------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2007 : Issue 250
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
#OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Nig [ charlie@[removed] ]
8-29 births/deaths [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
current update on the SPERDVAC lunch [ "Walden Hughes" <walden1@yesterdayu ]
The first infomercial [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
Re: WEAF real estate ad. [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
Soap Prep [ "Bill Knowlton" <udmacon1@[removed] ]
Re: Fibber & Molly and the war [ "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed]; ]
A trio of maestros [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
8-30 births/deaths [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 02:12:01 -0400
From: charlie@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Night!
A weekly [removed]
For the best in OTR Chat, join IRC (Internet Relay Chat), StarLink-IRC
Network, the channel name is #OldRadio. We meet Thursdays at 8 PM Eastern
and go on, and on! The oldest OTR Chat Channel, it has been in existence
over nine years, same time, same channel! Started by Lois Culver, widow
of actor Howard Culver, this is the place to be on Thursday night for
real-time OTR talk!
Our "regulars" include OTR actors, soundmen, collectors, listeners, and
others interested in enjoying OTR from points all over the world. Discussions
range from favorite shows to almost anything else under the sun (sometimes
it's hard for us to stay on-topic)...but even if it isn't always focused,
it's always a good time!
For more info, contact charlie@[removed]. We hope to see you there, this
week and every week!
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 02:37:21 -0400
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 8-29 births/deaths
August 29th births
08-29-1882 - Richard Legrand - Mount Tabor section near Portland, OR
- d. 6-29-1963
actor: Richard Q. Peavy "Great Gildersleeve"; Ole "Fibber McGee and
Molly"
08-29-1898 - Charlie Grimm - St. Louis, MO - d. 11-15-1983
Sportscaster:(Jolly Cholly) WBBM Chicago
08-29-1898 - Preston Sturges - Chicago, IL - d. 8-6-1959
film producer, writer, director: "Lux Radio Theatre"
08-29-1899 - George V. Denny, Jr. - Washington, [removed] - d. 11-11-1959
moderator: "America's Town Meeting of the Air"
08-29-1904 - Ronald Watkins - Surrey, England - d. 2-16-2001
Reader of prose and poetry
08-29-1906 - Joe Sawyer - Guelph, Canada - d. 4-21-1982
actor: Sergant 'Biff' O'Hara "Rin-Tin-Tin"
08-29-1907 - Lurene Tuttle - Pleasant Lake, IN - d. 5-28-1986
actor: Effie Perrine "Advs. of Sam Spade"; Ellie Connors "Lum and Abner"
08-29-1910 - John Kane - Davenport, IA - d. 3-15-1910
actor: Tom Jones "Five Star Jones"; Scubby "Nick Carter"
08-29-1912 - Barry Sullivan - NYC - d. 6-6-1994
actor: Steve Canyon "Steve Canyon"; Simon Templar "The Saint"
08-29-1913 - Sylvia Fine - NYC - d. 10-28-1991
writer: (Wife of Danny Kaye) "Danny Kaye Show"; "Forecast"; "Bud's
Bandwagon"
08-29-1914 - Willard Waterman - Madison, WI - d. 2-2-1995
actor: Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve "Great Gildersleeve"; Roger
Barton "The Guiding Light"
08-29-1915 - Ingrid Bergman - Stockholm, Sweden - d. 8-29-1982
actor: "Everything for the Boys"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
08-29-1916 - George Montgomery - Brady, MT - d. 12-12-2000
actor: "Hollywood Star Time"; "NBC University Theatre of the Air"
08-29-1920 - Charlie Parker - Kansas City, MO - d. 3-12-1955
jazz musician: "This Is Jazz"
08-29-1922 - Arthur Anderson - Staten Island, NY
actor: "Let's Pretend"; Mark Davis "Lawyer Tucker"; Buddy "Tony and Gus"
08-29-1924 - Dinah Washington - Tuscaloosa, AL - d. 12-14-1963
blues singer: "Jubilee"; "Bob Hope Show"; "One Night Stand"
August 29th deaths
02-19-1924 - Lee Marvin - NYC - d. 8-29-1987
actor: "Dragnet"
02-20-1911 - Paul Tripp - NYC - d. 8-29-2002
actor: "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
04-06-1892 - Lowell Thomas - Woodington, OH - d. 8-29-1981
newscaster, commentator: "Lowell Thomas and the News"; "Man with a
Question"
05-01-1906 - Rose Hobart - NYC - d. 8-29-2000
actor: "Nightbeat"
06-05-1912 - Dan Ocko - d. 8-29-1991
actor: Killer Kane "Buck Rogers of the 25th Century"; "Sergeant
Muggin "Inspector Thorne"
08-03-1923 - Jean Hagen - Chicago, IL - d. 8-29-1977
actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"; "Stars in the Air"
08-29-1915 - Ingrid Bergman - Stockholm, Sweden - d. 8-29-1982
actor: "Everything for the Boys"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
09-06-1925 - Jimmy Reed - Dunleith, MS - d. 8-29-1976
blues singer, guitarist, harmonica playere: "One Night Stand"
10-01-1889 - Ralph W. Sockman - Mount Vernon, OH - d. 8-29-1970
preacher: "National Radio Pulpit"
10-27-1898 - Kathryn Cravens - Burkett, TX - d. 8-29-1991
newscaster: "News Through a Woman's Eye"
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:50:15 -0400
From: "Walden Hughes" <walden1@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: current update on the SPERDVAC lunch
Hi Everybody,
here some current news regarding the SPERDVAC lunch to celebrate the 75
birthday of the Jack Benny show. director Gregg Oppenheimer has put
together a wonderful cast for the Jack Benny re-creation. Gregg Dad wrote
for Jack during the 1937 season by the way. Joining Eddie Carroll, Chuck
McCann are Shirley Mitchell, Gloria McMillan, Janet Waldo, Tommy Cook,
Stuffy singer and many others. Laura Leff will host a Jack Benny panel
after the re-creation, and we will have door prizes, silent auction items,
and raffle prizes too. It will be at the Sportmen,s Lodge in Studio City on
Saturday 11-10-07. The order form is on the web site at [removed]
and members and nonmembers are welcome to come. Take care,
Walden
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:50:25 -0400
From: <otrbuff@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: The first infomercial
Dixon Hayes ponders:
I always heard the real estate pitch on WEAF ran for a
full half [removed] possibly making it broadcasting's first informercial!
The defining moment of the nascent industry is registered between 5:00 and
5:10 [removed] on Monday, August 28, 1922, and only a dozen days after WEAF
officially went on the air (August 16) under its newly designated call
letters. A shrouded voice identified only as "Mr. Blackwell" (H. M.
Blackwell) was recognized that afternoon by WEAF announcer Vischer Randall.
Blackwell delivered a 10-minute discourse about residential apartment living
in Jackson Heights. That plug purportedly netted the station $50 for the
use of its airwaves, paid for by the underwriting Queensboro Corporation.
Looking back, however, due to its substantial length, the commercial seems
more like it could be considered an "infomercial" today, a label that was
still a few decades away.
Jim Cox
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:51:30 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: WEAF real estate ad.
On 8/29/07 12:18 AM [removed]@[removed] said:
Does anyone know the source of the oft-repeated audio clip of this sales
pitch? It can't be original for sure, the audio is too clear.
No genuine recording exists of any broadcast from 1922. The clip in
question comes from a WNBC broadcast called "The Billion Dollar Show,"
broadcast in 1952 in celebration of the 30th anniversary of broadcast
advertising.
BTW while we're at it, I always heard the real estate pitch on WEAF ran for a
full half [removed] possibly making it broadcasting's first informercial!
Is that true and were there any sales pitches that ran near that long or
longer beforehand, that anyone knows about?
The talk ran from 5:15 to 5:30 pm, and wove the specific sales pitch for
the Hawthorne Court complex into a discussion of the general philosophy
of cooperative housing. The full original script of the talk appears on
my website, at [removed]~[removed]. As you'll see,
the advertising pitch itself was exceedingly indirect -- hard sell
advertising was still years in the future.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:52:08 -0400
From: "Bill Knowlton" <udmacon1@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Soap Prep
I've often wondered what sort of post and pre-preparations were made for the
average "live" daily 15 minute soap opera.
I can't accept that virtually EVERY show was done with uber-experienced
radio actors who dashed into the studio at broadcast time and just sight
read every script, leaving for another soap 15 minutes later.
If you were a main character on "Mother Mumford's Junk Yard" did you arrive
an hour or two before for an initial reading of the day's script; then a
dress rehearsal? And after the show was there some sort of script conference
and the distribution of the next day's script as "homework" for the next
day's episode?
And what about auditions for new characters? Was it just done by a phonecall
from somebody in central casting?
I often wish I had asked the retired radio actors I know in the late '60s
who gathered daily at the bar in the Lambs Club!
BILL KNOWLTON, "Bluegrass Ramble," Sundays: 9 pm to midnight (EDST) over
WCNY-FM ([removed]) Syracuse, WUNY ([removed]) Utica, WJNY ([removed]) Watertown NY, also:
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:52:31 -0400
From: "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Fibber & Molly and the war
... I think it would be difficult to find
a show that had so many actual plot lines on
those subjects. [rationing, scrap drives, war
bond sales, etc.] ... Makes one wonder just
who was behind it? ... Was this all Don
Quinn's idea?
This was actually part of a coordinated government operation. The
Office of War Information (OWI) would pick a topic each month and
encourage radio people to incorporate it into their programs. A 4 June
1945 Time magazine article explains:
***
For three years knuckle-headed, know-it-all Fibber McGee has been
larding his fun program with monthly propaganda plugs-about waste
fats, car pools, etc. The funniest part is that the customers like it.
Last week Fibber & Molly (Jim & Marion Jordan) pitched their 30th
Government plug, a Wistful Vista bond rally; they also edged ahead of
Bob Hope again in their neck-&-neck race for program popularity.
Much credit for the success of their propagandizing belongs to Don
Quinn, the man who writes the show .... He was the first radio
scripter to see profit in building an entire comedy show around one of
the subjects which OWI allots to radio each month. (Most programs
either confine themselves to a sly line or two, or else beat the
listeners' ears back with earnest messages.) ...
... Of his propaganda shows, Quinn says, "We have better audience
reaction, we get more fan mail, our Crossley [listener rating] goes
up." His explanation: listeners are already interested in the
subjects. ...
***
Not everybody in radio was as enthusiastic as Quinn (Time says he was
also "driving 30 miles into Hollywood three days a week to work free
for OWI") but there was plenty of cooperation (more than the
government expected, in fact) between the government and the
commercial radio shows.
There's a very good book, _Radio Goes to War: The Cultural Politics of
Propaganda During World War II_<<160>>by Gerd Horten, that has a long
chapter called "The Comedians Go to War" which discusses this stuff in
detail, how and why it came to be, quotes dialogue from Fibber, Jack
Benny, Bob Hope, Fred Allen, etc., and tries to put it all in context.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:37:07 -0400
From: <otrbuff@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: A trio of maestros
Over its extended radio run (1948-52, 1954-55), three maestros ascended the
stage to conduct ABC's staff orchestra. None was born on American soil; all
died on it.
The first, Harry Salter, entered the world at Bucharest, Romania on Sept.
14, 1898. He lived to 85 and succumbed March 5, 1984 at Mamaroneck, N. Y.
The second, Mark Warnow, was born at Monastrischt, Russia on April 10, 1902.
He was 47 when he passed in New York City Oct. 17, 1949. Sidebar: At his
passing his sibling, Raymond Scott, succeeded him as conductor of Your Hit
Parade's orchestra.
The third Stop the Music! maestro, Ray Bloch (whom comic Jackie Gleason
dubbed "the flower of the musical world"), debuted at Alsace-Lorraine,
France Aug. 3, 1902. His demise occurred at 79 at Miami, Fla. on March 29,
1982.
Jim Cox
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:57:48 -0400
From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: 8-30 births/deaths
August 30th births
08-30-1797 - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - London, England - d. 2-1-1851
creator of Frankenstein: "Suspense"; "The Weird Circle"
08-30-1879 - Fritzi Scheff - Vienna, Austria - d. 4-8-1954
prima donna: "Lavender and Old Lace"; "The Philco Hour"
08-30-1887 - Eduardo Ciannelli - Island of Ischia, Italy - d. 10-8-1969
actor: "Hollywood Hotel"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
08-30-1896 - Raymond Massey - Toronto, - d. 7-29-1983
actor, host: "Doctor Fights"; "Harvest of Stars"
08-30-1898 - Shirley Booth - NYC - d. 10-16-1992
actor: Miss Duffy "Duffy's Tavern"; "Hogan's Daughter"; "Strictly
Business"
08-30-1901 - John Gunther - Chicago, IL - d. 5-29-1970
writer: "Information, Please";"America's Town Meeting of the Air";
"Royal Gelatin Hour"
08-30-1902 - Ray Bloch - Alsace-Lorraine, France - d. 3-29-1982
conductor: "Milton Berle Show"; "Take It or Leave It"; "Johnny Presents"
08-30-1903 - Jack Bundy - Milwaukee, WI - d. 11-xx-1973
bandleader: "Heinie and the Grenadiers"
08-30-1905 - Sarah Selby - St. Louis, MO - d. 1-7-1980
actor: Grace Graves "Junior Miss"; Wife "My Mother's Husband"
08-30-1906 - Joan Blondell - NYC - d. 12-25-1979
actor: Mary Vance "Miss Pinkerton, Inc."
08-30-1908 - Fred MacMurray - Kankakee, IL - d. 11-5-1991
actor: George Harvey "Bright Star"; "Lux Radio Theatre
08-30-1908 - Willie Bryant - New Orleans, LA - d. 2-9-1964
host: "Night Life"
08-30-1910 - Elinor Hirschfield Nathan - Duluth, MN - d. 6-10-2000
actor: Ruby Taylor "Amos 'n' Andy"
08-30-1914 - Frank Latourette - d. 5-xx-1985
creator of "Hollywood Byline"
08-30-1914 - Julie Bishop - Denver, CO - d. 8-30-2001
actor: "Harold Lloyd Comedy Theatre"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
08-30-1917 - Dan Enright - d. 5-22-1992
producer: "Put Up or Shut Up"; "Brain Train"; "Juvenile Jury"; "Life
Begins at 80"
08-30-1918 - Ted Williams, San Diego, CA - d. 7-5-2002
baseball superstar: Several interview shows
08-30-1919 - Kitty Wells - Nashville, TN
singer: "Louisiana Hayride"
08-30-1924 - Ivor (Arthur) Wilson - Grimsby, England
author: "Take Any Day"
08-30-1939 - John Peel - Heswall, England - d. 10-25-2004
disc jockey: "The Perfumed Garden"; "Top Gear"
08-30-1941 - Sue Mac Gregor - Oxford, England
announcer, producer: "The World at One"; "Woman's Hour"; "Today"; "PM"
August 30th deaths
01-23-1926 - Lyn Osborn - Wichita Falls, TX - d. 8-30-1958
actor: Cadet Happy "Space Patrol"
02-16-1926 - Vera-Ellen - Cincinnati, OH - d. 8-30-1981
actor: "Martin and Lewis Show"; "Tony Awards"; "Bud's Bandwagon"
03-09-1918 - Marguerite Chapman - Chatham, NY - d. 8-30-1999
actor: "Family Theatre"; "Silver Theatre"; "Screen Guild Theatre"
05-01-1916 - Glenn Ford - Quebec, Canada - d. 8-30-2006
actor: Christopher London "Advs. of Christopher London"
06-15-1909 - Joe DeSantis - NYC - d. 8-30-1989
actor: Jim Scott "Under Arrest"; "This Is Nora Drake"
06-17-1877 - Charles Coburn - Savannah, GA - d. 8-30-1961
actor: "Roses and Drums"; "Song of Liberty"
08-08-1913 - Axel Stordahl - Staten Island, NY - d. 8-30-1963
conductor: "Songs by Sinatra/Frank Sinatra Show"; "Your Hit Parade";
"Coke Time"
08-30-1914 - Julie Bishop - Denver, CO - d. 8-30-2001
actor: "Harold Lloyd Comedy Theatre"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #250
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