Subject: [removed] Digest V2009 #217
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 11/15/2009 8:58 AM
To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to:
[removed]@[removed]

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2009 : Issue 217
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  11-13 births/deaths                   [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  "War Of The Worlds" Version Two! or   [ Larry Groebe <lgroebe@genericradio. ]
  11-14 births/deaths                   [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  Re: This Is Your Life                 [ "Bill Jaker" <bilj@[removed]; ]
  This week in radio history 15-21 Nov  [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  FOTR Guest on the [removed]             [ charlie@[removed] ]

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

Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:09:24 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  11-13 births/deaths

November 13th births

11-13-1850 - Robert Louis Stevenson - Edinburgh, Scotland - d. 12-3-1894
author: Several of his works adapted for radio
11-13-1886 - Frederick B. Bate - Chicago, IL - d. 12-25-1970
newscaster: "NBC News"
11-13-1903 - Conrad Thibault - Northbridge, MA - d. 8-10-1983
singer: "Show Boat"; "Packard Hour"; "Manhattan Merry-Go-Round"
11-13-1913 - Alexander Scourby - Brooklyn, NY - d. 2-23-1985
actor: Herbert Temple "Young Widder Brown"; Philip Cameron "Against
the Storm"
11-13-1913 - Blue Lu Barker - New Orleans, LA - d. 5-7-1998
singer: "This Is Jazz"
11-13-1913 - Helen Mack - Rock Island, IL - d. 8-13-1986
producer, director: "Beulah Show"; "Affairs of Ann Scotland"
11-13-1917 - Robert Sterling - Newcastle, PA - d. 5-30-2006
actor: Michael Shayne "Michael Shayne"
11-13-1919 - Edvige Cere - Turin, Italy - d. 11-13-2005
composer, accordionist
11-13-1922 - Jack Narz - Louisville, KY - d. 10-15-2008
announcer: "Meet Corliss Archer"; "Tenneessee Ernie Ford Show"
11-13-1925 - Ed Backey - Havre de Grace, MD - d. 5-4-1988
disk jockey: WTOW Towson, Maryland
11-13-1932 - Buddy Killen - Florence, AL - d. 11-1-2006
bass player: "Grand Ole Opry"; "March of Dimes"
11-13-1932 - Richard Mulligan - NYC - d. 9-26-2000
actor: "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
11-13-1936 - Ingrid Hafner - London, England - d. 5-20-1994
actor: "The Butcher, the Baker"
11-13-1938 - Jo Ann Callison - Burnwell, WV
singer on radio
11-13-1948 - Saori Yuki - Gunma, Japan
singer: "Kohaku Uta Gassen"

November 13th deaths

02-23-1917 - John Brooks - Houlton, ME - d. 11-13-1999
composer, arranger, pianist: "Chicago Theatre of the Air"
03-03-1924 - Barbara Jean Wong - Los Angeles, CA - d. 11-13-1999
actor: Judy Barton "Cinnamon Bear"
03-15-1905 - Margaret Webster - NYC - d. 11-13-1972
stage actor, director: "Information Please"
04-09-1906 - Antal Dorati - Budapest, Austria-Hungary - d. 11-13-1988
conductor"; "CBS Symphony Orchestra"
04-14-1917 - Valerie Hobson - Larne, Ireland - d. 11-13-1998
actor: Guest Contestant "One Minute Please"
04-29-1915 - Donald F. Mills - Piqua, OH - d. 11-13-1999
singer: (The Mills Brothers) "Mills Brothers Quartette"
05-29-1892 - Mario Chamlee - Los Angeles, CA - d. 11-13-1966
singer: Tony "Tony and Gus"; "Arco Birthday Party"; "Swift Garden Party"
06-13-1903 - Jack Fulton - Philipsburg, PA - d. 11-13-1993
singer: "Ben Bernie, The Old Maestro"; "The Kraft Music Hall"
06-29-1893 - Alma Kitchell - Superior, WI - d. 11-13-1996
singer, commentator: "Melody Hour"; "Brief Case/Streamline Journal"
07-01-1894 - John Lair - Livingston, KY - d. 11-13-1985
announcer, director: "National Barn Dance"; "Sunday Mornin' Gatherin'"
07-10-1890 - Louis Katzman - Odessa, Russia - d. 11-13-1943
musical director: "Fred Allen's Linit Bath Club"
07-25-1901 - Lila Lee - Union Hill, NJ - d. 11-13-1973
actor: "Fleischman's Yeast Hour"
07-26-1908 - Professor Hale Sparks - d. 11-13-1997
director of broadcast University of California: "Edgar Bergen/Charlie
McCarthy"
07-26-1914 - Ralph Blane - Broken Arrow, OK - d. 11-13-1995
singer: "Johnny Green and His Orchestra"
08-03-1916 - Milton Drake - NYC - d. 11-13-2006
songwriter: "Mairzy Doats"
10-08-1904 - Wally Brown - Malden, MA - d. 11-13-1961
actor: "The Jack Kirkwood Show"; "Joan Davis Time"
10-11-1924 - Richard Alan Simmons - Toronto, Canada - d. 11-13-2004
writer: "Screen Director's Playhouse"; "NBC University Theatre"
10-28-1934 - Cecil Blackwood - Ackereman, MS - d. 11-13-2000
singer: (Blackwood Brothers Quartet) "Songs of the Gospel"
11-05-1922 - Roger Albright - Evanston, IL - d. 11-13-1987
writer, producer: "A Home of Your Own"

Ron

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

Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:09:57 -0500
From: Larry Groebe <lgroebe@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  "War Of The Worlds" Version Two! or not.

From: "Glenn P.," <C128User@[removed];

Listening to the second version was a fascinating, but very disturbing,
experience -- one I've never had before -- my memory kept telling me "that
was said WRONG! That was said WRONG!" ANY difference at all -- any missed
word at all -- between the original version, I caught.

All this talk of the "alternate version" has been getting to [removed] Generic
Radio Workshop has performed War of the Worlds before, and like many of us,
I've personally listened to the show enough times to recite large passages
from memory.

But then, memory can play tricks. So the only thing to do was to load both
versions into an audio editor (Audacity serves nicely) placing one version in
the left channel, and the other in the right channel, trim them down to the
actual relevant content, and compare them wearing headphones.

Glenn was right - this was a fascinating and disturbing experience.
Why, just looking at the waveforms of the two channels, one can immediately
see there are differences. Things didn't match up.
Here's Ramon Raquello and his orchestra starting to play a full 10 seconds
SOONER in the alternate version. But it's not a simple matter of that version
being sped up, because four minutes later, the two versions are back
virtually in sync again. No, something else is going on. A real alternate
performance?

I wasn't cataloging
them, so I can't list them (though if I WAS cataloging them, I could, and
the list would then be both extensive and exhaustive)

There ARE little differences. No question. A stutter here. A word dropped
there. For instance, in Orson's speech at the end he says "grinning,
globular, glowing invader" in one [removed] but only "grinning,  glowing
invader" in the alternate.

wait a couple of minutes for the players to cut to "The Meridian Room in
the Park Plaza Hotel, where
Bobby Millett and his orchestra are offering a program of dance music"; in
the Original version, the announcer stumbles over the word *Meridian*, a
purely accidental occurence, and which DOES NOT occur in Version Two -- no
stumble.

Yup, that's another one (although it's Ramon Raquello at this point, not
Bobby Millette)

Throughout the show there are many small timing differences -- a longer
dramatic pause here, less of a pause there.
It's very strange. It feels like an alternate take.

But I don't think so.
After way too much time spent syncing and resyncing the two versions, I don't
buy it.

What we seem to have, instead, is a RE-EDIT of the one-and-only broadcast.
Why and where from? I can't conjecture.
Close listening to the source material in parallel turns up too many
SIMILARITIES to be coincidental.
The line readings are perfect matches -- no inflection changes, no different
breathing, no rethought interpretations or line readings -- not a one that I
could find. Listen to the farmer shouting in the background of the Wilmuth
farm near the 12:30 mark. It's IDENTICAL on [removed] way could an actor
maintain that split-second identical reading behind the other actors through
two takes.

Ultimately, every single DIFFERENCE I heard can be explained through editing.

Most of the differences are timing - simple tape splices to add or remove
content. The missing stumble on Meridian room? Edited out. The missing
"globular" invader? Also removed. Longer pauses in the alternate version?
Silence can be edited in. Listen at about 9:55 into the show and you can even
hear a faint, repeated piano chord spliced into at several moments to spread
out the announcer's lines.

And there are other clues -- Listen at about the 8:10 mark and again at 11:30
to sudden rise in surface noise, apparently from the original recording,
identically present in BOTH versions.

As much as I wanted to hear a hitherto-unknown performance,  this "alternate"
version is the same show we've all known, only with small edits that tweak
the "rhythm" of the show just a bit.

The question now is who? and why?
Is this an attempt to create a copyrightable version? Seems silly, but I
don't have a better [removed]

--Larry Groebe
  the Generic Radio Workshop
  [removed]

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

Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:10:09 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  11-14 births/deaths

November 14th births

11-14-1881 - Clayton Hamilton - NYC - d. 9-17-1946
writer: "Radio Guild"; "Great Plays"; "Brownstone Theatre"
11-14-1894 - James Van Dyk - Brooklyn, NY - d. 12-17-1951
actor: Clyde Houston "Lora Lawton"; Dick Phillips "Rosemary"
11-14-1900 - Aaron Copland - NYC - d. 12-2-1990
composer: "Document A/777"
11-14-1901 - Morton Downey - Wallingford, CT  - d. 10-25-1985
singer: (The Irish Thrush), "Morton Downey Show"; "Songs by Morton
Downey"
11-14-1904 - Art Hodes - Nikoliev, Russia - d. 3-4-1993
jazz pianist: "Eddie Condon's Jazz Concert"; "This Is Jazz"; "WNYC
Jazz Festival"
11-14-1904 - Dick Powell - Mountain. View, AR - d. 1-2-1963
actor: Richard Diamond "Richard Diamond, Private Detective"; Richard
Rogue "Rogue's Gallery"
11-14-1905 - Wilbur "Budd" Hulick - Asbury Park, NJ - d. 3-22-1961
comedian: "Stoopnagle and Budd"; Mortimer Meek "Meet Mr. Meek"
11-14-1906 - Mercer McCloud - d. 1-20-1993
actor: Fran Cummings "Second Husband"
11-14-1908 - Joseph McCarthy - Appleton, WI - d. 5-2-1957
despotic senator: "Meet the Press"
11-14-1910 - Rosemary De Camp - Prescott, Arizona Territory - d.
2-20-2001
actor: Nurse Judy Price "Dr. Christian"
11-14-1913 - George Smathers - Atlantic City, NJ - d. 1-20-2007
[removed] senator from florida: "Meet the Press"
11-14-1913 - Haila Stoddard - Great Falls, MT
actor: Sue Evans Miller "Big Sister"
11-14-1914 - Ken Carson - Colgate, OK - d. 4-7-1994
singer: (Lustre Cream Shampoo commercial) "Day in the Life of Dennis
Day"
11-14-1915 - Billy Bauer - The Bronx, NY - d. 6-17-2005
jazz guitarist: "Band for Bonds"
11-14-1915 - Martha Tilton - Corpus Christi, TX - d. 12-8-2006
singer: "Fibber McGee and Molly"; "Curt Massey-Martha Tilton Program"
11-14-1916 - Don Ewell - Baltimore, MD - d. 8-9-1983
pianist: "Jack Teagarden and His Orchestra"
11-14-1916 - Hubert Batey - d. 2-8-1980
sportscaster: WGPC Albany, Georgia
11-14-1916 - Sherwood Schwartz - Passaic, NJ
writer: "The Bob Hope Show"; "The Great Gildersleeve"
11-14-1919 - DeWitt Samuel Copp - Connecticut - d. 11-29-1999
writer: "Hallmark Hall of Fame"; "Bell Telephone Hour"
11-14-1919 - Veronica Lake - Brooklyn, NY - d. 7-7-1973
actor: "Exploring the Unknown"; "Request Performance"
11-14-1920 - Irving Ravetch - Newark, NJ
writer, adapter: "Escape"
11-14-1920 - Johnny Desmond - Detroit, MI - d. 9-6-1985
singer: "I Sustain the Wings"; "Philip Morris Frolics"; "Songs for Sale"
11-14-1923 - Margaret Courtenay - Cardiff, Wales - d. 2-15-1996
actor: "The Price of Fear"
11-14-1924 - Phyllis Avery - NYC
actor: Peggy McNutley "Meet Mr. McNutley"
11-14-1926 - Leonie Rysanek - Vienna, Austria - d. 3-7-1998
soprano: "Metropolitan Opera"
11-14-1928 - Kathleen Hughes - Hollywood, CA
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
11-14-1951 - Sandahl Bergman - Kansas City, MO
actor: "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"

November 14th deaths

01-01-1915 - Earl Sheldon - NYC - d. 11-14-1977
orchestra leader: "The Bickersons"; "Jack Smith Show"
01-22-1935 - Dave Holland - Raleigh, NC - d. 11-14-2005
author: "From Out of the Past: A Pictorial History of the Lone Ranger"
01-23-1910 - Dorothy Arbuckle - Eldred, IL - d. 11-14-1982
radio journalist
01-26-1907 - Eddie Ballentine - Chicago, IL - d. 11-14-1995
orchestra leader: "Don McNeill's Breakfast Club"
02-04-1889 - Walter Catlett - San Francisco, Ca - d. 11-14-1960
actor: "This Is Your [removed]"; "Escape"; "Campbell Playhouse"
02-07-1915 - Eddie Bracken - Astoria, NY - d. 11-14-2002
comedian: "Eddie Bracken Show"; Dizzy Stevens "Aldrich Family"
02-14-1916 - Eddie Arcaro - Cincinnati, OH - d. 11-14-1997
jockey: "Pabst Blue Ribbon Sport of Kings"; "Tops In Sports"
02-27-1894 - Upton Close - Kelso, WA - d. 11-14-1960
commentator: "Events and Trends of the Week"; "Close-Ups of the :News"
04-04-1896 - Robert Sherwood - New Rochelle, NY - d. 11-14-1955
playwright: "Free Company"; "Cavalcade of America"; "Screen Guild
Theatre"
04-08-1916 - Carl Cotner - Indiana - d. 11-14-1986
steel guitar: "Gene Aurty's Melody Ranch"
05-19-1870 - Wright Kramer - Somerville, MA - d. 11-14-1941
actor: Walter Jamison "Showboat"
05-24-1915 - Harvey Bacal - Quebec, Canada - d. 11-14-1993
musical director and arranger
05-28-1912 - Violet Dunn - d. 11-14-1982
actor: Peggy O'Neill "The O'Neill's"
09-01-1879 - Billy Beard - d. 11-14-1954
singer: (Raybestos Twins) "Eddie Cantor Show"; Al Jolson Show"
09-01-1904 - Johnny Mack Brown - Dothan, AL - d. 11-14-1974
actor: "Straight Arrow Pow Wow"
10-02-1911 - Jack Finney - Milwaukee, WI - d. 11-14-1995
writer: "Cloud Nine"
10-15-1909 - Robert Trout - Wake County, NC - d. 11-14-2000
commentator: "Headlines & Bylines"; "Robert Trout with the News Til Now"
10-21-1877 - Floyd Buckley - Chatham, NY - d. 11-14-1956
actor: Popeye: "Popeye the Sailor"
xx-xx-1868 - Mrs. Belloc Lowndes - London, England - d. 11-14-1947
author: "An Unrecorded Instance"

Ron

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

Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:11:53 -0500
From: "Bill Jaker" <bilj@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: This Is Your Life

1948   This is Your Life debuted on NBC. Ralph Edwards hosted the
radio show for two years before it moved to television.

I think it continued on the radio as well.  At least I think I
remember hearing it on radio sometime in the mid-1950s.

	Actually, there was a two year gap between the last "This Is Your
Life" on
radio and the first TV show in October, 1952.  After a year and a half on
NBC the program did four programs on CBS in May, 1950 before leaving the
air, a scheduling arrangement that must have been unique in radio.

	Two of the most memorable television programs dealt with radio.
	On 30 September 1959 Ralph Edwards pulled the big surprise on on
newscaster/explorer/adventurer Lowell Thomas.  The program told his life
story but also brought out a side of him that his listeners might not have
known about: his irrepressable rascality.  As Edwards brought on each guest
from his exciting life, Lowell Thomas took over and made a flowery speech
about him or her.  The veteran newscaster knew how little it takes to throw
a broadcast off its timing and he threw it far, enjoying the prank
enormously.  So long until [removed]
	The other radio-related "This Is Your Life" is now a priceless
historical
document in radio history.  On 22 May 1957 it brought the nation a biography
of the so-called "father of radio", Dr. Lee deForest.  The earlier conflict
between deForest and NBC's parent RCA was apparently now in the past and the
broadcast reviewed his real accomplishments as well as revealing his
eccentricities ("I was the world's first disc jockey").
	Dr. deForest [his preferred spelling of his name] had been married four
times, and in 1930 he married actress Marie Mosquini, who was some 30 years
his junior.  Eyebrows were raised at the time but they were still obviously
in love 27 years later.  When Marie came onto the stage reciting to Lee a
love poem he had written to her, both were nearly in tears.  It was one of
the most intimate and beautiful moments I've ever seen on TV.
                                              -- Bill Jaker

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

Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:16:09 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  This week in radio history 15-21 November

 From Those Were The Days

11/15

1926   Network radio was born. 24 stations carried the first broadcast
from the National Broadcasting Company. The program was a gala 4 1/2
hour broadcast from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

11/18

1307   The story of William Tell shooting the apple off of his young
son's noggin is said to have taken place on this day.

(If it hadn't been for Tell there would have been no opera, if there had
been no opera there would have been no overture, if there had been no
overture the Lone Ranger wouldn't have had the theme music we know. <g>
   That's a joke son, I say that's a joke).

11/20

1929 - The first broadcast of The Rise of the Goldbergs, with Gertrude
Berg as Molly, was heard on the NBC Blue network. Later, the title would
be shortened to The Goldbergs. Mrs. Berg, incidentally, wrote the first
scripts for the 15-minute program and starred in the show -- for $75 a
week. ($810 in 2007 dollars). The program continued until 1945 (it
returned for one season in 1949-1950). Gertrude Berg entertained
audiences with New York style, motherly phrases like, "Button up your
neck. It's cold outside."

11/21

1938   WBOE in Cleveland, OH became the first school operated radio
station (owned by a municipality) to receive a license from the FCC.
WBOE went on the air as a 500 watt AM station and later became an FM
station.

1938   The first broadcast of Central City was heard. It was an
adventure mystery show set at the newspaper in, you guessed it, Central
City. Elspeth Eric played the part of crime reporter Emily Olson; and
Van Heflin was crime reporter Bob Shellenberger (later, the part was
played by Myron McCormick). Central City aired until 1941.

1944   "Happy trails to you, until we meet [removed]" The Roy Rogers
Show was first heard on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Singing along
with Roy (The King of the Cowboys'), were the Whippoorwills and The Sons
of the Pioneers.

Joe

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

Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:43:36 -0500
From: charlie@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  FOTR Guest on the [removed]

Folks;

   Our friend Jim Widner pointed out a clip from The Daily Show with Jon
Stewart that OTR folks, especially those who attend the Friends of Old-Time
Radio Convention should see.

   I've embedded the clip on the Nostalgic Rumblings blog at
[removed] - ignore the politics and enjoy the "young
producer."

         Charlie

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2009 Issue #217
*********************************************

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]

To Subscribe: [removed]@[removed]
  or see [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]

In the event of a major mail problem, please contact the listmaster via
  the web-based contact form available at [removed]
  (on the sidebar) or follow/DM CFSummers on Twitter

To Send Mail to the list, simply send to [removed]@[removed]