Subject: [removed] Digest V2012 #28
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 2/13/2012 8:56 AM
To: [removed]@[removed]
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------------------------------


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2012 : Issue 28
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  "Professional jealousy" & The Dozen   [ Anthony Tollin <sanctumotr@earthlin ]

______________________________________________________________________

    ADMINISTRIVIA:

I'm beginning to feel a little more like a referee than a list
[removed]

I'm in a bit of an uncomfortable position in this particular debate.
The participants are people I know, and [removed], I am humbled
to consider not just the principles but all of the participants in
this discussion my friends.

And, frankly, I think the original topic of the discussion, the place
oral histories should have in contemporary research, is compelling,
something that _should_ be debated by those on differing sides.

But we're approaching the line I draw prohibiting personal attacks.
Actually, we might be a little past the line I might normally
[removed] I do know and respect the principles, I might allow
some latitude knowing they are both well-able to vigorously defend
their positions. Still, I'm starting to feel a little uncomfortable,
sensing possibly some personal animus.

Also, I've been dealing with some regrettable off-list unplesentness
directly related to this debate, which I won't discuss other than to
urge those responsible to knock it off [removed] sock-puppets to
insult other subscribers is just silly, and wastes everyone's time. It
is the reason I haven't yet dealt with the "Future of OTR Conventions"
discussion - until some of this gets resolved (or at least ceases), I
don't want to open yet another can-o-worms. I haven't forgotten it,
honest, it's just been back-burnered for the time being.

Anyway, I fully expect a vigorous response (or responses) to the
following posting; the only thing I'm asking is that everyone involved
remember that, first and foremost, this is just a frelling hobby; it's
supposed to be fun. Let's not kill the joy.

   --Charlie

______________________________________________________________________


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

Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:36:09 -0500
From: Anthony Tollin <sanctumotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  "Professional jealousy" & The Dozen Still
 Unsolved SHADOW Radio 	Show Mysteries

on Wed, 8 Feb 2012 12:20:29, Martin Grams, Jr. wrote:

For the record, I have a copy of that same RADIO GUIDE blurb from 1931.
It does NOT state The Shadow was the host of the program. It merely
indicates that he was on the program. It is never clarified what
his role on the program was, nor are the words "host" or "narrator"
used to describe what he did.

However, Martin, you DID insist on page 57 of your recent book that: "The
Shadow's appearance on Love Story began in mid-season, following the swift
and sudden demise of the Perfect-O-Lite broadcasts in early February 1932,
which he was the host." RADIO GUIDE's December 19, 1931 complaint, "What a
loss to fandom when The Shadow tottered from his underworld throne into
those Street & Smith love stories," clearly contradicts your book's
statement that The Shadow didn't appear on LOVE STORY before February 1932.

And you also strongly denied the existence of that particular RADIO GUIDE
quote on the same page of your book, claiming: "When this author went
through every issue of the magazine in question, seeking the comment for his
own verification, the search led to a dead end. Nothing has been found to
verify such a comment was made ..."

Grams continues:
A copy of a LOVE STORY radio script exists, and was
shown on the big screen during a slide show presentation at the
2011 Pulpfest Convention this past July/August, and Anthony Tollin
was present at the event (he even won an award for his work).

Actually, I was quite ill at Pulpfest, arrived mid-panel for your
presentation and immediately went off on a coughing jag. I left the room
after only a few minutes so my severe cold and caughing would not interfere
with your presentation. However, I did see your Shadow slideshow at the 2010
FOTR convention, and have asked more than once asked which LOVE STORY
script(s) you actually unearthed, but have received no answers.

My apologies if I am being brash about this. I am working on scanning
the 1931 RADIO GUIDE and the LOVE STORY MAGAZINE HOUR script
for a future blog post on my web-site to set the record straight.

I applaud this action and look forward to the LOVE STORY script being posted
on your blog. (Any chance you could also post one of the DETECTIVE STORY
scripts featuring The Shadow--the Holy Grail of lost Shadow scripts? The
absence of DSM scripts or even short excerpts in your book is a major
omission.)

However, please remember that I've already stated that current evidence
suggests that The Shadow only hosted LOVE STORY during the first few months
(October-December 1931) of its yearlong run. In my January 27 posting to
this Digest, I wrote: "I now suspect that The Shadow left the LOVE STORY
series before the Perfect-O-Lite show began January 1932, which seems likely
since sponsors usually demanded exclusivity of their star talent." In my
recent article on Frank Readick in volume 52 of my SHADOW trade paperbacks,
I observed: "Radio sponsors usually demanded exclusivity of their program's
stars, which would likely have been demanded for Perfect-O-Lite's (and later
Blue Coal's) sponsorship of The Shadow, possibly necessitating The Shadow's
rapid departure from Love Story before the Perfect-O-Lite series was
launched in January." So, I honestly wouldn't consider a 1932 LOVE STORY
script to negate the first-person accounts of Walter Gibson, SHADOW
MAGAZINE-editor John Nanovic and assistant editor Richard Wormser, and LOVE
STORY scriptwriter Edith Meiser that The Shadow hosted the early (1931)
episodes of LOVE STORY. Also, I fail to see how a single (or even a few)
scripts could be considered as "proof" that The Shadow didn't host/introduce
ANY of the 52 broadcasts. I also don't understand how anyone would assume
that a single script (especially if it's from AFTER The Shadow moved on to
his own short-lived Perfect-O-Lite series or the BLUE COAL RADIO REVUE)
would negate the combined (and individual) testimony of Gibson, Nanovic,
Wormser and Meiser that The Shadow indeed functioned as host of at least the
early LOVE STORY broadcasts. And as to whether appearing in the opening and
closing announcements qualifies as hosting, that's ALL The Shadow does in
most of the 1932-33 NBC BLUE COAL MYSTERY REVUE scripts, and yet The Shadow
is widely accepted as the host of that series (including your book), even in
this diminished capacity.

I do resent Martin's recent insinuation that any criticism of his book is
due to "Professional jealousy." As a CN consultant, I strongly encouraged
Conde Nast to give Martin a publishing license to produce his book, offered
Martin free use of any material from the personal/professional scrapbooks
and photo albums of Bret Morrison, Frank Readick and CBS sound effects chief
Ora Nichols (he wasn't interested), promoted his book during my 75th
anniversary Shadow panels at the 2010 Pulpfest and FOTR conventions, and
encouraged/reminded Radio Spirits pre-publication to carry his Shadow book
in its catalogs.

I was and am first-and-foremost a comic art enthusiast and a fan of Walter
Gibson's Shadow pulp novels. I wasn't a fan or authority on THE SHADOW radio
show when The Shadow's primary creator recruited me in 1978 to assist him
and co-author six chapters of THE SHADOW SCRAPBOOK. To be perfectly honest,
I'd far rather have worked with Walter on HIS book than have written an
entire Shadow book of my own. My principal career was as a comic book
professional which lasted for a quarter century (mostly at DC Comics with
shorter stints at Marvel, Warren, Disney and Topps). And like many comic
artists, I discovered that listening to OTR really helped pass the day when
working in a visual medium like comic art (where TV viewing would be a
costly distraction). Professional jealousy? Martin, I regularly work 75-hour
weeks on my own monthly double-novel SHADOW and DOC SAVAGE trade paperback
reprints, and have already reprinted 117 Shadow novels and just as many Doc
thrillers that feature the pulp heroes thatOI've always preferred to the
radio remakes. The generation that grew up with radio drama is rapidly
disappearing, and it'll take at least nine more years for me to reprint all
325 Shadow pulp novels, before I could even attempt to write any new history
of THE SHADOW radio series, by which time I doubt there'll be any market for
such a book.

For the record, I was the first to publicly correct misinformation from my
own chapters of THE SHADOW SCRAPBOOK, sending corrections to SPERDVAC, John
Dunning for ON THE AIR and later to Jay Hickerson for his ULTIMATE HISTORY
log. I'm most embarrassed that I perpetuated the then-universal assumption
that Agnes Moorehead costarred opposite Welles in the 1938 Goodrich shows,
and wrongly placed Steve Courtleigh's short run at the end of John Archer's
1944-45 season rather than at the beginning of the following season. As soon
as I learned that Margot Stevenson had starred in the 1938 summer season, I
sent out corrections to historians and collectors alike, as I also did when
I learned that the openings and closings of all the Orson Welles shows
featured Frank Readick's sibilant intonations, not Welles! Radio scholarship
was in its primitive state in the 1970s, without the decades of research by
ace historians like Elizabeth McLeod, Karl Schadow and Jay Hickerson that we
routinely build upon today. Which is why John Dunning's ON THE AIR is far
superior to his earlier TUNE IN YESTERDAY, and why my own SHADOW SCRAPBOOK
radio chapters are also now obsolete.

There was a time  when I considered myself an expert on THE SHADOW radio
series, but that was a quarter century ago when I was in my early thirties
and immature. I'll be turning sixty next week, and as I grow older I
continue to discover just how little I truly know about the program's CBS
years and the cast/producer changes of the mid-1940s. THE SHADOW radio show
is a case where the more one digs and the more one learns from amazing
discoveries by ace-researchers like Elizabeth McLeod (who discovered the
1935 MacGregor & Sollie SHAODW syndicated series), Karl Schadow (who hugely
expanded the available knowledge of that 1935 transcription series and radio
drama in general) and Martin himself, the more apparent it becomes just how
MUCH still is NOT known (and how much I'll probably never know), which is
why I'd really hoped that Grams' book would produce solid answers to the
program's long unsolved broadcasting mysteries.

I don't want to get into an argument with Martin nitpicking over conflicting
historical data, so I'm only going to cite a few of the book's errors in
which Martin is contradicted by ... himself ... often in the next paragraph:

In the last paragraph of page 6, Martin writes: "Charles A. Schenck Jr. ...
directed all of the True Detective Mysteries and True Story productions." In
his next paragraph, Martin states that William Sweets "... turned freelance
director in 1928 on True Story." These two statements contradict each other;
Schenck couldn't have directed ALL of the True Story shows if Sweets was
also directing episodes of the series. I'm certainly no expert on the 1928
True Story broadcasts, but if I was a gambling man I'd place my money on the
"Martin Grams" who wrote that William Sweets was directing the show on a
freelance basis in 1928 and not the "Martin Grams" who claimed that Charles
A. Shrenck, Jr. directed ALL of the True Story productions (simply because I
tend to distrust the absolutism of "all" or "never" statements).

On page 18, Martin claims that: "La Curto's performance [as The Shadow] was
praised by Variety in an October 29, 1930 column." In his next paragraph,
Martin notes that Readick had already made his debut as The Shadow on
October 16, 1930, TWO WEEKS before the date he cites forthe VARIETY article.
(The identity of the actor playing The Shadow was still unpublicized at this
time, and the Variety critic had referred only to "The Shadow," not a
specific actor, so Martin was making an "assumption.") Actually, La Curto
had left the role a month earlier according to my research, making his final
DSM broadcast on September 4, and was already performing THE NOBLE
EXPERIMENT onstage in Waterbury, Connecticut on October 6 as Martin confirms
on the next page (which means Readick had already taken over as The Shadow).
James La Curto couldn't be performing onstage in Connecticut evenings if he
were still performing in the live DETECTIVE STORY broadcasts from CBS'
Manhattan studio on Thursday nights. ALSO, Martin actually misdated this
particular quote ("'The Shadow' who delivers in low register, hissing and
growling in villainous fashion ..."), which actually appeared in VARIETY on
January 21, 1932. So the critic was reviewing a show broadcast at least
three or four months AFTER Frank Readick took over the role, and not La
Curto's portrayal as Grams wrongly assumed. In this instance, the "Martin
Grams" who writes that James La Curto was already performing onstage in
Waterbury, CT as of October 6, 1931 is correct, while the "Martin Grams" who
claims that the October 16, 1931 (actually January 21, 1932) VARIETY
reviewer was describing La Curto's performance is wrong.

On page 386, Martin claims: "For the 1946-47 winter season, Grace Matthews
replaced Lesley Woods, making the actors playing the two leads permanent
until the series expired in 1954." Wrong again! Gertrude Warner replaced
Grace Matthews on September 11, 1949, as Martin himself noted a few pages
earlier in his section on Warner on pp. 380-81. In this case, the "Martin
Grams" who writes about Gertrude Warner is correct, while the "Martin Grams"
who claims that Grace Matthews continued as Margot "until the series expired
in 1954" is wrong.

These are the kind of careless continuity mistakes that an experienced
professional editor should catch, and it's really unfortunate that Martin
refuses to employ one in the preparation of his books. And quite honestly,
there's a huge talent pool of unemployed or underemployed editors due to
recent downsizing in the publishing industry. (And Martin, please note that
I've only offered criticism for the "Martin Grams" who was wrong in each of
these instances, not the "Martin Grams" whose research was correct and
contradicted the erroneous information of the other "Martin Grams." So
Martin, please understand that I'm in total agreement with HALF of you.)

There are almost certainly factual errors in every book ever produced on
OTR, including a lot in my own 33-year-old, outdated radio chapters in THE
SHADOW SCRAPBOOK. So I can live with the couple dozen outright errors I've
noticed in a partial reading of Martin's book (which I'm not going to waste
additional space on here unless there are OTRDigesters who would actually
like to read that list). What bothers me far more is what is NOT in his
book. In his recent interview about his Shadow book on the Radio Spirits
website, Martin Grams claims that: "There are no big mysteries yet
unsolved." Unfortunately, despite Grams' claim, the dozen most perplexing
mysteries of famous program remain just as unsolved after the publication of
his book as they were a quarter century ago!

THE DOZEN MOST PERPLEXING, STILL UNSOLVED SHADOW RADIO SHOW MYSTERIES:

1) Martin claims to have unearthed a few actual scripts from the DETECTIVE
STORY MAGAZINE HOUR (which totally eluded earlier researchers), yet reveals
nothing except the titles of a few more of the stories adapted. (That
information could possibly have been gleaned from newspaper program listings
or cover sheets.) Based on the 1931 Universal Shadow two-reel "filmettes,"
it appears the radio series' format was remarkably similar to CBS' later
WHISTLER series, with the mysterious host regularly interrupting the
proceedings to taunt the subconscious minds/consciences of the criminals.
YET Martin doesn't reprint a single script nor even offer any script quotes
to confirm or enhance what was already known. Hopefully, some quotes from
these long-lost DETECTIVE STORY MAGAZINE HOUR scripts (or ideally even a
full script) can be included in the future revised edition of Martin's book,
and Shadow fans will finally have a more accurate picture of the embryonic
CBS series that introduced radio's greatest mystery man. If and when that
actually happens, we Shadow fans will have much to thank Martin for!

2) Who portrayed The Shadow onscreen in the five 1931-32 Universal Detective
Story two-reelers filmed in Hollywood?

3) According the the original CBS program/sponsor cards, the 1932
Perfect-O-Lite Shadow series' "agency producer" worked in Ruthrauff & Ryan's
Chicago office, not R&R's Manhattan office. Did this five-week miniseries
actually originate in New York or from CBS' Chicago studios? (If it did
originate in Chicago, we could have a possible solution to Chicagoan Robert
Hardy Andrews' claims--made in 1960s radio interviews and to his own family
members--that he briefly voiced The Shadow on radio.)

4) Who portrayed The Shadow in the 1932-33 series broadcast over Rochester
station WHAM (which rebroadcast NBC scripts from the previous week with a
local cast sponsored by Blue Coal)?

5) Despite high ratings and substantial increases in coal sales, Blue Coal
didn't renew THE SHADOW following the conclusions of the 1932-33 or 1934-35
seasons. Why not?

6) Who was the first actor to portray Lamont Cranston on radio in the June
15, 1934 WMCA audition show sponsored by Blue Coal?

7) How was The Shadow portrayed in CBS' final 1934-35 season? Did he narrate
the stories and interrupt/interact with the consciences of the guilty
parties as in the early DETECTIVE STORY broadcasts? Or was his role limited
to the show's opening and closing announcements, as in the 1932-33 NBC
season and the earliest LOVE STORY broadcasts from 1931?

8) How closely did MacGregor & Sollie's 1935 15-minute Shadow serial
starring Carl Kroenke follow the characterization and format of Walter
Gibson's pulp novels? Did Kroenke actually portray Lamont Cranston on this
series? Were any of The Shadow's pulp agents (Harry Vincent, Cliff Marsland,
Burbank) featured in these two-part storylines, as in Walter Gibson's 1934
audition script?

9) Why was the title role recast after Bret Morrison's 1943-44 debut season?
Why did Marjorie Anderson return the next season but not Bret? Was Morrison
unavailable due to his second career as a cabaret singer, or was his role
recast at the insistence of the sponsor or network?

10) Why was the title role recast after John Archer's 1944-45 season, which
as Martin notes attracted some of the highest ratings and greatest profit
margins in the program's history? (Why change horses if your current steed
swept the races and won the biggest purse?)

11) Why were Steven Courtleigh, Laura Mae Carpenter and the show's director
and scriptwriter ALL dropped midseason in 1945, after only six or seven
broadcasts?

12) Did Berry Kroeger actually fill in as The Shadow for a month or so
during the early 1950s to allow Bret Morrison a vacation (as Kroeger claimed
at a SPERDVAC meeting and to this researcher)? If so, in which shows did he
voice the title role?

These were the major questions that students of THE SHADOW radio series have
been seeking answers for, and in many cases for the past quarter century.
Regrettably they ALL still remain unanswered after the publication of Martin
Grams' book. And I point out these still unanswered questions because I
really hope that some future researcher will finally discover the answers
that have eluded broadcasting historians (and me) for decades!

(To his credit, Martin Grams did unearth and reveal the names of twelve
supporting cast members from the 1935 MacGregor & Sollie SHADOW serial, and
also the cast members from the 1934 DOC SAVAGE series. These are major finds
to be applauded! And Martin's 800-page Shadow book is a real bargain at only
$30, with loads of previously unpublished data, individual program synopses
for all the post-1937 broadcasts and an extremely useful index. I've already
purchased TWO copies for myself, and will definitely purchase additional
copies in the future--though I'll probably wait until his recently announced
corrected edition eventually comes out.)

The Shadow was OTR's foremost mystery man, so it's perhaps appropriate
(though incredibly frustrating) that so much of the history of his famous
radio series still remains an unsolved mystery. Simply declaring that "There
are no big mysteries yet unsolved" doesn't make it so, and unfortunately
could perhaps even discourage future researchers from hunting down the
answers to these elusive questions which still need to be answered!

Curiously, Anthony Tollin

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2012 Issue #28
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