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

[removed] Digest				Volume 96 : Issue 364

Table Of Contents: 

	 Radio Spirits
	 Thanks re. Chickenman
	 Re: DR IQ, WHIZ KIDS, and ?
	 Superman's Amnesia
	 Radio Web Sites
	 The Whistling Saint
	 Re: Richard Lawton's query/SAME TIME, DIFFERENT VERSIONS
	 Fw: Additions to your OTR Web page list
	 Thank you Mr. Mann!
	 Re: Whiz Kids etc.
	 Re: Same title etc.
	 Lone Ranger/Matt Dillon?
	 Fwd: THE WHISTLER
	 Rooster Claghorn
	 Re: dismantling cassettes, [removed] Digest V96 #360
	 Newark refresher course on OTR collecting

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

Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 13:14:42 -0400
From: mekkelse@[removed] (Norman B. Mekkelsen)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Radio Spirits
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I have been watching the interseting discussion of packages from Radio
Spirits.  I must ask the new guy question--What is the address for Radio
Spirits?
Thanks
Mick Mekkelsen
>

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

Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 11:53:25 -0600 (CST)
From: Bruce Toews <toews@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Thanks re. Chickenman
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

I just wanted to thank whomever it was who tipped me off on radio-ranch 
as the source for Chickenman. They offer a 90-minute tape of Chickenman 
sketches for sale, and it's hilarious. I recommend it highly.

Bruce

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

Date: Tue, 01 Oct 1996 13:27:40 -0400
From: Robert Kirk <kirk@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: DR IQ, WHIZ KIDS, and ?
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

On  Tue, 1 Oct 1996 08:18:44 -0800 Wilson Gilinsky wrote:

>I  remember having a grand time listening to three programs that I haven't
>heard discussed (and can't remember the name of one of them).  Anyone have
>any of the same remembrances?
>        Dr IQ
>       Whiz Kids
>        ?  A music program which took (modern) tunes, and found classical
>match-ups (or was it the other                way around?)
>
>Thanks for your thoughts.
>
>Wilson Gilinsky
>

Could the ??? have been "The Tune Detective" with Dr. Sigmund Spaeth?
I remember him identifying the classic - or other obscure- roots
of a modern tune someone would play.  Sort of a, "Name This Tune"
quiz or "Stump the Expert". Come to think of it, it brings to mind
the bit Johnny Carson used to do where the audience would try
to stump the band.

Bob Kirk

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

Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 14:13:15 -0400
From: Bigkids@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Superman's Amnesia
Message-ID: <961001141315_298142180@[removed]>

Thanks to both Joseph Ross and Bob Simko for information on the "print"
versions of the Superman/baseball/amnesia story line. As anybody who's every
tried to write "hero" stories knows, one of the biggest problems is
presenting a challenge that your hero can't solve easily.

Some of the earliest Superman (Action Comics) stories were extremely simple
and actually not very interesting, for exactly this reason. [removed], a couple of
thugs rob a bank and make a getaway in their car.

Superman can spot them from any distance (X-ray vision), fly through the air
or outrace their car on foot (faster than a speeding bullet), and stop their
car with his bare hands (super strength). If they try to shoot him the
bullets bounce off him. If they try to run away, he can catch them. If they
try to duke it out, their punches land harmlessly on Supie, but he can knock
any crook unconscious with a single punch.

So -- other than a special effects show -- what's the story?

Joe Siegel and Jerry Schuster had to deal with that in the comic books, and
the radio writers had to deal with it as well. (By the way, do we know who
wrote those Superman radio shows? Many an unsung hero in OTR!)

One way of dealing with it was to put up super-VILLAINS against our
superheroes. Another was to take away the "superness" as by introducing
Kryptonite in the Superman mythos, or catching Captain Marvel in his
so-vulnerable Billy Batson persona.

And how far back does this kind of story-telling and story-problem-solving
go?

Well, how interesting would Achilles have been if it hadn't been for that one
vulnerable heel?

Dick Lupoff

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

Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 15:11:04 -0400
From: AIC4Radio@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Radio Web Sites
Message-ID: <961001151104_534547460@[removed]>

>This is only a partial list - it is a work-in-progress.
>

Jim and everyone - Please remember the Adventures in Cassettes' Web Site:

                [removed]

Our newest catalog selections will be showing up by Monday, October 7th. And
there's at least ONE show that everyone will be interested in -- especially
Laura Lee! (That's a [removed] OK, it's a Jack Benny show that's been "lost."
Put on your thinking hats, tie your "shoelaces," and visit our Web site next
week!)

Sue Hamilton
AIC4Radio@[removed]
[removed]

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

Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 15:13:11 -0400
From: IDickerson@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: The Whistling Saint
Message-ID: <961001151309_298179946@[removed]>

I'm confused.

Two people in digest #362 suggest that Owen James whistled for THE SAINT.

Having examined the scripts I can find no trace of such a credit, however a
gentleman by the name of OLIVER James is credited as "Whistler" for the first
two seasons of THE SAINT (which, in case you've forgotten, aired in the early
and latter parts of 1945 and starred Edgar Barrier and Brian Aherne
respectively).

Can anyone help clarify the Whistling James?

There was a time when the Saint and the Whistler almost came to blows.
Towards the end of the Saint's first season, CBS's lawyers alleged unfair
competition due to the Saint's whistle. They adopted the position that the
Saint's distinctive whistle (the notes for which Charteris had composed on a
piano some years earlier) would create confusion in the minds of the public
and was an infringement on CBS's rights developed by The Whistler's
distinctive identification--the Whistler's whistle, so to speak.

They requested the Saint's signature whistle be eliminated from all future
Saint shows.

Charteris, who at the time was producing the radio shows under the banner of
his company, Saint Radio Productions, pointed out through his legal advisors
that the Saint had been whistling in motion pictures long before the Whistler
tweeted on the radio and that the tunes were not the least bit identical.

The Saint continued to whistle, with Muzzy Marcellino puffing his way through
the rest of the Saint's radio adventures.

Best wishes,

Ian Dickerson,
Honorary Secretary, The Saint Club and biographer of Bruce Taylor, who never
whistled in his entire life.

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

Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 15:21:43 -0400
From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Richard Lawton's query/SAME TIME, DIFFERENT VERSIONS
Message-ID: <961001152143_115654693@[removed]>

X-MINUS ONE was a retitled revival of DIMENSION X and featured many of the
same scripts (along with the same production team and scriptwriters).
 Stories like "Three Skeleton Key" and Ray Bradbury's "Xero Hour" and "Mars
is Heaven" were first published as short stories.  The West Coast SUSPENSE
and ESCAPE and the East Coast DIMENSION X/X-MINUS ONE each produced their own
scripts and adaptations of these classic (or soon to be classic) stories.
 Mr. George Lefferts wrote many of the adaptations for DIMENSION X-MINUS ONE
and will be on the "Science Fiction on Radio" panel at this month's FRIENDS
OF OLD-TIME RADIO convention at Newark Airport. -- Anthony Tollin 

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

Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 12:55:28 -0700
From: "JACK MANN" <jmann@[removed]>
To: <otr@[removed]>
Subject: Fw: Additions to your OTR Web page list
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Dear Digesters: Please add the following pages to my OTR Web page
list, and thanks, Ian, for your input. I think we can make this a very
comprehensive list if all of us get [removed]

Jack

----------
> From: IDickerson@[removed]
> To: jmann@[removed]
> Subject: Additions to your OTR Web page list
> Date: Tuesday, October 01, 1996 12:12 PM
> 
> [removed]
> (Vincent Price on radio)
> 
> [removed]
> (Price as the radio Saint)
> 
> at a push you can also include [removed] which is the official
> site dedicated to the adventures of the Saint in all media.
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Ian Dickerson,
> Honorary Secretary, The Saint Club

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

Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 16:14:55 -0400
From: RadioJoe5@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Thank you Mr. Mann!
Message-ID: <961001161455_298224262@[removed]>

I REALLY appreciate jmann's listing of OTR related web pages.  Really nice to
see we are growing on the WWW.  Thanks, Jack.

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

Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 17:27:18 -0400
From: Neubacher@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Whiz Kids etc.
Message-ID: <961001172718_115763647@[removed]>

I believe that the music program was the "Music Detective."  He would take a
modern musical theme and show how it had come from a classical piece.

Bill Neubacher

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

Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 17:27:48 -0400
From: Neubacher@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Same title etc.
Message-ID: <961001172748_115764134@[removed]>

In the case of "Dimension X'" and "X-1" I believe it was the same program
with a name change.  I don't remember which came first however.  It may have
been 
something to do with a network change.  

Bill Neubacher

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

Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 17:57:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Kathy O'Connell" <oconnell@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Lone Ranger/Matt Dillon?
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

In the review of Clayton Moore's book (or, should I say the warning about 
the book), it was mentioned that Matt Dillon appeared on the Lone 
Ranger.  I assume this was James Arness, the TV Matt Dillon, and the 
all-time love of my life.
Does anyone know the name of the Lone Ranger TV show that Arness appeared 
in?  Is it available?
Sorry for the invasion of a TV-related question in the otr digest, but 
you got me wondering!

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

Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 18:52:51 -0400
From: BCH66@[removed]
To: OTR@[removed]
Subject: Fwd: THE WHISTLER
Message-ID: <961001185250_534704499@[removed]>

---------------------
Forwarded message:
Subj:    THE WHISTLER
Date:    96-09-27 17:05:35 EDT
From:    BCH66
To:      [removed]@[removed]

When Hollywood adapted this radio program and made a few films 
it has been stated that they were trying to cash in on the whistlers 
radio popularity. But the Whistler was unknown outside a few Pacific Coast
states. AND even the eastern version only lasted one season and did not catch
on back east. 
My feeling is that when the movies came out most people had no idea who the
whistler was.
The show aired in 6 western states . Certainly California, Washington., and
Oregon. ( maybe Arizona, Nevada ??).
Wherever Signal gasoline was I guess.

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

Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 19:16:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: lev@[removed] (S or A Levene)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Rooster Claghorn
Message-Id: <v01530501ae770e9c8bc0@[[removed]]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

A few nights ago I went to a local cinema to see an anthology of Warner
Brothers classic cartoons from the late 40's into the 60's.  They featured
the great Bugs Bunny and some of his distinguished colleagues.   They were
so brilliant, so funny, that  I went back for a second viewing, and also
because one of the cartoons had a surprise in it.

This was a 1948 item starring Mr. Henery Hawk, a youthful chicken hawk in
search of prey.  I remember him from comic books as well.  Featured with
him in this six minute epic  was a large rooster known asThe Foghorn
Leghorn, which gives the cartoon its title.  Well - this rooster opened its
ample mouth and out came the voice - or at least the style - of Senator
Claghorn of Allen's Alley. (In 1948 the senator would have been at his peak
as a popular radio character.)  All his mannerisms were in place - the
southern accent, the overbearing bullying manner,  calling people "Son" and
laughing at his own jokes,  starting a sentence and interrupting himself
to repeat what he'd just said  "What's goin' - ah say what's goin' on son?"
All personfied in this rooster.   Now the style was there, the delivery
perfect, but it was pretty clearly not the voice of Kenny Delmar.  On most
of these Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies cartoons the vocal
characterizations are, of course, credited to Mel Blanc.  But on this
cartoon there was no voice credit at all.  So who knows who did it.  But it
was pure and perfect Claghornia and one wonders - would they have needed
permission from Fred Allen to reproduce the character's voice in someone
else, a cartoon creation?  Or, more likely, can you get away with it
because it's satire?  But then the Senator is already satire.  So you're
satirizing a satire.  Or it's a sort of tribute.  In any case it was an
amusing surprise.  If by chance this anthology of 15 classic Warner
Brothers cartoons is touring and not simply put together locally - go see
it. The one I'm describing wasn't even the best of the collection.
Sam Levene

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

Date: Wed, 2 Oct 96 00:41 BST-1
From: midshires@[removed] (Andrew Emmerson)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Cc: midshires@[removed]
Subject: Re: dismantling cassettes, [removed] Digest V96 #360
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

In-Reply-To: <m0v7gRL-000k0xC@[removed]>
>If you really do have to take it apart, that implies either the tape
or your machine is defective to begin with (so the logic follows: why use
that brand!).

Not so; you obviously haven't been buying cassettes as long as I have! 
Some of my cassettes are more than 25 years old now and precious to me. 
It's a common occurrence that the adhesive dries out and _when you play 
them_, the tape parts from the leader at the end of the session. By 
taking apart the housing I can reattach the leader to the recorded tape. 
Result: happiness once more, not a defective tape.

>The recordings themselves are not infinitely irreplaceable and you can 
always get another copy anyway.

If only that were true! Many prerecorded tapes are effectively impossible 
to find again, without resorting to millions of want ads in magazines 
such as _Record Collector_.

Incidentally, a tip to others using 25 year-old cassettes. Often people 
complain of loss of 'top' (high frequencies), assume the recordings have 
deteriorated and then discard the tapes. Don't do it. Usually the reason 
is quite simple; the little phosphor-bronze spring holding the block of 
felt loses its springiness. As a result the block of felt no longer holds 
the tape surface close to the playback head and the shorter wavelengths 
(top notes) sound muffled. Replacing the spring/felt combination restores 
the high frequencies! TDK used to sell blister packs of these assemblies, 
although I haven't seen them for a few years, so you may need to 
cannibalise new tapes.

Andy Emmerson.

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

Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 20:11:30 -0400
From: Platecap@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Newark refresher course on OTR collecting
Message-ID: <961001201130_115915004@[removed]>

Now that we've decided on how we're going to identify ourselves (as 'net
users) at this months convention (well we never really did), maybe time to
thing about some questions for each [removed] and specifically for me since
on Thursday, I'll have a workshop on starting/maintaining and some technical
aspects of old time radio show collecting.  This will be kind of an update or
refresher course on one I did about 10 years [removed] (yes, that much time
*has* passed).  Back then, I had a Macintosh Plus with 4 megs of RAM and a
100 meg hard drive, which was very expensive.  At that time, downloadable
excerpts of OTR shows were a long way off, but the means used to catalog
shows on computer were still in place--tho not as advanced and user-friendly
as they are today.
There are many collectors (newcomers) who still don't know the basics of
software to use, and have a tendency to go with whatever is handy or
[removed] end up putting themself through many needless hours of struggle
trying to make it work, making more manual data entry work for themselves and
still end up with mediocre results.  If you've seen the OTR lists I
distribute and the way the labels look that I put on cassettes, you may be
surprised that I do very little work to generate them.  There's no real
secrets or magic, but someone who tries to accomplish the same thing on a PC
with a minimal "Works" package or label software or simple word processor may
have a tough time.   That's just one area I will touch on.

If you have an interest in old time radio sound processing, I'm thinking of
setting up a demonstration showing how to use a parametric equalizer to notch
out hiss and hum of an OTR show.  Any other suggestions or questions??  Get
them in to me now!

If you need information on the Friends of old time radio convention, contact
Jay Hickerson    JayHick@[removed]

Btw, our CEO and Affiliate Relations/Marketing Mgr for Collector's Radio
Network, is Lowell Homburger (CRN is a broadcast service about to be launched
in fine style--discussed in the past here--available soon via a radio station
near you).  His e-mail address:  CRNRadio@[removed] Watch for a article
about us which will be appearing shortly in Radio World.

As for me, I'[removed]
Bob Burnham;  BRC Productions; Platecap@[removed]

[removed]  Thanks, Tom Barnett for the kind words about [removed] I didn't pay him to
write them either <grin>




--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #364
*******************************************

