Subject: [removed] Digest V2010 #166
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 9/23/2010 4:18 PM

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

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2010 : Issue 166
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Soaps on the radio again?             [ rand@[removed] ]
      Charles Stark/Animal, Vegetable, Min  [ Melanie Aultman <otrmelanie@[removed] ]
      9-23 births/deaths                    [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      THEMES                                [ rbackus22@[removed] ]
      re: Transitions to TV from radio      [ Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed]; ]
      Soaps on OTR                          [ "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@juno. ]

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

    Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2010 18:34:29 -0400
    From: rand@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Soaps on the radio again?

    Ted in the digest asked "Why not the soaps on radio?"

    It's actually something I've thought about for a few years.  Television's
    daytime soaps are really doomed to extinction - the primary audience,
    women, aren't at home as much during the day.  And there's competition
    with younger viewers for other media, such as online video.

    The younger viewers are really key - they're the one's that advertisers
    really strive for and try to get "hooked".  Honestly, I'm surprised that
    someone hasn't targeted them with radio drama with the proliferation of
    mp3 players and the like.

    I'm probably a member of one of the last generations to get "hooked" on a
    tv soap.  As women started working more outside of the home, soaps started
    trying to attract younger viewers with more innovative storylines.  When I
    was in college, "Santa Barbara" and some of the other soaps were pretty
    popular with the "kids", featuring wonderfully goofy stories involving
    ufos, the supernatural and the like, all done very tongue in cheek.  (I
    recall one where two characters - one good and one bad - were played by
    the same actor and went to "soap opera heaven" to be put back together
    again into one person.)

    I think the thing that might save serial drama would be aiming it at
    specific audiences.  One rapper created a sensation a few years back by
    creating a set of music videos and accompanying song that told a
    soap-opera type of story, with a new song and video released each month,
    each ending on a cliffhanger.  It was an interesting experiment, but
    showed how an audience can still get hooked on a good story told in a
    novel way.

    [removed]

    A big monied sponsor could potentially tap into this kind of interest by
    getting a set of radio actors and a musical artist to collaborate on a
    musical serial, with episodes lasting about five minutes, sort of like the
    ZBS series "Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe" done for public radio back in the
    1980s.

    [removed]

    I have a good friend that's done a popular comic aimed at Gays and
    Lesbians for almost two decades.  I've tried to talk him into turning it
    into a serialized podcast, even pulling out episodes of "Easy Aces" or
    "Vic and Sade" and other classic otr serials he could look at as a model.

    I don't think we'll see a serial that will run for several years like the
    old time radio or television dramas, but I do see several attempts at
    short web based videos done as a limited series.  That's probably the next
    evolution of "the soap" in video form.

    rand

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:16:17 -0400
    From: Melanie Aultman <otrmelanie@[removed];
    To: OTRDIGEST <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Charles Stark/Animal, Vegetable, Mineral

    Those who recently had questions about Charles Stark may find the following of
    interest.
    It's from a chapter on Robert VanDeventer in David Siegel's Remembering Radio
    about Stark's
    involvement in the creation of Twenty Questions. (sorry formatting was lost
    due
    to conversion
    to plain text)

    You indicated that you and your family played this game of Animal, Vegetable
    or
    Mineral and that was really the incentive for Twenty Questions.  Why did they
    change the title from Animal, Vegetable or Mineral to Twenty Questions?

    (laughs) Let me explain that by just giving a brief summary of what happened
    that Sunday, because it was really a major coincidence that two people in the
    radio business, having Sunday afternoon dinner, were in fact having dinner in
    the house of a family that had always done quizzes and played parlor games -
    one

    of which was what we called Animal, Vegetable or Mineral.  It was in the
    back-and-forth during the course of that afternoon, that this is what you have
    to do to promote and produce and develop a radio program.  During the course
    of
    this, someonementioned Animal, Vegetable and Mineral,as well as other parlor
    games we had played, and Charles Stark himself was the one who said, "I can
    see
    it now - we'll have a panel of experts playing the game, and the master of
    ceremonies will be the one who answers the questions.  He will have the
    subject
    for you to identify, and the panel of experts will guess."  And this came to
    his

    mind and to ours, from other panel shows such as Information Please, and the
    Quiz Kids, although he was the one, certainly, who said it.  So anyway, that's
    how it started.

      So when they took it to New York and talked to Dave Driscoll, the head of
    news

    at WOR, and Norm Livingston, the head of programming, and it got talked up
    within the walls of 1440 Broadway, within a month or two it came back - oh
    yes,
    people all played this.  They all knew about it, but in the East, they called
    it

    Twenty Questions.  This was news to us.  We had never, first of all, heard the
    term twenty questions and secondly, we had never played with any limit on the
    number of questions.  So that's how the name came about.  People in WOR at
    least, who had heard of the game, who had played the game, always referred to
    it

    as Twenty Questions.  It's kinda like the difference, in its way, between what
    you call Coca-Cola in the Midwest and what you call it in the East.  In the
    East, it's soda.  In the West, it's pop.  (laughs) I guess that's the same
    kind
    of differentiation.

    Once the program was accepted, did Charlie Stark actually have a piece of the
    action?

    He sued.  What happened was, by - I'm guessing now, but I would say September
    -that was in June - they started talking it up in July.  The momentum started
    to

    build probably in August, and since Stark was Dad's announcer, when we would
    go
    into WOR and see him, I would always say something like, "How's the Twenty
    Questions idea coming along?"  He would always answer the same way.  "We're
    still kicking it around."  Well, finally Dad got fed up and he said, "We've
    kicked this around long enough.  It's been weeks and months.  If you don't do
    something by Monday or words to that effect, I'm going to go to Bill
    Fineschriber of Mutual on my own."  Stark did nothing, so Dad went to
    Fineschriber and from then on Stark was out of it.

      Skipping ahead, on Saturday, February 2, when Dad did the 6:30 news and
    Stark
    of course knew that the show was going on that evening at 8:00, he said, "I'm
    suing Monday." and did.  We settled.  We didn't want to fight it out.  It
    would
    have been a long-drawn-out process.  I don't have any idea what the settlement
    was.  We agreed that certainly he had suggested the idea of the panel.  We
    couldn't get away from that.  It was absolutely true.  All along, in fact, we
    kinda hoped Stark would come back in, but no - he always stayed aloof - didn't
    want any part of it.  At least he didn't take any part of it.  So anyway,
    that's

    what happened with Stark.

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:19:43 -0400
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  9-23 births/deaths

    September 23rd births

    09-23-1884 - Bill Lawrence - East St. Louis, IL - d. 2-14-1973
    producer, director: "Fitch Bandwagon"; "Screen Guild Theatre"
    09-23-1889 - Don Bestor - Longford, SD - d. 1-13-1970
    bandleader: "Nestle Program"; "Jack Benny Program"
    09-23-1893 - Louis Sorin - NYC - d. 12-14-1961
    actor: Pan Pancho "Cisco Kid"
    09-23-1897 - Walter Pidgeon - East St. John, New Brunswick, Canada -
    d. 9-25-1984
    actor: "Hollywood Calling"; "Screen Guild Theatre"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
    09-23-1901 - Frederick Hazlitt Brennan - d. 6-30-1962
    writer: "Shorty Bell" based on Brennan's stories
    09-23-1905 - Charlie Arlington - d. 1-9-1986
    announcer: "Michael Shayne, Private Detective"; "Voyage of the Scarlet
    Queen"
    09-23-1907 - Jarmila Novatana - Prague, Czechoslovakia - d. 2-9-1994
    lyric soprano: "The Pause that Refreshes"; "The Celanese Hour"
    09-23-1907 - Rudd Weatherwax - Engel, Sierra County, NM - d. 2-25-1985
    dog trainer: "Lassie"
    09-23-1908 - Sammy Forsmark - Georgia - d. 8-21-1961
    steel guitar: "The Radio Cowboys"
    09-23-1908 - Tiny Bradshaw - Youngstown, OH - d. 11-26-1958
    orchestra leader: "Jubilee"; "One Night Stand"
    09-23-1910 - Elliott Roosevelt - NYC - d. 10-27-1990
    commentary for the Mutual Network (Son of FDR) "Information Please"
    09-23-1913 - Helen Hiett - Tazewell, IL - d. 8-22-1961
    correspondent, newscaster: "Helen Hiett News"; "News Roundup"
    09-23-1913 - Robert Hudson Ballard - Nyack, NY - d. 5-2-1992
    violinist, arranger: "Phil Harris Orchestra"
    09-23-1913 - Stanley Kramer - NYC - d. 2-19-2001
    film director: "Jack Benny Program"; "Stagestruck"
    09-23-1914 - Aileen Burke - d. 3-xx-1992
    author: "Reflex Action"
    09-23-1919 - Ruth Sprague - San Francisco, CA
    actor: "I Love a Mystery"; "Death Valley Days"; "Dog Dramas"
    09-23-1920 - Mickey Rooney - Brooklyn, NY
    actor: Andy Hardy "Hardy Family"; Ralph J. 'Shorty' Bell "Shorty Bell"
    09-23-1927 - Richard Seff - NYC
    actor/writer: "Aldrich Family"; "Brighter Day"; "Road of Life"
    09-23-1927 - Virginia McDowall - London, England - d. 12-8-2006
    actor: "Family Theatre"; "NBC University Theatre"
    09-23-1934 - Chiyoko "Pat" Suzuki - Cressy, CA
    singer: "Army Bandstand"; "Manhattan Melodies"

    September 23rd deaths

    01-24-1881 - Earl Godwin - Washington, [removed] - d. 9-23-1956
    newsman: "Watch the World Go By"
    02-16-1914 - Jimmy Wakely - Mineola, AR - d. 9-23-1982
    country singer: "All-Star Western Theatre"; "Hollywood Barn Dance"
    02-27-1909 - Carl Frank - Weehawken, NJ - d. 9-23-1972
    actor: Jerry Malone "Young Dr. Malone"; Bob Drake "Betty and Bob"
    03-01-1869 - Edward Bell - near Terre Haute, IN - d. 9-23-1943
    commentator WMAQ during the 1920s
    03-11-1909 - Phil Leslie - St. Louis, MO - d. 9-23-1988
    writer: "Fibber McGee and Molly"
    03-30-1858 - DeWolf Hopper - NYC - d. 9-23-1935
    host-narrator: (Husband of Hedda Hopper) "Roses and Drums"
    04-05-1917 - Robert Bloch - Chicago, IL - d. 9-23-1994
    writer: "Stay Tuned for Terror"
    04-17-1910 - Ivan Goff - Perth, Australia - d. 9-23-1999
    screenwriter: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    04-19-1900 - George O'Brien - San Francisco, CA - d. 9-23-1985
    actor: "Anchors Aweigh"
    05-07-1890 - Billy House - Mankato, MN - d. 9-23-1961
    actor, comedian: "Al Pearce and His Gang"; "The Laugh Liner"
    06-20-1893 - Edwin Wolfe - d. 9-23-1983
    actor: Curt Bradley "Pepper Young's Family"
    07-16-1887 - Floyd Gibbons - Washington, [removed] - d. 9-23-1939
    commentator: "Headline Hunter"; "World Adventures"; "Nash Program"
    09-12-1894 - Billy Gilbert - Louisville, KY - d. 9-23-1971
    actor: "NYA Varieties"; "Rudy Vallee Rehearsal"
    10-19-1930 - Wally Flaherty - The Bronx, NY - d. 9-23-1998
    host: "Open Line"
    10-27-1918 - Bill Ballance - Peoria, IL - d. 9-23-2004
    talk show host: "Feminine Forum"; "Bill Ballance Show"
    12-28-1905 - Cliff Arquette - Toledo, OH - d. 9-23-1974
    comedian, actor: Thaddeus Cornfelder, "Myrt and Marge"
    12-28-1910 - Murray Burnett - d. 9-23-1997
    writer: "True Detectives Mysteries"

    Ron

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:19:50 -0400
    From: rbackus22@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  THEMES
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    CAN ANYONE HELP ME FIND A COPY OF "THEMES LIKE OLD TIMES" ON CD? I HAD THE
    VINYL RECORDS, BUT SEVERAL YEARS AGO I SENT THEM TO A FAIRLY FAMOUS GUY IN
    THIS BUSINESS WHO PROMISED TO COPY THEM TO CD AND I NEVER HEARD BACK FROM HIM.

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    Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:20:27 -0400
    From: Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  re: Transitions to TV from radio

    I was curious to see Kenneth Clarke list "What's my line" as a show that did
    better on radio than TV. That surprised me. How do you judge success? The
    show ran for 17 years on TV (1950-1967), and only one year on radio
    (1952-53). It's best remembered as a TV show, not a radio program (and was
    revived at least once, in the 70s).

    Similarly, You Bet Your Life ran on radio from 1949 to 1959 on radio, and
    1950 to 1960 on TV. Equally long of both media -- but it was syndicated for
    many years after on TV. According to Wikipedia, it was a top 20 show for
    every season from 1950 through 1957, ranking as high as #3 in the ratings.
    (And like What's My Line, it was also revived, though that didn't fare well.)
    Still, its TV run can hardly be termed less successful than its radio version.

    Cheers,
    Kermyt

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

    Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:20:56 -0400
    From: "kclarke5@[removed]" <kclarke5@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Soaps on OTR
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

           One of the soap operas I was told about as a child which began on OTR
    was "The Guiding Light".  I don't remember ever seeing it, personally, on TV
    but did hear that it had quite a following.  I believe it was on TV for many
    years
    as well. Wasn't this the case?

    As always,

    Kenneth

           The point I was attempting to make with my last submission was that
    not all of the programs which began on radio transitioned well to radio.
    Some
    did quite well, and even had several incarnations.  Others did better on TV
    than they did on radio.  It's also been said that shows such as "Information
    Please"
    were considered the grandparents of many of the more famous game shows
    most of us remember.  I could see many similarities between "Information
    Please"
    and "Hollywood Squares" (there were just more celebrities on the panel).

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    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2010 Issue #166
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