Subject: [removed] Digest V2007 #13
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 1/11/2007 4:18 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2007 : Issue 13
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      WOR towers                            [ <verotas@[removed]; ]
      Re: A&A and black actors              [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      Bawlin' For Beulah                    [ "Brian L Bedsworth" <az2pa@[removed]; ]
      1-11 births/deaths                    [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
      OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK               [ "Jerry Haendiges" <jerryhaendiges@c ]
      bias in OTR                           [ "joe@[removed]" <sergei01@earthli ]
      Laurel and Hardy                      [ "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@hotmail. ]
      Saturday SPERDVAC meeting             [ "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@hotmail. ]

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

    Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2007 20:07:24 -0500
    From: <verotas@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  WOR towers

    The note re WOR razing its East Rutherford NJ towers struck a nostalgic cord
    with me.  Some here have heard the following reminiscences, but may enjoy
    again.  And I'm sure there are new OTR lurkers/contributors over the past few
    months while I moved from Virginia to Florida.  I apologize for the long
    silence.  We were off line for 3 months - sequential problems.  My new
    address info is at the end of this note.

    So - on to WOR, with some memories on my birthday today.  But not to East
    Rutherford towers in the Jersey meadowlands, visible from Routes 80, 46, S3,
    NJ Tpke et al. West of NYC in northern NJ.  Move instead, perhaps a half hour
    south, just off the Turnpike's Carteret exit, near the Jersey shore.

    Now also move back in time, to the late 1950s.  I participated for many weeks
    on the then new all-night Long John Nebel program on WOR, whose huge AM
    signal was heard at night down to Key West, over to Caribbean islands, etc.
    Initially I was a 'visiting fireman' broadcaster (with more broadcast
    experience than former 'auctioneer' Long John) while working as news and
    morning man on WCRV in Washington NJ, east of Easton PA.  Long John (well
    over 6 feet tall, including his trademark crew-cut) realized he needed a
    cadre of other voices so five hours wouldn't be just his and one guest, or
    his alone if the guest didn't show, or left early.

    That wasn't a frequent problem.  We sat guests so they couldn't see the
    clock.  At our break around 2:30 am they'd whip around and decry the time,
    saying they wouldn't have enough to cover all they wished to say to promote
    their books or whatever agenda.   I became part of a half-dozen or so folk of
    varied interests - some well known, others not so.  Then I slipped into the
    position of producer-without-portfolio ([removed] no pay - WOR had no budget for
    the over-night program, which was on a trial basis as an entirely new
    venture).  I knew many sources for interesting folk who could appear to speak
    on "controversial" subjects, which John preferred.  UFOs, ESP, hypnosis,
    precognition, telekinesis, Bridey Murphy, Dr. Rhine and so on - all kinds of
    "offbeat" topics, just so long as we avoided that old dangerous troika of
    sex, religion and politics.  The times, they have a-changed, alas!

    After a few months, we moved to 1440 Broadway, the studio next door to Jean
    Shepherd, the same room for John A. Gambling with his popular MOR program
    "Music from Studio X".  But when I joined Nebel very early in his tenure, he
    aired from the old Old OLD studio within the transmitter in Carteret.  You
    need to picture this.  As OTR people, this should be easy, if I do my
    narrative correctly.  Shades of my friend Fred Foy!

    First, this was a large piece of land (now a shopping mall) with several huge
    towers with various antennae arrays.  All surrounded by high Cyclone fencing,
    possibly topped by barbed-wire.  At this juncture I don't recall that detail
    but it makes sense, because the property was in effect a broadcast-age
    citadel.  The reason?  That huge WOR 710 AM [removed] signal, which could be
    tracked from many miles out to sea.  When the skip was right, listeners
    called and wrote from Great Britain and Europe, Canada, Bermuda, Iceland,
    etc.  The property was thoroughly protected during WWII, long before the cold
    war precautions of ConElRad.  One could not walk across the grounds - let
    alone drive a vehicle - without setting off alarms inside the imposing,
    protected, round xmtr building.  I speak of more than 10 years after V-E &
    V-J.  The building and its contents were the greatest thrill for me, for
    various reasons.  First was just the realization - here I was at and in
    WOR!!!  With all its lore and lure.

    But then, I looked around the interior of the round fortress.  Picture a
    doughnut.  The wide-open "hole" was large, in its center one of those round
    outward-facing sofas one used to find in hotel lobbies.  All around the
    perimeter were truncated pie-wedge rooms:  office, restroom, fully-equipped
    kitchen and dinette, the huge transmitter area, and - of course -
    moderate-sized studios with table, chairs, mikes, cans, monitor, etc.  The
    engineer could broadcast from his mike and turntable at the control panel in
    the xmtr room.  All, of course, for daily engineering use, but set up for
    broadcast origination in an emergency.

    This is all fairly standard stuff for any radio station - albeit undoubtedly
    larger than most - but then realize that a clear channel (with small C's)
    50,000 to 100,000 Watt station serving the nation's largest market is a bit
    different from a local 1,000 or 5,000 watter.

    But wait!  There were a few other, interesting differences.  Check out the
    walls!  Several riot guns.  Scatter weapons, better known as shotguns.
    Rifles.  But pre-eminent, Thompson automatic weapons, the Tommy Guns named
    for their designer John Thompson, and manufactured by Auto-Ordnance Co. of
    Euclid, Ohio, then Colt and Savage Arms.  In wide spread use from the 1930s
    into the Viet Nam war.  Hand-held machine guns, the 30s version of Gatling
    Guns.  I imagine there were also hand guns around, but my attention was
    riveted by the Tommy Guns of G-man and prohibition gangsters.  And
    "Gangbusters" fame.  You do recall what that means?

    Why all this armament?  Not fearing an attack by Al Capone or Frank Costello
    minions.  These were leftovers of WWII, lest an attempt to take over arguably
    the nation's single most important radio beacon, used by German U-boats and
    potential aircraft to lead them to and near New York City and its essential
    population and wartime activities.  Some small submarines made it to the
    nearby Jersey shore, dropping off saboteurs and provocateurs.  Many were
    immediately captured, but who knows how many were not?

    Just another reminder of how important our kind of radio was during the
    Depression and World War: for out of work actors, for communication in time
    of peril, for news and information, and for entertainment for the beleaguered
    populace.  I say thank you, Radio, and God Bless all those who fought to keep
    it and so many other parts of American life of those [removed] now.

    So there's a salute to those times - and to today.  As part of the latter,
    here is my new Email information.  Please no longer use the "damyankeeinva"
    addy.  I've moved to Vero Beach FL to be near our kids, so we're now
    "verotas@[removed]".  My eBay outlet for goodies of radio history, books
    and much more is "since50s".  The Arthur Godfrey Memorial Foundation Inc.
    uses "arthurgodfreyfdn@[removed]".  That "fdn" is different from the
    former "fdtn", due to bellsouth's regs.  In using, of course,use sans the
    quotation marks shown here.

    So for now, best wishes to all, from us Munsicks - for a happy, healthful,
    and successful New Year!  Bestus, Lee Munsick

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

    Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2007 23:42:22 -0500
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: A&A and black actors

    On 1/10/07 8:06 PM [removed]@[removed] wrote:

>     Because Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll invented the characters, wrote
>     the scripts, and knew what they were supposed to sound like. Nobody else
>     could have done a better job.  Other actors on the show were black.

>     My apologies to Ms McLeod for errors of commission and omission.

    No apologies needed, you summed it up fine. I hadn't had a chance to
    reply to this before -- having recently lost my job, I'm preoccupied with
    matters of greater significance than OTR these days -- but there isn't
    really a whole lot I could add to this other than a bit of background.

    The fact that Correll and Gosden did black dialect in the first place is
    entirely a function of Freeman Gosden having grown up in the specific
    section of Richmond that he did -- right on boundary line of the city's
    African-American district. He picked up the dialect on the streets as a
    child in the same way an African-American child would have, by hearing it
    spoken by people around him. Years later, when he and Charles Correll
    were doing their harmony act on WGN, he'd drop in bits of random dialect
    on the air, and one thing led to another. Eventually, when they were
    asked to put together a serial program after rejecting the idea of
    adapting "The Gumps," the idea of doing black characters made perfect
    sense.

    There was some talk when the program was being planned of using a large
    cast, but since no such program had ever been done before on a nightly
    schedule, Gosden and Correll felt it would be difficult to manage such a
    cast -- so they felt doing the program entirely on their own was the best
    option, especially since the budget they were operating under was very
    limited: at the time, WGN did not accept commercial sponsors. And once
    the pattern was established, and became successful, they saw no reason to
    change it -- at least not until 1935.

    Elinor Harriot, the white actress who played Amos's wife Ruby Taylor,
    joined the cast that year -- and recalled in an interview that Correll
    and Gosden wanted to hire a black actress for the part. But there were
    very few black *actresses* (as opposed to singers or comediennes)
    available in Chicago in 1935 -- most of the African-American acting
    talent at that time was concentrated in New York and Los Angeles -- and
    those they auditioned simply weren't all that experienced. So it wasn't
    until they relocated to Hollywood that black cast members were added.
    Ernestine Wade joined the program in 1939, and Lillian Randolph followed
    in 1940, the first of many black performers to work on the program.

    And now, back to [removed]

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 06:24:07 -0500
    From: "Brian L Bedsworth" <az2pa@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Bawlin' For Beulah

    It's been stated recently that the "Beulah" character was voiced by a white
    actor -- which is true, to an extent. The character =was= the initial
    creation of a white man, Marlin Hurt (a fact which was kept secret for a
    substantial length of time during the early portion of the character's FM&M
    run, explaining the howls of shocked laughter from studio audiences
    following Beulah's initial line on those early broadcasts). Even the second
    Beulah was a white man, although for a very brief period.

    However, the next three Beulahs were three of the top =black= =actresses= of
    the period: Hattie McDaniel, Lillian Randolph and her sister Amanda.

    I'll leave the sociopolitical deconstruction of these facts for others; I've
    simply thought it part of the charm of audio-only acting that any role
    could/can be played by any=body= who can get the voice right, making radio
    the medium best suited to truly color-blind (for that matter, in the case of
    Beulah, even =gender=-blind) service of talent.

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

    Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 06:40:52 -0500
    From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  1-11 births/deaths

    January 11th births

    01-11-1870 - Alice Hegan Rice - Shelbyville, KY - d. 2-10-1942
    writer: "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" based on her novel
    01-11-1886 - George Zucco - Manchester, England - d. 5-28-1960
    actor: "Encore Theatre"
    01-11-1888 - Charles Previn - Brooklyn, NY - d. 9-22-1973
    conductor, pianist: "Sea Romances"; "Silken Strings"
    01-11-1891 - Finney Briggs - Castlewood, SD - d. 9-xx-1978
    actor: "Little Orphan Annie"; "Dari-Dan"; "Ma Perkins"
    01-11-1896 - Armina Marshall - d. 7-20-1991
    theatre guild supervisor: "The Theatre Guild on the Air"
    01-11-1899 - Eva Le Gallienne - d. 6-3-1991
    actor: "Civic Repertory Theatre"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
    01-11-1902 - Charlie Nehlsen - d. 3-30-1980
    engineer: Recorded Hindenburg disaster as reported by Herb Morrison
    01-11-1905 - Manfred Lee - Brooklyn, NY - d. 4-3-1971
    writer: "Advs of Ellery Queen"; "Author, Author"
    01-11-1908 - Lionel Stander - The Bronx, NY - d. 11-30-1994
    actor: J. Riley Farnsworth "Life of Riley"; Hoolihan "Grapevine Rancho"
    01-11-1910 - Betty Miles - Santa Monica, CA - d. 6-9-1992
    actor: Millie Anderson "A Day in the Life of Dennis Day"
    01-11-1910 - Donald 'Red' Barry - Houston, TX - d. 7-17-1980
    actor: "All-Star Western Theatre"; "Forecast"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
    01-11-1910 - Gene Baker - Portland, OR - d. 8-14-1981
    announcer: "Lum and Abner"; "Queen for a Day"
    01-11-1910 - Izler Soloman - Minneapolis, MN - d. 12-6-1987
    conductor: "Design for Living"; "Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra!
    01-11-1910 - Richard Kendrick - Vermillion, SD - d. 2-10-1987
    actor: Bill Baker "Portia Faces Life"
    01-11-1917 - Carl Caruso - Boston, MA
    announcer, director: "A. L. Alexander's Goodwill Court"; "The Shadow"

    January 11th deaths

    05-03-1892 - Beulah Bondi - Chicago, IL - d. 1-11-1981
    actor: "Free World Theatre"; "NBC University Theatre"
    05-03-1902 - Jack Larue - NYC - d. 1-11-1984
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    07-10-1923 - John Bradley - Antigo, WI - d. 1-11-1994
    Iwo Jima flagraiser: "Interview programs"
    07-21-1909 - Frank Barton  - d. 1-11-1995
    announcer: "A Date With Judy"; "Joan Davis Show"
    10-04-1893 - Reverend Walter A. Maier - Boston, MA - d. 1-11-1950
    preacher: "Lutheran Hour"
    11-22-1887 - Charles E. Mack - White Cloud, KS - d. 1-11-1934
    comedian, actor: (Two Black Crows) "The Eveready Hour"
    12-04-1889 - Isabel Randolph - Chicago, IL - d. 1-11-1973
    actor: Rhoda Harding "Dan Harding's Wife"; Mrs. Abigail Uppington
    "Fibber McGee and Molly"
    12-31-1910 - Richard Kollmar - Ridgewood, NJ - d. 1-11-1971
    actor: John Perry "John's Other Wife"; "Michael West "Big Sister";
    "Boston Blackie "Boston Blackie"

    Ron Sayles

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

    Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 07:28:38 -0500
    From: "Jerry Haendiges" <jerryhaendiges@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK

    Hi Friends,

    Here is this week's schedule for my Olde Tyme Radio Network. Here you may
    listen to high-quality broadcasts with Tom Heathwood's "Heritage Radio
    Theater," Big John Matthews and Steve "Archive" Urbaniak's "The Glowing
    Dial" and my own "Same Time, Same Station."  Streamed in high-quality audio,
    on demand, 24/7 at [removed]
    Check out our High-Quality mp3 catalog at:
    [removed]
    =======================================

    SAME TIME, SAME STATION

    PHILCO RADIO TIME
    Episode 31    5-14-47   "Goodbye Mr. Ball, Goodbye"
    Guests: Groucho Marx, Warren Brown
    Stars: Bing Crosby, Hank Greenberg, George Barns Octet
    RECORDED 4/16/47 - UNCUT
    >From Ross Auditorium, Great Lakes Navel Training Center, Great Lakes, New
    York

    MODERN ROMANCES
    Episode 1    1944    "Goodbye Darling"
    Syndicated by Modern Romances Magazine

    LOVE TALES
    Episode 15    1937    "Fire Hazard"
    Bruce Eells Syndicated series

    THE CHICAGO THEATER OF THE AIR
    Episode 319    12-31-49    "The Merry Widow"
    Stars: Everett Clark, John Wilkie, Marian Claire, Norman Gotshorke, Muriel
    Bremner, John Barclay
    History Lecture By: Col. Robert R. McCormick
    Produced and Narrated by Marian Claire
    Music: Henry Weber, Robert Trendler Orchestra

    ==================================

    HERITAGE RADIO THEATER

    MR. KEEN, TRACER OF LOST PERSONS
    CBS    10/6/49    "The Case of The Man Who Invented Death"

    MR. & MRS. NORTH
    CBS    9/17/54    "Operation Murder" starring Barbara Britton and Richard
    Denning.

    HOP HARRIGAN
    BLUE/ABC    WW II Episode -    Hop and Tank escape In flames with a German
    lieutenant.

    ====================================

    THE GLOWING DIAL

     Fibber McGee and Molly - "Gildersleeve's Diary"
    originally aired October 22, 1940 on NBC
    Starring: Jim and Marian Jordan, Harold Peary, Isabel Randolph, Bill
    Thompson, Harlow Wilcox announcing.
    Sponsor: Johnson's Wax

    Fibber McGee and Molly - "Enter Beulah"
    originally aired January 25, 1944 on NBC
    Starring: Jim and Marian Jordan, Marlin Hurt, Arthur Q. Bryan, Shirley
    Mitchell, Ransom Sherman, Harlow Wilcox announcing.
    Sponsor: Johnson's Wax

    Fibber McGee and Molly - "Off To Hollywood"
    originally aired June 24, 1941 on NBC
    Starring: Jim and Marian Jordan, Harold Peary, Isabel Randolph, Bill
    Thompson, Gale Gordon, Harlow Wilcox announcing.
    Sponsor: Johnson's Wax

    Screen Guild Theater - "Heavenly Days"
    originally aired February 10, 1947 on NBC
    Starring: Jim and Marian Jordan, Bill Johnstone, John Brown, Truman Bradley
    announcing.
    Sponsor: Lady Esther Cosmetics

    ==================================

    If you have any questions or request, please feel free to contact me.

         Jerry Haendiges

         Jerry@[removed]  562-696-4387
         The Vintage Radio Place   [removed]
         Largest source of Old Time Radio Logs, Articles and programs on the Net

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

    Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 12:57:34 -0500
    From: "joe@[removed]" <sergei01@[removed];
    To: OTR List <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  bias in OTR

    RE: the discussion about bias against African-American performers in OTR.

    When ever I think of Amos 'n Andy, I also must think of a program in
    which white and African-American players appeared on stage together,
    surely this was ground breaking in the late 1920s and 30s. But in this
    case, not only were they on stage together, but performing in front of a
    national audience. It seems ironic to me that this happened on a program
    that today is associated by some with bias against African-Americans.
    --
    Joe Salerno

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

    Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 17:45:47 -0500
    From: "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Laurel and Hardy

    For those who live in the Los Angeles area this Saturday evening Bobb Lynes
    and I will be part of the cast of a Laurel & Hardy recreation. Hope you can
    attend. Here are the details.

    At 7 PM on Saturday, January 13 The Early to Bed Tent (South Pasadena's
    local chapter of the Sons of the Desert, the international Laurel and Hardy
    fan organization) will present a Laurel and Hardy radio recreation of their
    appearance on Mail Call and skits featuring Chuck McCann and Jim MacGeorge,
    with Tony Palermo providing the live sound effects.  Laurel and Hardy films
    will also be shown, and cake will be served in honor of Oliver Hardy's 115th
    birthday. Cost for non-members is $[removed], $[removed] for seniors 55 and over, and
    $[removed] for children 6 to 12. For information, email
    early2bed239@[removed]

    The performances and films take place in Gray Hall at the Oneonta
    Congregational Church, 1515 Garfield Avenue, in South Pasadena. It's between
    Monterey Road and Huntington Drive, approximately one block north of
    Huntington Drive, on the west side of the steet. Park in the church parking
    lot. Follow the signs to Gray Hall. See [removed] for
    directions from your location.

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

    Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 17:46:01 -0500
    From: "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Saturday SPERDVAC meeting

    SPERDVAC's first meeting of 2007 will take place on Saturday, January 13 at
    noon at the South Pasadena Community Room in the 1000 block of El Centro in
    South Pasadena. It's two short blocks from the Mission station of the Gold
    Line. The guest will be Ray Evans, songwriter partner of Honorary Member JAY
    LIVINGSTON. They wrote a bunch of songs; "Mona Lisa" "Silver Bells", the
    "Bonanza Theme" and more. Frank Bresee will interview him at the meeting.
    The meeting is free and the public is invited.

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #13
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