------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2002 : Issue 86
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Spike Milligan [ Mdlang11@[removed] ]
violence in OTR [ "Rodney w bowcock jr." <rodney-self ]
Rio Players [ Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; ]
Radio City Playhouse [ Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; ]
The Johnson Family [ Jack Gale <jackgale@[removed]; ]
Re: Surviving Programs [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
seeking otr fiction [ "Ben Ohmart" <bloodbleeds@[removed] ]
Eric Bauersfeld [ "Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@neb. ]
Benny's last season [ Eric J Cooper <ejcooper2002@[removed] ]
MP3 Players [ "Ken Reiss" <reissken@[removed]; ]
Re: surviving shows [ Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed]; ]
Autolite And Roma Wines-Suspense [ lynn wagar <philcolynn@[removed]; ]
Star Wars Radiio Drama [ Rfmalone@[removed] ]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 17:32:51 -0500
From: Mdlang11@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Spike Milligan
As somebody who makes a living in comedy(television writer/producer), I have
to comment on the passing of Spike Milligan. First of all, the disclaimer:
comedy is even more subjective than other artistic endeavors. I know you
can't convince somebody that something is funny. In the final analysis, it
all comes down to taste.
Having said that, I must take issue with the statement in #84 about
Milligan's work in the Goon Show:
it was kind of nonsensical and certainly not up the to the standards that
Peter Sellers would achieve on his own or, for that matter, Monty Python's
Flying Circus.
It is unfair to judge work as not being up to the standards of later work
when in fact it was the foundation that made the later work possible. Peter
Sellers without his association would have been a completely different(and
IMO, an inferior) actor in his later work. Milligan wrote the Goon Show, and
his fingerprints are all over Sellers' work as Clouseau, in The Party, The
Magic Christian--the list goes on and on.
In the cited obituary, John Cleese credits Milligan with opening the minds of
the memebers of Monty Python, enabling them to build on the comedy he created
to produce their wonderful work.
An analogy in American radio may clarify the point. Jack Benny could lay a
claim to inventing the sitcom(maybe it was Freeman and Gosden, maybe the
Jordans, but the point holds true in any case, so I'll use Benny as the
example). he created a persona and surrounded it with a loveable gang of
misfits, his behind-the-scenes family. The show explored their
relationships, telling stories about their
lives away from the show. Its enormous success spawned an industry which is
still going today. Today it may not seem to some to be as sophisticated as
some of what followed it, but Jack Benny didn't have the Jack Benny Show to
build on. Its importance is even greater because people built on it. It
inspired people.
By the way, even on its own terms, I think the Goon show is still
outstanding. The characters are outstanding, and it really uses the medium
to advantage. It pushes the envelope on what it asks the audience to
visualize, trips around the world accomplished with one quick "whoosh." I
remember one in which Neddie Seagoon knocks on a door for what seems like
forever, pauses, then knocks some more. I can't do the moment justice, but
it was hilarious when one of the oily characters played by Peter Sellers
finally answers the door with something like, "Did someone ring?" And
similarly, the Jack Benny show remains remarkably fresh today. It still
makes me laugh more than just about everything else I've seen or heard.
Certainly more than anything I've written myself.
By the way, Spike Milligan also wrote an incredible multi-volume memoir of
his WWII experience. Talk about a roller coaster ride! I almost got kicked
off a plane for laughing so hard at Volume One: "Adolf Hitler--My Part in His
Downfall." Then, in a later volume, there is a very poignant description of
his eventual breakdown. For those who don't know, he was a forward artillery
spotter. As I understand it, it was his job to crawl out into the no man's
land between British and German lines and get shot at while locating German
positions and radioing their locations back to the British Guns. The life
expectancy of these guys was extremely short, and eventually the fear caught
up with him.
Well, this has been a very long-winded demonstration of one of the first
things I learned when I got into the business: there is nothing less funny
than somebody talking about comedy. I hope the main point wasn't lost in all
the self-indulgent verbiage: the Goon Show deserves to be considered a
landmark in comedy history at least because of its enormous influence, and
also because it's just plain funny.
Mike Langworthy
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 18:33:20 -0500
From: "Rodney w bowcock jr." <rodney-selfhelpbikeco@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: violence in OTR
These days, there seems to be lots of talk about too much violence in the
media. Were there similar comments made about radio programs? What
brought this thought on was an episode of Richard Diamond that I heard
today with a murder-suicide in it. It seemed pretty harsh for 1948 in my
mind, or am I simply looking at things through rose colored glasses?
PS---I, too, have recently started a company selling videos. While I
carry some OTR related films, my main goal is to carry Hal Roach comedies
and features. Selection is fairly small now, and I don't have a website,
but if there's anyone interested, e-mail me with your want list and I'll
let you know what I've got.
rodney.
Past Tense Productions
Carrying Old Radio related films, and Hal Roach shorts, for $7 per tape.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 18:35:20 -0500
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Rio Players
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from text/html
Several comments were made about the Rio web site:
So far RIO hasn't even responded to any of my e-mail questions! Think
I'll send the RIO back too!
Before I bought my Rio 90, I tried REPEATEDLY to contact Rio by e-mail to
answer some questions I had, and kept getting the same automated tech support
reply. My e-mails became increasingly sarcastic but it didn't matter
because
Have any of you just tried to call them on their 800 number? I had an
issue and called them and got great service by telephone. I tried email
on an issue surround a Rio 800 (my SP-100 works fine) and got no where so
I called them and all was perfect.
Jim Widner
jwidner@[removed]
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Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 18:35:12 -0500
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Radio City Playhouse
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from text/html
I have a log I developed when I was at the Library of Congress using the
NBC Archives you can find at my web site: [removed] (look at
the "New this month" section and click on the link).
What you ran into was that there was a week where the program was
cancelled due to the "Plans for the New Congress" broadcast on January
3, 1949.
Jim Widner
jwidner@[removed]
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 18:59:14 -0500
From: Jack Gale <jackgale@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: The Johnson Family
Back in 1948, I worked on the air at WTBO in Cumberland, Md. We recieved and
broadcast on 16" transcriptions, a show called "The Johnson Family". All the
voices and characters were done by Jimmy Scribner. Gary Lee was the
announcer. No one I know has ever heard of it. I was fascinated by Mr.
Scribner changing voices as fast as he did. I started doing voices on my
show, and had a fifty year career in Cleveland, Boston, Baltimore,
Charlotte, etc. He was my inspiration. Any old timers out there know where I
can obtain a copy of these great shows? It would be greatly appreciated.
Jack Gale
jackgale@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 19:03:03 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Surviving Programs
Jim Murtaugh wrote:
I'm sure someone can help me on this. Why is it
that a show such as "Calling All Cars" which aired in the 1930's has so many
episodes that have survived? Of the 302 shows aired, 298 survive. On the
other hand, one of the most popular and long running shows, "Amos and Andy",
have relatively few surviving shows? You would think that any show that
appealed to so many listeners would have been better preserved.
There are a variety of reasons, but one of the most important factors in
the preservation of long runs of shows outside the custody of network
archivists was the practice of extension spotting.
Like many other series of the 1930s, "Calling All Cars" was heard both in
live broadcasts and in recorded form. In the case of this specific
series, the live broadcasts were widely heard in California -- but
recordings were used outside the state, primarily on stations in the
Southwest. This was a market the sponsor wanted to reach -- and
recordings were the most efficient means for doing this. The potential
audience was "extended" by "spotting" the transcriptions of the program
on selected stations -- hence the term "extension spotting." And it's
these "Calling All Cars" recordings which have survived.
Hundreds of different series were extension spotted over the years,
including such popular serials as "Lum and Abner," "Jack Armstrong," and
practically every major soap opera sponsored by Procter and Gamble. It's
largely because extension-spotting recordings were made that we can enjoy
long, continuous runs of such serials today.
On the other hand, just because a program was recorded for extension
spotting there's no guarantee that the recordings were preserved. "Vic
and Sade" was continuously recorded for extension spotting beginning in
1937 and continuing thru 1944 -- but comparatively few of these discs
have been preserved. "Little Orphan Annie" was recorded for spotting as
early as 1935, and the discs continued off and on thru 1940 -- but only a
handful of episodes have been found. Usually, it was required that the
discs be destroyed or returned to the distributor after use -- and
unfortunately for us, the vast majority of broadcasters obeyed the
contractural requirements. We owe a great debt to those broadcasters who
were either too careless or too lazy to follow the letter of the law.
"Amos 'n' Andy," unfortunately, was not recorded for extension spotting
at any time during the 1930s. While Pepsodent did extension-spot certain
other programs over the years, A&A was exclusively live for the entire
span of that company's sponsorship. So it was that any recordings that
were made were made on a very casual basis -- for the entire Pepsodent
period -- 2313 episodes -- I've documented exactly *four* complete
recordings, one of them a barely-listenable home recording from 1932, one
the Anniversary Program from 1936, and both the Eastern and Western
broadcasts of the first "Friday Night Minstrel Show." Aside from these
I've documented three fragments of episodes from January and February
1933, ranging from 90 seconds to seven and a half minutes, recorded on
Victor Home Recording discs, and six fragments from an August 1937
episode totalling about forty seconds. Unless a miracle happens someday,
that's all there is.
The syndicated recordings of A&A that were used prior to the
Pepsodent-NBC run do turn up from time to time --so far I've confirmed
the existence of about sixty out of the 438 episodes recorded during
1928-29, and I suspect the existence of others. Unfortunately, these
discs were to be returned to the Chicago Daily News Syndicate after
broadcast, where they were destroyed to prevent unauthorized reuse. Not
even Correll and Gosden themselves saved a complete set.
However, there *is* a potential brighter side to the A&A situation. I
have solid evidence that beginning in January 1940, Campbell's Soup had
the nightly A&A episodes recorded off the CBS line for extension spotting
on selected stations across Canada. It can be positively documented that
these recordings were still being used as late as the summer of 1942, and
they may have continued to the end of the serial -- and the end of
Campbell's sponsorship -- in February 1943. It is probable that these
were 16" vinyl pressings, containing only the body of each episode from
Bill Hay's introduction to the fadeout, with commercials and theme music
contained on separate discs -- and there is every chance that somewhere
in Canada a pile of these discs is waiting to be found.
I'd much rather find a pile of A&A from 1931-33 -- by far the program's
richest period -- but I'd certainly not be disappointed to find a long
run of episodes from 1940-42. There were some interesting storylines
during this era -- including the birth of Amos Jr. -- as well as
interesting novelty episodes like the visit of Fred Allen (a great
admirer of Correll and Gosden's work) on 5/8/41, and I'd be quite pleased
to see some of this material turn up.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 20:04:44 -0500
From: "Ben Ohmart" <bloodbleeds@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: seeking otr fiction
I'm wanting to put together a book of short stories which will be new fiction
using otr characters. Nothing they wouldn't normally do, and no time
machine stuff. So I'm contacting writers who normally write for otr and
nostalgia publications asking if they'd like to donate a story on their
favorite
show for the book. I don't expect to make much on it, but can pay $50 in
lieu of royalties. If you'd care to contribute, let me know, and which show
you'd like to fictionalize. Gildy and Fibber are taken by Charles Stumpf. I'm
doing Bickersons. Martin Grams is doing Quiet Please. Jim Cox is doing
the Lone Ranger.
Stories should be between 5 and 15 pages (3000 to 7000 words, around
there). Deadline is the end of June, but you can send your story as soon as
you like. Feel free to pass this message along too.
Ben Ohmart
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 20:43:49 -0500
From: "Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@[removed];
To: "old time radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Eric Bauersfeld
Hi all:
I noticed someone's post about Mr. Bauersfeld. My introduction to his work
came in the 80's when I collected cassettes from, The Mind's Eye. I best
remember Bauersfeld as Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I have recently
attempted to contact the new company and ask them about how to get copies of
these works, but no one has responded. If anyone out there has any
information on where I can get copies of works from The Mind's Eye, I am
your slave forever.
RyaNO
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 20:44:44 -0500
From: Eric J Cooper <ejcooper2002@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Benny's last season
In issue 85,Tony Baechler opined:
Fianlly, the 1954-55 Benny [removed] was just flat. I felt
like I was just listening to someone going about his life and wondering
what the point was.
I agree, but that was Benny's last season on radio and he was heavily
involved with doing new kinds of stories on TV. In my humble opinion,
there was nothing left for Mr. Benny to do on radio--he had done it all
already. Amazing that, in spite of this, the show went on from '55 to'58
in reruns (except for the Stan Freberg interlude in 1957)
Eric Cooper
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 21:42:34 -0500
From: "Ken Reiss" <reissken@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: MP3 Players
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from text/html
The point about the MP3 players being intended for music is a good one.
But it's simply not practical to re-encode all your disks. The whole idea
of an MP3 CD player, as far as I'm concerned anyway :) is to be able to
take the stuff with you without going through a whole bunch of stuff.
I have been through quite a few players for an article I'm working on,
and for OTR fans, the Rio series is the best of the lot that I have
found. I won't even begin to say that I've been through them all, but I
have looked at a number of players, both CD and flash or hard disk
players that you have to upload files to.
With the RIO 90 at about $80, and the 100 and 250 above that if you want
more features, that's the way to go. I have not found much that my 100
and 250 can't handle. A boom box would be nice, and I'm curious about the
Phillips unit that was mentioned, but not part of my survey set :)
Good luck, whatever you choose.
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 21:48:18 -0500
From: Harlan Zinck <buster@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: surviving shows
Jim Murtaugh writes:
I'm sure someone can help me on this. Why is it
that a show such as "Calling All Cars" which aired in the 1930's has so many
episodes that have survived? Of the 302 shows aired, 298 survive. On the
other hand, one of the most popular and long running shows, "Amos and Andy",
have relatively few surviving shows? You would think that any show that
appealed to so many listeners would have been better preserved.
There is a difference between a show being preserved and a show being
available to OTR collectors, Jim. "Calling All Cars" and "Amos 'n' Andy"
make for two good examples:
A large lot of disks containing the "Calling All Cars" shows were recently
purchased by OTR dealer Ed Carr from a person located, I believe, in
Southern California. The disks were probably held by someone associated
with the program - likely either a producer or someone from the sponsoring
advertising agency - who kept them all together for a considerable number
of years. Though there have been episodes of this series in circulation for
years, Ed released quite a number of them recently, which explain why so
many are currently available.
Many more "Amos 'n' Andy" shows survive than those that are currently in
circulation, some from Charles Correll's collection. It is my understanding
that Richard Correll, Mr. Correll's son, *did* release some of these to a
collector awhile back but was upset that this person allowed copies to be
made for others. Thus, no additional shows have been released from this stash.
There is a significant run of Fred Allen programs being held by the Boston
Public Library, donated to them by Portland Hoffa, Allen's widow. The BPL
has, however, restricted access to them solely to in-house listening and no
copies may be checked out or made for the general public.
There are also significant runs of a number of series housed at the Library
of Congress, particularly in the NBC collection, but these cannot be
released without the permission of the depositor.
Considerable amounts of programming is being held by the Thousand Oaks
Library, Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters, and UCLA, but access to these shows
too is limited based on restrictions imposed by those who donated them
and/or the rights holders.
It is frustrating to know that so many shows exist but cannot be heard, at
least not conveniently. However, it is also reassuring to know that so many
shows are being safely housed in anticipation of a day when they can be
heard - especially considering how many disks have simply been destroyed
over the years, containing shows that are never to be heard again.
The happy news is that, thanks to the Internet, new disk discoveries are
being made on an almost weekly basis these days. The First Generation Radio
Archives has been lucky to locate and gain access to thousands of disks in
the past two years, many from the collections of people once associated
with the shows. As an example, we recently acquired writer Jean Hollowell's
collection of ABC network disks from the "Mr. President" series, as well as
a significant run of "Railroad Hour" shows from the estate of a
long-retired advertising executive. These, as well as many other shows are
available for loan through our CD libraries.
We've just released our latest newsletter, detailing all of the newly
restored shows being added to the libraries - including many recently
discovered and uncirculated programs. If you'd like a free subscription,
visit our website at [removed]
Harlan
Harlan Zinck
First Generation Radio Archives
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 21:51:17 -0500
From: lynn wagar <philcolynn@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Autolite And Roma Wines-Suspense
Re: The sponsors of OTR Program-Suspense.
I was wondering if the sponsor Autolite is still in
business making Spark Plugs or Battaries? Also if any
of thier 28 production plants are still opperating in
the United States?
Did anyone have a Autolite production plant in there
home town or know where are were located?
Also for any Wine drinkers out there, is Roma Wines
still in business?
Thanks in advance for sharing your answers!
Lynn Wagar
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 21:51:30 -0500
From: Rfmalone@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Star Wars Radiio Drama
The original Star Wars was aired on National Public Radio in 1981. It was a
13 episode series. Also The Empire Strikes Back was done a short time later.
I have seen them in Barnes and Noble Book Stores in the Audio Book Section.
Check to see if they are available on line.
Richard
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #86
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