Subject: [removed] Digest V2001 #321
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 10/2/2001 8:50 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2001 : Issue 321
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Re: Evolution of the Sitcom           [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Major Armstrong                       [ William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed]; ]
  OTR for Kids                          [ Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed]; ]
  CBSRMT story                          [ "steven kostelecky" <skostelecky@ho ]
  OTR on film                           [ "Strauss, Jerry" <[removed]@SSA ]
  Orson Welles                          [ Kubelski@[removed] ]
  Re: OTR is actually Something New !   [ OTRChris@[removed] ]
  Kid Shows?                            [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  Ken Burns' EOTA                       [ "jstokes" <jstokes@[removed]; ]
  Turned their back on radio            [ "George Tirebiter" <tirebiter2@hotm ]
  "Wire Paladin"                        [ Jim Kitchen <jkitchen@[removed]; ]
  Teacher's encouragement               [ KENPILETIC@[removed] ]
  Re: RKO Radio Pictures                [ sfx-meow@[removed] (Ray Erlenborn) ]
  Remembering radio                     [ Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; ]
  Superman Radio Scripts                [ Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; ]
  Re: Turned Their Back on Radio        [ Alan Bell <bella@[removed]; ]
  ORIGINS                               [ HERITAGE4@[removed] ]

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 09:55:59 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Evolution of the Sitcom

Pat Adkins wrote:

Can anyone explain what he meant by that?  What is the history of the
development of the situation comedy as a form?

I don't know as I'd agree with the idea of B&A as the creators of the
modern sitcom (although a case could be made, based on George Burns's
"fourth wall breaking" techniques in the TV B&A that they created the
*post-modern* sitcom). The basic form actually goes back quite a ways
further than that.

First, it's important to define terms. I define a "sitcom" as a program
heard in a weekly half-hour timeslot, dealing with continuing characters
in humorous situations. The episodes are essentially self-contained, and
although some plot threads may continue from episode to episode the
program does not depend on a continuing serial storyline for its appeal.

That being so, I don't consider "Sam and Henry"/"Amos 'n' Andy" to be
"the first sitcom," although Correll and Gosden did lay the foundation
for the form -- they were the first radio performers to present an
ongoing dramatized series dealing with continuing characters as opposed
to an anthology program. Some of their situations were humorous, but the
comedy was mixed with an equal portion of straight drama, and this was
presented in a continuing serial format. Though it wasn't a true sitcom
until the switch to a half-hour format in 1943, the success of S&H/A&A
proved that listeners would follow characters on radio as opposed to
simply listening to strings of jokes, musical selections, or anthology
plays -- and this laid the groundwork for every character-based radio
program that would follow. They were the seed not just for sitcoms but
for the entire "OTR Era."

During 1928-29, the success of S&H/A&A inspired a number of
continuing-character programs on the networks and on local stations. Some
of these copied the A&A nightly 15-minute serial format (Cecil & Sally,
Louie's Hungry Five, Luke & Timber, Lem and Lafe, Honeyboy & Sassafrass,
etc.) but others took the form in another direction. "The Smith Family,"
on WENR, Chicago, was a weekly half-hour serial dealing with both
humorous and dramatic themes in much the same manner as A&A. The program,
created by writer/producer Harry Lawrence is best remembered as an early
vehicle for Jim and Marian Jordan -- but they did not appear as a couple
in the series. Marian played Nora Smith, a middle-aged Irish housewife,
opposite Arthur Wellington as her husband Ed Smith. The Smiths had two
daughters, Betty and Irene -- and Irene's boyfriend was a small-time
Irish prizefighter named Joe Fitzgerald, played by Jim Jordan. The plots
dealt primarily with the romantic entanglements of the Smith daughters,
and is best described as a working-class "One Man's Family" rather than a
pure sitcom -- although it was certainly another step along the road.
(Many published sources date this series to 1925 -- but this is an error
dating back to a "Radio Guide" article published in the early 1940s and
picked up by many writers since. The series actually began on 2/20/29.)

There were a number of network programs in the 1928-29 period which also
fall into the evolutionary progression toward the sitcom format -- "Real
Folks" and "Mountainville Sketches" were weekly half-hour programs, but
the A&A influence of a serial storyline overshadowed their humorous
elements. "Soconyland Sketches" was an anthology series (it didn't become
"Snow Village Sketches" with continuing characters until 1937) but its
use of humorous scripts as opposed to straight drama places it along the
sitcom progression. "Raising Junior" was a nightly comedy/drama serial
dealing with a middle-class couple and their two-year-old son -- and was
notable as one of the earliest such programs not to incorporate ethnic or
dialect elements.

All of these ingredients came together in September 1929 for the program
which I consider the first "true sitcom." "Mr. and Mrs." was a weekly
self-contained half hour based on the comic strip created by Clare
Briggs, and dealt with humorous incidents in the lives of the Greens --
Joe and Vi -- a middle-class, middle-aged, childless married couple who
spent most of their time fighting. Typical of 1920s humor, the comic
strip was a bitter, cynical affair -- Joe and Vi could barely stand the
sight of each other, and they stayed married out of sheer inertia more
than anything else. By all accounts the radio series duplicated this tone
quite closely -- while the dialogue wasn't as poisonously exaggerated as
"The Bickersons" would be in later years, the Greens were often referred
to in reviews and publicity articles as "radio's battling couple" or
other such combative descriptions. The series ran on CBS for the Graybar
Electric Company for two seasons, and Joe and Vi were played by Jack
Smart and Jane Houston.

Publicity photos usually showed Smart and Houston done up to look like
Joe and Vi -- which was quite an accomplishment, since Briggs drew Joe's
head in a scratchy, harsh, flattened manner that made it look a bit like
the crushed end of an old cigar butt. Smart would pose for these photos
in a bald cap, a scribbly-looking false moustache, and nose glasses, with
his faced compressed into an expression of utter misery. Houston would
usually be standing next to Smart, arms akimbo, giving him a cold,
fish-eyed glare. This, at last, was a pure sitcom.

However, "Mr. and Mrs." didn't spark a rash of imitators -- 1932 saw the
invasion of radio by vaudeville and musical-comedy performers, and the
sitcom idea was shunted aside. There were a few experiments during the
thirties -- Jack Pearl's "Peter Pfeiffer" in 1934, Gertrude Berg's "House
of Glass" in 1935, "Snow Village Sketches" in 1937. The most successful
move in the sitcom direction was "Fibber McGee and Molly" in 1935,
although "Fibber" was very loosely constructed, and had as much in common
with the vaudeville/minstrel tradition as it did with sitcom technique --
much of the dialogue was simple setup/punchline humor that could just as
easily have been delivered by Tambo and Mr. Bones.

The forties saw the sitcom format really come into its own -- "The
Aldrich Family" in 1939 was the leading edge of this wave, and by the
early forties, sitcoms had really caught on.  By the end of the forties,
they were a dominant format, and as such carried over into television.
When Burns and Allen converted from a vaudeville-influenced variety
format to a sitcom in 1942, they were following a trend rather than
creating one. Likewise when Correll and Gosden finally bowed to the
inevitable in 1943 and turned "Amos 'n' Andy" into a sitcom, they were
following rather than leading.

It's important to note, as an aside, that the roots of the sitcom are not
exclusively based in radio. A number of movie comedians were making
continuing series of film shorts in the 1920s and 1930s that were
indisputably situation comedies -- Max Davidson's silent shorts dealing
with humorous aspects of Jewish ghetto life, Charley Chase's middle-class
comedies-of-manners, Edgar Kennedy's "The Average Man" series,  Leon
Errol's jolly-alcoholic comedies, and much of Laurel and Hardy's work are
the best examples -- and it is quite likely that these influenced the
development of the form in radio, and certainly later in television.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:29:43 -0400
From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Major Armstrong

In February of 1940 I attended a broadcast engineering seminar at Ohio
State University in Columbus, Ohio. I have a group photo of 167 of we
broadcast engineers, including Major Edwin Armstrong. The conference was
organized by Dr. William (Bill) Everitt, Professor of Electrical
Engineering at Ohio State University. Major Armstrong demonstrated to us
his  latest invention, FM Radio. Although we were supposed to be
impressed by it being "static free", actually we were intrigued by the
"capture effect", eliminating the "monkey chatter" caused by two stations
on the same frequency at their point of equal signal strenght. The Major
also held the patent rights for the superhetrodyne circuit which was used
by all the radio receiver manufacturers, but never collected a penny.
After he jumped to his death from a building at Columbia University,
where he was a professor, his widow finally got a settlement from the
manufacturers. In fact, the Major owned the patent rights on about every
radio circuit after Marconi.

During the war years, Bill Everitt and I worked in the same office in the
new Pentagon. I have a copy of his textbook on "Radio Engineering"
published in 1937 by McGraw -Hill.

Bill Murtough

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:30:07 -0400
From: Dan Hughes <danhughes@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR for Kids

Scott, I started my daughter on Jack Benny when she was three.  I had to
explain a lot of the jokes to her, but now at 17 she is the world's
foremost Jack Benny fan.  (Our license plate is JK BNY 39).

Also try the Lone Ranger.  Several of them are available on the net for
free download.  (I just dubbed about a dozen to CD).

---Dan, [removed]~dan (spiffy home page, with OTR links)

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:30:28 -0400
From: "steven kostelecky" <skostelecky@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  CBSRMT story

A friend of mine was listening to a story online and was cut off--I can't
help him and wonder if anyone who knows CBSRMT can. Here's his synopsis:
A man is having his eyes checked.Ý Complains of headaches.Ý Doc tells him
they are due to jealousy.Ý He's 59 his wife is 30.
She goes to an island resort hotel.Ý He goes to surprise her.Ý When he gets
there strange things begin to happen.Ý It appears she is having a rendezvous
with a younger man.Ý She denies it.
Rooms change.Ý Things happen and then his wife and hotel clerk deny that
they
happened.Ý He throws her off a cliff.Ý Seems as though he is losing his
mind.
He discovers a letter in her purse from his doctor that states he has brain
damage and will begin to hallucinate.Ý He's convinced he was hallucinating
and did not throw her off a cliff.
He finds a key begins to open the closet door. All answers lie within.
If anyone can identify this story, I'd be most grateful. You may email me
off the digest.
Thanks.

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:30:48 -0400
From: "Strauss, Jerry" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  OTR on film

The most elusive OTR related films to find on television or video are those
based on The Whistler. According to Leonard Maltin in his film video guide
there are six Whistler movies made between 1944 and 1948 inclusive.  Maltin
says they are quite good.  Several are directed by William Castle and star
Richard Dix.  The Internet Movie Data Base does not indicate that any are
available on video.

There is also a 1954 series of 39 Whistler television shows.  I remember
watching some of these when both I and the shows were fairly new.  I haven't
seen these listed on any of the catalogs I see from time to time.

Finally, regarding Johnny Roventini who did the Phillip Morris call on radio
and television, I remember seeing him working as a greeter in Henry
Stampler's Fillet Mignon, a New York restaurant.  This was after his Phillip
Morris days were over.

Jerry Strauss

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:31:19 -0400
From: Kubelski@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Orson Welles

This Associated Press article about the critical treatment Orson Welles
receives in the new DVD edition of Citizen Kane mentions that he "ignored the
pandemonium caused by his War of the Worlds broadcast and then lied to
authorities about it."

I thought we had settled this point - but didn't Elizabeth and other
listmembers debunk the whole "pandemonium" thing about a year back?

Here's the link,

Sean Dougherty
Kubelski@[removed]

[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:31:38 -0400
From: OTRChris@[removed]
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: OTR is actually Something New !

.  Those of us who grew
up with television collect OTR to experience something unique.  As with my
parents, most of these shows are [removed] to us.

Michael

That's it exactly Michael . To us younger folk old time radio is indeed
something new and a deffinate departure
from what has been on TV for the last 20 years.
It's not that I don't like TV  . I do (when it's good).  But I view radio and
TV as complementing each other. Whereas there are some things you can't do on
radio there are also some things that are done best on radio . AND when you
let TV be the only story teller you don't realize how much you are missing.
I understand  that some of the OTR storylines may be dated but I recall the
effect (when I first came upon OTR 20 years ago) of the sqeeking door and the
lights out gong among  other things that provided an engrossing and exciting
introduction to a whole new world of imagination and story telling  that I
had not experienced until that time. Listening in to some far away station at
midnight ...the effect was chilling.


-Chris

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:31:54 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Kid Shows?

Tony Baechler, speaking of educational levels of listeners during the OTR
era and beyond, notes,

I think the Lone Ranger programs from 1938-41 are written at a far more
advanced level than those of 1945-46, and those seem to be more advanced
than the 1954-55 reruns.  Considering that this is supposed to be a kid
show, I think it can be used to show an overall intellectual level.

A number of shows could nominally be called "kid shows," but actually had
a far wider audience.  Since i know it well, my "special" show, Captain
Midnight, was written with the understanding that almost half the
audience consisted of grownups (anyone hearing the four consecutive
"Suicide Squadron" - Prisoner Of the Japs" episodes wouldn't think it was
a kids' show).  The writing stayed at a pretty high level until the last
"season" of half-hour complete-in-one-episode programs.

Other shows weren't "just kid" shows, including The Lone Ranger, The
Green Hornet, and Counterspy.  From our current perspective, most evening
 shows were either PG or PG-13 at worst.  Of the WXYZ effort, only The
Challenge of the Yukon (aka Sergeant Preston) was the only truly kid
show, IMHO.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:32:06 -0400
From: "jstokes" <jstokes@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Ken Burns' EOTA

    I want to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Ken Burns' "Empire of the Air"
TV show.   And I say that as a broadcast engineer/announcer and moviemaker.
If you want to get details, then read the book.   I saw the show first and
then read the book, myself.
    Furthermore, I played the EOTA video for my army reserve commo tech
students, many of whom had no idea who invented or discovered what in radio.
This led to some really great discussions about the differences between AM
and FM radio tranmission.   I thought it to be a great stimulator of
discussion.
     As the literacy rate continues to go down in this country and less and
less people read books, then showing a well-produced video to a class opens
up their minds.   I was also surprised at how much of the video they
retained.

Best,

Jim Stokes

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:32:27 -0400
From: "George Tirebiter" <tirebiter2@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Turned their back on radio

Hello All,

When I first became interested in OTR around 1970 I quizzed my parents (both
born in the late 1920s) about their radio lsitening in the OTR era.  I got
lots of info from my Dad, who had been a big radio fan growing up.  My Mom
only seemed to remember band remotes (she also had a big collection of 78s
and had attended a lot of concerts) and she had little memory of OTR drama
and comedy.  So she had used radio simply as a source for music, the way
most people use it today.

I also quizzed my grandmother and her sister (my great-aunt) who had been
born in the 1890s and thus were adults when the OTR era began.  I wasn't
able to get much out of either of them, apart from a fondness for Fibber and
Molly on the part my my great-aunt.

George

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:32:51 -0400
From: Jim Kitchen <jkitchen@[removed];
To: Old Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  "Wire Paladin"

Several years ago, we had a thread going about Paladin's first name.
One suggestion  was Wire as in "Wire Paladin".   I joined the Have Gun
Will Travel Email List, and asked the list master about Paladin's first
name?

He says Paladin's first name was never revealed on either the radio or
the television program.   However, the answer is Clayton Alexander.
This information appears in the book "A Man Called Paladin." by Frank C.
Robertson (1963, page 196).  This was a hardback book, published during
the shows run on TV.  Many fans do not consider this to be "official"
since they regard the CBS television show as the only true reference.

Jim Kitchen

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:33:00 -0400
From: KENPILETIC@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Teacher's encouragement

Hi Gang -            October 1, 2001 - Monday - 6 PM cdt

In issue 318, OTRChris asked:

In regard to education and how it related to radio .
Were there any shows that teachers encouraged
students to listen to ?

Well, sort [removed]   In my case -  In grade school
I was taught by the Benedictine Nuns.  One day after school
I asked one of the sisters if they (the nuns in the convent across
from the school) ever listened to the radio.   She told me that
yes, they did, and that tonight they were all going to listen to
"The Railroad Hour".

That night at home, I decided to listen to the Railroad Hour, too.
I thought it would be about trains.   I was disappointed that there
were no trains, but I did enjoy the music.  So in that sense, my
teacher encouraged me to listen to "The Railroad Hour".

Happy Taping --  Ken Piletic - Streamwood, Illinois
kenpiletic@[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:33:14 -0400
From: sfx-meow@[removed] (Ray Erlenborn)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: RKO Radio Pictures

I'm surprised that no one has sent in the RKO morse code signal. I only
have a
short memory of the code, but I do know that R is  ._, and O is  ___ and
A is  ,_   so for seventy years or so I have known that the signal was
RKO RADIO PICTURES. They repeated the  ,,, ,,, ,,, ,,,
of the letter S at the end.
Signed: audio buff ___  ___  _.  ,Ray.

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:33:44 -0400
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Remembering radio

There's been some interesting discussion concerning our parents and their
radio habits and remembrances of radio listening.

While I was born just after the WWII, I too would talk to my parents
occasionally about my interest in Old Time Radio. My parents were born
pre-1920 and grew up with radio. However, they did not discuss it much nor
had (or maybe did not care to have) any real interest in remembering it. My
father fondly recalled Al Pearce and my mom talked about some of the more
well-known shows such as Fibber McGee, etc.

I suspect that since radio programs were not publicized like television
shows are nowadays that only the really popular shows were listened to by
most of the radio generation. I think those of you who were kids growing up
with radio remember more of it than people such as my parents who were
adults during much of it. They simply had their lives to lead and were not
glutted by media blitzes of the programs. They listened to what was popular
as reflected by Crossley and Hooper ratings.

I think because television is so much more dominant in our lives that those
of us raised on television tend to think that our parents or grandparents
should know about shows such as Suspense, Columbia Workshop, or even some
with sponsors.

As some have either stated or implied, it was a different time - one in
which their lives were not surrounded by radio in the way that film and
television surrounds ours.

Jim Widner
jwidner@[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:34:05 -0400
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Superman Radio Scripts

For those interested in such things, I just received a newly published copy
of Radio Scripts from DC Comics as published by Watson-Guptill
Publications. The book is softbound and [removed] X 11 in size and contains the
Superman versus the Atom Man run from 1945. The scripts are identified
as  "faithful reproductions of the originals from DC Comics archives. To
maintain their historical merit, we have chosen to publish the scripts as
they were found. As a result, in some instances the actual radio broadcast
will differ from the scripts."

The book is $[removed] and I must note that I have no connection with the
publisher or DC Comics. I am just a fascinated observer and listener of the
show.

Jim Widner
jwidner@[removed]

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

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 23:34:13 -0400
From: Alan Bell <bella@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Turned Their Back on Radio

We got our first television set in 1953, I think. I was in the third
grade. I don't think I had been a big listener of radio at that time,
aside from No School Today with Big Jon and Sparky. I'm sure I'd
listened to more, but none of it comes to mind.

Anyway, I really tuned in on television, but I also recall listening
to radio shows for a couple of years afterward, especially The Lone
Ranger, Sergeant Preston and Superman. The irony is that by the time
I was the perfect age for it--around 13-15--I was totally oblivious
to the existence of X Minus One. That's one show I wish I had
REdiscovered in the '70s, rather than hearing it for the first time.

My recollection of radio, aside from the above, was snippets of
voices that stuck with me. I remembered, for example, the voices of
Fibber McGee and Molly from my very early childhood and it was almost
magical when I heard them again in the late '60s.

But even with a lot of collecting, one voice I haven't heard that is
very vivid in my memory is the announcer who did commercials for
Franco-American spaghetti. It was big and booming and very
distinctive. Who was sponsored by F-A? Does anyone else recall that
voice?
--
Alan Bell
Grandville, MI
bella@[removed]

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

Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 10:46:30 -0400
From: HERITAGE4@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  ORIGINS

Thanks to Martin Grams, Jr. for his reply to my query re: Origin Shows. I was
(from his book) familiar with the TV origin show,
"Genesis" from HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL.  I am looking for the titles and dates
of only the RADIO shows I mentioned.   Thanks -
Tom Heathwood - Heritage Radio Classics - Boston

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2001 Issue #321
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