Subject: [removed] Digest V2008 #155
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 6/22/2008 8:28 AM

To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to: [removed]@[removed]

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                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2008 : Issue 155
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      This week in radio history 22-28 Jun  [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      Giving Ma a break                     [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
      Early tape and "Let's go to town"     [ rand@[removed] ]
      Jack Benny                            [ "Glen Schroeder" <gschroeder10@char ]

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    Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:27:56 -0400
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  This week in radio history 22-28 June

     From Those Were The Days --

    6/23

    1933 - The Pepper Pot program welcomed a new host. Don McNeill took over
    the show and renamed it The Breakfast Club. The show, a huge success for
    the NBC Blue and later, ABC, became one of the longest-running radio
    programs in history. The show aired with McNeill as host until December
    27, 1968. The Breakfast Club was a morning show that had its share of
    corny jokes, visiting celebrities and lots of audience participation.

    1941 - Front Page Farrell was heard for the first time on Mutual. In
    1942, the program moved to NBC and stayed on the air until 1954. Sally
    and David Farrell were the central characters.

    1947 - Wendy Warren and the News debuted on CBS. The broadcasts
    continued until 1958. No, the program was not a newscast, in the
    traditional sense. It was a serial -- one of many of the time. The
    unique thing about this particular show, however, was that Wendy Warren
    and the News did utilize a real three-minute newscast to open the show.
    The newscaster, delivering the news as part of the show, chose not to
    stay in the entertainment side of radio, but continued to be a true
    journalist and a legend at CBS. That newsman was Douglas Edwards.

    6/24

    1960 - The Romance of Helen Trent was heard for the last time. Helen and
    her boy-toy, Gil Whitney, were about to be married, but the loving
    couple never made it to the altar -- just in case the show would ever be
    renewed. Helen Trent and her romance aired for 27 years -- a total of
    7,222 episodes -- on the CBS.

    6/25

    1942 - The first broadcast of It Pays to Be Ignorant was aired on WOR
    and the Mutual Broadcasting System.

    6/26

    1933 - The Kraft Music Hall debuted.

    1949 - Fred Allen had his final program, though he continued for several
    years to guest on other shows.

    6/27

    1940 - As a summer replacement for blind, piano virtuoso Alec Templeton,
    The Quiz Kids was first heard. The show continued on NBC until 1953.

    1943 - The Dreft Star Playhouse debuted on NBC. Jane Wyman (the former
    Mrs. Ronald Reagan) starred in the first broadcast, titled Bachelor Mother.

    1944 - The Alan Young Show debuted on NBC. It was a summer replacement
    for the popular Eddie Cantor. The show became a regular in the fall NBC
    lineup.

    Joe

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    Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:14:23 -0400
    From: <otrbuff@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Giving Ma a break

    In recalling the transition from live shows into tape, Ken Greenwald
    observes:

>     By 1948 tape machines were being produced in large numbers for the
>     profession, but the networks were skeptical of the new medium. It wasn't
>     until NBC finally relented and started recording on tape in 1950/51.

    While NBC may have influenced the rest of the industry, at least partially
    so, I can substantiate that CBS was doing the same some of the time in 1950.
    A prominent example is the daytime serial Ma Perkins which was on CBS then
    (its second daily live airing at NBC ended July 8, 1949).

    I own almost every episode between mid 1949 and the early months of 1951.
    In the summer of 1950, for precisely two weeks that coincided with a
    Monday-through-Friday format, announcer Dan Donaldson (under the pseudonym
    Charlie Warren) uttered the words cold at the start of those 10 consecutive
    broadcasts:  "By transcription."  It suggests to me the whole shabang took
    off for a couple of weeks of R&R in that period, a luxury that hadn't been
    possible under network policies in force until then or not much sooner.

    When they returned to the studio, incidentally, the "By transcription"
    ceased -- until quite some time later when the entire production went on
    tape, as did the majority of other aural features.  It appears that 1949
    might have been the decisive year when the stringent rules banning
    prerecording were finally relaxed by Messrs Paley and Sarnoff and their
    cohorts.  ABC had long before proved with Crosby and Marx that it would work
    without diminishing listener interest (a possibility the moguls had
    routinely proffered), and it terminated most of the costly West Coast
    re-productions, too, while facilitating scheduling of productions to get the
    most efficiency out of facilities and simultaneously satisfy the "name"
    entertainers.

    Jim Cox

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    Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:23:24 -0400
    From: rand@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Early tape and "Let's go to town"

    The discussion of early taped shows and the transcribing of Crosby's
    program brings to mind a question I've wondered about.  Do many of the
    original master tapes for major network series survive?  If so, where are
    they?

    I believe I saw a post on this list on the web from some time ago where
    Elizabeth Macleod mentions hearing some Gunsmoke shows from the master
    tapes and how impressed she was with the sound.

    I have a couple of LPs from the 70s that I think were taken from master
    tapes and the sound is, indeed, quite amazing.  Both are on the Golden Age
    label - the Gunsmoke disc includes "Land Deal" and "The Photographer".
    The other disc is the 50's era Sherlock Holmes series with John Gielguld
    and Ralph Richardson.

    The Holmes disc is curious because you can hear what sounds like problems
    with oxide that has flaked off the tape in one of the episodes.

    That brings me to another question - does anyone know how the National
    Guard series "Let's Go to Town" was produced?

    I got a couple of examples of this by my favorite big band, the
    Sauter-Finegan Orchestra and they've puzzled me a bit.  They're staged to
    sound like they were down in front of an audience, but the audience sounds
    are dubbed in.

    So I'm wondering if the Sauter-Finegan recordings used on the show were
    created specifically for the broadcast or if they're from commercial
    release masters.  (My Sauter-Finegan collection isn't big enough to do
    comparisons to their RCA released to be sure.)

    The sound of these ETs is the best I've heard from any of the discs I've
    obtained - the music sounds like it was recorded direct to disc or
    directly from a first gen, high quality master tape with amazing dynamics
    and frequency range.

    I thought about putting them on the blog, but even a CD dub I did of the
    discs takes something away from them.  Only my Teac X-1000R reel to reel
    deck with DBX seems capable of capturing the full range of these discs.

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

    Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:18:02 -0400
    From: "Glen Schroeder" <gschroeder10@[removed];
    To: "otr" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Jack Benny

    Hi list.

    I've been watching some Jack Benny Shows on DVD lately, and at the end of
    the shows he talks about how he'll back back in three weeks.  Then he says
    to tune in next week for the Ann Suthern Show Private Secretary.  Does
    anyone know what6 show was on the third week.  Thanks.

    Luv Dis List
    Glen Schroeder
    Madison WI

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    End of [removed] Digest V2008 Issue #155
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