Subject: [removed] Digest V2006 #121
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 5/2/2006 8:39 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2006 : Issue 121
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      WMAQ Chicago Photos                   [ Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@sbcglo ]
      Re: A&A and the NAACP                 [ Jim Widner <widnerj@[removed]; ]
      Herb Morrison                         [ "Frank McGurn" <[removed]@sbcgloba ]
      Correction on My Morrison mail        [ "Frank McGurn" <[removed]@sbcgloba ]
      OrsonWelles on radio                  [ Michael Berger <makiju@[removed]; ]
      5-2 births/deaths                     [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
      "The Gestalt Gildersleeve"            [ "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed]; ]
      Herb Morrison                         [ "Bill Knowlton" <udmacon1@[removed] ]
      Radio Days and Radioland Murders      [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
      Johnnie Dollar Auto                   [ "John Abbott" <mraastro@[removed] ]
      Radio Theatre Before Radio            [ Richard Fish <fish@lodestone-media. ]

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

    Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 23:22:08 -0400
    From: Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  WMAQ Chicago Photos

    There is a nice collection of WMAQ 1920's era photographs from the film
    files of the Chicago Daily News at  -

    [removed]

    Don

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

    Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 23:23:46 -0400
    From: Jim Widner <widnerj@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: A&A and the NAACP

    While I grew up watching the A&A television series (and always had fond
    memories of it), I think given the state of race relations by 1951 when
    the series premiered the series was doomed to failure and was probably a
    necessary victim of the times.

    As Elizabeth pointed out, Walter White was the head of the NAACP by the
    time the show began its run on TV. By the time the series was several
    episodes into its first season, Mr. White was vilifying the show in the
    pages of the "Chicago Defender," a leading Negro publication of the
    time. Through his organization, they were appealing to the sponsors
    Blatz Beer and Schenley to remove their sponsorship and thus possibly
    removing the series from the air. White even adopted a slogan "Swallow
    Blatz Beer and Swallow your pride. Sip Schenley and scuttle your
    self-respect."

    By July, 1951 other organizations both black and white were mounting
    protests following the lead of the NAACP including the Students for
    Democratic Action, the United Auto Workers and the Congress for Racial
    Equality (CORE).

    Elizabeth, the recognized expert on Amos 'n' Andy radio mentions that
    the NAACP never involved itself in any protest of the radio series.

    And while the radio series certainly had its detractors despite
    Elizabeth's defense of the series as not one of black stereotypes, but
    rather one of unique appeal to radio audiences of the time. I, for one
    am glad for her studies into the social history of the series, but I
    think it is a different story when the spoken word and one's imagination
    becomes something real in the visual medium of television. Listening to
    Amos 'n' Andy on the radio - especially those pre-1943 episodes, one can
    find much enjoyable comedy and almost forget that it is a comedy of
    black folk. But when the same characters are made flesh in the the
    visual medium of television, suddenly, it begins to take on the aura of
    stereotype.

    Walter White seemed to always argue that it was the "way" they spoke
    that he found most offensive. He wrote: "Where one white American  has
    the opportunity  to meet and listen to correctly spoken English by a
    Negro lawyer like William Hastie [race relations adviser to Roosevelt],
    ten thousand or maybe more have contact with a colored lawyer only
    through television. As a consequence many of them would be led to
    believe that even a law school graduate if he be a Negro would speak
    only in the most outlandish [removed]"

    While I cannot fully buy into that argument, I can certainly understand
    that there would indeed be many who would fall into that latter category.

    At the same time, there was the employment picture and groups such as
    the Coordinating Council for Negro Performers were lauding the series
    knowing full well that this was employment despite the depictions.
    During this same time there were protests against the television
    "Beulah" with Ethel Waters and another lesser known series : Harlem
    Detective from 1953.

    The fifties were the beginning of the end of segregation and my own
    feeling is that for this advancement in racial equality to have moved
    forward shows such as Amos 'n' Andy would ultimately have to be
    sacrificed. Even though I look back fondly at the television show, and
    still enjoy listening to the radio series, I must argue that despite our
    need to look at the social history as Elizabeth suggests, we still
    needed to be very cognizant of the political one as well.

    Jim Widner

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

    Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 00:19:13 -0400
    From: "Frank McGurn" <[removed]@[removed];
    To: "The Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Herb Morrison

    B. Ray wrote about Morrison's reporting of Hindenburg at Lakehurst, NJ
    disaster. Here some info from my memory. Herb was crying at what he was
    seeing.
    Morrison was a staff announcer who worked at WENR Chicago; he was assigned
    to do a remote broadcast, for his station, of the arrival of the Hindenberg
    completing a historic Trans -Atlantic flight. He  had an engineer with him
    and the radio equipment was big and heavy.

    I suggest that if you want the whole story contact Chuck Schaden a 35 year
    broacaster of OTR has interviewed Herb Morrison, I believe. His e-mail
    address is twtdchuck@[removed].

    Chuck is the publisher of "The Nostaliga Digest" I remember he had an
    article about that historic broadcast. Check it out
    [removed] It's great.

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

    Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 07:51:17 -0400
    From: "Frank McGurn" <[removed]@[removed];
    To: "The Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Correction on My Morrison mail

    I made a mistake, Morrison worked fo WLS, Chicago not WENR. I believ it's
    the first mistake I ever made - today. WLS was owned by W ORLDS L ARGEST S
    TORE = Sears Robuck
    The record that Morrison made [May 5, 1937] was flown to New York where it
    was became the first recording broadcast on NBC in its ten year history.
    Accoring to Schaden's Nostial Digest in March of 1985. The loss of live was
    36.

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

    Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 07:52:57 -0400
    From: Michael Berger <makiju@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  OrsonWelles on radio

    The other day, reading a New Yorker dated Dec. 11,
    1937, I came across a brief report about Orson Welles'
    early days in radio. Here's an edited version that I
    thought would be of interest to the group.

    Michael Berger

    Under a headline- "Et Tu, Shadow?"

    Moiling through the Sunday paper last weekend, we came
    upon a notice of a radio program scheduled for 5:30 by
    WOR: "The Shadow, with Orson Welles."  "Orson Welles!"
    we murmured, astonished. "The same Orson Welles whose
    modern-dress production of 'Julius Caesar' is now
    playing to packed houses!" Deciding that it must
    indeed be he, we tuned in on WOR at 5:30. What we
    heard was a fiendish laugh, the words "The Shadow
    knows," in a quavery, gloating voice, then more
    fiendish laughter. Followed a chilling half-hour
    (sponsored by a product called Blue Coal) in which a
    masked maniac named Anton Spivak, who was plotting to
    blow up people with dynamite, was frustrated by The
    Shadow. And this Shadow, played to the hilt by Mr.
    Welles, was a rich playboy named La Monte Cranston,
    who, by night, became invisible and foiled evil-doers.
    You can believe me or not.

    The next evening we went backstage at the Mercury
    Theater, after the final curtain, to interview Mr.
    Welles and find out how LaMonte Cranston jibed with
    Brutus. "Did you have to listen to that?" said Mr.
    Welles. He had just come from the stage and was still
    in costume, a blue serge business suit. Offstage, he's
    still a tall, moon-faced youngster with a baby's
    complexion and a mopy of brown hair. . .

    Back in New York (after a sojurn in Africa during
    which he wrote 'Everybody's Shakespeare' - 90,000
    copies sold so far - he married and cast about for
    something to work at.  Radio turned out to be his
    first dish; three months after he was first inside a
    studio, he had a finger in the production of about
    twenty big-time programs and some weeks was making as
    much as $800. . . ."Honestly," we said, "what do you
    think about the radio?" "I think it's a lovely
    medium," he said. . .

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

    Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 07:53:09 -0400
    From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  5-2 births/deaths

    May 2nd births

    05-02-1878 - Roy Atwill - Syracuse, NY - d. 2-6-1962
    actor, comedian, composer: "The Fred Allen Show"; "The Fred Waring Show"
    05-02-1885 - Hedda Hopper - Hollidaysburg, PA - d. 2-1-1966
    actor, columnist: Portia Brent "Brenthouse"; "Hedda Hopper Show"
    05-02-1892 - Bruno Wick - Krefeld, Germany - d. 11-xx-1979
    actor: Ming the Merciless "Flash Gordon"; Mr. Fowler "The Goldbergs"
    05-02-1895 - Lorenz Hart - NYC - d. 11-22-1943
    lyricist: "Jumbo Fire Chief Program"; "Chase and Sanborn Hour";
    "Railroad Hour"
    05-02-1902 - Brian Aherne - King's Norton, England - d. 2-10-1986
    actor: Simon Templar "The Saint"
    05-02-1902 - Erin O'Brien-Moore - Los Angeles, CA - d. 5-3-1979
    actor: Elsa Banning "Big Sister"
    05-02-1903 - Sylvan Levin - Baltimore, MD - d. 8-10-1996
    conductor: "Sinfonietta"; "Brownstone Theatre"; "Let's Go to the Opera"
    05-02-1904 - J. Anthony Hughes - NYC - d. 2-11-1970
    actor: Bob Drake "Betty and Bob"
    05-02-1905 - Sidney Skolsky - NYC - d. 5-3-1983
    newspaper columnist: "Songs by Arlen, Stories by Skolsky"; "Bromo
    Seltzer Program"
    05-02-1907 - Pinky Lee - St. Paul, MN - d. 4-3-1993
    comedian: "Hoagy Carmichel Show"; "Carefree Carnival"
    05-02-1911 - Myron Niesley - d. 11-xx-1985
    singer: "Carefree Carnival"
    05-02-1916 - Robert Grapperhaus - d. 12-xx-1960
    sound effects: "One Man's Family"; "Fitch Bandwagon"; "Duffy's Tavern"
    05-02-1916 - Two Ton Baker - Chicago, IL - d. 5-xx-1975
    singer, pianist: "Tip Top Lunch Program"
    05-02-1918 - Frank Milano - d. 12-15-1962
    animal sounds: "Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders"

    May 2nd deaths

    01-21-1902 - Smith Ballew - Palestine, TX - d. 5-2-1989
    singer: "The Ipana Troubadors"; "Shell Chateau"
    01-30-1911 - Hugh Marlowe - Philadelphia, PA - d. 5-2-1982
    actor: Ellery Queen "Advs. of Ellery Queen"; Jim Curtis "Brenda Curtis"
    02-01-1908 - George Pal - Cegled, Austria-Hungary - d. 5-2-1980
    film producer, director: "Bud's Bandwagon"
    02-25-1910 - Wini Shaw - San Francisco, CA - d. 5-2-1982
    actor: Air Trailers "Good News of 1935 and In Caliente"
    03-20-1918 - Jack Barry - Lindenhurst, NY - d. 5-2-1984
    actor: "It's the Barrys"
    04-30-1926 - Lou Cioffi - d. 5-2-1998
    news reporter: "The Warning Bell"; "Big News of 1957/58"
    08-17-1909 - Larry Clinton - Brooklyn, NY - d. 5-2-1985
    bandleader: "Larry Clinton's Musical Sensations"; "Tommy Riggs and
    Betty Lou"
    09-15-1899 - Dr. Milton Eisenhower - Abilene, KS - d. 5-2-1985
    doctor: (Brother of Ike) "Second Seagram's Symposium"; "Meet the Press"
    10-03-1911 - Michael Hordern - Berkhamsted, England - d. 5-2-1995
    actor: Gandolf "The Lord of the Rings"
    10-28-1895 - Herb Butterfield - Rhode Island - d. 5-2-1957
    actor: Clarence Wellman "Halls of Ivy"; Hunter Glenn "One Man's Family"
    11-14-1908 - Joseph McCarthy - Appleton, WI - d. 5-2-1957
    despotic senator: "Meet the Press"

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

    Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 08:33:13 -0400
    From: "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  "The Gestalt Gildersleeve"
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Jim Harmon wrote:

>     In "It's That Time Again, Vol. 3" there is a story by Justin Felix headlined
>     "Gildersleeve meets Honest Harold".   A number of people have asked where is
>     Honest Harold?  Somehow, in the offices of BearManor Books, NOT in the
>     office of Jim Harmon, an earlier story by Mr. Felix was used, one only about
>     Gildersleeve.  The story involving Honest Harold is yet to be published,
>     perhaps in a Vol. 4.   I haven't the least idea how this could have
>     happened, anymore than I know how the excellent story involving Cisco Kid at
>     Fort Laramie by Jack French was not used.

    Steve Thompson,whose "Johnny Dollar/Duffy's Tavern" cross-over is included in
    ITTA3, pointed out to me the Hatold-less "Gildy"  story. I surmised that maybe
    Mr. Felix was making a comment  that "Honest Harold" was such a clone of "The
    Great Gildersleeve," that maybe not including Harold was a point being made
    and that  the two characters actually co-incided
    in a non-separateable "gestalt" kind of way. Steve thought my supposition was
    a way bit too philosphical & thanks to Mr. Harmon's clarification, I now
    concede Mr. Thompason was right.

    James Thurber once wrote about a woman who preferred  classical poetry to
    philosophy as she liked to "put the Horace before Descartes."

    I.  Kant think of a clever exit-line here in the ether! There, I said it and
    I'm glad!

    Derek Tague.

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

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

    Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 09:27:14 -0400
    From: "Bill Knowlton" <udmacon1@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Herb Morrison

    I have a fairly complete run of "Stand By," the weekly publication of WLS,
    Chicago between 1935 and 1938. There are many articles and news items about
    the work of staff announcer Herb Morrison, both before and aftert the
    Hindenberg event.

    Morrison was used quite often by WLS for covering live events such as train
    rides and airplane flights in addition to routine staff announcer chores.

    The issue after the Hindenberg crash includes a terrific feature artlcle on
    Herb's performance and the process of getting the recording back to WLS.
    Several issues later there's a "grip and grin" photo of Morrison and his
    recording engineer receiving an award from the WLS/Prairie Farmer poobahs.

    BILL KNOWLTON

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

    Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 11:12:07 -0400
    From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Radio Days and Radioland Murders

    I enjoyed RADIO DAYS.  It was truly a comedy set during the time period when
    people used the radio as a means of popular entertainment.  Allen has done a
    number of movies about movies (and going to movies) so he wanted to touch on
    the other aspect of his childhood he recalled fondly.  I doubt it was
    intended to be a historical approach to the subject and certainly wasn't
    made for the OTR hobby.  It was merely a childhood fantasy.  Below I am
    reprinting from WOODY ALLEN ON WOODY ALLEN by Stig Bjorkman to give insight
    to the movie which I am sure everyone will appreciate. Please forgive any
    typos.

    SB:  How close is the story in RADIO DAYS to your own childhood?

    WA:  Some things are very close and some things are not.  But a lot of it is
    based on an exaggerated view of my childhood.  I mean, I did live in a
    family with many people present in the house; grandparents and aunts and
    uncles.  And a certain period of my childhood I did live in a house by the
    water.  In Long Beach.  But I didn't want to travel all the way to Long
    Beach to shoot the film.  Yes, many of the things you see in the film did
    happen.  My relationship to the school teachers was like that.  My
    relationship to radio was like that.  The same with the Hebrew school.  And
    we used to go out to the beach and look for German aircraft and German
    boats.  And I did have an aunt who was forever getting into the wrong
    relationships and unable to get married.  My cousin lived with me.  She
    never did get married.  And we did have those neighbors who were communists.
      We did have a telephone line where we listened in on the neighbors.  All
    these things occurred.

    SB:  Was RADIO DAYS a story you'd been planning to make for a long time?

    WA:  It originated from an idea that I wanted to pick out of a group of
    songs that were meaningful to me, and each one of those songs suggested a
    memory.  Then this idea started to evolve: how important radio was to me
    when I was growing up and how important and glamorous it seemed to everyone.

    SB:  Did you then pick out the songs before you wrote the script for the
    film?

    WA:  Yes, I did.  many of them.

    SB:  Did you discuss this part of the job with Dick Hyman, the composer, as
    well?

    WA:  No, not that part.  The only thing I needed from Dick was a couple of
    arrangements of the songs.  And I wanted him to create the music for the
    pretend commercials and things like that.  But basically the songs were
    songs that i chose from my childhood.  Songs that were significant for me.

    SB:  It's a very elaborate script, considering all the elements in it: the
    family, the school, the radio events, the radio personalities . . .

    WA:  A film like RADIO DAYS presents a particular type of problem.  When you
    don't have a 'What happens next?' story, when you're working with anecodtal
    material, the trick, I feel, is that you have to sustain each thing on its
    own brilliance, on its own rhythm, on its own style.  It's a difficult kind
    of film to do, a non-plot, a non-conventional plot film.  I think of RADIO
    DAYS basically as a cartoon.  And I picked out the actors for their cartoon
    quality. If you look at my Uncle Abe, my mother, my schoolteacher, my
    grandparents, they were supposed to be cartoon exaggerations of what my
    real-life people were like.

    SB:  There is quite a lot of Glenn Miller music in RADIO DAYS.

    WA:  Sure.  Glenn Miller was one of the giants of my childhood.

    SB:  In one scene, your sister and her boyfriend are caught in the fog and
    they hear Orson Wells' famous version of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS over the
    radio in the car.  How did you get the idea for this scene?

    WA:  I was a little too young for it, but my parents told me about the Orson
    Welles broadcast.  And I wanted to do something about this incident.  So I
    invented this anecdote, but it seemed to me that this might have happened.
    And I wanted to set it in an atmosphere which was frightening.  You couldn't
    see too much around you.  Also that helps in a studio.

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

    Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 14:44:44 -0400
    From: "John Abbott" <mraastro@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Johnnie Dollar Auto

    Subject:  Johnnie Dollar Auto

    This is just a coincidenct, but one of the Edmund O'Brien episodes (I can't
    remember the name) took place in Farmington, New Mexico. It was one about a
    rancher who was killed in a riding accident, and one of the few where the
    wife, the beneficiary, was innocent.

    John C. Abbott

    Note:
    No Trees were harmed in sending this message.
    However, some electrons along the way were inconvenienced.

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

    Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 18:15:35 -0400
    From: Richard Fish <fish@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Radio Theatre Before Radio

    Many thanks to Barbara Watkins for posting the link to Pat Feaster's
    collection of early audio theatre cylinders:

    [removed]

    Just about my favorite from this list is "Zep Green's Airship" (1909),
    and I recommend it heartily. It uses all the radio theatre techniques,
    including music, sound effects, crowds and characters, approaching the
    mic from a distance, etc. etc. -- and it's pretty funny, too!

    There's a cylinder recording I've heard, which doesn't seem to be up on
    the site, from 1897 -- and it's a remake of a hit recording from 1894.
    It's a march-past by George Washington and his troops. A fife-and-drum
    outfit is heard approaching, passing by, and marching off into the
    distance (playing "Yankee Doodle," of course!) while a smallish crowd
    near the listener cheers, and a voice cries "Three Cheers for General
    Washington!" as the marchers pass by. Obviously, it's theatre.

    When you consider no sound was sent over the radio until Reginald
    Fessenden started fiddling around at Christmas, 1906; Marconi only
    started experimenting in 1894; Heinrich Hertz got his work underway in
    1887; and Edison invented the phonograph in 1877 -- it seems clear that
    the art form we all love was first invented on recordings.

    When regular, public, commercial broadcasting came along after World War
    I, radio theatre caught on and flowered like a hothouse plant sitting in
    pure Miracle Gro.

    That phenomenon is what this group is all about.

    Today, the art is alive and well, but the most important medium is no
    longer radio broadcast - it's being produced on recordings, distributed
    in a variety of ways.

    So there's a difference in the terminology. Radio Theatre is audio
    theatre broadcast on the radio, and the programs we discuss here, from
    the OTR era, are most definitely Radio Theatre. "Audio Theatre," though,
    is a wider term, referring to the whole artform regardless of the medium
    of transmission.

    Even when radio theatre is heard over the radio today, it's most likely
    to be a playback of a recording. And even when there is a live broadcast
    of a live performance, it's likely to be recorded and further
    distributed that way. ([removed], the live shows at the annual NATF workshop
    in Missouri: [removed] )

    Here are a couple of draft-definitions:

    Radio Theatre: an audio theatre presentation created for broadcast on
    radio, or any audio theatre presentation while it is being broadcast on
    radio.

    Audio Theatre: a play, story, or theatrical presentation which has been
    written, or adapted, for presentation using sound alone.

    What do y'all think?

    Richard Fish

    [ADMINISTRIVIA: Please contact Mr. Fish directly with your comments.  --cfs3]

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2006 Issue #121
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