Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #187
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 5/27/2002 12:49 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2002 : Issue 187
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Films of OTR                          [ "evan torch" <etorch@[removed] ]
      Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      Re: re: amos and andy 1943            [ Jer51473@[removed] ]
      watching tv through store windows     [ Jer51473@[removed] ]
      Seeking Effie Klinker                 [ "welsa" <welsa@[removed]; ]
      OOOOPS! My Blooper                    [ AandG4jc@[removed] ]
      MP3 CD help                           [ Eric J Cooper <ejcooper2002@[removed] ]
      Lucy/Honeymooners/Dragnet on radio    [ Eric J Cooper <ejcooper2002@[removed] ]
      Dragnet repurposing/colorcasting      [ "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed]; ]
      when did prime time start             [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]
      Re: TV Soundtracks as radio shows     [ Merlin Haas <mvhaas@[removed]; ]
      Re: Lucy on Radio                     [ GOpp@[removed] ]
      Cigarette stories                     [ danhughes@[removed] ]
      Ed Bolton's "Magnificent Time Machin  [ "cominghomemag" <cominghomemag@msn. ]
      OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK SCHEDULE      [ HERITAGE4@[removed] ]
      Tonight RAdio show.                   [ gad4@[removed] ]
      Re: Lucy on Radio - Dragnet question  [ "Michael Hayde" <mmeajv@[removed]; ]
      Have you noticed?                     [ "Richard Carpenter" <sinatra@raging ]

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 14:24:21 -0400
    From: "evan torch" <etorch@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Films of OTR

    For YEARS I have been looking for video an film recordings of actual network
    programs as they were broadcast. I once saw a PBS special (narrarated by
    Dick Cavett) on OTR. It contained, among other delectable tidbits, excerpts
    which I would bet were "inhouse" network productions such as actual scenes
    of Hal Peary and Lureen Tuttle in Gildersleeve and Joseph Kearns as the Man
    In Black in a Hollywood CBS studio opening a SUSPENCE episode.
    Believe me I know how to find OTR material; I own a couple of thousand
    shows, tons of books and even an old RCA 44 mike, but I can't find this
    archival film material.
    Any suggestions?
    Evan Torch
    etorch@[removed]

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 14:35:01 -0400
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Today in radio history

      From Those Were The Days --

    1940 - Invitation to Learning was first heard on CBS. The educational
    program ran for 15 years on the network.

    Today's birthdays:

    1886 - Al Jolson (Asa Yoelson) d. Oct 23, 1950

    1911 - Ben Alexander (Nicholas Benton Alexander) d. July 5, 1969

    1920 - Peggy Lee (Norma Delores Egstrom) d. Jan 21, 2002

      Joe

    --
    Visit my home page:
    [removed]~[removed]

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 15:01:11 -0400
    From: Jer51473@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: re: amos and andy 1943

     Im sure there were several factors and reasons given, but i would bet one of
    the factors maybe not expressed by freeman and charles was "one show per week
    is much easier than 3-5 shows per week". No way im i saying this was the main
    reason, but i would think it was one of the big ones. When you are as big as
    they were, you call the shots.

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 15:01:25 -0400
    From: Jer51473@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  watching tv through store windows

     Most of us 60-65 or older remember doing this. Im 65 and looking back, this
    was the beginning of my conversion from radio to tv. I recall watching
    through a window the special sporting events in the late forties like the
    baseball all star game [removed] My brother, my dad, and i were big boxing fans
    and we(kids) would beg my dad to take us to a local booz parlor to watch the
    friday night fights. Now today this would really be frowned upon, but he did
    consent a couple of times and we thought we were in heaven. Tv, to us, was
    radio with a picture and we had dreamed about it since back in WW11 when we
    first heard of it. Gettin a chance to see tv for only a few minutes was a
    treat that cannot be described to younger generations as im sure is the case
    was when radio first popped onto the scene. In 1949-50 we bought our first tv
    and from that point on radio was in second place and eventually diappeared
    from our entertainment menue except, for many years, the morning news, soaps,
    sporting events, and the evening adventure shows(jack armstrong, terry, hop,
    etc.) Can you imagine anyone today standing and watching a tv show from the
    street as a planned event?

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 15:44:01 -0400
    From: "welsa" <welsa@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Seeking Effie Klinker

    Our radio re-enactment group would like a recording of an Edgar Bergen/Effie
    Klinker routine.  Any subject.  Don't need an entire show, just the Klinker
    routine.  Anybody have one?

    Ted

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 15:59:22 -0400
    From: AandG4jc@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  OOOOPS! My Blooper

        My apologizes to all for my goof up of "Chester" Morris Cigarettes when
    it was to be Philip Morris Cigarettes. I got that goof after I already sent
    the email. It proves that people do catch mistakes like that in this news
    letter. I am glad that everyone has a sense of humor. You just got to laugh
    when thing like that happen.
        Speaking of bloopers, one the thing that I have found out over the years
    is that everyone has a favorite radio blooper moment. Over the history of OTR
    there has been many hysterical bloopers over the air. Some of the programs
    were aired "live" and that created quite a problem for the networks. One of
    my favorites is a Fred Allen blooper. When describing a news reporter and his
    ways of getting information, instead of saying that he got it by listening in
    by "keyholes" he said the word "pee-holes"! The audience just broke up with
    laughter (so did I when I first heard it and I still do) for several minutes.
    Fred Allen, being the master of improv, stated that only he could bring this
    show to a whole new low. After that the show was never the same. The cast
    kept breaking up with giggles and laughter. A great Fred Allen moment!

        Does anyone have a favorite blooper? Please share it with us all!
    Laughing at these programs, because of the bloopers, made the OTR experience
    better!
    Allen

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 15:59:33 -0400
    From: Eric J Cooper <ejcooper2002@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  MP3 CD help

    To Will Nicoll:

    To play MP3 CDs you need the proper software and enough memory. An older
    computer running Windows 95 may not be able to run the newer versions of
    WinAmp or other MP3 playing software that you need.

    Eric Cooper

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 16:00:28 -0400
    From: Eric J Cooper <ejcooper2002@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Lucy/Honeymooners/Dragnet on radio

    I Love Lucy --the radio version, was a test to see if the series could be
    done on radio as well as TV. In 1952, when the audition disc was made, TV
    had not reached beyond the major cities as yet (for technical and
    regulatory reasons that I will not go into here--email me if you gotta
    know why). Radio was still the ONLY medium in the rural areas of the USA.
    But the writers and producers felt that doing a radio and a separate TV
    version of I Love Lucy would be too much work. So the soundtrack approach
    was tried (it was easier to produce). BUT Philip Morris (not Chester!!)
    Cigarettes did not like how the "soundtrack on radio" version came
    out--and frankly, I don't either. So the whole idea was put to rest.

    The Honeymooners was NOT EVER done on radio!! Perhaps the Ebay person
    confused the Bickersons with the Honeymooners. Jackie Gleason did have a
    brief radio variety show but that was in the 1940s.

    What's My Line, Two For The Money, You Bet Your Life, People Are Funny,
    House Party , The Voice Of Firestone and Arthur Godfrey Time were all
    radio-TV simulcasts at one time or another in the 1950s and House Party
    survived as a simulcast until 1967.

    The Dragnet BIG LITTLE JESUS episode that often circulates, IS the TV
    soundtrack. I do recall hearing a separate radio version that sounded
    slightly different, but don't know if it circulates much.

    Eric Cooper

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 18:03:37 -0400
    From: "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Dragnet repurposing/colorcasting

    Craig Wichman (wich2@[removed]) wrote:

>     Do any of you (particularly, DRAGNET) experts out there know how common
>     this technique was? I am about [removed] sure that one of my favorite episodes
>     was done this way: Christmas's THE BIG LITTLE JESUS. The audio version I
>     have (& have heard from several sources) is almost surely swiped from the
>     video, and sweetened by Webb, ala Arnaz- though, in this case, done quite
>     well. Does anyone have/know of a UNIQUELY radio production of this script?
>     Or for that matter, a COLOR version of the TV show? (The end credits mention
>     color, but the cassettes I've seen are all b&[removed])

    That episode -- the Christmas "Dragnet" show for 1953, aired on Christmas
    Eve -- was shown in color in a few cities in the East and Midwest, just a
    week after the FCC approved the NTSC color system.  (The syndication prints
    would have been B&W since there was very little demand for color reruns back
    then -- there may even have been only one color print, for use in New York,
    since the Eastern backup print would have been B&W and the show wasn't seen
    in color on the West Coast.)  So that one show would have been seen in color
    by a few favored people (such as Jack Gould of The New York Times), would
    still have been seen in B&W by the rest of the TV audience, *and* would have
    been heard on radio by those without TV sets!  If that isn't total
    compatibility, I don't know what is. (From looking at the log on
    [removed], it appears that the radio version was aired two days *before*
    the telecast.)

    And it was reused in another way -- "The Big Little Jesus" was re-made (as
    "The Christmas Story") for the second "Dragnet" series in 1967.  That
    version of course was in color on the full NBC network and then in
    syndication.

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 18:04:01 -0400
    From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  when did prime time start

    Reading Elizabeth responds to my question pop out another one.  When did
    prime time start during the day for radio?  I think it was from 8 PM to 11
    PM Eastern time, just by checking my recordings of D Day, but on Sunday my
    guest would be earlier in the day.  Thanks,

    Walden Hughes

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 18:04:32 -0400
    From: Merlin Haas <mvhaas@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: TV Soundtracks as radio shows

>     The AFRS and AFRTS rebroadcast TV soundtracks as radio shows throughout the
>     1950s and even into the 1960s. Edited versions of game shows like "What's
>     My Line" and talk shows like "Tonight!" were commonly distributed this way,
>     though they were never to my knowledge rebroadcast on radio by the civilian
>     networks.

         The broadcast of TV soundtracks as radio shows still goes on.
    WBBM-AM in Chicago runs the audio for "60 Minutes" each Sunday night
    at 6 pm.  Also WILL-AM in Champaign-Urbana, IL, ran "Wall Street Week
    with Louis Rukeyser" every Saturday morning for years. (I haven't
    listened lately).
          Both shows work very well with just the audio, since they
    feature a lot of "talking heads" ...

    best -- Merlin Haas

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 18:05:23 -0400
    From: GOpp@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:  Lucy on Radio

>     Tollin goes on to say that Oppenheimer ultimately
>     decided not to produce a radio version of I Love Lucy,
>     fearing the TV show would suffer.

    Dad was concerned that they would start "favoring"
    non-visual comedy if they were trying to make each
    week's script do double-duty.  A good decision, or
    they probably never would have written the
    famous "Candy Factory" episode.

>     Lucy's Liz Cugat (later Cooper)
>     anticipated Lucy Ricardo in many respects. A few years
>     ago, Oppenheimer and his son Gregg  wrote a book
>     called "Laughs, Luck and Lucy" that details the
>     creation of I Love Lucy. It includes an audio CD of
>     various scenes from the TV show as well as outtakes

    >from My Favorite Husband.

    The CD actually has more than that on, including
    two versions of the same scene (one on radio, the other
    on TV) that let you compare the radio performances of
    Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet to the TV performances
    of William Frawley and Vivian Vance.

    A complete listing of the CD contents is at
    [removed]

    And the book (with CD and a complete radio script)
    is available online in exchange for a small
    donation to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS
    Foundation:

    [removed]

    - Gregg Oppenheimer

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 18:05:40 -0400
    From: danhughes@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Cigarette stories

    Harlan mentions the Chester Morris / Chesterfield cigarettes
    [removed] help me [removed] remember a story about [removed]
    Fields mentioning his brother Chester often on some program sponsored by
    a cigarette company, and it took a while before somebody realized that
    the brother in question would be Chester Fields, a rival cigarette?

    ---Dan

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 19:19:49 -0400
    From: "cominghomemag" <cominghomemag@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Ed Bolton's "Magnificent Time Machine"

    Anyone know where (or even IF) you can still listen to Ed Bolton's
    "Magnificent Time Machine" on the net?

    I know a year or so back, he had his recreations of 1928 Amos & Andy
    episodes posted (in RealAudio) on a site somewhere, but I am unable to
    locate these now.

    We thank you,

    kylistener

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 19:58:59 -0400
    From: HERITAGE4@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK SCHEDULE

    Jerry's back and has some great shows for the holiday weekend/week.  Shows
    starting on Sunday 5/26/02  for one week at:  [removed]

    SAME TIME, SAME STATION with Jerry Haendiges
    1. V-E DAY SPECIAL   5/8/45   "On A Note of Triumph"  by Norman Corwin
    2. BEST PLAYS  6/15/52   "On Borrowed Time"  with Parker Fennelly

    HERITAGE RADIO THEATRE with Tom Heathwood
    1. IT PAYS TO BE IGNORANT  CBS  2/5/48  with Guest: Ralph Bellamy
    2. CAN YOU TOP THIS?   NBC   12/5/47  Contestants and panel battle the
        "Laugh Meter"
    3. THE FUN OF RED SKELTON - and his favorite characters.

    Enjoy ---     Tom & Jerry

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

    Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 20:22:08 -0400
    From: gad4@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Tonight RAdio show.

    Hanlan writes:

>     The AFRS and AFRTS rebroadcast TV soundtracks as radio shows throughout the
>     1950s and even into the 1960s. Edited versions of game shows like "What's
>     My Line" and talk shows like "Tonight!" were commonly distributed this way,
>     though they were never to my knowledge rebroadcast on radio by the civilian
>     networks.

    Does anyone know if any of the tonight radio shows exist?

    I think i heard that none of the steve allen tonight tv shows exist, but
    perhaps some of it exists in this format.

    Thanks
    George

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

    Date: Mon, 27 May 2002 01:00:16 -0400
    From: "Michael Hayde" <mmeajv@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Lucy on Radio - Dragnet questions

    Philip Adams spoke of the use of an I LOVE LUCY TV soundtrack as a radio
    program, and asks:

>     Do any of you (particularly, DRAGNET) experts out there know how common
>     this technique was? I am about [removed] sure that one of my favorite episodes
>     was done this way: Christmas's THE BIG LITTLE JESUS.

    Permit me to dispel the .01% of [removed] you are quite correct.  In fact,
    record-buyers had the opportunity to purchase this show (sans commercials)
    several WEEKS before the radio & TV versions aired.  If you have a copy of
    the RCA-Victor album "Production 999: The Dragnet Christmas Story," you've
    basically got the radio show.

    None of the other radio "Dragnet" shows were done this way.  Webb generally
    shot TV episodes from radio scripts that had been performed/transcribed
    weeks, months, even years, before.  As for other [removed] I know "You Bet
    Your Life" was ALMOST the same thing - the same contestants/interviews on
    radio as TV - but the edits were different, and in any case, I don't think
    Bob Dwan ever used a film soundtrack to assemble the radio version.

>     Does anyone have/know of a UNIQUELY radio production of this script?

    It's possible that the 1954 broadcast is, since I've never heard it.  There
    are two radio scripts in the Webb archives at UCLA, filed thusly:

    BIG LITTLE JESUS, THE
    Box/Vol.  Contents
    Vol. 18  Prod.# 227. Aired 12/22/53.
    Vol. 22  Prod.# 279. Aired 12/21/54.

    I find it strange that a pre-recorded show would have a second script,
    unless it's just to incorporate new commercial announcements.  Only someone
    with tapes of both broadcasts can tell us of any differences, and
    unfortunately I'm not one of them.

>     Or for that matter, a COLOR version of the TV show?

    Boy, I sure wish!  Unfortunately, color TV basically existed in NYC during
    the years (1953-55) the original aired on the network, so it was only those
    stations on the east coast with color reception capability who got it that
    way.  Other cities broadcast a b&w 16mm print - that includes Los Angeles -
    which is, of course, what was transferred to VHS by those public domain
    video fly-by-nighters.  NBC in  New York donated a ton of film to the L of
    C, but a 16mm color safety print of "Big Little Jesus" doesn't appear to
    have been among the holdings.

    Michael J. Hayde

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

    Date: Mon, 27 May 2002 01:26:37 -0400
    From: "Richard  Carpenter" <sinatra@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Have you noticed?

       Forgive me if someone has already mentioned this, but have you noticed
    that Radio Spirits' attractive new cassette collections -- "Greatest
    Mysteries," "Greatest Westerns," etc. -- contain 40 shows instead of the 60
    such collections used to contain. Yet the price is the same: about $60 from
    Radio Spirits or about $30 at warehouse clubs such as [removed]'s. [removed]

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #187
    *********************************************

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