Subject: [removed] Digest V2010 #144
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 8/17/2010 10:35 PM

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

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2010 : Issue 144
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Re: Jack Benny and his violin         [ "Bob Scherago - Verizon" <scherago@ ]
      PHIL HARRIS SIGHTING                  [ PURKASZ@[removed] ]
      Re: Jack Benny's violin playing       [ Trooperbunkin@[removed] ]
      This week in radio history 15-21 Aug  [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      Earliest canned laugh-track?          [ Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      8-15 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      Re: Did Jack Benny Play the Violin?   [ "Jan Bach" <janbach@[removed]; ]
      OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK               [ Jerry Haendiges <Jerry@[removed]; ]
      WXYZ women                            [ "Jim Nixon" <ranger6000@[removed] ]
      Suspense - East Coast / West Coast    [ Joseph Webb <drjoewebb@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:11:29 +0000
    From: "Bob Scherago - Verizon" <scherago@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Jack Benny and his violin

    Ken asked about some proof that Jack Benny really played the violin.

    My wife played first clarinet with the Miami Symphony for several years in
    the 1960s, and recalls that Benny was a soloist with that orchestra one
    night. He did his usual schtick, then played beautifully. Part of the act
    was that a string on the violin broke, and one of the first violinists,
    Alan Jaboor, dressed as a stagehand, came onstage from the wings and handed
    him a new instrument. Benny scratched out a few sour notes, then the
    "stagehand" took the violin and played something beautiful, while Benny fumed.

    Jack Benny was an accomplished violinist, and performed countless times for
    charity.

    Bob Scherago
    [removed]

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:13:19 +0000
    From: PURKASZ@[removed]
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  PHIL HARRIS SIGHTING

    One of the perks of me living  in Hollywood from 1969 on was that even in
    the midst of that desultory desert  one would occasionally come across a
    recognizable face ...suddenly and from out  of nowhere.
    I could list many and will from time to time  but one such sudden delight
    was a hot afternoon in early 70's driving my 1941  Packard on Sunset
    Boulevard going west.
    At LaBrea I hit a  red light and slowed down as only a Packard can to a
    stop.
    I was in the outside, sidewalk, lane, elbow out the window, music from 40's
      coming from my radio.
    In my rear view mirror I espied a  car coming up on my left side to line up
    beside me.
    I was  looking straight ahead at the time and would have remained so
    waiting for the  light to change when I heard, "Well shuck my corn," or
    something
    like that with  a resonant voice that sounded familiar.
    I smiled at the  sound and knew it was someone admiring the old Packard so
    I turned to my left to  acknowledge the compliment and was met with a big
    red-faced grin and shining  white teeth about eight inches away from me on the
    passenger side of the car  beside me.
    It was Phil Harris!
    "Now  that what I call a real automobile son," he said.
    I prayed  for a longer light and was rewarded with time for a minor chit
    chat about cars  and real style and yuks about the heat of the day!
    It was  like shucking and jiving on a verandah way down South in Dixie and
    just before  the light changed I got to say,
    "Get outa here with that  boom boom boom (Indicating the car he was sitting
    in) before I call the  cops"
    It handed him that big sounding laff we all know and  the light changed.
    Side by side for another block or two  it was Phil Harris and I.
    Made my  day.
    There was no Internet in those days so I couldn't  find my 78 rpm copy of
    THE THING but I have it now.
    Hmmm,  what ever happened to my old Packard.
    Thanks for the  reminder  folks.
    Michael C. Gwynne

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:13:41 +0000
    From: Trooperbunkin@[removed]
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Jack Benny's violin playing
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Ted commented on Jack's violin playing. I remember on one of his TV shows
    there was a young girl guest that played "Getting to Know You" with Jack.
    Came  out beautiful.

    Sandy

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    Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:13:51 +0000
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  This week in radio history 15-21 August

     From Those Were The Days

    8/15

    1911   Procter & Gamble Company of Cincinnati, OH introduced Crisco
    hydrogenated shortening.  (Where would all those shows have been with
    Crisco as a sponsor?  And remember, its digestible!  ed)

    8/16

    1922   WEAF began broadcasting from new studios atop the Western Electric
    Building in New York City.

    1939   Lights Out, radio's "ultimate horror show," was heard for the last
    time on NBC. In 1942, Arch Obler brought the show back to life on CBS. The
    show's most familiar trademark, guaranteed to put you under the covers on a
    dark night was, "Lights out, everybody!", followed by 12 chimes of a clock.

    8/19

    In 1929, Amos and Andy, starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, made
    its network debut on NBC.

    Joe

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:15:57 +0000
    From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Earliest canned laugh-track?

    Rand mentioned "a very badly done canned laugh-track" in Guest Star #12
    from 1947 with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, and asked "what the earliest
    instance of canned laughs in a radio show might be."  Well, Jack Mullen had
    given himself "credit" for inventing the laugh track when he saved and
    reused laughs edited out while tape recording Bing's Philco Radio
    Time.  Perhaps this is an early example of his work since as Rand said
    "they obviously recorded their segment separately from the Guest Star
    announcer and orchestra segments." Of course like Rand mentioned it could
    have been "done with disc dubbing techniques, so it's rather primitive and
    doesn't come off very well."

    While I have been trying to think about any AFRS or recorded syndicated
    program that used this technique I can cite two specific instances of crowd
    noise being used.  The openings and closings of Mr. First Nighter includes
    crowd noise in the "theatre" in addition to the other sound effects used to
    give the feeling of arriving at a theater.  And in the surviving air-check
    of a 1935 Martin Block Make Believe Ballroom it starts with a crowd sound
    effects record which he brings down when he asks the crowd to quiet down
    AND THEN HE THANKS THE CROWD FOR GETTING QUIET!!!!  Of course he was just
    kidding -- he NEVER tried to trick any listener in believing that his
    program was anything but "make-believe"!!  That was the whole point of the
    entire program.  (Unlike many sports re-creation announcers like Ronald
    Reagan who prided themselves of being able to trick their audiences into
    believing they were in the park -- a practice frowned upon by Red Barber.)

    Rand also referred to a Ron Simon blog on the Paley Center's site which
    gives credit to Hank McCune for adding laughs to his 1949 local LA filmed
    series.  Seems like Hank is a johnny-come-lately.  Ron likewise gives
    credit to Larry Gelbart for crusading against the laugh track, completely
    forgetting Jackie Cooper's successful campaign to eliminate the laugh track
    from later seasons of "Hennesy" at least ten years earlier.  While
    sweetening on "I Love Lucy" is brought up, there is no mention of three
    other very early filmed programs, Jackie Gleason's Life of Riley which
    exists in both laughless and laugh-track versions, "Amos 'n' Andy" which at
    least at the beginning showed the film to a live audience and recorded
    their response, and "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" which used the
    most OBVIOUS laugh track ever -- purposefully, because Ozzie liked the
    sound of those two or three laughs.

    Which once again brings up the point that the Paley Center is not the place
    to go for historical information.  The OTR Digest IS!!!

    I want to add that Bob Hope was one of the worst offenders in "sweetening"
    laughs in programs which were done with a live audience.  By the time the
    70s rolled around, a lot of his jokes were falling flat.  The tapings of
    his monologue were as much as twice as long as the aired versions.  I once
    attended a taping where a joke fell completely flat.  No reaction at
    all.  He even discussed it with the audience.  The punchline was about the
    "Egg McMuffin" which had not yet gotten to the East Coast at that
    point.  (This was the show being taped in NYC's Central Park.) "Haven't you
    ever heard of an Egg McMuffin?"  "NO!", the audience replied.  Much to my
    amazement they used the joke anyway, and gave it laughs AND applause!  If
    you lived in the NY or LA markets where the audio was full 15 KHz, or after
    1978 when the network audio went nationwide diplexed hi-fi, you can easily
    hear the sweetening because they were not careful to match the sound
    quality of the real audience and the fake one.  After about a year of the
    diplexing they realized that people could hear this, so the fixed that
    problem.  But on the old 5 KHz. lines used in the 60s and 70s until 1978,
    the difference couldn't be easily heard except in NYC and LA.

    Michael Biel   mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:16:14 +0000
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  8-15 births/deaths

    August 15th births

    08-15-1879 - Ethel Barrymore - Philadelphia, PA - d. 6-18-1959
    actor: Hattie Thompson "Miss Hattie"
    08-15-1885 - Edna Ferber - Kalamazoo, MI - d. 4-16-1968
    author: "Cavalcade of America"; "Cables from Lisbon"; "Campbell
    Playhouse"
    08-15-1888 - Albert Spalding - Chicago, IL - d. 5-26-1952
    violinist: "Forecast"; "Pause That Refreshes . . . On the Air"
    08-15-1894 - Harry Akst - NYC - d. 3-31-1963
    writer: "The Barry Gray Show"
    08-15-1897 - Aben Kandel - d. 1-28-1993
    screenwriter: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    08-15-1897 - Charles Tobias - NYC - d. 7-7-1970
    songwriter: (Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree) "Music for Millions";
    "Great Moments to Music"
    08-15-1898 - Monroe Upton - d. 8-6-1990
    announcer, writer, comedian: KFRC San Francisco
    08-15-1901 - Ned Washington - Scranton, PA - d. 12-20-1976
    songwriter: "Dick Aurandt Show"
    08-15-1901 - Sam Perrin - d. 1-8-1998
    writer: "Jack Benny Program"; "Phil Baker Show"; "Tommy Riggs and
    Betty Lou"
    08-15-1903 - Burke Bivens - Kirbyville, TX - d. 11-6-1967
    saxophonist: Wayne King Orchestra
    08-15-1903 - Jerry Cady - d. 11-7-1948
    writer: "Major Hoople"
    08-15-1907 - Margaret Brayton - d. 5-29-1992
    actor: "Burns and Allen"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
    08-15-1909 - Hugo Winterhalter - d. 9-17-1973
    pop-music conductor, arranger: "Johnny Desmond Program"; "Musical
    Showcase"
    08-15-1910 - Johnny Roventini - Brooklyn, NY - d. 11-30-1998
    commercial announcer: (Call for Phil-lip Mor-ress) "Ferde Grofe Show";
    "Johnny Presents"
    08-15-1910 - Signe Hasso - Stockholm, Sweden - d. 6-7-2002
    actor: "Charlie McCarthy Show"; "Hollywood Star Time"; "Lux Radio
    Theatre"
    08-15-1912 - Robert Lewis Shayon - NYC - d. 6-28-2008
    along with Edward R. Murrow created "You Are There"
    08-15-1912 - Wendy Hiller - Bramhall, Cheshire, England - d. 5-14-2003
    actor: Queen Vic "Original Dramatic Work"
    08-15-1914 - Eve Alwyn - Christ Church, New Zealand - d. 11-16-2005
    actor: WEAT West Palm Beacg, Florida
    08-15-1916 - Van Patrick - d. 9-29-1974
    detroit lions play-by-play: "Jean Shepard Show"
    08-15-1918 - David Baskerville - Freehold, NJ - d. 12-27-1986
    nbc staff composer and conductor: "Richard Diamond, Private Detective"
    08-15-1919 - Huntz Hall - NYC - d. 1-30-1999
    comedian: (The Dead End Kids) "Texaco Star Playhouse"
    08-15-1923 - Baby Rose Marie - Lower East Side, NYC
    singer: (Radio's first genuine child star) "Baby Rose Marie"
    08-15-1924 - Phyllis Schlafley - St. Louis, MO
    commentator: "America Wake Up"
    08-15-1924 - Robert Bolt - Sale, England - d. 2-20-1995
    writer: "The Last of the Wine"
    08-15-1925 - Bill Pinkney - Dalzell, SC - d. 7-4-2007
    singer: (Drifters) "Grand Ole Opry"; "Camel Rock and Roll Dance Party"
    08-15-1925 - Oscar Peterson - Montreal, Canada - d. 12-23-2007
    jazz pianist: "Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum"
    08-15-1925 - Rose Maddox - Boaz, AL - d. 4-15-1998
    country singer: "Faron Young Show"; "Country Hoedown"
    08-15-1931 - Joe Feeney - Grand Island, NE - d. 4-16-2008
    irish tenor: Got start at station WOW in Omaha, Nebraska
    08-15-1933 - Bobby Helms - Bloomington, IN - d. 6-19-1997
    singer: "Grand Ole Opry"
    08-15-1935 - Joey Jay - Middletown, CT
    baseball pitcher: "Tops in Sports"
    08-15-1944 - Linda Ellerbee - Bryan, TX
    disk jockey and newscaster for WVON Chicago

    August 15th deaths

    01-10-1917 - Jerry Wexler - The Bronx, NY - d. 8-15-2008
    record producer: "Sound Stage"
    01-10-1924 - Max Roach - New Land, NC - d. 8-15-2007
    jazz drummer: "Bands for Bonds"; "Jazz Alive"; "Newport Jazz Festival"
    03-04-1888 - Fred Smith - Clarksburg, IN - d. 8-15-1976
    announcer: (America's first Ambassador of the Radio) "Newsacting"
    03-26-1907 - Clarence Stroud - Kaufman, TX - d. 8-15-1973
    actor: "Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show"
    04-04-1897 - Albert Bagdasarian - d. 8-15-1968
    newscaster: WNBZ Saranac Lake, New York
    04-04-1906 - John Cameron Swayze - Wichita, KS - d. 8-15-1995
    host. panelist: "Monitor"; "Who Said That?"
    05-03-1920 - Nina Bara - Buenos Aires, Argentina - d. 8-15-1990
    actor: Tonga "Space Patrol"
    05-26-1887 - Paul Lukas - Budapest, Austria-Hungary - d. 8-15-1971
    actor: Albert Einstein "Quick and the Dead"
    05-30-1921 - Roy Neal - Philadelphia, PA - d. 8-15-2003
    actor: "The Lost Continent"
    06-01-1909 - Ray Heatherton - Jersey City, NJ - d. 8-15-1997
    singer, host: "Old Gold Hour"; "Musical Cruise with Spearmint Crew"
    07-18-1906 - Clifford Odets - Philadelphia, PA - d. 8-15-1963
    playwright: "Fleischmann's Yeast Hour"; "Cresta Blanca Hollywood
    Players"
    07-24-1911 - Raymond Edward Johnson - Kenosha, WI - d. 8-15-2001
    actor: Raymond your host "Inner Sanctum Mysteries"; Don Winslow "Don
    Winslow of the Navy"
    07-28-1903 - Duane Thompson - Red Oaks, IA - d. 8-15-1970
    actor: Telephone Operator "Hollywood Hotel"
    08-26-1891 - Frayne Baker - d. 8-15-1968
    newscaster: KFYR Bismarck, North Dakota
    09-21-1907 - Jack Mather - California - d. 8-15-1966
    actor: Cisco Kid "Cisco Kid"
    10-23-1904 - Ford Bond - Louisville, KY - d. 8-15-1962
    announcer: "Cities Service Concert"; "Manhattan Merry-Go-Round";
    Highways in Melody"
    11-04-1879 - Will Rogers, Sr. - Oolagah,  Oklahoma Territory - d.
    8-15-1935
    humorist: (America's Greatest Humorist) "Gulf Headliners"
    11-28-1916 - Richard Tregaskis - Elizabeth, NJ - d. 8-15-1973
    author, war correspondent: (Guadalcanal Diary) "Lux Radio Theatre"
    xx-xx-1920 - Bob "Shamrock" Shannon - West Allis, WI - d. 8-15-2000
    announcer, host: "Mayor of the Town"; "The Man Says Yes"

    Ron

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:16:29 +0000
    From: "Jan Bach" <janbach@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Did Jack Benny Play the Violin?

    Hello again --
    Did Jack Benny play the violin? I don't see how this aspect of Benny's
    comedy could ever be questioned; his biographies all begin with his stint
    in vaudeville as a touring violinist at a very early age, with his father
    pulling him back to Waukegan because he didn't approve of that way of life
    for a youngster . . . or the considerably older woman who accompanied him
    on the piano.
    And I can speak from my own experience (one which I related to Chuck
    Schaden on his radio show fifteen years ago or so) that Jack Benny played
    the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Tampa Philharmonic when I played
    third (French) horn in that organization back in 1965-66. He was entirely
    professional in the afternoon rehearsal (although he came out on the stage
    walking like a girl just as he had done on his TV show!) and turned in a
    credible performance on the tough Mendelssohn piece that night at the
    concert in an amphitheater seating around five thousand people. Strange,
    though -- when he told a few jokes he was completely relaxed, but as soon
    as he put that violin up to his chin you could see his back stiffen
    noticeably. Playing didn't come as naturally to him as stand-up comedy, but
    any violinist could watch the graceful and efficient use of his bow arm and
    know that Jack was really a trained violinist!
    Oh -- and let's not forget his other duet with Giselle MacKenzie on one of
    his TV shows, available now on DVD.

    yOurs TRuly,
    Jan Bach

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:16:38 +0000
    From: Jerry Haendiges <Jerry@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK

    Hi Friends,

    Here is this week's schedule for my Olde Tyme Radio Network. Here you may
    listen to high-quality broadcasts with Tom Heathwood's "Heritage Radio
    Theatre," Bob Bro's "The Old Time Radio Show," John and Larry Gassman's
    "Same Time Station" and my own "Old Time Radio Classics."
    Streamed in high-quality audio, on demand, 24/7 at
    [removed]
    Check out our High-Quality mp3 catalog at: [removed]
    =======================================

    OLD TIME RADIO CLASSICS

    *Ray Bradbury at 90*
    A Birthday Celebration Part 1

    Interview with Ray Bradbury
    By Jerry Haendiges and Mike Hodel 10-24-76

    Interview with Michael McDonough and Brad Arrington
    By Jerry Haendiges 10-27-77

    THE ILLUSTED MAN
    Epissode 1 10-27-77 "The Fox and The Forest"
    Produced and Directed by Michael McDonough and Brad Arrington
    Introduction by Ray Bradbury

    THE ILLUSTED MAN
    Epissode 2 10-27-77 "Kaleidoscope"
    Produced and Directed by Michael McDonough and Brad Arrington
    Introduction by Ray Bradbury
    ==================================

    HERITAGE RADIO THEATRE

    THE NBC UNIVERSITY THEATER
    (NBC) 12/26/48 "Alice In Wonderland" starring Dinah Shore as Alice, and
    adapted from the famed the Lewis Carroll story, presented as a holiday
    special. A Classic radio program. Full Hour.

    THE STRANGE DR. WEIRD
    (MBS) 4/24/45 Stars Maurice Tarplan, Story by Robert A. Arthur.
    ====================================

    THE OLD TIME RADIO SHOW

    HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL (CBS)
    Title: "Road to Wickenburg"
    Original Air: 11/30/58
    Starring: John Dehner

    I Love a Mystery (Mutual)
    Title: "Bury Your Dead, Arizona -- Episode 9"
    Original Air: 11/30/49
    Starring: Russell Thorson, Jim Boles, and Tony Randall

    FIBBER McGEE & MOLLY (NBC)
    Title: "Fibber Checks the Water Supply"
    Original Air: 10-15-46
    Starring: Jim and Marion Jordan
    Sponsor: Johnson's Wax

    GUNSMOKE (CBS)
    Original Air: 8/30/54
    Title: "Obie Tater"
    Starring: William Conrad, Parley Baer, Howard McNear, and Georgia Ellis
    Sponsor: Chesterfield Cigarettes
    ====================================

    SAME TIME, SAME STATION

    The theme for this week's show is Summer and heat.

    OZZIE AND HARRIET
    01-29-54 The Electric Train Episode 389.

    LIFE WITH LUIGI
    07-17-49 At the Beach

    OUR MISS BROOKS
    08-07-49 Heatwave

    ARCHIE ANDREWS
    07-20-46 The Hammock
    ====================================

    If you have any questions or request, please feel free to contact me.

          Jerry Haendiges

          Jerry@[removed]  562-696-4387
          The Vintage Radio Place   [removed]
          Largest source of Old Time Radio Logs, Articles and programs on the Net

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:16:52 +0000
    From: "Jim Nixon" <ranger6000@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  WXYZ women

    In reply to Allan Wilcox, Lee Allman played Lenore (Casey) Case on WXYZ's
    Green Hornet.  She also appeared in many Lone Ranger episodes, particularly
    in the early 1940's.  Miss Allman was the sister of Jim Jewell, who
    produced the Lone Ranger program in its early years.
    The principal female roles on the Lone Ranger were played by Elaine Alpert,
    who was extremely versatile.   She created the role of "Clarabelle
    Hornblow", a rough female rancher, as well as many young women, older women
    and all those in between.  Another Elaine, Elaine Hyman, who has appeared
    at several OTR conventions in Newark, was a child actor on the Ranger in
    the late forties and early 1950's.
    Dick Osgood, who chronicled the goings-on at WXYZ during those years in his
    book, "Wyxie Wonderland", does not mention George Trendle treating female
    actors any differently that males, this is, he was crusty and curmudgeonly
    to both.

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

    Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:17:33 +0000
    From: Joseph Webb <drjoewebb@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Suspense - East Coast / West Coast
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Greetings to all --

    Is there any way to reliably tell which Suspense broadcast is an east coast or
    the west coast version when there are two shows being traded as such?

    I have two episodes of the same script with the same dates (the sponsorship
    and
    other items all check out) but the announcers seem to be different. So I'm not
    sure if this is EC/WC or broadcast/rehearsal or even something else.

    Any help is greatly appreciated.

    Regards to all
    Joe W

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