------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 01 : Issue 95
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Extended Children's Hour ["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@]
Memories ["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@]
Alfred E Neuman & Henry Morgan [Alan Bell <bella@[removed];]
Veola Vonn and Frank Nelson [JJJ445@[removed] ]
PAT NOVAK ["stephen jansen" <stephenjansen@ema]
Jack Benny [William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];]
Mrs. RUDY VALLEE LIVE INTERVIEW [Duane Keilstrup <duanek9@[removed]; ]
Re: Lone Ranger Books [Fred Berney <berney@[removed]; ]
Reporters and books [Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; ]
WW2 correspondents due recognition ["Robert Paine" <macandrew@[removed]]
Forget-Him-Not ["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@]
Foy as LR [Joe Salerno <salernoj@[removed]; ]
Apologies for opinions and memories [George Aust <austhaus1@[removed]]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 11:08:41 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Extended Children's Hour
Reminiscing about OTR shows, Tas Richardson recalls,
I am old enough to remember as a kid running home from school in Banff,
to flop down in front of our floor model Philco <snip> to enter the
exciting worlds of: Superman, Dick Tracy, Tarzan, Tom Mix, Terry & The
Pirates, and that AAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL--Americanboy, JACK ARMSTRONG!<<
Wow! Where I was, some of these shows competed with each other. Because
I used to listen to The Adventures of Superman, I was unable to hear Jack
Armstrong -- they were in the same time slot on different stations. Now,
today, listening to both shows, I'd have probably opted to follow Jack
Armstrong's adventures rather than Superman's, but there was no way that
I as a kid was going to be able to compare them.
What a bonanza!
Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 11:08:39 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Memories
Owens Pomeroy, in his (unnecessary) apology, notes,
I only have my memories to go by and not reference books as some of you
no doubt have with your vast influx of OTR knowledge. <<
But while memories are sometimes inaccurate, they're still what makes
some of us who lived through at least a part of the OTR era all nostalgic
about those thrilling days of yesteryear, and what motivates up to pass
down some of what we know and love. Not too many postings ago, I made a
point of discussing the first version of Jim Harmon's book, The Great
Radio Heroes, and pointing out one of the inaccuracies in it; however, I
also pointed out that the book was an entertaining nostalgia trip that I
enjoy each time I read it, and that on the basis of that first book, I'd
recommend the second. Jim Harmon was operating from memory; and without
that book and his Nostalgia Catalog (which also contains a few
inaccuracies -- but look when it was written), which was also written
from memory, I doubt I'd have been inspired to write my Captain Midnight
book. My only caveat was that The Great Radio Heroes, original edition,
is a worthwhile read, but a questionable reference work. Memories may
sometimes go astray, yet they're the reason a lot of us are enthusiastic
about the hobby.
Srephen A. Kallis, Jr.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 11:08:37 -0500
From: Alan Bell <bella@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Alfred E Neuman & Henry Morgan
Well, I just heard something interesting on the public radio show,
Rewind. According to Mary Dempsey, a librarian at the Chicago Public
Library, the name of Mad Magazine's what-me-worry character had been
suggested by Mad's readers. And THEY got it from the radio. Alfred E
Neuman was apparently a character on Henry Morgan's radio show, and
HE got the name from the Hollywood film composer, Alfred Newman (note
different spelling).
Are there any Morgan fans out there who can confirm this? Do you have
any episodes in which the character appears?
--
Alan Bell
Grandville, MI
bella@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 11:08:34 -0500
From: JJJ445@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Veola Vonn and Frank Nelson
Frank Nelson and Veola Vonn were good friends of my wife and I. They lived in
a beautiful home in the Los Angeles Hills which we visited several times.
Veola and Hanley Stafford had purchased the home back when they were first
married. After Hanley's passing she married Frank and they continued to live
there. Frank and Hanley were very good friends so it isn't surprising that
they were all buried close to each other. Veola worked with Frank on occasion
on the Benny Show when she guested as Jack's french girlfriend.
Besides radio, Veola appeared in several films. You can catch a quick
close-up of her in the opening musical number of Astaire's Gay Divorcee. She
also was one of the victims in the 1953 film, "Phantom in the Rue Morgue."
Other parts included "South Sea Woman" and "Lafayette Escadrille" (1958). The
latter picture she once again played a french woman. Veola was a very
attractive lady, and in one of their rooms hung a stunning oil painting of
her that was featured in the Rue Morgue picture.
Frank passed away in the mid-1980s and Veola passed away in 1995. They were
both loving and very gracious people who are sorely missed.
John Jensen
Federal Way, WA
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 14:14:11 -0500
From: "stephen jansen" <stephenjansen@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: PAT NOVAK
Michael Berger wrote:
Can anyone refresh our memories about who did the script writing
on Pat Novak, For Hire? And was it, perhaps, the same person who
scripted the Songs By Sinatra series, especially Frank's opening
spiel? Both were in the "so bad they were good" writing
category.
I'm not familiar with "Songs By Sinatra", myself, but the writer for
"Pat Novak" (according to John Dunning's excellent "Encyclopedia of OTR")
was Richard Breen until the spring of 1947 when Jack Webb left the show,
then Gil Doud after that. Not too much info from me on this subject, except
that I think that Jack Webb's Pat Novak was an absolute scream! "So bad
they were GREAT" is how I'd have to put it. The shows aren't really bad at
all, they are [removed] the top. It usually takes me a few listens to the
same program to actually catch all of the rapid-fire comments and dark, dark
humor. Also, to me, the violence in these shows typically seemed much more
graphic than in others OTR. Maybe just the way the writer's presented it:
from "The Agnes Bolton Case" after a woman throws herself to her death over
an embankment - "The last I saw of Francine, she was lying down at the
bottom, in the rain. Her head was over to one side, and you knew with a
little push,it would roll around as easy as a ball bearing on a plate. Her
face was clean, but the rain was beginning to wash the dirt down, and when I
left, she wasn't pretty any more." Just BEAUTIFUL writing, in a hideous
sort of way.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 15:04:04 -0500
From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Jack Benny
Due to the posting by Joseph Ross I am wondering if I somehow made some
errors. I was hired by CBS in New York during December 0f 1944,
transferred to KNX about June 1945. January 1946, due to a layoff I went
to Palm Springs to build KCMJ for Dick Joy (announcer) and Don Mc Bain
(former Don Lee engineer turned airline captain). June 1946 I returned to
KNX and the next day caught the boat to Catalina Island to do the dance
bands from the Casino and an interview show with Cliff Johnson. Made the
trade papers as the only engineer in the country who had the right
assignment at the right time.
When I returned to the studio mid September I was supposed to go on the
road with a short wave mobile unit to do a housewives interview show but
the director had a hassle with the ad agency and the show was cancelled.
We did have a couple of travelling shows, the Horace Heidt (not for
Alemite) Talent Search and The Hormel Girls (an all girl musical show).
(Remind me to tell about the Stedgy Prep glee club on the Heidt show. A
screwup that never made the digests)
During my time the Benny show was played back at 7:00 because I knew that
he would hear Skelton's opening comment while eating dinner,as the
Skelton repeat would follow. Also repeats were on disc at that time. They
were recorded at Radio Recorders. We had about five or six tielines
between KNX master control and Radio Recorders. By the time I returned to
New York (1981) we had two tape rooms in a store front next to
Brittinghams.
Columbia Records had a recording room under Brittingham's with two
recording engineers and a supervisor. They used KNX studios. However they
did not do our recording work. As I recall they had two "lathes"
(recorders). KNX finally had a Brush BK-401 portable (portable due to it
being enclosed in a canvas bag) which I initiated doing a Christmas and a
New Years greetings from the movie stars on paper tape. George Fisher was
the interviewer. More on that at another time.
The comedy show I would watch at Radio Recorders was not the Texaco show.
As I mentioned, this was about the time of the advent of a
transcontinental video cable. I think there was only one circuit.
Radio broadcasting in those days was vastly different than we think of
now!
Bill Murtough
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 15:15:40 -0500
From: Duane Keilstrup <duanek9@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Mrs. RUDY VALLEE LIVE INTERVIEW
Eleanor Vallee, widow of Rudy, will be interviewed live on The Yesterday
Radio Networks on Tuesday night, March 27, 2001, at 10:30 EST. For more
details and to listen, "tune" us in at [removed] where OTR shows
and vintage music are featured around the clock.
Duane Keilstrup
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 17:14:23 -0500
From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Lone Ranger Books
I was in an antique store today and found four Lone Ranger books, written
by Franz Striker.
One was titled The Lone Ranger Returns, another Trapped in a Cabin and I
don't recall the other two. The one book I looked at was dated 1941. These
are hard back books, not comics.
Are they rare? I didn't see any prices on them so I have not idea of what
they sell for. Anybody know anything about these books?
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 19:49:27 -0500
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Reporters and books
John Davis" <WolfpackFan@[removed]; asks:
>>>> Does
anyone have any recommendations on books about reporting news during WW [removed];<<<
There are a number of books and it is dependent upon what you are looking
for. Here are several - some are out of print and you have to hunt for them.
William L. Shirer - Berlin Diary
Max Jordan - Beyond All Fronts
HV Kaltenborn - Fifty Fabulous Years
HV Kaltenborn - I Broadcast the Crisis
Reporting World War II (Vol 1 & 2) - this are actual words of the writers
and broadcasters.
Parts of "In All His Glory" by Sally Bedell Smith (about William Paley)
There is a new book of the collected broadcasts of William L. Shirer
In Search of Light - Words of Edward R. Murrow
The Murrow Boys by Stanley Cloud and Lynne Olson
Jim Widner
jwidner@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 19:49:26 -0500
From: "Robert Paine" <macandrew@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: WW2 correspondents due recognition
The last few years have seen documentaries, monuments and museums of and to
our service personnel of World War 2. They are well deserved and in some
cases long overdue.
One aspect of that war has, I feel, been either overlooked or given little
attention - the contributions of the Allied radio networks and print media
and the correspondents that served both. During the 50th anniversary years -
1991-1995 - the only thing I recall was a feature that aired on WAMU-FM,
Washington, as part of the Sunday evening Big Broadcast program. I believe
it was a syndicated series drawn from radio and newsreel narration. Beyone
that I'm not aware of anything that gave recognition to the men and women
who brought the story to the [removed] and its allies.
In a sense, those reporters served in much the same way as the five services
and merchant marine. They shared the same conditions, ate the same food and
were exposed to the same dangers in many cases. And as we know, some paid
the supreme price - Ernie Pyle, Tom Traynor of NBC, Guy Baym of the BBC and
a couple print journalists who went down on the raid Edward R. Murrow
described as "orchestrated hell" - to name a few.
Perhaps there are programs, etc., I'm not aware of and I would stand
corrected. But, with all the attention - again, well deserved - given the
fighting forces, why not a museum or some other permanent repository to
honor the efforts of the press and radio - they, too, contributed to the war
effort.
A couple other things - in 1977 I was part of a group that recorded about 65
dramas, etc., in the production studios of WELI, New Haven (then physically
in Hamden) CT. We worked with Jack Grimes, Raymond Edward Johnson and
perhaps two or three others with radio experience. We were instructed when
we turned a page to hold the script at the dead side of the mic (RCA 44's)
and as gently as possible lift it and place it behind the last page. I'm
sure there were at times some who dropped pages but I agree with those who
feel it could be noisy and a safety hazard.
Bill Murtough mentioned Sam Taub being sponsored by Adam Hats over Yankee or
Colonial. If he can recall whether the feed went to Boston to WNAC or WAAB
(prior to 1941 or so when the duopoly thing kicked in), that will tell which
network. WNAC was the Yankee flagship station, WAAB the key of the smaller
Colonial. The latter ended up in Worcester, Mass., after Colonial was phased
out, in order that John Shepard 3rd would retain the station.
Sorry for the long bandwidth - I'll try to keep it shorter next time.
Bob
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 20:03:58 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Forget-Him-Not
Speaking of OTR memories, Tas Richardson asks,
How could I have forgotten 'Capt. Midnight' in my previous listing of
kid's shows I listened too?<<
Possibly because, despite its time slot, it wasn't really a kids' show.
It had a high minority, nearly 50%, of its audience being grownups. In
the book Enola Gay, the history of the atomic bombing in World War II,
the authors speak of the Air Corps personnel's listening habits at the
time FDR died,
"Beser, like most of the 509th [Composite Group], had heard the news of
Roosevelt's death over the radio. Some of the men had been listening to
NBC's 'Front Page Farrell'; others had been tuned to CBS's 'Wilderness
Road'; by far, the majority had been following the adventures of ABC's
highly popular 'Captain Midnight.'" [Stein & Day, 1977, p. 111]
The 509th was stationed in Utah, and so was on Mountain time.
There are shows popular with kids that, from my perspective at the time,
I didn't consider kids' shows. Besides Captain Midnight, I included The
Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet in the "not kids" category.
Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2001 01:15:21 -0500
From: Joe Salerno <salernoj@[removed];
To: OTR List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Foy as LR
Fred Foy portrayed the Lone Ranger once when Beamer was ill. No I don't
remember the date but the show is on Foy's CD.
Joe Salerno
Video Works! Is it working for you?
PO Box 273405 - Houston TX 77277-3405
[removed] joe@[removed] Fax: 603-415-7616
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2001 01:36:35 -0500
From: George Aust <austhaus1@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Apologies for opinions and memories
Owens Pomeroy's apology for sharing his memories of OTR with the rest of
us on this list is totally unnecessary. We all have memories which
sometimes are not quite on the mark, and indeed sometimes are amazingly
far off. There are those on this list who can correct those mishaps of
the mind in a way that does not offend and in fact is appreciated by
all of us including the original poster.
There is on the other hand such a thing as a unique experience which a
poster may have experienced, which few others may know about . This
makes knowledge of that experience even more valuable because it did
"not" happen to everyone who was involved in OTR. There are those
experiences, such as dropping script pages on the floor (obviously this
did happen, even though it may not have been the "norm" among radio
actors) which is a very minor part of OTR but is interesting perhaps
because it did not happen very often.
Why someone would take offense at this memory being shared is beyond me.
There is the old saying that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing".
In this case it may be that a lot of knowledge is a dangerous thing. One
can begin to believe that one knows everything! Or at least that being
surrounded by all those reference books and not ever having heard of
such a thing means that it never happend.
I also thought that the purpose of this digest was the exchange of ideas
and memories and where when we asked we could could have questions
answered. Not the kind of place where one would expect to find an
intellectual bully. Yes I want to know the true facts as well as anyone
but sometimes the truth is not a singular thing. Sometimes there are
several truths regarding a particular matter. We should all keep an open
mind and learn and enjoy and add what we know and what we have
experienced. And if after reading a posting you have your doubts so be
it. It is not necessary to convince and convert everybody that you and
only you are right.
I would hate to think that there is one person out there that maybe
afraid to post their thoughts for fear of embarrasment by someone else
on the list.
George Aust
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #95
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