Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #497
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 12/20/2002 3:47 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2002 : Issue 497
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Younger OTR fans and Harry Bartell    [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
      A question about Throckmorton         [ "Holm, Chris " <[removed]@delphiau ]
      CD making and playing                 [ "Don Frey" <alanladdsr@[removed] ]
      Old devices                           [ "Holm, Chris " <[removed]@delphiau ]
      Missing Heirs                         [ passage@[removed] ]
      Retro OTR World?                      [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
      Re: Young members                     [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      Christmas Moments                     [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      Young Member                          [ "Kenaniah Busch" <wbfan@[removed] ]
      Howard Culver reads, "The Christmas   [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]
      Christmas shows                       [ "Andrew Godfrey" <niteowl049@[removed] ]
      Re: young listeners                   [ "Ivan G. Shreve, Jr." <iscreve@comc ]
      Happy Holidays                        [ badaxley@[removed] ]
      re: favorite Christmas shows          [ vigor16@[removed] ]

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    Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 09:55:17 -0500
    From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
    To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Younger OTR fans and Harry Bartell

    Thank you Ron Sayles for asking the younger members how and why they got
    involved in OTR.    Not only was your question a great conversation starter
    but it also brought out voices of members who were "lurking" and/or felt
    they did not have much to offer.     Hopefully this will not be the only
    time you all post messages.   Everyone has something to offer.  Just talking
    about a show or a performer that you love is enough.

    But it also demonstrated that despite our age differences we have much in
    common, particularly that we respond strongly to the challenge to our
    imaginations by radio in contrast to TV.

    For many listeners that serves as a strong draw to OTR despite one's age.
    Neither my sister nor my brother, both older then I (a 64-year old) and
    exposed to radio longer don't care a  hoot about OTR, nor does my husband,
    but he doesn't much like TV either.

    I did force my husband and sister to listen to "War of the Worlds" when they
    were trapped in our car on a longish drive.   They both enjoyed it, but
    that's it, they're still not interested.   Oh well, we can't all have good
    taste.  :))

    I did the same things with my kids when they were growing up.  On the 4-hour
    drive to and from Lake Tahoe every summer where we vacationed for many years
    I would tolerate their music tapes but insisted that my tapes be in the
    rotation too.   They always enjoyed the tapes, carefully chosen by me on the
    basis of what I thought they'd like but they were basically not interested
    in pursuing OTR.

     Finding this group and finding sources for increasing my OTR library has
    been such a blessing.  It has provided me so many wonderful hours of
    listening and developing a knowledge base of the actors, writers, directors,
    things I cared little about when I was growing up with radio.

    I think this is a great group and I really appreciated hearing from new
    voices.   Please, please, keep talking.

    Which leads to my next subject, the wonderful Harry Bartell.  I second Mike
    Ray's praiseful comments.    I eagerly look forward to Harry's column.   I
    didn't think of the Kennedy Center but I agree that Harry should have that
    kind of honor.  But I did and still do think that Harry would be a wonderful
    part of Bob Edward's "Morning Edition" on NPR,  a la Bob's ongoing
    conversations with Red Barber which ran every Friday.

    I think it's about time for Harry to get his due outside of our growing
    circle.    No day is complete without hearing Harry at least once and when
    I'm listening to a whole series, most recently "Frontier Gentleman"  I hear
    Harry a lot more then once.    He is all over my OTR collection and has hung
    out with an incredible part of acting history, OTR actors and beyond.  He's
    smart, articulate and modest, with enough humility to pass the Arthur
    Godfrey test.

    We are getting delicious bites of his experiences, insight and knowledge,
    but I'm sure most of us want a lot more and wish he would write a book.
    Please, Harry, consider it.    You are such a good writer.

    ~Irene

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

    Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 09:55:33 -0500
    From: "Holm, Chris " <[removed]@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  A question about Throckmorton

    One of my coworkers will be having a child soon, and I recommended that she
    name the kid Throckmorton.  No one would believe that Throckmorton was a real
    name.  Being a fan of Mr. Gildersleeve, I had assumed it was.  Well, long
    story short, we checked several online lists of 'baby names' and could find
    no listing for Throckmorton.  Are there any scholars out there who can give a
    short history of the name Throckmorton?

    -Chris Holm

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

    Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 09:55:49 -0500
    From: "Don Frey" <alanladdsr@[removed];
    To: "otr message" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  CD making and playing

    Quick tech question. Have ordinary sony walkman/auto CD player.
    Received two homemade audio CDs from two people.
    Sound is fine but both fail to move automatically to most, but not all,
    "next" tracks.
    Never happens on commercial CDs.
    Is problem the CD maker or CD player or partly both?

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

    Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 09:56:20 -0500
    From: "Holm, Chris " <[removed]@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Old devices

    In #495, Al Girard wrote:

>     I even have a teleptype machine. How about the rest
>     of you?  Do you have any devices that would have been
>     used in the forties and fifties?  Do any of you use a
>     fountain pen? Do you have an inkwell or a blotter?

    I have a great old device that I believe dates to the late fifties (although
    I'm not positive - it might be newer), and it's seasonally appropriate.  It's
    an artificial Christmas tree - it's silver, it sits on a rotating base, and
    it has a spotlight that changes color.  It's really cool, and the centerpiece
    of my annual holiday party.  Combine the tree with my 1970's era furniture
    that I 'liberated' from my parents basement, and my OTR and big band
    collection, and all of my friends assume I'm some retro-crazed hipster.

    To tie all of this in with OTR, I do make an annual ritual of putting up the
    tree.  Since you have to place each branch on the center post individually,
    it does take some time.  So right after Thanksgiving (_NEVER_ before), I pick
    a few of my favorite Christmas OTR shows (Jack Benny shopping, Suspense "Out
    for Christmas", a couple of others), and assemble the tree while listening to
    OTR.

    -Chris Holm

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

    Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 10:16:59 -0500
    From: passage@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Missing Heirs
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    Hi All,

    I received the following message from Victoria Ferrante
    cablegirl34@[removed].
    Anyone know of this series?

>     Hi, would you know if there was a radio show in the 40's or late 30's

    called

>     "Missing Heirs"?? I remember my grandmother telling me about it years

    ago.

>     If you can point me in the right direction on a particular link I can

    go [removed]

>     please do. thank you  so much.

>     Vicki Age 34 Albany, NY

    Frank

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    Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 11:19:05 -0500
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Retro OTR World?

    Al Girard, reacting to Rick Keatings list of manual typewriters, et al,
    observes,

>     I sense another thread possibility.  I own several rotary-dial
>     telephones and use one of them right here beside my computer.  I also own
>     a Brother portable electric typewriter.  I even have a teleptype machine.
>     How about the rest of you?  Do you have any devices that would have been
>     used in the forties and fifties?

    Well, I have an old portable typewriter that's the exact same model as
    the one I had in high school in the early 1950s.  I do have a rotary
    telephone, but it was 1960s vintage.

    An interesting news item I read a few weeks ago is that those suffering
    from Alzheimer's Disease work better of put into a retro environment --
    1950s or 1940s devices and appliances (refrigerators, stoves, etc.).  I
    suspect this would also work well for OTR shows.

    What might be an interesting and useful project for such an environment
    would be an MP3 disk with 24 hours' OTR programs on it, wired to a
    living-room or kitchen radio so that someone could "turn on" the "radio"
    and always have something different "on the air."  Naturally, neither
    "radio" need be tunable, nor have any functional components inside save a
    volume control/off-on switch, and a speaker.  A week's worth of such MP3
    disks in a jukebox would provide complete OTR coverage for such an
    environment.  (I wish I'd have thought about that -- and had the
    equipment to do something like that for my recently deceased mother.  I
    did play her individual tapes from time to time, and she enjoyed them
    thoroughly.)

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 11:19:30 -0500
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Young members

      Ron Sayles asked --

>     My question is to those young people who did not grow up with radio as us
>     "old-timers" did. How did you first get interested, what happened to make
>     you love, or at least like Old Time Radio?

       I was born in 1950 and my family got its first t--------n set in 1949
    and for the first three months all that was available was the Indian
    head test pattern.  But from that time on my family all but turned their
    back on radio.  I remember my mother listening to soaps while working in
    the kitchen but other wise, that was all.
       As I grew older I became interested in radio (and history in general,
    and enjoyed old films better than the new ones, etc) and believed that
    since the shows were all aired live there were no recordings.  Every
    once in a great while I might run across a distant station playing a
    show but could never find the station a second time.  The CBSRMT didn't
    air where I lived and the station that would come in faded in and out
    and trying to listen over the static was very difficult.  Not to mention
    it was on in the middle of the night.
       It wasn't until the late '80s that, thanks to our own Jim Widner,
    whom I met on GEnie, I learned of SPERDVAC and their vast library and
    began collecting on tape then discovered WRW about the same time.  A
    little later I learned about ORCA and raided their library.  And today
    with .mp3 there are many more shows available than I ever imagined still
    existed.
       I love radio much better than the other medium because, as the old
    story of the child goes, "the pictures are better".
       Joe

    --
    Visit my home page:
    [removed]~[removed]

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

    Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 11:20:14 -0500
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Christmas Moments

    A couple of favorite Christmas moments --

    Naturally enough, I've always enjoyed the "Amos 'n' Andy" Christmas
    episodes, particularly the 1941 15-minute presentation. One of the most
    touching moments in all of OTR comes at the very end of the episode, when
    Amos looks down at his sleeping daughter and whispers "good night, my
    darlin'." The sincerity evident in the delivery of this one line, for me,
    captures the love of a father for his child more than any other moment in
    radio.

    There are a couple of other memorable Xmas moments in the early A&A
    scripts -- a scene on Christmas Eve 1930, with Amos, Andy, and Brother
    Crawford setting up a little tree at the taxicab office and reflecting on
    the value of friendship, and the Christmas Eve 1937 episode, with Amos
    and his family gathered around the tree as Amos reads aloud the nativity
    scene from the Gospel of Luke.

    In an entirely different vein, I also enjoy the 12/25/32 Linit Bath Club
    Revue with Fred Allen, one of the most corrosive Christmas programs ever.
    After a day of fighting crowds at the mall and the traffic to get there,
    who can't appreciate the ending of this program -- with Santy Claus
    hurling himself out the window in despair.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 11:20:30 -0500
    From: "Kenaniah Busch" <wbfan@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Young Member
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    I'm writing in response to Ron Sayles question about how younger members got
    interested in OTR. For me it was almost accidental. My parents thought I would
    like a collection of OTR that they saw in a magazine. They gave it to me for a
    Christmas present, I think. The first program I heard was the Abbot and
    Costello program. After one broadcast, I was hooked. I'm 16 now and have been
    collecting for about four years. I absolutely love it. It's probably my main
    form of entertainment.

    Mycroft

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    Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 12:12:51 -0500
    From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Howard Culver reads, "The Christmas Story"

    Folks;

       Thanks to our own Lois Culver, there's a small Christmas Gift for you
    sitting on The Nostalgia Pages; Howard Culver reading "The Christmas Story,"
    with Bob Mitchell on the organ. Lois says, "This disk was cut for purpose of
    getting a mail [removed] write in and request it, and it was yours! They
    were completely amazed at the response."

       Just stop by:

    [removed]

       ...and follow the link.

             Charlie

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

    Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 11:53:53 -0500
    From: "Andrew Godfrey" <niteowl049@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Christmas shows

      I was born in 1944 and grew up with radio until we got our first TV in
    1953. My dad never really listened to radio much but my mom listened to soap
    operas like Just Plain Bill, Lorenzo Jones, Stella Dallas and Pepper Young's
    Family. Remember Don McNeil's Breakfast Club on radio and the Arthur Godfrey
    show. Unlike most families growing up with radio we never all sat down and
    listened to the radio as some families did. I remember well shows like Inner
    Sanctum and Dragnet.
      Am really enjoying these threads about favorite Christmas shows and how
    younger listeners got interested in OTR.
      Another favorite Christmas show of mine is the traditional Lum and Abner
    show first broadcast in 1933 about Lum and Abner and Grandpappy Spears
    walking a long way in snow to a barn where a man and his wife had gone to
    have a baby since there was no room for them at the local hotel.
    They went there to bring a heater and some blankets as the barn had no heat.
    It has many similarities with the birth of baby Jesus and is a very touching
    story.
      Really enjoyed the Jack Benny Christmas show that has Mel Blanc as a clerk
    at a department store and Jack Benny keeps returning items he bought and it
    is driving Mel completely bonkers after Jack returns the fifth or sixth time
    and Mel winds up going to a psychiatrist and the psychiatrist even works at
    the store to see what Jack Benny is like and he goes off his rocker too just
    like Mel.
       I have never enjoyed an OTR newsletter like this one. Even when someone
    disagrees with someone else on some topic they disagree in a civilized
    manner.
       Merry Christmas!!
       Andrew Godfrey

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

    Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 11:54:08 -0500
    From: "Ivan G. Shreve, Jr." <iscreve@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: young listeners

    I'm reluctant to call myself young, since I just turned 39 in September.
    Instead, I've taken to using the adjective "ageless," in honor of Jack
    Benny--who stayed 39 for many, many years as well.

    I missed by about a year any kind of OTR still on the air, but I was
    fortunate to remember the nostalgia boom of the 1970s.  A station in
    Charleston, WV broadcast "Lum & Abner" reruns in the daytime and I remember
    being fascinated by people talking--not singing--on the radio.

    I can't quite explain why, as a youth, I had such a fascination for old
    movies and TV and OTR--my parents considered it quite freakish that I knew,
    for example, who Basil Rathbone was.  My father had only the vaguest memory
    of some programs like "Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons" and my mother only
    remembered OTR because her grandmother had still not purchased a TV set and
    she had fond memories of listening to "The Lone Ranger" with her.  But I
    really got into OTR through Public Radio; the college station in Athens, OH
    used to play "The Goon Show" on Tuesday nights and then later featured a
    program called "Monday Night at the Radio" with reruns of "The Shadow,"
    "Nightbeat," and "The Lone Ranger," to name a few.  ("Monday Night at the
    Radio" came on at 10:30 pm which, according to my father, was much too late
    for me--I remember sneaking a transistor radio into bed with me so I could
    listen.)  I also recall how many stations would broadcast OTR on or around
    New Year's Day, particularly WBRJ in Marietta.  Later, I discovered that I
    could locate KMOX (although you needed a safecracker's touch) in St. Louis
    and listen to "The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre" around 8pm and Jack Carney's
    Sunday night "Comedy/Mystery Theatre," allowing for the occasional
    drop-outs.

    I bought my first cassettes in 1975 from Radiola by using an order form I
    clipped from an issue of The Good Old Days (my parents had got my
    grandfather a subscription)--a couple of "Shadow" programs, a "Lone Ranger,"
    a "Gildersleeve" and "Our Miss Brooks."  (The funny thing was that I was per
    forming in a musical version of "Brooks" at the local high school--I was the
    principal.)  You know the story by now--I was completely hooked.

    My favorite OTR programs are the comedy shows and comedians; I never cease
    to be amazed by the mastery and craft of such greats like Benny, Allen,
    Bergen, Fibber McGee & Molly, Skelton, Durante, etc.  I also especially
    enjoy forums like this where OTR fans can truly converse about the deep,
    abiding love for a wonderful era of America's past.

    Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.

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

    Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 14:00:10 -0500
    From: badaxley@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Happy Holidays

    Just wanted to add my best wishes to everyone on the list for a very Merry
    Christmas and a happy Holidays to all.  Also to say thank you Harry Bartell
    for
    giving us the inside info on OTR.  I would hope that some day some one would
    take all of these vignettes and put them into book form.  I continue to look
    forward to your memories!
    Bob Axley

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

    Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 14:01:26 -0500
    From: vigor16@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  re: favorite Christmas shows

    Hi all,

    I must weigh in on the Christmasn show thread:  Here are five, not my top
    five, but five favorite shows.

    1. Jimmy Darante with Peggy Lee and Margaret O'Brian.  (Old Saint Nick"
    2. Gunsmoke, Matt's tale about a boy's Christmas.
    3. Fibber McGee and Molly decorating the house, twearly to bed twearly to
    rise makes a man  dizzy.
    4. Obviously, 60 minute version of A Christmas Carrol with Lyonal
    Barimore.
    5. The day they gave babies away CBS radio Workshop, a great tear jerker.

    Actually, at this time of year, great shows abound.  Radio is a sharing
    medium and Christmas is a great time to share. Giving  several gifts of
    the CB serial have brightened adult and children's faces for a few years
    now in our little corner of the world. I remember a show, it escapes me
    now, a Family Theatre show about a girl who receives her sight by way of
    an angel while she puts a star on the tree.  Another one, and I'll go, I
    think it is Mystereous Traveler where an ambulance driver is taught the
    true meaning of Christmas on his rounds by a strange visitor.  Have a
    happy Christmas, or whatever people celebrate these days.  I am not PC, I
    am friendly.

    Deric

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #497
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