Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #166
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 5/5/2002 5:16 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2002 : Issue 166
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      thanks for the help                   [ randy story <BYGEORGE@[removed]; ]
      Re: Questionable commercials          [ "Kenneth Studdard" <rtoombs@alltel. ]
      RE: Boris Karloff on radio            [ "D. Fisher" <dfisher@[removed]; ]
      Re: The Comedy of Obnoxiousness       [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      Rudy Vallee's saxophone               [ Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed] ]
      .ra files to .wav [removed]              [ Arcane <arcane@[removed]; ]
      Re: Tape to CD                        [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      THE WHISPERER                         [ randy story <BYGEORGE@[removed]; ]
      Re: Questionable commercials          [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
      OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK SCHEDULE      [ HERITAGE4@[removed] ]
      Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      Court Of Missing Heirs 24 Mar 1942    [ Paulurbahn@[removed] ]
      outragious OTR commercial?            [ Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed]; ]
      Radio actors on TV sitcoms            [ vigor16@[removed] ]
      Stone-Waterman Award                  [ Osborneam@[removed] ]
      amos & andy towers                    [ Frank Absher <fabsher@[removed]; ]
      Rudy Vallee's saxophone               [ leemunsick@[removed] ]
      OTR actors to TV                      [ "Robert Paine" <macandrew@[removed] ]
      MediaBay Releases First Radio Spirit  [ LSMFTnolonger@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Sat, 4 May 2002 19:33:51 -0400
    From: randy story <BYGEORGE@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  thanks for the help
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Hello, OTR compadres.

    I just wanted to say thanks for all of the help in connecting up with OTR
    related magazines and periodicals. I appreciate all of the assistance and am
    looking forward to reading the materials that I have ordered.

    Thanks a lot,

    Randy

    (who is preparing a recreation in mid-June)

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      ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

    Date: Sat, 4 May 2002 19:34:59 -0400
    From: "Kenneth Studdard" <rtoombs@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Questionable commercials

    Fibbermac wrote:

>     So does anyone else have a nominee for most outrageous
>     OTR commercial?

    One of Richard Diamond's sponsors was Camel cigarettes.  The commercials
    claimed that 4 out of 5 doctors prefer Camel cigarettes.  I believe that
    fits in the category of outrageous.

    Kenneth Studdard

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

    Date: Sat, 4 May 2002 19:35:50 -0400
    From: "D. Fisher" <dfisher@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  RE: Boris Karloff on radio

    This is sort of a follow up to John Henley's reference to Boris Karloff &
    the Reader's Digest programs he did. From 1963 to 1965 I was a Producer at
    Robert Jennings Productions, producing a series called "Great Moments for
    Young American's" with Hugh Downs as the host. This was a series of public
    service programs that were aired on over 1100 radio stations all over the
    country. But our production company was also the same one that was producing
    the Boris Karloff series for Reader's Digest. I had the pleasure on several
    occasions to go to his apartment at the Dakota (is that still around) &
    record the voice tracks for this series when the regular producer for the
    program was not available. Robert Jennings also happened to be the same
    person that created & produced the "Mr. President" programs that aired on
    ABC from 1947 to 1953. To bad that kinda stuff is not around anymore.

    Don Fisher

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

    Date: Sat, 4 May 2002 19:37:22 -0400
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: The Comedy of Obnoxiousness

    On 5/4/02 5:04 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:

>     Mark Twain said, "Show me a man who knows what's funny, and I'll show you a
>     man who also knows what's not." I'm no prude, but much of today's humor seems
>     unnecessarily mean-spirited and spiteful.

    The OTR era -- and the vaudeville era before it -- had its share of
    obnoxious comedians. I doubt you'd ever find a comedian more
    mean-spirited and spiteful, for example, than Frank Fay -- whose smug,
    smartmouth stage personality wasn't far removed from the personality he
    assumed in real life, and who made a very good living on Broadway in the
    1920s being as snide and insulting as possible. George Burns considered
    him the funniest man he ever heard -- and also the most vicious. But
    nobody except historians of vaudeville and bad-early-talkies remember
    Frank Fay -- because there was nothing to him *except* obnoxious
    smugness, the sort of thing one would call "**Attitude**" today. The kind
    of comedy that *survives* requires a more sympathetic characterization
    behind it.

    It's interesting to compare Fay to Jack Benny -- they were
    contemporaries, and in fact certain elements of Benny's stage persona
    were copied from Fay -- the vanity, the conceit, the swishy movements.
    But Benny made his character the *victim* of the humor, not the
    perpetrator of it - and by doing so, turned what could have been just
    another abrasive Broadway wise-guy character into a character audiences
    could find sympathetic. Bob Hope did the same thing with the same basic
    Fay-ish character in his movies.

    A Frank Fay type of character could work on the stage because the fact of
    the stage itself actually creates a layer of separation between the
    performer and the audience -- when you look up and see footlights and a
    proscenium, there's a certain distance between you and the performer. But
    on radio, the performer is right in your living room, and he *must* be
    likeable to succeed. If Frank Fay walked into your living room in person
    and ridiculed your decor, insulted your family, and blew cigarette smoke
    in your face -- you'd whack him over the head with a skillet and throw
    him out the door. (Or at least I would.) So why would you figuratively
    invite such a person into your living room by tuning him in on the radio?
    It's no coincidence that Fay bombed in his few attempts at radio.

    There are plenty of Frank Fay types in comedy today -- think of all the
    interchangeable
    guys-in-sport-coats-and-t-shirts-standing-against-a-brick-wall doing
    minor-league cable TV standup. They may come across more as snotty
    college boys than as jaded Broadway playboys, but the essential Fay-ish
    attitude is the same: a sort of comedy which says "I can get away with
    this because I'm better than you."

    I wouldn't put Jerry Seinfeld into this category at all -- in his own
    way, the "Jerry" character had a sort of pathetic vulnerability, and he
    eventually got what was coming to him -- so in that respect, at least,
    Seinfeld and Jack Benny *do* have something in common.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Sat, 4 May 2002 19:37:45 -0400
    From: Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed];
    To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Rudy Vallee's saxophone

    To each his own, I guess, but George Aust's remark that Vallee was a bad
    saxophone player is not shared by anyone  I know who listened to him.  Not
    only did Vallee work his way through Yale playing the sax, but he was
    highly regarded in his own day as a virtuoso. He performed with Vincent
    Lopez and had his own band for awhile. His work was well known and
    appreciated by his peers even  if he was regarded generally as "hard to
    work with."

    Perhaps Mr. Aust was listening to a program that poked fun at Vallee
    generally, including his saxophone.  As I said in my post, Vallee's
    personality lent itself to caricature. But Jack Benny could really play the
    violin; similarly, Vallee could really play the saxophone.

    Dennis Crow

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

    Date: Sat, 4 May 2002 19:38:22 -0400
    From: Arcane <arcane@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  .ra files to .wav [removed]

>     I have been seeing a lot of postings about converting otr mp3 files to wav
>     files but I'd like to know if anyone knows of a program that will convert
>     otr real audio or ra files to mp3 files. If anyone has any info on this
>     subject please contact me.

    I've had a great deal of trouble in converting .ra files, but have found a
    method that has produced some very satisfactory results.
    I have split my 'speakers out' line from the back of my audio card and have
    run  a patch from there right into the back of my cassette recorder.  I
    record the program onto tape.
    Once on tape, its easy to convert the cassette to a .wav or mp3 file.
    The only drawback is that you are recording in 'real time'; an one hour
    story takes one hour to record.

    Hopefully this will be of some use.

    Len M

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

    Date: Sat, 4 May 2002 19:45:11 -0400
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Tape to CD

>     Subject:  Tape to CD

>     Can anyone give me some info on how to convert tape to CD? Do i need
>     special software?

      Check out [removed].  They often trial version of a program
    that does this.  I forget off hand how much the software costs to
    register.
      Joe

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

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

    Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 11:38:06 -0400
    From: randy story <BYGEORGE@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  THE WHISPERER
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Hello OTR Fans.

    Just a quick question for someone on the list to answer.

    I have acummulated several episodes of a short-lived series called THE
    WHISPERER and can find out nothing about [removed] is not even mentioned in
    Dunning's text. All I can ascertain from waht little info I do have is that
    it was on the air in the early 1950s(?). I am curious about its background as
    some of these shows are pretty good and I might want to add the reamaining
    few to collection. So far, I have not had time to listen to the three(3) that
    I now own.

    Thanks All,

    Randy

      *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
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    ------------------------------

    Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 11:38:28 -0400
    From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Questionable commercials

    Doug Berryhill <fibbermac@[removed]; said:

>     ...I've been thinking about the commercials I've been hearing in some of
>     my OTR recordings. By modern stadards, some of these ads are positively
>     outrageous.

    I'm not so sure the OTR advertising was so much worse than today's
    commercials. At least in those days most folks knew that you had to exercise
    a little common sense against charlatans; folks who knew no other Latin knew
    the phrase, "Caveat emptor." Nowadays we're under the illusion that federal
    watchdog agencies are protecting us. Have you seen the 30 minute infomercials
    advertising the "ionic" bracelet that can cure all your pain? Or, for that
    matter, almost any commercial aired by a "Doctor" of Chiropracty?

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

    Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 11:38:36 -0400
    From: HERITAGE4@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK SCHEDULE

    Here's our lineup for the week starting: Sunday 05/05   at
    [removed]

    SAME TIME, SAME STATION  with Jerry Haendiges
    Featuring shows with Orson Welles -
    1. The Lux Radio Theater  - 4/9/51        "The Third Man"
    2. The Lives of Harry Lime - 8/3/51       "Too Many Crooks"
    3. The Lives of Harry Lime - 5/2/52       "Suzie's Cue"

    HERITAGE RADIO THEATRE with Tom Heathwood
    1. THE ALDRICH FAMILY - 10/13/39   Early Fall episode after the show had taken
        Jack Benny's place during the Summer.  Henry has girl trouble.
    2. NBC 75th Anniversary Remembrance - Includes a mint copy of "The Chime
    Song"
        sent to us by NBC.
    3. Vic And Sade  - from an NBC reference check disk fialogue only -  2/17/43
    4. Colgate Sports Newsreel with Bill Stern - 1945 - Guest: Vivian Blaine.

    Enjoy -      Tom & Jerry

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

    Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 11:38:57 -0400
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Today in radio history

      From Those Were The Days --

    1935 - Rhythm at Eight made its debut. The star of the show was
    24-year-old Ethel Merman. Though Merman would become a legend years
    later, she didn't fare so well on radio. The show went off the air after
    13 weeks and Miss Merman returned to her first love, Broadway.

      Joe

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

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

    Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 12:21:54 -0400
    From: Paulurbahn@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Court Of Missing Heirs 24 Mar 1942

    I ran across a newspaper article concerning the Court Of Missing Heirs
    broadcasting a drama based on Benedict Soalding Whitehouse of West Point
    Kentucky on 24 Mar 1942. It is stricky of local interest, but according to
    the newspaper article an effort was made to find Ivan Whitehouse, his son
    which had not been seen for 24 years.
    Does anyone have information on this series/program. Is there a tape of this
    episode available?

    Paul Urbahns
    paulurbahn@[removed]

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

    Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 13:26:36 -0400
    From: Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  outragious  OTR commercial?

    Had to be [removed]

          [removed] <:-)
              A DATE WITH SINATRA

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

    Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 15:07:33 -0400
    From: vigor16@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Radio actors on TV sitcoms

    In following the thread of radio actors on tv, I noticed, the other day,
    that it may have been Lou Parker--from the Bickersons played Ann's father
    on That Girl.  In fact, someone told me that a vaudvillian flashback show
    is in circulation.  Dick Trufeld, of Space Patrol announces on such scifi
    classics as Lost in Space, Time Tunnel.  One more, the other night, I was
    looking at some vintage Rifleman episodes that appearently supported many
    western superstars of the radio era.

    About comedy and Sighnfeld, I emphasize "sigh".  Comedy took a turn in
    the 1960s that changed it forever.  The "adult" nature of the comic
    routine became the norm and family comedy has virtually disappeared.  At
    the risk of sounding prudish, which I don't mind sounding, radio comedy
    was the kind of thing that the whole family could share.  Today, what
    passes as comedy is nothing more than pot shotting at the handicapped,
    lighthearted apoligetics, and church bashing, not to mention 500,000 ways
    to use profanity and make it sound original.  How many family members can
    agree on all that.  My wife and I don't even agree on movie language at
    times.  In radio, as amazing as it sounds, 30 million people could listen
    to the same program and enjoy it.  Today, we have 30 million channels and
    we all have our favorites.  It also doesn't help when clever thinking
    program executives like TV Land snear at good humor past personalities.
    Comedy of these days have taken on the appearance of mocking or bad
    swipes at an era.  One day when I was having lunch at a local pub,
    watching comedy central--can't avoid it, tv is the focal point because it
    is too loud, a show features a vaudvillian actress dying and they recap
    her life as an actress.  They imply how foolish people were and the
    entertainment was created for a dumb ignorant nation craving cheap
    thrills.  Showed how much we've improved from those days.  I'm not sure
    about that.  We now all have our own entertainment form, in our living
    room, alone with our own remote or sat dish, in the dark by ourselves
    because we can't share it with anybody else, even if they were
    interested. If someone asked me who my neighbor was, I'd have to say
    "What's a neighbor?  We have gotten so easy at insulting others that we
    don't know what to say to another.  Sighnfeld and shows like it have
    paved the way for continuedn isolation.  Before I create a fire storm
    about comedy, I do want to say that this is my opinion, and does not
    reflect Charlie or anyone else's.  Isn't that what we are suppose to say
    these days.  What ever happened to comedy that the whole family could
    share? The problem with today's comedy is that there are no sacred cows,
    even taste.  If anyone would like to, I would like to know if there are
    any comedians out there that don't use profanity or sexual saturation as
    their treasure trobe of gags.  Contact me by e-mail of this digest.
    Sorry for going on for so long, but comedy is something dear to my heart
    and entertainment has trashed it of recent times.  One difference between
    radio comedians and today.  The spoken media of radio days was
    transmitted and all experimental.  The artists of the day never knew what
    would sell and what wouldn't.  Today, "artists" take old material and try
    to dress it in some new fashion and don't care if it sells.  Think of
    this, we all know about Jack Benny, or George Burns.  What about all
    those comedians that were not fortunate enough to be at the right place
    at the right time.  (and were good).  In those days, they may never have
    been heard.  Today, they just have to wait long enough and will, someday,
    be heard at least once whether good or not.  Hey, I did all that without
    one profane word. That's a feat these days.  I know it sounds like
    preaching.  After all, it is Sunday. Thanks  Deric

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

    Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 15:07:53 -0400
    From: Osborneam@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Stone-Waterman Award

    I wish to restate my congratulations to Ted Davenport of Radio Memories.
    I incorrectly stated that Ted was presented with the Parley Baer Award
    at Cincinnati.  (I should have attended and then I would have known.)
    Instead,
    Ted received the Stone-Waterman Award.

    The Parley Baer Award went to Barb & Dave Davies.

    Hats off to you all!
    Arlene Osborne

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

    Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 15:52:46 -0400
    From: Frank Absher <fabsher@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  amos & andy towers

>     >From "Radio and Entertainment" (St. Louis) Week ending April 15, 1933

        "Amos 'n' Andy, radio's two great blackfaced comedians, are kings of
    Chicago's 1933 World's Fair. The two great towers of the Sky Ride,
    outstanding amusement feature, have been named Amos and Andy.
        "Amos is the east tower, soaring 628 feet above the ground on Northerly
    Island, an island built in Lake Michigan for the Century of Progress
    Exposition.
        "Andy, matching Amos in height, arises on the mainland, 2,000 feet to
    the west. The towers are by far the highest structures in Chicago, reaching
    about sixty-four stories into the air.
        "Bill Hay, the Amos and Andy announcer on NBC, is 'twins' in the World's
    Fair scheme of things. Standing 600 feet behind each tower is a 600 foot
    counterbalance, and these have been named the 'Bill Hays.'
        "Workmen on the $1,200,000 project at the Fair are responsible for the
    names. Those working on 'Amos' raced those building 'Andy' to see which crew
    could complete the steel work first. The battle ended in a draw. A Coast
    Guard crew raised the Stars and Stripes above the twin towers with fitting
    ceremony when they were dedicated.
        "During the Fair, rocket cars speeding 218 feet above land and lake will
    carry passengers between the towers for an aerial view of the exposition
    grounds and the surrounding scene. Whizzing elevators also will lift Fair
    visitors to great observation platforms about 600 feet above Chicago."

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

    Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 16:46:03 -0400
    From: leemunsick@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Rudy Vallee's saxophone

    George Aust commented about a show in which everybody kidded about Rudy
    Vallee's saxophonism.

    George, you got snookered in on a then-time "inside joke".  Rudy Vallee was
    a very fine saxophonist, that was his instrument, and in the early days at
    least, he led his band playing it, then alternating with singing through
    that famous cheerleader's megaphone.

    In my own opinion, it was his singing that was terrible!  But then that was
    then, this is now.  I asked my Mom why Rudy Vallee was so popular.  Born in
    1905, she was a young person in Rudy's era.  Her answer, "I never could
    understand that myself".

    It usually takes a fine instrumentalist to play "badly" on command, and yet
    still make some sense.

    Consider the clowns in the ice follies.  Who do you think are the most
    incredibly able skaters of all?  You got it!

    Enjoyed your post.  Be well.

    Lee Munsick

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

    Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 17:20:07 -0400
    From: "Robert Paine" <macandrew@[removed];
    To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  OTR actors to TV

    Following on John Mayer's and other posts about OTR actors to TV, beside The
    Andy Griffith Show, Jack Benny and several more, another show that was an
    OTR lover's dream (at least, this one's) was my favorite, Petticoat
    Junction.

    Besides Bea Benaderet in the title role and Elvia Allman as her favorite
    friendly adversary, the show had over the years the likes of Parley Baer
    (several appearances - including a baliff or sheriff's deputy); Hal Peary;
    Lurene Tuttle; Frank Cady (started as a radio announcer in the 30's); Eddie
    Albert; Alan Reed; Janet Waldo; Herb Vigran; Doodles Weaver; Olan Soule;
    Forrest Lewis; Everett Sloane; Hope Summers; Irene Ryan; a lady named
    Shirley Mitchell, whose character sounded strangely like Leila Ransom; an
    [removed] (just kidding),
    and ye-ee-esss, Frank Nelson. The creators were Paul and Ruth Henning, and
    much of the music was supplied by Curt Massey.

         Macandrew

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

    Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 19:04:17 -0400
    From: LSMFTnolonger@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  MediaBay Releases First Radio Spirits
     Compilation in MP3 Format

    Radio Spirits has been selling their 20-hour set of "America at War" in
    cassette format for $[removed] and in CD format for $[removed]

    I was surprised to find out that they have also released "America at
    War" in the MP3 CD format. The announcement can be found at:

    [removed]

    According to the announcement: "The audio quality is excellent, and by
    reducing the number of CDs required, we are able to pass the savings
    along to our customers."

    Since one CD will cost them less than $[removed], I expected their MP3 CD of
    "America at War" to sell for $[removed] or $[removed] I was wrong. They are
    selling it on one MP3 CD for $[removed]

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #166
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