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

      Please Read Information Boilerplate at the End of This Digest
                          Last Updated 10-28-96

[removed] Digest				Volume 96 : Issue 445

Table Of Contents: 

	 You Must Remember [removed]
	 Burns/Allen and the Sugar Bowl
	 Dumb sidekicks
	 Re: Jack Webb
	 War Effort
	 Mr. Keene, Tracer Of Missing Persons
	 Death Shall Not Release Thee . . . .
	 I beg to contend: Pat Novak; Jack Webb
	 OTR on SW
	 Reminisce

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

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 08:37:20 -0700
From: Chet Cox <CHCOX@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: You Must Remember [removed]
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Dick Lupoff sez:  
<<<I was just listening to the Lux Radio Theater production of
"Casablanca."  This version of the film has a rather startling cast -- Alan
Ladd as Rick (not Bogie), Hedy Lamarr as Ilsa (not Ingrid Bergman), John
Loder as Victor Laszlo (not Paul Henreid). I was curious about this and
checked some other materials and found that there was another OTR
version, produced by The Screen Guild Players, with Bogie and Bergie.
Which leads me to wonder, How many different OTR versions of
"Casablanca" were there? And how did this come about? My wife
theorized that that Bogie & Co. were tied up by studio contracts and
couldn't do the Lux version, but in fact Bogie did a good many shows for
Lux -- just not "Casablanca.">>

I have the Screen Guild Players version, and haven't seen a hint of any
further versions.  I prefer the Screen Guild version, right down to the
inevitable, perfect tag line of the start of a beautiful friendship.  Only
having the complete song "As Time Goes By" could improve it.  And
there's something to be said for hearing Ingrid Bergman hawking Lady
Astor Chicken Fat (or whatever that grease was).

<<<Similar question might arise, regarding "The Maltese Falcon." How
many different productions were there? Did Bogie play Sam Spade in
any of them?   Who else played Spade?>>

Ed G. Robinson played Sam in a surprisingly good Lux (I think) version. 
Guess Bogie didn't have the star appeal to draw listeners in.  Lux was, if
I read history rightly, a program to induce listeners to go to the movies
and see what they just heard.  Hard for us TV generation kids to
understand, but it evidently worked.  ([removed] not be so hard to
understand after all.  Instead of just watching reruns, how many people
flocked to the Brady movies, paid to see the Flintstones and the Addams
Family movies, waited in line for Batman and Superman movies, and
stayed away from "Car 54, Where Are You?"?)

Bogart played Sam at least twice:  Once for Screen Guild's "Maltese
Falcon" and once for Academy Award Theatre's version.  I've heard a
clip from yet a third version (in which Sam introduces the story and
invites us to listen) but don't know where it's from.

Howard Duff played Sam in a Suspense (?) show I have at home.  The
title slips my mind, but it seems to have included Sidney Greenstreet
again -- and it was an honest-to-Mergatroid SEQUEL to *the Maltese
Falcon*.  This time, Gutman and Company (without Wilmer, who seems to
have somehow been mistaken for Gutman when shot and killed in *tMF*)
are after yet another artifact.  They never [removed]

Myself, I'd love to find copies of the OTHER versions of *tMF* -- Were the
1931 version or the later *Satan Met a Lady* ever adapted to OTR?
*jeep!
~~~~Chet
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quote of the day:  "It is not a difficult thing to live in a log hut if you have
never had anything better, but it is a difficult thing to drop to a log house
when you have been living in a castle."  --J. Golden Kimball

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

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 96 08:36:47 PST
From: Richard McCracken <mcracken@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Burns/Allen and the Sugar Bowl
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

In Digest #440, Amy asked about a Burns and Allen episode about money and a
sugar bowl.  Just heard a Burns and Allen episode from KNX Los Angeles about
Rose Bowl football tickets that George kept buying and selling, with Gracie
in the loop and finally hiding the tickets in the sugar bowl.  Uncle John
finds them and sells them to someone I believe.  Sheldon Leonard was in that
one scalping the tickets.

While on the subject of Uncle John, I am curious to know who plays Uncle
John?  At times he sounds somewhat like Howard McNear (sp?) (Doc on
Gunsmoke) whom  I heard on some other show with a few of the same voice
inflections.

Dick

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

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 12:18:49 -0500
From: Robert Kirk <kirk@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Dumb sidekicks
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>From: John Henley <jhenley@[removed]>
>To: otr@[removed]
>Subject: Barry Craig, Confidential Investigator
>Message-Id: <m0vPV1P-000k8cC@[removed]>
>
>Dick Lochte said re OTR eyes:
>>I love 'em all -- Marlowe, Spade, Diamond, Shayne, Rogue, Regan -- with
>>one exception.  One of the last private eye series that starred William
>>Gargan -- was it Barry Craig? -- sounds as if they were trying to
>>stretch a fifteen minute episode into a half hour.  Everybody, including
>>Gargan who was otherwise a terrific radio and tv presence, talks as if
>>they're a ... little ... stoned. 
>
>Just to keep things lively, I'll pop in to say that I love most of the OTR
>private dicks, and that goes for Barry Craig too.  I don't hear the
>slowness that Dick says he hears, and there's plenty of hardboiled
>atmosphere.  I even like the music - and it's some of the earliest work of
>the estimable announcer, Don Pardo.  
>I will concede, though, that others agree with Dick - namely series creator
>Himan Brown (what, him again?), who, in an NPR interview I remember from a
>decade or so ago, said that he'd only recently heard Barry Craig again, and
>felt it was pretty much crap.  Oh well.
>(If any private-eye series approaches that appellation, I'd vote for Mr.
>Keen.  Why would anybody of the slightest intelligence want to keep a goon
>like Mike Clancy around? ;^) )
>
>John Henley
>jhenley@[removed]
>ph  (512) 495-4112
>fax (512) 495-4296
>

John Henly wondered: 

> Oh well.
>(If any private-eye series approaches that appellation [crap] , I'd vote
for Mr.
>Keen.  Why would anybody of the slightest intelligence want to keep a goon
>like Mike Clancy around? ;^) )

I've always thought that a dumb sidekick was necessary on any show that
featured an Omnipotent Hero - and they all were, of course. Otherwise, any
show with an OH would never be longer than the 5 minutes it would take
for the genius to solve the crime. A Loveable Foil friend of the hero
was needed to screw things up and bumble around enough to make the OH
take 28 minutes to properly solve the crime. You just couldn't have the OH
screwing things up and bumbling; it just isn't done. Just think of the
marvelous scrapes the OH's bailed out for these LF's:
  dumb cops
Mike Clancy
Steve Axin
   racial stereotype retainers
Pancho
Wash
   beautiful frails
Margo Lane
Lois Lane

Besides, I Iiked Mr Keen.  Hard to think of a show with a better theme song
than (Noel Coward's?) "Someday I'll Find You.

As a matter of fact, Dragnet had a great theme, too. Which reminds me,
I wonder what Dick Lupoff found so fascistic about Joe Friday, that mildest
of minions of justice. I can't imagine Joe kicking a confession out of a perp'
like a Marlowe, Spade, Diamond, Shayne, Rogue, Regan. And pompous?
Never. A little stuffy maybe, but never arrogant or egotistical.

Cheers,
Bob Kirk

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

Date: Tue, 19 Nov 1996 00:40:08 +0000
From: "George S. Cole" <gscole@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Jack Webb
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Let me take this opportunity to second the idea that Jeff Reagan was a 
truly great detective show, and represented one of Jack Webb's finest 
series. The non-Dragnet Jack Webb series -- Jeff Reagan, Pat Novak, 
Johnny Madero, and Pete Kelly's Blues -- were the most cynical and 
downbeat stuff ever heard on radio. I think this nest of vipers 
material can be accurately classified as "Radio Noir", since it so 
closely resembles the "Film Noir" style.  

BTW, Tudor Owen --who played Pat's liquor-loving confidant and "only 
honest guy I know" on Pat Novak -- played the same role on Pete 
Kelley's Blues. On that show he was an ex-bootlegger who had quit 
because he had been drinking too much of his own product. Mr. Owen's 
lengthy monologues about life's cruelties and ironies on both shows 
never failed to impress.

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

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 96 11:05 PST
From: lois@[removed] (Lois Culver)
To: [removed]@[removed],
Subject: War Effort
Message-Id: <m0vPZ0I-00080CC@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

.....and who closed every show with "Bye, Bye - Buy Bonds!" ?

Lois Culver

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

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 14:03:05 -0500
From: charlie <scharlie@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Mr. Keene, Tracer Of Missing Persons
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

It's pretty obvious why Mr. Keene, that officious, pompous, and yes,
fascistic old fart, kept Mike Clancy [removed] keep from getting the
living bejeezus beat out of him.  Listen to the "Shrieking Prisoner Murder
Case" and you'll realize without Clancy, Keene would have been cemented up
in someone's basement.
By the way, no way is Sam Spade a better show than Philip Marlowe.  And Bob
Bailey's Johnny Dollar is better than both of them.
Of course, I could be mistaken.
Nah.

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

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 14:50:23 -0500
From: Bigkids@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Death Shall Not Release Thee . . . .
Message-ID: <961118144703_2014285343@[removed]>

Joseph Ross and other have commented on the resurrection ot various
celebrities to hawk assorted products on radio and TV. Add to the list of
screen personalities whoseimages have been morphed in to TV commercials, John
Wayne and Jack Webb. These vignettes include audio as well -- sound bytes
lifted from old fits and made to fit into dialog with other actors.

And then there are the Vince Lombardi commercials, in which the onetime Green
Bay Packers coach is *not* morphed into the scenes, but instead is
impersonated (brilliantly) by Jerry Stiller. And a few years ago there were a
series of windshield wiper commercials feature Laurel & Hardy imitators.

This is all a lot of fun, but at the same time I'm just a wee bit uneasy.
What if the estate of Deceased Celebrity X sells the use of his/her image to
promote a product of which Celebrity X would never have approved? Is the next
step having John Wayne endorse Republicans for Congress, and Bogie endorse
Democrats?

Maybe the other way around, if the cash-flow is right?  Oh, n-o-o-o-o-o ! ! !
! !

Hmmm.

I'm not dead set against this practice, but the more I think about it the
more uneasy I get.

Comments?

Dick Lupoff

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

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 96 16:04 CST
From: John Henley <jhenley@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: I beg to contend: Pat Novak; Jack Webb
Message-Id: <m0vPbnP-000kCYC@[removed]>

Recently, the early series starring Jack Webb, Pat Novak For Hire, has been
cited by numerous people as either an old or new favorite, all centering on
the metaphor-laden dialogue and Webb's delivery of it.

Again, just to keep things lively:  I disagree.  I have heard several
episodes of Novak, and while there's nothing wrong with Webb's delivery -
it's fine - I think the show is just overwritten all to hell.  It comes
across to me as a parody of the Chandler school of writing - Chandler was
dandy with those metaphors, but he would never have dared to use one or
more _per sentence_, as it seems is the case on Novak.  It's just too much.
Another show that I think suffers from overwriting is Broadway Is My Beat,
which _always_ begins and ends with a present-tense poetic description of
New York at night, and which features too many characters who talk too much
without seeming to have many brains.  I really want to like the show more,
since it's mostly the work of Elliott Lewis, who was just bursting with
talent & is one of my favorites - but BIMB is too self-consciously poetic.

I also feel a bit lonely in my admiration for Jack Webb.  I think this man
is severly underrated.  Granted, his politics did come across as awfully
right-wing, yet I have to ask: how much of that was Webb, and how much was
it Webb playing to what he thought was his best audience?  
Also granted: much of the work he produced is strictly a matter of taste -
but isn't everything?
At any rate, consider:  actor, writer, director, producer in radio AND
films AND television; one of the earliest multimedia performers to control
all aspects of his work - a true "auteur"; one of the first television
directors to fully understand how one could produce effective programming
economically; and on a personal level - a jazz connoisseur and night owl,
married for a time to one of the great vocal stylists (Julie London) and a
sufficiently generous soul as to give work to both his ex-wife and her
current husband on one of his shows (Emergency).  And as I recall Harry
Morgan saying on the occasion of Webb's death, he had a heck of a sense of
humor, he just didn't use it much in the characters he liked to play.  I
think it's notable that most of the members of his stock company - among
them Harry Morgan, Virginia Gregg, Olan Soule, Vic Perrin - stuck with him
for years, right into the last Dragnet TV series.  
All that, and one of the great radio voices.  In fact, I think Webb all
around was one of the great radio talents.  
   
John Henley
jhenley@[removed]
ph  (512) 495-4112
fax (512) 495-4296

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

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 22:45:26 GMT
From: lgenco@[removed] (Lou Genco)
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: OTR on SW
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

=46olks who can't get good OTR reception on their AM or FM radios might
want to try short wave.  WWCR has the following program note for
Sundays:

WWCR-1
0700       News/Golden Age Of Radio                 USA Radio Network

WWCR-3
1000    News/Golden Age Of Radio                 USA Radio News
2100    News/Golden Age Of Radio                 USA Radio Network

Unfortunately, the program notes are for -last year-.

To see WWCR's entire list of programs and frequencies, point your
browser at:  [removed]



Lou
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE WWW site for "Old Time Radio":               [removed]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 18:24:12 EST
From: jjyellen@[removed] (James J Yellen)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Reminisce
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

My father (age 82) receives a magazine called Reminisce which he passes
on to me. It's full of nostalgic articles on many topics.

It contains a feature called "My Favorite Radio Program" wherein readers
write short letters about their favorite radio shows. The latest edition
of the magazine contains a letter from a man in Virginia who remembers a
show called "Captain Tim Healy's Stamp Club." The man says, "Captain Tim
had a 15-minute radio show three times a week, during which he'd tell
fascinating stamp and spy stories and encourage the formation of local
stamp clubs. For two Ivory Soap wrappers and 10 cents, Captain Tim would
send you the 132-page Ivory Stamp Album. For an additional four wrappers
and 10 cents, he'd send you three packets of stamps."

Another reader from Wisconsin say her favorite was a  show called "Billie
the Brownie." She writes that it came on about a month before Christmas.
"A couple of times a week was story night, and if we children all were
good, the 'big book' would open and we'd hear a [removed] day Mom
bought me a small Billie the Brownie doll."

I've never heard of either of these shows. Does anyone know anything
about them, or even remember them?



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--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #445
*******************************************

