Subject: [removed] Digest V01 #88
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 3/18/2001 10:10 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                          The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                             Volume 01 : Issue 88
                       A Part of the [removed]!
                               ISSN: 1533-9289

                               Today's Topics:

     Re: HOSE WERE THE DAYS on the air or [Joe Mackey <wmackey@[removed]]
     mp3 CR player & Against the Storm    [Alan Bell <bella@[removed];]
     Re: OTR in Colorado                  ["Stewart Wright" <stewwright@worldn]
     Ghost Story                          [Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];       ]
     re: BLOOPERS                         ["David Phaneuf" <dphaneuf@[removed]]
     Re: papers on the floor              [MoondanceFF@[removed]                ]
     The Secret Squadron                  ["A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed].]
     'FALLING SCRIPTS'                    ["Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; ]
     Re: Comical ghost story              ["Michael Ogden" <michaelo67@hotmail]
     Dropping scripts                     ["Lois Culver" <lois@[removed];  ]
     Script Page Dropping                 [JJJ445@[removed]                     ]
     Big guns, radio, etc.                [Ga6string@[removed]                  ]
     Sweatman & Old Recordings            [Duane Keilstrup <duanek9@[removed]; ]
     Dropping Scripts, Shoeless Actors    ["Lois Culver" <lois@[removed];  ]
     Trivial [removed]                     ["Welsa" <welsa@[removed];        ]
     Today in radio history               [Joe Mackey <wmackey@[removed]]
     Some tapes                           ["James B. Wood, [removed]" <woodjim@]

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 00:05:18 -0500
    From: Joe Mackey <wmackey@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: HOSE WERE THE DAYS on the air or not?????

>     Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 08:13:12 -0500
>     From: "Dandrea" <cdandrea@[removed];
>     Subject:  THOSE WERE THE DAYS on the air or not?????

>     Anyone know if  WNIB-WNIZ FM [removed] In Chicago is  playing "THOSE WERE THE
>     DAYS"  on Saturdays from 1 PM - 5 PM  with Host Chuck Schaden. Someone told
>     me it was no longer on the air. Is this true.

      True Chris.  WNIB was sold in November.  However, there's good news
    tonight.  WDCB, [removed] FM, has picked up Chuck's show and began
    broadcasting in early Feburary, Saturday's from 1-5 [removed]  However, the
    last I read, in Chuck's Nostalgia Digest, WDCB is not yet available on
    the web with streaming broadcasting.  Hopefully they will be soon.
      Joe

    --
    Visit my home page:
    [removed]~[removed]

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 00:05:22 -0500
    From: Alan Bell <bella@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  mp3 CR player & Against the Storm

    First, I thought I'd pass along a tip I gleaned from
    [removed] recently. Several people are raving
    about the Rio Volt PSX100, which will apparently play mp3s at
    different bit rates (very important for OTR) AND provide a resume
    feature so you can pick up where you left off in a program. There are
    lots of other features too. There is a rather extensive
    description/review at
    	[removed]
    I have not bought one myself, but it seems like it might be the unit
    I've been waiting for. I gather it's available at CompUSA. No
    endorsement implied. I'm just interested and thought others might be
    as well.

    On another topic. I've put out a request on [removed] (see above) for
    an episode or two of the wartime serial, Against the Storm. So far,
    no response. I wonder if anyone knows if any there are episodes
    extant. Evidently it was rather highly thought of and even won a
    Pulitzer in 1942.

    Alan
    --
    Alan Bell
    Grandville, MI
    bella@[removed]

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 01:16:46 -0500
    From: "Stewart Wright" <stewwright@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: OTR in Colorado

            The following is a listing of stations (and the shows) that carry
    OTR in the Denver, CO area.

    KLZ 560 AM  -  Music of the 1930's - 60's with John Rayburn, Weekdays  2
    PM - 6 PM
    KRMA Channel 6  -  Secondary Audio Program, Tribute to OTR, Sunday 2:00 PM
    KEZW 1430 AM   -  When Radio Was, Weekdays  7:00 - 8:00 PM
    KEZW 1430 AM   -  Radio Movie Classics, Sunday 5 - 6 PM
    KFKA 1310 AM   -  Radio Memories , Sundays  6:00 to 12:00 PM
    KUVO [removed] FM   -  Destination Freedom, Third Tuesday of each month 9:00 PM

            "Destination Freedom" are new productions of the Golden Age series
    of the same name.  They are generally broadcast LIVE over KUVO - the
    originating station and offered on a recorded basis to other NPR stations.
    You can even attend the live broadcast. Call KUVO at 303-480-9272 for
    information on attending a "Destination Freedom" broadcast.

    Stewart Wright
    Radio Historical Association of Colorado
    [removed]

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 01:16:48 -0500
    From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Ghost Story

    Bruce Dettman asked:
     >>The second is less specific, a comical ghost story about two reporters
    in a haunted house who meet up with [removed];<

    Steve Kallis answered:
     >>That doesn't begin to sound like Lovecraft He generally shied away from
    conventional spooks, and any comical story would be a departure from his
    normal writing [removed];<

    Wow, I'm surprised no one jumped at this. I would suspect you are talking
    about the Suspense story "Ghost Hunt" from 6/23/49 starring Ralph Edwards.
    The script was by Walter Newman based upon a story by [removed] Wakefield. It
    really isn't a comedy, though I wonder if the listener thought that because
    of the association with Edwards' Truth or Consequences background.

    Jim Widner
    jwidner@[removed]

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 01:16:50 -0500
    From: "David Phaneuf" <dphaneuf@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  re: BLOOPERS

    In response to my query in Issue 86 re: a purported blooper:  "Cast thy
    BROAD upon the waters, this is the National BREAD casting Company, Michael
    Biel wrote:

> >     It came from Kermit Shaffer's Pardon My Blooper, which means it probably

    DIDN'T COME FROM ANYTHING.  Remember, 95% of the things on his records
    were [removed];<

    Steve Kallis basically concurred:  >>Sometimes the best known bloopers are
    really of questionable [removed];< though suggesting it may have come from
    some local programming.

    Well, disappointed though I am, I appreciate y'all's input. I have heard
    some supposed OTR bloopers that sounded well-thought-out-in-advance, and
    thus lacked the spontaneity of a genuine blooper.  But in this case, I was
    kind of hoping I could find a copy of that Bible that preacher was
    using!!!   ];-)

    OH!!!! I almost [removed] to all of you who filled me in on FRED FLINTSTONE
    ON OTR, Thank you!  Alan Reed is the name I could not remember.  Thank you
    for helping me to remember.

    Dave Phaneuf

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 01:40:24 -0500
    From: MoondanceFF@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: papers on the floor

    In a message dated 3/17/01 9:10:57 PM, Owens writes:

>     Here's a challenge.  Somebody find some pictures or film of major
>     network programs performed by seasoned experienced professionals that
>     show them dropping their scripts page-by-page and/or with piles of
>     scattered scripts all over the floor.

    I can't imagine why radio performers wouldn't just have music stands in front
    of them for their script pages. Seems logical to me.

    --Elizabeth E.

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 01:40:26 -0500
    From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  The Secret Squadron

> >     The interesting thing about the show and the Secret Squadron (as
> >     portrayed in the manuals) was that women were always welcomed as members
> >     -- not auxiliaries, but full members.  We could have done with a lot more
> >     like Joyce Ryan on OTR.

    We hardly ever saw any female Secret Squadron members on the TV show.  But
    I suspect that may be because the 1950s were more conservative times than
    the 1940s, when the radio show flourished.  I can only remember one woman
    Secret Squadron member on the TV show.  Captain Midnight was trapped
    inside an ice house.  He managed to find a couple of metal strips which he
    bent into the letters "SQ 1" (On the radio show, it was SS 1, but after
    the war, the SS wasn't what they wanted to call the Secret Squadron.).  An
    elderly woman came to buy ice (not everyone had electric refrigerators in
    those days.).  The ice she got had Captain Midnight's signal on it.  She
    immediately took her "pocket locator" ( a 1950s version of Captain Kirk's
    communicator) out of her pocketbook and called Secret Squadron
    headquarters.

    Come to think of it, they did show girls as Secret Squadron members in the
    Ovaltine commercials.

     A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                        [removed]
     15 Court Square                     lawyer@[removed]
     Boston, MA 02108-2503      [removed]~lawyer/

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 01:40:36 -0500
    From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  'FALLING SCRIPTS'

       In answer to my posting about the falling scripts, never once did
    I say "Network" radio.  I guess our "hick" stations in Baltimore were the
    ones to come up with the idea to

    have a table behind us to place the scripts on (it was only a matter of a
    glance back to the table to make sure you hit it). As far as taking our
    shoes off, if you were fortunate enough to watch "The Night That Panicked
    America" you will see the actors coming into the studio and the first thing
    you see them doing is removing their shoes.  And as they finished a page,
    they went back to a table, sat down and laid the script page on the table.
    John Houseman and Paul Stewart were the techinicaal advisors for this
    B/cast, so that must have been the way they did it and it was so much like
    we used to do.
                        -  30  -

    Owens Pomeroy

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 01:44:29 -0500
    From: "Michael Ogden" <michaelo67@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Comical ghost story

    Bruce Dettman inquired about "a comical ghost story about two reporters
    in a haunted house who meet up with spooks."

    My guess would be that his friend is referring to "The Ghost on the Newsreel
    Negative," which ran on the 1946 summer revival of LIGHTS OUT on 8/10/46.
    It's easily available from a number of sources, including the SciFi Guy.

    Mike Ogden

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 11:49:27 -0500
    From: "Lois Culver" <lois@[removed];
    To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Dropping scripts

    I was going to pass this one up, since it had been mentioned a short time
    ago, but Michael Biel's comments got such a laugh out of me that I had to
    respond.

    NO, I never did see a page of script being dropped in all the rehearsals and
    shows I sat in on, in Hollywood (Mutual, ABC, CBS, NBC and local stations).
    When an actor finished a page, it was slipped quietly in behind the others
    he held in his hands.  After a show, some of the shows insisted that your
    script be left behind on the table, while others could be taken home by the
    actors.  The first I ever saw this drop-the-script practice was on the
    Garrison Keeler TV show.

    Have you ever heard what a CRACK! a sheet of paper makes when it strikes a
    hard floor on end?  And, also, as Michael mentioned, it is not safe to walk
    around on loose pieces of paper on a polished floor. With actors moving in
    and out to do their lines at the mike, it would be an unlikely practice.

    Shoes?  The only person I saw work with her shoes off was a singer at KFI,
    Los [removed] never asked her [removed] she had to curl her toes to
    reach the high notes!  Some of the stiletto-heeled shoes worn by the ladies
    in those days made it a bit hard to tippy-toe, but I never saw them remove
    them.

    Lois Culver
    Radio Station KWLK (Mutual), Longview, WA 1941-1943
    Radio Station KFI (NBC), Los Angeles, CA 1944-1947, 1950-53
    And widow of Howard Culver, radio actor.

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 11:49:26 -0500
    From: JJJ445@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Script Page Dropping

    Michael Biel's comment on script page dropping brought to mind that I
    personally watched Bing Crosby do this when we did a radio recreation in
    1975.

    While he stood at the mic he would take each completed page from the top
    right corner with his thumb and forefinger and then bring his arm down to his
    side and let the page drop from just below his waist to the floor. Who picked
    them up? He did. When his part was through and someone else was at another
    mic singing or doing something separate he just bent down and scooped up the
    few that were there and placed them in the back of his script. He did that
    throughout the entire two hour performance. I can't speak with authority that
    that was the way he did it during his radio career, but by the manner he did
    do it when I saw him it cetainly looked like something he had done many times
    before.

    Last summer at the REPS Convention here in Seattle  I watched a couple of
    other OTR veterans (Alice Baccus immediately comes to mind) do the exact same
    thing. I'm convinced It was done, Michael, not by everybody and certainly not
    all the time, but it was done.

    John Jensen
    Federal Way, WA

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 12:04:40 -0500
    From: Ga6string@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Big guns, radio, etc.

    Elizabeth E. [removed]
    << I'm very pleased to know that such big guns as Coppola & Lucas have an
    interest in radio productions! I wonder if Spielberg does, [removed] >>
    I enjoy the fact that film and TV writers/producers acknowledge the value of
    OTR. I saw a great interview with Larry Gelbart recently, one of the
    writers/producers of the MASH television series, in which he mentioned that
    when he wrote for MASH, he wanted it to have the qualities of old radio, that
    he wanted it to be appealing to **listen** to as well as to watch. (I'm
    paraphrasing, and probably inexactly, forgive me). This was a very
    affirmative discovery for me, because for years I've enjoyed listening to the
    audio of MASH episodes on videotape. It's doesn't translate nearly as
    directly as does "Dragnet," for example, but it does make great listening, I
    think, particularly when one is already familiar with the details of the
    [removed]
    Bryan Powell

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 12:04:38 -0500
    From: Duane Keilstrup <duanek9@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Sweatman & Old Recordings

    To Dave Buswell:
    You can find Wilbur Sweatman's various bands, and you can hear them at this
    web site: [removed].  A short bio is there along with
    a photo of Sweatman playing 3 clarinets at once.  I will be featuring a
    recording or two of Sweatman on my show Classics & Curios on
    [removed] in an upcoming edition of The Bill Bragg Sunday Night
    Show.  Many other wonderful jazz bands are at that Red Hot Jazz web site.
    Also, if you are a supporter of The Yesterday USA Radio Networks you can log
    on to the Members Only Page and read a review that I wrote a couple of
    months ago of the Red Hot Jazz Bands site.
    Duane Keilstrup

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 21:27:06 -0500
    From: "Lois Culver" <lois@[removed];
    To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Dropping Scripts, Shoeless Actors

    As a follow-through, I checked on a couple of my Hollywood radio friends,
    both of whom are members of our OTR Chat on #IRC on Thursday evenings.

    Ray Kemper, sound man on many major radio shows, including "Gunsmoke",
    "Straight Arrow", "Fort Laramie", "Have Gun, Will Travel", just to mention a
    few, says: "...there was one actor who did that but for the life of me I
    cannot remember who it was.  And I never knew of any actor who took their
    shoes off to work in their socks (or stockings)."

    Harry Bartell, who admits to have acted in over 7000 shows, says, "The only
    "actors" I ever saw drop script pages (and there were only one or two) were
    motion picture stars who were too nervous or too clumsy to shift pages to
    the back of the pile.  If it had been a common practice no one would have
    been able to move around the mikes without either falling or creating a
    clatter.  And I never saw shoeless actors."

    My case rests.

    Lois Culver
    KWLK (Mutual) Longview, Washington, 1941 - 1943
    KFI (NBC) Los Angeles, 1944 - 1947, 1948-50
    And widow of Howard Culver, radio actor

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 21:27:08 -0500
    From: "Welsa" <welsa@[removed];
    To: "OTR Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Trivial [removed]

    Today at an Antique show I picked up a postcard depicting the "Mr. & Mrs.
    Jack Beeny Home" in Beverly Hills.   I have scanned it--it's a .jpg file,
    48kb.  Full color.  If anyone would like a copy, just send me a message
    saying "Benny Home" and I'll e-mail it right back.  Nice little shack.  Must
    have set him back a buck [removed]!

    Ted

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 21:48:11 -0500
    From: Joe Mackey <wmackey@[removed];
    To: otr-otrd <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Today in radio history

       From the AP:
       - In 1909: Einar Dessau of Denmark used a shortwave transmitter to
    converse with a government radio post about six miles away in what is
    believed to be the first broadcast by a ham radio operator.
       Joe

    --
    Visit my home page:
    [removed]~[removed]

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

    Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 21:48:06 -0500
    From: "James B. Wood, [removed]" <woodjim@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Some tapes

    Greetings to the group.

    	I received a forward of an e-mail, which I append here.  I do not
    personally know the people involved, what programs are offered, and I
    have deleted any mention of cost from this posting.  This is passed along
    with the usual Caveat Emptor; anyone interested should respond directly
    to Mr. Pringle

    Jim Wood
    Brea, CA

    -----
    A gentlemen here in Iowa asked me to help him dispose of an
    extensive collection of old-time radio programs. He has about
    750 reels of 7 inch tape with about 4500 hours of programs
    (6 hours mono per reel). Virtually every type of program is
    represented and it is fully catalogued (printed catalog available).
    This collection was compiled from various sources. He had an
    active mail-order business selling copies of individual programs
    (dubbed to cassettes and reels). He is retired now and wants
    to sell the collection.

    Sincerely,
    Craig Pringle
    [removed] Box 8975
    Ames, Iowa 50014
    Phone: 515-432-5780
    Fax: 630-604-6493
    <cjp2001@[removed];

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #88
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