Subject: [removed] Digest V01 #74
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 3/5/2001 8:36 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                          The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                             Volume 01 : Issue 74
                       A Part of the [removed]!
                               ISSN: 1533-9289

                               Today's Topics:

     [removed] Fields on Bergen & McCarthy     [steve mcguffin <earl22002@[removed]]
     OTR and Future Generations  /  Sam's ["Welsa" <welsa@[removed];        ]
     Little people inside radios          [Bill Harris <billhar@[removed];    ]
     Re:  Bob Weiskopf                    [GOpp@[removed]                       ]
     Yesterday in Radio History 3/4       [Joe Mackey <wmackey@[removed]]
     Re:  As I was saying ...             [Joe Mackey <wmackey@[removed]]
     3 OTR B/CASTS STILL ON THE AIR       ["Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; ]
     "Death of Radio"                     ["Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@worldnet.]
     FRED ALLEN; HIS OPINION OF TV        ["Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; ]
     [removed]                    [Jerry Lewine <radiojerry@fastpointc]
     Re:DEATHS (of actors and OTR), JACK  [SanctumOTR@[removed]                 ]
     little folks in the radio dept.      [chet !! <cien@[removed];          ]
     Thanks for the Video Sources         [Ga6string@[removed]                  ]
     RE: re: OMF/Yarborough's death       ["David Phaneuf" <dphaneuf@[removed]]
     Goldbergs: clarifications            ["Art Shifrin" <goldens2@[removed]]
     Big Band Music                       ["jim terra" <nickcharles4@[removed]]
     Dragnet as the Most Humane Show on O [Robert Kirk <kirk@[removed]]
     Re: OTR vs  TV                       [OTRChris@[removed]                   ]

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 13:36:40 -0500
    From: steve mcguffin <earl22002@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  [removed] Fields on Bergen & McCarthy

    A couple of years ago, I heard [removed] Fields on Edgar
    Bergen & Charlie McCarthy's show over WHO in Des
    Moines.  The sparring between [removed] and Charlie was, as
    usual, hilarious.  I'd like to find a tape of this
    episode, I believe the date was November 8, 1942.  Any
    help finding it would be greatly appreciated.
    Steve

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 14:46:26 -0500
    From: "Welsa" <welsa@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  OTR and Future Generations  /  Sam's Club

    I have a friend who is media librarian at the main branch of our public
    library.  They have a respectable collection of OTR tapes and CD's.  They
    are seldom in.  Who checks them out?  The biggest audience, she says, is
    teen-aged boys--13-6 or so.

    As for Sam's Club--the manager at our store tells me that:

    1)  All buying is done centrally--the local Sam's does not do the buying.

    2)  The OTR stuff they had last year came in just in time for Christmas
    shopping.  He suspects that is what will happen again this year.  But, alas,
    the stores seldom know.  The trucks arrive with merchandise and many times
    they are surprised by what is in them!

    Ted

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 14:48:05 -0500
    From: Bill Harris <billhar@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Little people inside radios

    I was sure that had to be the case, how else could those voices be coming
    from the
    old Airline Movie Dial set we had in the
    living room? Then one day my mother was doing the floors and had the set pulled
    away from the wall. Now was my chance
    to look in the back and see those 'little people'. Humph, nothing but a big
    round
    thing with some kind of paper on it (speaker of
    course). I then decided they must be behind that where I could not see them. My
    parents and grandparents also used to talk about a 'bank' in the west which
    could
    mean rain. I knew there was a bank downtown where we went for money
    sometimes, but
    no matter how hard I looked I never could see a bank in the sky to the west,
    just
    some clouds.

    Bill Harris

    Harry Machin, Jr. commented:

>      And I remember how puzzled I was
>     when my father showed me (around 1933) the
>     inside of our Philco radio, and there were no little
>     people there.  So I join with David Phaneuf in
>     asking whether any other OTR fans who, when
>     very young,  grew up in the golden age of radio
>     and believed in the existence of the little people.

>     Harry Machin Jr.

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 15:01:28 -0500
    From: GOpp@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:  Bob Weiskopf

    I haven't seen any postings here regarding the recent passing of
    Bob Weiskopf, longtime writer for Fred Allen, who also
    wrote such TV shows as "I Love Lucy," "Maude," and "All in the
    Family." Bob once told me that when he received his draft notice
    in 1942, he requested a two-week extension so that he could
    finish writing Fred Allen's last two shows of the season. The
    Draft Board summarily rejected his request, explaining,
    "Everybody knows that Fred Allen writes his own material."
    I've posted an article about Bob's career at
    [removed]

    - Gregg Oppenheimer
    [removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 15:50:19 -0500
    From: Joe Mackey <wmackey@[removed];
    To: otr-otrd <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Yesterday in Radio History 3/4

        From the AP:

       - In 1925: President Calvin Coolidge's inauguration was broadcast
    live on 21 radio stations coast-to-coast.

       Joe
    --
    Visit my home page:
    [removed]~[removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 15:50:16 -0500
    From: Joe Mackey <wmackey@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:  As I was saying ...

>     Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 10:50:14 -0500
>     From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
>     Subject:  ... As I was saying ...

>     When I was about ten years old, I was playing with my electric train in my
>     bedroom, with Nick Carter, Master Detective playing in the background. My
>     father came in to tell me to do something, and after giving me

    instructions on what to do, he said, "Right?"  I responded, "Right."
    Immediately afterward, Nick Carter said, "Right!"

      Several years ago, when WRW was broadcast here from 5-6, one day they
    had a episode of Little Orphan Annie with the announcer saying, "Its
    [removed], time for [removed]" and I glanced at the clock and it was [removed]!  It
    was about 50+ years later, but the time was correct!  :)
      Joe

    --
    Visit my home page:
    [removed]~[removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 16:45:16 -0500
    From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  3 OTR B/CASTS STILL ON THE AIR

         In my posting about the "death" of OTR, I forgot to mention 3 very good
    programs that are still on the air since the 1930's.

          Grand Ole' Opry, from Nashville airs every Saturday Night from 8-10 pm
    est., and The Metropolitan Opera broadcasts every Saturday Afternoon at 1:00
    pm, est.  I can remember Roy Acuff and Red Foley sharing host duties on the
    Opry broadcasts and Milton Cross as host of the Met broadcasts.  The "Opera
    Quiz" which used Opera lovers as panelists during the intermission is still
    a part of the program.

          The Nashville show actually started at 6 pm to midnight, but the
    network only carried it fro 8 to 10 pm. est.

          Another excellent show that is based in Chicago, "Unshackled" is of a
    religious nature and had been airing since the 1930's. It is broadcast over
    1100 radio outlets in 147 Countries.  It uses both professional and amateur
    performers from the Chicago area, from Stage  and TV.  Even though you may
    not be religious, entertainment-wise it is a very well written, and acted
    show. <[removed];

          I know these broadcasts are for a limited audience - but - they must
    have had some kind of "staying power" for the industry to even consider
    keeping them on the air.  What do you think?

                               -  30  -

    Owens Pomeroy

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 16:45:20 -0500
    From: "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  "Death of Radio"

    I don't want to throw a wet blanket on a fairly spirited debate, but radio
    did NOT die an early death in the US as much as it had new life breathed
    into it by World War II. Television and video technology could have killed
    the medium in the early 1940's had the war not shut down the network's early
    attempts at television.

    Remember the BBC was on the air with their TV service in 1939. Franklin
    Roosevelt stood before NBC's cameras at the '39 World's Fair and the Germans
    had televised the opening of the '36 Summer Olympics. Television was coming
    to the Western World at a pretty good clip until the demands of war
    sidetracked the technological innovators.

    Some may want to characterize the vast majority Americans as unimaginative
    couch potatoes or easily led sheep simply because TV is our dominant medium.
    But it's the American entertainment industry that is dominant throughout the
    world because it is *Americans*  who create, write, produce and push
    entertainment technology to its limits both on the large and the small
    screen. Couple that with the recording and computer industries and you
    hardly get the picture of a dull, robotic peoples.

    And speaking of death, television does handle it pretty good these days.
    Yes, "Coach" died on "Cheers" as well as in real life. But you handle an
    actor's death through heart attack much differently than that of a wife's
    drug-induced murder-suicide rampage (Phil Hartman.) As Mary Tyler Moore
    proved in the infamous "Chuckles the Clown" episode, even death can be funny
    if you handle it right.

    And for those who wish a little honest disclosure, yes, I work in
    television. I have been contributing to the ether pollution as a producer
    and crew member of televised sports since 1983.

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 16:45:23 -0500
    From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  FRED ALLEN; HIS OPINION OF TV

          In the early days of Television, when a lot of radio stars were
    considering making the transition to television, Fred Allen, in an interview
    in Radio Mirror Magazine, when asked if the radio people will take their
    shows to TV, he had this to say:. . ."we people in radio will never go into
    television because we will never be small enough to fit into that little
    tube!"

         Of course, Fred was speaking for himself, and a few others who had
    doubts about the success of radio shows to TV - but - you know, he did speak
    the truth in a way, because for the exception of a few shows that did
    successfully make the change, a lot of the radio series only lasted one or
    two seasons on television.

         Speaking of radio to TV, there were two programs that were on
    Television first and went to radio, both Westerns: Have Gun, will Travel,
    starring John Dehner and Fort Laramie, starring Raymond Burr in both
    versions.  There was also, I believe a comedy show, "My Favorite Husband,"
    starring Lucille Ball in the Radio version and Joan Caulfield in the TV
    version.

                                   -  30  -

    Owens Pomeroy

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 16:45:24 -0500
    From: Jerry Lewine <radiojerry@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  [removed]

    Don Taylor mentioned going to a site that was streaming audio and listening
    to a DJ and music from his past, in this instance Pat O'Day on KJR.

    A phenominal site for listening to airchecks from the old days of rock and
    roll and more can be found at [removed].  You can search by station
    or radio personality.

    Jerry Lewine, Chief Engineer
    KHJ, Los Angeles

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 16:45:26 -0500
    From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re:DEATHS (of actors and OTR), JACK BENNY's
     turkey

    In a message dated 3/5/01 12:42:17 PM, Dave Phaneuf writes:

    <<Even in our more "enlightened?????" TV age, when CHEERS' "Coach", and also
    HILL STREET BLUES' "Sarge", and more recently NEWS RADIO's Phil Hartman,
    died in real life, I remember simple "In Memory Of" dedicatories tacked on
    at the end of the shows, and, in NEWS RADIO's case a touching tribute show
    with excerpts from past episodes, but I don't recall the "Coach" or "Sarge"
    or "Bill McNeal" characters themselves "dying" or being "killed off."  I may
    be wrong, but I don't think my memory fails me at this [removed];>

    ***Your memory is faulty, at least where HILL STREET BLUES is concerned.  The
    character of Sarge died while making love with his girlfriend, and quite a
    bit was made of it on HILL STREET BLUES.  Seems to me I remember some
    grieving for Coach on CHEERS, too.***

    And Stephen A. Kallis, Jr. remarks:

> >     Bottom line?  OTR would NEVER have died if the sponsors didn't abandon

    the medium.  But, the merchants of this world were steering their sheep
    away from inexpensive radios to more expensive televisions ... and ad
    agencies jumped on the bandwagon, knowing the profit potential from TV
    would be greater once the sheep were [removed];<

    ***Not just the sponsors but the networks themselves.  Jackson Beck has
    wondered if OTR might have survived if the FCC had extended the prohibition
    against one corporation owning multiple networks to radio and television.
    What might have happened if CBS or NBC had had to sell their radio networks
    before getting into television, or remain in radio and go head-to-head with
    Dumont rather than with themselves.  For one thing, CBS and NBC wouldn't have
    just shifted their biggest stars from radio to television.  It wasn't just
    the sponsors who gave up on radio; it was the networks themselves.***

    And Liz McLeod mentions:

    Indeed not -- it was A&A episode 2397, broadcast on Friday, 8/21/36. Amos
    and Andy are looking to raise funds to live on while in Hollywood, and
    visit "the beach home of Cary Grant and Randolph Scott at 1018 Ocean
    Front, Santa Monica" after being told of a job opening there, and become
    involved in a friendly chat after learning that Randy is a fellow
    Southerner. Then Cary arrives, and the talk turns in another direction.
    Here they are:--

    ***Been there, seen it.  That actually was Cary Grant's real-life home, and
    I'm rather surprised that A'n'A gave out the address.  It was a pretty
    high-powered neighborhood block with, as I recall, Mae West, Marion Davies
    and a lot of other celebrities including MERCURY THEATRE veteran Richard
    Wilson.  Richard once gave me a guided tour of the block, but didn't mention
    anything about A'n'A's visit.***

    And Ivan recalls:

    <<The November 30, 1947 broadcast, where Jack has the dream about being
    put on trial for killing a [removed] could not believe how bad that
    show [removed] guess it seemed like a good idea at the [removed];>

    ***The same script was later redone on TV.  The video version wasn't bad,
    featuring Raymond Burr as Jack Benny's attorney and Frank Nelson as the
    prosecutor.  Nelson wins the case even though he's never been to law school .
    . . because he's watched all of Burr's PERRY MASON TV shows.  At one point
    during the trial, Jack asks Burr why he does so much better in court on his
    PERRY MASON series and Burr remarks that he has better writers because they
    actually pay HIS writers. --ANTHONY TOLLIN

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 19:21:42 -0500
    From: chet !! <cien@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  little folks in the radio dept.

    this is sorta in reference to little people inside the [removed]

    back when i was a lad they had double features in the theatres and i
    used to believe that while one film was playing the actors in the other
    film were out having dinner or otherwise [removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 19:21:40 -0500
    From: Ga6string@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Thanks for the Video Sources

    Hello all,

    Recently I requested info on potential sources for videos of B-movies and
    serials. I got a number of direct responses, and I'd like to say thank you to
    everyone who sent info. It was *very* helpful.

    I'd also like to offer this compilation of the info I received, for anyone
    who's interested. Caveat emptor, as ever!

    Web sites: (If no address listed, virtually any search engine will do. I use
    Yahoo, personally):

    BRC Productions
    Critic's Choice Video ([removed])
    Finders Keepers ([removed]);
        e-mail: finderskeepers101@[removed]
    Grapevine Video
    Media Bay ([removed])
    Movies Unlimited ([removed])
    Sinister Cinema ([removed])
    TVideo ([removed])
    VCI Home Video ([removed])
    Videobrary

    Mail Order:
    Best of The West Video
    [removed] Box 2734
    N. Canton, OH 44720
    Catalog, $2, includes a $[removed] coupon good for first order.

    Stokey's Cinema Classsics
    [removed] Box 609
    Monroe, NJ 08831

    Again, thanks to everyone for their responses.
    Sincerely,
    Bryan Powell

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 20:52:23 -0500
    From: "David Phaneuf" <dphaneuf@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  RE: re: OMF/Yarborough's death

    In Issue #73, in response to Elizabeth's statement that  One Man's Family
    was "dishonest" in not dealing with the fact of actor Yarborough's death, I
    replied that in some of TV's deaths, [removed] NEWS RADIO (Phil Hartman), CHEERS
    (Nick Colasanto??) and HILL STREET BLUES (Michael Conrad) -- when the actor
    died, I didn't remember the character being killed off as well.

    H-O-W embarrassing!!!!!    It turns out that those shows DID kill off their
    characters when they died in real life.  I know I'm going to hear from all
    of you on this one! (And already have.)

    [I beg many pardons, and bow in deep contrition before this esteemed group.]

    Actually, Charlie emailed me before Issue #73 came out and cleared up my
    fuzzy, failing, and faulty memory.

    In my reply to Charlie I thanked him for setting me straight. "Though I
    watched both these shows avidly, my memory of them is obviously not as it
    should be. And to be honest, I wasn't watching them then so that years later
    I could recount them in OTR Digest!  ;-)  Still I do believe the basic
    premise of what I was saying is true, that society as a whole was not as
    "honest" about death several generations ago."

    And so, to all my new friends at OTR Digest, I am most red-facedly yours,

    Dave Phaneuf

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 20:52:21 -0500
    From: "Art Shifrin" <goldens2@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Goldbergs: clarifications

    Hi Gang,

    I've run the first "side" of that 10" reel of tape.  I'm sorry to report
    that I was wrong when I thought that these tapes contain 1/2 hour shows.
    They're 1/4 hour shows, with closing commercials deleted.  The remnant of
    one indicates that the sponsor is Duz.

    Assumiing that the topical references are timely, these are likely from
    1941, because mention is made of war in Europe having started two years
    before.  So far, there are 7 consecutive shows.  The plot lines are: Molly's
    giving shelter to a woman she finds in their barn in Lastonberry.  It turns
    out that the woman's of French descent and the widow of an American who'd
    been posted to the [removed] embassy (if I recall, in Italy).  Then it developes
    that they have to vacate the house that they've been renting because the
    owner, and ex-con named Wade has been released from jail and won't renew
    their lease.

    These are fine quality line recordings, so please let me know if what I've
    described are in circulation.  Also, if you can clarify as much as possible
    the air dates, I'd appreciate it.

    Best,
    Shiffy
    check out my website: [removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 21:20:35 -0500
    From: "jim terra" <nickcharles4@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Big Band Music

    For those of us lucky to live in California :-), and even more fortunate to
    live in the San Francisco, there is a local FM station at [removed] that plays
    bigband music 24 hrs of the day.  It is a VERY low power public station
    broadcasting from a local high school.  Worth trying to get if you live in
    the Bay Area.  Remember, it is [removed] FM.
    Roll up the rugs and SWING!!    Cheers, Jim [removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 21:20:37 -0500
    From: Robert Kirk <kirk@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Dragnet as the Most Humane Show on OTR

    Elizabeth commented:

>     In any case, contrast Morse's sloppy handling of Yarborough's death with
>     the way Jack Webb dealt with it in "Dragnet." The "Big Sorrow" episode
>     stands as one of the most honest expressions of genuine human grief ever
>     to be broadcast: Joe Friday mourns the death of his partner, even as Jack
>     Webb mourns the death of a colleague and friend. The scene where Friday
>     is told that Ben has died, and he sits there stunned, is an extraordinary
>     and powerful bit of radio acting.

    I guess it's taken me a few years to realize that Dragnet was the most
    humane show on OTR.

    Now, Sgt Friday could put down the low life yeggs with the  best of
    them,  but Elizabeth's example shows a much greater depth, too. Added to
    that is what is the best Christmas show to have ever been on the radio,
    where Joe investigates the killing of a little boy by a friend who got a
    rifle for Christmas.  Even in the usual weekly shows, the run of the mill
    ordinary citizens were usually given some depth unusual for the cops &
    robbers shows - even than the more pretentious Oboler/Corwin characters who
    seemed to me as a kid to be stock figures: like looking at the post office
    murals one used to see; symbols & cliches rather than humans.

    Dragnet was fun to listen to, of course, the other appreciation comes with
    time.

    Bob Kirk

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

    Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 22:33:10 -0500
    From: OTRChris@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: OTR vs  TV

    <<Stepehn  A  Kallis  , Jr.   notes,

     There are schlocky books and were dumb OTR shows, too.  I've learned over
     the years that some of this is a matter of taste.    If some of
     my fellow citizens like to sit and absorb TV shows, that's not a sign
     that our (or any) culture is going to Hell in a handbasket.

     Sometimes it's discouraging to those of us who dig OTR that not everybody
     is as enthusiastic about the programs as we are ... but it's a fact of
     life.
     >>

    Why does it seem that TV and Radio must always be such rivals?  One or the
    other.
    I feel they are complimentary.  Radio , TV , Books all  have their  own way
    of telling
    a good story when they do so in a compelling manner.
    A good book can really be in depth and bring more detail whether it is
    fiction or non-fiction . Television can show us visually stimulating images .
    And radio can suggest those pictures in such a way  that they are very
    personal to each listener.
    Each media source at its best can do wonderful things . I don't want to chose
    one or the other.
    Radio was great. Or it appears so great by todays standards because even a
    bad show can spark the imagination and the listener must participate.
    I cannot envision people just sitting in front of their radios for seven
    hours a day doing absolutley nothing else. Was it ever that way ?
    Radio changed so much in so little time in those golden days that I wonder if
    there was truly even time to grow truly stale. And looking at those schedules
    there truly was something for everyone.  A wide variety of different kinds of
    musical programs on each network , silly comedy to high prestige drama  on
    commercial networks.
    Early Televison was programmed in a similar manner . And being new anything
    just seemed great on TV . SEEING all those shows was just addicting. But
    through the 50s , 60s and 70s it seemed like everyhting had been done and
    done again .
    For me since 1980 or so TV for the most part has been truly bad. Oh there are
    a few well written shows but you know ---I don't care.  I don't care about
    hospital drama , or anymore police dramas .Been there and seen it before.  If
    it were not for cable I may not even own a TV set anymore.
    But here is my problem with the current situation . I say let TV be the mass
    produced  programming for those who use it to relax and not use there brains.
    But with 300 million people in this country are there not enough of  us souls
    that a truly well -written nightly  radio suspense/drama program  that is
    truly involved cannot be produced?

    If it cannot then I agree with the poster that says we are a nation of
    morons. Because a non thinking nation is not a good thing.

    -Chris

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #74
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