Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #424
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 11/26/2003 8:15 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2003 : Issue 424
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  Norman Corwin "Speaking of Radio"     [ OTRGURU@[removed] ]
  Re: Dumbo's Crows                     [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
  Re: Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge       [ "Jan Bach" <[removed]@[removed] ]
  [removed]                         [ "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed] ]
  LIVE radio show saluting OTR & Pearl  [ Janine Preston <jpreston@makingwavs ]
  Peg Lynch                             [ Alan Chapman <[removed]@verizon. ]
  Cinnamon Bear Timeline                [ Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed] ]
  JFK                                   [ chris chandler <chrischandler84@yah ]
  John Hodiak                           [ lawrence albert <albertlarry@yahoo. ]
  RE: 11-19 births/deaths               [ [removed]@[removed] ]
  Re: Cinnamon Bear                     [ Christopher Werner <werner1@globalc ]
  11-26 births/deaths                   [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  ART CARNEY as President Truman        [ <gsgreg@[removed]; ]
  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Nig  [ lois@[removed] ]
  Today in radio history -- holiday ed  [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]

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

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 09:01:01 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otrd <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Today in radio history

 From Those Were The Days --

1920 - The first play-by-play coverage of a football game was broadcast
by WTAW in College Station, TX. Texas University beat the Aggies of
Texas A&M, 7-3.

1944 - CBS presented The FBI in Peace and War for the first time. It
became one of the longest-running crime shows on radio -- lasting 14 years.

1945 - A spoof of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic, [removed] Pinafore, was
broadcast on The Fred Allen Show. The spoof was titled, The Brooklyn
Pinafore. Joining actress Shirley Booth in the skit was baseball great
Leo 'The Lip' Durocher.

1960 - Radio actors were put out of work when CBS axed five serials
(soap operas) from the airwaves. We said so long to The Second Mrs.
Burton (after 14 years), Young Doctor Malone, Whispering Streets (after
8 years), Right to Happiness (after 21 years) and Ma Perkins (after 27
wonderful years.) In 1940, the high point for these radio programs,
there were as many as 45 on the air each day!

Joe

--
Visit my homepage:  [removed]~[removed]

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

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 10:25:17 -0500
From: OTRGURU@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Norman Corwin "Speaking of Radio"

There have been many comments about Norman Corwin on this list lately, so I
thought I'd add my two cents worth.

I interviewed him for my radio program, "Those Were The Days" in 1976 and he
talked extensively about how he got his start in radio.  The Corwin interview
is one of 46 conversations with the radio stars in my new book  "Speaking of
Radio, Chuck Schaden's convesations with the Stars of the Golden Age of
Radio"

Among the other radio personalities who discuss their radio days in the book
are Edgar Bergen, Jim (Fibber McGee) Jordan, Les Tremayne, Carlton E. Morse,
Jack Benny, Harry Von Zell, Kate Smith, Howard Koch, and Mercedes McCambridge.

"Speaking of Radio" is available at our secure website
[removed]   and that's also where you can get more information
about the contents of
the book and our quarterly magazine, Nostalgia Digest. A great many fans of
old time radio (and readers of this list) who have already purchased "Speaking
of Radio" (at Friends of Old Time Radio and SPERDVAC conventions this year)
have told me how much they enjoyed it.

Chuck Schaden

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

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 10:38:09 -0500
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Dumbo's Crows

On 11/25/03 9:05 AM [removed]@[removed]  wrote:

Here's what struck [removed] crows are pure dialect 1930-40s African
Americans.  (Not an actual quote, but very much in the spirit) "Shoo-wee
boss, I sho
nevah did see no elephant up in no tree befoah!"  And I sat there
[removed] is it that this scene is part of a widely-regarded classic
(and the scene
itself pretty classic), but the public villifies Amos and Andy and Disney
won't
even release "Song of the South" in this country?  Why is it that it's OK for
black crows to do that sort of routine, but not black people (Correll and
Gosden's race aside)?

Well, there *have* been assorted protests and postmodernist critical
dissections of the "Dumbo" scene in recent decades (the lead crow, the
one with the derby, was originally named "Jim Crow" -- which wasn't a
particularly sensitive move on Disney's part, even by 1941 standards, and
he's since been renamed "Jim Dandy."). But there's really no practical
way to delete or censor the number itself in modern showings, since the
crows contribute an essential plot point -- it is they provide the bogus
"magic feather" which convinces the reluctant elephant that he is capable
of flight.

I also suspect the sheer joyousness of the number has helped to mitigate
the criticism somewhat -- it's always been one of my own favorite bits in
the Disney oeuvre since aside from this scene, I never thought Disney did
exuberance well. The crows are street-smart hipster types, but aside from
the unfortunate choice of names for the lead crow, they aren't especially
exaggerated, especially when you consider some of the African-American
caricatures coming out of the other animation studios of the era. Anyone
who's ever seen Walter Lantz's "Scrub Me Mama With A Boogie Beat,"
released the same year as "Dumbo," will know what I'm talking about.

The Crows' dance moves are rotoscoped from live-action film footage of a
genuine African-American comic-dance team, Freddie and Eugene Jackson,
but Jim Crow is not voiced by an actual African-American performer -- the
role is performed by Cliff Edwards, better known as Jiminy Cricket, and
more importantly as "Ukulele Ike," one of the pioneers of scat singing in
the 1920s. The irony, of course, is that the suppressed "Song of the
South" makes ample use of genuine African-American talent, including A&A
veterans James Baskett, Johnny Lee and Ernestine Wade, along with future
A&A-TV cast member Nick Stewart -- and Baskett received a special Oscar
for his performance (due largely to a lobbying campaign on his behalf by
Correll and Gosden, who knew he was dying and wanted to see him receive
proper recognition before his death.)

Elizabeth

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

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 11:18:03 -0500
From: "Jan Bach" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge

Hello again --

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but an album of four 78 rpm
records, which my parents (88 and 90 years old) still have (along with the
equipment to play them!), contained a dramatization of A Christmas Carol,
with Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge, which was issued around 1949. Although the
music is well-integrated with the dialogue, the limitations of the 78 rpm
format made the production much too condensed and developing far too
swiftly; except for the poorer sound quality, any of the OTR tapes of the
many half-hour radio broadcasts of the Barrymore "version" of this story are
far better in giving ample time to develop the plot and the characters, etc.

I offer this tidbit only in case no one was aware that a "permanent" version
of Barrymore's interpretation of Scrooge was attempted by a major recording
company -- Columbia, I believe. Incidentally, the cover showed Barrymore
sitting in a chair with Tiny Tim on his lap -- ironic that, in this case, it
was Scrooge rather than Tiny Tim who was unable to walk.

Jan Bach

You are welcome to visit my website at [removed]

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

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:02:23 -0500
From: "[removed]" <[removed]@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  [removed]

In 423, Paul Thompson wrote:

The ship then plowed into the combination Sardine Canning & Dynamite
Factory on the wharf resulting in a huge explosion and raining
sardines all over town. A radio announcer nearby was heard to cry
out 'oh the humanity-'. "

Fabrication or not, I got quite a chuckle picturing this explosion and the
result shower of fish.

-chris holm
sardine and dynamite factory indeed.  Hmph.

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

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:03:57 -0500
From: Janine Preston <jpreston@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  LIVE radio show saluting OTR & Pearl Harbor
 on 12/7/03!

Sunday, 12/7/03, WKNH Radio Theatre at Keene State College in Keene, NH,
will present Sounds of the Season, a two hour live broadcast from the
Redfern Arts Center, from 6-8PM.  The holiday variety show will use
vintage microphones, including several classy RCAs and Shures and
perhaps a few Turners, and manual sound effects to demonstrate to the
studio audience how a live radio show would have been produced in the
1940s.  It will also be broadcast over KSC radio, WKNH, [removed] for
residents of the Keene are who cannot physically attend a holiday show,
and will webcast on [removed] for long-distance listeners.

The first half of the program will feature holiday plays, comedy and
music by local schools and colleges, including Keene's Mayor Mike
Blastos as Santa Claus, and radio veteran Kate Phillips as both author
and performer.  (Kate made her name as Lay Linaker in Hollywood in the
thirties then went on to radio after the War, then television, penning
the film The Blob in between.  At 90, she's still going strong!)  There
will also be a comedy spoof on old radio westerns.  A barbershop
quartet, Junction 1-3-5, will perform holiday favorites, as will
Boston's Colonial Radio Theatre star Jerry Robbins as Bing Crosby, with
background vocals by CRT's Andrews Sisters.  The 1960s girl group, The
Pixies Three, (Cold, Cold Winter, Birthday Party & 442 Glenwood Avenue),
will star in a Christmas play with third grade students.

The second half of the program is dedicated to Pearl Harbor Day and will
feature the actual Jack Benny episode from 12/7/41, an address by a
Pearl Harbor survivor, and letters, music and poetry about Pearl Harbor.
 The show's host announcer was also in the service when Pearl Harbor was
attacked.

The Pixies Three, who once toured with The Rolling Stones and The Dave
Clark Five, will perform an after-the-show concert of their hits and
holiday favorites at 8:30PM in the theater.

General seating tickets for both shows are available at the door.  The
show will be performed regardless of the weather.  Merchandise from
performers will be available as well.  For more information or
directions, contact Janine Preston, producer, at 603-357-0635,
wknhradiotheatre@[removed], or visit [removed],
[removed], or [removed].

All proceeds go to Sounds of the Season.  Tax-deductible donations,
payable to WKNH/Keene State College, can be sent to Janine Preston, PO
Box 15, Gilsum, NH  03448.

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

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:04:13 -0500
From: Alan Chapman <[removed]@[removed];
To: Old-Time Radio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Peg Lynch

 >  11-25-1916 - Peg Lynch - Lincoln, NE

  Peg is long-time member of our Radio Classics Live! family, and
according the bio info she supplied us the correct date is
11-25-1917.

Alan Chapman
Associate Producer, Radio Classics Live!

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

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:04:38 -0500
From: Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Cinnamon Bear Timeline

Dear Readers:

A few of you have pointed out that if you start The Cinnamon Bear the day
after Thanksgiving, the installments will end before Christmas Eve.

It is important for you to end the installments on Christmas Eve.  That is
the way it is intended.  That would mean that you would start the first
installment on the second day after Thanksgiving.

Sorry I confused you but every year's calendar is not the same as the one
in 1937.

I am so happy you will become part of the Cinnamon Bear's family this year.
 As Paddy O'Cinnamon would say, "I am much obliged to you."

Dennis Crow

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

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 14:19:59 -0500
From: chris chandler <chrischandler84@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  JFK

[removed]

A few days late on this, but thought some of you might
appreciate hearing radio get its due during all the
40th Kennedy anniversary hoopla.  This is a rough
production cut of a piece I did for the radio station
where I work, for last [removed] a minute to load
up, and also I was deathly ill last week--don't
usually sound this nasally.  :(

[removed]

..note the weird music at the end (meant to play under
a live tag to the piece) *is* from the ABC air version
of the coverage--the "now here's Quincy Howe" that
follows "he's dead" on the long-circulated JFK LP is
not the way this actually went out on the air.

- ----

And did anybody catch the CNN special last weekend
with all the reporters who were in Dallas?  Dan
Rather, for the first time I know about, actually said
he MAAAAYBE, well he MIIIIGHT have authorized CBS
radio to broadcast his scoop that Kennedy was dead.  I
think we're headed toward a deathbed confession on
this one.  haha  Funny thing is, though the story over
the years has become *about* Dan Rather, because he's
so famous, the truth is HE didn't do a blame thing he
shouldn't have in this case:  he had a legitimate,
hard-worked, very big scoop.  The fault was at the CBS
radio HQ in NY, which took his info and aired it, with
no attribution, as if it were an official
announcement, National Anthem and all.  Walter
Cronkite handled Rather's info MUCH more appropriately
on CBS-TV, treating it as one piece of the mounting
evidence the Prez had died.

chris

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

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 16:55:29 -0500
From: lawrence albert <albertlarry@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  John Hodiak

 My friend Katrina Baxter-Hodiak is hoping that
someone out there might have a copy of an episode of
the L'il Abner radio series. Her father, John Hodiak
played Abner. She never got to know the man but she is
now collecting all she can of his radio work as well
as her mother's , Ann Baxter. If any one can help her
with this and pehaps some episodes of The Lone Ranger,
that he was on please e-mail her at frazzld@[removed].
                        Thanks
                         Larry Albert

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

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 17:01:04 -0500
From: [removed]@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  RE: 11-19 births/deaths
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

I love Ron Sayles' summations of the births of all our heros of the past,
but sometimes he leaves out the most important facts, just because they have
no relationship to radio. Today it was Billy Sunday, whose acheivements as
an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs for several years in the latter 19th
century, were omitted. I suppose it might be understandable because, at the
time, I don't believe the organization had yet hired Bert Wilson to do the
play by play on the radio. Also, I noticed that the arch-villain, Roy
Campanella, was born on the same day as Sunday. Campy kept visiting Chicago
during the late forties and early fifties, where he kept swatting baseballs
into the outfield stands at Cubs games, making him and the Dodgers almost
(but never quite) as hated by some Chicago northsiders as the vile Yankees
were hated by Chicago southsiders.

Ray Druian

  *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
  ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 17:01:35 -0500
From: Christopher Werner <werner1@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Cinnamon Bear

Timothy Clough pondered:

 > How do people listen to Cinnamon Bear when there are more than 26 days
 > between Thanksgiving and Christmas, such as this year (27 days)?

Well, lets [removed] 26 episodes X 12 minutes / 27 days = [removed] minutes = 11
minutes 33 seconds.
So, stop the tape after 11 minutes and 33 seconds each day, stretching the
sequence out to 27 days.
;^P  Just [removed]

Actually whenever I make up a set of tapes for someone I always put the
calendar date for each episode on the tape label. I use 13 30 minute tapes,
so I have one episode per side (allows the tape to play to the end and
auto-shutoff the player). The first episode is always November 29th. The
focus here is Christmas, Thanksgiving can come and go as it may (although
listening to Cinnamon Bear on a full stomach is enjoyable too!).

Beware of wobbling policemen and multi-colored dragons.

Chris

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

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 18:19:11 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: Olde Tyme Radio List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  11-26 births/deaths

November 26th births

11-26-1907 - Francis Dee - Los Angeles, CA
actress: "Lux Radio Theatre"
11-26-1907 - Henry "Hot Lips" Levine - London, England - d. 5-6-1989
trumpeter, conducter: "Chamber Music of Lower Basin Street"; "Strictly from
Dixie"
11-26-1912 - Eric Sevareid - Velva, ND - d. 7-9-1992
correspondent: "Eric Sevaried and the News"; "CBS Radio Workshop"
11-26-1915 - Earl Wild - Pittsburgh, PA
pianist: KDKS Pittsburgh; "NBC Symphony Orchestra"

November 26th deaths

02-04-1909 - Robert Coote - London, England - d. 11-26-1982
actor: "Campbell"s Playhouse"
05-23-1910 - Benjamin "Scatman" Crothers - Terre Haute, IN - d. 11-26-1986
jazz musician: early radio into the 40s
10-15-1898 - Ransom Sherman - Appleton, WI - d. 11-26-1985
actor: Uncle Dennis "Fibber McGee and Molly"; Hap Hazard "Hap Hazard"
11-19-1905 - Tommy Dorsey - Shenandoah, PA - d. 11-26-1956
bandleader: "Jack Pearl Program"; "Fame and Fortune"; "Tommy Dorsey Show"

Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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

Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 01:33:58 -0500
From: <gsgreg@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  ART CARNEY as President Truman

On the March 21, 1950 HENRY MORGAN SHOW, Art Carney appeared in several
comedy sketches.  In an interview sketch he was "Sailor" Carney and later
in the show he portrayed "President Harry S Truman."  Carney appeared on
the Morgan Show regularly throughout the 1949-50 season, and probably as
far back as 1946, but I have only the 9-9-46 show as an example of
Carney's work.  Other regulars during 1949-50 include ARNOLD STANG, PERT
KELTON, MINERVA PIOUS, and announcer ED HERLIHY.

Gordon Gregersen
La Grande, Oregon

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

Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 03:36:00 -0500
From: lois@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  #OldRadio IRC Chat this Thursday Night!

A weekly [removed]

For the best in OTR Chat, join IRC (Internet Relay Chat), StarLink-IRC
Network, the channel name is #OldRadio.  We meet Thursdays at 8 PM Eastern
and go on, and on! The oldest OTR Chat Channel, it has been in existence
over six years, same time, same channel!

Our numerous "regulars" include one of the busiest "golden years" actors in
Hollywood; a sound man from the same era who worked many of the top
Hollywood shows; a New York actor famed for his roles in "Let's Pretend" and
"Archie Andrews;" owners of some of the best OTR sites on the Web;
maintainer of the best-known OTR Digest (we all know who he is)..........

and Me

Lois Culver
KWLK Longview Washington (Mutual) 1941-1944)
KFI Los Angeles (NBC) 1944 - 1950
and widow of actor Howard Culver

(For more info, contact lois@[removed])

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

Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 09:16:49 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otrd <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Today in radio history -- holiday edition

 From Those Were The Days --

11/26

1945 - The program, Bride and Groom, debuted on the NBC Blue network. It
is estimated that 1,000 newly-wed couples were interviewed on the
program before it left the airwaves in 1950.

11/27

1930 - Broadcasting from "...the little theatre off Times Square,"
according to the show's introduction, The First Nighter was first heard.
The program, which actually originated from Chicago, then from
Hollywood, aired for 23 years and featured dramas and comedies.

11/28

1932 - Groucho Marx performed on radio for the first time.

11/29

1950 - "I Fly Anything", starring singer Dick Haymes in the role of
cargo pilot Dockery Crane, premiered on ABC. With a title like that, is
it any wonder the show only lasted one season? Haymes went back to
singing and did very well, thank you.

11/30

1940 - Lucille Ball and Cuban musician Desi Arnaz were married.

Joe

--
Visit my homepage:  [removed]~[removed]

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #424
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