------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2008 : Issue 296
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
How not to say goodby [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
OTR in the News [ Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed] ]
OLD TYME RADIO NETWORK [ Jerry Haendiges <Jerry@[removed]; ]
Re: Signed, A. (sometime) Scrooge [ Randy Watts <rew1014@[removed]; ]
12-29 births/deaths [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
Re: Signed, A. (sometime) Scrooge [ "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed]; ]
Gotham Radio Players present THE MAN [ Steven Lewis <stevenl751@[removed]; ]
photo of Frank Nelson [ "Adam L. Fuller" <adamfuller@verizo ]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 21:08:53 -0500
From: <otrbuff@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: How not to say goodby
1959 - CBS dropped the curtain on four soap operas. Our Gal Sunday, This
is Nora Drake, Backstage Wife and Road of Life all hit the road for good.
No argument here about what transpired on Jan. 2, 1959. Only a few
comments.
I had exchanged letters with actress Vivian Smolen, the heroine of Our Gal
Sunday, in autumn 1958. She furnished, in many handwritten pages, answers
to some of my questions about how things worked backstage at a soap opera.
After she wed entertainment executive Harold Klein in December 1958 (her
only marriage), the couple lived in New York and Chicago before retiring to
south Florida near the state's east coast. I was linked to her again in the
late 1990s through actress Florence Freeman, the heroine of contemporary
dramas Wendy Warren and the News and Young Widder Brown, who resided about
10 miles from Vivian then. Both women were exceedingly helpful as I
prepared "The Great Radio Soap Operas" initially released in 1999 and
re-released in 2008 ([removed]).
It was only then, in April 1998, I discovered that Vivian was informed of
her show's imminent cancellation when she read it in the newspaper a few
weeks earlier (about the time of her marriage) along with everyone else.
While she did not sound bitter four decades afterward, it seemed an
ungrateful method of acknowledging an employee's service after she had
helped the network presumably generate millions of dollars in the
13-and-a-half years she played the lead.
Apparently that kind of thing was the norm. Yet I was absolutely stunned
when an actress who had been with Virginia Payne on the final broadcast of
Ma Perkins on Nov. 25, 1960 (the day radio drama died), confided in me at a
FOTR banquet a few years ago. Never missing a broadcast in those 27 years,
after Payne transcribed the final episode, there was no one from the network
hierarchy to say "thank you" for her years of service. No euphoria, no
gifts, no bouquets, no goodbys. Sensing the awkwardness of the moment, and
feeling badly about it, the actress who told me this -- and an actor who had
been on the show -- took the heroine to a nearby watering hole for a
celebratory farewell drink after they finished taping that day. It was
purportedly all Virginia Payne got.
I guess the radio business wasn't a lot different from some situations we
occasionally witness in the real world. It's just disturbing that some of
our heroes and heroines were so shabbily treated as they were put out to
pasture.
Jim Cox
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 21:09:13 -0500
From: Sean Dougherty <seandd@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: OTR in the News
David Hinckley of the Daily News reviews a recent series of Bing Crosby
radio re-runs on satelite radio.
[removed]
[removed]
The New York Times reprints a column by the late George Burns on his
favorite New Year's eve.
[removed]
Sean Dougherty
SeanDD@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 21:10:17 -0500
From: Jerry Haendiges <Jerry@[removed];
To: Old Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: OLD TYME RADIO NETWORK
Hi Friends,
Here is this week's schedule for my Olde Tyme Radio Network. Here you
may listen to high-quality broadcasts with Tom Heathwood's "Heritage
Radio Theatre," Big John Matthews and Steve "Archive" Urbaniak's "The
Glowing Dial" and my own "Same Time, Same Station." Streamed in
high-quality audio, on demand, 24/7 at [removed]
Many new titles have been added to our High-Quality mp3 catalog at:
[removed]
=======================================
SAME TIME, SAME STATION
Happy New Year!
THE TIP TOP SHOW
Episode 14 1-4-40 "Happy New Year's ... Again!"
Blue Network Ward's Tip Top Bread Thursdays 8:30 - 9:00 Pm
Stars: Joe Penner, Jacques Reynard And His Orchestra, Ken Stevens, Russ
Brown
ROMANCE
Episode 137 12-29-56 "A Quiet Little Party"
Stars: Virginia Gregg and Stacy Harris
CBS Sustained Saturdays 9:00 - 9:30pm
Director: Norman Macdonnell
FATHER KNOWS BEST
Episode 62 12-28-50 "Party Preparations"
NBC General Foods Thursdays 8:30 - 9:00 Pm
Stars: Robert Young, Norma Jean Nilsson, Ted Donaldson, Rhoda Williams,
June Whitley, Eleanor Audley
Announcer: Bill Forman
Creator/Writer: Ed James
Writers: Paul West, Roz Rogers
THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP MARLOWE
Episode 14 12-26-48 "The Old Acquaintance"
Stars: Gerald Mohr
CBS Sustained
BONUS NEW YEAR'S EVE PROGRAM
Complete 4-hour New Year's Eve festivities from 12-31-54 presented by
the NBC "All Star Parade of Bands."
Program includes the bands of Guy Lombardo, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey,
Buddy Rich, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Eddie Sauter and Bill
Finnigan, Ralph Marteri, Errol Garner, Les Brown, George Shearing, and
Ted Heath (from London)
==================================
HERITAGE RADIO THEATER
Happy New Year!
AMOS AND ANDY
(NBC) December 29, 1944
New Years Eve Party - Andy's not invited.
THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN
(WOR Synd.) July-Aug. 1940 "Lighthouse Point Smugglers"
Final 3 chapters of Pre-network show. Bud Collyer.
NEW YEARS EXTRA
Red Ingle and Bob & Ray
====================================
THE GLOWING DIAL
Fibber McGee and Molly - "Ringing In The Holidays"
originally aired December 23, 1941 on NBC
Starring: Jim and Marian Jordan, Isabel Randolph, Gale Gordon, Harold
Peary, Martha Tilton, The King's Men, Billy Mills & His Orchestra,
Harlow Wilcox announcing.
Sponsor: Johnson's Wax & Johnson's Self-Polishing Glo-Coat
Amos 'n' Andy - "Andy Plays Santa Claus / The Lord's Prayer"
originally aired December 23, 1951 on CBS
Starring: Freeman Gosden, Charles Correll, Jeff Alexander's Orchestra &
Chorus, Harlow Wilcox announcing.
Sponsor: Rexall
Author's Playhouse - "Christmas By Injunction"
originally aired December 21, 1941 on NBC Red
Starring: Cliff Sabere, Curley Bradley, Sidney Ellstrom, Jerry Spellman,
Fern Parsons, Harriet Allen, Eva Parnell, Hilda Graham, Dan Bowers,
Clarence Hartzell, Percy Hemus, Carl Kronke, Michael Romano.
Music by Roy (Leroy) Shield (Our Gang, Laurel & Hardy).
Taken from the O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) story of the same name.
Sustained
Bob Hope Show - "Greetings From Bob 'Christmas Tree' Hope"
originally aired December 23, 1941 on NBC
Starring: Bob Hope, Jerry Colonna, Frances Langford, Six Hits and a
Miss, Madeline Carroll, Skinnay Ennis, Ben Gage.
Sponsor: Pepsodent
CBS Radio Workshop - "All Is Bright" (The story of the song "Silent Night")
originally aired December 23, 1956 on CBS
Starring: Rudolph Weiss, Joe Julian, Herm Dinken, Bob Pfeiffer announcing.
Sustained
==================================
If you have any questions or request, please feel free to contact me.
Jerry Haendiges
Jerry@[removed] 562-696-4387
The Vintage Radio Place [removed]
Largest source of Old Time Radio Logs, Articles and programs on
the Net
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:34:18 -0500
From: Randy Watts <rew1014@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Signed, A. (sometime) Scrooge
1947 Decca (?) / MGM (?) 78's Records / w/Richard Hale, narr.; Henry
Daniell, "Marley" (?); dr.,Dailey Paskman; Mus., Sammy Timberg; David
Rose Orch. (?) (24m.)
Barrymore recorded "A Christmas Carol" for MGM Records. Decca Records cast
Ronald Colman as Scrooge on their album. Columbia's version starred Basil
Rathbone. Victor's starred Eustace Wyatt, and is notable for having been
adapted and narrated by Ernest Chappell, of QUIET PLEASE fame. The supporting
cast of the Rathbone version is filled with familiar radio voices: Elliott
Lewis, Arthur Q. Bryan, Tommy Cook, Paula Winslowe, Lurene Tuttle and Walter
Tetley, among others, along with Harlow Wilcox as narrator. The casting of
Rathbone was interesting, given that this version was scripted by Edith
Meiser and directed by Tom McKnight, both of whom had worked on the Sherlock
Holmes radio series.
Randy
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:34:26 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 12-29 births/deaths
December 29th births
12-29-1879 - Billy Mitchell - Nice, France - d. 2-19-1936
aviator: "The World's Most Honored Flights"
12-29-1892 - Emory Parnell - St. Paul, MN - d. 6-22-1979
actor: Grouch "Grouch Club"; "Eddie Bracken Show"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
12-29-1894 - Harry Lang - NYC - d. 8-3-1953
actor: Mr. Fuddle "Blondie"; Pan Pancho "Cisco Kid"
12-29-1898 - Jules Bledsoe - Waco, TX - d. 7-14-1943
baritone: "Jubilee"; "The Theatre Magazine"
12-29-1898 - Pat Padgett - Atlanta, GA - d. 2-6-1990
comedian: January "Show Boat"; Pat "Model Minstrels"
12-29-1903 - Clyde McCoy - Ashland, KY - d. 6-11-1990
bandleader: "Clyde McCoy and His Orchestra"
12-29-1904 - Wendell Niles - Twin Valley, MN - d. 3-28-1994
announcer: "Bob Hope Show"; "Man Called X"; "Hollywood Star Playhouse"
12-29-1915 - Robert Ruark - Wilmington, NC - d. 7-1-1965
novelist: "Who Said That?"
12-29-1920 - Viveca Lindfors - Uppsala, Sweden - d. 10-25-1995
actor: "[removed] Steel Hour"
12-29-1921 - Robert Latting - Michigan - d. 9-29-1983
announcer: "The Cavalcade of America"; "Woman in White"
12-29-1930 - Doris Chillcott - Vancouver, Canada - d. 11-19-2006
performer on radio in her native Canada
12-29-1931 - Olgita DeCastro - d. 2-14-2000
singer: (The DeCastro Sisters) "Steve Lawrence Show"; "Here's to
Veterans"
12-29-1938 - Don Chevrier - Toronto, Canada - d. 12-17-2007
sports announcer: "Cassius Clay vs. George Chauvalo"
December 29th deaths
01-02-1928 - Howard Caine - Nashville, TN - d. 12-29-1993
actor: "The Brighter Day"; "The Guiding Light"
01-03-1927 - William Boyett - Akron, OH - d. 12-29-2004
actor: Freelance in younger years
01-15-1909 - Gloria Grafton - Yakima, WA - d. 12-29-1994
actor: Mickey Considine "The Jumbo Fire Chief Program"
02-12-1902 - Tom Waring - Tyrone, PA - d. 12-29-1960
composer: (Brother of Fred) "The Fred Waring Show"
02-14-1890 - John Vincent Lawless Hogan - Phildelphia, PA - d.
12-29-1960
chief laboratory assistant to Lee De Forest, invented single-dial tuning
03-28-1890 - Paul Whiteman - Denver, CO - d. 12-29-1967
conductor: "Kraft Music Hall"; "George Burns and Gracie Allen Show"
04-19-1897 - Vivienne Segal - Philadelphia, PA - d. 12-29-1992
actor: "Jantzen Radio Program"
05-24-1877 - Robert Hood Bowers - Chambersburg, PA - d. 12-29-1941
conductor: (The Home Harmonizers) "Home Harmony Time"
06-27-1892 - Robert Ellis - Brooklyn, NY - d. 12-29-1974
actor: Del Tremaine "Arnold Grimm's Daughter"
09-13-1913 - Roy Engel - Missouri - d. 12-29-1980
actor:Schuyler 'Sky' King "Sky King" "NBC University Theatre"
12-13-1920 - Don Taylor - Freeport, PA - d. 12-29-1998
actor: "Indiana School of the Sky"; "Family Theatre"; "Hollywood Star
Preview"
12-14-1894 - Theo Goetz - d. 12-29-1972
actor: Papa Bauer "The Guiding Light"
12-18-1897 - Fletcher Henderson - Cuthbert, GA - d. 12-29-1952
jazz orchestra leader: "Jubilee"; "Magic Carpet"
Ron
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:35:02 -0500
From: "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Signed, A. (sometime) Scrooge
From: Wich2@[removed] -- Craig Wichman asks:
(No recordings exist of any of these
performances [of "A Christmas Carol"
on Hollywood Hotel]?)
Don't know. But the August 2, 1938 Lowell (MA) Sun prints this interesting
nugget:
***
Fred Ibbett, ace producer, has been presented with a series of wax records of
his "Hollywood Hotel" shows which were taken off the air by short wave by his
father in London.
***
Earlier that year, another blurb mentions that Ibbett was scheduled to leave
the series in May "after a ten month stay." Presumably, he would have
produced the 1937 "Carol" broadcast.
So where are those wax records?
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:54:36 -0500
From: Steven Lewis <stevenl751@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Gotham Radio Players present THE MAN BEHIND THE
GUN
The Gotham Radio Players are pleased to announce the premiere broadcast
of a recreation of a lost 1943 episode from the Peabody award-winning
series THE MAN BEHIND THE GUN.
One of the most acclaimed wartime series from the golden age of radio,
THE MAN BEHIND THE GUN was "dedicated to the fighting men of the United
States and the United Nations -- broadcast in the hope that these
authentic accounts of men at war will bring to all a better
understanding and deeper appreciation of the job being done by our
fighting forces everywhere in the world". Each dramatic episode,
fictional but based on actual events, told the very human story of a
man (or woman) in one of the branches of the armed services. Our
episode tells the story of Wally, sound man, aboard the "Coast Guard
Cutter Spencer".
A central character in The MAN BEHIND THE GUN series was the voice of
the narrator, played in the original series by Jackson Beck. For our
production, the Gotham Radio Players were very lucky to have radio and
television veteran Jeff David step into this role. In recent years Jeff
had become a favorite performer at the Friends of Old-Time Radio
Convention, with his memorable performances in many recreations there.
Unfortunately Jeff passed away shortly after recording this show with
us. He was a natural for the role of the narrator, a generous and
talented performer, and it was both a pleasure and an honor for us to
have him as a member of our cast. Our production is dedicated to his
memory.
You can hear THE MAN BEHIND THE GUN this Sunday on:
"The Golden Age of Radio"
Sunday, January 4
7:00 PM (Eastern)
WBAI, [removed] FM in the NYC area
Worldwide over the Internet at [removed]
You will also be able to listen to an archive of the broadcast at
WBAI's website for about 2 weeks afterwards.
So mark your calendars, and don't forget to tune us in live this coming
Sunday at 7:00 PM (eastern), for the lost MAN BEHIND THE GUN episode
"Coast Guard Cutter Spencer".
Steve Lewis ([removed] Steven M. Lewis)
director, Gotham Radio Players
The mission of the Gotham Radio Players is to bring new productions of
classic radio programs of the 1930's, 40's and 50's to the airwaves of
today, as well as showcase original scripts written by emerging audio
dramatists. The Gotham Radio Players are featured regularly in live
performances on WBAI-FM, which are rebroadcast on other radio stations
across the country, and can be heard worldwide via the Internet. We
also appear annually at the "Friends of Old Time Radio" Convention, and
at other performances in the NYC metropolitan area.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:31:37 -0500
From: "Adam L. Fuller" <adamfuller@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: photo of Frank Nelson
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
Anybody know where I can find a 8"10 black and white photo of Frank Nelson? I
looked on ebay and couldn't find one.
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2008 Issue #296
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