Subject: [removed] Digest V01 #147
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 5/15/2001 5:07 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                      The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                         Volume 01 : Issue 147
                   A Part of the [removed]!
                           ISSN: 1533-9289


                           Today's Topics:

 Billy Murray on the air              ["Michael J. Laurino" <mlaurino@[removed]]
 Captain Midnight details             ["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@]
 Fibber McGee and Como                ["Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@worldnet.]
 Billy Murray                         [George Aust <austhaus1@[removed]]
 Bobby Benson Show                    ["Edwin H. Humphrey" <beepa3@hotmail]
 Billy Halop as discussed by Lawrence [sfx-meow@[removed] (Ray Erlenborn) ]
 Does anyone remember?                ["Edwin H. Humphrey" <beepa3@hotmail]
 Re: Billy Murray #2                  ["D. Fisher" <dfisher@[removed];    ]
 Re: Allan Sloane & The Man Behind th [Howard S Blue <khovard@[removed];   ]
 George Zachary                       ["Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm]
 Total Recorder - my 2 cents          [Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];       ]
 OTR Detective Shows                  [Elmer Standish <elmer_standish@telu]
 OTR Time Lines with downloadable Fil [Elmer Standish <elmer_standish@telu]
 Mail order for CD-R Media?           [David Martin <dbmartin5@[removed];  ]
 Sorry Wrong Number                   ["tas richardson" <tasrichardson@spr]
 Perry Como on Fibber McGee and Molly ["greg przywara" <orsonwelles@jvlnet]
 Antique radio replicas/repros        ["Robert Paine" <macandrew@[removed]]
 Radio Classics Live                  ["Tony Baechler" <tony@[removed];]
 Jackie Grimes                        [William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];]
 KDKA                                 [Kubelski@[removed]                   ]
 Sorry, Sorry Wrong Number's Not My F ["Bill Huffman" <billhuffman@hotmail]
 BBC, a gold mine                     [jason carr <mouse@[removed];   ]
 Remley in the audience               [John Henley <jhenley@[removed]]
 =?iso-8859-1?Q?NBC=92s?= Biography I [Tom and Susan Kleinschmidt <tomkle@]

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 19:38:37 -0400
From: "Michael J. Laurino" <mlaurino@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Billy Murray on the air

On Saturday, 12 May 2001, Mr. Biel noted:

If you want to hear Billy Murray's voice, there are only a very few of
his records out on occasional CDs. You can hear him singing "In My Merry
Oldsmobile" on a CD that I very highly recommend, "20th Century Time
Capsule" on Buddha 7446599633-2.

In addition, you can find several of his Edison recordings in .WAV format
at the web site of The Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound
Division of The Library of Congress, on this page:
 [removed], part of their exhibit on
"The Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies"
([removed]).

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 19:38:35 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Captain Midnight details

vigor16@[removed] asks,

My friend of 31 years asked me a question about Captain Midnight.  I
didn't know how to answer it.  I have a series of shows that appear to be
from Nov/Dec 1940 sponsored by Skelly oil.  He has a couple shows from
September 1940 with an Ovalteen sponsor.  He says it is the first
Ovalteen show.  Is this possible.  I need help from you CM secret
squadrin guys and gals.  Please decode this one for [removed];<

I can't resist answering this one.  Captain Midnight was originally a
regionally syndicated show sponsored by Skelly Oil.  As such, it
premiered on 17 October 1938 at 5:45 PM (since it was syndicated and
transcribed, the actual opening date might have been different on some
stations).  It remained under Skelly Oil sponsorship through 27 March
1940.  Skelly Oil owned Spartan Aircraft, and occasionally, Spartan
pilots would be interviewed on the show during the commercial breaks (a
Spartan branch was the Spartan School of Aeronautics, which was spun off
from the original company and still exists; references were made to it in
the program).  Skelly sponsorship was aimed at adults as much as children
-- and unlike other shows of the period, any premiums weren't mailed in
for: listeners had to pick them up at Skelly gas stations.  During the
Skelly period, Captain Midnight was a private citizen, working
altruistically to right wrongs.

This changed in 1940.  Skelly's support of the program started to wane:
it went from five nights a week to three.  In the meantime, Ovaltine
decided, perhaps because of the wars in Europe and the Orient, that
they'd drop Orphan Annie in favor of Captain Midnight: they acquired the
show from Skelly Oil.  On 30 September 1940, the show aired over Mutual
under Ovaltine sponsorship.  Ovaltine brought along a couple of ideas
they'd incorporated into the Orphan Annie show -- a secret group and
something they could use for secret messages.  For the Captain Midnight
show, the group was presented as a new paramilitary group, the Secret
Squadron, and its identifier and cryptological device was the
Code-O-Graph.  The first Ovaltine adventure provided an origin story for
Captain Midnight, but the show retained its continuity from its Skelly
Oil days.  Since the same writers, Robert Burtt and Wilfred Moore, were
used by both Skelly and Ovaltine, retaining continuity was easy.
Continuity remained throughout the 15-minute-serial run of the program,
but not during the half-hour shows broadcast in the Fall of 1949.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 20:02:50 -0400
From: "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Fibber McGee and Como

The Jordans celebrated a milestone year in radio in 1952 (20 Years) with an
hour long special on March 11th. One of the many guests who rang the
doorbell that week at 79 Wistful Vista was Perry Como and they reminisced
about the days Perry sang on the show.

Brj

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 20:37:13 -0400
From: George Aust <austhaus1@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Billy Murray

In the discussions of Billy Murray over the last couple of weeks, no one
has mentioned one of his most popular recordings. "He'd Have To Get Out
And Get Under" was a clever song about the problems of automobile
ownership in the part of the twentieth century. I keep the cylinder
recording on my Edison all the time for the enjoyment of visitors who
want to hear what antique furniture sounds like!

George Aust

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 21:06:01 -0400
From: "Edwin H. Humphrey" <beepa3@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Bobby Benson Show

You were asked about the Bobby Benson Show:  "Bobby Benson's Adventures" was
first heard over CBS in 1932 and was originally set on the "H-bar-O Ranch"
because it was sponsored by HO Oats.  Later it was set on the "B-bar-B
Ranch."A later program was entitled "Songs of the B-bar-B"  This was a music
and comedy version of the original.  Don Knotts played the part of Windy
Wales on this version.  On the original program the part of Harks was played
by Craig McDonnell, who also played the part of Irish.  It is reported that
Tex Ritter played the part of Tex Mason during part of the run.

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 21:06:00 -0400
From: sfx-meow@[removed] (Ray Erlenborn)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Billy Halop as discussed by Lawrence

I was an "EXTRA", kid player in "Dead End" with Halop in that famous
wharf sequence.  (Later I worked as Sound Effects on "Meet Millie" wth
Florence Halop, who I believe was Billies sister.) We kids were kept
busy in those days, doing films like "Mayor of Hell" on the Warner Bros.
backlot, which starred James Cagney, and "Wild Boys of the Road", also
for [removed] You can recognize several of the "Dead End" kid's faces in
quite a number of "Quickies" that were made in the thirties. The
"EXTRA'S" made $5. per day or $7:50 for ( under five lines of dialogue>)
For a long time, we got Box Lunches which we sat on the "school" benches
and munched on. Oh yes, when we worked late at night they had big urns
of hot chocolate for the cold evenings.
Like some of the other kids, I squeezed in Radio gigs between calls from
Central Casting. (Accompanied myself on the Ukelele.) Radio payed $3.
per performance for a  long time.
Enough of the 70 year old memories for now.  Signed: Ray.

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 21:14:14 -0400
From: "Edwin H. Humphrey" <beepa3@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Does anyone remember?

Does anyone remember the following shows on OTR?

  Gene and Glenn with Jake and Lena
  Olivio Santoro
  Dear Mom (This show ended on December 7, 1941)
  Uncle Don
  Frank Crummit and Julia Sanderson
  Uncle Ezra (usually sponsored by Alka Seltzer)
  Kaltenmeyer's Kindergarten (Marion and Jim Jordan were in the cast)
  Phil Cook Show
  Seth Parker
  Singin' Sam
  Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou Show
  Vox Pop, the Voice of the Peoplre

I'd love to find tapes of these shows.

ED HUMPHREY

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 21:14:12 -0400
From: "D. Fisher" <dfisher@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Billy Murray #2

I gave the wrong Newsgroup in my previous message. It's:

[removed]

Don Fisher

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 21:22:06 -0400
From: Howard S Blue <khovard@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Allan Sloane & The Man Behind the Gun

Thank you Charlie for your message about Alan Sloane. Mr. Sloane who died
April 29 was one of the main sources for my book on World War II era
radio (hopefully coming out next spring).

Alan Sloane broke into radio after working as a print journalist. In the
early 40's after a short stint in the army prior to Pearl Harbor,  he was
peripherally involved in the folk music scene in NYC. He first worked on
radio for Bill Robson on The Man Behind the Gun. He knew Norman Corwin,
Jackson Beck, Art Carney  and was a good friend of Hi Brown throughout
many decades. Sloane was a complex man: a very nervous individual, a
first class writer, close to his [removed] He was one of a long list of
writers who were caught up in the blacklist.

In the 1950s Sloane once interviewed a young senator from Massachusetts
named John F. Kennedy. Kennedy gave him a copy of his book PT 109 and
wrote a very nice inscription in it.

Although he was in poor health, Mr. Sloane graciously hosted me for two
long interviews
Howard

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 21:46:15 -0400
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  George Zachary

I know this is probably listed somewhere in a reference book, but can't
figure it for the life of [removed]

Can anyone tell me when exactly radio producer/director George Zachary left
the broadcasting studios to go work for the Office of War Information in
Washington?  I've narrowed it down to somewhere in 1942, but when exactly
that year I'm not certain.  Even a month will help if not an exact date.

Thanks!
Martin

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 21:46:11 -0400
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Total Recorder - my 2 cents

Joe Salerno wrote:

2 advantages of Total Recorder over a program like Streambox VCR are:

My take on this Windows only program that impressed me (though others might
do it too) is that it can be set to start/stop on the signal being
received. I have recorded streaming audio from some sites that essentially
spurt. Because the recording detected that, the final result was a
near-perfect catch. I think it is worth the cost and would recommend it to
any PC based user.
  (Charlie, I threw in the OS twice for you!)


Jim Widner
jwidner@[removed]


[ADMINISTRIVIA: And I darned well appreciate it, Jim!  --cfs3]

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 21:48:40 -0400
From: Elmer Standish <elmer_standish@[removed];
To: Old Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  OTR Detective Shows

I happened on this while searching something else.
If it's new to the Digest it may interest some of you.

Old-Time Radio Detective Shows
Comprehensive listing features all of the crime and detective
radio
shows broadcast during the Golden Years of radio.
[removed]

===> ELMER

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 21:48:38 -0400
From: Elmer Standish <elmer_standish@[removed];
To: Old Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  OTR Time Lines with downloadable Files - Might
 be of interest?

Radio TimeLines
Old-Time Radio Timeline of history and sounds
from the 30's, 40's, and 50's.

[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 23:34:28 -0400
From: David Martin <dbmartin5@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Mail order for CD-R Media?

Suggestions for good web site to order working bulkm, eg. 100+, CD-R Media.
Eg. something that will last until the media format changes!

Thanks


[ADMINISTRIVIA: Um, this is kinda far afield from OTR, so you might want to
respond to the poster [removed]  --cfs3]

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 23:47:47 -0400
From: "tas richardson" <tasrichardson@[removed];
To: "Oldtime Radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Sorry Wrong Number

Speaking of crossed wires, one day about twenty odd years ago I was making a
long distance call to a garage in another town, to inquire about repairs to
my pick-up.  I found myself listening in to what must have been a conference
call between the head office of a large oil company in either Dallas, or
Houston, Tex., and two of their offices, one in Calgary.  I was going to
hang  up but the conversation was so interesting, I of course, eavesdropped.
They were discussing multi-million dollar deals, and future projects.  I
remember one of the Canadian callers was asking if they should pay some
contractor the exchange or interest on something, and being asked the
amount, he replied, "Fifty thousand bucks."  "Oh, if thats all it is, sure,
pay the [removed], replied head office.  I began to worry this call might
appear on my phone bill, so hung up after about half an hour.  But I am sure
I was privy to information that rival oil companies would liked to have had.
Of course nothing showed up on my phone bill.

Tas in sunny, (and oil-rich) Alberta.

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 23:47:50 -0400
From: "greg przywara" <orsonwelles@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Perry Como on Fibber McGee and Molly

Vigor16@[removed] was right in saying that Perry Como was on Fibber McGee and
Molly. He was a guest star on their 15th anniversary show, a one-hour
extravaganza from 1947 in which he sang one or two tunes.

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

Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 10:06:03 -0400
From: "Robert Paine" <macandrew@[removed];
To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Antique radio replicas/repros

I found an old catalog with reproductions of floor and table radios. The
company was a Time-Warner/Sony venture, Sound Exchange, apparently out of
business; the radio in question was a repro of a 1930's Philco console and
ran around $295 in 1993. The manufacturer was not named.

Are there other companies selling the same products? We might like to get
one for our new house. I have a 1931 Philco - besides being a great radio
it's a dynamite piece of furniture.

Any information will be appreciated.

 Macandrew

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

Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 10:12:44 -0400
From: "Tony Baechler" <tony@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Radio Classics Live

Hello.  For anyone who has read about this program on the digest but has
put off listening to it, I highly recommend you give it a listen.  You can
use any of the following links for listening, or you may write me
privately, off list for a direct download link.  (I will not make the
direct download link available to the public so please do not ask on this
list!)

For the main home page, go to:

[removed]

To listen with RealPlayer, go to:

[removed](2001-05-05).ra

This should be one long continuous link which you may either save as a RAM
file or paste directly into the "open location" dialogue of RealPlayer.
If this does not make sense, please do not ask me for help.

Also, a brief note on Buck Jones.  Apparently there are now three episodes
available in circulation.  Jim Harmon played two of them on YUSA last
year.  I have no idea if tape copies are available.  I have the RA version
but it is not in the best audio quality.  I would suggest contacting YUSA
or Jim Harmon directly.

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

Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 11:24:55 -0400
From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Jackie Grimes

Someone wondered whether Jackiewworked in radio. He sure did, at an early
age. When I joined the engineering staff of WHN in New York they were
broadcasting a Saturday morning kid show from an auditorium in Hearn's
Department store on 14th Street in New York City. I was the engineer. The
host was George Nobbs (not sure of the spelling). One of the two kids
featured was Jackie Grimes. By the way, in later years I would work with
George at CBS when he was directing Hummert dramatic shows. On the kiddy
show George would wear white flannel trousers and a collegiate slip over,
vee necked sweater with a big "H" on the front. He looked like a college
cheer leader. Nice guy!

Bill Murtough

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

Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 11:24:52 -0400
From: Kubelski@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  KDKA

There is an article on the history of KDKA radio on the front page of the May
15 Wall Street Journal ([removed]).  It credits the station with the first
words ever spoken on a commercial radio station (in dispute in these pages
recently).

In any case, it's an interesting look at the history of the station and what
local radio stations do to survive when technology changes.

Sean Dougherty
kubelski@[removed]

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

Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 11:25:08 -0400
From: "Bill Huffman" <billhuffman@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Sorry, Sorry Wrong Number's Not My Favorite

Martin Fass wrote in Volume 01 : Issue 146:

...Volume #[removed] the basic plot device of finding
yourself hearing a phone conversation between two other [removed] >>former
telephone company employees have [removed] possible.

In response, I can say (hoping to be believed) that I personally had >two
experiences when living in Los Angeles in the fifties when this >is
precisely what DID occur.  Both times I had dialed a number.  >There were a
few clicks or pops, and then instead of getting a >ringing confirmation or
a busy signal, I found myself hearing two >people talking, and they could
not hear me.  The voices were clear >and I could understand every word.

As one who squandered some of my earlier years trying to prevent such things
from happening (among other more-pressing duties) I can say without
reservation that I believe Martin's every [removed] more.

Actually, given the electro-mechanical nature of telephone central office
exchanges (after manual switchboards but before solid-state/computer
control) it was fairly easy for a blob of solder, an incorrectly-installed
cross-connect, a mechanically-failed rotary switch wiper or a host of other
ailments to infect an exchange with this possibility.  The hard part was
finding the source of the problem.

Running the 3-way call complaint to ground was extremely difficult and
something the techs (and their supervision) left for days when everything
else was caught up (hardly ever) and there was no more coffee. This was the
case for at least these reasons:

1.  Most folks who encountered the condition assumed that there was a
problem of some sort with their call and immediately hung up and tried
again.  They would not likely hear more than a little noise or a word or two
and seldom bothered to report the situation if things worked properly the
next try (and it almost always did).

2.  Once the connection was broken by the third party hanging up there was
no realistic way to create the path of that particular call through the
wires, offices and exchange equipment since each of the dozens to hundreds
of pieces of equipment is seized as needed, utilized for ever-how-long
necessary to establish the call and then dropped out (or kept) for use by
another call be placed.  A lot of this equipment is sitting beside many
other identical devices selected for a individual call almost at random and
a call from the same calling number to the same called number could likely
go through little or none of the equipment used for the first call and
possibly would even go through different exchanges if there was a long
distance involved.

3. Intermittent electrical problems like this are maddening to locate (ask
any automobile owner who has paid shop labor hours to find the reason why
their car starts some mornings but not others or cuts off in traffic some
times but not [removed]) and most supervision (off-the-record) will prefer
that their limited supply of technicians spend their time on the higher
priority items on their lists (with more positive outcomes from their
manager).

In the process of removing some good quality rotary-switch equipment in
Charlotte, NC in the mid- to late-1960's and relocating it across town to a
new central office (waste not, want not) we discovered a long, thin "hair"
of solder bridging two contacts probably occuring (because of the location
within the equipment) on original installation twenty years before and
previously not noticed either visually or via [removed] there had
been over the years numerous complaints of "We made a call and somebody else
was on the line [removed]" from subscribers of that exchange (and a lot of
unproductive time had been expended on the search for this shiny [removed]
they had only know what to look [removed] where).

And in a slightly different scenerio, in Atlanta, GA, in the late seventies
(if memory serves) the kids found that by calling a particular number in an
old exchange they would be tied together with enough fidelity that it began
to serve as a place to meet other kids, exchange phone numbers, get dates,
and whatever else kids do hanging out on the electronic corner.  Turned out
that the cause was a little different kind of problem than the more typical
example above but "never say never"!

Bill

Bill Huffman 3232 Cobb Parkway #305 Atlanta, GA  30339-3496
billhuffman@[removed] tel. (770) 984-2523

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

Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 13:34:43 -0400
From: jason carr <mouse@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  BBC, a gold mine

Oh. what I would give for a
very nice radio receiver with a sharp, clear short-wave band to enjoy these
programs.

The word is that the BBC will stop transmitting shortwave in North America
in (july?).  FM relays and webcasts will have to do, apparently.

For more info, drop into [removed] .

[removed], jc
work - [removed] play - [removed]~mouse/
OTR  - [removed]

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

Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 15:24:31 -0400
From: John Henley <jhenley@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Remley in the audience

I might add these tidbits to the discussion about
Frank Remley (to repeat myself from a couple of
posts to the old Digest, who knows how long ago):

--When listening to the Jack Benny show from the
late 30s on, one can make out a singular laugh from
the audience, show after show.  At times, when Jack
or someone gets off a lame gag, or they're doing a
rather lengthy setup, you might hear this guy out
there laughing all by himself.
  Judging from the well-known photo of the Benny show
in broadcast, in which you can clearly see Remley sitting
with his guitar, a great big smile on his face; and judging
from stories about him here and there, it seems to me
very likely that said distinctive laugh - kind of
a chortle - comes from Mr. Remley himself.  A one-man
sweetener, as it were.
--In a reference work entitled "Who Was Who On Screen,"
which I believe has not been updated in nearly 20 years,
there is of all things a listing for Frank Remley, complete
with his correct birth and death dates.  But then it says:
"Acted in films under the name Elliott Lewis" and it gives
Lewis' filmography as Remley's own.  Sheesh - some so-called
researcher ended up with a big mess on _that_ one.

John Henley
jhenley@[removed]
ph  (512) 495-4112
fax (512) 495-4296

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

Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 19:02:23 -0400
From: Tom and Susan Kleinschmidt <tomkle@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  =?iso-8859-1?Q?NBC=92s?= Biography In Sound

Hello All,

	Does anyone out there have any episodes of  NBC's Biography In Sound?
I
was looking at the RadioGold Index web site and I see several listed that I
have not seen in traders or dealers listings. Can anyone help me with any
of these titles. I have lots to trade, please email me privately. Thanks.


"The Life Of Heywood Broun".
"Will Rogers: Man Of Oklahoma".
"Ernie Pyle, Typewriter In A Foxhole".
"Captain Eddie: The Iron Eagle".
"Architect Of Victory, The Life Story Of George Marshall".
"Courage To Live". The story of Emil Ober, a man with severe heart disease.
"They Knew Grantland Rice".
"Meet Mary Martin: The Documentary Of A Career".




Tom

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #147
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