Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #415
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 11/18/2003 4:35 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2003 : Issue 415
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Hermit's Cave                         [ "Mike Kerezman" <philipmarlowe@cfai ]
  NYC Pioneer Country Deejay Don Larki  [ Udmacon@[removed] ]
  Kinescope recordings                  [ Vincente Tobias <vincente_ca@yahoo. ]
  Radio-TV Links                        [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  Re: Kinescope                         [ HERITAGE4@[removed] ]
  Kinescope                             [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
  Norman Corwin                         [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
  Bad news on KNX Drama Hour            [ Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed] ]
  Today in radio (sort of)              [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  Twilight Zone Radio in LA/San Diego   [ "Carl Amari" <camari@falconpictureg ]
  Wendy Warren and Douglas Edwards      [ Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@erols ]
  Cinnamon Bear [removed]            [ "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed] ]
  art carney, yogi bear, and televisio  [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
  The Real Churchill                    [ Bob Fells <rfells@[removed]; ]
  "Peter Salem" fragment found!         [ Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@erols ]
  Mr. Kitzel                            [ Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 00:36:43 -0500
From: "Mike Kerezman" <philipmarlowe@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Hermit's Cave

I was wondering how many shows of the Hermit Cave survive. I have been
unable to find a log of Hermit's Cave. I have only found around 29 Hermit
Cave shows to-wit:

 Hermit Cave House of Purple Shadows.
 Hermit's Cave The Crimson Hand.
 Hermit's Cave The Lost Black Crow Mine.
 Hermit's Cave The Man With White Hair.
 Hermit's Cave Dark House.
 Hermit's Cave Mr Randall's Discovery
 Hermit's Cave Author of Murder.
 Hermit's Cave Buried Alive.
 Hermit's Cave Devil's Scrapbook.
 Hermit's Cave From Another World.
 Hermit's Cave House of Murder.
 Hermit's Cave House on Lost Land's Bluff.
 Hermit's Cave House with a Past.
 Hermit's Cave It Happened Sunday.
 Hermit's Cave Mystery of the Strange Thing.
 Hermit's Cave Notebook to Murder.
 Hermit's Cave Reflected Image of the Desert.
 Hermit's Cave Spirit Vengeance.
 Hermit's Cave Spirits of Vengeance.
 Hermit's Cave The Black Band.
 Hermit's Cave The Nameless Day.
 Hermit's Cave The Plantation Mystery.
 Hermit's Cave The Professor's Elixir.
 Hermit's Cave The Search For Life.
 Hermit's Cave The Story Without End.
 Hermit's Cave TheVampiresDesire_.
 Hermit's Cave Fever.
 Hermit's Cave The Blackness of Terror.
 Hermit's Cave Hansion Ghost.

Dark House" is only about 15 mins long.

Does anyone know any I am missing or overlooking.

Mike Kerezman
Macomb, Oklahoma

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 00:38:03 -0500
From: Udmacon@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  NYC Pioneer Country Deejay Don Larkin Dies
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

Don Larkin ("this is Larkin Barkin'"), NYC area pioneer country music deejay,
died last Thursday at age 90 in Phoenix, AZ.

Those of my age group--the 60s and up--who grew up in the NYC Metropolitan
area, owe so much to this man whose "Hometown Frolic" was an institution for
us
from the late 1940s thru the early 1960s.

Don was on the air over WAAT, Newark NJ, in those days from 7:45 am to 9 and
1 to 3 pm weekdays. He played bluegrass on his show before the term
"bluegrass" was coined.

At age 17, Don started his radio career at WHOM, then in Jersey City, NJ. He
then moved on to his initial stand at WAAT, Newark, as an announcer and
pianist. One of his experiences there was to accompany  in an audition a young
singer named Frank Sinatra.

Don later did band remotes for WNEW, announcing the likes of Chick Webb, and
Ella Fitzgerald from the Savoy in Harlem.

After WW II, where Don was a pilot for the Army Air Corps, he returned to New
Jersey and radio, again at WAAT. He was "forced" to do the "Hometown Frolic"
at WAAT in the late '40s and would remain there with the show until the early
1960s. He was the first deejay in New York City ever to play Elvis Presley.

Don was also one of the first to bring traditional country and bluegrass acts
in the NYC area > with shows at the Terrace Ballroom in Newark and Newburg NY
Armory among other sites. Thanks to him I was introduced to such Grand Ole
Opry stars Ernest Tubb, Carl Smith, Martha Carson, Jim Reeves, the Louvin
Brothers, Ferlin Huskey, Faron Young, Porter Waggoner and Flatt & Scruggs at
Larkin shows.

I did a bio on Don in the September 1998 "Bluegrass Unlimited"; Don closely
cooperated with me in the project so that I got it right.

BILL KNOWLTON

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  ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 00:38:45 -0500
From: Vincente Tobias <vincente_ca@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Kinescope recordings

On the West Coast we only got kinescope recordings of
the big TV shows because, of course, we were three
hours earlier than on the East Coast.  Not only that,
we often got them 2 weeks late!  I remember watching a
kinescope recording as a kid of Perry Como singing
Christmas carols and it was already past New Years!
What an amazing day when videotape arrived.  The first
time I saw it was of Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. I
couldn't believe my eyes, being so used to the grainy
kinescope recordings of live shows.

Also, wasn't Tom Hatten on TV showing Popeye cartoons
way back when, in the early fifties?  Or is that a
different Tom Hatten? I just remember this muscular
looking guy in a white or striped T-shirt getting in
the way of all those great Popeye cartoons.
Vince

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 00:39:29 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Radio-TV Links

Although this reels to the brink of off-topicness, speaking of
kinescopes, Herb Harrison notes,

I always assumed that the kinescope process involved either a separate
videotape camera or a "feed-to-tape" mechanism from regular TV cameras. I
had no idea that the kinescope process was such a primitive hookup.

Actually, given the available technology, the hookup was rather
sophisticated.  A television field is two 60-half-frames per second (30
fields per second); a sound motion picture camera is 24 frames per
second.  The incompatibility of the two media would result in a roll bar
on the kinescope.  However, a special shutter could reconcile the two, as
could a "low decay" phosphor display screen to be photographed.  Auricon
made a special recording camera with a "TVT Shutter."

Early TV technology could be viewed as extended radio technology.
Indeed, some of the shows carried over from radio.  Some, like Sky King
and The Lone Ranger, were filmed like motion pictures, on 35mm or
sometimes 16mm film.  Others used simple sets: these were the ones that
were kinescoped.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 00:39:48 -0500
From: HERITAGE4@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Kinescope

That's interesting to note (from Bill Murtough  via Herb Harrison) that the
Kinescope process involved a video camera aimed at a "small tv
screen" -  As I recall seeing the mechanism,  kinescopes were film copies
from a video screen.  Don't see how a video camera without a film medium could
make a permanent recording ?    Tom Heathwood - Heritage Radio Theatre.

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 00:40:15 -0500
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Kinescope

Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:56:57 -0500
From: Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed];

I always assumed that the kinescope process involved either a separate
videotape camera or a "feed-to-tape" mechanism from regular TV cameras.
I had no idea that the kinescope process was such a primitive hookup. 

Actually, since videotape had not been invented at the time, kinescope involved a movie-film 
camara filming from a monitor screen.  If they'd had videotape, they wouldn't have needed the 
monitor.  They'd have been able to tape the over-the-air signal more directly, and the result 
would look a lot better.

I have a number of videotapes of kinescoped shows, and I don't find the quality all that bad.  
It depends a little on the quality of the film and the monitor used, but it doesn't look all that 
different from any other black and white film shown on television.  And at the time, I couldn't 
tell the difference between a regular film and a kinescope recording.

-- A. Joseph Ross, [removed] [removed] 15 Court Square, Suite 210 lawyer@[removed] Boston, MA 02108-2503 [removed] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 00:45:36 -0500 From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed]; To: [removed]@[removed] Subject: Norman Corwin Walden asked:
Has any one put together a Norman Corwin log and figured out which ones of
his shows are available in the hobby?

Sure is.  There was a book all about Norman Corwin and his radio work that
also included a log of the majority (90%) of his radio work with some detail
including cast and dates and titles.  And as I just returned from my
bookshelf I can't seem to find it.  Sorry.  Anyway, there was a book and I
think it's out of print but a search on [removed] might help.

Also, Jay Hickerson did a listing of Corwin's shows, namely the Columbia
Workshop programs and that list is available through Jay ay jayhick@[removed].

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 08:49:30 -0500
From: Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Bad news on KNX Drama Hour

On KNX (Los Angeles) radio's website is this statement:
"Based on KNX's role in serving the public, KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO has decided
to end the broadcast of the Drama Hour and remain a 24/7 full-service news
operation. More information is available through
the KNX 1070 web site, <[removed];[removed].
Comments may be addressed to:
<mailto:KNXDramaHourMail@[removed];KNXDramaHourMail@[removed]"

This also ends the availability of OTR downloads at KNX's website for those
of you beyond KNX Radio's broadcast coverage.
They then direct us to a Mediabay/RadioClassics website that touts its pay
service for download/streaming audio OTR shows (free for 30 days, then
$[removed])
I consider this a serious loss. If you agree, you might want to send an
email to KNX.
(I honestly don't know what good this would do, since KNX is now a part of
one of the mega-conglomerates that controls practically everything that we
listen to on the [removed] but we can try, can't we?)

Herb Harrison

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 08:49:49 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otrd <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Today in radio (sort of)

 From Those Were The Days --

1307 - The story of William Tell shooting the apple off of his young
son's noggin is said to have taken place on this day.

(If it hadn't been for Tell there would have been no opera, if there had
been no opera there would have been no overture, if there had been no
overture the Lone Ranger wouldn't have had the theme music we know. <g>
--ed)

Joe (that's a joke son, I say that's a joke).

--
Visit my homepage:  [removed]~[removed]

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 10:02:47 -0500
From: "Carl Amari" <camari@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Twilight Zone Radio in LA/San Diego

Hi,

LA radio station KSUR AM 1260 and San Diego radio station KURF AM 540 have
picked up "The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas" Monday through Friday at 8 pm
with a repeat at 1 am.  This Monday through Friday timeslot will last about
7 weeks when it will then settle into its permanent timeslot of Sunday's at
8 pm.  There is a good chance that both stations will be picking up
"Imagination Theatre" as well.  Stacy Keach is the host of "The Twilight
Zone Radio Dramas" and upcoming guest stars include: Adam West, Adam
Baldwin, Mike Starr, Jane Seymour, James Keach, Kim Fields, Bruno Kirby, Jim
Caviezel, Kate Jackson, Daniel J. Travanti along with stars of the original
"Twilight Zone" television series, Shelley Berman, Orson Bean, [removed] Wynant
and one of radio's greatest actresses, Peggy Webber.  I hope you'll listen
and for more information (and a FREE CD) go to [removed]

All my best,
Carl Amari

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 11:28:05 -0500
From: Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@[removed];
To: OTRBB <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Wendy Warren and Douglas Edwards

In connection with my book, "PRIVATE EYELASHES: Radio's Lady
Detectives", I am finishing the section on Wendy Warren and the  News,
a detective/soap opera, which CBS newsman Doug Edwards was part of for
11 years. Many years later, Edwards donated all his papers and other
archival materials to St. Bonaventure University in NY, and on their
web site, I found detailed biographical info on Edwards.
You can check it out if you wish:

[removed]

Edwards had an interesting broadcast history, starting with his first
full time job in radio, at WXYZ in Detroit, where he and other staff
announcers, including Mike Wallace, occasionally got to do "The Lone
Ranger" and "The Green Hornet." Edwards made the jump to CBS news and
Wallace followed later. In 1947 CBS chose Edwards to be their anchor on
their fledgling TV news, after his return from Europe where he was one
of  "Murrow's Boys."

No full-length biography has ever been written of Edwards. He died of
cancer in 1990 without writing his autobiography. The archivist at St.
Bonaventure laments the lack of a biography and is hoping for an author
to volunteer. If anyone in OTR community wants to inquire further about
this project, contact Dennis Frank at:  archives@[removed]

Maybe Jim Cox, Howard Blue, or Thomas DeLong would like to put this on
the back-burner?

PRIVATE EYELASHES will be released on Valentine's Day, 2004.
Pre-orders, which eliminate S & H charges, are now being accepted by
the publisher at [removed]

Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 13:33:46 -0500
From: "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Cinnamon Bear [removed]

Okay, I don't have the episodes in front of me.  What day do I listen to
the first episode of the Cinnamon Bear to get the timing to work out right?

-chris holm




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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 13:41:11 -0500
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  art carney, yogi bear, and television
 recording

I heard or read an interview with someone associated with Hanna-Barbara
Productions.  He said that Yogi Bear's voice was modeled after Art Carney's.
  I'm not sure that the resemblance is obvious, but there it is.

A great deal of research went into television recording techniques.  Even
mechanical disk methods were tried, as were high-speed tape machines.  The
latter were apparently quite an adventure: if the tape broke, which it
occasionally did, the entire room would fill up with tangles of recording
tape.  I believe that, with the tape head technology of the early television
period, an ideal speed for the recording of television signals would have
been 1000 inches per second.

It might be of some interest to the technical folks here that mechanical
disk recording of television was actually implemented about the time that
home videotape recorders were developed.  I don't recall the manufacturer,
but the thing used a large, high-speed disk and a sort of flat sapphire
stylus.  It was not a commercial success, but one has to admire the bravery
of the people involved.

I also have a question for the historians here.  One of the history books I
read claims that phonograph record sales greatly decreased when radio was
introduced, and that the business never quite recovered until
electrically-recorded records came out.

I suppose that the reason for this is that acoustically-recorded recordings
were of poor quality (they certainly sound that way to me) and that most
music in early radio was live.  But some posts here have implied that
musical recordings were played on radio programs from the earliest days of
the medium.

Would these have been acoustic recordings?  Would a microphone have just
been hung in front of a phonograph horn (unlikely, I think, unless Fessenden
did it) or were electrical pickups used from the beginning?

Or do I have my timeline of electrical audio innovations mixed up?

M Kinsler

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 16:31:18 -0500
From: Bob Fells <rfells@[removed];
To: Old Time Radio <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  The Real Churchill

Mr. Churchill had a speech defect that voice impersonators usually
overlooked.  For example, Hollywood films made during World War II
(ACTION IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC is a good example) would have a scene of
people listening to Churchill on the radio.  Why the studios just didn't
use recordings of the great man's broadcasts I don't know, but the voice
double spoke without Mr. Churchill's speech impediment that sounded too
perfect.

Of course, a really good impersonator could imitate the impediment too
but that didn't happen, at least in the films I can think of.  Mr. C had
difficulty pronouncing hard "ses" and they came out with a "th" sound.
I wonder if the Norman Shelley recording referred to in the previous
Digest was prepared for a movie?

Bob Fells

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 16:32:24 -0500
From: Jack & Cathy French <otrpiano@[removed];
To: OTRBB <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  "Peter Salem" fragment found!

As most of you know, for fifty years, collectors have been searching
with no success, for any audio copy of "The Affairs of Peter Salem",
nor have the network scripts surfaced.  This popular detective program,
starring the talented Santos Ortega, was aired by Mutual from May 1949
to April 1953. Ortega was one of the most highly sought actors for
crime dramas in the Golden Age of Radio; he played Nero Wolfe, Charlie
Chan, Perry Mason, and Bulldog Drummond on other networks.

  The core strength of this adventure series, about a small-town
detective who used his wits to thwart big-city lawbreakers, was its
superb writing. Louis Vittes wrote the scripts, a job he also performed
on the other highly rated series, "The Adventures of the Thin Man",
"The Saint", and "Mr. and Mrs. North." Vittes died in 1969 and all his
scripts were destroyed in a tragic flood years later. His son has been
trying to obtain audio copies of all of his father's radio shows and
"The Affairs of Peter Salem" is the only one he was missing.

This week I was  contacted by an OTR collector, Dr. Brooks Blevins, a
professor at Lyon College in Arkansas.  He just discovered the first
five minutes of a Peter Salem program on an open reel he had obtained
from an unrecalled source years ago. This 1953 episode is "The Affair
of the Murderous Mirror." Blevins searched "Peter Salem" on the
Internet and  found my name on the Thrilling Detective web site. He
wants to get it into general circulation so he  sent  me an audio copy
of his find. I will send a dub to Vittes' son, who lives in Florida.

Jim Widner and I have made arrangements to make this find available to
any OTR fan who wants a copy of this five minute fragment. Jim will be
installing it on his website within a few weeks so any one with the
knowledge and equipment to do so, can download their own audio copy. A
separate announcement on this will be posted later on this Digest by
Jim when it is ready. For those who are less computer literate, like
me, I'll be happy to make a dub for anyone who sends me a blank
cassette and a buck for return postage. My address is 5137 Richardson
Drive, Fairfax, VA 22032.

Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL
[removed]

PS: And no, this is not a "McLeod", and yes, there really is a Lyon
College.

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 16:32:40 -0500
From: Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Mr. Kitzel

I have in my notes that Mr. Kitzel's first appearance
on The Jack Benny Program was on 1/6/46. (He was, I
recall, selling hot dogs at the Rose Bowl.) I've
recently been listening to Abbott and Costello, and
was surprised to hear Mr. Kitzel as a frequent guest
in 1943/44. I guess it hadn't occurred to me that the
character wasn't a creation of Jack's writers; Kitzel
already existed, and they simply scooped him up.
(Though I believe Benny's writers added the "pickle in
the middle with the mustard on top" line.) Does
anybody know anything about this, and what prompted
Kitzel's switch of programs? Were there any other
characters on the Benny show that originated on other
programs? Is the character of Mr Kitzel something that
Artie Auerbach developed elsewhere (say, on the stage
or maybe even on vaudeville) before appearing on
radio?

Kermyt

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #415
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