Subject: [removed] Digest V2005 #159
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 5/22/2005 6:28 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2005 : Issue 159
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Chimes, Peacock, and Little Godfreys  [ Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@earthlin ]
      Henry Corden                          [ "bcockrum" <rmc44@[removed]; ]
      Re: Firesign Theater                  [ Brent Pellegrini <brentpl@rocketmai ]
      Damon Runyon and his guys             [ Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@earthlin ]
      Les Tremayne                          [ Paul Evans <evans_paul1963@[removed] ]
      Re: SHERLOCK HOLMES vs. DRACULA       [ Anthony Tollin <sanctumotr@earthlin ]
      Re: Shelock Holmes                    [ "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed]; ]
      CBS and Westwood One                  [ "Michael Paraniuk" <bourdase@webtv. ]
      Westwood One/CBS                      [ "Michael Paraniuk" <bourdase@webtv. ]
      Re: CBS tone                          [ Michael Shoshani <mshoshani@sbcglob ]
      Sherlock Holmes                       [ wilditralian@[removed] ]
      Tom Mix                               [ "Jim Harmon" <jimharmonotr@charter. ]

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

    Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 12:46:09 -0400
    From: Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Chimes, Peacock, and Little Godfreys

    Friend Shoshani's history of the radio networks ages is fascinating.  Makes
    one wonder what goes next.

    I've told this here before, but hope it bears repeating:  When
    RCA-GE-whatever decided to dump the NBC radio network (heresy!) complications
    raised in the discussions included the use of the two NBC trademarks.  These
    were the NBC chimes and the pictorial versions thereof for TV, and the famed
    peacock, developed when NBC started using RCA's vaunted color television
    system in its network programming.

    NBC negotiators figured the buyers would not be interested in the peacock,
    since that was a visual, television logo, so they didn't raise the point.
    They were stunned to learn that the new owners definitely wanted to use not
    the radio chimes, which they eschewed, but they did want the peacock and the
    tricolor NBC logo.  More heresy!  Why would they want the color peacock for a
    radio network?  It was finally decided to let them use it.  Strange!  One
    might conclude the deal hung on that very point!

    The result has been that in the years since, if one watched a news program
    and saw a microphone in front of a news scene which bore the colorful peacock
    and NBC TV trademarks, one had no way of knowing what it represented.  NBC
    Television, which continued as (supposedly) part of RCA, but really GE since
    there is no RCA anymore except as just a brand name and logo itself.  Or, the
    other choice, a radio network which had no connection whatever with NBC.
    This is sort of like the newcomer Hummer deciding to use the Chrysler "star"
    or the Ford script logo.  Boggling, yes?

    Time Marches On!  Just as an aside, an update for you Arthur Godfrey
    followers.  Elizabeth I think some months back found a notation of the
    passing of "Irish" (actually Italian) tenor Frank Parker on January 10, 1999
    just shy of age 96!  It took me months to finally confirm it.  There was some
    question, as little other information was available except that he died in
    Titusville, Florida on that date, and there are or have been a number of
    other performers and celebrities over the year with the name Frank Parker.
    Another film actor, a stage performer originally named Franklin Parker; a
    well known tennis player; even a male prono 'actor', and a travel writer and
    an artist named Frank Parker Somethingelse.

    Subsequently we learned of the passing of Hawaiian singer-dancer Haleloke
    near her summer home in Indiana (for years she wintered in Naples, Florida)
    on January 16th of this year.  And most recently, torchy songstress Janette
    Davis just a few weeks ago, who also retired to Naples, Florida with her
    husband Frank Muciello, formerly like Jan a director of the Godfrey programs
    (for a time she produced the Talent Scouts shows).

    That leaves the younger set of the real Irish singer Carmel Quinn, the cute
    gal singer Lou Ann Sims, and Frank Sinatra wannabe Julius LaRosa.  For those
    interested, probably the first of the 1950 era Godfrey crew to pass on was
    announcer George Brien, who usually handled the opening and closing chores on
    "Arthur Godfrey and his Talent Scouts" during its long run, occasionally
    substituting for Tony Marvin (also deceased) on the other Godfrey programs.
    [removed] all!

    Lee Munsick     that Godfrey guy

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

    Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 13:33:14 -0400
    From: "bcockrum" <rmc44@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Henry Corden

    Kermyt asks about a possible radio career of Henry Corden, who took over as
    the voice of Fred Flintstone upon Alan Reed's death. I can't find Corden's
    name in the several OTR books I have. The LA Times, in its Corden obit,
    said: "The Montreal-born Corden, who moved to New York as a child, was a
    radio actor when he arrived in Hollywood in the 1940s. He made his screen
    debut playing a menacing character in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," the
    classic 1947 comedy starring Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo." But the Times
    didn't mention any radio programs he was on.

    Bob C.

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

    Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 14:13:29 -0400
    From: Brent Pellegrini <brentpl@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Firesign Theater

    I believe there have been college courses regarding the content of the
    Firesigns routines.

    Last summer I sat behind Firesign member Dave Ossman on a flight to Burbank.
    I missed a great chance to say over his shoulder, "I had 46 drinks on the
    flight
    from Oxnard to Burbank and I was destroyed" This is a quote or close to a quote
    from a sendup they did of senators.

    Dave was with his son Orson. Turns out Orson's best friend is the son of an old
    friend of mine on Whidbey Island.

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

    Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 14:15:44 -0400
    From: Lee Munsick <damyankeeinva@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Damon Runyon and his guys

    Thanks to Jim Burns for that marvelous Damon Runyon column about George
    Burns.  As an Arthur Godfrey fan, I can only wonder if Runyon ever wrote any
    about Mr. Godfrey!

    Yes, columnist Alfred Damon Runyon (1884-1946) is known today for "Guys and
    Dolls" and a bunch of "Runyonesque" Broadway-isms.  But his name lives on in
    an important, unfortunately lesser-known way as well.

    Runyon died as a result of cancer in 1946, at age 66.  Fellow columnist
    Walter Winchell was deeply moved by Runyon's final days.  Winchell founded
    the Damon Runyon Memorial Cancer Fund, one of the very first such research
    fund raisers, and also one of the very first times that Cancer was discussed
    in public venues.

    Generally up to that time, if the scourge was referred to at all, it was as
    "The Big C" and usually in hushed tones otherwise reserved for discussion of
    a venereal disease, which it was not.  The Runyon Fund still exists as an
    division within the American Cancer Society, which among other things
    sponsors hundreds of "Relay For Life" programs around the country each year,
    supporting research and assistance for cancer victims.

    [removed] provides a number of products for cancer sufferers (such as wigs for
    those whose hair has disappeared during chemotherapy, such as is obvious in
    the current case of Senator Arlen Specter, whose head of dark, curly
    reddish-blond hair is missing, but will grow back.  Among other aid, cancer
    victims may also receive special credit cards to pay for a portion of their
    gasoline purchases to drive for their treatments.

    Winchell built the Damon Runyon Fund into a major operation, bringing in pals
    like broadcaster Arthur Godfrey and singer Morton Downey to serve on its
    board.  When Walter Winchell left his post as President of the Fund, Mr.
    Godfrey took over his spot.

    Radio and print columnist Walter Winchell's life was repeatedly touched by
    tragedy.  His son committed suicide.  An adopted daughter died of pneumonia,
    years after her brother, but on the same day of the year.  Another daughter,
    Walda, is said to have been mentally unbalanced.  She was the only person at
    his graveside during the interment in Phoenix, Arizona.  Ironically, Runyon
    pal Winchell (originally Winchel) himself died of cancer in 1972, in Los
    Angeles.  Morton Downey succumbed to a stroke, but his son, radio loudmouth
    Morton Downey Jr., died of lung cancer in 2001.

    Arthur Godfrey also was diagnosed with lung cancer in the 1950s.  Surgeons
    removed about half of his left lung, in what they thought would save lifetime
    heavy smoker Godfrey.  In the process, they discovered to their horror that
    there was a cancer wrapped around his aorta like a gloved hand gripping that
    major artery.  They closed his chest.  When he awoke, they told Mr. Godfrey
    to wrap up his affairs and enjoy the little time he had left, because there
    was nothing they could do for him.

    As he had done several times before when faced with death,. Mr. Godfrey
    deliberately ignored his doctors and continued with his active life.  He
    lived another two decades, during which he went public with his cancer, and
    encouraged his public to stop smoking or not to start.  He "fired" on the air
    his longtime cigarette sponsor, Liggett & Myers' Chesterfields.  He died in
    1983 not of cancer, but of the effects of Emphysema.  One of his doctors told
    me that the cancer just seemed to go away.

    Mr. Godfrey broke the taboo of revealing one had cancer, especially a no-no
    for celebrities.  His physicians and surgeons said that he probably saved
    thousands of lives by telling people not to smoke, by revealing his
    condition, and urging his listeners to have frequent checkups to catch
    cancers early, the most successful factor in curing a cancer patient.  Other
    celebrities and dignitaries followed his example, such as John Wayne and Yul
    Brynner, shown in American Cancer Society anti-smoking advertising in their
    final, wizened, shriveled appearances.  Mr. Godfrey chose not to allow that
    in his case, not wanting people to see him in that condition, even forbidding
    his own family to be allowed into his hospital room just before his death.

    Arthur Godfrey became a member of the board of the Preventive Medicine
    Institute - Strang Cancer Prevention Clinic in New York, now part of Columbia
    Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Clinic.  Godfrey became a vocal proponent of
    its activities, just as he had for years encouraged people to donate blood.

    Numerous times Godfrey himself illustrated the ease and simplicity of
    donating blood, by doing so, describing and showing the process live on his
    radio and television programs.  The American Red Cross credited Mr. Godfrey
    numerous times for overcoming a widespread shortage of blood by stressing the
    urgent need on his programs.  Frequently, the results were so overwhelming
    that the Red Cross had to ask Mr. Godfrey to back off a bit until they could
    catch up, only to come back months later when faced with another shortage.

    The Red Cross also credited Mr. Godfrey with indirectly saving untold numbers
    of lives.  Too bad in present times when there seems to be a constant
    shortage, there isn't another Arthur Godfrey around to cut into it.   I have
    given literally hundreds of times, and urge you as strongly as I possibly
    can, to donate blood soon, and often. Yes, you!  Thank you.

    Lee Munsick

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

    Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 16:09:56 -0400
    From: Paul Evans <evans_paul1963@[removed];
    To: Old-Time Radio <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Les Tremayne
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    I am 42 years old, so my first exposure to Les Tremayne was in 1975-76, when
    he played Mentor on The Shazam!/Isis Hour on CBS Saturday mornings.  I also
    remember him as General Mann in George Pal's 1953 The War of the Worlds.

    I read an archived obituary of his online (not sure of where) that said in
    the '40s, he had the second most recognized voice in radio--second only to
    FDR's.  Yet I only hear references to his television and movie work.  What
    radio shows featured him?

    My father (1929-2000) spent most of his childhood listening to the radio, but
    it wasn't until he saw Tremayne on Shazam! and saw his name in the credits
    that he realized that his name wasn't Lester Main.

      *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
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    ------------------------------

    Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 16:10:22 -0400
    From: Anthony Tollin <sanctumotr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: SHERLOCK HOLMES vs. DRACULA

    On Sunday, May 22, 2005, at 11:45 AM, radioAZ@[removed] wrote:

>     Shelock Holmes holds the distinction of being the most often portrayed
>     fictional character in movies.  Anyone know the most often portrayed
>     historical character in movies?

    Hmmn, are you sure about that?  I thought Dracula held that
    distinction.  Which one does the Guinness Book of World Records
    recognize?

    (Which is not to suggest that the Guinness Book is necessarily accurate
    if it does cite one or the other.  A few years ago, I corrected a
    mistake that had been made in the then most-recent edition.  The
    Guinness editors had cited Zorro as the most-filmed comic book
    character.  Zorro of course originated in 1919 in the pulps, and had
    been appearing onscreen for nearly 30 years before the first Zorro
    comic book was published.)

    It's certainly possible that Sherlock Holmes is the character most
    often portrayed in movies, especially if you count all the shorts that
    Ellie Norwood starred in.  I 'm certain that the Transylvanian count
    has appeared in more theatrical films during the last half-century,
    especially since Dracula entered the public domain decades earlier ...
    and possibly in more feature-length films overall.

    Anyone know for certain?

    --Anthony Tollin

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

    Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 16:13:27 -0400
    From: "R. R. King" <kingrr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Shelock Holmes

>     Shelock Holmes holds the distinction of being the most often
>     portrayed fictional character in movies.  Anyone know the most
>     often portrayed historical character in movies?

    I remember reading somewhere that it's Napoleon, with Lincoln the most
    often portrayed American historical figure.

    I see that the WGY Players did a version of Conan Doyle's "The Sign of
    the Four" in November 1922, with Edward H. Smith as Holmes. Does that
    make Smith radio's first Sherlock?

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

    Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 17:00:21 -0400
    From: "Michael Paraniuk" <bourdase@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  CBS and Westwood One

    Hi Michael Soshani. Thanks for pointing out that ABC Radio is really the
    oldest continous radio network since its roots go back to NBC Blue in 1925.
    One thing I have learned in talking to the reps at Westwood One is that they
    are trying to capitalize also on the NBC Radio brand name. Utilizing the NBC
    TV news talents such as Brian Williams, Westwood One does program to various
    affils one minute hourlies from 6 am to 10 pm Monday thru Friday. WPHT
    Philadelphia and WINS New York, both 50,000 watt clear channel radio stations
    are affiliated with NBC radio. I remember being in Butler, PA last year for
    the Bela Lugosi Monster Bash when I listened to a NBC Radio Financial
    broadcast over 250 watt WBUT 1050kc. NBC TV News is trying to expand its
    brand reach by using radio via Westwood One. I have not heard any NBC radio
    hourlies since none are carried in Cincinnati (though WSAI 1360, the local
    NBC affil, will carry NBC News during a crisis or emergency). I understand
    from Westwood that they are using a synthesized NBC Chime as the news
    sounder. I am the proud owner of a very old Deagan Chime which I believe NBC
    used from 1929 to 1932. [removed] Mike

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

    Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 20:23:39 -0400
    From: "Michael Paraniuk" <bourdase@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Westwood One/CBS

    Hi Lee Munsick. I totally agree with you about the audience drawing power of
    the great Arthur Godfrey. Even the great Kate Smith could easily pull in
    50,000,000 listeners. Seventeen million seems so puny by comparison. Though I
    am  Columbia centric, I was really angry at CBS when they short rifted the
    importance of Godfrey during the CBS 75th Anniversary show. It was like he
    never existed at the network. I truly believe it was the capital revenue
    money Godfrey shows generated that allowed CBS to buy TV stations at inflated
    prices because Paley entered the TV market too late. Whereas Sarnoff early on
    saw the importance of TV as the new medium, Paley was dragged into it kicking
    and screaming because he couldn't let go of radio. Even by 1952, Variety
    magazine was referring to network radio as bargain basement for advertisers.
    TV was clearly the way to go. It was the power of Arthur Godfrey sales
    earnings  that was the seed which germinated  Columbia Radio into the CBS
    Television Network - the Tiffany Network in the annals of TV history.

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

    Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 20:23:50 -0400
    From: Michael Shoshani <mshoshani@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: CBS tone

    Bob Cockrum wrote:

>     The "bong," by the way, is really a piano note. I don't recall which one.
>     NBC might have had the famous chimes to close out a program, but CBS at
>     least had a strong on-the-hour voice with its tone, compared with NBC's
>     puny, high-pitched one.

    The bong sounds more to me like a single plucked metal reed - a lot
    more tone decay than on a piano note.  BTW, remember DXing WCBS at
    night from my home in semirural Bloomington, Indiana as a kid, and
    hearing not one, but four tones at the top of the hour.  Sort of like
    a shortwave station ticking off the seconds at the top of the hour;
    three lower-pitched tones, one second apart, then the famous BONG at
    the top of the hour.

    NBC's chimes weren't all that high-pitched; from 1931 onward the
    handstruck chimes were the notes C-A-F, the C being Middle C, and the
    mechanical Rangertone chimes were slightly lower, G-E-C, the C again
    being Middle C.  That's at least an octave lower than the CBS tone.
    However, the chimes WERE "puny".  Internal memoranda in the Library of
    Congress files state clearly that the chimes were intended solely as a
    switching signal, and were deliberately set to be just loud enough to
    attract the attention of AT&T engineers - just barely kicking 20 on a
    VU meter.  That's next to inaudible.  That's why on many surviving OTR
    recordings the chimes sound faint and [removed] were intended to
    be.

    (It was not until the late 1930s that NBC began to promote the Chimes
    as an identification to the listening audience, and promotion began in
    earnest in the 1940s and 50s - oddly enough, after the Blue Network
    had been sold and the Chimes were no longer needed to tell engineers
    when to switch station feeds between Red and Blue.)

    Unrelated note to this posting: in my Friday post about Westwood One I
    inadvertantly placed the sale of the Blue Network at 1945.  It was, I
    believe, actually 1943.

    Michael Shoshani
    Chicago

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

    Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 20:24:29 -0400
    From: wilditralian@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Sherlock Holmes

    05-22-05

    RadioAZ asked this question:

>     Shelock Holmes holds the distinction of being the most often portrayed
>     fictional character in movies.  Anyone know the most often portrayed
>     historical character in movies?

    For anyone avid Sherlockian, the answer to that one is a piece of cake!
    The most often portrayed *historical* character ni movies was ...
    Sherlock Holmes.

    Mr. Radio AZ *did*, however, err by identifying Sherlock Holmes as a
    *fictional* character, but that's a commmon mistake we Sherlockians are
    accustomed to forgiving.

    Jim Arva

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

    Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 20:26:02 -0400
    From: "Jim Harmon" <jimharmonotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Tom Mix
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    Howdy, Straight Shooters -- I enjoyed Jack French's comment that it would
    probably be one of two people found kneeling in prayer near the site of Tom
    Mix's death in Arizona -- Jack French or Jim Harmon.
        Tom did not get enough credit for his final actions in life, without being
    accused of being drunk.
    There were workers on the road, and he deliberately swerved to keep from
    running them down.
    If he had been drunk, he would not have had time for his reflexes to allow him
    to avoid them, and he would have wiped them out -- as many freeway workers get
    killed in California, particularly, today.
    Being a road worker is far more dangerous than being a Highway Patrolman,
    statistically.
    He saved some lives at the cost of his own.
        Steven Kendall, once president of Hot Ralston division, told me while I
    was working for him that he had information that Tom Mix was involved in a
    race at the time of his death -- trying to beat an airplane to California,
    driven his car on the ground.   Steve suggested we make one of the radio
    episodes we were doing circa 1983 out of the race story, but our Tom Mix,
    Curley Bradley, wisely pointed out that the story of Tom's death would be the
    very last one we would want to do.
        In reality, I have never been to that site in Arizona, but I have visited
    the grave of Tom Mix at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California.  It is on a hill,
    with the graves of Everett Everett Horton, and Horton's mother nearby.   The
    only distinction Tom's grave has is that the approximately one by two foot
    flat marker has his name not in block letters like the others, but with his
    facsimile signature. Below the hill is a huge monument structure for Jean
    Hersholt, character actor of films, "Dr. Christian"  on radio and in a few
    movies.  I think Tom Mix is remembered by many more people, and is more
    important to them, than Hersolt.  But Tom had spent most of his money by the
    time of his death and there was not funds for a grand memorial.  It will never
    happen here.   All those famous and respected people buried around him are not
    going to be moved to make way for a Mix monument.
        Of course, there are other monuments -- the one in Arizona at the death
    site, his birthplace in Pennsylvania, the Museum in Dewey, Oklahoma, his
    footprints in the courtyard of the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, etc., etc.
        On the subject of heroes saving lives in their last moments, Buck Jones is
    often credited (and sometimes denied) saving lives in the Boston Coconut Grove
    fire in 1942 in which he was fatally injured.   I was friends for years with
    George DeNormand, stuntman for Buck in his last Rough Riders series with Tim
    McCoy, and who had also stunted for Tom Mix, Charles Starrett, Ralph Byrd,
    Clark Gable and all through his career for Spencer Tracy.  George gave me some
    facts to substaciate the claim that Buck did help rescue people during that
    tragic fire.   They appear in an article I have coming up in CinemaFantastique
    Magazine.  They have a right to publish the story first.
        -- Jim Harmon

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