------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2006 : Issue 37
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Superman [ "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross. ]
RE: New OTR Resource Guide Now Avail [ Brianhluk@[removed] ]
Re: Brennan as Bean [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
Johnny Dollar [ William Brooks <webiii@[removed]; ]
Breaking the fourth [removed] [ jack and cathy french <otrpiano@ver ]
A Breath of Fresh Air [ Wich2@[removed] ]
self-referential radio shows [ "rkidera1" <rkidera1@[removed] ]
Re: WJSV Broadcast Day [ Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed]; ]
full day broadcast [ <cooldown3@[removed]; ]
jack benny show question [ "Mike Leannah" <mleannah@[removed] ]
Scene transition music effects [ "G. Morgan Watkins" <morgan@watkins ]
This week in radio history 5-11 Febr [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 00:31:26 -0500
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Superman
Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 11:58:23 -0500
From: Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed];
Why the radio show chose to take this route, instead of establishing
that he'd been found and raised by the Kents I've no idea. Maybe
the writers were just anxious to get Supes into action.
I wonder whether maybe the radio writers were unfamiliar with the
comic book origin. After all, as you point out, they could have
gottin Supes into action fairly quickly even with the comic-book
origin.
Cut to the scene with the professor and his son. Supes rescues them
as before. They might still suggest he work as a reporter, but
obviously wouldn't suggest a name. Other than Superman, that is.
I don't know why they would have reason to suggest it, since he would
not be a newcomer to earth and would have his own knowledge of what
kind of job to get. The entire scene would be pointless.
The biggest change in the comicbooks came with the 1986 revamp of
Supes origins, _The Man of Steel_ written by John Byrne. That
established that Jonathan and Martha Kent are still alive.
And, interestingly enough, that was also the case on the 1990s "Lois
and Clark" TV show.
The other major change established in _The Man of Steel_ (a concept
put forth by Marv Wolfman) was making Lex Luthor a powerful
business mogul, who like Professor Moriarity appears to be a
respectable citizen on the surface.
That, too, was used in "Lois and Clark." It makes more sense today
anyway. A "mad scientist" is a bit of an unrealistic cliche'
nowadays.
Oooookay. Let me get this straight, Lex. You're not angry with
Superboy because his efforts to _save your life_ inadvertantly
destroyed _a life form you'd just created_. You're angry because
you've lost your hair? Buy a toupee and move on.
Yes, I used to have that comic book. Comic book motivations were
pretty lame sometimes in those days. Still are.
In the current DC Comics universe there is a Superboy (and has been
since 1992). He's not a young Superman, but his clone.
Yes, and I don't like him. I rather liked the whole concept of
Superboy. And as an adult in the 1980s, I liked it even more as
nostalgia. In the early 1980s, they revived Superboy as a comic book
feature, and I enjoyed reading it. But by that time there were some
rather weird things established in the continuity. By that time the
Kents died from some mysterious outer-space disease, and Clark was
upset that, with all his powers, he couldn't save them. He
apparently had their graves in the backyard and refused to sell the
house. Eventually, the retired Smallville police chief was living
there as caretaker for Clark.
Yet somehow Clark managed to find the money to go to college. Maybe
he sold his father's general store.
Actually, one of the better things they did in the early 80s, just
before they wiped out the old continuity, was a series that focused
on Clark at Metropolis University, trying to come to terms with his
parents' deaths, and eventually also failing to save his room-mate
from a dorm fire because he was dealing with a tsunami halfway around
the world.
And ultimately, he decides that he is no longer Superboy but
Superman. And as it turns out, Lex Luthor is the first person to
learn of the new name and to announce it to the world.
So I take it there was either a scientific theory or a popular
fictional convention that there could be two hypothetical planets
on the same orbital plane?
I don't know if there was either at that point, but it seemed a
convenient story device and there didn't seem to be any reason why it
couldn't be so. The theory of Lagrange points existed, but I don't
think it was very well known at the time.
--
A. Joseph Ross, [removed] [removed]
15 Court Square, Suite 210 Fax [removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2503 [removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 01:26:53 -0500
From: Brianhluk@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: RE: New OTR Resource Guide Now Available
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Great news! I will be watching out for my copy (already ordered). ;)
Brian Longstaff
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------------------------------
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 11:05:29 -0500
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Brennan as Bean
"Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed]; informed us that Walter
Brennan had played Judge Roy Bean in both a _Cavalcade of America_
episode and in a pilot titled _Law West of the Pecos_ , inspired by
the earlier CoA episode. No doubt he seemed the logical choice for
the role as he'd won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (his
third) for playing that same gentleman in _The Westerner_ in 1940. In
fact, Brennan was almost nine when Bean died and might very well have
read one of the popular dime novels about the hanging judge while a
boy. Brennan had an interesting career. Among other things, he
succeeded where William Shatner failed, by having four hit records,
despite having had his vocal cords, reportedly, damaged by poison gas
during WW I.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 11:06:35 -0500
From: William Brooks <webiii@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Johnny Dollar
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Cris Holm mused,
I was listening to some Mandell Kramer episodes of Johnny Dollar (60?
61?) the other day, and was struck by something.
During the story, one of the characters in the story told Johnny how he
liked his radio show. And at another point, Johnny Dollar plugged a
station that carried his show, because the station was located in the
town Johnny was doing his investigation in.
I found the breaking of the forth wall (if I can use that expression in
this context) all a little bit disturbing. Or maybe it's all just me.
Well Cris, it's all just you. Jack Johnstone wrote those episodes and I
think it humanized
Johnny. In one episode Dollar meets and has dinner with Jack
Johnstone's brother
while investigating a case. And here's a little something that I found
very interesting
when Jack told me. Many of the characters in his stories were named
after some of
Jack's friends. Jack used to fish a Lake Mojave Resort, with the real
Ham Pratt
and Buster Favor. A very good friend of Jacks was Earl Poorman and
Earls wife
"Mike". Jack once showed me a Christmas card he had "just" gotten from
Mike
Poorman. They regularly corresponded after Earls death.
One more quickie for you Cris. When Johnny quotes the price of an
airline ticket for
his expense account, that price is accurate up to the day before the
show was recorded.
Jack left the price blank when he wrote the script, and called the
airline the day of, or the
day before the show.
My bottom line about the breaking of the forth wall. I enjoy it. It
lest me be a part of the
gag and not just a listener.
Bill
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------------------------------
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 11:08:02 -0500
From: jack and cathy french <otrpiano@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Breaking the fourth [removed]
On Saturday, February 4, 2006, at 12:31 AM, Chris Holm wrote:
Was the character of Johnny Dollar supposed to be an investigator and
a radio actor? Were they implying that there's a real Johnny Dollar,
whose exploits were being dramatized? No one tells Matt Dillon or Joe
Friday how much they enjoy their radio [removed]
I found the breaking of the forth wall (if I can use that expression
in this context) all a little bit disturbing. It seemed to intrude
unnecessarily on the suspension-of-disbelief required in fiction. Or
maybe it's all just me. Anyone else experience this and found it a
little weird?
I can think of two other examples. In the Mar 5, 1951 episode of
"Candy Matson, YU 2-8209" (alas, no audio copy exists) the story
involved a mystery at the morgue. A young blonde homicide victim is
mis-identified as Candy Matson, who in turn is asked to solve the case.
Near the end of the show, the funeral director tells Candy that Natalie
Masters plays her on radio. Since listeners of this series enjoyed its
humor, sometimes derived from "in-house radio," this probably would not
have been too disconcerting to them.
However my other example shook my faith in the world as I knew it in
grade school. An episode of the "Tom Mix Ralston Straight-Shooters"
began with Tom, Mike, and announcer Don Gordon in a radio studio,
discussing how much time they had before they went on the air. Into
that studio (presumably in Dobie, TX, not Chicago, IL) strode one of
Tom's arch enemies, gangster Caesar Ciano with his gun toting henchmen.
He issued a series of threats to Tom and Mike and declared they would
not broadcast their show today. Bluffs and counter-bluffs went back
and forth until Ciano demanded to know how each program ended. Don
Gordon said he ended each show so guns were trained on him. He
nervously concluded the show with something like "Tom Mix has been
brought to you by the makers of Ralston" and the episode ended there.
My buddies and I were shocked to our toes and spent the next 24 hours
pondering the significance of what we had heard. Did this mean Tom and
Mike had to interrupt every case each day at 5:45 pm and ride over to
the Dobie radio studio? When would there be time to write a script on
what had just happened? Or did the major players just ad-lib? How would
all the other townspeople in Dobie find the time to play themselves on
radio? The mind [removed]
In the next day's episode, Tom commented to an associate that he and
Mike were prevented from doing their radio broadcast because of the
intervention of Caesar Ciano. The matter was dropped in the second
episode after the bombshell, but the damage had already been done to
the respective worlds of me and my young buddies.
Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 11:09:24 -0500
From: Wich2@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: A Breath of Fresh Air
From: "Holm, Chris " [removed]@[removed]
I started the WJSV broadcast at the correct
time and let it run the whole day ... In fact, I found it almost exactly
like
today's television. There's a few interesting things, but most of it is
just background noise
Dear Chris-
Thank you, thank you, a thousand thank yous! I have said things like that in
print, and in person, for years;
and so have a few other brave souls - usually, to be shouted down by cries
of "blaspemy!!!"
I sometimes make the
mistake of comparing the very best shows of 30+ years of radio with the
average of what's on TV this week ... But
that's not really a fair comparison
Of course not! And to be fair to radio, it would be no more just to put ITS
lowest denominator up against TV's best!
I love the medium, or I wouldn't be here; and I certainly wouldn't put my
sweat into the Old, at FOTR and elsewhere, and into New, as an
actor/writer/producer.
But it simply slays me when folks don't see the simple truth of the equation
you lay out. If for no other reason, the similarity between the two media -
for well, and for ill - should be plain from the fact that thet were grown
from the same roots, by the same people, for the same ends. And a main goal
here in America was and is, as author Harlan Ellison says, "To sell toilet
paper
- to most network biggies, the PROGRAMS are the interruptions!"
Within that stricture, great work has been done by hard workers - in both
media - worth celebrating (considering the handicap, MORE glory on their
heads!)
But maybe, Chris, you've put the last nail in the coffin of that silly
"T----vision" crack.(As if it were a dirty word, and R---o, Holy Writ!)
All the best,
-Craig
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 11:09:39 -0500
From: "rkidera1" <rkidera1@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: self-referential radio shows
In addition to the Johnny Dollar show previously mentioned, I recall an
episode of the "Adventures of Philip Marlowe" when Gerald Mohr (as Marlowe)
interacts with another character who is "reading Chandler's latest novel."
Marlowe then says" [removed] where have I heard that name
before?" Clever, but again a bit disruptive of the suspension of disbelief.
B. Kidera
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 11:20:04 -0500
From: Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: WJSV Broadcast Day
Chris Holm said:
I started the WJSV broadcast at the correct time and let it run the whole [removed]
I was surprised by what I experienced. I found a lot of it fairly tedious.
You should have done what most people did that day -- change the station.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 13:30:14 -0500
From: <cooldown3@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: full day broadcast
Hi All,
On Christmas day of 2003 I organized a capture from 5 min before
midnight[11:55 03-12-24] until 5 min after midnight on the next [0005
-3-12-26] from several staations in canada, australia and the usa. It is
interesting to hear how the different areas in different countries
celebrated christmas. There were 9 stations recorded in diverse areas of
each country.
I believe this kind of time capsul is a wonderful window to the past for our
children and grandchildren.
Remember what is playing today will be the OTR of 2050.
I had hopes of South Africa, Great brittian and Poland captures too but they
did not make it.
Cheers,
Patrick
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 15:13:54 -0500
From: "Mike Leannah" <mleannah@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: jack benny show question
In listening to the Jack Benny Show of April 13, 1947, I came upon a
question. I wonder if anybody out there would be able to answer this one.
Jack is at a baseball game, Los Angeles [removed] Of course the Dodgers
were still in Brooklyn in 1947. These must have been minor league teams.
Joseph Kearns plays the stadium announcer. In the middle of the usual
Benny-show dialog, Kearns announces the following: "The batteries for
today's game are for Seattle, Kinsfather and Shams; for Los Angeles,
Chandler and Lade." (The spellings of those names may not be correct.)
This announcement is met with nothing but silence and the dialog between
Jack and the others continues. A little later Kearns returns with: "There is
a replacement for Seattle. Naggy will pitch instead of Kinsfather." Again,
nothing but silence and no other reference is made to these names.
I don't remember another time on the Benny show when such a thing occurs.
Everything usually leads to something on that show. I waited for more and it
never came. Who the heck are Kinsfather, Shams, Chandler, Lade, and Naggy?
Anyone know?
Mike Leannah
Sheboygan, Wisconsin
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 15:14:27 -0500
From: "G. Morgan Watkins" <morgan@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Scene transition music effects
As I listen to different OTR programs, I am surprised by the number
that use the same transitional music effects between scenes. For
instance, the brassy transition music on "Tales of the Texas Rangers"
is used in many other shows. The opening and closing themes are
usually different, but the transitions are identical. I think the
same is true of the "Black Museum" scene transitions. Does anyone
know who first used the scene transitions, whether they were simply
bought from some music company, or how that was managed. Were some
of the shows the originators and others the copy-cats?
Just terribly curious,
Morgan
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 17:20:59 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otrd <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: This week in radio history 5-11 February
From Those Were The Days --
2/5
1931 - Eddie Cantor's long radio career got underway as he appeared on
Rudy Vallee's The Fleischmann Hour.
1940 - Amanda of Honeymoon Hill debuted. Joy Hathaway starred as 'the
beauty of flaming red hair'. The program stayed for six years on NBC.
2/6
1943 - Frank Sinatra made his debut as vocalist on radio's Your Hit
Parade this night. Frankie had left the Tommy Dorsey Band just four
months prior to beginning the radio program. He was described as,
"...the biggest name in the business."
1950 - NBC first broadcast Dangerous Assignment. The show starred Brian
Donlevy in the role of soldier of fortune, Steve Mitchell.
2/8
1924 - John Joseph Carty of the Bell Telephone System spoke in Chicago,
IL. His speech was carried across the nation on the first coast-to-coast
radio hookup. An estimated 50-million people heard the speech.
2/11
1940 - NBC presented The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street for
the first time. The famous Blue network series included several
distinguished alumni -- among them, Dinah Shore and Zero Mostel. The
chairman, or host, of The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street
was Milton Cross. He would say things like, "A Bostonian looks like he's
smelling something. A New Yorker looks like he's found it." The show
combined satire, blues and jazz and was built around what were called
the three Bs of music: Barrelhouse, Boogie Woogie and Blues.
Joe
--
Visit my home page: [removed]~[removed]
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2006 Issue #37
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