Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #33
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 1/28/2002 5:26 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2002 : Issue 33
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Hal Stone, Suspense Episodes, and Mo  [ "Ryan Hall" <pezman419@[removed]; ]
  go to the conventions                 [ "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed]; ]
  Phillips AZ1155 Mp3 player            [ "ecrasez" <ecrasez@[removed]; ]
  Re: More Minstrels                    [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  ReinCARnation                         [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
  bad business with Radio Spirits       [ "Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@neb. ]
  Re: who is he? ( from richard pratz)  [ Jer51473@[removed] ]
  Two O'clock EWT                       [ Backus2@[removed] ]
  OTR Chat                              [ "Lois Culver" <lois@[removed]; ]
  re Phil Harris show's [removed]       [ John Henley <jhenley@[removed] ]
  ... Hear! Hear!                       [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  Lone Ranger-Cheerios-Lunchbox premiu  [ leemunsick@[removed] ]
  Re: Richard Pratz' "Who Is It?"       [ John Henley <jhenley@[removed] ]
  Engineering Advances                  [ "H. K. Hinkley" <hkhinkley@[removed] ]
  Putting in my own two cents re the    [ "Jan Bach" <janbach@[removed]; ]
  "GEORGE BURNS" ON BROADWAY            [ "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; ]
  A sad day for Sweden, and the world   [ "Marcus Antonsson" <[removed] ]
  Radios                                [ JayHick@[removed] ]

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 13:44:28 -0500
From: "Ryan Hall" <pezman419@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Hal Stone, Suspense Episodes, and More

Hal "Juggy" Stone had the following comment that I have to respond to:

     Ryan, for my money, your "two cents worth" is priceless. Keep
the coins flowing. But on second thought. Maybe You better save your
pennies. You might need 'em when I sue you for Defamation of
Character.

More like Definition of Character, but I'll let that slide. And I agree with
him (I know that's shocking) that if you subscribe to this list and never
have attended Lois' Thursday night chat, you are really missing out. Its
quite a hoot. I really missed it when I was out of the country back in the
fall and did not have access to the internet. Without me to keep him in
line, Jughead almost ran amuck from what I'm told. Just [removed]

As for the previous posting concerning my top 3 favorite Suspense
[removed] is indeed a toughie. I was always rather fond of the Blair
Witch-esque first person "Ghost Hunt" with I think Danny Kaye, but I'm not
certain about that. I also enjoyed a "Too Perfect Alibi" which I think would
make a fantastic [removed] it would actually take real acting instead of
the special effects and profanity that now tends to dominate the junk coming
out of Hollyweird. My theory is that the appeal of mind blowing special
effects will eventually wear off and the actors will have to start acting
again with intelligent [removed] I'm not holding my breath. And I always
thought the House in Cypress Canyon was pretty freaky too. When I was doing
my late night radio drama recreation for my school radio station, we did
this one once time for Halloween and it was a lot of fun.

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 13:44:06 -0500
From: "Walden Hughes" <hughes1@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: go to the conventions

If any body is near an OTR convention this year, please do your self a favor
and go.  I am 35 years old and have been at 17 OTR convention, and have met
some wonderful people like Hal.  Thank to the internet I believe OTR will be
alive.  Right now I believe we are at a very importance cross road in the
hobby.  Media Bay announce in there last 10Q that they are losing $4 a share
and they have 13 million share out standing.  In other words the company is
losing 50 millions dollars a year.  They are shutting down there Radio
Spirit plant in Million, and moving control back to New Jersey, and looking
for a third party to handle OTR.  Media Bay is writing off the book
different mail order list they have bought for there  audio book companies.
They have over 1,900,00 million people on there book list but 600,000,000 on
there OTR mail list.  Another interesting fact is the listenership for OTR.
The last I know KNX in Los Angeles OTR at 9 PM is the most popular hour at
night for all ages in the LA market, and Yesterday USA is rank by Yahoo has
the third most popular broadcasting web site in the World behind the BBC and
CNN.  The last I know there where over 7 thousands stations broadcast.  It
is going to be very interesting what going to happen in the hobby.  Take
care,

Walden Hughes

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 14:57:21 -0500
From: "ecrasez" <ecrasez@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Phillips AZ1155 Mp3 player

Somebody asked me offlist to post more details about the Phillips
AZ1155 mp3 player. Since I was going to Best Buy anyway, I took
a handful of cds with varying bitrates. I think the lowest bitrate
recordings I have are at 32, which gives me about 100 hours per
cd (74min.) The player has no problem with this lower rate. It
does not display the file names, but rather only the track number.

I also tried the Sony CFD-S40CP, which did not play the lower
bitrate recordings, but does however show the file name of the
selected track.

Both have remote controls.

Bob S.

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 14:57:41 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: More Minstrels

Mike Biel wrote:

I have the disc of two Pic and Pat syndicated programs from around 1933,
and at the Edison Site there is a 1929 sample program of a proposed
syndicated Gold Dust Twins program of Goldy and Dusty that has some
elements of minstrelry.  (I've heard rumors that these might be the same
performers, or maybe that was Molasses 'n' January?)

Pick and Pat *were* Molasses 'n' January, but the Gold Dust Twins were
Harvey Hindemeyer and Earl Tuckerman, who were better known as Edison
recording artists. They were basically a harmony team who did
minstrel-style songs rather than an out-and-out comedy act.

Pick Malone and Pat Padgett were a vaudeville team who rode into radio on
the coattails of the Amos 'n' Andy craze in the early thirties and were
most successful for their comedy-relief work on the Maxwell House Show
Boat beginning in 1932. One critic proclaimed them "the worst blackface
team in the history of the world," although there were plenty of
competitors for that title.

While working on the Show Boat as Molasses 'n' January, Malone and
Padgett made a series of syndications as Pick and Pat, and were
subsequently picked up by the U. S. Tobacco Company for a series known
variously as "One Night Stand"(no relation to the AFRS band-remote
series) and "Model Minstrels." They remained on this series for five
years, until early 1939 -- when they were abruptly fired. Pick Malone was
picked up by police in New York after threatening someone in a drunken
bar fight with an unlicensed handgun, and U. S. Tobacco immediately
invoked the morals clause in the team's contract to dismiss them. The
series continued with the team of Tom Howard and George Shelton, who were
essentially a minstrel-style comedy team without blackface or dialect (or
unlicensed weapons.)

Pick and Pat made a minor comeback in the forties, but by then their
material was embarassingly obsolete -- they were still doing "whut yo'
mean keepin' coal in de bathtub? Dat's no coal, dat's me!" jokes as late
as 1944. This type of material was typical of their approach, and was
really as out of date then as it is now.

Benny Fields with his wife Blossom Seeley were great stars of vaudeville
and minor stars of radio.

Fields' minstrel associations were still potent enough in 1936 for him to
be featured as the guest star in the second of the two "Mystic Knights of
the Sea Friday Night Minstrel Shows." There's also a Rudy Vallee program
extant from December 1934 in which Fields and Seeley both appear, doing
non-minstrel material from their vaudeville act.

I seem to recall that Honey Boy West was part of the team of Honey Boy and
Sassafras, who were also vaudeville and movie performers, but I'm
hitting a dead end on further information.

"Honeyboy and Sassafrass" were Georgie Fields and Johnny Welsh, a couple
of minor-league blackface comics from Texas who teamed up on KSAT in San
Antonio in 1929 as would-be Amos 'n' Andy imitators. Rather than doing
straight minstrel material, they tried to copy Correll and Gosden's
success with a serial storyline -- Honeyboy and Sassafrass ran the "Black
Panther Detective Agency," while competing for the romantic favors of
"the comely Peaches," who ran a speakeasy called "the Black Kitten Cafe."
A typical plotline involved the two in an expedition to the South
American jungle in search of a lost diamond mine, where Honeyboy fought
off the cannibal tribes with his straight razor. Honeyboy was a
fast-talking dandy in a cream-colored suit, and Sassafrass was his
slow-moving bumbling watermelon-addicted dupe -- in short, the program
had little in common with A&A, which never portrayed razor fights,
watermelons, speakeasies, cannibal tribes or lost diamond mines.

Fields and Welsh were durable, however -- they kept popping up on local
stations around the country thruout the thirties, and ran on NBC as a
daytime feature for several years in the mid-thirties. They were far more
successful than they ever deserved to be.

I don't believe that Honeyboy West was the Honeyboy of "Honeyboy and
Sassafrass." I seem to recall running across his name in the context of
old-time pre-WW1 minstrelsy, although there were a number of minstrel
performers who called themselves "Honeyboy" -- Honeyboy Evans being the
most prominent. During the pre-WW1 era, he worked with Leroy "Lasses"
White (who later teamed with "Honey" Wilds at the Grand Ole Opry) and I
wonder if Evans might in fact be the one referred to.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 14:58:08 -0500
From: JackBenny@[removed]
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: ReinCARnation

OK, fine, I won't play.  *Folded arms and pouting*

But I will add [removed] the Maxwell was donated to the scrap drive, a
later show featured a military plane flying by that sputtered and coughed
much like the Maxwell.  Thus the flivver had indeed given its all to the War
effort.

It is surprising that Jack is back driving the same car years later,
especially on a show that could still get laughs with Kenny Baker references
as late as 1954.  I've not heard a good explanation for the return of the
Maxwell.

--Laura Leff
President, IJBFC
[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 14:58:44 -0500
From: "Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@[removed];
To: "old time radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: bad business with Radio Spirits

Hi all:
I wonder if anyone has experienced something like this recently.  I called
Radio Spirits two days after Christmas to place an order.  They told me they
were in the process of moving and had to take inventory.  They told me my
order wouldn't be shipped out until January 11.  Now, here we are at January
28 and I still have seen no sign of my order.  I've called twice and spoke
to customer service.  Both times, they told me someone would call me back.
No callback.  The money hasn't cleared my account.  Now, I can understand
that moving is a hassle, but no callback?  Is anyone else currently
experiencing the same problem?  I think I'm going to cancel my order.  If
Radio Spirits can't even call me back to give me the status of an order,
they must not care about my business as a customer  If anyone else on this
digest has recently placed an order with this company, I suggest you might
want to do some [removed]
RyanO

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 14:59:01 -0500
From: Jer51473@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: who is he? ( from richard pratz)

  Warren Hull?  I remember him in The Green Hornet

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 14:58:53 -0500
From: Backus2@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Two O'clock EWT

   I just finished reading John Dunning's "Two O'clock Eastern War Time",
which I loved. Thanks, John.
   Were any of the radio plays which "Jordan" wrote for the big week ever
really written or produced? (Boer War,  Battery Wagner, etc.) If so, can
anyone supply a reference to them?
   Forgive me if this is an old question, I just got the book recently.

                                                  Dick Backus

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:39:09 -0500
From: "Lois Culver" <lois@[removed];
To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: OTR Chat

What do I need to do to take part--any special software?
Bill

Anyone who wishes to join our OTR Chat on Thursday evenings, drop me an
email at lois@[removed]  and I will send you detailed instructions on
getting there. The more the merrier!  You'll enjoy talking to Hal Stone
(Jughead) and Harry Bartell and all the rest of the gang, including Joe
Mackey who posts the radio happenings in past years, and Charlie -
maintainer of this Digest.

Lois Culver
KWLK Radio (Mutual) Longview, WA 1941-44
KFI Radio (NBC) Los Angeles CA 1945-47, 50-53
Widow of Howard Culver, actor

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:41:01 -0500
From: John Henley <jhenley@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: re Phil Harris show's [removed]

Eric Cooper, in discussing the Harris/Faye show (of which I
also am very fond, finding it no more predictable than any
other long-running OTR show I can think of), suggested:

........it
seems to be filled with a lot of what I might call "in-crowd" humor. If you
followed the show closely every week, you were in on the hilarious nuances
in the reparte between Phil Harris and Elliot Lewis ("Frankie Remley") or
between Phil and Robert North (brother-in-law Willie) or between Phil and
Walter Tetley(Julius) , well you get the idea. It was almost like in-jokes
between members of one's own family.

My questions:  In this respect, how does it differ from Jack Benny's
show?  Didn't the Benny show depend, for much of its impact, upon
audience familiarity with running gags and the quirks of each character?
If so, wouldn't that make Benny's humor "in-crowd" as well?

John Henley

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:40:01 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: ... Hear!  Hear!

Hal Stone (aka Jughead), speaking of my observation that it would be a
rare person back in the OTR days, tuned into a program, would listen with
his or her eyes closed, observed,

I guess I was one of the rare one's Stephan. Primarily when it came to
listening to "Inner Sanctum" or "Lights out" in my bedroom at night. Not
only did I have my eyes closed (tight), but more than likely, with the
blanket pulled tightly over my head. :)

Well, that was because we weren't supposed to be listening -- or so it
was in my case.  I did have, at one point, a "pocket" crystal set that I
hooked to a bed frame, and with one of those less-than-great hard-plastic
earpieces, I could listen to OTR after bedtime.  However, the only time
the eyes were closed is when I heard one or the other of my parents
approaching.

Then again, if one was in the living room listening to radio with their
eyes closed, it probably meant that dozed off because the show had not
held their attention. Right, Stephan?

Or the show was so bad that the listener was suffering through it to
accommodate another family member. :-)

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:42:53 -0500
From: leemunsick@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Lone Ranger-Cheerios-Lunchbox premium

After reading about the special Cheerios package for weeks here (months?) a
supply finally appeared in a special pile not in the cereal section, but
the front aisle of our local grocer.

Two large boxes of Cheerio are on the left and right end of this
package.  I haven't actually measured it, but I'd guess it is about 30"
wide or less, all shrink-wrapped together.  One of the Cheerios box is
nothing special, the other is a commemorative, as is the entire over-wrap
parcel bottom.

The "lunchbox" looks to me like something a 6-year old girl would carry
around on her arm as her special little purse.  I haven't actually measured
it either, but it's not much bigger than 4"x5".  Is this supposed to be a
faithful copy of an original Lone Ranger premium?  It might contain an
apple and a folded-up napkin and Toll House cookies (well, perhaps one).

Lee Munsick         (Southside Virginia USA)

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:41:41 -0500
From: John Henley <jhenley@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Richard Pratz' "Who Is It?"

Richard Pratz asked the question and gave the clues:

Although he appeared on many OTR programs, he was most closely associated
with one particular audience participation show on radio and later TV. ...
... he acted in over 35
movies and played in several "B" movie serials as Mandrake the Magician, The
Spider and The Green Hornet.

  Warren Hull?

--
John Henley

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:42:24 -0500
From: "H. K. Hinkley" <hkhinkley@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Engineering Advances

In Digest #29, Chris asks:

Can any of you think of other examples of events from OTR
programs that would not make any sense because of todays technology -
because of Engineering advances?

I'm reminded of one of my favorite lines from OTR, if I remember
correctly, on the X Minus One episode "Name the Comet for Me" in which,
after yet another problem with the computer, the protagonist says, "Hmm,
it must be a weak tube in the computer."

Stay tuned,   HK

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:41:53 -0500
From: "Jan Bach" <janbach@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Putting in my own two cents re the

Harris-Faye Show
Approved: ctrn4eeWlc

Hello again --

I reluctantly agree with those who felt the Harris and Faye show lost a
great deal of its comedy in its last few seasons after Ray Singer and Dick
Chevillat stopped writing scripts for the show. Like others, I also found it
less funny that Phil's best friend could now be named "Elliott" instead of
"Frankie Remley," which was a funny name by itself. And you won't get any
argument from me that throughout the run of the show the plots were pretty
ridiculous (imagine the boys deciding, for instance, to create their "own
drug," or to get the bright idea of using Julius as wadding to clean Phil's
chimney!).

Why, then, do I find the show so appealing, and still often laugh like hell
at some of the lines, still fresh after more than fifty years, still funny
no matter how many times I've heard them? Answer: the timing of Phil,
Elliott Lewis, and Walter Tetley, particularly the last two, a couple of the
very best actors the golden age of radio ever had.

Tetley, for instance, while perhaps better known as the long-established
character Leroy on The Great Gildersleeve, created two distinctively
different and funny young men in the two shows despite using the same voice
for each. Leroy could bring tears to a listener's eyes when he expressed
disappointment at being denied an anticipated Christmas gift, while Julius
was such a raucous, brash, dead-end kid (that Tetley himself often played on
the live vaudeville stage) that he was funny even when Phil and Remley were
trying to murder him!

I've made no secret in these digests about my admiration for Elliott Lewis.
He could take a bit of dialogue, not funny in itself, and say it in such a
manner that it was hilarious (remember him asking Frank Nelson, the railroad
ticket agent in a Benny show, "How are things in Glocca Morra?," or once,
left alone briefly at the Harris house and having nothing to do, decides to
spend the time "opening and reading their personal mail.") and then make an
about-face and turn in a credible dramatic performance as Othello on
Suspense, the skipper of the Scarlet Queen, the detective Bart Friday on
Adventures by Morse or even, incredibly, cameo appearances as the magician
in The Cinnamon Bear, or a thug in an early episode of Speed Gibson. I
believe him to be the best actor that radio ever produced.

If Phil didn't have quite the sense of timing that Lewis and Tetley had, he
was totally uninhibited enough to make instant comedy on the air when he
verbally chastized Alice for pronouncing a country as "Indinosia," or when
one of his on-air daughters almost said she wanted ten dollars from Phil
instead of five. Together, IMHO, Phil and Elliott created probably the
funniest two-man team that radio ever produced. If one needed proof, just
listen to the reactions of their audiences!

Jan Bach

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:40:33 -0500
From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: "GEORGE BURNS" ON BROADWAY

I was viewing the Dailey Variety web site this afternoon, and came across an
article about a one-man show, starring Frank Gorshin, called "Good Night
Gracie," written by Rupert Holmes (who also wrote the AMC series "Remember
WENN")
The article, dated 6/17/'01, said that:. . .  "Gorshin really captures the
essance of George Burns in ths play".

My question is this:  How come no one on the Digest - especially those in
the NY area hasn't mentioned this play before?  Or was it mentioned before I
joined the Digest, last year?

Owens [removed]

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 18:44:37 -0500
From: "Marcus Antonsson" <[removed]@[removed];
To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: A sad day for Sweden, and the world

Hi gang!

Today my country has lost our most beloved writer. Astrid Lindgren, known
throughout the world for her many books for children has passed away at the
age of 94. Her books have been translated into over 70 languages and has
sould millions all over the globe, but here in Sweden, she was more than just
a great writer. Not least, she was a great radio personality. I guess every
child who has grown up here during the last 50 years, knows her voice very
well. She was a wonderful reader and recorded more or less everything she
wrote for the Swedish radio during the years. Many of these recordings have
also been released commercially. She was also great in the Swedish version of
twenty questions which was on from 1948-1960.

We'll miss her a lot, but her work will live on!

All best:

Marc Antonsson, Sweden

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

Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 19:11:15 -0500
From: JayHick@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Radios

I received this note from Isobel Clowes.  If you can help, please respond to
her.


I am looking for a link where people might be selling/buying old radios.
I've looked but can't find a site.  Any suggestions?

Isobel Clowes <ipclowes@[removed];

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #33
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