Subject: [removed] Digest V2001 #272
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 8/22/2001 12:33 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2001 : Issue 272
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      RE: talk radio                        [ Andy Lanset <alanset@[removed]; ]
      Re: Obsolete OTR products             [ Kenneth L Clarke <kclarke5@[removed] ]
      The Non-Walking Wounded               [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
      Radio Spirits                         [ dabac@[removed] ]
      Jack Benny                            [ William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed]; ]
      Station List                          [ William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed]; ]
      Quiet Please- scripts                 [ dabac@[removed] ]
      Vic & Sade & P & G                    [ Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed]; ]
      Mandel Kramer                         [ Fred Berney <berney@[removed]; ]
      Re: Station Breaks                    [ Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      WHIZ Radio Zanesville, Ohio           [ "Tim Lones" <tallones@[removed]; ]
      Re: LAST B/CAST FROM BATTAN: REAL OR  [ Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      Re;Lone Ranger Supporting Voices      [ Don Hunt <ddhunt@[removed]; ]
      great actresses & Agnes Moorehead     [ Rarotz@[removed] ]
      #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Nig  [ lois@[removed] ]
      Retro Radios                          [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
      Making money in OTR                   [ Vntager8io@[removed] ]
      Re: WHIZ radio?                       [ Marklambert@[removed] ]
      WHIZ - Zanesville                     [ "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@worldnet. ]
      Ferncliff Cemetery                    [ "Robert Fells" <rfells@[removed]; ]
      A-N-A-C-I-N                           [ otrbuff@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:14:12 -0400
    From: Andy  Lanset <alanset@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  RE: talk radio

    I am looking for some information about early talk radio programs,
    preferably those with call-ins.

    I was told that in 1930, a man named John J. Anthony would ask listeners to
    call him and he would repeat what they said on the air.  I don't know what
    station this was for.

    Also, I am aware that Barry Gary or maybe it was Barry Gray of WMCA spoke
    with his callers.

    I would appreciate any additional history/information or source for related
    recordings.

    Thanks.

    Andy Lanset, Archivist
    WNYC Radio, 1 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007
    212-669-4685    212-553-0629 FAX

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

    Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:20:29 -0400
    From: Kenneth L Clarke <kclarke5@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Obsolete OTR products

    I recently received a collection dealing with the "Gracie
    Allen for President" episodes of "Burns and Allen".
    The shows at that time were sponsored by Hinds Honey
    and Almond Cosmetics firm.

    Some of the products which I believe have become obsolete
    since OTR are Hinds Honey and Almond Cosmetics, Sal
    Hepatica, Bromo Seltzer, Blue Coal, and Ipana Toothpaste.

    Can anyone think of more to add to the list?

    While we're on the subject of sponsors, does anyone know which
    company sponsored the same show for the longest period of time?
    I believe it might have been the Blue Coal sponsorship of "The Shadow".
    Surely, there were others.

    Kenneth Clarke

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

    Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:20:31 -0400
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  The Non-Walking Wounded

    Bill Harris, responding to Owens Pomeroy's  question as to whether "the
    (supposed) final [removed] from Bataan as the Japanese are invading the
    Island"   was "re-created" or an actual broadcast, noted,

>     I tend to think that this is a recreation. <snip> There is just too
>     much dialog for the amount of code characters being sent. For instance,
>     there is a burst of about eight letters (I copied ITWMNW), then the
>     commentator says, "they're piling dead wounded soldiers in our tunnel".

     Although for other reasons Mr. Harris is probably correct, having a
    small group of letters represent a phrase isn't unusual -- it's using a
    _code_ as opposed to a cipher.  "SOS" means "I am in difficulty/peril and
    need assistance."  Three letters to convey a much longer phrase.  There
    might have been a field code book that could employ an eight- to
    ten-character group to convey a message.

    However, his observation,

>     Frankly, the code is so poorly sent it is hard to make it out and all I
>     copied were random letters and a lot of what seemed like meaningless dits
>     an dahs. I even decreased the speed but still could not decipher a lot of
>     it. <snip> Also the tone of the code is not what you would hear coming
>     from a receiver set up to receive CW (code) transmissions. The tone is
>     rather raspy like it is being produced by a code oscillator used for
>     training, instead of a good sine-wave tone you would get from a receiver.

    rings true.  And Walter Winchell, at the beginning of his show would
    rattle a telegraph key without having the slightest idea of Morse Code.
    But what does it for me is the quote from the commentator: "they're
    piling dead wounded soldiers in our tunnel."  Either the soldiers are
    wounded or dead.  "dead wounded soldiers" is rather oxymoronic; even
    allowing for exhaustion by the commentator, that seems like a strange
    phrase.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:20:36 -0400
    From: dabac@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Radio Spirits

    I was wondering if someone here might be able to explain something that
    has puzzeled me for sometime? Examining the RS catalogs individual
    cassette offerings, I find that many episodes which are generally
    acknowledged to be among the all-time best of a particular series are
    conspicuous by their omission - still I am fairly certain that RS must
    carry most of these episodes. Is it just me or have others noticed this
    as well?

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

    Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:20:38 -0400
    From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Jack Benny

    There have been several asumptions about the Jack Benny Show. I joined
    the engineering staff of CBS December, 1944, in New Yorks assigned to the
    short wave division boradcasting propaganda to Europe and entertainment
    to South America in both Spanish and Portuguese (musical and variety). We
    had two transmitting plants, Wayne, New Jersey, and Brentwood, Long
    Island. About June of 1945 I transferred to CBS-Hollywood (KNX), where I
    remained untill I transferred back to New York in the spring of 1951.

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

    Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:20:40 -0400
    From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Station List

    David Buswell posted a list of vintage New York City radio stations. An
    added comment. WABC was originally the call letters for WCBS. WEAF and
    WJZ were both owned by RCA who owned NBC. Come the revolution and WEAF
    became WNBC and WJZ became WABC (American Broadcasting Company owned by
    [removed] Noble, the Life Saver king). WMCA, which was originally owned by
    Donald Flamm, remained WMCA the last I knew.

    Gladys Swarthout and Rosa Ponselle were noted concert artists in my time.

    I had a rather emotional chat with Janet Waldo a couple of years ago at
    one of the west coast conventions, I think it was Seattle. Her late
    husband, Robert E. (Bob) Lee was an old friend of mine (he was my
    announcer when I was broadcasting name bands from the Great Lakes
    Exposition in Cleveland during the summer of 1937 for Mutual). Janet
    brought their daughters into the conversation and asked me to repeat what
    I had to say about their father, a dear person. Bob and Jerry Lawrence
    (another Clevelander)  became famous as Lawrence and Lee who produced
    "Mame".

    Bill Murtough

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

    Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:20:42 -0400
    From: dabac@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Quiet Please- scripts

    Does anyone know if scripts exist from any of this series missing
    episodes? Also, would anyone know if there were ever any re-enactments
    of any episodes done?  --Dan

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

    Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 22:21:21 -0400
    From: Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Vic & Sade & P & G

    A few days ago, I inquired whether "Vic and Sade" had ever been considered
    for syndication or extension spotting, and ever-knowledgeable Elizabeth
    replied:

>     V&S was *definitely* extension-spotted in Canada along with many other P&G
>     daytime shows, probably beginning in 1940 and continuing until the end of
>     the original run in 1944. However, extension-spotting discs were required
>     to be destroyed or returned to the distributor after use, and it's most
>     likely that when we speak of "Procter and Gamble destroying the
>     transcriptions," it's these spotting discs that we're talking about.

    She then asked:

>     and does anyone actually have documentation for when and how this
>     happened, or is it simply hearsay? I know Billy Idelson has told this
>     story, but does anyone know where *he* got the story from? For that matter,
>     do we know for a fact if it was P&G at all? The recordings were actually
>     made for Compton Advertising, P&G's agency.

    I originally heard the story recounted by Idelson on the c1974 Vic and Sade
    radio documentary narrated by Bob Arbogast, in which Idelson states that
    P&G destroyed them. The same story - probably taken from this same
    documentary - is repeated as fact in Dunning. However, I get the impression
    that Idelson told it differently from time to time; in one instance, I
    hear, he was sent a few disks for his personal collection along with a
    letter stating that the others had already been destroyed. It's likely that
    Idelson could have confused P&G with Compton or that Compton had passed the
    disks to P&G to dispose of - though why they would do this, I cannot say -
    or simply that Compton had destroyed the disks and Idelson found out about
    it after the deed had been done.

    Elizabeth goes on to say:

>     No evidence exists to suggest that the series was being recorded as a
>     matter of course in the 1930s. (The NBC Collection at the LOC has 173 V&S
>     episodes, none dating before 1939, and only a few scattered pre-1939
>     episodes are currently known to exist from other sources.)

    The majority of V&S shows in the NBC collection at the LOC seem to exist
    for the same reason that many other daytime shows exist: they were recorded
    for time-shifting or other purposes and only retained because the show on
    the other side of the disk was something the network wanted to keep. We've
    discovered a number of 15-minute shows recorded by local stations that were
    retained for this same reason. Thank heavens that lacquer can't be recorded
    over the same way tape can!

    It's a tremendous shame that Paul Rhymer didn't recognize the possibilities
    for future syndication of the series but, then again, he had no reason to -
    almost no one else thought of the potential for widespread re-runs so why
    should he have done so? At least he had the foresight to preserve the
    scripts - and for that we can all be grateful.

    Nevertheless, the simple fact that some of the circulating V&S shows are
    almost certainly taken from Canadian extension-spotting disks - no openings
    or closings, yet definitely line-checks - makes me think that at least a
    few escaped destruction. Reason enough for the search to continue with even
    greater optimism!

    Harlan, who's idea of heaven would be to spend a few previously
    undiscovered minutes at the small house half-way up in the next block

    Harlan Zinck
    First Generation Radio Archives
    [removed]

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

    Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:50:22 -0400
    From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Mandel Kramer

    A few weeks ago, I was asking where I might find a picture of Mandel
    Kramer. Gordon Gregersen <gsgreg@[removed]; was kind enough to print out
    two photos and mail them to me.

      I just wanted to personally thank him.

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

    Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:50:26 -0400
    From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Station Breaks

    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];

>     by early 1929 . . . the chimes would be rung by the studio
>     announcer (five notes for Blue and seven notes for Red)

    This numbering is new information.  Have you found a contemporary source
    in print for this or are you infering it from the station break
    recordings that we have heard?

>     Oddly, the one exception I've discovered to the use of the
>     specified-location studio cue in this period was "Amos 'n' Andy,"
>     which closed with "This program has reached you from the studios
>     of the National Broadcasting Company" without mentioning that it
>     originated in Chicago -- apparently NBC wanted to keep up the
>     illusion of the program originating in New York, but couldn't
>     come right out and lie about it on the air.

    Did they say "from the studios of the National Broadcasting Company"
    during the early years of A'n'A when those WMAQ studios were in CBS
    territory?  Or did they add that only when NBC took over WMAQ?

>     By the mid-thirties, CBS had a somewhat different ID policy, with
>     its break in hour shows coming closer to the :40 mark than right
>     on the half hour.   Elizabeth

    Verrrrrry interesting, considering the location of the middle station
    break in War of the Worlds!  This might also explain FCC Rule [removed] in
    the AM rules which in the early 60s read that the station ID should be
    given on the hour and "either on the half hour or at the quarter hour
    preceding the next hour".

    I'd never noticed this version until recently because I had always been
    more familiar with the rule as was stated for FM stations in that same
    era in rule [removed] that the ID should be on the hour and "either at the
    half hour or at the quarter hour following the hour and at the quarter
    hour preceding the next hour".  This is taken from the 1961-62 edition
    of the Broadcasting Yearbook.  Unless they misprinted the AM rule in the
    '61 book, I know by the mid-60s both AM and FM had the option of doing
    the ID at either :00 and :30; or at :00, :15, and :45.  Of course now
    the only requirement is at the hour.

    Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:50:31 -0400
    From: "Tim Lones" <tallones@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  WHIZ Radio Zanesville, Ohio

    I believe, from past sources, that WHIZ AM(1240) in Zanesville, Ohio went on
    the air in [removed] FM most likely in the early to mid-60'[removed] to
    the WHIZ website the TV station came on the air on channel 50 in May 1953
    and by 1956 had moved to channel [removed] been an NBC TV Affiliate for all
    these [removed] website though incomplete, is at [removed]

    Tim Lones
    East Sparta, Ohio

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

    Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:53:12 -0400
    From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: LAST B/CAST FROM BATTAN: REAL OR RECREATION?

    "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; commented on:

>     "Jack Benny's Golden Memories Of Radio"... (supposed) final
>     [removed] from Bataan ...  Was it a recreated incident or the
>     actual message tapping out on the telegraph key

    I was also confused by this recording for a long time becuase the
    introduction by Frank Knight on the LP seemed to imply that this was a
    live broadcast of the real event.  However, it is a recreation, probably
    from "The Army Hour" broadcast on May 31, 1942.

>     I remember reading in a trade paper, that Longines found the
>     actual operator who sent the message to recreate it for the Album.
>     True or not?

    Well, of course, that alone would make it a re-creation!  But there is a
    reprinting of that message in the CBS book "From Pearl Harbor Into
    Tokyo" with the information about the Army Hour broadcast.  Since that
    broadcast happened less than 4 weeks after the May 5 event, Irving
    Strobing, the operator, would still have been a prisoner.  But did he
    survive???   Anybody know?  It would have made sense for there to have
    been yet another broadcast about this after his return, which would have
    been some years later.  I have some very graphic propaganda broadcasts
    our government made when some of the first Battaan Death March escapees
    first told their stories a year or two later.

    Like Bill Harris indicated, although the actor is reading the words very
    slowly, as if it is being deciphered from the Morse Code, the Morse
    transmission heard in the recording is going at a much slower pace than
    even the recitation.  I'd always meant to try to have a ham operator see
    if he could read the code, so I am glad to have the word from Bill that
    the code is meaningless.  Surely there were some engineers around the
    radio studio who were hams and knew code--but perhaps they purposefully
    used someone who didn't know code to do some meaningless dots and dashes
    to avoid the slim chance that a REAL operator might slip in some kind of
    subversive message!

    Now, while you are at it Bill, can you have a go at the code that we
    hear in the background several times in the phony recordings in Volume 3
    of "I Can Hear It Now".  It is behind the KDKA re-creation, one of the
    phony Lindbergh reports, and in one or two other places.  I would think
    that these also would be meaningless--perhaps just as meaningless as the
    dits and dahs that Walter Winchell tapped out in his broadcasts!!

    Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:53:17 -0400
    From: Don Hunt <ddhunt@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re;Lone Ranger Supporting Voices

>     >From Don Hunt ddhunt@[removed].

    This is mainly from my hearing TheLone Ranger on the radio and listening to
    my growing collection
    of the same. With very minor assistance from Mr. Dunning's "Encyclopedia Of
    Old TimeRadio".
    Paul Hughes----Best known as "Thunder Martin":. Also as an Army Colonel.
    Hughes was equally adept
    at portraying schiester lawyers, elderly sherriffs, etc
    Elaine Alpert----"Clarabelle Hornblower", heroines, middleaged widows
    Rollan Parker------Ethnic parts (aka chinese laborers), indian chiefs,
    crooks, scientists,flim- flammers, outlaws, sherriffs, politicians, etc.
    Rare, brief-substitute as "Tonto" for John Todd. Also portrayed padres. My
    favorite is his one time portrayal as
    "Shrmp Butler", a diminutive outlaw with an inferiority complex.
    Bill Saunders---Best known as"Butch Cavendish" in most of the live revivals
    of "The Origen of The Lone Ranger". He
    reprised that role in the 25th Anniversary broadcast. I remember Saunders as
    a crook more than in any other role.
    Usually the gang lieutenant. Very rarely as a law abiding citizen and/or
    sherriff.
    Jay Micheal----as "Dan Reid" John  Reid's (Lone Ranger's) brother in
    "Origin" saga. He played a variety of roles.
    Ernie Winstanley---Usually, but not always, the dashing, true blue hero,
    young rancher, cowboy, tenderfoot. His other
    specialty was ethnic villans. Mexican outlaws
    Harry [removed] Played roles similar to Winstanley.
    Note: In the episode "Oh Bury Me Not" (50's) E. Winstanley plays "Jim Carry"
    a notorious outlaw who doubles as a faithful husband/father-albeit from
    afar.
    Goldstein has the small role of a member of the gang-"The Singing Kid"
    Jim Irwin ("Jim Carry, Jr") also played juvenile delinquints, outlaws,.mob
    agitators, and at one time was :"Dan Reid",
    the Ranger's teen age nephew.
    Bob Martin-the last actor to portray young "Dan Reid". He inherited the part
    from Irwin, who was prceded by Ernie Winstanley.
    Frank Kelley-one of the oldest members of the WXYZ reperatory troup. Played
    aging sherriffs, stage drivers, miners,
    ranchers, muleskinners.
    Also Lenore Allman, Jack Petruzza, Gilley Shea and Casey Kassem.
    Dick Beals, who stands 4' 6", played juvenile roles fr. arounnd 1949-51 even
    though he was several years older.
    Mr Beals, 75, has his own ad agency does some voiceover fr. cartoon, i
    think, and is in much denmand as a inspirational/
    motivational speaker. In the 50's he was the voice of "Speedy Alkaselzer" on
    radio and tv.
    Don Hunt

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

    Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:53:27 -0400
    From: Rarotz@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  great actresses & Agnes Moorehead

    Larry Evans wrote:

>     I think that, based on
>     their work, the following three actresses should be mentioned. Janette Nolan,
>     Shirley Mitchell and Agnes Moorehead.

>     Larry Evans, WA8DDN

    No question in my mind that Agnes Moorehead was one of the greatest, perhaps
    the greatest, radio actresses of all time.  To defend my failure to include
    her in my original list, I'd go back to the point that the original question
    spoke of *character* actresses.  Since she could pull in a big audience on
    the strength of her name alone ([removed] Suspense), I felt she was too big a star
     to be considered in the character actress category.  Still think so.  (That
    issue, however, seems to have dropped out of the discussion now.)

        -- Rhiman Rotz

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

    Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:53:42 -0400
    From: lois@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Night!

    A weekly [removed]

    For the best in OTR Chat, join IRC (Internet Relay Chat), StarLink-IRC
    Network, the channel name is #OldRadio.  We meet Thursdays at 8 PM Eastern
    and go on, and on! The oldest OTR Chat Channel, it has been in existence
    over four years, same time, same channel!

    Our numerous "regulars" include one of the busiest "golden years" actors in
    Hollywood; a sound man from the same era who worked many of the top
    Hollywood shows; a New York actor famed for his roles in "Let's Pretend" and
    "Archie Andrews;" owners of some of the best OTR sites on the Web;
    maintainer of the best-known OTR Digest (we all know who he is)..........

    and Me

    Lois Culver
    KWLK Longview Washington (Mutual) 1941-1944)
    KFI Los Angeles (NBC) 1944 - 1950
    and widow of actor Howard Culver

    (For more info, contact lois@[removed])

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

    Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:54:41 -0400
    From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Retro Radios

    Garry Lewis pointed us to a place with replica OT Radios.

    If one goes to the home page, [removed] ,
    one can choose  which decade to look at replicas of.  Although they're a
    bit mixed up (cathedral radios in the 1950s?), the radio reproductions in
    the 1930s section have built-in cassette drives or CD players.  More to
    the point for the OTR crowd.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 10:12:27 -0400
    From: Vntager8io@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Making money in OTR

    Hi,

    I've been following the thread about station ID's with interest, but it has
    raised an old question for me. With such brief network silences between shows
    (10-30 seconds) for local stations to give weather, timechecks, or station
    ID, how did local stations make money? Surely, radio then was a business like
    it is now, and it cost money to run a station. I understand that many local
    radio stations had their own, locally-sponsored shows, and I can see how they
    could have made some money that way, but how did local stations make money on
    national network shows? I would assume that the time between network shows
    would not have been long enough to insert a local commercial announcement.
    Would the sponsor of a network show have to pay a certain amount to all
    stations on the chain airing its show? Or were network shows carried by local
    stations only to attract listeners that would keep their dials set to the
    station and tune in to local shows?

    Thanks!
    Bryan Wright

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

    Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 10:12:22 -0400
    From: Marklambert@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:  WHIZ radio?

    Regarding the radio station at which Billy Batson (aka Captain
    Marvel) worked, Stephen Kallis asked:

>     Which brings up a question: Just when did WHIZ of Zanesville, OH, first
>      go on the air?  Before or after the comic-book station?

    I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that in the 1970s, on
    a syndicated cartoon version of Captain Marvel, they changed the call
    letters to WHZZ (or something like that).   I presumed that was because
    there was a genuine station out there with the WHIZ call letters.

    Mark

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

    Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 10:50:24 -0400
    From: "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  WHIZ - Zanesville

    Stephen Kallis took note of my smart-*ss remark about Captain Marvel
    protecting the sleepy little hamlet of Zanesville, Ohio and wondered, "Just
    when did WHIZ of Zanesville, OH, first
    go on the air?  Before or after the comic-book station?"

    The "original" WHIZ went on the air in 1924, followed by a TV station in
    1952 and an FM station in 1961. The company has long been associated with
    NBC.

    Brj

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

    Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 14:32:58 -0400
    From: "Robert Fells" <rfells@[removed];
    To: "old time radio" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Ferncliff Cemetery

    A few posters in yesterday's Digest wondered why the Ferncliff Cemetery in
    Hartsdale, NY is the resting place for so many Hollywood stars.  There's no
    real mystery here: these individuals and their families lived in the New
    York area at time of their deaths and some of them had long since severed
    their connections with Tinsel Town.  Basil Rathbone is a typical example.
    In fact, Ferncliff has been nicknamed "the Forest Lawn of the East Coast"
    because of the many late celebrities in residence who made their home back
    East.

    Bob Fells

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

    Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 14:33:00 -0400
    From: otrbuff@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  A-N-A-C-I-N

    Arlene Osborne questions why we don't hear of neuritis and neuralgia any
    more, and did we ever know anyone who suffered from them?  I guess I
    can't answer either other than to allow that marketing attempts moved on
    to focus elsewhere.  Can't say I ever knew a sufferer by those malady
    names, either.

    In a chapter on Our Gal Sunday in "The Great Radio Soap Operas" I noted
    that "the most consistently advertised commodity, the one most closely
    identified with the program, was Anacin.  This headache, neuritis and
    neuralgia remedy was often mentioned on multiple radio series for several
    decades.  With little variation in advertising copy from show to show and
    year to year, listeners could say the words of Anacin's commercial
    messages right along with [announcer] Ed Fleming and his contemporaries:

    "Anacin is like a doctor's prescription . . . that is, it contains a
    combination of medically proven active ingredients in easy-to-take tablet
    form. . . .  So many listening to me now have had an envelope containing
    Anacin tablets given them by their dentist or physician. . . .  I'll
    spell the name for you . . . A-N-A-C-I-N.  Anacin.  At any drug store in
    handy boxes of twelve and thirty tablets and economical family-size
    bottles of fifty and one hundred. . . .  The first few tablets are
    guaranteed to give you the relief you seek or your money will be refunded
    in full.

    "It would have been difficult in those days to have tuned in regularly to
    Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons or Front Page Farrell or Our Gal Sunday
    or another American Home Products series without thinking of those words
    as Fleming read them.  Thinking them--and even repeating them aloud in
    many cases--must have become habitual to some listeners.  As a
    consequence, all that repetition undoubtedly reinforced the product's
    name when consumers appeared at the pharmacy counter for a pain
    killer--which was, of course, what the advertiser hoped would happen."

    Jim Cox

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2001 Issue #272
    *********************************************

    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]

    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]