    I have a question for anyone who will have a vendor table at the FOTR
    Convention in Newark.  Please contact me off-line

    Thanks,

    Howard Blue

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

    Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 23:33:47 -0400
    From: Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  P-A-L-M S-P-R-I-N-G-S = Vacuum Cleaner

    This Toronto Globe and Mail article on the tourism rennasaince of Palm
    Springs mentions that it was a favorite haunt of Jack Benny.  Not sure if
    that was true or just a great gag from the radio show but the article
    follows in any case.

    Sean Dougherty
    SeanDD@[removed]

    [removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 23:34:09 -0400
    From: Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Derogatory WW2 language

    In the discussion of derogatory terms used on the air (including in news
    broadcasts) for the Axis during World War II, [removed]

>      Hatred of the enemy was
>     not limited to calling Japanese "Japs", we depicted "Japs" and "Krauts" as
>     inhuman, we caricatured both of them in unflattering ways.

    I have always wondered why, if we called the Japanese "Japs" we never
    called the Germans "Germs".

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 00:41:37 -0400
    From: "Jan Bach" <[removed]@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Racial slurs against the Japanese

    Hello again --

    I've been off group for awhile and seem to be rejoining it at a propitious
    moment. Where have I been? In Japan, visiting our younger daughter who is
    one of the 5,000 twenty-something English-speaking JET (Japanese Education
    and Training) teachers working with Japanese school children -- in my
    daughter's case, at a junior high school near Nagano City, where the winter
    olympics were held recently. What an absolutely gorgeous, wild, beautiful
    countryside, with steep mountains, high waterfalls, and pagodas and temples
    everywhere (and what great hot mineral baths!)

    I have to second Howard Blue's comment in OTR Digest #274 that :

     >we should not castigate all members of a national group because of the
    abuses carried out by a sub-group of that nationality.

    My wife and I found, as we have in every country we've been in, that the
    government rarely represents the interests or goals of its citizens, who are
    usually much nicer and just want to be left alone! We found the Japanese to
    be not only courteous but friendly, and in many ways more charitable and
    trustworthy -- despite no real religion for most of its masses -- than their
    American counterparts.  They also have a very low crime rate. We need to
    take a good look at our country, one of the most violent in the world. What
    do the Japanese know about  teaching the values of decency and honesty to
    their children so effectively that we don't?

    This trip was quite an awakening to me, born in 1937 and during the WWII
    years taught to hate all Germans, Italians, and Japanese so cruelly
    caricatured in the daily press. And I had to ask myself if I would treat
    foreigners of any nationality as well in the United States as my wife and I
    were treated during our recent visit to Japan.

    Oh, and no one called us "Yank" or "Whitey" or "Honkey" while we were there
    (or "Kraut" either, for that matter!)

    That's all I care to say on the subject. Next time, back to OTR!

    Jan Bach

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 00:54:29 -0400
    From: "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  CD/MP3 players

    I know this isn't really the place for this, but on the other hand, many
    of you listen as I do to CD/MP3 radio shows.  I have been so dissatisfied
    with my Riovolt player that I am looking for another relatively cheap
    CD/MP3 very portable player that I can hear the recording chatter as it
    goes by and does anybody make one that will start exactly where you
    stopped and not just start at the beginning of the show?  Also, my
    Riovolt defaults to starting at the beginning of the entire CD and as A
    blind person I can't fix it by myself to start at the beginning of the
    show I was listening to.  Any recommendations would be welcome.  I am
    asking on this list, because you listers are the most likely to know
    about CD/MP3 as it relates to OTR.  Thanks.  Kurt

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 00:54:46 -0400
    From: "Matthew Bullis" <matthewbullis@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Did Jack Benny swear in this episode?

    Hello, I'm beginning the listening of a huge mp3 collection of the Jack
    Benny shows in chronological order, and in 34-04-01, the Eternal Triangle,
    after Mary says "If it isn't my husband, it'll ruin the play., I think I
    hear Jack say "Jesus your beautiful." Am I wrong on this? Just wondering. I
    tried looking it up on the web, but found no frequently asked question on
    the subject.
    Thanks a lot.
    Matthew

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 00:55:03 -0400
    From: "Matthew Bullis" <matthewbullis@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  When did Rochester join the cast of Jack
     Benny

    Hello, as I say in my other post, I'm beginning the chronological listening
    of the Jack Benny program, and am just wondering when I should expect to
    hear Rochester join the show? From what I've been able to hear so far,
    Rochester appears in shows where he is not credited in the beginning
    credits.
    Thanks a lot.
    Matthew

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 00:55:30 -0400
    From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Stan Freberg

>     Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 09:58:53 -0400
>     From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];

>     1957 - Funnyman Stan Freberg debuted a new weekly comedy program on CBS
>     beginning this night. The Freberg show only lasted a short time and that
>     newfangled contraption, television, was blamed for the show's quick
>     demise.

    I remember the show.  As I recall, it was fairly self-referential on the fact that it was on radio,
    not TV.  I don't think it ever had a sponsor, either, and I think Freberg actually did a skit in
    which he tried to find a sponsor.  The show was a summer replacement for Jack Benny,
    which was in reruns at the time, but which still tended to go off for the summer.  I think the
    fact that it was meant as a summer replacement in the first place was also one of the
    reasons that it didn't last long.

    By 1957, television wasn't that new-fangled any more, and otr was already in decline.

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

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 00:59:42 -0400
    From: "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Jack Benny restorations

    Has anybody, group, organization or individual, done restorations or
    searches for best quality Jack Benny MP3 shows?  I was just wondering if
    anybody had put time and effort in searching for the best.  Thanks for
    your time whatever the answer is.  Kurt

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 08:34:07 -0400
    From: "Michael Ogden" <michaelo67@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: "The War of the Worlds"

    Regarding the question of whether or not Orson Welles' closing remarks on
    the "War of the Worlds" broadcast were ad-libbed or not, I can state with a
    certainty that they were NOT ad-libbed but were indeed part of the script as
    written. Davidson Taylor, the CBS staff producer assigned to the Mercury
    show, related that near the close of the broadcast, as the reports of panic
    starting reaching him in Studio One, he grabbed Welles' page of the script
    that had the jocular final speech on it and pencil-lined it out to indicate
    to Orson NOT to read it as planned. But Welles' ignored Taylor's action and
    went ahead and read the lines anyway.

    [removed] those closing remarks were already in the script, does that mean
    that Welles anticipated the panic? Or even deliberately fomented it? Perhaps
    the closest to the truth we'll get is Welles' remark, decades after the
    broadcast, that it had occured to him in advance that a certain "lunatic
    fringe" would believe the show to be true. "What we didn't realize," he
    added, "was how large, and how many, that lunatic fringe was."

    Mike Ogden

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 08:34:37 -0400
    From: "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  A birthday for Charlie McCarthy?

    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?

    Just curious.
    -chris holm

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 08:34:23 -0400
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Yes, I am offended

>     Stephen Jansen asks:

    Referring to racial slurs on Olde Tyme Radio,

>     Not to make (extreme) light of it, but seriously, are any of us in the
>     hobby truly OFFENDED by this stuff?

    Yes Stephen, there are some offended by this stuff, especially after having to
    live with it for 47 years. I am to the point where I shy away from listening
    to programs broadcast between 1942 and 1945.

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin
    Hometown of [removed] Kaltenborn and Jay Jostyn

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 10:01:25 -0400
    From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  radio, tv, and Stan Freberg

    The demise of Stan Freberg's radio show in 1957 allegedly due to competition
    from TV reminds me of a splendid answer that Kathy O'Connell gave to a
    youngster who called in to the late, lamented KidsAmerica some years ago.
    Kid asked why the show wasn't on TV.  Ms O'Connell answered that the show's
    material was far too sophisticated for television, and that it had
    progressed far beyond TV.

    M Kinsler
    512 E Mulberry St. Lancaster, Ohio USA 43130 740-687-6368
    [removed]~mkinsler1

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 12:48:24 -0400
    From: Jeff Weaver <jweaver@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  recommendation

    The ipod is what you want. It will begin where you pause it and it
    allows you to move inside of tracks, where most mp3 players allow
    only track to track movement. As for fidelity, you can get the itrip
    or Irock for the ipod. This allows you to listen to the ipod through
    your FM radio, which is what I do.

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 12:49:13 -0400
    From: Stephen Davies <SDavies@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Obit: Happy Gang's Eddie Allen
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    from CBC website:
            [removed]

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

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 12:49:35 -0400
    From: Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Welles biographies

    Martin Grams, Jr., wrote:

>     with each new biography about Orson Welles (as if we
>     really need another considering how many books have
>     already been written about him)

    Do any of the existing biographies cover his radio
    career in depth? I'd like to read a biography of Orson
    Welles, but as a fan of his radio work I'd like a book
    that gave that period a thorough treatment. A few
    years back I glanced at several Welles bios in the
    library, and apart from WOTW they seemed to make
    little mention of his extensive radio appearances. If
    all of them short change his radio work, then I would
    suggest that at least one more book about Orson Welles
    *is* necessary.

    Kermyt

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 13:57:40 -0400
    From: "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Language and war

    To some extant I have to chuckle when someone talks of "offensive language"
    employed in wartime radio. In the play "1776," John Adams notes when
    references to the British parliament are removed from the Declaration of
    Independence so as not to alienate that august body, "This is war, damn it!
    You have you have to offend somebody!"

    But all kidding aside, with the advent of nuclear weapons at the end of
    World War II, that conflict will certainly go down as the last "total war"
    ([removed], a war in which the entire life-blood of the nation is exerted for
    survival) for the nations of the "west." And it was total war.

    Witness the rules of engagement in the latest conflict. We took great pains
    to avoid civilian casualties in Iraq. More than once it was stated that we
    were at war with a government and NOT the people under that government. On
    the other hand, in WWII, we were fully at war with the German and Japanese
    people and knew full well what would transpire with the fire-bombing of
    Dresden and the nuclear destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. (The latter
    decision even this die-hard Republican admires Harry Truman for.) Therefore
    the language and the culture of "total war" is to be accepted for what is
    was. It does not necessarily reflect all that poorly on our parents and
    grandparents.

    For us, it is sometimes hard to remember that much of human history has
    evolved very slowly. Only in the last 250 years of human existence have
    ideas of self-determination, equality under an established rule of law and
    the basic tenants of human dignity taken root.

    Slavery existed in ancient Greece and was still accepted under law in Saudi
    Arabia as late as 1962. For our own nation, it is a crucible which we have
    yet to totally emerge. And yet, taken as a whole, we have gone farther and
    faster than any should have had a reason to expect. Here, in the third
    century of America, we strive to be more tolerant and more inclusive of all
    nationalities and all races than ever before. More importantly is a matter
    of public policy.

    One can lament how much longer the journey, but the trip is made much more
    enjoyable by reflecting upon the great progress one has made since the
    beginning!

    Brj

    [ADMINISTRIVIA: I think this will be the last word in this discussion.  --cfs3]

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:33:21 -0400
    From: StevenL751@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Fat Man log

    Does anyone have a program log for the FAT MAN series (the American version)?
    I need to know the title of the episode that was broadcast on June 17, 1949.

    Thanks!
    Steve Lewis

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 16:15:17 -0400
    From: JJLjackson@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Charlie Chan

    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.

    Joy Jackson
    Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound

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

    Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 22:31:23 -0400
    From: Grams46@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  bob and ray character
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    i have been listening to some bob and ray tapes.
    one of their reoccurring characters was named lawerence spectenburger (i
    think).   i love most of their stuff but find lawerence decidingly unfunny.
    is
    there anyone out there who can tell me what humor you found in these skits?
    thanks from kathy

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    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #276
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