Subject: [removed] Digest V2007 #277
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 9/27/2007 4:18 PM

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

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2007 : Issue 277
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      situation comedies                    [ "Bob C" <rmc44@[removed]; ]
      Community College Radio               [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
      Re: Doye O'Dell                       [ Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@sbcglo ]
      Early use of sitcom                   [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
      Comparing comedy shows                [ Frank McGurn <[removed]@sbcglobal. ]
      9-27 births/deaths                    [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
      Betty Rhodes                          [ Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed]; ]
      Jimmy Stewart on radio                [ Christian Blees <christianblees@yah ]
      Re: command performance               [ Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; ]
      Diary State Radio HOF                 [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
      Re: the term "sitcom"                 [ dixonhayes@[removed] ]
      Radio Guide and Sitcoms               [ "Bob Watson" <crw934@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:44:51 -0400
    From: "Bob C" <rmc44@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  situation comedies

    Alan Bell asked about the term situation comedy or sitcom. We may
    have been a backward household in rural Texas, but we always
    referred to them simply as "comedies." For that matter, it was
    until we got a TV set in 1956 that I ever heard the term
    "commercial" ... it was simply an "advertisement" on the radio.

    Bob Cockrum

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

    Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:45:14 -0400
    From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Community College Radio

    David Easter commented about donating old-time radio to a community college.
      He is probably referring to Harford Community College in Harford County,
    Maryland.  Web-site link below.

    [removed]

    They play OTR 9 am to noon EST, Saturday mornings AND on Tuesday evenings
    from 10 pm to midnight.  You can click on the top left of their screen to
    hear the radio programs (played at random) during those hours.

    I personally recommend anyone who is capable of duplicating OTR on CD format
    to find a community college and see if they have a radio station and if they
    are willing to play old-time radio.  Terry Salomonson of Audio Classics
    helped me two years ago arrange for copies of FAMILY THEATER and a LUM AND
    ABNER and other shows to be donated to a radio station in Baltimore,
    Maryland and to date, they still play the radio shows and accept donations.
    You'd be surprised how many stations are willing to play old-time radio if
    they were given enough donations.

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

    Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:45:29 -0400
    From: Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Doye O'Dell

    On 9/26/2007 Bobb Lynes wrote:

>     I also watched DOYE (correct spelling) O'DELL on KTLA, channel 5, on early
>     TV.  His Western Thrills show played old B westerns every evening (20
>     minutes at a time, continuing the next evening) and featured Doye singing
>     and interviewing  kid visitors and guests.

    Yes, his name is spelled Doye O'Dell. He was a recording artist for
    Sage & Sand Records, a recording and music publishing business owned
    by my uncle, Woddie Fleener. I have some of his records in my small collection.

    Don

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

    Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:48:06 -0400
    From: <otrbuff@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Early use of sitcom

    Alan Bell inquires:

>     I wonder if the term "situation comedy" arose in the

    radio era or did it wait for TV? Certainly what we
    call sitcoms were common then, but does anyone know if
    the term itself was? If I had asked people in 1948
    what their favorite situation comedy was, would they
    have known what I was talking about?

    Jim Cox, in the Introduction to "The Great Radio Sitcoms" released only two
    weeks ago ([removed]), acknowledges:

    "Merriam-Webster didn't add 'situation comedy' to its dictionaries until
    1946, a term that it condensed into 'sitcom' in 1964."

    While we see that the form was understood during radio's heyday,
    surprisingly, one of the most respected of that epoch's reporters -- no less
    a scribe than Erik Barnouw -- nearly dismissed the radio sitcom.  In three
    volumes that have become legendary for their historical themes, with the
    exception of Amos 'n' Andy, the widely venerated wordsmith saw little in
    comedy radio beyond Allen, Benny, Berle, Burns, Durante, Skelton, Wynn and a
    few more vaudevillians practicing their craft before amused audiences.

    Most others who have recorded the era for permanent safekeeping, however,
    have given the Bickersons, Easy Aces, Ethel and Albert, Lum and Abner,
    Margie, Vic and Sade, Gildersleeve, Irma, Harris and Faye, Archie Andrews,
    the Aldriches, Ozzie and Harrie, Blondie, Snooks, Riley, Luigi, Millie,
    Beulah and multiple others of their ilk their just due.

    Situation comedy has been around since the 1920s.  The term 'sitcom' perhaps
    less than a half-century.  Today's TV offspring, hardly recognizable by
    those standards of long ago, nevertheless can credit radio with yet another
    diversion passed from practitioner to practitioner, generation to
    generation.

    Jim Cox

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

    Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 20:58:01 -0400
    From: Frank McGurn <[removed]@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Comparing  comedy shows

>     "It Pays To Be Ignorant" could be compared to "Can You Top This",.

    The 2 show are completely different Apples and Oranges. "It pays to be
    Ignorant" had a panel of so called expert  telling jokes and Ignorant
    has people tying to answer  questions like who is buried in grants tomb
    in Grants tomb, and never give a correct answer. The panelist insult
    each other [removed]  the shows were funny when I was 9 or 10 ten, now
    they are not funny any more.
    Frank McGurn

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

    Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 04:04:44 -0400
    From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  9-27 births/deaths

    September 27th births

    09-27-1872 - Bentley D. Ackley - Spring Hill, PA - d. 9-3-1958
    pianist for Billy Sunday: "Back Home Hour"
    09-27-1885 - Harry Blackstone, Sr. - Chicago, IL - d. 11-16-1965
    magician: "Harry Blackstone, the Magic Detective" based on him.
    09-27-1887 - Pat "Uncle Ezra" Barrett - Holden, MO - d. 3-25-1959
    actor: "National Barn Dance"; Uncle Ezra "Uncle Ezra"
    09-27-1892 - Ed Tomlinson - Stockton, GA - d. 12-xx-1973
    commentator: "The Other Americans"; "What's New in South American?"
    09-27-1893 - Phil Cook - Coldwater, MI - d. 9-18-1958
    comedian: "Radio Chief"; "Quaker Oats Man"; "Morning Almanac"
    09-27-1898 - Vincent Youmans - NYC - d. 4-5-1946
    composer: "Chicago Theatre of the Air"
    09-27-1901 - Beasley Smith - McEwen, TN - d. 5-14-1968
    pianist/orchestra leader: "Music In the Moonlight"; "Sunday Down South"
    09-27-1913 - Hugh Rowlands - Racine, WI - d. 1-5-1978
    actor: Trigger Brett "Island Venture"; Jimmy "Tom Mix"
    09-27-1915 - Cy Howard - Wisconsin - d. 4-29-1993
    creator, writer, producer: "Life with Luigi"; "My Friend Irma";
    "Milton Berle Show"
    09-27-1915 - Frank Gerstle - d. 2-23-1970
    actor: "Escape"; "NBC University Theatre"; "Six Shooter"; "Gunsmoke"
    09-27-1917 - James Andelin - Provo, UT - d. 12-27-2006
    actor: "Arnold Grimm's Daughter"; Og, Son of Fire"; "Houseboat Hannah"
    09-27-1917 - William Orr - d. 12-25-2002
    actor: "Hollywood Theatre Group"
    09-27-1918 - Barclay Allen - d. 12-7-1966
    pianist/composer: "Freddy Martin, His Singing Saxophone and His
    Orchestra"
    09-27-1918 - James McCallion - Glasgow, Scotland - d. 7-11-1991
    actor: Stephen Dallas "Stella Dallas"; Sydney Lawrence "One Man's
    Family"
    09-27-1920 - Jayne Meadows - Wu Chang, China
    actor: "Hollywood Star Preview"
    09-27-1920 - William Conrad - Louisville, KY - d. 2-11-1994
    actor: Matt Dillon "Gunsmoke"; Louis Dumont "Jason and His Golden
    Fleece"
    09-27-1921 - Carol Thurston - Forsyth, MT - d. 12-31-1969
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    09-27-1923 - Mary McCarthy - Winfield, KS - d. 4-3-1980
    actor: "MGM Musical Comey Theatre"
    09-27-1925 - Burkett "Uncle Josh" Graves - Tellico Plains, TN - d.
    9-30-2006
    dobro player: (Foggy Mountain Boys) "Grand Ole Opry"
    09-27-1934 - Claude Jarman, Jr. - Nashville, TN
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    09-27-1934 - DickSchaap - NYC - d. 12-21-2001
    sportscaster: "Sports Answer Man: "Sports Week"

    September 27th deaths

    01-03-1900 - Cecil Underwood - Vienna, MO - d. 9-27-1976
    producer, director: "Fibber McGee and Molly"; "Great Gildersleeve"
    01-09-1898 - Gracie Fields - Rochdale, Lancashire, England - d.
    9-27-1979
    comedienne, singer: "Gracie Fields Victory Show"; "Gracie Fields Show"
    01-12-1896 - Harry Reser - Piqua, OH - d. 9-27-1965
    bandleader: "Cliquot Club Eskimos"
    01-13-1914 - Stanley Waxman - Ohio - d. 9-27-1998
    actor: "Escape"; "Man Called X"; "Tell It Again"; "Presenting Charles
    Boyer"
    03-06-1885 - Ring Lardner - Niles, MI - d. 9-27-1933
    writer: "Hallmark Hall of Fame"; "NBC Presents: Short Story"
    03-27-1915 - Hugh Conover - Washington, [removed] - d. 9-27-1992
    announcer: "Amanda of Honeymoon Hill"; "Big Sister"; "Right to
    Happiness"
    05-21-1904 - Robert Montgomery - Beacon, NY - d. 9-27-1981
    actor: "Doctor Fights"; "Suspense"; "This Is War"
    05-24-1907 - Bill Bouchey - Clare, MI - d. 9-27-1977
    actor: Red Albright/Captain Midnight "Captain Midnight"
    05-29-1909 - Bruce Seton - Simla, India - d. 9-27-1969
    actor: Flint "Flint of the Flying Squad"
    06-26-1914 - Babe Didrikson Zaharias - Port Arthur, TX - d. 9-27-1956
    all-around athlete: "Babe Didrikson Zaharia Sports Show"
    07-29-1905 - Clara Bow - Brooklyn, NY - d. 9-27-1965
    actor: (The It Girl) "Kay Parker in Hollywood"
    08-04-1904 - Phil Clark - London, England - d. 9-27-1985
    actor: Mr. Keen "Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persosn"
    08-11-1902 - Lloyd Nolan - San Francisco, CA - d. 9-27-1985
    actor: Johnny Strange "Results Inc."; Martin Kane "Martin Kane,
    Private Eye"
    08-28-1925 - Donald O'Connor - Chicago, IL - d. 9-27-2003
    comedian, actor: "Ginny Simms Show"; "Philip Morris Playhouse";
    "Suspense"
    09-18-1916 - Samuel Badillo - d. 9-27-1992
    newscaster: WIAC San Juan, PR
    10-04-1909 - James Webb - Denver, CA - d. 9-27-1974
    screenwriter: "Lux Radio Theatre"

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

    Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 04:05:06 -0400
    From: Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Betty Rhodes

    I just listened to the Old Gold Comedy Theater production of "You Can't
    Ration Love," which co-starred Betty Rhodes (reprising her role from
    the film). Harold Lloyd introduces her as "the first lady of
    television." That seems like quite a strange sobriquet for February
    1945, when virtually nobody in the US owned or had ever seen a tv. Does
    anybody know the origins of this nickname for Betty Rhodes?

    Kermyt

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

    Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:21:04 -0400
    From: Christian Blees <christianblees@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Jimmy Stewart on radio
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Folks,

      I'm looking for audio clips or written sources that are dealing with Jimmy
    Sterwart's career on radio. Has anybody got any hints if Jimmy himself was
    ever interviewed or quoted what he thought about his radio career? Are any
    interview clips in circulation in which he is asked about his radio work?

      Thanks,

      Christian

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    Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:53:08 -0400
    From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: command performance

     > i may have new command performace shows from the disc, prog#203 and
    prog#277

    #203 should be in circulation if you refer to the Dennis Day/Jack Benny
    Christmas program.
    #277 is uncirculated.

    Jim Widner

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

    Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:12:20 -0400
    From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Diary State Radio HOF

    For those of you who have an an interest, I have a website of
    pictures of people connected with radio who also have a connection to
    the state of Wisconsin. It can be found at:

    [removed]

    I am always on the lookout for Wisconsin connections. Just today I
    added Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, she graduated from the University of
    Wisconsin in 1918.

    If per chance you decide to visit the website, I hope that you enjoy it.

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

    Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:13:41 -0400
    From: dixonhayes@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: the term "sitcom"
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

>     I wonder if the term "situation comedy" arose in the radio era or did it
>     wait for TV? Certainly what we call sitcoms were common then, but does
>     anyone know if the term itself was? If I had asked people in 1948 what
>     their favorite situation comedy was, would they have known what I was
>     talking about?

    I'm thinking Variety magazine may have originated the term, and I seem to
    recall (though with an admittedly faulty memory) that they used it as far
    back as the 1950s to describe the TV version of "The Life of Riley."? I think
    it may have been also used in those days to describe "I Love Lucy" and
    "Father Knows Best" from what I've seen printed from that era, but again I
    can't exactly cite dates.

    Dixon

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    Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:01:24 -0400
    From: "Bob Watson" <crw934@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Radio Guide and Sitcoms
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    I'm not sure, but I guess the digest that possibly started the thread on Radio
    Guide somehow got construed as being virus material by my antivirus software
    and was made unreadable by it.

    I had heard of Radio Guide very early on in my OTR experience, but my attempts
    to get hold of a copy only yielded a copy that had had the radio programs
    section taken out.  For some reason, it never dawned on me that part of the
    magazine was missing.  So, I never looked for another Radio Guide.  I must say
    that I am amazed at the scans that I have seen.  I wish I had not given up so
    easily.  These magazines are gems.  I wish to thank Al and Radio Researchers
    for making them available.

    What years was the guide published?  I see it had become Movie-Radio Guide by
    the 1940's.  The wartime paper shortages seemed to have forced them into a
    monthly schedule sometime during WW2.  Also, was there a Southeastern Edition,
    and more importantly to me, do any Southeastern issues survive?  I am already
    keeping a watch on Ebay, but the issues I have seen offered don't indicate
    which region.

    As to the question about sitcoms, certainly a great deal of the classic radio
    shows fall into that catagory:  My Favorite Husband, Our Miss Brooks, Life
    with Luigi, My Friend Irma, etc.  I have read somewhere that The Great
    Gildersleeve is regarded by many as the first true situation comedy.

    As for the term "situation comedy" or "sitcom", as it is now known, I believe
    that term is strictly a television term.  I am sure someone with more
    expertise will say for sure.  The reason for including it in my post is that I
    do seem to remember when the term "sitcom" was first used in the tv magazines
    and hating it.  Situation comedy has always sounded more dignified to me than
    the term sitcom.

    Bob

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    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #277
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