Subject: [removed] Digest V2004 #343
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 10/24/2004 3:24 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2004 : Issue 343
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  the first transistor radios           [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
  Backstage Wife                        [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
  10-24 births/deaths                   [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  [removed] collections?              [ "Alain Altounian" <[removed]@[removed] ]
  Date for Jack's four dates            [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
  More Jack Benny and Race              [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
  This week in radio history 10/24-30   [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  Re: Good and bad soap operas          [ Ken Dahl <kdahl@[removed]; ]
  Our Miss Brooks-Principal Osgood Con  [ lynn wagar <philcolynn@[removed]; ]
  Re: undated Benny episode             [ "Brian L Bedsworth" <az2pa@[removed]; ]
  The Brice is Right                    [ Bhob <bhob2@[removed]; ]
  JB is planting cotton?                [ "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed] ]
  AFRS titles                           [ "joe@[removed]" <sergei01@earthli ]
  Re: Pre-1932 Benny                    [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Re: Benny's earliest appearances      [ Dixonhayes@[removed] ]

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Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 11:31:34 +0000
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  the first transistor radios

There is a fine illustrated article about the Regency radio in a recent 
issue of American Heritage of Invention and Technology.  I'm afraid I don't 
know the particular issue, but you can begin the search at the American 
Heritage website and click on the box for their Invention and Technology 
edition, which comes out quarterly and is highly recommended.  They 
published an article of mine once.

I'm glad I was around to see the first transistor radios. Many were not 
exactly pocket-sized: my friend had a nice GE that was the size of a brick.
Transistors gradually made their way into car radios in the 1950's.  Some 
of these were hybrids, using both tubes and transistors, since the early 
transistors weren't great at amplifying radio frequencies.  There were also 
a good many kit radios that used transistors: Heathkit and Lafayette 
marketed two popular ones.

My youthful enthusiasm for tiny radios was unbridled, though I didn't learn 
electronics until I was in my '20's.

M Kinsler
512 E Mulberry St. Lancaster, Ohio USA 43130 740-687-6368
[removed]~mkinsler1

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Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 11:31:42 +0000
From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Backstage Wife

Jim Cox, in response to my criticism of 'Backstage Wife' wrote:

 > Don't judge a book by its cover, and don't think you've figured out a serial
 > after hearing one quarter-hour episode, I would humbly beg.

Jim, first let me thank you for your detailed and informative response. You 
reminded me of many other soaps I listened to and enjoyed.

However I did not listen to just one episode of 'Backstage Wife', I 
listened to 183 episodes which included a full story line, the Claudia 
Vincent one where Larry invites her to live with them after she attempted 
to kill Rupert Barlow.  The episodes start with #3913, but I can't be sure 
that the compiler didn't arbitrarily number them and I don't know the date 
of broadcast except that their son was about 7-8 at the time.

I have always been a fan of the genre and a follower of TV soaps as well 
when I was home with pre-schoolers, so I'm not taking potshots.  As I read 
your list of other Hummert soaps and realized it included many that I liked.

It does come down to personal taste and I found 'Backstage Wife' not at all 
to my liking.    I've listened to many 'Guiding Light' episodes in recent 
years which I really like, a storyline I really found compelling.   I 
followed that program from radio to TV and was glad that 'Bert', Charita 
Bauer, a favorite of mine,  moved on as well.

Again, thanks for your response.

--Irene

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

Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 11:31:49 +0000
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  10-24 births/deaths

October 24th births

10-24-1879 - Benjamin Albert "[removed]" Rolfe - Brasher Falls, NY - d. 4-23-1956
conductor: "Lucky Strike Dance Orchestra"; "Believe It or Not"
10-24-1894 - Ted "Kid" Lewis - London, England - d. 8-25-1971
bandleader: "Live Band Remotes"
10-24-1904 - Moss Hart - The Bronx, NY - d. 12-20-1961
panelist: "Who Said That?"
10-24-1904 - Radie Harris - NYC - d. 2-22-2001
gossip columnist: CBS Radio Network
10-24-1911 - Sonny Terry - Greensboro, GA - d. 3-11-1986
blues singer, harmonica player: "Hootenanny"; "Roomful of Music"
10-24-1925 - Terri Keane - NYC
actress: Hope Evans "Big Sister"; Terry Burton "Second Mrs. Burton"
10-24-1930 - J. P. "Big Bopper" Richardson - Sabine Pass, TX - d. 2-3-1959
Early Rock and Roll disc jockey
10-24-1936 - David Nelson - NYC
actor: "Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet"

October 24th deaths

01-31-1919 - Jackie Robinson - Cairo, GA - d. 10-24-1972
sportscaster: (Baseball Hall of Fame) "Jackie Robinson Show"
02-27-1888 - Lotte Lehmann - Perleberg, Prussia, Germany - d. 10-24-1976
soprano: "Command Performance"; "Concert Hall"; "Here's to Veterans"
04-30-1870 - Franz Lehar - Romorn, Austria-Hungary - d. 10-24-1948
operetta composer: "Railroad Hour"; "Showtime"
06-07-1934 - Beverly Wills - CA - d. 10-24-1963
actress: Fluffy Adams "Junior Miss"
09-07-1927 - Don Messick - Buffalo, NY - d. 10-24-1997
actor: "Let George Do It"; "Horizons West"; "NBC University Theatre"
10-28-1897 - Edith Head - San Bernardino, CA - d. 10-24-1981
costume designer: Intermission Guest "Lux Radio Theatre"
-- Ron Sayles Milwaukee, Wisconsin ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 11:31:59 +0000 From: "Alain Altounian" <[removed]@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: [removed] collections? I often PREFER the AFRS version; When listening to several episodes of a series ( or a series i listen to frequently), i sometimes prefer not hearing the same-similar ads repeated over and over (even if giving up a bit of [removed]). (Actually, i also like hearing the AFRS add-ons; "This was [removed]" ) Are there any sources for "AFRS collections" of various series? Thanks, Alain. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 11:32:06 +0000 From: JackBenny@[removed] To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: Date for Jack's four dates Kermyt Anderson writes: > I need help dating a Jack Benny episode. My copy says only "1944". Jack > is trying to get a date to the premiere of "The Horn Blows at > Midnight", and asks Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Jinx > Falkenburg, and Jeanne Crain -- of whom eventually accept. The copy I > have might be AFRS--all the commercials are cut out. All supporting > players besides Rochester are excised, as well, suggesting this is a > heavily edited ("butchered") copy. It's a "fake program" that someone edited together to sound like an actual Benny show. I think the skit was done on another show, like (not saying it is) "Command Performance". If I knew the exact source, I've forgotten it. But we'll find it some day. > I haven't bought 39 Forever, vol 1yet Well, what's holding you back? :) --Laura Leff President, IJBFC [removed] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 11:32:14 +0000 From: JackBenny@[removed] To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: More Jack Benny and Race I'm talking a lot for being on [removed] Being that it's a very gray and rainy day here and I didn't feel like doing much before the first game of the World Series comes on and I can watch the BOSTON RED SOX reverse the [removed] decided to convert some of my Benny videos to DVD. One I did was the 1-27-52 "Gaslight" show with Barbara Stanwyck. Rochester appears, dressed in ridiculously Elizabethan attire and brandishing an accent that's more in line with Nottingham ([removed] December 1945 Benny shows if unfamiliar with that character). There's a line in there about working, and Rochester says something like, "What, me working?" (No, I don't know if there was an intended connection to Alfred E. Newman.) I know I'm risking (re)starting a firestorm here, but hey, what's a list for anyway? I heard the line, I understood it in character, it was funny. Probably 98%+ of the people on this list would interpret it as I did. But I live in the heart of one of the Politically Correct areas of the world, and it's essential to think ahead about how people interpret comments so you aren't getting hauled into Human Resources regularly. So that programming also kicked in and I could imagine how someone unfamiliar with the Benny characters and looking for something offensive (much as the censors would find sexual innuendo when none was really intended) could immediately seize on that line and say, "They're trying to infer that black servants are inherently lazy and do no work, much like Stepin Fetchit! How racist!" Characters in Dilbert today, let's say Wally for example, could have a build-up to the line "What, me working?" and it would be taken in character. But paired with an African American actor, it seems to be interpreted differently. If you're looking for racism, you can find it. But you can also find many things in Rorschach tests. --Laura Leff President, IJBFC [removed] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 11:32:21 +0000 From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: This week in radio history 10/24-30 From Those Were The Days -- 10/24 1929 - The Rudy Vallee Show was broadcast for the first time on NBC. Actually, the Rudy Vallee show had several different titles over the years, all of which were referred to by the public as The Rudy Vallee Show. Megaphone-totin' Rudy and his Connecticut Yankees band were mainstays on radio into the late 1940s. 10/25 1937 - Stella Dallas made her debut on the NBC Red network. Stella hung out on NBC until 1955 with Anne Elstner in the title role for the entire run. Stella Dallas was "A continuation on the air of the true-life story of mother love and sacrifice, in which Stella saw her own beloved daughter, Laurel, marry into wealth and society, and realizing the difference in their tastes and worlds, went out of Laurel's life." 10/26 1935 - A talented twelve-year-old sang on Wallace Beery's NBC show. Judy Garland delighted the appreciative audience. The young girl would soon be in pictures and at the top of stardom. It would be only four years before Ms. Garland (George Jessel gave her the name, thinking it would be better than her own, Frances Gumm) captured the hearts of moviegoers everywhere with her performance as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. 10/27 Marconi, Fessenden, and De Forest were the catalysts. However, it was an engineer for Westinghouse Electric who, in 1916, was broadcasting music from his garage (in Wilkinsburg, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh) over a wireless (amateur radio station 8XK) who really got the whole thing started. A newspaper article about the broadcasts caused such interest that the head honchos at Westinghouse decided to build a real radio station. It took until this day in 1920 for the Westinghouse radio station to receive a license to broadcast. The license for KDKA, Pittsburgh came from the [removed] Department of Commerce. Although the license was officially issued on this day, KDKA did not start their broadcast operations for a week (they had to wait until the license was posted in the station). On November 2, 1920, the station aired the returns of the Harding/Cox election ... the first radio programming to reach an audience of any size ... approximately 1,000 people. 10/28 1922 - WEAF in New York broadcast the first collegiate football game heard coast to coast. Princeton played the University of Chicago at Stagg Field in the Windy City. The broadcast was carried on phone lines to New York City, where the radio transmission began. (Princeton 21, Chicago 18.) 1946 - Our favorite flying cowboy was heard on ABC for the first time. Sky King starred Jack Lester, then Earl Nightingale, and finally, Roy Engel, as Sky. Beryl Vaughn played Sky's niece Penny; Jack Bivens was Chipper and Cliff Soubier was the foreman. Sky King was sponsored by Mars candy. 10/30 Orson Welles, known to radio audiences as The Shadow, presented his famous dramatization of [removed] Wells' The War of the Worlds on CBS's Mercury Theater at 8 [removed] Joe
-- Visit my homepage: [removed]~[removed] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 11:32:30 +0000 From: Ken Dahl <kdahl@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: Re: Good and bad soap operas In recent days there have been postings about good and bad radio soap operas. I cannot provide the Digest subscribers with any specific qualities that would determine a good or bad soap opera but I can direct the readers to a site which indicates the listners favorite soaps based on ratings. At [removed]'[removed]#Menu2 you will find, for example, that the [removed] rated soap opera alternated between Ma Perkins, When A Girl Marries, Big Sister and The Romance of Helen Trent for the radio seasons 1945-1950. In addition, this site provides ratings for all types of radio programs from 1930-1956. For each of the rated programs, you will see the time, network and sponsor. Have fun going down radio memory lane. Regards, Ken Dahl ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 11:32:37 +0000 From: lynn wagar <philcolynn@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: Our Miss Brooks-Principal Osgood Conklin X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain A digester wanted to know if Principal Osgood Conklin was ever a teacher before becomming a principal? Yes, on OMB show dated 10-2-49 titled Rival Football Osgood states in referance to Jason Brille Clay City High Principal "Before we were teachers at State Normal". State Normal was a College or High Shool-who knows?? But Osgood was a teacher!! Check out the episode for the full story. Enjoy! Lynn Wagar *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear *** *** as the sender intended. *** ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 11:32:43 +0000 From: "Brian L Bedsworth" <az2pa@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: Re: undated Benny episode > I need help dating a Jack Benny episode. [...] Jack > is trying to get a date to the premiere of "The Horn Blows at > Midnight", and asks Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Jinx > Falkenburg, and Jeanne Crain -- of whom eventually accept. The missing word here, surprisingly, is not "none", but rather "all". It really needs to be heard: Jack with too =many= women. > The copy I > have might be AFRS--all the commercials are cut out. All supporting > players besides Rochester are excised, as well, suggesting this is a > heavily edited ("butchered") copy. Oh, it's quite definitely AFRS, alright. It's so AFRS, in fact, that it's not really a Benny show at all. It's Mail Call, one of the Command Performance knock-off shows that aired during the war. The date I have for this one is 07 March 45, episode 135. The Goldin database for this show lists the following: "10416. Mail Call. March 7, 1945. Program #135. AFRS origination. The Smart Set sings, "El Rancho Rio Grande." Jack gets four dates to go with him to see the preview of, "The Horn Blows At Midnight." The program was released April, 1945. The program sounds as if it were assembled from other broadcasts. Jack Benny (m. c.), Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, Jinx Falkenburg, Jeanne Crain, Rochester, Miguelito Valdez, John Brown, Frank Nelson, The Smart Set, Ken Niles (announcer), The Andrews Sisters, Jerry Hausner. 30:35. Audio condition: Very good to excellent. Complete." (Just my two coppers banging, but -most- Mail Call shows sound "assembled from other broadcasts". Maybe because few of the surviving programs have actually been put together from elements that were produced and stored together?) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 11:32:49 +0000 From: Bhob <bhob2@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: The Brice is Right Today (Sunday) and through Wednesday, some PBS stations are running repeats of the terrific six-part BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL, which claims to be "nine years in the making." The series is structured in what one might describe as "the Ken Burns style" and is fairly comprehensive in tracing the evolution from musical comedy to musical drama. Episode one (1893-1927) has some fascinating footage of Fanny Brice. The series website is quite elaborate with many pages and includes a short article by Laurence Maslon, "Broadway and the Radio," with related video clips: [removed]# There's an impressive "Broadway Milestones" year-by-year illustrated timeline [[removed]] plus profiles of Brice, Cantor, Jolson and others. The profile of Kurt Weill mentions his "Down in the Valley" (1948), a 20-minute "folk opera for radio." Does anyone have any details about that broadcast? Bhob @ FUSEBOX CLASSIC COMIC STRIPS @ [removed] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 11:32:55 +0000 From: "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: JB is planting cotton? X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/mixed X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain In #341, Thom Bray wrote: > [snip] when taken through the famous JACK IS CHEAP filter, it has a much more > acceptable through line of logic to it. Think about the joke again and remember > how tight Jack is with a buck--the joke takes on an added dimension. True, I hadn't really considered it through the Jack-is-cheap filter. That tends to put in a more Jack motivated by potential for profit light. I believe that Rochester's relatives (in the story) were from Alabama (or some other southern state), and given the "southern" jokes around Phil Harris, this joke could also be seen in a regional sense rather than a race sense. Still, even though I've listened to OTR my whole life, and understand it in a historical context, I'm still only 30 and can't help but listen with modern sensibilities. -chris holm [server removed a section which didn't have a content-type header] *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear *** *** as the sender intended. *** ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 11:33:03 +0000 From: "joe@[removed]" <sergei01@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: AFRS titles Kermyt Anderson asked about AFRS titles for certain radio programs that had an advertiser's name integrated into the series title. The answer is - they invented a new name. Would you care to guess how "Hour of Charm" or "Music from America" began life? Incidentally, the AFRS originally called this last series by its domestic name before inventing a new one. Joe Salerno ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 18:10:36 +0000 From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed]; To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: Re: Pre-1932 Benny On 10/24/04 10:29 AM, "[removed]@[removed]" <[removed]@[removed]; wrote: > However, it's always been a rather significant claim that Jack's "first > words on radio" were those spoken on his Ed Sullivan appearance. Jack > himself makes no mention of any earlier radio appearances in "Sunday Nights > at Seven". > Jack also claimed well into the 1960s that his "debut on radio" was on the > Ed Sullivan program. This sort of thing seems to be fairly common among many radio personalities -- that in telling the story of their early careers, certain details of early broadcast work are often elided, perhaps to make the account flow more consistently, especially when the earliest radio appearances are minor guest shots, charity dates, or other miscellaneous engagements. This is especially true if these early appearances occured on obscure local or regional programs. Fred Allen's case is very similar to Benny's, for example. By his own most-often-related account his radio career began in 1932 with the Linit series on CBS, but in fact he was making scattered appearances on the air as far back as 1928, including a major guest shot on the "Collier's Hour" in 1930. But these appearances have gone undocumented in the standard-issue OTR histories, perhaps because they didn't fit in with the story Allen wanted to tell. One useful tool in running down these sorts of mysteries are the Artist Record Cards in the NBC Collection at the Library of Congress, which keep an authoritative running account of performers' radio work thruout their careers, providing documentation of appearances which is found nowhere else. Elizabeth "The Original Amos 'n' Andy" -- Coming in Spring 2005 from McFarland & Co. [removed] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 18:10:45 +0000 From: Dixonhayes@[removed] To: <[removed]@[removed]; Subject: Re: Benny's earliest appearances X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain In a message dated 10/24/04 10:31:49 AM Central Daylight Time, [removed]@[removed] writes: > History sometimes rewrites itself due to poor memories or bad archiving. I wonder if those earlier appearances, weren't examples of functions/banquets/shows that just happened to be carried on the radio, and Benny's first trip to a radio studio to speak specifically over the airwaves was that Ed Sullivan appearance? I know that's a hair-splitter but it would explain why Benny himself never thought of the earlier appearances as "radio" appearances. Dixon *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear *** *** as the sender intended. *** -------------------------------- End of [removed] Digest V2004 Issue #343 ********************************************* 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] To Send Mail to the list, simply send to [removed]@[removed]