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

[removed] Digest				Volume 96 : Issue 325

Table Of Contents: 

	 Sunday funnies/watching radio
	 Re: [removed] Comic Weekly!
	 Uncle Don
	 The FInal Word on Uncle Don
	 Re: Uncle Don
	 The Tour Guides Uncle Don
	 Re: train of the day and [removed] Digest V96 #324
	 Why radio died (?)
	 CBS Mystery Theater doesn't stack up
	 Peg LaCentra
	 Theme songs
	 How good is the super radio?
	 Uncle Don's famous blooper

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 16:31:10 -0400
From: Alan Chapman <[removed]@[removed]>
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed]>
Subject: Sunday funnies/watching radio
Message-ID: <199609081631_MC1-958-81F5@[removed]>

The post about Mayor LaGuardia et al reading the Sunday funnies on the air
got me thinking back to my childhood days in Boston in the late 40s.  I
remember listening every Sunday morning to local radio personality Nelson
Bragg read the Sunday funnies (on WBZ or was it WCOP? -- he worked at both
over the years).  Bragg had a nasal Maine twang -- he used to refer to
himself as "Mother Bragg's little boy Nelson, the Mayor of Milo, Maine" --
and when he acted out some of the parts in the various strips, the
characters all sounded like Maine farmers.  He would read the Boston Sunday
Advertiser funnies (which, through various consolidations, is today's
Boston Herald), and I would lay on the living floor with the funny pages
sprawled out before me following along, panel by panel.  Somehow, it never
bothered me that Little Orphan Annie sounded like a Maine farmer -- or that
she sounded exactly like both Katzenjammer kids and Dick Tracy.  

That got me thinking about what I did when other shows were on.  I honestly
don't remember whether I "watched" the radio, as others have described, or
not.  But I do remember watching my father "watching" the Friday night
fights on radio.  He would sit on the edge of the big easy chair directly
in front on our Zenith, and when the action get heavy, he would lean
forward and shadow box to the description of the fight, staring straight
into the dial.  More than once he banged his fist into the radio and we
would have to adjust the antenna to regain the reception.  I was so
enthralled watching my father that I have no recollection of hearing any of
the fights.

-- Alan 

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

Date: Sun, Sep 8 1996 16:34:52 EDT
From: Thomas Heathwood <theathwo@[removed]>
To: <[removed]@[removed]>
Subject: Re: [removed] Comic Weekly!
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

Sure I remember the Comic Weekly Program. I ran the show on Sunday
mornings at WKOX in Framingham, MA in the early 1950's.
There were two red vinyl 16" ET's I would set up on the control room's
two big turntables. At the top of the hour (10 AM I think) I would say
something like "Now Here's Puck The Comic Weekly" and roll the left hand
turntable all cued up to start intantaneously. At the mid point of the
show, there would be a buffer of organ music, and the host would say,
"Now here's Mr. Announcer Man and some important words" or some such,
which was the cue for me to come in and read a spot or play a pre-recorded
spot. The second TT was all cued up and I had the pot gain up, so all I
had to do, at the end of the break, was roll TT #2 and cut the microphone.
It was a nice production done in excellent sound, and I think, appealed to
Barnum's "children of all ages". It was syndicated by the newspaper
syndicate who published the corresponding strips in the local Sunday Comic
Section.  Oh, and for you BOB & RAY fans, when they were still in Boston
at WHDH radio, the did a Sunday evening show called, BOB & RAY READ THE
FUNNIES, which had limited listenership because, I think, they were on at
a bad time--Sunday late afternoon or early evening--and they were up
against some heavy MBS hitters like: TRUE DETECTIVE MYSTERIES, THE SHADOW,
NICK CARTER, THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY, [removed]
Times were different then, and, believe it or [removed] comics were
really FUNNY!!!
<<TOM HEATHWOOD/HERITAGE RADIO/YESTERDAY-USA SATELLITE RADIO NETWORK>>9/8.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

Date: 08 Sep 96 16:54:36 EDT
From: Norman Schickedanz <[removed]@[removed]>
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed]>
Subject: Uncle Don
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

Dick Lupoff asked if Uncle Don really said what he supposedly said.  The answer
is yes.  The blurb is included on a cassette called "Pardon My Blooper! - Best
of the Bloopers."  I just listened to it again.  The cassette was put out
several years ago by Nostalgia Lane, Inc., 33 Portman Road, New Rochelle, NY
10801.

Norm Schickedanz

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 13:57:41 -0800
From: je@[removed] (Jeff Elliott)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: The FInal Word on Uncle Don
Message-Id: <v02130501ae58ef46c8ac@[[removed]]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

> Dick Lupoff asked about the legendary "That'll hold the little bastards" line
> attributed to Uncle Don.  About a year ago this was pretty thoroughly
> debunked on the urban legends usenet newsgroup.  However, back in the 1950s,
> I had a few of the LPs in the popular "Pardon My Blooper" series and I'm
> pretty sure the famous "incident" was on one of them.  I suppose it wouldn't
> be very hard to fake something like that.  Anybody know about this?

Actually, I debunked the story on THIS list in April, 1995. Here's a summary:


Yes, the blooper record of Uncle Don is a fake -- a recreation of an event
that didn't happen. This is the grandpappy of all broadcasting legends,
more than 70 years old. Like all worthy urban legends, it has taken on a
life of its own and continues to surface, although it was debunked as long
ago as 1935.

But something    l i k e    that happened in Philadelphia in 1922. For the
handful of kiddies listening to these pioneer broadcasts, the station offered
bedtime stories from "Uncle Whip," a name sure to inspire terror in tots that
didn't obey their parents. (Seriously, the name was derived from station call
letters WIP.) The Whipster, it seems, thought the job unseemly for a fellow
like himself. After one broadcast, he accidentally turned on the "concert"
mike (used for live music in the same studio) as he turned off his own.
Leaving the studio he walked past the concert mike grumbling, "I'm a bastard
if this isn't one hell of a job for a he-man." Yes, it went out over the air,
but was actually heard by very few listeners.

The legend began when The New Yorker printed the story a few years later,
sans names and places. By then, "Uncle Don" (Don Carney, broadcasting
from WOR in New York) was a well-known name to most of the public. The story
mutated as it was passed around, and poor Uncle Don took the rap. By the
time Ted Husing set the record straight in his 1935 book, "Ten Years Before
the Mike," it was already too late.

Jan Harold Brunvand has a section in "The Mexican Pet," the third of his four
books on urban legends, describing some of the stories about kiddie show
hosts. Brunvand gives two examples of another favorite, the "Bozo" blooper.
In this story, a boy flubs an answer to the clown, or drops something. The
kid spits out a four-letter word. When Mr. Bozo gently reprimands him, the
tot sneers, "Shove it, clown!"

Brunvand includes the "...shut the little bastards up" legend with an
interesting twist: according to his informant, it happened on television in
the 1960's! Brunvand adds that he heard this legend when he was growing up
in Michigan in the 1940's, but it was attached to local kiddie host "Happy
Hank." He also heard the sassy kid story, only it happened to radio host
"Uncle Howdy." I've corresponded with Brunvand about the Uncle Whip origins
of the tale, and he plans to include it in a forthcoming book.

It's curious how these stores are a little genre of their own, reborn with
each generation (and with a little help from old blooper records.) Now, the
story I heard as a kid about "Cactus Jim" tearing off his clothes in a
supermarket was absolutely true, honest. I heard it from a friend of a friend
who was there when it [removed]

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 14:02:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: Paul Bogrow <bogrow@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Uncle Don
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

On 08 Sep 1996, GENEBROWN@[removed] wrote:
> I had a few of the LPs in the popular "Pardon My Blooper" series and I'm
> pretty sure the famous "incident" was on one of them.

Me too.  But what's the consensus on the Kermit Schaefer "Blooper" 
series--how much of it was, to put it charitably, re-creations?

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 15:02:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: roy547@[removed] (Roy Trumbull)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: The Tour Guides Uncle Don
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Length:        184

Enough Uncle [removed] story was repeated by the NBC Tour guides
when I went through 1 Rock in NYC in 1953. It was a good tale,
especially when told about a particular announce booth.

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 23:51:06 +0100 (BST)
From: hbj@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: train of the day and [removed] Digest V96 #324
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

On 1996 1-09-08 [removed]@[removed] said to hbj@[removed]
   >Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 07:29:25 -0400 (EDT)
   >Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
   >X Minus One -Tunnel Under the World - the story of a man who wakes
   >up and it's the same day, over and over again (including his
   >commute to work by train).
   Wow, were it British rail, or the MBTA, would be a real nightmare.
   9g>)
   Actually, though, I thought it was a bus, or am I getting it mixed up
   with the story?
   Regards


henry Brugsch [removed]
hbj@[removed]

`[1;34;45mNet-Tamer V [removed] Beta - Registered

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 20:13:46 -0500
From: vintage@[removed] (Andy Blatt)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Why radio died (?)
Message-Id: <v01540b00ae591eb95a84@[[removed]]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Another reason why radio [removed] TV series that existed about the same
time were promoted on radio but not vice-versa.  I have recently listened
to a few TV-era Sus-pense! episodes and TV is mentioned, including the
network and time and day of the week.  I have some SUSPENSE TV shows from
the same era and no radio Suspense show is referred to or implied.  I think
by the mid-fifties, the powers that be had decided to put all their eggs in
one basket (TV) and did their bit to hasten the ultimate, inevitable demise
of TV.  When there was TV (with pictures) why bother with audio-only?
Didn't most of us (especially the younger set) feel that way about color TV
vs. black and white (monochrome?) TV?

Andy Blatt
Vintage Broadcasts

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 20:12:56 -0400
From: Platecap@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: CBS Mystery Theater doesn't stack up
Message-ID: <960908201255_518513466@[removed]>

I have to agree with Steve Lewis about CBS Radio Mystery Theater.  Yes, there
were some good shows, but when they had to crank out 7 shows a week, never
changing the theme music or sound patterns, and many scripts that didn't
measure up, you can't expect it to compare to Suspense, Escape, Gunsmoke,
[removed]  The first year or two I thought were the best.  Agnes Moorehead and
some other big names were involved.  As the years wore on tho,  the series
WORE OUT in my opinion.
I was not surprised when it finally died.  I thought it was a boring
melodrama in its last years, rarely having any action.  I have over 800
Suspense shows in my collection I'm working [removed]  why would I want to bother
with *that* drivel.  Admitedly, I do have *some* CBS Myst Theater shows on
tape and I know there are a few collectors who have EVERY show on tape.  As
far as listenability, why go for the cheap imitation when we can readily get
all the *genuine* OTR in larger quantities than we'll have time to listen to
in our lifetimes?

Just my twelve cents.
Bob Burnham; BRC Productions; Platecap@[removed]

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 21:20:46 -0400
From: JRayb71827@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Peg LaCentra
Message-ID: <960908212044_197222300@[removed]>

Regarding the posting about the death of singer Peg LaCentra, thought some of
you music buffs might like this info I dug up in my "New Hot Discography" by
Charles Delaunay, one of the best such sources.
  It indicates that she recorded the following songs with Artie Shaw.
          Darling, Not Without You
          (Rec. Sept 17, 1936)

          There's Something in the Air
          & Take Another Guess 
          (rec. Oct. 30, 1936)

          Afraid To Dream
          & If You Ever Should Leave
          (Rec. July 22, 1937)

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 20:35:53 -0500 (CDT)
From: Betty Jean Davis <betdav@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Theme songs
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

I have misplaced my messages from the two persons who wrote me concerning 
the Longines Symphonette recordings of old theme songs.  These are not 
originals, they are transcriptions of the themes played by the Longinges 
Symphonette.  I am sure this collection is familiar to nearly everyone in 
this group.

If the person who wrote about obtaining it will write me again I will be 
glad to correspond.

At the same time, LS issued a volume of about eight records of some 
historic broadcasts and some re-creations.

Walter W. Davis
Corpus Christi Tx

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 21:26:07 -0500 (CDT)
From: Dewana Burnham <dburnham@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: How good is the super radio?
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

I am interested in talking to anyone who either has, or has had 
experience with the so-called super radio from GE.  I live about 100 
miles east of Houston where there is a station that carries OTR on 
Saturday and Sunday nights, but I can't pick it up very well after 8:00.  
I don't know if they turn their power down or what.  I also live across 
the street from an airport, and that may have something to do with it.  

If anyone can tell me if it will do any good in my situation to get a 
super radio, and how much it might cost and where to purchase it, I would 
appreciate it.  

Troy Burnham

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

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 23:09:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: "'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Uncle Don's famous blooper
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

> Date: Sat, 7 Sep 1996 15:07:50 -0400
> From: Bigkids@[removed]
> To: [removed]@[removed]
> Subject: That'll Hold the Little B*st*rds
> Message-ID: <960907150750_473725603@[removed]>
> 
> I was a great fan of Uncle Don's, but somehow I missed the broadcast in which
> he adlibbed after he thought he'd gone off the air. The alleged line was,
> "That'll hold the little bastards."
... 
> But what I'm curious about at this point, is whether any documentation exists
> of the actual incident, at the time it happened. Is there by any chance an ET
> of the offending broadcast? Or a home recording? Or were there any reports of
> the incident in the general press or the radio trade press at the time?
> 
> We couldn't just be dealing with an Urban Myth now, could we?

Apparently some people do think that this incident never happened.
I know I've also heard it attributed, quite wrongly I think, to Big
Brother Bob Emery and to Buffalo Bob Smith.

======================================================================
A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                                      617/367-0468
15 Court Square                                   lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2573                    [removed]~lawyer/
======================================================================




--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #325
*******************************************

