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	  	         === Last Update 1/17/95  ====





	    [removed]   Volume 96 : Issue 238


Articles in this issue of [removed]:

	 [removed]
	 old time radio, family values and a better era
	 Trading Tapes
	 Les Paul talks about taping radio shows
	 OTR TECHNIQUE
	 New Company-New Cassettes-and a query 
	 Vic and Sade/Lux Radio Theatre

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

Date: Fri, 05 Jul 1996 18:59:54 -0500
From: Joe Oliver <joliver@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: [removed]
Message-id: <[removed]@[removed]>

        For gosh sakes, PLEASE  *don't* get a Limbaugh/Stern thread going
here.  IMHO, it's the last thing we need to do in this space.


                                                  Joe


                                                 
W. Joseph Oliver
Department of Communication
Stephen F. Austin State University
Nacogdoches, TX  75962

     (409-468-4001)

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

Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 21:07:41 -0400
From: Platecap@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: old time radio, family values and a better era
Message-ID: <960705205508_428286636@[removed]>

I think the thing about classic radio shows that shouldn't be overlooked is
that it promoted wholesome family values, but the same cannot be said for
much of what is being broadcast today.  

During the period when shows like Gunsmoke and Escape were on radio, the
medium had respect for the government and the government (FCC)  actually
played an active role in seeing that radio and broadcast stations actually
*did* serve in the public interest, or their license was put in immediate
jeopardy.

There was genuine QUALITY radio programming produced and distributed by the
major networks.   During radio's golden era, the industry was loaded with
talent in all areas and programming geniuses who were allowed to flourish.
 If that hadn't been the case, talent like Jack Benny wouldn't have been able
to enjoy a successful 23 year radio career in quite the same way.  

Today, the FCC does not care what goes out over the air and even the lowest
class sleaze broadcaster is allowed to continue if the company behind them
pays the government enough ransom money (fines).  

Back when Suspense and the Lux Radio Theater were enjoying their 20 year runs
on network radio, we didn't have hate mongering radio the way we do now -
[removed] commentators who have gained tremendous followings doing little more
than bashing the very government and country where they earn their
multi-million dollar salaries.  

I'm not saying we shouldn't have free speech, but the public is very gullible
and has developed a very twisted concept of what quality radio entertainment
is all about.
It's too bad the *sheeple* who listen to those red-hot talk shows today
(which have actually leveled off in popularity and have started to decline)
couldn't have been weaned on some kind of current version of Fibber McGee &
Molly or Dimension X.

I think everyone who reads this list KNOWS what good radio REALLY is, and
those shows I mentioned are certainly among the best ones.    

I think *dramatic* and *comedy* "NEW TIME" radio being produced today
(especially in comparing to the classic shows) has a place for discussion in
this list, as well as shows on radio today that FEATURE old time radio shows.
 I'm not so sure reference to the *other* programming being aired today is
appropriate here.

No dittos from me, just my [removed] [removed]   Bob Burnham; BRC Productions;
Platecap@[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 23:09:47 -0400
From: John Koppel <[removed]@[removed]>
To: otr <otr@[removed]>
Subject: Trading Tapes
Message-ID: <199607052346_MC1-66B-F2A5@[removed]>

Hi everyone!

I am in the middle of getting my collection of radio shows cataloged.  I am
also creating a log of all the shows that I have in my collection.  If
anyone is interested in trading shows, please E-mail me privately at
104754,1260@[removed]

Or, check out my web site at 
[removed]  

thanks,
John

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

Date: Fri, 05 Jul 1996 23:09:41 -0500
From: Steven Lewis <lewis@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Les Paul talks about taping radio shows
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Here is an interview of Les Paul, guitarist, conducted by Frank Beacham.
In the interview Les discusses the origin of the taping of network radio
broadcasts. This has been a topic here, so I wanted to give you the info
from "the horse's mouth." Paul was a frequent guest on the Bing Crosby
Philco Radio Show. The complete interview can be read at:
[removed]

Steven Lewis
[removed]

Paul: I'll tell you the story of how the tape recorder came to America. 
I was working with Bing Crosby on the Kraft Music Hall in California and
Bing says to me: "You know, I wish there was a way I could do like
you do. You have all your (transcription and wire recording
equipment) at home and you can record your stuff in your garage. I
have to go down to the studio and do everything. I can't play on the
golf course. I'd rather do it right at the club house if I could." 

It just so happened that Judy Garland and I were doing a broadcast
on Sundays in New York City. We had to fly from California to New
York and it took 19 hours. We were playing at 53rd and Broadway
and a little old man came up to me -- this was about 1945 or 46 -- 
and he said his name was Dick Ranger and he had a tape recording
machine. He said he picked it up when we invaded Luxembourg in
the big push to end the war.

This was big news to me. Colonial Ranger said he walked into a
radio station and saw this tape machine and grabbed it. It was too
big to carry or ship back so he dismantled it and brought it back 
to the States piece by piece. Colonel Ranger took this tape machine -- 
it was called a Magnetophon -- to Orange, New Jersey and put it back
together. Then he made a copy of it he called the Rangertone.

Meanwhile, I go to Bing Crosby and tell him there's a man that
nailed me at 53rd and Broadway with a tape machine. I said that's
your guy. You can put that machine right on the golf course and you
can record your show from there. Just get your trio to play behind
you and there you go. So Bing says find the guy and bring him out
here. 

I called Colonel Ranger, brought him out to California, and he
demonstrated the recorder at KNX, which is CBS out in Hollywood. 
Bing said I'll take 50 of them. But Ranger said he could only make
one a year. This guy just wasn't a good businessman. Bing says I
want someone who can make 50 of them and I need them now. 

Well, there was another guy named Jack Mullin who also had one of
the German recorders in his garage but he hadn't put it together yet. 
Finally, Mullin put his together and took it over to Ampex. The
people at Ampex took a look and said let's go with it. But first, they
said, they had to have some [removed] they went to Bing for the
cash. He said how much do you want? They said $50,000. Bing
wrote out a check for fifty grand with no interest. He said I don't
want any part of the Ampex company. I don't want anything to do
with you guys other than have you deliver me those machines. And
so it was that I worked on the very first broadcast with tape (Bing
Crosby Philco Radio Time, 1947).

If one of the reels on that machine broke it could have killed five
people in the [removed] was going so fast. The tape that the Germans
were using was made of paper. It was like fly paper. The Germans
would just scratch some iron dust on it. Later 3M provided the first
version of "Scotch" recording tape to replace that German paper
stock. So that's how the tape machine got to America. It just floated
up on our shores and Ampex made a fortune from it.

Let me say one more thing about tape, since I was there from the
beginning. Anybody out there who thinks they've got something
stored away on tape had better think twice because we don't know
how long tape is going to last. It's almost like a (heart) bypass,
unless someone stays around long enough to tell us we won't know
how long it's going to work. 

(Interviewer's Note: The EQ for Jack Mullin's re-designed circuitry 
of the 1943 Magnetophon became the basis for the NAB curve. The first
pair of Ampex Model 200 tape recorders -- serial numbers 1 and 2 --
were delivered to Jack Mullin at the Bing Crosby show in Hollywood
in April, 1948 to replace Mullin's original Magnetophons, which
were being used to record the Crosby radio show.)

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

Date: Sat, 6 Jul 1996 06:40:53 -0400
From: "Carmen Collins" <carmenco@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: OTR TECHNIQUE
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Would like to tell you how we used OTR technique recently to good advantage. I
wrote a play about the relationship between Ben Franklin and his son William.
It had two successful readings locally,and then the organization that maintains
William's former royal gubernatorial mansion in Perth Amboy, NJ expressed an
interest in it for fund raising purposes. We wanted to put on just one
performance, but wanted it to bemore than just a straight reading. So, some one
came up with the bright idea of doing it as an OTR program so that the reading
would "fit." We set up a mike (dead), on/off the air signs and lights, sound
effects man, and asked the audience to set the scenes mentally. We even went so
far as to put the actors in costume. It worked remarkably well. Thus, when
someone has a play reading to put on, and it's unrealistic to ask actors to do
a huge memory task for one performance, this technique might be ofuse to you.  
The audience loved it.  Ciao - Bob collins

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

Date: Sat, 6 Jul 1996 08:56:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: MAX SCHMID <mschmid@[removed]>
To: airwavesOTR <[removed]@[removed]>
Subject: New Company-New Cassettes-and a query 
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

>From the summer catalog of The Allegro Company, Portland, Oregon, a new 
label: Itex presents The Golden Age of Radio(!). "Stimulate your 
imagination with one of the most renowned authorities of radio drama and 
vintage radio programs, VICTOR IVES. Take a trip back to radio's golden 
years with Victor and The Golden Age of Radio."  It's a 5-cassette set 
including the following: Gildersleeve, Hall of Fantasy, Barry Craig, Fibber
McGee, Man Called X, Aldrich Family, X Minus One, Archie Andrews, and 
"Fibber's Magic Radio".  1-800-288-2007 to order (may be for wholesale 
orders; if you care, call).
	My question to the assembled panel of most renowned authorities:
Anyone ever heard of Victor Ives?
	On a more personal note: The Schmidco catalog is available for mailing.
E-mail version coming soon.  It features many special productions of (NY's)
Golden Age of Radio from the early '80s, including interviews with Henry 
Morgan, Steve Allen, and others, as well as extensive Vic & Sade, Jean 
Shepherd, and many  90 minute "best-of" and death tribute tapes produced for 
fund drives at WBAI. Also Friar's Roasts, BBC Sci-Fi & Horror, other more 
modern odd-ball stuff.
	If you want a printed copy, send your address to me via private 
e-mail, or if you can wait for an electronic version, let me know and 
I'll get it together shortly.  End of plug.
	-Max Schmid  Producer - A Golden Age of Radio - WBAI-NY

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

Date: Sat, 6 Jul 1996 08:49:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: toorby@[removed] (Bruce Toor)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Vic and Sade/Lux Radio Theatre
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Many thanks for the responses to my requests for information about Vic and
Sade tapes.  I'm responding individually regarding them.  The one I
particularly remember is Vic determined to fix his alarm clock with a
hammer, while son Rush implores him ("But [removed]!).  Vic snarls at his son,
"Hand me my little hammer!" as Uncle Fletcher moons, "Half-wit fly on the
ceilin', Vic."  When Paul Rhymer was at his writing best, there was no one
better. This particular show was rebroadcast by a midnight LA disc jockey
and comic named Jim Hawthorne in 1951, as part of a Vic and Sade tribute;
Hawthorne interviewed a radio pioneer, Major Armstrong, and played the Vic
and Sade shows as he went along. I taped the show but later lost the tape.

One of the members of the group asked for a report on what it was like to
see the shows in person, and that might be of general interest.  The Lux
Radio Theater was broadcast not from a studio at CBS's Columbia Square, but
from the much larger El Capitan Theater on Vine Street, about a block north
of NBC Radio City.  The production I saw was a dramatization of "Storm," a
book by George R. Stewart about a terrific storm that hit California in 1938
and isolated it (also isolating my preschool and I on what for a while
became an island).  The show starred Burgess Meredith, who appeared to be a
young ex-GI with a crewcut, dressed in a business suit.  The audiences in
those days consisted largely of men and women in uniform who would come over
from the Hollywood Canteen a block away and stand in line for hours to see
the show of their choice.  The rest of us had to write in for tickets in
advance, sometimes months in advance.

The El Capitan (afterward renamed the Huntington Hartford) became famous as
the birthplace of Ken Murray's Blackouts (originally "Blackouts of 1943")
which introduced the classic dumb blond, Marie Wilson (My Friend Irma).  The
Blackouts, together with The Drunkard and Elsa Lanchester's Turnabout
Theater, were to be LA's longest running stage shows.

I was too young to attend radio shows alone (NBC excluded children under
14!), and my father got tired of standing in line, so he gave a cigar to a
backstage security guard and we wound up viewing Fibber McGee and Molly from
the sponsor's booth.  The large man sitting next to us turned out to be Don
Quinn, the show's writer.  It was a big night for me, getting to see Fibber,
Mollie, Arthur Q. Bryant and Bill Thompson from the air, so to speak.
Fibber always did the warm-up, and the show always went on the air with a
huge laugh from the audience.  On the night I was there, Fibber monkeyed
with his wristwatch to get it to work, and just before airtime he
"accidentally" threw the watch over his shoulder, into Billy Mills'
orchestra, allowing "Waxy" Harlow Wilcox to step up to the mike right on cue
with a big laugh.  Ah, those innocent days!

Cheers,
Bruce

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

    


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---- 
End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #238

