Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #398
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 11/3/2003 10:08 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2003 : Issue 398
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Re: FOTR & Speaking of Radio          [ OTRGURU@[removed] ]
  more knx drama hour thoughts          [ "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed]; ]
  Can anyone confirm this?              [ Garry Lewis <glewis@[removed] ]
  Re: Hullabaloo                        [ "Dave Walter" <fredallenfan@hotmail ]
  CBS                                   [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
  Re: CBS the what?                     [ "Dave Walter" <fredallenfan@hotmail ]
  Yet ANOTHER CBS 75th Error            [ Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed]; ]
  Re: Captain Kangaroo, Lee Marvin, an  [ "Dave Walter" <fredallenfan@hotmail ]
  1937                                  [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]
  Fireside Chats                        [ George Aust <austhaus1@[removed] ]
  Re: CBS at 75                         [ Fred Berney <berney@[removed]; ]
  A Tube By Any Other Name ...          [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  Lee Marvin story                      [ "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed]; ]
  thanks from Howard Blue               [ Howard Blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
  Reel to reel tapes that squeak        [ Fred Berney <berney@[removed]; ]
  Baking audio tapes                    [ Fred Berney <berney@[removed]; ]
  Musical War of the Worlds--where?     [ Mahlon Wagner <mwagner2@[removed] ]
  Not quite off-topic, but of major in  [ "Ivan G. Shreve, Jr." <iscreve@comc ]
  Looking for complete Rathbone/Bruce   [ CharlieK22@[removed] ]
  RE: Musical "War of the Worlds"       [ "Neil Marsh" <Neil@[removed]; ]
  Reel to reel tapes that squeak        [ Al Girard <24agirard24@[removed] ]

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

Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2003 20:04:12 -0500
From: OTRGURU@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: FOTR & Speaking of Radio

Thanks to Jay Hickerson and everyone who worked to make the friends of Old
Time Radio a success. This year's get-together was another big hit and it was
good to meet and greet old and new friends.

I'd like to thank everyone who purchased a copy of my new book, "Speaking of
Radio" at the convention in Newark.  We sold all the copies we brought (a
rather substantial number) and took orders for many more.  Thanks again.

We'll be at the SPERDVAC meeting later this week with more copies of our book
and look forward to meeting OTR friends on the West Coast.

In the meantime, if you'd like information about the book, (or to order a
copy if you didn't get one last week or won't be in California), please visit
our
secure website  [removed]

"Speaking of Radio" consists of 425 pages of interviews with 46 stars of the
Golden Age of Radio, talking about their careers and the shows that made them
--and they made -- famous.  Among the stars: Edgar Bergen, Ralph Edwards, Jim
Jordan, Elliott Lewis, Lurene Tuttle, Agnes Moorehead, Mercedes McCambridge,
Barbara Luddy, Olan Soule, Bret Morrison,  Jack Benny, Phil Harris, Dennis
Day,
Don Wilson, Kate Smith, Carlton E. Morse, Harry Von Zell, Howard Duff, and
Rudy Vallee.

Best regards,

Chuck Schaden

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

Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2003 20:04:26 -0500
From: "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  more knx drama hour thoughts

More thoughts on KNX drama hour cancellation.  I noticed without really
thinking about it that KNX is not broadcasting NFL games, they are now on
KFWB.  I guess KNX is trying to really carry all news all the time.  I
would still like to do something about getting the KNX drama hour back.
Kurt

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:14:48 -0500
From: Garry Lewis <glewis@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Can anyone confirm this?

>From a search of the Urban Legends website --

Subject: Captain Kangaroo, Lee Marvin, and Mister Rogers

[removed]

[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:16:31 -0500
From: "Dave Walter" <fredallenfan@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Hullabaloo

Kermyt Anderson writes:

Following up on the discussion on The War of the Worlds: On this Tuesday
(Nov 4), Turner Classic Movies is showing "Hullabaloo" at 2:30 PM Eastern
wartime, oops, I mean Eastern standard time. The blurb in TCM's
"Now Playing" magazine describes it thusly:

"A radio star creates a national panic when he announces a Martian invasion.
Frank Morgan, Virginia Grey, Dan Dailey. D: Edwin L. Marin. BW-79m."

(The film is from 1940, incidentally.) Does anybody know anything about this?
Is it worth setting the VCR for?

The program information in Dish Network's software gives the following 
information (as well as a two-stars-out-of-four quality rating):

"Frank Morgan, Virginia Grey, Virginia O'Brien. A song-and-dance family man 
turns to radio and starts doing impersonations. Leni Lynn, Curt Bois, Billie 
Burke." (Odd that they don't mention Dailey.)

This certainly doesn't preclude the story angle TCM describes, of course. I 
haven't seen it yet, so I don't know if there is a "War of the Worlds"-type 
element to it or not. Still, two-stars-out-of-four isn't too bad; at least 
it isn't, erm, "Murder By Television" (remember that flick?).

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:16:49 -0500
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  CBS

[ADMINISTRIVIA: It's unlikely they would do so; if my failing memory
serves, the Columbia name was sold many years ago. CBS currently and
legally stands [removed] Hopefully, others more versed in the
technicalities can explain more completely.  --cfs3]

For quite some time, the corporate name has been "CBS, Inc."

--
A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                           [removed]
 15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         [removed]

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:18:44 -0500
From: "Dave Walter" <fredallenfan@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: CBS the what?

[ADMINISTRIVIA: It's unlikely they would do so; if my failing memory
serves,
the Columbia name was sold many years ago. CBS currently and legally stands
[removed] Hopefully, others more versed in the technicalities can
explain more completely.  --cfs3]

This is indeed a tangled web. To the best of my knowledge, there is one
venture in which CBS does still retain business rights to the word
"Columbia," in a television programming distributorship to certain Asian and
African markets that it operates in conjunction with Sony; material from
both CBS and the otherwise unrelated Columbia Pictures is distributed
through this company.

Of course, it was Sony to whom CBS sold the Columbia Records division (that
had given it its name) in the late '80s; at that time, the record label we
in the States know as Columbia Records had to adopt the CBS Records business
name in most other parts of the world because the British conglomerate EMI
owned the "Columbia Records" name in those territories. Interestingly, in
Japan, the label was known as Sony/CBS because Toshiba and EMI jointly owned
the "Columbia Records" name there. Even more complicating was Canada, where
both "Columbia Records" (English-language) and "Disques CBS"
(French-language) were used simultaneously for decades. Eventually, there
was even a CBS Records label that surfaced in the United States on which
material from the classical Columbia Masterworks label was reissued, and the
Spanish-language "Discos CBS" was used for [removed] pressings for the Hispanic
market (previously, that label was manufactured in Mexico and its pressings
imported to the United States).

Sometime in the early '90s, Sony bought the "Columbia Records" name from EMI
and started using that brand worldwide, with EMI retaining its old "Columbia
Records" material and reissuing it on its various other brands (EMI,
Capitol, Odeon) while Sony scrapped the "CBS Records" branding in most
territories and reissued their "CBS Records" material on Columbia.

In the meanwhile, of course, the CBS Radio and TV networks have merged three
times with other companies (Westinghouse, Infinity Broadcasting and Viacom),
and, while both NBC and ABC continue to use their full historic corporate
names (check the copyright statements at the end of some broadcasts), "CBS"
(and co-owned TV network "UPN") have become just a sequence of letters.

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:19:37 -0500
From: Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Yet ANOTHER CBS 75th Error

On the 76th Anniversary and Two Months special, they made yet another
faux-pas.

In the short segment on "daytime dramas", they stated that "CBS began
'The Guiding Light' on Radio in 1937".

WRONG!!!

"The Guiding Light" *DID* begin on Radio in 1937, [removed]

Proctor & Gamble began the serial on the *NBC* Radio Network in 1937.

It wasn't until about ten years later, in 1947, when "The Guiding Light"
moved over to CBS RAD))|((O.

While "The Guiding Light" was on CBS *MUCH MUCH* longer than it ever was
on NBC (Radio), it did begin on NBC Radio, *NOT* CBS Radio.

It started on CBS-TV in 1952 and has remained there ever since. The CBS
Radio version ceased in 1956.

The CBS anniversary special *could/should* have stated that "The Guiding
Light" started on radio in 1937 "on another network", and switched over
to CBS Radio in 1947, then started on CBS-TV in 1952 where it has
remained  ever since.

That would have been correct, without having to mention NBC by
name/letters.

Just yet another ERROR on the part of [removed]

Mark J. Cuccia
mcuccia@[removed]
New Orleans LA USA

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:19:52 -0500
From: "Dave Walter" <fredallenfan@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Captain Kangaroo, Lee Marvin, and Mister
 Rogers

Jerry Lewine passed along:

Subject: Captain Kangaroo, Lee Marvin, and Mister Rogers

There's a page at [removed] debunking this urban myth. In fact,
while Bob Keeshan indeed once served in the military, but not in the
incident this piece claims, Fred Rogers never served in the military at all.

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:20:42 -0500
From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  1937

Hi everybody,

I receive a question from an author who is working on a biography on Glenn
Ford.  He want to know what kind of recording device was use at Paramount
back in 1937, when they would make their radio movie preview  shows?  Glenn
was a radio announcer and he recalled that he did his part live while they
played the sound tack to produces the recording.  Glenn said it was some
thing he never saw before.  Take care,

Walden Hughes

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:21:49 -0500
From: George Aust <austhaus1@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Fireside Chats

Kenneth Clarke asked about FDR's famous Fireside Chats, how many of them
there were, and if any of them are available.
As to how many there were, you probably will not get the same answer
twice from different people. They weren't labeled  Fireside Chats by the
White house. I think it may have been a member of the press who gave
them that name early on in the Roosevelt Administration.

I have 17 broadcasts which have been labeled  Fireside Chats, but some
of those are also called speeches by others. FDR did make alot of
speeches from the Whitehouse, but certainly they did not all have the
intimacy associated with the Fireside Chats.
Most of my cassettes came from Book Of The Month Club Records in 1984. I
don't know if they are still available from them.
Some Chats and Speeches are available from the Roosevelt Library at Hyde
Park. Although I haven't checked for some time now, they were offering a
very limited selection of them on cassette. I believe you could request
specific speeches from them, but if I remember right it was expensive.

I have the following Chats in my collection. 3-12-33 (the first chat)
5-7-33,  9-30-34,  4-28-35,
9-6-37,  4-14-38, 6-24-38,  9-3-39,  5-26-40,  9-11-41,  12-9-41,
2-23-42,  4-28-42, 10-12-42,  7-28-43,  6-5-44

Some of these I have seen on MP3 collections.  As you may deduce I am a
news junkie, and collect news broadcasts as well as speeches.

As to Eleanor Roosevelt, yes she was on radio, only I don't know if I'd
use the phrase "appear" :-)
According to Dunning she began broadcasting [removed] 1932( when she was on
the First Lady elect) for Ponds Cream in 9 minute talks.  She had
various shows through the presidential years and beyond.  I've not been
able to find any of these broadcasts, although I do have some shows
where she appeared as a guest. I can't remember the name of any of those
right now. You'd think that the Roosevelt Library would offer some of
these, but the last I checked none were available and my question
regarding their availability seemed to throw them into a bewildered tizzy.
I hope that some of this information is helpful.
George Aust

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:22:14 -0500
From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: CBS at 75

Some of you might find this interesting. I just finished recording the CBS
special on my DVD recorder which has a built in hard drive. It allows me to
do some editing before burning the material to a DVD. So I cut out all the
commercials and the 3 hour special ended up being 2 hours and 16 minutes
including opening and closing titles.

I haven't watched all of it yet, but they did at least include some radio.
As usual in these television specials, the shows that were in color had the
longest clips and the shows in black and white had the shortest clips. This
is always a shame since in my opinion the best of television was back in
the 1950's and most of those shows were not in color.

Fred
[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:23:15 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  A Tube By Any Other Name ...

Jer51473, speaking of Bazooka Bob Burns, asks,

Has any one heard of how the actor Eddie Albert had something to do
with the ww2 bazooka or rocket launcher? I seem to recall some type of
connection.

I don't know about the Eddie Albert connection, but Bob Burns' musical
instrument, the Bazooka, looked very similar to the launch tube for the
rocket, so the weapon was named after the instrument.

There are a couple of generations that probably have never heard about
the musical instrument.  Later military history texts will probably have
a footnote explaining the origin of the weapon's name.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:23:30 -0500
From: "Kurt E. Yount" <blsmass@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Lee Marvin story

Here is a reply from my father, a former major in the marines.
Kurt, The Lee Marvin story has made the rounds several times. If you do a
GOOGLE search on Arlington National Cemetery you may be able to confirm
that it was just a story.  Dad  If somebody wants to do the search, I
think that is what they will find.  Kurt

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:23:48 -0500
From: Howard Blue <khovard@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  thanks from Howard Blue

I would like to give a heartfelt thank you to my friends who attended the
recent FOTR convention in Newark and for the many congratulations given
to me for receiving the Ray Stanich award for my book, WORDS AT  WAR.  I
am especially grateful to the members of the committee who selected me
for the honor.

Howard Blue

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:24:06 -0500
From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Reel to reel tapes that squeak

Harry, there is a way of baking the tape. I don't have the specs handy
right now, but the temperature is so low that I found that by just having
the light bulb turned on in an oven with the door closed, would reach the
proper temperature. It is the time I will need to find and post.

Once you bake the tapes, transfer them immediately.

Fred
[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:24:31 -0500
From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Baking audio tapes
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

Here is the article I found on baking tapes.

Fred
[removed]
Baking Tapes

by Pat Kirtley

PainPete@[removed] wrote:

This problem can occur under certain circumstances even with well-adjusted
machines and high quality tapes. But there is a lot of tape made in the mid
and late 70's that is now shedding like crazy due to binder formulation
problems. That's a widespread problem.

I'm not advocating this, but I've heard anecdotal evidence that with old
reel tapes with this problem, baking them (yes! in the oven!) stabilized
the binder enough to make a transfer to newer tape. Time and/or temperature
information is missing from this story, but I bet it's well below what's
required to melt plastic!>

and Kim Corbet wrote:

...okay, this sounded bizarre when I first heard about it, but I believe
Bruce Richardson ([removed]@[removed]) had a recent studio project
where he had to salvage an archive of ancient tapes and used a, get this,
baking process in his kitchen [removed] somehow re-applied the material
to the tape.  I don't know temps or other details, but I'm sure he'd be
happy to share his family recipe.

Yes!  Ive heard of this technique before too.  I believe the method was
originated by an archivist at the Library of Congress.  I went searching on
the web for references and found this
at:
<[removed];http://sul-ser
[removed]

Regardless of what format is used, the following are the most common tape
problems:
    * Sticky residue or powder on tape, which makes it difficult to play
the tape.
    * Binder degradation (oxide flaking off the basefilm).
    * Physical damage due to poor tape recorder maintenance.

The sticky-tape / -powder problem can be temporarily relieved by baking the
tape for at least eight hours at 550C (1300F), and an extreme case may
require 18 to 24 hours.   A convection oven is recommended for this
procedure.  This heating process makes the tape usable for a few weeks and
can be repeated many times.  I recommend copying any tapes that develop
this problem because their long-term durability is questionable.

The second problem, binder degradation, can sometimes be reversed by
storing the tapes in a cold and dry environment for a couple of weeks.  The
third problem of tape damage is usually caused by one edge of the tape
being curled and is the result of an improperly aligned tape transport.  A
severe case of edge damage, pleating, or creasing is usually difficult to
play, but I have developed a method of correcting the problem so that the
tape is at least [removed]

The rest of the article at the web site is interesting, and there is also
another good article at:
<[removed];[removed]
[removed]
entitled The Care and Handling of Recorded Sound Materials,by Music
Division, National Library Of Canada.

I would caution that this drying method appears to be workable for
polyester-, etc., based tape formulations from the 70s and 80s, but for
tapes made before the mid 60s, which use an acetate base, baking and drying
could cause severe tape breakage problems.  Hope this helps!

More articles by Pat Kirtley:

<[removed];Good
Old-fashioned Tape Looping |
<[removed];The Case of
the Squeaking Tape
tml>

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

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:24:41 -0500
From: Mahlon Wagner <mwagner2@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Musical War of the Worlds--where?

Does anyone know if the Musical War of the Worlds is available to either
listen to or to download on the internet?
If this has already been answered I apologize.
Many thanks
Mahl

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:24:59 -0500
From: "Ivan G. Shreve, Jr." <iscreve@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Not quite off-topic, but of major interest
 to classic film comedy fans

I've just read where Universal will be releasing a 2 DVD set on February 10.
2004 entitled "The Best of Abbott & Costello, Volume 1."  The discs will
contain the first eight features of Bud and Lou:  "One Night in the
Tropics," "Buck Privates," "In the Navy," "Hold That Ghost," "Keep 'Em
Flying," "Ride 'Em Cowboy," "Pardon My Sarong," and "Who Done It?"

May I be the first one to say--yowsah!

Ivan

OTR Ramblings and Musings:
[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:25:09 -0500
From: CharlieK22@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Looking for complete Rathbone/Bruce Sherlock
 Holmes Radio   series
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

Does anyone know where I can get a hold of these shows? MP3 is ok. Please
email me with any help.

Thanks

charlie

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

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 10:21:39 -0500
From: "Neil Marsh" <Neil@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  RE: Musical "War of the Worlds"

One correction: this came out in 1978--which makes this the 25th
anniversary.  It's a shame no one thought to re-release it in a
commemorative edition.

This might be because Jeff Wayne produced one for the 20th anniversary,
which featured 4 modernized remixes of several of the songs as bonus
tracks. I believe some of these were also used as background to the GT
Interactive video game based on the album, which came out the following
year.

-//

---
Neil Marsh * Neil@[removed]      | Careful ... of the edge!
Cambridge, MA * [removed] |            - "Nightfall"

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

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 12:04:38 -0500
From: Al Girard <24agirard24@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Reel to reel tapes that squeak

A search on Yahoo or Google for baking tapes brings up all sorts of
information on
how to restore squeeking tapes.

Al Girard

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #398
*********************************************

Copyright [removed] Communications, York, PA; All Rights Reserved,
  including republication in any form.

If you enjoy this list, please consider financially supporting it:
   [removed]

For Help: [removed]@[removed]

To Unsubscribe: [removed]@[removed]

To Subscribe: [removed]@[removed]
  or see [removed]

For Help with the Archive Server, send the command ARCHIVE HELP
  in the SUBJECT of a message to [removed]@[removed]

To contact the listmaster, mail to listmaster@[removed]

To Send Mail to the list, simply send to [removed]@[removed]