Subject: [removed] Digest V2007 #168
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 6/7/2007 1:28 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2007 : Issue 168
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      [removed] comparison                 [ "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed]; ]
      Fred Allen in Maine                   [ "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed]; ]
      Bitten by the OTR Bug                 [ Dan <teac35@[removed]; ]
      Cabbage by any other name . . .       [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      Buster Brown Commercial               [ JimBourg@[removed] ]
      Lone Ranger titles                    [ "Jim Nixon" <ranger6000@[removed] ]
      effective OTR commercial              [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
      Those IDIOTS!                         [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      OTR Organists                         [ Bob Slate <moxnix1961@[removed]; ]
      Oxydol Sparkle                        [ Ed Kindred <kindred@[removed]; ]
      Attention Gene Autry fans             [ "Bob C" <rmc44@[removed]; ]
      Classical music and OTR               [ "Don Jensen" <dnjkenosha@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 10:53:32 -0400
    From: "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  [removed] comparison
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    Effective 06/05, NYC's venerable MT&R, the Museum of Television and Radio, has
    changed its name to the "Paley Center for Media"-- "a new name for a new age"
    as its press releases herald.

    No, sir, I don't like it ... and this is coming from somebody who still calls
    "30 Rock" (the building, not the TV sitcom) the "RCA Building," even though
    it's been renamed after [removed] for about two decades now.

    I have no problem honouring William Paley, the man who envisioned the original
    Museum of Broadcasting (why not "The Paley Museum of Television and Radio"?),
    but some corporate flack has decided that newer venues like satellite and
    podcasts were not reflected in the nomenclature  "television and radio."  To a
    passerby or an out-of-towner (Somebody call Ripley,! Tague is actually
    sticking up for tourists), the "Paley Center for Media" sounds  like a
    production house and not a museum/repository.  Personally, I'm not going to
    acclimate myself towards saying "PCM." I might give in to referring to it as
    "Paley," but, for me, "MTR" is fine.

    Call it what you will, but that place takes itself too seriously anyway. Of
    course, if someone had pointed out that Bill Paley founded CBS with family
    money made in the production of cigars, it would probably be named after
    someone else given this politically correct/non-smoking era in which we live.

    I truly hope that if one day Chicago's "Museum of Broadcast Communication"
    ever decides that it has to be renamed after somebody, then that Chuck
    Schaden's name be on the short-list. I like the sound of that: "The Schaden
    [removed]"

    What's the current status of MBC? Is it still in limbo? Still under
    construction? existing "virtually"?

    There, I said [removed] I'm glad!

    Derek Tague,
    Mayor of Etherville

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    Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 10:53:47 -0400
    From: "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Fred Allen in Maine
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    Years ago, I vacationed in Old Orchard Beach, near Portland, Maine. However,
    this was before I knew Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa vacationed there. I was
    considering taking another trip there and would like to know from the
    readership if there might be an historic marker or anything else commemorating
    Mr. Allen to look out for in [removed]

    Not quite the Maine-iac,

    Derek

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    Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 10:56:59 -0400
    From: Dan <teac35@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Bitten by the OTR Bug

     Being 37 years old, I remember hearing in a American
    Literature class back in 1984 a Flexi-Disk of Excerpts
    from Donovan's Brain from the Suspense series.
     Later that year I received for Christmas a copy of "A
    Matter Of Evidence" from The Green Hornet and I was
    hooked - I still have that cassette.
     I discovered at my local library hundreds of OTR
    programming on tape and record. Unfortunately, those
    recordings have seen better days (well played). I
    think some of the distributor names were:

    Nostalgia Unlimited
    Radio Reruns (from the 70's)
    National Audio Corp
    Mark IV
    Murray Hill
    (and a outfit from Glendale, Illinois)

     What quality I could get from the library copies
    usually warranted EQ treatment.

     I started DX-ing from a suggestion of the librarian
    with some results. I was pleased to find AM 600 WMT
    from Cedar Rapids was broadcasting 1 show a night for
    5 nights a week. The lineup was: Gunsmoke - Sgt
    Preston Of The Yukon - The Lone Ranger - X Minus One
    and a comedy program. The lineup changed somewhat, but
    Gunsmoke and the Lone Ranger was always a given.
     On Sunday evening, "The Comedy Show" with Dick Cavett
    would play.

     The years went on and the local sources dried up.
    Occasionally, I would run across tapes in the discount
    bins at the department stores or old stock from
    Blackhawk Films (yes, they did Audio as well - my
    surprise!). Better yet, discover another OTR fan and
    update, trade, or purchase more programs.

     My collection received heavy play until the Internet
    hit my neck of the woods. Decent download speed didn't
    happen until late 1999 so my downloading didn't start
    until 2000.
     Through trial and error, I was able to find the
    reputable sites for OTR and just within the last few
    years, have also discovered more and more programs
    being released both on cassette and CD.

     My personal collection is now predominately MP3 files
    encoded from 128kbs down to 24kbs and collectively
    (analogue and digital) own well over 4000 titles. This
    does not include World War 2 broadcasts (ie: CBS World
    News Today, Complete D Day Coverage, etc). I can
    honestly say that I have listened to every program
    with the exception of several recently acquired
    complete series of Gunsmoke, Suspense, 21st. Precinct,
    Richard Diamond, The Whistler, and Dragnet.

     My personal wish is that these programs will continue
    to gain more interest and fans and that they will
    always be heard as well as remembered.

     Dan in Iowa

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

    Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 10:56:53 -0400
    From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Cabbage by any other name . . .

    The Museum of Television and Radio has changed their name.  Again.  As of
    Tuesday it is now "The Paley Center for the Media." They started out as the
    Museum of Broadcasting and then, thinking that people didn't know what
    "broadcasting" was, decided to beat them over the head and say that it is
    "Television and Radio."  Gee, we thought it was seed scattering.  Well, it
    might as well have been, at least as far as radio researchers were
    concerned.

    Since they hold no original materials, and the vast majority of their
    collection has been copied from other major archives, it has long been known
    that it is no more a "museum" than would an art museum would be if all it
    had were xerox copies of other museum's paintings on their walls.

    They now admit it.

    They are officially no longer considering themselves a "Museum."  They are a
    "Center."  And they are not even a "center" for "TV and Radio" or even
    "Broadcasting."  They have expanded to "Media."  When my academic department
    changed its name, they changed it from "Radio and TV" to "Electronic Media."
    The Paley Center has not limited themselves to Electronic Media, therefore
    we can assume that all of the media that Marshall McLuhan discussed would be
    fair game for them.  In case you don't know it, it is a lloooooonnnnnggggg
    list.

    >From their own public announcement comes this definition of what a "Center"
    is.  ". . . the new name better reflects this institutions evolving and
    expanding role.  The Paley Center for the Media convenes media leaders and
    the public for programs that illuminate the immense impact of media--in all
    its forms--on our lives, culture, and society."

    They are no longer a museum.  They are a "convener."  They don't preserve
    the past, they "convene media leaders."  They have come to the realization
    that what they do best is schmooze.  Hold parties.  Stand around and talk.
    Often with cocktails in hand.  Occasionally have panel discussions about how
    great they are.  And hopefully get big bunches of money from media moguls.
    Like Bill Paley.  Who they have named their "center" after.

    "The change recognizes that the media landscape is a dramatically different
    one from the time of our founding thirty-one years ago."  So???  What does
    that have to do with why you were founded???  Has 1952 changed since you
    were founded???  How about 1937?  1965?  1920?  Nope, the media landscape of
    those years are still the same as they were.  The purpose of the institution
    was to preserve the past, and to update the preservation to that of the
    current years.  But you can't stroke a "media leader" with tales of 1947.
    Or even of maybe 1985.  Or 1992 it seems.  Our media leaders don't remember
    back that far anymore.  And this organization is no longer interested in
    helping them remember.

    I think they have finally admitted that their main purpose is fund raising.
    Being a broadcasting museum is not important anymore.  Their collection has
    always been second-rate, at best, and is now becoming more and more
    marginalized.  Especially with the explosion of MP3 collecting, even casual
    collectors have radio collections far larger and often more important than
    theirs is.  Even more than the videocassette, the DVD has made it possible
    for even casual collectors to buy complete collections of their favorite
    series, and most of the greatest moments of the past.  And the costs of
    these have gone way down.

    The Museum used to be able to get the occasional unique uncirculated items
    from donations by the Media Leaders they schmoozed at cocktail parties.  I
    think they have now discovered that this well has gone dry.  Modern Media
    Leaders no longer have access to unique archives like they used to.  And
    from my occasional discussions with people at the Museum, they wouldn't
    recognize what is important if it fell on them.  Their collection has always
    been of minor importance, but they have been the conveners of interesting
    panel discussions by media leaders.  I've even occasionally used these in my
    college classes.  Now, apparently, this is what their main business is now
    going to be.

    Cabbage by any other name . . .

    I urge you to take a look at the article in June 5 NYTimes by Elizabeth
    Jensen "New Name and Mission for Museum of Television" before the article
    becomes inaccessible.

    [removed];ref=design&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

    Michael Biel   mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 12:51:44 -0400
    From: JimBourg@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Buster Brown Commercial
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>     (For newcomers: Oxydol was a dish detergent.)

    I believe Oxydol was a laundry detergent.

>     One recurring commercial I recall was the beginning of Smilin'  Ed
>     McConnell's Buster Brown gang

    How about   Ruf, Ruf! That's my dog Tige, he lives in a shoe, I'm  Buster
    Brown, look for me in there too.

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    Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 12:52:42 -0400
    From: "Jim Nixon" <ranger6000@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Lone Ranger titles

    Rick Keating asked about a couple of LP recordings of Lone Ranger episodes
    that appeared after the live broadcasts had left the air.  The first two
    episodes that he cites are "The Army Mule", episode 2561, air date June 16,
    1954 featuring a wonderful performance by Paul Hughes as a cantankerous old
    army officer who tries to restore post discipline by having its mascot shot,
    and "The Runaway", episode 2585, air date August 9, 1954, in which a
    banker's son flees thinking he'll be accused of a crime, only to be found
    nearly dead by the Lone Ranger and Tonto.
    These appeared on a Special Recordings, Inc. LP with marvelous cover art
    already referred to by a previous posting.
    The second two episodes Rick asked about are "Treachery In Tensleep" and
    "Cattle For Sale", episodes 873 and 874, from September 10 and 13, 1943.
    These appeared on a Golden Age LP, No. 5002 and are taken from the
    transcriptions of the program that was fed to Chicago just prior to the live
    broadcast.  The incident in the first story that Rick remembers occurs when
    Dan goes to a ranchhouse to buy a side of cured bacon from a prosperous
    rancher, only to have the man slip evidence into Victor's saddlebags that
    would point to Dan as the killer of a man found dead on the trail by a US
    marshal.  Dan never gets that bacon, because he's thrown in jail.
    Hope this helps, Rick.

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

    Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 12:53:29 -0400
    From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  effective OTR commercial

    In April at Cincinnati, I played on the big screen a 10 minute film short
    sponsored by General Motor's Chevrolet Division entitled "BACK OF THE MIKE,"
    from a 16 mm transfer (sharp picture quality).  The same division sponsored
    a series of film shorts, each capturing a different "documentary" on film to
    educate and entertain movie audiences, but at the same time, to promote
    their product.  (In short, a TV commercial or infomercial before there were
    TV commercials.)  One film short revealed how the Red Cross serviced people
    in need, and another showed how forest fires could be prevented.  In this
    particular film short, "BACK OF THE MIKE," the audience was treated to an
    expose on how radio dramas were created behind the radio speaker.

    The short featured a cast and sound technicians from a studio at WXYZ in
    Michigan, and it was a western drama (without the Lone Ranger).  Besides
    watching the cast and sound men at work, the conclusion featured an
    automobile, a Chevrolet obviously.  I have shown this film short for the
    past year at conventions (MANC last year, HETCOMM in July and Cincy in
    April) and I am completely surprised how many people come up to me later in
    the day (or weekend) and comment about "that Chevrolet film short," or
    occassionally referring to it as "the General Motors film short."  Not once
    has anyone commented about the "old-time radio film short," so I have to
    admit that even though the automobile isn't even pictured until the last
    minute of the film short, the commercial is HIGHLY effective - something I
    would not have gathered just watching the film.

    I my wife or I could name a product from any commercial that aired last
    night during the evening news.  Commercials on radio programs were
    well-written and VERY effective, unlike commercials that air on today's
    networks.

    Martin Grams Jr.

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

    Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 13:46:32 -0400
    From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Those IDIOTS!

    After posting about the Paley Center, I decided to take a look at both their
    old and new web sites.  Those IDIOTS!  For many years they claimed their
    collection dates back as far as a 1920 broadcast by Franklin Delano
    Roosevelt.  For decades I told them that this was merely a phonograph record
    he had recorded for the Nations Forum label.  It was not a broadcast.  Well,
    they replied, some station COULD have played it.  That, I replied, would
    mean that ALL records could be considered as a broadcast.  Oh, they replied.
    Finally, they indicated in their computer file "Broadcast not verified" and
    they stopped claiming it as their oldest broadcast.

    It is now worse.

    The FAQ on both the old and new sites now states "We have over 140,000
    programs and advertisements, covering more than eighty-five years of
    television and radio history (beginning with a 1918 speech by labor leader
    Samuel Gompers.)"  That ALSO is a Nations Forum phonograph record (Columbia
    matrix 77637-2.)  It is one of nine public officials they recorded on
    January 16 and 17, 1918.  But what is more interesting is that a radio
    station could NOT have broadcast it because it was unissued.  It exists as a
    vinyl test pressing in the Library of Congress in the [removed] Lawrence
    collection from a stamper that formerly existed at Columbia Records.  What
    broadcasting stations did they think were on the air during World War I ????

    But in addition to that eighty-nine year old non-broadcast that they use to
    goose up their age claim to "more than eighty-five years" they are now
    claiming in another part of their FAQ and in their press releases that their
    collection covers "almost 100 years" without mentioning the Gompers
    non-broadcast.  Considering that there are no legitimate recordings of a
    broadcast prior to 1923--eighty-four years ago--they are stretching it
    rather thin, even if they count the 89 year old Gompers non-broadcast.

    Aren't there any competent researchers on their staff?   Or is everybody too
    busy schmoozing with industry leaders?

    Michael Biel   mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 13:48:46 -0400
    From: Bob Slate <moxnix1961@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  OTR Organists
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    Most of us Old Time Radio enthusistists know who  the organists were on "The
    Shadow" ( Rosa Rio),Chandu, The Magician ( Korla Pandit), and "I Love A
    Mystery" (Rex Corey).Did Rex Corey also play organ on "One Man's Family",
    which was also a Carlton E. Morse production? Also who played the organ on
    the following shows? "The Cisco Kid'  "Sky King"  "Red Ryder"  "Tom Mix"
    "Mark Trail"  "Wild Bill Hickock"and "Wild Bill Elliot?"Hopefully we can get
    a discussion started on these unsung organists of OTR. Hopefully someone
    might be interested in wrting a book on the subject. Just a hopefull thought!

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    Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 15:19:42 -0400
    From: Ed Kindred <kindred@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Oxydol Sparkle

    My oft fuzzy grey stuff remembers Oxydol as a laundry detergent. Google
    confirms
    and also show it to be still available but not in the old familiar
    package. The new vendors
    must want us to believe that it is a green product. Externally only the
    name is familiar.
    Oxydol is the name of a laundry detergent sold in the United States. It
    was created in 1927
    and manufactured by Procter & Gamble, who sold the brand in 2000 to Redox
    Brands, a
    marketing company founded by former Procter & Gamble employees.
    In the 1930's, Oxydol was the sponsor of the Ma Perkins radio show,
    considered the first soap opera.
    Ed Kindred

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

    Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 15:20:57 -0400
    From: "Bob C" <rmc44@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Attention Gene Autry fans

    Got an e-mail from Oxford University Press today touting gifts
    for Father's Day. This apparently isn't on sale,
    [removed];ci=9780195177466, but for fans of Gene Autry, it might
    be just what you're looking for. Usual disclaimers apply.

    Bob Cockrum

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

    Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 15:20:04 -0400
    From: "Don Jensen" <dnjkenosha@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Classical music and OTR

    I wonder how many OTR fans can trace, as I can, my love of classical music
    to themes heard on childhood radio broadcasts.

    For years, I prided myself on having discovered with some childhood sluthing
    the titles and composers of Lone Ranger themes: William Tell Overture by
    Rossini; Hebrides Overture, Opus 26, aka Fingal's Cave by Mendelsohn; Rienzi
    Overture by Wagner; Incidental Music from Rosamunde by Shubert; and Les
    Preludes by Liszt.   Countless years ago, when hosting a classical music
    program on a campus radio station, I recall devoting one program to Lone
    Ranger Music.  Years later, I learned that college instructor in Maryland
    had offered a community arts enrichment program based on Lone Ranger themes.
    It always seemed to me to be a great "hook" for introducing laymen to
    classical music.

    Knowing these themes was, to me, sort of a silly point of pride, like
    getting the joke
    in the wonderful Meridith Wilson's Music Man musical when Harold Hill sings
    in "The Sadder But Wiser Girl" that he hopes and prays "for Hester to win
    just one more A."
    So it came as a somewhat deflating moment for me when, recently, I found a
    website based on information collected by John Kingsbury, listing about 50
    different theme melodies used by Lone Ranger radio AND television programs.

    Admittedly some seemed to be specially written music, and some classical
    pieces seem to have been used on TV but not radio versions, still, there
    were a LOT of classical themes which I missed in my own compiled list of
    Lone Ranger radio music.  I am a bit chagrinned!

    Other childhood classical discoveries included von Resnicek's Donna Diana
    Overturn ("Challenge of the Yukon"/Sgt. Preston); Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight
    of the Bumblebee ("Green Hornet"); Les Preludes (again)("Buck Rogers");
    Saint-Saens' Omphales Spinning Wheel, opus 31 ("The Shadow") and Wagner's
    Flying Dutchman Overture ("Capt. Midnight."

    Finally, perhaps someone can help.  Probably circa 1944-1946 or so, there
    was a brief (I think it may have been a summer replacement show aimed at
    kids during the late afternoon)  It was an anthology of opera for kids, 5
    weekday programs of, 15 or 30 minutes, my memory fails, telling an opera a
    [removed]  The opera would be told as a story, illustrated by musical
    selections from the [removed]   I remember particularly thrilling to the
    exciting story of Aida and being transfixed at, say age 9-11, by Verdi's
    Triumphal March.   It was a very early introduction to opera and led to a
    lifelong appreciation.

    Can anyone even imagine such a program today?  Can anyone help me with a
    title or details about this (I think) kids summer replacement show?

    --don jensen

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #168
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