Subject: [removed] Digest V2004 #149
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 4/29/2004 11:57 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2004 : Issue 149
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Re: Lucy on the Radio                 [ GOpp@[removed] ]
      Lucy and ... Roy Rowan                [ Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed]; ]
      Tizzie Lish                           [ Udmacon@[removed] ]
      Mary Lou Harrington                   [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]
      Re:Wonderful Voices                   [ Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@sbcglo ]
      Mayor of Doodyville                   [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
      Metropolitan Opera Radio              [ Bob Fells <rfells@[removed]; ]
      Good News for Old ETs                 [ Bob Fells <rfells@[removed]; ]
      Re: Lucy on radio                     [ "Michael J. Hayde" <michaelhayde@ea ]
      Tizzie Lish                           [ art-funk@[removed] ]
      Alfred Hitchcock                      [ Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 20:03:33 -0400
    From: GOpp@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:  Lucy on the Radio

>     Lucy appeared in at least six episodes of SUSPENSE on CBS Radio.
>     ...
>     Lucy also must have appeared in various radio commedy/variety shows at
>     times, most likely with Desi in the later 1940s and into the 1950s.
>     I wonder if she appeared on Jack Benny's radio show? He appeared on
>     several episodes of "The Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy" on CBS TV in the
>     1960s/70s.

    No, Lucy never appeared on Jack Benny's radio show. And even though they
    were both at CBS Columbia Square, she never attended a Benny broadcast,
    until my father (Jess Oppenheimer) handed her a pair of Jack Benny
    tickets
    because he thought she could learn something by watching the master
    comedian at work. At the time he was head writer, producer and director
    of "My Favorite Husband."

    Here's the whole story, from Dad's memoir, "Laughs, [removed] Lucy":

    Even with all of the changes in the show, I still had a problem--
    Lucy was relatively stiff working in front of an audience.
    She just didn't have the wildly antic quality that I was looking for.
    I had been trying for some time to get her and Dick Denning to loosen up
    and act out the jokes and reactions, to dramatize what was going on,
    instead of just standing there waiting to read the next line
    when the laugh subsided.  I knew how effective this could be
    from watching Jack Benny do his radio program.  Jack would lay his hand
    against his cheek, open his eyes wide, and look out at the studio
    audience,
    slowly changing his point of view, like a comic lighthouse.  And as long
    as
    he looked, they laughed.

    Dick Denning was a lost cause.  When I tried to explain to him what
    I was looking for, he simply said, "If I take my eyes or my finger
    off that script, I'll never find my place again."

    I remember telling Lucy, "Let go.  Act it out.  Take your time."
    But she was simply afraid to try.  So one day, at rehearsal,
    I handed Lucy a couple of Jack Benny tickets.

    She looked at me blankly.  "What are these for?"

    "I want you to go to school," I told her.

    It did the trick.  When Lucy came into the studio for the next rehearsal,
    I could see she was excited.  "Oh my God, Jess," she gushed, "I didn't
    realize!"

    She just couldn't wait to get started trying out the new, emancipated
    attitude
    she had discovered.  On that week's show Lucy really hammed it up,
    playing
    it much broader than she ever had before.  She coupled this with her
    newfound freedom of movement, and there were times I thought we'd
    have to catch her with a butterfly net to get her back to the microphone.

    The audience roared their approval, and Lucy loved it.  So did I.

    Jack Benny eventually became one of Lucy's biggest fans, as well as her
    next door neighbor when she and Desi moved to Beverly Hills.  And six
    years after I asked Lucy to attend that broadcast of the Jack Benny
    Program,
    Jack repaid the compliment. He required all of his writers to "go to
    school"
    by attending a special screening of "I Love Lucy"--the episode in which
    William Holden sets fire to Lucy's nose.
    ============================

    More excerpts are available online at

    [removed]

>     There is also that obscure reference to "I Love Lucy" also airing on the
>     CBS Radio Network for a while in the early 1950s. I have never found any
>     reference to it on CBS Radio in any radio listings of the New York Times
>     or any other newspaper listings I have researched or other radio
>     schedule sources. Of course, all I have immediate access to would be
>     Eastern/Central time zone parts of CBS Radio (or any other network).
>     I wonder if the Pacific Coast part of the CBS Radio Network had an "I
>     Love Lucy" in Summer 1952? There *IS* at least ONE "I Love Lucy" radio
>     episode in circulation, and it mentions that it is the Summer
>     replacement for the "Helen Hayes Theater". I guess this would have been
>     in June or July of 1952. Maybe it was something that only aired on the
>     west coast? Maybe it was a pilot/audition which never aired or made it
>     into a regular Summer replacement series? But the one episode that
>     floats around is "Break the Lease", and all it is, is an audio
>     soundtrack of the TV episode. There is some added radio/audio narration
>     by Desi "as Ricky", and the Philip Morris cigarette commercials are
>     radio version commercials. Announcer John Stevenson does some added
>     radio-only announcing including the "This is the CBS Radio Network"
>     outcue at the end, and so forth.

    As far as I know,  the I Love Lucy radio show was never broadcast.

    The idea to make a radio show out of the "I Love Lucy" soundtrack
    was born quite accidentally in February, 1952. By that time, "I Love
    Lucy"
    was the number 2 show on television, trailing only Arthur Godfrey's
    "Talent Scouts". CBS executive Hal Hudson was sitting at home with his
    wife watching an episode of "I Love Lucy" entitled "Breaking the Lease"
     when his picture tube went out. So he and his wife "watched" the entire
    half hour with sound only.  Hal had seen the picture in a projection room
    and was able to fill his wife in on the visual aspects of the story, but
    they
    both nevertheless agreed that the soundtrack alone was pretty
    entertaining.
    Hudson phoned Jess Oppenheimer the next day and they decided having the
     soundtrack serve "double duty" (both TV and radio) was a possibility.

    Within a few weeks, a "radio test" version of "I Love Lucy: Breaking the
    Lease"
    was produced, complete with commercials and additional narration by
    Desi Arnaz. It was never broadcast. By April, Oppenheimer decided that
    producing a weekly radio show in this manner just wasn't worth the extra
    effort
    that such a project would entail. He was also concerned that he and the
    other
    "Lucy" writers might find themselves straining to make the TV scripts fit
    both
    TV and radio and that the series might suffer as a result.

    - Gregg Oppenheimer
    [removed]

    ---------------------------------
    Laughs, [removed] Lucy:
    How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time
    by Jess Oppenheimer with Gregg Oppenheimer
    312 pages, plus FREE "Lucy's Lost Scenes" Audio CD
    "A must-have for true Lucy lovers!" - TV Guide Online
    "Wonderful! I never wanted it to end!" - Lucie Arnaz
    ---------------------------------
    Order a copy (or download a FREE chapter!)
    at [removed]
    ---------------------------------
    ALL PROCEEDS benefit the
    Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
    [removed]

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

    Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 22:01:44 -0400
    From: Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Lucy and ... Roy Rowan

    On Wed 28 Apr 2004, Dixon Hayes wrote:

>     Mark J. Cuccia wrote:

> >     Suspense: 17-Nov- 1949  "The Red Headed Woman" (also with Desi)

>     This particular "Suspense" show surprised me when I heard it once
>     because apparently, it was remade (or at least the central premise was
>     borrowed) years later on TV as an "I Love Lucy" episode.  The "Lucy"
>     episode in question is the one where Lucy and Ethel hitch a ride to
>     Florida with a woman in a convertible, and they think the woman is a
>     trunk murderer, based on a series of news bulletins on the radio.
>     (She also thinks the same of them.)

    Regarding the "news bulletins on the (car) radio" that Lucy and Ethel
    hear while riding in Mrs Grundy's (played by Elsa Lancaster) auto, the
    man who did the voice-over news bulletins about the hatchet murderess,
    was Roy Rowan. (He wasn't credited though)

    Many of us are familiar with CBS (and Desilu) announcer Roy Rowan.

    He started with the Columbia Broadcasting System (in Hollywood) back in
    the late 1940s and is heard on NUMEROUS CBS Radio broadcasts originating
    out of Columbia Square in Hollywood (Sunset & Gower) from the later
    1940s all the way to circa 1959. At various times, he announced for
    Suspense, Gunsmoke, Escape, Philip Marlowe, Johnny Dollar, and many many
    other CBS Radio series of that [removed]

    "This is Roy Rowan [removed] This is CBS, where you laugh with Jack
    Benny every Sunday night, the Columbia Broadcasting System".

    Roy Rowan was also a regular announcer for CBS Television out of
    Hollywood, and Lucy had him do a lot of announcing for the opening
    and/or closing credits and themes of Desilu-owned/produced and
    Desilu-filmed (though not "owned" by Desilu but rather by others) TV
    series as well!

    In the 1960 TWLIGHT ZONE episode with Keenan Wynn who has that old radio
    that picks up old radio shows of the 1930s/40s ("STATIC" which BTW was
    *NOT* "filmed" at MGM, but one of the six TZ episodes that was
    VIDEOTAPED at CBS Television City Hollywood), Roy Rowan's voice is heard
    announcing the old radio shows, and he is also heard doing the
    (fictitious) "Green" Chlorophyl Cigarette commercial on the TV in family
    room on that TZ episode. (He wasn't credited though)

    I have seen a tape of a kinescope of the 1951 Frank Sinatra (live) TV
    show on CBS-TV, and Roy Rowan's voice is heard doing the outcues for a
    local ID break every 15 [removed] The CBS-TV "eye" pops up-- the one
    with clouds and lettering inside with 'TELEVISION' and 'NETWORK' inside
    the 'pupil'.... and he says "This is the CBS Television Network". It
    seemed a bit strange to hear Rowan's voice outcue "Television" when I
    have heard him say "This is the CBS *RADIO* Network" or "This is CBS,
    the Columbia Broadcasting System" much more frequently! :-) Rowan also
    did some of the voiceovers for the live demonstration commercials, and
    did a promo for a CBS-TV public affiars program later in the week.

    On Lucy's CBS Radio "My Favorite Husband", I've always heard Bob Lamonde
    (sp?) as the announcer. I know he was also a regular announcer on the
    radio version of "Our Miss Brooks" as well. Lamonde and also John
    Stevenson were announcers you might hear on the closing credits of "I
    Love Lucy" from CBS-TV as well (and maybe "The Lucy Show" too). [removed]
    you also frequently hear Roy Rowan's voice close out with "I Love [removed]
    is a Desilu Production".

    I know that Roy Rowan's voice is heard on many opening/closing themes
    of "The Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy" as well. He had become a personal
    friend of Lucy's over the years.

    In some of the quiz show episodes of "I Love Lucy", with Jack Benny's
    Frank "YyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeEEESSS" Nelson playing quizmaster Freddie
    Fillmore, you sometimes *SEE* Roy Rowan as Fillmore's sidekick
    announcer. (Nelson also played the police desk sgt on the episode where
    Lucy and Ethel get arrested for cutting off the electrical power at the
    apartment, hoping to shut off Ricky and Fred watching the fights on TV;
    Nelson also played Ralph Ramsey, husband to Mary Jane Croft's Betty
    Ramsey, on those last few "Connecticut" episodes)

    In some of those 50th Anniversary specials of "I Love Lucy" two or three
    years ago, there are some clips of the pre-show audience "warmup"
    segment at the Desilu studios, and you see Roy Rowan and Desi Arnaz both
    sort of acting as "showman barkers" cracking jokes and encouraging the
    audience to laugh and pass a good time!

    There are some "Shokus Video" tapes of 1950s/60s CBS-TV shows (usually
    shows *owned* by CBS-TV, such as Rawhide and Gilligan) where Roy Rowan's
    voice is recognizeable as the commercial "billboard" announcer.

    Roy Rowan's voice is also heard doing announcing for various other
    Desilu shows too, that I have noticed on the unedited versions from
    "Shokus Video".

    There is a late 50s or early 60s (B&W) filmed episode of Jack Benny
    where Jack and Don reminisces about how Jack found announcer Don Wilson,
    and there is a skit of Jack having auditions. Roy Rowan is one of the
    tryouts, appearing on camera and identifying himself by his real name.
    Rowan was a non-descript "average" looking gentlemen, sort of tall and
    lanky, from what I have seen on this Jack Benny TV episode, and in the
    Freddie Fillmore quizmaster episodes of "I Love Lucy", as well as the
    Roy Rowan and Desi Arnaz audience-warmup segments before the actual
    filming of an "I Love Lucy" episode.

    (In that Jack Benny TV show, several other long-time Hollywood radio/TV
    and movie voiceover announcers also appear as "tryouts" for Jack's
    announcer, all acting very professionally; But Don Wilson appears all
    fat and slobbery, I think as a hillbilly or country bumpkin, and that
    seems to be exactly what Jack is looking for! :-)

    Roy Rowan was still doing some occasional voiceover announcing duties
    for CBS-TV even into the 1980s. I don't know if it still exists, but
    there used to be an mp3 or ra audio clip "somewhere" on the net of the
    opening theme song of (I think) "Falcon Crest", which was immediately
    followed by a voice-over commercial billboard (Falcon Crest, sponsored
    by new [removed] ), and it was the voice of a much more "elderly" Roy
    Rowan. The webpage I happened to find this at some years back even
    mentioned the name of Roy Rowan as the "billboard" announcer.

    Actually, I just now did a "google" search on "Roy Rowan" and "CBS" and
    came up with a page of 1980s TV theme songs
    [removed]
    and there are several examples of "Falcon Crest", but one of them from
    1986, [removed] and it states
    "An aircheck that includes a sponsor billboard voiced by late CBS staff
    announcer Roy Rowan."

    He passed away 10-May-1998, according to a  now (ironically) "dead" URL,
    [removed]

    "May 10, 1998 - Lucille Ball's announcer and longtime pal Roy Rowan has
    died in Encino, CA, on May 10 of heart failure at the age of 78. He
    joined CBS in 1950 and soon became the announcer and warm-up man for
    "I Love Lucy." Lucy and Roy became personal friends and in the years that
    followed, Lucy always found a job for Roy. He was the announcer on all
    of her TV shows including "The Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy." In 1974,
    when "Here's Lucy" went off the air, Roy became a media broker, handling
    the sales of TV and radio stations across the country. --guest obit by
    Delf (Added 5-14-1998)"

    Actually, Rowan had been with CBS (Radio) since around 1947 or 48, as
    most of us know from hearing his voice and self-identification on all
    those great CBS Radio dramas of the later 1940s!

    As for the "dead" link/URL, it can be viewed with the
    [removed] resource, under several different
    "date-specific" archived resources, one of them being:

    [removed][removed]

    We all LOVE Lucy, and also miss Roy Rowan too!
    (But as for [removed] I HATE JACK BENNY [removed]! :-)

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

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

    Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 22:06:33 -0400
    From: Udmacon@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Tizzie Lish

    Just got this quote from Tizzie Lish off some website:

    "Here's a recipe for Veronica Lake potato bread. Use one-eyed
    potatoes"--Tizzie Lish

    BTW, as a kid I remember seeing "her" when Al Pierce was on early television
    with a series. VERY [removed]

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

    Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 23:25:33 -0400
    From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Mary Lou Harrington

    Hi Everybody,

    does any one know what happen to Mary Lou Harrington after her days on One
    Man Family?  Take care,

    Walden Hughes

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

    Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 00:30:18 -0400
    From: Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re:Wonderful Voices

    At 07:05 PM 4/28/2004, Art Funk wrote:

>     Besides Milton Cross' wonderful [removed]

    My personal favorite "wonderful radio voice" was the all-night personality
    in Chicago on WGN, Franklyn MacCormack.

    [removed]

    The Met has probably sent me twenty in-the-mailbox pieces of mail in the
    last nine or ten months. In the previous twenty years they probably sent me
    half a dozen pieces of mail. It seems to me they are trying hard to recruit
    new members. I have also received perhaps half a dozen pieces of mail from
    the Lyric Opera (I live near Chicago) and that is typical. For what it's
    worth, I have never belonged to any opera organization nor have I ever
    attended an opera.

    Don Shenbarger

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

    Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 08:16:34 -0400
    From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Mayor of Doodyville

    I find it fascinating how many things from years ago get forgotten by people who are at least
    in a position to remember.  What's surprised me lately is how few people, who are old
    enough, can remember who was mayor of Doodyville before Mr. Bluster. Oddly enough,
    Eddie Kean, who wrote the show back then, didn't remember.

    OK, who remembers?  Who was mayor before Mr. Bluster?

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

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

    Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 09:38:38 -0400
    From: Bob Fells <rfells@[removed];
    To: Old Time Radio <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Metropolitan Opera Radio

    I don't think this has been mentioned but Naxos Records issued a number
    of complete radio broadcasts of Met Opera performances from the 1930s
    and 40s on CD a few years back. Many of these included Milton Cross's
    commentaries and at least one had the intermission feature from the mid
    and late 1930s where legendary soprano Geraldine Farrar discussed the
    various arias and accompanied herself on the piano when she sang them.

    The bad news about the Naxos series is that copyright restrictions
    prevented their being sold in the US.  Oddly, Tower Records imported
    them here and a few titles may still linger in some of the stores. Why
    the Met itself doesn't issue these performances is a mystery to me.

    Bob Fells

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

    Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 10:15:53 -0400
    From: Bob Fells <rfells@[removed];
    To: Old Time Radio <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Good News for Old ETs

    There is a news story today stating that particle physicists at the
    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California are using sensor
    light to scan the grooves of old recordings to digitally reconstruct the
    sound.  According to the story, this technique is "non-contact" and does
    not use a stylus (needle).  As a result, not only are clicks and pops
    eliminated as can be done currently with the CEDAR process, but
    background noise is also eliminated.  Best of all, cracked or even
    broken discs that are unplayable can be digitally reassembled.

    I don't what sort of audiophiles these scientists are because the story
    also suggests that the reconstructed soundtracks can then be copied onto
    mp3 discs for playback!  Huh?

    Bob Fells

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

    Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 11:28:59 -0400
    From: "Michael J. Hayde" <michaelhayde@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Lucy on radio

    Jan Krzok provided a lengthy list of Lucille Ball radio appearances culled
    from the Lucy-Desi Museum website.  Interesting that her guest shot with Dean
    Martin & Jerry Lewis isn't mentioned, especially since it is in circulation.
    But then, that was an audition (or series pilot, if you prefer) recorded on
    or about December 21, 1948 - and despite what you'll find on various online
    logs and .mp3 collections, that program never aired as part of "The Martin &
    Lewis Show."  The script was cannibalized and partially rewritten to suit the
    guest on the premiere show: Bob Hope.

    Michael

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

    Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 13:41:50 -0400
    From: art-funk@[removed]
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Tizzie Lish

    In Digest 148 Arthur Emerson mentioned the Tizzie Lish character of Bill
    Comstock on the Al Pierce show.

    In the late 1970s there was a TV drama series called Family which starred
    James Broderick and Sada Thompson as parents of a middle class family.  I
    remember Sada Thompson's character often referred to her daughter Letitia
    "Buddy" Lawrence as "Tizzie Lish."  It seemed a peculiar nickname but at the
    time I did not know the origin.  Funny how OTR references pop up from time
    to time on TV and in movies even today.

    Regards to all,
    Art Funk

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

    Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 13:42:06 -0400
    From: Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Alfred Hitchcock

    Ron Sayles wrote:

    08-13-1899 - Alfred Hitchcock - London, England - d.
    4-29-1980 host: "Murder by Experts"

    When was Hitchcock on Murder by Experts? I know John
    Dickson Carr hosted it, and somebody else (whose name
    escapes me).  Hitchcock was on the audition for
    Suspense (07/22/40, The Lodger).

    Kermyt

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #149
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