------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2003 : Issue 463
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Shep's radio stories on DVD [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
Jack Benny Quote [ "George Tirebiter" <tirebiter2@hotm ]
A little more on romantic verbiage [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
good blank tapes? [ benohmart@[removed] ]
Captain Midnight's Equipment Address [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
Re: East coast broadcast vs. West co [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
Mutual Radio Theater [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
Re: Helen Kane on radio [ Vntager8io@[removed] ]
Re: Olvaltine [ Fred Berney <berney@[removed]; ]
A partial defense of e-bay [ Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed] ]
Ovaltine [ "Scott D. Livingston" <[removed]@comca ]
Re: Shep's "A Christmas Story" [ Ed Foster <erfoster@[removed]; ]
Gardner Kissack [ lynn wagar <philcolynn@[removed]; ]
Captain Midnight [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 17:56:22 -0500
From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Shep's radio stories on DVD
In the past there have been mentions of a few DVDs which have included OTR
as extra features. With all the discussions in the past week about Jean
Shepherd's decoder badge message story, I am now finally (belatedly)
getting around to what I meant to report two weeks ago. Last month Warner
Bros. issued a new 2-disc 20th Anniversary version of "The Christmas Story"
DVD, and the publicity mentioned that there were original Jean Shepherd
radio broadcasts included as extra features. Although the old single-disc
version was EVERYWHERE last year--and now I'm glad that I didn't succumb to
the urge to buy it last year--for some strange reason this year the new
2-disc set was NOWHERE to be seen. The fact that nobody else has reported
on this set seems to show how rare it was. My daughter Leah didn't even
see it in stores in New York City! I finally snagged the second copy I
saw all season, the only copy in our local Wal-Mart here in Kentucky.
At first glance at the box credits there seems to be some effort being made
to downplay Jean Shepherds role in creating this film. To all of us, he is
THE creator of this film. But at first it seems that MGM is trying to give
that to director and co-producer Bob Clark. The film credits list the
authors as "Jean Shepherd & Leigh Brown & Bob Clark" and also cites "Based
on the novel 'In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash' by Jean Shepherd", but
the box credits the extra feature "Radio Readings by Jean Shepherd" as
merely being by "the Beloved Narrator" of the film, not the creator or
co-writer. To make matters worse, his name is not mentioned once in one of
the other extra features "Another Christmas Story" about the making of the
film. But this first impression from the box and featurette is definately
not true. Bob Clark in his commentary track gives Shepherd enormous credit
right away and continually throughout it.
He states, "Shepherd's work is so edgy, it's got so much warm hearted
synicism in it. . . . Although I co-wrote the script, it substantially
comes from Shepherd's work as he created it originally. . . . It's stories
from all his books, and stories that were never written, from his college
tours. . . . There's so much truth that Shepherd caught, he was writing
based on what he lived, with a pecular Shepherd spin. . . . I first got
turned on to Shepherd in Miami around 1968 when I was driving . . . to pick
up a date and heard him start to tell the tounge story. I said This is
wonderful, I'd never heard of him. I've got to hear this, I'll just drive
around the block. Well, he took 40 minutes to tell that story. I finally
picked up a very irate date who didn't give a crapola who Jean Shepherd
was. And I determined at that time that I would do a movie of that man's
work." There are many other tributes to Shepherd in the narration and I
URGE you all to find this 2-disc set. Clark said "I contirbuted so little,
it is all from his work" but he does admit that there is one extremely
memorable line that he did contribute, he made it up on the spot. It is
the Italian pronunciation of Fragile as fra--giel'--lee. That wasn't Shep.
Clark also does mention how obssessive Shep was of his stories and how he
eventually was asked to go home for a while during the filming. He also
mentions that this trait also, unfortunately, lost him the chance to be the
narrator of the TV series "The Wonder Years."
But now for the all important scene of controversy. You will first be
surprised that the closed caption calls it a "Secret Decoder Pen" not Pin.
You will also be surprised that they say very little while the scene is on,
and nothing about it being untrue. What Clark does say is "This is a
famous scene that has been brought to my attention many many times. This
scene. The payoff." And Peter Billingsly says "It works because, as we
were talking about, it walks that line that nobody's really sending in an
act." (I really can't quite make out what he says at the end of that
sentence. Can anybody figure it out?) To it Clark replies "No, not a
word." As the message is decoded and he says it is "a crummy commercial",
the payoff that Clark and Billingsly are really discussing is where Ralphie
next says under his breath "Son of a bitch" to which they say "That brings
the house down. It is just amazing the response to that." So they reveal
nothing about the message.
Looking at the picture, I can reveal that there were at least two different
sheets of paper where the code numbers were written. On one of the sheets
he writes the second letter as capitol E, on the other he uses a small e.
On the sheet with E the third number on the bottom line is clearly 18 but
on the e sheet it is 8 in the first two closeups but has been changed to 18
for the final shot--the 1 before the 8 is clearly darker than the other
numbers. But there definately are five rows of five numbers, 25 in all,
which will match the number of letters in BE SURE TO DRINK YOUR OVALTINE,
and from what numbers I have been able to match, the message does match up.
written on the pad seems to be:
12 11 2 3 25
11 4 24 16 25
18 23 21 6 24
3 25 24 5 9
19 4 18 (8) 23 11
Pierre Andre had told the kids to set the pin to B-2, but it seems that it
is set to B-12 in the picture. While the numbers start out correctly,
12,11,2 they are somewhat wrong according to the captions that show next
25,14,11,18, then 16,23, under Sheps narration I hear then 12, 23, 21, and
it ends with 3, 25. Has anybody asked Pierre Andre (or does somebody know)
if he had recorded the announcing himself for the film? No credits are
given either for a recording or an announcer.
On the decoder badge close ups we can see the following combinations:
1=Q, 2=S, 3=U,4=T, 5-V, 6=Y, 7=Z, 8=X, 9=A, 10=C, 11=E, 12=B, 13=G, 14=H,
20=M, 21=K, 22=W, 23=N, 24=O, 25=R, 26=P
Apparently 18=I, so if they had left that bottom middle number as 8, it
would have come out as an X in those places!! They had to correct their
mistake when they caught it, but it was too late for the first two shots.
When they come to the Santa scene where Jean Shepherd himself has a cameo
part as the bearded man who tells the boys that the line starts over there,
they point his cameo role out and then Clark surprisingly says "I don't
think that most people caught the fact that the voice was the same [as the
narrator]." Is he kidding? EVERYBODY knows that this is Shep! But one
thing they don't mention is that some (but not all) of the voice of Santa
is also Shep. Isn't it? Some of the Ho Ho Ho's, and "You'll shoot your
eye out, kid" is Shep, isn't it? They don't tell us.
Now, for the Shepherd broadcast recordings on the special feature disc.
There are only two. There is a picture of a radio and you can tune it to
the left or the right to get the recordings. In neither case does the dial
stop at 710 where it should be to get WOR. The first recording is at about
760 and is the Flick's Tongue story. The other recording is at around 1190
on the dial and is Shep's reading of the first chapter of "In God We Trust"
(which is the main story of the film) titled "Dual in the Snow, or Red
Ryder Nails the Cleveland Street Kid." He mentions that this story
originally appeared in Playboy. Both of these recordings are of relatively
poor quality, and sound like they are airchecks off the AM transmitter
recorded at a slight distance from transmitter. Perhaps Max Schmid can
tell us the source (him??) and the dates. But if you were hoping to get
numerous high fidelity recordings of Shep, this will be a disappointment.
I should also add that Shep is a MUCH better adlibber than a reader. His
reading from the book does not have the life that his broadcasts usually
had. But the other recording is typical Shep at his best--and he even
mentions my home town of Teaneck, New Jersey!
Michael Biel mbiel@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 17:57:09 -0500
From: "George Tirebiter" <tirebiter2@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Jack Benny Quote
Steve Lewis wrote:
In the New York Times book review section today, in a review of a new
biography of Sammy Davis, Jr., the following quote appears:
Jack Benny once got a big laugh on radio when he asked Bing Crosby, who had
complained that a country club didn't admit actors, "How would you like to
be an actor and a Jew?"
and asked if anyone knows the source of this quote.
I saw that review too and I was wondering about it, especially as
entertainment programs on radio and TV generally avoided the subject of
racial and religious discrimination altogether, at least in comedy, until
the 1960s. I remember an I LOVE LUCY in which the Ricardos were blackballed
from a country club (or some social organization) because Ricky was "in show
business". It might have been a tad more realistic if the fact that he was
Hispanic had also been mentioned in this context.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 18:41:10 -0500
From: JackBenny@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: A little more on romantic verbiage
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In sorting through my 78rpm albums last night, I found a Mary Martin
collection that featured "My Heart Belongs to Daddy". I then was singing the
lyrics
in my head, and remembered the lines:
"While other dames at football games
May long for a strong undergraddie
I never dream of making the team
For my heart belongs to Daddy."
At some point over the years I became aware that "making the team" was a
rather deft and daring double-entendre, borrowing from the expression of
"making
it [with a girl]" meaning "scoring" or intercourse. So figured I'd contribute
that to the ongoing discussion of the evolution of romantically-inclined
[removed]
--LL
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------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 18:41:40 -0500
From: benohmart@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: good blank tapes?
Can anyone suggest where (online probably) to get bulk, Quality blank tapes? I picked
up a bunch of 3-packs at the dollar store, but find that they record the last 5+ minutes
on each side in a sped up way that really makes them worthless. I also tried some
unlabeled white 64 minute tapes which I got by the box online (I forget where), but 1 out
of 10 or so don't want to record.
Thanks for the help.
Ben Ohmart
The Paul Frees biography
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 18:56:07 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Captain Midnight's Equipment Address
Bob Coppedge asks, anent sending for Captain Midnight Code-O-Graphs,
Did the address to send the seal end with ---- Chicago 77, Illinois?
Through 1949, the address to send for the premiums was,
Captain Midnight
Chicago, Illinois
I suspect that other premiums originated from the Chicago, area, though.
Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 19:36:30 -0500
From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: East coast broadcast vs. West coast
broadcast
Andrew Steinberg asked "When a show like Jack Benny put on an East Coast
broadcast and then later the same day a West Coast broadcast, would they
use a new audience for the second broadcast?" I would certainly hope so.
It would be tough enough to get them to laugh at the same jokes again, but
think of trying to do that after making them wait around for 2 to 2 1/2
hours!!!! Seriously, it was sometimes a problem for the New York programs
to get a quality audience for the repeat programs because they sometimes
started at midnight. I seem to recall Fred Allen having some comments
about this situation. Currently, TV game shows often tape a full week's
shows in one day using two audiences, one for three shows and another for
two, and sometimes the audiences get a little restless despite the shows
being different.
Michael Biel mbiel@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 20:01:22 -0500
From: <otrbuff@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Mutual Radio Theater
William D. Clark inquires about the history of the Mutual Radio Theater.
On February 5, 1979, CBS launched a 55-minute five-times-a-week Sears Radio
Theater broadcasting original dramas through August 3. It was produced by
Elliott Lewis with music supplied by Nelson Riddle's orchestra. Each night
a different host introduced a specific diversion: Monday, Lorne Greene with
a western; Tuesday, Andy Griffith with comedy; Wednesday, Vincent Price with
melodrama; Thursday, Cicely Tyson with a love and hate drama; Friday,
Richard Widmark with adventure. Repeats were aired from August 6 through
February 11, 1980. At that juncture the series transferred to MBS, becoming
the Mutual Radio Theater and ran from February 14 through December 19, 1980.
It was a weeknight 55-minute anthology throughout the run.
--from Say Goodnight, Gracie: The Last Years of Network Radio (McFarland,
2002, p. 169)
Jim Cox
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 21:10:52 -0500
From: Vntager8io@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Helen Kane on radio
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I don't know of any surviving radio appearances, but Helen Kane and Mae
Questal (voice of Betty Boop) both made a number of records for Victor in the
1920s
and early 1930s. All of Helen Kane's recordings have been reissued on a CD
put out by Robert Parker in Australia (unfortunately adding his cheesy stereo
effect to them). I don't know of any CD's of Mae Questal's records.
Hope this helps!
Bryan Wright
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------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 21:11:09 -0500
From: Fred Berney <berney@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Olvaltine
I probably misspelled it, but I use to like it. Now the powdery stuff they
put out today, but the real Olvaltine. The crystals that you could crunch.
They took forever to dissolve, but it was a good tasting drink. I can still
drink a glass today, but it is not the same.
Kind of like Shreaded Wheat, I mean Wheat Chex. When it was Shreaded Wheat,
it had a much better texture. Then they came out with Rice Chex and someone
believed that they had to make the Wheat Chex look like Rice Chex.
Or remember when Grape Nuts was so crunchy that you could almost break your
teeth on it. Now you probably don't even need teeth to eat it.
Fred
[removed]
for old time movie serials, TV shows, and radio shows.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 21:12:02 -0500
From: Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: A partial defense of e-bay
Not to get everyone all riled up but as someone who uses [removed] auctions
to clear out backstock in the family book collection there is a point to the
auction in question that was selling liner notes for $[removed]
There is a certain point below which I won't sell books ($5) because it
isn't worth the trouble to collect the money and mail the book. For that
seller, apparently that price is $[removed]
If you don't like it - don't bid. I agree that $[removed] for liner notes would
be a silly price to pay when the whole set with the tapes can generally be
had for $[removed] or $[removed] at Costco. If I don't get bids for my books at $5,
after 60 days I throw them out.
Charlie and I have already had our debate about whether it's appropriate to
sell stuff on e-bay that you download from newsgroups. I'm in favor -- if I
have money to spend but no time to worry about going to the newsgroups and
downloading the files, isn't paying someone who has the time to do the
downloading a good investment?
I own an iron and I know how to iron shirts. I send them out because I
don't like to do it. Seems to me it's the same principle.
HOWEVER, anyone who does buy on e-bay also has to accept that the
collections they get will not in many cases be packaged with the same loving
care of the best among us. There will be shows that are incomplete,
unlistenable, incorrectly labeled and so on. Caveat emptor and if you want
something done right, do it yourself.
This is one of those topics like copyrights and the racial politics of Amos
'N Andy where everyone should only be allowed to post on it once every five
or six years to keep the list from getting stale (Charlie - maybe you should
write that into the software) but it is fair to say there are opinions on
both sides of the issue and reasonable people can disagree.
Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 00:32:39 -0500
From: "Scott D. Livingston" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Ovaltine
Rick Selvin notes,
terribly AWFUL Ovaltine tasted. Of course, as the counselor knows, this
is simply a free-speech opinion -- and one I happen to share. It may have
been and still be a perfectly good-tasting and wholesome product. (End of
disclaimer.)
I personally have always loved the taste of Ovaltine. In fact I still have a
glass of it in the morning while my wife prefers Carnation Instant
Breakfast. We compared labels once and actually found very little
difference. Another thing interesting to note: The more things change, the
more they stay the same! There has been considerable discussion of the early
Ovaltine in tin cans and then changing over to glass jars following WWII.
Well, I buy my Ovaltine today in - yep - you guessed it - tin cans. You've
gotta love progress!
Scott (Fibber) Livingston
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 00:41:23 -0500
From: Ed Foster <erfoster@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Shep's "A Christmas Story"
One should remember that "A Christmas Story" was made up of quite a
few separate Shep short stories, some of which had absolutely nothing
to do with Christmas, the Bumpkis's dogs, for example. Anyway it
would be worthwhile (re)reading the original stories to see how they
were originally set and then appreciate how well they were integrated
into a pretty coherent story in "A Christmas Story".
--
Ed Foster
erfoster@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 00:44:46 -0500
From: lynn wagar <philcolynn@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Gardner Kissack
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I would like to get in contact with Gardner Kissack. I know he lives in
Chicago Heights,
IL and was wonder if he is on line and if any one out there has his e-mail
address? I would be happy with a phone number if he's not on line. If any
one can help me out
please contact me via e-mail. My many thanks in advance for your kindness!!
Lynn Wagar
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 00:45:28 -0500
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Captain Midnight
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2003 13:09:54 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
His description in that book of rescuing Chuck, Joyce, and Major
Steele from the clutches of The Barracuda, he had the hero flying, "the
*Sky King*, the plane of Captain Midnight." Certainly during the Secret
Squadron years, Captain Midnight did not use his personal airplane (the
Squadron was a paramilitary organization covertly funded by the [removed]
Government, and received Government-supplied aircraft).
That doesn't seem at all inconsistent. Given that the government provided the plane, there
might still have been one plane which Captain Midnight always used. I don't know about the
radio version, but on television, the plane Captain Midnight used was the "Silver Dart," a jet
aircraft. The financing of the Secret Squadron was never revealed on the TV version, but the
Silver Dart could have easily been either government property or Captain Midnight's personal
property.
The de facto
single-place aircraft of the Squadron was a variant of the Curtiss P-40,
according to the pictures on the manuals (save for the Lockheed P-80
variant on the 1949 manual and the bomber -- possibly a B-25 -- on the
1945 manual).
How so? This WAS a radio show. I would have thought the aircraft of the Secret Squadron
would have consisted of sound effects devices. The TV version did have a credit as to the
ownership of the Silver Dart. It was owned by Douglass Aircraft, I think. The pictures were
mainly a few stock shots of the plane in flight or taking off. The cockpit interior scenes were
probably a set.
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2003 14:16:27 -0500
From: RickEditor@[removed]
My milk-flavorings of choice were Bosco and an ingenious product
called Flav-R-Straws (or some spelling variant of same).
I remember when those came out. We tried them and didn't like them. It didn't seem to me
that you could get much flavor out of one, and, on the other hand, there was probably still a
lot of wasted flavor in the straw after you finished the milk. We didn't keep getting them.
The version of the Bosco song that we sang went:
"I hate Bosco, it's full of T-N-T,
Mama puts it in my milk to try and blow-up me!
But I fooled Mama, I put it in her tea.
Now there's no more Mama to try and blow-up me!
--
A. Joseph Ross, [removed] [removed]
15 Court Square, Suite 210
lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2503
[removed]
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #463
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