Subject: [removed] Digest V01 #51
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 2/13/2001 9:10 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                      The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                         Volume 01 : Issue 51
                    A Part of the [removed]!


                           Today's Topics:

 OTR on shortwave/med wave            [Lorne Sokoloff <lorne@[removed];       ]
 Groucho quote--NO                    ["Birdwalk Farms" <pheadoux@[removed]]
 Re: Dale -- also Roy                 [Sam Levene <srl@[removed];      ]
 Re: Paul Harvey                      ["Vince Long" <vlongbsh@[removed];   ]
 OTR ON THE AIR TODAY                 ["Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; ]
 OSR As Drive-Time Brain Food         ["stephen jansen" <stephenjansen@ema]
 In Vino Veritas                      [Robert Kirk <kirk@[removed]]
 Why OTR In Drive Time?  Leverage.    ["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@]
 Uncle Don                            [LeeMunsick@[removed]                 ]
 Happy Trails, Dale Evans' song       ["Francis Fisher" <fpf@bellatlantic.]
 1944 Review of Paul Harvey           [RobertWGee@[removed]                 ]
 Como and Crosby and Juice            ["Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@worldnet.]
 Re: Paul Harvey                      ["David L. Easter" <david-easter@hom]
 Commentary and Newscasting           ["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@]
 Secret Squadron Signal Session       [Jim Kitchen <jkitchen@[removed];    ]
 Vic and Sade recipes                 ["Ivan G. Shreve, Jr." <igsjr@[removed]]

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

Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 23:27:31 -0500
From: Lorne Sokoloff <lorne@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR on shortwave/med wave

Please pardon my ignorance as I am new to shortwave radio listening and
brand new to this list.

I am a product of the 60's and love old radio shows - mystery, stories,
music, etc.
Does anybody know of any OTR shows that are broadcast regularly on SW or MW
radio?

Thanks

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

Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 23:32:41 -0500
From: "Birdwalk Farms" <pheadoux@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Groucho quote--NO

Another quote often attributed to Groucho, but never positively sourced, is
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.  Inside of a dog, it's too
dark to read."

Samuel Langhorne Clemons  better known as Mark Twain

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

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 08:28:56 -0500
From: Sam Levene <srl@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Dale -- also Roy

In the mid-70's I filmed a television interview, (sorry), with Roy Rogers
and Dale Evans at their museum in Apple Valley near Victorville,
California.  It was a pleasant event - heck thrilling to me who had
idolized Roy as a kid.  Though starry-eyed I had a sense of Roy as rather
quiet and reserved, though certainly friendly enough, perhaps by then a
little weary of interviews and media types.  Dale was warm, outgoing and
welcoming - just a lovely person.  The interviewer we used was Richard
Lamparski, whose name has come up here once or twice. This was during the
period when he was publishing those "Whatever Became [removed]" books.  In the
background in the museum stood Trigger.  Roy made the point of saying that
Trigger was "mounted", not "stuffed", and then he added, "I always say to
Dale that when I go she should just have me mounted and stick me up there
on top of old Trigger."  Dale laughed and patted his wrist.  It was clearly
an old joke between them but one lovely to observe.

Sam Levene.

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

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 08:28:58 -0500
From: "Vince Long" <vlongbsh@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Paul Harvey

It's been a few years, maybe 10 or more, but The Progressive magazine did a
piece on Paul Harvey.  I don't have my search resources in front of me to
grab the exact date.  If I remember correctly, the article focused on the
power behind Paul, which the article indicated was his wife who heavily
orchestrates much of the persona he projects.

Vince

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

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 08:29:00 -0500
From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR ON THE AIR TODAY

       If anyone on the list has friends who are vision - impaired, chances
are they subscribe to the Radio Reader's Service, which employs people to
read books, magazines, newspapers, etc., for these people.  In the pst
decade they have added OTR to their programming schedule.  The show is done
like OTR format, with a host, who introduces the program, and then played
the OTR show over this closed-circuit non profit broadcasting network.  I
heard about this from a friend of mine who is the host of one of these
origrams.  They have been well received in this area.  So this is one
possible solution, that is NOT  on any Hi-Tech radio band.  When the service
first started, programs from private collectors were loaned  to the service,
broadcast one time and returned to the collector.  All commercials were
deleted from the broadcasts and replaced with announcements by the service.

(Information provided by Radio Reader's Service Staff Member)


   ********************************************************

    Another way OTR can be broadcast is if the stations use the 4 hour
allotment for public service programming,announcements, Religious, programs,
etc. granted them for OTR, we would be able to listen on a regular basis.
Lobbying for this is THE ONLY WAY we can get this done.
     At the present time, it looks like our vision impaired friends are the
only ones able to enjoy OTR on a regular basis 7 days a week.

Owens Pomeroy

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

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 15:14:05 -0500
From: "stephen jansen" <stephenjansen@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  OSR As Drive-Time Brain Food

     So good to see a handful of posts at once, that fit in right where I've
been thinking.  I think that OSR (Old Style Radio) really could fit in
nicely in drive-time radio.  As a 15 minute, serialized story, a station
could rebroadcast the same episode several times during the day, hooking
more listeners who would then tune in the next day (at any one of those
several rebroadcast times) to catch the next installment.  Everything old is
new again!
     You know, I don't really consider OTR and OSR to be different things.
I know that this will end up a big can of worms, but I think that those of
us who didn't live through the radio of the 40's and 50's, don't have the
nostalgia connection, and tend to enjoy all of it as "audio theatre".  Just
my opinion, though.
     I posted last week to find out more about Jim French and his "Crisis"
series, and got several replies.  Thank you everybody!  Now, of course, I
feel like a dunce, because I never realized that the "Adventures of Harry
Nile" were done by Mr French & Co.  Now, I'm no newbie - I know plenty about
OTR.  But there is precious little information devoted to the later
incarnations of OTR: "Day of the Triffids"/"Nightfall"/"Crisis"/"Harry
Nile"/"Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theater"/"The Avengers"/"The Kraken
Awakes"/etc,etc.  For some reason CBS Radio Mystery Theater gets listed in
all of the OTR books, but Crisis, which is a leaner, better series is almost
never mentioned.  Both ran during the mid 1970's, why is one aknowledged,
and not the other?  I guess what I would REALLY LIKE to see is a book on
newer OTR.  Or OSR.  Present-day audio theatre.  Whatever you want to call
it.  Anyone out there working on something like this?  Please sign me up for
a copy,  I'm ready to buy one right now.
             Stephen Jansen

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

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 15:45:34 -0500
From: Robert Kirk <kirk@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  In Vino Veritas

Bruce Tartaglia wrote:

My question regards the advertising that I have consequently
listened to. Was Roma wine any good? What happened to it?
My friend is a wine dealer and he said that he had never
heard of it. I don't expect it to be all that much, but
listening to all these commercials has made me
curious enough to try it. Hopefully, listening to all this Suspense
has made curious enough to try crime. I think I'll be okay in
that regard, but wine I just gotta know about. ;-)

I don't know if Roma was any good or not, but the winery was absorbed long
ago by their neighboring Gallo folks.

Wine seemed to be well represented in OTR commercials. I recall:

Roma
Cresta Blanca  (C-R-E-S-T-A  B-L-A-N-C-A)
Italian Swiss Colony (You'll never miss with Italian [removed])
Virginia Dare (Say it [removed])
Manoshevitz (sp)  (Man-o Man-o)

Were there anty more?
They're all history now, except the last, I believe; none probably missed.

Bob Kirk

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

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 15:45:30 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Why OTR In Drive Time?  Leverage.

[OTR] Chris, speaking of airing OTR or OSR during drive time notes,

I just don't know if the economics are there or not.  You see what
people often do not realize is that Radio dramas do often have the
highest ratings in their  time slot even in modern times . However, they
are more expensive to produce so the return is often lower.  And a drama
show brings in a special [removed] the sense that they are listening
to hear the show rather than the station. <<

If presented correctly, it could be a way to build a listenership.  This
is one reason I've advocated more than one 15-minute serial during the
drivetime hour(s).  From memory and in current experience, I've found
that many people have a lot of inertia when listening to the radio.  When
I was growing up, the station(s) that had Captain Midnight also aired The
Adventures of Superman and Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters.  Depending
upon where we lived at the time, the remaining show was The Cisco Kid,
Buck Rogers, or Hop Harrigan.  As I've noted before, the only one of
these I really wanted to listen to was Captain Midnight, but I enjoyed
the Superman and Tom Mix shows.  The others, I could take or leave, but I
didn't mind listening to the other programs to the point that I'd just
leave the tuning alone.  Most of my friends, including those who listened
to Jack Armstrong, usually did the same.

The same is true today.  Many people find a show or so they like, and
will abide with other shows in between them if they're not objectionable.
 So if people start listening to the dramas, they'll probably set their
tuning buttons or electronic equivalents to that station, and over time,
will tend to leave their radio tuned there.  If someone's interested in
radio drama and the hour ends, and if the station's other fare is like
everybody else's, why bother to tune out if you'll get "more of the same"
elsewhere?

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr

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

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 15:45:26 -0500
From: LeeMunsick@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Uncle Don

I posted this a year or so back, but in light of the current thread on Uncle
Don, thought I'd share it again.

When I was something around 14 years old and already nearing six feet, a
circus came to my town.  This was an annual event, but I don't know if it was
always the same circus, and do not recall its name on this occasion.  I went
by myself (darn [removed]'ll see why in a bit).

This was a one-ring affair, which required musical fill-in between acts.
While workers re-set the "center"-and-only ring for the next talent, eager
kids could buy food and souvenirs from various hawkers working through the
audience.  No orchestra or band, so the live music came from a Hammond Organ.
 I hated Hammond organs and still do; they make me want to roller skate.

At one break in the action, I found myself humming along, and then singing to
the sound of the organ.  Everyone who recalls this probably does so slightly
differently.  Mine is "Hippity-hip hotsha, rimbo [removed]" or close proximity.
 Suddenly it dawned on me!  Uncle Don's theme!  This was after he left WOR.
I looked for the source of the music, and found it emanated from a platform
at the top level of the bleachers, halfway around to the other side of the
tent.  Working my way to the upper tiers and around, I found myself standing
next to this elderly (to me) gent at the keyboard.  He eyed me warily, and
then indicated I should sit down on an extra chair next to him.

When action re-commenced and he stopped playing, I said hello.  He said hi,
and I blurted out, "You're Uncle Don!".  Surprised, he said, "How did you
know that?"  "You were playing your theme song before," said the brash young
music librarian-to-be.  "I was?" he said.  Watching the activity in the ring,
he noodled to fill in, and had no idea what he was playing.

A radio buff since about age eight, I promptly forgot the circus, and we
chatted away the rest of the performance in between his playing.  This was
much more important than the circus!  At one point, I looked him straight in
the eye and said, "Is it true?"  He knew instantly what I meant, although the
rest of the conversation made it [removed] know "the legend" of "Guess
that'll hold the [removed]"  "Yes," he said, a saddened tone entering our
talk.

Contrary to one recent posting, Uncle Don was indeed let go from WOR, but the
open-mike comment was merely the last straw for the WOR management.  Don
Carney (his showbiz pseudonym, not his real name) had a drinking problem.
And he chased after the ladies.  There were numerous indiscretions, which
made it increasingly difficult for WOR/Mutual to keep that part of his life
out of the papers and away from his audience, the little kiddies and their
parents.

This has been depicted in some detail in several books, including his own
biography.  So I won't add further detail.  It was an ignominious end to what
had been a truly fabulous radio career in the early days of broadcasting,
when people who had enormous public exposure even at small-time stations (WOR
was hardly that) became legends in their area.

I found him to be a very pleasant, welcoming, gentle man who knew his
downfall was his own fault.  He was very nice to me in this one tiny slice of
his life, but a meaningful episode for me.  I've read all the stuff about how
THE incident is now alleged to have occurred earlier to a different "Uncle"
in a different city.  And maybe it did; it's not even unlikely.  So what?  I
will never be convinced that Don Carney was not the semi-innocent victim of a
most unfortunate few seconds in an otherwise lengthy and positive career as a
musician and personality in vaudeville, burlesque, radio, I believe very
early television, and the concert stage.

To this day, radio engineers especially WOR alumni insist that this is only a
legend, and it never happened.  Of course they would!  The villain in the
piece was not Uncle Don.  It was his engineer, who didn't cut off the mike.
Wearing the usual earphones, there was no way for Don Carney to know his mike
was live.  I have told a number of WOR people, that they should be ashamed
for what happened.  Most of the time when confronted with this story, they
sheepishly concede

So I guess the beat goes on, but I know what I believe.

There is a moral in this story.  For those of us who participate in radio
drama, re-creations, stage plays and the like:  don't fool around with puns
and off-color script games.  The great performer Lon Clark ("Nick Carter" and
many other roles) warned a group of us who were doing just this in a
rehearsal:  "Don't do that, it'll come true on you," and in the ensuing live
performance, it did!

Lee Munsick   "That Godfrey Guy"

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

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 15:45:53 -0500
From: "Francis Fisher" <fpf@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Happy Trails, Dale Evans' song

Many of us have been pleasantly surprised to learn that Happy Trails was
written by Dale Evans, and I just recently saw Dale and Roy singing the song
as a duet. The harmonies were as breathtaking as those heard when family
members sing together -- they were both great singers.

I learned more about the song this past Sunday when Michael Martin Murphy,
the cowboy singer, was a guest on the radio music show I engineer, Mountain
Stage. Murphy explained that he was mentored by and was a good friend of Roy
and Dale. He told us that the couple had had three children die untimely
deaths and that one of these, a daughter, had Down's Syndrome. She died at
age three. Dale told him that Happy Trails was written for her.

It was at this time that Dale went public and was a leader in turning around
the public attitude regarding mental retardation. At that time such family
members were institutionalized or kept at home, in a room, out of view.

Francis

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

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 15:45:39 -0500
From: RobertWGee@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  1944 Review of Paul Harvey

Hi,

Some of you may be interested to read a short review of Paul Harvey's news
program, from a 1944 issue of Variety:

****

PAUL HARVEY AND THE NEWS
Producer: Phil Patton
Writers: Paul and Lynn Harvey
15 Mins.; [removed], 10 [removed] (CWT)
ATLAS BREWING CO. (Edelweiss Beer)
WENR Chicago
          (Olian Advertising Co.)

Harvey, newest of the newscasters from Chicago, is doing a good job on this
program, delivering in clear, concise manner and interweaving, here and
there, with human interest stories.  Program has a novel opening, with Harvey
calling attention to the fact that it is now "five o'clock tomorrow morning
in London," "It's six [removed] in Moscow"; it's such and such a time somewhere
else, and "10 o'clock in Chicago, with Paul Harvey and the News," each place
of which is tied up with a headline that is discussed on the show.

Script is ably written and the main commercial neatly presented by Harvey
about midway in the broadcast.  A feature is the summarizing of the most
important news highlights before signing off.
    Mory.

*****

(SOURCE: Variety, 30 August 1944, p. 32)

The producer's name was somewhat smudged on my photocopy, so I may not have
gotten the spelling correct.

Rob

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

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 15:45:32 -0500
From: "Brian Johnson" <CHYRONOP@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Como and Crosby and Juice

Bob Hope once introduced the Ol' Groaner as the only man who could make
Perry Como look like he was on "uppers."

But as to the facts: Crosby's "OJ" company was always Minute Maid. He
believed in the product, took a financial interest and sat on the board. He
became so identified with it that Coca-Cola asked him to continue as a
pitchman when the bought the company.

I have a Benny show where Jack and Bob Crosby go into a Walgreens for lunch
and Bob specifically asks for "Minute Maid" orange juice. "Why Minute Maid?"
asks Jack. To which Bob replies, "I've got a relative who needs the work!"

BTW, "Hi-C" is still around. It's one of those 10% fruit juice, 90% sugar
water combos that turn my kids teeth red. They never get it at home as I
would never allow that crap past the kitchen door.

Brian Johnson
[removed]~[removed]

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

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 15:45:41 -0500
From: "David L. Easter" <david-easter@[removed];
To: "Old-Time Radio Digest (E-mail)" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Paul Harvey

Larry Bohall writes,

But Rather and the rest of the broadcast readers are liberal. If you don't
believe they aren't, just look at how they report what they [removed] the
fact that everyone of their broadcasts on any given day will feature the
same lead story presented the same [removed];

Strikes me that if "everyone of their broadcasts on any given day will
feature the same lead story presented the same way", they are reporting the
news, as it is, without bias.


David L. Easter

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

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 20:10:56 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Commentary and Newscasting

Larry Bohall, speaking about Paul Harvey and the news observed,

I'm a little taken aback by the notion that Dan Rather, et al, do not
slant their stories. Anyone who believes that is naive. Paul Harvey's
slant is conservative. <<

This is teetering on the brink of being off-topic; so let me put an OTR
brand on this.  Back in the days of OTR, there were newscasts and there
were commentators.  Whether one is convinced that there's a bias in the
various news media these days, the point of an OTR commentators was that
they commented on ([removed], editorialized upon) the news.  Paul Harvey is
part of, and operated in, that tradition.

Back as I was growing up, there were lots of commentators.  The first one
that comes to mind is Walter Winchell.  He had a sharp, driving,
delivery, but as a kid, the thing that most impressed me was his initial
delivery: "Good evening Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea!
Let's go to press!"  I didn't have the slightest idea why he said it that
way, but to a little kid, it sounded pretty "official."  Then there was
H. V. Kaltenborn, who Harry Truman imitated the delivery of, after
surprisingly winning the 1948 election.  I remember Drew Pearson, too.
There were lots.

But the most important thing was that they were commentators -- not
journalists -- and nobody expected anything else of them.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 20:10:54 -0500
From: Jim Kitchen <jkitchen@[removed];
To: Old Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Secret Squadron Signal Session

I recently listened to a Captain Midnight episode from "Fighting with
the Commandos!"  Captain Midnight is in occupied France working with the
French underground.  He's using fast speed boats with muffled exhausts
to supply the underground, and helicopters to ferry agents in and out of
France.  His nemesis is Gestapo Officer Baron Von Karp.   The episode
ends with Baron Von Karp about to descend into a wine cellar next to a
hidden chamber where Captain Midnight and his Associates are hiding.
Then, they announce a Secret Squadron Signal Session with a clue about
tomorrow nights adventure in Master Code 4!   The message:  First word
26-23-13-20-4-13; second word 5-26-16; third and last word 15-9-3-7; end
of message.

I jot down the code, grab my decoder badge, set Master Code 4 on the
back and decode this message: "O-U-T-W-I-T  V-O-N   K-A-R-P!"  Wow! Just
like the old days.  I got this decoder about 10 years ago.  It was found
in a Missouri barn along with some model airplane kits dating from
1946.  Think it's a 1942 model because there's a place for Captain
Midnight's photo which has long since disappeared.  It's tarnished,
which makes it difficult to see the letters and numbers, but it still
works!

Jim Kitchen

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

Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 20:54:14 -0500
From: "Ivan G. Shreve, Jr." <igsjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Vic and Sade recipes

Owens Pomeroy wrote:

Thanks to one of our Media Members, we have a rare premium from the
Vic & Sade show distributed by Jelke's Good Luck Margerine during their
1939-'40 season.  A booklet containing "100 PRIZE - WINNING HOUSEHOLD
HINTS".
with some favorite recipes by Sade ( Dixie Gingerbread,  Pioneer Pumpkin

Pie, Good Luck Fruit Drops, etc.)

What?  No beef punkles or stinginberry jam?

Ivan

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #51
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