------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2007 : Issue 243
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
8-23 births/deaths [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
WTIC-TV's inaugural broadcast [ "Bob Scherago" <rscherago@[removed] ]
BBC Archives website [ PaulJustMill@[removed] ]
Benaderet, McGee and Wallace (not a [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
Kathy Fiscus [ "laurie platt" <laurie1125@hotmail. ]
Re: early A&A TV [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
Re: Vocal Quality [ Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@sbcglo ]
MP3-CD Player Wanted [ "Ron Vanover" <rvanover@[removed] ]
Bernadine Flynn: newscaster [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
Bea Benederette [ Bob Slate <moxnix1961@[removed]; ]
re: Inside Duffy's Tavern [ Stephen Davies <SDavies@[removed]; ]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 23:15:39 -0400
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 8-23 births/deaths
August 23rd births
08-23-1869 - Edgar Lee Masters - Garnett, KS - d. 3-5-1950
author: "Cavalcade of America"; "CBS Radio Workshop"
08-23-1883 - Art Van Harvey - Chicago, IL - d. 7-7-1957
actor: Vic Gook "Vic and Sade"; Jeffery Barker "Welcome Valley"
08-23-1897 - Ray Perkins - Boston, MA - d. 1-31-1969
emcee, singer: "National Amateur Night"; "Show of the Week"; "Nickel
Man"
08-23-1902 - Carl Hohengarten - St. Louis, MO - d. 12-xx-1968
orchestra leader: "Double Everything"; "Knickerbocker Playhouse"
08-23-1902 - Charles Paul - NYC - d. 9-18-1990
organist: "Kate Smith"; "As the Twig is Bent"
08-23-1905 - Rags Ragland - Louisville, KY - d. 8-20-1946
actor: "Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show"
08-23-1906 - Harriet Parsons - Burlington, IA - d. 1-2-1983
commentator: (Daughter of Louella Parsons) "Hollywood Hotel"
08-23-1908 - Natalie Bodanya - NYC - d. 3-4-2007
opera soprano: "The Metropolitan Opera"
08-23-1910 - John Nesbitt - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada - d.
8-10-1960
commentator: ""John Nesbitt and the News"; Passing Parade"
08-23-1912 - Gene Kelly - Pittsburgh, PA - d. 2-2-1996
actor: "Cresta Blanca Hollywood Players"; "Star for a Night"; "Suspense"
08-23-1914 - Jack McCarthy - d. 5-24-1996
actor, announcer, writer: "Connee Boswell Presents"; "The Green Hornet"
08-23-1915 - Ralph Amati - d. 6-xx-1980
sound effects: "One Man's Family"; "I Love A Mystery"
08-23-1919 - Olin Tice - Savannah, GA - d. 1-8-1998
announcer: "The Mindy Carson Show"; "The Peggy Lee Show"
08-23-1922 - George Kell - Swifton, AR
baseball announcer: Detroit Tigers
08-23-1925 - Larry Nunn - Marshfield, OR - d. 10-20-1974
actor: Don Bradley "Glorious One"; Peter Bretn "Brenthouse"
08-23-1926 - Eugene Troopnick - Boston, MA - d. 2-19-2003
actor: "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
08-23-1928 - Marian Seldes NYC
actor: "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
08-23-1947 - Willy Russell - Whiston, England
writer: "I Read the News Today"
August 23rd deaths
01-10-1883 - Francis X. Bushman - Norfolk, VA - d. 8-23-1966
actor: John Fairchild "Step Mother"; Peter Standish "Betty and Bob"
02-09-1884 - Wilmer Walter - Philadelphia, PA - d. 8-23-1941
actor: David Harum "David Harum"; Andy Agnes "The Gumps"
03-27-1902 - Sidney Buchman - Duluth, MN - d. 8-23-1975
movie writer: "Lux Radio Theatre"
03-28-1897 - Frank Hawks - Marshalltown, IA - d. 8-23-1938
flying ace: "Roads of the Sky"; "Time Flies"
05-16-1882 - Mary Gordon - Glasgow, Scotland - d. 8-23-1963
actor: Mrs. Emmett "Those We Love"; Mrs. Hudson "Sherlock Holmes"
05-20-1899 - Virginia Sale - Urbana, IL - d. 8-23-1992
actor: Martha "Those We Love"
05-28-1928 - Maynard Ferguson - Montreal, Canada - d. 8-23-2006
trumpeter: "Bud's Bandwagon"
06-07-1903 - Glen Gray - Metamora, IL - d. 8-23-1963
bandleader: "Camel Caravan"
06-15-1910 - David Rose - London, England - d. 8-23-1990
conductor: "Red Skelton Show"; "David Rose Show"; "Bold Venture"
07-02-1927 - Brock Peters - NYC - d. 8-23-2005
actor: Darth Vader "Star Wars"; "Earplay"
07-06-1918 - Sebastian Cabot - London, England - d. 8-23-1977
actor: Toussiant Charbonneau "Horizons West"; "Studio One"; "Lives of
Harry Lime"
07-12-1895 - Oscar Hammerstein II - NYC - d. 8-23-1960
lyricist: "Pet Milk Show"
07-26-1883 - Walter Blaufuss - Milwaukee, WI - d. 8-23-1945
composer, conductor, pianist: "Breakfast Club"; "Viennese Ensemble"
08-22-1907 - Sherling Oliver - Kipling, AL - d. 8-23-1971
actor: Dudley Trowbridge "Valiant Lady"
10-13-1919 - Marion Hargrove - Mount Olive, NC - d. 8-23-2003
author: "MGM Theatre of the Air"; "Information, Please"; "March of Time"
10-23-1911 - Martha Rountree - Gainesville, FL - d. 8-23-1999
co-founder, moderator: "Meet the Press"
xx-xx-1897 - Nan Rae - San Francisco, CA - d. 8-23-1946
singer: (The Clark Sisters) "Eddie Cantor Show"; "Kate Smith"
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 00:08:09 -0400
From: "Bob Scherago" <rscherago@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: WTIC-TV's inaugural broadcast
I know that this is not OTR - it's OTTV, but I though you
might be interested in this link to a video of WTIC-TV's
inaugural broadcast in 1957.
[removed]
(Scroll down to bottom of page.)
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 02:07:29 -0400
From: PaulJustMill@[removed]
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: BBC Archives website
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Best way to see this website is to go to the main BBC site at [removed]
and in the search box type in 'archive trial'. The site also includes an
interview with Simon Rooks, Head of BBC Sound Archives.
When I tried to gain access to this site it responded that only those inside
the UK could have access.
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*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:48:06 -0400
From: <otrbuff@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Benaderet, McGee and Wallace (not a law firm)
A few questions beg for comments in Issue 242 of the Digest.
In regard to Gene Twombly, Jack Benny's sound effects specialist, Ken
Greenwald posits:
Twombly was married to Bea Benedarette. And they did have children.
As far as I have heard, it was a good marriage.
Well ... yes and no ...
Benaderet [note spelling] died of pneumonia and a relapse from treatment of
lung cancer in Los Angeles on October 13, 1968 at 62. She was divorced from
Jim Bannon after a dozen years of marriage (1938-50) with whom she had two
children-John James (Jack) Bannon, born June 14, 1940; and Margaret Bannon,
March 4, 1947. Jack Bannon grew up to follow in his mom's footsteps: he
won continuing acting roles in a couple of hour-long TV dramas, CBS's Lou
Grant (1977-82) and ABC's short-lived Trauma Center (1983). Long before
that, however, Bea Benaderet had wed a second time, to Jack Benny's sound
effects tech, Gene Twombley [note spelling], in 1957. Twombley suffered a
fatal heart attack just four days after Bea's demise.
No kids from that marriage. Did he perhaps die of a broken heart, however?
This data, incidentally, is found in a lengthy Benaderet treatise in "The
Great Radio Sitcoms" which is due for imminent release at
[removed] or 800-253-2187 and may be ordered today. (It's the
one with Fibber McGee & Molly on the cover.)
Martin Grams tells about the kid wearing a "'taint funny McGee" shirt. That
is truly sensational. How many people (non-OTR fans) in America living
today 40 (or even 50) and under could catch the significance and relate it
to a radio series whose heyday was 1935-53 (even with pithy extensions to
1959)? It boggles the mind how persuasively marketing can cloud those
minds, so few of them being any wiser!
And in the same Digest issue, Don Dean remarks:
I seem to recall Mike Wallace announcing on the Sky King radio program when
they were sponsored by Peter Pan Peanut butter. I beleive this was in the
late '40's. Is this true? How long was he on that program? Or am I having a
senior moment.
No senior moment there, Don. I can personally vouch for Myron (Mike)
Wallace's lip-smacking commercials for Peter Pan on Sky King in the late
1940s and early 1950s, which converted me and my household. From then until
earlier this year, when Peter Pan fell from grace and was removed from the
grocer's shelves (apparently forever), no other peanut butter was -- to this
connoisseur -- good enough to occupy space on a piece of bread.
Fortunately, I married a gal with similar tastes and we raised kids who
never knew there was another kind. Talk about brand loyalty! It had to be
one of the longest running residual benefits of radio advertising,
especially for Derby Company (the original maker) and successor Con Agra
Foods (which has weathered a very dark storm seemingly without hurting the
rest of its business).
Jim Cox
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:48:51 -0400
From: "laurie platt" <laurie1125@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Kathy Fiscus
Kathy Fiscus Aug. 21, 1945-Apr. 8, 1949
Three year old Kathy Fiscus fell into an abandoned well while playing in a
field in San Marino, California. Thousands of people sat transfixed in front
of their television sets as frantic volunteers tried to reach the child
trapped nearly 100 feet down in a fourteen inch pipe. After 52 hours, they
finally reached her only to find that she had apparently died early in the
rescue efforts. This event introduced a new dimension to news coverage --
live, onsite television broadcasting.
Are there any recordings of this event that I could purchase
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:53:01 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: early A&A TV
On 8/22/07 11:25 PM [removed]@[removed] said:
Where there any plans to put Amos and Andy on the television, had it
actually materialized in the early 1930s? Or did the artist just select
them for the image because they were one of the top radio shows of the
time? Does Elizabeth know anything about the provenance of this image?
It's cover art from an issue of "Radio News" magazine, and A&A were
chosen as the screen image simply because they were easily recognizable
figures as the epitome of broadcasting at the time. There's no further
significance to the image.
Correll and Gosden would not make their first appearance on television
until February 27th, 1939, in an experimental remote telecast from the
grounds of the New York Worlds Fair. Contrary to what every other
historian has written about this telecast, I have photographic proof that
the performers did not do this telecast in blackface. They had long since
stopped using blackface in their stage appearances by 1939, and did this
telecast, as all their other personal apperances of the time, in ordinary
street clothes. A photo taken during the telecast appears on page 146 of
my book, "The Original Amos 'n' Andy."
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:53:43 -0400
From: Don Shenbarger <donslistmail@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Vocal Quality
On 8/22/2007 Stuart Lubin wrote:
After doing a re-creation, Art was asked how he acquired that
beautiful deep timbre.
"In our family, we attribute our very deep voices to our father. Of
course, my sister was not happy about that, at all!"
When I was about forty-five years old my voice began changing into a
really fine quality deep voice resembling Franklyn MacCormack's. I
was happy about the change. The girls in the office thought I was
putting them on. Work in the shop used to stop when I made a page and
they would all listen and smile. Within a few months it was
discovered that my thyroid had stopped working entirely and my blood
had turned to something resembling thick oil nearly causing a heart
attack. When the substitute hormone reached its correct level, my
normal voice returned and a dozen less desirable symptoms went away.
It was fun while it lasted.
Don
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:54:08 -0400
From: "Ron Vanover" <rvanover@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: MP3-CD Player Wanted
Hello, everyone.
I have an elderly friend in Springfield, MO who is quite ill and leaves home
only to see his doctors. I have lots of mp3s I would like to share with
him, but I'm pretty certain that any device that appears too complicated
will overwhelm him and his family.
If you have a "retired" boombox that plays MP3-CDs, I'd be interested in
communicating with you about buying it. I would like to get one with a
"resume feature", so that it will begin where the listener was when the CD
player was turned off.
If you have a player that you wish to sell, please email me offline.
Thanks, very much.
Ron Vanover
rvanover@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:23:10 -0400
From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Bernadine Flynn: newscaster
Bernadine Flynn was also a newscaster. Her program in 1943 was first called
Radio Newspaper. Then after getting a sponsor, the 15-minute newscast was
known as the "Crisco Radio Newspaper." She shared the mike with Durward
Kirby. He delivered the war news; she gave the lighter, women's news. They
made a good team. Today, a program like that, would probably not call her
news "lighter." It was a neat show and told which ration stamps would be
good that week. I have six of these shows, and there is another one out
there from one of those "full day" sign-on to sign-off sets of recordings.
(CBS)
Ted Kneebone / 1528 S. Grant St. / Aberdeen, SD 57401
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:31:13 -0400
From: Bob Slate <moxnix1961@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Bea Benederette
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Bea Benederette was also married to Jim Bannon. Jim Bannon in his book, "The
Star That Rose In The East"says he was married to Bea Benederette in the
early years of either the late 1930's or early 1940'[removed] Bannon was one of
the announcers on "The Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy Show" in the late
1930's and the first announcer in the early run of "The Great Gildersleeve"
in the 1941-42 [removed] later went on to become Jack Packard in 2 "I Love a
Mystery" movies in the late 40'[removed] also starred in one Mountie Serial over
at Republic [removed] was the last to play "Red Ryder" in the early 1950's
in color for Eagle Lion films. He then was relegated to play bad guys in
"Whip Wilson" and other westerns.
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:31:27 -0400
From: Stephen Davies <SDavies@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: re: Inside Duffy's Tavern
Derek T asks about characters straying out of Duffy's Tavern. I recall an
episode where Archie and Finnegan go on a double date and visit the girls'
apartment. Finnegan is a hit while Archie strikes out.
This episode aired on April 6, 1949, a few months after the "Miracle in
Manhattan" Christmas show.
- Stephen D
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #243
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