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The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2013 : Issue 16
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
The Great Gildersleeve trivia [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
The Great Gildersleeve Movie Collect [ David Fx <df789@[removed]; ]
This week in radio history 3-9 Febru [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
OLDE TYME RADIO NETWORK [ Jerry Haendiges <Jerry@[removed]; ]
Dear Abby [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]
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Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2013 16:51:26 -0500
From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: The Great Gildersleeve trivia
Added note to prior post about Mr. and Mrs. Walter Thompson -- this was a
deliberate inside joke. The J. Walter Thompson agency was the advertising
agency for Kraft Foods, Ltd., the sponsor of the program.
Martin
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Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2013 16:51:34 -0500
From: David Fx <df789@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: The Great Gildersleeve Movie Collection
I noticed that [removed] aka the Warner Brothers archive website is
selling a five movie collection of The Great Gildersleeve.
THE GREAT GILDERSLEEVE (1942)
GILDERSLEEVE'S BAD DAY (1943)
GILDERSLEEVE ON BROADWAY (1943) .
GILDERSLEEVE'S GHOST (1944)
Special bonus! SEVEN DAYS' LEAVE (1942)
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Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2013 16:51:40 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: This week in radio history 3-9 February
From Those Were The Days
2/5
1931 Eddie Cantor's long radio career got underway as he appeared on
Rudy Vallee's The Fleischmann Hour.
1940 Amanda of Honeymoon Hill debuted. Joy Hathaway starred as "the
beauty of flaming red hair". The program stayed for six years on NBC.
2/6
1950 NBC first broadcast Dangerous Assignment. The show starred Brian
Donlevy in the role of soldier of fortune, Steve Mitchell.
2/8
1924 John Joseph Carty of the Bell Telephone System spoke in Chicago,
IL. His speech was carried across the nation on the first coast to coast
radio hookup. An estimated 50 million people heard the speech.
Joe
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Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2013 16:51:45 -0500
From: Jerry Haendiges <Jerry@[removed];
To: Old Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: OLDE 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," John and Larry Gassman's "Same Time Station," Duane
Keilstrup's "Classics and Curios," Charlie St George's "Make Believe
Ballroom Time" and my own "Old Time Radio Classics." Streamed in
high-quality audio, on demand, 24/7 at
[removed]
Check out our High-Quality mp3 catalog at:
[removed]
Check our our Transcription Disc scans at:
[removed]
=======================================
OLD TIME RADIO CLASSICS
THE BIG TIME
Episode 13 8-29-52 "My Little Margie"
STARS: Georgie Price and the Big Timers
Features: Sally Sweetland, Dorothy Laudon, Ralph Nyland
Listen for Dorothy Lauden's terrific rendition of Sophie Tucker's "One
Of These Days"
CBS SUSTAINED Fridays 9:00 - 9:30 pm
LET'S PRETEND
Episode 699 9-21-46 "Beauty And The Beast"
Host: Uncle Bill Adams
Third anniversary of Cream of Wheat sponsorship. CBS
SING ALONG
Episode 137 10-1-46 "Meet Me In St Louie, Louie"
Features: The Landt Brothers, Carl, Jack and Dan, Elsa Miranda
Announcer: Bill Cullen
LAWRENCE WELK SHOW
9-21-49 Guest: Max Sennett
ABC Miller Beer
BEHIND THE SCENES AT CBS
2-27-45 Guest: Dickie Jones - Henry Aldridge
Host: Douglas Edwards
CBS Sustained Tuesdays 10:30 - 10:45 pm
==================================
HERITAGE RADIO THEATRE
THE LONE RANGER
(ABC) 7/13/45 "Tom Bates Reformed" Brace Beemer/John Todd.
NIGHTFALL
(CBC) 3/6/81 "The Room" A prize ghost story.
GUEST STAR
(Synd/Treasury Dept) Bing Crosby and Bob Hope for Savings Bonds.
====================================
SAME TIME, SAME STATION
Our actor of the month is Elvia Allman.
Elvia was a tremendous actress who worked on many shows including burns
and Allan and bob Hope.
BURNS AND ALLAN
from 08/31/43 Singing Contest. Guest Frank Sinatra.
Here is an early program which may have shaped the Joe Friday character
in "Dragnet".
SUSPENSE
from 03/13/47 Episode (236) You Take Ballistics. It starred Howard Da
Silva and Jack Webb
Angela Maxine O'Brien was born 01/15/37. She is better known as Margaret
O'Brien, and She just celebrated her 76th birthday. By the time she
began working in radio with The Screen Guild Theater and Lux Radio
Theater she still had not learned to read scripts. So, she memorized,
and other cast members would stand by in case she forgot her lines,
which rarely happened.
We will hear her when she was 7 years of age.
THE LUX RADIO THEATER
from 06/19/44 Episode (444) Lost Angel.
====================================
CLASSICS & CURIOS
"Echoes of Songs and Laughter"
Episode 65
A VAUGHN MONROE SHOWCASE, FEATURING AN INTERVIEW WITH MOONMAID JUNE
HIETT BRATONE
This is an episode showcasing Vaughn Monroe and the Moonmaids,
highlighted by an interview with one of those Moonmaids, a gal who was
also a featured vocalist, June Hiett Bratone.
Vaughn Monroe was himself first and foremost a vocalist, and his band
was considered most popular because of the singers, especially, of
course, Vaughn himself, whose handsome appearance, baritone voice, and
dynamic personality held highly romantic attractions for women. While
Vaughn was considered the best singer among the singing band leaders, he
had, however, earlier become a respectable trumpeter after lack of funds
curtailed his ambitions to become an operatic performer. Music critic
George T. Simon wrote that Vaughn was "the Rudy Vallee of his
generation." (The Big Bands) Concerning Vaughn the person, "Metronome"
writer Barbara Hodgkins wrote the he "was one of the most polite,
pleasant, and peaceful citizens in the music business -- a very normal
person in a very crazy world." Yet Vaughn readily understood the
commercial side of the big band's, along with the importance of
upgrading his group such as hiring trombonist and arranger Ray Conniff,
but ultimately it was because of Vaughn's virile voice that the band
first hit "the big time," which happened to occur in the Boston area.
While several instrumentally oriented bands faded toward the end of the
big band era, singers such as Marylin Duke, the Lee Sisters, the Murphy
Sisters, and saxophonist/comic vocalist Ziggy Talent helped keep the
band's popularity alive. Vaughn wanted to record more jazz
instrumentals, but Victor Recordings needed him to sing to sell records,
and sing he did. In fact, according to band guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli,
he could sight-sing, and "when arrangers would bring their new
arrangements on the job, and ... pass out the music, and we would play
it, he would sing it like he'd been singing it forever." ("There, I've
Said It Again," [removed])
Vaughn became a huge hit on radio, especially by way of his Camel
Cigarettes commercials and especially the "Camel Caravan" which was
broadcast every Saturday night from a different university. And with the
band's one-nighters each week, life, of course, could be stressful, as
this sample booking schedule from 1947 suggests:
June 13, Geo. F. Pavilion, Johnson City, NY
June 14, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
June 15: Pleasure Beach, Bridgeport, CT
June 16: Scranton, PA
June 17: Berwick, PA
June 18: Dorney Park, Allentown, PA
June 19-25: Hippodrome Theatre, Baltimore, MD
June 26: recording session, RCA Victor, New York, NY
June 27-July 17: Strand Theatre, New York, NY
July 18: Worcester, MA
July 19: broadcast, New York, NY
July 20: Elmira, NY [ travel to Canada ]
July 21: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
In her interview June Hiett Bratone will share some one-nighter memories
of Vaughn, the Moonmaids, and life with a big band. Composed of
different girls between 1946 and 1953, the Moonmaids were first to be
called "The Moonbeams," but Kay Kyser had already used a group by that
name, so they then were to be "The Moon Racers" but they finally became
"The Moonmaids," a sweet set of young singers who raced with the moon in
harmony along with Vaughn. Young Moonmaid Mary Jo Grogan related that
"He was nice to us ... He protected us. We went to a Victor recording
party ... and he was running around there getting lemonade for us, just
to be sure nobody gave us anything stronger." ([removed])
Vaughn, his band, and his Moonmaids gave me much joy through the years
starting back during my early years in Nebraska. Imagine my surprise a
few years ago to learn that one of the Moonmaids was living just a few
blocks away from my home in Arlington, Texas. And it has been a blessing
and privilege to have come to know her as a dear friend. One of the
delights of my life was when the Moonmaids were reunited at June's
house, and they invited me over on my birthday to meet them and share
our love of big band music. But an even more joyful turn took place that
day: During our fun time together the amazing Maids surprised me by
singing "Happy Birthday" to me in their wonderful angelic harmony. What
a treat for a fat little kid (now a fat little codger) from a little
town in the cornhusker state!
So it's only fitting that we feature June in an interview on this
episode. June also tells about things like her early performing in Texas
as a teenager and a typical day with the Monroe band. In addition she
talks about the character of Vaughn himself, some of the band's most
requested songs, her time with the Camel Caravan, special guests on the
Caravan show, a typical recording routine, some funny moments while
touring, a burning travel bus, and more. The interview was recorded in
2006 on YesterdayUSA with me and Walden Hughes as interviewers.
Leading up to the interview we'll go "Racing with the Moon" with Vaughn
and his hit recording "There I Go," which spent 4 weeks at the top of
"Your Hit Parade" in 1940-41 and a grand total of 19 weeks in the top
10. So, Vaughn and June, you're on! .
====================================
Make Believe Ballroom Time
Episode 6
Today, BBSS is featuring Chuck Foster and his "Music in the Foster
Fashion" They are broadcasting from the Hotel New Yorker in NY City. The
New Yorker Hotel is located in Manhattan's Garment Center, central to
Pennsylvania Station, Madison Square Garden, Times Square and the Empire
State Building. An early ad for the building boasted that the hotel's
"bell boys were 'as snappy-looking as West Pointers'" and "that it had a
radio in every room with a choice of four stations" It was a New Yorker
bellboy who served as tobacco company Phillip Morris' pitchman for
twenty years, making famous their "Call for Phillip Morris" advertising
campaign.
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s the hotel was among New York's most
fashionable and hosted many popular Big Bands, such as Benny Goodman and
Tommy Dorsey, while notable figures such as Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford
and Fidel Castro stayed there. The New York Observer noted that in the
building's heyday, "actors, celebrities, athletes, politicians,
mobsters, the shady and the luminous-the entire Brooklyn Dodgers roster
during the glory seasons-would stalk the bars and ballrooms, or romp
upstairs".
Some say the Foster band copied the style of Guy Lombardo's successful
and popular Royal [removed] Reed player Chuck Foster began his career
as a bandleader in 1938, bringing the sweet (and sometimes syrupy)
sounds of his band to such sizable venues as San Francisco's Mark
Hopkins Hotel and the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel's famous Biltmore Bowl.
With radio remotes routinely being broadcast from both locations, the
band hit its stride early and quickly achieved popularity with the help
of talented pianist Hal Pruden and a raft of popular vocalists.
The Foster band is appearing on BBSS in a remote broadcast from the
Hotel New Yorker in NY City. It's mid-August 1945 just prior to Chuck
Foster being drafted into the WWII military.
====================================
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: Wed, 6 Feb 2013 02:12:29 -0500
From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Dear Abby
Folks;
Wanted to mention this before, but got busy and forgot; on this week's
SummersTime, I'm airing an example of the five-minute CBS radio series Dear
Abby, with advice columnist Abigail Van Buren (Pauline Phillips) who passed
away last month. Our friend Harry Bartell handles the announcing duties,
asking the questions sent in by listeners, which Ms. Phillips answers.
Two airings left on Radio Once More (that's [removed] ),
Friday morning at 6 am in the east, 3 am in the west, and again Saturday at
Noon east, 9 am west, and of course all points inbetween.
And you _really_ want to hear the Coffee Rich commercial that runs in the
middle of Dear [removed]
Charlie
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2013 Issue #16
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