Subject: [removed] Digest V2007 #340
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 12/4/2007 10:18 AM

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

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2007 : Issue 340
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      WNBC                                  [ Robert Angus <rangus02@[removed]; ]
      The elusive Those We Love             [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
      We Hold These Truths                  [ Andrew Steinberg <otrdig2@[removed] ]
      TV to Radio: Sub-Total                [ jack and cathy french <otrpiano@ver ]
      Declaration of War broadcasts from a  [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      12-4 births/deaths                    [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
      Bob Smith on WEAF/WNBC                [ "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross. ]

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

    Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 09:38:55 -0500
    From: Robert Angus <rangus02@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  WNBC

    Back in the late 1930s and early 1940s, WNBC was the NBC Blue network
    affiliate in Hartford, Conn.  The letters stood not for the network, but
    for New Britain, Conn., which was the town to which the station was
    licensed.  Sometime in the mid 1940s,  WNBC became WONS and eventually
    was acquired by Merv Griffin.  In 1946, WEAF changed its call letters to
    the then-available WNBC.  My question: can anybody shed any light on
    exactly what happened ehere, and how?  Did the network apply any
    pressure to its New Britain affiliate to change call letters so that it
    could adopt the old ones?  What (if anything ) did WONS stand for?  And
    didn't all of this take place roughly around the time that WABC in New
    York became WCBS and WJZ became WABC?  I'd love to learn more.

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

    Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 09:39:21 -0500
    From: <otrbuff@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  The elusive Those We Love

    Stephen Jansen writes ...

>     "Those We
>     Love", which ran from 1938 to 1945.  There is next to no information on this
>     series that I can find, other than the listing in Hickerson's Guide, and a
>     singe paragraph in Jim Cox's "Great Radio Soap Operas"

    Ah! but by the time I penned a subsequent volume, "Historical Dictionary of
    American Radio Soap Operas" (Scarecrow Press, 2005), I had discovered enough
    to essentially fill a page on this obscure series!  So there is more detail
    available now than there was in the 1990s.

    Jim Cox

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

    Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 12:03:38 -0500
    From: Andrew Steinberg <otrdig2@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  We Hold These Truths
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    I believe there were two broadcasts of this show with different casts. The
    West Coast broadcast is the more famous one, but there is an AFRS recording
    of another broadcast of We Hold These Truths with a different cast including
    Jackson Beck and Mason Adams. Does anyone know the date of that broadcast?

      *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
      ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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    Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 17:44:41 -0500
    From: jack and cathy french <otrpiano@[removed];
    To: OTRBB <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  TV to Radio:  Sub-Total

    Well, as I predicted, it's going along well.  I started by
    identifying HOWDY DOODY as one of the eight TV shows that resulted in
    a radio series.

    Jim Bourg jumped in next with HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL.

    Anthony Tollin added MY LITTLE MARGIE, TALES OF TOMORROW, and WILL
    BILL HICKOK.

    A. Joseph Ross revealed two more: TOM CORBETT SPACE CADET and SPACE
    PATROL, pointing out that the latter was a local TV show, then a
    radio show, then a network TV series. While all of this is true, I
    was not counting SPACE PATROL in the total of eight, since it's
    unlikely that many Digesters have the specific knowledge and research
    archives of Mr. Ross.  So we still need two more.

    A few other series were not counted in the original eight even though
    technically they would qualify. TWO FOR THE MONEY  began on TV on
    9-30-52 and a week later the radio version was on the air. MEET MR.
    MCNUTLEY (with Ray Milland) originated on TV on 9-17-53 at 8 PM and
    the radio version appeared an hour later on the same date. Obviously
    these shows were conceived as going to air in both media so I'm
    discounting them.

    So we're still missing two series. In the spirit of Christmas giving,
    I'll provide some clues to the remaining duo. One was a kids' western
    adventure and the other was a popular panel show.

    Jack French
    Editor: RADIO RECALL
    <[removed]>

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

    Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 22:04:52 -0500
    From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Declaration of War broadcasts from all networks
     exist

    Walden Hughes, my Sunday night partner on YesterdayUSA, asked:

>     does FDR's declaration of War speech on 12-8-41
>     exist from NBC, or CBS in collectors hands?
>     I know Mutual does.

    As we discussed on the air last night, I have the NBC as well as having, of
    course. both the CBS and Mutual broadcasts.  Some of you know that I did a 3
    1/2 hour broadcast on C-SPAN on the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in 1991
    playing the speech and the debate in the House that followed on both Mutual
    and CBS.  NBC went to the National Anthem and then to studio commentators.
    (Some of you might also remember that Walter Cronkite was embarrassed on the
    60th anniversary in 2001 when he did a broadcast on NPR's All Things
    Considered and opined incorrectly that his future network, CBS, had not
    broadcast the debate, only Mutual did.  NPR had to issue a correction, but
    did not mention that I had scooped them by ten years.)

    What is most exciting is that last week I received an e-mail from the nephew
    of Park Simmons, who was the reporter for CBS who kept the broadcast going
    during the House debate.  It had been a long-standing family story, and he
    and his family is delighted that it was known by others.  They had thought
    that nobody seemed to know about it.  My research had shown that Simmons was
    not accredited to either the House or Senate press galleries, and that
    possibly he had continued the broadcast because he had not known the rules
    that only Joint Sessions could be broadcast.  Fulton Lewis, Jr. over on
    Mutual, had specifically stated that he was defying the rule, until an
    allegedly armed guard made him stop.  Simmons stopped the broadcast the
    first time he was asked.  His nephew states that Simmons KNEW what he was
    doing.  He tried to stay out of sight, and he spoke very little in order not
    to call attention to what he was doing.  That's why we have more audio from
    the floor of the debate from CBS than Mutual while they were both on,
    because Lewis could not shut up!  The reason Simmons was doing the broadcast
    was because he was a White House correspondent.  The family has an
    autographed picture of FDR dedicated to "My friend Park Simmons."  Simmons
    is not well known because he had a debilitating illness which cut his career
    short.  He was 23 at the time of the broadcast, and while he lived a long
    life, he was out of broadcasting by the mid-1940s.  The family would love to
    have any other recordings of him.

    Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 22:36:10 -0500
    From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  12-4 births/deaths

    December 4th births

    12-04-1887 - Louise Ballman - d. 2-xx-1970
    violinist on experimental staation 5ACW Fort Smith, Arkansas
    12-04-1889 - Buck Jones - Vincennes, IN - d. 11-30-1942
    actor: "Hoofbeats"
    12-04-1889 - Isabel Randolph - Chicago, IL - d. 1-11-1973
    actor: Rhoda Harding "Dan Harding's Wife"; Mrs. Abigail Uppington
    "Fibber McGee and Molly"
    12-04-1897 - Doc Whipple - d. 2-28-1963
    orchestra leader: "Ma Perkins"; "The Mysterious Traveler"
    12-04-1903 - Cornell Woolrich - NYC - d. 9-25-1968
    writer: "Radio City Playhouse"; "Starring Boris Karloff"
    12-04-1910 - Mary Hunter - Bakersfield, CA - d. 11-16-2000
    actor: Marge "Easy Aces"; "Against the Storm"
    12-04-1914 - Morton Lawrence - Philadelphia, PA - d. 8-27-1967
    announcer, actor: "High Adventure"; "Quiet Please"
    12-04-1915 - Allan Jackson - Hot Springs, AR - d. 4-26-1976
    newscaster for the CBS network for 32 years
    12-04-1921 - Deanna Durbin - Winnipeg, Canada
    singer: "Eddie Cantor Show"
    12-04-1930 - Harvey Kuenn - West Allis, WI - d. 2-28-1988
    baseball great: "Tops in Sports"

    December 4th deaths

    01-13-1910 - Jack Mercer - d. 12-4-1984
    actor: Popeye "Popeye the Sailor"
    06-19-1917 - Robert Karnes - Kentucky - d. 12-4-1979
    announcer: Started his career in his native Kentucky
    06-20-1897 - Bob Howard - W. Newton, MA - d. 12-4-1986
    pianist-singer: "Calsodent Presents Bob Howard"; "Sing It Again"
    07-02-1910 - Jeff Alexander - Whidbey Island, WA - d. 12-4-1989
    conductor: "Amos 'n' Andy"; "Light Up Time"; "Tums Hollywood Theatre"
    08-04-1909 - Alan Kent - Chicago, IL - d. 12-4-1993
    announcer, emcee, writer: "Duffy's Tavern"; "Career of Alice Blair"
    08-13-1895 - Bert Lahr - NYC - d. 12-4-1967
    comedian: "Hildegarde's Raleigh Room"; "Manhattan at Midnight";
    "Royal Vagabonds"
    09-01-1887 - William Daly - Cincinnati, OH - d. 12-4-1936
    condctor: "Raleigh Review"; "Voice of Firestone"
    09-07-1903 - Margaret Landon - Somers, WI - d. 12-4-1993
    author: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    09-12-1916 - Ed Binns - Philadelphia, PA - d. 12-4-1990
    actor: "This Is My Story"
    10-08-1897 - Rouben Mamoulian - Tiflis, Georgia, Russia - d. 12-4-1987
    film director: "Theatre Guild On the Air"
    11-22-1913 - Benjamin Britten - Lowestoft, Suffolk, England - d.
    12-4-1976
    composer: "Columbia Workshop"; "An American in England"
    11-23-1894 - Rosetta Duncan - Los Angeles, CA - d. 12-4-1959
    singer: (Topsy and Eva) "Wireless Vaudeville"

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

    Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 00:45:24 -0500
    From: "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Bob Smith on WEAF/WNBC

>     Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2007 21:02:31 -0500
>     From: Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed];

>     Actually, Bob Smith began as the morning man at WEAF about three
>     months before 6 November 1946 when it became WNBC. Picky point, sure,
>     but we all want the OTR Digest to be accurate in all its detail,
>     right?

    Right.  So I checked a few of my references, starting with Buffalo
    Bob's autobiobraphy, where he doesn's specify the date, but he does
    say that he came to New York on WEAF (I had 2 November as the date of
    the call letter change, but that doesn't really matter for this
    discussion).

    But it was some time after that when he began doing the Saturday
    morning kids' show "Triple-B Ranch," and I believe by then, it was
    WNBC.  The closest I can get right now to a date is an oblique
    reference to March 1947 in Dave Little's "The Official Howdy Doody
    Marionette Registry."

    Incidentally, according to Little, the "Elmer" character didn't quite
    originate on "Triple-B Ranch."  It originated when Bob Smith worked
    in Buffalo, where he once asked his production engineer to say hello
    to the radio audience.  Embarrassed, Eddie the engineer could only
    manage a yokle laugh, and that laugh inspired the country bumpkin
    Elmer character who appeared on Triple-B Ranch and evolved into Howdy
    Doody as we knew him.

    --
    A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                           [removed]
     92 State Street, Suite 700                   Fax [removed]
    Boston, MA 02109-2004           	         [removed]

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #340
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