Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #33
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 1/28/2002 5:26 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2002 : Issue 33
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Hal Stone, Suspense Episodes, and Mo  [ "Ryan Hall" <pezman419@[removed]; ]
      go to the conventions                 [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]
      Phillips AZ1155 Mp3 player            [ "ecrasez" <ecrasez@[removed]; ]
      Re: More Minstrels                    [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      ReinCARnation                         [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
      bad business with Radio Spirits       [ "Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@neb. ]
      Re: who is he? ( from richard pratz)  [ Jer51473@[removed] ]
      Two O'clock EWT                       [ Backus2@[removed] ]
      OTR Chat                              [ "Lois Culver" <lois@[removed]; ]
      re Phil Harris show's [removed]       [ John Henley <jhenley@[removed] ]
      ... Hear! Hear!                       [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
      Lone Ranger-Cheerios-Lunchbox premiu  [ leemunsick@[removed] ]
      Re: Richard Pratz' "Who Is It?"       [ John Henley <jhenley@[removed] ]
      Engineering Advances                  [ "H. K. Hinkley" <hkhinkley@[removed] ]
      Putting in my own two cents re the    [ "Jan Bach" <janbach@[removed]; ]
      "GEORGE BURNS" ON BROADWAY            [ "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; ]
      A sad day for Sweden, and the world   [ "Marcus Antonsson" <[removed] ]
      Radios                                [ JayHick@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 13:44:28 -0500
    From: "Ryan Hall" <pezman419@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Hal Stone, Suspense Episodes, and More

    Hal "Juggy" Stone had the following comment that I have to respond to:

>          Ryan, for my money, your "two cents worth" is priceless. Keep
>     the coins flowing. But on second thought. Maybe You better save your
>     pennies. You might need 'em when I sue you for Defamation of
>     Character.

    More like Definition of Character, but I'll let that slide. And I agree with
    him (I know that's shocking) that if you subscribe to this list and never
    have attended Lois' Thursday night chat, you are really missing out. Its
    quite a hoot. I really missed it when I was out of the country back in the
    fall and did not have access to the internet. Without me to keep him in
    line, Jughead almost ran amuck from what I'm told. Just [removed]

    As for the previous posting concerning my top 3 favorite Suspense
    [removed] is indeed a toughie. I was always rather fond of the Blair
    Witch-esque first person "Ghost Hunt" with I think Danny Kaye, but I'm not
    certain about that. I also enjoyed a "Too Perfect Alibi" which I think would
    make a fantastic [removed] it would actually take real acting instead of
    the special effects and profanity that now tends to dominate the junk coming
    out of Hollyweird. My theory is that the appeal of mind blowing special
    effects will eventually wear off and the actors will have to start acting
    again with intelligent [removed] I'm not holding my breath. And I always
    thought the House in Cypress Canyon was pretty freaky too. When I was doing
    my late night radio drama recreation for my school radio station, we did
    this one once time for Halloween and it was a lot of fun.

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 13:44:06 -0500
    From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: go to the conventions

    If any body is near an OTR convention this year, please do your self a favor
    and go.  I am 35 years old and have been at 17 OTR convention, and have met
    some wonderful people like Hal.  Thank to the internet I believe OTR will be
    alive.  Right now I believe we are at a very importance cross road in the
    hobby.  Media Bay announce in there last 10Q that they are losing $4 a share
    and they have 13 million share out standing.  In other words the company is
    losing 50 millions dollars a year.  They are shutting down there Radio
    Spirit plant in Million, and moving control back to New Jersey, and looking
    for a third party to handle OTR.  Media Bay is writing off the book
    different mail order list they have bought for there  audio book companies.
    They have over 1,900,00 million people on there book list but 600,000,000 on
    there OTR mail list.  Another interesting fact is the listenership for OTR.
    The last I know KNX in Los Angeles OTR at 9 PM is the most popular hour at
    night for all ages in the LA market, and Yesterday USA is rank by Yahoo has
    the third most popular broadcasting web site in the World behind the BBC and
    CNN.  The last I know there where over 7 thousands stations broadcast.  It
    is going to be very interesting what going to happen in the hobby.  Take
    care,

    Walden Hughes

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 14:57:21 -0500
    From: "ecrasez" <ecrasez@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Phillips AZ1155 Mp3 player

    Somebody asked me offlist to post more details about the Phillips
    AZ1155 mp3 player. Since I was going to Best Buy anyway, I took
    a handful of cds with varying bitrates. I think the lowest bitrate
    recordings I have are at 32, which gives me about 100 hours per
    cd (74min.) The player has no problem with this lower rate. It
    does not display the file names, but rather only the track number.

    I also tried the Sony CFD-S40CP, which did not play the lower
    bitrate recordings, but does however show the file name of the
    selected track.

    Both have remote controls.

    Bob S.

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 14:57:41 -0500
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: Re: More Minstrels

    Mike Biel wrote:

>     I have the disc of two Pic and Pat syndicated programs from around 1933,
>     and at the Edison Site there is a 1929 sample program of a proposed
>     syndicated Gold Dust Twins program of Goldy and Dusty that has some
>     elements of minstrelry.  (I've heard rumors that these might be the same
>     performers, or maybe that was Molasses 'n' January?)

    Pick and Pat *were* Molasses 'n' January, but the Gold Dust Twins were
    Harvey Hindemeyer and Earl Tuckerman, who were better known as Edison
    recording artists. They were basically a harmony team who did
    minstrel-style songs rather than an out-and-out comedy act.

    Pick Malone and Pat Padgett were a vaudeville team who rode into radio on
    the coattails of the Amos 'n' Andy craze in the early thirties and were
    most successful for their comedy-relief work on the Maxwell House Show
    Boat beginning in 1932. One critic proclaimed them "the worst blackface
    team in the history of the world," although there were plenty of
    competitors for that title.

    While working on the Show Boat as Molasses 'n' January, Malone and
    Padgett made a series of syndications as Pick and Pat, and were
    subsequently picked up by the U. S. Tobacco Company for a series known
    variously as "One Night Stand"(no relation to the AFRS band-remote
    series) and "Model Minstrels." They remained on this series for five
    years, until early 1939 -- when they were abruptly fired. Pick Malone was
    picked up by police in New York after threatening someone in a drunken
    bar fight with an unlicensed handgun, and U. S. Tobacco immediately
    invoked the morals clause in the team's contract to dismiss them. The
    series continued with the team of Tom Howard and George Shelton, who were
    essentially a minstrel-style comedy team without blackface or dialect (or
    unlicensed weapons.)

    Pick and Pat made a minor comeback in the forties, but by then their
    material was embarassingly obsolete -- they were still doing "whut yo'
    mean keepin' coal in de bathtub? Dat's no coal, dat's me!" jokes as late
    as 1944. This type of material was typical of their approach, and was
    really as out of date then as it is now.

>     Benny Fields with his wife Blossom Seeley were great stars of vaudeville
>     and minor stars of radio.

    Fields' minstrel associations were still potent enough in 1936 for him to
    be featured as the guest star in the second of the two "Mystic Knights of
    the Sea Friday Night Minstrel Shows." There's also a Rudy Vallee program
    extant from December 1934 in which Fields and Seeley both appear, doing
    non-minstrel material from their vaudeville act.

>     I seem to recall that Honey Boy West was part of the team of Honey Boy and
>     Sassafras, who were also vaudeville and movie performers, but I'm
>     hitting a dead end on further information.

    "Honeyboy and Sassafrass" were Georgie Fields and Johnny Welsh, a couple
    of minor-league blackface comics from Texas who teamed up on KSAT in San
    Antonio in 1929 as would-be Amos 'n' Andy imitators. Rather than doing
    straight minstrel material, they tried to copy Correll and Gosden's
    success with a serial storyline -- Honeyboy and Sassafrass ran the "Black
    Panther Detective Agency," while competing for the romantic favors of
    "the comely Peaches," who ran a speakeasy called "the Black Kitten Cafe."
    A typical plotline involved the two in an expedition to the South
    American jungle in search of a lost diamond mine, where Honeyboy fought
    off the cannibal tribes with his straight razor. Honeyboy was a
    fast-talking dandy in a cream-colored suit, and Sassafrass was his
    slow-moving bumbling watermelon-addicted dupe -- in short, the program
    had little in common with A&A, which never portrayed razor fights,
    watermelons, speakeasies, cannibal tribes or lost diamond mines.

    Fields and Welsh were durable, however -- they kept popping up on local
    stations around the country thruout the thirties, and ran on NBC as a
    daytime feature for several years in the mid-thirties. They were far more
    successful than they ever deserved to be.

    I don't believe that Honeyboy West was the Honeyboy of "Honeyboy and
    Sassafrass." I seem to recall running across his name in the context of
    old-time pre-WW1 minstrelsy, although there were a number of minstrel
    performers who called themselves "Honeyboy" -- Honeyboy Evans being the
    most prominent. During the pre-WW1 era, he worked with Leroy "Lasses"
    White (who later teamed with "Honey" Wilds at the Grand Ole Opry) and I
    wonder if Evans might in fact be the one referred to.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 14:58:08 -0500
    From: JackBenny@[removed]
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: ReinCARnation

    OK, fine, I won't play.  *Folded arms and pouting*

    But I will add [removed] the Maxwell was donated to the scrap drive, a
    later show featured a military plane flying by that sputtered and coughed
    much like the Maxwell.  Thus the flivver had indeed given its all to the War
    effort.

    It is surprising that Jack is back driving the same car years later,
    especially on a show that could still get laughs with Kenny Baker references
    as late as 1954.  I've not heard a good explanation for the return of the
    Maxwell.

    --Laura Leff
    President, IJBFC
    [removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 14:58:44 -0500
    From: "Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@[removed];
    To: "old time radio" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: bad business with Radio Spirits

    Hi all:
    I wonder if anyone has experienced something like this recently.  I called
    Radio Spirits two days after Christmas to place an order.  They told me they
    were in the process of moving and had to take inventory.  They told me my
    order wouldn't be shipped out until January 11.  Now, here we are at January
    28 and I still have seen no sign of my order.  I've called twice and spoke
    to customer service.  Both times, they told me someone would call me back.
    No callback.  The money hasn't cleared my account.  Now, I can understand
    that moving is a hassle, but no callback?  Is anyone else currently
    experiencing the same problem?  I think I'm going to cancel my order.  If
    Radio Spirits can't even call me back to give me the status of an order,
    they must not care about my business as a customer  If anyone else on this
    digest has recently placed an order with this company, I suggest you might
    want to do some [removed]
    RyanO

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 14:59:01 -0500
    From: Jer51473@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Re: who is he? ( from richard pratz)

      Warren Hull?  I remember him in The Green Hornet

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 14:58:53 -0500
    From: Backus2@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Two O'clock EWT

       I just finished reading John Dunning's "Two O'clock Eastern War Time",
    which I loved. Thanks, John.
       Were any of the radio plays which "Jordan" wrote for the big week ever
    really written or produced? (Boer War,  Battery Wagner, etc.) If so, can
    anyone supply a reference to them?
       Forgive me if this is an old question, I just got the book recently.

                                                      Dick Backus

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:39:09 -0500
    From: "Lois Culver" <lois@[removed];
    To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: OTR Chat

>     What do I need to do to take part--any special software?
>     Bill

    Anyone who wishes to join our OTR Chat on Thursday evenings, drop me an
    email at lois@[removed]  and I will send you detailed instructions on
    getting there. The more the merrier!  You'll enjoy talking to Hal Stone
    (Jughead) and Harry Bartell and all the rest of the gang, including Joe
    Mackey who posts the radio happenings in past years, and Charlie -
    maintainer of this Digest.

    Lois Culver
    KWLK Radio (Mutual) Longview, WA 1941-44
    KFI Radio (NBC) Los Angeles CA 1945-47, 50-53
    Widow of Howard Culver, actor

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:41:01 -0500
    From: John Henley <jhenley@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: re Phil Harris show's [removed]

    Eric Cooper, in discussing the Harris/Faye show (of which I
    also am very fond, finding it no more predictable than any
    other long-running OTR show I can think of), suggested:

>     ........it
>     seems to be filled with a lot of what I might call "in-crowd" humor. If you
>     followed the show closely every week, you were in on the hilarious nuances
>     in the reparte between Phil Harris and Elliot Lewis ("Frankie Remley") or
>     between Phil and Robert North (brother-in-law Willie) or between Phil and
>     Walter Tetley(Julius) , well you get the idea. It was almost like in-jokes
>     between members of one's own family.

    My questions:  In this respect, how does it differ from Jack Benny's
    show?  Didn't the Benny show depend, for much of its impact, upon
    audience familiarity with running gags and the quirks of each character?
    If so, wouldn't that make Benny's humor "in-crowd" as well?

    John Henley

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:40:01 -0500
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: ... Hear!  Hear!

    Hal Stone (aka Jughead), speaking of my observation that it would be a
    rare person back in the OTR days, tuned into a program, would listen with
    his or her eyes closed, observed,

>     I guess I was one of the rare one's Stephan. Primarily when it came to
>     listening to "Inner Sanctum" or "Lights out" in my bedroom at night. Not
>     only did I have my eyes closed (tight), but more than likely, with the
>     blanket pulled tightly over my head. :)

    Well, that was because we weren't supposed to be listening -- or so it
    was in my case.  I did have, at one point, a "pocket" crystal set that I
    hooked to a bed frame, and with one of those less-than-great hard-plastic
    earpieces, I could listen to OTR after bedtime.  However, the only time
    the eyes were closed is when I heard one or the other of my parents
    approaching.

>     Then again, if one was in the living room listening to radio with their
>     eyes closed, it probably meant that dozed off because the show had not
>     held their attention. Right, Stephan?

    Or the show was so bad that the listener was suffering through it to
    accommodate another family member. :-)

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:42:53 -0500
    From: leemunsick@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Lone Ranger-Cheerios-Lunchbox premium

    After reading about the special Cheerios package for weeks here (months?) a
    supply finally appeared in a special pile not in the cereal section, but
    the front aisle of our local grocer.

    Two large boxes of Cheerio are on the left and right end of this
    package.  I haven't actually measured it, but I'd guess it is about 30"
    wide or less, all shrink-wrapped together.  One of the Cheerios box is
    nothing special, the other is a commemorative, as is the entire over-wrap
    parcel bottom.

    The "lunchbox" looks to me like something a 6-year old girl would carry
    around on her arm as her special little purse.  I haven't actually measured
    it either, but it's not much bigger than 4"x5".  Is this supposed to be a
    faithful copy of an original Lone Ranger premium?  It might contain an
    apple and a folded-up napkin and Toll House cookies (well, perhaps one).

    Lee Munsick         (Southside Virginia USA)

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:41:41 -0500
    From: John Henley <jhenley@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Re: Richard Pratz' "Who Is It?"

    Richard Pratz asked the question and gave the clues:

>     Although he appeared on many OTR programs, he was most closely associated
>     with one particular audience participation show on radio and later TV. ...
>     ... he acted in over 35
>     movies and played in several "B" movie serials as Mandrake the Magician, The
>     Spider and The Green Hornet.

      Warren Hull?

    --
    John Henley

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:42:24 -0500
    From: "H. K. Hinkley" <hkhinkley@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Engineering Advances

    In Digest #29, Chris asks:

>     Can any of you think of other examples of events from OTR
>     programs that would not make any sense because of todays technology -
>     because of Engineering advances?

    I'm reminded of one of my favorite lines from OTR, if I remember
    correctly, on the X Minus One episode "Name the Comet for Me" in which,
    after yet another problem with the computer, the protagonist says, "Hmm,
    it must be a weak tube in the computer."

    Stay tuned,   HK

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:41:53 -0500
    From: "Jan Bach" <janbach@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: Putting in my own two cents re the

    Harris-Faye Show
    Approved: ctrn4eeWlc

    Hello again --

    I reluctantly agree with those who felt the Harris and Faye show lost a
    great deal of its comedy in its last few seasons after Ray Singer and Dick
    Chevillat stopped writing scripts for the show. Like others, I also found it
    less funny that Phil's best friend could now be named "Elliott" instead of
    "Frankie Remley," which was a funny name by itself. And you won't get any
    argument from me that throughout the run of the show the plots were pretty
    ridiculous (imagine the boys deciding, for instance, to create their "own
    drug," or to get the bright idea of using Julius as wadding to clean Phil's
    chimney!).

    Why, then, do I find the show so appealing, and still often laugh like hell
    at some of the lines, still fresh after more than fifty years, still funny
    no matter how many times I've heard them? Answer: the timing of Phil,
    Elliott Lewis, and Walter Tetley, particularly the last two, a couple of the
    very best actors the golden age of radio ever had.

    Tetley, for instance, while perhaps better known as the long-established
    character Leroy on The Great Gildersleeve, created two distinctively
    different and funny young men in the two shows despite using the same voice
    for each. Leroy could bring tears to a listener's eyes when he expressed
    disappointment at being denied an anticipated Christmas gift, while Julius
    was such a raucous, brash, dead-end kid (that Tetley himself often played on
    the live vaudeville stage) that he was funny even when Phil and Remley were
    trying to murder him!

    I've made no secret in these digests about my admiration for Elliott Lewis.
    He could take a bit of dialogue, not funny in itself, and say it in such a
    manner that it was hilarious (remember him asking Frank Nelson, the railroad
    ticket agent in a Benny show, "How are things in Glocca Morra?," or once,
    left alone briefly at the Harris house and having nothing to do, decides to
    spend the time "opening and reading their personal mail.") and then make an
    about-face and turn in a credible dramatic performance as Othello on
    Suspense, the skipper of the Scarlet Queen, the detective Bart Friday on
    Adventures by Morse or even, incredibly, cameo appearances as the magician
    in The Cinnamon Bear, or a thug in an early episode of Speed Gibson. I
    believe him to be the best actor that radio ever produced.

    If Phil didn't have quite the sense of timing that Lewis and Tetley had, he
    was totally uninhibited enough to make instant comedy on the air when he
    verbally chastized Alice for pronouncing a country as "Indinosia," or when
    one of his on-air daughters almost said she wanted ten dollars from Phil
    instead of five. Together, IMHO, Phil and Elliott created probably the
    funniest two-man team that radio ever produced. If one needed proof, just
    listen to the reactions of their audiences!

    Jan Bach

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:40:33 -0500
    From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: "GEORGE BURNS" ON BROADWAY

    I was viewing the Dailey Variety web site this afternoon, and came across an
    article about a one-man show, starring Frank Gorshin, called "Good Night
    Gracie," written by Rupert Holmes (who also wrote the AMC series "Remember
    WENN")
    The article, dated 6/17/'01, said that:. . .  "Gorshin really captures the
    essance of George Burns in ths play".

    My question is this:  How come no one on the Digest - especially those in
    the NY area hasn't mentioned this play before?  Or was it mentioned before I
    joined the Digest, last year?

    Owens [removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:44:37 -0500
    From: "Marcus Antonsson" <[removed]@[removed];
    To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: A sad day for Sweden, and the world

    Hi gang!

    Today my country has lost our most beloved writer. Astrid Lindgren, known
    throughout the world for her many books for children has passed away at the
    age of 94. Her books have been translated into over 70 languages and has
    sould millions all over the globe, but here in Sweden, she was more than just
    a great writer. Not least, she was a great radio personality. I guess every
    child who has grown up here during the last 50 years, knows her voice very
    well. She was a wonderful reader and recorded more or less everything she
    wrote for the Swedish radio during the years. Many of these recordings have
    also been released commercially. She was also great in the Swedish version of
    twenty questions which was on from 1948-1960.

    We'll miss her a lot, but her work will live on!

    All best:

    Marc Antonsson, Sweden

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

    Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 19:11:15 -0500
    From: JayHick@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Radios

    I received this note from Isobel Clowes.  If you can help, please respond to
    her.

    I am looking for a link where people might be selling/buying old radios.
    I've looked but can't find a site.  Any suggestions?

    Isobel Clowes <ipclowes@[removed];

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #33
    ********************************************

    Copyright [removed] Communications, York, PA; All Rights Reserved,
      including republication in any form.

    If you enjoy this list, please consider financially supporting it:
       [removed]

    For Help: [removed]@[removed]
    To Unsubscribe: [removed]@[removed]

    For Help with the Archive Server, send the command ARCHIVE HELP
      in the SUBJECT of a message to [removed]@[removed]

    To contact the listmaster, mail to listmaster@[removed]

    To Send Mail to the list, simply send to [removed]@[removed]