Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #28
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 1/20/2003 2:44 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2003 : Issue 28
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Archie's Audience                     [ "welsa" <welsa@[removed]; ]
  Reference question                    [ "welsa" <welsa@[removed]; ]
  Hillbilly Heaven                      [ claudianross@[removed] (John Ross ]
  Tutorial on converting files?         [ "James Erskine" <cominghomemag@msn. ]
  assistance please                     [ "parker2" <parker2@[removed]; ]
  Richard Crenna                        [ Kenneth Clarke <kclarke5@[removed]; ]
  mutual 12-7-41                        [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]
  Thank You                             [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]
  Censors                               [ William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed]; ]
  Richard Crenna-Kathleen Nolan         [ "timl2002" <timl2002@[removed]; ]
  Clarabell on Howdy Doody Show?        [ Kenneth Clarke <kclarke5@[removed]; ]
  Mel Blanc-Gale Gordon Feud            [ Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed] ]
  Script typing                         [ Alan Chapman <[removed]@verizon. ]
  Thanks for the Compliments!           [ "Harlan Zinck" <buster@[removed] ]
  An Importand Day in History           [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
  Re: "Radio Music Box"                 [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
  1940's Laser Disks?                   [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
  Hope's Suggestive Skit                [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
  HELP                                  [ "Keith Monroe" <keith7350@[removed] ]
  New Stories of OTR                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  wayne rainey wcky                     [ sweetnanajean@[removed] ]
  Fulton Lewis                          [ chris chandler <chrischandler84@yah ]

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 09:23:54 -0500
From: "welsa" <welsa@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Archie's Audience

A question for the eternal Jughead.  Hal, what, in your memory, was the
average age range for the studio audience of Archie.

In years of working with kids, I was always told that beginning about 4th or
5th grade, children prefer stories about other children slightly older than
themselves.  So, late elementary kids like stories about junior high age
ones; junior high kids like senior high stories.  Don't know if this is
true, but I have heard it several times.

Keeping that in mind, it would seem that your audiences should have
by-and-large been junior high age kids.  I'm just wondering if that's what
they were.

Ted

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 10:07:16 -0500
From: "welsa" <welsa@[removed];
To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Reference question

One of the propblems with transcribing scripts from tape to paper is that
there are often references which one is not sure how to spell.  And of
course, we're not always sure what they mean.

We recently finished an Our Miss Brooks script from march 5, 1950.  There
are two things there which we are not sure about.  I'm somebody in this
august body can clear them up.

1)  Here is line Stretch Snodgrass  has.

STRETCH: Gee, Walter, you got a mind like Mack LaBelly.
At least, it sounds like he says Mack LaBelly.  Anyone know who or what this
refers to?

Second, there is a scene where Osgood Conklin is being read a list of his
shortcomings.  The line Connie Brooks has is this--

MISS BROOKS: Wait'll you hear this. (Reading) "I readily admit that on many
occasions I have acted like a pompous, puffed-up, ill-tempered, avocated
blowhard."

Well, it sure sounds like "avocated", but that word doesn't get past my
spell checker.  Any thoughts on what was really said?

Ted

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 11:14:01 -0500
From: claudianross@[removed] (John Ross Weber)
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Hillbilly Heaven
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There appears to be quite a line-up at the gates.  First, January 2nd Jim
McReynolds (of Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys) passed away at the age of
75.  Next, Buzz Busby , (Buzz Busby and the Bayou Boys)at the age of 69,  on
January 8th.  And now Hylo Brown.  And it's only the 20th of January!
Has anyone done an extensive interview with Richard Crenna concerning the OMB
years?  My wife and I have become big fans of Our Miss Brooks and would enjoy
reading any  behind the scenes  lore.  Especially the Jeff Chandler years.
(And the product placement!!)

John Ross Weber
Munich

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Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 12:54:25 -0500
From: "James Erskine" <cominghomemag@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Tutorial on converting files?

Greetings fellow OTR Digest listers,

Does anyone know of a written or online guide or tutorial on converting .mp3
files to .wav files for burning as Audio CDs?

Or is there a free / shareware program that will accomplish this conversion
easily?

Have a few friends wanting to know the easiest way to do this.

Thanks,

Jim E

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 12:55:05 -0500
From: "parker2" <parker2@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  assistance please
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I am looking for information and shows that were broadcast to the military
from the beginning ([removed] Jill) to the current broadcasts to the [removed] I
have acquired some Command performance and [removed] Jive shows and some Vietnam
AFVN (Good Morning Vietnam) actual recordings not he movie. If you know of a
source for these I would appreciate it-

Respectfully

Paul Kasper
parker2@[removed]    [removed] My main site-

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 12:55:46 -0500
From: Kenneth Clarke <kclarke5@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Richard Crenna

          I was saddened to hear about the loss of one of many
talented OTR performers, Richard Crenna.  He was known
to many as the actor who portrayed Walter Denton on
"Our Miss Brooks" (both on OTR and early television.  He
was very talented at slipping into a role and making it his own.
He worked not only on OTR, but in television and films as
well.  He is one of the few actors who could be typecast.  This
is evident by the wide range of characters he portrayed in his
long illustrious career.  He played everything from a nerdy
high school student, a farmer, a hard-as-nails military officer,
and most recently, a millionaire.

          Anyone who's ever seen or heard him at work knows what
a wonderful actor he was.

Kenneth Clarke

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 12:55:54 -0500
From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  mutual 12-7-41

Hi Everybody, does any know where I can get a copy of this broadcast on
mutual of 12-7-41?  I would be happy to feature it on my Saturday night
show.  Take care,

Walden Hughes

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 12:54:36 -0500
From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Thank You

Hi Everybody, I would like to thank Gen nice posting, and I bet  Charlie
does too.  Take care,

Walden Hughes

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 12:55:31 -0500
From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Censors

There has been some comment lately about censorship in old time radio. I
do not remember an actual board of censors. However, the NAB (National
Association Of Broadcasters) had certain standards that their members
abided by. I do recall an incident in the early thirties when the word
"lousy" was considered improper. It was used quite often by local station
early morning broadcasters to describe the weather at their locations.
They coined a new phrase. The weather is "wousy" here in Cleveland this
morning.  A very resourceful  group.

Bill Murtough

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 13:07:28 -0500
From: "timl2002" <timl2002@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Richard Crenna-Kathleen Nolan

    Kathleen Nolan left the Real McCoys in the 1962-63 season supposedly
because of a money [removed] McCoy became a widower and the plots
revolved around Luke's finding a new wife.  The series was canceled in
September 1963 after a 6-year run.  Walter Brennan, The Star of the Real Mc
Coys was also an accomplished Movie actor (3 academy awards) and Radio
performer.

Tim Lones

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 13:15:54 -0500
From: Kenneth Clarke <kclarke5@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Clarabell on Howdy Doody Show?

          Wasn't Clarabell portrayed by Bob Keeshan, the same
man who later made Captain Kangaroo famous?

          I'm a big fan of  the OTR program  "Our Miss Brooks".  There's
no one who could play high school teacher Connie Brooks better
than Eve Arden.  Was this the only OTR program on which she
appeared?  Surely, there were more!  I remember her playing sleuth
Hildegarde Withers in a movie and in one of the later episodes of
"Ellery Queen" (playing an ailing mystery maven).

          If anyone has any examples of various roles she played on OTR,
I'd like to know about them.  Did she always play comedic roles or
did she branch out into other type roles, too?

Kenneth Clarke

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 13:17:16 -0500
From: Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Mel Blanc-Gale Gordon Feud

Mike Thompson  asks about the source of animosity between Gale Gordon and
Mel Blanc.

Blanc writes about it in his book, THAT'S NOT ALL FOLKS! [Warner Books,
1988].  "About the only person in our informal clique that I didn't get
along with was Gale Gordon, the 1930's radio voice of Flash Gordon, among
many others.  He also played Lucille Ball's crusty, tormented foil on TV's
'The Lucy Show' and 'Here's Lucy.'  If ever there was an example of
typecasting, Gordon as Theodore J. Mooney and Harrison Otis Carter
(essentially a reprise of the same role) was it.

"I ran into him a few days after Noel was born and announced proudly,
'Gale, guess what --- I'm a father!

"His eyes narrowed, his mouth puckered -- the same sourpuss expression for
which he'd later be paid exorbitantly -- and he sneered, 'Big deal!'  Not
only didn't  I  receive his good wishes, Gordon went into a tirade about
never wanting children because they 'pester you to death.'  I thought to
myself, You schmuck.  Ironically, he and his wife eventually adopted.  But
from that day on, I steered clear of him."(page 436)

Dennis Crow

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 13:43:24 -0500
From: Alan Chapman <[removed]@[removed];
To: Old-Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Script typing

 > And how could you ever perform a script written by Fred Allen?  Allen
 > never used the space bar on a typewriter.  All his words ran together!

Allen did use the space bar between words; it was the capital shift key
he never used.  I have photocopies of some of Allen's letters.

Alan Chapman

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 14:43:17 -0500
From: "Harlan Zinck" <buster@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Thanks for the Compliments!

My thanks to Steven Kostelecky and Ian Shreve for their recent "kudos" on
behalf of the Archives. We spend a great deal of volunteer time and effort
in locating, preserving, and restoring rare OTR shows from 16" disks; it's
great to know that our members are enjoying the shows they either purchase
or rent from us and are impressed by the quality of our work. Makes those
late nights and long hours all the more worthwhile.

Digest readers may be interested to know that we have just released a new
five-CD collection containing 21 complete fifteen-minute episodes of "Little
Orphan Annie" dating from 1936 and 1937 - all uncirculated, freshly
transferred from excellent condition 16" World Syndication electrical
transcriptions, and professionally restored for outstanding audio quality.
The set is available for half-price to Archives members throughout this
month.

For complete information about this and other recent CD releases - including
the ten-CD set of consecutive "Lum & Abner" shows from 1944 that Ian
mentioned, a four-CD set of holiday shows, a ten-CD set of uncirculated "Mr.
President" programs, and many others - visit our website and request a free
subscription to our e-mail newsletter. No cost, no obligation, no salesman
will call.

Harlan

Harlan Zinck
First Generation Radio Archives
[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 14:44:03 -0500
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  An Importand Day in History

Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., in a speech on Martin Luther King,
Jr.'s Birthday, began with this statement, "January 17th is an
important date in history. On this date in 1926, George Burns married
Gracie Allen. In 1946, the United Nations Security Council held its
first meeting. In 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., launched his
campaign for open housing in Chicago. Today we begin a weekend of
celebration around his life and work."

Thanks, Congressman, for reminding us. Happy Anniversary, George and Gracie.

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 14:44:28 -0500
From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re:  "Radio Music Box"

Thanks to Dan Hughes for the links to info on the research into the
Sarnoff's Radio Music Box memo.  But note that I was not the one who
suggested that Sarnoff had actually made a receiver.  I had quoted a 1943
newspaper piece Martin Grams Jr. had posted:  "The first radio receiving
set in this country was made in 1916. it was called the "Radio Musix Box"
and was the brain child of David Saroff.

I then replied that: "Sarnoff just wrote a memo, and did not actually make
the receiver." to which "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed]; argues:
But it doesn't say that he made the receiver. It says the receiver was his
"brain child."  Sarnoff wrote a memo, describing an idea that he had.
Unless someone else got the idea and he was stealing it, it sounds
to me as though the "adio Music Box" was his brain child.

But the statement does not mention the memo at all, just the receiver and
it specifically says that a receiver had been made.  But it is obvious that
the writer had taken his story from the legend of this memo and perhaps
mistakenly supposed that the memo accompanied such a receiver--something
that all the legends had never contended.  So he wrote about the fictional
receiver and ignored the memo.  The folklore about this memo is that it was
likewise ignored by the higher-ups at Marconi who received it.  But let us
suppose that if a receiver accompanying the memo HAD been made, who would
have made it?  Davey, of course.  Actually, amateur radio operators had
been making radio receivers for many years by then, but not of the type
suggested by Sarnoff in the memo.  No, it is evident that the writer of
this newspaper fluff piece took it upon himself to believe that a receiver
had been made in relationship to that memo without there being any evidence
of this.

Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 14:58:09 -0500
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  1940's Laser Disks?

The recent discussion of sending faxes in the early years of the last
century reminded me of another seeming anachronism, not strictly OTR
but a "record player" that was advertised around the late 40's as
playing sound with light rather than needles. I assume this was some
variation of the sound track on movie films rather than an actual
laser (which I'm pretty sure was invented later, but this group is
constantly surprising me with information as to how far back some
inventions go). Obviously, this technology never caught on. Does
anyone know anything about it?

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 15:24:03 -0500
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Hope's Suggestive Skit

"James Faulkner" <tsunami100@[removed]; was recalling a suggestive Bob
Hope Skit, in which Bob was commenting on the beauty of the night:

BOB:  Well, Mitzi, some do!
MITZI:  I DON'T!

I don't recall the dialogue as fully as James, but I do remember the
punchline was, "Some dew!" with the rejoinder, "Well, I DON'T."
Likely that was a typo on James's part.

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 15:24:31 -0500
From: "Keith Monroe" <keith7350@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  HELP

Please,
Can anyone help me find out why the Program
"Those were the Days" scheduled for Saturdays
on [removed] FM (Chicago-area) is no longer
broadcasted, or if there is a schedule change?

Thank you
Keith

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 16:03:49 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  New Stories of OTR

Yesterday at our meeting of the Milwaukee Area Radio Enthusiasts (MARE), I
purchased the book, It’s That Time Again; The New Stories of Old-Time Radio.
edited by Ben Ohmart. As president of the group I am so very proud that two of
the twenty authors of the book are members of our organization. Clair Schulz
who authored a story based on the Our Miss Brooks radio program entitled, ONE
PRINCIPAL TOO MANY, ONE PRINCIPAL TOO MEANIE and Mike Leannah, who is a
frequent contributor to this list, authored a story based on The Black Museum
radio program entitled, THE TICKET STUB. I feel very fortunate that we have
members of such high quality in our club.

I have only had the book a little over a day now and I am more than half way
through it, it is very difficult to put down. The stories are just fantastic,
it does take me back to a simpler era. In the first few pages Ben Ohmart
mentions that he has almost enough stories for another book like it, but it
depends on how this book does. BUY, BUY BUY! I for one would love to see
another book.

Thanks Ben, it is pure reading excitement. It is amazing that you could get
such a disparate group together to put out such a fine book.
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Make your day, listen to an Olde Tyme Radio Program

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

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 16:04:01 -0500
From: sweetnanajean@[removed]
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  wayne rainey wcky
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I just want to thank all you wonderful OTR buddies out there for helping bring
back a lot of fond memeries  THANK YOUALL YOU ARE THE BEST  Your old buddie
THE ALABAMA FLASH

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Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 16:26:48 -0500
From: chris chandler <chrischandler84@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Fulton Lewis

On Fulton Lewis, Elizabeth M [removed]

his only rival as an extemporaneous speaker was
probably H. V. Kaltenborn.

Another similarity that both men--be it contractually,
egotistically, or simply that they were good team
players--were very much network utility men, willing
to rush to the studio at any hour during a crisis.
Lewis was on the job early the morning Germany invaded
Poland; he took the air several times the night of
Pearl Harbor; and he stood on a streetcorner as FDR's
funeral cortege passed by in April, 1945.  Kaltenborn
was a similar presence for NBC, and though both men
were labelled 'commentators', their roles were
slightly different than the
15-sponsored-minutes-and-I'm-outta-here wartime work
of somebody like Lowell Thomas.

Personal politics [removed] you agree with him
or not,  his commentaries >were always
well-thought-out and clearly presented

Absolutely. A surviving Lewis broadcast from just
before the 1940 election presents as balanced an
overview as you could ask, and Lewis' Pearl Harbor
material, which includes several long off-the-cuff
broadcasts, sticks to facts, never devolving to the
rather ridiculous level of [removed] Kaltenborn's "There
has been no decisive military result of the attack.
One American warship has been [removed] attack on
the Hawaiian Islands is a failure".  (@1AM, 12/8/41)

I am most impressed, though, with Lewis' work on April
12, 1945, barely an hour after word that President
Roosevelt had died.  The air had been full, for weeks,
of top commentators' feeble justifications for both
Yalta and the President's obviously failing health.
Upon Roosevelt's return from Yalta, when NBC's
supposedly-objective New York anchor John W.
Vandercook announced "World peace is not a matter for
political parties", it rather obviously meant
listeners--and Republicans--weren't invited to quibble
with the agreements Roosevelt had made.  Just one
night earlier, NBC's Morgan Beatty--having watched
Roosevelt deliver his first-ever 'sitting down' speech
to Congress--proclaimed the President's health
"nothing to worry about".  He didn't have any way to
know that, and the visual evidence obviously pointed
the other direction.  Americans had their pick of
newspaper photos and newsreels, and weren't blind!

For his part, Lewis, the night the President died,
came right out and said "a child could see" the
President had been ill.  And while his electoral
preferences could rather easily be deduced, on this
night he followed his rather jarring "Millions of us
did not vote for Mr. Roosevelt" with a ringing
commentary on why those millions should also mourn.
It's quite moving, and far more honest than the Mutual
commentator who later annointed Roosevelt "the
greatest man in the history of the world".

Yes, I know Lewis later gave a platform to Senator
[removed]'m not talking politics, I'm only talking
about his war-themed work.  Many reporters of the day
WERE blinded by a distinctively-wartime brand of bias:
jingoism and/or hero worship when it came to various
generals and political leaders. Lewis, based on the
surviving evidence, wasn't, and whether it was
partially because of his political leanings or not
seems of little import.  When it came to war news, the
approach served his audience well.

chris

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #28
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