Subject: [removed] Digest V2013 #73
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 7/6/2013 8:35 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2013 : Issue 73
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Re: Lone Ranger film ...              [ "Bill Wilson" <[removed]@jacobsme ]
      Oldtime Radio app                     [ "Don Fisher" <dfisher052@[removed] ]
      The new Lone Ranger -- what a Silver  [ Derek Tague <thatderek@[removed]; ]
      This week in radio history 7-13 July  [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2013 22:16:47 -0400
    From: "Bill Wilson" <[removed]@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Lone Ranger film ...
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    The Lone Ranger movie a travesty?  What a shock!  Because they did SO well
    with The Green Hornet!   And The Shadow!  Today's movie-making generation
    doesn't understand what made these characters special was their lack of gray
    areas.  What's right is right, what's wrong is wrong.  And the ends do NOT
    justify the means.

      I'm not yet fifty, too young to have been with these characters at the
    inception, but old enough to appreciate and enjoy them in their innocence.  As
    long as these adaptations continue to be produced with snark and sarcasm, I
    will continue to boycott them.

      Slightly off-topic, Johnny Depp didn't do Barnabas Collins any favors,
    either! ;)

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

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

    Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2013 22:25:40 -0400
    From: "Don Fisher" <dfisher052@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Oldtime Radio app

    I have a Kindle Fire and have discovered 2 very interesting apps.

    One is called OTR Player and seems to have around 10,000 radio shows.
    The other is TuneIn which is an app that enables you to tune in to radio
    stations all over the world in excellent quality. One station in particular
    is an old time radio station on the BBC. I also happen to have that one on
    my computer.
    As Kindle apps are Android they might also be usable on any portable device
    that takes Android apps.
    Happy listening.

    Don Fisher

    [ADMINISTRIVIA: I admit I am perplexed at the Old Time Radio [removed] is
    nothing but a front-end to a series of XML files it downloads (in ZIP format)
    to low-bitrate encoded shows downloaded from elsewhere on the Net - someone
    with an interest in downloading all of those low-bitrate shows could easily
    feed the XML files to a downloader and have the entire collection relatively
    quickly. Seems to me it is much easier to go to a website and click the
    "Play" button, or use the Live365 streaming app and play Radio Once More. And
    if you're going to spend money, why not spend it with dealers who actually
    _do_ something for the hobby, those who originate shows, find the discs, and
    make them available so that leeches like this can sell them. There a quite a
    few of those dealers here on the Digest - they're the ones who take the time
    to post new shows, answer questions, and are otherwise helpful to everyone
    here.

    (*shrug*) But every once in a while someone posts about that Old Time Radio
    Player, and the company makes a few more bucks in ad revenue or "ad-free"
    sales without having to actually encode anything, find new shows, or anything
    else that would actually benefit the hobby.  --cfs3]

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

    Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2013 22:28:46 -0400
    From: Derek Tague <thatderek@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  The new Lone Ranger -- what a Silver load!

    SPOILER ALERT: I saw an opening day matinee of Disney's "The Lone Ranger"
    today (3rd). Like the previous posting, if you wish to see it for yourself,
    stop reading right now.

    Generally, I rarely go to the movies -- I hear they're in colour now. But
    whenever there's something I wish to see, I usually wait until after the
    opening weekend hoopla has died down as I wish to avoid crowds and the
    boorish behavior (cell phones, answering back to the screen a la Mystery
    Science Theatre, etc.) they engender. However, hearing and reading all the
    bad reviews prompted me and about seven other moviegoers to attend today's
    first performance.

    The basic story in and of itself about thwarting an evil railroad baron who
    is actually in cahoots with Butch Cavendish really wasn't bad. It was the
    narrative's execution that weighed the new Ranger down.

    Again, SPOILER ALERT -- Brace Yourself:

    --the LR is portrayed as rather buffoonish for most of the film;
    --the framing narrative in which an 8-year-old boy visiting a carnival's Wild
    West exhibit circa 1933 and is confronted by an octogenarian Tonto coming to
    life via a wax figure is strictly for the birds -- especially the talismanic
    dead crow sitting atop Johnny Depp's head;
    --Silver is seen taking a dump -- we all know the riddle  about the LR taking
    his garbage "to-the-dump, to-the-dump, to-the-dumpdumpdump, but this is
    ridiculous;
    --it's suggested that John Reid might have had a fling with his brother Dan's
    wife and that John could actually be the father of his "nephew" Dan;
    --the LR and Tonto actually find themselves in a bordello to gather
    information and one of the working girls recognizes Tonto suggesting that he
    regularly habituated this establishment (OK, it's a cheap throwaway gag; yes,
    the radio/TV series might've depicted a few loose party-girl characters akin
    to "Gunsmoke's" pre-saloonkeeper "Miss Kitty" but I'm willing to wager that
    such an establishment's actual goings-on had heretofore never been made
    manifest in an LR story);
    --the bordello's madam (Helena Bonham Carter) actually has a prosthetic leg
    equipped with a working rifle wherein (what is this? "The Wild, Wild West"?);
    --there is an utterly preposterous scenario in which Tonto and the LR are
    buried up to their necks, are attacked by scorpions, and are saved by a
    scorpion-eating Silver;
    --it's needlessly violent, particularly when Cavendish stabs a post-ambush
    still alive Dan Reid and rips out his heart;
    --the LR and Tonto are actually seen robbing a bank to get the silver lode
    needed to make the LR's silver bullets;
    --it's amazing how the pre-ambush gun-hating John Reid has immediately become
    an expert sharpshooter;
    --the climax depicts the Ranger riding Silver atop a moving train (we all
    know the story how a dozing John Todd wakes up in time to deliver the line
    "Get 'em up, Scout!" totally oblivious that his Tonto and the LR were
    situated in the second storey of a hotel -- with what this movie did with
    Silver, maybe Todd was on to something);
    --Tonto/Depp thinks the LR's signature "Hi yo, Silver" is corny and
    discourages him from saying it further. .....

    I could go on with more plot-holes, more unwholesome tableaux, and more
    iconoclastic tear-downs of what we Wyxies find sacred ...  but you get the
    picture.

    In 1980, I actually saw "The Legend of the Lone Ranger" at a second-run
    cinema in Irvington NJ. It was on a double-bill with "Xanadu" and both movies
    cost me a total of $[removed] (mind you, this was 1980 dollars when movie
    admission was in the neighbourhood of $[removed]). I still felt I was ripped off
    even with such a cheap price. If nobody can get "The Lone Ranger" right
    whether it's big-screen revivals or small-screen pilots on the WB/CW TV
    network, maybe it's time to stop trying. The last over-budgeted, overlong
    Disney film I saw was "John Carter" [the folks at Disney deliberately left "
    ...of Mars" out of the title not wanting moviegoers to associate it with its
    previous flop  titled "Mars Needs Moms"]. IMHO, Disney should cease making
    overblown films about early twentieth century action heroes named "John,"
    whether they be John Reid or John Carter.

    To quote "The (Newark NJ) Star-Ledger's" movie critic/historian Stephen
    Whiity, "HO HUM, SILVER!"

    Yours in the ... SPOILER ALERT!

    Derek Tague

    [removed]:

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

    Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2013 22:28:59 -0400
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  This week in radio history 7-13 July

     From The History Net

    7/7

    1927    Christopher Stone becomes the first British 'disc jockey' when
    he plays records for the BBC.

      From Those Were The Days

    1920   A device known as the radio compass was used for the first time
    on a [removed] Navy airplane near Norfolk, Virginia.

    1943   Flashgun Casey was heard on radio. The name of the program had
    several changes but ended up as Casey, Crime Photographer.

    7/8

    1950   Joel McCrea appeared in the lead role of Tales of the Texas
    Rangers on NBC.

    7/11

    1944   The Man Called X, starring Herbert Marshall, debuted on CBS.

    7/12

    1934   The first appointments to the newly created Federal
    Communications Commission were made. The governing body of the American
    broadcasting industry was first served by seven men named as commissioners.

    1946   The Adventures of Sam Spade was heard on ABC for the first time.

    Joe

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2013 Issue #73
    ********************************************

    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]

    In the event of a major mail problem, please contact the listmaster via
      the web-based contact form available at [removed]
      (on the sidebar) or follow/DM CFSummers on Twitter

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