------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2019 : Issue 47
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
the hobby of OTR [ "Walden Hughes" <waldenhughes@yeste ]
Re: Colgate comedy hour [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
This week in radio history 29 Septem [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
Re: Whither collecting? [ Vince Long <vlongbsh@[removed]; ]
[removed] Kaltenborn [ <rmcblc@[removed]; ]
This week in radio history 6-12 Octo [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
Gunsmoke question [ Gary <actuarylaw@[removed]; ]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2019 12:38:11 -0400
From: "Walden Hughes" <waldenhughes@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: the hobby of OTR
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
Hi Everybody,
A question was ask in the last digest about collecting new OTR shows in the
hobby. I am personally aware of many shows that has not been release to
the internet yet. I believe you will see more and more shows release to the
hobby over the next few years. Keep tab of all of the good work Jerry
Haendiges is doing in the hobby. Jerry is releasing many new OTR shows on
facebook. I am personally keeping tab on three major collection of OTR
shows on the West coast. These collection are still on transcriptions disc
and master tapes. I believe all three collection will need to find new
home soon. I hope the power brokers of these collection decide to contact
some of the well known figures in our hobby and they can make good choices
for them. The collections need to be preserve and tranfered on to drives in
wave and flac formats. Take care,
Walden
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2019 12:38:31 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Colgate comedy hour
A. Joseph Ross wrote --
>> 1950 - ... In addition to Cantor, other hosts of the "Colgate
>> Comedy Hour" included: Fred Allen, Donald O'Connor, Bob Hope, Gordon
>> MacRae and Jimmy Durante.
> And frequently Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
Corrected and amended. :)
Joe
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2019 12:38:42 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: This week in radio history 29 September to 5
October
From Those Were The Days -
9/29
1920 Radios for 10 bucks! That's what Joseph Horne Company's
department store in Pittsburgh, PA was selling. The radios were
advertised in The Pittsburgh Sun for $10 ($127 in 2018 dollars) and up.
One could get a ready made radio in a box with headphones and tuning
knob. This way, one could do away with the Quaker Oats round box and the
cat's whisker wire, which was a pain to tune.
1930 "This is Lowell Thomas." Those words were spoken for the first
time as a young Lowell Thomas made his debut on CBS. He replaced Floyd
Gibbons on the nightly (6:45 [removed]), 15 minute newscast. Thomas, who
started as a reporter for the New York Daily News (at age 19), was heard
on the radio for the next 46 years.
1930 "Ba, ba, ba, boo. I will, ba ba ba boo ... marry you!" Bing
Crosby, America's premier crooner for decades, married Dixie Lee.
1940 Double or Nothing was first heard on Mutual. Each time
contestants answered questions correctly, their winnings would double
from $20 to $40 to the big payoff of $80. ($362, $724 and $1448 in 2018
dollars: [removed]) If they gave an incorrect
answer, they were gone! Nobody bet on long how long the show would last.
Good thing. It kept going for a dozen years. Among the sponsors: Feen A
Mint, Chooz breath candy and Campbell's soup.
1946 Mystery fans remember when The Adventures of Sam Spade debuted on
CBS this Sunday night. (It had aired in the summer of 1946 on ABC on
Friday nights.) The Adventures of Sam Spade, with Howard Duff playing
Spade, became a big hit in the Sunday night radio lineup. And now a word
from our sponsor: "Use Wildroot Cream Oil, Charlie ... it keeps your
hair in [removed]"
9/30
1930 Death Valley Days was first heard on the NBC Red network this day
(and) became one of radio's biggest hits. The 30 minute, Western
adventure series starred Tim Daniel Frawley as the Old Ranger, Harvey
Hays as the Old Prospector, John White as the Lonesome Cowboy, Edwin
Bruce as Bobby Keen, Robert Haag as Sheriff Mark Chase and Olyn Landick
as Cassandra Drinkwater.
The tales heard on Death Valley Days were all based on fact and were
human interest stories revolving around the borax mining town of Death
Valley, California. The show was created by Ruth Woodman, a script
writer for a New York ad agency. She had never seen Death Valley; but
had found the vehicle to sell 20 Mule Team Borax. As time went on, Ms.
Woodman did make a trip to Death Valley. She went back again and again
after that, digging up facts for her scripts. She even met an honest to
goodness old ranger, Wash Cahill, who knew everyone and everything about
the mining town.
Death Valley Days was renamed Death Valley Sheriff in 1944 and The
Sheriff in 1945. And Ruth Woodman continued to write the scripts. She
even wrote scripts when Death Valley Days became a TV show. Buy some 20
Mule Team Borax in commemoration.
1933 The theme song was Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here and it opened
the National Barn Dance. The half hour country music and comedy show,
originally heard on WLS, Chicago since 1924, moved to the NBC Blue
network this night. National Barn Dance was broadcast from the Eighth
Street Theater in Chicago, where the stage was transformed into a
hayloft every Saturday night. The host was Joe Kelly. Uncle Ezra was
played by Pat Barrett who was known to say, "Give me a toot on the
tooter, Tommy," as he started dancing. A few of the other Barn Dance
characters were Arkie, the Arkansas Woodchopper; Pokey Martin; the
Hoosier Hotshots; the Prairie Ramblers; cowgirl, Patsy Montana; Pat
Buttram; Lulu Belle and the Cumberland Road Runners. Gene Autry and Red
Foley were heard early in their careers on National Barn Dance. Although
there were plenty of sponsors (Alka Seltzer, One A Day vitamins,
Phillips Milk of Magnesia), the National Barn Dance was one of the few
radio shows to charge admission.
1935 "Calling all [removed]" The Adventures of Dick Tracy came to radio
for the first time on the Mutual Radio Network. Based on the comic
strip created by Chester Gould, the 15 minute adventure show was heard
Monday thru Friday at 5:45 [removed] The sponsors were Quaker Puffed Wheat
and Quaker Puffed Rice.
1962 - The death of OTR. The last regularly scheduled network programs,
Suspense and Johnny Dollar were heard.
10/1
1942 People Are Funny went on the air with host Art Baker.
10/3
1901 The Victor Talking Machine Company was incorporated on this day.
After a merger with Radio Corporation of America, RCA Victor became the
leader in phonographs and many of the records played on them. The famous
Victrola phonograph logo, with Nipper the dog, and the words "His
Master's Voice", appeared on all RCA Victor phonographs and record labels.
1946 Dennis Day started his own show on NBC. Dennis, a popular tenor
featured on The Jack Benny Show, played the same (type) naive young
bachelor he played on the Benny show. A Day in the Life of Dennis Day
aired for five years.
10/4
1948 Gordon MacRae hosted the premiere of a radio classic. The
Railroad Hour debuted on ABC. The theme song was I've Been Working on
the Railroad and the show was sponsored by, get ready for it, America's
Railroads.
10/5
1930 - Father Coughlin, "The Fighting Priest" was first heard. He lit
up the airwaves with oratory that aired into the early forties.
Joe
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2019 12:38:57 -0400
From: Vince Long <vlongbsh@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Whither collecting?
Alan/Linda Bell wonders if there is a slow down in the collecting of OTR due
to the existence of the Internet.
Probably. There is so much that is so readily available, it is likely that
some figure it can be obtained on-demand so why spend the time collecting it.
It also needs to be considered that all the low-hanging fruit has been picked
and now it's just the occasional piece that comes along. For example, I
picked up around 600 reels of tape at an estate sale some years ago. It
wasn't until last year that I went through them all, hoping I'd find
something more that just vinyl albums transferred to tape. While there was
plenty of that, I also found hundreds of hours of religious/political/news
programming from the 50s and 60s.
There was one program that I would certainly consider an OTR show, "Look to
the Skies" which was a salute to the Ground Observer Corps. I don't think
this one was previously in circulation. It's undated, probably from 1953,
and features the Air Force dance orchestra and guest Arlene Francis. You can
find the show on my site here. Use the "Select Reel Report" pull-down menu
and search for Reel 45.
[removed]
While the program was already in circulation, in July of 2018 I was checking
out a thrift store auction site and spied a 10" reel of tape that caught my
attention because of the label on the box. It indicated that the box had, at
one time, contained Part 1 of the "Air - Master" for the "Chase and Sanborn
102nd Anniversary" program from November 13, 1966. This was too much to pass
up and I was the successful bidder, picking it up, with a 7" reel of blank
tape, for under $20. Luckily, the label didn't lie. I have a web page with
photos of the reel and the box and a link to download the program here:
[removed]
So, for me, I still stay active in the hobby although I have been spending
lots time getting all the programs in my collection digitized and on my home
network's media server so I can search and play on-demand with any device on
my home network.
Vince
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2019 12:39:15 -0400
From: <rmcblc@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: [removed] Kaltenborn
To add to Joe Ross's comments about [removed] Kaltenborn ... as a
youngster, I also don't remember listening to him. Looking at the
newspaper radio logs online, I see his was an early evening
newscast, at 6 [removed] Central time, in the early '50s. We didn't
have a nearby NBC station, so we listened to WOAI in San Antonio
after the sun went down, and we would hear Morgan Beatty's News
of the World at 10:15. The Chicago Trib's list shows News of the
World coming on at 6:30 ... so did WOAI carry it live then and
repeat it at 10:15 or delay to run at 10:15 only? Guess we'll
never know.
In 1984, when Robert Trout came to Dallas to for ABC Radio's
coverage of the Republican national convention, I had a chance to
visit with him, and I asked him about Kaltenborn.
Trout: "He was a great friend of mine ... finally. He was
considerably older than I was and I did look up to him. He was a
wonderful man, but he was a very - how can I say it - I wouldn't
say 'aggressive' man, that would give the wrong impression - but
he was a very forthright man, full of action, in wonderful
physical condition. But he had a little sort of Teutonic - I
don't mean to be ethnic in any way - but he was of German
descent, he married a German baroness, and loved Germany and
hated Hitler, so I'm not saying anything as if I were making an
ethnic slur - I hope no one will think that. But he had a little
bit of authoritarianism - that's the word I think I want. He was
a leader, he was a captain. He formed an organization called the
Association of Radio News Analysts. ... And he ran it as if he
were the president of a country. We all enjoyed him. He was a
dedicated democrat. [little "d" democrat] He didn't mind being
talked back to or anything like that. But he tended to, if he
were onto a subject, and he'd be talking to you and begin to make
a little speech and his voice would rise. He had a characteristic
way of waving his hand and he would put one hand over the ear,
you know how announcers used to do so they could hear themselves
... (chuckles)."
I was curious about Kaltenborn because I seemed to recall Lowell
Thomas writing that as he came out of a studio after his
newscast, Kaltenborn was going in and said to Thomas, "You're the
cocktail, I'm the main course." Was he joking or was this a
big-time ego?
Trout: "Now, he would say that with a laugh, and yet you'd know
that a little bit of it, at least, he meant. (chuckles) His name
presented difficulties in some places. We used to go down to the
House of Representatives library and broadcast Congress by the
hour in those days when radio had very few commercials in the
early thirties and there was lots of time to fill, and he was
addressed, I remember, by some of the assistants at the Capitol
variously as Kaltenbaum - oh, there were about four different
variations - one of them also was Kottonbaum ... and even
Kuttlebone (chuckles) ... they couldn't get his name straight."
And was that ego bruised by President Truman doing an imitation
of Kaltenborn on election night 1948 predicting that, despite
Truman's early lead, Dewey would win eventually as the "country
vote" came in?
Trout: "Oh, [removed] - if he had been unknown before, which he wasn't
of course, you could say that made him, and he knew it - that was
marvelous for him - the president of the United States imitating
him. Of course, if it had been someone lesser, he might have
taken umbrage, as we used to say. But no, he enjoyed that, he
liked that. And we went to see President Truman - a group of us,
this Association of Radio News Analysts - we were invited in
shortly after the inauguration, just a brief meeting with the
president. And as we all filed in, Mr. Truman stood up from
behind his desk and the first thing he said, addressing Mr.
Kaltenborn, 'I hope you didn't mind that. I didn't mean it as an
offense.' The president was apologizing! And of course, [removed]
said, 'Oh, no. no' and that he loved it. But to think of Mr.
Truman saying virtually, 'I hope I didn't hurt your feelings.'"
Bob Cockrum
Temple, Texas
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2019 12:39:34 -0400
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: This week in radio history 6-12 October
From Those Were The Days
10/6
1937 Hobby Lobby debuted on CBS. The host was the dean of American
hobbyists, Dave Elman. The show's theme was The Best Things in Life are
Free. Sponsors included Fels Naptha soap, Hudson paper products and
Colgate Dental Creme.
10/7
1922 The first radio network, of sorts, debuted. It was a network of
just two stations. WJZ in Newark, NJ teamed with WGY in Schenectady, NY
to bring the World Series game direct from the Polo Grounds in New York.
Columnist Grantland Rice was behind the microphone for that broadcast.
1939 Kate Hopkins, Angel of Mercy was heard for the first time on CBS
radio. Tom Hopkins, Kate's husband, was played by Clayton 'Bud' Collyer,
later of eventual Superman fame. The 15 minute radio drama was written
by Chester McCraken and Gertrude Berg. The announcer for the four year
run of Angel of Mercy was Ralph Edwards of future This is Your Life
fame. And the sponsor was Maxwell House of coffee fame.
1940 Portia Faces Life debuted on the NBC Red network. This radio soap
opera centered around the life of Portia Blake Manning, an attorney and
a widow with a young son. Portia Faces Life was extremely popular, and
therefore, had many sponsors, none of which were soap. The sponsors
included Post Toasties, Grape Nuts Flakes, Grape Nuts Wheat Meal,
Maxwell House coffee, Jell O desserts and La France bleach.
10/8
1935 The O'Neills debuted on CBS. The theme song, Londonderry Air,
opened the 15 minute soap opera. The O'Neills aired Mondays, Wednesdays
and Fridays at 7:30 [removed] In 1936 it moved to daytime where it stayed
until 1943 on NBC's Red and Blue networks and on CBS, too. One of
radio's original soaps, it was sponsored appropriately by Silver Dust,
Ivory soap and Ivory soap flakes.
1935 Wedding bells pealed for a singer and a bandleader who tied the
knot, making radio history together. The bandleader was Ozzie Nelson and
the singer was Harriet Hilliard. They would make the history pages again
on this very day nine years later.
1944 The first broadcast of The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet was
heard on the CBS network.
10/9
1935 Cavalcade of America was first broadcast this very day. The CBS
show featured some of Hollywood and Broadway's most famous stars in
leading roles in the half hour dramas. Thomas Chalmers narrated the
stories about obscure incidents and people in American history. The
orchestra was led by Donald Voorhees. The show aired from 1935 to 1953,
changing from CBS to NBC in 1939; with one sponsor for its entire
duration. The DuPont Company introduced its slogan on Cavalcade of
America ... "Better things for better living through [removed]"
1943 ABC presented Land of the Lost. The opening phrase for the show
was, "In that wonderful kingdom at the bottom of the [removed]" This
children's adventure fantasy serial took the audience underwater where
the main characters, Isabel and Jimmy, were guided by their friend, a
red fish named Red Lantern and played at first by Junius Matthews and
later, by Art Carney. Land of the Lost found a large audience and
remained on the air until 1948.
10/10
1932 Two of radio's earliest efforts at soap operas were heard for the
first time. Judy and Jane, sponsored by Folger's Coffee, and Betty and
Bob, sponsored by General Mills, had listeners glued to their radios
into the early 1940s.
1933 Dreft, the first synthetic detergent, went on sale. Ten years
later Dreft was the sponsor of The Dreft Star Playhouse.
1937 The Mutual Broadcasting System debuted Thirty Minutes in
Hollywood. 48 sponsors shared the cost of the program that aired in 72
cities nationwide. It was the first Mutual co op radio show. George
Jessel and Norma Talmadge starred. Music was provided by the Tommy
Tucker Orchestra.
10/11
1936 Professor Quiz aired for the first time. It was the first
national quiz show on radio and lasted until 1948. Guests asked
Professor Quiz (Dr. Craig Earl) questions. If they were able to stump
the prof, they collected a $25 prize. ($352 in 2016 dollars). Professor
Quiz announcers were Robert Trout and Arthur Godfrey. Sponsors included
Kelvinator refrigerators, Teel Shampoo and Velvet pipe tobacco.
1948 One of radio's last premiering soap operas, The Brighter Day,
happened this day in Three Rivers. The show centered around the Dennis'
and their extended family. It's interesting to take a look at the cast
and see which names are still recognizable, like Hal Holbrook and
William Redfield. Some of the sponsors are still around, too: Ivory Soap
flakes, Blue Cheer detergent and Hazel Bishop lipstick. The soap opera
lasted for six years on radio.
10/12
1937 The longest running detective show debuted. Mr. Keen, Tracer of
Lost Persons lasted until 1955. Three different actors played the title
role, Bennett Kilpack was Mr. Keen the longest, and Arthur Hughes saw
the final show. Phil Clark also played the part. There were many more
than three sponsors: Anacin, Kolynos toothpaste, BiSoDol antacid mints,
Hill's cold tablets, Heet liniment, Dentyne, Aerowax, RCA Victor and
Chesterfield cigarettes.
Joe
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2019 12:48:17 -0400
From: Gary <actuarylaw@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Gunsmoke question
Gunsmoke question:
Today I listened to the episode entitled "The Soldier". In it, at least two
soldiers recognize Kitty as a source of compassion. Can I interpret these
"quick" hellos merely state the obvious of Kitty's role as [removed]
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2019 Issue #47
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