------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2002 : Issue 53
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
MP3 Player for OTR listening [ Christopher Lowell White <cncwhite@ ]
Cable Radio [ Eric J Cooper <ejcooper2002@[removed] ]
Daytime vs. Nighttime [ otrbuff@[removed] ]
Old Brit radio comedies [ "Dave Jeves" <redwatch@[removed]; ]
Re: NY vs CHI vs HOL [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
CORRECTION ON PETER SELLERS [ grayghost@[removed] ]
Tom Corbett in February [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
Glenn Miller's Disappearance and Ock [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
OTR of the 70s and 80s [ Carolie Minuscule <daggerofthemind2 ]
Jell-o ice cream powder [ "glen schroeder" <gschroeder10@char ]
Re:Walden Hughes [removed] about nu [ sfx-meow@[removed] (Ray Erlenborn) ]
Law and Order strikes [removed] [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]
British Comedy [ "S Skuse" <sskuse@[removed]; ]
Good Old Days of Radio [ "schickedanz" <schickedanz@[removed]; ]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 11:49:02 -0500
From: Christopher Lowell White <cncwhite@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: MP3 Player for OTR listening
Hi,
It's me again, Bryant. I recently purchased a Memorex portable cd/mp3
player (model number: MPD8505CP) for the purpose of listneing to some of my
OTR shows on mp3. It worked great for awhile and was perfect for OTR
listening but now, I have a problem with it. Whenever I try to play a disc
on it, it will not read the disc and will just say "No Disc". I bought
another one to replace it so I am willing to sell it to anyone who knows
how to fix it. My price is $[removed] (it regularly sells for $[removed]) and it is
perfect for OTR listening if you know how to fix it. Also, if you do not
wish to buy it but have information on how to fix it please contact me. I
would really appreciate it.
Thanks,
Bryant White
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 12:53:19 -0500
From: Eric J Cooper <ejcooper2002@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Cable Radio
To the chap who was digusted with the NPR programmes, why hasen't
anyone in the US thought of Cable radio - or do they have that there?
That would be like your Cable TV, with a monthly fee.
Yes they do have cable radio here in the US, but no OTR or drama on it,
unless some cable systems (and there are few) happen to be carrying BBC
World Service. Cable radio in this country is largely a music service,
with some half hour paid advertising programs (called infomercials in the
US), specialty music shows and political talk shows, plus relays of local
stations . The links to the largest cable radio stations in the US are
given below, for reference purposes. I do not work for them, I just
listen, now and again
[removed]
[removed]
Eric Cooper
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 13:16:47 -0500
From: otrbuff@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Daytime vs. Nighttime
Walden Hughes makes some assumptions suggesting that daytime and
nighttime radio actors were almost wholly separate and distinct and that
"never the twain shall meet." While any of us who are deeply engaged in
this hobby know of many instances where an actor playing nighttime, for
example, never crossed the great divide to matinee, there are many, many
instances to the contrary.
The Hummerts, who controlled much of the daytime airwaves as well as
healthy hunks of nighttime fare, expressed no qualms about having
longrunning leads and supporting actors in their daytime dramas turn up
in their nighttime mysteries. Actually, they must have encouraged it for
there was a proliferation of repetitious voices. Anyone listening
steadily to Mr. Chameleon or Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons or
Hearthstone of the Death Squad could readily identify a myriad of soap
opera players including such prominent ones as Florence Freeman (Wendy
Warren and Young Widder Brown), Vivian Smolen (Our Gal Sunday and Lolly
Baby on Stella Dallas), James Meighan (Backstage Wife), Anne Elstner
(Stella Dallas), Jan Miner (Hilltop House and Lora Lawton), Ned Wever
(Young Widder Brown), Julie Stevens (Helen Trent), Karl Swenson (Lorenzo
Jones and Lord Henry Brinthrope on Our Gal Sunday), Arthur Hughes (Just
Plain Bill), Mary Jane Higby (When a Girl Marries) and many more.
Julie Stevens, for one, recalled her reaction when a Hummert lawyer
pushed a contract in front of her face as she was signing for the lead in
The Romance of Helen Trent. The recompense was so low, a trademark of
the organization, that she came away feeling as if she had sold her soul.
But others in that camp told her that she would find work on all of the
Hummert dramas, daytime and nighttime, and not to fret. She didn't and
in the end she played on every show they produced, earning a fat paycheck
for her efforts.
So yes, there were many who worked both sides of the street. Unless
there were contractual reasons to the contrary, it appears on the surface
at least that established dramatic actors were free to audition for any
part, day or night. The more seasoned and versatile were, of course, far
more attractive to directors, who had little time to "teach" the ropes to
newcomers, keeping rehearsal time brief and expenses low. This was a
prime benefit in using the same thespians over and over and was practiced
steadily by much of the industry.
Jim Cox
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 13:53:47 -0500
From: "Dave Jeves" <redwatch@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Old Brit radio comedies
I'm new to this list and the question I'm asking may have been asked many
times in the past. Does anybody know where I can either purchase or listen
via the net old brit radio comedies such as "Round the Horn" "The Navy
Lark", "The Clithero Kid" etc etc and old brit radio plays?
Thanks, Dave
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 16:25:42 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: NY vs CHI vs HOL
Walden Hughes wonders --
If any one has a radio directory handy, I am wondering what was the brake
down of the numbers of working radio actors at all three major hub of radio.
I don't have a breakdown of actors, but I do have a breakdown of where
sponsored network progrms came from during a typical season -- which may
shed a bit of light on the situation:
During 1938-39, nationally-sponsored programs broke down this way:
DAYTIME (to 6PM Eastern)
New York: 68 Chicago: 38 Hollywood: 4 Cincinnati: 3 Philadelphia: 2
Boston: 2 St. Louis: 1 San Francisco: 2
NIGHTTIME:
New York: 96 Chicago: 36 Hollywood: 47 Cincinnati: 8 Philadelphia: 1
Pittsburgh: 1 St. Louis: 2 Detroit: 3 San Francisco: 3 Washington: 1
Wheeling WVA: 1 San Catalina Island: 1
As you can see, commercial radio at this point was dominated both day and
night by New York in terms of the sheer numbers of programs originating
there. Chicago production, interestingly, was nearly evenly split between
day and night, while Hollywood programs were overwhelmingly nighttime --
and in fact by the end of 1939, most of the "big name star" programs were
coming from Hollywood, completing a trend which had begun in earnest in
1936-37.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 16:58:22 -0500
From: grayghost@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: CORRECTION ON PETER SELLERS
I stand to be corrected on my postings about Peter Sellers appearances on
ATH. And thank you Cynthia, it was the Goon Show he appeared on. And I was
totally wrong about Red Dwarf. I seem to remeber him, though , appearing on
that show on the TV. Could be wrong, though. It has been so bloddy long
since I heard these shows that my memory failed me. Sorry, Chaps, will try
to do better next time.
Gray Ghost
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 18:03:04 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Tom Corbett in February
For radio fans within driving distance of Williamsburg, Virginia.
The Williamsburg Film Festival (Feb 28 ñ March 2, 2002) will be featuring a
recreation of a radio episode of Tom Corbett.
One of the actors is scheduled to be Jan Merlin himself and his lovely wife
Barbara. The original 1952 radio broadcast will be included on a CD for any
cadets who attend the festival. The drama is "Marooned With Death"
Check out the update page on the solar cadets who planned this recreation,
at [removed] for pictures and a
listing of events for the show.
If anyone wants to stop by and check out the recreation,
Convention info for directions:
[removed]
NOTE: be sure NOT to add .com to the end of the URL.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 18:41:46 -0500
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Glenn Miller's Disappearance and Ockham's
Razor
Approved: ctrn4eeWlc
Alan Chapman <[removed]@[removed]; stated, concerning reports of
Glenn Miller's plane having been downed by jettisoned RAF bombs:
Before this becomes a on-going thread, let's put it to bed.
While this has a certain ring of believability, it is little more than
an unsubstantiated theory; it is not a fact!! ...this [theory] was
originally advanced in the 70s by a retired RAF officer who studied
RAF flight logs and intervieweed RAF flight personnel from the
flight that might possibly have been the culprit. He presented his
conclusions as a THEORY.
The most prevalent theory is bad weather caused the accident
Writers to the digest a couple of years back pooh-poohed the notion
that Miller's plane was struck by jettisoned ordnance because, among
other things, that notion supposedly violated the principle of
Ockham's Razor. But Ockham's Razor doesn't state that the simplest
answer is always the right one. There is a bit more to the story than
idle conjecture.
The RAF officer in question, or at least the officer most
significantly involved with this story, a navigator named Fred Shaw,
didn't just interview the flight crew, according to an AP article
from April of 1999; he, himself, was on that mission. He was inspired
by the movie _The Glenn Miller Story_ to review his logs from the day
Miller disappeared. He found this entry: "Ops. Siegen Canceled.
Jettison Southern Area." The 4000 lb. bombs were, he says, dropped
over the English Channel.
"Bad weather was the chief suspect until [this] flight log was
produced," the AP article says, "which suggests a more haunting - and
now largely accepted - theory: Miller's plane may have been blasted
out of the sky by bombs jettisoned by a Royal Air Force squadron
returning from an aborted raid on Germany."
The bombs detonated just above the surface of the water. Watching
them Shaw says he observed, no doubt with dismay, a small plane
buffeted by the blasts and out of control. "Around it, I could see
the sea bubbling and blistering with the exploding bombs," Shaw
remembered. "As each bomb burst, I could see the blast wave from it
radiating outwards. ...It was obvious to me that airplane below was
in trouble. Eventually, I saw it disappear into the English Channel."
Apparently, the incident was not reported for some reason. In 1985
Britain's Ministry of Defense wrote to Shaw, concerning the theory
that Miller was killed accidentally by jettisoned bombs, "In
retrospect, we now lean towards this being the most likely solution
to the mystery." Not proof positive, but neither is it simply an
unsubstantiated theory.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 19:44:46 -0500
From: Carolie Minuscule <daggerofthemind2000@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: OTR of the 70s and 80s
Is there a book out or any information on the attempt
to bring back Radio Drama in the 70s and 80s, from the
program hosted by Rod Serling to the CBS Mystery
Theatre, [removed]
Caroline Miniscule
THE FRIENDS OF MR. CAIRO [removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 20:20:21 -0500
From: "glen schroeder" <gschroeder10@[removed];
To: "otr" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Jell-o ice cream powder
Hi listers
Today I was listening to Chuck Shayden on the internet from Chicago, and he
played a Jack Benny show from 1937. It was sponsored by Jell-o of course and
Don Wilson talked about a product called Jell-o Ice Cream Powder. I never
heard of this before, which isn't surprising considering this show was on
ten years before I was born, but my question is, does anyone on the list
remember this product and was it any good. It came in five flavors, vanilla,
chocolate, strawberry, lemon and maple. Don Wilson talked about how you
could make it in your freezer's ice cube trays. Those must be the metal ones
where the center part came out. Chuck seemed to think it was a short lived
product. Just curious if anyone remembers it or used it.
Love this list
Glen Schroeder
Madison WI
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 21:01:23 -0500
From: sfx-meow@[removed] (Ray Erlenborn)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re:Walden Hughes [removed] about numbers of
actors in OTR
Approved: ctrn4eeWlc
Walden, I can help a little. In the Hollywood area the AFTRA GUIDE
(Directory) for 1952 listed over 500 names, pictures, and gave the
program
credits. Incidently I offered my copy of the 1952 Guide to the REPS
Seattle Convention for 2002, so it will be available during the Silent
Auction if you want to place a bid.
Signed: Sound FX Guru of the 30's through 2001 +?.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 23:28:19 -0500
From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Law and Order strikes [removed]
Folks;
I know, I know, I'm a little behind the times. I finally watched last
Wednesday's episode of Law and Order, and appearing upfront in the teaser was
Elaine Hyman, radio actress on series like The Lone Ranger, and guest of the
Friends of Old-Time Radio Convention.
Gotta love that [removed]
Charlie
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 23:32:05 -0500
From: "S Skuse" <sskuse@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: British Comedy
On 8 Feb 2002 Michael Biel wrote:
For those who are interested in a guide to British radio comedy, I
recommend a lovely little book that I picked up in London early last
year, "Radio Comedy 1938-1968: A Guide to 30 Years of Wonderful
Wireless" by Andy Foster & Steve Furst, published 1996 and reprinted
1999 by Virgin Publishing, Ltd. <SNIP> I would like to hear from any
Brits who have this book whether there are program series that were
missed by this book. I seem to think that it is very weak on the
programs of the pre-war commercial stations, concentrating on the BBC.
The book doesn't make *any* attempt to cover the commercial stations that
were broadcasting in England in the thirties, it only includes BBC
programmes. The main reason for this was that the authors only had the BBC's
archives to work with, but (American readers may be surprised to learn)
there were in fact no commercial broadcasters in England in those pre-war
days.
A number of English language stations did exist on the Continent, such as
Radio Luxembourg. They broadcast programmes which could be received in some
parts of Britain, and their output was intended for British audiences. But
radio broadcasting was tightly restricted by the British Government, and the
BBC was the only broadcaster allowed to operate inside British territorial
limits. So the few commercial stations were all operated from abroad, and
all closed on the outbreak of war in 1939.
Foster and Furst's book is the only one ever to have attempted to address,
in any detail, the many radio shows which the BBC produced during radio's
golden age (in Britain, the television audience overtook the radio audience
around 1960). The book contains many errors, and should certainly not be
considered one hundred percent reliable, but it doesn't omit any programme
series, subject of course to one very important consideration - it only
covers comedy.
It contains nothing whatever in respect of the many drama, adventure and
variety shows which peppered the airwaves in those days. So you'll find no
mention in it, for example, of the adventure serials (such as 'Dick Barton -
Special Agent'), or the science fiction serials (such as 'Journey into
Space'). And variety shows (what you'd think of as Vaudeville) are only
represented so far as they include comedians - shows that contain only
singers and big bands are left out altogether. And the book makes no
reference, either, to drama - Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde,
Sherlock Holmes, etc, etc, were all broadcast by the BBC in those years, but
they all fall outside the scope of this book.
The BBC's daily output of radio was immense. They had three national radio
stations broadcasting from 1946 on, putting out daily every type of show you
would find on ABC, NBC or CBS in those years. Foster and Furst have aimed
their book at only one of the BBC stations, the Light Programme, and from
it's output they have selected only comedy. Within those limits, it is a
good guide to the BBC's output in those years (but even so, it is - in
places - inaccurate).
Someone else on the digest asked about 'Journey into Space', saying that it
was somehow two-dimensional, that the recordings give no sense of the actors
moving around. As though in fact the actors were just stood in front of a
microphone the whole time!
I should point out that some of what you have heard is not the original
broadcasts. The first serial (which was originally transmitted in the early
1950's) had to be re-recorded later in the decade, using the same cast,
because no recordings had been made of the original broadcasts. No one had
expected it to do well, or to generate two further serials. So there was
inevitably not that same edge that you get in actors making a live
broadcast, when they came to make the records five years or so later (which
were not done live and were just made for overseas sales purposes).
You shouldn't anyway expect the BBC to be producing OTR drama (which is what
it amounts to in BBC terms) that sounds like American drama. The BBC had
always a different approach, as did English actors, to things like
microphone technique. An English audience would not expect, or necessarily
want, what would have been perceived as an American way of doing things. Not
from a domestic BBC production.
I believe the simple truth of it, though, is that AM broadcasts give the
listener at home a muffled performance, at least compared to FM. The
subtleties of the actors' performance in the studio, clear to us on a
cassette tape which has been copied direct from a transcription disk, would
not have been so clear to someone listening on an old fashioned AM receiver.
Particularly in the evening, with fading, cross-channel interference,
thunder-crackles, and all the hazzards of AM after-sunset reception.
With an entirely AM-based audience, the very last thing you can get away
with is subtle effects. Clarity of diction and loudness of volume are much
more important on AM. The listener can't detect subtle effects. You could do
quite a different job in an FM market, but FM didn't take over in Britain
until the 1970's.
For better or for worse, when you listen to 'Journey into Space' (at least
with the second and third serials) you're getting a pretty accurate
impression of how BBC radio drama was done in those days. And it might not
be what you'd expect from 'Gunsmoke', or from 'Our Miss Brooks'!
Sandra Skuse
Website: [removed]
dedicated to English OTR comedian Jimmy Clitheroe
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 23:35:31 -0500
From: "schickedanz" <schickedanz@[removed];
To: "Old-Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Good Old Days of Radio
Hi, all.
I just finished watching the video of the Steve Allen-emceed "Good Old Days
of Radio." Enjoyed it very much, particularly seeing the radio
personalities in person.
The show's credits did not give the year. So, does anyone know when the
show occurred?
Thanks,
Norm Schickedanz
Tucson
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #53
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