Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #268
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 7/15/2002 10:15 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2002 : Issue 268
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  shows on one's birthdate              [ Osborneam@[removed] ]
  Gunsmoke                              [ Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed] ]
  New twist on internet?                [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
  Phillip Terry                         [ Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed] ]
  Gone But Not Forgotten                [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  The soda chain, continued             [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
  Tape Decay and OTR Preservation       [ George Guffey <grguffey@[removed]; ]
  Roy Rowan/Johnny Dollar/Philip Marlo  [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
  Dope and The Lineup                   [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
  The Olde Tyme Radio Network Schedule  [ HERITAGE4@[removed] ]
  Oranges By the Side of the Road       [ Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed] ]
  a movie blooper                       [ JIMWMQT@[removed] ]
  buried alive                          [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
  Clair Schultz                         [ Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed]; ]
  Re: Coca-Cola and Cocaine (Reply)     [ Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed] ]
  Re: Coca-Cola and Cocaine (Reply)     [ Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed] ]
  Stan Freberg                          [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
  'To Be or Not To Be'                  [ "Roby McHone" <otr_alaska@[removed] ]
  "That Was Zen--This Is Tao!"          [ Derek Tague <derek@[removed]; ]
  Harry Bartell-Herbert Marshall        [ "mike ray" <mikeray42@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 18:09:28 -0400
From: Osborneam@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  shows on one's birthdate

Am still working my way through the digests missed while I was on
vacation.  I found the thread about shows on one's birthdate interesting.
I have around 14,000 cassettes and since my list is electronic, I thought
I'd search for the dates provided.  Here are my results.

Unfortunately, I found no shows for dates 03/22/57, 08/30/38, 04/12/47.
However,

For date 04/12/47:
Jungle Jim:  #598 (04/12/47) A Hot Job (Traitor is Victim of His Own Trap)

For 02/21/51:
Crime Does Not Pay: #71 Rough Customer (02/21/51)

For 11/01/40:
Gang Busters: Ape Bandit, The (11/01/40)
Jack Armstrong Luminous Dragon Eye Ring series: #1538 (11/01/40)(lost episode)
Superman: #114 Trap Door Sprung; Clark & Lois Also Trapper (11/01/40)

For 04/27/47 (bonanza!)
Jack Benny #619 (04/27/47) Preparing for a Trip with Mr. & Mrs. Ronald Colman
Mysterious Traveler: #101 The House of Silence (04/27/47)(may be lost)
Nick Carter, Master Detective: #285 Luminous Spots, TCOT (04/27/47)
The Shadow: Death Stakes a Handout (2nd half only)(04/27/47)
The Clock: #25 Perfect Crime, The (Detective Killer/The Criminal
Mind)(04/27/47)

Hope those with these birthdates find this useful.
Arlene Osborne

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 18:09:50 -0400
From: Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Gunsmoke

Jer51473, in yesterday's Digest, inquired about the dating of the radio
version of GUNSMOKE.

The radio series debuted on April 26, 1952 and completed its run on June
18, 1961.

The very first episode entitled "Billy the Kid" featured our own Harry
Bartell.

Source of this information is the seminal work on GUNSMOKE by SuzAnne and
Gabor Barabas.  Entitled GUNSMOKE: A Complete History, the book was
published in 1990 by McFarland.

Dennis Crow

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 18:56:55 -0400
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  New twist on internet?

Just came across this article on the web.  Course, what they say will be law
if it is passed, I always thought was law already.  I'm probably the last
person to be bringing up the copyright discussions, and I'm still staying
out of it.  I have no wish to start up another copyright discussion on the
digest (thus keeping informative chat out of view) but this article does
refer to old and new television AND RADIO broadcasts, mostly internet
"trading, lending, etc."  Just thought some people on the digest would be
interested.  Sorry, Charlie, if this is a "little" off-topic.

[removed]

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 19:41:04 -0400
From: Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Phillip Terry

In her interesting post on gasoline in yesterday's Digest, Elizabeth McLeod
mentioned that the chemical engineer who developed the "cracking" process
had a son, whose acting name was "Phillip Terry."

Indeed, Phillip Terry (actually Frederick Henry Kormann) acted in a number
of films after a brief stint on the radio with a Shakespearean repertory
company.  Terry became a successful real estate investor and lived a long
life, passing away at age 84 in 1993.   Unfortunately, he is primarily
known today as the third husband of Joan Crawford.

Dennis Crow

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 19:42:10 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Gone But Not Forgotten

Rick Keating notes about an RSI 50% off sale,

I got an E-Mail from Radio Spirits announcing a "50 percent off" sale
on most of their products, with the warning that once they're gone,
they're gone.

A couple of years ago, I got a flyer from RSI on a 50% off sale, and
picked up a Mr. Keen album as a result.  but something like a year later,
the same Mr. Keen album reappeared at full price.

Sounds like they're cleaning out some of their inventory. Now, the
question is, why? They've had
occasional half price sales on selected items, butnever this many (at
least 150).

If memory serves, some of the RSI programs had some discussion in
collectors' circles, to the effect that there might be some ambiguity on
who actually has ultimate rights to specific programs.  It might be that
the company is unloading the programs of uncertain ownership.  Just a
speculation, to be sure.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 19:41:55 -0400
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  The soda chain, continued

Greg Przywara wrote:

Stewart's and Sprecher's both sell soda fountain quality pop in a variety
of
flavors, the best being orange and root beer, in these skinny 8 [removed]
that truly look like something out of the 40s and 50s.

Don't know Sprecher's but Stewart's has been available in the SF Bay area
for a long time and Dr. Brown's for many more years.   The soda/soft drink
section of the supermarket has become very hard to navigate.   The prices of
these brown bottle non-cola drinks are quite high as are all the Starbucks
coffee drinks.

However in our gourmet ghetto out here most restaurants still limit their
soft drink choices to coke, sprite, pepsi, etc.

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 20:09:44 -0400
From: George Guffey <grguffey@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Tape Decay and OTR Preservation

In a posting a few days ago, Wesley Tom wrote:

I recently began to listen to some OTR shows
recorded on reel to reel tape during the late
1960s. I was appalled to hear an excessive amount of
hiss, background noise and a loss of fidelity. Some
of these problems were minimized by using an
equalizer. Does anyone have any idea on why the
sound quality has deteriorated. Is it caused by the
recorder or the tape itself? Any thoughts on the
matter would be greatly appreciated.

Although he does not say so, one assumes that the
recorder Wesley is using to play the tape in question
is not the one originally used to create it nearly 40
years ago. (If it is, *part* of Wesley's problem is
almost certainly due to the aging of the electronic
and mechanical components of the recorder.)

If the recorder Wesley is using to play the tape is
not the one originally used to create it, *part* of
the problem might be due to azimuth misalignment. The
azimuth of the playback head may not match the azimuth
of the playback tape. In other words, either the
azimuth of the head used to create the tape or the
azimuth of the head being used to play the tape may be
non-standard. If the latter condition is the source of
the problem, playing the tape on a different machine
should lead to more acceptable results. If the former
is the source, tinkering with the azimuth alignment of
the playback machine (for most users, a dangerous
course of action!) might yield an acceptable level of
fidelity.

However, the main cause of the "excessive hiss" heard
by Wesley could be oxide decay. Like all media (and
everything else in existence, for that matter),
recording tape is not exempt from entropy (the
degradation of matter and energy to an ultimate state
of inert uniformity). The edges of wound tapes are
especially vulnerable to oxide breakdown and loss.

Curators of other kinds of cultural artifacts
constantly struggle against similar manifestations of
entropy. Rare book librarians, for example, must
combat the paper damage caused by heat, humidity,
sunlight, fungi, and acidic paper. And the best-known
similar problem faced by film curators is, of course,
the deterioration of acetate film stock.

>From recent "Digest" postings, one gathers that a
significant number of important, uncirculated OTR
programs now exist only in the form of privately held
tape recordings. The preservation of such recordings
for a period of more than ten years is a task not to
be taken lightly. In addition to oxide decay, recorded
tape is subject to other kinds of deterioration:

* binder/base adhesion failure

* physical distortion due to improper storage tension

* particulate contamination

* fungus contamination

Because recorded tapes are so vulnerable to decay and
damage, serious collectors should, if they haven't
already done so, digitize their collections as soon as
possible. By transferring the programs they have
collected to CD-ROM discs (CDA and/or MP3 format),
they can at least arrest the progressive deterioration
of the *content* of their collection.

Some collectors concerned about the inevitable
physical decay of their tapes might be tempted to dub
new copies of their programs to fresh tapes. This
would be an unwise decision. Each tape-to-tape
transfer of content augments the hiss and distortion
of the tape being copied with hiss and distortion that
is generated by the machine on the recording end.

By the way, the sources of many of the technically
inferior MP3 versions of OTR programs now in
circulation were almost certainly late-generation
dubbings. In other words, the owner of an original
recording of a program made a tape recording of that
program for his friend  (generation 1). His friend
then made a tape copy of his generation 1 tape for
another friend (generation 2). And, on and on
(generations 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc.). Each recording
generation resulted in additional hiss and distortion.
At some point in time, using a generation 7 tape,
let's say, someone converts the program to MP3 format
and transfers it to a CD-ROM disc. On playback, the
quality of such a late-generation MP3 version of the
program will inevitably be inferior to the playback
quality of the original or the 1st generation tape.

What conclusions should we draw from all this? First,
it is to be hoped that owners of original OTR program
recordings or 1st generation tapes of those recordings
will preserve their contents for posterity by creating
digital versions of them, whether they intend to
personally circulate them generally or not. Second,
the time is right for the establishment of a
university facility for the acquisition, conservation,
and study of OTR program materials (cf. the UCLA Film
and Television Archive).

George

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 21:14:53 -0400
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Roy Rowan/Johnny Dollar/Philip Marlowe

I have been listening to 'Yours Truly Johnny Dollar' and am in the middle of
Bob Bailey's first season, 1956.   The announcer is Roy Rowan and  his
pronounciation of certain words caught my attention.

No one says 'Hollywood' or for that matter 'dollar' the way he does.  Check
it out.

In a short check on the internet, looking for more info about him, I found
that he was also an announcer for 'The Adventures of Philip Marlowe'
according to the Philip Marlowe page at [removed] (a site
new to me, which I really enjoyed since I'm a big mystery fan.)

I also learned at that page that
"In 1950, Radio and Television Life Magazine named Gerald Mohr as the Best
Male Actor on radio."

I recall that we once had a discussion about radio awards.  I guess they
were sporadically given.

And I found the opening lines for the Marlowe radio program which are great,
in my [removed]

"Get this and get it straight! Crime is a sucker's road and those who travel
it wind up in the gutter, the prison or the grave. There's no other way, but
they never learn."

Irene
IreneTH@[removed]

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 21:33:11 -0400
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Dope and The Lineup

"Richard  Carpenter" <sinatra@[removed]; said:

I'm enjoying the current thread about various kinds of soda and the
terms used to describe it -- soda, pop, soda pop, and even dope.

Soft drinks were called "dopes" in East Tennessee by the older folk up until
recent years; don't hear it much anymore. I always assumed it was because of
the cocaine and other stimulants that had once been added to the beverages,
but now I learn from one of the websites posted on here - sorry, don't recall
which one - that there was actually, for a while, a soft drink simply NAMED
Dope. Evidently that was before "dope" took on its additional pejorative
meaning. On-line Merriam-Webster's says the word comes from the Dutch "doop"
meaning sauce, which is probably where its use in referring to such things as
pipe dope comes from. The same reference mentions "dope" as a chiefly
Southern term for, specifically, cola drinks, reinforcing the notion that it
was the cocaine that earned cokes this Appalachian appellation.
- -----
In reference to a show called _The Lineup_, I remember this as one of the
first tv shows we watched on our first television around 1956; I think it was
set in San Francisco and involved the activities of two police detectives,
but I could be wrong. Possibly it is one of those shows that made the
changeover from tv to radio?

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 21:59:49 -0400
From: HERITAGE4@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The Olde Tyme Radio Network Schedule - w/o 
 7/14/02

       Here's the lineup of fun on the OTRN for the coming week 
through Saturday,7/20.  New shows start every Sunday,  in high 
quality streaming audio at:     [removed] 
Tune in whenever you want, 24/7.

SAME TIME, SAME STATION with JERRY HAENDIGES
1. HOLLYWOOD HOTEL   4/30/37   "A Star Is Born"  Hostess is Louella
Parsons and MC is Fred MacMurray.  Stars:  Fredric March, Janet 
Gaynor, Andy Devine and Adolph Menjou.  Special Guest:  Gracie Fields.
2. MEET ME AT PARKY'S   6/24/45   "Parky Gets Engaged" - Stars Harry
Einstein as Nick Parkykarkus.
3. THE SIX-SHOOTER   2/21/54  Starring James Stewart in "Battle At
Tpwer Rock."

HERITAGE RADIO THEATRE with TOM HEATHWOOD
1. MYSTERY HOUSE   MBS   1951   "The Thirsty Death" with Bela Lugosi.
2. WEIRD CIRCLE    NBC/Synd.   "Frankenstein"  by Mary Shelley.
3. COLGATE SPORTS NEWSREEL with BILL STERN    NBC  12/2/49
   With Guest:  Grantland Rice, famed sportswriter.
4. EXTRA - Some old time radio performers on early TV.

Enjoy - Tom & Jerry

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 23:14:31 -0400
From: Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Oranges By the Side of the Road

I find the beverage bandwagon too  much to resist.  Days and days of posts
on soda pop, often related to its sponsorship of OTR.

Now I find myself  dreaming of huge oranges by the side of the road in
California. When I was a child and we traveled the byways of California, I
discovered these big oranges every forty miles or so.

Is my memory playing tricks or did California sprout orange-shaped and
orange-colored beverage stands fifty years or so ago? Do any still exist?

I pray our esteemed listmaster will not cut this discussion off before this
question is answered.

Dennis Crow

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 23:14:43 -0400
From: JIMWMQT@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  a movie blooper

While watching "Road To Perdition" this weekend (an excellent movie, by the
way), I think I may have noticed a continuity error.  The movie was supposed
to take place in the winter of 1931, yet Tom Hanks' son was reading a book
dealing with an adventure of "The Lone Ranger".

Didn't that show start in 1933?

Just curious,
Jim K.

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 23:47:51 -0400
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  buried alive

As already mentioned here, Victorian inventors came up with coffins equipped
with air tanks and telephones or other signalling devices.  My favorite such
device was a coffin in which the matter was resolved in a different way:
when the nails were hammered in to secure the lid, they'd puncture vials of
poison gas.  Found this in a book of strange patents somewhere.

M Kinsler
512 E Mulberry St. Lancaster, Ohio USA 740 687 6368
[removed]~kinsler

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

Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 00:10:29 -0400
From: Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Clair Schultz

Clair Schulz works as archives director at the Museum
of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. He was one of
the people I interviewed for my recent magazine
article on the continuing appeal of OTR, but I don't
have his number handy at the moment. Calling the
museum would probably be the best way to reach him.

Rick

[removed] For those who've not been there, the museum
features Jack Benny's Vault and Fibber McGee's closet,
among other OTR related items.

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

Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 04:47:15 -0400
From: Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Coca-Cola and Cocaine (Reply)

John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; wrote, in part:
"As Mr. Harrison <herbop@[removed]; has challenged my facts re: Coke and
cocaine, I long to respond in [removed]"
John & I have traded emails, off-line, on this subject for the last couple
of days. So far we both seem to be in agreement that the other is misguided
in his opinion.
I don't think that this should become an off-subject argument in this
forum. If anybody's interested, though, I'm sure we can debate it further,
off-line.
You have our email addresses.

Herb Harrison

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

Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 04:46:53 -0400
From: Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Coca-Cola and Cocaine (Reply)

John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; wrote, in part:
"As Mr. Harrison <herbop@[removed]; has challenged my facts re: Coke and
cocaine, I long to respond in [removed]"
John & I have traded emails, off-line, on this subject for the last couple
of days. So far we both seem to be in agreement that the other is misguided
in his opinion.
I don't think that this should become an off-subject argument in this
forum. If anybody's interested, though, I'm sure we can debate it further,
off-line.
You have our email addresses.

Herb Harrison

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

Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 04:44:12 -0400
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Stan Freberg

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 09:47:13 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];

1957 - Funnyman Stan Freberg debuted a new weekly comedy program on CBS
radio beginning this night. Freberg was a late entry into the radio
program race, though he was well known for many famous radio commercials
over the years.  The Freberg show only lasted a short time and that
newfangled contraption, television, was blamed for the show's quick
demise.

I remember that show, and I always thought it was intended to be a summer
replacement.
Although the Jack Benny radio show was in reruns, it still went off for the
summer, just as if
it were still live.  As I recall, Stan Freberg's show was on for the summer,
and then Jack
Benny returned in the fall.  Freberg then put out an LP album containing many
of the skits
from his radio show.

--
A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                           [removed]
 15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         [removed]

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

Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 12:10:32 -0400
From: "Roby McHone" <otr_alaska@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  'To Be or Not To Be'

Every year American Heritage magazine dedicates an issue to the "most
over-rated and most under-rated".  Everything from autos to zeppelins.  This
year's most under-rated movie was 'To Be or Not To Be'.  Wish I could find
that issue and re-read it.

Roby McHone
Fairbanks Alaska

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

Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 12:11:07 -0400
From: Derek Tague <derek@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  "That Was Zen--This Is Tao!"

Hi Digesters:

   All right< I admit, what follows is way "off-topic;" I'll be the first to
admit it's kinda silly--but my good buddy Lee Munsick "double-dog" dared me to
post it. Here goes:

   Years ago, I devised an Eastern religion comedy team of Buddha Abbott
and Lao-Tzu Costello:

WHO hears the tree when it falls in the forest?
WHAT is the sound of one hand clapping?
I DON'T KNOW! He's on Third,
  and I-DON'T-GIVE-A-DHARMA!!!

    [See what I mean].

Yours in the ether,

Derek Tague

[removed]:  My apologies to any Zen Buddists, Taoists, or Hindus out there. I
realize I don't know the first thing about Eastern religion(s). There is still
the possibility that I probably got something doctrinally wrong for the sake
of a joke.

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

Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 12:11:13 -0400
From: "mike ray" <mikeray42@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Harry Bartell-Herbert Marshall

Recently our good friend Harry Bartell told us of his impressions of the very
popular Herbert Marshall. His comments were a joy to read, since I'm a fan of
Mr. Marshall as well. I was wondering if Harry would take a moment to express
his thoughts about Bob Bailey. Since you worked with him on Let George do it,
and Johnny Dollar, it would interesting to see your thoughts on Mr. Bailey as
a performer, and as an individual
Best regards,
Mike Ray

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #268
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