------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2006 : Issue 75
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Re: Baseball Game Recreations [ Paul Gough <paulgough@[removed] ]
Re: Fireside Chats [ Jim Widner <widnerj@[removed]; ]
HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL LYRICS [ "Deeann Neyhart" <deeatthedigitalde ]
3-13 births/deaths [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
Bradley Barker [ Doug Leary <doug@[removed]; ]
Re: Shell Chateau [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
Australian OTR [ "Austotr" <austotr@[removed]; ]
"Golden Age of Radio" and "A One Nig [ "Bob Scherago" <rscherago@[removed]; ]
Re: Mr. Llewyn [ Cnorth6311@[removed] ]
Norman Corwin film [ yoggy <yoggy@[removed]; ]
OTR on film [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
Paladin theme music [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 19:19:32 -0500
From: Paul Gough <paulgough@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Baseball Game Recreations
I don't know about the sound effects used in the game
recreations, but I do remember game reports on WHDH
Boston, the Red Sox broadcaster in the late 50s and
early 60s. If the scheduled game was rained out (I'm
not sure if it was just local games or all games) they
would use the teletype reports to give game
play-by-play of another game. But, as I recall, there
was no attempt to simulate the game. It was just a
straight report. You could hear the teletype in short
bursts in the background as a pitch or play came in.
No actual sound effects or "creativity."
Paul Gough
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 21:08:19 -0500
From: Jim Widner <widnerj@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Fireside Chats
The prolific Jim Cox stated:
Intending to take nothing away from a superior CBS newsman, Robert Trout, my
research indicates that some historiographers have gotten this wrong. While
Trout introduced most of FDR's talks from the White House, actually it was
WJSV station manager Harry Butcher who proposed it because FDR spoke from
the Diplomatic Reception Room furnished with a fireplace.
Robert Trout would agree with you 100%. In correspondence with Edward
Bliss, Trout himself credits Butcher saying that the two (Trout and
Butcher) discussed a couple of approaches to the introductory scripts of
Roosevelt's speech (Trout was one of two "official" announcers for the
talk): one was a cold statement of the facts and the second was more
folksy saying that the talk was like one visiting the President and
sitting down and having a fireside chat.
Butcher took the concept they worked out and put it into the copy even
though the discussion about what exactly to say was not intended to
include the term. The copy was sent to the White House for a decision
and Roosevelt chose the folksy version.
Jim Widner
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 22:10:26 -0500
From: "Deeann Neyhart" <deeatthedigitaldeli@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL LYRICS
Have Gun Will Travel reads the card of a man.
A knight without armor in a savage land.
His fast gun for hire head's the calling wind.
A soldier of fotune is the man called Paladin.
Paladin, Paladin
Where do you roam?
Paladin, Paladin,
Far, far from home.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 22:44:35 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 3-13 births/deaths
March 13th births
03-13-1873 - Nellie Revell - Springfield, IL - d. 8-12-1958
commentator: "Neighbor Nell"; "Meet the Artist"
03-13-1892 - Janet Flanner - Indianapolis, IN - d. 11-7-1978
reporter: "Listen, The Women"
03-13-1896 - Leona Powers - Salida, CO - d. 1-7-1970
actress: Mrs. Bixby "My Son Jeep"; [removed] Brown "Aldrich Family"
03-13-1898 - Donald MacDonald - Denison, TX - d. 12-9-1959
actor: Willie the Weep "Big Town"
03-13-1898 - Henry Hathaway - Sacramento, CA - d. 2-11-1985
film director: "Screen Director's Playhouse"
03-13-1900 - George Kondolf - d. 12-xx-1985
producer: "Theatre Guild on the Air"
03-13-1900 - Harry W. Flannery - Greensburg, PA - d. 3-10-1975
newscaster: Foreign correspondent in Berlin for CBS during WWII
03-13-1903 - Charles D. Livingstone - d. 7-28-1986
producer, director: "Lone Ranger"; "Green Hornet"; "Challenge of the
Yukon"
03-13-1905 - Louis Roen - d. 2-15-1993
announcer: "Today's Children"; "The Breakfast Club"
03-13-1907 - Frank Wilcox - DeSoto, MO - d. 3-3-1974
actor: Father "Central City"
03-13-1908 - Paul Stewart - NYC - d. 2-17-1986
actor: Gyp Mendoza "Life Can Be Beautiful"; Richard Rogue "Rogue's
Gallery"
03-13-1910 - Frank Gabrielson - New York - d. 1-24-1980
writer: "The Cavalcade of America"
03-13-1910 - Sammy Kaye - Lakewood, OH - d. 6-2-1987
bandleader: (Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye) "Sunday Serenade"
03-13-1911 - James T. Quirk - d. 1-18-1969
announcer, station program director Philadelphia, PA
03-13-1911 - L. Ron Hubbard - Tilden, NE - d. 1-24-1986
science fiction writer: "Dimension X"
03-13-1913 - Harold J. Stone - NYC - d. 11-18-2005
actor: Sergeant Waters "21st Precinct"
03-13-1914 - Bob Haggart - NYC - d. 12-3-1998
bass: "The Bob Crosby Show"; "Eddie Condon's Jaxx Concerts"
03-13-1914 - Bob Weiskopf - Chicago, IL - d. 2-20-2001
writer: "The Fred Allen Show"
03-13-1918 - Ina Ray Hutton - Chicago, IL - d. 2-19-1984
bandleader: "Spotlight Bands"
March 13th deaths
01-13-1909 - Danny Barker - New Orleans, LA - d. 3-13-1994
jazz guitar: "This Is Jazz"
01-20-1898 - Tudor Owen - Wales, UK - d. 3-13-1979
actor: Jocko Madigan "Pat Novak for Hire"; Editor "Alias Jane Doe"
03-15-1907 - Jimmy McPartland - Chicago, IL - d. 3-13-1991
jazz artist: "Doctor Jazz"; "Town Hall Concert"
04-18-1857 - Clarence Darrow - Kinsman, OH - d. 3-13-1938
lawyer: " Scopes "Monkey" trial, WGN Chicago"
04-28-1911 - Lee Falk - St. Louis, MO - d. 3-13-1999
cartoonist: "Mandrake the Magician"
07-21-1895 - Ken Maynard - Vevey, IN - d. 3-13-1973
cowboy actor: Ken Maynard Show"
07-22-1898 - Stephen Vincent Benet - Bethlehem, PA - d. 3-13-1943
writer: "Columbia Workshop"
07-26-1918 - Stacy Harris - Big Timber, Quebec, Canada - d. 3-13-1973
actor: Jim Taylor "This is Your [removed]"; Carter Trent "Pepper Young's
Family"
10-18-1910 - Annette Hanshaw - NYC - d. 3-13-1985
singer: "Show Boat"; "Camel Caravan"
11-24-1912 - Garson Kanin - Rochester, NY - d. 3-13-1999
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:42:12 -0500
From: Doug Leary <doug@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Bradley Barker
In an great old book called "Low Man on a Totem Pole" by H. Allen Smith,
I ran across an interview Smith did with voice impersonator Bradley
Barker. Barker provided animal effects for numerous jungle movies and
radio shows, including Frank Buck's "Bring'em Back Alive," the MGM lion,
the Pathe rooster, and the wolf howl that opens "Renfrew of the Mounted"
(which he accomplished by howling at the strings inside a grand piano).
For one job on a show called "Dream Dramas" he had to come up with
convincing dinosaur sounds.
According to Smith, Barker was a handsome, austere, thick-set man over 6
ft tall. As a boy growing up on Long Island, he spent a lot of time on a
farm in upstate New York, where he became interested in animals. His
grandmother once won a $5 gold piece from the New York Sun for
contributing a story about him; while watching a cow chew its cud, he
had remarked to the farmer that it must be expensive keeping cows. The
farmer replied that it wasn't all that expensive, and Barker asked him
how he could afford all the chewing gum they chewed.
Before taking up radio Barker had a brief movie career as a leading man
opposite the likes of Marguerite Clark and Olga Petrova. He came by his
radio specialty by accident while rehearsing a program about a shipwreck
in the Galapagos. At one point where the script mentioned seals, Barker
jokingly let out a burst of seal barks. The director loved it and
decided to keep it in the show, and the next day they had him in front
of a microphone doing other animal sounds.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:43:07 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Shell Chateau
On 3/12/06 5:58 PM [removed]@[removed] wrote:
I have read that this music variety show was originally designed as a vehicle
for Al Jolson but according to the logs I have seen, during the time
attributed
to him, Walter Wincell (one time) and Wallace Beery substituted for him,
Jolson
returned briefly then left again.
Just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this show as I am not finding
much
on the Internet, but one site said it was very popular for the two years
it was
on NBC.
The series, heard on Saturday nights beginning in 1935, was originally Al
Jolson's attempt at being Rudy Vallee -- basically cribbing Vallee's
format of a parade of unrelated guest-star acts bridged by musical
numbers. Jolson left the series in the fall of 1935 due to a movie
committment, and after Winchell's one week stint. the
master-of-ceremonies role passed to MGM star Wallace Beery, who carried
the program until Jolson returned in January of 1936.
Jolson was poorly served by the series, which saddled him with
excruciatingly bad comedy material, and left for good in April 1936.
Singer Smith Ballew carried the program for the rest of the year.
In 1937, the program was reorganized around Broadway comic Joe Cook, with
the "Chateau" title dropped, but the essential format remaining the same
until the series ended in June 1937.
In all of its incarnations, the Shell program followed the basic variety
format established by Vallee -- the guest performers would be drawn from
a mix of established headline stars, rising newcomers, old favorites on
the decline, and novelties. The program's most important contribution to
radio was that it served as the vehicle for young Judy Garland's first
network broadcasts -- with those appearances being examined in detail in
Amanda Osborne's article in the current issue of Nostalgia Digest
(available at [removed]) -- it's a well-researched
piece that I'd recommend even if Amanda wasn't my best pal!
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 08:28:54 -0500
From: "Austotr" <austotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Australian OTR
G'Day folks,
There are plenty of books being released about OTR these days.
In Australia we are doing it a little differently.
The Encyclopedia of Australian Radio Shows database (EARSdb) will be
released in the first half of this year, a release date has not yet been
picked, but it is not far away.
We originally wanted to release a Dunnings style Encyclopedia, but as you
can see from the following, it is just too big to release in paper form.
The current statistics of the database are as follows:
Over 5,400 Series/Serials documented. Most with Start dates/year,
Production House, Description, Episode Number, Episode Duration
Over 23,900 characters documented
Over 1,800 People involved in Australian Series/Serials documented
Over 16,600 episodes logged
In printed form, approximately 2,000 pages of text
Close to 2,000 photos and reproductions of ads from the radio magazines of
the time
The database is not complete. It will still take many years of hard work in
order to log every episode and supply individual episode descriptions, but
the basic Series/Serials listing is close to complete.
When the database is released, there will be regular updates, regular
newsletters and regular episode releases. That leads me to the biggest
announcement.
EARSdb is being released on several DVDs, why? Because it will be released
with up to 1,000 fully licenced representative episodes for each surviving
series/serials. Australian Copyright Owners have agreed to licence the
episodes to us for this release. There are a lot of plans and projects for
the future and EARSdb is the launchpad.
The reason I have pre announced the release here, is that I am appealing to
OTR Collectors who hold examples of Australian episodes which simply do not
exist in Australia. Australian Collectors and Researchers are driving this
project and if you hold Australian Transcriptions or HiQ episodes in your
collection, please contact me directly and let me know which representative
episodes you are willing to supply/trade to us for this project. We will
acknowledge the asistance with the release, we will also discuss some of the
projects we have clearence for from the Copyright Holders.
This project is the biggest thing to have happened to OTR in Australia, it
has been some 5 or 6 years in the making. We are hoping to get EARSdb into
secondary schools and retirement/nursing homes and other community
organisations. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. It is very
close now!
Ian Grieve
Moris Sztajer
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 09:16:15 -0500
From: "Bob Scherago" <rscherago@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: "Golden Age of Radio" and "A One Night Stand
with the Big Bands"
The latest "Golden Age of Radio" programs with Dick Bertel
and Ed Corcoran, and "A One Night Stand with the Big Bands"
with Arnold Dean can be heard at [removed].
Each week we feature three complete shows in MP3 format
for your listening pleasure or for downloading; two "Golden
Age of Radios" and one "One Night Stand." We present new
shows every week or so. The current three programs will be
available on line at least until the morning of Monday, 3/20/06.
Program 26 - May, 1972 - Fran Allison
Born in Iowa, Allison began working as a songstress on local
Waterloo, Iowa radio programs and eventually moved to
Chicago in 1937, where she was hired as a staff singer and
personality on NBC Radio. Audiences became familiar with
her from numerous radio appearances, first as a singer on
such programs as Smile Parade, The Ransom Sherman Show,
and Uncle Ezra's Radio Station (also known as Station EZRA),
and later on The Breakfast Club as the gossipy spinster Aunt
Fanny--who loved to dish gossip about such fictitious towns-
folk as Bert Beerbower, Orphie Hackett and Ott Ort--based
on a character she first created for a local Iowa radio program.
Allison appeared on both the radio and television versions of
Don McNeill's The Breakfast Club for more than 25 years.
The Aunt Fanny character was briefly spun off on her own
1939 30-minute radio program, Sunday Dinner at Aunt Fanny's.
Program 27 - June, 1972 - Donald Buka
Donald Buka had a long and distinguished career as a character
actor in films and television, but got his start as a child on
programs such as "Let's Pretend."
Let's Pretend was a children's program created and directed
by Nila Mack (1891-1953). It had a long-run on CBS radio.
The Peabody Award-winning program began March 24, 1934,
running for two decades before the final show on October 23,
1954. Adaptations included such classics and fairy tales as
Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Arabian Nights, Beauty and
the Beast and Rumpelstiltskin.
"A One Night Stand with the Big Bands" With Arnold Dean
George T. Simon and the Vocalists - February, 1974
The subject tonight is Big Band Vocalists, with George T. Simon,
author of The Big Bands and Simon Says: The Sights and Sounds
of the Swing Era, and the foremost authority on the Big Band Era.
Simon helped Glenn Miller organize his first band, played drums
in it, and fostered Miller's reputation through his writing for
Metronome, The New York Herald Tribune, and other leading
publications. He went on to become a leading expert on the music
of the swing era and the big bands. He wrote several other acclaimed
books, including The Sinatra Report (1965), as well as copious
articles, liner notes for recordings, and occasionally even song
lyrics for the likes of Duke Ellington and Alec Wilder.
In the 1970's WTIC decided that there was a market in
the evening for long-form shows that could be packaged
and sold to sponsors. Two of those shows were "The
Golden Age of Radio" and "A One Night Stand with the
Big Bands."
Dick Bertel had interviewed radio collector-historian
Ed Corcoran several times on his radio and TV shows,
and thought a regular monthly show featuring interviews
with actors, writers, producers, engineers and musicians
from radio's early days might be interesting. "The Golden
Age of Radio" was first broadcast in April, 1970; Ed was
Dick's co-host. It lasted seven years. "The Golden Age
of Radio" can also be heard Saturday nights on Walden
Hughes's program on Radio Yesteryear.
Arnold Dean began his love affair with the big band
era in his pre-teen years and his decision to study
the clarinet was inspired by the style of Artie Shaw.
When he joined WTIC in 1965 he hosted a daily program
of big band music. In 1971, encouraged by the success
of his daily program and "The Golden Age of Radio"
series, he began monthly shows featuring interviews
with the band leaders, sidemen, agents, jazz reporters,
etc. who made major contributions to one of the great
eras of music history.
Bob Scherago
Webmaster
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 11:55:20 -0500
From: Cnorth6311@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Mr. Llewyn
Listening to the Great Gildersleeve program for 12/7/1941, and there is a
character called Mr. Llewyn. He sounds suspiciously like Elmer Fudd. I
believe
I have heard him on more than this episode of The Great One. Anyone know who
played this character?
Charlie
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 11:55:33 -0500
From: yoggy <yoggy@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Norman Corwin film
I don't know if this has come up before, but there is an EXCELLENT
documentary film on NORMAN CORWIN in existance that was produced 10 or so
years ago. It is available from Martin Grams on dvd (or WAS when I purchased
it). I'm not suggesting this as a substitute for the recent Oscar-winning
film, but it would be of interest to any CORWIN admirer (and is there ANY otr
fan who is NOT?) Gary Yoggy
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 13:55:24 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: OTR on film
Bob Hicks' comment about LETTER TO THREE WIVES reminds me of a film short
done through Paramount in 1933 called POPPIN' THE CORK. It's a three-reeler
(29-30 minutes long) and is a charming musical comedy wth Milton Berle as a
brash college man who debates the repeal of Prohibition on the radio. It
was designed to be an educational short but proves tasteful.
Movies were not the only films that dealt with radio or radio-related
personalities. In GETTING A TICKET (1929) Eddie Cantor is stopped by a cop
for speeding and tries every trick in the book to avoid getting the paper
slip. Another is A BROADWAY ROMEO (1930) with Jack Benny who treats a poor
woman to a dinner and then sets up another patron to pay their bill - all
without Benny's later trademark stinginess. This time it was done with
class.
I have these on DVD and they are funny but if you want to watch some clever
deliveries, try some of the film shorts as well as feature-length movies.
Even the Little Rascals (MIKE FRIGHT, 1930s) got into the act of radio
barbs.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 14:28:30 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Paladin theme music
2. Were there ever lyrics for the theme music? I think someone once sang
something to me like "Paladin oh Paladin, where do you roam" but I didn't
know if she was making it up on the spot or not.
Thanks -- Mike in Mountain View, CA
It was "THE BALLAD OF PALADIN" written and sung by Johnny Western (who still
owns his own radio stations, by the way) as a "thank you" to the producers
of the TV series for allowing him to be a guest on an episode in the first
season ("The Return of Dr. Thackeray"). The producers (Sam Rolfe being one
of them) liked the ballad and arranged to have the song played during the
closing credits of the TV series (NOT the opening theme which is the Bernard
Herrman orchestral piece you hear all the time).
The Ballad of Paladin was never featured in the radio program because the
budget for the radio series was much lower than that of the TV. What your
friend remembers is the closing theme for the TV series.
Three interesting pieces of trivia
1. The song charted on the [removed] charts at least three times. The LP record
was very popular, and the 1962 release knocked Elvis off the charts in
England and the British Crown Colonies.
2. The song began appearing during the closing credits with the second
season of the TV series, NOT the first. Though when episodes from the first
season were rerun years later (especially between the second and third and
fourth season episodes), the closing credits were altered to feature the
now-famous "Ballad of Paladin" in the closing credits. Some commercial video
releases offer episodes from the first season with the Ballad even though it
wasn't really featured during the initial airing (which means CBS uses the
syndicated rerun prints for commercial releases) instead of the initial
1957-1958 airings.
3. In 1986, the Rob Reiner movie STAND BY ME featured a scene where the
Ballad is sung (the film took place in the 1950s during the era when the TV
show was popular. Whoever did the research for the movie apparently
purchased the rights to feature the ballad from CBS, not knowing at the time
that there were two theme songs for the series. The orchestral piece
Bernard Herrmann composed and the Ballad of Paladin that Johnny Western
sung. Needless to say, they did have a legal issue after the movie came out
but it was taken care of quickly (notice how you can find two prints of
STAND BY ME, one with the closing credits acknowledging CBS/Bernard Herrman
and the other acknowledging Johnny Western - the closing credits were
changed after the theatrical release).
Martin Grams Jr.
Author of THE HAVE GUN - WILL TRAVEL COMPANION
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2006 Issue #75
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