Subject: [removed] Digest V2007 #101
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 3/29/2007 11:18 AM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2007 : Issue 101
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Fred Foy will be live to take calls   [ "Walden Hughes" <walden1@yesterdayu ]
      La Rosa coda                          [ "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed]; ]
      Command Performance                   [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
      ILAM                                  [ "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@hotm ]
      Damon Runyon                          [ "wayne_johnson" <wayne_johnson@mind ]
      anne of the air lanes                 [ Grams46@[removed] ]
      ILAM Lost                             [ "Paul Thompson" <beachcrows@sbcglob ]
      3-29 births/deaths                    [ Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed] ]
      Godfrey and La Rosa                   [ "Irene Theodore Heinstein" <IreneTH ]
      Re: Arthur Godfrey                    [ Dixonhayes@[removed] ]
      Off Topic: XM Radio Activation Certi  [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:46:32 -0400
    From: "Walden Hughes" <walden1@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Fred Foy will be live to take calls on
     Yesterday USA

    Hi Everybody,

    if you like to talk to Fred Foy live, call during the special broadcast on
    Yesterday USA this Friday night starting at 9 PM Eastern time at (714)
    545-2071.  You can hear the show at the web site at [removed] and
    click on 24k audio player if you have high speed internet, or 16k audio
    player if you have slow speed.  Take care,

    Walden Hughes

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

    Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:29:55 -0400
    From: "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  La Rosa coda
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    So, Lee Munsick has abundantly and overwhelmingly stated his case that Julius
    La Rosa WAS NOT fired live on-air by Arthur Godfrey.  Since today's kids don't
    dig Julius La Rosa and don't know from Arthur Godfrey, maybe one can say, to
    put it all euphemistically into modern parlance,  that La Rosa was "voted out
    of the Little Godfreys."

    But, then again, what's "American Idol," but a modern-day/modern technology
    version of the "Major Bowes/Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour" and  Godfrey's own
    "Talent Scouts" programmes?  Instead of applause-o-meters, we have
    text-messaging.

    America has spoken.

    Derek Tague,
    Mayor of Etherville

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

    Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:31:39 -0400
    From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Command Performance

    Bill mentioned:

>     The Betty Hutton CP clip on Youtube got me to thinking, are there any films
>     of Command Performance available?
>     Oh yeah, and just how many CP shows are available?
>     Any suggestions for places to grab the best coppies of the most shows?

    An answer to Bill's queries, I know of only two Command Performance episodes
    on film. The AFRS produced a series of 26 (I believe it was 26) short films
    of various programs they produced.  Two were of Command Performance.  I have
    seen MAIL CALL, JUBILEE, [removed] WEEKLY, HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN and others as part
    of that series.

    There's a popular myth that the studios produced TONS of film shorts of
    radio programs being acted out behind the microphones.  Why I do not know.
    The studios rarely did any of the sort.  Usually a film producer or
    production company thought it was a novel idea for theater goers to watch a
    radio program in production, and got permission from either the radio
    studios or the producer of the radio programs to film an episode and rarely
    are the films of a complete show - usually it's part of the program.  And
    almost always for some publicity purpose.

    Another point to note is that those films are not many at all.  And they
    were NEVER filmed when the programs were actually airing on the network.
    They were actually filmed during a set time, agreed in advance with the
    radio producers, and what you saw was actually the rehearsals.  They would
    NEVER have filmed when the show actually aired over the network "live."

    Regarding the last question, films shorts like these are few and far
    between.  There are plenty of sources that specialize in film shorts but
    they rarely custom so if you want a film short of Mel Blanc doing Private
    Sad Sack with Lucille Ball, the rest of the shorts on the same DVD or VHS
    are not all radio related.  I myself have compiled DVDs editing clips from
    various videos (I spent about $100 worth on videos to gather enough material
    from each and every video to compile a 2 hour DVD with nothing but film
    shorts pertaining to old-time radio but they never sold at the OTR
    conventions so I stopped spending the money and time to compile such DVDs).
    There is a fella at Cinevent in Columbus Ohio who usually has VHS videos (he
    hasn't made the switch to DVD) for $[removed] a pop and each VHS has three or
    four film shorts and if you browse long enough you can find a video that
    happens to have a film short with an OTR-theme.

    The question of "best quality and most shows" is a matter of how much you
    are willing to pay.  The old saying "you get what you pay for" is accurate.
    Jay Hickerson says that 264+ radio programs are available in circulation,
    and that Audio Classics ([removed]) has the entire run in their
    archives.  A friend of mine lent me an MP3 that contained 60+ radio
    broadcasts of COMMAND PERFORMANCE last year and the sound quality was not
    great.  I ended up handing it back to him and have since been buying regular
    CDs of that series from various vendors and have been extremely pleased with
    the episodes I have listened to so far.
    Martin Grams Jr.

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

    Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:32:52 -0400
    From: "Martin Grams, Jr." <mmargrajr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  ILAM

    I read Barbara's posting.  Sorry about the confusion.  Apparently I did not
    make it clear enough for everyone.  When I used the word "suck," I was
    referring to the fact that I read all 1,600+ radio scripts from the
    Hollywood run and most of the stories "suck."  I was not referring to the
    sound quality of recordings when I used that word.  Travis Conner caught
    what I was referring to and agreed with me about the serials he's read in
    script form.  (Incidentally, Travis, I too found STAIRWAY TO THE SUN one of
    the worst serials ever written.)

    John Dunning once commented in his book that BATTLE OF THE CENTURY was one
    of the best serials of the series.  Apparently he was taking this "fact"
    from a periodical (probably a radio reviewer's review) because had he read
    the script, he would have found it absolutely boring.  Jack, Doc and Reggie
    actually hide in a grain silo (with a girl) for about five consecutive
    episodes talking and whispering, while hiding from the villains on the
    ground outside.  Not only are they NOT heroic by hiding, but like half of
    the cliffhanger serials filmed for the movie theaters, what they talked
    about in five episodes they could have done in one.

    Of all the ILAM serials written, only one was a truly clever mystery (and
    faithful enough that listeners could have figured it out too), and eight or
    nine along the horror realm.  Most of the horror serials, (the good serials)
    exist in recorded form so again, if any lost episodes surface, most likely
    the odds are they would be from the 40 or so serials that are not
    entertaining, not well written, and carry very little plot (such as THE CASE
    OF THE NEVADA COUGAR, MYSTERY OF THE LAZY K RANCH, THE TEXAS BORDER
    SMUGGLERS, EIGHT KINDS OF MURDER, THE KILLER OF THE CIRCLE M, I AM THE
    DESTROYER OF WOMEN and we cannot forget the five-part THE CORPSE IN
    COMPARTMENT C, CAR SEVENTY-SIX).  They suck.

    Martin

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

    Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:54:52 -0400
    From: "wayne_johnson" <wayne_johnson@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Damon Runyon

    Anyone ever notice that "Broadway" and the other characters of The Damon
    Runyon Theater never use contractions.  Even when William Conrad guests  ...
    no contractions.  Instead of " If you'll call her, she'll be here" they
    state "If you will call her then she will be here".

    Any idea why?  Does anyone know of other shows that don't ue contractions?

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

    Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 19:41:07 -0400
    From: Grams46@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  anne of the air lanes

    bill nadel has identified three of the actors in anne of the air  lanes.
    gerald mohr was arthur morrison and t. s.,
    sam edwards was bobby,
    and john gibson was pete.
    bill believes the four programs he  listened to were broadcast late 1938 or
    very early 1939
    and that it was a west coast syndication.
    peace from kathy
    support  our troops; end the war
    john 3:16

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

    Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 19:42:16 -0400
    From: "Paul Thompson" <beachcrows@[removed];
    To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  ILAM Lost

    Martin Grams said in a recent post:

>     Fact remains, most of the "lost" I LOVE A MYSTERY shows are not
>     great episodes anyway. The scripts suck. I still believe that if 100
>     lost shows surfaced in circulation, only a couple would be noteworthy,
>     leaving everyone to question "so what was the big stinkin' deal?"

    Martin Grams has made many contributions to the research and our
    enjoyment of radio past. In my opinion, his 2003 "I Love A Mystery
    Companion" is the definitive study of Carlton E. Morse and ILAM and
    will no doubt remain thus for many years to come. Overall, his recent
    post on the lost ILAM shows made some good points and provided some
    interesting facts. However, his comments that the lost ILAM shows were
    not great episodes, that the scripts suck and if found only a few
    would be noteworthy were a bit harsh and, to say the least, surprising
    to me and sure to rankle most die hard ILAM fans. In his defense, it
    appears that Martin was trying to put the subject of the missing
    episodes in perspective considering a digester had said he would give
    up a kidney to hear some of the missing shows and Martin so commented
    in his closing lines.

    I think Martin and others of a younger generation overlook an
    important point in assessing the ILAM scripts. Morse's written words
    by themselves are not exactly works of prose nor are most of the plots
    clever or deftly woven but to we dwindling few geezers left here on
    the digest who grew up listening to the original ILAM stories
    [removed] there is a magic in those episodes that defies a definitive
    description. That magic is, for the most part, a result of the
    Hollywood cast of Jack, Doc and Reggie whose own personas were
    embraced when Morse scripted his stories. Anytime I read a synopsis or
    excerpt of a script I don't just see words on paper I HEAR Michael
    Raffetto, Barton Yarborough and Walter Paterson and their flawless
    deliveries which brought ILAM to life those many years ago. To say
    that if lost shows were to surface today that I and others would be
    less than satisfied is simply not true. We geezers and without a doubt
    many younger fans would be ecstatic.

    Interestingly, as an aside, I have found that many of a younger
    generation prefer the Mutual cast and versions of ILAM over that of
    the Hollywood production. Perhaps it's because they have been able to
    hear complete or near complete runs or perhaps that is all they were
    exposed to in the beginning. Like taste in anything, it's purely
    subjective but to me the magic is in the voices and inflections of the
    original cast and that is what I hear when I read the those written
    words and the magic begins. [removed] to hear them for real once again.

    Paul Thompson

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

    Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:43:28 -0400
    From: Ronald Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: Olde Tyme Radio Digest Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  3-29 births/deaths

    March 29th births

    03-29-1867 - Cy Young - Gilmore, OH - d. 11-4-1955
    baseball pitching great: "Feature Project: This Game of Baseball"
    03-29-1878 - Frank Tinney - Philadelphia, PA - d. 11-28-1940
    comedian, monologist: WWJ and WJR Detroit, Michigan
    03-29-1888 - Earle Ross - Illinois - d. 5-21-1961
    actor: Judge Horace Hooker "Great Gildersleeve"; J. R. Boone, Sr.
    "Meet Millie"
    03-29-1889 - Howard Lindsay - Waterford, NY - d. 2-11-1968
    writer, host: "The Ford Theatre"
    03-29-1890 - Joe Cook - Evansville, IN - d. 5-16-1959
    comedian: "House Party"; "Shell Chateau"
    03-29-1891 - Warner Baxter - Columbus, OH - d. 5-7-1951
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    03-29-1899 - Clifford Goldsmith - Aurora, NY - d. 7-11-1971
    writer: Created "The Aldrich Family"
    03-29-1902 - Onslow Stevens - Los Angeles, CA - d. 1-5-1977
    actor: "Great Plays"
    03-29-1905 - Philip Ahn - Los Angeles, CA - d. 2-28-1978
    actor: "Lux Radio Theatre"
    03-29-1906 - E. Power Biggs - West Cliff, England - d. 3-10-1977
    organist: "Organ Program"
    03-29-1908 - Dennis O'Keefe - Fort Madison, IA - d. 8-31-1968
    actor: Treasure Agent Larsen "T-Man"
    03-29-1912 - Fred Brady - NYC - d. 11-11-1961
    actor: Himself "The Fred Brady Show"
    03-29-1912 - Nancy Douglass - Bloomington, IL
    actor: "My True Story"; "Brave Tomorrow"
    03-29-1914 - Phil Foster - NYC - d. 7-8-1985
    actor: "What's With Hubert"; "Baseball Round Table"; "Big Show"
    03-29-1916 - Eugene McCarthy - Watkins, MN - d. 12-10-2005
    [removed] senator: "Meet the Press"
    03-29-1918 - Pearl Bailey - Newport News, VA - d. 8-17-1990
    singer: "Kraft Music Hall "; "Tribute to Glenn Miller"
    03-29-1919 - Eileen Heckart - Columbus, OH - d. 12-31-2001
    actor: "Cloak and Dagger"; "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre"
    03-29-1923 - Bob Stanton - White Plains, NY - d. 1-28-1989
    vocalist: (Brother of Dick Haymes) "The Sealtest Village Store"
    03-29-1924 - Ginger Dinning - Braman, KY
    singer: (Dinning Sisters) "Dinning Sisters-Songs"; "Eddy Arnold Show"
    03-29-1924 - Jackie Vernon - NYC - d. 11-10-1987
    comedian: "Bill Stern Show"
    03-29-1924 - Jean Dinning - Braman, KY
    singer: (Dinning Sisters) "Dinning Sisters-Songs"; "Eddy Arnold Show"

    March 29th deaths

    01-10-1908 - Paul Henreid - Trieste - d. 3-29-1992
    actor: "Suspense"; "Lux Radio Theatre"
    05-03-1920 - John Lewis - LaGrange, IL - d. 3-29-2001
    co-founder of "Modern Jazz Quartet": :Modern Jazz Quartet";
    "Listener's Digest"
    05-22-1906 - Harry Ritz - Newark, NJ - d. 3-29-1986
    comedian: (The Ritz Brothers) "Hollywood Hotel"
    06-15-1918 - Hal Roach, Jr. - Los Angeles, CA - d. 3-29-1972
    producer, director: "My Little Margie"
    08-06-1888 - Arthur Fields - Philadelphia, PA - d. 3-29-1953
    singer: "Old Man of the Mountains"; "Pipe Smoking Time"
    08-30-1902 - Ray Bloch - Alsace-Lorraine, France - d. 3-29-1982
    conductor: "Milton Berle Show"; "Take It or Leave It"; "Johnny Presents"
    10-03-1897 - Vincent Sorey - Turin, Italy - d. 3-29-1977
    conductor/violinist: Musical director for WOR New York
    11-01-1908 - Harry Ellis Dickson - Cambridge, MA - d. 3-29-2003
    first violinist: "Boston Symphony Orchestra"; "Boston Symphony
    Rehearsal"
    11-05-1905 - Annunzio Paolo Mantovani - Venice, Italy - d. 3-29-1980
    orchestra leader: "Music In the Air"; "Of These We Sing"
    11-24-1906 - Willard P. Farnum - Mankato, MN - d. 3-29-1994
    actor: Harold Teen "Harold Teen"; John Adams "Woman in White"
    12-12-1918 - Joe Williams - Codele, GA - d. 3-29-1999
    blues singer: "Count Basie and His Orchestra"; "Stars for Defense"

    Ron Sayles

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

    Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:45:39 -0400
    From: "Irene Theodore Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
    To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Godfrey and La Rosa

    In the Sept 28, 1987 issue of The New Yorker  there is a Profile of Julius
    LaRosa written by Whitney Balliett  (who died in Feb 2007 at age 80 and who
    had been with The New Yorker for 44 years when he retired in 2001).  This
    Profile contains yet another of Julie's comments about his leaving the
    Godfrey show, which is a very small part of an excellent Profile.   I have
    always trusted the standards of The New Yorker under which every contributor
    worked.   Whitney Balliett was a prestigious, highly regarded writer and I
    doubt if he just sat there taking notes.   This is one of the reasons I find
    this segment convincing.   I accidentally found this profile when browsing
    through the index of the 8-DVD  set of ' The Complete New Yorker' (through
    2005 when the set was released) while looking through the archival list of
    Profiles.

    I've been following the Godfrey-La Rosa discussion  for which I don't feel
    there is or will ever be a definitive truth.  I didn't plan to add to this
    discussion.   I was a very big fan of Arthur Godfrey both on the radio and
    TV; I still don't dunk my teabags up and down because of Godfrey.    I was
    15 at the time of Julie's last show and a fan.  I watched it, was confused,
    disappointed and surprised.     I became convinced he was fired because of
    what I read in all the NY papers the next day and was very upset with
    Godfrey's 'humility' comment.   Did Julius La Rosa know it was his last
    show?  In all I've read I can't find verification that he did know.   If he
    didn't know,  then how can we say he was not  'fired'.  Regardless of his
    desire to leave the show,  if that was the case, the professional and
    respectful way to handle it would have been  to resolve it privately,  not
    let him loose publicly on a broadcast.  Unprofessional and paternalistic at
    best.

    >From The New Yorker:

    *Everything went well until the fall of 1953.  A notice had been put on our
    bulletin board to the effect that the cast of the TV show was to take some
    sort of dancing lessons.  I had a family emergency, and I asked to be
    excused, and was.  When I got back, I discovered I would be punished for
    missing the lessons.  Perhaps I had become a little smart-ass.  I was
    getting six or seven thousand fan letters a week, and I was only
    twenty-three.  But it was a red flag to me. to be treated arbitrarily, so I
    got myself an agent-which was strictly against the Godfrey house rules.  He
    was Tommy Rockwell, of General Artists, and he wrote Godfrey a letter.  I
    knew something would happen, and it did---on October 4, 1953.  I had been
    waiting an hour and fifteen minutes to do my song on the television
    show---it was  'Manhattan'---and after I did it Godfrey said, 'That was
    Julie's swan song with us.  He goes out on his own now, as his own star,
    soon to be seen on his own program, and I know you wish him Godspeed, the
    same as I do.'  Somebody recently sent me a kinescope, and I think those are
    Godfrey's words.  He projected a kind of Peck's-bad-boy image, and had
    turned malicious, because I---the little boy next door who happens to
    sing---had supposedly lost my humility.  There were headlines, and the press
    came down hard on Godfrey, and what did I do but go and apologize to him for
    what was happening-guilty because I had done what Daddy didn't want me to
    do!  I now understand that he was an imperfect man, not a nice man.  He had
    that fever of the successful which makes you become the inflated thing you
    think you are.  The Godfrey experience was central to my life.  I'm the man
    Arthur Godfrey fired, the man who lost his humility.*

    ~~Irene

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

    Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 10:05:00 -0400
    From: Dixonhayes@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Arthur Godfrey
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    In a message dated 3/27/07 8:33:28 PM Central Standard Time,
    [removed]@[removed] writes:

>      all of them so
>     eager to tear down some idol they previously put up on a pedestal, as was
>     surely the case with Mr. Godfrey.

    This appears to be one of television's earliest accounts of "spin" (I know,
    the "swan song" happened on the radio-only portion of the feed).  It certainly
    would've been a lot easier for Godfrey to go to the media and say "Look, I
    like Julius, but he wanted to be released from his contract and we already
    discussed it.  I would never do anything so shoddy and unprofessional as
    pink-slip
    someone on the air. I care about my performers and my viewers and listeners to
    do anything like that.  I wish him the best."  The most negative thing Godfrey
    should've said was "Julie and I didn't see eye to eye on anything but then
    again, who does?"  The phrase "lack of humility" should've never left his lips
    that day. This would've robbed anyone of the chance to stretch this into
    anything more.  I know it sounds simplistic, that Godfrey is simply guilty of
    bungled public relations, but this story wouldn't have survived that week in
    1954 if
    he handled it right and as we can clearly see here, it has survived Godfrey's
    own lifetime by years and years.   It's possible La Rosa did this on purpose
    to put his name in the news but Godfrey didn't seem like the type of guy to
    sit back and let it happen at his expense and could've defused it very easily
    with the same kind of wit he used to sell Lipton Soup.

    And for the record, when I hear all the negative stories are recapped all at
    once about Godfrey (right or wrong), I still never hear that anti-semitism
    allegation lumped in.  I have to believe there is even less evidence of that
    one
    than any other one.

    Dixon

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

    Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 10:11:38 -0400
    From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Off Topic: XM Radio Activation Certificate

    Folks;

       If anyone is planning on activating an XM Satellite Radio in the next two
    days (on or before the 31st of this month), please contact me directly. I
    have a certificate for free activation (saves $10 on the web, $15 by
    telephone) that expires on the 31st of this month and I can't use it. I'd
    hate to see it go to waste.

             Charlie

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #101
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