Subject: [removed] Digest V2007 #305
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 10/26/2007 9:11 PM

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

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2007 : Issue 305
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Lost "Lights Out" recreation          [ StevenL751@[removed] ]
      Empire Builders' Armistice Day episo  [ "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed]; ]
      10-27 births/deaths                   [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 23:19:40 -0400
    From: StevenL751@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Lost "Lights Out" recreation

    For those of you who missed it at the Friends of  Old-Time Radio convention
    last Saturday, a recording of the Gotham Radio  Players' recreation of a lost
    1939 episode of LIGHTS OUT will be broadcast twice  on WBAI this coming week.
    The episode is called "Reunion", by [removed]  Persons, and it's a blood-curdling
    tale of violent death (and what comes  after).

    "Reunion" can be heard this coming Sunday between 7:00 and 9:00  PM on "The
    Golden Age of Radio",  and again on "The Moorish Orthodox Radio  Crusade" on
    Halloween morning (Tuesday/Wednesday overnight), October 31, at  midnight.
    (All
    times are Eastern).  If you're in the NYC area you can  tune us in at [removed]
    FM, and everywhere else you can hear us on your computers at  [removed].
    Both programs will then be available in WBAI's archive for 2  weeks for
    on-demand
    listening.

    I hope you'll tune in for our little  Halloween treat.  Don't forget to close
    your [removed] if you  dare!

    Steve Lewis
    director, Gotham Radio Players

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

    Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 18:47:05 -0400
    From: "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Empire Builders' Armistice Day episode

    Found a couple of newspaper clippings about the 1930 Armistice Day
    episode of "Empire Builders," which was actually broadcast on November
    10, the day before the holiday. It's one of the earliest surviving
    recordings of a network radio drama in circulation and features a
    script by Wyllis Cooper and sound effects by Fred Ibbett. The first
    clipping is from the November 10, 1930 The Capital Times (Madison,
    WI):

    ***
    EMPIRE BUILDERS

    A story of the first Armistice Day in France, by one who was there
    when it happened, will be dramatized in the Empire Builders episode to
    be heard from the NBC Chicago Studios tonight at 9:30. The author, W.
    O. Cooper, was with the A. E. F. and F. G. Ibbett, sound technician in
    charge of producing the wartime noises, was with the British Air
    forces on the Western Front at the close of the war. Many
    complications follow when the Old Timer, played by Harvey Hays, is
    mistaken for a German spy, and the end of the drama is packed with
    surprises and thrills.
    ***

    The second clipping appeared in the November 23, 1930 San Antonio
    Express:

    ***
    BATTLE EFFECTS IN THIS BROADCAST

    Probably the most complete sound effects equipment ever used in
    broadcasting, including battle effects in which two machine guns, a
    score of rifles, and several other actual instruments of warfare were
    used, were heard in the Armistice eve program of the Great Northern
    Railway's "Empire Builders" series, presented from the Chicago Studios
    of the NBC.

    Special equipment for the sound effects of this production alone cost
    almost a thousand dollars. In order to set the proper battle effects
    for the war-time story to be dramatized, two machine guns were mounted
    on the roof of the building outside the NBC studios, and fired volley
    upon volley of blank cartridges in order to feed the actual noise of
    the firing into the microphones. A squad of rifle and pistol men were
    present and rockets and flares of the type used during the war were
    discharged at intervals from the flat top of the Merchandise Mart.

    An all-male cast of 53 actors took part in the production, in addition
    to Josef Koestner's orchestra of 14 pieces. Other special equipment
    installed at great expense for this and other Empire Builders
    broadcasts, include two gigantic engine bells of the type actually in
    use on the Great Northern railway engines, a specially constructed
    apparatus 15 feet in height for the production of the noises of
    explosions and other loud noises, a regulation engine whistle, and
    many other innovations in the production of sound effects for radio
    broadcasting.

    The story, which was written by a member of an A. E. F. combat
    organization stationed on the Western Front at the conclusion of the
    war, had for its climax the first Armistice Day in France. Harvey
    Hays, as "The Old Timer," and Don Ameche, youthful juvenile lead,
    shared dramatic honors in the production.
    ***

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

    Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:00:41 -0400
    From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  10-27 births/deaths

    October 27th births

    10-27-1890 - Bob Becker - Terryville, SD - d. 8-10-1962
    commentator: "Fireside Chats About Dogs/Pet Parade"
    10-27-1896 - Eric Dressler - NYC - d. 8-xx-1978
    actor: "Scattergood Baines"; "Young Widdr Brown"
    10-27-1898 - Kathryn Cravens - Burkett, TX - d. 8-29-1991
    newscaster: "News Through a Woman's Eye"
    10-27-1898 - Richard Carroll - Cambridge, MA - d. 3-11-1959
    writer: "Shorty Bell"
    10-27-1901 - David Stone - Savannah, GA - d. 8-31-1995
    announcer: "Grand Ole Opry"
    10-27-1907 - Mignon Schreiber - Chicago, IL - d. unknown
    actor: Jennie Fox "Foxes of Flatbush", Mrs. Kransky "Guiding Light"
    10-27-1908 - Josephine Antoine - Boulder, CO - d. 10-30-1971
    singer: "Contented Hour"
    10-27-1910 - Jack Carson - Carmen, Canada - d. 1-2-1963
    comedian: "Jack Carson Show"; "New Sealtest Village Store"
    10-27-1911 - Leif Erickson - Alameda, CA - d. 1-29-1986
    actor: Richard Rhinelander III "My Friend Irma"
    10-27-1914 - Dylan Thomas - Uplands, Swansea, Wales - d. 11-9-1953
    writer: "Life of the Modern Poet"; "Modern Muse"
    10-27-1915 - Albert Albinger - d. 1-xx-1982
    newscaster: WKWK Wheeling, West Virginia
    10-27-1918 - Bill Ballance - Peoria, IL - d. 9-23-2004
    talk show host: "Feminine Forum"; "Bill Ballance Show"
    10-27-1918 - Teresa Wright - NYC - d. 3-6-2005
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    10-27-1920 - Nanette Fabray - San Diego, CA
    singer, actor: "Advs. of Ellery Queen"; "MGM Musical Comedy Theatre"
    10-27-1924 - Ruby Dee - Cleveland, OH
    actor: "Story of Ruby Valentine"; "Story Hour"
    10-27-1933 - Floyd Cramer - Samti, LA - d. 12-31-1997
    country pianist: "Country Music Time"; "Country Style [removed]"
    10-27-1939 - John Cleese - Weston-Super-Mare, England
    comedian: Basil Fawlty "Fawlty Towers"

    October 27th deaths

    01-01-1900 - Xavier Cugat - Tirona, Spain - d. 10-27-1990
    bandleader: (King of the Rhumba) "Camel Caravan"
    01-12-1894 - Georges Carpentier - Lens, France - d. 10-27-1975
    boxer: Dempsey vs. Carpentier first boxing match broadcast
    02-13-1917 - Clara Antonetti - d. 10-27-1995
    broadcaster on WTSA Brattleboro, Vermont
    03-05-1900 - Sam Hearn - Jersey City, NJ - d. 10-27-1964
    comedian: Schlepperman "Jack Benny Program, Glamour Manor"
    03-21-1919 - Lois Collier - Salley, SC - d. 10-27-1999
    actor: Carol Chandler "Dear John"
    04-22-1921 - Vivian Dandridge - Cleveland, OH - d. 10-27-1991
    writer: "The Beulah Show"
    05-11-1884 - Alma Gluck - Lasil, Romania - d. 10-27-1938
    opera singer: made on radio appearance in 1929
    05-26-1910 - Larry Rhine - San Francisco, CA - d. 10-27-2000
    writer: "Duffy's Tavern"
    05-29-1923 - Winifred Wolfe - San Francisco, CA - d. 10-27-1981
    writer: "Cloak and Dagger"
    08-26-1907 - Lester Lanin - Philadelphia, PA - d. 10-27-2004
    bandleader: "Lester Lanin and His Orchestra"; "Here's to Veterans"
    09-20-1911 - Frank De Vol - Moundsville, WV - d. 10-27-1999
    conductor: "Rudy Vallee Drene Show"; "Sealtest Village Store"; "Dinah
    Shore Show"
    09-23-1910 - Elliott Roosevelt - NYC - d. 10-27-1990
    commentary for the Mutual Network (Son of FDR) "Information Please"
    09-24-1929 - Alfred Hudgins - d. 10-27-2004
    disc jockey: "Blues in the Night"
    10-25-1891 - Father Charles Coughlin - Hamilton, Canada - d. 10-27-1979
    commentator, preacher: (The Radio Priest)
    10-29-1910 - Lew Parker - Brooklyn, NY - d. 10-27-1972
    actor: John Bickerson "The Bickersons" "Mennen Shave Time with Lew
    Parker"
    11-30-1914 - Charles Hawtrey - Hounslow, Middlesex, England - d.
    10-27-1988
    actor, comedian: Hubert Lane "Just William"
    12-01-1886 - Rex Stout - Noblesville, IN - d. 10-27-1975
    author: (Creator of Nero Wolfe) Debunker of Axis Propaganda "Our
    Secret Weapon"
    12-01-1911 - Randy Merriman - Minneapolis, MN - d. 10-27-2005
    actor: "Doctor [removed]"
    12-13-1912 - Herb Sheldon - Connecticut - d. 10-27-1964
    announcer, host: "Honeymoon in New York"; "Luncheon at the Latin
    Quarter"

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #305
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