------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2003 : Issue 151
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Re: Who's A Buffoon? [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
Re: A&A Cast Photo [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
Sony Discman - 100 file limit? [ otrdigest@[removed] ]
April 10th Birth Dates [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
RE: Mrs. Miller & audience mikes [ "D. Fisher" <dfisher@[removed]; ]
April 11-12-13-14 [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
Free Agent and OTR [ "Captain Spiffy" <captspiffy@hotmai ]
Elizabeth's joke [ "Michael Hingson" <MHingson@guidedo ]
Elizabeth's Amos & Andy research [ Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed]; ]
kicking myself [ "Roby McHone" <otr_alaska@[removed] ]
Richard Crenna on Judging Amy on Apr [ "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@hotmail. ]
"Noisy" Radio scripts [ Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed] ]
Quiet village [ otrbuff@[removed] ]
Guide to actors on Suspense [ Carolie Minuscule <daggerofthemind2 ]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 14:54:05 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Who's A Buffoon?
On 4/9/03 1:02 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:
I know Im probably sticking my foot in my mouth, but to say in the early
episodes they are not "inempt buffoons", Im not sure I would agree with that.
When I listen to their sketches about not being able to spell or not being
able to add, or not being able to read a letter, they seem pretty much like
"inempt buffoons" to me. Even Andy's very slow speech and Amos's also
exagerated voice in the early ones tends to reinforce this also.
There was some of this type material in the first two years of the
program -- but I don't know as I'd call it "buffoonery." That term to me
calls to mind characters who have no inner life, no other function than
as bumbling, fumbling clowns. In this sense, Moe, Larry and Curly were
buffoons -- you never had the sense that these characterizations had any
inner life, any *souls* aside from their function as comedians.
But neither Amos nor Andy *ever* fit that role, not even in the very
earliest stages of the program's development. Correll and Gosden used
scenes about poor spelling and poor reading skills to make a point: Amos
and Andy grew up semi-literate in a small town in the Deep South, and
were trying to come to terms with the culture shock of life in a large
Northern city, and the central focus of the program was the contrast
between their respective approaches to this problem. Amos was painfully
conscious of his own limitations and tried in every way he could to move
beyond them, as depicted in this scene:
Andy---If you say "is -- is" one mo' time, I goin' knock yo' head off.
Amos---Alright den, I'll just shut up Andy.
Andy---Now, lemme tell yo' whut "is" is. You know I is been to school.
When I finished de day school I went to night school. I been to mornin',
afternoon, an' night school.
Amos---I ain't arguin' 'bout dat. I a-mits dat I ain't been to school
much.
Andy---Dat's de trouble wid yo' now---comin' 'round heah is-is'in---yo'
just ain't been to school.
Amos---I didn't git de CHANCE to go to school.
Andy---Well, dere you IS.
Amos---But if I ever have any chillen, I goin' send dem to school an'
give dem more schoolin' dan I had a chance to git if I kin.
-- Episode 727, 7/21/30
In this sense, "Amos 'n' Andy" was every bit as much a story of cultural
assimilation as "The Goldbergs." Amos grew, evolved, learned from his
experiences, married, and raised a family -- epitomizing the American
middle-class success model in a way no other African-American character
in popular culture had ever done before him. And, as noted, his dialect
evolved with him: the Amos of 1939 had noticeable speech differences from
the Amos of 1928.
Andy, however, was a different type of character -- he might seem on the
surface to be a "buffoon," but there's much more to him than that. Andy's
whole life was one of pretentious arrogance and self-delusion stemming
from his own essential insecurity: unlike Amos, he was *afraid* to
acknowledge his weaknesses, and was therefore doomed to be a prisoner of
those weaknesses.
Andy---Ain't no bankeh goin' tell me how to run my bizness
Amos---De man wasn't tryin' to tell yo' how to run yo' bizness. All de
man told you was---you was 'spectin' to git back too much money.
Andy---If I keeps $[removed] in de bank dat man is takin' my $[removed] an'
playin' 'round wid it an' makin' hundreds o' dollahs on it---why ain't I
got a right to tell de man dat I wanna git some o' dat money myself?
Amos---Go ahead, tell him---but de man told yo' dat you couldn't git it.
Andy---If I take dat $[removed] an' play it on de stock market, I'se liable
to be a millionaire tomorrow.
Amos---I don't know nuthin' 'bout de stock market. De best thing fo' us
to do though is let de $[removed] stay down at de bank.
Andy---Listen Amos---de trouble wid you is---you think de man down at de
bank is got mo' sense den I is. I knows things. I'se doin' dis fo' you as
much as I is fo' myself. I'se just as big as anybody is.
Amos---Yo' want me to tell yo' sumpin'?
Andy---Go ahead.
Amos---De trouble wid you is Andy---ev'vy since you was a little
boy--ever since I done known yo', you is done done a lot o' talk---even
de boys down in Georgia dat you used to play around wid---dey used to
listen to you talk an' den laugh at yo' after you was gone. You is de
kind o' fellow dat thinks you is sumpin' dat yo' ain't. No matter whut
somebody else tell yo', you think dey is wrong. Now dat man at de bank is
done been down dere all his life. He knows more about de bankin' bizness
in one minute dan you'll EVER know. De thing fo' you to do is to listen
to somebody sometime an' you'll git a-long better. Just 'cause you is
president o' de Fresh Air Taxicab comp'ny don't think dat you is de
president of de United States---an' de sooner you find dat out, de better
it's goin' be fo' ev'vybody.
Andy---I'se re-gusted.
--Episode 73, 6/18/28.
Amos learned from his mistakes, acknowledged his failings, and tried to
improve himself --- Andy did not. This was the basic framework upon which
the entire serial was constructed, and all of the early wordplay scenes
-- which pretty much disappeared from the series by 1931 -- have to be
understood in the context of that framework. Unfortunately, they are
rarely presented in that manner.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 14:54:18 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: A&A Cast Photo
On 4/9/03 1:02 PM OldRadio Mailing Lists wrote:
Should anyone out there know of an Internet site that offers the chance to
view the cast photograph I mention, I'd appreciate you posting the URL to
the list. I'm certain that it exists somewhere.
I believe you're referring to:
[removed]~[removed]
Visible in this April 1948 image are James Baskett (in one of his final
performances before his death), Wonderful Smith, Ernestine Wade, and
Eddie Green, along with the members of the Jubilaires quartet.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 14:54:24 -0400
From: otrdigest@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Sony Discman - 100 file limit?
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
I have a Sony Discman that plays MP3s, however it will only play up to the
100th MP3 on a disc. Does anyone else out there use the Sony Discman, and
have you found a way around this problem?
Andrew Steinberg
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 15:14:32 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: April 10th Birth Dates
If you were born April 10th, you share your birthday with:
04-10-1868 - George Arliss - London, England - d. 2-5-1946
04-10-1885 - Sigmund Spaeth - Philadelphia, PA - d. 11-11-1965
04-10-1891 - Tim McCoy - Saginaw, MI
04-10-1902 - Mark Warnow - Monastrischt, Russia - d. 10-17-1949
04-10-1915 - Harry (Henry) Morgan - Detroit, MI
04-10-1921 - Sheb Wooley - Erick, OK
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Make your day, listen to an Olde Tyme Radio Program
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 15:14:25 -0400
From: "D. Fisher" <dfisher@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: RE: Mrs. Miller & audience mikes
I'm running a little behind on my email so this thread may have already run
out, but thought someone might be interested in some more info regarding
these two subjects.
When I was a Page at CBS Radio in the 50's in New York we all knew Mrs.
Miller (but if I remember I think it was really Miss Miller). One of the
reasons she always got tickets to shows is she was usually the first person
in the line. I have no idea what she did for a living but my guess would be
that she was either retired or living on some sort of pension. She seemed to
be at shows all the time. She was really a nice little old lady & everyone
knew her, including the talent on the various shows. In fact, if she didn't
show up we'd be kinda worried that maybe she was sick. She was an
institution.
Regarding audience mikes (or mics): The 2 big audience studios in the 49
building (49 W 52nd St.) had a small open control booth in the back of the
studio with a control board that one of the sound engineers would sit at
during a live production & control the audience sound from there.
One other thing that might be of interest is, as some of you might know,
when Arthur Godfrey did his radio/tv simulcast of his morning show he did it
from the radio studio in the 49 building. But he would not let the cameras
move around (and there really wasn't any room for them to move anyways)
because his theory was that he was really doing a radio show that just
happened to be televised. The cameras were up on platforms about 4 feet
high, just about the same height as the stage, one on each side near the
front & one along the back wall in the middle. The camera in the back was
one of the first cameras to use a zoom lense (a rather crude thing at the
time).
Don Fisher
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 15:15:38 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: April 11-12-13-14
Because I will be participating in, according to the Guinness World Book of
Records, the largest trivia contest in the world in Stevens Point, Wisconsin
this coming weekend, I am sending several days of birth dates at once. I will
be back on Monday to continue the normal procedure. Thank you for your
indulgence.
So, if you were born on the 11th, 12th, 13th or 14th of April, you share your
birthday with:
04-11-1893 - Lou Holtz - San Francisco, CA - d. 9-22-1980
04-11-1904 - Paul McGrath - Chicago, IL - d. 4-13-1978
04-11-1907 - Paul Douglas - Philadelphia, PA - d. 9-11-1959
04-12-1899 - Boake Carter - Baku, Russia - d. 11-16-1944
04-12-1904 - Lily Pons - Draguignan, France - d. 2-13-1976
04-12-1912 - Herbert B. Mills - Picqua, OH - d. 4-12-1989
04-12-1919 - Ann Miller - Chireno, TX
04-12-1926 - Jane Withers - Atlanta, GA
04-13-1899 - Larry Keating - [removed], MN - d. 8-26-1963
04-13-1917 - Howard Keel - Gillespie, IL
04-14-1904 - Sir John Gielgud - London, England - d. 5-21-2000
04-14-1913 - John Howard - Cleveland, OH
04-14-1925 - Rod Steiger - Westhampton, NY - d. 7-9-2002
04-14-1930 - Bradford Dillman - San Francisco, CA
04-14-1935 - Loretta Lynn - Butcher Hollow, KY
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Make your day, listen to an Olde Tyme Radio Program
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 16:39:32 -0400
From: "Captain Spiffy" <captspiffy@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Free Agent and OTR
Joe Salerno,
You are correct but I wouldn't let any of these folks know that there
are about 6 to 8 groups in the newsgroups where you can download OTR, both
american and british. This should be kept as one of the best keep secrets
between just you and me!
Don't tell them that they can even request certain series and episodes
to be posted and they appear within a few [removed]
Being a frustrated librarian who needs to acquire and catalog, just for
something to do, I go to the newsgroups 2 or 3 times a week just to
accumilate more!
Oh, BTW, the place to get Free Agent is [removed] .
Enjoy [removed] ahhhhh another place to get more!
Mike
Castle Rock, Colorado
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 16:39:43 -0400
From: "Michael Hingson" <MHingson@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Elizabeth's joke
I loved it! It goes to show that we haven't become too serious since
1938.
My question to Elizabeth is this. Was Maurice Wetzel forward looking
enough to put Braille labels on his disks to make them accessible to
everyone?
Mike Hingson
Guide Dogs for the Blind creates lifelong partnerships that celebrate the
human/animal bond.
Visit us on the Web at: [removed]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 16:54:30 -0400
From: Rick Keating <pkeating89@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Elizabeth's Amos & Andy research
Just to refresh my memory, has Elizabeth's Amos and
Andy research been published in book form? If not,
then based solely on the tidbits she sometimes imparts
here, it should be. After all, the best way to correct
false impressions of the program, based solely on the
later scripts, is to publish, for as wide an audience
as possible, the actual facts. A website and a mailing
list won't necessarily reach that wide an audience.
Also, am I correct in understanding that NONE of the
serialized stories still exist, just the half hour
"sit-com" versions?
Rick
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 17:42:51 -0400
From: "Roby McHone" <otr_alaska@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: kicking myself
Andrew Godfrey wrote:
When Spike Jones died, most of his stuff (excluding radio and TV
shows)--scrapbooks, photos, personal papers, memorabilia etc--ended
up in the dumpsters at St. Vincent de Paul thrift store in Los
Angeles. By pure chance a couple of guys who happened to be rapid
Spike Jones fans stumbled on it and rescued much of it.
In 1965 I had two friends who worked at the AFN radio station at Ft. Greely,
Alaska. I used to go to the station, while they were working, and watch
them work, they were always playing practical jokes on each other. One day
I opened a door and found that it was to a room the size of a large walk in
closet and in it were huge stacks of records. I asked my friends about the
records and was told that those were radio shows, from AFN, that had been
played by the station. They said that nobody knew what to do with them so
they just put them in the room after using them and there they sat, they
went back to when the station first went on the air. No one gave it a
second thought then, but every once in a while I think about that room and
kick myself for not liberating them. If only I knew then what I know now,
sigh.
Roby McHone
Fairbanks, Alaska
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 17:56:31 -0400
From: "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Richard Crenna on Judging Amy on April 15
Thanks to jhcollins for the preview. I've been wondering how they would
handle his death. I'm a big fan of both Judging Amy and Richard Crenna. I
enjoyed the story line of his romance with Maxine (Tyne Daly).
After the first season I talked with Richard and told him I enjoyed his
appearances and asked if he would be back in the fall. He said he thought he
was going to be killed off in a plane wreck.
That fall when his plane was reported missing, I "knew" that he was dead.
Much to my delight, and I'm sure his, the writers apparently had had a
change of heart.
Since he passed away in January I waited for news of Jared but nothing was
said. I was surprised that I did not see a "in memory of" picture at the end
of the next episode, or did I miss it?
Next week's show must have been very hard on the actors. Many of the cast
attended his memorial and were very fond of him and quite shaken by his
death.
This will be a chance for all of us fans to say a last goodbye to a
wonderful actor and person.
Barbara
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 18:38:30 -0400
From: Conrad Binyon <conradab@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: "Noisy" Radio scripts
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
Andrew Godfrey wrote on the subject of Radio scripts
I was wondering how the OTR actors were able to be holding scripts
next to mike and for the listeners not to hear the papers being handled.
Was a special kind of noiseless type paper used? Would enjoy hearing
the comments of those who might know how this was handled.
Andrew undoubtedly missed the "noisy script" paper thread comments months
back in the Digest which included commentaries about "script page 'dropping'
" as well. Andrew, would I'll bet be astonished at watching a professional
of say Harry Bartell's experience shift script pages from front to back with
nary a 'whisper' of rustle. It's not difficult to do. Even I, at age eight
years-old got the hang of it upon my initiation into radio broadcasting as
part of the cast of "One Man's Family, " although it was a concern of mine
prior to my first broadcast, the date of which I have no idea. For that
broadcast I used what I'll term a 'script folder."
I assume everyone has an idea of a script format, 8 & 1/2 by 11 inch letter
page paper in a stack of approximate 28 some pages. One Man's Family offered
their cast members two types of script copies. The first was the usual
numbered stack of pages with the script text printed in black upon white
ordinary letter paper. (God forbid it being the old purple colored
mimeograph copies seen so much during early office days of the thirties and
early fourties. I never saw that method used in broadcasting. ) The second
'script folder' was that same stack inserted and stapled into an Oxford file
cover so that when holding the cover folder with its fold to the reader's
left the front page of the cover folder could be opened and folded to the
back of the script which pages were stapled at the bottom to the Oxford cover
folder's back. This presented the performer with a "book-like" script
whereby opening the cover presented all its pages ready to be read and then
folded down and back revealing each following page. Most of the OMF cast
regulars used the script folder, except Page Gilman, who used the regular
stack script. My mother even put tiny circular paper clips on the upper
right hand corners of my script folder pages so I would grap two pages at
once. A pretty involve process I thought to go through, so I rapidly got the
hang of working my script while standing at the microphone. When I started
working other radio shows and learned they did NOT use script folders, using
regular stack scripts came for me to be the 'norm.'
Paper noise was not a part of the problem for when one is careful in changing
pages, especially unattached pages, it's just a lifting of the page on top
and placing it back behind the stack. I have no doubt Ray Earlenborn can
make a comic routine out of what he has to do to create paper rustling
sounds.
---
conradab@[removed] (Conrad A. Binyon)
From the Home of the Stars who loved Ranches and Farms
Encino, California.
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 19:37:36 -0400
From: otrbuff@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Quiet village
Andrew Godfrey asks how OTR actors kept listeners from hearing them turn
the pages of their scripts. Ingrid Meighan Waldron shared with me how
her father, James Meighan, handled it and said she saw a number of other
aural thespians do the same as she attended radio rehearsals and
performances while growing up. James Meighan, who portrayed Bill
Davidson's son-in-law Kerry Donovan in Just Plain Bill, the masculine
lead Larry Noble in Backstage Wife and recurring roles in numerous other
daytime soap operas and nighttime crime thrillers, set a music stand
before him and raised it about chest high. He removed the staple from
his script and laid it on the music stand. Very quietly he shifted the
pages from one side to the other as he waited for his cues. I included
this incident in a forthcoming book completed just last week.
Jim Cox
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2003 22:13:18 -0400
From: Carolie Minuscule <daggerofthemind2000@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Guide to actors on Suspense
Check out:
[removed]
If you can ignore the popups (and I can) this is a
great site. Each actor has a page with episode titles
and air dates. Some have photos and brief bio info.
It seems to be a new site - lots of TBA's when it
comes to bios, but the episodes are all there.
I got a shock seeing the picture of Barney Phillips.
He's got a very distinctive voice and I always
recognize him, but I never knew he played the three
eyed Venusian on that Twilight Zone episode (with John
Hoyt as the threee-armed martiam).
Suspense fans will find this site invaluable!
[ADMINISTRIVIA: Pop-ups are VERY easy to eliminate completely;
simply turn Javascript OFF in your browser preferences. If you
visit a site you trust that requires it, simply turn it on
temporarily, then turn it off when you leave. --cfs3]
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #151
*********************************************
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]
To Subscribe: [removed]@[removed]
or see [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]